Chapter Four
What had he done? That was the only question on Jack Sparrow's mind for the rest of the day and into the wee hours of the night. What exactly had he done to Will Turner that made the young man get so damn mad at him and stay that way for five whole years? It certainly wasn't giving him to Davy Jones and kissing Elizabeth was something that even Will would have gotten over. Perhaps it was more then just one thing that he had done to the lad. Maybe it was a combination of things? Yet he couldn't think of anything.
Perhaps a better question would be why did he care so damn much? It was just Will Turner after all. Then again, the reason he cared so much was probably because this was Will Turner and as much as Jack didn't want to admit it, he cared about the young man. Five years of not knowing where he was, what he was doing, or who he was with killed him a bit. Now that Will was back in his life, Jack was starting to hope that there could be some slim chance that he could get the boy to join his crew. Of course that was just wistful thinking. There was no way that Will would want to become a pirate now that he was back to his old pirate hating ways.
Not to mention the kid. There would be absolutely no way that Will would allow his only child to be raised on a pirate ship, but maybe there was a way that he could convince the younger man to at least be... civil towards him. There must be a way to get the younger man to soften up a bit.
He had been playing with the idea for a while and it suddenly dawned on him that Nathan was the way to get on Will's good side. The only thing stopping that plan from working, of course, was the fact that he wasn't exactly supposed to be anywhere near the boy. Will had pretty much forbad him from going anywhere near Nathan. So he would merely have to accidentally run into the boy.
That's exactly what Jack had planned to do. He had decided to take a walk by what he assumed was Will's house during what he assumed were Will's normal work hours and was fortunate enough to accidentally find Nathan playing outside. He wasn't fortunate enough to find the boy by himself, however, since it seemed that Sarah was about to take the four year old out for the day.
Jack frowned. How was he supposed to get information out of the toddler if he was being held captive by his over protective nanny?
"Come on Nathan," he heard Sarah say, forcing her nicest tone possible. "Your Daddy wanted me to take you out for the day, so we're going to do some shopping."
"But I don't wanna!" Nathan pouted, stamping his foot in displeasure. "I wanna go to the docks so I can see the ships!"
"No!" Sarah cried, a mixture of fear and annoyance creeping into her tone. "If we go there we might see that, that..."
"Cap'n Jack!"
Jack felt a mixture of surprise and pride when the toddler spotted him, he was starting to wonder when somebody would notice him. The child instantly wrestled away from Sarah's clutches and ran towards the pirate captain.
"Cap'n Jack! Cap'n Jack!" Nathan cried happily, hopping up and down in front of the man. "Cap'n Jack are you going to show me your ship?"
Jack laughed as he patted the little boy's head in greeting. "I'd love ta take ye out for the day, lad, but it seems that yer bein' escorted by a pretty young lady."
Sarah smiled shyly at the compliment in spite of the fact that she knew good and well that it was coming from a pirate. Nathan merely wrinkled his nose in distaste at Jack's words. "That's not a lady, that's just Sarah!" Sarah frowned sourly the boy's words and Jack had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing.
"Difference of taste," Jack assured. "One day ye'll look back on this an' apperecaite all this time yet get ta spend alone with pretty girls. Ye may even like girls when ye get older lad."
"I don't not like girls," Nathan urged, but Sarah cut him off before the child could continue to insult her.
"What do you want?" Sarah snapped. "Mr. Turner told me not to let Nathan anywhere near you."
Dear lord was that boy bitter. Even had the young babysitter keeping Nathan away from him.
But why? Why does the whelp want me ta stay away from his boy so badly
"Well that's a darn shame," Jack began in what he hoped an understanding tone. "But I'm sure that a pretty young girl like yerself would rather spend the day doin' other things then watchin' a young boy."
Sarah bristled at his words, but Jack could tell that a part of her was genuinely tempted at the idea of abandoning her babysitting duties. "Nathan is my charge," she said firmly, "and Mr. Turner trusted me enough to let me watch his only child, and I will not betray that trust."
"Really?" Jack began, taking a few steps closer to the girl causing her to take a few steps back. "Not even for a few hours?" As he said this, he dropped a few shillings into the young girl's hand.
Sarah looked up at him, conflict clear in her grayish green eyes. "I... I can't... You're a pirate. How will I know that you won't harm him?"
"I wouldn't dare hurt a hair on the boy's curly head," Jack all but purred, before dropping a few more coins in her hand. "But if ye need more piece of mind..."
Sarah trembled with confusion as she looked from her hand to Jack and back again. "Mr. Turner," she began.
"Must never know about this," Jack finished for her. "Now don't ye worry 'bout a thing. I'll bring him back ta ye at around six."
"Oh no! Not six," Sarah said hurriedly. "M-Mr. Turner comes home at around six for dinner and-"
"Alright, alright lass," Jack said calmly. "Five then?"
"Y-yes," she nodded. "F-five. That'll be fine."
-+-+-+-
Jack was actually surprised about how nice of a time he was having with young Nathan. He would actually go as far as to say that he was actually enjoying spending time with the lad. He had taken the boy on board the Pearl and showed him around the ship from steam to stern. The few crew members that were on guard duty gave him weird looks as he held hands with the toddler. The crew had changed a good deal since Will had last been on the Black Pearl, so whether by luck or not the men on deck with Jack had never seen Will Turner before, so they couldn't see the resemblence between the child and the blacksmith. Jack only hoped that they didn't think that the kid was his!
Of course, Jack's feelings for the kids doubled when he realized that the Pearl actually liked him. He could tell that the ship had really taken a shine to the toddler and that made Jack smile. It must have been because this was Bill's grandson. Then again, the Pearl had liked Will as well, so having his blood definetly did help.
By the time they had left the ship, the child was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. His joyful cries of "Cap'n Jack" could be heard from miles away as he profusely asked the pirate captain to carry him in his arms.
"Alright whelp," Jack had laughed as he lifted the boy by his armpits and balanced him on his hips, "I'll carry ye. Jus' remember; I'm the Captain."
Of course, being the good babysitter that he was, Jack had decided to get the boy a good meal in him before he returned him to his original nanny, who was probably gawking at girlly things like combs and hair clips and generally enjoying her freedom from the toddler that seemed to do everything in his power to make her miserable. Unfortunately, Jack being the pirate that he was, only knew of one type of place to get a decent meal and of course that place happened to be a tavern. He didn't see anything wrong with taking the boy to a tavern, his own father had taken him to worse places when he was even younger than Nathan, but he had a good feeling that Will would be furious if he ever found out. Key word being "if".
"Now Nathan," Jack began as he sat down with the young boy on his lap, "now that I've been generous enough to show ye around me ship an' all, I think it's fair that ye do me a wee favor."
Nathan frowned, wrinkling his nose up at the pirate. "Favor?"
"Two favors actually," Jack said, raising two fingers to emphaise his point. "Firstly, ye have ta promise ta never tell yer Da' 'bout what we did today."
"You mean lie?" Nathan asked. "I'm not supposed to lie! Daddy says it's bad."
"It is bad, but I'm not askin' ye ta lie. Just... not tell, savvy?" Jack paused, waiting for a reply. When he didn't get one (and realized that the child was giving him a confused look) he gathered that the child didn't understand what "savvy" meant. "Do ye understand, Nathan?"
"I guess," Nathan shrugged.
"Oh! Is he yours?" a voice coed.
Jack looked up in startled surpise to see one of the serving wenches standing over him. "Not mine," Jack said, bouncing the boy on his knee. "Jus' watchin' him for a friend."
"Well he certianly is a handsome little guy," she continued to gush before turning to speak to Nathan. "What would you like to eat deary?"
"Cake!" the boy said happily.
Both Jack and the wench laughed at his comment. "I'm afraid we don't serve cake here, dear," she told him softly.
"Just get us some bread an' two bowls of stew," Jack told her. She smiled before rushing off to fill their order. Once she was gone, Jack turned all his attention back to Nathan. "Now Nathan. The next thing I'm goin' ta ask ye ta do is a very serious big boy task that I want ye ta think very carefully 'bout, alright?"
"'Kay."
"Now, I like yer Da' very much, but he don't seem ta like me," Jack began softly.
"Why?"
"Well, I did somethin' bad ta yer Da' a long time ago an' he's still really sore 'bout it."
"Can't you just say your sorry? When Daddy's mad at me, I tell him I'm sorry and he forgives me."
Jack chuckled at the boy's words. If only it were that easy! "I tried, lad, but he jus' wouldn' forgive me. So, I figure that if I do somethin' really nice for yer ol' Da', then he'll stop bein' mad at ol Captain Jack an' the two o' us can be friends again, an' if yer Da' an' I are friends again, ye an' me can spend a lot more time together." Nathan's face all but lit up at Jack's words. He was bouncing in the pirate's lap with pure excitement. "Now, what I need for ye ta do, is help me make yer Da' like me again. Can ye help me Nathan?"
"Yes!" Nathan all but screamed as he continued to bounce up and down in Jack's lap. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I want you and Daddy to be friends! Then the three of us can be friends and we'll all have so much fun together!"
Jack smiled. With Nathan helping him, it was going to be surprisingly easy to get Will to like him again. "Now lad, can ye tell me anythin' that yer Da' wants? Anything at all?"
"Why?"
"Because if I get it for him, then he'll be happy an' maybe even forgive me."
Nathan frowned, wrinkling his brow in a way that sent shivers down Jack's spine.
Lord! He looks just like his father!
"I know what he wants!"
"What is it lad?"
"He wants to get married!"