Liberty,Equality,Fraternity - by Cunien

Well. Here it is. The end of this particular journey. But Jack has a big mouth on him, so who knows what stories he's yet to tell?...

Thanks to everyone who stayed with me throughout this fic! And I am so very sorry that I made you wait so long for chapters. Thankyou for not giving up on us!

Please forgive obvious typos and mistakes - I'm not the most observant person. I've tried to make it reasonably accurate, historically, but as there is no definite date for PotC and the Caribbean was changing so rapidly at this time, it's probably a little bit off. I've taken a lot of liberties with Nassau, and more specifically it's ability to grow sugar cane...but there we go. It's fiction! I also don't pretend to know much about this at all. I'm just freewheeling here people! Whee!

Warnings: As a series - Mild swearing, not so mild racism and slavery. Also violence and torture, mostly aimed at Jack - Don't worry your pretty little head about it - Jack's as tough as old boots!

Chapter 18 - Lives Gained and Loves Lost.

It was a day and a half before I came to. At first I thought I must be dead - the swaying backwards and forwards felt too much like a ship, and it had been too long since I was on one.

I must be in heaven, I thought. Because heaven, for one such as me, was surely a ship, and an endless ocean for me to sail across. Gabriel had killed me and I was in heaven, and I hoped to God that he was in hell.

I opened my eyes. I was in my bunk, aboard the Pearl.

Well. That wasn't too bad. If I had to be alive and not in heaven, there's nowhere I'd rather be more than the Black Pearl.

After some time, footsteps crossed over to me, and an angel eased her way into my line of sight.

"Oh," I said, "So I am in heaven."

Megan smiled. "Even half dead you can't help but flirt."

"Half dead," I said. I paused a moment, thinking. "Which half?"

Megan laughed this time, and the sound brought someone bursting through the door.

"Bill!" she said, whipping around to look at him. "He's awake."

" 'Knew you wouldn't die!" Bill said triumphantly. "Some of the crew have been saying otherwise..." Bill looked behind him at my First Mate , who smiled. "Never had a doubt, of course," he said, tipping his hat.

"How do you feel? Nanty did a good job, but after that even he said you were in God's hands, " said Bootstrap, closing the door in Barbossa's face. Nanty was our surgeon, by the way, a bitter little man who we'd wisked off some French clipper years ago. At first he resented being held captive by pirates, but it was clear soon enough that he was as mercenary and piratical as the best of us.

Bill came to sit near the bed, and it hurt my heart to see the concern on his face.

Don't get me wrong - Bill was a good friend, and it never hurt to care if your friends live or die. But when you're in my line of work it's a little more complicated.

You see, Bill always was too good. He showed it that day he led the crew back for me. That was his undoing and there's not a day goes by I don't curse his bones for it. It told Barbossa that Bill was the only one among us all who had a heart.

Bill had steered the crew to taking those two Naval battleships and coming for me. It was a good plan, and a shrewd one - I don't think Barbossa and the rest of the crew would have agreed to go back if it hadn't been for the challenge and the thrill of commandeering the King's own ships.

"I feel..." I croaked, "fit as a fiddle. Where are we?"

"We're anchored in a cove on a tiny island a day's sail from New Providence. I don't think it even has a name," mused Bill. "Perhaps we should call it Sparrow's Rest."

I laughed at that, though it hurt like hell to do so.

"What happened then, after I went to sleep?"

It seems the freed slaves had managed to overpower most of the guards, and with the town and fields and...well...everything burning, there was no one to stop them getting to the boats and making their merry way out of the port and off into the rising sun.

"What about Nathan, and Sarah?" I asked, trying to prop myself up on my elbows.

Megan crossed to the door. I noticed she was wearing a fine dress instead of the singed and bloodied nightgown, and remembered the haul of China silks and fineries we'd taken just before this particular adventure began.

Opening the door, I heard her say something quietly, and in walked two people.

Nathan and Sarah came towards the bed.

"Oh, I do so love reunions." I smiled.

"Nathan and Sarah have anchored their ship near ours. They've been waiting to see you," said Megan.

"You did it. I knew you would, of course," Sarah said. This was high praise from this hard woman, and I took it gratefully.

The African woman looked at her husband, and he nodded back at her. "We'll leave you," said Bill. I noticed with a flash across my heart, that he took Megan's hand in his as they crossed towards the door with Sarah.

"You came back," I said.

"I was always going to," said Nathan.

"Oh, of course. Didn't doubt it for a moment," I agreed.

"I stayed with the women and children, made sure they were safe. Then I came back up to help. I saw Dawit's wife."

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry,

"She wanted me to go. No one blames you for what happened to him." Nathan's voice was quiet.

"Did anyone get hurt?" I asked, "Did any of you die?"

"Two were killed. Samuel died protecting my wife."

"The Skeleton Man?"

Nathan nodded.

We sat in silence for a moment.

"What will you do now?"

Nathan sighed and smiled at me. "Go back, to my land, my people."

"You're changed though," I said, noticing the sad flicker in his eyes, "Things can't ever be the same again."

"No," he agreed, "They can't."

"They can be better though," I said, after a while.

Nathan looked at me for a moment, and then smiled a full smile.

"Yes," he said, "Yes they can."

Pride is a funny thing. You can take it away from a man, as I'm sure you know, after hearing this tale. But the thing is, you can't give it back. Each man has to do that for himself. You'd have nothing to be proud of, otherwise. It's that struggle that makes it really worth something.

My crew showed the African's briefly how to best man their ship, but after that Nathan wanted nothing from us. He wanted no helping hand, no advice. He left, sailing out from the cove in the small clipper that they'd taken from Nassau. And I never saw him again.

That's as it should be.

The tale is almost over, good ladies and gentleman, and you can go back to your lives changed or not - that depends on you. But there's one more thing to settle.

Megan.

As soon as I was up and about the score was clear to me. The crew stayed away from her, knowing what Bill and I would do to them if they dared lay a finger on her. Didn't stop them looking of course, but that can't be helped.

Megan barely left Bill's side. For the first day or two I sat in the sling they'd set up for me on deck so's I could give orders, and I had Bill charging around like no other. He scrubbed decks, fixed sails and tarred ropes. I had him working like a cabin boy. Our own cabin boy had nothing to do but sit around and enjoy a break. And Bill never once complained or asked why.

It was clear though, right? Megan loved Bill, not me. She never loved me, though it cracks open the pieces of my heart to say that, even now, years later.

William Turner is a lot like his father, but there's not many people as know how much he is like his mother. Bill married Megan Kelly some scant weeks later. Too soon, I said, as they said their vows. Too soon.

I'd tried of course, in every way I could, to stop them from doing the deed. I even forbade Bill from marrying. It's the priviledge of a Captain, you see. But he knew the measure of me, and he did it anyway, because of course, I couldn't ever really stand in their way.

So there she was, sailing back to Ireland to try and square things up with her family. They never forgave her for marrying a pirate, and that's how she came to be left without a penny. Neither Bill nor I knew she was with child until the thing was born, but even then Bill couldn't go to her. Pirate's code, you see. Some of it is guidelines, and some of it is set like stone. I wouldn't have it so, but the rest of the crew voted, and Bill couldn't leave until he'd amassed in gold the amount we'd agreed on when we first set out, just like the rules said.

And that's how we came to the tale I think you might know, about the cursed Aztec gold and the young William Turner, later on. I won't go far into it now, for that's a story for another night. But if not for that rule, Bill would never have even been tempted to go for that gold.

Funny the way things turn out, isn't it? Fate, and all that. Sometimes I wake up all cold with sweat, and remember that I'm the only one left now - Megan died poor and alone, and Bill still pining for a love he spent such a short time with. It's the life we lead and the decisions we make, and I regret nothing, for things turn out the way they will.

But these times, when I wake up all a-shivering with the ghosts of the past, I comfort myself with fancies I knew, even then, could never really be: that if Megan had chosen me instead, we'd all three be here right now, sailing the Black Pearl and chasing the horizon across the world and back again.

END.