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didn't even bother turning around to look at me. I supposed I should be grateful for that. After all, my cheeks were blushing bright red right now and I was feeling quite embarrassed about last night.

"You know," I told him, feeling my cheeks grow even warmer. "Last night? When I tried to...um...get you to lay down in the bed with me?" IT was embarrassing to remind him of all this, but it had to be said and I had to make sure he knew that I was fucked up yesterday and that I typically didn't act that way. I mean, I had definitely addicted like a drunk last night.

"Aye, last night," Barbossa replied thoughtfully. He leaned out over the railing to get an even better look at the sea. Deciding to join him, I leaned against the railing as well and tried to get a glimpse at his facial expression. It was pretty unreadable. That was the thing about Barbossa; it was always hard to figure out what he was thinking.

When he didn't say anything more about last night, I said again, "I'm sorry." I wasn't sure if he was waiting for me to say something more or what the deal was exactly. I wanted forgiveness though, so I would continue on that same subject until he told me that he knew that last night hadn't meant anything. Wait...now why was I always so worried about Barbossa? If he didn't mean anything to me, then there was no need to be apologizing to him right now. Who cared if he thought I was making moves on him or not? He was just a bloody pirate.

"There's nuthin' ta be apologizin' fer," Barbossa answered me, still looking out at sea. I found that rather strange. He usually looked at me by now. Barbossa was always one to look into your eyes when he was talking to you. Barbossa went on, "That pain drug ya took can really mess ya up. It increases all yer usual feelings and makes them seem lots bigger."

I nodded and then suddenly frowned. So the drug just increased normal feelings? That couldn't be right. After all, I normally would not have wanted Barbossa to sleep with me...right? Trying not to doubt myself, I added dubiously, "But you said that the drug influences everyone differently, right? So the drug could've made me feel...uh...not like myself, right?"

Barbossa finally turned and raised a brow at me, "It could, I suppose. I do know that it increases yer usual feelings though." As soon as the sentence was out of his lips, Barbossa turned back towards the sea and looked away from me. It was starting to bother me how he wasn't meeting my eyes. I wanted to look at him and see what he was thinking.

Deciding that last night was no longer a good topic for either of us, I sat down on a barrel of who-knows-what and asked Barbossa, "So tell me, what are you looking for in Tortuga? And are you on some mission or something?" I honestly had no idea what Barbossa was up to, but I figured it was something like seeking treasure. Wasn't that what all pirates did?

"Aye, you could say that I'm on a mission," Barbossa acknowledged. He sat down on a barrel across from me and tilted his black hat back slightly as he said, "Ya know, I'm not really suppose to tell ya any of this. It's rather...shall we say 'top secret'?" Barbossa winked at me and I caught a glimpse of a yellow tooth in his mouth. For some reason, I didn't find it at all gross.

"You can trust me," I said immediately. At the mention of a secret, Barbossa had immediately claimed my attention. Needing to know what his mission was, I leaned forward and begged, "Please tell me what it is! I swear I won't tell a soul." I looked up at Barbossa anxiously and waited for him to reply. Well, I hoped he woud be replying anyways.

Barbossa smiled at me and then rolled his eyes, "Oh fine, ye win." Leaning over close to me so that his lips were almost at my ear, Barbossa whispered, "Have you ever heard of the fountain of youth, little missy?" The fountain of youth...I thought about that hard. Nope, I never heard of it before. I shook my head and waited for an explanation.

"It's another way ta live fer ferever," Barbossa explained with a sparkle in his eye. Leaning back, he continued on, "It is said that just one little sip from the fountain will make ya immortal fer the rest of eternity. So needless ta say, me crew and meself are all goin' to find this fountain of youth. We won't give up until we reach it."

I thought about this curiously for a moment. So Barbossa wanted to live for forever. That was interesting. To be honest, I didn't think I'd want to live for forever. That just seemed rather unnatural and not quite right. So raising my eyebrows at Barbossa, I said, "So how exactly do you go about getting to the fountain? Do you know where it is?"

"We did know where it was," Barbossa grumbled, eyes narrowing. From the way he worded his sentence, I could tell something was wrong. Before I could ask, Barbossa added, "Ya see, I had the charts ta find it, but they were stolen from me by a certain man called Capt'n Jack Sparrow. Ya haven't heard of him...have ya, Miss Cook?"

Captain Jack Sparrow...hm...as a matter of fact, I had heard of him before! He had stolen something from my town about five years ago. It had been in the paper! Grinning, I turned to Barbossa and said, "Yes, I have heard of Captain Sparrow actually! Wait...so you said he stole your charts? Do you two sail together or something?"

Barbossa frowned and then finally said, "Sparrow and I kinda have one of those love/hate relationships. He's stolen my ship, I've stolen my ship back, and now he's stolen my charts. He did help me pay off my debt to Calypso though and I suppose I really ought ta be grateful to him fer that even though I don't feel like it."

"What was the debt you owed? And who is this Calypso?" questions poured out of my mouth before I could stop them. I didn't get why I was suddenly so interested in Barbossa's plans. I mean, what did they matter to me? They shouldn't matter at all. In a day or two, I would never even see the Captain again.

"Ah, that be a long story," Barbossa said, stretching his arms. "Maybe I'll tell it ta ya someday, but not right now. It would take far too long. Right now, I'm just tryin' to come up with a way to catch Sparrow. We don't have any proof that he's gonna be in Tortuga, but we can hope so. I think we have a good change findin' him there though. After all, that's where all the wenches and rum be. We all know Sparrow's addicted ta those two things."

I listened to Barbossa intently. This Jack Sparrow person was actually sounding pretty interesting. Was it bad if I thought he sounded appealing? He seemed to fit the definition of "bad boy". Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. It was rather rash and maybe not all that good, but the suggestion popped out of my mouth before I knew it, "Why don't you like me help you get the charts from Sparrow?"

At my words, Barbossa whipped his head up and stared at me in disbelief, "Why would ya want to be helpin' me get the charts from Sparrow? I don't see what's in it fer you. Unless...do ya want to find the fountain of youth and be immortal too?" Barbossa raised an eyebrow at me in curiosity and I could tell I had all of his attention now.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but suddenly realized that I didn't have much of a reason of why I wanted to help Barbossa get the charts besides for the fact that I wanted to meet this Sparrow person. Since I obviously couldn't tell Barbossa that, I just shrugged my shoulders and pretended to look innocent as I said, "No, I don't really care about being immortal. I...I just want to help out. You've done a lot to help me. You've saved me about three times since we've been on the Pearl together. This can be my way of paying you back."

Even though my reasons sounded pretty genuine to my ears, I could tell that Barbossa didn't believe me. He rolled his eyes and said, "There's somethin' yer not tellin' me. Normally, a little girl like you would run ta town as soon as possible and stay there. They wouldn't want ta help a pirate. So believe me, I know there's somethin' ya want."

There was something I wanted. I wanted to meet this Jack Sparrow. Nonetheless, I wasn't about to tell Barbossa that, so I just kind of stayed silent. Barbossa looked at me carefully for a long moment. I could tell he was thinking over my request. I kept my eyes on the ground as he scrutinized me and waited for his answer.

Finally, Barbossa said, "Aye, I'll let ye help me with Sparrow. In exchange, I still want ya ta take this." Barbossa opened the palm of his left hand to expose the beautiful ring that I had thought was a wedding ring earlier. I stared at it curiously, hesitating. Seeing me hesitate, Barbossa added, "It's just a gift. Nothing more than that. Wear it fer now. When we get ta Tortuga, ye can sell it if ya want."

Since the ring wasn't obviously dangerous in any way, I decided to take it. After all, what could it hurt? If Barbossa wanted to give me something, who was I to say now? The ring was probably pretty expensive and would go a long way in helping me survive on my own. And for now, I would be lying if I said it wasn't pretty. So letting down my guard, I reached and slipped the ring on my finger.

A shock ran through my body as Barbossa's hand brushed against mine. I tried to ignore it and attempted to thank him instead, "Thank you very much for such a nice gift. I don't think anyone has given me something this nice before." That wasn't at all a lie. Nobody had ever given me such an expensive piece of jewelry. Of course, Barbossa probably hadn't bought the ring, but still. .

"No need to thank me," Barbossa said, waving away my apologies with one hand. "But we should come up with a plan of what yer goin' ta do in order to get ta Jack's charts." Oh right. Of course we needed a plan. I wasn't going to get very far with Jack unless I had a plan. Unfortunately, no plan was forming in my mind, so I looked to Barbossa to make the plan.

Barbossa squinted his eyes for a moment and then said, "If Jack's in Tortuga, he'll probably be at the bar. Sparrow has a 'small' obsession with rum." Barbossa rolled his eyes, telling me that Jack really had a huge obsession with rum. I wasn't sure what to think about it. It obviously added to the whole bad boy thing.

"So," I added, trying to come up with a plan, "I'm going to go into the bar and try to find Jack there?" Barbossa nodded, still thinking. Still a little confused, I said, "Well what do I do next then? I mean, how am I going to know where Jack's charts are? Does he usually care them with him at all times? Or do you think he'll have put them elsewhere?"

"Sparrrow is unpredictable," Barbossa told me. "Ya never know what ta expect from him. He might have the charts on him, but he might not. Ya may be able to get him to tell ya about the charts though." Get Jack to tell me about the charts? That seemed a little crazy to me. . Why in the world would Jack decide to just randomly show his charts to a stranger like me?