Melinda Turner is William Turners twin.
They were separated at a young age Melinda being brought up by pirates in Tortuga and dear William being raised in Port Royal.
They had very similar faces except Melinda had eyes like the sea and as fierce as it sometimes. When Melinda was growing up her mother taught her how to be a lady as well how to use being a female against men, her father taught her how to fight with a sword and a gun and also how to fight without a weapon.
When she was aboard a ship with them she was taught about being on a ship and her mother decided to teach her how to dance so she would have better sea legs.
Melinda loved doing all this but deep down she always knew there was something missing in her life.
When she was old enough they told her about her father that he was a pirate and that he had twins her and her brother William Turner, she asked "Someday may I go find my brother?" and they answered yes for she could not always be with them because one unlucky day they may get caught and she would be killed with them.
On a normal day in life Melinda made a friend in Port Royal after meeting her once when she was there for a very brief time. She would every month send Elizabeth Swann something from her travels and a letter telling her about how she was doing and when they would meet again.
In truth she thought she would never see her again until a few years later Elizabeth mentioned the name William Turner which got her interest peeked so she wrote Elizabeth a letter and asked if she could visit.
A month after she got the reply her parents told her to stay there for they were in debt with a lot of pirates and wouldn't want her harmed. Her mother gave her some dresses and her father gave her some clothes that she could fight in then they said goodbye.
On her journey to Port Royal Melinda couldn't help but think what her brother was like and also she hoped her parents would be alright even if she knew deep down the people that were after them wouldn't let them live. This thought caused tears to fall down her slightly tanned face trailing down her neck over a locket her real mother left to her it played a tune she remembered falling to sleep to every night when she was a kid.
Four months passed before she arrived in Port Royal and Elizabeth and her father was waiting for her on the dock with some soldiers to guard them.
When she reached them she curtsied and said "Thank you Governor Swann for allowing me to stay at your home until I can find somewhere to live."
Elizabeth's brow furrowed "You mean you are hear to stay?"
Melinda looked to her friend and smiled a smile full of grief and pain "Yes I am my parents asked it of me for my protection."
The Governor then asked "Protection from what my dear?"
Melinda looked to him and said "It would seem my parents angered some pirates sir and they wish me not to be harmed so I am stay in Port Royal if it is alright with you."
Elizabeth looked to her father and said "She can stay with us can't she father." More of a statement than a question Melinda noted.
Elizabeth's father looked at her and then turned to look at Melinda "You may stay."
Melinda shook her head and said "I do not wish to be more of a burden than I already am sir."
He looked at me and said "If you help Elizabeth get up in the morning and go with her into town when she goes you will not be a burden."
A big smile appeared on Melinda's face and she curtsied again "Thank you sir."
Governor Swann nodded and then they all went to the governors house and Elizabeth showed her friend to the room she would be staying in and Elizabeth also gave her some more dresses to wear which made Melinda shake her head "I couldn't possibly Lizzie."
Elizabeth shook her head and said "This is for all the books you sent me from your travels you deserve them."
Melinda nodded not wanting to hurt Elizabeth's feelings by saying no, so she took them and hung them up in her cupboard along with all her other clothes "So what does this Will Turner do for a living?"
Elizabeth looked up and blushed "He is a blacksmith we found him on the crossing from England in the water."
Melinda nodded "So can I meet him?"
Elizabeth looked at her closely "Why the sudden interest?"
Melinda looked out the window and mumbled half to herself "No reason except he may be my twin brother."
But nonetheless Elizabeth heard her and practically shouted "What?"
Melinda looked at her and said "I think he may be my twin." She thought for a second then said "Actually I rather not meet him."
Elizabeth looked at her strangely "Why don't you want to meet him?"
Melinda looked at Elizabeth then back out the window and said "I'm afraid he may not like me or who I am."
Elizabeth stood up and said "What's not to like you are a great woman and a great sister as that what I feel like you are to me."
Melinda smiled and said "I know how to be a woman but I also know how to be a Pirate Elizabeth and in my heart I am a pirate as were my parents. I love the sea it's apart of who I am and my father always said my spirit was like the sea ever changing and can be calm one second then next deathly."
Elizabeth looked at Melinda in shock and awe "You're a pirate."
Melinda nodded then said "But I best not tell anyone else that now should I because I will be taken to the gallows and will surely be hanged unless I keep my mouth shut and act like a lady then my pretty head and neck can stay unharmed savvy?"
Elizabeth nodded then said "Well you better keep from talking like a pirate too."
------------------------------------------ Three years later --------------------------------------------
Melinda still lived with Elizabeth and her father and became a fine looking woman it was a shame a man who caught her eye had his eye on Elizabeth and this man would be none other than James Norrington.
Elizabeth knew her friend liked him and wished he liked her for Elizabeth liked Will.
Elizabeth awakes from a memory of the day she met William Turner. She stays motionless.
Elizabeth slowly looks as far out the corner of her eyes as possible without moving. Might there be someone in the room with her, looming over her?
Elizabeth sits up, turns up the flame on an oil lamp besides the canopied bed. She carries the lamp across the room to a dressing table, sits down.
She pulls one of the small drawers all the way out, reaches into a space beneath it and removes -- The MEDALLION which she found on Will when she first met him and took thinking he was a pirate. She has kept it all this time. It has not lost its luster -- or its sense of menace. She gazes at it as she absently returns the draw to its place --
A BOOMING knock on the door; Elizabeth jumps up, startled knocking over her chair.
Then she hears her fathers voice "Elizabeth is everything alright? Are you decent?"
Elizabeth then replies "Yes.. Yes."
She puts the medallion on, throws on a dressing gown as Swann enters, carrying a large box. A uniformed maid, ESTRELLA, follows.
Melinda enters also and smiles at her friend.
Elizabeth smiles back when her father says "Still abed this hour? It's a beautiful day!"
Estrella pulls back the heavy curtains, revealing:
Beneath a blue sky lies the bucolic town of PORT ROYAL, built on a natural harbor. On a bluff at the mouth of the harbor stands FORT CHARLES, its stone parapets lined with cannons.
Swann continues "I have a gift for you."
He opens the boxes, and displays for her a gorgeous velvet dress. She lets out an admiring gasp. "It's Beautiful. May I acquire to the occasion?"
Melinda shakes her head and smiles when he says "Is an occasion necessary for a father to dote upon his daughter with gifts?"
Elizabeth happily takes it, disappears behind a screened- off dressing area. Estrella follows, carrying the box.
While Estrella is helping Elizabeth dress Melinda sets the bed then goes and helps her.
Melinda tunes everything else out while she helps Estrella but winces when she ties the corset and mutters very quietly "Corsets should all be bloody burned."
But her ears do catch the part about James Norrington being promoted to Commodore and how he fancies Elizabeth her fists clench with jealousy at that part but she immediately calms down and tunes them out again. Estrella tells her she can leave she can finish up with one last glance at Elizabeth Melinda goes to her own room to dress after Governor Swann said she would be joining them.
When she arrives at her room she tells the maids to leave so she can dress but like every other time she doesn't win and has to put a bleedin corset on. When she is finished they take their leave and she puts on her pants underneath and straps a sword to her leg and a dagger also.
She leaves the room and is about to go downstairs when she sees her brother. She winces remembering the fact she never told him and it has been three years so when he does find out she will be in a lot of shit so to speak.
She also sees Elizabeth who instantly spots her and motions for her to come downstairs. Melinda does so and smile at Will then says to Elizabeth so only she can hear "Corsets will be the death of us."
Elizabeth nods and says "I am sorry."
Melinda nods already knowing what she was about to say "I am not right for him anyway I am a pirate."
Everyone in the room seems to be interested to know what was said between the two women for they didn't hear.
Melinda turns to Swann and says "Thank you for allowing me to go to the ceremony sir."
He nods and then motions for the girls to go and enter the carriage. Melinda does notice Elizabeth trying to make Will call her by her first name and smiles when he doesn't. I am scared to know what he would think of me being a pirate at heart.
At the ceremony.
With choreographed precision, Swann removes the sword and scabbard from the presentation case, held by a uniformed Navy man. He slides the sword into the scabbard, holds it out vertically to Norrington, in full dress uniform.
Norrington grasps the scabbard above Swann's hand, and Swann lets go. Norrington draws the sword, flourishes the sword, and snaps the blade up in front of his face. Swann steps forward, pins a medal to Norrington's jacket, steps back.
Norrington nods, turns smartly and nods to his fellow officers, turns again and nods to the audience - dignitaries, merchants, plantation owners, their families. Another flourish, and he returns the sword to its scabbard.
The silence is broken by loud APPLAUSE. Backslapping from the Navy men.
In the audience, Elizabeth doesn't look so good, out beneath the hot sun. She applauds briefly, then winces. Discreetly tries to adjust the corset through the material of the dress, then resumes clapping, trying to hide her discomfort.
Melinda is trying to do same with no luck at all but smiles knowing Norrington would be happy with his promotion and her heart was warning her to be cold so it would not be broken for in her heart she knew if her ever got promoted he would ask Elizabeth to marry him.
After a few minutes she sees Norrington head towards Elizabeth which makes her heart stop. Even though she knew he liked her it still broke her heart every time he looked at her like that and not herself.
She turned around and left to the manor and did something she thought she would never do she started packing up not wanting her heart to be broken more than it was.
When she finished packing she wrote a note to both Elizabeth and her father saying goodbye. But when she finished she didn't have the heart to leave so she unpacked her stuff and put the letters in a draw.
She sat down on the bed and let her tears flow not knowing what was happening past these walls and near the interceptor.
Melinda eventually stood and put a plain dress on that still hid her weapons and pants.
She looked at her bag on the floor it had all her clothes that her parents gave her and her gun as well as money and the letters she got from Elizabeth all those years ago. She decided then if she ever left it would be with that bag only.
Sometime later she heard a ruckus coming from Elizabeth's room so she went to investigate.
When she got there she saw Elizabeth soaking wet and maids trying to help her dry. She smiled and said "A nice day for a swim then Lizzie."
Elizabeth instantly turned and noticed the dry trails of tears on her friends face "Are you okay Mel."
Melinda nodded and said "I should be asking you that." So while the maids helped Elizabeth get warm and dry she told Melinda what happened and Melinda was quite shocked to hear the name Captain Jack Sparrow "It seems Lizzie I have more reasons to be jealous of you."
Elizabeth was about to ask why when she realised what her friend was talking about and said "Commodore Norrington proposed to me Mel."
Melinda instantly looked at her friend and the only thing that made Elizabeth know how Melinda was feeling was her eyes full of pain and heart break.
Melinda stood up and said "I knew he would he loves you Elizabeth."
Elizabeth looks at her friend and says "I didn't say yes Mel, I love Will not James."
Melinda nods and says "It doesn't change the fact James loves you Elizabeth. I don't hate you for it because you are like a sister to me but I… I wish I never fell in love with him!" With that she left the room to her own with a fresh tears flowing down her face.
Later that night while Melinda is looking out the window she hears in the distance cannon fire. She stands up instantly "Pirates."
Streets, buildings, docks and ships shatter and explode beneath the onslaught. Villagers panic, running for cover, and dodge flying debris as best they can. If this is not hell on earth, then it's about to be --
-- long boats emerge out of the fog, carrying ARMED PIRATES. They swarm from the boats, striking down, villagers indiscriminately and setting fires.
Elizabeth looks out a window at the scene below: even through the fog, multiple fires are visible, and ships burn in the harbor. Shouts and cries of pain. Cannon fire ECHOES.
She notices movement directly below her window: two SHADOWY FIGURES, approaching the house -- pirates. Elizabeth bolts from her room--
She reaches the railing overlooking the foyer, and cries out, just as the butler opens the door -- too late; there is the BOOM of a gun, and the butler crumples.
Elizabeth ducks down in horror, peering through the balusters. The pirates scan the foyer, searching. The leader is PINTEL, a sallow-looking pirate with a bald head.
Suddenly Pintel looks up, and locks eyes with Elizabeth. How could he know she was there? "Up there!"
Melinda bumps into her as they both run from the pirates, once in the room Melinda withdraws her sword and says to Elizabeth "Hide I will stall them." Elizabeth nods and leaves telling Estrella to hide and when she has the chance to run to the fort.
When the two pirates get into the room Melinda is shaking slightly from fear but stands her ground so they do not find her friend. Pintel smiles when he sees her and says "If you let us by I won't hurt you much."
Melinda growls "I will not let you past you vile pirate."
Pintel laughs and says "Do you know how to use one of those poppet?"
Melinda laughs which causes them to stop and says "As a matter fact I do."
While she fights Pintel Ragetti goes behind her and knocks her out. When she awakes she looks around and gets up ignoring in the pain in the back of her head and searches the house for Elizabeth and realises the pirates must have took her.
With sword still in hand she goes to her room and grabs her bag putting it on her back and storms downstairs only to bump into Commodore Norrington she steps back and puts her sword down to her side and says "They've taken Elizabeth Commodore."
He looks at her in alarm and asks "Are you sure?" Totally forgetting that she is wearing a bag and has a sword in her hand all because of saying they took her friend even thought they did.
She nods and says "I tried to stop them but they played dirty sir and knocked me out."
He looks at her sword then back at her and asks "Where did you get that?"
Melinda smiles timidly and says "It's mine sir I have had it most of my life."
He nods then goes to leave to tell Governor Swann what has happened when he realises she has a bag on her back "Are you leaving?"
Melinda instantly says "I will not stay here while my friends is in the hands of pirates so I am going after her."
He turned to her and said "Do you know where they are going?"
Melinda shakes her head "I do not but I am going to and then I will leave instantly since it seems you are not in a hurry to go get her."
Norrington stepped towards her and said "I am not going to make rash decisions to save her for it might get her in a worse situation and do not think you are the only who cares for her."
She smirked and said "You're right my brother so happens to love Elizabeth."
His brow furrows but before he can speak she says "My brother is William Turner Commodore and I would like for him to not know so please do not tell him."
He nods and says "Very well Miss Turner I will tell you when we find a way to save Elizabeth just don't do anything rash."
Melinda looks at him and says "I will do anything I want and if I die saving Elizabeth so be it no one cares for me except her anyway." With that she stormed past Norrington not letting him say anything and went on her way to find her brother.
Norrington was going to say something but was not quick enough in doing so. He may love Elizabeth but it didn't mean he hadn't grown to harbour feelings for Melinda over her stay with the Swann's.
When she doesn't find Will she goes to the prison and sees Jack Sparrow. She had already sheaved her sword so she did not look like she could help him. But she did look familiar.
She went towards the cell and asked "Captain Jack Sparrow?"
Jack looked up and said "Who would like to know luv?"
She looked at him and said "My name is Melinda Turner."
He looked at her and said "You wouldn't have a twin would you?"
She looked at him confused and said "I do his name is William Turner but he does not know I am his twin or even family and that is the way it stays for if he knew I was family I would disgust him for I am a pirate well at least in my heart I am."
Jack looked really interested now and said "Do you know of your father?"
Melinda looked at him and said "You mean Bootstrap Bill Turner." He nodded and she said "Of course my parents told me all about him."
He nodded and said "Hmm I never knew old Bootstrap could produce such a fine looking woman."
Just then someone comes down the stairs but does not see Melinda and asks Jack "Are you familiar with that ship the Black Pearl?" Melinda notices it to be Will and smiles but does not make her presence known.
Jack looks at Will and says "Somewhat."
Will looks at the him and says "Where does it make berth?"
Jack looks at Melinda from the corner of his and eye and says to the both of them "Surely you've heard the stories? The Black Pearl sails from the dreaded Isla de Mureta... an island that cannot be found -- except by those who already know where it is."
Will listens then says "The ships real enough so its anchorage must be a real place where is it?"
"Why ask me?"
Will looks at him as if he was mad "Because you're a pirate."
Jack nods then says "And you want to turn pirate yourself?"
Will then says "Never!" He pauses for a few seconds then gives in "They took miss Swann."
Jack looks at him and smiles like he was right which he was "So it is that you found a girl. Well, if you're intending to brave all and hasten to her rescue and so win fair lady's heart, you'll have to do it alone. I see no profit in it for me."
Will slams his fist against the bars in frustration. Jack is surprised at the outburst. Will thinks ... makes a decision. "I can get you out of here."
Jacks looks at him like hes crazy and says "How the keys run off?"
Will examines the cell and says "I helped build these cells. Those are hook-and-ring hinges. The proper application of strength, the door'll lift free. Just calls for the right lever and fulcrum. . ." Jack watches Will as he speaks, and it dawns on him – Will is the spitting image of someone he's known in the past.
Jack glances at Melinda then says "You're name is Turner."
Will gives him a puzzled look then says "Yes, Will Turner."
Jack thinks for a second then says "Will Turner... (he stands) I'll tell you what, Mr. Turner. I've changed my mind. You spring me from this cell, and on pain of death, I'll take you to the Black Pearl. (sticks out his hand) Do we have an accord?"
Will gives him a suspicious look. The deal seems too good. Jack keeps his hand out, still smiling. Will shakes it. "Agreed."
Will looks around, figures out what he needs. He makes a chair his fulcrum, and levers the long bench under the door. Pushes down -- it's hard work -- but the cell door rises, and then falls forward, CRASHING down on the bench and chair.
Jack is impressed. He steps out of the cell.
Will then says "Hurry someone will have heard that."
Jack then says "Not without my effects." He looks around after getting them noticing Melinda was gone.
Melinda made it to the docks without being seen and snuck aboard the interceptor not being seen. When she feels it move she knows that they are heading to the dauntless already thinking like a pirate so she could figure out what Jack would do.
When they stopped she went up top to see all the soldiers going over to the dauntless and Will and Jack coming onto the Interceptor. She stayed quiet and moved up top to the wheel but made sure not to be seen by Jack or Will.
When the ship started moving she looked over to the dauntless to see James Norrington looking at her with maybe disappointment across his face she couldn't tell because of the distance. She went back down below without anyone of the two noticing so she changed into pants and a top then reattached her sheath, dagger and pistol.
When she thought it was far enough for them not to send her back she went back up top and went to the wheel where she then said "I finally get to see Captain Jack Sparrow at the wheel of a ship."
Will hearing her voice turned around and said "Miss Johnson." (Name she made on the spot when she met him.) "What are you doing here and what are you wearing?"
Melinda looked at her clothes then said "Well I can fight in a dress but it isn't too easy and the reason for me being here is I want to help save Elizabeth too and now you can't send me back so you're stuck with me savvy?" She winced when she realised what she said.
Will was looking at her and said "You're a pirate."
She nodded and said "I was born to be a pirate and in its in my blood Will. Please don't think any different of me I am still the same friend you know."
Jack forgetting that she wanted Will not to know said "Miss Johnson I thought you said you was Melinda Turner daughter of bootstrap Bill Turner and twin of dear William here."
If looks could kill then our favourite captain would be dead but since you can't die from looks Melinda said "Captain I thought I told you not to say that out loud."
Will looked completely shocked and when she said that hurt "Wait you are my sister and never told me!"
Melinda looked at Will and said "I was scared Will I mean I am a pirate and I only found out four months before I arrived to stay in Port Royal that you were there."
Realisation dawned on his face after nodding "Three years you could have told me Melinda."
Melinda nodded and said "I truly am sorry Will and I hope before long you can forgive me even though I'll understand if you hate me for being a pirate."
Will looked at her and said "Sooner or later I will forgive you and I think you're wrong you are not a pirate."
Melinda looked at Will then said "I am a pirate its just I was also taught to be a lady so I am that as well Will I'm sorry I never told you." She turned to Jack and said "Please inform me when we arrive at Tortuga I believe our destination would be?"
Jack nodded and said "Aye luv."
With that said Melinda went below deck to catch up on some long waited sleep.