"Annalee? What on earth are you doing here?" Father cries when I step up from the ladder onto the Dauntless.

"Hello, Father." I lower my eyes, trying to wrack my brain for a plausible explanation.

"Were you kidnapped too?" He asks, gathering both Elizabeth and I into his arms. The worry and love in his voice is overbearing and I wriggle involuntarily in his grip.

When he finally lets us go, he takes a good long look at my dirt streaked face, so filthy that even Elizabeth hasn't even noticed my cut yet.

"When did you last wash yourself?" He asks, completely forgetting that I haven't answered his previous question, thankfully.

"In a long, long, long time." I say with a tired laugh. A long, hot bath sounds like the nicest thing in the world at the moment.

"Then, both you girls head to the captain's quarters and wash yourself up." He orders, gently, giving us both a final squeeze.

"But we've got to save Will!" Elizabeth protests.

"No." Father immediately replies, "You're safe now. We will return to Port Royal immediately, not go gallivanting after pirates!"

"Then we condemn him to death." Elizabeth states, hoping to quilt Father into seeing her side.

"The boy's fate is regrettable, but, then, so was his decision to engage in piracy."

"To rescue me. To prevent anything from happening to me."

Lizzie turns to me for support but I nod in agreement with Father.

"How dare you!" She shouts.

"Elizabeth! Don't speak to your sister in that way!" Father instructs but Elizabeth isn't listening.

"You would really send Will to his death just because he forgot you?" She accuses me.

I nod, fervently. "He forgot me twice!" I argue back, "And if it weren't for Jack, I would be have died. Both times."

"But you are not dead, are you?" Elizabeth retorts.

"No thanks to Will!"

"If I may be so bold as to inject my professional opinion, "Jack interrupts, speaking to the Commodore who had led the search. I jump, shocked as I had forgotten that he had been picked up from the island as well. "The Pearl was listing near to scuppers after the battle. It's very unlikely she'll be able to make good time. Think about it. The Black Pearl. The last real pirate threat in the Caribbean, mate. how can you pass that up?"

It is obvious that Commodore Norrington is tempted, but he stands firm, "By remembering that I serve others, Mr. Sparrow, not only myself." He says, startling me by the selfless and genuine side of him that I had almost never been privy to before. The last time I had seen him this real was when he had let me go after catching me outside in the middle of the night and had let me go without even telling Father.

The Commodore turns and starts up the stairs to the upper deck, but Lizzie isn't done yet.

"Commodore, I beg you, please do this." And in a moment of utter desperation, she adds, "As a wedding gift."

The Commodore spins around, shocked and trying to contain his pleasure.

Father looks equally startled and his face can't help but bean in happiness and pride, "Elizabeth. Are you accepting the Commodore's proposal?"

Elizabeth seems to be finally comprehending what she said but doesn't back away, "I am."

"A wedding!" Jack shouts, "I love weddings! Drinks all around!"

The Commodore gives him a scalding look.

Jack's smile disappears, "I know, 'Clap him in irons' right?" He says, extending his arms.

Ignoring his comment, Norrington slowly descends the stairs, "Mr. Sparrow, you will accompany these fine men," He says referring to two guards that were his escorts, "to the helm and provide us with a bearing to Isla de Muerta. You will then spend the rest of the voyage contemplating all possible meanings of the phrase, 'Silent as the grave.'"

I snort, trying to hold back my laughter at the second part of the orders, and everyone turns to me at the sound invoking another laugh-turned-snort.

"Sorry," I say, still trying to hold back my laughing, "My apologies."

The Commodore looks back at Jack with a role of his eyes, "Do I make myself clear?"

"Inescapably clear." Jack responds before being dragged off.

"I do not believe that your father allowed you to accompany us!" The Commodore says in utter frustration.

I smile at his behavior. I love getting people into such a state, "Well, he didn't exactly have a say since he collapsed after I told him of my exploits."

I smile wistfully at the memory. After Elizabeth had recounted her story to Father, I decided that it would be better to get everything out at the same time and told him everything that had happened to me. Elizabeth's story had already rendered him unable to stand and mine sent him into unconsciousness. Of course, at the time I had been worried. But when the ship's doctor said that he had sustained absolutely no injury, not even a bruise, from the fall, I figured that it would be better this way.

I probably wouldn't have made it this far but with my dazzling smile and compliments getting me past two guards, Murtogg and Mulroy, and onto a small boat, and then Jack's distractions until we got to far from the ship to turn back, I didn't have to actually say the truth until Norrington had me and Jack transferred to his boat and demanded an explanation.

Norrington sighs in frustration at my comment, but a small smile tugs at the corners of his mouth.

"You will kill your father one of these days, Annalee." He says.

"It's Anna. And if what I said didn't kill him, than nothing will."

"I haven't exactly heard the whole of your story." Norrington says.

"Is that an invitation for a story time for the next few hours or so?" I ask him with playful sarcasm, "I am sure the pirates in the cave would be more than happy to wait while I tell you of my adventures. You never know, they might want to join us. They do, after all, have a small part in it."

This time Norrington actually smiles and I feel as if I have accomplished something no one else ever has. He didn't even smile when Elizabeth accepted his proposal. This has definitely been a grand feat for me.

After a few moments of watching the rocks that form the cave in silence as the small waves rock the rowboat back and forth, and back and forth. I have really gained my sea-legs since my first time on a boat during this adventure when I was with Thomas and Greaves. I let my legs do the work, extending and crunching depending on what side the boat is tipping and I keep my head level to get a clear view of our surroundings.

Norrington finally speaks up, cutting the silence, "I don't care for the situation. Any attempt to storm the caves could turn to an ambush.

"Not if you're the one doing the ambushing." Jack says, "I go in, I convince Barbossa to send his men out with their little boats. You and your mates return to the Dauntless and blast the bejesus outta them with your little cannons, eh?" He puts an arm on the Commodore's shoulder, "What do you have to lose?"

"Nothing I'd lament being rid of." Norrington answers, slowly peeling the arm off of his shoulder.

"Now to be quite honest with you, there's still a slight risk for those aboard the Dauntless which includes the future Mrs. Commodore."

At this, Norrington spins around and calls to the nearest boat, "Oarsman, distribute your soldiers between the other boats and then return to the Dauntless. Tell Gillette to keep Elizabeth safe. Lock her up, tie her down, I don't care. Just make sure that she is out of range of danger."

"Very authoritative and frightening, Commodore. You have me shaking in my boots." I say.

"It's James." He says with a grin and I scowl lightheartedly at his mockery.

"Well, James. What is your plan of action?"

"I haven't a clue."

"To be perfectly honest, even though Jack is not, he might seem like an idiot, look like an idiot, act like an idiot, talk like an idiot, walk like an idiot, drink like an idiot, speak like an idiot, live like an idiot, m-"

"What is your point?" Norrington interrupts impatiently.

I think for a moment, almost forgetting where I was going. "Ah, yes. Even though Jack may be an idiot in everything else, he is not an idiot when it comes to planning. Never has it happened that his plans fail because they were not good plans or because of something he did. It has always been someone else's fault."

Jack looks offended and when I sneak a peek at him, he looks away contemptuously.

"Since you have no plan." I continue, "And I have no plan. And Jack has a plan. I think we should go for it. As he said, 'What do we have to lose?"

"My pride, my dignity. A week ago, I wouldn't have even contemplated making a deal with a pirate, much less letting him go into a den full of other pirates with the knowledge of our plan."

"He saved my life an innumerable amount of times. If you trust me, and I trust him, then lets do it."

"What if I don't trust you?" He asks, his eyes light hearted for the moment.

"Then you have lost a friend, and shall never be known as James ever again. You shall be your work and your work shall be you and you will forever be known simply as Commodore."

"I was not being serious about calling me James. It is a sign of disrespect to call someone by their first name."

"Hey, you call me by my first name. Does that mean that you are not being respectful towards me?"

"It is different for a man of my status."

"You are very adept at changing the subject, aren't you? What about the plan of attack?"

The Commodore, James, doesn't respond right away but seems to be in deep thought.

"Give Jack Sparrow your boat," he finally orders once the sailor returns from his mission to the Dauntless. "He will be rowing ashore."