Hey Guys!

First off i'm so sorry that this was like, 2 days later then i promised to post! My plan was to use the hotel's internet (i was at a horse show this weekend) to get online and post it... and the hotel is all like "lolz! that's cute, yah our wifi is broken." -.-

THANKS TO JMV1997 for being my quartermaster!

Thank you to -

JohnKelsper

noble117

tombraidergirl

zer0point0ne

Jlovesallfandoms

razorbackmike

Toxic-Plague13

and JMV1997

For reviewing my teaser! It helped me so much!

Anyway, here is the first chapter of A Pirate's Life for Me!

Sunday, November 3 1709. London England, Great Britain

"Of all the money that e'er I had, I spent it in good company,

And of all the harm that e'er I've done, alas it was to none but me…"

With large, brown eyes a young girl, skinny, dressed in tattered rags, marred by scrapes, and with hair cut short so that she may seem a boy, watched the storm rage outside through the cracks in the walls of the shanty that she called home. She watched the lighting, blue and white and sizzling with power, light up the sky for just a moment, before it all went dark again. This storm was bad, the worst she'd ever seen, and as she watched it terrorize the cobbled English filth beyond her door she hoped that just maybe it would wash away all the ships, so that she might not have to do the work of ten men on sea licked decks the next day. So that she might be able to do as she pleased, perhaps even be a girl again, instead of toil in the cold wetness like a slave under the stony eyes of the old British captain. She had just gotten the job today, on a stroke of luck at that, but she was now a cabin boy on The Lions Pride, and maybe now they would have enough money to eat every day for a week straight. It would be bitterly cold outside, and she'd be lucky to come back home to her shanty with all ten fingers and toes intact – Lord knows most weren't that lucky. She knew that it would be cold, but she also knew that here, now, in the arms of her mother she was warm and safe.

"And all I've done for want of wit, to memory now I can't recall,

So fill to me the parting glass…"

Mary sat still, swaddled in the warmth and comfort of her mother's body as she listened for the next line to the melody that her mother had sung since before she could remember.

It never came.

Suddenly she was pushed gently from her mother's lap onto the soggy straw floor. Lightning cracked in the sky again, and for a moment it lit up the form of her mother, doubled over and coughing harshly into a tattered sleeve. Mary's young heart started pounding, and something like fear twisted in her gut as she glimpsed the morbid red spots on her mothers sleeve in the last bits of blue light.

Frightened, she sidled up to her mother, and tried to find the familiar glinting hazel eyes in the darkness of the storm. She couldn't, they were too dark, and the haze of exhaustion had clouded out the sparkle in her mother's eyes."Mum?" she called, her childish voice tinted with fear as she did.

"Wha' is it, Kidd?" Her mother's voice came, soothing and warm, but like a blanket that was too short. There was something wrong, terribly wrong with the only person who had never left her alone. "The way you is shiverin' and such ah'd think you was scared of the thunder." Her mother chuckled, but the sound was pained and hollow, and did nothing more to comfort her than the gnawing of the rats on the foot of the bed.

"Ah'm not scared of the thunder Mum." She huffed, and crossed her arms like an indignant child. Although, as she found it harder and harder to remember, she was still a child only ten years of age. It was clear her mother wasn't going to answer any questions tonight, so Mary decided to play along and pretend everything was all right. For now.

"Well then. Ou' with it Kidd." Her mother said, and nudged her small, scrawny little child body. She winced slightly as her mother's elbow jostled her bruised ribs, and bit her tongue so she wouldn't whimper. She had been caught in the rigging while docking a ship that day because one of the mates didn't know how to tie a knot for shit. It had pulled her right into one of the metal ties, and she now had an ugly purple bruise blooming on her side as a souvenir of her first day as a cabin boy.

"Uh, d'ya think…" she started, realizing that her unspoken question was now off limits.

"Yes?"

Mary gulped, "Uh, d'ya think we could have Cod for Christmas this year? Like… Like that year when Mark brought some home?" It was a poor cover up, and a low blow mentioning her brother's name, but it did the job.

Her mother smiled at her through the darkness with red painted lips, and Mary was reminded of why she was dressed as a boy every day and worked as a man. It seemed that in this world, a woman's only option besides marriage was the tavern wench or common whore, and that was no kind of life to live. "Sure Kidd." Her mother said, and mussed her short, boyish hair, before leaning back against their rotting, wooden walls and heaving a strained breath. "Mary?" her mother suddenly called. She sat straight up, startled by the name she almost never heard. Her mother almost always called her by her pet name 'Kidd', and everyone else called her either 'Boy' or a slough of other unsightly names. Save for that fisherman by the docks, he called her James.

"Yah Mum?" She answered, unsure. The last time her mother had called her Mary, was at her brother's funeral nearly six years beforehand. Mary. To her the name seemed like an omen of death, a sort of bitter irony for her. It was like the crow that had watched her behind beady midnight eyes when she placed her flower, a single ebony rose upon her brothers coffin.

Her mother leaned down, and kissed her softly on her dirty, salt-streaked forehead with her painted lips. "Remember Mary, no matta' where yah' go, no matta' what happens, I'll always be with ya. A'right?" Mary nodded, startled by her mothers words, and worried as the hand of fear that gripped her heart closed even tighter. Why did it seem like some sort of promise? Why did it sound so much like a goodbye? She had heard enough of those to know what they sounded like.

A warm hand pressed against her head, and as her mother pulled her to rest against her bosom Mary found it safe to sigh and stop fighting for a change. With fear's grip vanquished by her mothers love, she fell asleep to the soft, sweet melody of her mother's voice.

"So fill to me the parting glass. Goodnight and joy be with you all."

When Mary woke the next morning, the rain had stopped, but there was an unearthly chill that still hung about her like the fog that hung about England. It prickled at her heart with spiny, ice-cold teeth, clung to her lungs and rode out on every breath she took, yet it always came back to settle in her bones. She shivered, and leaned into her mother seeking warmth.

There was none.

She was cold and hard like the pitiless cobble that lined the better streets of England. Mary breathed out an icy cloud, watched as it slowly drifted away, and recognized the chill. It was the chill of death.

Outside the door, a crow, large and keen with glossy feathers like ebony, cawed into the cold frozen morning.

"Kidd!"

Authors Note:

So, Did you guys like it? This is -again- just the flashback part from the teaser, JMV1997 my quartermaster suggested that i break them up and i did! So again, this is (for the most part) an AU story that will have two alternative endings, on of which i might continue on for a sequel!

Again, in case anyone didnt catch it Mary is 10 in this flashback! I will have an alternate timeline from the cannon.

PLEASE READ/REVIW/FOLLOW!

-Gamblers Choice