SaveroftheSun: No, sorry, she's staying.

Nineteennintytwo: Sorry about that and thanks for pointing it out, I've changed it.

Fairy Skull: Thanks, glad you liked it and I hope you didn't have to wait long!

Sparrow'sWing21: Lol I hope you find your cool again.

callieandjack: You shall find out now!

Valor: Yes-ss he would-d-d-d b-b-b-be ver-r-r-r-r-y help-p-p-p-pful!

Nelle07: Yeah, she's not too bright sometimes!

I hit the floor. I gasped in long rasping breaths that were painful to take in. It felt like someone's nails were dragging along the back of my throat. I opened my eyes. Jones and his crew were gone. I still couldn't see properly, but I could feel Jack's arms around me and hear his voice by my ear. I didn't know what he was saying, but it was comforting to hear him and know that I wasn't yet dead.

I felt something rise in my throat. I coughed it up, wincing as each painful cough shook my body. It happened again.

"Mary mother of God! She's coughing up blood!" I heard Gibbs say.

I tried to tell him not to panic, but I couldn't get anything out.

"Izzy!" Jack kept saying over and over. I kept coughing and coughing. Jack pulled me up so I could sit upright. It helped and pretty soon the coughing was close to subsiding.

"Can I-" I coughed again.

"What? What is it? What do you want?" asked Jack in the pause. Well, if he'd jut be quite I could tell him.

"Can I have some water?" I asked. My voice was quite and hoarse and it felt like I was swallowing gravel.

"Someone get her some water!" Jack bellowed in my ear. In his hurry to get me to drink he practically shove the cup up my nose.

"Ooof," I said as he did so. He found my lips and lifted the cup to them. I drank. The cool water soothed my throat. I'd had enough, but Jack kept tipping more in. I waved my arms around to signal that I'd had all I needed. "Mnnghf," I said through a mouthful of water.

"What is it, love?" he asked. I swallowed.

"I've had enough," I said. "Thank you."

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes." He helped me to my feet, looking as though he couldn't decide whether to be relieved or angry.

"Good, because I am very cross with you, love!" he settled for being angry. He grabbed my arm and pulled my away from the rest of the crew.

"Why? What did I do?"

"You offered to go with Jones," he sounded disgusted by it. "Nobody offers to go with Jones."

"But Jack, it could have cleared your debt to him and set you free, or at least have got you closer to freedom!" I though that he of all people would understood why I'd offered and be grateful for it.

"I don't want to be free if-" he broke off. There was a silence, he looked away.

"If what?" I pressed. "If someone innocent goes in you place? That can't be right, because you sent Will!"

There was an angry silence. He looked at me. "I sent Will because I had to."

"You didn't have to trick him!"

"He wouldn't have gone otherwise!"

"But I would have!!" I said. Why was this so hard for him to understand? And why was he being so bloody difficult? It made me want to scream. He pushed my back up against a wall. He looked a mixture of furious and… something else, something deep in his eyes that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"You need to stay here!" he shouted. He shook me and my back whacked against the wall. His voice cracked and dropped so low it was almost a whisper, "I need you here, love. You're the only one I can trust."

I sighed, placing my hand on his cheek. "Jack," I whispered.

"Oh dear, love, look at your neck!" he said. One of his hands reached out and touched my neck. Pain shot up it. I winced. I pushed past him and went to find a mirror. There was a red bruise round my neck where Jones had gripped it. I sighed. It would probably bruise. Typical.

***

"What makes you think you're worthy to crew the Black Pearl?" Gibbs asked the first sailor.

"Truth be told, I've never sailed a day in me life, thought I'd best get out and see the world while I'm still young," said the old man at the head of the queue.

"You'll do," said Gibbs as if he had a choice. "Make your mark. Next?"

Next in the queue didn't look happy to be here. His speech was slurred, "My wife ran off with my dog and I'm drunk for a month and I don't give an ass rat's if I live or die."

"Perfect," said Gibbs brightly. "Next?"

"Me got one arm and a bum leg," said the next one and the previous finished signing.

"It's the crow's nest for you," Gibbs replied. The man nodded. "Next?"

I lent back in my chair, listening in on Gibbs interviewing the unfortunate ninety-nine souls that we had come to Tortuga to find. I tried to tune out the noise of the tavern and Jack's relentless muttering of, 'I know what I want' and shaking his compass around which got louder as Gibbs questioned the last man.

I turned to Jack, "Will you stop playing with that thing?"

He jumped and snapped it shut, hiding the face of his compass. "No," he said, frowning. "How are we going?" he asked Gibbs.

"Including those four… that gives us… four," said Gibbs. The lack of number worried me. Gibbs looked up as someone else approached the table. Jack continued his relentless compass shaking. I turned to him and started to say something, but the voice of the next applicant stopped me and made me look around so fast my neck clicked.

"My story?" said the familiar tones. "It's exactly the same as your story, only one chapter behind."

It was James.