Kin
by : epiphanies
Her name was Desdemona. She had black hair and brown eyes, that looked black in all but the starry moonlit evenings of the Caribbean beaches.
She'd lived on the island of Tortuga ever since she could remember, her mother having died at birth.
She'd been born without immunity to illness.
So, she and her father took a ship down to the Caribbean for medicine.
He put her in the care of an ancient medic on the island of Tortuga, and left to sail the seas in search of cures and riches. He only wanted the best for his daughter, his only child, his Desdemona.
He visited her frequently, patting her warm forehead as she slept and twirling locks of her hair in his fingers as she smiled weakly, bravely, at him from her bed.
He'd said, "I'd like you to meet a dear friend of mine, Desdemona."
Her eyelids fluttered as her hand was gently kissed by a rough mouth, her mouth curved into a smile as she surveyed the man's rugged good looks. She saw kindness in his haggard eyes, amusement mixed with pity in the lines of his mouth. She wanted to paint him.
He was a pirate.
She'd known, as she had never known before. Her father was a pirate, and this was his friend. His Captain.
Her father went on a mission with his crew that summer, the summer she turned five. He never returned.
But his friend did. His friend did, and told her of her father's death. He held her as her tears washed into his sunned skin, as her nails dug into his shoulderblades, as her face buried itself into his neck. He did not protest.
He visited often, the captain did.
Until one day, he didn't.
She never gave up hope, however, that the captain, so much like her father, would return to her and allow her to cry into his neck again. Allow her to smell the sea in ways she never could from her bedside.
She waited in vain.
Fifteen years had passed since she had last seen her father. Ten, since his loyal mate had last stopped on Desdemona's doorstep.
She was a weak girl, but her ancient medic was finally edging to a final and certain death. She had no choice but to join the tavern and serve the locals their brew.
She sighed as Richard Cornover sloshed his beer down his front, and sputtered in protest. Before he could call for another round, she set it on the table afront him. He winked at her.
She hated working at the tavern, and yet it was her only escape.
Her only escape from the acidic scent of the medic's home, her only escape from her caregiver's constant fawning over her.
Her legs twinged with unabashed pain. She bit her lip to contain a small gasp and wrung her hands in her apron. How many more years of this torture would she have to endure until somebody, anybody, rescued her from this prison of an island?
"Back to Tortuga, Jack, and you haven't yet said why." Will Turner reminded Jack Sparrow, holding on for dear life to his betrothed, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at Will, "Back to Tortuga? You've been here before?"
Jack turned and gave her a small smirk, "Will was positively basking in this city when I first introduced him to it, I don't know why he's nervous now."
Will frowned at him, but didn't say a word.
"Jack, honestly, you've kept us on this little hunt quite long enough," Elizabeth grabbed Jack's elbow and twisted him around. Jack raised a swift eyebrow as she continued, "You cannot just show up on my doorstep and expect us to follow you on whatever quest you please us to."
"Funny, because I'd thought I just had."
"Jack," Will interjected as Elizabeth scowled, "Please, tell us what you need us to see."
"Tis got natch to do with her," Jack referenced vaguely to Elizabeth as he pushed his way into a rowdy tavern, "Not my fault you can't go anywhere without your lass, mate."
"Fine, then. What has this to do with Will?" demanded Elizabeth, watching Jack survey the tavern. He waved his hands nonchalantly, "You'll just have to wait. I need to get something first."
"A pint, no doubt."
Will rolled his eyes, but couldn't help smiling as Jack leaned over the bar to speak to the barmaid, and consequently, received a very loud slap.
"I don't suppose you understand what that is about, do you?" Elizabeth murmured, and Will shook his head, "No, I don't. But it seems that every woman in the Caribbean is owed some form of debt from Jack."
Jack walked in his usual way back to them, and rubbed his ruddy cheek.
"Deserving?" Will inquired, and Jack pouted.
Finally, he muttered, "Probably, but it doesn't matter. No, it does not. We must be getting to-"
"Shiver me timbers," whispered a voice from behind Jack that made him whirl around like a butterfly, "Isn't it Captain Jack Sparrow?"
Will and Elizabeth stepped forward to see a young woman with her hands wrung together, staring at Jack as though he were the sun and the moon.
"Desdemona," he said, with a softness that Will nor Elizabeth had ever heard him employ, "I was just on me way to see you, love."
"I'm sure," her dark eyes sparkled as they never left his face, "How dare you return and not see me first."
"But I have," argued Jack charismatically, smiling, "I'm seeing you now."
"You thought I'd still be ill, in bed and alone. How I surprise you, always, Jack." Desdemona smiled wider, then realized that Jack was not alone. She glanced at Elizabeth, and then at Will. Her face froze.
"Jack."
Her voice held a question that Will did not understand.
"Ah," Jack glanced at Will, then back at the raven haired waitress, "Yes, I thought this would be interesting. The reason I'm here, actually."
Will cocked his head, "I don't understand."
Desdemona's eyes widened as she whispered, in an enormous awe, "He sounds just like him."
"I don't understand."
Jack turned to Will, attempting to grab him in an apologetic embrace, "Mate, I couldn't tell you."
Desdemona said it first:
"I'm not William Turner's only child, am I, Jack?"
Will's eyebrows shot into his hairline, then furrowed, then knitted. Jack was almost amused, watching them.
"Jack?" Will was now asking the unsaid question.
"You two are brother and sister." Elizabeth pronounced, for the world to hear.
"Half, actually," Jack added speedily, before Will could say a word, "Just half. He met Desdemona's mother, and she died. Then he went on more travels, met -your- mother, and then went back to find Desdemona, only to find his best friend-"
"You." Desdemona supplied, and Jack nodded fervently, "Aye, I, mutineered by me crew and stranded on a spit of land with naught more than a few coconuts to tide me over until death."
Elizabeth didn't catch him in his lie, for she was too caught up in the story.
"As for after my escape, I returned to Tortuga to tell William's daughter of the death I'd watched from the island. I returned a few times after that, but then having no ship caught up with me. When I found you, Will, I thought about telling you, but that would have only complicated things."
"So, now that things are lovely and uncomplicated, you need to complicate them again by telling me that I am not, in fact, William Turner's only son?" Will's mouth was set, and Desdemona half-smiled at him.
"Actually, you are. I am, in fact, his daughter. No other children, I'm afraid."
Jack turned to her, "Why are you not very surprised, child? I feared you to rise out of your frailty and wrench off my head!"
Desdemona only laughed, "Jack, it is not for me to mind what my father did before he died. He was my father. He was a pirate. He had another child. He also left me in the best care in the Caribbean, allowing me health and life, and leaving me with a dear friend that I have missed ever so much."
Elizabeth and Will exchanged glances. Could it be real? Somebody, a woman, Will's own sister, feeling an acute affection for Jack Sparrow?
"You must all stay with me," decided Desdemona, "in the tavern's bedrooms above. I can have them for free as long as nobody else is occupying them.."
"You're the loveliest, darling," Jack drawled, wrapping an arm about her neck. She winced slightly, and his eyebrows rose.
"You're obviously not as well as you seem," Will said gently, "Do not worry about our accomodations, Desdemona. Worry about receiving some rest."
Desdemona stared up at Will with moon eyes, "I had never thought about having a brother before, but now that I do, it is quite nice."
"I feel the very same way," Will said sincerely, then ushered her away to rest.
Once she'd disappeared from sight, Will expected Jack to make a beeline for the door - or at least, the bar. But he only stood there, with a wistful smile on his face. He slung an arm around Elizabeth and said,
"You're a good scone, you know that?"
Elizabeth smiled slightly as she picked up three large mugs from a rickety table, "You're not as bad a 'scone' as you wish most to believe, Captain Sparrow."
Jack hushed her with a finger, and Will snorted.
It was true, after all. Jack Sparrow was a good man. To have come back to care for his best friend's daughter after death, after mutiny, after losing his dream... Jack Sparrow had to be a good man, and Will could see it in his eyes when he looked at his half-sister. Jack cared for her, more deeply than he had probably cared for anybody but Will's own father. The look of shared adoration between Jack and Desdemona actually sparked a question in Will's mind: Could there be more than a friendship, more than a companionship connection, laying dormant between the two? Could Desdemona have feelings for Jack? Jack, have feelings for anybody, lest Will's own blood?
Will decided that he was getting far too ahead of himself and decided to focus on making the tavern shine - or, rather, making it considerably cleaner than it had been with only Desdemona in charge. He wanted to help her in every way that he could, for he could see that she was not well. He reminded himself to ask Jack about her ailment later. For now, he busied himself with clearing plates as Jack downed the half-empty pints left about, proclaiming that he was 'cleaning up the waste.'
A/N - I never do author's notes anymore, but I have to ask : Shall I continue? I've never done a Pirates fic before, and I don't know if I like it. I just needed to get it out, because I've seen the movie possibly four times in the past forty eight hours - take into account that I've had exams, sleep AND that the movie is 2 ½ hours long. Oi. I'm tired, but exams are over, and the Draco/Pansy stories should start coming out any time now. Tata for now!
~epiphanies