A few weeks later...

"Good. Spell apple." Jack said, standing at the helm while Christine sat on a nearby. She was wearing a white shirt, gold vest, red sash, a pair of dark blue trousers, and a pair of brown boots with her hair tied in the gold ribbon.

"A-P-P-L-E. Apple." Christine said, with her legs swinging over the side of the barrel.

"Good. Spell ship."

"S-H-I-P. Ship."

"Good." Jack said, noticing Teague walk over. "Hey."

Christine smiled at Teague. "Hi Grand Da!"

"Hello Christie." Teague said. "Jackie, what are you doing?"

"Spelling test." Jack said. "So far, she's doing good."

"Really?" Teague asked. "Spell cookie."

Christine smiled. "C-O-O-K-I-E. Cookie."

"Very good." Teague said, before handing her a small bag of cookies.

Christine looked in the bag. "You baked some more?"

Teague shook his head "Your friend asked me to give you those. He also told me to tell you that he liked the cookies you gave him."

"He?" Jack asked.

"Jackie, don't worry. He's only seven."

Jack let out a sigh of relief, catching Christine's attention. "Why are you worried about boys?"

"Cause I'm your Da." Jack said. "It's my job to worry."

"Then, if your job is to worry about me, why are you steering the Pearl?"

"I can have more than one job." Jack said, before turning to Teague. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost." Teague said. "Should be there by dawn."

"Almost where?" Christine asked.

Jack smirked. "It's a surprise."

In a small inn on the outskirts of Tortuga at Dawn...

The tavern and inn wasn't that big, though with only one person running it, it was big enough. Mama Barbie had seen better nights. True, she's seen worse, but that was in the Faithful Bride, the rival tavern and inn. Mama Barbie wasn't very young anymore, with white streaks in her auburn hair. She was wearing a dark blue dress, with an old apron on top. Currently, she was clearing off the tables.

Jack smirked. "'Ello Mama Barbie."

"Jack! It's been years since you last came!" Mama Barbie said, not even looking up. "I'm guessin' by your return that you've found Hector! You gotta drag him over here sometime."

"I will tomorrow." Jack said

"Well, you know where the rum is. You go get yerself a bottle and sit down while I finish up."

"That's actually easier said than done right now."

"What do you-" Mama Barbie started, turning around to face him. "Well, bless my eyes! That can't really be Christine, can it?"

Jack smiled in embarrassment. Christine was sound asleep on his back, holding on to what's left of the collar of his shirt. "Yeah, it's Christine. She fell asleep on the way here."

Mama Barbie walked over to get a closer look at Christine. "She's adorable!"

'When she's sleeping.' Jack thought. "Everybody says that."

Mama Barbie smiled. "Of course they would! A little like that! If I weren't so busy running this inn, I'd raise her myself!" She then leaned closer to Christine. "It's already been almost seven years since I last saw her."

"Almost seven years?"

"Don't you know it's the eighth of August?"

"Bugger."

Believe it or not, this was actually the first chapter I thought of when I started, but I couldn't exactly have it as the first chapter of the story...

So, it was about midnight on a school night and I was still wide awake. I was reading Dracula. (really good book, by the way. Still not done yet...) So, I decided that it'd be a good idea to listen to some music. I turned on my MP3 player, and the song "Mama Kin" by Aerosmith (I'm an Aerosmith fan. I have three cds on my MP3 player, and right now the only music on my iPOD)came on. I started thinking that there should be a character who'd act like the pirates' mother.

That's where Mama Barbie came from...