Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah... Pirates of the Caribbean not mine... love pirates, not a pirate. Sorry mate, go pick on someone your own size.

(A/N:) Woohoo! Chapter ten! Landmark number right there! :D Cookies for everyone. (hands out virtual cookies) Now to find out what Sarah saw in the galley. Enjoy!

Sarah stood rooted to the spot in the galley entrance, her dark eyes hardly believing what they were witnessing as Jacob took off his trademark hat.

This action caused long, dark, wavy locks to tumble freely down his back. He quickly snatched up a strip of cloth from the top of the chest, twisting his hair up onto the top of his head before it had even registered in her brain what he was doing. He deftly looped the fabric through, knotting it securely. He then proceeded to shake his head a bit to ascertain that no stray locks would escape. It occurred to Sarah that he would probably turn around soon, and she ducked into the shadows so as not to be caught spying on him. Sure enough, just a few moments later, he glanced anxiously around, apparently as worried about being seen by her as she was about being seen by him. She was just thinking that if he wished to keep his hair long, that was his decision; that she would move on and leave him be, when she caught a fleeting glimpse of the face that was otherwise hidden beneath the brim of his hat. Her heart skipped a beat at what she saw.

If he was indeed a seventeen-year-old boy, she was genuinely sorry for him, for even from such a brief glance, she was nearly certain that he was, in fact, a she. Her breath shallow, she began to back slowly away from the galley entrance, turning to leave. She was not yet ready to believe this. No wonder he- or she- wore that hat everywhere. She was just realizing that this might very well explain the comb as well, when she slammed her sore knee into an open door. She tried desperately to stifle the yelp that followed, but it was no use. Jacob sprang to his feet. "Who goes there?" he called out in his strange accent.

With a guilty, sheepish expression on her face, Sarah hobbled out from the security of the shadows. "I- I'm sorry," she stuttered. "I was on my way to fetch my sword and I couldn't help but notice you in here."

She went on trying to explain how she happened to observe the clandestine action when she abruptly realized that the poor girl was trying hard not to cry. "Are- are you all right?" she inquired tentatively.

Attempting to regain some composure, Jacob replied dully, "I had hoped not to be caught, but I suppose the secret is out now."

"I was right, then?" Sarah responded evasively.

"You- you knew?" she asked, incredulous.

"No! I mean I simply assumed from what I saw just now."

Jacob, or whoever this person was, nodded sullenly. "I suppose I'll be either killed or forced to leave now."

A concerned, questioning look crossed Sarah's features. "Why?"

"It's against the code," came the stoic reply. "No woman shall be allowed on a pirate ship."

"But my mother and Anamaria are pirates, and they've come across no trouble! Why would you be any different?"

"No one knows me. I was dishonest and stole aboard under a false name," she answered, staring at the ground.

Sarah chewed her lip thoughtfully. Unfortunately, she had a point. However, she couldn't bear the thought of someone being killed or abandoned because of her nosiness. Perhaps if she turned herself in and told the truth, she would be excused? A hopeful light appeared in her dark eyes and she was about to suggest this, when something else occured to her. What if she was involved somehow with the kidnappers?

Before she lost the courage to do so, Sarah inquired, "Who are you exactly?"

The girl lifted her head to look her in the eye. Her gaze drifted back down slightly. "My name is Anya," she said softly.

Sarah hesitated, not knowing what else to say. At length, she said, "If you wish, I shan't tell anyone else."

Anya looked up, her defeated expression replaced by one of hope. "That would be wonderful!" Then suddenly the light in her eyes dimmed slightly, as though she had just realized something wrong with their plan. "But what if I were discovered by someone else? Would you be considered at fault as well?"

Sarah shrugged, although the idea of being caught was certainly less than appealing to her. She smiled warmly up at Anya. "I'll keep your secret." Then an amused grin spread across her face and she remarked, "It would be far easier if you tucked that strand of hair up under your hat, though." The older girl looked surprised for a moment, then hurriedly tucked the wayward curl up with the rest of her hair and covered her head with the hat. She smiled sheepishly.

"I- I really ought to return to the deck. I'm sure there is more work to be done."

This statement reminded Sarah of her original reason for coming down, and she nodded quickly. "Of course." While Anya scurried off towards the hatch, once more disguised as Jacob, she hastened off to her cabin to fetch her sword.

The floor creaked beneath Will's feet as he stepped across the threshold of the dark house. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he paused to take in his surroundings. Though there had quite obviously been human activity here relatively recently, hence the lack of dust, whoever lived here was certainly not a good housekeeper. Every dark corner was littered with bits of paper, dust bunnies and cobwebs. None of the members of their little group placed their feet down with much confidence; each feared that the tired old boards might break beneath their weight.

As he began to slowly make his way down the hallway, he began to sorely regret not bringing a light of some kind. He mentally berated himself for failing to bring a torch, but knew all too well that there was nothing he could do about it. He jumped when he felt a light tap on his shoulder, and spun about. He released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding when he saw that it was Elizabeth. She grinned up at him triumphantly and produced a lantern and a small box of matches from the canvas sack she had insisted upon bringing. He smiled gratefully at her as she struck a match and lit the wick, taking the lead. He opened his mouth as if to protest, but bit his tongue. He knew all too well that she hated to be treated with caution, but this certainly did not stop him from worrying about her. On the contrary, it only caused him greater concern, for there were times when he feared she would injure herself or their child in trying to prove that she was not to be treated like a porcelain doll. He would never forgive himself if he allowed any harm to come to his family, especially after being absent for so long.

His musings were interrupted when Elizabeth halted abruptly, turning to face a slightly open doorway. She held a finger to her lips, then motioned for him to follow her.

They found themselves in what appeared to be some sort of office, though they could hardly tell by only the light of the lantern and the sunlight creeping around the edges of the heavy draperies on the windows. Elizabeth promptly went to open the curtains, pulling them back and allowing the sunlight to pour in, though slightly dimmed by the grime on the windows. Will flinched slightly as she did so, half expecting such an action to reveal the kidnapper- or one of the kidnappers- simply waiting to kill them. Fortunately, no such thing happened.

The couple hesitated only briefly before beginning their exploration of the room. Indeed it appeared to be a study of sorts, with a large wooden desk at one wall, littered with hundreds of papers. Behind it was a straight-backed chair, and opposite the desk sat an overstuffed blue armchair, its upholstery stained, threadbare and ripped in places. Elizabeth traced the dusty bookshelves in the back with her index finger. The books haphazardly scattered across it were tattered and worn, clearly having been mistreated. Her eyes shone with tears that did not fall. She desperately hoped that Jonathan had been treated better than everything else in the house. Suddenly, without warning, anger welled up in her, bubbling to the surface in a raging fury. She stomped her foot hard, startling Will, who was examining the papers on the desk. He hurried over to where she stood, tripping over a book lying on the floor in doing so. "What's wrong?"

"Why?" she asked.

His worried expression immediately changed to one of hurt confusion, and he stepped away. "I- I'm sorry. I was just wondering."

She turned to face him, baffled, wondering what she could have said to hurt his feelings. It took her a few moments to realize that he had interpreted her cryptic question as asking why he was worried about her. "Why did they take Jonathan?" she clarified. Despite her anger with their situation, she couldn't help but smile at the relief that surfaced on his face. It only was evident for a moment or so, though, before it was replaced with a solemn grimace.

"I wish I knew," he said quietly.

"Everything here has been mistreated and neglected," she murmured, touching the beaten cover of a novel. "What if..."

She said no more, not wishing to speak the words aloud, but Will's expression told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking, and shared her concerns. What if Jonathan had been mistreated and neglected as well?

Without another word, the two returned to their respective tasks- Elizabeth exploring the side of the room containing the armchair and bookshelves, Will searching the desk for any clues. When they had entered the building, it had swiftly been decided that Jack and Ana would search the foyer and the parlor, while the Turners explored down the hallway. From the study they had already heard an argument, which probably meant that the Sparrows had found something, but did not agree on its relevance to their mission.

After a few minutes of silence, Will spoke up. "Elizabeth," he said, "come here and tell me what you think of this. It's another list, but some of the names don't have dates on this one." Elizabeth carefully set down the book she had been holding, fearing that a mere clumsy mistake would harm the beaten old volume, and walked over to where he stood, examining a paper with great intensity.

Moving to stand beside him, she peered over his shoulder, noting the queer handwriting on the page. It took her only a moment or so to recognize the words as having the same misshapen letters as were scrawled on the back of the map, and her heart skipped a beat. "It has the same handwriting as the note," she murmured, and Will nodded. Never before had the danger of their search been so evident to them. They were exploring the belongings of a dangerous kidnapper, without any right to do so. Gingerly taking the note from him to examine it more closely, she squinted at it, trying to decipher the cramped, nearly illegible writing. When she held it up to the light, however, she found it far easier to read.

"Blue Gull- September 7th
Queen's Pride- September 18th
Armageddon- September 24th"

As she was pondering what the list could possibly mean, she stopped suddenly, her eyes glued to the last name on the list.

"Black Pearl-"

As Will had said, there was no date written by the ship's name. Wordlessly she turned back to Will, who was patiently waiting for her to finish reading. Knowing her as well as he did, he easily read the urgency in her expression as she handed him the paper. She watched anxiously, biting her lip nervously as he began to read. When he first began glancing over the list, his brow furrowed in confusion. A few seconds later, however, his eyes widened, apparently having spotted the name of the Black Pearl at the end of the list. He apparently had not noticed this when first glancing over the list- it had appeared to be so much like all the others they had seen, only more recently written. Exchanging looks that clearly communicated their mutual shock and concern, they hastened to find Jack and Ana and tell them of their discovery.

Thursday, October 3rd

Docked at the island

Dear Diary,

I would have written "Docked at the cay," but that would be inaccurate. This place is far larger than I originally expected. From where I am sitting up in the crow's nest, I can see a strip of sandy beach, leading into a dense jungle. Early this morning my parents and Kristie's parents went ashore to explore. Kristie and I have passed the morning by playing liars dice, talking with some of the friendlier hands, and fencing, but I wish my parents were here. It is now early afternoon, and they have yet to return. I know that to expect them back so soon would be unreasonable, but I do hope they shall be back by nightfall.

While going below decks to fetch my sword, I discovered something that left me nearly speechless. I do not know how to say it but simply this: Jacob is a girl. I know naught how old, or why she chose to join the crew. Her name is Anya. I swore I would keep her secret, and I hope I can, but twice today I nearly told Kristie by mistake. One of the times was only moments after I had vowed not to tell anyone! I had just climbed back on deck with my sword, and Kristie said, "Took ye long enough. Did ye fall overboard? Ye dried off right quick." I nearly used my discovery as an excuse. Did you know it is against the Code to allow a woman on board? I certainly didn't! I wonder how Mum and Anamaria would react if they learned that. They would probably laugh at it- after all, Anamaria has nearly as much authority on board the Pearl as Uncle Jack, and as I have said before, Mum is Pirate King! I highly doubt they would punish her for wanting to join the crew.

One would think that this would clear up a great number of questions. In all honesty, it does- it explains the hat, possibly the comb, at least some of the shyness, and the neatly folded clothes. However, it does not explain the strange accent, her connection to this mysterious Ivan, her reason for joining the crew, or what the family issues she spoke of were. Or was that merely an excuse? I simply don't know what to think.

I shall write more soon.

Always,

Sarah Turner

"Come here and look at this," Will called out, examining yet another parchment covered in sloppy handwriting. They must have looked at nearly a hundred by now. This particular one bore another list of names, though who these people were remained a mystery to them. Elizabeth appeared beside him momentarily, looking over his shoulder at the list. He indicated one of the names near the bottom of the list: "Sparrow." As had been the trend with all the other lists of seemingly irrelevant names, most of the names on the paper were checked off with a neat "X." However, the Sparrow name, along with a few others, was not.

Across the room, Ana was flipping through yet another tattered book. She had noticed a trend in the scores of volumes she had seen so far- nearly half of them were written in Russian rather than English. Setting the book down where she had found it, she strode over to where the others stood, glancing at the sheet of names. She doubted there was anything of importance there. She had decided as they left the ship this morning that she would not get her hopes up only to have them crushed later on. By this point she was getting quite tired of her job, and was eager to move on to something else. Jack had gone to take a look at the other makeshift huts in the clearing. After seeing the list of ships and dates with his ship's name on it, he had wished to go back to his Pearl, but she had not allowed him to.

Her brow furrowed when she saw her last name scrawled out towards the bottom of the parchment. It occurred to her that it could refer to anyone in their family, and not specifically her youngest son. The name "Sparrow" encompassed herself, Jack, Kristie, and Robert as well as Jonathan. For what must have been the millionth time, she wondered what interest this villain could possibly have in her family. They had never even heard of him! Whatever diabolical plans he might be formulating, what threat could they possibly pose? Was this person simply bent on destroying all good pirates?

Meanwhile, similar thoughts and questions were floating through Elizabeth's head, but she thought of something that Ana failed to realize. Perhaps Ivan wanted the Black Pearl and was using Jonathan as blackmail? Oh, if that were true, she would hate to be the one to tell Jack. He was, in fact, the main reason she had not said this aloud. She had incredibly little confidence in her theory, but knew that if Jack were to hear of it he would practically go into mourning at the thought, or at least as much mourning as anyone had ever seen Jack go into.

Before she could consider this further, however, Robin burst into the room, obviously out of breath. Three heads spun about to face him, wondering what on earth was wrong. "They- they've taken Jack," he panted. "I tried to stop them, I swear, but they were too quick."

He continued blabbering on as the trio sprinted for the door, no longer caring about whether the floor gave in or not. The kidnappers were here, and had discovered them. There was no time to wait for the opportune moment. They knew he would protest, claiming that he could talk his way out of anything- after all, he was Captain Jack Sparrow- If Jack truly was the Sparrow listed here, he might not have much time left.

Kristie ambled mindlessly across the deck towards the railing, gazing out at the shore. It must be nigh onto four o'clock now; why had her parents not yet returned? It had occurred to her that they may have run into trouble, but Mr. Gibbs said that they were not to go after them until nightfall. Sarah had not exactly been thrilled when she relayed this disappointing information to her, but what could she do about it? It wasn't her fault if the adults had chosen to be reckless. She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, glancing again towards Sarah, who was still talking with Jacob. Why was it that suddenly he wished to talk with her? Oh, well. Perhaps this would uncover some of the mysteries that enshrouded him. To be honest, she was rather glad that Sarah was the one talking with him, instead of her. She was convinced that that boy was either crazy or up to no good.

She leaned up against the mast, fiddling with one of her beaded braids. A lot of her time today seemed to be spent waiting for Sarah, she mused.

It was then that something caught her eye, and she turned to look out at the shore below. Her brow furrowed when she saw Robin sprinting down the beach towards the longboat as fast as he possibly could. No one else was in sight. By now Sarah had noticed it too, and had rushed over to the side of the ship, watching wide-eyed as he took one look at the boat, then ran past it, swimming to the ship instead. Someone lowered a length of rope to pull him in, and with the help of Mr. Gibbs and a few other sailors, he was dragged to the rail. The moment his feet touched the boards, he said between gasps, "They... they need... help. Jack has... Jack has been... kidnapped." With that, he promptly collapsed on the deck.

Robert dropped nimbly down to the dark corridor from the deck, landing on both feet and immediately starting down the hallway towards his cabin to stow his sketchbook there. Mr. Gibbs and seven or eight other crew members had gone ashore to search for the adults. In an unsuccessful attempt to forget about the predicament his parents and Sarah's parents were in, he had just finished a drawing of the shoreline as the sun set. Now, he was actually considering putting those wooden beads from his sister to good use and braiding them into his hair. If he could braid it, that is. It only came to four inches or so above his shoulders at its longest.

As he approached his cabin door, he heard voices from within. His nose crinkled up in confusion. Cautiously, he grasped the handle and slowly opened the door, peering in before entering. Robin lay out on Robert's bed, eyes closed, while Sarah and Kristie stood at the foot of the bed, talking, and Jacob sat in a chair near the head of the bed. He watched curiously as Jacob dipped a rag into a basin of cool water, then pressed it to Robin's forehead. For a moment, it struck him as odd that he, of all people, would be playing doctor, but he decided to ignore that. After all, there were no women aboard as it was, unless you counted Sarah and Kristie, and the poor boy needed someone to look after him. Robert supposed that Jacob was as good as anyone else.

Entering the room, he greeted his friends and put his sketchbook into a small drawer. "How's he doin'?" he asked, indicating the unconscious crew member.

"Better," Sarah said cheerily. "Much better, actually. He's still exhausted from the run, but came to about a half hour ago. He's just sleeping now."

"Good," Robert said simply. "I'm glad." When no one spoke a word, he began to feel rather self- conscious, especially with Sarah in the room. "I- I guess I'd better leave you alone," he muttered, and turned to go.

"Wait!" Sarah called out impulsively. "You needn't go! I mean, it's your room, isn't it? And Robin likes you just fine- stay!"

Robert and Kristie both looked at her as if to say, "Do you mean that?" It was probably the most they had ever looked alike.

Kristie answered for her brother. "I say we all 'ead to the deck an' leave Doctor Jacob to 'is work. Savvy?" Reluctantly, Sarah agreed that this would be best, and they all traipsed out of the room, wishing Jacob good luck.

As Robert scrambled out onto the deck, Kristie stopped. Sarah, too, stopped, wondering what was wrong now. Kristie glared at her. "What?" she asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She was thoroughly baffled.

"Ye know why," Kristie declared.

"I beg to differ," Sarah retorted.

"Ye like 'im, don't ye?"

"Who, Jacob?" Sarah asked, her face conveying her disgust at such a notion.

"Robert."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's pretty obvious," Kristie said, smirking. She wouldn't admit it, but she honestly didn't know what made her suspect that. Before Sarah could question her further, she spun on her heel, striding off towards the hatch.

Sarah shook her head in exasperation, and followed along behind.

(A/N:) I know I said I was going to have Robin and Robert get to know each other, but I changed my mind about how I was going to set everything up. That's probably going to be in chapter eleven or twelve. I'm sorry it took so long to post this one- I meant to do so on Friday, but I couldn't log in. Then all weekend long I was at Disciple Now- which, by the way, was amazing- and couldn't use my computer. Hope it was worth the wait! :)