۞

William and Elizabeth came down from their room in the morning, enticed by yet another pot of fresh coffee brewing in a pot over the cooking fire. They found Janie in the kitchen, an apron tied around her waist, looking, as always, like she had never been to bed... even though they had seen her in her dressing gown only hours before... as they had left her, desperately rocking the dark one that she loved in her arms. Now, her hair was braided neatly and tied, as always with a black velvet ribbon... she was wiping her flour covered hands upon a small towel. She looked up, and smiled tiredly at the young Turners.

Elizabeth came over to her, and embraced her tightly. "Good morning..." William also came over, tieing his blue bandana over his long curly hair, and said, quietly, "Good morning, Janie... where is Jack?"

Pushing her everpresent auburn curls out of her eyes, Janie sighed and said, "We've been awake since just before dawn... he has not said much... he is out there, sitting on the end of the dock... I think that he's waiting for ye..."

Elizabeth and William both looked out into the mist that was coming from the water of the cove... it was a cloudy morning, with the threat of a soft rain that kept the countryside here so green. The captain was sitting on the end of the dock... just sitting... looking into the mist at the quietly moored Black Pearl, as she rested peacefully in the soft waters of the cove... the elusive and beautiful Irish mists were caressing the lines of the ship like the hands of a gentle lover, as the waters lapped quietly at her hull. A lone seagull could be heard in the distance...

"I'll be making fresh rolls for breakfast..." Janie said... "... and please try to get our captain in out of the dampness... he really is prone to pneumonia..." she fussed, lovingly.

Nodding that they would, the young couple quietly walked through the kitchen doorway and down to the little wooden dock...

Jack didn't look up as William and Elizabeth sat down with him, each of them upon either side of him. Elizabeth slipped an arm through the captain's, and said, softly, "It's awfully wet and chilly out here, Jack..."

"I have me coat on..."

William leaned forward to look into Jack's somber face, "... where is your hat, mate?"

"I dunno... in th' great room by th' couch, I think..."

Silence fell between them, as the young couple respectfully waited for Jack to say more... they were a bit surprised when he simply began to speak his mind, his hands tying and untying knots in a small length of rope.

"... Ye know about it, now..."

The Turners merely nodded.

Jack cleared his throat, and then said, "... it took a while t' get used to... I had no choice... I was aboard a ship that was capturing other slaves off o' Africa... there was no place t' go if one tried t' escape but right into th' Atlantic, an' I couldn't swim that well... th' ship would round up black natives and were plannin' t' sell them in th' slave markets in England... I was a shipboard slave... permanently imprisoned on th' Queen of th' Dark... that was the ship's real name.. appropriate, methinks..."

William and Elizabeth both thought of the Athena... a slave ship that they had looted when they were coming around the coast of the Dark Continent on their way back from the China Sea... they had sent it to the depths after setting her crew off on an island and taking her supplies.

"... it took a while t' get used t' th' shackles... but I did me best t' do wot I was told, since no one aboard spoke Gaelic... I must say that some good came of it... " Jack shrugged, slowly untying another knot, his eyes focused on that task, "...I learned English from th' sailors who liked me...I learned some French from another slave before he died o' dysentery... I had dysentery, too, but I didn't die... I was just sick... It was awful, sittin' in yer own waste 'til yer crusty wif it... tha's why I'm kind of ... peculiar... about bein' cleaner than most pirates..." Jack's lower lip trembled slightly. Elizabeth involuntarily felt herself gag a bit, as William winced.

"It lasted for almost three years... I spent a lot o' time above deck, chained so that I could move about... I mostly swabbed th' deckboards so's they wouldn't warp in th' sun... I was darker, so I didn't sunburn as badly as some of 'em... I was beaten rather regularly, but ye even get used t' that after a while..."

Jack swallowed hard, and continued, "... I loved th' sea, even then... even shackled, it was freedom like I'd never seen... but I missed my Janie..." his eyes misted over, still watching his hands tie and untie knots, "... I thought maybe she'd forget me, but I swore if I ever got away, I'd find 'er... I tried t' escape once, but I got caught... th' captain broke both o' me wrists for me efforts..." he flexed his wrists a bit, his fingers twiddling the piece of rope.

Finally looking at his companions with round eyes, he said, almost sounding like himself, "Don't tell Janie, savvy? She doesn't know that, an' she'd kill me for gettin' both wrists broken..." Elizabeth and William smiled slightly at his trepidation... his mustache twitched a bit... just like "their" Jack...

"... anyway, whilst I was sittin' in the hold, wif both wrists so swollen up that I couldn't move me hands, I decided right then an' there that I was goin' t' be somebody... I was goin' t' survive, escape, an' I was goin' t' be somebody if I had t' make up me own legend for meself... I would be bloody free and famous! "

Elizabeth moved closer and gripped Jack's arm more comfortingly, as William ever so casually draped an arm about Jack's shoulder... angry tears began to well up in the captain's dark eyes, and his face began to darken, as he finally said, with an edge to his voice, "... I'm ashamed... I'm ashamed tha' I was no one... I'm ashamed tha' I let Thomas Ó Madáin convince me that I was no one... lower than dirt... an' that no one came t' find me but me father, an' that was after two years, eleven months an' seventeen days had passed..."

"Jack," William said, "... you were a victim... you were a helpless child... you were sold for Thomas Ó Madáin's greed..."

"I was no one," Jack spat the words out, "... I was a pathetic little wretch... that's why I feel shame, an' now ye both know it... I was no one... an' I swore on my dead mother's grave, wherever it was, that I was going to be somebody great!"

Silence fell for only a moment, then William said, "... you are somebody great..."

And with that, he reached behind his back, and pulled out Jack's worn leather tricorn hat... and he and Elizabeth placed it upon Jack's head... crookedly...

As Jack's surprised eyes turned upward to look at the peak of his hat, hands waving the air slightly, dropping the length of rope into the water with a small splash, Elizabeth smiled affectionately and said, "... you are somebody... you are an ex-slave... you are the greatest gypsy and the greatest pirate who ever lived... you are our cousin and best friend... you are Janie's best friend and love... you are Captain Jack Sparrow... and we love you, and will never leave you behind, again..."

Hanging his head for a moment, and taking in a deep breath of the heavy mist, Jack said, quietly... "Never? Even when I am overtaken by bouts of instability? Ye'll never leave me behind in an asylum, or on me own? Wot if..." Sadness tinged his voice...

"Never." Elizabeth promised. William frowned that Jack would ever worry about anything such as that... he had not realized how Jack had worried... an asylum...

William, affectionately patting Jack's narrow shoulder, tried to lighten things by adding, "... think of it, cousin... we rescued you from the Locker... we would have rescued you from your slavemaster, but we weren't born yet...you were born too soon." the handsome young pirate shook his head, as he waited for the captain's reaction.

Jack's eyes widened as he digested this absurd logic... it was as absurd as if he had said it... then he stared at William, who grinned... Elizabeth squeezed the captain's arm, and also smiled brightly, as Jack finally began to laugh his curious silent laugh, his face finally relaxing, and his shoulders starting to shake with giggles. William began to chuckle, as Janie's voice came through the mist... "Fresh rolls out of the oven, you three! Fresh coffee with cream from the spring house! Come and get it or I'll throw it out to Clancy, the neighbour's cat!"

Jack blinked back the tears and sloppily wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve, then finally used a handkerchief that Elizabeth offered. His cheeks reddening a bit, he murmered, "Thank ye kindly, Izzy..." then they all got to their feet. Swaying slightly, Jack looked at his young cousins for a long moment, and he said, "Ye're not ashamed of me? Ye'll never leave me behind?"

"Never!" William smiled, "... unless you fall behind... Pirate's Code..."

"No fallin' behind here, mate...not when Janie's cooking is involved," Jack replied, a small sparkle finally coming back to him, "... mmm... fresh rolls... as much as I like Clancy, they're mine..."

With the captain leading the way, they went back up to the warm, welcoming light of the Inn... the innkeeper had been waiting, and smiling, from the doorway...

۞

The day was proving to be a rainy one, and the four friends thought it best to stay in upon this day... Jack built a crackling fire in the fireplace, and they all gathered around it on the friendly old couch, under the wool blankets like they had the first night that they had spent together... Jack was still very quiet, for him, but he seemed to be trying to push the nightmare of the night before into the back of his mind ...

"Oh, I forgot to tell all of ye! We will be having fresh fish for our evening meal!" Janie exclaimed, as the warming fire made a pleasant glow upon all of their faces, "Padraig and his two sons, Paddy and Alexander, came by while ye were talking on the dock, and brought a fine string o' fish! I will fry them up with some cornmeal cakes... I have some wild onion to add to them..."

Elizabeth expressed her disappointment in missing the Kerrigans, as she said, "I would love to visit the gypsy camp again, if they are still here for a few days! I would love to talk to Molly, again, and meet more of their extended family." Her voice grew wistful as she thought of family members that she was swiftly adopting as her own...

"Well, darlin', they are staying on land that belongs to the Inn... I told Padraig yesterday that they are welcome to winter here if they'd like." Janie said, sipping a cup of her special whiskey laced tea, as Jack gazed at her and gave her an affectionate squeeze, "... Mama would be proud of ye for that, Janie... an' old Thomas Ó Madáin is probably doin' flipovers in 'is grave... bloody well-deserved flipovers..."

"I hope he is doing flipovers in the fires of hell," Janie frowned, with a hard edge to her voice and her blue eyes... taking another sip of her tea, and hearing a hard rain begin to fall outside on the waters of the cove, she said, lightly, "... It's a good day to tell some stories by the fire... and I have some stories to tell... some truths to tell... some that even you don't know, Jack..."

All of the eyes in the room turned to Janie O'Madden, as she got up to get another pot of tea from the kitchen... as they watched her long auburn braid swing down her back, she looked over her shoulder and said, "Everyone get cozy by the fire, because you are about to hear the history of Jack Sparrow, Mary Jane O'Madden, and how The Ó Madáin Inn came to be ... courtesy of Captain Edward Jonathan Teague and Magdalena Sparrow...you're family, William, and you and your Izzy deserve to know these things... I'll be back directly... keep me cushion warm for me, Jack..."

Jack's eyes grew wide, and he and the Turners stared at each other...and Jack wondered what Janie was going to say...

To be continued...