Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! Sorry if this chapter is a bit dry, its important to a later part of the story. And, as always, Norry and the rest belong to the mouse, Kaylee is mine.
The next morning (although it was closer to afternoon) Kaylee groggily rolled out of bed, awoken by the smell of burning food. She pulled on her robe quickly and ran downstairs to the kitchen to see what was amiss. She found a slightly less unkempt James holding a smoking frying pan and frowning at it. He looked up as he heard her clambering down the stairs, and he stared. Kaylee suddenly realized she had just come flying downstairs with her robe flying open around her nightgown and her hair flying out behind her. She blushed furiously as she fumbled to tie her robe and braid her hair, and James graciously looked away, looking quite embarrassed himself. "I-I was trying to fix something for breakfast... I'm not much of a cook, I guess." He stammered as he fought the urge to look back at her.
When she'd made herself presentable, she took the frying pan from him and began to scrape the charred remains of a couple eggs into the refuse bucket. "I never much liked eggs anyway," she said with a grin. "Find yourself a chair, I'll fix some johnny cakes." James sat down at the rough-hewn table as Kaylee busied herself mixing the cornmeal batter.
He cleared his throat. "So why exactly are you here, Miss MacEwan?"
"Kaylee." she corrected him without looking up from the frying pan.
"Kaylee, then. I understand what all the other women are doing here. What is a respectable young woman like yourself doing in this den of thieves?"
She sat the plate of corncakes and sat down in the other chair. "My father was captain of a merchant ship, although his business practices were more piratical than some of the crews that come through Tortuga. I was his only child and my mother died when I was small, so I grew up aboard his ship, the Wicked Wench. When I turned 14, Da noticed a few too many of his men watching me and decided it was time I learned to be a lady and not run around in boy's breeches. He sold his ship to his first mate and bought us a house in Port Royal and hoped to start a business there. Unfortunately, his reputation was so bad that he couldn't make a go of it, so he decided to try elsewhere. He called up a favor from his former first mate, and we sailed to Tortuga. Da bought the Golden Parakeet with the money from the house, and we ran it together until two years ago when he died of the fever."
James paused, a bite of corncake halfway to his mouth. "The Wicked Wench… now where have I heard that name before?"
Kaylee jumped, and snatched up her plate from the table. "S'not that great of a ship; sank a few years back." She stood and went to scrape the rest of her food off the plate. "If you'll wash these dishes up while I get dressed, I've got a few errands to run. I could use your help carrying things back here." She hurried off up the stairs, leaving James staring after her, wondering what he'd said to make her so jumpy.
End note: Anybody who is a die-hard Jack afficianado has just gone "Oh!" Hope to have the next chapter soon!