Catalina Ramston kicked as hard as she could until she broke the surface of the cold water. She winced in pain as the salt water licked her wounded shoulder. The wreckage from her ship surrounded her on all sides; the only remains of the bloody battle that had left her ship, The Entourage, to begin its decent to the bottom of the ocean. As a piece of rigging floated by her, she clutched onto it knowing full well she couldn't think straight and keep afloat at the same time. She needed to find a way out of this situation.

It was The Black Pearl that had put her and her crew in this mess. She scanned the water for survivors from her crew. Catalina doubted that even a few of them were still alive, most were certainly on their way to the depths of the Caribbean ocean along with her ship. The Pearl had approached them from behind, but when one of her crew finally noticed it, it was to late. It was because of that they didn't have time to prepare for an attack. Apparently, The Pearl had heard tale of her recent acclimation of a map with a legend behind it that spoke of untold amounts of wealth. The Pearl not wanting complications, and more booty for its self, did what any other ship full of pirates would do and attacked in hopes of taking the map for their selves. After all isn't it easier to search bodies once their dead? And this was exactly how Catalina had gotten herself into her current situation. The only problem the Pearl had now was the ship they had wanted to search was now sinking, and their only vital piece of information was floating in the ocean clutching to a piece of rigging.

As she stared out at the wreckage and watched as it slowly sank, she thought over the last hour, and what had happened. She felt a pang of anguish not only for losing a ship, that may or may not have been hers, but also with the thought of the fate she had brought her crew. How many had survived? How many were still on the ship as it sank? When crew members of the Pearl began to board The Entourage and fire, all hell had broken loose. She had shot and been shot. She absent mindedly rubbed at her now bleeding shoulder. When the ship started taking on masses of water she knew that her escape had to be made so she jumped with a few others. A few had made it.. most quiet obviously hadn't; the dead body of the cook, Briggs floated by. Once a large number of her crew had jumped ship, the other Pirates began picking them off in the water, no need for survivors right? But it was soon after that the Pirates from the Pearl realized their mistake, they had done quite a number with bullet and canon holes on The Entourage and it was taking on too much water. Catalina now floated and watched as pirates other than her own dismembered her ship frantically trying to find the map that she had on her person. She continued to look around her looking for an escape, how long till they started searching the water? It was then, to her dismay she saw the crewmen of the Pearl already returning to their ship. They must have figured out what they needed to be looking for… her. She watched in horror as two long boats were lowered; they were going to search the water. She now only had a few options, test how long she could hold her breath, give herself up hoping they would just throw her back in, or play dead.

The two long boats drifted lazily through the water, their occupants shouting various things to each other, curses, threats, promises for a fight the usual for a pirate. The young Captain decided it best to play dead and dropped her head down near the surface of the water hoping to appear dead still drooped over the pieces of rigging she clutched dearly to. "with a bit of luck I'll be passed off for a dead crewman, and they'll pass by, they won't even recognize it's me.." Catalina thought. She floated there for a few minutes still listening to the shouts of the men in the two boats. If they moved toward her she would kick and spit as best she could with an injured shoulder. She obviously wouldn't be able to shoot them with a wet pistol, so it would be all she could do.

It was slowly occurring to her what a mess she was in, she knew she stood no chance if they pulled her out of the water-- but it was then without warning two strong tanned arms pulled her out the water and onto the floor of the boat. She let out a scream of rage as her shoulder was jarred. She tried desperately to kick out at the men who had pulled her out of the water but she was out numbered five to one and considerably down on size, being only 5'5 herself and these men more than typically large. She decided it was best to stop the struggle when only three of the five had her very restrained.. A hand roughly brushed her wet hair out of her face and their owners voice spoke, "yep its her alright".

The five men surrounding her in the small boat laughed loudly, sharing a private joke and giving her shameless looks. They must have been excited at the prospect at finding a potentially unconscious woman in the water. But instead they had ended up with a particularly feisty, small woman who was injured and trapped closely between them. She now had no other option but to be taken aboard, what was she going to do, fight them alloff? Shoot them all with a wet gun? No, she'd have to take her chances on board, take her chances with Barbossa. She stopped her struggle, remebering something she had been told once- wait for the opportune moment. And with thast she sat down on the floor of the boat.

"You know what he'll do when we get 'er on board?" a voice broke out above her,

"Take tha' map and throw her back in?" another said stupidly.

"No, take the map, an keep 'er for 'imself," The first retorted crudely.

" 's why we should 'ave a little fun 'fore we go back," A third said as a hand was placed on the small of Catalina's back, grazing the laces of the corset she wore over her tattered shirt. She struggled away from his touch and turned and stared at them, what insolence, would they really try to pull that over on their Captain? Barbossa? Idiots.

"Aye we can't do tha' he can see us from up there," another Pirate said gesturing back to the Pearl.

"Smart Man," Catalina said quietly.

"Quiet wench!" the one closest to her said raising his hand and slapping the back of it across her face. Striking her face into the chest of the one who had spoken first and who had been holding her arms the entire time. Well hell, what if she never even made it on the Pearl? Where was that opportune moment she desperately needed?

"Your right though, always does keep the best plunder for himself," the fifth said also placing a hand on her too, slowly moving it towards her face. This situation was slowly going from bad to worse.

"Aye, there are times when I wish we still 'ad Jack." The second Pirate who had spoken said. --Smack! Someone had apparently hit him;

"Ye shouldn't be sayin' things like that! We got stuff to do, we'll mess with this wench later" the one holding her said pushing her. "Can pay her a visit later I 'pose." He said leaning in to smell her hair close to her neck. She shuddered and cringed away from him as best she could, but he gripped tightly on her injured shoulder trying to keep her where she was. He leered at her, knowing exactly what he was doing.

The men surronding her laughed at this scene and then they all stopped talking. The long boat had apparently reached the ship. Catalina felt those same arms around her small waist; she struggeled again but was quickly lifted off and upward onto a ladder extending to the Black Pearl. Without warning she was tossed very hard onto the deck of the ship. She reminded still and laid there clutching her shoulder. The deck of the ship was busy, Catalina who was face down couldn't see and could only hear, but she recognized the sounds of canons being stowed, ropes being folded and tons of foot falls. She felt someone moving near her hip but didn't care, the pain was to intense in her shoulder so she continued to lay still.

"Leave the girl her gun, she can't use it, to wet, it'll give her a false sense of security." …aah so the opportune moment would come she thought slowly as pain still seered through her, glad to know she'd stay attached to her gun. But then it hi her whom that voice that had spoken above her belonged to, she knew that voice.. The sound was coming from somewhere near her her head; she was kicked roughly over onto her back, probably bruising her ribs. "That bastard," she thought to herself, picturing Barbossa's smug face as he kicked her small form all over his ship. The ass was probably enjoying beating a woman. Catalina let her head loll as her body flopped over onto her back. She kept her eyes closed preferring not to look at the man standing above her head smirking down at her. A cold bucket of water was poured over her, near her shoulder causing pain to shoot through it again as salt water once again entered her wound. A foot kicked at her again. She spluttered in surprise and now tried to get up. Two strong arms once again hauled her up, now holding her slightly up off her feet. Catalina's eyes adjusted and focused onto the face of Captain Barbossa, who was standing in front of her gloating down at her, he too was considerably larger than she even while she was being held up off her feet.

"Welcome aboard the Black Pearl Miss Ramston. Hows the shoulder?" He laughed loudly at the joke, now joined by the rest of the crew as they stopped their work to listen in to the conversation.

Catalina struggled against her holder, and out at Barbossa, "Its Captain Ramston. And I swear to you Barbossa you kick me again, I'll cut off your leg and beat you with it" She replied angrily matching her stare.

For the second time that day a hand collide with her face, this time with such force her head jerked to the side and into the chest of the man holding her. She spat again, but this time blood, out onto the deck. The crew surrounding her laughed manically. Crazy Bastard. The hands holding her pushed her down to the deck hard so she landed on her hands and knees. She grabbed at her gun, if she couldn't shoot it, she'd beat him over the head with it, but before she managed it, She was pulled up by her wet hair, he face pulled up level to look right into Barbossa's eyes.

"It's Captain Barbossa, my dear." He smiled again at his own joke, "And I do suppose I'll be taking that gun now." He said placing his hand on her hip and tracing it suggestively down to where her gun was holstered. "Don't want you gettin' any ideas." He left his hand there and continued to stare at her. "Seem to have forgotten how feisty my little red head was," Barbossa said quietly moving a hand to grab up a piece of her dark red hair and smelling it.

Catalina stared furiously up at him "Your little red head?" Barbossa continued to stare at her for a moment released her hair and shouted for someone to take her to the brig.

[[Well there's the start to the story! Sure has been through a lot of changes, just cant seem to find something I am happy with. Maybe this will be the one.. This is one of my first POTC stories so I suppose I just want to get it right. This is the third draft and I shouldn't be changing it to much anymore.. sorry to those you have that have had to struggel through the different drafts, and through the name changes and such... so please review and continue reading.. let me know how I am doing, it will get better I promise!! --Edwardsonly]]