Agatha went out on deck. The ship was well underway by now. The captain was at the helm, conferring with the first mate about something. The mate saw her, nudged the captain, and said something to him. Jack nodded, and Gibbs came over to the stairs.

"Would you care to come up, Mrs. A.? Seems we have some things to discuss."

"Gladly, Mr Gibbs." Agatha climbed the steep stairs—really, it was more like a ladder than a staircase!—and joined the two men.

"How's Mrs Turner doing?" Jack asked.

"Ate some food, fed her child, cried on me for a bit, and fell asleep," came Agatha's crisp reply.

"Poor lass," Gibbs said. "Bein' so ill, and then having this happen."

Jack agreed. "Even someone as tough as Elizabeth has a breaking point. Pity about her friend." He looked at Agatha with as serious an expression as she had seen on his face so far. "Thank you for taking care of her, ma'am, and for coming with us. She needs you."

Agatha noticed it was "auntie" when he was joking and "ma'am" when he was serious. Matching his serious tone, she replied, "It seems that I owe you thanks as well, Captain Sparrow. You've been a good friend to my niece, as well as saving her life. And you as well, Mr Gibbs. I thank you on my brother's behalf for looking after his daughter."

The two pirates were not used to being spoken to so respectfully by respectable people, and Gibbs blushed a little while Jack fidgeted with his shirt-cuff.

"Our pleasure, ma'am," Gibbs said finally.

Agatha nodded curtly. There, now with the pleasantries out of the way... "So what happened to her house? Elizabeth didn't come back with anything from her house except that one chest."

"Oh, this chest?" Jack bent and picked it from where it rested beneath the helm. He leaned close to listen to it, and Agatha copied him.

thump, thump! thump, thump! thump, thump!

Agatha squeaked in surprise and stepped back, her eyes wide. "I-is that it?" she asked.

Jack snickered and gave her a knowing look. She'd asked him that before!

Agatha took a threatening step forward.

"Yes, that's it," Jack hastened to affirm. "'The heart of her husband doth safely rest with her,'" he quoted.

"I can hardly believe it!" Agatha said. "It's true? You give me your word of honor it's all true?"

Jack nodded. "Might've been embellished slightly for the sake of the tale, but not by much. Word of honor."

"She said everything else was burned. Was anything salvageable?" Agatha asked.

"Burned and ransacked," Jack told her. "All the contents destroyed."

Agatha nodded grimly. "So if we can't stay in New Flimwell, where are you taking us now?"

Jack exchanged glances with his first mate. "Well, I do have a place in mind, but I may need your help to sell her on that idea, Auntie. I'm thinking you can both stay with me father for a while."

"Where?"

"Shipwreck Cove. The three of you would be safe with him while we go out and find whoever is responsible for sacking Flimwell and... deal with them appropriately." Jack's tone was hard.

"Why won't Elizabeth want to go there?"

"It's a pirate haven, Auntie. I doubt she'll mind overmuch for her own sake, particularly as that's where she ascended to royalty, as it were. However, I likewise doubt that she'll think it a proper place for babes-in-arms or respectable aunts."

"You let me worry about that. Keeping her safe is far more important than my respectability, Captain Sparrow. Will your father be able to accomplish that?"

Jack gave an awkward half-smile. "You'll have to meet me dad," was all he said.

The conversation with Elizabeth actually went better than Jack had expected. He and Agatha confronted her in the captain's cabin shortly after she woke up and dressed, and told her the plan.

"Why Shipwreck Cove?" Elizabeth asked.

"Darling, you settled in a place that would be uninteresting to pirates, and pirates found you anyway. Perhaps this time you should choose a town of supreme interest to pirates, but one they avoid like the plague."

"Why do pirates avoid a pirate haven?"

"We hate bureaucracy," Jack replied. "And Shipwreck is full of it. Every pirate who stays there longer than a night or two has to make himself known to the Brethren or the Keeper of the Code if none of the Pirate Lords are there, and he gets judged as to how well he keeps to the Code. And for another thing, as you know, the Keeper of the Code is my father. The two of you ought to be very safe there."

"What about you? Do you avoid it?"

"Hell, yes. Didn't you meet my father?"

"Not officially. I can think of several things I'd like to ask him," Elizabeth mused. For being Pirate King, she really didn't know much about the code.

Jack misunderstood. "I'll not be having him tell you tales out of school about me, young missy!" He scowled.

Elizabeth scoffed. "Oh, you think it's all about you. I wasn't even thinking of that."

"Oh."

Elizabeth decided that a sheepish expression really didn't suit his face. She had to change it. "However, now you bring it up—"

"I think not, my girl."

Elizabeth grinned—Jack was such a tease that it was fun to turn the tables on him from time to time. Agatha, watching in the background, smiled and said nothing.

"All right, we'll go to Shipwreck. Will your father let us stay?"

"Of course. My dad may be intimidating as all hell, but even he isn't proof against a pretty damsel in distress. Or even two," he said, with a gallant bow at Agatha.

"Or a distressing damsel?" Elizabeth asked innocently.

"That too," he grinned.

When they reached Shipwreck, Jack went ashore first so he could talk to his father and make some arrangements. He found him at the pub, sitting in the corner playing his guitar. Jack joined him, slumping into the opposite chair, waiting and listening until the song was finished. Then he waited a minute longer until Captain Teague looked up and acknowledged him.

"'Ello, Jacky," he said.

"Hello, Dad."

"Buy us a drink, then."

Jack signaled to the barmaid to refill his father's drink and bring him one of the same. He waited until they'd been poured, and he lifted his to his father. "Your health, sir."

Teague nodded, accepting it as his due. "And yours, son."

They drank.

Teague ordered, "Out with it."

Jack swallowed. "There're two women and a baby who need somewhere safe to stay for a bit. Somewhere they won't be bothered overmuch by pirates—or the law."

"Jacky! Did you get some tart with child?" Teague asked sternly, leaning forward.

"Oh, no, Dad. It's not mine. Neither is the mother, for that matter. She's... a friend. More to the point, she's the wife of a friend, and said friend just happens to be the new captain of the Flying Dutchman."

One of Teague's guitar strings twanged. "Son, this friend of yours wouldn't happen to be the Pirate King, would she?"

"Aye."

"And she's married to Davy Jones' replacement?" Very little could intimidate or discomfit Teague, but he was looking a little pale. He took a long drink.

"Aye, and they've a baby. Elizabeth, her aunt, and the baby need somewhere safe to stay, as the village they were going to live in just got attacked by pirates and her whole house looted and burned. I figured staying with you might be the safest option, if you're willing to host them."

"Of course, son. My home is theirs for as long as they need!" Teague was nearly falling over himself to agree.

"All right," Jack said, looking a little suspicious at the sudden agreement. "Funny, I thought that'd be a harder sell."

"Jacky," Teague said. "Do I look stupid? I don't think you understand what you're saying. I know the new captain is a friend of yours, but to the rest of us what you're saying is that the ship of death's family needs a place to stay. I don't know a single pirate here brave enough to tell them 'no, try somewhere else,' do you? Knowing sailors as ye do?"

"Hadn't thought of it like that." Jack supposed that he himself might have gained a little notoriety just by being friends with Will. He brightened at the thought. He could use that! "Right, then," he said. "I'll head back to my ship and deliver the lot of 'em to you. She ought to be safe with you, I should think."

"Aye, that she will. I'm Keeper of the Code."

"And she'll be safe from you as well, right, Dad?" Jack asked pointedly.

"Teague spread out his hands, palm up. "Jack, can you name just one man fool enough to lay a single hand on the Dutchman captain's wife?"

Jack's mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and looked away guiltily. "If I could, I wouldn't. Name him. To you. Or anyone." He shook his head, drained his glass, and rose. "I gotta go."

Teague raised his eyebrows as he watched his slightly poncey son make his arm-flailing way toward the door. Jack might have the effeminate mannerism or two, but he obviously preferred the fairer sex—if his chronic habit of getting into trouble with them was any indication. It was a good thing the lad had the devil's own luck, if he was involved in any way with the Dutchman captain's wife. He'd need it! Teague packed up his guitar and headed home.