"He'll lose one."

Trust. What seemed so innocuous in theory soon very much demanded a degree of intoxication from her in practice.

"He won't …"

"He'll lose James." The now cooler evening air near the harbour where Kate lived did nothing to ease the burning bad conscience at her core. Tara could literally envision it. "Tia and he get caught up in some nonsensical discussion and James suddenly wants to borrow something from someone out of sheer boredom and loses them and then he's long gone. And he'll definitely –"

"I've watched him very closely with the children the other day," Jean interrupted her catastrophising and took a sip of wine after toasting to his Kate, Elizabeth and her. "He tries to do everything right. He just hasn't been known that way until now."

Tara almost felt sick. "That's just it!"

"He's not losing one," Lizzy repeated in her most confident voice.

"Oh, and why didn't Henry get to accompany them then?"

Caught off guard, Mrs Turner cleared her throat and tried to hide it with another sip of wine.

"They're both clever," Kate also tried to reassure her. "Even if Sparrow does something incredibly stupid, they'll come back to you in one piece. You'll see."

Jean and Elizabeth would immediately second these words, so Tara forced herself to take a deep breath and nod. Like the others, she now leaned back.

"Besides, he knows perfectly well," she eventually thought aloud again, "what will happen to him should he –"

"Yes, you've threatened him enough, I think," Kate chortled. "I can testify to it."

"I had to!" Tara saw no reason to feel caught. "He simply doesn't understand instructions otherwise!"

"That's true, though." Elizabeth blew a strand of hair out of her face. "He always did what he wanted. Good at heart, but he's usually trouble."

"A free spirit," Jean agreed.

Kate just couldn't stifle it any longer and nearly burst out laughing at the tortured sight of her best friend. "Just perfectly suited for fatherhood!"

Her chuckling was contagious, immediately infecting Tara, though she soon buried her face in her hands as well.

"Did you ever regret it?" Elizabeth eventually asked. "All that?"

"Not the twins. Just that they only had me because of my choices."

"They had me, too," Kate added with a wink. "And Teague and Jean and the dog …"

Tara smiled. "Yes, and you were perfect." A little more seriously she added, "But they missed him for all their lives …"

"That's why I regret it now and then, too, yes," Elizabeth confessed. "Henry has missed his father ever since he was born and will continue to do so for just a single day on land for several years to come." She shook her head and looked out for the horizon. "Perhaps it was cruel to inflict that on him."

"No, it wasn't," Tara objected, unexpectedly forceful. "Lizzy, William is not with you for a reason, and his son knows the sacrifice he's making. Your love just had to bring a family after it."

Elizabeth looked up at her calmly. "But not yours?"

"Ours? No." Tara didn't think twice. "No, no. That wasn't …" She paused and said it, despite quiet doubts, as she had said it to Jack himself at the bay. "That wasn't love. That was … everything else."

"Everything is quite a lot, isn't it?"

Not all treasure was silver and gold. Elizabeth knew Jack had said those words to William back on the Isla de Muerta.
And perhaps he finally had reason enough to believe his own words …

"She's lying anyway." Kate took Tara's hand into hers and rebuked in utmost sympathy, "She loved him then and she loves him now."

Tara vehemently shook her head. "No. No, no."

"No?" Kate smirked. "I have a wish for you."

Tara ducked her head, screwing up her face. "Just don't, please –"

"If he doesn't lose one, you'll celebrate it adequately." What she meant, Kate stressed with her meaningful glance.

"Sure, and then within a week he's on his way to wherever again –"

"He's been looking for you for years." Elizabeth nodded when Tara just snorted. "If even Teague believes him, maybe we should, too."

"So, will you grant me my wish?" Kate urged. "Give yourself a break, will you? He may not deserve it, but maybe this time things will be different. Third time's a charm. I want you to be happy again …"

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Tara cleared her throat and sat up in her chair, pulling out a piece of parchment. "For Aunt Katie, by James," Tara began to read aloud, looking up at the very woman once more in amusement. "A while ago, James promised you to write a poem, remember?"

"Yes, for my birthday." She beamed. "But I'd never thought … He didn't forget?"

"No, he insisted that his father help him."

"So in truth, Sparrow wrote a poem?" Jean asked with a wink.

"No, he just wrote it down for him," Tara assured them, "James was dictating it."

"Is that Jack's handwriting, then?" Elizabeth looked at the surprisingly legible lines. "Really?"

Tara nodded. "Doesn't look like him at all, so much order, does it?"

Lizzy raised her brows, then she urged, "Read it already!"

"Another year, but no need to fear.
Everyone can tell, she's beautiful as a Pearl."

"Jack didn't seriously put a question mark there?" Lizzy sighed and already knew the answer, while Kate laughed out loud again.

"Hurrah for Auntie Kate," Tara continued, "I'll write her a novel, just wait!" She looked up from the writing and shrugged, on the verge of laughing again.

"That's it?" Jean asked. "That was the poem?"

Tara just couldn't hold back either.

"He's six years old, were you expecting a ballad?" Kate chortled. "That's the best gift ever! He sweetly complimented me and it rhymed!" She pinched Jean's cheek. "Which is more than you can say for yourself in the last few years, don't you think?"

"To James, then," Jean agreed, raising his glass. "A true poet!"

"To Katie," Tara said, toasting with the very same. "Happy Birthday, my one true love!"

"If I am, will you grant my wish?"

Tara sighed but couldn't stop grinning. "Only if he doesn't lose one."

Kate winked. "Agreed."

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

What the hell was the point of carrying advice like this under his skin, when all he ever did was go where the loud and aggressive felt most comfortable? It was force of habit. Even if some of his habits had changed a little in the last few weeks …

For instance, he was used to looking out only and exclusively for himself. For his advantage, his possibilities, his freedom.

And suddenly there were these two children who could cause trouble like a whole crew.

So far in life, he'd been reluctant to look left and right. Eventually he would, but not as a rule. Saving the whelp, Turner, for Jack's own murderess after Davy Jones' blow to his heart in the raging Maelstrom had been as good as it got. He'd discovered a second path to immortality – a little problematic overall, but still – and had given it up for William.

He'd never per se regretted it, but he'd not really gained much from it either.

Except for Henry … The little know-it-all who was quite militant about morals was, after all, the ideal playmate for the twins.
With him aboard, Tara didn't have to preach all alone at least …

So perhaps he could chalk up his former actions as an advantage after all. And without a living Will, there would likely have been no way to stop the murdering Elizabeth –

"They're about to rip Ace's head off." And this observation intrigued Tia.

Jack immediately followed her gaze.

"Oh …" He nodded. "They are. Mind terribly looking the other way?"

"Why?"

"Just in case they succeed? Might not look pretty, Calypso."

"It's fine, I'll keep an eye out for him."

She was six years old. He believed she was allowed to decide that for herself.

Anyway, with the two of them, suddenly everything was different. He'd never owed anything to the world, but to the twins he owed everything, now that he was finally with them.

In a way, they were a part of him. Their faces, the way they thought about the world, laughed at it – it was all bits and pieces of him, too.

"He could use the plate to defend himself," James mused aloud, glancing spellbound into the crowd as did his sister.

Jack woke up. He feared mistakes had been made … "Too much going on in here for you?"

Tia, even at the supposedly quiet corner table, was too invested in following the tavern brawl to reply, James, however, shook his head for them both, bright-eyed.

Nonetheless Jack sighed. He didn't usually question himself at all, but when he did – it was basically already too late. "I shouldn't even be here with you two, should I? Tia?"

A little perplexed, she glanced at him.

"I'm not supposed to be here with you, am I right?"

A little coy, she smiled. "Well, Mamá had actually forbidden you to come here with us. Especially at this late hour."

"Oh did she now?" Jack screwed up his face. "Must've missed that …"

Tia beamed as she claimed, "It's great, though, what an exciting place!"

Indeed. It seemed to him a good idea to count the stock. Who was still alive, who had passed away, who was somewhere in between … He had already done that now and then as a youth aboard Teague's ship, the Troubadour. And in the most infamous tavern on the pier of Shipwreck City, the threads ran together almost in the same way. Even if the screams and quarrels here, just as back then on board, had very little to do with the love poetry that named the ship …

"It's too bad you can't keep secrets," Jack mumbled, leaning back a little despite increasingly more inner turmoil. "Because your Mamá will quite happily push me off the outer cliffs of the next bay when she finds out we've been here, mateys."

The twins exchanged a quick glance and simultaneously began to explain, albeit in different wording, that they did not always have to tell everything after all.

"But would I get one of those for it?" James pointed to the bottle of rum at the table. He didn't need to drink it, he just thought it was better to have one. He liked to take what he could get.

"Do you know what this is?"

James tried not to let it on, but he didn't have a clue.

"Ale?"

Jack shook his head. "Rum. Welcome to the Caribbean, Jay!"

James' inhibitions weren't gone yet, but Tia's were. She reached for the bottle and smelled it.

"Oof …" A little disappointed, she pushed the rum away again.

"You get used to it, princess. But feel free to take your time with it. The outer cliffs, if you know what I mean …"

"I want a go, too," James muttered against the loud voices in the tavern to also smell the contents of the bottle.

"Well … does it also taste like that?"

"It tastes worse," Jack revealed to him. "But feels better. Try it if you want – I've always been able to keep secrets …"

"No, I'm good." He smiled at his father. "But I could if I wanted to, couldn't I?"

Jack winked. "We always have all the freedom we want if we just take it, Jay. That principle applies to almost everything in life. You, for example, don't feel like trying rum, and you're perfectly free to do just that. Making your own decisions and standing by them doesn't always make life easy, but at least you hold your fate in your own hands."

He hesitated. "But then why aren't you drinking?"

"Huh?" He peeked at the bottle, then he realised it himself. He hadn't taken a sip since they'd arrived … He shrugged. "Because of you, I guess."

Tia propped her face on the table in her folded arms. "Us?"

"Are you trying to be a good example because Mamá is scolding so much?" James asked.

Jack waved it off. "Not even stone-cold sober I'd be a good example, unfortunately, and I bet that's precisely why she scolds," he replied with a wry smile. "But Iet's rather leave it to Ace to be a cautionary tale … Besides, if he's about to get his head ripped off dead drunk, he won't be able to tell your Mamá that we were here."

"We could also help him," Tia suggested. And looked at James and Jack and then giggled. "All right, then, we won't …"

"But Papá," James began again, pointing to the bottle. "You did order it. Why?"

"Force of habit, Jay, it's remarkable how certain sequences of actions burn themselves into your brain …"

"Is that why your head hurts so much?" Tia asked. "Because you don't drink?"

"Why, did you hear me whine?"

She nodded tentatively.

For a heartbeat there, Jack examined her cute face, then he couldn't help but smile. "Everything comes at a price, Tia."

"Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth."

Another line of Desiderata under his skin, but this time the words didn't just buzz through his head – someone said them.

Irritated, he turned around just to chuckle the very next moment.

"Sparrow, old man, you're not gracefully surrendering the things of youth, are you?"

"I know a Gentleman when I see one, but you may never call me old again!" Jack retorted. "And I don't even owe you any money!"

The giant of a man before him beamed as effusive as was his half-hug.

"You actually do," Jocard then informed him, "but from you I wouldn't claim it."

"Aye, my words exactly."

"Jocard!" Tia exclaimed, standing right up on the bench like James to better greet the great Pirate Lord of the Atlantic Ocean. "You're back!"

"You two birds," he laughed, his voice deep as ever, "fit in beautifully here!" And by that he turned to Jack. "Do they know who you are?"

"No, my friend, they just went along with me stranger at the tavern because I was so much alike them."

Jocard shook his head and didn't even get into it. "Where did you leave their mother?"

"Needs some distance," Jack confessed, "she's finding good reason to lose hope in me and that can get quite exhausting at times."

"Since you're deaf when it suits you, yes – I can certainly imagine that." Jocard put his hands on his hips and winked at the children. "Is your Mamá going to cook for me soon, what do you think?"

"Last week she said that you'd be coming back to the Cove," Tia said.

James added, "We can let her know what you'd like."

Jocard messed up the boy's hair laughing. "Thank you, little sparrow, I'll tell her myself soon – I wanted to discuss something with Teague anyway." He looked back at Jack, amused and as quietly as possible he advised, "Take care, Jack – Tara's been incredibly angry with you throughout the years, as far as I know."

"I almost missed that. She's only tried to shoot me once a week so far, so things are quite calm, actually." Jack still seemed a little weary to an old friend.

"Once she's said it."

He raised his brows at Jordard. "That she'd shoot me as soon as I'd –"

"That she missed you. And that she loved you."

"She did." Jack paused for a moment, staring into blank space. "Like no other."

"Then try harder this time, my friend."

Jack expansively gestured to the children. "Crazy, isn't it?"

"Suits you better than I would've guessed," Jocard agreed, then nodded. "They're both yawning already, though. Shouldn't they be sleeping by now?"

"Should you be?" Jack let his gaze wander from one child to the next, both were shaking their heads equally tired. "Hell, you bloody sure should be …"

"At least you haven't lost one yet," Jocard simpered in ironic exultation.

Jack looked into the crowd, sighing. "Well, and I guess Ace is keeping his head, too …"

"He'll rat you out. He'll tell Tara that you were here."

"He will." Jack, however, couldn't quite regret Brannigan's presence. "At least his little fight kept distracting the kids from the ladies' negotiations."

"What ladies?" Tia asked.

Jocard rolled his eyes with a laugh as Jack also realised that he probably shouldn't have mentioned them himself …

"What are they negotiating about?" James now also wanted to know.

"Love, Jay," Sparrow murmured. "You know what, Jocard's right – we'd better get going."

"You're not quite teaching them the truth, though. Everything can be negotiated, except love."

Who the hell was that again …

"Theodore!" The twins put in a stormy greeting once again.

"How are you two, eh? You've grown so much!" A wistful, warm smile spread across the man's face. "How's your Mamá?"

It was enough to hear his tone of voice, and see that miserably larmoyant glance – Jack could calculate just how Theodore had contributed to Tara's well-being as if it had been a course down south.

"Good!" James exclaimed. "She's chiding quite a lot, but not because of us!"

Tia hooked her arm with Jack's and said, "But finally Papá's here, see?"

Theodore, too, was apparently getting his suspicions confirmed. So much so that he finally verbalised them. "Jack Sparrow."

"Captain, if you please …"

"Ah." Theodore squared his shoulders, nodding. "Yet I didn't see the Pearl out there."

"Like any reputable lady, despite all her splendour, she likes to hide from too prying eyes. She is, after all, the most cursed ship in the Caribbean, aye?" He gave him a mirthless smile. "But excuse me – you are? You seem familiar, have I threatened you before?"

"I used to think highly of you, despite your burn scar," Theodore replied. He didn't have to say that it was different now, his facial expression made no secret of it.

Nevertheless, Jack cheerfully retorted, "Why thank you, how exceedingly kind!"

"You don't remember me, right?"

"Should I?"

"Not without the uniform, I suppose."

"Oh!" Jack looked him straight up and down as though it'd give him a better idea of Navy regimentals. "Right … Lieutenant, aye? Used to be by Norrington's side."

"Correct, but it's Lieutenant-Commander by now."

Jack couldn't help but grin. "You can't go flashing that title here, good sir, this is Shipwreck City."

"I've always been aware of that," he countered. "But I've always been willing to make sacrifices as well. Even that one."

"You don't say," Jack murmured with an appreciative nod. "And why is that, dear lieutenant? Since you mention it so auspiciously …"

He would explain no further. He also ignored the incomplete title. "Just give my regards to Tara."

"The mother of my children?" Jack shook his head. "Certainly not …" He lifted Tia in his arm and took James by the shoulder to maneuver them both past the table and away from the mob inside the tavern. "Gentlemen," Jack said, nodding at Jocard and Groves as the children also waved. "It was a pleasure, but we're off to new adventures!"

"I'm still a bit hungry."

"So am I, princesita. But nothing is for free, for the world just isn't fair … So tell me, how do you know the lieutenant?"

"Theo?"

"Yeah, you can call him Groves though. What does he do in the Cove, do you know?"

"He used to visit Mamá a lot."

"Mh … Like Jocard or rather –"

"No, Jocard used to just come for dinner and then leave."

"But surely Theodore did that as well," Jack suggested.

"No, it was a bit different with Theo," James corrected, Tia nodding at his words.

"A bit, yes," she said, "He was still there for breakfast sometimes."

"I'd also still like to eat something," James informed his father hopefully at that cue.

Jack, however, didn't quite know what to make of this information yet.

There she'd had her Navy hero. Tall, stately, highly respected, willing to make sacrifices for love. And yet he no longer had any reason to greet her himself …

"Papá, can we eat something?"

"Huh?"

"Anything, preferably something sweet?"

"Oh … Sure."

"It's just …" Tia looked up and her face announced a confession. "We're not really allowed to eat late."

"Really?" Jack pretended to remain unimpressed. "Rules the Navy can abide by. Does Teague still keep food where he did so thirty years ago?"

Tia hesitated. "We weren't born then."

"Very true."

"Where was it though?" James asked. "Teague's quite fond of habit …"

Jack couldn't help laugh. "Come, come, move, I know then. Oh, and how did your Mamá come to know Theodore again?"

"No idea. You, Tia?"

She shook her head and turned the tables. "How did you come to know her, Papá? And did she always threaten you with a pistol when you saw each other again?"

"Not necessarily always," Jack replied, already lost in thought. He led them into a small pantry of the Brethren Court, just below Teague's terrace. "You know, back then, when your Mamá and I met again after some time …" In vain he tried to open the small door with some keys from the bunch he'd used as a youth underneath a loose floorboard. "This one, maybe," he muttered, and sure enough – the lock clicked. He motioned for the children to enter. Unlike him, they didn't have to bend down and could walk in upright.

"Yes?" he heard James say. "Go on?"

"Well, our greetings were all …" He'd never shut up throughout the day, but just now he couldn't find the right word. "Vigorous," he finally concluded. "Yes, vigorous, I suppose …"

"Why?"

"How?"

Heavens, children asked anything …

Dear ella, I'm super glad you liked it again, thanks a ton for your kind feedback :)