Chapter Two: A plan's been made

William Turner looked down at his wife who was still lulled into a dreamless sleep by whatever their captors had given them. He sighed as she moved against him, eyes fluttering open. "Will?"

"I'm here, Lizabeth."

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure, love. I really don't know."

"The children, Will!"

"Have been left perfectly safe, as of now," a voice boomed.

The Turners turned their eyes up to a large man that stood above them. He was tall, but anyone would have appeared so from their viewpoint, and he was looming. "Of course, only if you corporate."

"Leave our children out of this," Will growled.

"I'd be more than happy to, Mr. Turner."

"If?"

"If you help me capture Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl. I want his head."

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"Surely you don't intend for us to join you," Governor Swann protested.

"Well, it innit exactly safe 'ere, now is it?" Jack responded easily as he glanced over the repaired damage. "'ey'll know where to look for ye if they want to take ye."

"And who says they'll come back for us?"

"I know this lot, Governor. They're not against usin' kids as leverage."

"Uncle Jack," Katherine wined from her grandfather's arms, reaching out for the pirate captain. "I want to go with you."

"I do too, Uncle Jack," Bill said from his grandfather's side. "And we won't take no for an answer, will we, Kathy?"

"Nope!"

Jack smiled tightly. "See, Governor, we've a verdict amongst the voters. Don't get me wrong. I don' intend on takin' ye with me all the way. I've got a place I can drop ye off where you'll be safe."

"But we want to help you find Momma and Papa!" Bill protested.

"Listen, lad, I know ye do, an' 'm sure ye'd be an asset to us like none other, but yer ol' man'd kill me if I were to put ye in even the slightest of 'arm's way. So ye'll be stayin' with Richard and Marie, savvy?"

Tears built up in the lad's eyes as he shook his head. "No, not savvy."

Jack sighed heavily. The child had lost everything in one dreadful night and now he wanted to risk more to save what he knew. He had to give the boy credit; he was brave, if not foolish. The captain reached forward and ruffled the boy's hair. "We'll talk later, lad."

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Commodore James Norrington and Lt. Gillette accompanied the governor and his two small wards onto the pirate's ship. The plan was simple enough: the Pearl would drop the Governor, the two Turner children, and Lt. Gillette off at the temporary home that Richard and Marie Bruckworth had set up while on long term business on a small island. That out of the way the pirates and commodore would be free to reach Tortuga with near to no trouble if the winds were with them. Jack was certain that Dalton Tyler – the man that captained the Black Depths and had taken Will and Elizabeth away from their home – would stop off in Tortuga to make necessary repairs. It was a place where no questions would be asked.

"And if we're wrong on this, Captain?" Norrington asked quietly.

Jack shook his head as he stood over his maps that were spread across his cabin desk, bed, and floor. "I'm right. I know I am."

Norrington nodded wordlessly. "It'll take us, what, three days to reach Tortuga?"

"If we have clear waters, which I 'ope we will. If not, we'll push on through. My Pearl can stand up to more than the ocean can throw."

The commodore bent down to one of the many maps spread across the floor, fingering it for a moment. "This is Isla de Muerta."

Jack let his eyes turn to the map for a brief moment before nodding. "Aye."

"Did you ever return there?"

"I did."

"And I suppose you got your treasure then, hmm? The things that Barbossa stole from the people he killed?"

"I did not."

Norrington looked startled by this. "You went back and you did not get the treasure? What kind of pirate are you, Jack Sparrow?"

Jack grinned. "A CAPTAIN, need I keep reminding you, Commodore, after all these years? An' I 'ad good reason for not getting the treasure."

"That being?"

Jack was moving about the room, grabbing this and that and marking on different maps. "They took me from that cave unconscious."

Norrington finally gave into his urge he'd been fighting to sit down, easing pressure off of his tired legs. He was on a pirate's ship, who was really going to care if he sat on the floor? "Care to expand on that, Captain?"

Jack sighed, pulled the maps together, and folded them neatly. He slipped them into their places and pulled his desk chair out for Norrington, who in turn waved him off, silently telling him he was perfectly fine to sit on the floor. The pirate shrugged and moved to his bed, removed his boot, and started to examine his now swollen knee. "There was somethin' unnatural about tha' cave," he mumbled.

"Other than it having cursed treasure?"

"I 'spose tha' could 'ave been part of it. There was a cave in when Will an' I went. You remember when Bill was born an' Will came in last minute, me limpin' in after 'im?"

"I do."

"We'd just come back."

"Ah. I never wanted to pry."

Jack grinned at this, but it quickly faded into a wince as he pulled his pants leg down over his knee again and tugged his boot back onto his foot.

"Shouldn't you have someone look at that?" Norrington ventured.

"Thought you didn' wan' to pry."

The commodore chuckled at this, stood, and left the room without another word.

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"Uncle Jack?"

Jack cracked one eye open to see a younger replica of his best friend standing by his hammock. "What are you doin' out 'ere, Bill? I didn' give me cabin up so ye could wander out 'ere and catch cold."

"What about you?"

"'m fine, lad. I like it out 'ere. Gets stuffy in me cabin after a while, but yer grandfather'd be used to stuffiness."

Bill looked as if he didn't understand, but then shrugged it off. "Aunt Ana Maria's worried about you."

"S'tha' so? What, prey tell, is she worried about?"

"Yer knee," the boy said as he pointed to the pirate's leg. "She says tha' 'minor injuries cause major ones.' Wha's tha' mean, Uncle Jack?"

The pirate captain nearly chuckled as he realized the boy was cutting off his words. It was either from the day he'd spent on the pirate's ship where near to no one spoke in "proper" English, or the fact that it was well past the lad's bedtime.

"Means she worries too much," Jack answered. "Now off to bed with ye, lad. You'll need yer rest for tomorrow."

"Uncle Jack?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I sleep out here with you?"

The pirate captain couldn't help but allow a small grin at this. He'd promised himself he'd never allow William Turner's treasure snipes to reel him in, but he'd lied. What could he say, he was a pirate after all. It did come with the territory. After Ana's misscarage, he'd only gotten closer to the two children. "Get on up 'ere. But don' you be wakin' me, ye 'ear?" he said, trying to sound stern.

"Me too, Uncle Jack!" Katherine's hushed voice came from where her brother had just been.

"Bloody 'ell... Okay, you too, poppet, but you better be sound to sleep soon as you lay down."

The little girl grinned as she climbed up into her uncle's lap and lay down. Good thing it was a big hammock. There went any ideas of Ana joining him.

"Uncle Jack?"

"Wha'sit, poppet?"

"You're warmer than Grandfather."

The pirate cracked a dark eye open. "Wha'sat mean, luv?"

"She means Grandfather's not as nice," Bill interpreted. "He doesn't know what to do with kids."

Jack stared at the top of the little girl's head as he realized she'd fallen asleep, her brother soon following. "I don' either," he mumbled, but no one heard.

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A/N: Yay! Second chappy! Go me! Just to let you know, the conversation between Norrington and Jack about the visit to Isla de Muerta and the comment about Ana having a misscarage are both ideas I've got for either one shots or short stories. The former I've actually gotten written down, just need to type it out....

Who?: The character development, for a lot of it, is in previous stories. I've got a running line of them, which can be confusing if you hopped onboard here. He's basically warming up to the kids more each time he sees them. Oh, and I'm not stopping my OUATIM fic, don' worry 'bout that. It's still going, just slowly b/c of writer's block on it

Unplugged32: I KNEW there was a reason to used sign reviews! Yay! Lol! I love your story btw! Oh yes, angst is my specialty. I do love torturing the characters a bit. Thanks muchly for reviewing

TheRebelInUsAll: Glad you like it! Thanks!

Flute Damioh: Thanks! Yeah, I know too. I've got bad knees normally, and yesterday I managed to run into my bed and mess the semi good one up for a couple of hours as it throbbed. (don't ask how I did it, it takes talent to hurt yourself on a mattress....)

JackFan2: Haha! Good 'ol Jack, he is crazy, but that's why we love him! That and he's played by such a lovely lovely actor.... Hmmm.... This is flowing better than me other story, so I 'ope to get a chapter a day per the usual. Well, technically, I've got so many stories going at once in so many different fandoms that two is a small number, but hey, these are the two active ones that shall remain active lol! That and I've got my novel ideas that I'm working on. It's crazy. All the ideas meshing in my head and creating some sort of mass chaos in there.... Well, adding to the mass chaos anyway. Hehe...