Chapter 2:

A/N: I'm glad that you guys are curious to know what happens, I can't wait to write it! For the past week I have been dying to just sit down and write and know I finally can, this is such a relief. Okay enough of blabber, here's the next chapter.

~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~

"Hello sir, my name's Lydia. It's a pleasure to meet you." She smiled sweetly extending her hand out to Gibbs. Her small girlish bangs and long braided hair gave her an innocent disposition none of which was true. My sister could be down right nasty especially in her later years, but that's off the topic.

"Lyd's!" I yanked her back from the man holding her from the danger he might linger in. I knew by the smell of old rum and the salty sea not to mention his uncleanliness that he was no good. But how did mother know him?

"Now Alex, she was only trying to be kind. Let her go. She can say hello if she wants to." Mother scolded me for protecting Lydia? She'd understand later that this man was no good, I was sure of it, even if I had to help it out a little.

"But Mum!" She shook her head at me her fierce eyes giving their stern look; she was ticked. I sighed and stomped into the house up to my room.

"Don't mind him sir, he's just my brother, Alex. Come on in." Lydia grabbed his arm and led him into the house gabbing away as they walked.

Mother stayed out on the porch watching as the sun slowly drifted away and the stars began to shine. Her shoulder was pressed against the post as her mind skipped through the last eleven years in an instant. It was easy to tell that she was worried, about what I have no clue because she should have been rightly worried about that man in the living room but wasn't. So as far as I'm concerned she could be worried about a stain on the counter. Women, I swear that they are most definitely not the better sex.

I heard large footsteps creek out onto the porch, it was my father no doubt. "What are we going to do, my love? We can't stay here anymore. Not with this news." His voice was deep and full of concern as he rapped his protective arms around her torso rocking their bodies slightly.

"Then I guess we'll have to leave, now won't we?" She turned and faced her husband, "I know that you love it here, it took us away from everything that our past was. It was a great vacation, but now our lives are calling us back and we can't ignore it."

"So?" He begged.

"So we must go back." She stepped up on her tiptoes and kissed him lovingly. "Now we really must save Gibbs from Lydia, lord knows what she's done to him."

"I wonder if she has him in a dress with your jewelry on like that one time she dressed Alex up." The couple laughed obnoxiously as they entered the house.

But what they saw stunned them; both people were passed out on the floor silently snoozing away. "Wow," was my mother's only explanation.

"Never would've though of that."

"Nope. Should we wake Gibbs?" She questioned.

"We have to talk with him alone. What better time then if the kids are asleep?" Father pointed out.

"Right. I'll take care of Gibbs and you put Lydia to bed, savvy?" She immediately covered her mouth, "I meant okay?" She bit her lip as she thought about that word watching her husband carry their daughter up the steps to her and Alex's room. She then leaned over and shook Gibbs, "Gibbs, Gibbs. Get up you old dog! You're stinking my floor up!"

"Damn Reynolds, whatever happened to kindness," he replied.

"You're an outlaw you shouldn't be used to kindness." She helped pull him from the cold wood flooring.

"Oh, right. I suppose the ladies spoil me then." He gave a corky smile as they entered the dinning room and sat down at the table waiting for father to return.

Father entered walking over to a hidden cupboard and pulling out a bottle of rum and three glasses. "So Gibbs tell us what has been going on."

"Well you see we fear a conspiracy. Somethin' aint right with how all of em' died. First was Elizabeth during birth then her second son who was only a babe still."

"Wait, second son? In the letter it said that the baby died whilst being born and that the gender was yet to be determined." Mother chimed in.

"True it did because that's what the nurses were told to say the truth was that the baby had been born but it died a week after birth. The odd part was that Will was not permitted to see the babe and was told just as the rest of us that it had died."

"Who's care was the child in up until its death?" Father brought the glasses and bottle to the table sitting down on the end chair.

"Now you see that there is the strangest part, nobody knows. There are so many people that were there that day that the babe could have been with anyone."

"What of his first son?" Mother sipped her cup of rum while keeping her eyes fixed on Gibbs.

~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~

I slid down the wooden steps gazing through the railings at them with curious eyes. Without my approval Lydia, now awake, slid up right behind me. "Are you eavesdropping again Alex?"

"Hush child, I'm trying to listen." I blurted out in a loud whisper.

"Well that answers my question you whelp!" She snorted.

"Do you want to go back to bed? I'll put you there if you don't shut up." I faced her now trying to imitate that stern look Mother always gives.

"Yes sir," she stated bluntly then made cruel faces at me once my head was turned as she always does.

~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~

"He was fishing off the peer with his friends and they decided to go for a swim. Now according to the young ones they were playing tag and he was it so he went under the water to count while they ran out and his on land. The only thing is he never surfaced. Dock master found him and called for the doctor immediately. He was pronounced dead on scene." Gibbs sighed, "I don't think, if I were William, that I could handle something like that."

"Listen you need to come back because we think these deaths were actual murders and we want you and Sam to come and help us out." Gibbs explained.

"Why us? I mean we have a life here with two children, we can't just give that up in a heartbeat never mind how much I would love to go back." Mother confessed aloud to the room.

"Reynolds, we need you because you, like your father, know those waters well. Plus-."

"Plus what? Gibbs tell me!" She shouted at him in a pleading way.

"Rumor around the town is that Turner himself has been asking for you by name. He won't shut up about you."

Mother slumped back in her seat biting her lip pondering over what was the right thing to do. "Please Reynolds, you know that world just the same as I, a pirate, do."

~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~

"PIR-!" Lydia was about ready to scream when I forced my hand over her mouth to silence her.

"Quick, they would have heard you, back up to bed!" We scampered up the stares as silent as mice and leapt back in to our beds.

Moments later father walked in our room finding what her thought were two sleeping children. He then turned and walked back down stairs joining his wife and friend once more.

Lydia sat up in her bed, "Do you really think he's a pirate?"

"He said it didn't he, I knew he wasn't right to begin with."

"Well why is Mum still talking to him then?"

"He's hypnotized her, you know like witches do. He has her and Father under his spell. Now they're going to leave and go to," I paused picking a spot in the world where pirates have been known to gather, "New Providence!"

She gasped then retorted with another question, "Where's New Providence and are pirates really like witches?"

"New Providence is somewhere in the Caribbean and yes pirates are really like witches. They could chop your head off without even using their cutlass."

"Now is that entirely appropriate to be telling your eight year old sister?" Mother's silhouette hung in the shadows of the doorway. "Lets see, how do I explain this to you two." She walked into the room, "how would you luvs like to move to a new place where you could feel warm all year long and see palm trees and meet new people?"

"Will we meet pirates?" Lydia spoke up now enchanted at the thought of seeing pirates.

"Lydia! They're evil, vile, and dissolute creatures!" I shouted at her.

"My darling where ever did you hear those words?" Mother asked her gaze penetrating my skin as if it was a personal insult.

"Reverend Goodshire told me." I spoke honestly.

"Well I assure you he is misunderstood," she turned to Lydia, "perhaps we will encounter a few on our journey. Now I want you to get some rest, both of you!" With that she kissed each of us on the forehead once and walked out of the room back down to the dinning room.

"Pirates," I heard Lydia whisper before she dozed off.

~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~

I had such a wonderful deep sleep that when I woke up I could barely open my eyes. I stretched lazily cracking one eye open then the other noticing just how quiet the house was. I turned on my side to see my sister's empty bed. I flung myself up grabbing my coat from the bed stand and then running downstairs. My dark brown hair was knotted and pulled back into a small ponytail.

When I reached the base of the steps there was no one in sight but I could hear voices to the side of the house coming from the barn. I stepped out on the porch and saw everyone out at the barn getting the horses prepared for what I had no clue.

"Alex, I see you have waken finally! Come over here!" My mother called to me and I waltzed over cautiously. Was this some game? What was she doing?

She smiled down at me resting one arm on my shoulder as I came near. My sister popped her head up from the horses back, "guess what, Alex! We're going to Port Royale!"

I dropped my hands to my sides jaw dropped and eyes wide. "What?"

"Your father and I decided that it might be nice for us to get away for a while. To see some old friends and pick up where our pasts left off. Don't worry Alex you'll have plenty of fun down there." She patted my back, as if that could help? "We leave after brunch so I'd start packing up your belongings." Mum kissed my forehead and then helped Lydia off of the horse. "Come on sweetie, you need to bathe today, and so do you Alex!"

I looked daggers at her before swaggering back to the porch. My mother stood in the barn, still, with my father and that man. "Does his walk remind you of anyone Gibbs?" Mum pondered watching my steps into the house.

"He inherited ol' Jack's stride, blessed me." Gibbs spat to the side his saliva soaking into the hay.

"Sam, I'm going to have a few rounds with the horse, could you take Lydia in and help her pack?" She turned to her husband grinning from ear to ear.

"Gibbs, you've unearthed the devil in her." He glanced down at his wife, "she'll never want to come back now."

"Well I've got to get back into shape now don't I?" She stepped up kissing her husband gently before mounting the horse. "Thank you, luv."

"No problem, my darling," he exaggerated the last bit for sarcasm.

"What did you mean about unearthing a devil inside Mum?" Lydia questioned as she watched Mum gallop out of the barn.

"Well, my dear, she loves to ride horses," he quickly made up a lie. "And before now she was hesitant about ridding them again after an accident that she had, but now that she is she won't want to stop." Father reached down and swooped Lydia up in his arms pretending to be a horse, himself, and galloping over to the house with her now on his back.

~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~

A/N: I know it's not too much excitement at the moment but I have to take care of setting in the children's opinions before they can go back to the Caribbean. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it and wish to hear your opinions through reviews. Thanks again!