"Wil we've been here for three days," Elizabeth complained as they sat in a corner of a dark bar in Tortuga. Getting there in the first place had not been easy as they had to leave Port Royal in the middle of the night and had found no leads since arriving. Wil had told her they would need to change their clothes as they would be surrounded by pirates and had explained it would be the easiest place to bribe someone so they could board a boat and sail far away.
"I know," he said nervously, sipping from his mug. "The Navy is out looking for you. We will need to leave this port soon, one way or another. Let's just stick to our plan and give it another day or so. Tortuga is the last place the Navy will look."
Wil had approached many men over the past couple days but no one had been willing to either sell them a ship or allow them to buy passage onto theirs. He had to keep close watch on Elizabeth as quite a few drunk men had asked her price, forcing him to give an explanation as to who they were. His story was that they were brother and sister trying to get back home to Portobelo and most bought the lie only leaving a handful to raise their eyebrows to him.
"The Black Pearl just pulled into harbor!" a young man called out from the door before running off.
Wil and Elizabeth watched as everyone cheered and clapped, others who were too drunk simply lifted their mug of rum. They looked at each other with a curious but confused look. Apparently this was a well-known ship for the entire bar to be glad of its arrival.
"Maybe?" Wil asked simply, knowing she knew what he was thinking.
Elizabeth just shrugged.
It was almost an hour before a man staggered into the bar, swaying straight over to the barmaid. Motioning in a wide half circle, he announced, "Rum all around courtesy of Captain Jack Sparrow!"
More cheers met with this announcement even though most did not need any more rum. Half were already passed out at their small tables with their hand still on their mugs and the other half were well on their way.
Wil and Elizabeth exchanged glances again. This had to be the captain of the Black Pearl. Why was this man so well known? Why was it announced when his ship docked? How did he afford drinks for the entire bar?
Elizabeth studied the man who was obviously a pirate. Dark black hair was hanging half in locks and half straight with small beads strung about and a red bandana to hold it all in place. His build was not large but yet seemed to command attention nonetheless. He wore a plain white shirt with a black vest type outer garment both tucked into gray breeches with a belt and some kind of cloth tied around his waist, the bottom of the breeches tucked inside tall brown buccaneer boots. A sword hung from one hip while a flintlock was secured on the other.
When he turned to face the room, she looked at his bronzed face. His dark eyes were rimmed with kohl, a site not uncommon in their present location, while coarse black hair made up his mustache and beard with two small braids hanging down from his chin. Subtly as not to appear staring, she watched him move from table to table, swaying aimlessly as if he were already drunk, shaking a few hands, slapping some on the back, making comments that those around him found incredibly funny.
"Does he seem like a typical pirate to you?" Elizabeth whispered, leaning slightly closer to Wil. "I've seen some men around here that looked quite dangerous and he looks…well…he looks like he's…almost…pleasant."
"Don't let that fool you," Wil warned. "Pirates can not be trusted." Noticing the look Elizabeth shot him, silently reminding him of their pirate background, he added, "Generally speaking of course."
Her eyebrow rose, making her point.
They casually watched him a few more minutes as he made his way around the room. When he looked their direction, Wil immediately held up his mug and started drinking, leaning over towards Elizabeth. "He's coming over here," he whispered.
Her heart pounded as Jack swayed his way over to their table. Staggering even when standing still, his left hand kept his mug raised in the air.
"I love parties!" he announced, sitting down at their table. "Don't ya just love parties?"
Wil and Elizabeth glanced at each other and back at the rogue pirate sitting in front of them.
"Ya do talk, don't ya?" he asked, glancing back and forth between the two.
"Yes we do," Elizabeth spoke up with a small smile. "And yes we love parties."
Jack leaned in towards them. "Forgive 'ol Captain Jack," he began. "But I don't remember seeing the likes of ye here before."
"We arrived a few days ago," Wil answered. "We're…hoping to buy passage onto a ship. Know of anyone that could help us?"
Jack sat back in his chair with a smile. "Yer tryin' ta bribe yer way onto a ship," he said. "In Tortuga? Ye realize yer surrounded by pirates."
"Well what do you think we are?" Wil asked.
Jack laughed. "Ye not be pirates," he told them. "Ye stand out. I'm surprised no one has thrown ya out yet." He leaned in again, taking another drink of rum. "Come on. Tell Jack where ya be from."
"Why should we tell you?" Elizabeth asked. "We don't know you."
"Aye, ya don't but yer willin to give me money to ride on my ship, are ya not?" he said, black eyes meeting hers. "Ye know I be a pirate but yet yer willin to take a chance which leads me to believe ya both are runnin away from somewhere and must want to stay away pretty bad to join with the likes of me."
Elizabeth glanced at Wil. He nodded slightly as she said, "We're from Port Royal and yes we are trying to stay far away. We're not going back."
The two words of 'Port Royal' caught his attention but didn't show it. "I see," he said, eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Just how bad do ye want to stay away?"
"I have a bag of gold coins as proof," Wil told him. "We would gladly give it all to you if you could take us from here and put us out preferably around Portobelo."
Jack looked back and forth between the youngsters sitting in front of him. They must have come from a fairly well to do family for the boy to be carrying enough gold to bribe a pirate. He didn't look a day over nineteen and the girl looked younger, possibly fifteen, give or take. There was something about the girl though. He could swear she was the spitting image of…he stopped his thoughts, remembering his reason for heading to Port Royal but wouldn't need to tell them that. He could simply accept their gold, stow them away until his business was finished and then drop them off wherever they wanted.
"All right," Jack said, extending his hand. "We have an accord."
"Okay," Wil said with a slight smile. Finally!
"Show me the coins and ya can board me ship whenever ya like," Jack told them. "We be sailin off tomorrow."
"There be a room off me cabin ye can stay in til we reach Portobelo," Jack was telling them as they boarded the Black Pearl. "Ye can dine with me but I would suggest stayin put. Crew might not like ye both runnin round the ship and not working, savvy?"
"We understand," Wil answered, thankful he was getting Elizabeth away from Tortuga. Dealing with the men constantly asking her price had him more scared than anything else, not knowing if one would grab her and take off or not. And if they stayed hidden on this ship, Jack was the only one they'd have to deal with and Wil knew he could handle him if necessary.
Elizabeth was excited and frightened at the same time. She loved the thought of being back at sea but boarding a pirate ship and having to hide from its crew made her think twice. It would have to be better than Tortuga though. And soon they would be in Portobelo, using new names and starting a new life. It would all be worth it.
Wil and Elizabeth were surprised at how Jack's cabin looked. They'd expected something very plain, even dirty, but found it rather clean and well kept with bed linens, covers and other adornments similar to the kind bought in the finest shops. Of course, he was a pirate that stole from merchant ships so that explained a lot.
Jack led them to a small door, opening it and motioning for them to go inside. "Tis small," he told them. "But ye could have ended up with much worse."
The room was very small, like an oversized closet. A feather mattress was the floor with a couple small pillows and piles of blankets.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said as they walked in. "This is fine." There was at least enough room for them both to lie down and sleep.
"I won't lock the door," Jack said. "But I'd warn ye to stay in here while I be gone."
"We will," Wil said.
"Are we going straight to Portobelo?" Elizabeth asked as they sat for dinner later that night. She was surprised to see pork with fresh fruit and vegetables before them, expecting hard tack and turtles.
"I have meself a quick a stop," Jack answered. "Just a day and barely that."
Both wanted to ask why but quickly decided against it. They realized they probably didn't want to know.
"Wil," Elizabeth whispered into the darkness. They'd bedded for the evening but she wasn't sleepy.
"What?"
"Have you noticed anything about Jack's eyes?"
"Aside from the black around them?" Wil whispered. "No."
Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, picturing a certain look of Jack's during dinner. "I didn't see until tonight," she continued. "Whether it was the candlelight, I don't know. But his eyes look almost…familiar."
"I think you're looking for something that's not there," Wil told her quietly. "Now go to sleep."
With a sigh, she whispered, "Perhaps you're right."
"I want out of this room!" Elizabeth complained. "It's been three days, Wil. I don't know how much more I can take. I need some sunlight."
"You wanted to leave Port Royal so this is how we're doing it," Wil reminded her. "It won't be much longer. We've stopped today and Jack said it will just be a couple more days to port and then we can get off and move on."
Remembering her frustration at home, Elizabeth said, "I guess I would rather be here with you than at home with James." She smiled. "You know, I would have loved to have seen his face when he realized I was gone."
Wil laughed then too. "You're an evil girl," he told her with a wink.
Smiling proudly, Elizabeth said, "I know."
Wil and Elizabeth were startled when they heard a commotion outside the small door. Who was in the cabin? They had learned Jack's footsteps and manner of walking and this was nothing like that. Whoever it was was angry. It sounded as if things were being thrown around the room.
"Who's in there?" Elizabeth whispered, eyes wide with alarm. "What if they find us?"
"Shh!" Wil warned. "Be quiet."
They sat motionless, listening to someone grumbling, hearing more things that sounded like they were being thrown. When something hit the door, Elizabeth stifled a scream and they both jumped, thinking it would break the wood. More footsteps and then the cabin door slammed.
"They're gone," Wil said. "Let's see."
They slowly opened the door, quickly seeing Jack's room in shambles, bed linens thrown to the floor, boots tossed around and the belongings on top of the couple pieces of furniture knocked to the floor.
"Do you think one of the crew was looking for something?" Elizabeth asked, pulling the linens back up on the bed.
Wil began to pick up items from the floor to put them back where they were originally. "Maybe," he answered. "Sure looks like it."
It only took a few minutes to put the room back together from the shambles it was in. Elizabeth spotted what looked like a small piece of paper on the floor almost under the bed. She picked it up, and seeing nothing on the one side, turned it over.
Her gasp sent chills up Wil's spine causing him to whirl around, half expecting to find her in the arms of a pirate with a gun to her head. Instead she was staring at a small piece of paper in her hands, her face as white as the sheets on Jack's bed.
"What is it?" he asked concerned, rushing over to her.
Then the door opened and Jack walked in, the door slamming shut behind him.
Three pairs of eyes met.
Wil's displayed confusion, as he didn't understand why Elizabeth had such a reaction to the paper in her hand.
Elizabeth's displayed shock because of what was in her hand and surprise because Jack had walked in.
Jack's displayed anger and hurt because of the news he'd learned from his stop.
Elizabeth quickly found her voice, accusation ready to shoot from her eyes. "Where did you get this?" she snapped at Jack.
"It's none of yer business," he snapped back, grabbing the paper from her hands. "It doesn't matter now anyway."
"Yes it does!" she exclaimed.
"What is it?" Wil nearly yelled.
"Nothin," Jack told him, putting the paper in a small drawer.
Elizabeth's raging eyes met Wil's before glaring at Jack. "It's a picture of my mother," she said through clenched teeth. "And I want to know why you have it!"
Wil was confused now. "Your mother?"
Jack turned to face the young girl, some anger gone but sadness still obvious in his dark eyes. "Yer mother?"
"Yes," she answered them both. "I have that exact picture. My father gave it to me when I was little.Why do youhaveit, Jack?"
Sitting down on his bed, shoulders slumped, he answered quietly, "Because she was my mother too."
Elizabeth's mouth dropped open as did Wil's.
"It can't be," he said, more to himself than anyone else.
"Oh my god," Elizabeth said.
Jack's eyes lifted up to them, fighting to hide the tears he rarely had. "We just left Port Royal," he explained, not caring at this point about keeping up his persona. "The past few years I'd been thinkin bout me mother and wonderin how she was. I left when I was just a lad. And then I find out she…she…"
"Died after having me," Elizabeth finished, heart heavy, sitting down beside of him on the bed. "So you're Jackson Spencer, the child terror of Port Royal."
Nodding with a slight smirk at his memory of how he was as a child, he answered, "Aye but it's Jack Sparrow now. Changed it when I left so no one would try ta send me back." He turned to look at Elizabeth. "That explains why I see her eyes when I look at ye."
"You have her eyes too, Jack," she said gently. "I told Wil the other night that I thought there was something familiar about you." She smiled slightly. "You're my brother," she said in amazement, never thinking she would meet her mother's first child.
"Half brother," Wil corrected, receiving a look from her that said it didn't matter. "I'm her cousin. Her mother's cousin, William, was my father."
Jack looked at him curiously. "Didn't ye say yer name be Turner?" he asked. "So yer father was William Turner?"
Wil nodded.
"Well, cousin," Jack said, emphasis on the relation. "I sailed with yer father a number o'years ago. Good man and a bloody good pirate."
"You knew my father?" he asked. "Where is he? Is he alive?" Questions flooded his mind but attempted to quiet them. He still couldn't believe who Jack was.
"I don't know his whereabouts," Jack answered. "Last time I saw him was on a ship on the other side of the Spanish Main. That was well over ten years ago, Mate."
All three were quiet for a moment.
"So if ye both be from Port Royal and from the governor's house," Jack said, glancing at Elizabeth, remembering her last name was Swann and finding out that Governor Swann had passed a couple months ago. "Why ye be leavin?"
"All of our family is gone," Wil answered. "My father left when I was three and my mother died when I was about eight."
"And my father was all I had," Elizabeth continued. "So when he died not long ago, Wil and I decided it was time to leave." She paused. "Father left me with a guardian."
"A guardian?" Jack repeated confused.
"Yes and it was awful," she answered. "James Norrington. Father had hoped when I grew older we'd marry."
"Norrington?" Jack repeated, this time appalled. "Your father left you with him? No wonder ye wanted to run."
"All we wanted was a family," Wil told him. "And all we have is each other. We got tired of others trying to tell us what to do."
"Don't blame ya there," Jack agreed. "Tis why I be a pirate. I make the rules. I say what goes."
"Exactly," Elizabeth said, able to smile fully at the man beside her. "That's what we wanted." She still couldn't believe this was Jackson, her brother. The questions she wanted to ask him about their mother and what happened when he'd left so many years ago flew around her mind but knew this was not the time to ask them.
"If ye both will excuse me," Jack said, attempting to be proper and forcing a smile. "I need to be takin a little walk." He stopped by a small cabinet, pulling out a bottle of rum. "Need to clear me head a bit," he said and swayed out the door.
Elizabeth's wide eyes met Wil's.
"Can you believe it?" she asked.
"Not really," he answered as they hid back in their small room to await Jack's return.
Jack seemed more like himself during dinner, smiling and joking as they ate. He shared a few stories from when he was little, making Wil and Elizabeth laugh at his antics. They'd both heard of a few of the stories but they were funnier listening to Jack tell them.
"So then nearly the entire Royal Navy was combin the port lookin for little Jack," he said, hands waving in the air as he talked. "I was up in the crow's nest of a ship in dock, watchin them all call for me and run about from place to place. Once darkness fell, I climbed down and went home, bored because I couldn't see them carry on anymore."
"You must have driven our mother mad," Elizabeth said with a laugh, able to picture Jack making the entire port search for him.
"Aye," he said with a laugh. "All I wanted was ta be on a ship and no one got that. Took me three trys before I was able ta leave."
"Was there talk of us being gone?" Wil asked curiously.
"Oh yes, Mate," Jack answered. "It's all I heard." He studied the two before him, looking at them differently now knowing they were the family he often wondered if he had. "Can I ask ya something?"
"Of course," Elizabeth answered.
Elbows on the table, hands clasped under his bearded chin, dark eyes peering at them both, Jack asked, "How certain are ye that Portobelo is where ye wanna be?"
Wil and Elizabeth looked at each other and then back at Jack.
"I know it's similar to Port Royal," Wil answered. "I've heard people talk of it and thought it would be the best place for us to go."
"Have ye thought of sailin?"
Elizabeth's eyes narrowed. "Jack, what are you getting at?" she asked directly, noticing this was one of their big differences. Jack played games with his words while she spoke up, leaving nothing to question.
"I want ye to join me crew," Jack explained. "Ye both are young and could easily be taken advantage of in a large port. Spend some time with me and let me show ye the ways of the sea and tricks people use to get what they want." He dropped his hands and looked at his plate. "Besides…ye be family."
"Jack I don't think…"
"Wil and I will discuss this and let you know," Elizabeth interrupted her cousin. "Thank you for your offer."
"Liz, I really think we should proceed to Portobelo like we planned," Wil cautioned. "We're playing with fire as it is having stayed in Tortuga, bribing a sea captain and ending up stowing away on a pirate ship for five days."
"But Wil," she whispered in the dark. "He's my brother. He's the last bit of family we've got. What would it hurt to stay with him for a little while? I'd like to hear more stories about my mother. And we probably could learn some valuable lessons from him. I trust you completely, but Jack has been on his own and out at sea since he was eleven. I think we should take him up on his offer."
Wil sighed. Sometimes he was jealous of the fact she had the more level head. Elizabeth could always pull the logic and reason out of situation faster than anyone else could. And often it was near impossible to argue with her, young as she was.
"Okay," he said, relenting. He did love being out on the ocean and maybe Jack could teach him a few tricks with swords as well. And he was family. How could they complain about not having family and then walk away from the one member they'd never thought they'd find? "We'll stay."
The next morning after everyone got up, Elizabeth told Jack, "We'll stay."
Jack smiled, not the mischievous grin he displayed when trying to get his way, but a genuine smile of happiness. "Good," he said. "I'm glad ta hear it. Now get dressed and meet me out on deck. We'll be needin to introduce ya ta the crew and assign ya some duties."
"Thank you, Jack," Wil said, extending his hand.
Jack glanced at the outstretched hand, then up into Wil's eyes briefly before clasping his hand with his in a shake. He couldn't find it within him to say 'you're welcome' so he said instead, "If ya tell the crew I got a soft spot for family, I'll keel haul ya."
Elizabeth smiled then, understanding what Jack was trying to say. She stepped forward and hugged her brother, not surprised when he was reluctant to hug her back. "We won't tell a soul," she said, pulling back to find a funny look on Jack's face.
"Ah…okay then," Jack said, returning to his former self. "Be on deck!"
The day out of their small room in Jack's cabin was wonderful. The sky was colored a deep blue as was the ocean water crashing about the ship. Even the sea breeze whipping around them was welcomed. Jack walked them throughout the boat, talking about her with affection as if she were his child, showing them every crack and crevice with detail that neither really needed. They were introduced to the crew throughout the day, Jack making it clear to everyone they were his family and death would come to any man who even attempted to wrong them.
Elizabeth was happy to find another woman on board, even if she was a pirate. She was desperately hoping they would be able to talk often and maybe become friends.
Wil was feeling better about choosing to remain on the ship too. From the stories he'd heard of other pirate ships, this one definitely did not fit the bill and he liked that. He knew they were taking a chance but the more he watched and listened to Jack, the more he learned Jack was smarter than he let on.
The warm orange glow of the disappearing sunset cast its light over the deck of the ship as it sailed forward with no specific destination in sight, illuminating Jack, Wil and Elizabeth as they stood at the helm, Jack's hands gently guiding the wheel. None of them were sure of where they were going, weren't sure of what would happen along the way, weren't sure of how they'd even get along after some time at sea but they all did know one thing.
They were family. And that was enough reason to try.
Elizabeth had been singing quietly, "Yo ho, yo ho a pirate's life for me."
"What is that song?" Jack asked, having heard her singing but not catching all the words.
She blushed slightly. "I remember hearing Catherine, Wil's mother, sing it when I was very small," she explained. "I've never forgotten it."
Jack smiled, his gold-capped teeth sparkling in the sun's glow. "You must teach it to me," he told her. "And then we can teach it to the crew."
Elizabeth smiled at her brother and cousin, sometimes still in awe of how they all ended up together. Ultimately she didn't care. The three of them were family, something that they'd wanted, and if it wasn't the conventional type, it was all right with her.
"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me," she sang. "We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot, drink up, me 'earties, yo ho. We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot, drink up me 'earties, yo ho….."