Chapter 6

"How could we have been so stupid?" She asked.

"What?" Jack asked, not paying much attention to her exclamation.

"Look!" She turned the torn, wrinkled paper over and shoved it in front of him.

"What's so special about that?"

"No one's noticed it, but it was right under our noses!" Elizabeth seemed very excited.

Jack paused for a minute before speaking. He seemed confused. "…I saw it." He looked around, questioning the others silently.

"So did I…" Came Will's reluctant response. He knew this would lead to trouble.

"Me too." Kiana joined in.

Elizabeth looked so exasperated, she could have pulled her hair out. "And none of you thought this could be of any importance?" She asked impatiently.

"Well…I thought they were just symbols…" Will trailed off, starting to feel pretty stupid.

She looked at the others to see their reactions, but they just looked away from her piercing gaze. She sighed in frustration and it took her a minute to calm herself and gather some energy. "Don't you see? It's a map." Elizabeth tried to explain." Except it's in some kind of code. I don't think it's a language…I've never seen this before."

The others stared at her dumbly as Kiana walked over to examine the new findings. "Wow, yu're right. I's def'nitly a code. It makes sense now." She studied it for a few minutes and looked to Jack and Will. "Any of ya good a' codes?"

---

"It's repulsive, really. Ants? He knows I hate those pesky little things." Elizabeth ranted.

"Perhaps that's the very reason he used them."

"He will pay for this, oh yes he will." Her smile made Will a bit nervous.

They stepped up on deck right as Jack announced their landing. "Oh, perfect." Elizabeth said to herself. "Restocking, are we?" She received an affirmative. "Then I'll do some restocking of my own." She said, again to her self.

About half the crew went ashore, since they were only staying for one night. Jack had a list of supplies to get, which he supervised personally, and Will tagged along. Elizabeth also came ashore, but she traveled separately, and apparently, she recruited Annamaria and Kiana.

"So here's what we need." Elizabeth handed them the list.

"All these?"

"All."

"Alright, if you say so."

"Here it is. This one's perfect." The three women walked into a store called "The Christmas Tree".

Meanwhile, Will picked up a coil of rope. "Is this good?"

"Will, when will you learn?" He paused to get Will's full attention. "A sail is H-E-A-V-Y. So the rope to tie it with must also be H-E-A-V-Y. Judging by how quickly yeh picked that up, I's not 'eavy enough." Will rolled his eyes and dropped the rope.

"What do you think those three are up to?" Will inquired.

"I 'ave no idea, but I do know that they're a lethal combination." Jack replied, picking up a beautiful spyglass with elaborate carvings. "We'll, uh, need some new equipment too." He said, twirling it around.

"Well, aren't you going to do something about them?" Will seemed quite concerned, if not for Jack, then for his own well-being.

"Ha! Stop those three?" He retorted, as if it was obvious. "D'you think I 'ave a death wish?"

The three females walked back to the Pearl with two overstuffed bags each. They were chatting happily, thinking of what Jack's reaction" would be.

"I think we've done well," She said, looking at the bags.

"I'm satisfied." Annnamaria said, beaming. She still hadn't taught Jack a lesson for "borrowing" her boat and this would do well.

"I can't wait ta see 'is face." Kiana added, picturing the situation in her head. Kiana had come "just for the fun of it". She loved seeing Jack suffer (not that she was sadistic or anything).

When they got to the huge, black ship, they started working immediately. They didn't have a minute to spare, as they didn't know when the other half of the crew would be back. And so they worked into the night, with some very amused and confused crew members…

---

"You know Jack, I've got to say, I'm impressed." Will stated his opinion.

"With what?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"I didn't think you would last this visit without any alcohol."

Jack laughed at this remark. "You've gotta 'ave more faith in me than that." He joked. The others were behind them, and everyone was in a good mood, joking and laughing. They reached the Pearl after a fifteen minute walk, and everyone was looking forward to taking a nice, long rest. But that long rest would not come.

Jack was the first to step aboard, and he stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw his ship.

"Bloody 'ell." He said quietly as he looked around. It seemed the women had done some redecorating. There was tinsel everywhere, wrapped around masts, doors, the wheel, and anything else it could hang off of. Red, white, and green ornaments hung from all the ropes. Little red balls with silver glitter sparkled in the moonlight. Brilliant white angels where atop the masts (how they got up there, Jack had no idea), and snowmen and Santas sat on all the steps. Bright red and green wind chimes dangled from every corner and the Jolly Roger was replaced with a bold white flag with an elaborate Christmas tree painted on it. To top the whole thing off, the maid deck was covered in thousands of small white tissues to simulate snow.

The crew already aboard the shop was all hiding smiles, while the rest that had just come were still in shock.

Will cleared his throat. "Well…" He was going to say something to break the silence, but his voice trailed off as he saw Jack moving.

He went straight up to Elizabeth and said, "Congratulations." He smiled sarcastically (yes, he did manage to smile sarcastically…somehow), "I wasn't expecting this." He looked around one last time and sighed sadly. He hated seeing his ship in such a condition. He then went to his cabin without giving any commands.

"Did you see his face?" Kiana asked excitedly, her face lighting up in joy.

"Yes, it was wonderful!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

Annamaria's facial expression also gave away her feelings. "That was worth it!"

Will saw their expressions and decided to step in the conversation. "So he congratulated you?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, cen ya believe it?" Kiana answered.

"That's strange," He thought for a minute, and then said in a satisfied note, "but you know what that means, don't you?"

"What?" Annamaria asked for all three of them.

"It means he's planning. He wouldn't give up that easily." He replied, with a sly look.

Elizabeth's eyes widened and she turned to the other two, exchanging worried glances.

---

Jack came in glaring at Elizabeth. He shot Kiana a piercing look, but reserved his best glares for Elizabeth, ash e knew that she was the brains of the operation.

Will came in after Kiana and Elizabeth and started the conversation.

"So…" He decided to sit between Jack and his wife, to keep anything from happening. He picked up the paper and said, "It's in code…that means we'll need someone to break the code." He spoke slowly, not to miss anything between Jack and Elizabeth.

"Hulllooo?" Kiana waved a hand between Jack and Elizabeth, as they seemed to be having a staring match, or rather glaring match.

"Oh, yeah, what?" Jack broke of his glare.

Will sighed. "I said, we need to break the code."

"Code, code…oh, code." Ye, I know a bloke."

"Why 'm I not surprised?" Kiana asked, sarcasm in her voice.

"Well that would be because e I am a man of many acquaintances." Jack flashed a golden smile at her to compliment his self-praise.

"And where is this 'bloke'?" Elizabeth asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Back on Tanqueray Isle…probably."

"Probably? Probably?"

"Well do you 'ave a bet'r idea?" Jack asked, knowing what her answer would be.

Elizabeth just glared and turned away in response.

"Didn't think so."

"so I guess we're going to Tanqueray Isle." Will said to himself, thinking of what he was going to have to put up with on the way there.

---

Okay, I know it was very, very short, but I wasn't going to put it up in the first place. I started writing this chapter around Christmas, so it was gonna be a Christmas thing, but, as you can see, it came out very late. The reason I didn't like it was because there wasn't really any plot in it at all. Ah well. I suppose it can't hurt. The reason I'm taking so long now is because I haven't really planned out the whole story, so that's what I'm doing now. Planning takes forever. sigh

Also: I have put up a blog for this story and all POTC stuff. Please go see it. The link is in my profile. I will also include a list of characters in my profile soon.

pirategirl