Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, but I do loves 'em so!

Author's note: I don't know what's come over me! I can't stop writing one shots! Pirate Cat

"Nice place ye got here, William," Captain Jack Sparrow swiveled his head and his dark eyes all around, taking in the large and spacious captain's cabin of the newly reborn Flying Dutchman. The ghost ship's woodwork was now highly polished and rich in color, the windows were sparkling clean, the deck and floorboards smooth as glass... not even so much as a shadow of the foreboding vessel that she had been under Captain Davy Jones.

Captain William Turner looked over the edge of his mug as took a drink of his rum. He also looked about his surroundings and said, matter of factly, "It'll do. There used to be a pipe organ in here, you know."

Jack's eyes popped. "A pipe organ???"

Will nodded, simply, "Aye. Over there." He pointed with a toss of his head toward a wall full of deep walnut bookshelves.

Jack shook his head, and muttered, "A pipe organ. I'll be damned. Well...no ship should be wifout one..."

William's father and first mate, Bootstrap Bill Turner, also looked about the cabin with pride. "Aye, Jack, the Dutchman is nothin' like she was when Jones was her captain... my son, here, will be the finest captain the ship will ever know... and he will only be here a short time, mark me words, mate." Jack and Bootstrap had been best friends many years ago, when Jack was a very young man, just as Jack and Will were best friends, now. It was because of Will's sense of commitment and his loyalty to his loved ones that he was the captain of the Dutchman, and it was also because of his loyalty to the friend who had spared him a final death that the three of them were having the very conversation at hand. They were coming up with a plan to take back Jack Sparrow's very heart and soul... his ship, the Black Pearl. The Pearl had been commandeered by Captain Hector Barbossa, and they needed to decide what to do about it.

William had found Jack sailing along in the middle of the ocean with nothing but a map, his compass and several bottles of rum. Young Turner had plucked him and his tiny dinghy from the sea, as it was William's opinion that Jack had no business being alone, any longer... his mind was quite unsound since their adventures At World's End, and William feared the worst for his friend, if he were left to his own devices. He would be fine aboard the Pearl, as his decision making processes as far as a ship and crew were still fine, for the most part, but decisions for himself were downright frightening. Jack, of course, was unaware of William's fears, and William hoped to keep it that way.

During this conversation. William finally looked squarely at Jack, who was staring vacantly at the sunset that was streaming through the window, and said, "Look, mate, it's the Pearl that we are going after, and you have barely said a word..."

Jack jumped a little at the mild rebuke, then looked at William. Seeing the troubled look in Jack's brown eyes, William hesitated, then gently asked, "What is it, Jack?"

The pirate captain's kohl lined eyes looked from William, to Bootstrap, then back again. He raised his hands as if to speak, then dropped them to the table top, laying them flat, and stared at the backs of them.

Finally, he spoke. "I was just thinkin'... here I am... wif me best friends... you an' yer dad... both o' ye are tryin' t' help me..." He frowned, "...an' where is my father?"

Silence fell.

Jack continued, still staring at the backs of his hands, and with a tone to his voice that was quiet and odd, even for him, "... he was never around... always seemed like he wanted t' be someplace else whenever he was 'round me...at Shipwreck Cove, he called me 'boy' in front of th' other Pirate Lords an' Elizabeth, an' he pushed me aside... I spoke t' him, even though I knew he didn't want t' talk t' me... I sarcastically asked 'im, 'how's Mum?'... hell, she has been dead fer 30 years, an' he don' know where she's buried any more 'n' I do, so sarcasm was in order, as far as I was concerned... yet, he held up a shrunken head wif sarcasm even deeper than mine... said it was her..." Jack sighed, "Sick sense o' humor, he has.."

He continued, shaking his head from side to side, unconsciously. Beads jingled together. "He has only been in me life fer only a few hours at a time out o' me 36 years...an' those hours include th' short time it took him an' me mother to create me. Yet..."

Jack paused, then finally he looked up at his companions, ".. . why is it so important t' me that he finally took 'is hat off an' saluted me after th' battle in th' maelstrom? Why is that so important t' me, I wonder? I was hopin' it was me. Was he saluting me?" His confused eyes turned to William's, "... or you?"

His voice trailed off, and his eyes searched theirs for answers. He waited, staring at the stunned Turners.

Bootstrap broke the silence. "It was you, Jack. It had nothing to do with anyone, or anything else. Ye showed 'im what you are made of. He was saluting you to let you know what we have known all along..."

William smiled at his friend, "... We have known all along that Captain Jonathan Teague was incapable of talking to his own son... incapable of showing feelings to him. He was finally able to find a way to tell his son that he is proud of him."

Jack's face became hopeful, "Do ye really think so?"

His companions nodded and smiled. Jack sighed a little, then straightened up in his chair, "The man still has a sick sense o' humor... he fathered me, didn't he?" He shook his head again, and shrugged, chuckling.

William and Bootstrap laughed along with their friend. William poured another round of rum, and grinned, "Most of the time, we're glad that he did... most of the time! Now... about our plans for taking back the Black Pearl... "

"Aye, Jack, " Bootstrap grinned, "We have two secret weapons... Captain William Turner, and his Flying Dutchman...I think Hector may have forgotten that you have some rather persuasive friends, 'savvy'?"'

As darkness folded itself around the sea and the ghost ship, Jack finally grinned back, a gold tooth sparkling in the candlelight that illuminated the magnificent cabin. He felt the same old familiar warmth from the man who was like a father to him, all those years ago. "Savvy, mate..."

He turned to the man who had become like a brother to him, and the trio continued their planning into the velvety, dark moonless nighttime...