"Look at you," his mother said. "You've become so strong and handsome."

"Mother-"

"When are you coming home, Jack?" She asked, tear-eyed.

"I'm not." Jack said firmly, not able to look his mother in the eyes. "Father will never forgive me."

"It was an accident-"

"You tell him that!" Jack exclaimed, he was frustrated. Jack looked down and rubbed his temples. "It doesn't matter. I work for the company now, I've already betrayed my heritage."

"I won't tell him that. I miss you, Jack." His mother sighed, her dark eyebrows low over her amber colored eyes. Despite the fact that she was middle-aged, she still looked stunning. With only slight traces of grey in her long brown locks. Jack looked a lot like her, as a young boy he resembled his mother a lot. As he was getting older he started to look more and more like his father.

"How much of the cargo do you want?" Jack asked coldly.

"What do you have?" She asked.

"Barrels of sugar and rum."

"Just a few barrels of rum, to keep my men satisfied. I can't return empty handed." She said. There was a tense silence between them.

"I didn't recognize your ship," Jack remarked, trying to break the tension. "What happened to the Jolly Roger?"

"I couldn't sail it anymore. It is were you and Emma were born, too much memories. I also couldn't sell her, I tied 'er up to the docks in Shipwreck cove and that's where she has been for the last two years." She said, then the corners of her mouth turned up and a small smile formed on her thin lips. "You loved that old galleon."

Jack smiled too. "Yeah, I did." He remembered how easily he climbed up the ratlines back then and how he could sit in the crow's nest for hours watching the horizon.

"I should go back, they must be growing impatient." She said, the smile fading from her face.

"Listen, my men will take care of the barrels. I don't want to risk being seen by your crew." Jack said.

"Very well." His mother said and she slowly turned around.

"Mother, wait!" Jack said suddenly and took a few steps towards her, making the distance between them smaller. She turned back to face Jack, he opened his arms and wrapped them around his mother's narrow frame. She was shocked at first but she quickly relaxed and embraced her son, inhaling his scent. "Take care of yourself, mother." Jack whispered into her ear.

"You too, son." She said softly as she pulled away. There was a lump in her throat but she managed to swallow it. Her son had become a grown man, she needed to let him go. The fact that he had a good job reassured her, she no longer had that fear of not knowing what had happened to him. That dreadful feeling that had been eating away at her for the past two years.

The two went their separate ways again. Jack ordered his men to load a few barrels of rum into the hold of the pirate ship. Then they sailed away, the remaining part of the vogaye went without any complications. They buried the old captain at sea, they gave him a small funeral with some of them saying a few words. After that, they didn't speak of him again. Jack was responsible for all of the captain's duties. Fortunately, he had done all of them before so it came quite naturally to him. The only task he hadn't done before was updating the ship's log. It was about the only thing the old man did without Jack's help or assistence.

When they sailed into the German harbor again Jack was feeling a little uneasy. How was he going to explain the bizarre series of events? Their captain suddenly dropping dead, the pirate crew with the female captain and him managing to keep most of the cargo?

"You coming with me, Hiccs?" Jack said as he stood on the docks with the log under his arm. Hiccup nodded and strutted down the gangplank onto the docks, following closely behind his friend. The other crewmembers were busy unloading the cargo.

Jack and Hiccup walked up the hill towards Corona's estate, which wasn't far from the harbor. Usually Jack focused on his unstable sealegs but this time something else kept him occupied. How am I going to explain everything? Was the thought that kept repeating itself in Jack's mind. He hoped his detailed descriptions in the log were believable enough.

They knocked on one of the grand double doors which formed the entrance to Corona's mansion. One of the head servants answered the door, he recognized Jack and led him and Hiccup to Corona's study. "Please wait here, Jack. Lord Corona has been very busy these past few days. I'll see if I can get him to come right away." The head servant said.

"Thank you," Jack said dismissively, not paying very much attention to what the man had said.

The two young men sat down in the two chairs opposite the large, polished wooden desk. Jack was nervously tapping his foot on the marble floor while Hiccup was studying the room in awe. He hadn't been to the mansion before.

The second Lord Corona entered, Jack stood up from his chair with one swift movement. Hiccup followed Jack's lead, only more slowly.

"Jack, you wished to see me? Did something go wrong during your voyage?" Corona asked with a puzzled expression on his face. Everyone sat back down.

"Unfortunately, yes. Esperanza's captain passed away, Hiccup and I were with him when it happened. It looked like a stroke." Jack said with an apologetic look on his face. "We buried him at sea."

"To be quite honest, that does not surprise me. Given the man's liking for his...beverages." Corona said, Jack and Hiccup nodding along in agreement.

"Thank you for informing me personally, Jack." Corona said and nodded kindly to the two men, signaling the end of their meeting.

"Uh, that is not all." Jack said as he and Hiccup glanced at eachother. "We also had a run in with pirates."

"Pirates? The filthy beasts. Let me guess, they took all of the goods?" Corona sighed, his kind eyes darkening. He hated pirates, not really a surprise but Jack couldn't help but feel ashamed. If only he knew that Jack was a pirate by blood, then they wouldn't be such good friends.

"No, we managed to keep about 90 percent of the cargo." Jack said proudly.

Corona's eyes widened. "How did you manage to do that?"

"You see, it was a female captain." Hiccup interjected. "And the ladies all have a thing for Jack here, with his sharp tongue and his dashing good looks." Hiccup was teasing him at this point. Jack felt the heat rise to his cheeks.

"A female captain? Jack, is that so?" Corona asked in disbelief.

"Y-yes." Jack said, his voice cracking from embarrasment.

"If I didn't know you better than I'd find this story hard to believe." Corona admitted. "I'll take a look at your log, Jack. I assume I can find you at the docks if I need you?"

"That's were I'll be, sir." Jack said, his cheeks still flushing red.

For the past hour or so Jack had been pacing inside the captain's cabin of the Esperanza. He still kept the windows wide open because he could still vaguely smell the pipe of the ship's deceased captain. The cargo had all been unloaded, leaving Jack nothing to keep himself busy with. Most of the crewmen were off, wasting their newly earned money in the town's taverns.

Jack decided to get some fresh air on deck. As he walked out of the cabin he spotted Hiccup, leaning on the railing. Jack went to the railing and rested his elbows on it next to his friend.

"What do you think will happen?" Hiccup asked casually, staring down at the water.

"I don't know. We'll probably get a new captain. And we're officially the company's new lunatics." Jack groaned as he ran his hands through his hair. It was starting to get quite long again.

Hiccup couldn't help but laugh at Jack's comment. "And why is that so?" He grinned as he faced Jack.

"Because...a captain suddenly dropping dead, a female pirate captain and me charming her into letting me keep the cargo. It's sounds like a fairytale to them!" Jack said.

Hiccup stopped chuckling and a serious expression appeared on his face. "I didn't ask you before but... what did you say to her?"

Jack remained silent for a while, he pressed his lips together. He hadn't talked about his past with anyone since he ran away. No one in his life really knew him, they all believed he was Jackson Overland. But he could trust Hiccup, he had been a loyal friend of Jack since day one. "Can you keep a secret?" Jack asked softly while he glanced around to see if no one was around. Hiccup had a puzzled expression on his face but nodded anyway.

"The pirate captain we encountered is, infact, my mother." Jack said in a low voice. Hiccup looked wide-eyed at him with his lips parted.

"Say something!" Jack hissed after a long time of silence.

"Y-yeah, now it really does begin to sound like a fairytale." Hiccup sighed and rubbed his temples as if he had a lot of difficulty processing the information. "So...you're a pirate as well?" Hiccup whispered, surprisingly calm.

"By blood, yes. But I don't think I'll ever go back to that kind of life." Jack sighed.

"Why not?" Hiccup asked curiously.

"That's...a long story." Jack lied, he would never tell anyone the reason why he left. He felt

most ashamed of it. "But I like working for the company."

"What's it like? Being a pirate?" Hiccup asked softly.

"There are up and down sides but that's with everything, I suppose." Jack said, Hiccup nodded along. "What I loved most about it was the absolute freedom. A pirate makes his own way in the world, we...they don't have to answer to anyone but their captain. Unless you're captain yourself, that is." Jack looked over the surface of the water at the setting sun. As he was talking about it, he really started to miss it. He shrugged off the feeling, reminding himself of the reason why he left. It wasn't the pirate lifestyle he ran from, it was his family. But his family were pirates so he figured he could no longer be one.

Jack sighed deeply and faced Hiccup again. "You can't tell anyone, Hiccs."

"Ofcourse not, Jack. What kind of friend would I be then?" Hiccup reassured him.

"Not the very good kind." Jack smiled at Hiccup, he had never had a friend like him before. Not even in Shipwreck, where he grew up. He was always off on his own doing things like fishing, practising his swordfighting movements, discovering every hiding spot in Shipwreck cove or sailing in his small, pathetic fishersboat which he was proudly the captain of.

The sounds of hooves on the wooden dock caught Jack's attention. He walked over towards the other side of the ship and looked over the railing. He saw Lord Corona on his white horse, waving frantically at Jack and Hiccup. Jack tried to suppress a chuckle as he quickly strutted down the gangplank. He took a hold of the reigns, helping Corona to get down from the horse.

"I didn't expect you back so soon." Jack said as Corona was dismounting his horse. He was breathing heavily by the time his feet had the ground.

"You got me thinking," Corona said, taking deep breaths inbetween.

"I did?" Jack chuckled.

"You managed to sail all the way across the atlantic, in a record time for Esperanza, without a captain and you succesfully negotiated with pirates!" Corona said. "I find that very, very impressive."

"What are you saying?" Jack asked carefully.

"Jack will become the new captain of the Esperanza?" Hiccup guessed hopefully as he smiled widely at his friend.

"If that's what Jack wants, but I also have another offer for you." Corona said lightly. His entire life Jack had fantasized about becoming a captain and Corona had just promoted him as if it wasn't that big of a deal.

"What could possibly be better?" Jack said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I was a fool for not thinking of it before," Corona started. "I don't travel that much anymore, so my ship, the flagship of my fleet, is wasting away at the docks. Which is a shame really, given she is such a gem."

Jack's heart was beating rapidly inside his chest and he had difficulty breathing. "W-What are you saying, sir?"

"Jack, I want you to become captain of my ship, the Sun. Since there's no one I'd trust her more with." Corona said with a wide smile on his face. "You'll be closer to the inner circle of the company, get to meet my collegeaus with the higher ranks. You will escort me if I have needs to travel and you will transport more valuable cargo."

Jack's dream of becoming a captain was fulfilled. At the age of 20 he became the youngest captain ever to sail under the colors of the Northern Trading Company, captaining the pride of Lord Corona's fleet, the Sun.

A/N: and here's the update! Happy new year everyone! I know the update is late but I just wasn't focusing on writing lately. A lot has happened in those last few months of 2018 and over the holidays I was just taking some time off of everything. We went to Austria with the family and there I got to spend some much needed quality time with them and my boyfriend.

I feel a lot more motivated and positive now and I hope 2019 will be a better year than 2018. Even though 2018 gave me some major highs, it also gave me some of the lowest points in my life. So, overall it was a very hectic and emotional year and I just hope 2019 will go a little easier on me.

Best wishes to all of you!

Don't forget to share your opinions about this part!

Xo Amy