The day after next, the crew and captain seemed very tense. Rachel could imagine why. Today – shortly, to be precise – they would reach Port Royal's harbour. Pirates had long been unwelcome there. Death awaited any outlaw who strayed there.

But unlike the rest, Rachel was quite relieved. She was sure that nothing would happen to the crew. After all, they had helped her get here.

Now the Black Pearl passed a rock arch that jutted out in the water off the coast. The remains of three hanged pirates hung from a beam that ran horizontally through the arch. A wooden sign hung next to the last skeleton. It said: Pirates Ye Be Warned.

All on board let their occupation rest for a moment and stood still in silence with a devout look at their once living companions. No one made a sound, not even Cotton's annoyingly talkative parrot.

Then finally they gathered the sails and the Pearl stopped on the water. It was not even up for discussion for Jack to drive his ship closer to the harbour.

Rachel took a seat in the dinghy that would take her to the harbour. The crew of five and their captain stood gathered.

"Farewell," Rachel said, and meant it.

The improbable had happened, and the crew had grown a bit close to her heart.

"Let's hear from you. Goodbye … Miss," came from Ragetti and he and the others waved to her.

"Gibbs, get in the boat," Jack said, causing the first mate to wince.

"Have you lost your minds again? They're hanging us!"

"Paddle," Jack ordered, pointing his thumbs towards the dinghy.

With clenched fists, Gibbs obeyed and joined Rachel.

Jack himself climbed into the boat. He didn't have to ask to know that Rachel had never paddled before, and he'd had an idea for some time what this shamefully non-piratical act of helping was going to get him. Just last night, he had questioned Rachel and come up with a plan.

"You wait here. If anyone or anything notices the Pearl, flee. Southwest, steep cliffs, that's where you'll pick us up. I do not want to see the pirate code applied. If you leave, then … then I'll have long enough to think of something for you," he sternly instructed the four men who would stay behind, failing to make a good threat.

Gibbs paddled with a face like he was being taken straight to the hangman.

"You're crazy, Jack. Why go straight to the harbour? There are plenty of unobserved places here to go ashore."

"You will put a dagger to her neck when I tell you to," Jack Gibbs declared, bypassing him completely.

"Paddling, threatening the lady, … can it be anything else, Captain?"

With narrowed eyes, Jack glanced at Rachel.

"One move we haven't discussed, and I will initiate plan B. You won't like it very much."

Rachel nodded.

They had not yet covered ten yards on the pier when the harbour master stormed towards them.

"It costs a shilling to put it on!" he greeted them officiously.

Jack stopped and shook his head.

"Not for me today. You see – I have to dock here even though I don't want to. And the reason I have to dock here is that we're holding this missus," he waved Gibbs over, who was holding Rachel by the arms. "Because we're holding her for ransom."

Neither did Rachel look scared enough to pass for a hostage, nor did Gibbs look determined enough to appear to really want to harm her.

"That's ridiculous. One shilling," the harbour master demanded again.

Jack turned to Gibbs and Rachel, who were standing behind him, and he looked at them critically. Accompanied by a sigh, he turned back to the harbour master.

"It's not very convincing, aye. But you know what will take a lot of the ridiculousness out of the situation?"

The harbour master shook his head and Jack raised a hand in command. Nothing happened for a while.

"That was the cue, Master Gibbs," he murmured annoyed over his shoulder.

It was then that Rachel felt the cool steel against her neck, and although it was arranged, her body reacted with typical signs of fear. Sweat formed on her hands, arms and forehead. The sweat caught a chill that made her shiver.

"Mister … I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. However, if you commit a murder in this harbour, you will hang."

"I told you," Gibbs hissed.

Jack rolled his eyes and then fixed the harbour master with calculation.

"Listen. Because I'll pay nothing, you have to pay special attention now. This woman here is my prisoner, and I know the Governor is very attached to her welfare. You will now accept that I will not hand over this shilling, and you will inform the harbour guard that Rachel Swann is being threatened here right now – by pirates. My patience lasts for … let's say ten minutes, and then I want to see the Royal Navy here or the Governor himself. Otherwise, I will not be able to take care of this woman's well-being. What I can take care of, though, quite well, is her discomfort. Savvy?"

Swallowing away the horror, the harbour master nodded and hurried away.

The dagger at Rachel's neck disappeared immediately, and Gibbs ran around in circles.

"We're screwed," he muttered, and then more firmly, "Next time you'll let me out of such madness, aye?"

"How can there be a next time when we're screwed?"

Jack smiled and walked across the pier towards the city. His self-confidence … Rachel would never understand the source from which it gushed incessantly.

She and Gibbs followed Jack until they had left the pier. There they waited.

Gibbs' face turned red. Rachel played with the sleeve of her dress, which was stiff with dirt. She was still trembling and when she saw Royal Navy soldiers streaming to the harbour in the distance, her heartbeat accelerated considerably. Jack beside her stepped uneasily from one foot to the other.

The soldiers surrounded them with drawn weapons.

"What is the meaning of this? Who are you?" suddenly came from a tall man who broke through the line of soldiers and stood in front of Jack.

He seemed a little younger than Jack, but was a good head taller, and Jack forced himself to smile as he looked up at his counterpart. Impeccable posture, determined and calm gaze … commands obviously flowed through his veins instead of blood. Jack had a closer look at the uniform and held out his hand to the man.

"Hopefully we won't have too much to do with each other."

Without even looking at the proffered hand, the man beckoned two soldiers.

"I can take that worry away from you. Put them in chains!"

Jack sighed – this situation was all too familiar. But before the two men could grab him and Gibbs, he said in a threatening tone, "You'd better take that back … Commodore …?"

The delivered mockery bounced off the command giver, he didn't make a face.

"Commodore Stuart Clayton."

Again the dagger rested against Rachel's throat. The man in front of Jack raised his eyebrows and gave Rachel an incomprehensible look.

"Oi! Now, don't tell me you don't know her," Jack said impatiently. "That would be a problem because I plan to threaten her – even though it shouldn't seem like it at the moment. I'm threatening to threaten her."

At the last words, Jack turned back to Gibbs and glared at him challengingly. Gibbs' grip on Rachel's wrists tightened a touch.

"Your name!" demanded Commodore Clayton Rachel.

"Rachel Swann."

"So we were told … but … you have been missing for over a week. We thought you had been killed in the storm," said Stuart Clayton with considerably less sharpness in his voice.

His eyes widened, and he involuntarily took a step towards her. But Jack blocked his way.

"Who are you?" the Commodore inquired, somewhat disappointed.

"Captain Jack Sparrow."

"Hm, you are sometimes mentioned like a plague. Weren't you involved with Admiral Norrington and Lord Cutler Beckett?"

"It depends …," Jack said cautiously.

Clayton's mouth twisted into a wry smile, and he glanced at Rachel.

"I suppose I should thank you, Captain Jack Sparrow. You have successively eliminated my predecessors."

"Aye, I knew Norrington," Jack confirmed, nodding his head.

"James and I were friends since childhood."

"James? No, I didn't know him. Must be another Norrington."

"Therefore, I know you and your shameful deeds only too well. What do you want?"

"A considerable sum of ransom," Jack said gravely.

"God! How selfless for a pirate," one of the soldiers remarked too loudly, triggering laughter.

Jack ignored this and continued to look at Stuart Clayton, waiting.

"Silence!" the latter ordered the cheeky soldier. "Summon the Governor."

"But Commodore, he's …"

"That was a simple order."

The young man hurried away.

"Well?", Jack inquired, thus reminding the Commodore again of the demand.

But he remained silent, and Jack could imagine only too well how a fierce conflict was taking place inside his counterpart. All Norrington wanted in his last years was him, Captain Jack Sparrow. And Clayton was supposed to let him walk away unpunished?

Rachel gave Gibbs an uncertain look over her shoulder, which she received in return. The situation did not seem to go as planned.

"Give me a reason to let you go. What insane prospects of success have you surrendered to that you think you can show up here in pairs, make brazen demands and not end up on the gallows?" asked Clayton.

Restraint was one of Clayton's specialities, and yet one could clearly hear how difficult it was for him to speak calmly.

"He here is just here to operate the oars," with that, Jack pointed to Master Gibbs behind him. "I mean to say, even on my own, it would play out exactly the same way. Show up, threaten Miss Swann, demand a considerable sum, receive it and sail away."

The Commodore could say nothing more in reply. The soldiers stepped aside and the Governor himself joined the group. He had Elizabeth with him in tow. They wore only black clothes.

Jack gave Elizabeth a brief smile, and the horror was written all over her face. The new Governor – Jack saw it immediately – was a marked deterioration from Governor Swann. Eyes that had probably never expressed sympathy in his life gleam from under the ill-fitting wig. Sweat shone on his neck and his hand twitched nervously from time to time. Cautious guy who probably overreacted immediately at the slightest sign of threat and never did anything himself, but only let others do it. Jack knew the kind of men too well … and his talent for inadvertently upsetting or frightening these men …

"Is it possible?" the Governor said incredulously, glancing at Rachel.

Too obvious – he had never seen her before.

Gibbs held the dagger to her neck again.

"It's her," Elizabeth confirmed.

"Commodore! What do these people want?"

"They demand to be allowed to leave unharmed … with a ransom. In return, they will release Miss Swann."

"Then let them go!" the Governor demanded with urgency in his voice.

"But …"

"Didn't you hear?! That's Swann's daughter! The woman who is your … of course we will accept your demand. My people will not harm you. How much do you want?" he turned to Jack.

"Governor Flanagan …," the Commodore began again.

"Commodore Clayton! I've been sweating in these clothes for more than two hours, and the wake was just about to begin. We're not wasting time here."

Clayton lowered his eyes dejectedly, while Jack smiled happily at the surrounding mariners. The new governor was a simple-minded and spoiled scumbag who couldn't stand to be bothered with inconveniences, even if they were little things like hunger and heat. This could only end well for Jack.

Gibbs let go of Rachel, and she walked slowly towards the governor.

"Too soon," Jack groaned, turning to Gibbs.

Undecided, Rachel stopped. "Governor Flanagan?"

"We thought you were dead. Did these … people do something to you?" the governor asked, looking at the pirates.

"Do what to her?! What do you mean by that? She's alive and well, as far as I can see," Jack said indignantly, letting his eyes wander doubtfully over Rachel.

Before the governor could respond, Rachel reported that she was stranded on Tortuga Island, noticing Elizabeth giving Jack a furtive look.

"They should get something to thank them," she concluded her story.

Rachel desperately wanted something like compensation for the pirates who had saved her life and, contrary to her expectations, had kept their word and brought her here.

"I demand three hundred and forty guineas," Jack said with a raised finger.

Before the governor's nod was completed, Jack hastily corrected himself. "Five hundred and twenty!"

The wig formed a stark contrast to the red that settled on the governor's cheeks.

"In return, we should issue them with a remission of their fines and a convoy to move freely in the waters in Port Royal."

Surprised, Jack looked at Rachel, who demanded this nicely packaged from the governor.

"That's on top of the five hundred and twenty guineas," Jack added.

"You're going too far …," whispered Clayton.

The governor hesitated. Rachel stood directly in front of him and pointed with one hand to Jack and Gibbs behind her.

"If it wasn't for them, I would be … I would be dead. Not just once."

"Anyway … I guess we're in their debt." Turning to Jack and Gibbs, almost solemnly, he announced, "All right. Five hundred and twenty guineas you get, and I will give you my promise that you may move freely in the waters around Port Royal. But for God's sake, don't make me regret this decision."

Gibbs' mouth dropped open abruptly, and Jack was also surprised at this extreme generosity. Whereby – this Flanagan took himself far too seriously. It was somehow fitting that he saw it as a good thing to be able to meet such a demand so easily financially in the first place.

"Can I have that in writing, please?" asked Jack with a raised forefinger, cheekily.

Governor Flanagan gave him a withering look. But then he ordered one of his men to draw up a document. He wrote down everything that was dictated to him.

"With respect, Governor. I understand your … your relief – but these are two pirates who no longer have anything on us," Clayton objected.

Flanagan was already signing the letter and handing it to Jack. He looked at it carefully and then grinned as broadly as physically possible at Rachel. He had not expected anything like this.

"I will send one of my men … he will give you the gold." Wearily, the governor turned to Rachel. "We are leaving. Commodore, let the people upstairs know what has happened."

Clayton gave Jack another bitter look, and if looks could kill, half of Port Royal would have dropped dead.

"Dismissed!" he ordered his soldiers and also ran away.

"Governor Flanagan, I would like to take Rachel for a walk. We'll be there soon," Elizabeth spoke up for the second time.

"As you say …," said Flanagan, waving his hand and leaving the harbour with his entourage.

"That we might have the pleasure again," Elizabeth said to Jack, but left the pleasure entirely missing from her voice.

"You know each other?" Rachel now wanted to know with interest.

"More or less. It's a long story."

"Then I want to hear it."

"Another time. Shall we go?"

Elizabeth didn't seem happy about Jack's presence, or she couldn't wait to hear the full story from Rachel.

"Yes, wait," Rachel said.

Elizabeth nodded and moved a few steps away from them. With an indistinct look in her eyes, Rachel stood in front of the two pirates.

Jack smiled. "Aye?"

She didn't know exactly what she wanted to say, but that's when Gibbs sputtered out, "What was wrong with the governor? I mean, that signing …"

"Signed is signed," Jack interjected, then looked at the paper in his hand with a smile. "Moving freely in the waters around Port Royal," he quoted, and Rachel noticed how devoutly Jack said the word 'freely'. "You have managed that well. Above all, you have mastered that pleading look brilliantly," he praised her kindly and also with a little pride in his voice.

Rachel realised that there was no reason to delay saying goodbye, and she wanted to finally get back to the comfort of a proper bed and bath. So she kept it as brief as possible.

"Thank you for everything … Jack."

It was the first time she addressed him by his name without being angry or mocking. And he liked that.

"Farewell Gibbs."

"Take care, Miss Swann." He lowered his eyes and took a few steps back.

"If you ever plan to shipwreck again, give me a heads-up. I'll be happy to collect a second ransom for you," Jack said with a wink.

Rachel just smiled. She realised how she was getting sad about a goodbye, from people she wasn't even supposed to like. Still – she was sad.

Jack grinned cheekily at her, bowed to her, theatrically removing his hat from his head, and kissed her on the hand. He did it all so elegantly that she could not bring herself to avoid him. Rachel looked at Jack thoughtfully before turning to Elizabeth.

Jack still looked after the two women until they disappeared from his view.

It took far too long for a carriage to arrive, loading a roomy box and promising an end to Jack's stay at this port.

He opened the lid and his eyes sparkled with the gold coins.

"Jack …," Gibbs said then. "It looks beautiful."

Jack nodded – more to himself.

"Did you pack the big scales?" he asked the coachman and his companion.

They shook their heads.

"If that's not nine pounds of gold … then we'll meet again."

With a wave of his hand, Jack instructed Gibbs to move the box. On their way across the pier, the harbour master hurried up again.

"Hey you there!"

Jack looked annoyed at the sky before turning his swinging gait one hundred and eighty degrees and coming directly to a halt.

"Huh?"

"One shilling."

Gibbs walked on with the jingling chest.

"Apologise – no coins on me right now," Jack said and hurried on, followed by the harbour master, only to stop abruptly again. "Me dishonest man. I have coins – but much better, I have this!" He waved the signed document around, then unfolded it. "Aye, here. Free in the waters of Port Royal."

He pointed to the spot with his finger, and the harbour master adjusted his glasses.

"You see?" inquired Jack officiously.

"You dock at the harbour, that doesn't count as part of the waters around Port Royal."

Jack pulled a face as if he had been insulted.

"This …" His finger made a circular motion towards the city. "Is Port Royal, aye? And this … the sea or waters. My boat is on the water. You wouldn't want to override the governor's signature for a shilling now, would you?"

The harbour master sprayed venom with his gaze, and this brought Jack's gold tooth to light, sparkling through the sun.

He followed Gibbs into the dinghy and had himself taken back to the Pearl.

When he re-entered his beloved Pearl, he was in a brilliant mood.