Chapter 6: Life & Death

I Don't Own Pirates!

The sun was high in the sky as the Dutchman and the Black Pearl sailed farther away from Tortuga. It was a beautiful clear day, but the heat was horrible. If I weren't immortal I would have already suffered from a heat stroke by now. I lean against the railing as I look out at the calm waters, feeling the spray of the sea against my face; I close my eyes, taking in the moment. I hear footsteps coming from behind me; I didn't have to turn and to know who it was. "Terrible day isn't it?" I open my eyes and glance over at Jack who holds onto a rope as he looks up at the sky. I sigh as I stand back up, "If you say so." Was my only reply. I walk back to the wheel and relieve my father from it. He nods and heads down below deck. Jack comes up the stairs, and stands next to me.

He wants something I just know it. I groan as I turn around facing him, "What is it, Jack?" he looks at me and smiles. Without looking at me he asks in a whisper, "Why didn't ye do it, mate?" he asks. I am confused, for I have no idea what he is talking about. He sees my confusion and sighs. "Why didn't ye stay with her?" I turn back to the wheel and grip it hard. After a few minutes of an awkward silence he shrugs his shoulders and turns to leave, I look at the wheel as I whisper, "I wanted to." He stops in his track and swirls around; he staggers back over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. "If ye did, then pray tell why ye are still in this boat…ship." I smirk as I loosen my grip on the wheel. I just smiled as I looked over at Jack, who still had his hand on my shoulder. "Cause I fell in love."

He just nods his head, I look over at the sea, smiling. "I would have had to stay here even if I didn't promise myself to Calypso." I feel him tense up. I turn to look at him; he was giving me an odd look. I smirk, "Once a captain, always a captain, right?" I say as he relaxes. He removes his hand from my shoulder, and walks away over to the railing and grabs a rope. He turns and gives me his infamous smile and says, "Right, captain." Then he swings back over to the Pearl.

I decided to go into my cabin, I ordered one of my crew members to take the wheel. I open the door to my cabin and walk in. I see Calypso starring out the window. I gently close the door and walk over to her, wrapping my arms around her I kiss her neck gently. She leans into me, still starring out of the window. She seems troubled but I have no idea what could be bothering her. I lay my head on the top of her head as I ask, "What's wrong, love?" she sighs and turns around to face me. She smiles up at me and kisses me on the lips, but before I could return her kiss she backs away. I watch as she walks over to the bed, she sets down and motions for me to set beside her. I do so, and wrap my arm around her shoulder. She takes a deep breath, then turns to me and says, "William…ye are gonna be a 'ather."

I stare at her in shock for a few moments; she looks down and puts her head in her hands. I excitedly wrap my other arm around her and give her the biggest hug I possibly could. We both laugh as we fall further back on the bed. I kiss her passionately and she returns it. I pull away, grinning from ear to ear. She smiles back, as I ask, "Are you for sure?" she simply nods her head, anxiously and I lean back down and begin kissing her once more. We had been trying when we first got married but we sort of quit after the first year, unsuccessful. Now after four years we finally reach success.

I glance out of the window; it was nighttime, then back to my wife. After finding out she was pregnant we had done a little celebrating of our own. She was lying with her head on my chest as I ran my fingers through her hair. She looks up at me, smiling. I return it as I remember only a few minutes ago we were making passionate love to each other. She lovingly kisses my chest before she slowly gets out of bed, I smile as I watch her put her dress back on and walks over and starts putting the kohl around her eyes. I lay my head back down on the pillow, watching her as I did.

After she was done with that, she gets up and walks over to me, sitting on the edge of the bed she begins to stroke my chest. I close my eyes as I feel chills run throughout my body. I open my eyes and see Tia smiling at me. I grab hold of her arms, tenderly and pull her closer to me. When our lips meet I feel her frown, I lean away and look at her. She was beginning to cry. I look at her confusingly and raise up, as I pull her to me. She sets there and cries against my chest as I hold her close. After she had calmed down a little I ask her in a whisper, "What's wrong, I thought you wanted to have children?" She looks up at me kohl running down her face. He shakes her head, "I do…but I must…leave ta do…me job!" she says in between sobs. She leans up against my chest once more as new tears came. I just sat there comforting her as best I could, trying to understand what she meant by 'job'.

We sat there for a few minutes longer she had finally quit crying. She got up, without looking at me, and walked over to the mirror. I remove the covers and get out of bed; slipping on my pants I walk over to her and put my hands on her shoulders. I gently massage them and she relaxes and closes her eyes. I move my hands to the back of her neck and massage a little then move back to her shoulders. She reluctantly opens her eyes and begins wiping the kohl that ran down her face. I bend down and wrapped my arms around her neck, making sure I wasn't choking her; I laid my head down on top of hers.

"It is my job to ferry souls, darlin'." I say as I continue to watch her put her kohl back on her eyes. She doesn't reply and I kiss the top of her head. "I will start in the morning, I promise." She sighs as she turns to look at me; I remove my hands and stand back up. She looks at me in the eyes, "I am doin' dis cause I most." She pauses and I give her a confused look. "I am takin' back me job, but I promise ye dat I will at least visit twice e'ery month." I shake my head, "No. This is 'my' job and I will do it." I get down on my knees and place my hand on her knees. I look up at her, as tears threaten to fall. She puts her hand on my cheek and I lean into her touch. I close my eyes but reopen them when she says, "I took me job back when ye became me husban'."

I look at her confused, I know that I had only ferried souls a few times since my return. But I didn't know that Calypso had been ferrying souls when I wasn't. A single tear escapes my eyes and Calypso takes her thumb and brushes it away. I lay my head down on her lap as she runs her fingers through my hair. I close my eyes as another tear falls. "I love ye." I hear her whisper to me. Without opening my eyes I whisper back, "And I love you, my dear wife."

I rise up and lean in to kiss her belly lightly. When I pull away I look up at her and ask, "How far along are you?" she smiles and I return it. "Two months." She simply says. My smile gets bigger as she leans down and places a, not passionate but intimate kiss on my lips and I happily return it.

Calypso had left an hour or two ago and I find myself standing out on deck thinking of a certain someone. But it wasn't Calypso; it was Elizabeth. This had been the first time I had thought about her in the past four years. I wonder how she is doing now, what kind of adventures had she been on since my final farewell. Had she moved on to another man and lived the life she had always wanted? So many questions came to mind but I had no answer for them. I hadn't heard of any news of her, so hopefully she wasn't…

I stop myself from thinking about that; I close my eyes as I take an unnecessary deep breath. I open them, walking over to the other side of the ship I see the Pearl right beside us. Jack at the helm looking over a map he was holding. He was acting strangely sober, so I decide to go over to see what he is up to.

I materialize right beside Jack. I accidentally scare him; well actually I was meaning to scare him. He jumps and looses his balance but before he could fall I grab his arm, to keep him balanced. "Mate, what are ye tryin' ta do?" he half yells as he gives me an angry look. I give him a smile as I look at the map he is holding. I point to it and ask, "What are ya looking for?" he glances down at the map and then back up at me. I still had a smile on my face as he shrugs his shoulders. "Lookin' for treasure, mate." He replies with a hint of failure. My smile disappears when I notice this, I raise my eyebrow and say, "You seem disappointed." He glares at me for a moment then folds the map back up and stuffs it in his jacket.

He takes hold of the wheel and looks forward. I narrow my eyes and sigh. I walk to the back of the ship, leaning forward on my elbows I look at the reflection of the sky in the water. I already missed Calypso, very much. A tear rolled down my face as I thought about Calypso. As I continued to look at the water I noticed that the stars where vanishing, I look up to see rain clouds moving in, rather quickly. I could sense rain before it hit us. The weather now matched my mood.

I heard Jack grumble as it began to rain, I didn't mind the rain much. I just continued to stand there looking at the sea. Jack walked over to me and stood beside me, I glance up at him, noticing that the rain had soaked him already. I probably looked the same, but I didn't care. He stood there a few moments before he finally asked, "yesterday, ye said somethin' 'bout a son." I looked up at him and nodded my head. He raised his eyebrow; I just looked back out at sea as I said, "yeah. He should be around fourteen now." I could see Jack give me an odd look out of the corner of my eye. I just chose to ignore it. "What of 'Lizabeth?" he asked shortly after. I looked down for a moment, and then looked at Jack. "I haven't heard anything about her since I left so…I don't know." I said, with a hint of defeat lingering in my voice.

We stayed silent as the rain kept pouring down on us. I sigh as I quit leaning on the railing and turn so I was fully facing Jack. He looks at me, smiling. But his smile quickly disappears when I show no emotion on my face. "Jack I have something I want you to do." I say as he scratches his head. I groan as he looks up at the sky opening his mouth and letting the rain fall into his mouth. I take my hands and push him in the chest. He stumbles backwards but doesn't fall down. He looks back up at me with an irritated look. I walk closer to him and I look him straight in the eyes as I say, "Look, I need you to go to Elizabeth's house and tell her something for me." he narrows his eyes at me. "What would that be, whelp?" he asks as he continues to glare at me. I sigh as I look away for a minute then look back at him. "I need you to tell her that…I'm…dead."

His eyes grow wide when I tell him that. "Why the 'ell would ye want me to tell the bonnie lass that?" he asks me in disbelief. I look down, thinking it over in my head. Without looking back up at him I reply, "Cause, she needs to move on. I will never see her again Jack. I made that clear in the letter I left her the day I left." He walks closer to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. I look up and he has a sad look covering his features. "Tell her I've been dead four years. I died out at sea." He simply nods as he removes his hand from my shoulder and walks down below deck. I hear him shouting orders to the crew; I give one last look out at the sea. Then I materialize onto the deck of the Dutchman, walking into my cabin I flop down onto my bed and fall into an uneasy sleep.