FINAL CHAPTER! THANKS TO ALL WHO REVIEWED! I LOVE YOU DEARLY!


Chapter 7: Because We're Sparrows

Celeste backed away from the sight of Barbossa's hat through the bushes. Tears dripped down her cheeks. When suddenly…

Jack staggered out from the brush tiredly, flung Barbossa's hat to the ground, and stomped on it in triumph and resentment. She ran to him.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, sniffling, placing a hand on his arm. "Are you alright? Is Barbossa dead? How did you kill him?"

"Tha's a lot o' questions, darling…" he said, rubbing his head.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she apologized, wiping the tears from her eyes. "First things first. Are you alright?"

"Nothin's broken." he replied. "I don' know why, but nothin's broken."

"Ohh, you look hurt…" she told him worriedly. His lip was bleeding and he already had bruises forming on his face and neck. "Come on, let's get back to the ship. We'll fix you up there." She took his hand.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, jerking his hand back.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried.

"Think I sprained my wrist back there…" he told her. She took his other hand and they walked back to the boat. "So what about Barbossa?"

"Aye, 'e's dead." he replied as they got into the boat. "Took long enough to kill 'im."

"How did you do it?" she asked as she rowed them back to the ship with a bit of difficulty since she was rowing more than just herself.

He sighed tiredly. "Basically, I 'ad to beat 'im senseless until 'e couldn' put up as much o' a fight. Then I 'ad to some'ow pin 'im to the ground and strangle 'im to death. Which I did."

"Are you sure he's dead?" she asked concernedly.

"Aye, I'm sure. Made sure." he replied. Celeste sighed in relief.

They made it back to the ship and went to their room. Sierra was sitting in a chair next to Jocelyn's crib.

"Hi, Sierra." Celeste greeted. Sierra looked up.

"Oh, you're back so soon?" Sierra asked. "The crew isn't even back yet -- I figured you would take longer than they would."

"Well, we're back." Celeste told her. "Thanks for watching Jocelyn for us."

"Oh, sure, anytime." Sierra replied, standing up. "Well, I'll get going, then. I'll see if Anamaria needs any help." Celeste nodded and Sierra left the room.

"Ouch…" Celeste said, looking at Jack's bleeding lip. "You lie down and I'll get some bandages and things." He nodded and turned to lie down, but she placed a hand on his arm and hugged him.

She went down to the cargo hold and retrieved all the supplies she would need. She went back upstairs and stopped at Christopher's door. She wanted to go in, but Jack needed her… She continued to her room and went inside, shutting the door behind her. She sat down next to him on the bed and laid out the bandages and things.

"Oh!" Jack exclaimed, remembering something. "Love, 'ow's Christopher? Did you give the herb to Anamaria?"

"Yes, I did." she replied. "But I couldn't stay around to see what happened -- I had to row back ashore to get you." He sighed. "Anyway, Anamaria knows what she's doing. Just relax." She took a cloth and wiped the blood from his lip.

"…Can't you just go check on 'im?" Jack asked abruptly.

"I don't want to leave you here bleeding -- I'll check in a few minutes." she told him. She picked up one of his hands; his knuckles were bleeding. She cleaned his knuckles off and kissed the palm of his hand. "So tell me about Barbossa, sweetheart. How exactly did you kill him?"

"Well, after you left, Barbossa put up a pretty good fight." Jack told her. "But o' course, he couldn' beat Captain Jack Sparrow."

"Jack, the truth." she said, smiling. "What happened?"

"Well… Barbossa an' I were fightin' like mad." he explained. "We each took some good hits and were both at the end of our strings when the fight finished. 'e nearly got me but I… I thought about you an'… Christopher an' Jocelyn an' knew I couldn' lose." She smiled. "So I gathered up all my strength and punched 'im in the face as 'ard as I could. Tha's 'ow I sprained my wrist. The force of it knocked 'im over an' I seized the opportunity. …I strangled 'im to death."

"Good." she said. "Good." She took his right hand and started to bandage it. He winced a little at the pain from his sprained wrist. "I'm so proud of you. But then again, when am I not?" She finished bandaging his wrist just as Anamaria came in. Jack's head shot up.

"'ow's Christopher!" he exclaimed.

Celeste laid his head back down. "Don't do that -- you're not strong yet." She looked up at Anamaria. "How is Christopher?"

"He's doing just fine." she told them. "The fever should start going down tomorrow." They sighed in relief. They thanked her and she left the room.

Celeste suddenly noticed something. "Oh! Jack, the X! It's gone!"

"Oh… must've gone away when Barbossa died." Jack said. "Thank goodness."

"Yes, thank goodness." Celeste concurred.

A little while later, the crew returned to the ship and Lenmark went to Jack and Celeste's room to speak with them. He knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Celeste called, and he entered, shutting the door behind him. Jack was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, and Celeste was sitting beside him, holding Jocelyn in her arms. "Oh, Mr. Lenmark. Good day."

"Good day." he greeted. "I was disappointed when I heard you'd left without me."

"I'm sorry about that." Celeste apologized. "But you just would've been in danger. Barbossa had used some sort of spell to make it so no one could hurt him except Jack. It's a long story and we'll explain at dinner tonight. How did you and the crew fare?"

"Well. We defeated all of Barbossa's crew." Lenmark replied.

"Good." she said, pleased.

"We searched their ship and found quite a lot of treasure." he told her.

"Oh?" she asked, taking Jocelyn's hand.

"Yes." replied. "I… think it's best if that treasure goes to the Port Royal government." At this, Jack opened his eyes and looked over at Lenmark. "We have suffered a lot of losses due to Barbossa and this treasure should cover the damages."

"My crew an' my wife an' I earned that treasure." Jack stated. "If not for us, Barbossa would be takin' over the Caribbean righ' now an' there would be no Port Royal at all."

"The government needs--"

"The government taxes the people enough -- if they get this, tha's where it should go, but it won', will it?" Jack said.

"Mr. Sparrow, try to understand--"

"Commodore Valentine won' go in on this." Jack told him. "You're jus' bein' selfish."

"I think you're being selfish, Mr. Sparrow." Lenmark added. "You've got treasure, what do you need this for? Stop being greedy."

"I grew up starvin' -- do you know what tha's like?" he asked. "Do you know what it's like to be treated badly jus' because you don' 'ave money?"

"No, I don't, but--"

"My children are goin' to 'ave every advantage I never 'ad an' they deserve." Jack stated staunchly. "An' my crew: my friends. They grew up no more fortunate than I did. We deserved better, Mr. Lenmark. And we still deserve better. The treasure is ours." Lenmark sighed and left the room.

"You overreacted a little, don't you think?" Celeste asked, as Jocelyn rediscovered the amusement of Celeste's necklace.

"I don' think so." he said. "Jus' tellin' it like it is. The government's got enough money -- they're not gettin' mine."

"I have to agree." Celeste told him. "They keep raising the taxes on everyone and not everyone can afford it… They have to stop doing that. They need to give money back to the people…"

"Bunch o' stupid blighters." Jack muttered.

"Don't worry yourself over it." she said and kissed his cheek. "There's nothing we can do."

They sailed back to Port Royal and it turned out that Commodore Valentine agreed with Jack. It was their treasure -- he considered it as a reward. Christopher's fever disappeared and everything was back to normal. One day, Celeste and Jack, along with their children, were in town, on their way to visit Will and Elizabeth and ran into someone who apparently knew Jack from somewhere.

"You probably don't remember me -- Marcus Vaughn?" the man said.

"Er… sorry…" Jack replied.

"I didn't think so." Vaughn told him. "I was a friend of your father. How is he doing?"

"Er… I… 'aven' seen my father since I was very young…" Jack replied, a little confused on why this man would be asking about his dead father.

"Oh, I'm… sorry to have bothered you, then. Good day." Vaughn bid and walked off.

"How odd." Celeste said. "Why would he be asking about your father?"

"I don' know…" Jack replied, as they went on their way.

They finally arrived at Will and Elizabeth's and told them about their journey.

"Adventure really flocks to you, Jack." Will said with a smile.

"So does trouble." Celeste added, smiling as well. They laughed.

"Do you have another adventure in line yet?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, but… you can be sure there will be more." Jack replied. "Definitely. Bring on whatever adventure can throw at us. We'll be ready. We're always lookin' for adventure -- we can't stay away from it. Addicted to adventure simply… because we're Sparrows." He lifted up his glass. "To adventure."

"Cheers!"


Okay, I am ready to admit that the ending of this one (the very end ending) isn't SO great... at all... but it was the best I could come up with. MONTHS of labor here. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm working on #6 right now! Yay! Jack and Celeste will never be gone! Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews my fics -- you keep me alive! May the force be with you! (still watching Star Wars)

PLEASE REVIEW!