PROLOGUE
Captain James Norrington entered the doors of 'The Birds' Nest,' the dark night fading into the familiar warmth of the candlelit tavern. Keeping to the back of the room, he made his warm to a worn stool at the end of the bar, waiting for the barmaid/owner to see him.
Brandy looked through the tavern, her heart sinking. Her beloved was supposed to have gotten in.. ahh, there James was. Bustling down to that end of the bar, she leant across and gave him a kiss. James smiled up at her as she pulled away, going to a large bell tucked in a nook. The tones rang through the room.
"Guys, you need to go elsewhere!" She projected her voice over the crowd, who grumbled and began to move towards the door. "Remember that your tabs are due by next Friday or I'm going to have to report you!" As the last of the patrons went out the door, Brandy went behind it to bolt it shut, then swung the large brace into place.
Gazing up at the large painting of a sea-tossed boat, a mermaid clasping a beautiful pearl in her hands on the prow of the ship, and a bird above it, James wondered about it.
"Brandy, what is the painting of?" Brandy smiled at James' question, and went to blow out the candles in their holders. Locking up the alcohol kegs, she reached out and grasped James' hand, showing him up the back steps into her rooms above the tavern.
Brandy lay curled into James' chest, a silver chain with a locket between her bare breasts. James' arms curled protectively around her, and she looked down at the tattoo on her right forearm, the moon crossed over by a winging sparrow. On her right ring finger sat a silver ring, a black pearl set in the mouth of a sparrow. Sighing at her evasion of James' question, she snuggled into her beloved's arms.
CHAPTER ONE
Brandy looked out the window at the sea, her very bones having felt the sea move in her cradle. It was dark out, the moon peaking out from behind a cloud. Her hand was on her hip, fingering a newly gifted short dagger.
James was up at the Fort, on duty tonight, thinking of the woman that he would have to marry for 'society's' sake. A grimace passed wine-colored lips, pale skin around brown eyes luminescent in the moonlight.
The bar was long closed, Brandy having chosen to close it so she could mourn the 'loss' of her lover. She knew, instinctively, that James would always sleep with her, it had been that way since he had first met her. but she mourned the real chance of them making their union formal.
Her brother would be ashamed of her, she thought, the fingers of her tattooed arm caressing the silver of her locket. For one of her exalted bloodline to be reduced to a noble's mistress, a commodore's whore would have angered him greatly.
Her left hand reached out, grasping her cloak, and she slid it around her shoulders, pulling the hood over frosting brown hair. At twenty-eight, and six years younger than both her brother and her lover, she was going silver-haired young.
Brandy walked through the streets of Port Royal, her feet treading the familiar roads towards the smithy.
CHAPTER TWO
Will looked up from working on his sword at the sound of a knock. Going to the door, he let the kindly figure of the owner of 'the Birds' Nest' into his shop. As she pushed back her cloak, she smiled at him, her eyes tracing over the sleeping form of Bartimius Brown.
"Why are you here, Miss Brandy?" Brandy smiled at the young man, who seemed so much more mature than the milksop Elizabeth. Will Turner, son of Bootstrap Bill, one of the few men that her brother had ever allowed her around in her youth. Bootstrap would have been proud of his son, such a good and honest man.
"I'd like to place an order for several things." Will's eyebrow went up. If that was so, then why was she here this late at night. Cannons boomed through the night, and Will saw a light blossom in Brandy's brown eyes, as her hand withdrew her dagger from its sheath, and took a sword off the wall. "And I'd like to keep you, the son of old Bootstrap, out of Barbossa's way."
Will's eyes were questioning, but he grabbed an axe and another sword, following after her swiftly moving form.
James walked the streets in the predawn, his eyes wandering to and from each injured person. He was surprised to see Brandy's form splayed out, her skirts around her. the dagger that he had given her as a gift looked as if it had fallen from her hand as a blow had hit her from behind.
Thinking she was dead, he moved on, his eyes blinking back tears.
CHAPTER THREE
Brandy woke up inside a cell in the Fort, her body groaning as she moved slowly into a sitting position. Her hands went to her hands, and she felt the ring there, then to her neck, and she smiled as she felt silver chain and locket.
"You know sis, you'd look more the part of a pirate if your hair wasn't pulled back in that coronet." Brandy's eyes snapped across the cell, the familiar form on her brother splayed against the cell wall. Crawling over, she hugged him tightly.
"I've been trying to be good, Jack. I don't want to hung as a pirate, but the tattoo damned me, didn't it?"
"Yup, little sis. The reds that brought you in thought you were a victim of the code. I doubted it."
"Miss Brandy?" Will Turner was at the door. "Why on earth are you behind bars? The Commodore has been going out of his mind with grief!"
"COMMODORE!" Jack's voice yelled at Brandy. Then he switched to talking with Will.
As the two were let out, Brandy went a different way. A questioning glance was sent her way, and she smiled.
"They assumed that I was a pirate from a tattoo. I bear no brand, Jack, Will. I'll be safe." She paused, then grinned. "Besides, I have a tavern to run!"
CHAPTER FOUR
several months later
Brandy stood on the deck of the Black Pearl, her eyes snapping from behind the wheel. Anamaria stood next to her, showing the older woman how to steer. Brandy's large stomach kept on getting in the way, and when they saw Jack fall over the edge of the fort, she pulled up some old memories of her mother teaching her how to manipulate the pearl on her ring, and in extent, the Black Pearl. Her hands moved effortlessly, and from nearby, Gibbs grinned at Anamaria.
"She's a Sparrow, Anamaria. They are a part of the Pearl. For the three hundred years that the Pearl's sailed, Sparrows have captained her for nearly all of them."
Jack's feet thumped solidly on the deck, and as the cloak was settled over his shoulders, he grinned roguishly. Making his way to the wheel, he saw a rare sight.
"Brandy!" Reaching out, he picked up his widely pregnant sister, twirling her around. Her plain skirts whipped in the air as she clung to her brother.
"We're scoundrels and cads and really bad eggs. Drink up me hearties yo ho!"
"So where are you headed, Brandy? Last time I saw you, you were going back to your tavern, to stay the Commodore's mistress." Brandy sat at her brother's side, shrouded by the darkness, her hands resting on her rounded stomach.
"I was planning on going to Tortuga."
"Why?"
"What better place to raise the next generation of Sparrows?" Jack's eyes went wide, then looked swiftly to her stomach.
"I'd thought you'd just gained weight." Pausing, he thought it over. "So the Sparrows are going to have an infusion of redcoat blood?"
"I've already picked out names."
"What are the?"
"Jacqueline Pearl for a girl, Jameson Phillip for a boy."
"Pearl, Phillip, after father and Aunt Pearl?"
"Yup."
CHAPTER FIVE
James Norrington, former commodore of the Royal Navy walked through the streets of Tortuga, his coat tails swishing as he made his way to the tavern Will Turner had given him directions to.
He'd disobeyed a direct order, from one of the Generals, to lead an attack on Tortuga. He'd deemed the mission pure suicide, and they'd expelled him from their ranks. The crew of the Interceptor II had defected, bringing the former HMS ship to Norrington as his own ship. They now worked as pirates, painting the Interceptor II a deep black, her sails a deep blue. She now went by the name Dark Diamond, and though her home berth was in a hidden cove near Port Royal, she spent much time at Isle De Muerte.
James looked up at the sign to the Mermaid's Pearl, entering the dim tavern, swiftly noticing the painting on the wall, and recognizing it. making his way to the bar, he caught the eye of the bartender.
Brandy bustled down to the scar seamed sailor, her silvered hair shining in the candlelight. Her eyes looked swiftly over the sailor, her mind registering the eyes.
"James?" James looked up, and he knew who she was. Seven years had not wrought any large changes, other than completely silver hair on the body of his beloved.
Brandy signaled one of her serving maids, and she grabbed James' hand, leading him up the back stairwell.
She paused outside a small bedroom. Allowing the moon to illuminate the two bodies fast asleep in their beds, she showed James.
"Jameson Phillip Sparrow Norrington is closer to the door. Jacqueline Pearl Sparrow Norrington is under the window. I named them after you and my brother, the two most important men in my life before they were born. Jameson already wants to be a great pirate like his Uncle Jack. Jacqueline wants to be a lady, like Aunt Anamaria."
CHAPTER FIVE
"Will you come with me, on the
Diamond?" James was on his knees in front of Brandy, his hands
clasping hers. "We could get married in Port Royal, with Jack
giving you away. Will could be my best man."
They were married in a tiny ceremony in Port Royal, Brandy roundly pregnant with their fourth child. All of the little Sparrows and Norringtons were there, smiling as she wedded James Norrington.
The Dark Diamond was the second of a eight ship fleet of pirate ships, that was lead by the Black Pearl. Captaining the Pearl was the eldest son of James Sparrow, husband to Brandy Sparrow, a boy who went by Jamie Sparrow. On the Diamond, the captain was Jackie Sparrow, his twin sister. The Emerald Light was captained by Marrow Sparrow, eldest son of Captain Jack Sparrow and his wife Anamaria. The Silver Sword was captained by William Turner the Third, the eldest son of Will Turner. The Amethyst Casting was captained by Jonathon Gibbs, only child of Mr. Gibbs. The Sapphire Melting was captained by Timothy Ragetti, and her sister ship the Opal Consolidate captained by Keith Pintel.
James and Brandy had retired to a quiet home near Port Royal, to raise the last of their children. Jack and Anamaria found a boat, and they sailed the Caribbean in it.
it is said, that on a cold night, you an see the Dark Diamond on the very edge of the horizon, Captain James Sparrow and his wife standing at the wheel to the ship, a ghostly song drifting over the Caribbean. A black light was often seen from a remote island, said to be the black pearl in Brandy's ring calling out to the Black Pearl, her brother's ship.
The doings of the two ships swiftly became legend, the reality melting into the background. However, both the truth and the legend agreed on a final point. James and Brandy did live happily ever after, together, until the end of their days. They were given a sea burial by the Sparrow Fleet, somewhere near Port Royal.S