Hello! Thanks for reading. Before you start, I'd like to say that it's impossible to understand this story without reading the first or second in the series, so please, either read The Journey's Start, the first, or Old Enemies, the second, before continuing. Thank you! PLEASE R AND R! Chapter One

Fathers

When I first saw her, I have to say I didn't think much.

At the time, I was surrounded by stunning girls. Absolutely stunning. Tiny waists, huge chests, shiny hair, silky skin, wearing revealing clothes… that sort of thing. She had hurried over, and seemed breathless and annoyed.

"Excuse me," she had said. She was mildly pretty- blonde hair, nice figure. Nothing special.

But I had felt this urge inside me. A tug, as if fate had given me a warning. This girl was going to change my life forever.

She had asked to speak to me in private and pulled me into one of Tortuga's spare bedrooms. The details escape me: I'm pretty sure I tried to talk dirty and she ignored me. Her name, I soon learned, was Sade River. No, Captain Sade River, for she was the captain of the Ocean Song, the most durable ship in the Caribbean. She had been kidnapped by Hector Barbossa and escaped- there were only a select few who hadn't heard of her.

I lured her onto my ship. That was the easy part- she wanted my compass. And she wanted it bad.

Sade was the object of a prophesy, having to do with killing Davy Jones. I remember very clearly our first fight, in which she had leapt down at me from the ship's crow's nest. I could have stepped aside easily, but I caught her. She would have been dead then if it hadn't been for me.

And yet every time I court her, she refuses me. I realize I've been a playboy, a womanizer, all that, but I wish more than anything that she could put the past behind her and focus on the present. I'm here. So's she. Pretty simple, if you ask me.

"Jack!"

A rough male voice startled me out of my thoughts. I turned to see Sade's father, his eyes narrowed warily.

"What?" I asked innocently. And I was innocent, too- strolling on the deck of the Ocean Pearl with Karissa Norman, Sade's first mate. We had been discussing everything that had happened recently; Barbossa's arrival, Sade's parents' arrival, Beckett's death, Sade's attempted suicide. It all gave me the shudders.

"Karissa, excuse us for a second," muttered Mr. River, roughly pushing her away. She glared at the man, outraged, then turned to run to her captain, Sade, who was steering and talking to Gibbs.

"I know you want to make a move on my daughter," Mr. River hissed at me.

I smirked. This was going to be fun.

"Maybe I already have," I said vaguely, inspecting my fingernails. "Maybe she likes it."

She didn't, of course. My moves had never been successful. But playing around with her father is fun.

Mr. River's eyes bulged as he leaned towards me. "What have you done with her?" he snarled.

Oh, my. This was fun. "Let's just say…" I paused for dramatic effect, "Her pride in being a virgin is not in effect anymore."

Maybe I had gone too far. Sade's father was muscular, a strong, imposing man, and he obviously cared more for his daughter than she did for herself.

He took a punch at me. I ducked and ran, passing the steering wheel, where Sade, Karissa, and Gibbs looked up, surprised.

"Oi! Jack!" Gibbs looked rather confused.

"Jack?" Sade's face twisted into an expression of doubt.

"Your bloody father," I heard Karissa mutter under her breath to her captain.

I kept running until I reached the captain's cabin, where Sade and I sleep. I raced in and locked the door, panting. Wow. I wondered what would happen if he actually caught us…

Not that we had ever done it before, I thought sadly. Maybe one day.

Sade high-tailed in the door, skidding to a stop and slamming it after her.

"Alright, what's up?" she asked, sinking onto her bed.

"Your father's temper," I responded. "Almost as high as yours."

Sade huffed and grabbed a bit of pineapple. "I really don't think that was necessary, Jack. I might have a bit of a temper, but you should see my father when he's really mad. Like, one time, this boy touched my…" She broke off, embarrassed, and cleared her throat. "Anyway," she continued loudly. "Don't worry, Jack, everything'll work out." She stuffed the fruit in her mouth, then reached instantly for more.

"I made him really angry," I added, dancing on the borderline of telling her what I'd said. "Really, really, really…"

She tossed her lion's mane of blonde hair. "What did you tell him?"

"Love, tell is too strong of a word. More like, shall we say, suggest, some concepts of adult themes…" I let my voice trail off, pleased with the affect it had had.

"Jack," she muttered warningly.

"Adult themes that should, in my humble opinion, become reality…" I let my voice get real low, here, topped with the smirk that made most girls go wild.

Sade, however, did not react the way I expected her to. She rolled her eyes and ignored me, going back to that dried pineapple she loves so much.

I frowned. This was not how this should work. What was supposed to happen was that she gets all worked up and angry, and storms out. She wasn't supposed to totally ignore me!

Oh, well. I pawed through the silence, trying to find something that would charm her, ignite her with anger, and tell her something important at the same time. Finally, I found one.

"How many blondes does it take to win a pirate's heart?" I asked her.

She glanced up and hissed at me. "You know I can't stand blonde jokes, Jack Sparrow."

I ignored her. "Only one," I said, raising my eyebrows. You see, I had been planning that one for a while: it would annoy her, and let her know that she was my one true love and I wouldn't cheat on her.

This had the desired reaction. She stood up, glared at me, and stormed out.

"How many times do we have to go through this?" she shouted to me before leaving. "You're not but a liar and a womanizer!"

And she left- but not before I could admire the swish of her blonde hair as she shut the door.