The Voyages of the Dawn Chaser Water of Life

by Peladon

What Jack Sparrow did now. Having found himself an ally with a ship Jack seeks Mr Gibbs and then goes in search of Aqua de Vida, with the Navy and others on his tail. Meanwhile Barbossa tried to find Jack, and his way back to himself with little success.

26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26 Worlds within worlds

"Bloody hell!" Jack said again, reaching behind him to catch at her arm and pull her forwards, edging sideways so that she could stand beside him on the lip of the tunnel,
"What do you think to that!"

A part of Elanor's mind had been prepared for something like this but even so it came as a shock. Not least the size of it.
"Nothing good." She said slowly.
"Why's that?" Jack sounded affronted, as if she had insulted him or something of his.
"Because it shouldn't be here, " she pointed to a shimmer beneath them, "and I really don't like the look of that cloud."
Jack grimaced
"Well granted it's not where a you would expect a cloud to be," he admitted, "but look at it, our own secret world."
Elanor cast him a startled look then resumed her scrutiny of what was laid out before them. Starting with the light.

They were near the top of 'the space', as she continued to think of it, and at this level the light was clear and bright, almost like sunlight. Yet there was no light source that she could see.
'Light tubes' her mind reassured her, 'possibly drawing light in from the island above us or from the shallows around the reef.' Another part of her mind went into overdrive at the thought. Light tubes? In the eighteenth century Caribbean? Not likely. But then nothing about this was likely was it? Her being here wasn't likely. Maybe this merging of past and future was proof that this whole world was a fabrication of her fevered mind, because no one here could even imagine a light tube. 'But that's not to say that there weren't those who could once upon a time' another part chided her. 'Think of city wide sanitation, brain surgery and central heating, all known once and forgotten in this period. The ancient civilisations knew far more, in many ways, than the people of this time and place. Judging by the gate outside whoever constructed this left a very long time ago.'

"Elanor!"
She realised that Jack was staring at her and looking more than a little irritated. He must have been talking to her,
"What? What did you say?"
He looked at her narrowed eyes and flicked his hand impatiently,
"Well you might at least do me the politeness of pretending to listen to me woman! I said how do you suggest that we get down there?"
"Down where?"
"There!" He pointed out and down. "I can see water, or its reflection at least. The fountain is bound to be there. So how do you suggest we get down to it?"

She followed the line of his finger, her mind still trying to come to terms with what she was seeing. The whole space looked to be giant volcanic caldera. Above them a haze of mist or cloud shrouded the containing mountain side but beneath them was what looked almost to be a mountainside, a steep slope of dark and shiny rock. The incline was sharp enough to require climbing rather than walking, being almost vertical in places, and even the flatter surfaces were folded in the same way that the tunnel floors had been. Here and there were scattered outcrops of what looked to be larger boulders, and in places the slope was cut with ravine like crevasses, some many feet deep from what she could see. At the bottom of the slope was a canopy of green, apparently trees or vegetation, and drifting below that was the strange swathe of the second cloud which obscured all other details except for the occasional flash of what might have been water. In the distance she thought she could see another steep slope rising up.

The sound they had heard seemed to come from both above and below them and the green canopy moved as if disturbed by a wind. 'But I'm inside a mountain that's under the sea' she reminded herself, 'no wind here.' Whatever this place was to describe it as strange was an understatement. What was going on inside Jack's head that he was so ready to step out into this unknown?

But whatever it was he was thinking it seemed that it would fall to her to be the voice of reason.
"For the moment I don't. I'm not at all sure that we should."
"But we have to go down. It's what we came for!"
"Keep your voice down, we don't know what we might attract, remember that.. Thing back there."
Jack sighed theatrically but lowered his voice.
"We came here for this, Elanor. Whatever the fountain is.... exactly....the only place it can be is down there." He shrugged, "Alright I'll own that maybe a mite stranger than we had expected, but having come this far it makes no sense to be going back now and empty handed, whatever weirdness is there."
Elanor shook her head,
"Weird is the certainly the word. Remember our conversation back there? Given our recent history would you want to take odds on just how weird it might get down there?"
Jack was silent for a moment, surveying what lay before them, before turning to look at her,
"Doesn't look that weird, " he frowned and shrugged, "at least....not on a relative scale of weirdness you understand." He shrugged again and flicked a hand in her direction, "On a scale of normal, even usual, I'll grant that it's more than a little weird," he gave her a hard, sideways look, " though I have encountered greater weirdness."

Elanor smiled faintly
"Have you? Would you want to go there again?"
A shadow of something, too fleeting to be read, passed across his face,
"Most certainly not luv."
There was a grim determination in his voice that surprised her, but he continued before she had time to ask him any further questions.
"It's not an easy climb its true, we'll need to go back and collect the ropes and grapples but with them we should be able to make it down this cliff or whatever it is and into the trees."
He looked over the edge, and his mouth twisted in something close to reluctance,
"Nearly all the way that is." He looked again, "Well..... half the way maybe."
He sighed as she gave him a long look,
"Some of the way anyways."
"And when we do?" she replied calmly pulling him back from the edge, "We have no idea of what's waiting in that thing you so optimistically call a forest. It could be a swamp, or it could be nothing either of us has ever seen. If we are going down..."
He opened his mouth as if to protest and she raised a warning finger,
"if, not when, then we will need more than just ropes. We have no idea what we are stepping into. I want a word with Ariadne before we go down any further, she got too much wrong about this for my comfort."
He opened his mouth again but she forestalled him with a pointed finger,
"There is more information this time, she might be able to make a better guess. We are also going to need medical supplies, water and food. I am not going down there unprepared, whatever you may say."

The desire to gain his prize warred with his sense, the battle clear in his face. But she had no real doubt about the outcome, for she had already decided that for all his apparent recklessness Jack was both a realist and strategist and not given to taking uncalculated risks. Calculated ones most certainly, but she had little doubt that he would prefer better odds than the ones they currently had. But all of that hung in the balance against one factor and she was not surprised when he half turned to face her leaning against the wall, the light from the place below illuminating his frown,
"And if someone should find us here. What then?"
"We face that when we need to. But would it be any better for them to find us when we are down there and unable to get back up here quickly?"
After a moment of silence he looked passed her and shook his head,
"No."

Elanor relaxed a little having one the point and turned to look out into the strange world,
"Ariadne would have told me of there was any sight of a ship. But I don't think anyone else is going to find us."
Jack stared at her,
"How's that? Sea's a big place but there are people looking for me, and there's more than one of the kings navy abroad; no sayin' that they won't find us."
"Maybe but I've still got this odd feeling that no one will." She turned back to him, meeting his eyes with determination in her own, "Either way we can't go on into that," she waved her hand in the direction of the hole in the mountain, "unprepared."
He stared back at her for a moment then shrugged with something close to a pout,
"No suppose not."
"Are we agreed then, we go back to the ship and come back when we are better supplied?"
"No choice is there?" He stood back to let her pass him, "But I am comin' back luv, alone if I have to, but I am comin' back."

***

They rowed back to the ship in a single boat and in near silence. It had been clear to Mr Gibbs, after his first surprise at seeing them reappear had passed, that the accord between them was far from perfect. Captain Elanor, as he now thought of her in the privacy of his own head, was quiet and drawn in on herself, but whatever the cause it didn't seem to be directed at Jack. While Jack was no less mithered he appeared to be also angry with her in some way, judging by the few barbed comments he threw in her direction. Though as they neared the ship sitting quietly at anchor that anger seemed to shift and he fell silent, the looks he gave her from under frowning brows suggesting that once again he was regretting his fraying temper. From this Gibbs deduced that the lady captain had stopped Jack from doing something wild, something that in cooler blood Jack himself was coming to see as foolish. Jack being Jack the feeling would not be pleasant, but though he would not apologise to her directly he would find a roundabout way of making his peace. Just as long as she would accept it.

Which seemed less than certain, for as soon as they were back aboard she vanished into her own cabin to commune with her ghost, leaving them alone on deck with a bottle of rum.

Jack took several deep swallows then sat and wrapped in thought staring back at the island.
"Somat wrong Jack?" Gibbs had risked asking after five minutes of silence.
That earned him a frowm before his compnaion grabbed the rum bottle and took another deep swallow before replying,
"No. Why do you ask?"
"Well the pair o' you been somethin' on the quiet side you might say. Do I gather that ye not be in accord?"
Jack grimaced,
"Not say that." He took another swallow, "Sometimes it hard to remember that she's not William or Elizabeth. Nor Hector neither." He looked down at the bottle with another frown, "nor is she me. The lady always has reasons for what she does. Make her hard to deal with sometimes."

Gibbs took a long swallow and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand befopre venturing a reply.
"Don't you always have reasons Jack? Crazy ones I'll grant, but reasons all the same. Maybe she's just as crazy as you, but differently so, if you take my meanin'"
Jack have a lop sided smile,
"Aye I take your meanin'." His voiced dropped to almost a whisper, "Maybe once we'd have been crazy in the same way. But.." He took another swig of rum, "Some things are hard to put aside."
For a moment he was quiet then suddenly he shivered and turned to Gibbs with a broad smile,
"But sufficient unto the day eh? Tonight we have rum, and a ship and we get to sleep in comfort; and tomorrow we will have the fountain of youth itself within our grasp. Nothin' more a man could ask for mate."
Gibbs nodded and the bottle Jack held out to him,
"Take what ye can," he said by way of salute before taking a deep swig.
Jack just nodded and stared back at the island,
"Ay, take what you can," he echoed, but he didnt sound as if he was sure any longer.

***

"So do you have any suggestions?"
"Most will have already occurred to you."
"I know," Elanor replied wearily sinking in her chair and rubbing her eyes, "this is all a fevered dream and for some reason not only have I dreamed up an eighteenth century pirate and his mater but also a mystical map and a hole in the middle of a sunken mountain that contains the fountain of youth."
"Water of Life." Ariadne corrected calmly.
"Yes," Elanor said slowly, "I wonder if the difference is significant or not?"
"Do you mean significant in terms of what it says about your psychological state or in what you will find when you return there?"
"If I didn't know better I would say that was sarcastic Ariadne! Both. Though if this is a creation of my own, well then I'm long past being explained. We have agreed that in face of our lack of information and options we treat this as if it is reality, so let us concentrate on why that place is where it is."

"Very well. There are three options, the first is that it is a rare but natural event of unexplained origins."
"And the gate, and the odd crystals? Which, as I said, looked remarkably like some form of device to me, though God knows what."
"I would agree, based on the little information available. That brings us to the second option, that it is a natural occurrence that at some time in the past has been used or inhabited by people or peoples unknown."
Elanor smiled wryly,
"Are we talking extraterrestrials here Ariadne? Or some long dead and forgotten race?"
If Ariadne could have shrugged she would have done so, but the gesture was there in her reply,
"Either or both, we have no evidence either way. It is possible that at some point in the past the earth was visited by another race and this was one of the places they made use of. However there is no evidence to suggest that they have. As for other human societies? It cannot be definitive proven that there has not been some other era of humanity long lost and forgotten. Certainly in this world if not our own."

"Hmm, how long is long?"
"Evidence and theory would suggest that most traces of an advanced civilisation would disappear almost completely within a thousand years or so, those traces that remain would not necessarily be recognisable, either to a less advanced civilization or to another advanced that was based upon other forms of technology. Little else but rock survives longer than that but eventually even that record fails under the force of weather and sand. Within a hundred thousand years all traces would be gone. In the scale of the likely life of the planet one hundred thousand years is little enough time."
"You mean that there might have been humans who walked alongside the dinosaur? What an interesting notion."
"Who is to say? We only know that we have found no traces of them."
"Which, as you have pointed out, is not necessarily the same as them having never been; which leaves us the third possibility, which is, I assume, that its not natural at all, but was created by someone for a specific purpose."
"Correct. All of the comments made with regard to the second option would also apply to the third of course."

"Of course." Elanor said dryly. "Either way it is going to be hard to predict what we will find down there."
"Agreed. The creatures you mentioned suggest that there may be some unusual form of life, mutations or originals or possibly both. That may include life and organisms at the microscopic levels so suitable clothing would be a sensible precaution, climbing equipment of course, food, water and possibly a shelter of some form."
"Do we have suitable backpacks?"
"One that might be suitable, mountaineering and jungle walking did not form a part of the specification of our original voyage."
"I'm aware of that. It's a minor miracle that we even have the one. I'll set our men folk up there to making up some form of bag from spare sailcloth, they must be used to wielding a needle. I'll gather what we need together, then we had better all get some sleep."
" I will prepare you a list of recommended items. You will also need to take medication and I would suggest that you address the matter of your erstwhile crew's immunities."
Elanor remembered Jack's reaction to her explanation of his sickness when he first came aboard and smiled wryly,
"Jack is going to love that."

***

Jack did indeed take exception.

"Wielding a needle I have no issue with, having them wielded into me is another matter entirely luv. I remember your little beasties well."
"Not these, this kind are already tamed I promise. But they may help against whatever we find inside that mountain, which you can be sure won't be tame."
"Then will we be stikin' needles in you too?" Jack sounded almost hopeful, obviously his illness, and her treatment of him, still rankled in some way.
"Not at the moment, I was stuck enough when I was a child, and many of the beasties I'm... resistant to anyway. Might come to it in there of course." She leant in closer to him, "If it does then I promise to give you second chance."
"Second chance?"
"Assuming I can't do it myself." She grinned.
A hint of surprise then something close to anxiety passed across his face,
"You think that possible?"
Elanor shrugged,
"I don't know. But it might come to that I suppose." She smiled and shooed Jack towards the bed, "Anyway, I'm not actually going to stick a needle in you. Just a press something against your arm, it won't hurt at all. Though why someone who'll take a knife to a poisoned wound would quibble about a needle escapes me."

Jack just glowered at her for a moment, but interest took over when she pushed up his shirt and pressed the hypo against his arm, and he watched the plunger with the same interest that a cat would give a particularly well-visited mouse hole. When it was empty he took it from her and turned it carefully in his fingers scrutinising it from every angle,
"Interestin'" he said eventually, then handed it back to her, watching as she refilled it. As she laid it on the table he made a grab for it,
"Jack, one is enough! Give it back to me!"
"No. Can't see why I should not get me turn with this fascinating object. From the other side of it that it."
"I've told you I don't need it. In fact it might do me harm , do you want to make me ill?"
He gave her a slow and wicked grin,
"Now there's a thought, offer all sorts of interesting experiences that might."
She smiled back with mocking and saccharine sweetness in her face and voice,
"Like mopping up the vomit? I'll tell Ariadne to make sure that you do. You won't be able to leave the ship either, not until I'm fully well, I'll make sure of that too."
Jack wrinkled his nose and looked at the hypo in his hand with regret before his smile returned, his fingers tightened around it,
"But Gibbs needs one too, doesn't he?"

***

"So what's it like down there Jack? In them tunnels?"

Gibbs had taken little notice of the hypo, though the fact that it was administered while he was in mid swallow from a rapidly emptying rum bottle could well have been the reason for that Jack admitted to himself. Now they were sitting side by side on the darkening decks, fed and watered and enjoying a night cap. Elanor had decreed that Ariadne would take the watch as they were all going to need rest before the push into the mountain.

Jack was silent for a moment then he turned to stare at the sea and shrugged,
"Dark. Very dark"
"As in a moonless night dark?"
"As inside the belly of the Kraken dark,"
The words came out easily enough but it was with some difficulty that he held on to the unexpected shudder. He wondered uneasily why it was that he had chosen that comparison of all those he might have used, when he had not felt the similarity while he had been there. Well not a lot. He felt another shudder take hold of him as buried, and very unwelcome, memories stirred, and he turned it into another shrug, suddenly glad they were not sitting under one of those little stars in the masts. Grabbing the rum bottle he took another swig,
"Well as far as I recall that is."

Gibbs stared at him dumbfounded and uneasy, in all the months since they had collected him from the locker Jack had never mentioned the experience of his death and Gibbs knew that he would never be able to ask him about it. None of them had been able to ask about it. Except her of course. She had. Not that it had done her much good when she did. No, when Elizabeth Swann, Mrs Turner as she was now was, had gone to ask Jack about it, bleating her apologies in the process, she had received short shift. Gibbs knew that for a fact, for he had heard the conversation quite clearly. With unspoken agreement the crew had had done their best to keep the two of them apart when they boarded the Pearl off the locker shore, and so he had followed her when she had sought out Jack that first evening after they recovered him, no more than an hour or so before they learned of her father's death.

Here, on the shadowed decks of a ship so unlike the Pearl, that memory was still as clear as day. He could still see her face as she followed Jack down the deck and to the great cabin, could recall the crew's startled looks and him hurrying after them as the day failed and shadows across the decks darkened. He'd not been far behind them, just far enough for neither to notice him, and had put his hand in the closing door to keep it open just enough for him to watch the events inside. Jack had been powerful strange when they found him and Gibbs had not been of a mind to allow her to tip him into outright madness, so he watched and waited ready to intervene, if it should prove necessary.

Eavesdropping it certainly was and as was only to be expected he had heard more than he bargained for.

He could hear her stumbling words even now; the apologies and self recrimination were no more than he had expected, but it was the excuses that had raised his bile.

Taking the rum bottle back from a silent and thoughtful Jack he thought back again to that first day, when Jack seemed to alternate between being himself and being someone else. The spat with Barbossa was only to be expected, but the business with the spy glasses was not Jack at all, Jack never bothered his head about such things. But it was Elizabeth Swann that showed up the fault lines in the man they had brought away with them, something that had scared them all. They had seen his fear of her in the locker and, though there were times when he seemed to have put it aside, there were others when it hung about him like a thundercloud. Had not been a good sight to see, for with Barbossa terrified of the sea witche's power and Jack disintegrating more than one of them wondered what they would do for a captain.

He took another drink and passed the bottle back to the still silent Jack.

Only went to show that women on ships were bad luck as he had always claimed, well unless they were like captain Elanor that was, he'd grant she was indeed a sailor and a good captain and so somewhat different, but Elizabeth Swann had always been bad luck and never more so than then.

The rage that had over come him as he heard her say that she had to do it so that the rest of them could live was more than he had ever felt before, near close to blood lust it had been. If he had been facing her then he would have gone against all the teachings of his youth and struck her, unarmed as she was, so outraged had he been that she, no more than chit when all was said and done, should think it given to her to decide that he should abandon Jack. That she should dare to make him an unwilling party to her mutinous cowardice. Did she think they hadn't known what was a stake, all of them? Did she not think that there had been enough of them to throw Jack over the side had they wished to? Aye, or to prevent him entering the long boat if had they a mind to? Jack knew and they knew, if they had wanted to abandon him they could have done it and he would not have complained. Did she think that what Jack had asked of them that day was any more than she had asked of Jack when she had sent him into the cave at Isle de Muerta? Or that she and Barbossa had asked of them all in Singapore? Seemed that impossible odds were fair enough if they served Miss Swann's interests but not to be considered for any other cause.

The rage at her faltering apology had rendered him speechless, not least because of the time she had chosen to seek her forgiveness. Jack had been weary and confused when he boarded the Pearl, and it got worse as they left the locker behind. Half the time it seemed that he was not with them at all, not at all the captain he had known and last seen on the sinking Pearl. That she had chosen such a time to speak had been beyond forgiving in his eyes. He would have charged in then and there and dragged her out for a few words of his own, had his hand on the latch to do just that, but Jack had rallied suddenly and the words that came back through the open door had been neither hesitant nor nervous. Jack had been turned away but his voice suddenly held the bite of a man accustomed to command again,
"Killin' me not enough for you then, you want to enjoy the detail of it too?"

He heard her gasp and smiled to himself, edging closer to that sliver of an opening to see what was taking place within the cabin.

She had taken a half step forwards,
"Jack no! You can't think that, surely you can't."
There had been disbelief in her voice and he had wondered what she had expected Jack to say. She put out a hesitant hand as if to touch him but he was beyond her reach,
"I just want you to understand, that I had to do what I did." There were tears in her voice though she was dry eyed. "There was no other choice. You knew it then, you know that you did. I just want you to know that I am sorry."
Jack had raised a fluttering and emphatic hand, staring at the ruined window,
"Ah, Miss Swann is sorry, that makes it alright then. No worries."

Through the crack he had seen her move another step towards Jack, hand outstretched, but he had evaded her, moving closer to the window.
"Jack you knew that I had to do it."
"Did I?"
"Yes, you told me so. That's what you meant wasn't it, when you said pirate?"
"Was it?"
"Yes. Jack I lied to you then, I was, and am, sorry."

Jack had turned around to face her then though he had still been in shadow. But the set of him and the tone of his voice had said all that was necessary.
"Are you now! For what exactly? Which bit are you sorry for Elizabeth? For the condescension of kissing me goodbye? For chaining me like a rabid dog? For leaving me to be ripped apart, shackled by me sword arm? Waiting for the beastie, without chance to defend meself, helpless like some virgin to be sacrificed?"

Even now, just thinking about it, Gibbs could feel the anger rise, then he'd had to cover his mouth to choke off the oath that revelation had brought, for until that moment he hadn't know the full level of her betrayal. He'd have barged in but for the fact that Jack would know that he had heard, and in Jack's shoes he didn't think that he could have borne that.

Jack turned to face her then, all captain in that moment, his voice quiet and cold.
"Or were you sorry that I didn't beg and plead Eh? That I didn't implore you to let me free? Admit me guilt and ask for your help and forgiveness?"
He'd been glad he hadn't intervened then for he'd not have robbed Jack of his chances to drive it home. As she had backed away from him he had moved forward a pace, for a moment looking like himself again as his calm and remorseless questioning continued,
"Or were you sorry that I didn't make some flowery speech about dyin' for the love of you so that you could be with your noble William? Hmm?"

She had taken another step back from him at that, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as he went on,
"I got free Elizabeth, free of your shackle. No thanks to you, but I got free and faced it down when it came for me. Died fighting it luv, sword in hand. Nothin' for Jones to gloat at there. Now that might not mean much to you but it matters to me. Don't expect you to understand that, because I'm not a man of any honour am I? But I got free."

Jack had leaned back against the table and smiled a softly dangerous smile,
"So which bit of it are you sorry for luv? The pain, the humiliation, or for showing what you thought of me; that I was a worthless wretch whose life was nothing when weighted in the balance of your own and William's? Or did you think it only fair, given that you been deprived the sight of me on the end of a rope? For you would have left me to that too, would you not?"
She had shaken her heart in mute reproach but she did not move. Jack's smile faded to a look of exaggerated concern, but his eyes were black and bleak and the skin of the hands resting on his pistol was white with tension.
"Did you not see enough of it from the long boat? Sorry darlin', which bit of me dyin' do you want to know the gory details of? The stench of it? The sharpness of its teeth? The feel of breaking bone and tearing sinew. The burn of its belly on ripped flesh." He had straightened and moved closer,
"I didn't recall it back there but I do now. Tell me what you want to know and I'll give you chapter and verse, for I remember every moment of it."

Gibbs shuddered at the memory of those last words, he was not an imaginative man he knew but there had been something in Jack's voice that had turned the fire of his rage to bitter cold. Even at the time, with all the fears and cares he had pressing on him, he'd not been able to stand the shadows cast by the horror in the familiar voice and he'd knocked on the door, striding in as if he had just found them,
"Captain Barbossa wants a word Jack," he'd said as calmly as he could ignoring the girl still standing in the middle of the room.
Jack had turned away and his voice had been soft and weary again,
"Fine, Miss Swann was just leavin' we have said all we need to say."
She had straightened up, staring at Jack in silence, before squaring her shoulders and inclining her head in acceptance,
"Very well."
As she turned she had met Gibbs eye and known that he had heard it all. They had not spoken again, except to relay commands, until after the Endeavour was sunk.

Now, safe and well on this moonlit deck, with a bellyful of rum, the idea that Jack should still remember all that, as it sounded as if he could, seemed mortal unfair to him and he found himself hoping that the lady captain was indeed cut from different cloth to Miss Swann. 'But the world was different now', he reminded himself. Beckett was dead and Jack was himself again. As for Mrs Turner? Well she had suffered losses and no doubt made good a acquaintence with her own hell, seemed to him that that the debt was paid. He gave himself a small shake, time to think of more cheerful things,
"What was there at the end of the tunnels Jack?"

Jack drew a deep breath,
"Not sure mate, looked like a whole world down there. A world within a world." He took another gulp of rum before handing the bottle over, "just like the Locker." He added softly.
He caught sight of Gibbs widened eyes and saw him choke in his rum, and he smiled reaching out to clap his friend on the shoulder,
"But a lot less in the way of sand, and looks to be some water, and certainly lots of trees," he shrugged, "or something green anyways. So no similarities at all."
Gibbs caught his wrist and looked at him with concern,
"You sure of that Jack? Seems to me that the locker's rather preyin' on your mind tonight."
Jack got to his feet,
"Aye , well maybe. " he scowled, "I blame our dear absent captain if that's the case, her and her tame beasties! She and I are goin' to be spending a lot of time in the dark tomorrow, where she can't run away or hide behind her ghost. It's my plan to have some serious words with the lady."
Now Gibbs really did look worried,
"Now Jack, that might not be such a good idea. Seems her ghost can hear us even over there."
Jacks scowl became a glower,
"That's true."

He turned around to look in the direction if the island and suddenly smiled.
"Ah, but the fountain of youth mate, just think of it. All the centuries you want just to sail the seas. It's over there, I know it is." he turned to back to beam at Gibbs, "and tomorrow is the day that we find it."