Chapter 44: Relation?


"They're..."

"Yer kids, Sparrow. Why d'you think I'm always smackin' ye 'round the face whenever I see you?"

"Well, I thought it was that I left you, but..."

"That's only the half of it, Sparrow. Not only did you leave me, you left me with twins. They never knew me as their mother, though, and they don't know you're their real father. As soon as they were old enough to ask, I told them that their mother and father were dead. But they'd been good friends of mine, so they were left in my care. They turned out pretty good—"

"I'd noticed that," Jack said absently. He was too busy trying to wrap his head around this concept; Amy and Mera were his blood children! Oh, this is bad; I broke the Unwritten Rule. The Unwritten Rule referred to the oneand onlyunwritten rule of captaining the Black Pearl; you never ever have blood-relation children. Oh, well; my ship, my rules.

"And I told them that their father was the best sailor in the world. And a cunning warrior."

"Good to see you stuck to the truth for the most part."

"Thank you." She looked back at the girls. "Your daughters love you, Sparrow, even though they believe you're only their adopted father. I can't love you, not after the things you've done...but I can learn to like you."

"The only rules that matter are these," Jack said, remembering what he once told her while discussing the ground rules of their relationship.

"What one can do, and what one can't do," Giselle finished. "Do you think they need to know?"

"Only if they ask me. If they do ask, I will not lie to my own daughters."

"Refreshing change."

"Funny girl."

Giselle spoke. "So we're agreed. New ground rules; from this point forward, we only tell them if they ask."

"We still treat them as always; the loving godparents, nothing else until asked."

"Bring them to visit me once in a while."

"Send the three of us birthday presents."

She laughed. "Greedy."

"Thanks, luv."

"Thanks, Jack."