Thanks to all who reviewed on the last chapter. I appreciate your support. By the way, the last line of Chapter One was a modification of a line in Alexandra Ripley's novel, Scarlett. Now, on with the chapter. Enjoy, and then review.

Disclaimer: For this chapter, Chapter One, and all future chapters: I do not own anything that you recognize from the Pirates of the Caribbean films, etc. owned by Disney. Anything that you do not recognize from the movies belongs to me.

Chapter Two

I froze when I heard that voice. Of course Melody wasn't wrong, but what was he doing here? Surely he wasn't sober, and therefore must have believed the story that Melody and Jade told him. He must have. He had continued talking, but I wasn't hearing a word, only the tone of his voice. He was speaking to me like a stranger, like he didn't know who I was.

"I don't know who ye are, but I knew Ella, an' I know tha' she'd want 'er children ta' grow up on tha' sea. Who do ye think ye are, raising Ella's children an' having them call ye 'Mother'? She was their mother, savvy?" And it was then that I realized. I had my veil on, and he hadn't caught sight of me yet. He had no idea who I was. Not even a clue.

He was rambling on, and in the mirror I could see him drunkenly swaggering around the room and gesturing wildly with his arms, and Melody staring at him pointedly, as if to say, "Are you ever sober?" Jade found the whole thing hilarious, and was giggling behind the back of her hand, occasionally rolling over and stuffing her face into the pillows on my bed to keep from laughing out loud. It seems that my lessons in manners have finally taken the desired effect, I thought wryly, and then, lifting the veil off my face, I turned around. I've about reached my tolerance limit for Jack Sparrow's rum-induced tirades... but then lost my train of thought.

For when I turned around, I saw him. Not in the mirror, but actually saw him I hadn't seen him in so long that I'd nearly forgotten what he looked like. Actually, I had forced myself to forget what he looked like, and now that he was in front of me, in the flesh, it was, well, overwhelming. Now I know why the Lady of Shalott risked death by the curse that held her just to get a glimpse of the Lancelot that she saw in her mirror. She wanted a glimpse of that passing, fleeting beauty before it strolled by, and she was alone again.

Captain Jack Sparrow, stood, defiant, near the windows. The afternoon sun streamed in, illuminating his figure and cast almost heavenly shadows on his face. There were new trinkets, scattered among the old, woven into his braids, and I thought I caught sight of a bit of lavender, only a shred, tying a blue bead onto a dreadlock. It was lavender that I recognized, for there was a time when I had dozens at hand, to tie back the hair from my face as I sailed on the Poseidon's Wrath. It was a shred of one of my scarves. This touched me, and I wasn't really sure why. Maybe it was that he had thought of me, at one time or another, that I wasn't cast away after he left me like one of his whores in Tortuga. That maybe I had meant something. Either that or he needed something to tie his trinket to his hair. With Jack Sparrow, one can never be sure.

While I was studying him, I hadn't realized that he had stopped speaking and was staring at me, in turn, his eyes wide with something that was in-between shock, relief, and indignation. When our eyes met, my blue with his deep brown, I spoke quietly, for fear that if I spoke too loud, he'd be gone, out the window, a ghost on the breeze, an apparition that I didn't want to lose, yet.

"Caroline? Take the children outside to play down by the water, will you? Girls, be careful, please." Jade chirped in affirmation but Melody lingered, asking me with her eyes if everything was alright. She could sense the tension, and I knew it. "Go on, Melly, darling. Everything's fine." She gave me one last concerned glance before following her sister out the door, Caroline following right behind her. There was the click of the door shutting, and then silence. We were alone.

The silence seemed to envelop us, almost suffocating. For awhile we just stared at each other, taking everything in. He was the same, the exact same ridiculously multi-faceted man that had left me five years ago, but he looked angry. For what, I couldn't fathom. After all, I hadn't been the one who stomped onto his ship and called him a whore. That had been his doing, not mine.

"Ye faked yer own death... for tha' second time. A coward, just like yer grandfather." He stated this as a fact, as if he was informing me that the sky was blue.

But I was many things, some of them things that I'm not particularly proud of, but a coward wasn't one of them. So I replied to what was meant to be a cutting remark with one, simple word that I knew would make him think twice: "Pirate."

&&&

After several hours worth of shouting, laughing, and several attempts at seduction (on Jack's end), we sat at a desk I kept in the corner of the room, and I finally ventured forth the question that had been in the back of my mind the whole time.

"Jack. I know you're not here to see me, considering you thought me dead. Why are you really here?"

He sighed, and nervously toyed with his trinkets, flipping them over with his fingers, as if trying to memorize every bend and every crevice, every surface on each of them. His brow was furrowed and the corners of his mouth pulling downward in a comical fashion, though it wasn't meant to be that way. It was an endearing gesture to me; I'd seen Jade do it countless times. The apple really does not far from the tree at all. Finally, after a good few minutes worth of brow-furrowing and trinket-fumbling, he spoke.

"Ella," he began, but I cut him off. "Esperanza," I reminded him. "Fine, then. Esper-ahh-nza," he exaggerated, and then continued. "I find myself in a most unfortunate circumstance which there is no logical way ta' get out of, at least a' this point... which is where ye come in! I need yer help, ye see, because I might 'ave... erm... borrowed with every intention of givin' it back... Davy Jones's 'eart. From Calypso. An' I can't very well be on tha' sea, because she is tha' sea, an' she's apparently gotten it into 'er 'ead tha' I should be... done away wif, if you will." He smiled sheepishly, as if to say, 'I couldn't help it!'

"Jack Sparrow..." I moaned. "You cannot go for any extended period of time without getting yourself cursed, kidnapped, enslaved, or otherwise put into precarious situations, now can you? And how do you propose that I help? Waltz up to Calypso, goddess of the bloody sea, and say 'Hello, darling, it's me, Captain Ella Raven. Here's the heart, terribly sorry but I cannot stay... Ta!' Hmm? What do you want me to do Jack? What is there possibly to do?"

"I 'aven't gotten tha' far yet, alright? But tha' way tha' I see it, ye did me a favor by raising tha' Pearl from tha' depths, an' this way, I'll be returning tha' favor, because I'll be bringing ye back to the sea, givin' ye adventure, an' savin' ye from marrying bloody Beckett! It's a fair deal, love, I give ye my word."

I considered this. I had no wish whatsoever to marry 'bloody Beckett', and my longing to be back onto the sea was greater than ever. Jack was promising me all this, and adventure besides, but---

"Mother? Jade and I are tired now..." Melody trailed off when she saw Jack and I conversing amicably, and narrowed her eyes at him. She had sworn never to trust him after she found out about his leaving, the day we landed on Calypso's Island.

And that's when it struck me. I couldn't leave, I had children now. Granted, they were five, but they were still children. I couldn't just up and leave them for some silly adventure that would probably do more harm than good. Actually, I probably could, but I'd regret it, and I'd probably loathe myself for it. I knew I would.

I turned to Jack, but he beat me to it. "If ye don't come wif me, I'll 'ave ta' resort ta' kidnapping ye. Savvy?" And, sadly, he wasn't saying this in jest. My eyes widened at the thought of being dragged down the cliff, and I quickly held my hands up, in defeat.

"I'll go, but on one condition. You have to let me bring the girls. And you can't do anything ridiculous to them once we're on board, like eat them or something equally crazy, like force them to work in the crow's nest... I don't know! Just let me take them, and I'll help with anything you need, Jack. If not, good luck kidnapping me. Beckett and his men will be all over you within five seconds of my first scream."

"Fine. But whose brats are they? It 'ad me wondering after I left you. Because ye an' I never... ye know... did we?"

"Yes. We did, Jack. And, fortunately or unfortunately, whichever your take on the whole situation is, I became pregnant, and had the twins. Jade and Melody Sparrow, your daughters. They're five. Sparrow isn't the name they use, obviously, but it's their legal name."

Jack appeared not to absorb anything but my first few statements, which, fortunately, were the most important. "I'm... I'm a father?"

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Another chapter, Jack baffled yet again. :) Read and review, loves!

Yours,

--Ella.

Captain Ella Raven.