Elizabeth, the revered governor's daughter, was awarded clothes and a cabin. Joanna and Jack, on the other hand, were known criminals. On top of that, Joanna had not-so-subtly destroyed her dress and blatantly donned in men's garments. Her past transgressions plus that inane act quickly labeled her as a tailor-turned-pirate.

"Female hysteria," whispered one of the sailors Joanna and her escorts passed on the way to the brig. Joanna bit her tongue and resisted the mighty urge to roll her eyes.

For what seemed like a long time, Joanna paced the compact boundaries of her cell, lonely and anxious. She wished alternatively for the company of Will or Jack -- Will, who she missed something terrible, and Jack, who was brilliant and interesting and surprisingly kind.

Joanna tried not to brood on Will's fate, struggling to quell the vestiges of hope that had sprouted when Norrington agreed to Elizabeth's proposal. The Black Pearl had disappeared hours ago with William and the motley Tortuga crew. Isla de Muerta was not far. The chances of William emerging from this awful affair were slim.

When the stairs rattled with footsteps, Joanna eagerly pressed herself to the bars, squinting through the dark to see who was visiting. She brightened to see Jack, uncuffed and unharmed.

"Does 'silent as the grave' extend to the brig, as well?" Jack flippantly asked his escorts, two exasperated Navy men.

One of them cuffed the back of Jack's head as the other began fiddling with the lock to Joanna's cell. "It extends as long as your stay here," growled the punch-happy officer. Jack rolled his eyes.

Finally, the maw of the cell swung open and Jack was tossed inside. The Navy men quickly locked it and retreated, glad to be rid of the plague that was Jack Sparrow.

"I thought you were needed at the helm?" Joanna questioned as Jack went through the pretentious motions of brushing himself off. "Isn't your compass the key to finding the island?"

Jack's mouth twitched into a secretive smile. He leaned against the hull and slid to sit on the ground, folding his legs beneath him. "What makes you say that?" He inquired. His fingers brushed over the compass, dangling innocuously from his belt.

Joanna joined him on the floor, glad that, unlike the Pearl, the Dauntless chose to keep the seawater out of the brig. "You followed the compass to find the island, on our first voyage," Joanna explained.

"Ah-ah," Jack chided in a patronizing way. Joanna glared at him to make sure he knew how infuriating he was. "The compass led me to the Black Pearl."

"So the compass points to the Black Pearl."

Jack continued to smile at her, mysterious and teasing. Joanna squinted at him, thinking, until her thoughts culminated into a brilliant idea.

"Freedom," she whispered. Louder, she asked, "Does the compass lead to freedom?"

Jack's face lit up. He was pleased she'd remembered his drunken musings, Joanna guessed. "You're sharp, Jo."

"Don't call me that."

"But you're not quite there," he continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"Keep your secrets, then," Joanna muttered. She turned away, glaring through the bars. The belly of the Dauntless creaked jovially as the ship cavorted to the Island of Death. She thought about Will Turner.

"The Pearl has a head start," Jack said quietly. "But I wasn't lying when I said she was damaged. Ghostly or not, she was taking on water."

Joanna took a deep breath. As holy as swiss cheese or not, the Black Pearl was the swiftest ship in the Caribbean. "Do you think they've made it to Isla de Muerta by now?"

Jack was thoughtful. "If not, they're nearly there. But the ceremony is an evening event, by which time we'll've joined the party."

After a heavy pause, Joanna murmured, "Am I wrong to hope?"

"Sometimes, hope's all we got," Jack said frankly, twirling a lovelock around his finger. He added not unkindly, "But I'd prepare yourself for the worse, dear."

Joanna squeezed her eyes shut. To distract herself, she asked, "What's the helm following now, if not your compass?"

"I know where the island is." Jack looked amused by Joanna's resulting expression. "How d'you suppose Barbossa found the island the first time? I told him."

Joanna's stare was flat. "Then why did you need the compass before?"

"'S much easier to follow an occult compass than to muddle about with charts," said Jack with an indolent grin. "But I can plot a pulchritudinous course should the need arise, darling."

Annoyingly, Joanna was not sure what pulchritudinous meant. She scowled at Jack and said, "Right."

For several minutes, they did not speak, both tilting their heads to listen to the ship.

"You didn't tell them about the curse," Joanna murmured suddenly.

"Neither did you or 'lizabeth. For the same reason, I imagine."

Joanna nodded. "They wouldn't have risked it," she said. With a bitter sigh, she added, "I'm shocked Norrington agreed to this venture at all."

"Could've gotten them drunk," Jack suggested good-naturedly.

"It was Elizabeth's idea," Joanna said defensively. She then surprised herself by laughing shortly, saying, "But I was certainly complicit. It worked, didn't it?"

Jack looked at her, wearing a half-smile. "Don't get me wrong, darling. I admire a person who does whatever's necessary."

Apparently, Jack did not hold grudges unless it involved mutiny and ship-stealing, a fact which relieved Joanna. Despite herself, she was fond of Jack and would have hated to spend this voyage in awkward silence.

"You're smarter than you look," she told him with a grin.

His eyebrows flicked toward his headscarf. "Thank you?"

"You're welcome," Joanna said. She turned serious, fiddling with the fraying hem of her dress-turned-shirt as she spoke again. "But that doesn't mean I trust you."

Jack's smile widened. "You'd be a fool to do so, luv."

Suddenly rankled, Joanna frowned. "Why do you call me that?"

"Call you what?"

"Darling, dear, love," Joanna said, waving a hand impatiently. "I met you five days ago."

"Ah," Jack said. He was unapologetic as he explained. "Jus' falls out of me mouth, darling." He frowned. "Now I won't be able to un-notice it."

"Don't you think it's rude?" Joanna pressed. If Joanna waltzed around calling everyone darling she'd be labeled a harlot.

"Pirate," Jack reminded her with a smirk. "I don't think it's rude. Means I like you." He tacked on a wink.

Good lord. Joanna rolled her eyes and hoped the relative darkness hid her blush. "I do have a name. You could call me by my name."

"Cannot!" Jack protested. "You don't like when I call you Jo."

"My name is Joanna, not Jo," Joanna insisted, unconsciously raising her voice. "Jo is a nickname and it's not yours to call me."

"Joanna is too long," Jack continued. Joanna snorted in disbelief. "It hardly rolls off the tongue, dear."

"That's your problem."

"How about Anna, then?"

"No," Joanna said reflexively, although she did not hate the idea. It was the principle of it.

"Ann?"

"No." Joanna glared at him. Anna was better than Ann, she thought. Blast, she did not want a nickname at all. "Leave off. If it's so important, go on calling me darling."

"Fine," Jack said, grinning. He'd gotten what he wanted in the first place, Joanna realized.

"You're incorrigible and strange," Joanna told him. Jack chuckled.

The rest of the journey was spent mostly in friendly silence. Jack Sparrow had the remarkable talent of making captivity bearable, Joanna found.

~

Deranged woman or not, Joanna was still a woman. When Norrington, Jack, and the military sailed away from the Dauntless to the caves of Isla de Muerta, she watched them from the railing, Elizabeth at her side.

Joanna was fidgety, squeezing the rail until her knuckles went white. "I should be with them."

Elizabeth placed her hand over Joanna's, squeezing reassuringly. "They're more than capable, Joanna. Will will be fine."

"Will will," Joanna quietly echoed the funny phrase. "Still. It's not as if I can't handle myself." With a frustrated scowl, Joanna looked at Elizabeth. "You, too. Especially you. We've both gotten this far. Why aren't we with them?"

Elizabeth gazed back with a frown, hesitating over her reply. Before she could say anything, someone coughed behind them.

"Milady," said the officer to Elizabeth, deigning Joanna with only a glance. It was Lieutenant Andrew Gillette; the same lieutenant Joanna, Jack, and Will had taken as a hostage in order to seize the Dauntless. With this in mind, Joanna couldn't begrudge him his obvious distaste for her. "Please allow me to escort you to the Great Cabin."

"What for?" Elizabeth quizzed.

"Your protection, Miss."

Elizabeth's eyebrows flew into her hairline. "My protection?" She contended, and so began the Battle of Confining Elizabeth to the Great Cabin.

~

Several long, embarrassing minutes later, Elizabeth pounded her fists on the cabin door, bellowing, "This is Jack Sparrow's doing!"

Probably, Joanna thought, although she wasn't sure which part of their situation Elizabeth was specifically referring to.

The Battle of Confining Elizabeth to the Great Cabin ended in the Navy's favor, since there were more men than there were angry governor's daughters. Elizabeth was quickly overwhelmed and shoved into the Captain's Cabin.

One of those men had off-handedly asked, in reference to Joanna, "Should we bring her, too?" Another replied, "Guess so." As a result, Joanna joined Elizabeth. Joanna did not attempt to elbow anybody's nose in the process, unlike her companion. If she was to wait this out, she would rather do so in a comfortable chair than the deck or brig.

"What happened to 'they're more than capable'?" Joanna, sitting in one of those comfortable chairs, asked Elizabeth with a grin.

"Well, now I'm upset!" Elizabeth snapped, pacing furiously. She stopped abruptly and fixed Joanna with a hard gaze. "You were absolutely right. We should be with them."

Joanna's eyes widened. She recognized that conniving stare. "What's your plan?"

Joanna could practically see the gears whirring behind Elizabeth's eyes. Eventually, Elizabeth's face lit up with an idea.

"Tear down those curtains," Elizabeth ordered. Gleefully, Joanna rushed to obey.

~

"My father will be so displeased," Elizabeth said eagerly as their little boat coasted away from the Dauntless and toward the Black Pearl. She was rowing, filled with a stubborn determination that rivalled Joanna's nervous energy.

Joanna thought briefly of her own father, miles away and probably drunk. "The news of my criminal turn has probably sent mine into cataplexy," she said wryly.

"My father will have both you and Will pardoned when we return home," Elizabeth said confidently. Joanna was less sure, but she admired her friend's enthusiasm.

There was a name missing in Elizabeth's declaration, Joanna realized. "Not Jack?" Joanna questioned.

Elizabeth frowned. Her arms stilled briefly, oars lax, before she resumed rowing. "You and Will committed acts of piracy in order to rescue me. Jack commits acts of piracy as a career."

"You haven't always had such a bone to pick with piracy," Joanna pointed out, remembering young Elizabeth bouncing around the smithy and wielding a wooden stick as a sword.

"That was before I was kidnapped, nearly sacrificed, and marooned," Elizabeth said dryly.

Joanna figured that was certainly enough to entitle someone to a picking bone. Nevertheless, she pressed on, "Jack has saved your life at least twice, you know."

Elizabeth's retort was matter-of-fact. "He's held me at gunpoint at least twice."

"We would not be sitting here, in this boat, were it not for Jack Sparrow," Joanna insisted. "Will and I would never have made it out of Port Royal. Jack may be insufferable, but..." You would have bled out over a chest of cursed Aztec gold without him, Joanna thought but tactfully did not say.

Elizabeth sighed. "I will fight for him when we return home. Regardless of my own feelings, his chances will be slim."

Silence fell. Joanna's thoughts seemed determined to return to Jack. She hoped that by the end of this, Jack and the Black Pearl could meet again on better terms.

~

"Bloody pirates," Elizabeth growled several disappointing minutes later. She was folded into an angry ball at the far end of the boat.

Joanna, conscious of her friend's frustration, had offered to take a turn with the oars. She yanked them through the water and smiled. "'They're just guidelines, anyway'," Joanna quoted Elizabeth with a chuckle. "That was beautiful."

"It's something Barbossa said to me," Elizabeth murmured.

Knowing that, Joanna found it less amusing. She sighed. "Taking the Pearl is fair to them, I suppose. The Interceptor was lost, after all."

"Bloody inconvenient for us," said Elizabeth. Her eyes sharpened. "We'll do just fine on our own."

Joanna was consumed by déjà vu as she and Elizabeth heaved the boat onto the black beach. Unlike last time, there was no lantern; she and Elizabeth stuck close to each other as they navigated the tunnels.

Soon, the gleam of endless gold illuminated the close walls. Joanna grabbed Elizabeth's hand and tugged her to the same window she, Jack, and Will had occupied only two days ago. Joanna and Elizabeth peered into the shiny cavern with wide eyes.

Jack was dancing around and over the towers of wealth with Barbossa hot on his tail. Barbossa seemed consumed by mad, bubbling amusement; he cackled as his sword swept through the places Jack used to be. Jack was not a great swordsman, Joanna noted -- but he was athletic, efficiently dodging blows and darting around Barbossa like a fairy.

Will, on the other hand, was a magnificent fiend with his blade. He sliced and diced, his posture perfect and proud, his feet forever graceful and quick. He fought off three crew members of the Black Pearl at once, barely breaking a sweat.

Despite herself, Joanna's attention slipped back to Jack, who grinned fiercely as Barbossa's sword nearly stole his nose. The two of them charged through a spot of moonlight, pooling in from the ceiling -- Joanna was startled to see both of them flicker into skeletons.

In the moonlight, they are shown as they truly are. Skeletons. Rotting, Elizabeth had said in a shivery voice. Had Jack been this way the whole time, Joanna wondered? Secretly dead and decomposing? She dismissed the thought as soon as it flitted through her mind -- she had, afterall, danced around a fire with Jack and Elizabeth as the moon smiled above them. Jack must have stolen a coin for himself, Joanna deduced, to increase his chances. Brilliantly mad, Joanna thought.

"We might as well just spectate," Joanna whispered incredulously. "He's -- they're fantastic."

"I, for one, don't intend to sit idly," Elizabeth said with fire. "But we shouldn't rush in."

"Of course," Joanna murmured. She tore her eyes from Jack Sparrow and began searching the treasure trove for anything like a weapon. "Elizabeth -- there, that staff, do you see it?"

"Yes," said Elizabeth with a firm nod. "That should suit me."

"Alright." Joanna saw other things -- a small dagger, which would not do, and a lamp, which would be unwieldy. It was Elizabeth who hissed, "Look there -- that's, um, a dao, isn't it?"

It was indeed a Chinese dao, a not-terribly-long sword with a wide blade. Its hilt was embedded with gold and jewels, Joanna noted with wide eyes.

"You're decent with a sword, aren't you?" Elizabeth pressed when Joanna said nothing. "I've seen you and Will practice."

"That sword is worth more than my life," Joanna grumbled. She had never handled a dao before; she expected she would not enjoy the balance of it, due to her long favoritism of a straight, thin rapier. But a sword was a sword and they should not waste time, so Joanna said, "It'll do. Let's go."

They scuttled down from their window, sending gold and jewels tumbling. Elizabeth snatched up the staff -- she seemed surprised by its weight as she shifted it in her hands. After a pause, she set her jaw and held it firmly.

Joanna hefted the dao with trepidation. As expected, she found the large blade off-putting. Beggars can't be choosers, Joanna decided. She squeezed the handle to reassure herself.

Five days ago, Joanna wore a dress and brandished a needle. Today, she would champion slacks and a Chinese dao.