A/N: Hope I didn't keep y'all waiting too long for an update. Sorry mates, it's been a bit busy here lately.
Miss Anya: Thank you very much for your review. Yep, I love Ana…a true pirate…Take what you can, Give nothing back!
Cal: What can I say? I love the reviews! I think you are spoiling me ;-) I love reading what you are thinking and I've noticed that some of the things that you point out weren't intentional on my part, but are very true. Such as in the second chapter when Jack is on the prowl after Ana…I didn't write it with the intention of Jack kind of pursuing her around the room, but when I went back and read it again, that is exactly what I had done. I also thought that it was neat the way you put it that a map led Jack and Ana to the "long-denied treasure". I had never thought about it that way! That's really neat though. It's nice to have a reviewer who can show me things about my own writing that I may not have recognized otherwise :-) I also meant to tell you last time, but forgot, that I actually did think of Meatloaf's song when I wrote that part with Jack and Giselle. No one else that has read this has mentioned that, but you did! Very cool…my effort did not go unnoticed! Thanks again for the reviews…I really do appreciate them.
Chapter Five
Jack woke up early the next morning to begin getting the ship ready to weigh anchor. Most of the crew had returned from Tortuga and there were already about thirty new sailors on board as well. Jack recognized two of the men that he had talked to about joining the crew yesterday, but none of the others. He would wait until all of the new crewmembers were assembled until he read The Articles and asked the men to sign them.
Two hours later, the sun was peeking through the clouds and beginning to warm the city. The water was calm and the wind was just right for making good time. Jack was anxious to set sail. He retrieved his copy of The Black Pearl's Articles from his cabin and joined Anamaria behind the helm. The future crewmembers as well as the current ones joined each other on deck to hear what their captain had to say before they left Tortuga.
"Sailors," Jack started loudly. The crowd quickly grew quiet. "It's good to see you all 'ere ready to set sail this morning. I know that you all 'ave a similar goal in mind. That's why you're 'ere. I am Captain Jack Sparrow and this," he said, gesturing towards Anamaria, "is my first mate, Anamaria Saldana. Before we can weigh anchor and set sail, as you all know, the Code must be read and signed. Any man who disagrees with said Code shall at once leave the ship and not set sail with this crew. Understood?"
There was a collective "Aye!" from the group.
"Bo'sun Saldana will now read The Code to you."
Anamaria read The Articles loudly and clearly to the large group of men standing on deck. Jack counted somewhere around eighty-five total. It was nearly the perfect crew size for a ship like The Pearl. When he had been her captain over ten years ago, he had sailed with a crew of one hundred on average. Barbossa had liked to keep the crew large, but Jack had always thought they had a few crewmembers too many.
When Anamaria had finished reading The Articles, she and Mr. Gibbs made sure that each new member of the crew had signed the parchment. Once the task was accomplished, Anamaria took the signed document to the captain's cabin for safekeeping. She used her key to unlock his desk drawer and filed the parchment away.
When she returned above deck, Jack took his place behind the helm and shouted, "Weigh Anchor! Hoist the sails!"
The Black Pearl was on its way out of Tortuga into the wide-open sea, ready for adventure once again.
Several days later, they had reached the open waters that he and Anamaria had discussed while in Tortuga. The crew was settled in, new members and old. Anamaria had done an excellent job of assigning jobs and knowing where everyone would fit in well. Things were running very smoothly, more smoothly in fact, than they had run when he and Barbossa had worked together. Jack and Barbossa had run a good ship together, at least in the beginning, until Barbossa had grown too greedy. Jack knew now that he should have taken that as a sign at the time, but he hadn't. As a result, he had had many years to think about his lack of judgment.
However, now he knew better, and he knew that with Anamaria by his side, things were going to go very well for them. She was a strong person, physically and emotionally, which made her an excellent first mate. But more than that, she had The Pearl's best interest at heart. Jack knew that he could count on her to watch out for his ship as well as him and while he would never admit it, it was a comforting thought none-the-less.
On this fourth day out at sea, she had woken him early to inform him that they were coming up on a merchant ship. She had already begun to make arrangements to take it over, but she wanted his approval. She was also wise enough to know that Jack would be anxious to take credit for giving the actual orders during the attack.
Unlike La Majestuoso, The Divine Destiny was a fairly large ship that decided to defend herself at all costs to the pirate ship that intended to steal her plunder. Despite their captain's best efforts, The Divine Destiny did fall to The Black Pearl, but it ended up costing both sides great losses.
When it was over, The Pearl made off with over £8000 of treasure from The Destiny, a remarkably large haul for a midsized ship. But it had been a hard won fight and they had ended up having to send the ship to a watery grave. It had aggravated Jack, to say the least. He was not an unusually cruel captain, despite being a pirate, and he never went in with the intentions of sinking a ship, much less watching its entire crew drown in the middle of the Caribbean. Once the treasure had been counted and stored in the hold, Jack retired to his cabin, alone.
He was just opening a new bottle of rum when Anamaria knocked on his door. He knew it would be her, or Mr. Gibbs, and he crossed the room quickly to let them in.
"Everything ok?" the dark skinned pirate asked him. He had left her standing at the door and she walked in slowly, pushing it shut behind her.
"Ah, jus' fine," he responded, beginning to drink the rum as he sat down behind his desk.
"What's next on the agenda?" she asked as she moved across the room to sit in a chair at the conference table.
Jack gestured with the bottle, "I think this little passageway will serve us well. We'll sail around 'ere for a while, until the navy gets wind of us, then move on. We've been pretty lucky so far. Four days out and we're already holding £8000 of swag. Not a bad day's work."
"Indeed," she reassured him.
"Hate it had to end that way..." he trailed off, sipping more rum.
"Their captain didn't give you much of a choice, did he?"
Jack sighed.
"I know it wouldn't have been your choice, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do Jack. No need to feel glum about it."
"Don't you 'ave any manners mate," Jack started. "Bloody knock before ye come in. Me and the lass might've been busy."
Anamaria rolled her eyes at him before turning to Gibbs.
"Then ye best make sure the door's closed," Gibbs responded. "Captain, we've taken on more damage then first expected. We'll need to find somewhere to make repairs."
"Aye, thanks Gibbs," Jack said, watching the older man leave.
He took his main map of the Caribbean, the one that Bootstraps had given him, and joined Anamaria at the table.
They both studied it carefully for a moment before Jack pointed out an island that was close by.
"What about this?" he said, pointing to the tiny spot.
Anamaria shook her head. "That's not a good place. There's nowhere for us to haul the ship out of the water if we need to do serious repairs."
"Do you think that's going to be an issue?" he asked.
"I don't know Jack," she responded. "I just think that we should go somewhere that we can check her out."
Jack gave her a questioning look, then agreed.
"This island here," she said, tapping her finger, "I've stopped here before. It should work perfectly."
"We're about a day's sail from there," Jack said. "Do you think she can hold?"
"I'll check with Gibbs, but if we go easy on her, she should be able to make it."
Jack nodded, studying Anamaria for a moment before adding, "I'll set our course." He rose from his desk and began to make his way out of the room. Anamaria followed him.
The next morning they were in sight of the island Anamaria had chosen. It had been a long night for both Jack and Anamaria; The Black Pearl had taken on a good bit of water and it had been all the two of them could do to figure out how to keep her afloat without tossing all of their most recent haul overboard.
By the time they reached the island, they knew they were going to have to get her out of the water to repair the damage. It took the crew all morning to accomplish the work required to haul a ship of her size out of the ocean and when it was finally done, the entire crew was suffering from exhaustion. Nevertheless, they had a good work ethic and Jack heard few complaints. Once the ship was out of water, Anamaria and Gibbs helped Jack perform the complex inspection.
It was Anamaria who found the problem and she shouted her captain's name to gain his attention, "Captain Sparrow! Over here!"
Jack rushed to her side, not seeing the problem at first. He had just passed the exact spot over himself only minutes ago.
"Right here," she pointed out.
And then Jack noticed it. It was a tiny gash, almost so narrow that at first glance the human eye might not see it at all. But it ran over six feet in length across the keel of the ship.
"How in the world?" Jack asked amazed at not only how it had gotten there, but also at how his first mate had found it.
Anamaria quickly explained her theory on not only how the accident might have occurred but also on how it could be fixed.
Impressed by her working knowledge and thinking that she may very well be able to explain the process to the crew better than he could, Jack put her in charge of the project. It was a long and strenuous job, but Anamaria managed to have them back out at sea by midnight. Jack dropped anchor so that the entire crew could rest and even doled out an extra portion of grog to everyone after their evening meal.
When the crew had settled in for the few hours of sleep they would be getting that night, Anamaria paid a visit to the captain's quarters. Jack knew she would be coming and she only tapped once before he let her in. Handing her a new bottle of rum, he sat on the bed gesturing for her to join him.
Anamaria pulled the cork and enjoyed the burning sensation sliding down her throat as Jack studied her carefully. Becoming painfully aware of his dark eyes, she took the bottle away from her lips and turned to ask, "What?" It almost came out hostile, but Jack was amazingly unaware of her tone.
"What you did today... I can't thank you enough...it was wonderful."
"I did my job," she said, refusing to believe she had done anything unique.
Jack shook his head, "It would 'ave taken me forever to find that gash by myself. I'd already passed the bloody thing twice."
Anamaria cut in, "I passed it once myself. I just got lucky that next time."
Jack continued, ignoring her, "Then you developed a plan to fix it as quickly and simply as possible."
"I didn't do anything special Jack. I'm your first mate. It's my responsibility to come up with ways to fix things."
Jack nodded, accepting that she wasn't going to accept any special acknowledgements. None-the-less, he wanted her to know how he felt, "Well, whether you think so or not, I think you're pretty incredible and I'm very lucky to 'ave you 'ere on The Pearl."
"Well thank you, Jack."
"You're welcome."
A/N: Alright, I know that I probably needed to be more descriptive about what exactly went wrong with the ship, but I'm a stickler for accuracy and I know nothing about ships. So…I decided to be sort of vague, lest I write something that made completely no sense whatsoever. Sorry mates…hopefully you will forgive me!