Author's note: This chapter was inspired by a conversation with purplediamond7. Just something a bit angsty that adds another little twist to the mystery that is our Jack. Pirate Cat
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Jack had happily passed out with drink by the time that Bill and Gibbs came aft from the bow, both of them smiling broadly from spinning yarns and putting away one bottle of rum. It was only enough to give Joshamee a slight bout of pleasant dizziness, and Bill was never affected. Gibbs had decided to call it a night, and so he made his way to his hammock whilst he still could. Jack was leaned back in chair over by the starboard railing, the back of the chair against the outside wall of his cabin, and his feet propped up against the railing. He was softly snoring, and his hat was pulled down over his face.
Bill pulled up a chair to sit with William, who had been joined by Elizabeth at the table usually used for friendly gambling when the ship was at sea. She had slept for a short while, and then woke to hear the voices out on deck, enjoying the Caribbean night. They settled in to enjoy the warm breezes as they washed over Tortuga Bay... Bill gazed out over Tortuga City before them, and contentedly lit his pipe. William looked over at his father, and smiled. "Did you have a chance to properly meet your new grandson?" he asked, not just a bit proud, his face shining with fatherly pride.
"Aye, son, that I did. I got to hold him for quite a while once we got back... you were helping Jack to inspect th' Pearl t' make sure all was right in your absence. Baby Will is quite th' little fellow... he has th' makin's of a true sailor. Jack says tha' he'll be at th' helm in no time... learnin' t' sail from th' two o' you." Bill nodded toward his son, then at the oblivious captain, who was cradling a bottle of rum in his limp hands.
William looked over at Jack, thoughtfully for a moment, then turned to his father with questioning in his eyes. "Father," he began, "... Jack said something just a while ago that bothers me a little... you know how he can get since the Locker, and he says many things that I simply let go, but this time..."
Bill looked over a lazy cloud of tobacco smoke, as his blue eyes assessed his son's. "What is it, Will?"
"Jack said that if anything were to happen to him, he has no heir, and that he bequethed his title of Pirate Lord of the Caribbean... and the captaincy of the Black Pearl... to our son. I thought it was a bit odd, even for him..."
Elizabeth turned around in mid-yawn and stared at William, "He did what? If anything were to happen... he said what?" She looked at him incredulously, and then stared over at the slumbering captain several feet away, who was now snoring into his tricorn, as it had slipped down further.
Bill took another puff from his pipe, and thought long and hard. "You both know a great deal about Jack, thanks t' Calypso's grace in letting you see into 'is heart..." he started.
Elizabeth looked at William, remembering when Jack was deathly ill, and they had just learned of being family. Bill continued, '"I am assumin' that there were a lot of things that ye didn't find out about 'im..."
"I was able to find out mostly what makes him 'him', I suppose," William answered, truthfully, "... but I know that there is much more... Jack is not a simple man..."
Elizabeth interrupted, "Papa Bill..." she started awkwardly, as Bill smiled at her term of endearment for him, "...Jack has really taken to Little Will, and I have been wondering if it is because he has no one else... I can tell that he even has wanted to hold the baby a time or two, but does not seem to be very confident about it... " she hesitated, then started in, again, "... has Jack always been this alone, in this way?" she asked, quietly.
Bill looked over at the captain, then leaned forward upon his elbows. "Just what did Scarlett tell you about him? Did she tell you how she and Jack met?"
"Yes," Elizabeth answered, "She said that she found him under a dock, here. She thought that he was about 14 at the time, and she was older... I don't remember how old she said that she was. She told me that he was sick with pneumonia, and had been left behind by the ship he was working upon..."
"Aye, daughter-in-law, but that was only a part o' th' story... let me tell ye th' rest," Bill sighed, pouring another mug of rum for himself and William, and a half mug, watered down, for Elizabeth. He made certain that Jack was quite asleep, then continued.
"I had just returned to Tortuga from England t' see Will, here, an' his mother... my wife, Mary. I was looking t' join a crew an' needed a place t' stay for th' night, so I was walkin' t' th' Faithful Bride, when Scarlett came runnin' down the street, out o' breath from tryin' t' catch up wi' me. She had found someone tha' she thought was a friend o' mine, as he was very sick, an' had been askin' fer 'William Turner' in his delirium. She had left 'im down under th' dock, as she couldn't lift 'im, an' he was too weak t' walk. She had seen me disembark from th' ship that I had been workin' on, an' she followed me.'
'Sure enough, it was Jack Sparrow. I had not seen th' young whelp since I had left three months before, an' he was in a bad way. He was fevered an' talkin' outta his head, mostly in Irish Gaelic, an' was in a tremendous amount o' pain. I was able t' carry 'im back t' a room above th' Bride, an' me an' Scarlett tried t' take care o' th' lad for a few days...''
William and Elizabeth leaned in closer so that Bill could talk barely above a whisper. It was evident in his eyes that this story pained him to tell, and that it was yet another important thing to know about their cousin. Bill took another draw of his pipe, and continued.
"Now, mind ye one thing, both o' ye. Jack has always been alone in th' world, as me own half-brother, Jonathan Teague, has never taken real responsibility for Jack only until recently, an' that's only because Jack proved t' him what kind of man he truly is... up until then, Jack has had no one but us, an' even th' two o' you didn't really know how he felt about ye..." William and Elizabeth looked at each other, sadly. This was true... Jack had hidden his feelings from them.. his feelings of affection for the two young ones whose spirit he had helped to unleash.
"...ye have t' remember tha' Jack has allowed himself to truly love no one.. he is afraid o' losin' 'is freedom. He is in love wi' freedom, an' if he were t' allow 'imself t' fall for anyone, it would take freedom away, like it has been so many times. His life has been a rough one, an' he will not let shackles contain 'im, whether they be ones of iron or ones of th' heart..." Bill said, and then he chuckled, "... that is, until the Turners came along..."
Bill took a deep breath, and continued, "I think tha' I know what you, Missy, were tryin' t' say, an' bein' th' man tha' I am, I will be blunt with ye. Jack pretty much only consorts wi' women like your new friends. If I were wonderin' if ye were tryin' t' delicately ask if there was a chance tha' Jack has been close t' ever bein' a father, 'imself, would I be right?"
William stared at his wife, as Elizabeth blushed deeply. She had never really thought about it until she had become with child, and watching their cousin's reactions to the changes upon his ship. Since the baby had been born, she and William had seen a side of Jack that they had not expected... a delightful side of someone who was already so dear to them... someone who was welcoming their newborn with thoughtful gifts, and a different look in his brown eyes than they had ever seen before when he looked at their child.
The Turners all jumped a bit when they heard Jack snort a little, and then settle back down into slumber.
Bill sighed a little, and said, "...the ladies that Jack visits most times see a hundred more just like him, every week. Many of them cannot bear children because of what they have been exposed to, or have done unhealthy things t' themselves because of the result o' their occupation..." he said, sadly, "... an' those who do bear children most times never know who th' father of their baby is...ask Mr. Ragetti..." William and Elizabeth both knew that Mr. Ragetti was the son of a prostitute... his mother had been Mr. Pintel's only sister, and Rags had been taken in by his uncle when his mother died. Mr. Ragetti had known no other father figure. Bill thought that he would not say what happened to some of the children who were not wanted...
"... if Jack had ever been a father, no one would have ever known it... he is one of many customers that th' ladies o' th' evenin' entertain, as it were..." Bill continued. He took one more long look at the sleeping captain... a look of affection and friendship for this man that he had known ever since the lad was a young cabin boy, and who he had just recently found out was his half-nephew, all along, "... an' even if he gets t' know a woman that is not a 'professional', it might be somewhat unlikely, at any rate, that Jack would be a father, anyway... not impossible, mind both o' ye, but there is room for doubt..."
William and Elizabeth stared at him, as he sighed and said, "Ye see... Jack wasn't cast off of his ship because he had pneumonia... he was almost dead o' one disease that could wipe out th' crew aboard a ship a' sea... he had scarlet fever, an' a very painful case o' th' mumps... he damn near went t' th' Other Side, then... an' because o' th' nature of the mumps tha' he was stricken with, especially as a teenager, I would be quite surprised if he could father a child. I know... I took care of 'im."
Bill relit his pipe, and said, simply, "It was never discussed between Jack an' meself... nor will any of us discuss this, again. He'd be embarrassed, an' not happy wi' me for tellin' ye... like I said, not impossible, but ye both know what th' mumps can do t' a young man... an' combined wi' scarlet fever...I'm just glad that he didn't die..."
He added, softly, looking back over the years before the mutiny led by Barbossa, "Jack was a small lad, as much as he tried t' be a tough one, an' a braver one ye'll never find... he had scarlet fever, mumps, malaria, measles over th' years, an' pneumonia more times than I can count.'
'Ye'd never know it, now... he's strong, now, for all o' his gangliness... he won't admit ever bein' sickly as a boy...but it sometimes it's in th' back o' his mind, I'm sure, an' perhaps that's why he said what 'e did about leavin' th' Pearl an' his title t' Little Will... deep down, he knows tha' th' littlest one asleep in that cabin might more 'n' likely be th' closest thing to an heir Jack will ever have... it's plain tha' he's fond o' your boy.. his blood kin..."
Elizabeth's hand covered her mouth, and William stared over at his cousin. It was a certainty that all of these things were things that they would have never heard from Jack in a thousand years... just like all of the other things that they knew, and would never, ever tell him that they were privy to. Just in knowing these things, the embarrassment of it all would break his heart. Was it any wonder that he was so proud that Little William, indeed, had inherited his hands ...it was because Jack, himself, might possibly be the final leaf on his own branch of their family tree.
William and Elizabeth at Jack, then deeply into each others eyes. "Jack will never know that we discussed this, Father," William whispered, as Elizabeth added, "... and he has no reason for embarassment...he should be proud that he has survived, and that he has us... as much as he tries to hide things, there is no need for it... but he can't help it..."
Just then, Little Will's cry could be heard from the open door of the cabin. As Elizabeth got up to go to him, her mind still mulling over what they had just been told, Jack stirred mid-snore, knocked his hat to the deck, then opened his eyes wide, in alarm, and said, "Little Will's cryin'!"
As William and Bill watched, the captain put his hat back upon his dark head, then hurried, hands raised and swaying a bit, over to the cabin door, only to smile lopsidedly, seeing that the wee one was alright and safe in his mother's arms...
He took a swig from the now nearly empty bottle of rum in his hand, then turned to William and Bill...who were smiling at him in amusement. He frowned at them, looked around to see if they might be looking at someone else, then turned to them and wondered what was so funny...
"William," Jack said, suddenly, with a soft hiccup, "...I feel a resolute need t' be findin' me sword, savvy?" In Jack's slightly drunken state, William thought that perhaps his help might be required, as the broken sword had proven to still be a dangerous thing, and in the dark, he did not wish for his cousin to end up losing some of his slender, artistic fingers.
"Aye, Jack," William nodded. The handsome young first mate got up from his chair, and looked knowingly at his father for a moment, as Elizabeth came out with Little Will in her arms. As she proudly laid the curly haired child in his grandfather's arms, they both watched as William and Jack, arms about each other's shoulders, looking from the back like two mischievious little boys with a mischievious mission in mind, set out to retrieve the broken sword from it's hiding place...