Disclaimer: I'll sing you a song, a song of the seas…

A/N: This has been rattling around in m head for some time, but it's never been that successful when I wrote it down. Nevertheless… here ya go. At this stage, everyone is a little bit younger than in the previous shortshot - like, about two or three years younger. Just so you know.

Their coffers were empty, and so were their stomachs. There was only so much treasure a pirate could own before it ran out, sold or exchanged for goods and services. Food and other necessities could not be bought with promises. So they had returned to the Isla de Muerta, for the first time in years.

This time, Jack knew he could not be able to keep his children from the cave of treasures. And he was afraid.

He knew what gold did to men - and to women, too; he knew it better than most. Greed lurks in the heart of every living creature who does not need to think beyond mere survival. The sight of gold was enough to make men mad.

Even the mere mention of a great treasure could cause men once trusted to turn mutinous, Jack thought darkly. Would the caverns of Isla de Muerta have the same effect on his son and daughter? Hard to say. But either way was heartbreaking - either he did not trust his children… or they would find they did not need their dad anymore.

The island came into view, wreathed in fog and a certain miasma which gave Jack a slight attack of the heebie-jeebies. If he had the choice, he'd rather not come here. But they needed to - they needed the treasures to trade. Trade! Jack snorted slightly as the ship manoeuvred through the rocks and weighed anchor. What was this world coming to that a pirate needed to trade? The thought made him smile, albeit faintly.

"Captain?"

Jack looked over his shoulder. Squirrel -as she still wished to be called - was standing there, smiling fondly at him. Behind his wife, Johnny was working the ropes and the rigging, sailor's muscles bulging under a pirate's tunic; Kelly was kicking impatiently at the railing, casting longing glances at the forbidding island she'd heard so much about.

Jack looked back at his wife and smiled. "Aye, love?"

She tilted her head at him in that curious way. "Are you ready?"

Jack sighed, then nodded. "Jus'…" He paused, and for a moment seemed to be reconsidering. Then, he steeled himself. "Just make sure the sprogs don't go too crazy."

A slight flicker of amused annoyance crossed Squirrel's face. "You keep an eye on them," the woman replied. "After all, you're the Captain." She turned and made for the nearest rowboat, calling for Johnny and Kelly to come with her.

Jack followed slowly after them, wondering if the dread he felt heavy in the pit of his stomach would pass.

Hours later, the Pearl was filled near to bursting with swag worth a king's ransom at least five times over. Squirrel looked up at the moon, and heaved a silent sigh of relief. Being in that treasure cave brought back memories. Of her first visit, when she first succumbed to what the crew jokingly referred to as 'Gold Fever'. Squirrel had been worried that her children would suffer the same. But Johnny had merely looked at the treasure with a critical eye, seemingly to take note of each items monetary value what could be bought from its sale. Kelly had amused herself by playing the princess, decking herself in finery and calling out loud imperious orders which must be obeyed or Queen-Empress Kelly would all have ye keelhauled.

Squirrel laughed softly at that. Her daughter certainly had inherited her father's flair for the dramatic.

Jack crossed the deck, his boots near silent; somehow, Squirrel knew he was there, and let herself melt into his embrace.

"A good haul, ey?" He whispered in her ear.

Squirrel just smiled, feeling herself flush pinkly. "Of course, Captain. Why shouldn't there be?" She swivelled in his arms to kiss him gently.

"Where should we go to sell all this, I wonder?" Jack asked, looking at the weathered, no longer frail beauty he held in his arms. "Tortuga? Kingston? Puerto Rico?"

"Anywhere the wind takes us," Squirrel replied, with a smile on her face, "Wherever the wind takes us."

Their lips met briefly before either of them felt it. A cold wind swept across the Pearl, ruffling her sails, sending her rocking slightly out of sync with the waves. Jack and Squirrel pulled apart, where they turned alarmed gazes to the Isla de Muerta, where the moon hung full like a grinning skull. In the wood of the Pearl, those who had sailed before stirred, sending out their near-panicked, far-too-late warning.

Without fully knowing the reason why both Jack and Squirrel ran to the caves, afraid and not knowing what they'd find.

They found Kelly alone in the caves, playing as twelve-year-old pirate girls do - with pearl necklaces and gemstone amulets. The girl looked up as her parents ran towards her. "Mum? Dad? What's wrong?"

Squirrel climbed the treasure, casting worried, frantic eyes about. "Where's your brother?"

Kelly shrugged. "I don't know," she said, with flat indifference. "I think he was with Gibbs and Marty. He found a sword he wanted to try out." Her gaze turned wary. "Why?"

Squirrel turned to Jack to tell him she was going to look for her son, but she stopped when she saw the look on Jack's face. Jack was staring at his daughter, his eyes dull and lifeless.

"Jack?"

Kelly's fingers pulled through the chains and ropes of pearls and gold. The links meshed between her fingers, an aristocratic cat's cradle. She peeled, pulled, played with them, listlessly, as though there was something else she would rather be doing but no idea what. She kept her eyes on her hands, her beautiful, thin, pirate hands, with the nails chewed and worn… these fingers were quick, nervous, while the hands moved sluggishly.

"No," Jack whispered, his eyes wide. "No, not you. Not my little girl…"

Kelly looked up, and saw her parents' eyes on her. "What?"

Kelly did not need to say 'What'd I do?' She already knew what she'd done. Squirrel did not need to ask what Kelly had done. She knew. Jack knew.

Kelly bowed her head. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "I just wanted to see what it was like."

Jack looked at his daughter, feeling hollow. "So what is it like, Kelly?"

"I don't… I don't know!" Kelly's eyes filled with tears as she clambered to her feet and ran to her father to sob into his coat. Jack did nothing. He just let his daughter cry.

There was no sense in shouting at her. She was punished enough as it was.

"You knew the stories!" Squirrel said, alarm, anger and fear warring for dominance. "You've been raised on them! Why?"

Kelly took the skull-faced coin from her jacket and looked at it with undisguised longing. "I just… wanted to live a story… like Dad."

Jack took the coin from his daughter and crushed it in his fist. "Come on," he said, taking his daughter's cold, unfeeling hand in his warm and calloused hand, "Let's go put this back." He looked up at Squirrel. "No harm done. At least we know where all the pieces are."

Squirrel looked like she wanted to argue, to tell her daughter off for disobeying them, but she relented. The Captain's word was law, and Kelly's remorseful tears were not feigned. The three of them headed for the stone chest, where the other Aztec gold waited with patient malice. A moon passed in front of a cloud, and the cavern was plunged into darkness as father and daughter climbed to the chest.

"Remember what to do?" Jack asked softly. "Remember the stories?"

Kelly nodded, her tears drying now that she would be safe again. "Blood. Some of my blood." She stood strong and watched as Jack picked up the amber knife, winced as it pricked her finger, and bit her lip as the bloodstained coin was returned to its resting place. The coins shivered and chattered, angered at the loss of their captive.

But to Kelly, they seemed to laugh.

"There," Jack said, smiling so his heartache wouldn't show. "No harm done, aside from the bleeder there." He indicated Kelly's finger. "How'd you feel now, love? Better?"

Kelly looked at her blood thoughtfully, and did not answer.

"Come on."

She let her father lead her down, let her mother embrace her warmly, ignored the admonitions which were sure to come.

The cloud passed, and the cave was bathed in cold white moonlight. Kelly screamed, and jumped away from the beam which had speared down in her path. She stared at her hand, as though it were some snake trying to bite her.

Jack and Squirrel stared, aghast. For a moment, their daughter's hand had been little more than a hank of bone.

"It didn't work!" She screamed, the tears coming anew. "It didn't work!" She screamed again. "Why? WHY?"

And neither Jack nor Squirrel could answer her.