It was a long, sad wait until I found the opportunity to talk with Jack privately. It was the middle of the third night on the way back to Port Royal. Everything on the Dauntless was quiet. All the other pirates down in the brig were asleep, I made sure of that. Jack was awake though. He and I were in a small cell by ourselves. I suppose the Navy thought things would be more peaceful that way. Jack received his fair share of insults from that other pirates. He was able to hold his own enough, but I could tell he was getting quite tired of it. I was silent the whole time up til now, sitting in the shadows in a corner of the cell, wincing at the insults that flew between the pirates when they were awake. Jack was sitting in the opposite corner, humming quietly to himself.

"Jack," I said when I was sure it was safe for us to talk to each other.

"Hmm?" Jack looked up. "Oh, Calypso. I almost forgot you were there." I heard the sarcasm in his voice. He wasn't happy with me.

"Look, Jack…" I began.

"No, you look," he interrupted. He didn't sound angry, just tired, drained. "I thought I could trust you. You already know what happened to the last person who betrayed my trust. Now he's dead and I still don't have the Black Pearl and now it looks as if I never will." The words stung and I bit my lip. I felt bad, but I knew this story wasn't over yet.

"Jack, I know that you've done everything I've told you to do. You've kept up your end of the deal, and I swear that I will hold up my end of it as well. You just have to have a little hope, that's all. It's not over yet." I scooted closer to him. He kept his eyes down and sighed.

"I've already accepted the fact that I'm going to die," he told me. "At least my Pearl isn't in the hands of that bastard anymore." A small smile crossed my face. I recalled the lyrics of a song I was fond of. In my opinion, I thought they were appropriate to the situation.

"Jack, you have to be strong. Remember who you are." I saw his gold teeth flash in the dim light as he smiled, thinking of all the times he had so brazenly used that phrase "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow" to tell everyone in a round about way that they should know one fact by now; that this man could do anything. Encouraged, I went on. "You're a soldier, fighting in a battle against the world."

The pirate's smile faltered. "What do I have that's worth fighting for?" His eyes locked onto mine, searching. I didn't break away.

"Your freedom."

Jack blinked. Freedom. What the Black Pearl really is…

His eyes looked away. When they looked back into mine, I saw something in them that had disappeared on the night the curse was lifted and the Black Pearl had left him to his fate. It was the same thing that had reassured my heart that all would be well when I saw him as a skeleton with a sword sticking out of his ribs in the moonlight. I would later come to call it 'the Jack Sparrow spark.' At that moment, hope began to creep into my chest. Jack's mouth twitched into another smile.

"Yeah, that's worth fighting for," he said. I returned his smile. "So," Jack stretched his arms. I heard one of his elbows pop. "Just out of curiosity, am I the first person you've, uh, guided?"

"No," I responded. "In fact, you're my second." I felt my thoughts drift back to my first. I wondered how he was doing.

"Only yer second?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "And what happened to the first?"

I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "Oh, not much. I just helped him help some others to save every human being on earth."

The pirate's eyebrows went higher. Now he was really interested. "Is that so? What was his name?"

I winced. "Sorry. I'm not allowed to tell you." Jack slumped back. "But I can tell you that he lived in the future." That perked him up a bit.

"How far in the future?"

"Oh, about 200 years…few more…give or take."

The pirate blew out an impressed whistle. "Can you tell me a bit about him maybe?"

"Why are you so interested?" I asked. Jack shrugged.

"Wouldn't you be in my situation? And besides, what else is there to talk about? I know you're not going to tell me what's going to happen to me so that eliminates that conversation topic." I did a mental and facial shrug.

"Good point. Well…" I stopped and looked at Jack hard. "Now don't you tell anyone about this."

"I won't."

I didn't believe him.

"Promise?" I prompted. Jack rolled his eyes.

"I lie to a lot of people, but I can't lie to you. Yes, I promise," he told me. I relaxed.

"Okay. Well…you see…" I shifted my position into a more comfortable one, with one leg bent under me and the other knee bent upwards. "In the future, there will be humans born with amazing abilities. They're known as mutants, and most other people hate and fear them. My assignment was a mutant from Germany. You know where that is?" The pirate captain nodded. "Right," I continued, picking up some pace. "Some mutants look normal on the outside, like you or me, but others, like my assignment, don't."

"Understatement," a voice in my head told me as a picture of Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner popped into my mind. I ignored the comment.

"He had dark blue skin, yellow eyes, pointed ears, a prehensile tail, and hands like this…" I demonstrated on my own hand, pushing my ring and pinkie fingers together and my middle and pointer fingers together, making a wide gap between my middle and ring fingers and giving the illusion that I only had three digits on my hand. "He was also covered in beautiful tattoos of angelic symbols, all over." I waved my hand over my body, face included. Jack frowned and nodded. "He was also really flexible because he had been in the circus, and he had the ability to teleport," I added. "So, in short, he looked like a demon, but he was the nicest guy. Really."

"And you helped him save the world," Jack said.

"Yes. We were with a group of other mutants," I repeated.

"Were they all like him?" Jack asked.

"No, they were all different," I explained.

"Uh huh." Jack sat there, mulling all this over. "And everything turned out all right?"

"Oh, yes," I said automatically. Then I stopped myself. "Well… we did loose one member of the team, unfortunately, and when I left there was still some debate about the future of mutant kind."

"Mmm," was all Jack said.

"Let me tell you one thing, though." I pointed a finger at him. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you've been much more challenging then my last assignment," I told him. Jack smirked that that.

"I hate to be such a nuisance," he joked.

My pointing finger turned into a dismissive wave. "Nah. It's been fun," I said. "I practically leaped up and down for joy when I found out that you were my next assignment.

"Why?" Jack inquired.

I grinned. "Because you're Captain Jack Sparrow!" Jack chuckled and sighed.

"Yep." He now seemed reflective. "That I am." Jack's mind seemed miles away. I decided to move back over to my corner, planning to make Jack fall asleep soon. I could tell his body and soul needed the rest.

"Calypso?" Jack called, his mind now back in the cell.

"Yeah?"

"If I do die in Port Royal, I just want you to know that I'm glad I've met you." I smiled. "You told me that I wouldn't regret trusting you." I nodded,remembering that moment very well. "I haven't."

"Regretted trusting me," my mind clarified. I felt touched. Even though he hadn't gotten his ship back yet, he was still glad to have known me.

"Thank you," I said. "And I haven't regretted going on this adventure with you, Captain."

"Oh, and one more thing," Jack said. "Don't get me wrong love, I admire a person who's willing to do whatever it takes. You are one such person."

"So are you," I responded warmly.

Jack smiled and closed his eyes. "It's not over yet, Jack," I thought as is sent him to sleep, feeling better and more reassured that he himself felt reassured about the future. "Just you wait and see."

AN/ In case you didn't know or weren't sure, the song lyrics are from a Bryan Adams song called "Sound the Bugle." It's in the movie "Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron." I didn't take all of the lyrics word for word. I only used what would fit. I can not place the lyrics here because of a ff.n rule, but I really think that the song fits somewhere in Jack's situation before his hanging.

I thought it would be kind of neat if they were to talk about Nightcrawler at least once. I know that Calypso would be wondering how Kurt was doing, just like how she's going to wonder how Jack is once she leaves him. I'm the exact same way, and I'm waiting impatiently for the sequels to all the movies the spirit features in so I can find out.

Also, I loved the line in the deleted scenes when Jack says to Elizabeth, "Don't get me wrong love, I admire a person who's willing to do whatever it takes." I thought it would be nice if he said that to Calypso, since it's the truth about her. She is willing to do whatever it takes for her assignments.