۞

Joshamee Gibbs was almost sick with worry... he had meandered back to the Black Pearl after taking in only a single bottle of rum in town, in order to check upon Elizabeth and Little Will, only to recieve a very gruff and unfamiliar "Who goes there?" in a feminine voice that was definitely not Elizabeth's. His shock was even more compounded when he looked up the gangplank and saw the silhouette of a voluptuous woman in a tight bodice and full, flowing skirts, curled hair piled high upon her head. That flaming auburn hair was adorned with feathers, and a large musket was pointing straight at him.

Once he had identified himself, Scarlett put the musket down and beckoned him to hurry up the gangplank... once she told him the story, he was nearly beside himself until he saw a very strange sight making its way down the wooden dock. In the lead was Gisele, walking arm in arm with Bootstrap Bill Turner, whom Gibbs had met during the parlay with Barbossa over the Calypso's Hand. Upon Bill's other arm was Elizabeth, holding a blanketed Little Will... she was sharing a laugh with her companions, as Gisele would lean forward to speak to Elizabeth, smiling and gesturing with her hand as if to be telling a joke about Jack. And behind them walked a quiet William, and a seemingly jealous Jack, who kept trying to get Gisele's attention, only to be rebuffed. William was quiet, Jack was pouting.

"... there ye are!" Joshamee exclaimed, as he extended a hand to help Elizabeth to the deck, "I was worried about ye! I came back an' I only found Scarlett! Laddie!" Gibbs almost took the babe from his mother's arms, so anxious was he to make sure that the sleeping child was alright. Elizabeth patted Gibbs' beefy hand and said, comfortingly, "Everything is alright, Joshamee... Little Will fared very well upon his first shore leave..." As she saw the look in Gibbs' eyes, she gently put her arm around his ample waist and embraced him, slightly. "The baby is fine... we all are..."

Gibbs reached for the tiny one, who was awake, by now, gazing at Joshamee with his brown eyes. Gibbs made no bones about his fondness for this child, and smiled down at him, chucking the babe under his chubby chin and holding him close... Elizabeth smiled at the sight. What a good father Gibbs would have made... and how grateful she and William were to have had Joshamee there to help bring their son into the world, with Jack Sparrow trying to hold the Pearl upright in the water upon that stormy day in what seemed like weeks ago, although only two days had passed.

As drinks were poured all around, Scarlett and Gisele reluctantly said their goodbyes... Elizabeth approached the two ladies of the evening, and said, "Thank you for coming by to introduce yourselves to me... it happened at a most opportune moment..."

Scarlett smiled and whispered, "Ye sound like Jack." As the three women exchanged meaningful glances, they all put their arms around each other... they knew that they had all made a new friend, and that was something that was not plentiful in the world that the three women found themselves inhabiting. Friendship was a luxury... a newfound friendship that the trio hoped to rekindle in every time the Pearl docked in Tortuga City...

۞

Elizabeth had turned in for the evening to feed Little Will and put him to bed in his cradle. Elizabeth, herself, was weary, and thought that she would also go to bed, and William had reassured her that he would follow in short order. He had poured another round of rum for himself and his cousin, as Gibbs and Bill were sitting up at the bow, telling each other tall tales of the sea and making a dent in yet another bottle of good Tortugan rum. Bill, no doubt, had some good tales to tell about serving upon the Dutchman. Gibbs, on the other hand, had plenty of stories to tell of his time in the Navy, and of course, they both had tales to tell of shared experiences with Jack.

William put his mug to his lips and looked at Jack.

"...where do you keep it, Jack?"

"Keep wot, whelp? I keep lots o' things in lots o' places... depends upon which 'it' or 'wot' you are askin' about... most ways, I jus' might remember where it ... or wot... might be..." the captain muttered into his own mug, almost blowing bubbles as the rum reached his lips.

"The broken sword..." William looked over his mug of rum at the captain, who was well on his way to being gloriously snockered. Jack was nearly asleep with his feet propped upon a barrel. At this, Jack coughed a little and opened his eyes wide to look at William. His brows disappeared up under his bandana, then lowered into a frown. He took his feet down from the barrel and leaned forward, his dark eyes searching William's. "... wot d' ye have in mind for it, lad?"

William did not answer. He merely smiled slightly and took another swallow of rum, as Jack's frown disappeared, and he put down his rum. Apparently what he had to say required both hands.

"William." Jack said, his hands emphasizing the name as though it were the answer to a question, "... I have it put away in me cabin... it's one o' those things that I do not enjoy lookin' at... it was a good sword in it's day, lad, but..." his voice drifted off, as his eyes became vacant. "It was a good sword, but its broken... Jones broke it... it stabbed..." He fell silent... his hands stopped... his eyes became empty...

William sat forward directly, and took both of Jack's arms, which had stopped in midair, by the wrists. "Jack, don't retreat into your head... Jack... don't talk to the shadows, talk to me...Jack..." As he slightly shook the captain by his arms, Jack seemed to snap out of it and stared at the young first mate. "Wot? Wot were we talkin' bout... someone interrupted me... didn't they?"

William sighed and let go of Jack's thin wrists. The captain ran his fingers lightly over his bandana in a puzzled manner, then blinked slightly and said, "Oh, yes... the broken sword. I lost my train of thought for a moment..." he cleared his throat. "Let's jus' say that I put it in a place where neither of us would have t' look at it, lad..."

William took another drink of rum, as a darkness fell over his cousin's face. Even now, it seemed that Jack felt some sort of misplaced guilt for helping William stab the heart of Davy Jones... for seperating William and Elizabeth for such a long time... he could not seem to get past that. Even after all of the good things that had happened since, Jack could not get past that...

Trying to get back upon the subject, William said, "Alright, I will be straightforward about it, mate. You might have been killed tonight because of the sword that I equipped you with."

"... but I wasn't killed." Jack pointed out with both forefingers waving as if to test the wind. "I am sittin' here, right as rain."

"Jack," William was becoming exasperated with his cousin, again, for his willingness, even now, to skirt the issue. "Your broken sword was perfectly balanced for you. Not too heavy in the blade, weighted properly at the bottom of the hilt, made for someone strong, but light in weight..."

"... are ye callin' me a lightweight, whelp, cuz I can drink ye under any table in Tortuga...I know that ye thinks I'm scrawny, but..."

William glared at Jack, and the captain knew that young Turner was dead serious... a state that Jack did not care to visit too often... he'd had too much dead serious recently. Finally, after William's icy face outglared his, he acquiesced... "Alright, I agree. It was a damn good sword, lad, but the weight that it bears is more than jus' th' fact tha' it rests well in me graceful little hand... " Jack finally sighed, himself, and said, quietly, "I put it away after ye left on th' Dutchman... I couldn't bear t' look at it, knowin' it sent ye away from all of us..." Jack turned his face into the dark shadows.

He turned back to William, tilted his head to one side, and said, "... I know what it is like t' be completely alone, Will." It was the first time in a long time that Jack called his cousin by his nickname. "I have been alone most all o' me life. I will come right out and say tha' I know tha' me brain is pretty much fried, son...because of solitary confinement in me own personal hell, courtesy of Davy Jones. When that broken sword stabbed th' heart, I know that ye lived on in another form... but I sent ye t' your own personal hell, didn't I?" Jack's eyes were hard, and his mustache twitched ever so slightly, "I didn't let ye die, but I didn't let ye live, either..."

Silence fell between them, as William watched Jack's anguish fill his eyes. Jack continued to stare at him, and William saw more and more of the Locker in the back of Jack's mind... coming forward into his eyes as though being carried upon the wave of crabs that bore the Pearl in the sandy hell that would haunt the captain for the rest of his life, along with so many other horrors. William leaned forward and said, gently, "That's all over with, Jack."

Jack's eyes softened, as they both heard the sounds of Elizabeth voice, singing a soft lullaby... a lullaby like Jack's mother used to sing... his eyes began to drift, again, then his head snapped up and he looked at William, almost desperately.

Abruptly, Jack blurted out, "William, if anything ever happens t' me..." William's eyes grew wide with surprise, as Jack looked straight at the closed door of the cabin of the Turners. "If anything happens t' me... make sure tha' everyone knows tha' th' new Pirate Lord of the Caribbean will be your son... he is th' closest thing that I have t' an heir... I bequeth th' title of Pirate Lord of the Caribbean... and captaincy of th' Black Pearl... t' him."

Jack's voice trailed off again, as his hands slowly opened and his arms swept up to the masts and rigging of the mighty dark ship that was their home... Jack's home... his prized possession .. his very life. Never had he ever willingly said that the Pearl was anyone else's but his, and now he was bequething it to Little Will.

William looked at Jack in total shock. Their eyes met... then, William leaned forward and poured more rum for both of them. "Nothing shall happen to you, my best friend... we shall make certain of it... but it is good to know that you think of my son - your cousin - as your heir..." William smiled at a serious Jack Sparrow, ".. we think of him as your heir, also...he belongs to all of us..."

Jack slowly smiled...then said, almost in disbelief, "Are ye really tellin' me tha' ye want t' fix me sword? I didn't think that ye'd ever want t' lay eyes on it, again..."

William grinned back, "You have said that you always envied those that had one of my hand forged swords, Jack... now's your chance..."

Jack thought about it for a moment, then said, matter-of-factly, "Well, then. I will bequeth tha' t' Wee Willie, too, savvy? I wonder where we might find a smiffy in Tortuga City, as it were..."

"A 'smithy', cousin?" William chuckled at his cousin's fractured English.

"Aye... a smiffy." Jack smiled, his eyes sparkling. Oh, how he loved having a family... and how lucky a man he was that his family was named Turner. Little did the captain know that William and Elizabeth planned to make Little Will Jack's heir in an official manner...as it were...

To be continued...