Author's Note: I haven't posted anything in forever and I've been wanting to so I figured another short one-shot would do…and I'll have you know it is an honest, happy one! ;) I promise. It's a little short and maybe corny but I liked it. Let me know what you think okay? So, god bless and enjoy!
Elizabeth had always loved beautiful things. As a young girl in Port Royal she would often times travel down to the beachy shores with her governess just to watch the turquoise ocean wash up on the white, sandy beach.
On one of these occasions she decided to dig foe shells in the sand when she happened to come across the most beautiful conch shell. The inside was a brilliant hue of pinks, with the smoothest surface that she had ever felt. When she held it to her ear she could hear the ocean clearer than ever before. She had shown the shell to her father upon her return but he was unable to appreciate it the way that she had. All that he was able to see was the rough exterior, the bumps along the outer surface. He had never taken the time to really examine the shell, to turn it in his palms and view the smooth and beautiful insides. He never held the conch to his ear to listen to what the ocean had to say. He would never see it for the beauty that it really was. A diamond in the rough, her governess described.
It had been fifteen years since she had found that conch shell. She had placed it in her keepsake box so that she would always be able to admire it. Unfortunately, in all of those years her father still could not find the beauty in the shell or even try to pursue it anymore. Nor could he find beauty in other joys of her life.
It had been five years since she was willingly to dismiss the proper life and married the pirate Captain of her dreams. Her father was unable to understand her decisions. All that he could see about Jack Sparrow was his rough, dirty exterior. He saw him as an evil pirate preying upon the innocent and naïve, not for the kind, good man that he turned out to be on the inside. He never spoke to Jack, never cared to learn the truth about him. He never got to see Jack the way that she did. He didn't see the way that their four year old son would mirror his every move. He never saw Jack allowing their little boy to take the helm with his father's hat placed firmly over his dark, wild locks. Weatherby Swann would never see the way that his grandson looked upon his father, like an admirer would look upon his hero.
Lying awake in the bed this evening, Elizabeth took the time to study her boys more closely. Rafe had entered his parent's bed chamber earlier after a nightmare regarding sea monsters. She reminded herself to scold Jack later for filling his mind with such stories. Jack however, had immediately picked his son up and placed him in the bed between himself and her form. She remembered smiling and thinking that Jack himself had grown up a lot these past few years and how wonderful a father he had turned out to be. Rafe was wedged between the two of them but he lay with his head upon his father's shoulder, a small arm stretched out across his chest, softly gripping the material of his shirt. Rafe's unkempt hair sprung out in all directions even as she stroked it. Jack's hair was just the same, she knew. Their son almost completely took after his father with his hair, dark eyes and devilish charm. What he had inherited from his mother however, was his eye for, and his love for beautiful things. He saw his father for the man that he was even if her own could not, and that was all that really mattered.
Elizabeth gently leaned over and placed a kiss upon both of her boys' noses and went to bed with a smile on her face when they wrinkled their nose at the same.