Esmeralda took her seat in one of the pews that lined the brethren court chamber. The large table that usually resided in the centre of the room had been taken out and replaced by the pews Esmeralda sat in. There were two tables in front of the pews which looked upon a high backed, throne-like chair which would be used by Teague as judge. Next to the grand chair stood what looked like a witness box for people to share testimonies from but was in actual fact an old palate and some wooden railing which would normally line the quarter deck of a ship- however it had its effect.

Lining the side of the room were 6 slightly less high-backed but no-less grand chairs for the pirate lords who would be playing jury.

Esmeralda's stomach began tying itself in knots as she looked upon the newly furnished room and reality began to settle in. This morning as she'd led sleepily on an unconscious Jack's chest the currant scene had felt like it was years away- like it was all some awful dream she'd conjured and yet here she was. Jack had been taken away from her earlier in the morning by two guards, apparently this was another part of the justice system Teague could do nothing about, and so, at breakfast, Jack had been cuffed and walked down to the cells to await the beginning of his trial.

As Esmeralda had been looking around people had begun to walk into the makeshift courthouse and mutter excitedly about the dramatic possibilities of watching Edward Teague put his own son on trial.

She could feel several eyes on her as people exchanged whispers about why she wasn't sitting on the jury bench,

"Poor girl," She heard one woman utter to her partner after he explained her situation. She could almost feel the well-meaning but unhelpful pats on her shoulder as more people eyed her up and exchanged opinions on her situation.

"They're actin' like 'e's already dead." Esmeralda turned to the familiar voice to see Gibbs sitting next to her- relief washed over her and she launched herself into the arms of the man.

"What are you doing here?" She murmured into his shoulder.

"Ah, couldn' let ye sit here on yer own." He reassured her with a smile. "didn' want'a miss Jackie's trial neither." He confessed looking at the people around him.

As Gibbs' eye's drifted from her Esmeralda could feel herself blocking out her surroundings until Gibbs' hand on her shoulder quickly brought her back to the present;

"Ye know, I can't see Teague lettin' 'em gettin' away wiv givin' 'im the death penalty." He reassured.

"Let's hope you're right. Lots of people around here think he's good as dead." She responded dully,

"An' wha' d'ye think?"

A small smiled found it's way to Esmeralda's face, "I don't think he's quite ready to give in yet."

Gibbs smiled before standing with the rest of the room as Teague walked in, "good lad."

The lawyer opposing Jack really had him worried. His argument seemed to be that Jack must be a dangerous individual with authority problems and a history of bending rules until they snapped to get his own end.

Currently he was on a blunder interviewing the guard who had let Jack into the cells the night of Christophe's escape.

"Law says they get one last request and Rapier's was to talk to Jack, by th' law we gots to gives him wha' 'e wants." The man stated matter-of-factly.

"And were you aware at any point that Jack might be planning to help Christophe escape?"

"Nope. Only thing I thought were fishy were that th' meetin' was so short!" He guffawed.

"Interesting and how short would you say it was…to the best of your memory."

"Oh! Pffft…under ten minutes or so I'd say?"

The Lawyer-Isaac Reynolds turned to address the court room; "And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, are we supposed to believe that all it took was ten short minutes for Mr- sorry- Captain Sparrow to be convinced to free his friend from prison? I've had character witnesses describe Captain Sparrow as intelligent, so surely, an intelligent man wouldn't be fooled in ten minutes into releasing a dangerous criminal! I believe we could infer that Sparrow was simply finding the best route to secure Rapier of his freedom having already decided to free him earlier that very evening in the 'Drunken Lady' after being told of his fate by Captain Barbossa."

"Objection!" Jack's lawyer stood, "Where's the evidence of this?"

"Surely Our evidence is in Captain Barbossa's testimony of that night? He reported that, upon hearing the news, Sparrow appeared 'angry', he seemed 'tense', 'ready for action' as our Esteemed Captain put it." He was met with silence having proved his point. "No further questions your honour." He turned to Teague bowing slightly. The man had previously worked legally in Bristol before being accused of bribery. Facing a trial himself, he fled, joining with so many other merchant sailors and naval men alike who decided that a life on the account was better than a life behind bars.

So far, the man had used everything he could against Jack and- BOY! Had he done his homework! Jack running away from his abusive family had turned into Jack turning his back on the society that had raised him to join forces with a British Aristocrat to suit his own ends. He'd pulled up Jack's troubled history with piracy even calling upon witness statements in which he denied he was one and claimed to disagree with the whole practice. He'd turned Jack's difficult childhood in the cove into an incentive for him to want to cause chaos and put people in danger-it was a great story.

"I call Esmeralda Maria Consuela Anna de Sevilla to the stand." Reynolds stated. That one pricked Jack's ears. His own lawyer stood up immediately,

"Objection! Lady Esmeralda cannot testify against Jack for the same reason she can't be on the jury."

"Actually, I think you'll find the only reason she wouldn't be able to testify would be if they were married- which they are not."

Esmeralda stood proudly from her seat and marched, head held high, to the stand.

"Dona Esmeralda, were you with the accused on the night of the escape?"

"Si." Esmeralda responded clearly.

"And, according to our testimonies you were spotted with the accused going below deck of the ship Troubadour, is this correct?"

"Si." Esmeralda responded, eyebrows furrowing.

"What was it that you and the accused were doing below decks on Troubadour that night?"

Esmeralda smirked. "What do you think we were doing below decks on Troubadour?" she leaned back in her seat as a few jeers erupted from the crowd and Jack smiled proudly at her.

"Order." Teague called above the noise.

"Please could you answer the question for the Jury." The lawyer reiterated.

Suddenly the smirk shifted off of Esmeralda's face. She tried to find away around admitting this in court without lying, she'd thought maybe the sex card might have made the lawyer move on quickly but he knew, her testimony that she'd written the day after the attack had it all in there. "I was acting as a lookout for Jack."

"and what was Mr- sorry Captain Sparrow doing which would require a lookout?"

Esmeralda paused, eyes darting over to Jack as the blood drained from both their faces. "I want to make it clear we were both angry. We both believed there was more to the story than what had transpired at the time and we wanted to prove that before an innoc-,"

"Answer the question, please. What was it that Captain Sparrow was doing which would require a lookout?" The lawyer had a shark's grin plastered on his face.

She glanced an apologetic look at Jack before turning back to the lawyer with an angry fire burning in her eyes. "Jack wanted the keys to the cells. He was going there to get them."

The court room was silent at the revelation. But Reynolds wasn't done;

"As far as I'm aware Captain Sparrow doesn't have his own set of keys for the cells at Shipwreck cove, rather they are the property of the keeper. Does this mean that Sparrow was, in fact, stealing the keys?"

Esmeralda pursed her lips together. "You know the definition of the word as much as I do."

Reynolds dropped his hypnotising glare from Esmeralda's face and began to pace in front of his bench.

"So, we could say that this was, in fact, premeditated?"

Esmeralda didn't bother answering that question, just glared piercingly at the man.

Reynolds turned to address the room, "And if this was premeditated, surely, the planning proves Sparrow's guilt more than most things. Surely, because Sparrow didn't speak to the accused, or to our Keeper or a pirate lord to plead for Christophe's life, either he didn't care that the man was guilty or he didn't need to care. Someone who acts with this kind of premeditation knows what they want to achieve. I put now before you all that Sparrow did not care about Rapier's guilt but was simply worried about losing his captain."

Jack gulped. He was screwed.

"That's not true!" Esmeralda piped up.

"Oh really? Well, surely then, when Captain Teague turned up to his cabin to turn in for the night Sparrow confronted him about the confusion? If what your saying is true, if he put the keys back, he'd have nothing to hide!"

Esmeralda opened and closed her mouth trying to find the words to say.

"What did he do instead?"

"We hid." Jack stood up and responded. He could see Esmeralda was struggling, not wanting to condemn him but also being unable to lie.

"Captain Sparrow, the question is not for you, it is for Dona Esmerald-,"

"Why does she have to answer it, I was there. I can give you the information you need." He answered snidely, suddenly growing protective. "You don't have to bully her about it. Ask away mate." He gave a characteristic smirk.

Teague tried to hide his pride. Gibbs did not.

"Fine." Reynolds' upper lip stiffened. "I call Sparrow to the stand."

Jack stalked to the witness box, head held high, deliberately ignoring the annoyance on Reynolds face and catching Esmeralda's eye as she stepped down It's fine, he tried to communicate with his eyes.

"Mr Sparr-,"

"Captain." Jack bit.

"…Captain Sparrow, could you repeat for the court what you did when Captain Teague returned to his quarters for the evening?"

"I grabbed Esmeralda and hid in the Captain's pantry with her."

"Were you worried about Captain Teague finding out what you were doing?"

Jack gave the other man a questioning look, "I would've thought that was obvious by hiding from him?"

A titter escaped the audience making Jack grin cheekily.

"Why were you worried?"

"Because, as you've already pointed out, I was stealing his keys. Whatever my intention was he wasn't going to be overjoyed, was he?" Jack could feel himself getting gradually more annoyed.

"Were you stealing the keys with the intention to free Christophe?"

"Yes." Jack said flatly.

"Why?"

"Because I didn't believe he was guilty. I thought I knew better because I was closer with Christophe."

"Ah, so you were friends?"

"Yes. Christophe and I had been great friends until I freed him."

"So, you thought you knew better than Teague about Christophe. Did you think you knew better than him about a lot of things?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" Jack snarled.

"I'm just wondering what your relationship with Captain Teague was like at the time to understand why you might double cross him."

"I don't believe that's relevant." Jack gibed

"Neither do I." Teague glared threateningly at the lawyer.

"Forgive me Captain Teague." Reynolds pleaded, "I just want to help the court understand why Sparrow might think he knows better than you and therefore disregard the code which you, obviously uphold."

Teague thought for a moment before sighing and looking at Jack "Answer the question."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Our relationship was strained."

"Strained?"

"Yes strained."

"Define strained."

"umm…adjective?" Jack tried receiving a smatter of chuckling from the pews.

Reynolds looked anything but amused as Jack smiled sweetly at him. "Define strained." He growled.

Jack sighed again. "We weren't on good terms."

"So, you were arguing with each other?"

"More avoiding altogether."

"So, you'd had a disagreement?"

"We had several."

"and what were these… 'disagreements' about?"

"Objection." Jack's lawyer stood. "What does this have to do with the case we're currently discussing?"

"Nothing." Teague confirmed, clearly annoyed. "Move on Mr Reynolds."

"So, the reason you thought you knew better than Teague was because you knew Christophe better than him and for this you were willing to break him out of jail. You've also admitted that your relationship with the Keeper at the time was strained. Was spite a motivator to get Christophe out of jail?" Reynolds framed the question as bait in front of Jack's nose to get him to snap at himself and Teague and therefore prove his erratic and problematic behaviour and therefore get a conviction. Jack was seething.

"No mate. The reason I freed Christophe from his cell has more to do with the fact that I thought he was innocent."

"Were you willing to do anything else to spite the Keeper?"

"I wasn't trying to 'Spite the keeper'" Jack mocked.

"Did he not say anything else to you, possibly about someone in this court room, that could have angered you so much that you'd do whatever you could to get your revenge." Reynolds poked.

Jack pursed his lips, "You clearly know what you want me to say." He growled threateningly. "Why don't you say it."

"I believe he told you to stay away from Senorita Sevilla? I also know he'd embarrassed you at a court meeting, much like this one, in front of her."

"And why would that make me want to release Christophe?" he glared.

"Explain?"

"I got my way with that particular circumstance." Jack locked eyes with Esmeralda, a genuine smile tugged at the corners of his lips and his features softened. "I was right about that one."

"Esmeralda returned his smile before shyly looking down at the floor, the smile didn't fade. Gibbs felt himself melt as he watched the young couple exchanging their moony glances. He had never seen Jack so enchanted by someone else. It was clear that they adored each other.

Reynolds let go of that line of enquiry after that.

"So, earlier you said that you were friends with Christophe until the escape. What happened?"

Finally, a line Jack could prove his innocence with. "Once Christophe was freed from the cells, he and his crew pressganged me. I was effectively held captive on the ship for a few months before being left to die in a dinghy by them with no food or water. After a number of years, we bumped into each other again- I used him to complete my own ends and then disposed of the traitorous bastard."

"So, you killed Christophe?"

Jack looked at the brethren court as he finished off the lawyer; "Yes."

"Why did you wait so long?"

"What?" he did a double take

"Why did you wait so long? If you were on a ship with him for months surely there would have been a moment to enact your revenge, if you really, seriously regretted your actions?"

"What, on a ship full of his cronies? I don't think so mate- they would have killed me faster than you can say mutiny."

"So, how can we prove that you didn't finish Christophe because of the argument that meant he left you to die?"

Suddenly Jack was tongue-tied.

"Or better yet- how do we know you didn't have an argument with him once you reunited years later and that's why you decided to finish him off?" Reynolds turned to the pirate lords once more. "After all, Sparrow had him within arms-length for a number of months without seeing him off- surely he couldn't prioritise his own life over the hundreds of lives he left at risk for five years because he didn't take action as soon as possible! In fact! Sparrow has just admitted he worked with Christophe again years later clearly, he wasn't all that remorseful!" During Reynolds' speech and a palpable anger raged across the pews for their losses at the hands of the rogues.

"That's not true!" Jack shouted over the crowd who had begun jeering at Jack.

"Oh really? So, you did take action against Christophe when you became part of his crew."

"No but-,"

"So, you did leave him able to hunt us down here for five years before doing anything?"

Jack just gaped.

"No further questions." Reynolds smiled sweetly.

"Order!" Teague bellowed across the chamber as Reynolds took his seat. Jack sharply looked at Teague a clear worry plastered on his face. Teague sighed and sent Jack back to his seat.