It's been about a month since Jack got the pirate brand. His arm was starting to feel better and he was able to get back to doing his normal jobs. Right now Jack was below and Bill was looking over the edge of the ship thinking about his son, Will. He is 4 years old now. Bill sent him some trinkets over the years and has seen him on occasion when they went to England. He hears about Will through letters from Emily. He misses both his wife and his son very much. He promised himself that he would get a better job when he had a family, but was never able to do it.

Bill was lost in thought when Jack came up behind him.

"Nice night ain't it?"

Bill gave a small jump at the surprise, "Aye it tis. How's your arm?"

"It's fine." Pause "I guess I'm a real pirate now huh?"

"I'm sorry Jack nobody should have to go through that, especially a 13 year old."

"And on his birthday…not very nice. Maybe I should have used that."

"I'm sorry Jack."

"Stop apologizing, it's not your fault. They don't care how old you are, all they want is to go home and say they branded a pirate. Now all I have to do is become the world's greatest pirate and rub it in their faces." Jack finished off smiling.

"I have faith in ya lad."

"So you be thinking bout your boy? How is he?"

"He's fine. How do you know I'm thinking about him?"

"You just have that look."

"Ah"

There was a comfortable silence.

"I just worry about them." Bill said. "They are there all alone, anything can happen to them and I won't know about it until I get back. I don't even know when that will be. It's already been over a year." Bill gave a sigh. "I just miss them so much. I don't think I ever loved anything more than them. Heh…not very pirate of me, aye?"

"I bet they worry about you too. I don't know much about them, only that Emily is a great wife and mother. Both of them love and miss you too."

"How can you know that? You have never met either of them."

"True, but you have talked about them on the rare occasion. The way you describe Emily is that she forgave you for not tellin her you were a pirate right away. She forgave for leavin her for a year and not givin her a word that you were fine. She sounds very forgiving. I'm sure she is tellin the young lad what a great guy you are. Cuz that's what you are…a good man."

"I still worry. What if something happens to Emily and Will ends up on the streets like y…" Bill didn't want to finish that.

"Like me? It's alright Bill, you can talk about that. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have the life I have now. I'm happy with it. If the time comes and Will is out on the streets, unlikely, then there is a chance he will meet someone like you."

"But I don't want that. This isn't the life for him."

Jack got defensive.

"But it's the life for me? I didn't realize I was under anybody."

"Jack that's not what I mean… Jack wait" Bill said as Jack started to walk away. Jack wasn't going to wait so Bill cut him off. "That's not what I meant. What I meant was that this isn't the life for anybody so young. You should have chosen your own life. Instead of that I gave you a life; I didn't give you much of a choice."

"Is that what you think? Bill I think I remember tellin you that I wanted to be the greatest pirate ever. That wasn't going to happen if I was killed the night you found me. You saved my life, and that's not going to happen to Will. You know how I know? Easy… the minute you find out somethin happened to Emily, again unlikely, you will do anything and everything in your power to find you William."

"You know for a 13 year old pirate, you're pretty smart. When did this happen?"

"I've always been smart. I'm Jack Sparrow."

"That you are shortie that you are."

"I'm not short, I'm still growing. Soon I will be taller than you."

"You know you've said that to me so many times its started to lose its meaning."

"Very funny…it's so funny I think I'm goin to go to sleep."

"Night Jack"

"You know William, if you didn't feel anything I would be worried. A pirate can feel" With that Jack headed down the steps.

Bill smiled at this and headed for the helm. He wasn't tired yet.