"So this...is Tortuga?"

This place was definitely somewhere I wouldn't want to raise my children. There were drunks everywhere, including prostitutes, not to mention the amount of pirates roaming around (which pretty much was every drunk person but there was one or two that was sober and just staring at their friends like they were morons).

"I take it that it isn't a vacation spot?" I said, eyeing the prostitutes down the road in disgust. Seriously, why would you want to show off your body like that...and put on some clothes! My gaze turned to Jack who looked displeased at my comment. "For civilized people, of course!"

He rolled his eyes and continued on down the street with Will and I following him as he talked about how great Tortuga was.

"More importantly, it is indeed a sad life that has never breathed deep this sweet, proliferous bouquet that is Tortuga, savvy?" Will looked down at a man who was drinking two pints of beer while sitting so that he was looking directly up a woman's dress. "What do you think?"

"It'll linger..." He answered with.

I popped in by Jack's shoulder. "He means that it's a place where he wouldn't dare step foot unless he had too."

Jack shrugged and he looked sideways at me. "Well...good thing he has-"

He stopped when a woman approached us; she was wearing a red dress and matched the violent red color her hair was.

"Scarlett!" Jack exclaimed before getting slapped by the woman so hard that his torso was turned to look at Will and I.

I held in my laughter as Scarlett walked away and Jack pondered what was going on.

"Not sure I deserved that..."

He turned around once more to find some other woman to standing in front of him. She looked younger than Scarlett and didn't have the violent red hair, either.

"Giselle!"

"Who was she?" She asked before looking at me. "And who are you?"

Don't drag me into this!

"Uh..." Jack started but was slapped once again to face Will and I as she walked away in a huff.

"Is it my turn now?" I asked him, making him glare at me.

Will leaned down close to Jack's face and smirked.

"You may have deserved that..."

"God, it smells!"

"Of course it does, luv. It's the pig's pen."

I rolled my eyes at Jack. "And tell me just why we are at the pig's pen? Browsing for ham?"

"No." Jack said as he threw the bucket of water he was holding onto a man laying on the pigs in the pig's pen. He instant was awake and pulled out of knife.

"Curse you for breathing, you slack-jawed idiot!" He started to scream before he finally looked at the man in front of him. "Mother's love! Jack! You should know better than to wake a man when he's sleeping. It's bad luck!"

"Ah, fortunately I know how to counter it." Jack said, bending down to the man's eye level. "The man who did the waking buys the man who was sleeping, a drink. The man who was sleeping, drinks it while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking."

...That made no sense; and it was present on the man's face for a spilt second before thinking over and somehow understanding Jack's little speech. "Aye, that'll about do it." He said, standing up only to have another bucket of cold water thrown onto him by Will.

"Blast! Damn! I'm already awake!"

It was quiet for a spilt second while everyone looked at Will for an explanation.

"That was for the smell."

"How come we get to just stand here and look like fools while they get to sit down and have a drink?"

Jack and the man, Gibbs, had taken a seat at a table nearby and ordered drinks while Jack had told us to 'keep a sharp eye' which I knew was just another way of saying 'stand there and look pretty while I get this man terribly drunk so that he'll listen and agree to whatever I have to say'.

Will didn't answer my question so I sat down in a huff with my back leaning against a pole and listened to Jack and Gibbs conversation.

"Now, what's the nature of this venture of yourn?" Gibbs asked as Jack sat down and handed him his drink.

"I'm going after the Black Pearl." Gibbs nearly choked on his drink because I heard him spit into his cup. "I know where it's going to be, and I'm going to take it."

"Jack, it's a fool's errand. Why, you know better than me the tales of the Black Pearl."

"That's why I know what Barbossa is up to. All I need is a crew."

So that's why we needed to come here! We needed a crew before we sent Isla de whatever-it-is and save Elizabeth!

"From what I hear tell of Captain Barbossa , he's not a man to suffer fools, nor strike a bargain with one."

"Well, then I'd say it's a very good thing I'm not a fool then, eh?"

I scoffed along with Gibbs who voiced his opinion. "Prove me wrong. What makes ye think Barbossa will give up his ship to you?"

I could almost see Jack's smirk in my head. "Let's just say it's a matter of leverage, eh?"

And just what is that leverage? I thought, waiting to hear what he had to offer; but after a moment of silence I almost turned around to see what they were doing but stopped when I heard Gibbs speak again.

"The kids?"

I heard Jack lean back in his chair and set his drink down. "That boy is the son of Bootstrap Bill Turner...his only son, savvy?"

Will? Why would he be talking about Will right after talking about leverage? I shifted my position so I could now see them out of the corner of my eyes while they couldn't see me looking at them.

"Is he now?" Gibbs asked, looking at Will as though he was a prized trophy; but then his gaze traveled down to me. "What about the girl?"

Jack looked even more smug now; he leaned toward Gibbs again and spoke very calmly. "Do you remember who Miss Alexandra Livingston married more than 20 years ago?"

Alexandra Livingston? Was that my mother? Gibbs appeared to know the answer to the question.

"Yeah, she married the love of her life, B-" He started to answer while looking at Will's direction which I found rather odd.

Jack cut him off and I nearly got up and smacked him but stayed put to see if they said anything else or if he would.

"And do you remember when her husband left her to join this kind life? A pirate life? One she didn't approve of?"

"Yeah about 19 years ago, but he said that he only had one kid, not two."

Jack smirked and grabbed his drink. "What if-" He swallowed some and set it back down. "-he left before she could tell him she was bearing another child?"

Gibbs glanced at where I was sitting, not noticing that both my eyes were on him. "That doesn't explain why she doesn't know anything..."

Jack looked like he was about to slap him. "It makes perfect sense! Her husband left her with hardly enough money for two people let alone three so the night she went into labor she hopped a ship, went to an island that had an orphanage and gave birth there! That night she left to go back to raise her son and pretend she never had a daughter that had her grandmother's name and her maiden name!"

Gibbs looked at him with disbelief. "I don't believe you."

Jack rolled his eyes and pointed at me. "You must remember what Alexandra's old locket looks like? The one her husband gave her the day they got married? It's the same one that the girl's wearing, now!"

Gibbs looked at me closer until he spotted the tiny gold locket glittering on my chest. For a second he stared at it, then at the table.

"Leverage, says you. I think I feel a change in the wind, says I." He looked up at Jack and smiled. "I'll find us a crew. There's bound to be some sailors on this rock crazy as you."

"One can only hope." Jack raised his glass for a toast. "Take what you can?"

"Give nothing back!" Gibbs said, clanking their pints together and drinking them.

But I hardly paid attention as they did this since my mind was way off, thinking about what they had said.

So she didn't want me after all? I was nothing to her! Just a pain that she would only have to deal with for nine months before being able to get rid of me...

My eyes traveled to Will was standing beside me looking down at me sorrowfully; I guess I wasn't the only one who had been eavesdropping.