"That was the opportune moment", he whispered.
~*~
The next morning, AnaMaria rolled out of bed, putting her shirt and shoes back on. It had been a haze the night before. She turned around and looked on the table, there was two bottles of empty rum. Ava stood outside the door, her mother's hat pulled over one eye.
"I take it you had a good night", she said sarcastically.
AnaMaria spat on her daughter's boot and ripped off her hat, and stuffed it on her head.
"You shut that bloody mouth of yours, and go tar the decks below", AnaMaria said, and went to the wheel.
AnaMaria had realized that the crew was now on preparing for Ava's arrival to Port Royal. The Commodore had returned to England and named Gillette, Commodore.
Thankfully, Gillette had no problems that the Black Pearl could be in Port Royal, as long as their cannons were empty.
Ava stood at the end of the ship, her eyes taking in the sights of Port Royal.
Jack woke up; the effect of rum did nothing on the swashbuckler.
"Morning, AnaMaria", he said and nodded in the direction of her.
He pretended like nothing had happened before, and that was Jack. If he blacked out, he simply moved on and went forward.
"Morning, Jack. We're right on course, we'll be in Port Royal in a few moments", she said to him.
"Lower the anchor. Ava, AnaMaria and I are to go ashore", he said.
AnaMaria took her hat off, pushed the hair out of her face, and put her hat back on.
Ava was the first one to get into the boat, followed by AnaMaria and then Jack. AnaMaria and Jack rowed the boat to shore. Will and Elizabeth had already turned out.
Will wore something similar to Jack's "hanging", and Elizabeth wore something similar to the Commodore's promotion ceremony, corset and all. Their young son was at the ankles of Will, grasping onto his father's breeches and socks.
Ava sighed dramatically.
"Just think about it, love, I'll be comin' to get you when your mother and I settle down", Jack said to his daughter.
AnaMaria rolled her eyes. She knew Jack and her would never settle down, he was a swashbuckler, and she loved him for it. They reached the shore, and Elizabeth was glowing, as most young mothers are for the first five years of their children's lives. AnaMaria had seen it all before. The only exception with AnaMaria was Jack had gone off and left.
"AnaMaria", Will said, and lowered his hat as she came on the land.
"Will, Elizabeth", AnaMaria said and lowered her own hat.
Elizabeth picked up her son.
"This must be William, who I've heard tell about", she said, and touched the young boy's hair.
"Yes. This is the third William Turner", Will said.
Jack came on shore.
"Mrs. Turner, Will", Jack said.
Ava sat in the boat refusing to get out.
"Ava Townsend-Sparrow, you remove yourself from that spot or I'll sink the boat", AnaMaria threatened, and loaded her pistol.
Ava got out, and took her belongings with her.
"Elizabeth, Will, this is my daughter, Ava", Jack introduced them.
Ava waved.
"Where will Ava be staying in Port Royal?" AnaMaria asked her comrade Will.
"With us, until we enroll her into finishing school, and then she will be in England until she returns", Bootstrap Bill's son said.
AnaMaria turned to her daughter.
"Look at me", AnaMaria said.
Ava turned to her.
"I would have let you become the world's greatest pirate, and seen you control the Pearl by your father's side. But I want you to make that decision for yourself. If you have truly fallen in love with the sea, and the Pearl, I'll come and get you meself", she told her daughter very slowly.
AnaMaria kissed her daughter's head.
Jack went over to his daughter, and looked at her.
"Love, y'er the closest thing I have as a kid. Don't let y'er mother get you down", he said, and gave her one his many rings, not the one he always wears, another one.
Ava put it on her first finger, and she turned to Will and Elizabeth.
Jack and AnaMaria got back into their boat and went back to the Pearl, though they were both silent.
Gibbs greeted them on deck.
"How did she take it?" he asked AnaMaria.
She shrugged him off and went to her quarters.
"What's the matter with your girl, Jack?" Gibbs asked Jack.
"Ava. She was the only thing that girl could lean on, besides the Pearl", he said.
Gibbs nodded, "Aye. It'll be a disappointment to see a fine sailor go off".
Jack looked at him.
"That's would be me daughter you're talkin' about", he said.
Gibbs had already gone off to do whatever the second-mates do.
Jack took off his hat and shook his head as he leaped onto the deck. The time was to come when he and his men (and women) would settle down, and the Pearl would be used for a trading ship, under the command of Captain Ava Townsend-Sparrow. Jack knew his daughter was the one of the best sailors in the Caribbean, and he had loved every moment that she had been with him.
~*~
Ava could not settle down. She was on land, and she wanted to be near the ships. She took a walk, and didn't tell her hosts where she was going. As she turned onto the docks, and the men stared at her, she gave them the look of her mother, and they returned to their work. It was good that her own mother had perfected such a dirty look.
She turned onto the dock, and hung her feet over the edge. As she looked over she saw the mast of a boat. It must have been her mother's-turned-father's boat in his coming to Port Royal.
Her mother would have told her about her times in Tortuga when she was still a girl, and still innocent. Ava could hear it now,
"When I was your age, Jack Sparrow hadn't come to Tortuga, and my mother had left me in the care of my aunt. I can't remember her name, only because I probably didn't learn it. I just called her Auntie, and my mother took no offense. I can't remember me own mother's name, but that's only because I only called her Mum, and me pap, he left me when I was around two. Me Pap was a pirate himself, and I wanted to find out if he had gone and died. Turned out that he had been killed about the same time as ol'Bootstrap. When Jack, your father, had come to Tortuga, I went over meself. I learned the tricks from Scarlet and Giselle. Let me remind you, they were me own age, and as young girls we had played in the murky waters together. When I had finally secured your father, it was all downhill from there. He vowed to return for me. When I had you nine months later, and he still had not returned, I assumed he had gone off and died. Your father didn't make reappearance until your eighth birthday, when he brought Will Turner along with him, and I had left. You remember spending a month or so with Scarlet, and that was before we were in the fight."
Ava sighed. She knew the tales of her mother by heart, and she still yearned for them. Like every sailor and pirate, there is a time in their life when they go through a bit of a rough patch. For Jack it was those eight years losing the Pearl. For AnaMaria it was eight years of being landlocked, while bearing the burdens of Ava. Ava assumed her rough time had arrived. Going to a finishing school to secure a husband, and then selling her life away? That was certainly not the daughter of Captain Jack Sparrow and First Mate AnaMaria Townsend, who both had ravished the seas with their tactics and their ships.
A voice was called on in the distance.
"Ava! Miss Ava!"
It was the sound of her new maid, the charming, er, something or other. Ava had never had a maid before; she had learned to do everything for herself when she was nearly ten.
"I'm over 'ere!" she called.
Her maid wore the standard maid clothing, bonnet and all.
"You're not properly dressed for being out. Come, Lady Elizabeth has prepared a wardrobe for you", she said and dragged Ava away from the sea.
Ava sighed, apparently getting her way here would not be a easy task.
As Ava reached the governor's mansion, Elizabeth and Will pounced on her.
"Where were you? You had me worried sick," Elizabeth proclaimed.
"Eh, there's no reason to be gettin' all worried sick over me. It's not like I'd be doin' anything anyways." Ava quipped.
"You must leave a message with me or Mr. Turner before you leave this house. We need to see you have proper care and an escort", Elizabeth said.
Ava sighed. "I'd didn't have no escort aboard the Black Pearl, and I don't want one now!" Ava cried.
Will had come in from being with his son.
"Ava, I know that being in the care of the governor's household, and a pirate ship are two different worlds, completely, but please, make the adjustment a smooth one for your parents, and us." Will said, in his usual calm, collected manner.
Ava nodded. She could part with Will, considering, he, himself, wanted to leave Port Royal and have his own adventures. She headed upstairs.
A crème colored dress was laid out for her, and Ava put it on. She descended the stairs; her hair was brushed out and topped upon her head. Luckily, Ava had been given the wealth of a gorgeous set of curls. Will was trying to figure out how black colored hair pirate lady with the tan lines of her father, could possibly look decent. If Ava could do it, Jack and AnaMaria were next, he proposed in his mind.
"Ava, you look, so clean", Will said, meeting her at the edge of the stairs and extending her arm.
"Thank you, Mr. Turner. I am planning on attending all formal occasions as such", she said in the high British accent that she had acquired over the years from her father.
Ava smiled coyly to herself. Perhaps living in Port Royal would not be that bad after all.
A/N: And on this note, I leave you here. My keyboard has ceased to work…grr…
~*J*~