'Hunter!'
Hunter stopped and turned back. The smile left her face, and she took a deep breath. 'Captain.'
Jack stopped ten metres away, suddenly afraid that his urgency may have scared her. 'Sparrow…isn't it?'
For a fleeting moment, a look of defeat crossed her face and she glanced down for a split second but did not answer.
Jack really stared at her then. It was in that split second that she finally admitted to him the truth. He did not know whether it was because he now knew and she could not escape it, or because she genuinely wanted him to know, but had no idea what to say. He preferred the latter, of course, the thought that even as a young woman, there was a child inside who longed for help, for a family. It was pride that stopped her from revealing this, and a maturity gained from her position of Captaincy, a trait which Jack found exceptionally admiring.
But it was a reflection he saw that unnerved him, a reflection of his own hidden guilt. Guilt of a day many years ago, when he chose his own selfish purpose over the wellbeing of a child less than a day old. His child. His Hunter.
'I'm sorry.'
Hunter stared at him, her expression a mixture of confusion and shock. Her mind was numb. She gazed at Jack as the father she'd never had, as the father she'd prayed for as a child. He looked like a man reborn. A shell after the loss of his first child, rebuilt at the birth of his second, and shattered after leaving her at the door of an orphanage he vowed never to lay eyes on again. She realised now that for as long as he had denied her existence, she had haunted his darkest thoughts, his most evaded memories, and his deepest nightmares, torturing him in a way that no human being should ever be tortured.
These thoughts scared her, creating a guilt, which a deeper part of her knew she did not deserve. It that part that told her she was neither the victim, nor the perpetrator. She knew she would dwell on this, it was undeniable, but now, her father awaited an answer.
She opened her mouth, but found no voice to speak with. Flooded with embarrassment all she could do was nod.
The pair stared at each other, lost in the silence until it was so rudely broken by the sound of a clanging bell in the distance.
Hunter turned and started for the longboat further down the beach. Jack returned to the jetty, and rowed back to the Pearl. As he did so, he felt elated. Hunter had not forgiven him, not by any means, but his apology (difficult, as it was) had definitely been a step in the right direction.