"Barboussa, you lying bastard, you swore she'd go free!" Will yelled, absolutely furious.

Barboussa whirled around. "Don't ye dare impugn me honor, boy. It was ye who said she'd go free, but it was also ye who failed to specify when or where!" He laughed.

What honor, I wondered. 

Will struggled harder against the goonies holding him and yelled out as they forced a gag into his mouth.

Elizabeth, standing at the edge of the plank, about to walk, glanced back, fear barely concealed, and padded forward a bit more.

Barboussa turned to her again. "Though it does seem a shame to lose something so fine." He said, the corners of his mouth lifting in a sick smile. "So I'll be havin' that dress back."

The crew guffawed and cheered, whistling as Elizabeth ripped the dress off, revealing her slim and curvy figure. Thankfully she was still wearing her underdress. She rolled it into a ball and threw it at Captain Barboussa. "It goes with your black heart!" She sneered.

Barboussa caught it and lifted it to his scruffy cheek. "Mm, it's still warm," He drawled, then threw it back into the crowd. The crew caught it with loud and obnoxious laughter.

Elizabeth sent one more glance at Will, who was watching her with wide eyes, and teetered toward the edge of the plank.

"Too long!" Twigg yelled, and kicked the board. Elizabeth fell into the water with a scream and a splash. I assumed she would swim to the island; though I wasn't even sure she could swim.

Jack was shoved into the plank next. "I had really hoped we were past all this," He turned to Barboussa, who had walked to the edge of the ship with him, his face calm but pleading clear as day in his eyes.

"Jack," Barboussa laughed, shaking his head and throwing an arm around his shoulder. "Jack, did ye not notice? This is the same little islan' we made ye governor on our last little trip. Maybe ye can conjure up another miraculous escape?" He smiled at Jack and drew his sword, pointing it at Jack's neck. "But I rather doubt it." Jack eyed the blade nervously.

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

I knew what he wanted. He wouldn't rest until that one shot lodged itself in Barboussa's chest.

"By the powers yer right. Where be Jack's pistol?" Barboussa asked the crowd. He was tossed Jack's full effect, even his cutlass. "Good riddance," Barboussa growled, for Jack's ears alone, though I heard him, and tossed the weapons into the water.

Jack watched them hit the water, and then executed a perfect dive, well, perfect for one who's hands are tied, into the Caribbean after them. I felt a jolt in my stomach when no one called me forward.

"What about me?" I asked quietly.

Barboussa laughed and tilted my chin upwards with one of his filthy fingers. "I thought the crew would, let's say, enjoy yer being here."

My mouth dropped open in horror and I was nearly sick, but instead a fierce, burning anger turned my vision red.

I screamed, a blood-curdling scream, it sounded almost in-human, and kicked the man behind me in the groin. Still screaming, I punched Barboussa, who had his ears covered, and dashed to the man who had my cutlass. I grabbed my effect and leaped overboard, landing somewhat ungracefully in the water.

Bubbles poured from my mouth and I kicked to the surface, screaming into the water as gunshots whizzed past me. It was a miracle that none hit their mark.

I swam frantically until I was out of shooting range, then slowed and treaded a bit, glancing back to the ship as I caught my breath. Anything to not be the ship's whore... I thought and kicked toward the beach.

What was that, I wondered, touching my throat and coughing. That...scream had left me partially hoarse. I recited a nursery rhyme until I was sure I sounded normal again. 

I put my feet down as soon as I could and crawled out of the water, dripping. Collapsing on the white sand, I shut my eyes and panted, willing Barbousa and his crew to just disappear off the face of the earth, and the Pearl to be back to the ship Jack once knew. Speaking of Jack...

"Adeena? What are you doing here, love?" He wiped my hair out of my face and pulled me up. I let him hold me, content to just watch him.

I smiled. "I couldn't stay. They would..." I shivered and my face fell. Jack nodded and let me go. I was cold without his arms around me.

Elizabeth watched us for a bit, her expression unreadable, and then spun around and marched away, her feet sinking into the sand. I was a bit insulted that she hadn't said anything but I also knew she needed time alone.

Jack motioned for me to follow him. "Come on," He said sort of gruffly, and I followed him toward the trees.

He stopped and searched the ground, picking up a few sticks that were relatively large. I followed suit.

He walked back out to the beach and I followed.

"Jack, what are you doing?" I asked, slightly exasperated.

He grinned and shook his hair back. Water was still trickling off the ends of his dreads, braids, and beads. "I was wondering how long you would like to be kept in the dark. Anyway, we are fashioning a fashion in which our fashions can be dried."

I laughed slightly at his words and watched as he stuck his sticks into the sand. The idea clicked in my head, and I did the same. I then slipped off my boots and stuck them over two of the sticks, so that the water could run out, and undid the fraying ribbon that was holding back my waist-length hair and tied it in a bow around the bottom of my left boot's resting place. I finished by laying out my effect. I looked up to see that Jack had done much the same, though he needed a few more sticks for his waistcoat and magenta-striped sash. He untucked his shirt and let it hang around him, then wrung out his bandana and tied it back around his hair.

"Don't you ever get hot?" I asked him, gesturing at all his clothes. I knew he also had a coat somewhere, but I don't think he quite knew where it was either.

He smiled and swayed. "I do," He said. "But all the gentry do."

I snorted. "You? A gentleman?"

He smirked and stood proudly. "I certainly hope so, love."

With that, he plopped down on the sand and pulled the pistol toward himself, then began to clean it.

I sat next to him and savored the damp sand between my toes. I watched the waves as Jack studied the one pistol, one shot, as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

The sun and the moon

Are gone

The typhoon

Has past

And life will go on

Now

And we'll sing our song

Long

I sang, making up the words as I went. Jack stopped and leaned forward, meeting my gaze. "What was that?"

I smiled and felt my cheeks heating. "Oh, nothing. I sing when I'm alone."

He frowned mockingly. "And what am I?"

"A dirty, thieving, no-good pirate."

He nodded and leaned back, a faint smirk on his lips. "Touche." He looked thoughtful. "I can sing too."

I rolled my eyes. "And I'm the queen of England."

He bumped me with his knee. "No, really."

I turned all the way toward him, tucking my hair behind my ear and fingering the green feather. "Sing, then."

He looked startled. "Sing...what?"

I threw my hands up. "I don't know! Anything! Everything!"

He thought for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. He could sing, a very nice tenor.

If home is where the heart is,

Then my home is the sea.

Where the waves are ever-changing,

And the men always free.

If home is where the heart is,

Then my heart is lost at sea.

Jack finished with a grin, as if to say, Told you so!

I smiled and tapped his knee. "I should never had doubted you."

He smiled and took my hand, rubbing circles across the back of my palm. "Love, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!"

I glanced at my hand and then met his steady gaze. There was a sort of promise in his lovely brown eyes that made my heart flutter.

He jerked his hand away as Elizabeth walked up beside us; neither of us had heard her coming. She appeared deep in thought.

Jack un-loaded the gun and held the lead ball up. "It's not all that big, is it?" He murmured, almost to himself. The bubble he had weaved around us popped as if Elizabeth had a needle and had punctured it.

She turned to Jack, watching him coldly. "If you are going to shoot me, please do so without delay."

He leaned forward on his knees and I stared at her in disbelief. "Is there a problem between us, Miss Swann?" Jack asked, narrowing his eyes teasingly.

Elizabeth faced him and stamped her foot slightly. "You were going to tell Barboussa about Will in exchange for a ship." She hissed.

Jack opened his palms to her. "We could use a ship!" He pointed out somewhat angrily. "The fact is, I was not going to tell Barboussa about bloody Will in exchange for a ship because, as long as Barboussa didn't know about bloody Will, I had something to bargain with." He looked as irritated as I had ever seen him. "Which now no one has! Thanks to bloody, stupid, Will." He finished and pushed himself off the ground, brushing off sand. I followed suit and stared from him to Elizabeth. What the hell did Will matter?

"Oh." Elizabeth looked away.

"Oh." Jack mocked. I didn't like this side of him, this hopeless and cruel side. I wanted the flirty, witty Jack that I had fallen in...shut up, brain.

Elizabeth looked up, her voice defiant. "He still risked his life to save ours!" She defended.

"Ha!" Jack laughed humorlessly, and spun around, stalking back toward the palms. Elizabeth followed him angrily, and I trailed behind her.

"So we must do something to save him!" Elizabeth cried.

Jack turned abruptly and waved her off. "Off you go then!" He said sarcastically. "Let me know how that turns out for you." He began walking in the direction he had been heading. His steps were less tipsy and much more subdued than normal.

"But you were marooned on this island before, weren't you?" Elizabeth tried. "So we can escape the same way you did last time!"

Jack whirled around so fast I thought he would topple over. "To what point and purpose, young missy?" He asked Elizabeth, undeterred by her furious face. "The Black Pearl is gone." He said miserably. "And unless you two have a lot of rudder and sails hidden in those bodices," He paused and gave us each a once-over. My jaw dropped and I gave him an indignant squeak. "Unlikely, though we'll never know if we don't look."

I started forward to try my luck. "You are the infamous pirate Jack Sparrow!" I protested. He sauntered up to a palm tree and put his ear to it, knocking on the bark. I put my head around to speak. "You sacked one of the British forts without firing a shot," I began, as he began to take large steps away from the tree. He looked bloody ridiculous. I followed. "You vanished under the eyes of seven agents of the East India Trading Company! Are you the pirate I've read about or not, Jack?" I said as he paused on a patch of sand. He jumped up and down a few times. That was odd, the ground seemed hollow. I ignored that and pushed his shoulders angrily. "Jack!"

He met my eyes sadly. Elizabeth was watching me over his shoulder, by the palm tree. Jack gently removed my hands from his shoulders and held them at his sides.

"How did you escape last time?" I asked him quietly.

He sighed and pushed me away, dropping my hands. "Last time," He started, sounding ashamed. "I was here a grand total of three days, alright?"

He leaned down and lifted up the ground, revealing a hatch that descended into blackness. Elizabeth came up behind me and peered over my shoulder, both of us watching curiously as he hopped down the rickety wooden steps. "Last time," he continued, "The rum-runners used this island as a cache." He held up a rum bottle triumphantly from the blackness. "I was able to barter a passage off. By the looks of things," He grunted and we heard him move something. "They've long gone out of business. You've probably got your bloody friend Norrington to thank for that." He climbed back out of the hole, several rum bottles in hand, and I felt my anger simmering.

"So that's it, then?" Elizabeth spat, throwing her hands into the air. "That's the great adventure of the amazing Captain Jack Sparrow?"

I clenched my hands into fists. "You sat on a beach for three days, drinking rum?" I hissed at him, getting so close our chests brushed.

He leaned back a bit, looking down his nose at me. "Welcome to the Caribbean, love." He said finally, doing a sort of dance and then pushing past me. I glared at him and followed, motioning for Elizabeth to do the same.

"But wait," Elizabeth asked a bit breathlessly as we stopped in front of him, back on the beach by Jack and my's stuff. He stood just off the ocean and Elizabeth and I stood in the salty water, the waves lapping at Elizabeth's dress. "Are there any truth to the other stories?"

Jack swayed and dropped the rum. "Truth?" He asked us, sounding a bit disgusted with himself.

He hiked up his right sleeve, revealing his pirate brand and sparrow tattoo, then hiked up his left, his skin boasting healed over but pink scars. Jack then pulled the collar of his yellowing shirt down, revealing two darkened burns. "No truth at all." He said, looking distant, and then sank onto the sand.

He uncorked one of the rum bottles as me and Elizabeth stared at him, spell bound. "We still have a month, maybe more, before the supplies run out." He murmured. "We can keep a weather eye on the horizon, watch out for passing ships. Other than that our chances are unclear."

"But what about Will," Elizabeth protested quietly. "We have to do something."

Jack corked the alcohol and nodded, pointing a finger at her. "You're absolutely right," He said. He rolled the bottle toward her feet and another toward me. "Here's luck to you, Will Turner." He toasted, and uncorked the remaining bottle, raising it to his lips.

Elizabeth studied the rum before opening it and settling down on one side of Jack. I sat to his right and wasted no time in sipping mine. Jack twirled the neck of the bottle in his fingers, staring at the opening glumly.

"Drink up me'harties, yoho." Elizabeth said before taking a hesitant sip. She puckered her lips at the fiery sweetness.

Jack turned slightly and I leaned around him. "What was that, Elizabeth?" He asked.

"It's Miss Swann!" She hissed at him, and he raised his hands in surrender, going back to gazing out to sea. I wasn't watching the horizon, I was watching Jack, enjoying his every move and words.

Elizabeth sighed in defeat and followed Jack's gaze. "It's nothing. Just something I learned as a child, when I thought it would actually be exciting to meet a pirate." She smiled at the memory.

Jack looked a bit offended, I suppose at the fact she had just called him 'unexciting' (I quite disagreed). "Let's hear it." He asked her.

Elizabeth turned her head slightly. "No."

Jack looked at her again. "Come on, we've got the time! Let's have it!"

"No!" She said a bit more forcefully. She brought the bottle to her lips and seemed to be about to take a sip. "I'll have to have a lot more to drink..."

Jack grinned. "How much more?" He asked, and clinked his bottle with mine before taking another gulp.