The Dawn Chaser made good time to what Gibbs had started to describe as 'home,' the small bay beside Polly's homestead. The wind had stayed with them, and though a couple of merchants and a naval vessel drifted had across the outer edge of the scanners nothing had come any closer to them than that for the whole voyage. Which had given them more time to think about what they were leaving behind than perhaps either of them had wanted, certainly given Ariadne's lack of news about Jack. No corpse overboard she had said, but that didn't mean that Jack wasn't in irons in the brig, or worse.

Neither of them had repeated their concerns for Jack's safety but each knew of the other ones worry. Gibbs seemed to wear a perpetual frown while Elanor was aware that every muscle in her neck and shoulders was tight as a harp string, and that her sleep was disturbed by vague dreams of things gone wrong. But there was nothing that could be done about it now, they had to put up with the worry until the Black Pearl arrived with him at the helm, or until she was so late that they knew he was not coming.

Neither of them would admit, even to themselves, the possibility that she would come without him.

For Elanor the waiting had an added edge of unfamiliarity, she debated long and hard about giving Jack a means of contacting them ahead of his arrival here but in the end had decided against it. Caution had to be her watchword, particularly where Jack was concerned. The less of a footprint she left here the better and if Jack were not successful then a useful piece of technology was lost, or worse still in undesirable, if uncomprehending, hands. Even if he were successful (please God, she thought) then there was no certainty that he would keep the device hidden; Jack was a clever man, she had come to that conclusion soon after meeting him, but he was of his time and though his cleverness meant that he didn't fear them he had a child's delight in her 'clever toys'. In his exuberance he might not be able to resist the opportunity to play with such a toy when he shouldn't.

They dropped anchor as the sun was sinking in the west, and Gibbs took the long boat and headed to land with more alacrity than he might once have done. He didn't fear leaving her on her own any more, knowing that she and her ship could take care of themselves, and trusting that she would go no where else until there was news of the Pearl. Elanor watched him go, unsure of whether she was glad to be alone or not, she was conscious of being uneasy, and not only with fear for Jack.

As she watched the long boat, Mr Gibbs steady pull of the oars was taking it quickly across the bay, she wondered what would happen if Jack did make it back here at the helm of his Pearl. What madness would he want to be about next and could she stand back and just let him get on with it? If she didn't join him in whatever it was then what was she to do? There was no sign of the dimension door opening again, back home or anywhere else, not that she was sure that she would know the difference, so she was left hanging on the horns of the same dilemma, what for pity's sake was she to do here? She'd go mad if she had no purpose or occupation. Jack would be quick to make use of that fact, and she couldn't honestly see how she and Ariadne could leave him here and continue to sail without his experience of this world. Another inconvenient fact that Jack was well aware of and, no doubt, already factoring into his plans.

As she watched Mr Gibbs approach the shore she admitted that she had no choice, she had to stick with Jack until she found a way to leave this world. Which meant she needed to be prepared for whatever the mad pirate was likely to have in mind. That meant she needed to tap more of Mr Gibbs knowledge of him, preferably while the man himself was safely elsewhere. But what exactly did she need to know and how would she sift the wheat from the chaff of Gibbs story telling? As he finished dragging the boat up the sands and began the ascent of the cliff path and the comfort of Polly's hospitality she turned away and went to seek Ariadne's advice.

In the golden light of the setting sun The Lady watched and smiled her satisfaction.

***

"Right, out with it! What the bloody hell has been going on here?"

Jack had found what he thought of as the brotherhood of four idiots huddled together in the stern, sharing the contents of a squat green bottle that didn't smell to be rum. By the stench of it he didn't want to know what it did contain either. Not that the stink of them was any better, and not for the first time since he came aboard he wondered why he had never noticed it before, a thought followed quickly by a hope that he stopped noticing it again, soon. The smell of the ship no longer seemed so strange, though he had to admit that the aroma in parts of her was less ambrosial than he recalled, but the smell of unwashed human bodies still pricked his nostrils more than he liked. He recalled telling Elizabeth that such things were trifles, here on this very deck, not many yards from where he sat now, but it had to be admitted they were less trifling.er.. trifles. than they had seemed to be back then.

Elizabeth. Another problem he was going to have to deal with sooner rather than later. He knew that he shouldn't be surprised at the need for he had rarely met a wench who was more of a problem than that one. Not that this instance of her problemship was of her making, not if he were honest. No it had been his hand that had put the knife into William's and steered it to stabbing the heart, so it fell to him to make sure there were no undesirable... eventualities. arising from that generous act.

But that was for later, now he needed to resolve the matter of Barbossa, for some strange reluctance was keeping him from tipping the old rogue overboard as he deserved. He'd considered doing it several times, but the very helplessness of his long time enemy as he lay there seemed to render him powerless to exact any form of revenge at all. He couldn't understand it but every time he steeled himself to be rid of the problem he found some reason not to go and accomplish it. He'd even left the old bastard on the bunk, arguing with himself that he didn't want to sleep in it anyway, not until he'd dealt with the biting creatures that no doubt infested it. Having only managed to secret a small amount of Elanor's wondrous potions about his person before leaving the Chaser it made sense to keep his distance from them and their teeth.

So instead of tossing him overboard he had allowed the crew to go on doing as they had been doing in the days since Barbossa fell into this state. At least it was keeping the man alive without waking him up to be a nuisance. But matters could not continue in that way indefinitely and he needed to know what had happened if he was to decide what to do about it.

So he had sought these four and Marty out at the first opportune moment.

With a casual frown around the ring of suddenly raised and widened eyes he settled himself down on a hatch cover and carefully tucked the rum bottle into the crook of his arm like a treasured child.
"Out with it!" he snapped again.
"With what?" The thinner of the two ex marines asked in apparent confusion.
"I think the captain wants to know about Mr Barbossa," his friend replied.
Jack's eyebrows rose towards his scarf, and his voice rose with disapproval,
"MR Barbossa?"
"Well if you are captain, " the man saw Jack's frown deepen and hurried on, "Which you no doubts are. Then he can't be captain too."
Jack gave a sceptical sniff, but he could hardly argue the point given that he was saying that Barbossa had no right to be captain. He shrugged an impatient shoulder,
"All right, but you can leave out the Mr in future, plain Barbossa will do."

The others looked uncomfortable but said nothing, except Marty, 'who is not a fool' Jack reminded himself.

The little man met Jack's eyes squarely and spoke up without hesitation.
"Began to act strange just after we left Tortuga. Though lookin' back at it he'd nat been hisself for some time afore that."
Jack took a pull of his rum and squinted across at Marty,
"Noticed that," he grunted as he swallowed the liquor. "So what was it that happened after your nefarious and unwise desertion of me good self?"
Marty shrugged ignoring the implication,
"Nat sure, he'd become strange, well stranger, over the days, alwaas feeding the monkey nuts, nat sure where they come from cas we took none ashore at Tortuga. Spent hours at the helm or in the cabin, talking to hisself and feedin' the monkey." His mouth turned down and he shook his head,
" Didn't take much interest in the ship nor the crew once we left Tortuga."

"That came after." Raggetti disagreed, "First thing was the matter with his hand." He looked around him, "Remember?" he looked back towards Jack and leant in a little as if not wanting to be heard,
" He'd stand at the rail and stare at his hand then suddenly put it behind his back like he didn't want to see it. Go pale he would, as if it weren't his hand he were seeing but something he didn't want to be there."
"Aye that's true," Marty agreed, "like there were something wrong with it and he couldn't bear to see, but couldn't stop lookin'. Pretended he didn't, would swear and curse at the man who he thought had seen it, but 'tis right enough that we all saw him."
Jack took another swallow of rum and stared up at the topsail in thought.
"So first he started seein' things did he?" he said quietly.
He repressed a shudder as he recalled his own visions in the locker, memories that he rarely indulged in the light of day but that still haunted him in the dark. For a moment he could almost feel sympathy for Barbossa.. almost . for there was no saying what the man had been seeing. He chewed on his lip as he thought about the possibilities, none of which were pleasant.

With another shiver of an inner chill he turned his mind back to the present and its' concerns. He squinted at Marty,
"Then came the strange behaviour with the monkey you say? But he was always mighty fond of the little devil so maybe not so strange."
Raggetti shook his head, his mouth drooping in something like despair,
"You didn't see him captain, croonin' to it he was, like it were a babe and he a doting father. Never thought to hear such words from his mouth, nor see such a look upon his face neither. Right disconcerting it were."
"Thought of Barbossa as a father is pretty strange whatever the offspring!" Jack said with a grimace of distaste, "but I'll grant that sort of conduct to be most unlike himself. What after that?"
"T'were the voices we think." Pintel took up the story, "seemed like he could hear people that weren't there." He leaned closer to Jack and dropped his voice as if afraid of his own words, "Sometimes he seemed to jump as if someone had come behind him and whispered in his ear. An' then sometimes he would turn around suddenly and glare at everyone in sight as if someone had called to him. Right odd he were and that's the truth."
Raggetti nodded his agreement.
"Weird it was. Then it got worse, began to answer questions that no one had asked. " He shook his head solemnly, "Got so that if you spoke to him you didn't know if it were you he was answerin' or someone not there."

Jack thought about that in silence while the others watched him as carefully as they might watch a hunting shark. He smiled inwardly to himself because he knew very well what they were feeling; while there was considerable relief in laying the matter before their captain each man was also worried that he might conclude that he wanted no part of such events. Which might mean he would throw Barbossa overboard, a worry for their superstitious souls, or leave them with no captain again, or maybe even leave them and Barbossa marooned on some spit of land, depending on how much malice he was still feeling about being left behind.

Jack, however, had put thoughts of that particular piece of disloyalty aside for the moment at least, considering it as having no further point, but he didn't expect them to understand that. It was one of the greatest differences between him and them and he knew it, the ability to move on and deal with the here and now without constant reference to things that were done and so not capable of change.
'Elanor now, she would understand' he thought and for a moment he was surprised by a pang of something close to regret at the loss of her company; he was also aware of a faint shadow of worry at the feeling.

"But I'm reckoning that it didn't end there," he said eventually, raising the bottle to his lips again, "more than voices took him wherever it is that he is now."
Marty shrugged,
"Did nat. Abaat the time the navy first sighted us, moren a se'enight ago now, he started seein' people as well as hearin'. At least that's how it seemed to the crew."
"Aye," Raggetti nodded, "Must have. Began giving orders to people who weren't there he did. Was like he was in this world and another one all at the same time. A world where there were other people, ones as real as to him as the ship were." He shook his head sombrely, "Most worrying it is when you are in the middle of a battle to have the captain givin' the order to fire to a man who isn't on board."
Jack gave a mirthless smile; suddenly the Pearl's strange behaviour wasn't so strange. Teach them to leave him behind!
"Can see that it might be at that," he said agreeably.
The larger of the two marines spoke for the first time,
"In the end it was as if he didn't see us at all sir. Like the ship was crewed by ghosts and we were invisible. It got so that if we spoke to him he didn't answer."
His friend nodded vigorously,
"Looked straight through you as if you weren't there at all in the end. Whatever he were seeing it became more real to him than we were."

Jack looked around at the unexpectedly earnest faces, seeing the worry and fear stamped there,
'Liars to a man,' he thought bitterly, 'but not this time.' Which was troubling, for there could be no denying that the story, if true, smacked of a somewhat goddessy humour. Not finished with Barbossa it seemed, maybe not with any of them. So what was she up to? Revenge for the brig and chain, or something else? Something more... current? Either way it seemed that his life was not to be relieved of supernatural interferences just yet. As if a ship from the future wasn't strange enough for him to have to deal with!

Nor did he know the whole of it yet he'd bet. Tia Dalma had always been good at keeping secrets. Not that this lot had told him the sum of the matter yet,
"Hmm," he muttered as he got to his feet and turned to stare out at the sea, "but how did he end up in the cabin in his current dislocated state? Tell me that."
Behind him the men exchanged hurried glances,
"Well you see it were like this capt'n." Pintel's voice took on the wheedling tone that betrayed either a lie or some action he thought Jack might take exception to, "Were when the navy were nearly on us and Barbossa had taken hisself down to the cabin leavin' us without orders. We went to see him to ask that he come back on deck."
Jack suppressed a smile knowing that there would have been more to it than that, much more. The possibility had always been a danger for Barbossa of course, that mutiny became a habit, and he remembered that Pintel had made a half-hearted stand for command of the Pearl once before. With Barbossa in such straits maybe he had decided to make a more serious claim to the captaincy. No they certainly wouldn't want to tell him that! But that plan couldn't have succeeded given that he was still here and the Pearl was in one piece, so what had happened?

Behind him the others were exchanging furtive looks and nudges, none of them wishing to be the one to tell the rest but knowing that someone had to, Captain Jack was not a man you could side track, not when he was in pursuit, and they all knew it. Like a barnacle on a rock he was, stick to it come whatever tide.
"Found him arguing with someone that wasn't there we did." It was Raggetti who continued in the end. "We tried to make him listen but it were like we weren't there. Mr Murtogg and Mr Mullroy here caught hold of him, just tryin' to make him listen to us like, but he shook them off and drew his sword, ragin' he was that he'd be master of his own fate and no one, dead or alive, would stop him. He lunged and caught Mr Mullroy a glancing slash. Nothin' serious, just a scratch really, but when he saw the blood flowin; he went queer."
Pintel nodded,
"Aye terrible to see it were, him fallin' to his knees and a'wailin' about not having meant it, not any of it, that he'd not known. Pleading to be told what he could do to put it right he were." Hs gave Hack a sorrowful look, "Were hard to see Cap'n, were so unlike him."
"Like he had lost himself. Laid bare his soul." Ragetti agreed wide-eyed and serious. He shuddered, "like he was facing the very judgement of God it were. Painful to see," The words were quiet and heavy and for some reason Jack didn't doubt the sincerity of them. He reflected that Raggetti had become somewhat strange himself since the lifting of the curse.

"Could no nothing with him." Marty took up the story, "he just knelt there, rocking from side to side and pleading to be told how to make it right over and over again with his eyes tight shut. We got him up in the end and onto the cot and he opened his eyes then but just lay there talking to people who weren't there and askin' to be forgiven. Just kept sayin' forgive me, over and over."
The picture that Marty's calmly dispassionate words painted was not a comfortable one.
"And then." Jack asked quietly, "Did you leave him or stay?"
They exchanged shamefaced looks before Pintel spoke slowly,
"Ragetti and me. Well we stayed for a while. Right weird it were too, bein' there with him pleading and a'cryin. His voice got quieter and quieter till it were no mor'en a whisper see, eirie it were to hear. But the navy was on our heels and getting closer, and suddenly it were all men to stations and so we left him a layin' there and went back on decks. Weren't nothing else we could do for him after all and getting sunk would not have improved matters none."
Marty nodded
"Tat be true cap'n, nothing more we could do for him when he didn't know we be there. We laaast the navy that time, though truth be that it were more by luck of the seas than ought else. But by then he was like his now. Hasn't changed since. Just lies there and stares into nothing."

Story told they sat back and watched Jack as he returned to staring out to sea. What would he do now? Toss Barbossa over the side and strand them somewhere perhaps? Didn't seem likely, that was not Captain Jack's way at all. But then again he had been dead himself hadn't he? Had been in the locker and they had all seen what that had done to him. Maybe he would have some fellow feelin with Barbossa after all, maybe he would think that they should have done more? If so no saying what he might do to them. But then again he had forgive Miss Swann her killin' of him, or so it had seemed, which, by any ones reckoning, was a most un-pirate like thing to do, downright unmanly come to that. So who could say what he might be thinking?
Perhaps he would decide to wash his hands of them and go back to wherever he had been before he came back to the Pearl, and they still didn't know where that was, which was nearly as strange as the matter of Barbossa.

What Jack was actually thinking was something they couldn't begin to anticipate,
'If you want to know about ghosts then best ask one,' was the thought running through his head, that and ' Daft buggers all of them. No point in asking them for explanations.' Rapidly followed by 'I'd kill for some sensible company to talk this through with at this moment in time. When did I start to want that?'

Which made it fortunate, did it not, that he was going to be able to fulfil those wishes sooner rather than later. Without a word he left the little huddle and strode off to the helm to check his bearings. Marty was the only one to follow him, arriving as he snapped the compass shut,
"Where we headin' cap'n?" There was only a hint of apprehension in his voice.
Jack looked down and met the anxious but appraising eyes with a wide smile,
"Tortuga."

***

The sun was just rising as the Black Pearl approached the headland that marked the outer edge of Polly's bay. Jack satisfied himself that the spot was safe enough for the moment and gave the order to drop anchor.

Not seeking berth at the port had caused a few grumbles amongst the crew, but some remaining wariness of their captain and more than a little curiosity had stilled the tongues when Jack had informed the crew they had a rendezvous to keep The assurance that they would be provided with suitable refreshment on the morn had also helped of course.

Not that anyone was risking much in the way of rebellion for the moment. The crew had been subdued for most of the voyage in fact, obeying orders with alacrity and avoiding their captain when they could. Jack allowed them their uncertainties knowing that the four idiots would have told every man of them the stories of his own sojourn beyond death's veil, and of his return and its outcome. That would be enough to keep such a superstitious lot at a distance, and the only cure for that was time and familiarity. With Barbossa still silent and glassy eyed in the cabin and the navy stalking the seas in search of them their need of a captain was greater than their need of a drink.

Just be sure he had taken care to be at his most captain like since his return, hollering orders in a manner that even Barbossa could have found no fault with, and working on the maps when not at the helm. Reminding them what he was so they didn't get too caught up with who he was, not his usual course but there would be plenty of time for that later. He'd laid off the rum too, been as sober as judge in fact, though he took care to join the crew when they took their ease, rum bottle in hand, listening to the stories and adding a few of his own. While he was around they were careful enough about what they said but he was in little doubt that wilder tales were swapped in his absence.

He could only hope that those who knew of it had had the sense to keep mum on the subject of the Flying Dutchman and her current captain, that was one story he certainly didn't want getting round. Most of those who had crewed the Pearl during the battle, and survived it, had returned to the East with their Pirate Lords or remained at Shipwreck. The Pirate Lords themselves, those who knew anything of the matter, and most did not, were sworn to secrecy on pain of the Keeper's displeasure and the likely rage of Calypso should they speak of it. The latter possibility had been both raised and stressed by Jack himself in the days of carousing after the victory, when the memory of said rage was still vivid. Though the truth was that fear of his father was probably enough to keep most of them in line until such time as the memory of the event faded into legend.

At least that was what he had hoped, but the recent pursuit of his good self by the authorities suggested that matters were not to be resolved so easily. The worry was that the Dutchman and her captain might have become a matter of politics. Bloody politics! God alone knew what reefs they were heading for if that was indeed the case! Might take more than him to steer them through it, which was a most uncomfortable admission to have to make, even to himself.

Now he was about to add another page to his legend and give his crew something else to think about.

As the sky darkened he ordered Barbossa to be placed in the longboat and the boat lowered, ignoring the startled looks he descended the sea ladder alone and began the pull around the headland to the bay beyond.

The surge of relief he felt at seeing the white ship sitting calmly at anchor came as a surprise for he had not thought he had any doubts, though he knew that his plans depended upon her. Had he really expected her captain to cut and run? Would it have mattered so much if she had, given that she of all people could not betray him?

Yet he was relieved to see her, and the awareness of it caused him to give himself a most serious reprimand as he rowed easily towards the waiting ship. Had never relied on anyone but himself since the day they put the brand on his wrist, now had he? This was not the moment to depart from that practice. He had seen where relying others, even a little bit, could get him had he not? Dead, it got him dead. Or nearly dead in William's case, for it was only luck that oar hadn't broken his neck, and only the fact that he was Captain Jack Sparrow had kept him alive when the pirates found him wandering alone and dazed. No thanks to William at all, for the boy had been quick enough to let him fall behind while he made off with his treasure. No pirate could have made off with a haul faster than the lad had.

'Fair play to him though' Jack reminded himself, 'was only what was right by him, but it showed did it not?'
For a man with the brand on his wrist there was no one to rely upon, the so-called honest man, or woman, would make use of you while it suited then hand you over to the hangman when it didn't. A wise pirate did no less. Trusting now, that was for fools, and he was not a fool.

But then why had he simply not tossed Barbossa into the sea? Why then this sense of relief? He muttered angrily at himself and pushed the thought away, concentrating on the pull of the oars against the water and the shrinking distance to the other ship. Sooner he could send Gibbs back with the longboat the better he reflected, the crew were unlikely to abandon him again, not as this time they would be abandoning both their possible captains, but he couldn't be totally sure. Gibbs would know how to keep them in line while Jack sorted out this matter of Barbossa.

'Passing on the responsibility you mean.' Chided a little voice in the back of his head. He snarled at the idea but it refused to go away and he rolled his eyes in frustration at the waywardness of his own thoughts, then he pulled himself up quickly reminding himself that in that direction lurked the return of madness.
'Seeking out informed opinion, as any sensible man would,' he reassured himself, 'no disgrace in that. Can't ask her to visit the Pearl when she is so determined not to be seen.' He sighed to himself, 'After their experiences with Elizabeth Swann couldn't be sure how the crew would react to her anyways, not while they are still so uncertain of their captain. No, better they know as little as possible of her for the moment. Mr Gibbs would tell them what they needed to know. 'Sure that is a good idea are you? ' The little voice asked again. Jack thought of the tales that Gibbs could spin about the lady captain and grinned, but the men were used to Gibbs and would take what he said in the same manner as they took his other stories. No, as long as he didn't let them see her just yet it would be fine. Besides he had other reasons for wishing to keep his crew as uninformed about the Dawn Chaser and her captain as possible.

Jack cast another look at the frozen face of the man laid out in the boat and shivered, hoping he would make the journey back alone, for he'd be glad to get the man off the Pearl for more reasons than he cared to examine.

As the longboat knocked against the side of the Chaser Jack smothered all doubts and composed his face into a bright and confident smile, he looked up at Elanor with a brash but confiding show of confidence.
"Got something here that might interest you."

***

"So what are you going to do Jack? Leave him like this? And where exactly are you going to leave him? Here? Well I understand why you want him off the Pearl for a while but he can't stay here indefinitely. Makes sense that we monitor him for a day or so but no more than that, and I mean that. So what then?"

They were sitting at the helm, breakfast at the side of them, while Barbossa had been laid out on the bed that he found he still thought of as 'his'. When he had protested she had pointed out that unless he intended to take the man back to the Pearl they had to put him somewhere and there were no other cabins. Jack had grimaced at that and waved a hand in reluctant acceptance then sought out hot water as consolation. Now with his hair drying in the sun and his belly full he was pretty much resigned to it.

But at that challenge he shrugged a shoulder in irritation, though his expression told her that he was well prepared for what she was going to say, in fact that he had been telling himself much the same for a while. She hitched her hip on the chart table and crossed her arms,
"Are you planning on keeping him like this and watching him starve to death trapped in his own locker. Because that is what you would be doing given that we can't feed him. Or are you going to dump him somewhere on this shore and let him die more quickly of exposure and sunburn, or were you planning on tipping him overboard to drown?"
She sighed as he didn't reply,
"If you plan on killing him why bring him here? Curiosity or malice? I confess I hadn't thought you a cold blooded killer of the helpless Jack, am I wrong about that?"

That remark earned a sideways look that was a mix of annoyance, anger and something close to fear.
"He stole my ship, and not just once!"
"Well you shot him for the first time and look where that ended up, are you going to do the same again." She paused for a moment then smiled slightly, "and live with the act forever?"
Jack sighed, he shoulders sagging and his mouth drooping,
"Think I don't know? So what do you suggest I do?"
She shrugged,
"How am I supposed to know, all this supernatural stuff is new to me. Find out what has happened and what the options are I suppose, assuming that's possible. Is there anyone who might know what this is all about?"
That brought an even deeper drop of his shoulders and a weary sigh,
"There was once but she is gone to other..duties."
"Oh. Anyone else?"
Jack shuffled his feet a little frowning at the deck, but she sensed that he had always known where they were headed, from the moment he had seen the state of the man he had brought aboard. There was resignation in very line of him and weary acceptance in the slump of his shoulders,
"Maybe. If I chose to ask."
Elanor gave a rueful smile,
"One of those eh?"

Jack gave a mirthless laugh then looked up to meet her eyes with sombre face.
"Yes luv, most definitely one of those.".