"Why'd you give me your name, Dad?" Jack asked his father one evening.

The Black Pearl had put in to Port Royale for some timbers, which weren't quite ready yet. This gave the crew time to relax and blow off steam, and gave Jack and Elizabeth time to spend with Teague and Agatha.

Teague's life in Port Royale was not dull. His new marriage to Elizabeth's Aunt Agatha opened doors of Society for him that hadn't been open in decades; however, he refused to step through many of them. Having turned to piracy in the first place because of the hypocrisy of Society, he wasn't eager to revisit it. He usually sent a peremptory refusal to many of the invitations and overtures that Port Royale's upper crust kept sending him.

When he did socialize, he was surprisingly popular because of his bone-dry sense of humor. He looked almost angry when delivering a sarcastic comment, as if daring anyone to laugh at it. He raised eyebrows everywhere with his curt manner, but everyone loved his gruff, guitar-filled storytelling.

With Agatha, he was quite different. He treated her with a gentle deference, smiled often, and showed her a sweet, respectful affection that stole the hearts of anyone who saw them together. It was for this reason that he was still popular and still invited places by people to whom he had been very rude indeed. To have a civil conversation with Captain Teague was considered a mark of high achievement to the upper crust of Port Royale. Teague's favor had rapidly become a mark of prestige, despite how recently he himself had arrived. Fort Commander Eustace "Ace" Gilbert, by virtue of his close association with the man who had used to be his captain for nearly two decades, rapidly rose in status, and the two men enjoyed playing cards together once or twice a week.

Even Governor Anderson, at first reluctant to extend the hand of friendship to a known pirate—albeit one he had pardoned himself—was forced to acknowledge Teague's influence in the town. The governor had been more than a little shocked when Agatha Ainsley-Swann, a respectable widow of good family, had actually married this pirate! All she would say was that Teague was a good man, and she had found living in a pirate town for several months to be an eye-opening experience.

She much preferred being back in Port Royale, though. She was very fond of her new husband, who was a terse conversationalist, but a good companion and an excellent lover: all three ways in which he was a vast improvement over her late husband, Horace Ainsley-Swann. Agatha got to see her niece quite often and her grand-nephew nearly every day (Elizabeth left Jacob in her aunt's care whenever they traveled to the rough-and-tumble little settlement of New Flimwell).

Elizabeth seemed very happy with Jack, Agatha thought. Being among pirates for so long, and then having to fend for herself for over a year had hardened Elizabeth, made her more cynical and less vulnerable. Loving Jack seemed to soften her a little, open her up. Agatha was happy to see Elizabeth laughing so much more, trusting more, and being more affectionate than she had been before.

For his part, Jack was still laughing and flirtatious, but he seemed to have acquired a depth and stability that hadn't been there before. Agatha and Teague both noticed that he helped Elizabeth lighten up and open up, while she steadied his flightiness and tempered his recklessness.

"A good match," Teague said with a sigh of satisfaction one day, as the two of them stood in the window watching their two visitors walk up the path. "That was a good call, Ag'tha."

"Really, all I wanted to do was make sure my niece was provided for," Agatha responded. "I had no idea she actually loved him so much."

"Aye, but if you hadn't picked up on the fact that he loved her so much, you wouldn't've matched 'em up."

"Well, that's true," Agatha admitted. "I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out!"

That evening, sitting in Agatha's parlor, Jack asked about his name. Teague could tell that Jack was nervous, by his relaxed posture and calm demeanor. When Jack was truly relaxed, he fidgeted; it was only when he was nervous that he looked calm.

"At me wedding, I mean," Jack clarified. "You named me Teague. Why? And why then?"

Teague picked out a slightly melancholy little melody on his guitar. "Wanted to, when you were born," he answered. "The Taino don't do that, though. They name a baby after 'is mother's family. So me an' Senya, we compromised. We named you after your mother's family, but we used her father's English name. Smith."

"Makes sense," Jack said. "Doesn't actually answer me question, though. Why Teague, and why then?"

Teague took his time answering, as the tune sped up and became more cheerful. "The Teagues wouldn't allow me to marry your mum in England. 'S why we had to go back and get married by the Taino. They're all dead now, though, my family. All 'cept me and my children. Me, you, Adam, and Sarah. All the relatives that didn't want their name tainted by yer mum's blood, they're all dead. What good did their lofty ideals an' purity do 'em? They're dead. Whose is the blood that goes on? Yer mum's, who they didn't think was good enough, and mine, whom they disowned."

"So it was sort of to spite your family, then?" Jack asked, uncomfortably.

Teague gave him a sharp look. "Are you thinkin' that I didn't want to acknowledge ye proper, Jacky? 'Cause yer mum was a black? Or mebbe 'cause we wan't properly married in the English way?"

"Thought had crossed my mind," Jack said with deceptive mildness, which someone who knew him well could see masked his hurt. "Especially when I grew up and came to you in Shipwreck and ye introduced me as yer protégé. Thought ye didn't want to admit to my bein' yer son."

Teague shook his head. "Nay, 'twasn't that. 'Twas only to keep you safe 'til you were old enough to make your own way. I had a lot of enemies back then. And it wasn't to spite my family, either. Well, not only," he added with a grin. "'Twas more to acknowledge that you're grown up now, than it was to acknowledge that you're me son."

Jack gave Teague a bewildered look. "Dad, I'm over forty!"

Teague played a laughing little riff on the guitar for him, and grinned. "An' glad I am that ye're finally grown up! It certainly took ye long enough!"

Jack rolled his eyes and groaned, sitting up and fiddling with his palm glove.

Teague smiled; Jack was fidgeting again, and therefore was starting to relax. Teague started another melody. "It's yours if ye want it, the Teague name, but ye don't have to use it," he said quietly. "It don't hurt my feelin's or anything. I know you've made quite a name for yourself using 'Sparrow,' and that's fine. Your mum, she always loved sparrows. But I wanted to give you the option, see. There are only four of us left, an' only me actually usin' the name since Adam uses the Dalrymple title now, and Sarah's married to Daniel Spring.

"Funny," he mused. "Me father forbade me to marry Senya, so I'd marry an Englishwoman and have children 'worthy' of carrying on the family name. So later on, I married Bertie, but neither one of her children is carrying on the family name. Th' only one left who can still use it is you, the son of the 'sambo' they deemed unworthy in the first place."

Teague finished up the melancholy little melody and began a more martial-sounding one, with a driving beat. He sat up and met his son's gaze evenly as he said, "Jacky, you call yourself whatever you want to call yourself, but I wanted to make sure you knew, on your wedding day, that you could call yourself 'Teague' as well."

Jack's only reply was a nod of thanks and a smile.