Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean or any of its characters. If I did, well... I'd truthfully be cruising around the Caribbean with my hubby-man! I DO own Zora Leighland, however.

Author's Note: I had intended to update this sooner, but I volunteered to work this past weekend, so that delayed my ability to post chapter three. However, here it is now. Please read and review!

Chapter Three
Meet the Turners

Zora had a better idea than sneaking into the blacksmith shop; while Jack pretended to be an interested customer of some sort of cooking wares, she inquired as to where to find the home of the blacksmith himself. Success was easily attained, and before either realized it, they were walking through the front garden toward the large porch of a grand house. Not nearly the size of the governor's house, mind, but glorious just the same… considering the man of the house was a blacksmith, it was remarkable. Jack knocked soundly, and the door swung open minutes later with a maid appearing in its place. Upon seeing Jack, she made to scream, but both pirates reacted quickly as two hands reached out, one to cover her mouth and the other to hold her head still. "Silly girl… scream, and the entire house may be arrested," Zora hissed. "I doubt you want that for your master."

From within, a voice called out, "Who's at the door?" Several moments later, a man appeared, neatly groomed, his clothes pressed and telling of his respected stature in society. His eyes went wide at seeing Jack. "Are you insane, Jack!" Immediately, the man pulled Jack inside, and Jack tugged Zora in after him, the maid quickly closing the door behind him. "Wandering about the streets of Port Royal, knowing your neck is forever scheduled for a hanging!"

"Supplies, mate," Jack simply returned, his eyes wandering around the foyer before continuing forward into the house, slightly in awe. "The Pearl needed supplies, and Port Royal was the closest city." Jack turned his attention to the man, his gold teeth visible in a smile. "Ye aren't happy to see yer ole pirate pal, Will?"

Will Turner stared for a moment before shaking his head. "You can't stay here long," he told him. "I don't even know why you'd risk yourself like this."

Jack held up a finger, and answered, "Pirates always live for danger. That's what makes the pirate's life so exciting, the thrill of the chase, the risk of getting caught, savvy?" Will smirked, knowing what Jack said was true. "Since we were in the neighborhood… sorta… I had wanted to see how me good buddy was keeping up. I did help reunite ye and yer bonny lass, remember son?" Jack flung an arm around Will's shoulders. "Ye could say without my help, ye'd never be married to her. Come now. Just the night, and we'll be gone in the morning." Jack pointed toward Zora, bringing Will's attention to her for the first time. She was busy tracing a design on a vase. "Just think, boy… someday, ye can claim ye let someone famous like her sleep in yer wonderful home when she had been but a nobody."

Zora had been admiring the house while the two were conversing. She didn't want to intrude her presence on them if they were catching up or arguing, whatever they were up to. She was in her own world at the moment, remembering small conversations between herself and an old friend about a boy named William Turner. When the words 'like her' were uttered, she looked over her shoulder to see Jack pointing at her. "Me?" she returned. "What will I be famous for, pray tell? Slicing your throat to keep you from doing anything stupid?" At this, Will smiled; that woman was something already.

"I don't know," Jack responded in a swift breath, waving his hand in a flopping, careless manner. "Marrying the famous captain of the Black Pearl or something. We'll think up a story later." Neither man noticed the way Zora retained her tongue as a slightly crestfallen look appeared on her face. By then, the governor's daughter had appeared.

"Bless me, is it Jack Sparrow in my house?" Elizabeth stated, a smile on her face as she stepped in beside Will. "I half expected you to be continuously passed out in Tortuga these days, drunk off all the rum you bought with all the money you've stolen."

Jack smirked, bowed slightly, and returned, "My heart bleeds at yer thoughts of me, m'lady."

His words were lost on Elizabeth as she noticed the oddly familiar woman standing toward the side to let Jack have his moments. It took her several moments to place a name with the face, but when she did, her shock was very evident. "Zora Leighland," she said, going toward the other woman. "Why, it's been ages since I've seen hide or hair of you!"

Zora paused a moment, then smiled widely; just the old friend she'd been thinking about a short while before. She hadn't even noticed Elizabeth enter the foyer as she was still tumbling over Jack's quick words. "Elizabeth Swann?" she remarked. "Ah, but Turner now, is it not?" Elizabeth nodded with a grand smile. "My, it has been some time…" Zora remembered classes with Elizabeth, the times they shared before she had begun to take the thought of running away to Tortuga seriously.

Jack and Will stood watching the two women begin to quickly converse, Elizabeth hastily catching Zora up on the governor and the disaster that had been the engagement to Commodore Norrington, whom had only been a captain when Zora was last in Port Royal. "So they know one another," Jack said, one hand resting on the handle of his sword while the other hung on his coat. He wasn't sure that was good news in the long run.

"So it seems," Will answered, smiling at how animated Elizabeth became when she really got to chatting, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. Harboring pirates could lead to serious problems, but then again, Jack DID help Will out. Elizabeth was quite taken with Jack's woman friend, so he was already outnumbered. "One night, Jack; that's all I can promise."

Jack placed his hands together, and bowed slightly again. "Thank ye, thank ye. It's greatly appreciated."

"Will, darling, I'm going to take Zora around Port Royal," Elizabeth informed her husband, taking a bonnet from its hook to place it on her head. Her maid handed her mistress her drawstring purse before the lovely woman smiled and kissed Will. "We shouldn't be more than a few hours. Enough time for you and Jack to catch up."

Jack blinked rapidly, then started to raise his hands in protest, holding up his index and little fingers mostly. "I'm not sure tha's such a good idea, Will, letting those two women go off shopping," he said hastily. He certainly didn't want Elizabeth giving Zora any sort of ideas about him. "They… they might come back with the entire city."

Zora reached Jack's side, stood on her toes, and planted a kiss on his lips to silence him. "For a carefree pirate, you worry an awful lot," she remarked with a teasing smile. She playfully tugged on one of the braids of his beard before following Elizabeth out the front door.

That was three times in one day already! Jack feared he might always be powerless against her.

Will had watched the interaction between Jack and Zora with intrigue, hiding the shock he felt at the way Jack looked as Zora walked away from him. When the front door closed and the maid returned to her duties, Will chuckled, and stated, "Hell must have frozen over. Jack Sparrow has fallen in love with his latest bar wench."

At this, Jack snapped out of his reverie, glaring over at Will. "She's no wench, Turner. Not much more than be yer Elizabeth."

"Then tell me, Jack," Will said, leading him to the study, and taking a seat, "just where did you meet her?"

Jack took a seat across from Will after carefully inspecting the material. Something expensive, no doubt. "Tortuga," he gruffly returned. "In the pub."

"But she's not a bar wench?"

"Does she LOOK like a whore to ye?" Jack asked, exasperated. He figured Will would understand, being the sensitive type of man he was, but maybe he was wrong in that assessment.

Will fell silent, looking his friend over. He was a completely different man than the one he had saved from hanging a few years before. He understood that love changed men sometimes, but he never believed it would have the same effect on a pirate like Jack, nor that drastic of an effect. "So you do love her, then?" he finally asked.

"I'm not sure." The famous pirate sighed, and leaned back in his seat, throwing a leg across the arm of the chair as his back leaned against the other along with the chair back itself. "My morning begins with the first sight of her," he replied softly. "It doesn't matter what she's doing, whether it's sleeping at my side, scrubbing the deck of the Pearl, slapping the taste out of me mouth along side Anamaria…" Will chuckled, "whatever it be, it starts my day." Jack trailed a finger down one of the braids of his beard, lost in thought as he spoke. "I strive to be good to her, to show her as best I can what I feel for her. There just aren't words for it, mate."

"Love is all the vocabulary you need, Jack," Will responded. "Trust me, I know what you mean." He sighed, and continued with, "Still, I don't know if you know what you're getting into. She is… well, she's a lady, not a pirate."

Jack smirked with a scoff, and returned while flicking his hand about, "She's what every pirate wishes they could be, a true one. She fancies the sea and the risky life a pirate lives. She's most comfortable aboard the Pearl, and isn't afraid of guiding her through the roughest summer storms. It isn't about the pillaging and plundering and whatnot most pirates think of with her; she is the heart of a pirate, and she may look the part of a high-class lady, but she'll always be a pirate at heart." He winked, and added, "Besides that, she managed to do the undoable in robbing me of everything, money, clothes, senses, heart… No pirate that I've been privy to meeting has managed to do that."

Will couldn't help but laugh in surprise. Never had he known Jack to be so easily robbed of anything. Mutiny had him outnumbered when he lost the Pearl, and that had been a struggle as well. "I must give her credit, then," he said, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees as he cleared his throat. "Look, Jack, I must be honest. I don't think she's a good influence on you." Jack gave him a sideways glance, strangely intrigued by what reasoning Will could give him. "I mean, you are a pirate, first and foremost. She's made you soft, and that could easily lead you to the noose. On top of that, it's like robbing the cradle. She has to be about half your age. That could get you more trouble than you bargained for, especially with being a pirate."

Jack was close to drawing his sword on Will; what gave him the right to state who he should love and who he shouldn't? "Ye're trying to unsettle me," he simply said, easing the grip on the sword handle. "Will, ye know ye should never unsettle a pirate." A smirk slid onto his lips. "Ye claim to know what it feels like, this love feeling. Why do ye insist on raining on my parade? Why do I even bother… ye're a eunuch, for God's sake."

Will glared in return. "I am NOT a eunuch." How many times would he have to defend himself against Jack's strange ideas?

"For all yer protesting, I'm beginning to think ye really are." Jack stood, striding toward the mantle in his swaying manner, irritated by Will's statements of his relationship with the lady pirate. "Zora and I are… well, I don't know what we are, but I do know we're happy together. Age never bothered us before, and I doubt it ever will."

"But she's practically mine and Elizabeth's age," Will interjected. "You're fifteen, twenty years older than us, at the very least. It has to come up sometime."

Jack swiftly turned to Will, almost falling over. "Stop being so dramatic about it." He very well knew about the age difference, and to him, it seemed no different than how marriage was handled in this hypocritical society; it was far worse on land, anyway. It didn't bother either Zora or him before, only now when Will continued to press the matter. It was time to end this annoying little heart-to-heart. "Let me put it to ye like this, son," he retorted, his hands on his waist after steadying himself. "That young woman has ole Jack Sparrow willing to throw away the life of a pirate to keep her happy, savvy? I would gladly give up all the bounty, all the whores, all the rum in the world if she told me to do it. She be the ultimate treasure."

Will blinked, finally realizing the full impact this single woman has had on Jack. "You'd give up rum to be with her?"

A half-smirk settled on Jack's face. "Well, maybe not completely; a man needs his leisure. Though there was the first night I met her that I made a half-drunken promise to give it up. She's had a chore of keeping me to it."

"Jack Sparrow… it's safe to assume you have almost been completely tamed." Will laughed aloud, and Jack simply grinned.