Summary: When Jack and his crew find a young princess's tomb, they do not realize the danger they are in until Jack suddenly begins to think he is a child again… As the crew panics and searches for a way to return the gold and break the curse, Will Turner becomes the official caretaker of "Child Jack". As Will keeps Jack out of harms way and teaches the "young" Jack about piracy, he learns new things about Jack... and about himself.

Takes place in between CoTBP and DMC.

Chapter One; the Young Princess of Peru

. . .

"Our daughter is dying…" The king cried to the doctor, "You must do something!" The doctors only turned around and looked the king straight, dead in the eye.

"There is nothing we can do!" The doctor spat. "She's going to die, yes… and I'm sorry but we can't help her! We don't even know what wrong with her… but she's dying" The doctor huffed and he turned around to leave the palace again, "Now we gave you our diagnosis and that's all we can do for her. Good day, Sir!" The doctor left the room, slamming to door behind him and leaving a completely baffled king and queen.

Within minutes, the Queen began bawling and she leaned over the bed to where her dying daughter lay. "Oh, my baby…" she whispered softly to the child. The girl's eyelashes fluttered as they were closed and she slowly cracked them open and looked at her mother. The king hugged his wailing wife and patted her back softly.

"Papa…" the girl whimpered softly.

"Shh, don't talk, dear." The king responded. He then pulled out from his pocket a long, beautiful necklace with nothing but a single, small medallion on it. "I meant to give this to you for your sixteenth birthday…" He chuckled softly. "But things have changed, so I give this to you now, dear."

The girl reached out and took the medallion from him and she examined it with tired eyes. "What is this…?"

"It's gold, dear. This belonged to your grandfather, your great-grandfather and your great-great-grandfather… all of royal blood. It's a family heirloom and it represents the bond between the parent and the child." The girl looked at it, and suddenly, her large black eyes seemed to light up a little with happiness. She looked at her father and gave a large, toothy smile.

"Thank you, Father!" She reached out and hugged him and he chuckled again…

The following day, she did not wake up and she was buried with her medallion and the stuffed bear her mother gave her. At six years old, she became the youngest princess of Peru.

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Upon finding the sacred tomb that they had searched for, for so long, the crew grew frantic and wallowed in the huge amounts of gold and treasures that lay in the cave that was the tomb for the youngest princess of Peru.

None of the crewmembers actually knew her name, but none of that mattered to them. Each member of the crew took with them an item of worth, something that was big and high in value. Nevertheless, Jack had had his eyes set on a large box… a golden box, which was in the shape of a coffin... Rather small for a coffin, though… he thought to himself as he began to pry it open.

Low and behold, turns out it was a coffin, he could tell without looking simply by the horrible stench the box gave off. He sighed but before he put the lid back on, he noticed two things… a stuffed bear and a beautiful golden medallion. Now this is curious… Must've been a child who died. Jack couldn't resist the tempting gold or the friendly face of the stuffed bear, and so… he took them both from the coffin and then pulled back the lid and left.

As they raised the anchor and sailed away en route to Tortuga, Jack examined the medallion in his hand as he cuddled the teddy bear. "Hm… this is curious." The gold sparkled as the sun hit it and it reflected beautiful specks of golden light around it. Jack smirked and kissed it gently. "T'is'll make a very fine trinket for me hair." He patted his head and slipped the medallion away in his pocket.

The crew was outside of his cabin, running around hastily as they prepared en route for Tortuga.

"Oi!" Jack yelled to the crew as he stepped out from his cabin. "All hands! Slacken braces." The crew nodded and in unison repeated the captain's orders. Jack smirked again and left into his cabin to muse about his newest belongings.

There was a knock at the door, and Will Turner had opened it quickly, expecting that it was a potential customer.

"Hel…" Anamaria cut him off as she held in her arms a seemingly either very drunk or very tired Jack. His head was slumped over his shoulders and his thick dreadlocks covered his face.

"You have to help us!" She spoke quickly and pushed her way into the blacksmith's workplace.

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"So, wait…. What happened?" Will's eyes were wide and he could almost not believe the words that were spewing from Anamaria's mouth. Anamaria went over the story again, and her theory about Jack.

"…and now.. I don't know!" She glanced over at the sleeping Jack on the floor. "He's… acting like a child, Will."

"What?" Will immediately threw his hands over his mouth and prayed that he didn't wake up Jack. Thankfully, for him, Jack was still on the floor with his thumb in his mouth and snoring soundly. Will sighed and he whispered to Anamaria, "So what do you want me for…?"

Anamaria looked at Jack and she whispered back, "We need you to watch him while we return the treasure to the tomb and figure out what the 'curse' is and how to break it."

Will bit his bottom lip to keep from exploding at Anamaria. He then looked at Jack and sighed, "When will you be back…?"

"We won't be gone long." She whispered.

"When." Will whispered slightly louder, and he forced himself to stay calm. "Will. You. Be. Back." He wasn't asking a question, he was demanding a straight answer.

"Two weeks." Anamaria replied hastily. "About." Her tone lowered so much at that last word that it was barely audible. She then stood up and headed toward the door. "Thank you, Turner!" She slammed the door behind her before William got the chance to say something back. He grumbled softly then looked at Jack.

Jack was sitting up straight now, completely shaken. Damn it! Will kicked himself inwardly. The slamming door woke him up. Jack's eyes wandered around the room then landed on William. He just stared for a while then slowly began to stand up. He swayed a little, and Will's eyebrows arched, this seemed like an entirely normal stance for the pirate… was something really wrong?

Jack stumbled as he walked around and he came to a halt in front of Will Turner. "H-hullo." Jack spoke. William did not say anything; he just stared at the pirate, eyes very wide and on high alert now.

Jack continued to walk with his drunken swagger around the room and he picked up a few random items and began to shove them into his pockets.

"Hey!" Will yelled, the pirate stopped and became completely still, he did not move anything but his eyes and he waited for William to approach him. Will, eventually did. "Put those back." He yelled at Jack and the pirate shied away and slowly began to put the items back.

Will's eyes widened even more, seems like this thing should be a lot easier than he thought,

Author's Notes:

This was just a plot bunny that crept into my head a couple of months ago...

I started it at first, but then left it for a long while. I kind of revived it again just the other day because I felt it was a decent plot bunny.

Tell me how you like it so far?

Thanks!

-Rawiyah