Chapter XII: We Could Be A Family

Disclaimer: read chapter I

After waiting for about an hour or maybe two, Barbossa returned to the room in silence. Melanie and Barbossa stared at each other for a long time, waiting for a response.

Melanie looked down at herself, feeling the tears coming, "I... I didn't know you were coming back."

"I have no choice," Barbossa replied.

Melanie met Barbossa's gaze, wondering why he came back.

"It's my cabin," Barbosssa added.

Melanie scoffed and turned away from him, "So you're going to kick me out?"

Barbossa slightly shook his head, "No." He pulled something out of his coat, revealing to be a green apple. "Apple?" He tossed it to Melanie, who caught it with both hands.

Melanie raised a brow at him, "You trying to poison me?"

Barbossa could've laugh at the fact that Melanie still thought that he's planning to kill her. However, he didn't feel the urge to laugh. He still didn't get over what happened earlier. "I told ye, there's no sense to be killing you."

"That was before I told you, I don't know who the owner of the medallion is. You said you're going to kill me."

"That was before I found out..." Barbossa paused, thinking of a different way to say the situation, but he couldn't have a heart to say it out loud, "you know."

"So why the apple?" Melanie questioned him, "Do you really think that this is going to make our problems go away? If it was, this apple should've been red."

Barbossa lowered himself on the bed, without looking at Melanie. He stared down at the floor in silence.

"You okay?" Melanie asked.

Barbossa scoffed, "What do you think?"

Melanie knew that was a stupid question. No, he wasn't okay, and neither was she. They found out that they could possibly be... No, they are father/daughter. There were too many holes, and with Barbossa's story and Sarah's story combined, it filled the holes. Everything made sense, no matter how much Melanie and Barbossa didn't want it to be true.

Melanie always wanted to meet her real father. She always wanted to know what he's like. Her mother was too secretive with the facts about her father. The only fact, she gave Melanie, was that he's a captain. Barbossa was still a captain. Coincidence? No. Melanie had to accept the fact that her father was a pirate. It still shocked her. She tried to be a good girl as possible to please her adopted father. If he knew her real father was a pirate... Melanie didn't want to think about that. It's awful.

"So what are we going to do?" Melanie asked quietly.

Barbossa gazed at her questionably, "What do you mean what are we going to do?"

Melanie stared down as if he said something stupid, "Barbossa, we are father/daughter-"

"We're not!"

"How do you know we're not?!"

"How do you know that we are?!"

"Barbossa, face the facts!" Melanie stood from the bed and stared down at him dangerously, "You knew my mother! You had SEX with my mother! She left your ship, the same time when she was pregnant with me! Don't you think this more than a coincidence?"

"It's just a coincidence."

"It's NOT a coincidence!" Melanie argued, "We can pretend all we want, but the facts still remands that we're related. I'm mean, look at us!" Melanie gestured at themselves, "We practically have the same colored eyes and hair! You can't deny the fact that we have a resemblance!"

Barbossa looked closely at Melanie. As much as he wanted to deny it, he saw himself in Melanie. He hated this. He wanted to drop her off somewhere and don't look back. But Melanie was Sarah's child. He loved her, but never had the chance to say it. Maybe this was destiny. Maybe, fate gave him Melanie as a second chance. But he's not ready to be a father. He never knew the first thing about raising a child. Thank heavens, that Melanie was an adult and not a toddler. Raising Melanie, now, when she was an adult was a little more easier.

"Aye," Barbossa agreed quietly, "sadly, we do."

Tears were watering Melanie's eyes, hurt from the way he said it.

"I get it," Melanie slapped her hands against her sides dramatically, "Alright? I get it. You don't want me as your daughter. You don't want to be a father. I get all that!"

"Shut yer trap, Missy!" Barbossa snapped, "I never ONCE said that I don't want ye to be my child!"

"But you were thinking about it!" Melanie snapped back. Barbossa didn't reply after that. "Right?!" Melanie asked.

Barbossa sighed, "I'm not going to lie to ye. That thought came to my mind for only a moment." Barbossa inhaled deeply, before he continued, "Looking at you... in a different way... is affecting me... And ye understand that, because it's affecting you too. Aye?"

Melanie sniffled, wiping her nose and her teary eyes, "Yeah. You're right. It's affecting me too. One minute, I thought I was... a civilized girl. I thought I was the person, who knows better than to associate piracy..." Melanie let out a disbelief chuckle, "One minute later, I found out my dad is a pirate. That makes me one too... Oh my God! I'm a pirate!" Tears fell down to Melanie's cheeks, and Melanie tried to get rid of them. She was getting sick and tired of crying.

"If ye want to be alone to process this more, or let out a bit of steam-" Barbossa suggested, before he was cut off.

"I don't want you to," Melanie said in a hoarse whisper.

Barbossa furrowed his brows in confusion, "To do what?"

Melanie faced him with more tears in her eyes, "To go. I'm not mad at you, Barbossa. I don't hate you. You're just as shocked at this revelation as I am. I can never be mad at you for not knowing about me. I just..." Melanie sat back down on the bed and ran her fingers through her hair, "I don't know what to feel about this!"

"You don't know? I don't know what to think about this! I can't believe Sarah never told me that she was burdened with a child!"

"I can't believe she didn't tell me about you. I understand that she didn't want me to know about her... mistakes, but she should've been less secretive and told me about my dad... Barbossa?"

"Aye?" Barbossa asked.

"I know how much you loved my mom... I know how much you cared, but... My question is..." Melanie looked up at Barbossa with fire in her eyes, "Do you hate her as much as I do?"

Barbossa glared at her with his mouth opened in shock, "Melanie, belay the talk! I know you're upset that she didn't tell you what you want to hear; but you can't hate your mother! I'm sure she did it to protect you!"

"From what?! You?!"

"I'm a pirate, Melanie!"

"Don't you think I know that?!" Melanie snapped, "She kept the whole truth from me! My whole life I wanted to know what my father was like! She hid that from me for a long time, before and after her death! She is selfish and CRUEL!"

"But she's your mother," Barbossa declared.

Melanie paused, taking in his statement with teary eyes.

"Whatever Sarah's reason for keeping this a secret, I know it's for you. Maybe she didn't want you to chase after the life of piracy. She would want you to live a happy life, and not have you make the same mistakes, she's made."

She sighed heavily, "You're right. I-I don't hate her... but I'm still mad at her! I don't how I could not be angry at her for what she didn't do. You should be angry at her for not telling you, right?"

Barbossa shrugged, "No."

"No?!" Melanie questioned him.

Barbossa groaned, "No! Melanie, I don't know anything about children, and your mother knew that."

"Barbossa, knowing all this, do you want me to be your daughter?"

Barbossa faced Melanie with the same questionably look, she gave him, "Do you want me to be your father?"

Melanie nodded, "Yes."

"Melanie, you already have a father-"

"Yes, but he's not you! You're my biological father! I want to stay here with you. Would you let me? Would you let me know you? Would you let me be your daughter?"

Barbossa stared down at her, before placing his hand on the back of her head, caressing her cheek with his thumb, "I would, Melanie..." Barbossa pulled his hand away, "But I'm a pirate! I don't know how to raise a daughter! I don't know the first thing about being a father! I know I have to become one, cause-"

"Because I'm just a burden to you?"

Barbossa shook his head, "No. No-"

"That's okay, Barbossa," Melanie said with a fake smile and teary eyes, "You can be honest. This was thrown on you! You just found out that you have a daughter!" She gave him a questionable look, "Did you mean what you said about not wanting to have any kids?"

"I never said I don't want kids. I told ye that I don't have time for kids."

"But did you ever want to have kids?"

Barbossa shook his head, "I don't know, but I do know that I have don't have a choice but to be a father to ye. But I just don't know how to be a parent."

Melanie bit her lower lip, realizing that Barbossa needed help with this. This was a whole new territory from him. "Well... if it makes you better, you're being a father right now."

Barbossa raised his brows at her questionably.

Melanie continued, "You didn't leave me. You're here for me. That's the one thing a father should do to his kid. Not leave his child."

"Really?" Barbossa couldn't help, but smirk, "That's not bad."

"No, when it comes to me being twenty years old. Be lucky, I'm not five, otherwise you'll be in real trouble."

Barbossa laughed loudly at that thought, and placed his arm around Melanie's shoulders, "That be true, lass. That be true."

Melanie made a small smile, "I always wanted to meet my real father. I want to get to know you, be a part of your life. Can you let me do that?"

Barbossa's smile fell, thinking long and hard about that question carefully.

"Barbossa?" Melanie questioned him nervously.

"You... You do realize if you want me to be yer father, I refuse to give up my life as a pirate."

Melanie shook her head, "I'm not asking you to give up being a pirate. I don't want you to. All I want is to get to know you first."

~000~

Will woke up, still couldn't believe that Elizabeth was in his arms. At first, he felt awkward with the situation, but now... it felt nice. It was nice to have a woman in this embrace, while he tried to comfort her as possible. He admitted that he's in love with Elizabeth, even though she had moments, he still loved her.

Elizabeth tucked her head underneath Will's chin and let out a sigh. Will smiled, knowing that she's at peace... finally. He, on the other hand, barely got any sleep, because he had a woman in his arms. That usually never happened to him.

Elizabeth stirred lightly, before she opened her eyes.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," Will said.

Elizabeth sighed, before she smiled, "Good morning."

"How did you sleep?" Will asked curiously.

Elizabeth sat up, before rubbing her eyes, "I slept well. Tonight was the most peaceful night, I had."

"I'm glad," Will sat himself, sitting next to Elizabeth. They sat there in silence for a long minute, not entirely sure what to say to each other.

"Jack had the Pearl," Will whispered.

Elizabeth glared at him with furrowed brows in confusion, "What?"

Will sighed heavily, before he continued louder, "Jack was captain of the Black Pearl."

"H-He was?" Elizabeth asked, "H-How did you find out?"

"Gibbs told me. Jack was captain of that ship, before Barbossa mutinied him. You were right all along Elizabeth. Jack is up to something. He wants to accompany us to get his ship back."

Elizabeth scoffed, "He's using us."

Will nodded, "It seems that way."

"Why are you telling me this?" Elizabeth questioned him.

Will glared at Elizabeth as if she said something dumb, "Why can't I tell you? Elizabeth, I can never keep secrets from you, that might involve Melanie. I thought you should know everything."

Elizabeth was shocked that Will was willingly honest with her, when she wasn't honest with him. She never told Will that she took the pirate medallion from him. She never felt so guilty in her life; but she done it to protect Will. If anyone knew that he could be a pirate, they would kill him, whether he was innocent or not.

"So what are we going to do?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well," Will began, "we both know that Jack wants the Pearl, and there's no doubt that he'll use me as leverage."

"I still don't understand how he'll use you as leverage?"

"It may have something to do with my father. After all, he changed his mind, once he knew who I was."

Elizabeth nodded, "You're probably right. There's no way we're going to let him get away with this! We should confront Jack-"

"No!" Will cried. Elizabeth glared at him in shock. Will continued more gently, "We can't... I think we should play along with his charade, until we made it to the island. Then... Then, we can fight back."

~000~

When the sun was rising, Barbossa and Melanie were still awake. Melanie hadn't slept at all, because she was up all night talking to Barbossa. She was lying against the headboard of Barbossa's bed. While Barbossa saw on the end of the bed.

Melanie let out a chuckle, "It's so strange."

"What's strange?" Barbossa asked.

She shrugged lightly, without taking the smile of her face, "Hard to explain."

"Then try to explain the best of yer ability," Barbossa challenged her.

"Well, I know that Weatherby is a good father. He's so kind, protective, and generous. I like that as a father. I don't know how I can get so lucky..."

"Go on," Barbossa encouraged her to continue.

"But I could never... accept him as a father. He can never replace, the father that I had-have. He was never daring, nor courageous, nor adventurous, nor understood me. But with you... You kidnapped me, locked me up in a room, kept a huge secret from me. Not to mention that you're a greedy, rebellious pirate. But after all that's happened..." Melanie nodded, "I can accept you as my father. You accepted me for me. You understood me, you're the one I can be honest with. You're daring, courageous, adventurous. You never cared what people think. I like that."

Since they were in a safe place, and Melanie was open and honest; it was Barbossa's turn to do the same, and make a confession. "Now that I think about it," Barbossa began, "I do see a lot of myself in you."

Melanie smiled at him, silently questioned his statement, "Really?"

"Aye. Like you said, we have the same eyes, the same hair... You're a fighter, but not as close as myself." Melanie couldn't help, but laugh at his statement. "But you're getting there."

"So what do you think is going to happen?" Melanie asked, "To us, I mean. Does this mean I get to call you Dad, and you call me daughter?"

Barbossa shook his head, "No. Not yet. I want to take this slow, before I can call you anything."

Melanie nodded in understanding, "But still, where do we go from here?"

"What do you think we should do?" Barbossa asked her.

"Um... You know that I want you... as a father. I want you to be a part of my life. I don't want to lose you ever again."

"But I'm a pirate, Melanie," Barbossa reminded her, "The family, you have back at your civilized world, will never accept me. If they knew you're the daughter of a wanted pirate, they'll hang you."

Melanie took her hand and caressed her neck gently, picturing herself with a rope around her neck. Her breathing tightened just thinking about her death. It wasn't a pretty picture at all. Which was why Melanie decided not to speak a word about this revelation to anymore, especially Governor Weatherby, who was the last person to ever understand. "I know they won't. I don't want them to execute you. I don't want anything bad happened to you, Barbossa."

"And I still have another problem in my hands."

"Is it about the curse?" Melanie questioned him.

"Aye. Thanks to ye, now that we have the medallion, I need to figure out who the bloody owner is. The owner who could end my curse."

"Well... Maybe I can help," Melanie suggested with a shrug.

Barbossa widen his eyes, surprised about her statement, "You want to help me?"

Melanie nodded, with a straight face and determination look in her eyes. Barbossa looked at her to see if she was serious, but seeing Melanie was like looking at himself in a mirror. He's now seeing a lot of himself in her.

"I do," Melanie stated, "I don't want to have a cursed father. I will be happy to stay and help you with this quest. If you do one thing for me."

"What would that be?"

Melanie took a deep breath, silently debating whether to say it or not.

"Melanie?" Barbossa questioned her again.

"I..." Melanie paused, before she hesitantly continued, "I want you to help me... to become a pirate."

Barbossa's eyes widen at her bold statement, "What did ye say?"

"If I have a blood of a pirate. I must learn to become one."

"Just because you have my blood doesn't mean you have to-"

"Our blood has nothing to do with it," she cut him off, "While we were talking all night, I've been doing plenty of thinking. More than you realize," she added the last part quietly and nonchalantly. "Even if you weren't my father, I still... debated whether to ask you to help me become one or not."

Barbossa thought about her request. He wasn't sure about having a woman be a part of his crew; but she was his daughter. She proved herself to be just that so far. He knew that she was far from being her prisoner. Far from being a normal, civilized woman in Port Royal. Oh no. She wasn't a governor's daughter to begin with, nor she acted like one. The thought of Melanie's adopted family made him question her further. "What about the family, you have in Port Royal? Melanie Swann?"

Melanie shook her head, "I'm not a Swann. I never was. The truth is I never felt like I belong there. Sure, I have family and friends, but I'm an adopted child. I felt like... an outcast. But when I'm here, it's different. I feel like I belong here... in this ship. I want to be a pirate. I want to be free. Can you teach me?"

Barbossa leaned forward, continued to look at her questionably, "Are ye certain? Do you really wish to join my crew. Sail Black Pearl, under my command?"

Melanie nodded, "Yes. Once I help you lift the curse, I want to continue to sail with you in the Black Pearl, and you teach me to be an amazing pirate of all time... like you. I'm your daughter, like it or not. But as time flies, you can accept it. I can see it in your eyes that you're still confused and trying to process it, but soon you will accept me as your flesh and blood. Maybe soon, you can call me daughter, and I can tell everyone that my father is the amazing Hector Barbossa, the most wanted and greatest pirate of all time. We can be a family, Barbossa. Would you like that?"

Barbossa couldn't help, but be flattered by her words about him being the greatest pirate of all time. He knew that she was just saying that to encourage him to take her deal. She knew how to persuade somebody, he'll give her that. She knew how to fight as well. If he could teach how to navigate the ocean, be a leader, and show her how to swim, she will be just like an image of him. Barbossa could easily picture himself steering the helm of the Black Pearl, and Melanie was beside him, shouting orders to his crew, and the crew cowered and scrambled before them. Barbossa smiled at that thought for a moment.

"Barbossa?" Melanie asked. She was hoping that Barbossa will accept her offer. She never thought in her life, she could be in this situation. But this kidnapping turned out to be a blessing than a punishment. It lead her to find out a secret past about her mother, meet her biological father, and probably sail with him to the seven seas (despite her fear to swim). Today was a wake up call. Melanie saw the light, and know that all of this was lead by fate. Maybe fate showed her that her life was meant for piracy, never the civilized world in Port Royal. She was supposed to be a pirate, and sail with her father, Barbossa. She wanted freedom and adventure. Craved it. She could never get anything like this in Port Royal. She could never fit into society like Governor Swann and Elizabeth.

Will was her best friend, and she was sad to think about leaving him and never coming back. However, Will had Elizabeth, they both have feelings for each other, but never admit it. But in time, they will learn to accept those feelings. Will would have Elizabeth. Elizabeth would have Will. Melanie's adopted father, Governor Swann, won't have to worry about raising a burden of a daughter anymore. As for Norrington, if he found out about her being a pirate, he won't have any problem with hanging her. She despised him, as much as he despised her. Which was why Melanie will never come back home in Port Royal, at least she thought it was her home. No. The Black Pearl was her home now, along with her father and the crew here. She'll be sad to leave her civilized life behind, she wasn't going to lie. However, in time, Melanie will move on, and so will her best friend and family in Port Royal. Barbossa was all she had left now, and she was fine with that.

"Barbossa, do we have an accord?" Melanie questioned him again in a more serious, impatient tone.

Barbossa's lips curled into a smirk, making Melanie's eyes lit up in hope. "Agreed."

A/N: So Melanie joins the dark side. What would Will and Elizabeth say about that? Will they ever find her? Of course, they will! Can Will and Elizabeth find a way to backstab Jack Sparrow, before he backstabs them? Maybe. Will Melanie and Barbossa's plan to lift the curse succeed? You'll find out in the future chapters.

I'm sorry I haven't updated the story sooner, but with school and all, it takes most of my time. When I have the chance, I'll try to write the next chapter from this story.

I want to thank Ingrid, AL19, Christineoftheopera, and Guest for reviewing the last chapter, and the readers who followed and favorite this story.