Not two minutes later there was a knock at the door.  "Elizabeth already?  Impossible," Norrington muttered as he answered it.

It was two soldiers, disheveled and excited, each interrupting and shouting over the other so that it was totally impossible to make out what was said.

"Enough!  Stop!  One at a time," Norrington snarled.

"I said, sir, we caught them!  All of them!"

His breath caught.  "All of whom?"

"All Sparrow's crew, sir!  They were under the command of a lady pirate, Commodore, and on a different ship, but they said Sparrow's name more than once and we know it's them."

Norrington swallowed and kept a perfect poker face.  "Excellent work, gentlemen.  Bring them all in here, please.  We might as well have a look at what you've caught."

This had to be a nightmare.  Ana Maria should have sailed away, not closer!  He watched as she and her half of the crew were brought in, tied well and with guns trained on them from every direction.  Then, to add to the distractions and chaos, Elizabeth opened the door softly, accompanied by her father (whose wig had grown to epic proportions, worse than anything Norrington could ever have imagined.)

"Well, isn't this a nice little party," Norrington said irritably.  "Someone go and fetch Sparrow here too, to save Mrs. Turner a trip down into the dungeons."

"An excellent idea, Commodore," the governor said warmly.  "I actually came expressly to question the wisdom of bringing Elizabeth down into the damp, in her...delicate condition, but this solves the problem."

Delicate condition?  Norrington glanced at her for an explanation, and she laid a hand on her stomach gently.  Aha.

!?!?!

Norrington almost laughed.  A delicate condition!  How perfect!  How could he have forgotten up til now?  This was excellent – another way to throw a monkey wrench into the authorities' plans for hanging the pirates.  Good, good, good.

"Order, order!"  He waited until things had quieted down.  "If I may, ladies and gentlemen.  Please."  He could feel Ana Maria's eyes on him, confused and accusing, but he gestured towards her anyway and pressed on.  "I suggest that we hang the others as soon as possible, but of course we cannot possibly hang her."

"Excuse me?"  Governor Swann interrupted.  "Did you say, can't hang her?  Why in Heaven's name not?"

Norrington waited, but Ana Maria remained stubbornly silent so he had to prompt a bit more.  "Tell them, if you please, Captain."

"Not a captain any more - those buggers sank my ship."

She still didn't intend to confess?  Norrington walked up to her and whispered, "You cannot do this – the secret you are keeping will cost lives.  In the plural.  You have a responsibility now, and while you may wish to throw away your own life, I will not allow you to throw away the lives of others."

Ana Maria scowled at him for a moment, then lowered her eyes and sighed.  "Fine."  She snapped to the room at large, "You can't hang me because I'm with child."

A minor uproar broke out, everybody whispering and deliberating and exclaiming, but Norrington was totally oblivious.

His attention was glued to the door, where two soldiers carrying between them a pinioned prisoner had suddenly materialized just in time to hear Ana Maria's declaration.

Norrington was surprised at the jealousy that rippled through him as Jack locked eyes with her, excluding the Commodore and everybody else in the room.  He saw Jack's lips move and deciphered the words, "Ana, darling, why didn't you tell me?" even though the room was far too noisy for him to have heard.

At last the governor called for an end to the chaos, and Norrington forced himself to pay attention to what he was saying.  "I don't see what the fuss is.  Honestly!  She's probably lying."  Swann smiled conspiratorially all around the room.  "Why, I'm sure that if we have a doctor examine her right now, he will tell us that she is no more with child than I am."

"You filthy liar!"  Ana Maria began struggling against the men who held her.

Swann looked satisfied.  "There – you see?  Is that in any way the behavior of a mother?  Of course not.  Rest your consciences, gentlemen."

The hell I will, Norrington thought.  "Sir, may I have a word in private?"

The governor reluctantly agreed, and Norrington took him aside to whisper, "I believe that she is telling the truth."

"Well, what of it?  I tell you there's a doctor who will find exactly what we tell him to find.  I intend to rid these waters of pirates and I am not going to sit by and allow this pirate to escape simply because she is in the process of producing another one!"

Norrington didn't look away.  "What you are proposing, sir, is the murder of an unborn child."

"Now, now.  None of that.  What I'm proposing is taking care of this pirate and her pirateling while we have the chance - not waiting around until it grows old enough to loot a ship of its own."

Clearly honesty would get him nowhere.  Norrington remembered the day Jack had explained, I have a very peculiar relationship with the truth, mate, and decided that perhaps he'd have to cultivate such a relationship himself now.  "Governor, I am not certain that the child is a pirate," he said finally.

Swann chuckled.  "What else could it be, spawned and raised on a pirate ship by two pirate parents?"

"One pirate parent," Norrington corrected.  "The father could be anybody."

"Anybody on her pirate ship, you mean.  Therefore, any pirate.  Therefore-"

"Pirates weren't the only men aboard the Black Pearl," the Commodore hissed.  "There were also...well...prisoners."

"Prisoners?"  Suddenly something clicked into place and Swann gasped.  "Commodore!  You're not suggesting that-"

"I am suggesting that there may be a slight possibility," Norrington admitted.  "And while there is even the smallest chance that the child is mine, I cannot allow the mother to be hanged until she has delivered it.  May I have your promise, sir?"

The governor put his hands to his head.  "Why, why do you complicate matters so?  All right, all right - we won't hang her yet.  Satisfied?"  He turned back to the rest of the room.  "Gentlemen, I have changed my mind.  This pirate, because she may indeed be with child, will be taken to a separate cell and kept there until...until the situation becomes clearer.  Get her out of here."

There's one saved for the moment, Norrington thought with satisfaction as she was led away.  Now it remained to see what Elizabeth could do for Jack…

********************

TBC (soon).   Yay, people are still reading!  I know this development might have been a bit obvious, but it was either that or have it come out of nowhere.  *shrug*.  What do you think so far?  Let me know let me know!