AN: Look! I'm updating! I am going to grovel to all your feet and beg for forgiveness for being so slow at starting this story again. Basically, I got a new computer, and the word processing totally wasn't compatible with my old one, and I finally manage to convert it over after strenuous amounts of frustration. Technology and I don't get along. To top it all off, I got a new story going, this time a HP fic, which I am psyched about. Personally, I would think it comparable to All For You, but that is my opinion, which is very biased since I am writing it. Regardless, I will be spending more time on this story...and eventually on Given, which I am having massive writers block on. For anyone interested, my new story is called The Unconquerable Meryl Lane.

Thank you to all who review, you give me reason to write.

As always, enjoy.

The next morning, the first thing I did was sneak into Jack's cabin and lay on his desk a "Why Drinking is Bad for You" pamphlet--courtesy of my school guidance consular, who I think would have been better employed guiding Jack.

After that, I wandered around for ten minutes until resigning to mop the deck, since I really had nothing better to do. I found this just a trifle annoying; Jack was knocked out still, and after so steadfastly trying to avoid this type of work, it seemed almost hypocritical to pick up the bucket and haul it out on deck. But, alas, the truth was it needed to be done, and if I had learned anything from this trip so far, it was you do not sit around and do nothing. Especially with Meg around.

So I mopped.

And it was just my luck that, thirty minutes into it, Elias found it his duty to come and prop himself up on a barrel and hold a conversation.

Another little interesting tid bit of information concerning none other than me: I DON'T talk when I'm working--I mean, working well. My mind tends to being a one-track thought process (obviously, I don't multi-task), and when I'm trying to do a good job on an assignment, that's the only thing I can do.

Yet I never had time to explain that to Elias.

"You're up early," he commented, still chewing on an apple. I had opted for an early, light breakfast this morning since my stomach had been upsetting me.

My response was grunt.

"You do realize Jack isn't up yet."

Another grunt.

"And you're still mopping?"

Grunt.

Elias leapt off the barrel and leaned over me. "You missed a spot."

I turned and glared at him before continuing.

It was silent for a minute, and I almost thought that Elias was going to leave and bug somebody else (he reminded me vividly of his half brother…which also happened to still freak me out a little). Almost. Then he spoke again.

"So…do you know Ashley well?"

That was the last straw.

" Not you too!" I yelped, nearly throwing the mop down in frustration. Not to make myself sound jealous or anything of Ashley's attention, but it was rather upsetting to see all the men on the ship bow down to her. Come on! I mean, it's not like I'd need a lot of it, but I'd like a little attention as well! It's intimidating to be overshadowed by another girl--certainly not a self-esteem booster.

I'm sure at different points in our lives, we realize that, in the end, the female sex is really engaged in a huge competition to the death. We live to win. Against each other. There is no prize, no brownie points for a particularly cute outfit or haircut, only the conformation from other females to being superior.

And I was losing.

Elias's expression showed all the confusion and dismay of any other man; of course they wouldn't understand, men didn't bother with "sizing each other up" the same way women did. "What on earth do you mean?"

"As if you don't notice," I grumbled, smacking the mop to the ground. "Ashley has been the focus of every other man on this ship since we left port. I should give you all a name. The Ashleyites. A collection of followers devoted to the sole purpose of spoiling Ashley Blake rotten and groveling at her feet."

"You don't like her?"

"NO! I love her! She's one of the coolest people I know. This does not change the fact that the entire ship is tied around her little finger. It's irritating."

Elias shook his head slowly. "Ashley…let me explain something about her that you may not have noticed. Ashley is…approachable."

I narrowed my eyes defensively. "How are Meg and I not approachable?"

Note that at this point, I had the mop raised like a club, and I was hunched over like a batter ready to hit the ball.

"Well…" Elias rubbed his neck worriedly, "both of you are very…out spoken. And the captain kind of warned everyone about you the first night out."

"ABOUT WHAT?"

"Just everything that had happened previous to your arrival to Tortuga."

Great! Jack was the reason none of the crew would speak to us! The past week or so had been mildly miserable only because I had felt slightly cut off from everyone else. He had planned it. I was sure of it.

I was going to get him.

Throwing down my mop, I stormed up to Jack's cabin, with Elias hot on my heels. "What are you doing?"

"Do you have any history of dueling for family honor and or revenge?" I asked pounding ferociously on the door.

"What? No."

"Good, because I'm about to kill your brother." I grabbed at the handle, but just at that moment, the door swung open to reveal Jack standing there, looking utterly wasted and disheveled, and holding my "Why Drinking is Bad for You" pamphlet loosely in his hand.

"What the *#& is this?" he grunted, shoving it in my face. "And where the #$%& did you get it?"

"Quit swearing at me and sit down," I ordered. "I have a bone to pick with you."

"Another one," Jack stated, sending his eyes heavenward in frustration. "Elias, please do me the favor of escorting her toward her dear friends Mr. Mop and Mrs. Bucket and then join me at the helm with that concoction Cotton made up for me the other night. Lyn--whatever nonsense you have against me can wait until lunch time."

" Oh no it won't! Why in the world were you warning the crew about Meg and I? How on earth are we dangerous? We're two seventeen year old girls with no experience of any kind with any weapon etc."

I didn't get to see Jack expression (no doubt exasperation) because Elias had unceremoniously grabbed my waist and slung me over his shoulder. I also didn't bother screaming because at that moment, I noticed Ashley stomping over here with Meg and Will in tow, along with just about every other available male in the vicinity.

"Captain Sparrow, I have a small issue to address," hissed Ashley, looking like a harpy with her own uncombed hair and irritated eyes.

I glanced at Meg, who was giving me the "what-heck-are-you-doing?" look. I copied her look, and she just shrugged and pointed at Ashley's feet. They were bare.

Ouch. Splinters.

" My shoes are missing," she stated. "And as you have reminded me many times, you are the man in charge, so naturally I came here for an answer. You better provide me with one."

"Ahh, yes, darling Ashley. I'm glad you came to me," sighed Jack as he walked up and slung an arm around her waist.

Pervert.

" I went to bed early last night," she continued, "and went to sleep fairly quickly. I don't suppose you saw anyone leaving my room with my shoes? After all, since you are the man in charge, you should be completely and utterly aware of these things."

"Why would anyone take her shoes?" I asked. "And you can put me down, Elias."

" Don't let go of her," ordered Jack. "Unless you are the culprit, in which case--"

"We share a room. Where would I put them?"

"Ahh! Sharing a room! A perfect alibi!" exclaimed Jack, raising a finger and smiling triumphantly. "As for where you would put them, naturally you would attempt to frame someone else!"

Okay, considering it was still technically early morning, all this was just too weird for me to comprehend. But even if I had been fully function, it still would have made no sense. Ashley's shoes? Missing? WHY? And why me?

Something very suspicious was going on…

"Small problem, Jack," piped up Meg. "Lyn doesn't have a motive."

"And for that matter, why would anyone have a motive to stealing a pair of ladies boots?" I added, attempting to wiggle out of Elias's grasp. He grabbed my legs tighter and I gave up.

"To wear them?" offered a crew member.

Kudos for trying, mate.

"Revenge?" suggested Elias.

"Who on this ship holds a grudge against Ashley?" I asked. Elias turned slightly to give me a look, but I just rolled my eyes. Stealing shoes would be a stupid way to strike terror into the heart of any enemy worthy of revenge.

"Attention?" was Meg's idea.

"Yeah, like a little five year old child," I grumbled.

Jack looked mildly affronted, but continued anyway. "Okay, so we have eliminated Lyn as a suspect. Who has a room close to the three women?"

Oh. So now were women…as opposed to little girls.

"I do," said Will. "And so does Gibbs, I believe."

"Aha! Suspects!" He grinned proudly at Ashley, who was clever enough to look annoyed.

"If Will had been the one taking the shoes, why would he offer himself up?" Meg countered.

"Because he thought we would think him innocent for saying that he was close to the room of the victim. Reverse psychology."

"Reverse psychology does not function this early in the morning!" Meg answered, crossing her arms.

"It's only eight," yelled out a crew member.

Only eight. I would be asleep in bed on a Saturday if I were still at home; and it was a Saturday, and I wished I could be home. Obviously, that wasn't happening.

"This isn't solving what happened to my shoes," snapped Ashley, glaring at Jack and the surrounding men. "Personally, I don't think it was either Meg or Lyn, and certainly not Will, or Gibbs for that matter."

" Well, my love, why don't we test that hypothesis?" suggested Jack, grinning cheerfully--too cheerfully. Something was up. I could smell it…especially since he was only standing a few feet away (bathing is still a foreign concept to these people…).

Without another word, he strutted off below deck, with the rest of the crew in tow; if a navy vessel had wanted to take us without a fight, this would have been the time. I could just see the headline now:

"PIRATE CREW TAKEN WITHOUT STRUGGLE; SUCCESS GIVEN TO A PAIR OF BOOTS"

Thank heavens they don't have the New York Times here.

We arrived at Will's little cabin with Jack, Ashley, Meg, Will, Gibbs, Elias, Cotton, Anamaria, and I all smashing ourselves in; the rest of the peanut gallery remained outside in the hall.

"Now, the scene of the crime…" began Jack. He slipped behind the hammock and reappeared holding a pair of women's boots. "I believe these are yours."

The grin gracing his face was almost pitiful--too eager to please and wanting to be accepted.

HONESTLY? Even Jack? What was it with Ashley? WHY? I need an answer! Because I don't get it!!!

It appeared that Will was the ONLY male on this ship who wasn't entirely under Ashley's thumb, and I couldn't understand. Was it her charm? Last I checked, Ashley wasn't particularly charming…maybe clever and witty, but not charming. Her eyes? They were brown…just brown. Hair? Brown again! Whatever it was, the men here were crazy over it. There was no stopping them.

Wait, it gets worse.

"How did you know those were there?" asked Anamaria, suspiciously, crossing her arms.

Jack cleared his throat. "Intuition of the captain. Natural. I don't expect you to understand."

"Bull crap!" exclaimed Meg, coming next to Anamaria. "You would to have previously known that the boots were in Will's room to have found them so easily. This looks like a set up!"

At this point, Ashley lost her patience.

" You framed Will?!" she screamed, snatching her boots from Jack. "Why on earth would you frame Will for something like this? And why did you steal my boots?"

I restrained myself from jumping up and down yelling "I have the answer!" Because I knew full well why Jack did that--attention. From Ashley. I'm sure he saw it go differently in his head.

Jack raised his chin and crunched his eyebrows together. "You have no proof this was a set up."

" Oh, you mean aside from the fact that you knew exactly where they were, and that they happened to be in Will's room, and you just happened to have Will as a suspect," snarled Ashley, shoving her boots on. Then she turned to Will, the man of the hour, her expression significantly softened. "I never suspected you for an instant; I know you wouldn't be as base to steal my shoes."

Will blushed deeply and shuffled his feet. "Umm…thank you. I'm sorry about everything that's happened this morning. Even if I wasn't…really involved."

Enter sappy look from Ashley. Barf.

If looks could kill, Will would have been dead, with a barrage of daggers in his head and body. Jack was glowering with such hate and spite that I could feel it ten feet away. It was deadly. Revengeful. Murderous. And creeping me out.

"Okay, break time is over," yelled out Gibbs, motioning with his hands for the crew to move. "Back to work; this floating castle can't sail on her own."

It was at this moment of distraction that I slipped out of Elias' grasp rather ungracefully; he motioned to snatch me up again, but I held up my arms karate style. "No touchy."

"Jack…" he drawled. But I doubt Jack was really listening. He was standing straight and staring fixedly toward the departed Will and his posse (Ashley and Meg) with a sullen, haunted stare. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said he was mentally ill.

"Jack! We are talking. Now." I ran up to him and snagged his sleeve. He snapped his head down at me, flames almost leaping from his eyes.

I was a little frightened, and automatically, I cowered away, though I still was grasping his shirt arm. Up until now, I have seen him very, very angry, but not…deadly; Will really ought to be watching his back.

All because of one stupid girl! Let me rephrase that (Ashley isn't stupid…): all because of one…girl! I suppose by this point I ought to be expecting stuff like this to happen, especially since history is riddled with this particular issue (after all, how did the Trojan War start?). But why here? Why now? Why must it happen while I am present?

"Jack? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Leave."

He shoved me roughly to the ground and stormed out of the room, Elias hot on his heels. Well, I wasn't going to have any of that--if he had asked me nicely, I would have dropped the subject.

But no one can just push me around, thank you very much.

I stumbled after them until I had reached Jack, and I took his elbow. "Listen, Captain. All I want to do is try and…assist a little, but you really don't need to be--"

The next thing I saw were bright lights and the wooden floor, with a shooting pain from my head. Both Jack and Elias had stopped walking and were standing silently as statues. It took me a moment to realize what had happened. I had been backhanded; not terribly hard, but hard enough to send me to the ground and bang my head (the falling part mostly to due my lack of balance...but that is irrelevant). When I finally got up, both were still there, stony faced.

As I said, no one can just push me around.

My anger at its breaking point, I raised my fist and gave Jack a good punch in the jaw before storming away to the galley.

" For the hundredth time, Lyn, I'm sorry."

The more forgiving side of me believed Jack; my very cynical side didn't. Unfortunately for Jack, because I was still extremely livid, it was my cynical side I was listening to.

He had dragged me up to his cabin after dinner--a very silent affair for myself. Meg knew I was angry, and also knew not to talk to me, though I did promise to explain after wards when we were alone. Elias, with his usual cocky attitude, thought it might be amusing to join us, and was now lounging carelessly on the bed, flipping a spare coin in the air thoughtlessly. Jack's original intentions had been to "straighten things out", though now it appeared it was mostly to apologize. Out of sight of the crew.

"Then please explain WHY you were so angry--to the point of HITTING me--about nothing in particular."

This must have been the fifth time I had asked the question, and once again, Jack turned away and brooded, mumbling incoherently to the side.

"Good grief!" I exclaimed, throwing myself back into my seat in irritation. "What is it with men and their egos?"

" And what makes you think you have all the answers?" Jack shot back, glancing at me testily.

" I'm not the criminal master-mind here, you are!"

" And just because you were dragged unwillingly into this little adventure does not make you supremely right, yeh little twit."

I narrowed his eyes at his odd choice of insult and opened my mouth to respond, but found very quickly I had nothing to say. Embarrassment flooded over, and after turning a beautifully crimson color in my face, I huffed indignantly and folded my arms.

But he wasn't done--all I can guess is that he had been storing this up inside of himself and had been waiting for the perfect moment to release it. "You know what your problem is, Lyn? You're too demanding. Both of you. And you are just plain too loud for women, or girls for that matter. Women are supposed to be soft and quiet and well-spoken and…pleasant. A rebel once in awhile is okay because it happens so little. Most women I have talked to like their position--I would suggest you two follow their examples."

" What you really don't like is that were individualistic," I countered. "I don't know why, and I don't know what threat it could possibly pose to you, but you're afraid of it."Jack rolled his eyes and flung himself into his large, very comfortable looking chair. Elias was snickering again, like the typical nineteen year old he was. "Just remember. You brought us here."

"And I'd remove you if Will would give me a chance."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, wishing that Meg was here with me. Had she heard this conversation, we could probably come up with some smart comment that would leave us laughing. But she wasn't here, and now Jack was bluntly making death threats toward us. "Maybe you'll be grateful that we're here," I tried weakly, but already, I could feel tears start to come toward the surface, which I worked very hard on suppressing.

"Never. All you've caused is trouble. First, you almost sink the ship, scratch up the mast, pick up a girl from Tortuga and drag her along, not to mention you're just about causing a riot with my crew."

Thankfully, it was too dark for him to see my very distressed face, but this causing a riot with the crew was just too much. "That's boloney. The crew doesn't give us a second glance."

Elias snorted. "You're too oblivious for you're own good, missy. You're a women on a ship full of men. Two very pretty girls are going to get the attention of men in that situation, hands down. They just don't say anything because it's clear Will is very protective of you both."

This was news for me. All of it. Had I been in a better mood, I would have been grateful that Will was bothering to even care about our situation, but at the moment, I was concerned about only one thing. "So basically, you'd like it if Meg and I chucked ourselves overboard?"

"Basically, to use your phrasing," conceded Jack.

That was it. I stood up, and with tears in my eyes, I choked out, "I didn't want to come. I wanted to go home." Not able to say anything else, I turned and exited, but before I could go below deck, a hand whipped out and caught me. It was Elias.

He seemed to be sympathetic toward me, but I really didn't want to hear anything, and tried to shake him away. "Listen, Lyn. Jack has had a hard life...and it seems like this is his chance to improve things, for the first time in ten years. He's not totally there, you know."

I nodded, sighing. "I know."

If only I had an excuse like that.