Buried Treasure
Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean
Author's Note: Another little ficlet I realized I hadn't posted here.
"I brought you this." With a flourish, Jack produced a battered brown leather tricorn hat. Very similar to his own.
Elizabeth took the hat and looked at it rather dubiously. "What's it for?"
"Well, a person generally wears one to protect his or her head from the elements, keep the sun out of one's eyes..."
"I know what a hat is, Jack. I was just wondering why you're giving it to me."
"It's a present. For the kid."
Elizabeth glanced at the sleeping three-month-old. "Well, I think it might be just a tad too big for him, Jack."
"Sure, now, perhaps. But in oh, five or six years, it should be just right."
"Well, thank you, Jack. I'll put it in storage..."
"Actually, I was thinking of something more interesting."
An hour later found the two of them, walking down the beach on the inner shore of Shipwreck Island, about half a mile from town. Elizabeth was wearing the hat that would someday belong to the young William James Weatherby Turner, who was sleeping soundly in a sling on her back, and Jack was carrying a shovel, and a small chest.
"This is either madness or brilliance," Elizabeth remarked, but she seemed happy enough to be trudging down the beach with Jack and Jamie on this fine spring day.
Jack gave her something of an odd look. "Well, as I told your husband, you'd be surprised at how often those two traits coincide."
She glanced over at him. "What?"
"Will made that exact same comment to me once-"
Elizabeth interrupted, "Only once?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "It was right after he began his criminal career by springing me from jail. We used an upside-down boat to get out to the Dauntless, so we could commandeer the Interceptor, and he said exactly what you just said, about the plan being either madness or brilliance."
"Well, it worked, didn't it? You succeeded in commandeering the ship."
"Aye, so this must be a brilliant plan as well. Ah, here we are."
They stopped and looked at the ground. There were a lot of rocks nearby, that they could cover the spot with later.
Jack started digging the hole, and Elizabeth sat down and started to work on sketching out a rough map.
"This should be deep enough, but not too deep for a young lad to dig up."
"The map's done, too." Elizabeth held it out for Jack to admire. "Look, I've marked the spot with an X."
"Good." Jack plucked the hat from off her head, and put it in the chest, tossed the chest in the hole, and started to cover it back up with sand. "How long do you think it'll be before he's old enough to learn that song?"
"Jack, he's only three months old. He can't talk yet."
"Well, it's never to early to start learning." And so, while Jack finished filling in the hole, Elizabeth joined him in rousing rendition of "Yo ho, Yo ho, A Pirate's Life for Me."
