I woke up feeling uneasy but couldn't quite place why.

The feeling didn't last long. Port Royal was as quiet as ever and James was still on a high from the ceremony the day before. It was nice to see him so happy after all of the nerves that had preceded it. I accompanied him in to town for his first meeting with his men and Governor Swann. I thought that some of his nerves might come back, but he seemed completely at ease. He had always known what he was doing when he was working- it was the ceremony itself that had rattled him. Watching him work was something I rarely got to do, but I think he let me come along this time as a way of showing off. It was the first time that I didn't mind him showing off in front of me because I was still so proud of him. I knew that this feeling would probably wear off quite quickly and I would have to try and take him down a peg or two if his head became too big to fit through our front door. But for now he was happy and so was I.

My happiness and pride didn't stop me from getting bored though. I was happy to be there for moral support, but that was all that I could really provide. I was drawn in by the maps they had laid out on the tables in front of him. There was something about them that fascinated me, but I was not allowed to indulge in my fascination. One look from James was enough to remind me of my place- a woman who knew nothing of the sea. There was something in that look that riled me up. I wanted to defy it, to show them that they were wrong, to blow them all away with something I knew I about the sea. But I had nothing, which was the most frustrating thing of all.

I let my eyes wonder to escape from the frustrations of wanting to be something I'm not and never will be. I watched the people of Port Royal as they went about their day and felt slightly guilty at how few of them I actually knew by name. My path never really crossed theirs, except for moments like this where it seemed as if all I ever did was observe them live lives which were very different to mine. It struck me again how fortunate we had been that it was just one pirate who had chosen to come here and not an entire crew. It was unusual, yes, but we were lucky and that's what counts. I leant back on the wall behind me and wilted a little in the heat and the boredom that was creeping over me.

It was then that I saw her again. Rebecca, leaning against the wall of Mr Brown's Blacksmiths. Her eyes fixed on mine- big, sad, frightened and terribly familiar. My heart flew upwards and seemed to rest in the back of my throat. I stood up straight immediately and shook the prickling heat from my back. What was she doing here? Had nobody found her? Was she still lost? Had she been wandering all night? I suddenly felt horrifically guilty for not looking harder for her yesterday. I glanced at my brother, wondering if I should draw his attention to it, but he was so busy and oblivious to me that I thought bothering him with something he didn't think was important would probably just anger him. Nobody was looking at me. Nobody except Rebecca. I slipped away from my brother and walked towards her.

"Rebecca," I said, glancing over my shoulder to make sure that my brother hadn't noticed my absence. He hadn't. I looked back to the little girl. "Rebecca, darling, are you alright?"

She said nothing and kept her eyes on me for a few more seconds before she turned and walked in to the crowds. I followed her, running when she did. She was so frightened and I didn't know why, but I needed to find her. I needed to make sure that she was okay and had somewhere to stay. I saw her dart through a dark door in the Fort and I charged in after her, down a flight of stairs and stopped when I realised where I was.

I was in the jail.

It smelt of warm, unwashed bodies and rotting food. A silence had fallen among the prisoners as I had entered. Obviously, this was the last thing they'd expected. It was the last thing I'd expected too. "Alright, sweetheart?" one of them leered out of the gloom at me and his cellmates laughed. I felt immediately uneasy and wanted to leave, but if little Rebecca was down here on her own I had to find her. This was not a good place for a child to be. This was not a good place for anyone to be. I glanced to my left and there was nobody, so I looked to my right where I thought that the shadows might have swallowed that frightened little girl up. I heard a dog bark as I walked forward. I jumped even though I knew he was here. I was so on-edge; I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I averted my gaze from the prisoners and kept walking. I'd only gotten to the second cell before I stopped where I was.

I felt like I'd been here before.

The feeling overwhelmed me and for a moment I couldn't move an inch. It was a similar feeling to the one I'd had the day before, when I'd stood on the edge of the Fort and had the overwhelming urge to jump. Except now I had the overwhelming urge to turn and look in to the cell I was standing in front of. My hands shook, but I steadied them. Look up. Look over. I licked my lips, they were dry. Look up. Look over. My heart beat so hard and loudly it banged off my chest. I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. I felt sick.

I looked up and over and everything was still.

The overwhelming urge was silenced and so were my thoughts. The blood stopped rushing in my ears, my hands stopped shaking and I no longer felt sick. I felt calm. So calm that for a moment I almost didn't exist.

The man in the cell looked back at me with a small, relaxed smile and eyes that were both confused and terribly familiar. "Are you alright, love?" he asked, his voice was soft and inquisitive and sent a strange shiver down my spine. I studied him, with his long beaded dreadlocks and his red bandana and his kohl-lined eyes

"Fine," I heard myself reply without realising.

He tilted his head to one side, "Are you sure?" he raised an eyebrow. "Because you look a little lost. Unless, of course, you're a new guard in which case I'd like to be the first to say that you are undoubtedly the prettiest one that's been down here and that includes that one with the incredibly fancy grey wig and overly-ruffled collar. He was trying too hard."

I laughed because I knew instantly that he was referring to Governor Swann. Then I noticed how surprised he seemed by my laugh and I stopped because I knew it wasn't proper. Especially because it was Governor Swann I was laughing at. "Have you seen a girl?" I asked.

"I've seen many," he replied and I knew that should have annoyed me, but it didn't. It made me smile. He stepped a little closer to the bars of his cell. "And now I'm seeing you."

"I mean a little girl," I clarified. "About five or six, she ran down here on her own and-"

"No," he shrugged. "Nobody's come down here except you… but seeing as you've come all the way down here it seems a shame for you to waste your trip. I hear that there's a dog with keys running around somewhere, be a doll and grab them for me."

I blinked and it seemed as if the bars he was standing behind came in to focus for the first time and I remembered who he was, where he was, what he was. I took a step back. "I can't."

"Can't or won't?" he queried.

I frowned. "Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is," he said. "One means you are physically incapable of getting the keys from that mangy dog, either because the ridiculous corset I assume you're wearing prevents you from bending at the waist to pick up said keys from the dog, or because you've broken every finger on both of your hands or perhaps you just have a severe dog allergy. Forgivable. The other means that you don't want to get the keys from the dog and thereby save the life of a man whose only crime was being in a Navy Port without a ship of his own. And that, darlin', would make you as responsible for my death as the hangman. I'm sure you don't want that."

I stared at him. In a horrible way, he made a lot of sense. I could set him free, but did I want to?I whistled for the dog, who came running immediately. I picked the keys from his mouth, but made no further move to set him free. I still wasn't sure whether I could or would let him go. I studied him again. "You're the one they caught yesterday," I said. "The pirate."

He nodded. "Ah, so you have heard of me," he grinned. "I'm so glad. I was beginning to worry that they wouldn't be talking about me."

"Captain Jack Sparrow," I said and he looked surprised.

"Captain?" he repeated. "People usually miss out that part… What's your name, love?"

"Isabelle," I replied.

"Nice to meet you, Isabelle," He offered his hand through the bars. I started at it and did not take it.

"My brother says you're mad."

"You're brother's very rude."

"My brother," I stood up a little straighter. "Is the Commodore."

He stopped smiling. "I am so sorry to hear that, love," he said sincerely. "Truly, I am." I smiled. I couldn't help it.

I stepped closer to his cell. He stepped closer to the door. "Why did you do it?" I asked. "Try to steal that ship?"

"I didn't do it," he replied. "I got caught before I could do it, therefore I haven't done anything wrong because I haven't actually done anything at all."

"You haven't done anything yet," I challenged him, filling in the word he'd conveniently missed out.

He nodded. "Well when I've done something wrong feel free to get your brother to re-arrest me, but until that point I would very much like to keep my life. I quite like it."

I slid the key into the lock but did not turn it. "Liar."

"What?"

"You don't like your life at all even if you think you do."

I turned the key. He frowned at me, seeming uneasy for the first time since we'd met. For the first time since we'd met he didn't know how to respond to what I was saying. I quite liked it. "What makes you so certain?" he asked. I opened his cell door and there was nothing between us, but neither of us moved.

I remembered everything James and I had discussed the night before. "You tried to steal a Navy ship from a Navy Port and sail it out of here all on your own. Alone. Without anyone to help you, to protect you, to fight for you or with you. You have nobody, whether that's because you don't have anyone or you used to have people and now they're gone I don't know. What I do know is that what you did was a suicide mission."

I echoed the words my brother had said the night before. The pirate frowned at me and his eyes were deep and brown and terribly familiar. He was sad, I could see it and every piece of bravado he'd previously shown was shattered. It was nothing but a thin veil. I could see right through it, through him and I think that scared him. Something scared him in a quiet kind of way. He raised a hand and I didn't flinch, even though he could have struck me. "You're crying," he said, sounding puzzled. One of his thumbs gently brushed against my check. "Why? Why are you doing that?"

He didn't sound angry, like James sometimes did when I cried, he sounded sad and confused. I wiped my eyes and stared at where the smeared tears glistened on the back of my hands. "I don't know," I gulped. "I don't know."

I stopped crying because my confusion had taken over. Why? Why was I crying? I suppose if you thought about it, what I had said about him being alone had been sad, but not when it was said about a pirate. Not when it was said about someone who probably built his life on theft and cruelty and murder. It would have been sad if it had been about someone I knew and loved, but I had no connection, no ties to this man. I hadn't even known he existed until five minutes ago. He looked as confused as I did. "Are you in the habit of being unaware that you're crying?" he asked. "Because I'm not sure that's healthy, love."

I smiled. "Sorry," I said and we were both surprised. He was staring very intently at my face, but somehow I didn't mind. "I don't think you can really be in a position to be asking me that. I mean… are you in the habit of ending up on the gallows? Because I'm not sure that's healthy either, Mr Sparrow."

"Well…" He gave a soft laugh. "Aren't you just a bundle of surprises?" he murmured, his smile matching mine. His hand touched mine and it was so warm and solid that I had to look down at it. He looked down to and my skin prickled. His fingers lingered on mine for a moment before he took the keys from my hands. Neither of us moved. I looked up. So did he. He studied my face again. "You seem somewhat familiar," he said with his familiar eyes. "Have I threatened you before?"

There was a strange fear in both of us because his words were familiar too. Then there was a clang and a shout and everything was broken. Someone was coming.

What if they saw me like this? What if they knew what had I done? What the hell had I done? I sprang away from the cell and the pirate with the keys and moved towards the stairs. My heart raced. Sparrow picked up a hat that was lying on a bench nearby. He picked up a sword and a pistol and left everything else. He unlocked the cell doors of his fellow prisoners and suddenly there was a rush of people. I heard my name in George's voice. And then I heard another voice. A little girl. Rebecca. I started to climb the stairs, but Sparrow grabbed my arm. "Come on," he said and pulled me back down again. "This way."

I let him lead me because I had no choice. I didn't know what would happen to me if I was discovered. I didn't want to hang beside Sparrow. I let him lead me out of the door that leads to the courtyard with the gallows and we were out of the jail. Sparrow threw the keys back to the dog and shut the door behind us. For a moment I was frightened that he wouldn't let go of my arm and take me as some kind of hostage. He had a sword now. And a pistol. I had nothing.

"Thank you," he said and then he was gone.

I walked to where I knew George would be. There was chaos around us. Prisoners were escaping and Redcoats were firing at them, chasing them. Everyone had been far too distracted to notice Sparrow and I slip away through the other door. For a pirate… that had been quite clever.

George was still standing with Rebecca. He looked annoyed. "There you are," I smiled at the little girl.

"Isabelle!" George turned at the sound of my voice. Relief flooded him. "Where have you been? Your brother was getting worried. I was getting worried."

"I was looking for Rebecca," I said as calmly as possible as she took my hand. She had no idea the mess she'd got me in to.

"We were playing hide-and-seek," she said. Were we? Perhaps that was why she'd run. Perhaps, in her mind, that's what we'd been doing this whole time. Children are so odd. It would have been nice if she'd told me that from the start, but I wasn't complaining. It worked in my favour.

"Yes," I smiled.

"Well..." George said. "Say goodbye. Time to get you back to James."

I ignored him and looked at Rebecca.

"Where's your father?" I asked her.

She glanced around. So did George, I saw his eyes flicker to the entrance of the jail. "Izzy, what are you doing?"

Rebecca ignored him too. "He's gone," she said, but she seemed alright about it. I guessed he'd been gone a while.

"And your mother?"

"She's almost gone too," Rebecca looked sad.

"Then come with me," I said.

"Isabelle," George started. "You… You can't…"

"George…." I said in a warning tone.

"Izzy, I don't know what you think you're doing, but-"

"No, George." I cut across him. "I don't know what you think you are doing. I'm not sure if you can hear that bell ringing, but if I'm not very much mistaken it sounds to me as if that means prisoners are escaping. Dangerous ones, I would imagine, and it is up to you to protect people like Rebecca and I from such monsters. So why don't you do that and I'll make sure this little girl is safe."

George went white. "Prisoners escaping…" he repeated and glanced around at the ones that had already been caught. Something about their faces angered him. Perhaps he was looking for one face in particular, maybe he'd caught one personally and he wasn't there, but whatever the reason was it sent him into a rage I'd never really seen from him before. I drew his gun.

I picked up Rebecca and left the chaos I had helped create to make my own way back to James.

Please review! I'm sorry I've been so busy- I had a fire in my flat and it's near the end of the semester and that means horrible deadlines and exams coming soon. I hope to get some kind of normality back soon. I miss you all :)