Chapter 6: The Return Journey
"I found this."
Andrew didn't think he had ever seen such pain in his wife's eyes as she held on to the shawl he had found on the dirt track road.
It was day break. Helen had gone on the previous night and she had never returned.
The twins had not slept for worry about there mama and as they looked at the shawl with the women they thought of as there second mother utter despair came in both there hearts.
"I think maybe mama is with papa now." Said Jane, as a tear slide down her face.
"We don't know that sweetheart." Said Emily as she pulled Jane on to her lap. Hector went over to Andrew and stood by him, going in to a state of shock.
They had walked up and down that road all there lives. They had always been fine so what had happened to their mother last night that should have made it so different than how it had always been.
"Where do you think she is?" Hector asked Andrew.
"I don't know son. I just don't know."
-
Tia Dalma looked at Hector. He had been up and about for a couple hours when she went to him.
She had two very ill pieces of news brought to her that day. One was that Jack Sparrow had been taken to Davvy Jones' locker. The other, that Hector's love had been found a drift at sea. She had been found dead.
He knew it though, she thought to herself. It had been written on his face as obvious as any thing.
He didn't want it mention it to her though. There was some thing about the enchantress that he did not trust. Some thing to her… he couldn't pout his finger on it. He didn't like it though.
"What news has the wind brought yer terday Calypso?" He said using the rightful name for her, instead of Tia. She had never been Tia Dalma to him.
"Jack Sparrow." She said and his first reaction she noted was too sigh. That name was hated universally she some times thought. Where ever witty Jack went he took trouble with him. There were some people who were not grateful for that like she had been at the time when they had met. But she knew he and Jack had a long history together. One of trouble, strife and betrayal. "He has been taken to Davy Jones locker."
"At last." He muttered. Good, he thought to himself. Let the barsted rot in hell for all he cared. In fact it was better he was in the locker, that was so much worse than hell.
"Yer need to go and get 'im back fer me." She said to him, and he had to think over what she had said.
The world was free of him at last! He thought to himself, why would any one ever want that man to return to it?
"And why would I do that?" he asked.
"So I can be free to be with me love, the sea again," she said to him.
"And in return what do I get for going on this great quest." He asked cynically.
"I brought yer back from de dead, did I not?" she asked him.
"And I asked yer too did I?" he asked her. "No. I was better left as I was. You had no right ter do what yer did Calypso. It was over. Why couldn't yet just leave be?"
"Because yer time on dis earth is not over yet Ba'bossa. Yer have much left to do, to be." She said to him.
"If you can bring me back, then surely you can bring near any one back?" he stated. "that be true?" he asked rising his eye brow, getting up sand going out on to the balcony to look over the river that lead out of this little safe haven he had been brought back too,
"Aye dat be true."
"Then bring back Helen, and I'll do any thing you want me too." He nodded.
"I think yer forget Ba'bossa it was by my powers yer returned and I can send yer back just as easily. It is not yet place to be bargaining with me." She said.
"Is it not? Go on then," he said calling her bluff.
"What?" she said in disbelief.
"I do not fear death," he said to her. "Send me back, only yer wont, will you." He told her. "Don't yer see? Calypso yer be needing me more than I need you," he said as Jack the monkey found his way on to his masters shoulder.
"We will find 'er on de oda side." She said to him, submitting herself to his commands.
"Right. Then I will do any thing yer ask of me, but just so yer know. We are not coming back ter this world with out her," he said seriously.
"Very well."
"Then we have an accord?"
-
Just five days later Barbossa found himself on the ship he had just got from Sao Feng at Singapore, with many people he had never thought would sail under his command doing just that.
There was Master Turner, trying to do the right thing by all accounts as bloody usual. He had Calypso no doubt coming to add a touch of destiny he thought to himself, mockingly. And finally he had the charming Miss Elizabeth Swann. Wonders would never cease.
Where he was going he didn't know. But that was a good thing, he though as he tried to figure out the charts. To find the place he was going to he had to be good and lost.
With every step of this journey he felt more intense, and more and more emotions. He had never felt so many conflicting one at once.
On one hand he had a chance to get back every thing he had ever dreamed of, and with it gain more. If he did what he had proposed to then he was going to get himself a family.
But old betrayals were hard to forgive and what ever angle he took on it there was still no forgiven what his Helen and Jack had done to him all those years ago.
But it was time to let go of his pride he thought to himself. There was some thing more important than pride in this life and that was happiness. With out the children and Helen he didn't think he was ever going to get to be that, not know he knew of them.
Not any more. Maybe once. Before his death for sure. He had been so angry at the world that he had wanted nothing more than for that fan curse to be over.
But there was another curse on the heart of Hector Barbossa. That was love, and passion and the need to feel it in return for him.
To think, he, a grown an needed love was stupid he knew. But at the end of the day he was only human. He was like every one else. Just because he did not have the good looks of William Turner or apparently irresistible charm of Sparrow, didn't mean he didn't want women just as much as they did. And he had one, or he had once upon a time. And if he recovered her, he would be faithful to her, as long as she was to him.
-
"Where yer going jack?" asked Hector with a smile on his face.
He was going aboard his ship again and he was going to get the Pearl back some how, at the end of the day in his heart he believed that.
Even if Jack didn't want to sail with him he had no choice. He had to because he didn't know where he was going otherwise. Hector loved leverage when he had it.
"I am going back to the living world mate, dunno where your going." Said Jack to him with a smirk in reply.
"And how are yer planning to get there with out these here charts. I don't suppose you know the way on your own." He said to him.
"Oh bugger." Said Jack as he realised there was no way to get back with out the five he had planned on leaving behind.
If there was ever a lot who deserved the locker it was Elizabeth, Barbossa Will, Pintel and Ragetti.
"Indeed," said Barbossa as he went over to Tia. He would stay close to her now he decided through the journey for she was the one who was going to know when they were going to come across his Helen. He almost wished she had been in the locker waiting for him. At least that way he would have seen her again by now.
"She is coming." She said knowing what he is going to say. "I have my witty Jack back, and you will get your reward for the services you have done me getting us here."
It had hardly been an easy journey for any of them. They had gone from the nice warm Caribbean sun to the freezing cold. Every one had suffered for it, and now there pain seemed to have paid off.
Whether it was really though still remained to been seen when they got back to the world of the living. Hopefully they had not survived just to be killed again.
The sail out of the locker was easier than the one in it seemed as they got going for Hector, though Jack seemed to think it was fun to spend the whole journey annoying him.
"It will happen tonight," he heard a voice in his ear. It was Calypso.
"She will come along in a boat," she said to him.
"And you can save her from there?" he checked.
"I can not say for sure. It depends on her." She explained.
"What you be meaning it depends on her." he said fiercely. "Yer said yer can save her." he said to her.
"And I can but only if she wants to be saved. If she is at rest wid her fate, den I can not force her to return if she do not want to." She explained.
"Then how could you bring me back?" he asked.
"Isn't it obvious, you wanted life Hector Ba'bossa. Never have yer been one for sitting on e while der rest of you hav' all der fun."
"Helen was. She hated trouble or any thing like that. Used to say she'd do any thing for a quiet life when I be trying to get her to come aboard the Pearl with me." He said as hope failed him for a moment.
"She has a lot to return for Hector. She had children who need der moder desperately." She reminded him. "Wait and see what she does. For no one can call it yet, weder she will chose to go on to the other side, or to return to her old life."
-
Helen lay awake in her boat, her eyes glazed. She was dead now and she knew it. There seemed no way back it seemed to her.
"I was meant give them a story though." She said to the starry sky as she thougbt of her kids. They would finish there childhoods now no doubt on Emily's watch. That wasn't a bad thing. She had always been a better role model than Helen had been even when they were young.
It really beautiful the sky though thought Helen. There was some thing up there. A magic at work she thought ti herself.
Some thing so peaceful… wasn't she meant to be peaceful now she was dead, and if so why did she have so much unrest and fear in her heart. There was so much she was yet to do.
-
Elizabeth turned in to will her entire body shaking with grief for her father. He had gone, she was dead.
Will held on to her tight, that was all he could do for her now.
The entire crew was looking at them, all except one. Barbossa.
"Come on," he said to the sea. He was so close to her now he could feel her. She was here she was, he just had to find her.
His eyes were so excited as they looked through the water trying to find her face.
At last, he did. It seemed to him to taken for ever but there she was at last.
"Helen," he whispered with a smile. Ten years had clearly done a lot to her, that was written all over her face. The wrinkles that had only begun when he had left her had becoming deeper.
Her hair was longer and bushier than it had been when they had knew each other truly. But there she was, her heart had not changed…. His Helen…his sweet Helen.
"HELEN!" he cried out to her desperate for her to notice him up on the ship.
It was at that time that the crew turned to see there captain trying to get the attention of a girl many of them didn't know. Jack did though.
"Bloody hell." He said as he saw his old one time lover.
-
Helen looked up at the huge boat and wondered what had happened. Had they been fighting as sea, and all the sailors had died due to the accident.
She didn't think so. It was going the other way. It was going back to life.
"HELEN!"
Some one from it was calling her name. Through the darkness… It was as if there was light.
Her eyes turned to see through it… who was it?
She could see the figure.
"Yes," she whispered, her heart barely daring to hope… could it be?
"COME ABORAD, HELLEN ITS BE ME… IT'S HECTOR!"
It was him. All her hopes and all her dreams had brought the to this moment she thought to herself. Her body begun shaking with happiness. His face, his voice…him.
Looking out the boat though she felt sick. Water was all by her. all about her. She had tried to ignore it and she had been able to. Till now.
"Hector I can't get out, the sea!" she said to him, tears in her eyes once again. She had to get to him, she couldn't sail by.
Surely she had got over that by now he thought to himself. If she didn't get out the boat soon the dream was over. For both of them.
"Helen, Helen, listen to me!" He said as he saw her begin to panic. "The line," he muttered to Calypso over his shoulder and she got the rope for him.
Once he had it he tossed it out to Helen and she grabbed it. "I am not going to let you die ok, you need to trust me!" he told her. "Can yer do that? Put yer trust in me. Darlin', please…" He told her and she nodded.
This would be so much easier if he could get off the boat he thought to himself…but he couldn't.
She nodded and clung to the rope as he pulled her in to the side of the Pearl. He dragged the dingy to where she could get up to the deck.
"Come on Helen, come to me." He said to her.
He was standing up the top. She was mere feet away from her love. So mustering all the courage she had, she took a step out of the boat and on to the rudders. Every one was watching her that made it worse. Tears of fear and joy trickled from eyes to her cheeks. This was the moment she had been waiting a decade for.
She took it one step at a time until at last, she felt the top of the boat, and Hector's hand grabbing her, and it was like the wind blowing against her on a too hot day. All the pain seemed worth it at last.
She stepped on to the safety of the Pearl, and went in to the safety of Hector's embrace. He pushed a firm kiss to her forehead.
At long last, they were reunited.
An: Aww, finally!!! Yay I had fun on that chapter. Get ready for some fire works in the next one though.
I know in the film Calypso could not save people when they were in the boats, ie, Liz's dad, but I hope I explained the AU theory I was working with that if some one was not happy to go to there fate, then they could return if some one was there to take them back.
Please Review!