Ana didn't know how long she had been sitting there at the register, flipping around the Sunday morning newspaper before the large oak door busted open and a young, hyper-active boy came running through the door.
"Ana!" He said colliding with her side in a hug, she felt more like she was supposed to be the breaks from the collision. She smiled, it was her hyper-active boy.
"Hello Thomas. How are you doing this morning?" She said picking him up and settling him on her hip.
"Thomas son slow down!" She heard a voice yelling as his came through the door. His hair was ruffled and his clothes messed up. He'd obviously had a hell of a time keeping the small boy away from her.
Feeling slightly sorry for the older man, she flashed him a small smile. "Good Morning Mr. Townsend."
"Mornin' lass, how are you feeling today?" He said perking up a little seeing Ana Maria.
"Okay I guess."
"Sparrow cast off yet?" He said, kind of treading on his words almost as if he was afraid of saying the wrong thing.
"Yeah, not to long ago."
"He give you a time when he would be back?"
"He said he'd come back soon, and come back for me when the B-A-B-Y was four years old." She said spelling her words out incase Thomas hadn't been told that Ana Maria was expecting a child of her own.
"How are you taking that?"
"I'm alright Mr. Townsend. Don't worry about me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes,"
"What's the matter Ana? Is somethin' wrong with you? Are you sick?" He said mimicking what he'd seen his father do when she was ill and putting his hand on her forehead.
"Okay Charles Jr." She said sternly as grabbing his wrist and pulling it away from her face. The little boy looked at her as if he were a scolded hound. You couldn't be mad at that face.
She smiled at him. "I'm fine. Ana's a big girl okay?"
"Okay." He said looking down at the ground.
"Why don't you go up to my bedroom and after daddy leaves we'll go fine something fun to do."
"Okay!" He said practically jumping from her arms and running upstairs in good spirits.
After he left their presence she looked at Mr. Townsend.
"What's really the matter?" She asked, leaning against the counter.
"What?" He said turning around to meet her gaze.
"You've come in here like my own father. What's the real problem?"
"I'm worried about you Ana."
"Why are you worried about me? I mean.. Mr. Townsend, I've got everything any woman can ask for."
"A pirate who hasn't even married you for your child's father? That's all a woman can ask for?" He asked kind of harshly.
"You don't know him like I do Mr. Townsend." She said braking eye contact ,kind of angry that he'd put Jack in those words. Jack wasn't the ideal man, but he was more than enough for her. She loved him, and Mr. Townsend should respect that.
"Ana. You put way to much trust into this pirate, and you know that."
"Leave."
"What?"
"I've had enough of you accusations, just get out of here." She said trying to be forceful and respectful at the same time.
"Fine. I'll be back for Thomas at seven." He said being forceful enough for the both of them.
She'd made him angry.
"Okay."
He slammed the large oak door, forgetting it was the shop door and they were open today.
She gave him enough time to be gone and opened the door again so people could come in and buy things. What had she done that made him angry? Mr. Townsend was a hard man to upset.
Was it that she was leaving? He knew that she planned on leaving Singapore at some point. She'd told him that a few days after she'd been hired. Singapore was not a place for Ana Maria. Too many people.
This was going to bug her all day. She went upstairs and saw Thomas going through her closet.
"Thomas? What are you doin'?" She asked pulling him out of the closet and shutting the closet door.
"Looking for the pirate. I can't find him anywhere." He said looking up at her with big brown eyes.
"Son, he's gone back to his ship. He left this morning." She said smiling at his cuteness.
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Then why did he leave this?"
He was holding up Jack's hat. Her smile dropped into a stupor. She swore he had taken it with him. He loved that hat, how dare he forget it.
"I thought pirates never left without their hats."
Jack five hundred miles away from Singapore, was thinking exactly the same thing.
"Gibbs!" He called from the door of his bedroom to the top deck. Gibbs turned from the helm to see Jack standing outside his bedroom door, doing his best to look stern.
"Aye Cap'n?"
"My office."
Gibbs handed the wheel to another member of the crew and headed towards Jack. He leaned forward and whispered to Jack.
"You know you don't have an office right? There's the your bedroom, the room wit' the map in it."
"The room with the map in it then!" Jack said full of irritation shoving Gibbs into his bedroom.
"Okay Jack what is it?"
Jack turned around to face Gibbs after making sure his bedroom door was locked.
"She's gone! I can't find her Gibbs!" He looking through a pile of books that he'd already been through.
"What- What the bloody hell are you talkin' about?" Gibbs questioned watching the Captain's odd behavior.
"Me hat! Me hat is gone!"
"Your hat. Is gone?"
"Did I stutter! Me hat's gone Gibbs!"
"Calm down Jack you prolly left it somewhere."
"No. I didn't. I looked all through this bedroom!"
"Have you ,maybe checked outside?"
"Great idea! Why didn't I think of it before?"
Jack ran outside on the top deck and looked around at the crew members without a job to do.
"Listen up you scallywags! I want every man who ain't already doin' somethin' lookin' for Cap'n Jack's hat! Savvy!"
An assortment of "aye's" came from the crew as they split up in different directions in search of the missing hat.
Jack leaned up against the side of the Pearl, biting his nails and thinking about where he'd last seen his hat. He'd last seen it in Singapore. He was out crusading around the town with Ana Maria and she'd bought him another shirt because she had caused a tear in the back of his other shirt with her nails while they were fooling around.
He would have a self imposed stroke if he had left it in Singapore with Ana Maria.
Ana Maria waited for Katrina to get there and then she took Thomas outside. She knew he loved being outside and it seemed to even calm him some.
They were walking along the boardwalk looking at all of the other ships that had harbored there. She had a hold of his hand so she would not lose him, but he made no effort to try to get away from her.
"Ana, why did the pirate leave?"
"Because, pirates belong in the sea." She said turning him around to see the ocean. You could never explain the ocean to someone. You could never do it justice.
"Pirates, hear the call of the sea and they respond to it. It's like they are owned by her. Battles and adventure and everything you could ever imagine is out there on the ocean."
She looked in his eyes for some kind of reaction. He looked fascinated by it. Thomas had lived by the sea his entire life, but he looked at it like he'd never seen it before.
"It's what I'm going to do when I grow up. I'm going to be a pirate!"
"You are, are you?"
"Yep. I'm going to be a captain. A captain of a really scary ship, and no one will dare mess with me!" He said triumphantly.
She could see Thomas being a captain of a pirate ship. A big mahogany ship that was a force to be reckoned with. Something that even The Black Pearl couldn't handle. He would be a damn good captain too. He would probably lay his life down for his crew members. He would probably be as famous as Captain Morgan or Captain Sparrow.
He was going to be someone that anyone could be proud of. No matter what he chose to do with his youth or his future, she would always be proud of him. She had always tried to teach him the difference in right and wrong, and lying to someone you love or keeping secrets from them was wrong.
"Thomas?"
"Yes?"
"What's your father told you about me?"
"That your a really nice lady that doesn't know what's good for her. Says you remind him a lot of mum."
"He hasn't said anything about babies has he?"
"No, I don't think so why?"
"Well, I'm going to have a baby."
"Really!" He said wide-eyed.
"Yes, really." She said bending down to his level.
"Does daddy know! What did daddy say! Who's your baby's daddy! Does he know! What did he say! When are you going to have the baby! What are you going to name it! Is it a boy or a girl! Do you want it to be a boy or a girl!"
"Thomas. Thomas. Relax. Relax for a minute."
"So!" He said wanting his answer sooner than he was willing to wait for it.
"Yes your father knows. My baby's daddy is Jack. Yes he knows. I'm going to have the baby in four months. I want it to be a girl."
"You want it to be a girl?"
"Yes,"
"Well that's no fun." He said folding his arms across his chest in a pouting gesture.
"What do you mean that's no fun?"
"Girls are weird." He said stretching out the word weird.
"I'm a girl." She said nudging him trying to get him to spring back into Thomas mode.
"Well your an older girl. I'm talking about girls my age." He said breaking it down for her like adults often did to him.
"Don't worry son, that opinion will change soon enough. Come on, I want to show you something." She said holding her hand out to him so they could continue their expedition in looking at the various boats that had docked at the port in Singapore.
Jack was sitting in his bedroom, laying on the bed, flat on his back. Two whole entire hours of searching and his beloved hat had not been found. He was almost certain it had been left in Singapore with Ana Maria.
It just gave him, yet another reason to return to her.