I hit the water, narrowly missing the sharp rocks and a wave broke, washing me away from the cliff and pulling me away as I struggled against the water.

"NICOLE!" I heard Elizabeth call out but I could barely hear her over the water rushing over my head. I kept struggling to keep my head above water, gasping when I could get air but the corset made that much harder. Suddenly a wave rolled over me strong enough to push me under entirly. I drifted down, with the current turning me over and over. I watched the medallion slip loose from my bodice and turn slowly, until the skull on it was fully visible. I saw a shaft of filtered sunlight hit it and it glinted before a small wave pushed out from it. I was slowly losing consciousness and the last thing I saw was a man swimming to me.

The first thing I remember is air. I coughed forcing water from my lungs onto the wooden surface below me. I gasped, choking on my first full breath.

"I never would have thought of that." I heard a man say.

"Clearly, you've never been to Singapore." I turned over and looked at the three men above me. I saw a man flip a knife and hand it hilt-first to another man in a Navy uniform. He picked something up and I looked into his hand to see the medallion. I looked up into his dark eyes and he looked down at me curiously. "Where did you get this?" Before I could even attempt to answer him, the blade of a sword was at his throat.

"On your feet." I looked up to see Norrington. It must have looked bad from their perspective: the man standing over me, most of my clothes gone. The man got to his feet as more people joined us.

"Nicole! Are you all right?" my father asked me, helping me to my feet. He stripped off his jacket and draped it around me.

"Yes - yes, I'm fine - Commodore Norrington, do you intend to kill my rescuer?" I asked him. Norrington looked at the man and he nodded the best he could with the blade beneath his chin. The Commodore sheathed his sword and extended his hand.

"I believe thanks are in order." The man took Norrington's hand gingerly and they shook. Suddenly Norrington yanked the man's arm towards him and tore back the sleeve of Jack's shirt exposing a brand on his inner wrist: a large "P". "Had a brush-up with the East India Trading Company, did you ... pirate?" I looked at him in shock and the sailors aimed their pistols at him. He stood in front of us, still holding my corset. "Keep your guns on him, men. Gillette, fetch some irons. Well, well... Jack Sparrow, isn't it?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow. If you please." Jack told him and Norrington looked out at the bay.

"I don't see your ship - Captain." Norrington told him.

"He said he'd come to commandeer one." One of the sailors told him.

"I told you he was telling the truth. These are his, sir." the other said holding out a pistol and belt. Norrington took the pistol, examining it, before looking at the belt.

"Extra powder, but no additional shot." Jack shrugged and Norrington unhooked the compass from the belt, opened it. He frowned at the reading and continued moving the compass this way and that, keeping it parallel to the ground. "It doesn't bear true." I saw Jack look away, an embarrassed look on his face, as Norrington returned the compass to the belt. He drew the sword half from the scabbard. "I half-expected it to be made of wood." he slid it back into the scabbard and handed it to one of the sailors. "Taking stock: you've got a pistol with only one shot, a compass that doesn't point north ... and no ship. You are without a doubt the worst pirate I have ever heard of."

"Ah, but you have heard of me." Jack said as Gillette returned with shackles.

"Carefully, lieutenant." Norrington told him. I stepped forward, my father's jacket slipping off of me.

"Commodore, I must protest. Pirate or not, this man saved my life." I reminded him.

One good deed is not enough to redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness." Norrington said as I heard Gillette snap the manacles closed on Jack's wrists.

"But it seems to be enough to condemn him." Jack said and Norrington smiled.

"Indeed." Norrington said. He nodded to his men and I saw all buy one stow their weapons and two step forward.

"Finally." We heard Jack saw. What happened next happened so fast I didn't have time to move before the manacle chain was wrapped around my neck. Pistols are drawn again, but now I served as a shield. Norrington raised a cautioning hand to his men. "Commodore Norrington ... my pistol and belt, please." Jack said backing us away from them. Norrington hesitated before balling his fists in frustration. "Commodore!" a sailor handed the pistol and belt to Norrington who held them out to us. "Nicole - it is Nicole?" he asked me.

"Miss Swann." I said angrily.

"Miss Swann, if you'll be so kind?" Jack asked. I took the belt and pistol from Norrington. I was going to grab the pistol and use it against him but Jack was quicker than I was and took the pistol from me. He jerked me around so I was facing him, belly to belly. "Now, if you'll be very kind?" I glared at him but put the belt on him.

"You are despicable." I told him when I finished working.

"I saved your life; now you've saved mine. We're square." he told me turning me around again and backing away. "Gentleman. .. m' ladies. .. you will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow." I shoved me away from him into my father's arms. I turned and watched him grab a rope and pull free a belaying pin. A counterweight dropped and Jack was lifted up to the middle of the gantry, where he grabbed a second rope. I jumped as pistols fired from around us. I looked up at the pirate worried he'd been hit, and was relieved when I saw he was unharmed. Jack swung out, out, out, away and around from the gantry. Jack droped from the rope even as Norrington fired. His shot tore the rope and Jack plummets past one of the gantry's guy lines, he snaped the length of manacle chain over the line and grabbed hold of the far loop - sliding down the line - dropped to the deck of a ship. He ran, leaping to another ship, then out of sight.

"On his heels! Gillette, bring a squad down from the fort! Nicole, are you -" he started asked me but I knew he didn't really care. He just wanted to make a good impression on Lizzy.

"Yes, I'm all right, I'm fine! Go capture him." I told him. Norrington looked taken back by my ire, but wisely hurried away. Father drapped his coat around me and I huddled into its warmth.

"My, dear ... you should wear this." father told me. I looked out at the bay and saw a thick fog moving across the top of the water.

"Thank you, Father ... and let that be the last of your fashion advice, please." I told him accepting both his and Lizzy's comforting embrace.