Chapter nine

Miss Elizabeth stood on the edge of the plank, holding her dress to her knees, as the crew urged her over the edge. Off in the distance was a small, empty island.

"Barbossa, you lying bastard! You swore she'd go free!" Will yelled as two pirates held him back.

Barbossa turned to him rigidly. "Don't dare impugn me honor, boy. I agreed she'd go free, but it was you who forgot to specify when or where."

The crew laughed as Mister Turner was dragged back.

My father looked to Miss Elizabeth and spoke, "Though does seem a shame to lose something so fine, don't it, lads?" The crewmembers murmured their assent. "So, I'll be having that dress back before you go."

Elizabeth appeared shocked as she stripped the dress off, but became disgusted as it was thrown to him. "Goes with your black heart."

"Ooh, it's still warm," he said as he tossed it.

The crew, namely Pintel and Ragetti, went back to badgering Elizabeth. Eventually, they got sick of her simply standing there and someone stomped on the plank causing her to fall into the sea.

Jack was next to go. "I'd really rather hoped we were past all this."

"Jack…" Barbossa crooned as he placed his arm on Jack's shoulders, "Jack. Did you not notice? That be the same little island that we made you governor of on our last little trip."

"I did notice."

As did I, and I wasn't too particularly happy about it.

"Perhaps you'll be able to conjure up another miraculous escape," Barbossa suggested, "But I doubt it." He drew his sword. "Off you go."

I shuffled nervously. My father was losing his patience and fast.

"Last time you left me a pistol with one shot," Jack mentioned.

"By the powers, you're right," Father claimed. "Where be Jack's pistol? Bring it forward."

Someone passed Jack's effects forth.

"Seeing as there's two of us," Jack prompted, "a gentleman would give us a pair of pistols."

"It'll be one pistol as before, and you can be the gentleman and shoot the lady and starve to death yourself." Barbossa threw Jack's things into the water and Jack immediately dove for them.

I pushed my way through the group to my dad. "Excuse me. Scuze. Pardon me. Coming through. I'll take that," I said as I snatched my sword and scabbard from someone I didn't recognize and started to walk off the plank.

"Luna, what do ye think yer doing?" my father asked, snagging my arm.

"The same thing I should've done eight years ago;" I snapped, "Going after my best friend." I pulled my arm back and took the last few steps to the edge. "Until my daring escape," I bowed, "I bid you adieu." With that being said, I too dove off.

Out of breath, I crawled on to the beach a little ways from where Jack and Elizabeth stood.

"That's the second time I've had to watch that man sail away with my ship," Jack moaned breathlessly.

"At least I'm here," I called to him.

Jack turned around and the brightest grin lit up his face. "Luna, love, glad you could make it."

I smirked. "I only make a mistake once, Jackie."

Elizabeth started walking then.

I sat down and began to take the braid out of my hair. Looking out at the sea as it called to me.

"You let your hair grow out," Jack pointed out as he sat next to me.

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

I shrug. "I enjoy long hair. Though it tends to get in the way sometimes. The boy cut I had before made it easier to hide who I was. I guess I was tired of being someone else."

He nodded understandingly and began messing with his pistol.

"A faithful woman wronged by her gentle lover,
A man forever doomed to chase another," I recited under my breath.

"What was that?" Jack wondered.

"Nothing…" I mumbled.

"Oh that was definitely something."

"Something I have to remember, all right?" I turned my attention back to my braid.

It was silent between us, but not uncomfortable. We just simply enjoyed each other's company.

When I finished re-braiding my hair, I slipped my boots off and stood. "Care for a swim, dragoste?"

He shook his head and went back to the ritualistic cleaning of his pistol.

I was just coming out of the water when Elizabeth stopped in front of us nearly a half hour later, staring at her footprints.

"It's really not all that big, is it?" Jack spoke up.

"If you're going to shoot me, please do so without delay."

Jack leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees. "Is there a problem between us, Miss Swann?"

"You were going to tell my father about Will in exchange for a ship," I told him, "I'd be pretty moody too."

"We could use a ship," he said snidely. "The fact is; I was going to not tell Barbossa about bloody Will in exchange for a ship. As long as he didn't know about bloody Will, I had something to bargain with, which now no one has, thanks to bloody stupid Will."

Jack stood and Elizabeth looked to the sand. "Oh," she replied sheepishly.

"Oh," I mocked.

"He still risked his life to save ours."

"She's right, you know," I told him.

"HA!" he scorned before stormed off. Elizabeth followed closely, whereas I chose to stay back a bit.

"But we have to do something!" Elizabeth declared.

He stopped and turned on his heels. "Off you go then," he shooed her, "Let me know how that turns out."

"But you were marooned on this island before, weren't you? We can escape it the same way you did then."

"To what point and purpose, young missy?"Jack quizzed as he stopped sharply. "The Black Pearl is gone. Unless either of you have a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in your tops. Unlikely." It didn't pass me by that Jack stared quite intently at Elizabeth's bosom. "Young Mr. Turner will be dead long before you can reach him." He continued to walk away, stopping only to knock on a tree.

"But you're Captain Jack Sparrow," I tell him (like he needed an ego boost at the moment). He took four large steps as I continued to ramble. "You vanished under the eyes of seven agents of the East India Company. You sacked Nassau Port without even firing a shot." He began to jump up and down as I came around to face him. "Are you the pirate I sailed with or not? How did you really escape last time?"

Taking my arms in his hands, he pushed me a step backwards. A moment passed and he simply looked at me as if he was debating something. "Last time," he spoke finally, "I was here a grand total of three days, all right?" He bent down to the spot he was bouncing on. "Last time…" he lifted a patch of sand to reveal a trap door. "The rumrunners used this island as a cache, came by, and I was able to barter passage off." He climbed down into the cellar and glanced around. "From the looks of things, they've long been out of business. Probably have your bloody friend Norrington to thank for that." He handed Elizabeth a bottle of rum, snagged another two more and climbed up.

"So that's it then?" I wondered as he closed the space between us. "That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Jack Sparrow? You spent three days lying on a beach, drinking rum?"

"Welcome to the Caribbean, love." Jack pushed me out of the way and walked back to where we were sitting before.

"So, is there any truth to the other stories?" Elizabeth questioned as she followed us.

"Truth?" he asked. Pulling up his sleeve, he showed her his pirate brand and sparrow tattoo. On his left arm, a scar that traveled the path of his veins. Two gunshot wounds on his chest ended the presentation. "No truth at all."

I grabbed the bottle in Elizabeth's hands and plopped down in the sand, staying out of it for the moment. Jack sat down to my left and started drinking.

"We still have a month, maybe more. Keep a weathered eye out for any ships passing by."

"What about Will? We have to do something."

He replaced the bottle's cork and held up a finger. "You're absolutely right," he told her, rolling the bottle to her. It landed at her feet and she looked at it like she had no idea what it was.

Jack and I toasted our bottles. "Here's to you, Will Turner," I say and take a swig.

Elizabeth picked her bottle up as the water tried claiming it, uncorked it and joined us in seating. "Drink up, me hearties, yo ho."

Jack turned to her. "What was that, Elizabeth?" he asked as she took a drink.

"It's Miss Swann. Nothing. Just a song I learnt as a child when I actually thought it would be exciting to meet a pirate."

"Let's hear it."

"No."

"Oh, come on, Miss Elizabeth, we've got the time," I say a bit more rudely than I meant. "Let's have it."

"No. I'd have to have a lot more to drink."

I eyed her bottle before asking, "How much more?"

A/n: so here's today's update! I'm kinda sad that this is coming to a close. It's strange I'm normally happy about things like that. But with only three chapters I get sadder and sadder.

Well, I'm trying to work on part four, but I'm not exactly liking how it's coming out. I've rewrote it about twelve times.

Please review! I know this isn't a really popular story but, I'm also not really know around this ficdom. But the least you can do it say it's good. Or bad. Which ever. I have water to douse the flames, it's no biggie.

Anyway, until next time,
Lyra Raine Sparrow.