Kin
Part Twelve : In Which the Moon is a Mirror
by : epiphanies
Desdemona found finally Jack, sitting on the docks, grazing his toes in the sea.
"Jack." her hands were on her hips, behind him. He turned swiftly around, and when he saw her, he cursed.
"Desdemona, why do you always have to know when I'm gone? That's not good."
She inwardly smirked at his slurred voice as she sat down beside him, "And why, Captain Sparrow, is that anything less than magnificent?"
He frowned at her, "Pirates are s'posed to be mysterious! How can one be mysterious when he has a wife-y woman always after his tail?"
"I'm not after your tail," she laughed, patting his knee, "I'm just worried about you."
"If anythin', I should be worrying 'bout you, love," he bowed his head, "I haven't been takin' a lot of care, as I should."
"Nonsense," she argued, "I've not felt sick since we first arrived on this island. Actually, since we first left Tortuga, for the greater part. I think that sailing was good for me."
"You're the daughter of a pirate," he reminded her, "of course it was good for you. How could it possibly not?"
She smiled, "Touche."
They stared at the stars for a bit, and she caught Jack glancing at his ship.
"Jack, are you going to leave Port Royal?"
His look was sharper than his cheekbones.
"Why?"
She shrugged, flushing, "Oh, it doesn't matter, it's just that, well..."
"I'll come back to visit you, you know that."
"But, it's not the same. I spent my entire life waiting for you to return to me, where I was stranded on some island. I want to see the world, Jack. You've seen it, my father saw it. Why can't I?"
"You're a woman," he grunted, "And you're ill. Two good reasons right there."
"But I've a better one."
He raised his eyebrows, "And what's that?"
She smiled weakly, "If I stay here with the newlyweds, I'm afraid I'll go mad."
He laughed, a nefarious, pillaging, uproarious laugh that spelt 'Captain Jack Sparrow' all around. He slung an arm about her.
"You were talkin' to Norrington, though, love," he said seriously, looking into her eyes, "I saw you. All lovey-dovey. You could marry him and be well off, and he could take care of you."
"But I'd rather take care of myself and travel with you."
Jack seemed like he wanted to say something, then paused.
"What is it?" she asked desperately.
"It's just that....you're giving up a perfectly sound romance, however boring," he narrowed his eyes at her, "to travel with a pirate. Tell me honestly, Desdemona. Do you have... inklings about any certain members of me crew?"
She laughed, "Only you, and it's one of a very proud and very esteemed daughter."
His form shrank in relief, "Well. That's spectacular. I was afraid of the worst."
"The worst?"
"That I'd have to see you and Gibbs grabbing at each other all day."
She snorted, "I'm not ladylike at all, am I? But that's besides the point. Mr Gibbs? Never. He's too...distinguished for me."
"The crew ain't young and chipper, girl," he warned, and she nodded, "But that can always be changed on the day we adventure into the high seas and pick up a few of the sturdier young menfolk, correct?"
Jack shook his head with non-soberness and with amusement, "You're too much like William for me to bear."
"You were his best friend."
"Exactly."
She glanced at her hands, newly tanned and smooth. She had always been pale, and now, after only a few days of semi-adventure, she felt perkier than she had in her entire existence.
"Jack?"
"Aye?"
"How are Will and Elizabeth so happy?"
"Some people are just meant to be together, I suppose. Though Elizabeth showed her true colours once the rum got in her blood."
Desdemona's eyes rose, deciding not to ask. She shook her head of the thought, then looked up.
"Jack, do you ever try to see your reflection in the moon?"
"I'm not a fan of mirrors, myself," he commented mildly, "The moon is just a big round one, isn't it? I fancy it made of cheese."
"I like cheese."
"I love cheese."
"I love you, Jack. You've been there for me entirely too much, and it's one hundred percent your own fault that I do love you."
"I'll love you forever, Desdemona. Ever since I saw your raisin little face when you were first born, I knew. We three, you and I and your father. Kindred, you know? Forever, even if the poor man is in the depths."
"Why have you never spoken of love before, Jack?" she turned to him intensely, touching his forearm, knowing that she was touching the infamous tattoo that he'd had stamped on there years before.
Jack blinked, then silently looked at the transparent sea below them.
"I mean," she continued, "You've never spoken of love. Not once, not really. Barely even of your passion for the Pearl, and it mystifies me, Jack."
He winked, "Then I do still have my charm."
"Jack-"
He waved his hands in the air in protest, "Fine, fine. I loved Gisele, and Scarlet, and Nymphadora, and Dunnadawn-"
Her face fell, "But Jack, truly. You've never told me any sweeping love stories, or romantic ballads. You've never said whether you have children, or have a wife, or once had a wife. You've said nothing this entire lifetime of mine. Not of a someone, or an anyone or even a no-one. Why?"
"You want to know why?" Jack's face had seemed to sober considerably. She nodded.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the sea, before she could scream in protest. She emerged, gasping.
"Jack!" she shrieked, and he grinned, "You have to learn how to do that if you want to be a pirate, love."
"Piratess," she grinned back as he helped her back onto the dock, "But in all seriousness, Jack, I really do wonder about you."
He whipped his wet hair about to dry it, then gave her a solid look, "Desdemona, I have ne'er married. Ne'er had me own little peddlefoots. Ne'er basked in the glory of having a woman loving me, having me about, givin' her things and her not carin' because she loves me all the same. The women that love Jack Sparrow love him because he swaggers, he slurs, and he's bad. He's nothing like a sweeping hero that they dream about marrying."
"He isn't anybody," she reminded him, "without you."
He waved her off, "I'm nothin' without him. Captain Jack Sparrow. We're, so-called, empty nests without the other, and we understand that well and perfect. So what's the point in rocking the ship?"
"For happiness?" she suggested softly, and he scoffed, "Happiness is the spray of the sea, the pirate's code, plundering and pilfering and taking what you can."
"Then why did you even come back to see me every time you did, years ago?" her eyes were filled with tears, "If I didn't make you happy?"
"You did!" he grumbled, "I never said you didn't, wee one. You were the only thing beautiful in me life."
Her lip trembled, "Are you sure?"
He nodded at her, "Of course. And that isn't the rum talking, missy."
"I'm sure," she laughed softly, drizzling her toes in the water again, drumming her fingers against the wood of the dock. Her gaze found itself on the Black Pearl.
"Jack?"
"What now?"
She leaned on his shoulder, "It's a shame you didn't have children. If you'd had a son, I could have married him."
Jack laughed and smiled a gold tinted smile, though she couldn't see him, and said in a voice below a whisper, "You would have been too good for him."
"Surely," she agreed, "But there is some rather outstanding scale in Elizabeth and Will's situation, is there not? When my father sent for him, I doubt he meant in any way for it to end up like this, his son marrying the Governor's daughter."
Jack frowned, "William never sent for..." he trailed, then stopped. What did Desdmona think? How had she come to 'know' that Will had been sent for by his father?
Of course, Jack knew the truth. William had died, and Jack had summoned his child. Why hadn't he ever thought more of that? If he'd left Will, he would still be in London, fresh from an orphanage's grubby hands. He and Elizabeth never would have met, Jack would never have been sprung from prison, actually, the Pearl never would have come to Port Royal, because Elizabeth wouldn't have had the medallion.
Desdemona looked puzzled, "William never sent for who?"
"Never mind," Jack turned away, pondering.
"No, Jack, no," she groaned, "You cannot just do that all of the time! Tell me what happened, if William, our father, didn't send for Will. Who else could have, who else would have known to?"
Jack didn't say a word.
And then she understood.
"Oh, Jack," she sighed, leaning back on his shoulder, "Must we tell Will?"
"He'll be devastated," agreed Jack, shooing away a part of his pirate-self that wanted to tell Will in the meanest, lowest, most pirate-way ever invented and adopting his good Samaritan mind.
"He's happy thinking that father did it," she convinced herself, and she thought that she had convinced Jack also, until she heard his snoring. He'd fallen asleep, resting on her head.
She sighed. She had a decision to make.
A/N : Just to a reviewer who found 'no point' to my last chapter, I just want to justify it by saying this : it gave a pathway to this chapter. You shall see in the future chapter(s?) that Will and Elizabeth would have been left out of this sub-plot entirely if I hadn't have put in that transition. Therefore, it was necessary in the long-term run of the story.
I would like to thank everybody that has taken the time to read this story. It will be finished rather soon, I'm afraid. I'm going to focus on more of my original work after this is complete, so I'll have less time for fanfiction. Keep reading though, please, and keep reviewing. You guys keep me breathing.
~epiphanies