Summary: When Jack and his crew find a young princess's tomb, they do not realize the danger they are in until Jack suddenly begins to think he is a child again… As the crew panics and searches for a way to return the gold and break the curse, Will Turner becomes the official caretaker of "Child Jack". As Will keeps Jack out of harms way and teaches the "young" Jack about piracy, he learns new things about Jack... and about himself.

Takes place between CoTBP and DMC.

Chapter Fourteen: It's just a memory now…

Months earlier…

"Captain!" Gibbs voice rang throughout the Black Pearl. Everyone was in a panick… their Captain was nowhere to be seen.

"Gibbs!" Anamaria called out. The lightning struck the waters that they sailed, and the rain drenched everyone to the bone. Anamaria wiped away a few locks of dripping, wet hair as she ran to Mr. Gibbs who was standing on the deck just beneath the crow's nest. "Gibbs!"

"I found him, Maria!"

"What did I tell you about calling me that!" Mr. Gibbs did not respond, and instead he pointed to a small crate that laid on the wooden deck.

"Here he is!"

"Where?" Anamaria gazed at the crate that Mr. Gibbs was kicking. She waited, and listened… it was too hard to hear anything due to the thunder that roared above them, and the constant yelling of the other crewmates as they hurried to sail the ship without orders. Anamaria huffed when she could not hear anything coming from the crate,

She learned down and pressed her ear against the soaked wood. She heard soft mumbled coming from the inside… Words she could not make out.

"Jack!" Mr. Gibbs kicked the crate against, causing Anamaria to jump away from it and stare daggers at him…

"… leave me alone…" Jack's voice mumbled almost so softly that Anamaria at first could not hear it. She sighed…. This was not the first time Jack got so moody that he ran away and hid underneath something.

"Sparrow! Get out of there right now! This crew needs you to help us sail to land."

"No!" Jack yelled. Anamaria sighed… and for a minute, she wondered how such a big man like Jack Sparrow could even fit into such a small crate. Both her and Mr. Gibbs were beginning to grow impatient and they both continued to kick and scream at their pirate Captain as he continued to pout and grumble underneath the wooden crate… Around them, the government of the ship seemed to be falling to pieces, with the question of "who is the Captain"? Everyone was yelling at each other, and no one listened to anyone else…

Once the storm had stopped, everyone was still soaking wet… and they all still continued to scream and yell.

"That is it!" yelled Anamaria… She was sick of it… Sick of Jack's strange behavior and sick of everyone fighting all of the time. "I'm sick of this!" She announced… as if it were not already apparent. But everyone else felt the same way… and surprisingly, everyone took one, deep breath of relief once Anamaria had officially announced their feelings in her own.

She turned to Mr. Gibbs. "Gibbs!"

"Yes'm?"

"Drag Jack out of that crate…"

He did as he was told and Jack kicked and screamed.

"Geez, Mate! Stop it! I just don't feel like being a Captain today… I just want to play the guitar!"

"Jack!" Anamaria turned Jack around so that he faced her. She gave him a long, hard, stern look that made Jack shrink back a little… She huffed. "Jack… Look, when you decided to Captain the Black Pearl that means you need to stick with that decision."

"No it doesn't." The pirate spoke with such a nonchalant tone of voice that it almost sounded as though he were going to throw away everything he had worked so hard for… "I'm still young. I can do other things that watch over this smelly boat and govern you spineless brigades."

Anamaria's mouth was hanging wide open… As was the rest of the crew.

"Now see here you little bas-"

Anamaria covered Jack's ears and Jack was spared the long string of cuss words that would spew from his first mate's mouth. Once the red color faded from Mr. Gibb's face, Anamaria moved her hands from Jack's head and she sent Jack to his cabin.

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"… He's been doing this since we returned from Peru with that treasure." Anamaria's voice was soft, but Jack could hear it clear as mud as he pressed his head against the wooden door.

"Coul'n't have been that treasure that we stole…? Blast it all! I surely had thought th'a we'd been done with this clique, cursed-ed treasure…" Mr. Gibbs paused to take a long swig of rum from his mug. Anamaria took this as a chance to continue speaking…

"Ah'm 'fraid that it might be a curse. We'll have to take him to someone…" She leaned over and pulled out the maps from underneath her feet as they laid rolled up parchment on the ground.

"Take 'im where?"

Anamaria smirked. "Well… tell me, Mr. Gibbs… Do ye know offhand where we could find some… Oh, I don't know… bayou?"

"Oh God. F'er the love of God… We're not goin' to… Her?"

"Yes, Mr. Gibbs… Her!"

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Jack couldn't sit still… He rocked on Her chairs… He chewed on Her furniture, he played with her trinkets and he tugged on her supplies that hung from the roof of her small hut.

"Jack Sparrow!" Her deep, smooth voice called to him. "Stop dat movin' 'round like dat…" Her Creole accent was very heavy, and it sauced over her sentences in such a smooth layer that it was almost hard for Jack to understand her. "'N stop chewin' on my tables."

Anamaria and Mr. Gibbs stood side by side near the front of the open door… Both were nervously shaking. They turned to look at each other… they stared for a moment, testing themselves to see who would speak up first. Frankly, both of them were scared shitless.

"Uhm…" Anamaria spoke. "Ah'm so sorry for Jack's behavior, Tia Dalma…"

But Tia Dalma wasn't listening to Anamaria. Tia Dalma was hovering over a large black kettle. The steam that rose from the black kettle blew in front of her face and wet her long dreadlocks. She sighed…

Then, after she had dipped her finger in to take a taste of whatever she had cooking, she reached over to the table and grabbed a wooden bowl and spoon. She scooped out a large, bubbling serving of green slop and flung it into the bowl. It continued to steam as it was now slushing around in the bowl that she held.

"Ye at least could 'ave fed 'im before ye brought 'im to me…" Tia Dalma sauntered over to where Jack was now sitting at her table. His eyes were wide with high alert and he gazed in awe at the bowl that Tia Dalma held. She sighed and almost literally threw the bowl in front of him and threw the wooden spoon with it. Jack did not waste his time and he immediately began to wolf down the green slop that Tia Dalma offered. "Hmph… To t'ink! Starvin' dis po boy like dat. T'is no wonder 'e been actin' strange ah'board yer ship."

"We're here on account of a curse…" Mr. Gibbs spoke this time for Anamaria, who was standing even closer to the door now, waiting to leave as soon as she could.

"Hn… Yes. 'Da curse." Tia Dalma next to Jack at the table… Jack was so busy slurping down Tia Dalma's soup that he did not even notice her there. Tia Dalma let out a long breath through her stained black, parted lips. "Dis be 'da curse of dat yu'ng Peruvian Princess. She 'ad died before she 'ad turned se'ven. She was laid to rest… up in d'a caves of d'a Alpamayo mountains."

Anamaria's eyes widened at the news… That was the exact mountain where we found the treasure… Tia Dalma continued…

"She was buried wi'd 'er Fadda's golden medallion… and 'er preshus teddy bear."

Mr. Gibbs turned to Anamaria and he looked at her. "I could have sworn… on me mother's grave that Jack was carryin' a teddy bear on his way out of those caves."

Anamaria's face and composure washed over with complete and utter shock. "We're cursed!" She cried out so loud that the creatures surrounding the bayou had all turned their heads in the direction of her voice… "We're cursed!"

"No!" Tia Dalma cut in and she stood up from where she sat at the table… "You ar' not curse… Only y'ar Captain…" She gestured towards Jack, who's head was laid flat against the table… asleep. A thin line of glistening drool trailed from his mouth and he snored soundly. "Ye see… D'is curse cannot be broken by 'im… At least, not alone."

"So then… how is it that we break this curse…?" Mr. Gibbs inquired in a breathy voice.

Tia Dalma's eyes sparkled and she gave a seductive smirk, showing off her shiny, metallic, black teeth… "Ye will need to take yer crew back up to d'ose mountains, all of ye, to'ge'da, and ye will need to return the gold and bear without Jack."

"That's it?" Anamaria couldn't believe how easy it sounded…

"No… Ye see… Jack's mind," Tia Dalma made a gesture above her head, "'is mind is now d'at of a teenager. In due time, it will be d'at of a young child… from d'ere, he will become like a baby."

"How much time do we have?" Mr. Gibbs and Anamaria spoke simultaneously now… both of them were leaning across the table and they were in such depth and concentration that they were both staring Tia Dalma in the eye and demanding answers. The obe woman only laughed, and her black teeth sparkled in the dim candlelight.

"Not much. When 'is mind becomes d'at of an infant… 'e will continue to deteriorate."

"You mean…" Anamaria's voice cracked and her eyes were so wide she felt that her eyes would pop from their sockets. "… He'll become a vegetable?"

Tia Dalma nodded and she reached over to rub Jack's back as he slept. "Da man will become no't'ing but a droolin' body d'at'd be better off dead!"

"How soon, will the curse lift, once it's…. lifted?" Mr. Gibbs asked. Of course, he was much calmer than Anamaria, and because of this, he decided to take over the job of talking for her.

"Gradually." Tia Dalma continued to grin, and she did not speak another word for the rest of that day.

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They dragged Jack back onboard the Black Pearl and they took delicate care to be sure not to wake him up…

"To Port Royale!" Anamaria whispered to Mr. Gibbs as she tucked Jack into his bed…

"Wha…? Fer what? In case ye haven't remembered… we're not exactly welcome in Port Royale."

"We can't leave Jack in Tortuga like this! He needs someone to look after 'im!"

"And who do ye suggest to look after 'im in Port Royale? Hm? Perhaps the Commodore? Or even the Governor!"

"No!" Anamaria smiled, "Even better…"

"Who?"

"William Turner."

Author's Notes:

The story is actually beginning to reach it's end.

In case you were confused about this chapter,

Everything that's happening here is from the past. Kind of like a flashback, except it's not from the memory of any other character.

Basically, it just gives extra background information about Jack, his crew, and the curse that we didn't know about in the first chapters.

I think I only have one more chapter to go before I close this story.

Thank you to all of you who've been reading it so far!
I'm so glad you're enjoying it. (: