9.

Will Turner entered his home, bundle of swords under his arm, to find a surprising and confusing scene before him. A disarray of several bags and a large trunk were strewn about the foyer. He furrowed his brow, recognizing them all to belong to his wife.

"What else will I need?" called the familiar voice from upstairs.

"You've awlredy packaged up 'alf the bloody house!" Will's eyebrows shot up with surprise at seeing yet another familiar figure turn the corner into the foyer; a figure he did not love quite so dearly. The confusion upon Will's face turned quite quickly to anger when he saw Jack in his house.

Jack paused, also taken aback. "Ah…'ello Will."

"What a pleasant surprise, to find a pirate in my home." Will's voice went low, filled with venom and years upon years of accumulated resentment. He tossed the bundle of swords to the ground, save one. "The infamous Jack Sparrow, no less." The singing sound of Will's sword leaving its sheath caused Jack's eyes to widen with alarm.

"I can explain, mate," he said, just as Will lunged forward with a deadly swipe. Jack barely managed to dodge, and saw the moment as his queue to run.

"Explain what?" hissed Will, chasing Jack around the large dining room table. "That you've finally come back to steal away my wife? Because that's the only explanation that comes to mind, seeing all her bags waiting to go in the foyer."

Jack and Will stood at either end of the table, glaring across at each other. Jack wanted to tell Will that was exactly what he intended to do, that he should have done it a long time ago. He wanted to berate the eunuch for being a coward, for trapping Elizabeth with his emotional dependency, even if it wasn't exactly fair or entirely true.

"I'm not here to steal your Bonny lass," said Jack, pointing his cutlass at Will emphatically. "If you would jus' calm down a bit, we could 'ave a parley, civilized like an' all."

Hearing the ruckus, Elizabeth raced downstairs just in time to see Will and Jack staring each other down across the table. "Will!"

Will ignored his wife, gaze fixed only upon the intruder before him. "And miss the chance I've been longing for all these years, to slit you knickers to nose?" he demanded of Jack. "I don't think so!" Will pushed the table forward, forcing Jack to jump out of the way yet again. He pounced upon the pirate, sword working furiously at finding its target. Jack fought with all his skill, and the blade of the infuriated blacksmith may have been the end of any other opponent.

"Will, stop!" demanded Elizabeth, to no avail. Seeing the boys had once again decided to solve their differences with swords rather than reason, she knew she would have to take it upon herself.

Will flipped Jack's sword from his hand, and upon advancing on the pirate was extremely surprised to find himself at the end of a blade he'd crafted himself.

"I should have known you would chose to side with the pirate over your loving husband," he said deadpan, looking resentfully to the woman who held the sword.

"It's not what you think, Will."

"And why would I have reason to think it, Elizabeth? Coming home to you dressed in your sailor's costume again, your bags in the foyer ready to go?"

"If you would stop and listen to a stitch of reason, instead of immediately jumping in to trying to kill him, you would find out that Jack was kind enough to come to inform us of some rather alarming news involving John," she hissed.

This caught Will's attention. "What about John?" He looked around, just realizing for the first time that such a commotion should have brought the boy running, most probably with great excitement. "Where is John?"

"Well, to date, the boy 'as decided to take to the sea aboard the Explorer."

Will's eyes widened with alarm. "The Explorer? The last trade ship in the Carribean not with the East India Trading Company? They'll be headed to¾"

"The Japans," interjected Jack, "Of which we just found out this morning from the Port Master."

"Which is why I'm packing to leave," explained Elizabeth heatedly, sword lowered. "They've only got a day ahead of us, if we leave with the tide."

"The Pearl's still the fastest ship in the Spanish Main, we'll catch them in no time," assured Jack.

Will glared at Jack, once again pointing his sword in the pirate's direction. "And what's to keep us from turning you in to the Constable, and taking it upon ourselves to fetch John?"

Jack smirked, tapping at Will's sword in a playful way that greatly annoyed the blacksmith. "Because by then it'll be too late to save the boy. Fact o' the matter is you need the Pearl, and therefore need me. Savvy?"

Will looked to his wife. "Too late for what?" he asked, wary of what mischief the pirate had no doubt brought with him.

"Jack has reason to believe that if John sets foot on a ship anywhere near the Japans, he'll be taken prisoner by a sea witch."

Will paid Jack an incredulous look. "And just how did Jack come upon this information?"

Elizabeth and Jack exchanged a look, racking their brains as to how to avoid the inevitable confrontation of the truth about John for the moment. "She came to me in a dream," explained Jack, not entirely lying.

Will lowered his sword, and took a step closer to Jack. "A dream about John? Why you?" asked Will suspiciously. Elizabeth knew that tone of voice; she knew this was only the calm before the storm.

Jack too sensed much more lay behind the loaded question. His black eyes met Will's, and a multitude of emotions passed between them that could not be expressed quite so clearly. Pain. Regret. Resentment.

He'd endured the suspicion for years; months and months of the ache in his breast, the uncertainty eating away at his mind. He decided right there and then in the dining room that the dishonesty would continue no longer. Suddenly, Will threw down his sword so it thrummed in the hard wood floor, causing both Elizabeth and Jack to jump. Will exclaimed in a pained voice, "If no one else has the courage for the truth here, then I'll tell you why. I've¾"

"Will…"

Will held up a hand to silence Elizabeth. This turmoil had built up within him for so long, and now he needed to release it. "I've suspected for quite some time that John's…paternal blood was not of my own. From the start there were only little signs; I just wrote them off as jealous suspicions in my head. The ring he so obviously gave you, the look you shared as we departed from the Pearl…and don't think I couldn't guess what you thought about, taking those long evening walks down by the shore. Your eyes were always so red and swollen when you returned…But now, it's a hard fact to deny, isn't it? He's the spitting image of Jack, with the cracks filled in by you."

Will whirled on the pirate, pointing a finger like a dagger. "So I don't know precisely when, but you had your way, the way you always do. And you dumped the consequences on others, the way you always do. I've raised your son as though he were my own, and I love him like my own. The moment I held the babe in my arms and his little fingers wrapped around mine, I knew I wanted to be apart of his life."

Jack glared down Will's finger. "I doubt you'll believe it, but if I'd known about the boy, I would have come for him."

Will scoffed at the pirate. "Bloody liar. You wouldn't do any such thing that would inconvenience yourself."

Jack's expression darkened, and he surprised himself with the honest resolve he felt behind the words that left his lips. "I would have spirited the boy and his mother away in the middle of the night without a thought for you. The boy¾"

"You wouldn't have done anything of the sort, you lying¾"

"I would have!" shouted Jack angrily, pointing one ringed finger in Will's direction. "He would have grown up among the rigging and crow's nest and crew of the Pearl, and I would have been a happy man to watch my son grow up into the man he is today."

Will sneered. "Under your influence I doubt he would be the man he is today. I doubt he would have survived his first year on the Pearl; a pirate ship's no place for a young child."

"Sticks and stones," scoffed Jack. "But it seems the boy turned into a pirate of sorts, even without me 'round. It's in the blood, and whether you like it or not, it's in his mother."

Will visibly winced at that; it was true he tried to believe as much as he possibly could that Elizabeth would always be the sweet girl he first fell in love with, so long ago. The changes she underwent in their adventures with the pirate were almost too much to bear; he'd blocked them out from his vision. Over time, he began to see that perhaps this was a mistake, but after the ring upon her finger had been placed, it seemed too late to do anything about it. "Maybe. And because of you, John is in mortal danger. You bring ruin to everyone around you, Jack."

"Both of you, stop it," demanded Elizabeth, intent on quelling their rage at each other, knowing the matter at hand required their immediate attention. "No doubt, there have been injustices done to all of us, all of which cannot be taken back now. However, grievances aside, my son has unwittingly placed himself in a great amount of danger, and I intend to deliver him from it immediately. Time is not on our side, gentlemen."

"She's right," said Jack. "If we're goin' t' fetch the lad, we 'ave a need to be departin' shortly."

Will looked between the two of them. "Where I am reluctant to set foot on that damnable pirate ship once again, I insist on accompanying you; John is just as much mine as he is yours."

"Then pack quickly, Will," urged Elizabeth. "We'll wait for you."

Without another word, Will brushed past the two of them to retreat upstairs. Elizabeth and Jack looked to each other mournfully; it seemed many an awkward day awaited them with Will on board the Pearl, to save a son not his by blood at all.

"What a mess, love," said Jack, somehow expressing both sincerity and his trademark sarcasm in one breath.

"So it seems," she agreed, looking to the window facing the sea wistfully. Perhaps selfishly, she looked forward to the adventure ahead, even if her son was in great danger. And that's why you're really a pirate a voice within whispered. For once, she didn't argue one bit.

A/N: Thanks so much to all my reviewers! I appreciate any and all feedback, even criticism!! And as for the many of you who don't review….you should start! It'll only take a few seconds, I promise…. Please?