Disclaimer: Still don't own the characters… Still dreaming of owning Jack…. Yummy…. lol…
AN: Sorry about the updating delays… My classes are really difficult and I've been having a ton of homework. I'm writing as much as I can, and I'm trying to update as often as possible. Updates might be slow in coming in the coming days, though, seeing as I just sprained my wrist. My brace is making it hard to type, but I'm trying! Keep checking back, and R+R!!! And thanks to all of you that have reviewed! It honestly makes my day!!!
Chapter 4: A Tale is Told
"I grew up in Port Caprice, an English settlement on the northern coast of Jamaica. Me mother still lives there; it was me home until me fifteenth birthday. That was twelve years ago, more or less.
"Me mother's name was Alexis Page, though most people just call her Red. She took Red as her street name. Aye, she's a lady of the night, as I hear tell they call women of her sort. She never made much money, but she supported me as well as she could. If she could afford it, she would even buy me books. Never had she learned to read or write, yet she made sacrifices so that I could learn how. She was a good woman, for her part.
"Well, one night roughly twenty-seven years ago, a dashing young lad came to me mother asking for her… services, shall we say? That lad was a pirate by the name of Bootstrap Bill. After that night, Bootstrap often came to see me mother. They had a friendly relationship, so to say. After around two years of their so-called relationship, I was born, the fruit of the affair and me mother's only child.
"Pirate though he was, me father came to visit me as often as he could. Oftentimes he would bring me gifts, thing he had most likely stolen in a raid. Books, dolls, dresses… He treated me like a little princess, and he wanted me to be as learned as possible. Over time, me reading and writing improved more and more. Eventually, I was one of the smartest children in the slums of me town.
"When I turned ten, me father gave me the gift of a beautiful sword and bid me practice with it. It was lovely, a golden hilt, the tang the width of the blade, perfectly balanced… there were even jewels inlaid into the hilt. He taught me, gave me lessons as often as he could. He told me I was a natural-born fighter, I already had beautiful form and immense skill. I've been deft with a blade for seventeen years. I still carry the sword he gave me all those years ago, though now I have outgrown it. In me hand, it is simply a rapier, but still a dangerous blade to cross. Me crew stole away me real sword when they left me to die on that island, but we'll come to that part of me story later.
"As beautiful and lush as Port Caprice was, by the age of fifteen me pirate blood was wide awake and calling to the sea; I began to long for the rocking of a ship, the salt breeze of the sea. More than anything, I wanted a ship to go sail away in and be free. Free to choose where to go and when… To make me own choices, to be free of the law and the rules. Simple freedom…
"Several days after me birthday, Bootstrap came to visit me and me mother. I told him how tired I was of life on the land, tired of rules and laws, tired of watching me mother sell her body to support us. I begged my father to take me with him on his ship, the Forsaken Angel. That was twelve years ago. He agreed to take me with him, and I left with only the dress on me back and the sword he had given me. That dress was the one I was wearing on that damned island, it was all my godforsaken crew would give me. They insisted that me other clothes were part of their loot. Anyway, I sailed under my father's command for seven years after the former crew of the Black Pearl tried to kill him.
"Last year he was killed during a raid on Jacobstown on some island near Jamaica, I'm not exactly sure where. Before he died, he had sent me a letter by way of a loyal crewmate. The letter told me that I had a younger half-brother from England who had sailed to the Caribbean. His name is William Turner, the same as me father. I tried to take over me father's old crew as their captain so I could find me brother. I captained me crew for roughly nine months without a complaint to me ears. Last month, me crew began voicing their unhappiness with me skills as a captain. About two weeks ago they mutinied. They kept me on board for a week, and used me for their… their pleasure.
"About a week ago they left me on that damned island to die with only me sword, pistol, and the dress that I left Port Caprice in. As you probably noticed, it barely fit. I was stranded on that island for four nights and three days before you came with only seawater to drink and a few berries to eat. Much longer on that strip of land and I fear that my pistol would have become my only release from my pain." Rose looked at Jack and locked eyes with him; her emerald eyes gazing intently into Jack's kohl-ringed ones. "Thank ye for coming, mate."
Jack's eyes were blank; Rose soon dropped her gaze. He was lost completely in thought. Bootstrap hadn't died ten years ago… Only last year. It seemed as if the facts suddenly came together in his head as his eyes regained their trademark mischievous sparkle. It made perfect sense. When Barbossa had tied a cannon to Bootstrap's bootstraps all those years ago, Bill had still had the Aztec coin. He must have sent the coin to Will after he had escaped from the crushing depths of the merciless sea. Due to the mixed blessing and curse of the coin, he had been able to escape. Yet that still left another quandary: Bootstrap and Jack had been friends. Jack had known about Will, but he couldn't imagine why Bill hadn't said anything about his daughter. Jack's eyes roved over the girl's face. He could see the resemblance to her father… to her brother. She wasn't lying, that much was certain. Glancing again at the girl's face, he realized that she was talking.
"What was that, lass? I was thinking." He reluctantly pulled himself out of his thoughts and forced himself to concentrate on the girl.
"I asked if you know my brother. Watching your reaction to my story, I gather that you knew my father."
"Yes to both. Bootstrap was a good man. I knew him as William, though. I was one of the few that did. He was a good friend. A good pirate."
"And what of my brother?" Rose looked at Jack anxiously.
"He's a good, honest man. A good friend," Jack replied and swigged more rum.
"Not a pirate?"
"No. This path isn't for the likes of Will Turner. He's too good to be raiding and pillaging like a common miscreant. He's the greatest swordsmith in the Caribbean, and he's married to one of the most beautiful and honorable ladies the Caribbean's ever seen."
"Good," Rose said, although she looked a bit sad. "I'm glad he's dome well for himself. I was halfway hoping that he'd be pirate and have a ship so that I would at least have somewhere to live on the sea."
"I'll take ye to see Will, but ye're welcome to call the Pearl your home as long as ye like, lass. Any child of Bill Turner is a friend of mine, savvy?"
"Aye. Thank ye, Jack Sparrow. Ye truly are a good man."
"Ye're welcome, love, and thank ye for the compliment." Jack raised his bottle of rum and Rose raised hers. They clinked them together and drained them in unison, then slammed the bottles on the table; an accord was formed in pirate tradition.
"We'll set a new course towards Port Royal in the morning," Jack said as he settled down in his chair and closed his eyes. "Ye can sleep in me bunk tonight, we'll find ye your own cabin tomorrow. Get some rest, we'll have a long day tomorrow." He dozed off after he finished speaking, the rum speeding his descent into unconsciousness and was fast asleep within minutes.
Rose walked over to Jack's bed, grabbing the pillow off the floor on her way. Her gait finally matched the rolling of the ship despite her limp, she noticed with a smile. She collapsed on the bed and pulled up the single gray blanket. Like Jack, she was fast asleep within minutes.
