While Jack Sparrow lay sleeping in his cabin, his wife, Elizabella, was walking around the deck, cradling their son in her arms in a sad attempt to get him to stop crying. He had been sick for quite some time. The fever made him hot so she'd guessed that maybe if she took him out into the night air and rocked him gently in her arms, little Jack would fall asleep and rest so that he would soon overcome the illness he was bearing. As little Jack wailed into the starry sky, Elizabella held him close and sang quietly:
"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We're beggars and blighters, ne'er-do-well cads,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho…. Yo ho, Yo ho, a pirate's life for me."
She sighed as the song ended and little Jack continued to wail. "Please, little Jack, get some rest." He looked up at his mother with his father's eyes and was quiet for a second then screamed once more as tears flooded his cheeks. "Hush, love, hush…"
He would have none of her advice he continued weeping, only increasing the volume when one of the crew members who was trying to sleep below yelled out, "Shut up you bloody brat!"
"Maybe your father will know what to do with you." Elizabella sighed. She walked with her crying baby boy back into Jack's cabin and nudged him gently. "Jack… Wake up." Jack's nose twitched a bit but he didn't rise from his slumber. "Jack…. Jack is sick…." She muttered. He opened his eyes slowly and he looked up at his tired wife for a moment then sat up and took the baby from her. "I've tried feeding him, changing him, singing to him, bringing him to the night air… nothing ever seems to-" She paused when she finally heard silence around her. Little Jack lay sleeping in his father's arms not making a sound. "How did you…?"
"Shh, Lizzie… You wouldn't want to wake 'im." Jack whispered, still holding his son close.
"What did you do?" Lizzie whispered back.
"Same thing I do to you when you can't get any sleep…" Jack said, quietly grinning. "I hold you close to my heart and let you listen to its rhythm."
"He's sick, Jack… what are we going to do if we can't get him any help?"
"He'll be fine, Elizabella… it's just a little fever… He'll come through."
"He needs medicine…"
"He needs to rest and not have so much stress put on 'im, eh?"
"You're no doctor."
"And you are?" Elizabella sighed and shook her head.
"Where are we headed, Captain?" She asked, as she laid in Jack's bed and wrapped herself up in his blankets.
"Nasau Port… I have some maps and things we need to get there. I'm going after…" He paused as his son shifted in his arms.
"He's burning up." Elizabella said, still worried.
"Aye, but he'll be okay soon."
"I'm beginning to wonder if a pirate ship is the best place to raise our son, Jack."
"It's the only place, love. I'm not going to leave you in some town alone and I can't leave the sea."
"I would never ask you to leave the sea."
"But you would ask me to leave you in some town alone? Who'll the boy call father then? Some stranger that you marry for little Jack's sake? He'll never know where his name came from… or what his father really was."
"I'd never marry anyone else."
"Then you'd leave my boy without a father? You can't raise a child alone, Lizzie… you're just a child yourself."
"I'm eighteen, Jack… that's hardly a child."
"Lizzie, I will not leave my wife and boy alone in some town. You'll be staying with me. That's what you agreed when you married me, love."
"Jack… I don't want Jack to grow up a thief like you and I did."
"The boy's bound to get into some trouble either way it goes… have you not seen the way he looks at the water when we leave the ship… or how he sobs the minute we reach port? He's already fallen in love with the sea, dear… you can't take it away from 'im now. Now, get some sleep… I'll watch after little Jack." Elizabella rolled over and shut her eyes, determined to take her son away from this fate… the fate of a pirate.
Elizabella woke up to the sun's rays shining brightly in her eyes and the slowed movement of the ship. After getting dressed she walked out to the deck to find Jack holding their son tightly in his arms. "Will you be coming with me to port then? Or will you stay behind and care for Jack?" He asked, handing Elizabella their restless child who was still hot from his fever and obviously uncomfortable.
"I think I'll stay behind, dear." Elizabella said, holding her son who was trying to escape her grasp.
"Suit yourself. Alright men, up and at 'em, I want those maps back here in an hour!" Jack said, directing his crew off the ship. Before leaving himself, he walked to Jack and kissed him on the forehead, then kissed Elizabella passionately on the lips. "I… I'll see you later, love."
"Goodbye, Jack." She said, after kissing him back. Jack had never said he loved her… it was his nature. After he reluctantly left the ship, Elizabella went into the cabin and grabbed a few dresses that Jack had given her over the past year. She folded them neatly and grabbed a few of little Jack's toys and things. After packing them into a bag that she'd found tucked away with Jack's things, she grabbed a piece of paper on Jack's desk and wrote him a letter that read:
"Dearest Jack,
Word's cannot express the guilt I feel for doing this to you but I must do what is right for our son. You don't seem to understand the extreme fear I have dwelling within me as a mother with a sick child. You say that everything will be okay but I fear that without a doctor's help, our son will die. I do love you Jack… I believe you feel the same and I will take great care of our son and tell him all about his father, the great Captain Sparrow. You will never be replaced in our lives. Goodbye. I'm sorry.
Always yours,
Elizabella Sparrow."
After placing the note on his pillow where he'd be sure to read it, Elizabella gathered her things and rushed off the ship. She found a canoe man in town that volunteered to take her to port royale where there was said to have lived a highly esteemed doctor. She left with little Jack that afternoon and suspected that she'd never see Jack Sparrow again.
Jack, who had just found the maps he needed, walked onto the ship with his crew and noticed the eerie silence that filled the pearl. There were no sobs coming from the Cabin. Elizabella couldn't be heard cooing gently and singing to their infant son. He feared for the worst as he pushed open the door to his cabin. She wasn't there. He looked at the notes she had left on his pillow and read it over once or twice to make sure he was absolutely certain she wouldn't be returning then, with a panicked voice he rushed out and said loudly to his crew; "No! No! Let go the anchor! Don't leave the port!" The crew looked at him confused for a moment the shook their head, deciding he was having another episode and disregarded the orders. Jack, afraid they'd sail too far out to turn around, dove into the sea and swam to shore.
"Capn' What are ye thinking?" Gibbs called out as the others quickly dropped the anchor to stop the ship.
"My wife!" Jack said simply. He was out of breath and soaked as he started to run up the port.
"Where's Lizzie, Capn'?" Gibbs called out again as Jack ran further away from the reach of his voice. Jack ignored him and continued rushing into the town. He asked around to see if anyone had seen a black haired girl with sea blue eyes carrying an infant in her arms. No one had seen her save for one man at the canoe docks. He told Jack that his friend had taken Elizabella to Port Royale to get some help for her baby.
"Shame," Said the man, "The boy was a delightful little whelp." Jack sighed, rather annoyed and went back to the ship in a hurry.
"All hands on deck!" Jack shouted.
"Where we headed, capn'?" Gibbs asked.
"Port Royale." Jack said simply.
"It's alright, little Jack." Elizabella said, holding her child on her lap. He was crying once more as the doctor checked him over. She kissed him on the head gently as the doctor looked inside his mouth.
"Looks like the little guy's got nothing more than a mild case of scurvy."
"What is that and how can I fix it?" Elizabella asked hurriedly.
"It's basically caused from a deficiency of vitamin C. For the next few months you'll need to keep an eye on him. Feed him lot's of fruit, oranges are probably the best for him… so tell his father to buy plenty of things with Vitamin C in them. Alright?"
"I would if his father were still around." Elizabella sighed. "Don't worry, Jacky… we'll get you your fruit, eh?"
"What happened to the boy's father?" The doctor asked as Elizabella got out some money to pay him.
"He… left…" Elizabella mumbled. "He's a merchant of sorts and he's been away on a ship for a long while. I'll get him back to health, though, doctor, believe you me." She paid him and walked out of the hospital, still carrying her bags and little Jack. "C'mon, love. We'll need to find a nice place to stay… by now, I'm sure your father has picked up on our trail again so we'll have to be quick about it." She found an unused canoe on the sea side and decided to take it for her own. By night fall, she was in the middle of the ocean and little Jack was asleep in the floor of the dirty canoe.
Jack reached Port Royale by night fall and sent Gibbs to check around for her. No one there could tell Gibbs where Elizabella and her charming little boy had gone. The search was over. It'd be a miracle if Jack ever found Elizabella. He sighed, thanked Gibbs for his effort then went into his room and sat at his desk, letting a single tear escape his eye.
Two years had passed since Elizabella had left Jack and went into open water. She'd sailed to Singapore to stay with her friend Isabella, who was a tall, tan dark haired girl that was feisty and wouldn't let any man close to her. Isabella commended Elizabella for taking Jack with her to raise him in an actual household. Elizabella had been proposed to by at least ten men while she was there but kept to her word and stayed true to Jack, even though she'd never see him again. Her son was now two and a half years old. He'd learned to walk and babble little sentences here and there and told his mother constantly about how he missed his father. Elizabella knew that he hadn't had the slightest memory of Jack but she would just smile at him when he said those things and reply, "Yes, I know love… me too." Little Jack had gotten over his scurvy and was as healthy as could be now. He would get a bath on a regular basis as well so they were both always clean. They were leading a happy normal life. Although, for Elizabella, an abnormal life with her husband was now looking better than the normal one she shared with Izzy.
"Bella? Are you thinking about Jack again?" Izzy snarled after realizing she hadn't been listening to anything she'd said while they sipped tea and watched Elizabella's little boy play in the floor of their little shack.
"What?" Elizabella looked up at her and then sighed, "I just miss him is all… you wouldn't understand."
"If he missed you, don't you think he'd have come for you by now?"
"He doesn't know where I am… You can't search for something if you don't have a heading."
"Aye, but he could at least try to check here, eh?"
Elizabella rolled her eyes and disregarded the statement. "Jacky, time for bed, love." Elizabella said, standing from her chair with outstretched arms.
"No!" her son said, wildly rushing away from her with a small pirate ship toy in his hand. Jack had painted the toy for his son before he'd even been born. It looked almost identical to the Black Pearl.
"Don't argue with me, come here!"
"I want my father!" Little Jack piped from the other side of the room.
Elizabella picked him up and walked him over to the old broken down couch where Jack slept at night. She coddled him in her arms and kissed his head while saying softly, "I know, love… me too… Would you like me to tell you a story about your father?" Elizabella asked, pretending to be cheerful and remembering her written promise to Jack. Her son nodded fiercely then rested his head back on his mother's chest. "All right then… what do you know of sea turtles, son?"
Jack arrived in Singapore in June. It was Elizabella's birth month and the heat of summer burned thick through the air. He always marked this as Lizzie's month. She'd turned twenty on the second. He had gone there with Barbossa to find a crew for Barbossa's new ship that had no name. Jack had commandeered the ship and given it to Hector in hopes that he'd stop his attempts to take the Black Pearl. They were sitting in a bar, asking around for crew members when a child ran up to Jack, looking at him with a pair of the darkest eyes he'd ever seen.
"Izzy, where's Jack toddled off to?" Elizabella asked as she helped make a few glasses of rum while Isabella waited tables. She'd been working at the tavern there to earn some extra money in hopes of finding a home of her own. She took little Jack to work with her almost every day because she didn't trust any of the women in town to look after him. From the looks of it, she wasn't doing a much better job than they would. "Jack? Where are you, love?"
"What you know bout sea turtles, mate?" The boy mumbled in an unpracticed sentence. Jack grinned a bit, still unaware of who the child was or to whom he belonged.
"A bit." Jack replied, looking down at him slyly, "Why? What do you know bout sea turtles."
"My father suffed on their backs to inscape an island!" The boy challenged, butchering a few words.
"Is that so? Who be your father, boy?" Jack mused. Someone had stolen his sea turtle story and passed it as his own, eh? Word was getting around.
"Captain-"
"Jack Sparrow! I will not tolerate you running off like this!" Elizabella said, ignoring all of the people around her as her eyes focused on her son. He was talking to a stranger… she didn't like it. She picked him up and held him close. "You had me worried half to death you did!" Elizabella said lovingly.
"Sorry Momma…" He mumbled a bit.
"I should say so!" Elizabella scolded as she turned, ignoring the man her son was speaking to. "Now, come back here with me and have something to eat while I finish my shift, eh?"
"Yes Momma." The boy mumbled again.
Jack, astonished that he'd finally found his son and his wife after two long years, said nothing as Elizabella picked up his son and gracefully floated away with him. His mouth hung open and his heart skipped a beat as he watched the still young and beautiful looking woman in a blue dress he'd bought her and her hair waist length hair tied back in a messy pony tail carry away his handsome son who, besides the fact that he was clean, looked just like him with ebony eyes and long dark hair that flowed wildly to his shoulders. "Eliza-"
"Bella!" Izzy shouted from the bar, holding out three slips of papers. On them were orders that needed to be filled.
"One moment! Jack… you stay right here and don't you move, you hear?"
"Aye, Mother."
"You mind me or it'll be a good whipping for you later on."
"Aye." He repeated. Little Jack watched as his mother shuffled off tiredly then looked over in the stranger's direction. He was surprised to see that the man was looking back at him as well. Little jack waved his hand, motioning for the man to come over to him. He did as directed and kneeled on one knee in front of him. "My father," He began again, "Is Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Ah I see," The stranger replied, "I've heard stories of 'im…he's a bad man."
"No!" Little Jack interrupted. "He's a pirate!" He didn't think pirates were bad men at all… in fact, he sort of thought they were better than the story book "good guys"
"What's your name, boy?"
"Jack Sparrow, just like me father's" He giggled with pride.
The stranger extended his hand. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, Savvy?"
Little Jack's eyes grew wide and bright at the thought of finally having met his father. His mouth stood agape for a moment then he took his hand and shook it, then hugged his dear old dad.
"Jack!" Elizabella piped, rushing over to her son as he hugged the random man at the bar. She quickly and very protectively picked him up and held him close to her, not looking at the man. "I'm terribly sorry, sir, I don't know what's gotten into him."
"It's alright, love." His voice was so clear and deep… it sounded so much like Jack's it made her want to cry. To hide her tears, she avoided his stare then turned and said good day.
"But momma, that's-"
"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow…" Jack said, extending his hand to her as her back faced her.
Elizabella, who was in shock, turned and met Jack's grin. "Jack? Jack Sparrow? Y-You came after me!"
"I did… and when I couldn't find you, I came here on other business… I searched for you in Port Royale and any other port I'd been to… I'd given up hope when I got here. Singapore is no better a place to raise a child than a ship, love… in fact; I'd say its worse."Jack said as he reached out to hold his son. Little Jack jumped into his arms and Jack set him on the floor. "How bout…" He said, pulling a shilling out of his pocket, "How about you run off and tell that woman at the bar to give you something sweet to eat, eh?" Little Jack thanked him and rushed off to do just that. Jack then held out his arms and hugged Elizabella. The smell that she'd become so accustomed to years ago now seemed new to her. It was a bitter sweet smell of cologne and sweat. Jack kissed her with his rum soaked lips and begged her to return to the Black Pearl with him and she accepted and went home and packed up her things although Isabella told her not to go and that she wanted to keep custody of Jack. Of course, Elizabella wouldn't have it and by nightfall, they were on the Black Pearl sailing open water once again. Little Jack, Tired from the day's adventure, was sleeping in a separate cabin from everyone else and Elizabella caught her husband moving his hair out of the way with his calloused thumb and kissing his son on the forehead. He shut the door when he left and went back to the head of the ship with Elizabella he held her close with her back facing him, his arms snaked around her waist and said, grinning in her ear. "Da da da Da da da Da da da Da da… and really bad eggs…" They both snickered a bit. "Drink up me hearties yo ho!"
Elizabella turned her head toward him so their lips were centimeters apart and sand gently, "Yo ho, Yo ho a pirates life for me." And at the end of their little song, Jack Sparrow kissed his bride for the first time in two years.
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The End
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