The day before, if someone had asked Will where he thought that he’d be at nine o’clock that morning, he wouldn’t have said, "In Tortuga, at a bar, drinking."

Yet there he was, in Tortuga, at a bar, drinking. At nine o’clock in the morning. Well, he wasn’t drinking so much anymore; he’d been nursing his last drink for an hour, but his companions were drinking still.

"Blackbeard," Jack slurred, leaning across the table in an attempt to punch one of their companions, three grizzled pirates, on the shoulder. It was probably supposed to be a friendly punch, but Will was grateful when Jack missed entirely and ended up sprawled across the table, nose to wood.

"Blackbeard was *not* the best pirate that ever lived," Jack continued as he picked himself up, wiggled back into his seat, and took another drink. "You’re an idiot if you think that."

Will reached for his sword. If there was one thing he was sure of right then, it was that Jack was too drunk to be able to find his sword, much less use it if he pushed their companions too far.

Companion One: "Oh, and I suppose that you know a better."

"I do," Jack said. "Do you really want to tell me that the best pirate that ever lived went around with ribbons in his beard? That he carried his gun over his shoulder with another piece of ribbon?"

The other pirates looked at each other.

Companion Two: "Well, what about Sir Francis Drake? What about him?"

"He wasn’t a pirate," Jack said. "He was sailing for the queen. Do you want to tell me that the best pirate that ever lived was doing his pirating under her Royal Majesty’s directive?"

Their companions looked at each other again.

Companion three: "Well, what about what’s-his-name? The one that’s sailin’ about with two women. He hasn’t been struck down by the gods yet, so maybe he’s the best pirate that ever lived."

Jack just blinked.

Companion One again: "So what? Who’s the best pirate that’s ever sailed the livin’ seas? You, Sparrow? You, with ribbons in your own hair? You, who lost your own ship?"

"Captain Sparrow," Jack said. "And no, that’s not what I was trying to say. And I never said that the best pirate I’d ever seen was on the livin’ seas."

He pointed across the room to where the bartender was standing, a knife to the throat of one of the other customers. Over the noise of the room, Will could hear the bartender saying, "You think I don’t remember exactly how many drinks you had? You willin’ to bet your neck on that?"

Will saw the customer dig another coin bag out of his pocket, saw the bartender take it and stuff it in his apron. Then Jack spoke again.

"Getting away with charging these prices…" Jack shook his head. Then he sighed, an almost dreamy sound. "Now that’s got to be the best pirate I’ve ever seen."