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Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to me in no way... except in my heart.

Author's note: This is a direct sequel to my fiction, "Thicker Than Water", in which Jack and Will find out from Calypso that they are half first cousins. Calypso also reveals that Jack will fall deathly ill, and during his illness, Will is granted the ability, unknown to Jack, to "see" into Jack's heart and dark, sad past, part of which was spent as a slave. As in all of my fics, it is set postAWE, and William is released from his curse and sailing with Elizabeth aboard the Pearl.

It might be helpful to new readers to read "Thicker Than Water", first... this one might not make as much sense until one reads that story. Almost all of my fictions are spun off of "Calypso's Hand", "Thicker Than Water" and "The Ties That Bind". As always, thank you for reading and reviewing my fictions... I can't believe how well received they have been, just since I started writing in May, 2007.

Dedication: I dedicate this story to all of my faithful, repeat readers, who have given me support, suggestions, reviews and who have all been diamonds. This one is for all of you, mates. (Pirate Cat tips her tricorn and raises a mug of rum in tribute!) Thank you, my friends. Fair winds in all of your sails... Pirate Cat

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He sat high up on the wide platform that made up the simple crow's nest, on the highest yardarm of the main mast of the dark ship that was his home... the black sails full of wind, and the dark decks gleaming up at him in the bright sunlight. Strange, he thought, that the deckboards did not look black from up here, but the true dark walnut colour that they really were. Walnut coloured, just like his own skin... his own dark gypsy skin that, to him, did not set him apart from anyone else, but made others view him differently, just as the deck looked different from above. Looks were deceiving, at times, he thought, unless one truly backed away from things and observed them from another angle, another view, another perspective... everything could be deceiving.

As he dangled his thin, booted legs over the edge of the platform, he observed the goings on below him as the winds blew his long, dark braids all about his handsome, angular face. He would sometimes climb up to this place at the top of his world, to think. He could feel the ends the waist-long, beaded braids and dreadlocks beating against his back, or trying to wind themselves around the rigging. Wound around, twisted and confusing... much like his emotions could be, at times. He wished that his mind was as easy to untangle as his braids were.

Sometimes he would have to sit back and watch what was going on around him and wonder just why everything looked so much different to him since being rescued from the Locker... things did not feel the same, yet he could not exactly pin down just what had changed... he had the distinct impression that his crew, as much as they seemed to like him, thought that he was a different man than he was before he was taken from them. He had more of what might be called a humanity to him... although it had always been there, but he had carefully tried to keep it pushed down deep inside... emotions of the heart could be a weakness in the world that had been thrust upon him very early in life.

He had been told that he was truly a good man with a good heart... but that heart really did get in the way, sometimes. It got in the way of surviving as a pirate... it got him into trouble. He did not really want to be a good man much of the time, but his conscience and heart was something that a pirate simply could not extinguish at will. His heart was what caused almost all of the troubles that he had ever known, except for the horrors that were thrust upon him as a wee little lad of only six years old... horrors that no child should ever endure... but he had been forced to endure them. He had survived, he thought, but it had left its scars upon him, both physically and mentally, along with other events in his life, he frowned...

He kept gazing down at the crewmembers working at various tasks, below him. Especially two of them... two that he cared about deeply as friends, and one that he cared about deeply as his half first cousin - his first mate, William Turner the Second...recently revealed as being related to him, through their fathers... and William's wife, Elizabeth Swann Turner.

He watched them as they paused in their activities; it was William's shift at helming the ship, and he had been at the wheel... Elizabeth, the quartermaster second mate, had been sitting at a table with her quill and ledger book, tallying the supplies that she had inventoried in the hold. Taking a moment to themselves, the captain watched as the young couple casually leaned against the railing of the mighty Black Pearl, their arms around each other, smiling and sharing a warm kiss... a loving caress... Elizabeth was running her fingers through William's long, dark, curly hair, and laughing as one of his own short braids blew into her face. That always caused a smile... his cousin emulated him a bit by braiding a few meaningful items into his own hair, which was now grown way past his shoulders.

Turning his face away as they looked up at him, he felt the peculiar pain in his chest that always presented itself when he felt emotional, these days, as he thought of what the young couple had endured to be together, and the love that they shared... rubbing a slender, be-ringed hand over his chest, he felt a bit detached from everything, up here in the rigging. He could not quite understand it... but watching his best friends revel in the happiness that all three of them had worked so hard for made him feel a very annoying loneliness, at times. Loneliness that had taken root inside of him from the very moment that his mother had died... loneliness that had only gotten worse with watching how in love the Turners were.

They had welcomed him with open arms, as family and best friend, and had tried to help him to unlock the feelings that he had kept beaten down inside for his entire life, but in becoming the only real family that he had ever known, they had given him true acceptance that he had never known in his life... perhaps with the exception of one other person... someone that he had last seen when his life had taken a bad turn before what William called the Dark Times... they had parted in an unhappy way, a silly way, and in watching his young cousin and his wife save their love with a lot of blood, sweat and tears, the captain wondered if he, too, could perhaps salvage what he thought might be a scuttled friendship... friends were hard to come by, at times, he knew, and since he naturally had a hopeful nature, he pondered the possibilities.

Drawing his legs up over the edge of the platform, he crossed them, and leaned his elbows on his knees. Looking out over the crystal blue waters, his eyes flickered northeastwardly, and he wondered if she still considered him a friend... closing his eyes and sighing a bit, Captain Jack Sparrow let his mind wander back to his homeland ... back to the lush green forests and the pristine mountains of Connemara, in County Galway, Ireland...

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"Ah, Jack! I am glad that you finally decided to come down from your 'Sparrow's nest', mate," William joked as Jack finally descended to the deck with a flourish, swinging down from a rope that secured the mainsail to the lower yardarm... Jack delighted in such descents, since he felt he had been quite impressive with ropes and yardarms during the Battle of the Maelstrom. His antics usually scared the wits out of Elizabeth, as Jack took too many physical risks and had the bruises to prove it, most times, but far be it for her to tell him what to do. She had already stitched his head up once, nursed him through a terrible illness, and helped to pull a tooth that she had damaged by accident, by socking the captain in the jaw... she always reasoned that she could certainly learn to set a broken arm or leg, if the rope wasn't where he thought it would be and he tumbled from the rigging whilst showing off.

Jack grinned at the young couple, as William had what seemed to be a parchment message in his hand. "News, mate? Wot does our Captain Norrington wish to impart to us from the Flying Dutchman, eh?" The captain looked down his nose at the message, trying to see it, as William unrolled it. "Was it brought by Norrie's favorite messenger?" Jack could not help but smirk, his hands making a swimming motion and his rear end wiggling obscenely like the tail of a fish... a scrawny fish, on Jack's part... it was rather amusing, as William chuckled.

Captain James Norrington had been assigned the task of captaining the Flying Dutchman because of William's release... William had toiled long and hard for almost a year after the events At World's End, and it was because of his hard, loyal, honorable work that he had been reunited with his living heart and his soul mate, his wife, Elizabeth. Jack had played a major part in all of it, causing the articles of the Flying Dutchman to be rewritten, and the young couple credited him with carrying out the final step in William's behalf, on his own accord, by petitioning a merciful Calypso to secure William's early release, with the condition that he fulfill his ten years of service by being James' aide and advisor, as needed.

James, in return, would send messages to his assistant here and there... messages of important nature that would inform of stormy conditions upon the seas, as William was, after all, mortal again, and Calypso would not approve if James was remiss, and let harm come to William, if James was mindful of information that would be useful to the Black Pearl. As much as Jack and Captain Norrington had been enemies in life, James had realized the sins that he had committed against Jack and his friends and had truly honoured his word to advise when conditions were less than favourable.

Referring to Jack's question of the method of delivery, William laughed a bit and said, "Yes, Jack, it was the usual method of delivery..." Seeing his beautiful wife approaching from stowing the heavy ledger book, he leaned forward and whispered with a wink, "We must not tell Elizabeth, as we can't get her hopes up, yet, but I do believe that James is in love with another girl, now... we can't say anything until James is certain that things are going to work out, remember!"

Jack smirked and made the swimming motion, again... he knew, for a fact, that there was a very attractive young mermaid that had her cap set for the captain of the Flying Dutchman, and he was rather smug that she had told told the captain before anyone else knew.

As Elizabeth wound an arm around William's waist, her face fell a bit, "A message from James? Will... do you have to leave to serve on the Dutchman for two weeks, again?" Her eyes searched her husband's face as her hand ran affectionately over his deeply scarred chest... she still thrilled to feel his strong, true heart beating against her hand.

"No, my love," William's arm went around her shoulder, and this answer was greeted by his wife's glad expression, "This message is for Jack and myself, regarding weather..."

Jack's face became even more curious. William continued, as he looked at the captain, "Cousin, we may have to belay the plans that we had to go back to the Caribbean for a few more days... the hurricane season is bad, presently, and Captain Norrington advises that we do not cross the Atlantic for now..."

Jack rubbed a hand across his bearded chin for a moment, running the two beaded braids between his fingers, and thought for a moment, looking in a northerly direction, once again. "Hurricanes, eh? That is not somethin' tha' we need t' head into, intentionally, that's a fact... it's good o' Norrington t' warn us... where should we head for, I wonder? Our holds are burstin' wif swag an' supplies, so tha's not an issue... we are at open sea west of the African continent... "

Looking at each other, the young couple smiled. Elizabeth tilted her head at the captain and said, "Well, Jack, you mentioned something during your convalescence from your illness a few weeks ago ... in finding out that you and Will are cousins, you wondered if we would like to visit the land that your shared grandmother was from... the land that you are from... would you consent to taking us to Ireland? Would you object?"

Turning back to his companions, Jack studied their faces for a moment, his own becoming a bit clouded. Reaching out and taking Jack's shoulders in his hands, William said, reassuringly, "Jack... Elizabeth and I would love to accompany you back to Ireland... 'wot say you', mate? We would like to visit there, and Elizabeth and I never really had a honeymoon...you promised that you would take us wherever we would like to go, given the chance. Now's the chance!" William finished with a flourish and a grin.

Jack's eyes widened at that statement. "I promised?" William nodded, and added, "... it might do you good, Jack."

Jack thought it over, his hands raised slightly, and his eyes scanning the horizen, then he turned back to William and Elizabeth. He had not expected his words to come back to haunt him so quickly, but perhaps it was not a bad thing. He took out his compass, and studied the needle with mild dismay, as William and Elizabeth both tried to peek over his shoulders to see.

Jack snapped the compass shut, and growled slightly, then turning to his companions, he grumbled, "Alright mates..."

Putting his arms around their shoulders, "Inasmuch as I can't believe that th' words are emergin' from me mouth...how about us chartin' a course to Eire... I know of a place that is has always been a safe haven for pirates... it is on th' west coast of Ireland, away from th' Irish Sea and England..."

Frowning slightly and looking a bit vexed, he looked from William to Elizabeth, and whined a little, "... are ye sure tha's where ye want t' be goin'?" As the young couple smiled broadly and said, "Aye!" in unison, Jack sighed and said, "Oh, alright."

He hoped that his voice was filled with more enthusiasm than he was truly feeling, he winced... ah well... at least the whelp and his bonnie lass would be with him, to help chase back the demons of his past and hopefully make some peace with the homeland that would soon be ahead of the Black Pearl's dark prow...

To be continued...