Chapter Four – To Port Royal

Swab the decks. Repair or replace tattered and damaged sails. Inspect the rigging. Replenish food and supplies. For many pirates and buccaneers, plundering from other ships was just for a living, and when they returned to port it was all about fun and pleasure. For Jack, his heart was out at sea. He only returned to land to taste rum on his lips and repair his ship.

After leaving instructions with his crew on cleaning the Pearl, Jack shut himself up in the Captain's cabin below the quarterdeck. Winter rain spat at his window as he sat in a chair and leaned on his desk, chin in his fists, deep in thought. The woman and the child had disappeared during the night, and he didn't suppose it was foul luck. He was fortunate not to have that bloody toddler on his hands.

Currently, more important matters were on his hands. He once again lacked a second mate. Of his bantam crew, Mr. Gibbs was the one man he trusted with his life, and he had already been named first mate of the Black Pearl. Mr. Cotton lacked in voice, and there was a slight language barrier between Jack and Mr. Cotton's parrot. The young Anamaria was so highly hotheaded that should she become second mate, she would have even more reason to quarrel with her Captain Sparrow. Lupe was too short – he wouldn't be able to speak man-to-man with Jack unless Jack knelt on the ground. Mr. Penn wasn't completely right in the head, and many times he had tried to leap out of the Pearl to join his mermaid he called Zara. And none of the other crewmembers were as crazy as Jack preferred them to be.

Hmm… Jack thought to himself, Perhaps that young Will Turner was fair in questioning Mr. Gibbs' choice of crew. There didn't seem to be anyone who would fit second mate position. "We'll just have to do without!" Jack said aloud to himself, and his voice pierced the quiet of his cabin and made him jump slightly and glance around the room.

A shadow fell across the floor. Jack leaped from his chair and whirled to face the owner of said shadow. There was a woman clad in tattered sailor clothes for men. Jack swept a careful eye down her from top to bottom. Her figure was sturdy and strong (proof of spending most of her years at sea), and her eyes were poisonous green. Red-brown hair curled around her shoulders. At her neck were several pendants and medallions; many of which were silver or gold skulls. Altogether, Jack was pleased with what he saw, except for a rather jarring scar across her left cheek.

"Ah, Sam isn't it?" Jack said, "You've returned then? I should now make it clear that you are now under the command of Captain Jack Sparrow, therefore you will answer to me, and follow me even into the face of danger and sometimes certain death, ye savvy?"

Sam nodded. "Aye!"

It was then that Jack noticed his young child clinging to the legs of Bloody Sam. She seemed to have taken an instant liking to the woman with a brutal reputation. He knew it wouldn't be right to keep the girl in Sam's care; she probably didn't know how to raise a child any more than he, Jack Sparrow, did. There had to be another solution.

"So have you decided on a name yet?" Sam broke Jack's train of thought.

Jack looked at the youngster and pondered for a few moments. Perhaps he could name her after some of his more fond acquaintances. He thought of women he had met in the past. There weren't many with whom he had been for more than a night. Jack did not commit to one woman; he preferred one night pleasures. His thoughts settled on one female who stood out in his mind, Mercedes, a dark, mysterious Spanish singer in one of the bars, in a town on the isle of Hispaniola.

Jack gazed down at the tiny lass and the corners of his mouth flicked up ever so slightly. "Mercedes."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Mercedes?"

Jack grinned slyly. "Mercedes," he affirmed.

The Pearl was fit to set sail, and Jack was beginning to devise a plan of action. He had to find a suitable home for his child, Mercedes. There was only one family, one place he could consider leaving his child. Not that he really cared about her, but he felt it was his duty to at least leave her somewhere she could have a privileged life. And then perhaps once she was grown and raised, he would take her out to sea and show her the Black Pearl, and teach her the true meaning of freedom.

Jack stood at the helm on the quarterdeck, and started barking orders. "Heave anchor ye scabrous dogs! Prepare to make way…"

Mr. Gibbs stood beside him and stared ahead toward the grey sea. "Make way…where to, me Cap'n?"

"Port Royal, Jamaica...it'd be real difficult to find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy like William Turner anywhere else in the Caribee, mate!" Jack said with a twinkle in his eye and a smirk in the corners of his mouth.

It had been two years since he had seen the lad, and even though he would never admit it, he almost missed his company. He assumed Will and Elizabeth Swann were now Will and Elizabeth Turner, in spite of Jack and Elizabeth's short (but romantic in Jack's eyes none the less) moonlit banter on a lonely island. He had no doubt that they would be overjoyed to see him.

Drizzling rain misted his face and beaded in his hair as Jack stood tall and proud at the helm none the less, and watched as his mates began bustling about, and soon the Pearl pulled away from the blood-stained Tortuga.

Special Thanks To:

Jack's Pirate Girl again, thanks for your review, and for adding me to your favourites list! Lots of cookies and autographed Captain Jack Sparrow posters for you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Failed Paradise wow you think it's f-in awesome eh? Now there's a compliment and a half!! Jack Sparrow cookies with sprinkles for you and Mika!