Playlist: 'Run Free' from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
(More Hans Zimmer genius, I'm in love with him).

So, this is the chapter where Jack and Elizabeth first start to really encounter one another - which means some real interaction is going to take place! Yes, lots of that.

The tune I've picked out for this chapter works perfectly with the action, at the pace that I read at.

If you don't read quickly, I would ask you to read it once over without the music so you get what's going on - then read it again, quick as you can, with the music this time. Effect is everything!

If you're reading and you haven't reviewed yet... please do. I starve without feedback.

9

The work was hard, the voyage long
The seas were high, the gales were strong
The food was bad, the wage was low,
But now ashore again we'll go
The sails are furled, our work is done
And now onshore we'll have our fun!

"Hands aloft to loose t'gallants! With this wind at her stern, she'll carry every sail we've got." Gibbs cried at large to the crew as Elizabeth emerged on deck.
She ran to the helm where Gibbs was standing with the dark pirate lady who was steering. They looked flushed and anxious. The crew were running scared around the deck, rushing to follow the orders.

"What's happening?" she demanded as she reached them.
"The Black Pearl, she's gaining on us." the woman snapped back at her, directing her gaze towards the darkly looming ship that was, sure enough, catching up to them with a great, ominous, cloudy oblivion at her back.

"This is the fastest ship in the Caribbean!" Elizabeth protested, uncertainly.
"You can tell them that after they've caught us."

Think, Elizabeth. Think. What have you read about like this before?
Something vague came swirling back into her memory. An escape route... that some nameless ship had attempted once, on the pages of one in a hundred books, in the middle of one in a thousand dangers.
"We're shallow on the draft, right?" she asked with growing confidence.
"Aye."
"Well, then can't we lose them amongst those shoals?" she pointed.

Gibbs' expression lit up.
He was probably congratulating himself for telling her all those pirate tales, so long ago now, when once they really knew one another. He had liked her then. He adored her now.
"We don't have to outrun them long, just long enough." he exclaimed in triumph.
"Lighten the ship, stem to stern!" the lady shouted, with surprising gusto.
The crew looked towards the helm in confusion. Gibbs ran to the railing and shouted to them.
"Anything that we can afford to lose - see that it's lost!"

Just a few minutes later, Will glanced out over the ocean behind them and caught sight of the oars protruding from the Pearl's gun ports. He stepped on a cannon one of the crew was about to toss overboard. "We're gonna need that." he muttered.

"It was a good plan - up 'till now." said the woman to Elizabeth in a desolate tone.
Will scrambled up to the helm.
"Gibbs! We have to make a stand. We must fight! Load the guns!"
"With what?" Anamaria interjected.
"Anything. Everything! Anything we have left!"

Gibbs wasted no time. He was off.
"Load the guns! Take shot and langrage. Nails and crushed glass! With a will!"
He was back presently, however, with a look of despair on his rugged features, "The Pearl is going to luff up on our port quarter. She'll rake us without ever presenting a target!" he cried, looking back at the ever-nearing vessel.

There was a short silence - the situation looked lost.

"Lower the anchor on the right side."
The voice was Elizabeth's. Will looked at her in semi-surprise.
Of course, it would be her who came up with all the good ideas. She'd read enough about them.
"On the starboard side!" she repeated in urgency.
"It certainly has the element of surprise." he agreed.

"You're daft, lady! You both are!" Anamaria cried scornfully, but looked hesitant.
"Daft like Jack!" Gibbs stated proudly, running to the railing. Will's gut clenched. "Lower the starboard anchor! Do it, ye dogs, or it's you we'll load into the cannons!"

"Let go!" Elizabeth yelled.
The Interceptor swung around suddenly with frightening speed, catching even the crew offguard.

The Pearl after a short delay swung hard to port, pulling itself up alongside. Barbossa was only a half-step behind them. Even Elizabeth's ideas looked doubtful for their eventual fate.

"Now!"
"Fire!"
"FIRE ALL!"

The very ocean seemed to quake with the force of twenty, forty, a hundred explosions, shrieking and pounding intermittently between the two ships. Aboard the helm, Elizabeth, Will, Gibbs and Anamaria ducked out of the way as splinters flew past their heads.

"We could use a few more ideas, lass!" Gibbs hollared, resigning himself to the fact that the Pearl was giving maximum damage and receiving a lot less. Its crew would be swinging over any minute now.

"Your turn." she retorted.
"We need us a devil's dowry."
"We'll give them her!" Anamaria cut in, pointing her pistol very seriously at Elizabeth.
"She's not what they're after." Will corrected, trying to keep a calm voice. He wasn't going to allow her to be shot, not after he'd come all this way with the hope of redeeming himself in her family's eyes.

Elizabeth sucked in a panicked breath, and clutched at the place where her necklace should have hung safely.
"The medallion."
He suddenly realised how stupid he had been, leaving it below deck.
He spun on his heel and ran back for it, hoping to god the place hadn't been blown up yet.

He jumped down the hatch and immediately saw a problem. The table had tipped during their sudden change of direction, the floor was ankle-deep in water, and the medallion was nowhere to be seen.

An awful shot rang out, an explosion of splinters and chunks threw him clear off his feet, and then the mast slowly cracked and fell, with an almighty thud, directly over the hatch.
He rose, getting water in the eyes, and then ran to the hatch which was hopelessly blocked. He took up a chunk of wood and smashed it repeatedly against the bars.
"Hey! Hey! Below!"

Jack emerged from the hold, breathing in the thrilling, free air of battle. He had never been so glad to have a cannon fired at him in his life. He jumped up onto the ship's side, escaping the notice of the Pearl's crew, and snatched a rope that was swinging in perfect timing towards him.

'Run Free'.

The pirate that had been the previous swinger on said rope flew off, and crash landed some yards behind him on the deck. He gazed up at Jack with dizzy rage.
"Thanks very much." Jack said by way of apology, and then swung gracefully over to the Interceptor.

He swung a bit too far, however, and couldn't let go for fear of a nasty drop. On his way back he accidentally knocked somebody over - he briefly saw that it was Gibbs' current opponent - and on finally boarding the Interceptor he went back to hand Gibbs his hipflask.

"Jack!" Gibbs gasped with evident delight.
"Bloody empty." he shoved the canteen into Gibbs' hands.

He glanced about, and immediately caught sight of Elizabeth grappling with a particularly gruesome looking pirate. He rushed to her aid.
He caught the scallywag's wrist just as he was about to bring his weapon down upon her. The bloke looked around in confusion.
"That's not very nice." Jack reprimanded.
Elizabeth smashed her attacker's face in with the butt of her gun, and he went backflipping over the side of the ship.

Jack pulled her to safety, ducking them down behind the railing to avoid the continuous gunfire.

Her eyes danced with unbridled joy as she gazed disbelievingly at him.
"Jack." she said simply.
"Ello, 'Lizabeth."
"You came back. Again."
"All part of the plan, luv. Ye alright?" he grasped her arms a little tighter between his hands.

He didn't know why he was bothering with 'alright's. He had to find the medallion before that blasted crew did.

But she was staring him straight, square in the eye, and she was so close, he could smell her sweet breath, make out every perfect line of her face. Her awed, triumphant, conspiring expression made him feel that she had been waiting for him, that he was the one person she had wanted to see, that even in the midst of all this chaos, he was the one bloke she'd hoped would turn up.

And he reciprocated that notion, with every electrified, glorified fibre of his being.

"I still owe you a ruddy kiss, darling, for getting me out of that cell." he grinned.
"I owe you more, for coming to rescue me."

He raised an eyebrow, not understanding her meaning.

"To rescue me and the Pearl, it doesn't matter in what order." she laughed, in turn squeezing his shoulder, "You're here. I'm so glad you're alive."
"As am I, luv. Now, where's that medallion?"

"Where's Will?" she suddenly remembered, taking off in an abrupt rush of panic.

Music Fades Out.

She found him yelling for help, the mast stuck immovably over the hatch.

"I can't move it!" she cried, just as rough hands wrapped themselves around her.
"Eilzabeth!" he screamed as she was bodily dragged away.

Jack suddenly spotted the damned creature making off with the medallion.

"Monkey!" he uttered wildly, and cavorted after it.
He leapt onto the fallen mast connecting the two ships, scrambling on all fours after it, and was just reaching out to grab its tail when -

He raised his face to gaze into the eyes of the sneering man that the animal had taken shelter with.

Barbossa stared right back, a triumphant smile playing mockingly around his mouth.

"Why thankyou, Jaaack."
"You're welcome." Jack answered sarcastically.
"Not you. We named the monkey Jaaack."

... How insulting.

"Gents! Our hope is restored!" the blaggard cried in unbridled glee.
Jack looked about at the cheering mob, and smiled with ironic congratulations.

And just like that, the Interceptor was lost.