Take Off Your Dress, Pick Up A Sword

a creative solution

Joanna's foot tapped impatiently. "Can you see anything?" She demanded of Jack, who was crouched before a thimble-sized hole in the hull.

"Barbossa's run out the sweeps. The oars," Jack said, clarifying for her sake. "And..." His lips twitched, like he wanted to smile but could not quite muster it. "The Interceptor's tossing things over the side."

Joanna swallowed her reservations and knelt beside Jack, soaking her lower legs. "What? Why?"

"The Pearl's the fastest ship to've tasted the sea," Jack said with a glint of pride. "An' the Interceptor knows it. They're lightening the load, gaining speed."

"I can't tell whether you want us to catch up or for them to escape," Joanna observed wryly.

"They'll hafta fight," Jack murmured, ignoring the jibe. "They can't outrun her."

Will and Elizabeth, shooting at her. Joanna could hardly stand the irony.

Joanna stood, splashing Jack as she did so. He shot her a half-hearted glare. "If I die in this cell," Joanna told him, "because you pulled me in the wrong direction back in that cave..." Joanna barked an ominous laugh and tugged despairingly at her hair.

"Shh!" Came Jack's snappish reply. Joanna wanted to kick him. "The Interceptor's come around."

"Let me see!" Joanna commanded, crouching so she could shove him aside. He gave a put-upon sigh but complied. Indeed, the Interceptor had become visible through the scant eyehole. Joanna watched the blue-and-yellow brig swing around, her gun ports gaping.

Jack jostled her elbow. "Lemme look again."

"No," said Joanna petulantly. "You had it a long time al..." She trailed off, gazing at those gun ports; they were crawling with men, screaming vulgar curses and waving...forks. "Jack, they're loading the guns with silverware."

"What? Let me see," Jack complained. Joanna rolled her eyes at his tone but shifted away. "Damn. They're nothing if not creative."

Joanna couldn't help a small smile. Excellent work, William Turner.

The first burst of cannon fire startled Joanna. She jumped and glanced upward, listening to the roaring curses and thudding feet of men eager to kill her friends.

Jack suddenly leaped away from the eyehole, yelling "Get down!" Joanna obeyed without thinking, throwing herself to the far corner of the cell.

The crunch of shot shattering the hull followed immediately. Joanna lifted her head cautiously, staring stunned at a hole where her body had just been.

She'd landed in such a way that she was almost tucked into Jack's side. She scrambled away, scanning him for injuries. "Are you alright?"

Jack sat up too, glaring at the casualty in the hull. "Aye," he said. "I wish they wouldn't blow holes in my ship."

"What do you..." Expect, Joanna intended to finish, but her eyes caught on the cell door, hanging sadly on its hinges. "Jack, look!"

Jack looked. His eyes brightened. "Lovely," he said, jumping to his feet. "Let's be off, darling."

~

Joanna and Jack charged up the stairs into a warzone, brimming with smoke and battle cries. Joanna, having spent all her years wallowing peacefully in a blacksmith's, stared around with wide eyes.

"No time to gawk," Jack said briskly, pressing her forward with a hand at the small of her back. "We need to get out of here."

"No need to tell me twice," Joanna said. Amidst the chaos, no one seemed to notice them. "Can we get across on the mast?"