DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise or any of the characters or dialogue associated with the film. They are the property of the Walt Disney Corporation.

AN: This is like fifty years late. I'm sorry. I'm having a super hard time finishing this. :( Maybe I should have ended it right at COTBP...TOO LATE NOOOOOW! Haha. Sorry it's so short.

Tortuga was nothing short of the worst possible place imaginable to Will. The ground was littered with drunken pirates, there were woman lurking behind every corner, grinning madly with their white faces and bright hair. This place, he decided, disgusted him. Jack bounced about from here to there, getting slapped in the face more than once, until he found a man sleeping with the pigs. This man was very vaguely familiar to Will, and as his mind removed the inch of grime from his face, Will realized that the man was from the ship that he’d been rescued by. Gibbs was his name. What the devil was he doing in a pig pen in Tortuga? Will decided instantly that he’d best not ask.

Will knew that if you wanted a crew of pirates, you would have to find said pirates in a location known only to…pirates. The more he saw, the more concerned he grew for the welfare of Miss Swann. If these women were any indication of how pirates perceived women in general, then Miss Swann was in more than one type of danger. But, more importantly presently was the conversation occurring at the table behind him. Jack was informing Mr. Gibbs that Will himself was ‘leverage’. Leverage for what, Will wondered. He tucked it back into the recesses of his mind and decided to simply observe how things played out. He still needed to rescue Elizabeth, regardless of what Jack’s ulterior motives might be.

Will turned, both of the men drank back the remnants of their tankards and looked at him expectantly.

“Well?” he asked impatiently, “Where do we get the crew?”

Jack smiled widely and spread his arms out. “Here! Of course!”

Will frowned. “Of course.”

Jack looked at Gibbs who was smiling happily as the effects of the drink took over. “Well?”

Gibbs frowned in confusion.

“Get me a crew, Mr. Gibbs!” Jack shouted. Will had never seen a man jump up and run about so quickly before.

“Aye aye, Captain.” With that, he was gone and so was his smell. Will frowned at Jack again.

“Sit down, sit down, Young William,” Jack said. Will sat down keeping his face impassive. “Fancy a pint, then?”

“No, thank you,” Will said crisply. Jack frowned, shrugged and ordered two anyway. The drinks arrived at their table minutes later from the hands of a well-endowed, far too-young barmaid. She smiled at Will, who only responded with a horrified expression. Will turned said expression upon Jack.

“We should get out of here as soon as possible,” Will said quietly as Jack proceeded to drink both of the tankards.

“As soon as we have a crew,” Jack said, licking the foam from his lips. He turned his eyes upon some sordid wench and continued, “And some sleep.”

Will followed his line of sight and grimaced in disgust. “Sleep?”

Jack turned to him with a leering smile. “Sleep.”

Will shook his head and decided that he would serve his time much better in helping Mr. Gibbs find a crew. The sooner they had a crew, the sooner he could get to Elizabeth. Lord only knew what those pirates could, and well would, do to her. Will left the bar far behind him and headed towards the docks. The moon was full and bright, lighting up the pitch blackness of the Caribbean night. Suddenly his heart ached for the dull greyness of England in a way it had not in years. If Elizabeth were in England, she would not have been captured by pirates. Then again, she would not have found him floating in the sea. She would not have met him. He sighed heavily and wondered where she was. What was she doing? Was she safe?

A loud noise behind him startled Will and he turned quickly to discover some dirty pirate engaged in less than savoury activities with a woman of the night. Shuddering slightly, Will made his way past the panting duo. His choices were to head back to the pub where Jack was undoubtedly also engaging in similar unsavoury activities, or to try to find Gibbs, or better yet, to find some relatively safe place to get a bit of sleep. The latter of the three sounded best to Will at this point, but where would he rest?

As he approached the pub, a broken bottle whizzed past his head. This was decidedly not a safe place to sleep. He wandered around aimlessly before curling up inside the same pig sty that they’d found Gibbs in earlier. It smelled rancid and was horribly uncomfortable, but was also unquestionably the safest location for sleep. Sadly, he now understood why Gibbs was here in the first place. Despite his filthy surroundings, sleep found Will easily. It’s not often one spends a day ruining his reputation by cavorting with pirates in the vague hopes of rescuing his unrequited love. Takes a lot out of a man.

Will awoke the next morning, disoriented and confused by his surroundings. The events of the last forty-eight hours pounded upon him unrelentlessly and he nearly jumped to his feet. Within moments, he was out of the pig sty and into the pub hollering for Jack. It was, of course, the very crack of dawn. Will, by nature, was used to getting up at this hour. Pirates and whores were not.

“Jack!” he hissed at the sleeping, half-clothed pirate. The blonde wrapped around his waist grimaced miserably, but did not open her eyes. Neither did Jack. “JACK!”

Jack’s eyes popped open and he looked about in confusion. “Wot?” he asked sleepily.

“The crew? We must get back to sea!” Will insisted, tossing various items of clothing at Jack and inevitably hitting the blonde along the way. She glared at him openly.

“William. This can wait until…noon.”

Will was suddenly enraged. Suddenly and deeply enraged. Elizabeth’s life was on the line. Her life. There was no way anything regarding Elizabeth Swann’s safety could wait another minute.

“Jack,” Will said, his tone crisp and sharp, demanding complete and full attention. Despite his youth and inexperience, he still managed with that tone to gain the total attention of both Jack and the blonde, who was simply intrigued. “You will get out of bed. You will come to the docks with me where we will assemble a crew. Then we willsail to the Black Pearl and Elizabeth.”

The truth was that his tone even startled himself, but where Elizabeth was concerned there was simply no time for twaddle-speak and dilly-dallying. Jack swallowed hard and nodded. Will seemed to soften instantly as though unexpectedly remembering himself. He looked from Jack to the blonde and turned a slight shade of pink. Awkwardly, Will made his way from the room mumbling something about waiting for Jack downstairs.

Jack joined him a few minutes later and Will still felt a bit awkward. He followed Jack to the docks where they were surprisingly met with a bright-eyed Gibbs and a rag-tag collection of sailors. The selection was scant and the outlook was grim. Will hadn’t a clue how any of these washed-up individuals, including a very angry, forceful woman, were going to get him to Elizabeth. They apparently had met whatever pathetic criteria Jack required of his crew which, in fact, did not ease Will’s mind. Regardless, at least they were finally off to rescue Elizabeth at last.

They’d been sailing for quite some time when a storm broke loose upon them. Will was once again on edge, watching mad Jack Sparrow as he kept checking his broken compass. Gibbs seemed to be the most solid foundation that Will had, so he decided to ask him.

“How can we sail to an island that nobody can find with a compass that doesn’t work?” he shouted over the rampaging rain.

Gibbs merely gave him a knowing look. “Aye, the compass doesn’t point North, but we’re not trying to find North, are we?”

He then turned to Jack and mentioned dropping canvas. Jack insisted that it could stand to hold a bit longer. Jack said that they were catching up. Will’s heart sped up a little. They were catching up, finally.

There was a terrifying calm in the waters surrounding Isla de Muerta, and given the tale that Gibbs had just told Will, he wasn’t surprised that this place was cursed. A horrifying chill that was entirely uncharacteristic of the Caribbean lay heavily in this place and it sent a shiver down his spine.

Will glanced at Jack warily. So there was more to the man than he had given him credit for, truly. This voyage was undoubtedly self-serving for Jack in regards to the Black Pearl, but Will had suspected this since the night in Tortuga. Leverage indeed. Well, he had long since decided that he would not be anyone’s ‘leverage’. But, he would play along and follow Jack to the island. He would play the game until he could find Elizabeth, and then he would be rid of Jack Sparrow and his band of ragtag pirates.

“Young Mr. Turner and I are to go ashore,” Jack said.

“Captain! What if the worst should happen?” Gibbs asked. Jack turned to him.

“Keep to the code.”

Gibbs nodded knowingly. “Aye, the code.”

Will wondered what ‘the code’ was, but refrained from asking about it. All he really wanted to do was get to Elizabeth. He was certain that the code had nothing to do with him because he had nothing to do with pirates. As soon as Elizabeth was safe, he would never have anything to do with pirates again if he could help it.