Disclaimer: Do people even read these things? I mean really? Oh, alright. I don't own Pirates, Disney does. There, I said it. Are you happy?

A/N: So, this is the final piece of the 'Strength in Numbers' puzzle. You'll also notice it's a two parter. I had planned on making this another one shot, but it ended up being much, much longer that my other ones, so I changed the last bit into an Epilogue of sorts. Hope you enjoy it, and please review. Now on with the story…

Thirty Good Years

She has dreaded this day's coming for so long. She watches him move about the ship, saying goodbye to his beloved Pearl one last time. His movements are cautious and slow. His hands caress the wood with the touch she is intimately familiar with. He gazes longingly at sections he cannot reach, soaking it all in, as if he didn't have every detail of her memorized by now. He's scared he'll forget her. She knows that not possible. He turns his head toward the helm. Recognising the look, she steps forward to take his arm, but Joey is there first.

Her sweet little Joey, he's all grown up. It seems like only yesterday she welcomed him into this world. The closer it came to the baby's arrival, the closer Jack had wanted to be to the coast, in case she had needed a doctor. Only, the crew hadn't been too happy with it. With only one month left in her pregnancy, she had gotten sick of his hovering and the crew's whining. She demanded they dock in Tortuga and find a doctor willing to come on the ship. They had needed one anyway, in her mind. And if she got to yell in the process, who was she to complain. Doctor Edwards proved to be the most competent and efficient one available. As soon as he was onboard, the Black Pearl set sail looking for an adventure. It made the crew happy, and kept Jack from smothering her. They'd raided and pillaged to their hearts content, while she was laid up in bed, doctor's and captain's orders. She had begun to regret having Edwards around. She'd wanted to out there, fighting along side everyone.

A week before the baby was due, after an especially lucrative raid on a merchant ship loaded down with gold and jewels that was bound for England, she'd managed to convince Edwards to let her out of bed. A party was in full swing on deck, and she wanted celebrate with the crew. Some people had gotten out their instruments and were regaling the rest with their off key music. Pintel had taken requests to sing, and rum was flowing steadily into every mug. She'd looked around to find Jack, but she hadn't seen him. She'd turned when she heard Gibbs come up behind her.

"Here ye go, miss. Got ye a stool."

She'd smiled. "Thank you, Gibbs."

He'd grinned back. "Its probably best ye be off yer feet, like Doc says."

She'd sighed with relieve as she sat down. "I must admit my feet were beginning to get sore."

Someone across deck had called out Gibbs' name. "It won't be long now, though," he'd said as he moved off.

She'd sat there most of the night, listening to the crazy songs and even crazier stories the crew told each other. The stories about the battles against Davy Jones and the East India Trading Company had seemed the most embellished, since most on the Pearl then hadn't been around during those days. She'd laughed at Pintel and Ragetti's recounting of the days as moonlit skeletons, searching for the last piece of Aztec treasure to end their curse. When they got to the point where she had entered the story, she'd heard someone walk up beside her. Turned she'd seen Jack for the first time that night. He'd set another stool down next to hers and perched himself on it.

"You've missed all the fun. Where have you been?" she'd asked.

"Below deck," he'd answered curtly.

Her head had turned from the display in front of her to him. She'd noticed a few new rings on his hands. "Below deck doing what?"

He'd coughed. "Tell me, my dear, just what are ye doin out of yer bed? Did the Doc not order ye to bed rest? And did I not give ye the same order?" he'd responded.

"Number one, Captain Sparrow, you, nor anyone else can or will order me around. You can ask me what it is you want me to do, and I alone will decided whether or not I answer your request. Number two; Doctor Edwards gave his approval when I decided to get out of bed to join the festivities. And Number three," she paused, "what were you doing below deck?"

He'd frowned. "I didn't distract ye at all, did I?"

"Not one bit, so tell me."

Turning his head back to the others dancing, he had suddenly looked serious. "I'll tell ye later."

She'd known that was all she was going to get out of him. Dropping the subject, she'd turned back to the crowd. A cool breeze blew over the deck and she'd shivered. His arm had come up around her, pulling her closer. She'd leaned her head on his shoulder as Pintel started up A Pirates Life for Me.

She turned her head to look at him. "You taught them the song."

He smiled and looked at her. "Course I did, love."

She'd started to smile back when a pain had suddenly travelled through her. She'd gripped her stomach when another wave crashed over her. She'd been too engrossed with the pain; she'd hardly even noticed when Jack and Dr. Edwards had brought her back to bed. She'd had no idea what was happening. She remembers is hearing the doctor and Jack talking about her water breaking.

"Wha, what's going on? Is it the baby?" she'd called out. Jack had come swiftly to her side, the doctor close behind.

"Yes, darlin. The baby's comin."

She'll never forget the pain she'd felt that night. No amount of stories she'd heard from the maids in Port Royal could ever had prepared her for it. But every last moment had been worth it to hold her precious child in her arms. Edwards had deemed him a healthy baby boy, and left him in her care. When he'd opened the cabin door, half the crew had been waiting outside, Jack included. Edwards had kicked him out of the room hours before. She'd heard Jack ask the doc if he could go in.

"It's alright, he can come in," she called. When Jack appeared in the doorway, she'd added, "Only if he behaves."

He moved cautiously to the bedside. "When have ye ever known me to misbehave?" he'd asked, a smirk firmly planted on his face.

She'd narrowed her eyes. "Do you have thirty years? Because it might take that long to tell you."

His expression had softened. "I'll give ye all the time in the world."

She'd surprised herself and Jack when she'd started to cry. She'd furiously tried to wipe at the tears with her free hand, but it was difficult to do with a newborn in her arms. Jack had knelt down by her side then and wiped her tears with the tips of his fingers.

"Never known you to be so emotional, love," he'd said with a teasing smile.

"Having a baby will do that to you, I hear."

It was then that Jack's focus had shifted from her to the enfant. She'd watched him as he looked at her son for the first time. She hadn't been able to read his face.

"What's his name?"

She'd glanced down at her son before looking back at him. "I was hoping you would tell me."

Jack's gaze had come back to her. "What?"

Smiling, she'd looked at the man who had always been there for her when she'd needed him the most. "I want my son to have something special that comes from all his parents. William and I gave this precious little boy his life," she'd paused to gather her strength. "I want you to give him his name."

To say Jack had been shocked would have never done that moment justice. For the first time in his life, most likely, he'd been near speechless.

"Love, I…I don't think ye-"

"Yes I do. He's yours to name, Jack. He's my son, and he's a Turner. I want him to have a piece of you." She'd held out the baby towards him. Gently, Jack had taken him from her arms and into his. He'd stood up from the bed and started to pace around the room, staring at the boy in his arms. Watching him move back and forth across the cabin had lured her to sleep. When she'd awoken hours later, she'd found Jack sitting on the corner of the bed still holding the baby.

"Joseph Jacob."

"What?" She'd still been a little groggy from sleeping.

"His name. I've named him Joseph Jacob, if that's alright with ye, love." He'd handed her newly named son over to her. "I think he's hungry. I'll leave ye to it." He'd gotten up to leave. When he'd opened he door, she'd called to him.

"Jack?"

"Aye?"

"Why Joseph Jacob?"

"They were me brothers' names." He'd turned to go, but stopped. "Oh, I almost forgot." He had come back to her side while pulling something out of his pocket. "This is for ye." He'd held out to her a beautiful black necklace. Hanging from it was a round flawless black pearl.

"Oh my…Jack…" It'd been her turn to be speechless.

"I found it in one of the chests we grabbed from the ship yesterday." He'd held out his left hand to give her the necklace. She'd seen, on his third finger, a silver ring and set in the centre was another flawless black pearl.

"You've got the matching ring, I see."

He'd pulled his hand back and turned the ring around on his hand. "Uh, aye, I did. I, uh, would have given it to ye, but it would be too big, so I thought I'd wear it instead of letting one of the crew take it." He'd straightened his back and gazed at her and Joey. "Not just anyone can have a black pearl, ye know. Takes someone special to have one."

"Yes, it does."

She remembers the weeks and months that followed. Little Joey and Jack had been almost inseparable. When Joey's first word was 'papa' she could have sworn she'd seen tears in Jack eyes.

But as Joey got older, so did everyone else. Now Joey was almost thirty. She was in her fifties, and Jack…

"I can do it meself, ye know. I'm not dead yet." Her mind snapped back to the present to see Joey and Jack still at the stairs.

"You haven't made it up these stairs on your own for years. What makes you think you can do it now?"

"That smart mouth of yours is gonna get you into lots of trouble one day, boy. Get use to bein slapped. Women like to do that," he said as he let Joey help him up to the helm.

"Who says that it hasn't happened already?"

She follows behind Jack's slow gait. He lets go of Joey's arm when they reach the wheel. Standing there, proud and tall, she can see the man that saved her life so many years ago, the pirate that risked his own freedom to rescue her from the bottom of the harbour, not the frail old man that can barely walk from one end of his ship to the other without having to stop and rest.

It had been hard on him when he realised he could no longer run the Pearl like he used to. But instead of brooding about it like she'd presumed he would, he'd seemed resigned to his fate. For a while now he'd been secretive, locked up in their cabin looking over old maps and charts. When he revealed what he was planning to her and Joey, she'd nearly fallen off of her chair. Of all the things she had thought he could have been up to, planning on leaving the Pearl was not one of them. He'd long since entrusted Joey to do most of the actual captaining without the title, but he'd decided to pass even that on to their son. She'd questioned him about his intentions after Joey had left them alone.

"You're Captain Jack Sparrow. You don't abandon your ship."

"I did before, didn't I? And I'm not abandoning it. Joey's been a fine captain these past few years. With me gone he'll have the title to go with it."

"But why leave? He's not going to dump you overboard now that he's in change."

"Joey will never truly be captain with me on board, love. You know that. He'll been in here asking me questions left and right. It's the captain's job to make the decisions without second-guessing himself. He's got to learn to do it on his own. And that means I can't stay. You on the other hand…" he trailed off.

She'd moved around the table to his side. "Do not think for a moment I won't go with you."

So here they were. The Black Pearl had docked in Tortuga and she and Jack were about to disembark. Jack's and her belongings had been taken down the gangplank minutes before. All that was left to do was to leave them.

She stepped to Jack's side. His hands were each wrapped around the wooden spokes, and he was staring off into the horizon. She reached a hand up and put it on his.

"Jack?"

He turned to look it her. His eyes held so many emotions. Sorrow, fear, anger, and defeat had travelled through their depths before they finally settled on acceptance. He smiled at her weakly.

"Time to go, love."