Little Sparrow
Summary: "Now up is down," was the last thing any of them heard before the rush of water drowned everything else out. Later, waking up on a random, deserted island, they almost immediately notice that something was not right with their Captain. Sparrington, Salazak, Willabeth, maybe others mentioned.
They had lost six men in the fight, three of them dying on the El Arquero during the boarding and raid of the losing ship, one dying from being knocked overboard during a cannonball attack and two being shot down by the pirates on the other ship as they had been side to side, passing and firing on each other. The damage to the Black Pearl could barely be called any real damage at all, but Jack would rather stop at any available port and see it all fixed. The temporary repairs were, well, temporary and while Jack held full confidence in his skills to safely guide them through the Crossing and into Shipwreck Cove, he would rather not risk it. Not with his beloved ship.
The few wounded they had were currently being tended by Lee, who had turned out to be an accomplished doctor if disgraced doctor from one of China's temples or shrines and he had turned to piracy to make a living, and Tia Dalma. The rest were putting away the new cargo they had managed to acquire or helping in the sick bay or wherever help was needed. Everything was going rather smoothly as their fallen comrades whose bodies they still had with them.
Frederico had not returned alone when he had been almost late to board the Black Pearl before they left the Spanish pirates to their fate. He had brought a man back. In all that commotion, Jack hadn't seen clearly which man he had brought back but he had assumed it had been one of their own. Sanchez had instead brought before him none other than Hugo Gomez, the deserter captain of the traitorous El Arquero. Jack had stared at him in shock before a cold anger took him over and he had ordered the unconscious Spaniard to be put in the brig.
Now, an hour or so later, while the crew were preparing some thing or the other on the deck that they didn't want him to see, Jack had decided to come down and check on his fellow captain. Hugo had been stripped of all weaponry, hidden or otherwise, his coat was taken away and his affects were put in Jack's cabin for safe keeping. He had a gash on the side of his head and a big bump, probably a result of Frederico knocking his lights out in order to bring him aboard. He looked nothing like a dignified captain of the Navy as Armando had once described him, although Armando had been far from fond of him. He looked every bit the pirate that he was and Jack felt that cold anger swell in him again. He had sworn his oaths with Armando and yet he had celebrated his death. Jack felt he could truly hate him like he had never hated anyone before.
Gomez looked up when Jack appeared in front of his cell, a small, sardonic, humorless smile stretching across his lips. "So you are him. You are the great Capitán Salazar's only weakness, his doom. I can see why. Yours is a fatal kind of beauty, Jack Sparrow."
"Flattery won't be getting you anywhere, mate, but further into Frederico's bad books." Said Captain replied coolly, eyes watching on high alert every move Gomez might make. "I hear you deserted as soon as Salazar's death was confirmed." He did his best not to show any emotion as he said this, not looking away from Gomez's gray eyes. "You're worse than a pirate."
"I am a pirate, Sparrow. You cannot be worse off than that." Hugo drawled, talking with the teen as though he were the superior one in this situation.
"You see, that's where you're wrong. You, and a few others I am sure have, have shown that there are some things far worse than turning pirate. It's turning traitor. It's not following any code but your own."
"Ah, yes, I've heard of the so called Code." The older man sneered, glaring at the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean. "I've been at this for years and I have yet to meet the rumored about consequences."
"Don't worry, you've got time. Not that the Keeper or his men would waste their time on someone as insignificant as you." Jack told him with a razor sharp smile, his eyes so unnaturally cold that Hugo flinched away from him when the younger man stepped closer to the bars. "But justice must be served and I just learned you've been haunting the Caribbean for the last few years. That's my turf, mate. We don't need no keeper to deal with you when we have good ol' Jack."
"I am not under your jurisdiction, boy!" The Spaniard snapped, daring to almost push his face against the cold metal of the brig so he could get into Sparrow's face in an attempt to intimidate him. Jack didn't move away, nor did he flinch but if Hugo didn't tread carefully, Jack will gladly pepper him with lead as his hands was already resting on his pistol. One wrong move and Hugo will have much more to worry about than his meager head wound. "I am a privateer, not a pirate. You have no right by your demented Code to do anything to me but maybe maroon me on some island or make me walk the plank."
"Or I could just leave you alone with Frederico for a few hours. That might be better than deep-sixing or keelhauling you." Jack said offhandedly, eying the man up and down. A privateer, eh? Yes, the Code was pretty clear about them: they were not protected by it and they were as fair game as any other non-pirate ship. But he was right that Jack could not exact justice, so to say, on him even with his position as a Pirate Lord. Technically, not even the Keeper could, as Hugo was technically flying under a country's flag. "Don't tell me you deserted the Spanish Navy just to become on of their privateers." He challenged with an arched eyebrow and Gomez took the bait hook, line and sinker.
"Of course not. I use the flag to either mock them or to lure their merchants into a false state of security so I can more easily catch them. I sail for the English." Hugo even turned up his nose at him as he said it and Jack wondered if maybe Frederico had knocked a few screws loose when he had hit him.
"You disgust me, Hugo Sanchez. You the worst kind of traitor. If you're going to betray someone, do it cleanly and do it once. There is no need to mock them after you do it.'
"Says the same man who stole the infamous El Matador Del Mar's everything and then turned pirate, the single thing he hated most in the world." Gomez smiled a nasty, chilling smile and Jack had the sudden urge to just punch the man as hard as he could. He should have let the mermaids do as they please. It would have been doing the world a great favor. "You are a cruel, cruel man, Jack Sparrow. For he had loved you, that much was known far and wide, and yet you had betrayed his heart by pretending to love him back before piercing his heart with a knife. You turned pirate and chose piracy over him. How much he must have suffered."
Jack snarled at the purred words as a hand boldly reached out to caress his face, reaching out his own hands to grab the lapels of Hugo's fancy shirt and tugging with well hidden strength. The Spaniard cried out when his head hit the metal of the bars, the headache he had been suffering from the earlier blow becoming unbearable. Jack kept him right against the bars, growling in his face like his Da's pooch did whenever someone tried to take the ring of keys from it.
"Unlike with most, Hugo Gomez, you filthy, despicable, traitorous, slimy, bastard son of a whore, I didn't get to chose piracy, as it has been in my blood long before you were even a plan in your great grandparent's thoughts. Not that I'd demote it now or ever. I've once made the mistake of thinking your lot was better than the pirates I grew up with, but I know better now. I've known better for years." He pushed the blighter away and took a deep breathe to calm himself down. He won't give Gomez the pleasure of seeing just how much he had gotten to him. Armando was still too fresh a wound for him to forgive anyone trying to manipulate him emotionally like this. "You've just confirmed it. I wish you luck, captain, because you will need it."
"Going to break your Code like you broke poor Salazar's heart, little Sparrow?" Hugo gulped when he suddenly found himself with a faceful of gun and furious black eyes flashing at him like coals of hell fire. This was the man who had put an end to the Butcher of the Sea. And Gomez would be the greatest lier this world has ever seen if he said he wasn't at least a bit afraid of him.
"Don't test me, bastard. No mostraré misericordia a personas como tú. Pise con cuidado.'' Jack told him before turning around, heading for the stairs. He was too tempted to kill the bastard to hold back. ''We'll be leaving you in our next port. Good luck, you'll need it.'' He left before he could really be so tempted to just pull the trigger and see an end to that man. He needed to calm down. He shouldn't let others get him this worked up or else the crew will lose any respect for him or try to mutiny. His ship was the fastest and a very pretty one, at that. Anyone would want her and Jack wasn't about to let them have her.
He took a deep breathe when he was about to exit onto the main deck, only for that breath to leave him in a shocked gasp at what greeted him.
''Surprise!'' Elizabeth and Will exclaimed while the crew as a whole cheered for their Captain, who was staring in incredulity at the little feast and party the men had prepared for him while he had been exchanging insults with their prisoner. They had quite outdone themselves, he had to admit. The Pearl's decks resembled more a setting for a festival than a black pirate ship, the air was pregnant with the delicious aromas of the food Tia Dalma had prepared with a little help, especially from Ahmed, who knew quite a few exotic recipes from the Mediterranean. The lanterns were prepared to later be lit, as they still had a few hours until sunset, but they were there and it was going to be a very pretty sight with the stars overhead and the lanterns on the deck. The atmosphere was cheery despite the deaths they had suffered, but he guessed that had more to do with the exhilaration from their victory more than anything.
"What's all this?" Jack asked even as he ventured into the little crowd, being patted on the back or shoulder and Gary slyly pinching his butt when they were out of Frederico's line of sight. He slapped the man in an unknown mimicry of Scarlet and Gizzelle from Tortuga and the pirates hooted with laughter. Gary didn't mind, he was laughing with them as he put an arm around Sparrow.
"We thought our Captain deserved a tribute after such a victory today."
"Had it not been for you, we would have suffered a lot more damage and loss." Ahmed added, grinning at the teen as he held up a big, strange box with a leverage with a handle on the side to show it to him. "We had some interesting plunder, Captain." He put it on a gunpowder barrel and started spinning the handle. Jack knew what it was even before the music started playing.
"A party seemed the best way to celebrate." Gibbs said as he smiled at his young friend. "We got five more barrels of rum, Capt'n. If you'd do us the honor?"
The Pirate Lord of the Caribbean grinned, took the proffered tankard from James and moved into the middle of the crowd. He raised his rum and addressed them all. "Drinks all around! Let's get this party started!"
"Aye!" The crew cheered and they all immediately took a long gulp of their drink before the music even started. Soon enough, there was joking and horsing around, men telling stories or eating the food provided for the fiesta. Before anyone knew it, the music box was constantly playing and the dances started. Since it was a Spanish music box, most of the songs it played were Spanish and so they were mostly fast paced and cheery, perfect for a party. On the second repeat of the songs, when enough rum had been passed around for most of the crew to be tipsy and the lanterns to be lit, Frederico boldly stepped up to the Captain of the ship, interrupting his and Elizabeth's strange banter about sea turtles and drawing the attention of the small group Gibbs, Tia Dalma and the youngest members of the Black Pearl's crew had made up. Gillete, who had no hopes of holding his liquor, was already swaying on his feet and flushed in the face, leaning against Groves, who had barely touched his drink, too focused on the conversation taking place. James was supporting Elizabeth's arguments with cold logic while Jack and Tia Dalma were using their greater experience and knowledge of the supernatural and the uncommon to support their own arguments. Will and Gibbs occasionally added something, as if taking points on who had a better argument for each 'round' as if it were a sports match.
The young Captain arched an eyebrow at the Spaniard, giving him his attention with that simple gesture. Sanchez kept a perfectly straight face as he did a small dip all too familiar to Jack just when the beginnings of a too familiar song started playing. The teen lost all color in the face and made hand gestures to signal an abortion and casement of movement but the Spaniard paid it no mind.
"Me concedes éste baile, señor Gorrion?" His smirk finally broke out onto his face when he snatched up the young man's hand and drew him closer as the distinguishable melody of the fandango started. Jack protested, screaming at the older man, demanding he be released even as his feet automatically started making the right steps. "Let us see how much of Lesaro's lessons have stuck, birdie."
"I'm going to kill you!" Jack yelled but let himself be led through the dance, picking up rhythm more through habit and learned movement than because he wanted to. "I'm going to tie you up and throw you overboard! This is treason, mutiny! You know I hate dancing!"
"Ah, but you do it so well," Frederico let him go to clap his hands in order to demonstrate to the crew what they should do before drawing the smaller man close again. The crew picked it up easily enough, Elizabeth leading them as she watched with excited and curious eyes the rapid movement of their feet as the two males danced. She was far too used to the stiff dances at court that the upper society practiced but these lively dances ... She grabbed Will and dragged him into the big circle the men had left for the dancer, the couple trying to mimic the two old friends, laughing and all their arguments completely forgotten for the time being. Barbossa was yelling protests as Tia Dalma plucked him away from the rum and his apples but he let her drag him out onto the 'dance floor'. Soon enough, Gary plucked a random man from the crew and they all started dancing and laughing, those not quite bold enough to dance cheering and whistling. No one could compete with the Spaniard and the youngest Pirate Lord but they were not painstakingly taught to dance such a fast paced dance. They were all still having fun right up until the song ended and a new one started.
Jack broke away from his previous partner and, now emboldened by drink, dance and the applause as he always had been on the Silent Mary, lifted his chin higher and fell firmly and confidently into the perfect flamenco stance. "Mr Gibbs, provide my guitar, if you will."
"Aye, sir," the core crew of the Black Pearl all exchanged curious glances. They had all seen Jack's guitar - a thing of beauty, really - and they had occasionally heard him stringing a few notes together before putting it away so he can't even glimpse it, but he had never let anyone touch it. Still, Joshamee did as he was told and brought the guitar in record time. By that time, the flamenco was half finished but Frederico played for the rest of the song, the guitar beautifully accenting the sound of Jack's precisely stomping feet as the teen danced out the seductive dance.
The zambra followed next and Jack had a target: the stiff and proper Admiral, who despite being a pirate, was still trying to act like a gentleman on a ball. Well, the zambra was a wild staccato dance and Jack had always, always loved doing the zambra, even though he would never admit it. He loved watching someone's eyes tracing his every move, especially when he untucked his shirt and opened up his vest to show off his slim stomach. That got him quite a few wolfwhistls and James was gapping at him with a blush. Left completely on his own, since Gillete had followed his new found need for more rum and Groves had wandered off to listen to more pirate stories, Norrington was at the mercy - or the lack of, thereof - of Jack Sparrow as he twirled around the ex Commodore, laughing and seductive and tempting all rolled into one. Frederico watched it all happen as he continued playing the beautiful instrument, recognizing the moves and the look on the teen's face.
He smiled to himself, feeling something a lot like relief. This was the Jack he had always known, not the fake-happy young man that he had recognized in that bar in the Dutch town. A light had been missing from his eyes, a light Frederico was not sure was absent because of the events that the Pirate Lord remembered or the one he currently did not. Frederico knew that his Capitán would have rather seen his little Sparrow with someone else than him forever losing his light.
He wondered if Jack Sparrow will ever dance the paso doble for James Norrington as he continued playing the guitar.