Rumours
Chapter 1
Summary: On Stranger Tides rewritten with some twists.
A/N: Ignore the uncreative title, I swear the story's better.
As if it wasn't painfully obvious already, my father is a lunatic. I can't believe he actually thinks this will work. The courtroom is in chaos, all excited to see poor Gibbs hang, they think they're sending my father to the noose.
"Now appearing before the court, the notorious and infamous pirate, pillager, and highwayman, Captain Jack Sparrow!" At least they got the title right for once. The man who dragged Gibbs into the room takes the bag off his head and reveals that he is in fact, not Captain Jack Sparrow, not that they care or even notice. There's an uproar from the spectators. They're so bloodthirsty they'd send anyone to the gallows just for a show. The official speaks up again, announcing the arrival of Justice Smith. If only they knew.
"Justice Smith" enters, and the crowd cheers, the officials bow, and Gibbs seems to be the only one who notices that he's not who he pretends to be. They're not very bright. Perhaps it's just me and Gibbs but no amount of makeup or any disguise could make my father blend in. He makes his way to the head of the room and sits.
"Now, what do we have here?" He smiles at Gibbs and adjusts his spectacles.
Gibbs eyes go wide, "Jack?" The man who dragged him in whacks him and tells him to shut up. Gibbs better not blow our plan or we'll all be headed for the gallows.
Father intervenes, "not necessary. You were saying?"
"Jack Sparrow is not my name. My name is Joshamee Gibbs." The crowd is less than pleased.
Father pretends to ponder this fact. "Is that so? It says Jack Sparrow here."
"I told 'em! I'm not Jack Sparrow, who I would be happy to identify to the court if it would help my case." He gives my father a pointed look. I'm not sure what irritates me more, Gibbs threat or the fact that no one here knows who my father is. He's the infamous Jack Sparrow! At home in Tortuga there wasn't a single person who didn't know him.
"I think that would be a poor defense unless you want to be bludgeoned again like a harp seal." The crowd cheers and father doesn't look amused. "The prisoner claims of being innocent of being Jack Sparrow. How do you find?"
A member of the jury stands and addresses my father, "no trial? But aren't we here to examine the evidence?"
"Foreman, your finding. Guilty?"
"Guilty verdict means he'll hang." The crowd cheers. I hope father knows what he's doing. "Guilty?"
Gibbs yells but father tells him and the crowd to shut it. "Joshamee Gibbs, the crime of which you've been found guilty of is being innocent of being Jack Sparrow. I hereby commute your sentence, and order that you be imprisoned for the remainder of your miserable, moribund, mutton-chopped life." The crowd revolts and demands a hanging. Father bangs his gavel and gets up to leave. Gibbs gets dragged off by the man again, I make sure to tail them.
0.O.0.O.0
We're rushed into the back of a carriage where we're joined by my father. Gibbs is no happier. "Hell's teeth, now all of us are headed for prison."
Father waves his hand in a dismissal of Gibbs' worries. "Not to worry. I've paid off the driver. Ten minutes, we'll be outside London Town, horses waiting. Tonight we make the coast. Then it's just a matter of finding a ship." He takes a swig of rum. He goes on to inform Gibbs that we just arrived in London to save him. He asks Gibbs how he came to be imprisoned for being Jack Sparrow and he explains that there's been a rumour that Jack Sparrow was in London looking for a crew. They discuss the imposter and their need for a crew, and the matter of finding the Fountain of Youth. We stop suddenly and when we're let out we come face to face with His highness's guards. They drag my father and I to some grand ballroom to wait for an audience with him.