A Pirate's Life for Her
by Edwina Piratewitch

"Okay, so everyone is savvy, right?"  "Aye, Cap'n."  "Right, okay, we make for Port Royale, Mr.Gibbs, chart us a course."  "Aye, sir."  Captain Jack Sparrow stood at the helm of the Black Pearl.  He had made a fool-proof plan and if everything worked out, he would have 2 new crew members.  Jack smiled at his own brilliance.  However, fate has a cruel sense of humor and Jack was destined to bite off more than he could chew.  
 
In Port Royale………..

"Arrest her, arrest her!" the master of the bakery was screaming in rage.  A small girl, no older than 13, was staring at the ground holding a loaf of bread.  "All this for a bite of food," she muttered to herself.  "I bet Jack never got caught doing something this stupid."  The girl's name was Stella, and she was a pirate.  Being such, she looked rather odd as most pirates do.  But there was one thing about her that was especially disturbing, she bore a tattoo identical to that of the famous Jack Sparrow.  "Alright, alright, what's all the shouting about?"  Commodore Norrington had stepped forward to assess the situation.  "This mangy girl tried to rob me!" the owner of the shop spat at Stella's feet.  Stella decided to play innocent, "Good sir, I am a starving child, I wish only for something to eat."  She added a pitiful blink to smother the effect.  The commodore looked thoughtful.  Stella took advantage of his silence to say, "Furthermore, I deeply regret stealing this fine gentleman's bread."  She finished with a fake apologetic look towards the owner.  The man looked flustered, "I, um….well, it was only some bread, I suppose if you hand it over we could forget this whole thing."  'Yes,' Stella thought.  She smirked, but quickly concealed it.  Stella turned toward the owner.  She stretched out her arm and………………bolted!  Before anyone could react, she was 3 yards away.  "Thief!" yelled the owner and soldiers quickly ran after her. 'The good thing about being young,' Stella thought as she ducked into a backstreet, 'is that your energy rarely runs out.'  Stella could still hear her pursuers behind her, so she put on some extra speed and made a quick left.  Stella was about to turn again when an arm caught her and dragged her into the bushes.  When they were both out of sight of the soldiers, the captor removed their arm.  Stella turned around and nearly screamed if the captor hadn't put their hand over her mouth.  "Stay down and keep quiet until I say."  Stella nodded, too stunned to argue.  "Good."  And with that the mysterious captor disappeared.  Stella leaned against the wall, it had been 3 full years since she had last seen that man, and here he was, saving her neck, just like he always had………………..
 
Later that evening…………

When the captor returned, he had meat and rum.  Stella laughed, it was what he usually did when they were both running from the law.  He poured her some rum and she drank it thirstily.  After a long quaff she said, "It's been a while, Jack."  Jack Sparrow grinned.  "Well, I wasn't expecting to see you here, luv.  I thought you were in Tortuga."  Now it was Stella's turn to grin, "Did you honestly expect me to stay there?"  "Well, honestly yes, but being that I'm dishonest I knew you wouldn't stay."  Jack stretched and then said, "Pass me the bread."  Stella tossed him half and then asked, "So, what's your business here?  Last I knew, you were obsessed with getting the Pearl back."  Jack stretched again and said, "I'm here to find a friend of mine.  I have the Pearl back now, by the way, Barbossa is dead and so is his crew."  Stella snorted, "Good riddance, they gave us dishonest pirates a bad name.  I much prefer to earn my name."  "Same here, anyway, what's one like you doing here?"  Stella gave a mischievous smile, "Well, I was on a search for you, but I gave that up last year.  What I was doing before you saved my neck, was looking for a boat."  "Ah, so, what are you going to do now?"  "Dunno, probably get caught commandeering a ship and then hang, why?"  Jack knew this joke, but laughed all the same.  "Well, you want to come to the Black Pearl?"  Stella replied, sarcastically, "Let me think about that one," She put on a mock thought face and said, "No!  Nah, I'm just kidding.  I wouldn't miss an opportune moment like this for all of the gold in El Dorado."  She then got up and went over to Jack and hugged him, "Thanks," she whispered.  Jack gave her a stunned look as she went back over to her wall.  Stella looked at him sourly and said, "You will not mention that to the crew."  Jack looked up at her with a face of mock shock and mischief, "On my honor," he said holding up his right hand.  "Oh, and what may I ask do you know about honor?" she gave him a questioning look.  At this they both laughed.  Stella yawned tiredly and said, "Well, I'm going to turn in, 'night Jack."  "Not yet you don't, we still have some things to go over, savvy?"  Jack gave her a look of stubbornness that she knew all too well.  Stella sighed, "Oh, all right, but make it quick or I might forget what you say."  "Excellent, " replied Jack, "Right, first off the crew won't take kindly to me putting on a too-young girl pirate, so we have to come up with a reason for me taking you in, savvy?"  "Okay, being that we're dishonest, how 'bout we say that I'm your daughter?  No one can prove otherwise because I'm an orphan, so it would fit."  Jack looked at her with purest loathing at the idea.  Stella returned it with equal resentment, "You know they would believe it," she said calmly.  "Fine," said Jack sullenly.  "Secondly, tomorrow I'm going to visit Will Turner."  Stella, for the first time that day, looked shocked, "You can't mean…….?"  "No, of course not, he's dead, this is his son."  "I don't believe it."  "Yeah, well, wait 'til you meet him, now sleep.  Convincing him and Elizabeth to join me won't be easy."  Jack sighed, 'how can I convince them?' he thought.  "Hmmm………….is he much like his father?"  Jack came out of his reverie, "What?  Oh, yeah."  "Ah, in that case, I have a plan."  Stella leaned over and whispered her plan to Jack, "Hmm…… that's crazy!  I love it!"  "Knew you would, g'night then."  "G'night."  And the duo fell asleep, wishing for morning to come to put their plan into action.