There was only so much to be pillaged in a modest colony like Port Royal. The pirates cleared out as the sun brought dawn, taking with them anything of value and leaving Port Royal in absolute disarray.

Joanna only emerged from her hiding spot when she heard others doing the same, stirring with cries of mourning and fury. She stood, straightened her skirts, and then carefully guided the tip of the rapier through the bunched fabric at her waist. The hilt came to rest around the mouth of the hole created by the blade. Having solved the baldric problem, Joanna brushed off her hands and marched into the streets.

It took something like thirty minutes of searching, but Joanna found Will near the port, lying as still as a corpse. "Oh God," she moaned, rushing to his side. "Oh my God -- Will!" She shook him vigorously, conscious of the nearby townspeople's pitying eyes on her back. "Will, please wake -- oh Will, thank God."

He was coming around, blinking dazedly at her and his surroundings. "Jo," he said weakly. He clasped her hand as she threw her arms around him, holding him tight, despondent with the knowledge he could've been dead, he could've been dead.

She released him with a sniffle, clasping his hand and helping him to his feet. "Sorry, Will, I just -- well, you know."

He offered her a smile, wan and tired. "Sorry for frightening you. I'm glad you're alright."

"Same to you. I can't say the same for the smithy, though." Joanna said and winced with a fresh wave of guilt. "I couldn't hold them off, Will, I'm sorry. And --" she swallowed hard, "I don't know what happened to Brown."

Will's eyes took on a faraway look as she spoke. "We'll visit him later," he said remotely, then grabbed her hand, dragging her after him as he began a determined trek toward Fort Charles.

She wrestled her hand free, gawking at him. "What's gotten into you?"

"Elizabeth," he said soberly. "The pirates -- they took her."

Joanna's jaw dropped at this new information. "Shit," she muttered. "Did you -- did you see it happen?"

Will nodded, jaw tight. Joanna bit her lip and followed him up the road.

There were a few things in this world that were absolutely certain, and one of them was that William Turner was undoubtedly, unequivocally, unavoidably in love with Elizabeth Swann. Joanna had watched him pine after her ever since the two of them arrived in Port Royal. If you asked Will about it, he would probably flush and mutter about how inappropriate a thing it was to accuse him of. As an expert in annoying Will Turner, Joanna would know.

The Commodore, the Governor, and assorted Navy officers were meeting underneath a parapet of the fort, bent over sprawling maps and speaking urgently to one another. Will, full of so much pent-up agitation Joanna could practically hear him buzzing with it, charged forward into their convention. He looked dirty amidst the pressed jackets and curled wigs of Port Royal's finest citizens.

"They've taken her! They've taken Elizabeth!" Will contended, looking desperately from one clean face to the next. Joanna, demur at the bottom of the stairs, cringed.

Norrington spared Will a passionless glance before leaning back over the maps. "Mr. Murtogg, remove this man."

Will shrugged off Murtogg's timid hands. "We have to hunt them down, we must save her!"

Governor Swann whirled to face him, face pale and tight. "And where do you propose we start?" His mouth twitched in despair. "If you have any information concerning my daughter, please share it."

Murtogg hesitantly piped up. "That Jack Sparrow. He talked about the Black Pearl."

The Black Pearl. Joanna shivered with morbid excitement. If that was the ship that had laid waste to Port Royal the previous evening, then a ghost story had visited their city.

"Ask him where it is!" Will proposed. "Make a deal with him. He could lead us to it."

Norrington's reply was tired and long-suffering. Joanna felt a prickle of indignation on Will's behalf. "No. The pirates who invaded this fort left Sparrow locked in his cell; ergo, they are not his allies." He turned to the Governor. "Governor, we will establish their most likely --"

He was cut off by the thud of Will's ax, burying itself in the table. Everyone startled at the sound. "That's not good enough!" Will pronounced, then looked surprised at his own boldness.

With an efficient flick of the wrist, Norrington removed the hatchet from the table. "Mr. Turner. You are not a military man, you are not a sailor." He pressed the ax into Will's arms. "You are a blacksmith."

A vein twitching in his forehead, he nudged Will toward the exit -- toward Joanna. Norrington's eyes met hers for a moment before he turned his harsh gaze onto Will once more. "Do not make the mistake that you are the only man here who cares for Elizabeth," he uttered, then shoved Will in Joanna's direction.

Joanna felt so many pairs of eyes scathing over her and Will -- his stained shirt, her torn skirt. She sent the Navy men a hard glare before grabbing Will's shoulder, guiding him away with a quiet, "C'mon, Will."

He was pink with fury and humiliation. Finally, he dared to look up, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "This isn't the way back to the smithy."

Joanna spared a thought for her father. She wondered if he was worried about her. He's got his bottle, she thought.

"It damn well isn't," she said, and it was easy.

~

"Shh," Joanna hissed at Will, grabbing his arm to prevent him from caterwauling down the stairs like an avalanche. "This is stealth. Stealth."

Will made a face at her but obeyed, following her carefully down the steps into the evidently ill-guarded prison.

As they reached the bottom of the stairwell, Joanna placed a finger to her lips, requesting silence. She gestured for Will to come forward.

They peered around the corner and observed Jack Sparrow's attempts to free himself, picking the lock to his cell with a fragment of bone.

Amused, Joanna shot Will a wide grin. He rolled his eyes and brushed past her without a word.

"You. Sparrow," he accused, striding forward as if the devil was at his heels. Jack jolted in surprise and jumped away from his lock-picking venture with a chagrined expression. "That ship, the Black Pearl. You're familiar with it?"

Jack crossed his legs and plopped to the floor. He was far too chipper for one destined for the noose, Joanna thought. "I've heard of it."

In the daylight cast by the crumbling gap in the side of the fort, Jack looked golden and harmless. Joanna could admit he was rather handsome, in a grimy, untamed way, now that he wasn't making attempts on her life.

"Where does it make berth?" Will interrogated.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Have you not heard the stories?" His dark eyes flickered to Joanna. "Mayhaps Miss Joanna here can enlighten you."

"I --" she glanced nervously at Will, who didn't know of Joanna's fondness for sea legends. She had admitted to Jack, however, of following his adventures, whilst he cataloged a new one in her smithy. "The Black Pearl has been terrorizing the Caribbean for about ten years. It's rumored to be crewed by devils and ghosts, and it's said it makes berth at Isla de Muerta. An island that..."

The longer she spun the yarn, the higher Will's eyebrows climbed into his hairline. "...that cannot be found, except by those who know where it is," she finished lamely, face bright red.

Jack airily waved a hand. "There you have it."

"The ship is real enough. Therefore, it's anchorage must be a real place." Will concluded. He tore his eyes from Joanna only to glower at Jack. "Where is it?"

Jack studied his dirty fingernails. "Why ask me?"

"Because you're a pirate," Will said scathingly.

Jack's eyes turned mischievous, glinting at them through the bars. "An' you want to turn pirate yourself, 's that it?"

Wrong thing to say, Joanna winced, as Will seized the bars. "Never," he swore through his teeth.

Jack shrugged and turned back to his nails, admiring them in the dusty sunlight. Joanna glanced at Will -- he looked pissed enough to storm from the fort without what they came for, so she stepped in. "They kidnapped a friend of ours," she explained. The other girl you held hostage yesterday, in fact.

Jack hummed with vague interest.

Will sighed, stepping away and folding his arms. "Miss Swann," he clarified.

"Oho!" Jack exclaimed, face splitting with a grin. Will flushed. "So you wish to brave all, hasten to her rescue an' so win a fair lady's heart."

Will's foot tapped an impatient rhythm against the floor. "Will you help us or not?"

Jack leaned back on his arms and shook his head. The beads entwined with his braids and dreadlocks jangled against each other. "Sorry, mate. I see no profit in it for me."

Will's face fell. Joanna's mind spun like a dervish. They had nothing of great value between them, besides the ability to sew and the ability to forge, neither of which would be useful to Jack in the few hours he had before -- that's it.

"We can get you out of here," Joanna proclaimed with confidence.

"'ow's that?" Jack gestured down the hall, a scowl crossing his face. "The key's run off."

"Will, didn't you work on these cells?" Joanna prodded her companion. "A few years back, when they expanded the jail."

"Right." Will's eyes lit up as he scanned the bars. "These are half-pin barrel hinges. With the right leverage --" he hefted a nearby bench, wedging the legs into the bottom of the cell door, "-- and the proper application of strength, the door will lift free." He looked at Jack, determined and hopeful.

Jack was squinting at Will like he was a puzzle to figure out. "What's your name?" He asked finally.

"Will Turner."

Jack nodded slowly, tongue between his teeth. "Good, strong name," he said. "No doubt named for your father, eh?"

What an odd thing to say, Joanna thought. Will's bewildered face expressed the same thought, but he replied nonetheless, "Yes."

"Uh-huh." Jack thought for a moment more, then bounced to his feet, swaying only a little bit. "Well, Mr. Turner, I've changed me mind. If you spring me from this cell I swear on pain of death that I shall take you to the Black Pearl and your bonny lass." Jack declared dramatically, then thrust his hand through the bars. "Do we have an accord?"

Will glanced at Joanna, eyes asking the unspoken question. She shrugged. With that, Will shook Jack's hand. "Agreed."

"Agreed," Jack affirmed jovially. He made a flowery gesture at the cell door. "Now, get me out."

With a grunt, Will allocated his weight to the bench. The cell loudly groaned in protest but nonetheless fell open. Jack wasted no time, darting out of the cell as if he couldn't escape fast enough.

"Hurry, someone would have heard that," Will stated the obvious. Joanna glanced at him -- he was nervous, shoulders tight. Perhaps she should be nervous, too; a scant few hours ago, Jack had them both at gunpoint.

"Not without me effects!" Jack shot back, trotting across the jail to snatch them from the wall.

"Why bother with that?" Will challenged. Stop talking, Joanna tried to convey with her eyes, but Will wasn't looking at her. "You could have killed either of us before, but you weren't willing to use it."

"Are you advising me that was a mistake?" Jack fluently raised the pistol, hardly batting an eyelash as he cocked it. Joanna cautiously edged behind Will, who was frozen, hand halfway to his sword hilt. "When you've only got one shot, 's best to wait for the opportune moment. That wasn't it." Jack's lips lifted into a smile. "Nor is this."

The hammer of the pistol whispered as Jack lowered it, bringing to a close another brush with death for Joanna and Will.

Cowed, Will followed Jack's lead out of the fort. Joanna gathered her skirt in one hand and stuck close to Will's side. "You have really got to stop talking, sometimes, William," she said.

"Sometimes, Jo, you don't need to have the last word."

"Feels good, though," Joanna replied with a grin.

She turned her gaze on Jack as the pirate shushed them, guiding them to hide behind a pile of crumbs, formerly a wall -- leftovers from the Black Pearl's bombardment. The pirate, having donned his coat and tricorn, gazed furtively at the passing townspeople.

Joanna said quietly, "He knew your father."

Will followed her gaze; studying the uncanny, dangerous criminal they were risking their skins on. "I know," he said.