At the Crossroads
It felt good to be free again, thought Jack. It's not every day you escape the noose and get your greatest desire. Now that he had the Black Pearl, his life was looking up.
Jack gazed out towards the horizon, absent-mindedly rubbing the oiled wood of the wheel. As much as he hated to admit it, his most recent adventure with Will had given him a lot to think about.
Jack was a self-confessed libertine and law-breaker, never staying in one place too longe and as for women, well - he wasn't exactly a husband-father type. He was more of a love 'em and leave 'em kind of person.
He had never seen anything like it before. It was strange, alien - frightening, even. Will cared more about Elizabeth than his own life - he'd proved that when he'd said he'd die for her. To Jack, such a deep attachment to another person was inconceivable, and dangerous if you were a pirate.
Seeing how much Will and Elizabeth meant to each other really struck a chord with him. It made Jack realize how devoid of relationships, how empty his life was. He could trust no one. He lived in constant fear of mutiny and death, and wasn't able to form a bond with anyone in case betrayed him.
Suddenly, he, Jack, the infamous, drunken, Caribbean carouser, confident to the last, felt lost. Where was someone he could talk to honestly, someone he could trust utterly? They didn't exist for him. His confusion surrounding this issue was pushing him to doubt even his career. Was piracy immoral? Was it wrong to plunder and pillage and kill just for a few doubloons? He just didn't know anyone.
"Damn emotions," muttered Jack. It was so obvious to him now. The only real relationship he had was with his ship and even that had been taken from him for a number of number of years. He, Jack Sparrow, was afraid. He had never cared, not truly at least, about another human being, not since Bootstrap Bill died. The death of his best mate had cut him up inside, and the romance of Will and Elizabeth was just making all those supressed feelings surface again.
Jack saw laid before two paths: he could walk the road he had always chosen, a road of live-fast-die-young. A road with no love, no real attachments. Or he could tread the path of hidden corners, rocky hills and stone-cold valleys - he could take the path of risk, the path danger. The path of love and trust and true friends.
Jack hesitated for a moment. Then he realized he had to choose, or live in limbo forever. He looked deep into his heart, buried under layers of false insanity and feigned drunkeness. And what he saw there made him smile. He should have known. He raised his eyes from the wheel to scan the deck. He inhaled deeply, bracing himself, and took the plunge.
"Anamaria!" he called.
She turned and smiled.