After Jack and Monica's encounter with Barbossa, in which he told them he would kill them if they didn't cooperate with him, Monica was feeling quite exhausted. Plus, her wounded arm was giving her hell.
"Jack, it huuuuuuuurts," she whined miserably as he rolled his eyes at her.
"Well, of course it does!" he snapped. He had quickly grown impatient with the girl's incessant moaning.
Monica pouted and inspected the makeshift bandage around her right upper arm, where she had been shot earlier that day. The wound hadn't been that deep, but the pain was almost more than she could handle.
"I'm sorry," she said finally to Jack, who looked surprised not to hear more bitching. "I shouldn't be whining about it...it just hurts like a mother...!"
She grimaced as she accidentally poked the wound in her arm as she attempted to retie the bandage, cursing her clumsy fingers.
"I've never heard that phrase before," Jack said, but he didn't seem surprised. "And I'm not sure it makes sense to me."
"Since when has anything I've said made sense?" Monica asked, forcing a laugh as she tried to refasten her bandage.
Jack took pity on her, perhaps because she apologized. "Let me," he said, crawling from the other end of the brig they were locked in.
Monica hid a smile. "Thanks," she said as Jack removed the bandage to fasten it more firmly in place.
"So, what was it like being in a kraken?" she asked brightly, making Jack look up from redresing her wound incredulously.
"It was..." He frowned, obvioulsy deep in thought. "Nasty," he said, smiling slightly at his word choice.
Monica nodded, smirking. "So how exactly did you get out?"
Jack finished his job and sat on the other side of Monica, who was sitting with her back against the wood of the ship, to make sure he wouldn't bumb her wound if the ship made a sudden lurch. "I already told you," he said, eyebrows raised. "Tia Dalma's ring and sea turtles."
Monica grinned and said, "Oh, come on! You really expect me to believe that? After one of your greatest adventures turned out to be you drinking rum on a beach for three days?"
After frowning slightly at Monica's knowledge of one of his secrets, Jack answered, "Yes," and had no more to say on the subject.
Monica smiled at the thought of her friend inside the kraken, lip curled in frowning bewilderment and hoisting a lantern only to see remains of the Pearl and maybe some dead bodies.
Wait, where'd he get the lantern? Monica found herself asking quizzically. She shook herself slightly and asked a question that had been bugging her for a while now: "So, are you pissed at Elizabeth?"
Jack only looked mildly surprised to hear her brought up. "No," he said thoughtfully. "Don't get me wrong, I'm a little miffed that I had to spend a few days inside a kraken, but I understand her reasoning." He grinned suddenly. "And that kiss helped, too."
Monica rolled her eyes and shook her head, smirking. "Way to go, Jack, thinking with your crotch," she said, glancing up at him to see him look horrified at the phrase.
She only laughed. "Everybody's thinking it; I'm just saying it," she said, shrugging her shoulders slightly.
"Who's everybody?" Jack seemed eager to change the subject.
"Oh...well, besides you and me, pretty much the whole world," Monica said, raising her eyebrows at the thought. "Well, not the whole world. Of course the whole world didn't see the movie. But how would you not want to; I mean, it's awesome! But, you know, there are some little kids and stuff who--"
"Hang on," Jack said, interrupting Monica mid-ramble. "Everyone saw it?"
Monica nodded. "Yeah," she said slowly. "Oh, and Will."
Jack's eyes widened in horror.
"Didn't I already tell you that?" Monica asked, eyebrows raised. "I could have sworn I told you that."
Jack had closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the wall, as if asking whatever deity he believed in to just kill him now.
"So..." Monica said, eager to get off the subject. "Was she a good kisser?"
Monica grinned up at Jack, who looked even more confused at her question. "Now what reason in the world could you possibly have for asking me that?" he asked, shaking his head at her as if trying to fathom the depths of insanity that polluted this girl's mind.
"Hello! She got you eaten by a freakin' kraken!" Monica said. "You were clearly so...preoccupied...that you didn't even notice her chain you to the mast."
"I did notice!" Jack said defensively.
"Really? When? When you were trying to pull your hand out of the irons?" Monica scoffed.
"No, it was...a little earlier..." Jack frowned at Monica's little laugh. "You think that's funny?" he asked incredulously, which only made Monica grin up at him. "I was in a kraken!"
"Oh, so now you make a big deal about it!" Monica exclaimed, smirking. "So obviously she was a good kisser, or else you would have realized what she was doing."
Jack wasn't about to give up yet. "Well, she was a better kisser than you," he muttered.
"Hey, you caught me off guard!" Monica spluttered, her face redding at the memory of the time she and Jack had kissed--twice.
It was Jack's turn to scoff. "Actually, I believe that first one was your idea," he said, smirking.
"Aww, come on, I thought I was about to leave!" Monica said, furious to notice that her blush wasn't going away. "It's what any girl would've done!"
Jack's eyebrows raised slightly in interest. "Really?" he asked, casting a sidelong glance at Monica, who nodded earnestly.
Jack said nothing, but let a satisfied smile light up his face. Monica let out a small, relieved breath, pleased that Jack's pride had made him forget the subject.
Although, to be fair, I was the one who brought it up, she thought, staring into space. With the Elizabeth thing and all...
She was brought back to reality by a sharp pain in her arm. "Jeez," she muttered, glaring down at it as if it were a person annoying her, not a wound.
"It's not fun getting shot, is it?" Jack asked knowingly.
"No, it's a real picnic," Monica said darkly, tucking a loose piece of bandage back into the wrap.
"Tell me about it," Jack muttered.
Monica suddenly remembered the deleted scene from The Curse of the Black Pearl: when Jack had showed Elizabeth many old wounds on his chest and arms when they were marooned. She mentally kicked herself.
"Jack, I'm sorry again I've been complaining," she said quickly, feeling like an idiot. "I know that to you, this can't be that bad..."
Monica trailed off, now wondering if it had been painful for Jack that she had brought up, well, painful memories.
"But thank you for putting up with it," she said lamely, still avoiding looking up at him. "I know I'm annoying."
A sigh from Jack. She sighed as well, and then she realized how tired she was.
"I just think it's nice to have someone who cares about you," she said softly, resting her head on his shoulder.
Closing her eyes, she felt Jack gently press his cheek into her hair.
Monica woke up from a sharp pain from the wound in her arm as she snuggled deeper into the blanket and hugged the pillow tighter.
What the... she thought dazedly before she opened her eyes. When she did, she felt confused for a moment as to where she was.
She realized she was laying on the ground of the brig, and the pillow and blanket she had thought she had were actually Jack's hat and jacket, respectively.
I must have rolled over on my arm in my sleep, she thought drowsily, propping herself up on her forearm.
Suddenly she felt a jolt to her back, and she gasped and jumped to roll over, wondering what it had been.
Jack had kicked her gently in his sleep. He was lying stretched out almost the whole length of the brig, and as he rolled over his boot had nudged Monica's back.
Monica sat up and grinned at the sight of a sleeping Jack, sliding his jacket on her shoulders and placing the hat on her head. She then giggled at the thought of her almost in a Jack costume, but then stifled it for fear of waking him. But it didn't matter, as he was waking up anyway.
"Good morning, sunshine!" Monica said groggily as Jack sat up, frowning and rubbing his eyes. When he opened them again, he realized Monica was wearing his jacket and hat.
"Give me that!" he said grumpily, reaching toward her drowsily.
"Sorry," Monica said sheepishly, taking off his stuff. "Not a morning person, eh?" she asked, grinning as he put his jacket and hat back on.
Jack didn't reply, but made a great deal out of checking his pockets to make sure nothing was missing. Monica rolled her eyes at his behavior.
Suddenly, there was a thumping on the stairs, and Jack and Monica turned in unison to see Pintel and Ragetti holding plates of food, looking to be bickering as usual.
"I still say we shouldn't feed 'em!" Pintel was saying as he arrived in front of Jack and Monica's prison.
"But we need to," Ragetti said earnestly. "The cap'n says they have to be strong to work on the ship and whatnot."
"They're not doin' any workin'!" Pintel yelled furiously.
"Well, what the cap'n wants us to do, we do," Ragetti said, looking a little admonished at Pintel's yells (hey, that rhymed!).
Pintel gave in to muttering as he pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and began fiddling with them, handing off his plate to Ragetti, who juggled it for a bit before dropping it.
Pintel groaned angrily as Ragetti apologized profusely. Monica and Jack glanced at each other, but their gazes snapped back to the terrible twosome as they wondered what to do with the plates.
"Cap'n wants 'em fed," Ragetti kept saying in a high-pitched voice no matter how much he looked away from Pintel's yelling. His false eye seemed to be stuck--it wasn't looking down like the other one--and it seemed to be trained on Monica, making her feel a little queasy.
After much arguing, the two pirates decided to go up above deck again and bring some more food.
"So how are we going to escape?" Jack asked as soon as they were out of earshot.
Monica was slightly taken aback by Jack's quick response, thinking he would say something about they incompetence of Pintel and Ragetti. "Uh...got anything we can pick the lock with?" Her eyes alighted to the bone thingy he had in his hair.
Frowning intently at it, she moved closer, snatching it before Jack could get away.
"What the--" Jack tried to smack her hands away, but she continued fiddling with the bone.
"Shut up! We don't have much time before they get back," Monica said urgently, grimacing as she tried to pry the bone from its place in Jack's hair.
"What? Don't use that!" Jack exclaimed as she finally got it free.
"What's the big deal? It's just a bone," Monica said, but she knew there must be more to it than that--why else would he have tied it in his hair?
"That is the shinbone of a reindeer," Jack said.
Monica stared at him.
"I don't even want to know," she muttered.
Jack looked dejected. "Fine, use it," he said, sighing. "But let me do it!"
The pair moved to the door of thier cell, and Jack stuck the bone into the keyhole, moving it around experimentally.
"Let me try!" Monica said as several nerve-racking minutes passed.
"Sorry, love, but I think I have a little more experience in this area than you do," Jack said, squinting at the bone as he tried to jam it farther in the keyhole.
"Well, you should at least let me try--" Monica was cut off by the sounds of their crewmates coming back down the stairs. Jack yanked the bone from the keyhole and sat back against the wall as Monica scooted back to the middle of the cell, trying to look nonchalant.
Pintel eyed them suspiciously as he unlocked the door, this time trusting the plate with his own hands. Monica smiled weakly at him, but he only glared at her as he dropped the plate down in front of her. Behind her, Ragetti did the same with Jack and his plate.
Once they were gone again, both Jack and Monica made a dash for the door, the bone already out and ready to go...okay, that sounded kind of wrong.
But the only thing they got done was a lot of bickering. Each time one of them had the bone, the other was telling him or her how they should do it.
Finally, Jack gave up, leaving the bone in the keyhole and sitting back against the wall, crossing his arms and grumbling to himself.
Monica grabbed hold of the bone and shook it furiously, making a face that seemed to be somewhere between a frown and a grimace.
"It's never going to work," Jack said from his place behind her.
Monica gave the bone a last shake before letting go, slumping in front of the door dejectedly. She rested her head against the bars, staring at the stupid bone in the stupid keyhole.
"You got any better ideas?" she asked, scooting back next to Jack, who seemed to be thinking.
"That pirate had the keys, right?" he asked, frowning into space.
"Yeah," Monica said, remembering Pintel taking the keys from his pocket. "But how are we gonna get 'em from him?"
"Good question," Jack said, but he didn't volunteer any ideas.
"We can't ambush them when they come in here; they're armed...so can we get them out there? But how do we know he'll have them on him? And what if we're caught?" Monica, thinking aloud, didn't notice Jack's apparent surprise at the continual use of the word "we".
She only realized Jack's feelings until she saw him smirking to himself. "What?" she asked, confused.
"What makes you think we will do any of this together?" he asked, smirking as if this idea were ridiculous.
"I thought--" Monica began, but Jack cut her off.
"We don't have to do everything in pairs, you know," Jack said.
Monica nodded. "I know," she said. I just..." But she trailed off, and she realized she didn't have a good answer.
"This was your idea, so I think you should carry it out," Jack said quickly, and Monica got the feeling he was trying not to upset her.
"Okay," she said. "But I might need some help."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "You have a plan to get out?" he asked dubiously.
"I think I can get out, maybe above deck...then it's just a matter of finding the keys...and not getting killed in the process, of course," Monica said.
Jack nodded, seeming unfazed by the comment she had added. "So what's the plan?"
"Okay, I thought of this earlier when we couldn't get the friggin' bone to work. I thought if we each had a chance to work on it ourselves, we'd have more of a chance to get free, right? Of course, I didn't know what we'd use if one of us had to use something other than the bone...anyway, I had to think about how to get separated into different cells--"
"Are you going to get to the point anytime soon?"
"Maybe if I weren't interrupted! So, I think if we got in a fight or something, they'd separate us?"
Monica looked apprehensively up at Jack, hoping for approval of her idea.
"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Jack asked before punching her in the face.
Monica's face swung around, more out of shock than the blow of the punch. She brought a hand up to her nose and wasn't too surprised to see blood on it when she brought it back.
"What the hell?!" She screeched, whirling on Jack, keeping a hand up to stem the flow of lood coming from her nose.
"What? It's part of the plan!" Jack said, clearly thinking he had done nothing wrong.
"I meant stage a fight, you idiot!" Monica yelled, shoving him in the shoulder.
With that, Jack shoved Monica backwards, knocking her on her back. He soon followed, landing on top of her and pinning her arms to her sides.
"Get off!!" Monica screamed, knowing that if someone heard her screams, they would come down and surely separated them.
But she was still a bit ticked that Jack had punched her.
She tried to wrench her arm away from his grip, but he had a firm hold on her wrist, which seemed to amuse him greatly. She groaned in frustration and tried to wiggle her way out from under him, but to no avail, which made Jack outright laugh at her.
Soon enough, all three of the other pirates on the ship came running down, looking pretty confused to see the two people they thought were good friends wrestling on the ground--well, more like Monica trying to beat up Jack while he still held her arms.
"Get him offa me!" Monica screamed angrily.
Pintel fumbled with the keys, looking bewildered that the two of them were fighting. Once the door to the brig was opened, Barbossa grabbed Jack and hauled him unceremoniosly off of Monica, flinging him to the side of the cell and lifting up Monica by the front of her shirt.
"Whoo!" Monica said as Barbossa released her, brushing the dirt off her clothes. "Thanks for that, mate," she said, grinning at Barbossa.
"What in the blazes is goin' on here?!" Barbossa asked furiously.
"He tried to kill me!" Monica said, pointing an accusing finger at Jack.
"You deserved it!" Jack said from the other side of the cell.
"Oh, don't gimme that crap, asshole!" Monica retorted, moving to attack him again, but she was stopped by Barbossa, who flung out an arm to catch her in the chest.
"You, lock him up," Barbossa growled, nodding at Pintel and then at Jack. "And you, come with me and her."
Monica then found herself being pulled along by Ragetti, who was following Barbossa out of the brig, up the stairs, and above deck.
Monica squinted and blocked the sun with the arm that wasn't currently being squeezed by Ragetti as he dragged her along. She hadn't realized how used to the dimness of the brig she had gotten in the time she had spent there.
Barbossa flung open the door to the captain's quarters and moved aside, watching Ragetti haul Monica into the room. When they were both inside, Barbossa took Monica's arm and shoved her into a chair, placing his hand son the arm of the chair and leaning over her.
"What happened?" he growled, looking furious.
"What're you yellin' at me for? He just freakin' attacked me!" Monica said angrily, using the time with her hands free to wipe a trickle of blood from her nose.
"Answer the question!" Barbossa barked as Pintel entered the room, exchanging a nervous glance with Ragetti.
Monica shrunk back into her chair, unsure of what to do. Should she keep up the act, or simply tell the truth? She knew there was no way she and Jack would tell the same story.
So she decided to go with the truth.
Letting a grin spread across her face, she said, "Aww, we were just screwin' with ya!"
She pushed Barbossa away so she could get out of the chair. Barbossa first looked shocked at Monica's reply, then at the fact that she had actually pushed him.
"You see, guys, we only did that so I could get out and get in a different cell so we could each try and break out," Monica said, walking to the other side of the room and turning around to face the pirates. "But I guess that doesn't really matter anyway, because we can't get the bloody bone to work..."
She said this last part partly to herself, frowning, then raised a hand to wipe some more blood trickling from her nose.
"Jackass," she muttered, thinking of Jack. "Any of you dudes got anything I can stop this up with?"
She looked up at the three pirates to see them staring at her, dumbfounded.
"Okay, guess not," Monica said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. "So! How 'bout that new cell, huh? 'Cause even though we weren't fighting for real, I'm a bit ticked about my nose. Plus, he smells funny."
Barbossa jerked his head at Pintel and Ragetti toward the door. Since Monica was on the other side of the room, she didn't make it to the door before Barbossa slammed it behind them.
"I'll just chill in here, then," Monica called.
She plopped down into a chair and propped her booted feet up onto the table, closing her eyes and sighing.
Man, no matter how short or long time you spend in a cell, it always comes back to bite you in the ass, musclewise, she thought. Literally.
She was shifting in the chair, trying to find a position where her butt wasn't threatening to go numb, when Barbossa threw the doors open again.
"Back to the brig," he said, narrowing his eyes at her.
"Not to the same cell, though, right?" Monica said, getting to her feet and making her way to the door. "Because, I'm not gonna lie, that days-old kraken spit stench that seems to be Jack's cologne is really starting to get to me."
As she paused at the door, raising her eyebrows at Pintel to see if he was going to grab her and pull her along, he swept his arm through the door to indicate that she could walk through first.
After nodding at him in thanks, smiling, she continued: "I mean, really! Would you want to stay in the same cell as the guy who just punched you in the nose? I don't think so!"
By this time she was down the stairs and making her way for the brig, knowing it would be pointless for her to try and escape, with the pirates right behind her.
But were they all right behind her? She turned to have a look.
No one. Not even Pintel, she realized...
"Frick!" she said, remembering her plan to lift the keys off of him.
Cursing her forgetfulness, she continued her way to the brig, knowing that if she turned back now, she was just bound to run into one of them again--and she couldn't guarantee that it would be Pintel. Assuming he still had the keys, of course.
Anyway, she didn't get very far.
An arm wrapped forcefully around her waist, making her jump backward in surprise as another hand tried to cover her mouth. But her little jumped had caused her to unwittingly stamp on her assailant's foot, making him howl in pain and nearly smack Monica in the face with his other arm,
Monica reacted to the arm in her face lightning fast--she chomped down on it.
Another howl of pain, and the arm was sharply pulled away, and the other one was released from her waist. She whirled around to see Pintel hopping on one foot and cradling his arm, clearly not knowing which one hurt the most.
"What the--" Monica began. What the hell was he doing?? Why was he attacking her when she was heading back to the brig like a good prisoner?
But she didn't get to voice her opinions, because the next thing she saw was the broad side of an oar flying into her face, making a THUD as it came into contact with the side of her head.
Monica dreamt of something she hadn't dreamt of in a long time, but something she had dreamt of for a long one when she had been dreaming of it. Wait a minute, is "dreamt" even a word? Or is it "dreamed"? Whatever, on with the dream.
She was walking slowly along a beach, her hands behind her back. The beach was grey--well, the day was overcast, but not with dark clouds, but with enought cover so that the sun wasn't visible throught the grey clouds. This caused the sand and the water to look darker, the water looking almost ominous and the sand looking dull.
She was wearing a grey dress. It was like the one Elizabeth had worn at Norrington's promotion in The Curse of the Black Pearl, she guessed; she wasn't entirely sure--the dress wasn't what she was focused on. But it did have a freakin' tight corset, pulling in her waist into quite an uncomfortable shape and, to her slight embarrassment, making her boobs look the size of Texas.
Anyway, she walked slowly along the edge of the water, sometimes in it, but the dress didn't get wet. She watched it darken as the faint mist of the waves hit it, but they always faded away.
So she kept walking--still slowly, hands still clasped behind her back. Until she looked up. She didn't see anything to make her look up, but she sensed he was there.
Jack. He was standing in front of her, looking slightly depressedly at the ground. She looked up at him, but didn't say anything.
When he looked up at her, that was all they did--look at each other. No, not just looking--seeing...actually seeing each other.
She took in all of him, and he took in all of her. He wasn't wearing his jacket despite the slight chill of the cool mist spraying from the water every now and then. It was nowhere in sight, actually.
When they were done looking somberly at each other, things returned to normal. Monica realized that Jack's eyes seemed to be straying to her chest reason a bit more than was necessary.
She rolled her eyes, dropping her hands to her sides. "Quit starin' at my boobs, you freakin' perv."
Jack smirked a little. "Sorry," he said, not looking sorry at all.
He turned to face the beach and sat down right behind the edge of the tide, watching the waves slide up the sand to stop at his crossed legs.
Monica walked along to his other side, remaining on her feet. They stared out at the ocean for a moment, although not much was visible through the mist. Then Monica broke the silence.
"This is what would happen to me if you died, Jack," she said.
"Well, that's good, then," Jack said, still staring at the ocean. "You look pretty well off. Isn't that what you wanted?"
She smacked him in the back of the head. "No, you idiot," she said, peeved, sitting down beside him as he pouted and brought a hand to the back of his head. "I want to be free! You think I can be free in some fancy house wearing these stupid fancy clothes?"
"I know one thing you can be in those clothes, love..." Jack began, the smirk returning to his face as he glanced slyly over at her.
"Don't get fresh with me!"
"Right. Sorry." His eyes snapped back to the ocean, but he didn't say anything.
Neither of them spoke for a while, in fact. But Monica was the one to speak over the soothing sound of the waves breaking gently upon the beach.
"Don't die, Jack. I need you."
Then, in the dream, they usually started making out. Except for that one time, where the Phantom of the Opera came wading out of the ocean and struck up a conversation between the three of them. But this time, Jack turned to Monica, looking quite serious, and began to say something. From the way he was looking at her, she knew it was important.
And then she woke up.
She kept her eyes closed for a moment, willing the dream to continue, but all she achieved were a few images she had already seen. Sighing dejectedly, she opened her eyes.
Bright sunlight struck her, making her groan slightly and close her eyes. She moved a hand toward her face to block the sun.
Except she couldn't.
Her eyes flew open, squinting against the sunlight that seemed twice as harsh after her overcast dream. She closed them again, cursing softly, and tried to wiggle her hands and feet.
They could barely move! She realized her hands were bound behind her back and her ankles were tied together.
She was laying on her side, fortunately the side with the arm that hadn't been wounded, on something hard...and was it moving?
She recognized the sway of a boat in the ocean.
"Oh, shit," she muttered, at last prying her eyes open.
She looked above her head to see Pintel sitting on the bench above her, her head between his feet.
She squinted down past her bound feet to see Ragetti sitting on the other bench.
Monica let out a load groan. "I didn't do anything!" she whined.
"Captain's orders!" Pintel said cheerily, rowing away. Clearly, he was pleased that the girl who had assaulted him was tied up at his feet. "He's got some plans for you."
"Fantastic!" Monica said in a falsely cheery voice. "And what do these plans include?"
"Well--"
"We're not supposed to tell!" Monica heard Ragetti say--she didn't look, as it hurt to look up at either of the two pirates.
"You really think he'll find out?" Pintel sneered. "What do you think she'll do if she knows the plan?"
"Escape," Ragetti said in a small voice.
Pintel laughed between rows. "Now you're overestimatin' her! We can take her!"
"Don't flatter yourself, buddy," Monica said from the bottom of the longboat.
"What--!" Pintel tried to kick her head.
"Hey!" Monica looked up and glared at him.
"You're not supposed to hurt her!" Ragetti said fearfully.
Pintel groaned and rolled his eyes. "The cap'n told us to take her to the island and not to tell her anythin'; now he's not here, so I can tells her what I wants!"
"Island?" Monica asked, horrified. "You're gonna maroon me??"
"Look what you did!" Ragetti said. "Now Cap'n Barbossa's gonna find out--"
"He won't find out, because there'll be no one to tell him!" Pintel said menacingly.
"You are gonna maroon me!" Monica cried.
"Well, of course we are!" Pintel said, grunting slightly as he rowed and carried on the conversation. "Barbossa told us to!"
"Why do you even listen to him, anyway?" Monica said quickly, seeing a window. "Why not follow Jack as your captain?"
This time it was Ragetti's turn to laugh. "Barbossa came back to life," he said, as if this answer were very obvious. "That makes him more powerful."
"Well, Jack came back from the kraken, and you're not kissing his ass!" Monica said.
"We went looking for Jack under Barbossa, who was the captain of or ship at the time," Pintel said, referring to the Jolly Roger. "So he's still our captain."
When the two pirates didn't continue, Monica took a chance.
"You're afraid of him, aren't you?"
Pintel dropped one of his oars and would have lost it to the sea if he hadn't grabbed it at the last moment. Ragetti jumped a little, but swallowed hard.
"I'm not afraid of him," he said, obviously trying to sound brave. "Are you?"
"No!" Pintel said, a little too defensively.
Monica smirked at the side of the boat. "Right," she said, making it clear through her tone that she didn't believe them. "Sorry, Mister Don't-Let-The-Captain-Find-Out."
Ragetti stammered for a moment, trying to come up with a reply, earning a derisive laugh from Pintel.
"Oi!"
"Oi what?"
"Don't you snigger at me!"
"I wasn't sniggerin'"
And so ensued an argument between the two of them, Pintel still rowing furiously while hurling insults at Ragetti while he tried to hold his own.
"Great," Monica muttered from her place on the floor of the longboat. "Barbossa gave me a black eye, Jack gave me a bloody nose, and now you two are gonna give me an ulcer!"
While Ragetti was leaning forward to earnestly continue the argument with his friend, Monica lifted her bound feet from the floor, drew them back, and kicked Ragetti in the stomach.
He slid backward off his bench, landing with surprise in a pile of rope. Pintel let out a yell and drew his pistol, dropping the oars.
Just as he was about to shoot her in the face, Monica rolled out of the way. Well, it wasn't really a roll, as there wasn't enough room, but she did acheive a small flop to make Pintel shoot the bottom of the boat a few times.
Ragetti recovered quickly from his blow to the stomach and sat on her legs, ensuring that she wasn't able to do any more damage, being bound the way she was.
"Now you--" Pintel began, brandishing his pistol at Monica.
But all three of them were distracted by water flowing into the hole Pintel had shot into the bottom of the boat.
Monica's eyes widened as the water pooled close to her face, and she lifted her head up in alarm.
"Cheap thing!" Pintel yelled angrily, kicking the side of the boat.
Although the hole wasn't big, the water was entering fast. Because Pintel had shot his pistol relatively close to the bottom of the boat, the bullet had gone through, and now Pintel's yelling and stamping around wasn't helping the hole get any smaller.
Pintel grabbed the front of Monica's shirt and sat her on his bench to keep her from drowning.
"Now what?" Monica asked, staring at the water seeping across the floor of the boat.
"Now we get to land," Pintel said.
Monica looked to her left and saw a beach. Looking to her right, she saw the Jolly Roger far off in the distance.
Being in the bottom of the boat, she hadn't realized how close to land they had been.
Ragetti cut Monica's bonds and then practically shoved her out of the boat, making her trip on the side of it with an "oof!", which in turn made her fall flat on her face in the foot-deep water.
As she spluttered and shook her head to get her wet hair out of her face, she heard the two pirates laughing behind her. Grumbling to herself, she got up and made her way up to the sand.
Pintel and Ragetti were still laughing as they set foot on the beach, imitating Monica's fall and her "oof".
"Why are you laughing? We're stuck here," Monica said, disgruntled by the two pirates making fun of her.
Their chuckles finally died off and they turned around to face the boat, which was beached in the wet sand, more water entering it with every wave.
The three of them glanced at each other in turn--first Monica to Pintel, then Pintel to Ragetti, then Ragetti to Monica again--and promptly started yelling at each other all at once.
