Sparrow Obsession

Summary: Takes place two years after Sparrow's Bargain, when a new enemy endangers the pirates of the seven seas for a completely unexpected reason. Follow the drama, misunderstandings, adventures and complications that make up the everyday life of the Pirate King and his friends and crew. Sparrington and others.

"That story you told Matthew," Bill looked up at the unusual midday greeting, arching an eyebrow at his fellow pirate. "The one about how the Wicked Wench was built ... That's all bullocks, isn't it? That ship was made like any other. You just told that story to scare away the sailors, right?"

"Aye, that part be true enough. I don't know how or when the Black Pearl was built, whether mystically or by human hands, but the legend I told is right true, Mr Norrington." Turner said from where he was trying to get more wind in the sails, not looking up from his work when another pair of hands joined his. "Not many sailors know it. What I said about it being told only by mermaids ... That is true. As is Lucia and her strange ... friendship with Captain Jack, if you can call it that. Really met her, once. Very nearly died. Don't know how she and Jack really met, but she's fond of him and he protects her from sailors, as far as I understood from what little they talked about in front of me. And she calls the Pearl her sister. It right confused me, when I heard her say it the first time. So Jack told me the legend. I thought it were a good way to secure us a ship this time 'round."

"I thought mermaids were beautiful, seductive, hypnotic, singing fish women that caused men to crash their ships and ate the very flesh off their bodies while they still breathed?" Norrington asked as he secured the final line and stepped back, looking up at the all too still sails. Nothing. Not even a breathe of wind. Not a whisper.

"They are, but apparently not if you earn their favor." Bootstrap shrugged, glaring at the unmoving canvass. "As I said, a story Jack'll have to tell. As for the Pearl and her 'conception' ... If Jack knows anything about it, he's never said as much."

"But you think he was hinting at something with the story he told you, about mermaids?"

"You never know with our illustrious Captain, James. What seems impossible for the rest of the world is only improbable for him. That's how he became a legend so young." The older Turner turned back to glare at the sails after a quick, meaningful glance at Norrington. "Blast! Not a gust of wind! We'll never make it to Shipwreck Cove in these conditions!"

"It's as though the sea itself has turned against us!" Matthew, overhearing this from where he was walking over to them with a crate of apples, complained. "I thought sailing in open waters was more than this. No wind at all since we set out from Tortuga! We must be jinxed."

"It's alright, lad. This happens at times, too." Bill reassured as he absently took an apple, still glaring at the all too still sails. James, though, stiffened and looked out at the horizon, no wind, minute waves and minimally weak currents. 'As though the itself is against us? Of course she is.' He walked away from his two companions and came to stand on the aft end of the small fishing boat, gripping the railing tightly as he hid from the sight of Bill and Matthew.

"Calypso? I require an audience with you. Please, just a moment of your time!" He knew that he ought to sound more like he was begging if he wanted the goddess to heed his call. She was, after all, in fact a woman and as Jack had pointed out so, and a woman scorned could be far worse than hell itself. James tried hard not to think just how else she might take her revenge for what he had done and how he had been treating Jack.

"An' why should I grace ya wiff me presence, James Norrington?" Came a whisper in the wind, sending a chill down Norrington's spine at how cold it was. The fishing boat stirred, sailed a few meters before stopping again, much to Bill's and Matthew's shared frustration. "Ye don' stan' high in me regard dese days."

"Because I've wronged Jack the way I did, no doubt." James replied, bracing himself. He had no idea how the goddess might react. "And wronged him greatly I did. I am sailing after him to beg for forgiveness." The sea very suddenly became uneasy and their boat lurched at the new waves. "And to ensure his safety, my lady. The new threat is all too focused on him. I wish to make sure he is alright and safe and to make sure he keeps that way. Far away from my father."

The sea stilled again and James held his breath. He nearly skewered her with his sword when Calypso appeared behind him in settlement. Thankfully, he didn't, or he might as well have died right then and there. The woman, looking much more like her swamp version, arched a single brow at him, not impressed. "Ye 'ave me attention, James. Use it wisely."

"Thank you." He breathed, sheating his sword. "I wish to apologize to you for what I have done to Jack. I know you are very fond of him and yes, I am aware that it is not really you I should be apologizing to first but you're here and I thought you deserved it, too." Calypso eyed him for a long moment before accepting with a nod. "I know I probably don't deserve the right to ask this, but I am ready to beg you to let us sail. We need strong winds and currents if we are to make it to Tortuga with enough time for me to apologize properly to Jack before the other Pirate Lords arrive and we no longer have a chance to do talk. Can you please help us along?"

"I really should refuse ya on principl', but I be more interested in seein' Witty Jack happy ag'in. Very well." She sighed and the wind started blowing with her exhale, lurching and jerking their little fishing boat forwards rather suddenly. Judging by the two yells at the middle of the ship, Bill and Matthew had fallen over on their asses when they started moving. "But ya needn't be goin' all de way ta Shipwreck Island ta talk with 'im. I knew ya would be goin' after Witty Jack an' 'im precious Pearl, so I made sure 'e 'ad a distraction alon' de way. Dey be at Isla de Pequeña Tita. Ya 'ave a day ta catch up."

"With these winds and currents, I'm sure we can manage." James replied with a grateful smile and the woman returned it just before disappearing with the wind. James shook his head and went back to the helm, calling out to Bill and Matthew to make sure they were using all of the wind as he adjusted their course so they were following Calypso's currents rather than any map or compass. They were running speedily along for five hours straight at a constant speed when Bill finally came up to the ex Navy officer.

"Whatever you did, you did it well. Good job, mate." James nodded in acknowledgement, letting Bill take the wheel only after two more hours of sailing, when it was already starting to set. "Get some rest, mate. You're gonna be doing a lot of groveling when we find Captain Jack."

"I will be gladly," the younger man replied, hesitant to leave the deck for fear of Calypso wanting him to suffer and not letting them have wind if he's not at the helm.

"G' on. Rest yer weary head. Wind be da same." Came the whisper on the wind again and Norrington conceded, going bellow deck and into one of the hammocks. He was asleep before his head hit his bunched up coat of a pillow, Matthew snoring softly a few feet away.

When he next opened his eyes to rays of sunlight streaming into the bellow deck, their little fishing boat was ready to be docked in Pequeña Tita.

00000

"I don't like this," Will muttered to Elizabeth as they made their way down from a room in one of the more popular taverns on Isla de Pequeña Tita, glaring to where Barbossa was already awake and nursing the mother of all hangovers. The younger Turner delighted at his pained expression whenever he saw it. Good. The bastard deserved it, challenging Jack to a rum drinking contest. He had drank him and ten other sailors twice his size and four times his weight under the table like a pro and Jack was already up and about, humming Elizabeth's song under his breath as he sipped more rum out of the bottle, Gibbs and Marcus nursing their own heads on either side of their Captain. The two old sailors have been all but competing as to who made a better first mate for Jack ever since the Pearl's and the Wench's crews merged. Jack and Elizabeth found it highly amusing to watch them flounder around after the eccentric Captain. Will honestly pitied them.

"Hm?" Elizabeth, with a small headache of her own, asked half heartedly, rubbing her forehead in hopes of avilating the headache. "What, Will?"

"Barbossa," the man replied, glaring at said captain while said captain was glaring at the Pirate King. "He's up to something and it involves Jack. I don't like this. He's vulnerable right now, what with what happened with Norrington. Barbossa is setting him up for something, I just know it!"

"Will," his wife sighed long sufferingly, plopping herself very unladylike in the closest seat available and pulling her stubborn husband with her. He reluctantly went, wanting to be ready to leap to Jack's defense if Barbossa truly proved to be a threat. "Barbossa's not up to anything. At least not anything sinister." At the look she received from the younger of two Turners, Elizabeth paused. "Well, nothing sinister regarding Jack, at least. They've help up an accord for two years, Will. He won't break it now and over nothing."

"You weren't there, Elizabeth!" The young man insisted. "You should have seen Barbossa's face when Jack offered to call him Commodore. What if that idea is still stuck in his head?"

"Jack won't sail under Barbossa. He's the Pirate King, an Admiral, almost." Lizzy reasoned but William wasn't ready to believe there was anything good in Barbossa. Not after all the times he'd used or double crossed them all. Especially Jack.

Will also quite willfully failed to remember that he'd pretty much done the same. On multiple occasions.

"Maybe he's trying to manipulate him into giving up his title, hm? Or at least his hold on the Caribbean."

"Jack's too savvy for that, my dear paranoid husband." Another suffering sigh. Will was not convinced. "Why would he choose to do it now?"

"Because Norrington's not here to chase him with sword and improvised noose?" Will offered, not sounding sure of his own reasoning and Elizabeth rolled her eyes. In the background, they heard Jack calling for another and Gibbs' and Marcus' groans. There had been a nasty bar fight last night, almost as bad as the one that happened their last and only night in Tortuga, but not quite. Still, Marcus had the bad luck of being socked in the jaw by a burly Spaniard while a French whore had hit Gibbs over the head with a half fool bottle of rum. An Englishman had tried attacking Jack, but had thought better of it when Sparrow had whipped out his gun, primed and ready, pointing it at the man's crotch. Some of Jack's foul mood must have stayed over from his fights with James. He used it well.

"James is a bit strangely overprotective of Jack." Elizabeth noted absentmindedly as a barmaid brought over some breakfast. Small the island and new port might be, but they had the best stews in the Caribbean. She hoped Jack will make port here more often. Or convince the cook to turn to piracy and join the crew of the Black Pearl. She hopped for the latter. It was quite delicious.

"Focus, love," Will snapped his fingers in front of his wife's eyes, ignoring her glare as that amplified her headache. She wasn't one to overindulge and she really hadn't drank all that much, but she had joined the beginnings of the drinking contest, tipsy enough to accept the challenge but sober enough to stop after the third round. She'd at least outlasted two Chinese men! Will had not even dared join in, knowing he was a terrible lightweight. "Barbossa, sinister schemes involving Jack in the absence of Norrington? Seems like an opportune moment to me."

"Except that by losing one shadow, Jack got two in the forms of Gillete and Theodor." The woman pointed out reasonably. True enough, behind Jack's table were a green in the face Andrew, perfectly sober Annamaria and a sleepy Theodor. "And James is not lost, dear husband. I can bet with surety my part of the loot that he's already on his way and probably ready to beg for forgiveness."

"Are we talking about the same James Norrington?" Her companion snorted, shoving a spoonful into his mouth. "The same guy who stole the heart just when Jack needed it the most? Who's to say he won't steal the protection he'd given Jack when he needs it most now?"

"By that account, should Jack be expecting from me to shackle him to the mast of his ship and leave him to die at the hands - or tentacles, as had been the case last time - of a monster? Or should he be wary that you'll try to steal the Black Pearl and run off to your death in a battle against Davy Jones?" Elizabeth challenged, ignoring how she grew cold - like always - when she mentions her hand in Jack's death and the building of the mask he'd been showing since the first fight with James.

Will blanched as well, a guilty frown tugging at his lips. "I see your point. About us and James. But not about Barbossa. And not about James coming to beg. That man is far too proud for that."

"He let me reject him publicly and let you go. He went to Tortuga willingly to hold a stakeout for Jack." The once lady pointed out. "He's not exactly high on pride anymore. Honor, yes. Pride, no."

Will had to concede to that. "And what about Barbossa?"

"I guess he is a bit iffy." Elizabeth at last admitted and Will smirked. "But I don't think he'll be trying anything, James or no James. Besides, James won't stay away too long."

"God, Elizabeth! How naive can you be!?" The younger Turner rolled his eyes at his wife, who glared at him for that comment. "He won't be running after Jack immediately, even if he does come after him. And he certainly won't beg, I still stand behind that."

"Are you ready to bet on it?" The blond female pirate challenged, making the confused man arch an eyebrow.

"Elizabeth?"

"Well, are you?"

"Very well," Will replied, obviously accepting the challenge. "What is the wager?"

"One month, the loser does a half of the winner's duties aboard the Pearl. I say James will arrive within the next couple of days."

"And I say he won't come until we're three days in the Cove at the earliest." Will extended a hand to his wife. "Do we have a deal?"

"Yes." Elizabeth accepted the offered hand and flagged down the barmaid and ordered them both a tankard of mead. "Prepare to lose, dear husband."

"I hope doing half of my duties on top of your own won't be too much." They clanked their tankards together as a final agreement just as the tavern doors burst open, making Gibbs jump up in fright and topple over while half of the other patrons try half-successfully to draw their weapons from startlement. They all turned to look at the door, but whoever had opened them had practically teleported to Jack's table, toppling over Marcus as well. With a yelp, Sparrow found himself wrapped up tightly in strong, blue clad arms, a face buried in his neck with a litany of apologies being muttered into his skin. Bootstrap and some boy followed soon after, out of breath and doubled over from the sprint, the pirate grinning when he spotted James.

Will was left gawking at the scene while Elizabeth smirked. "You were saying, dear?"

William groaned.