"I'm telling you Jack. This is bad news." Gibbs insists as he feeds the tiny babe within his hands. "This babe is a girl, and it is terrible luck to have a woman on board. Even a tiny one such as her. Even more so I bet!"
"Elizabeth was on board before." Jack points out.
"She killed you." Gibbs reminds him.
"Yes well that girl can not even move."
"Exactly, she can not even run or defend herself. This will bring us bad luck. Just watch Jack." Gibbs continues. "And now you have another one aboard."
"Eh, eh. Only to show us how to properly get the girl to eat." Jack corrects as a woman goes over the very simple instructions on fixing a bottle. Gibbs held little doubt in his mind that Jack only had the woman on board to look at her ample bosoms as she showed the simple tasks to the pirates. Jack had also made Gibbs the designated diaper changer and feeder of the girl. Chores Gibbs knew the Captain found uncomfortable to perform himself.
"That is it Mr. Sparrow."
"Jack. Captain Jack." He corrects offering the woman his hand. She places the filled bottle within and he looks at it with distaste and confusion. Jack had wanted her hand but as the woman leaves his cabin he could lay back and still appreciate the view. The slamming of the door was met quick with a remark from Gibbs.
"Jack! Her eyes be opening!" The first mate announces unsure of why he felt so excited. Jack stands from his chair and hovers over Gibbs' shoulders as the baby begins to cry out. Sure enough slowly her lids were lifting. Jack can not remember a time where he was so hypnotized by the opening of another's eyes. Yet this small girl had sure enough grabbed his attention, wrapping it around herself so he would look nowhere else.
"Her eyes, they're blue."
His loyal first mate was correct. Her eyes were blue. A deep shade that was both peaceful yet ferocious at the sametime. A shade and shape that he knew well. Margaret was beautiful but her daughter had not received her eyes. No. Those were the eyes of Hector Barbossa. Eyes that use to haunt the Sparrow's dreams.
"Jack the sea be too dangerous for her." Gibbs voice sounds far off in Jack's ears. Slowly the captain takes the baby from the older man. Jack offers little Carina his full attention as the baby's cries grow softer.
"Shush now Carina. It will be alright." Jack promises. He begins to bounce the baby as his feet step around the rocking cabin.
"Jack." Gibbs voice sounds more like a warning but it was not one Sparrow would heed. If having a woman on the sea was bad luck then Calypso herself would not be a goddess. No this child with her eyes as deep as the ocean's depths belongs on the waves. With a ship as fast as the Black Pearl Jack could take her anywhere, show her everywhere, and eventually when Barbossa realizes his mistake he could even show what the man's daughter had become under the pirate's care.
"Gibbs, tell the men. The girl shall stay aboard." Jack orders his first mate. "And if anyone allows harm to befall her, all the men will be scrubbing the decks of the black pearl fer the next decade."
"If we all even live that long." Gibbs mutters.
"What was that Mr. Gibbs?"
"Nothing Cap'n. I'm sure the men will pleased with such orders."
Jack rolls his eyes as his first mate takes leave. "Don't worry little star. Uncle Jack has your back." The man promises suddenly feeling the weight of years he had ignored for so long. Worries begin to beset him. Barbossa would find out. He would no doubt come for the girl then. Jack already had his men swear to secrecy, but word would get out. Eventually the two men would meet each other on the sea again and when that happens Jack would make barbossa regret giving up the girl and remain the man of the lost Smyth.
Carina begins to cry louder than before now. Jack nimbly catches the bottle he nearly drops from fright. "Now, now Carina. Don't scare your Uncle Jack that way." He almost teases the child with holding the bottle further out of her reach, but decides against it as Carina's fingers curl and uncurl furiously towards the bottle.
"Let's hope you don't take as much of a shine to it as I do." Jack jokes finally feeding the babe.