"Jack, what are we going to name the baby?" Dinah asked. It was early April and the baby was due anytime now. Dinah had been waddling around the house, huge as ever. Jack had gotten back that week and Dinah was glad to have him back. It felt weird not having her husband around to comfort her or to talk about the baby. But since Jack had been there, he had been following her around to make sure she didn't pick up anything she couldn't. She had gotten pretty irritated lately with having him for a shadow, but she knew that he was only looking out of him.
They were in their bedroom which they had grown quite attached to in the last couple months. Norrington had stopped by often to see how Dinah was doing and to see if Jack was still there and staying out of trouble. Dinah had grown to respect the Commodore and have a small type of friendship with him.
They sat against the head board on their bed and Dinah rubbed her stomach as she laid her head on Jack's shoulder. They had never really talked about the baby and what its name was going to be, and for Dinah this seemed like the best time.
"How 'bout Jack?" He offered.
Dinah smirked, "Actually I was thinking more of Milton."
"We're not naming my son after your pig who is practically a cross dresser!"
"It was a simple mistake anyone could make."
"My son is not goin' to be named Milton."
"Hey! That's also my maiden name!"
Jack swallowed, "What if it's a girl, luv?"
"I was thinking of Hannah?"
"Jack shrugged, "Sounds good."
"Back to the boy's name, Jack. We're not naming our baby after you."
"Why not?"
"Jack jr.? I'm not…"
"Okay…but can my son not have the first name of Milton? How 'bout his middle name?"
"What is it with your son? 'can my son…' 'My son isn't going to…' It's not yours! It's ours."
"Sorry love," They both paused, thinking of names. A light went on in Jack's head, "Jacob."
"Huh?"
"Jacob Milton Sparrow. There. We compromised."
Dinah smiled. "Thanks darlin'… Oh! I almost forgot…Jack- do you expect our baby to be a pirate?"
Jack paused, "You don't?"
"No! I mean you can teach him how to sword fight and defend himself, but being a pirate? Your own son or daughter?"
"Hmm…let's talk about this when the babe is actually born and a little older." Dinah seemed satisfied with that answer.
Will and Elizabeth awoke the next morning to something sweet smelling. The aroma seemed to carry them out of bed and drug them downstairs. But instead of their cook they saw Dinah, cooking and Jack sitting at the table.
"Jack! What are you thinking? Having her around a hot stove!" Elizabeth said rushing to Dinah and forcing her away. Elizabeth and Will looked at Jack and he was bound to the chair. Will smirked and tried to hold in the laughter. Jack rolled his eyes, he had given up yelling at Dinah for quite sometime. But now that Will had seen him, Captain Jack Sparrow tied to a chair by his pregnant wife, it was too much to take.
"Will, let me ask you this, Lizzy's pregnant, has a pot in her hand, and wants you to stop forcing her away from the fire, what would you do?"
"But you're tied up!"
"She attacked me." He said shrugging.
Will shook his head and sat next to him. Elizabeth sat Dinah down and told her, "Now you stay here or I'm going to tie you up!" And then left to go find the cook.
"She's right, you shouldn't be cooking when you're so big."
Dinah eyed Will, "I dunno…I just needed to cook. I needed to do something!" She paused, "I miss Ana Maria. Why has she been gone so long? It's been almost five months! She needs to come home."
"Luv, Port Royal is anything but her home." Jack told his wife.
"I guess…but it doesn't take this long to go from here to Barbados and back!"
"Luv, her ship isn't as fast as the Pearl! She's fine. Don't worry about it."
"I wonder if she's killed Evan yet…" Will said, leaning back, thinking out loud.
Jack chuckled, "I hope not. I would love to see it."
"Big surprise. You've never liked him. I'm surprised you agreed to our plan. I thought if that opportunity came up, you wouldn't shoot him down."
"I'm not that mean."
Dinah rolled her eyes.
All that afternoon Jack was following around Dinah making sure she didn't do so much strenuous work. He failed sadly. He ended up watching her plant flowers and do yard work. He moaned and complained that it probably wasn't the best thing for the baby and he wasn't sure if it was the best thing for her, but she ignored him.
"Luv, how do you expect to give birth if you're tired out from doing work? And I'm tellin' you that yer back cramps are gunna be even worse tomorrow."
"Jack! Stop acting like a mom! You're my husband! Start acting like it!"
"I am! I'm supposed to be takin' care of you but then you point that shovel at me and get that evil look in yer eye…Barbossa wouldn't even touch you."
Dinah turned and smiled. She was about to say something smart to her husband but then she stopped and the smile went off her face. "What's wrong?" He asked, seeing something was.
"Jack, please get the midwife…please." She said as she held her stomach.
He stood and yelled for Elizabeth and joined Dinah on the ground, "Why what's wrong?"
"I think my water just broke."
Will ended up waiting with Jack out in the living room. Jack was pacing and Will sat, watching him. Jack had insisted that he needed some rum but Elizabeth warned him if he left the house, got some rum and got drunk then she wouldn't let him see the child until the next day. Yes, Jack wanted rum, but he also wanted to see the baby.
"Don't worry about it, Dinah's healthy, the baby will be fine and so will she."
"Did you panic this much when Elizabeth was in labor, lad?"
Will nodded.
"Exactly, so don't take this moment away from me."
Will smiled, "You're that worried?"
Jack stopped and looked at his friend, "I know that Dinah's going to get through this okay, and I know the baby will be fine too, but I dunno if I will be."
"What?"
"Will, when you and Liz were married, you knew that you wanted to have a child. Now that child is safely in his bed, sleeping the day away. But when Dinah and I got hitched, I wasn't plannin' on havin' any type of child on me ship!"
"Wait- so you don't want to have the child? Didn't you tell Dinah you did?"
"Well technically I did tell her that…but it was just to calm her down. I had asked her a ridiculous question which made her mad and then she said she wasn't sure if I even wanted a kid…"
"So you 'technically' lied?" Will said putting quotes around the word 'technically'.
"I guess you could call it that…"
Will just looked at Jack.
"Before Dinah, when was the last time you saw me in such turmoil over a woman?"
"Never."
"Exactly, but then Dinah comes along…again and I end up marrying her like I should've years ago…but never did I think of having a child with her…well maybe once or twice. But do I look like the settling down type?"
"But you don't have to…bring them along!"
"Beatrice would have my head, Will," He said, starting to pace again, "I don't want to endanger either of them so I want to leave them with my mother or her mother. But Dinah won't have it. And I don't necessarily want to leave Dinah."
"Jack, you make it sound as if you think having a baby was going to be easy. Or living with Dinah was going to be easy…"
Jack stopped and sat down. He didn't say a word, but just sat there, staring at the carpet.
"Will, you aren't thinking of leaving her…are you?"
Jack's eyes made contact as Will asked the question that had never once entered Jack's head in all the time he had been married to Dinah. He shook his head, "No. Of course not. I'm just not ready to be responsible for a person whose whole life is going to be based on what I tell it or train it or do with it…I'm just not ready…"
Will was about to encourage him but the sound of a baby crying stopped him. They paused and looked at each other, acting as if that was going to help the fear that Jack was feeling. Ten minutes past with no word from any of the three women in the room. Jack started to worry about Dinah. God please let her be okay. He silently prayed.
A door opened and Elizabeth came down the stairs with a solemn look on her face. The two men stood up and she made eye contact with Jack. Her lips never went up or down, just stayed in a straight line on her face. She reached Jack and said, starting to smile, "Congratulations Jack, You have a little boy."
Will laughed and thrust his arms around Jack. He numbly hugged Will back and then Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek. They both led him up the stairs as he numbly took them one by one. The only things going through his brain were the words Elizabeth said to him, echoing.
He reached Dinah's door and opened it a little hesitantly. He walked in and his gaze fell upon Dinah, sweaty and red in the face and then a little, live, person in her arms. The baby was stained slightly red, was wrinkly and had a blanket wrapped around him. A smile grew on his face as he looked at the two things that were most important to him. Despite his doubts about having a child and being able to care for it, he was already in love with him. Just the fact that he and his wife had made him and his wife had worked to keep him alive, was enough to love such a thing.
Dinah ripped her gaze away from her son and looked at her husband. She smiled when she saw his face. "C'mere and meet your son."
"I already have," he said walking over to Dinah and sitting next to her on the bed. She gently handed the baby over to the hesitant Jack. "Support his head…" She said. He obeyed and in a moment the baby was in his arms. His little nose, thin dark hair and blue-green eyes were the features that amazed Jack. That and the little hand and the little fingers he had. He cooed quietly. He looked at Dinah, "He has yer eyes."
She smiled, "And you're hair."
He leaned over and kissed his wife as a thank you and yay-for-us. He pulled away and looked at his son once more. He whispered his name to the child, "Jacob Milton Sparrow..."
Dinah grew serious and leaned her head on her husbands shoulder, more than exhausted from the pushing. "Jack, are you nervous?"
Jack looked at his wife and nodded. She halfway smiled, thinking it was nice to know she wasn't the only one. "Well I just wanted you to know that I trust you."
Will and Elizabeth looked at each other when Dinah said that and quickly excused themselves from the room. "Trust me with what, luv?"
"With Jacob…with me…"
Jack eyed his wife, as if asking if this was the first time she had trusted him. "Jack, I've always trusted you, but now I trust you with a lot more than my feelings and my heart. I trust you with our son."
A certain sense of renewed responsibility came over him. Ironically enough, the doubts he was having right before the baby was born, Dinah filled with trust right after the baby was born. It felt good to be trust worthy. It felt good to be leaned on yet supported. It felt good to have a wife like Dinah and now a son.
"Thanks Dinah, and with that I should tell you that I would love to have you and Jacob on board the Pearl. But only every other month. And every other month of every other month, you'll be alternating between my mother's and your mother's…sound reasonable to you?"
Dinah nodded, "And of course I'll stay in our cabin while you raid and plunder. Don't worry. I expected that."
Jack smiled. "Good, then everything is fine."
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Sorry this chapter took so long but I'm also working on my new story! It excites me! So this is prolly the second to last chapter in this story…tear. But I didn't think it was as good as my first one. Oh well, that's usually true of sequels. Hopefully that won't be true of the sequel of POTC.
And if Jack seemed somewhat OOC…I'm sorry? Lol. I needed to write this chapter to tie up some loose ends and Jack acting how he did seemed right. Tell me what you think! Review!