"I can't stand your wistful staring at the horizon anymore." Arriving at the pier, she faced him again, just as she noticed that he hadn't moved but an inch. He continued not to, his eyes not even wandering to the basket of groceries she placed right in front of him. He did absolutely nothing, and at times that was precisely the worst. "Sparrow, grab a dinghy and some oars and get the hell out of the Cove the way you came!"

"And what if the cliffs rip me apart? Then what?"

"Then you'll die at sea at least, where your heart has a beat, instead of just standing by the harbour to gape off into the distance!"

He cleared his throat as though his mind was completely elsewhere. "Perhaps my heart would also have a beat on the mainland if you were just a tiny tad more –"

Her index finger was immediately on his lips as hers twisted into a wry smile. "You crazy bird – fly away … I can't balance the lack of ocean out for you, certainly not when you're getting on my nerves even more than your twins. And believe me, that's saying something …"

"Are we at that point yet?"

"Very much so." Affirmatively she added, "Yes."

A bit lost, he shrugged his shoulders, just like his children when they were unsure how to proceed. "But what am I supposed to do? The Pearl –"

"Take the Troubadour, or for all I care ask Antoine nicely for a new fishing boat –"

He interrupted her by making agonised vomiting noises in addition to a stuck-out tongue.

"Like your son, in every way," she moaned, giving up. "Speaking of which. Where is he? James?" She turned around at the pier, more frantic when no answer came. "Tia? Tia, James!"

Nothing happened, no one answered.

"Sparrow!"

"Tara?"

"Where the hell are they?"

"Where they are?" he repeated as though he was asking himself the very same question. "Where they are …"

He seemed to think about it for a moment, then, as he himself was about to start looking around with showing anxiety, a raspy voice close to his ear, as if from nowhere, breathed, "The two little birds have flown away."

"Ace!" Jack shrieked, then he shooed him right away. "Damn it, why do you always sneak up on me like Teague?"

"I don't, I –"

"Get out of my sun, will you … Oh, I hate this place, I hate the company –"

"What do you mean, flown away?" Tara hastily asked Brannigan.

Ace smacked at his mango with skin. "Flown away, off they went."

"Ace Brannigan!" she hissed. "More details, now!"

"Don't worry," another person behind them called out. "They're at the waterfront with Henry." Jack immediately recognised the high-pitched voice. "Kate's with them, it's all right."

Sparrow wrinkled his nose and looked at Tara with moderate enthusiasm. He also made no efforts to turn around.

But there was no time for him or lack of manners anyway. Tara was already waving at Elizabeth before she left Sparrow standing in the background for a hug.

"He only had one responsibility while I was with Hazel …"

Now Jack did turn around, irritated even. "Are you talking about me?"

"No, about Ace," Tara replied all upset, "of course about you! What kind of father doesn't notice when both his kids run off to the water with another kid? You're standing here with repose of the soul, staring at the sea!"

"Just like the old days," Elizabeth chortled and winked at Tara.

Jack, for his part, only gave her a gloomy smile. "Do you still backstab people to kill them whenever the opportunity arises? Just like the old days?"

"Jack …" Lizzy tilted her head. "It's been years, our kids are playing together – I really thought we'd moved past that."

"Oh, what exactly would you have to move past with, huh?"

"The more pressing issue," Tara spoke up again, "would be explaining to me how the kids could just disappear in front of you."

"They're just pretty damn good at it, Tara. And you didn't think of them right away either when you came back to –"

"Because I trusted you!"

"That's too bad, but not my fault, you –"

"¡Te voy a matar aquí mismo!"

"Oh, by the way," Elizabeth interjected into the heated discussion, looking rather sardonic, "before I forget it, Jack – your son borrowed the Pearl."

He blinked at her. Once, twice, then he hastily swiped his clothing to test for lack of a ship in a bottle.

"He's got the Pearl?"

"I also hear you without the shouting –"

"The Pearl?" he yelled.

"In a bottle, yes."

"Where the hell do these thieving landlubbers play?" he grimly asked.

"Oh, you misunderstood, Jack – my son didn't steal anything –"

"Course he didn't, his little fingers of a saint are only made for pointing out wrongs!" he murmured. "Where, Elizabeth!"

She remained perfectly still and smiled, similarly pleased at his distress as Tara. "Come along, I'll show you."

"They've got the Pearl," Jack whimpered, already seeing the truth to the story from a distance. He immediately ran in front of Elizabeth as her lead became redundant. Kate, who was sun-bathing on the shore, he also rushed past without a single word or glance. Only to reach the high jetty, richly frantic, at the end of which the children were playing with the ship in a bottle.

"James!" they heard him shout. His usually so unconcerned tone was entirely gone. "What do you think you're doing?"

James' smile was as lambent as his father's whenever he didn't acknowledge being at fault. "We're just playing, you know."

"No, I don't!" Jack yelled as he continued to rush towards them. "This ship in a bottle is not meant for you! Oi, don't hold her so bloody close to the water, for heaven's sake!"

Jack gulped as his son, with sweeping gestures, made it unmistakably clear that he would drop the bottle if he came any closer.

"You said I wouldn't have any hands left if I touched it," James called out to him, clearly amused, "but Papá, they're still there, see?"

"Still! The emphasis is on still, boy!"

"So are you sailing with us?" The hope in James' voice, plastered all over his face, would have almost made him proud as ever, had the little magpie not been holding the Pearl, of all things, in his scatterbrained fingers.

"You want to extort me, Jay?" Jack snorted in disbelief, then spread his arms. "You me? Do you have the slightest idea who I am?"

"I can't hold her very much longer, Papá, she's quite heavy …"

"Tia?"

"Yes?"

"You may beat your brother now."

She just grinned. "Sorry, Papá, but I can do that whenever I want. Sailing, however, not …"

"You both are out of your minds? Henry!" Jack looked at the little know-it-all as friendly as ever. "You're a good kid, aren't you? Your father and I, we go way back, thick as thieves. Nigh unseperable we were, savvy? Be so good and moral and take what doesn't belong to your little friends."

"But we only borrowed the Pearl, Mr Sparrow!"

"It's Captain!" he shouted, ultimately on the edge of sanity. "I really would've expected more righteousness from you, Henry, you truly disappoint me!" For a moment there, however, Jack doubted himself. "This is outright childish …" He started moving again, albeit cautiously, and added, ever the diplomat, "Don't do anything stupid now, aye? We can talk about everything –"

"Stop and swear!" James shouted, nodding in excitement to stress his words. "Swear you'll take us with you next time you sail. I'll drop it if you don't, I will!"

"And what shall we set sail with then?" Jack stared at him, aghast. "Huh? Do you think I'd sail on some random bland ship?"

"James, stop it!" Tara yelled, simply walking past Jack – who seemed frozen in shock for good, just as the children had intended.

"What are you doing?" Sparrow squeaked. "Can't you see I'm being extorted, and bad things will happen if we get too close to them?"

"I'm ending this now."

With her, indeed, the children spurted five times better than with him, but even facing his mother James drew his leverage further to the seaside.

"Give me the ship, James. Now. It's miserable enough in that bottle, and it means the world to your father –"

"He'd take us, wouldn't he? You just forbid it …"

"I'm not negotiating with you, if it wasn't for me you snotty little rebel wouldn't be in this world in the first place. So give me the ship."

"No."

"Yes you will!"

"No."

Tara sighed. "You're more stubborn than Poochie when he's found some rubbish he wants to eat! What's got into you?"

"You want Papá to be traveling again, that's what we heard," Tia now said. "But who knows if he'll come back then! So we should all just sail along! Then we can make sure he comes back home with us again."

"Does no one here trust me at all?" Sparrow exclaimed while Tara was already putting her hands on her hips in touched sympathy.

"Is that what this is all about? You two, don't you hear him complain about his backache all the time? He can't get his vertebrae back in without me, and he loves you more than anything – he'll come back to you. He'll promise you that."

James looked skeptical at his father, and Tia's eyes widened.

"Yes, of course!" Jack agreed. "I will, promised! I swear – now bring my bloody ship back here!"

Jack took a leap, almost cradling the Pearl in safety again. But the fact that at that very moment a distant shot in the Cove caused seagulls to screech hastily past them, startling James – the bottle in hand – and made him stumble, could not have been foreseen.

He tried to hold on to Tia, and in the movement he accidentally let the glass of the bottle clink at the very edge of the jetty. And then they both lost balance and fell right into the water along with the Pearl and shards of glass that glittered in the sunlight.

"Bloody déjà-vu!"

Elizabeth knew well enough that Jack's cursing referred to her rescue all those years ago in Port Royal. Short of breath, she'd fallen off the cliffs into the middle of the harbour thanks to her infinitely tight corsage, right after James Norrington, freshly promoted, had proposed to her in what must have been the most sober offer of marriage ever. And although the port had been swarming with marines and other very respectable men, Jack of all people, an outlaw, a pirate, had jumped into the water to save her life. Only to end up in a prison cell afterwards, something that must have been foreseeable for him, clever as he was.

Nevertheless, he'd jumped into the water for a stranger. And she had repaid him a few years later with nothing less but death …

Just like then, she wanted to feel utterly bad about it. But Sparrow and the adventures at sea he had unleashed had fundamentally inspired Elizabeth in such a lasting and formative way that her moral compass had been pointing to the core of true piracy for years by now. It was every man, every woman, for themselves, and somehow they were square anyway.

Jack briskly distributed his belongings into Lizzy's and Tara's hands.

"What are you doing?" Tara asked, far too calm for his liking.

"What does it look like?" No sooner he'd uttered it than he was jumping into the water.

"Is that for the Pearl or the kids now?" she thought aloud, watching all the bubbles rise to the surface from the rush of water. Elizabeth just chortled as Tara followed up with, "God help him if he comes up with the Pearl."

Henry simpered, "But Tia and Jay know how to swim!"

"Well, does he know?" Elizabeth crossed her arms over her chest, grinning.

"Probably didn't think of it." Tara all but shrugged. "His bad."

"Gotcha!" Well audibly, he reached the water surface with the children again. "All is well, you just need to breathe!"

"But we know how to swim, Papá," Tia complained, her long black hair covering her face wet and heavy, while Sparrow pulled her along in the best intentions. "I don't need to be rescued, really!"

"That's an entirely un-christian attitude, Calypso," her father huffed, already lifting her up towards Tara – then it was James' turn.

And he seemed considerably more meek than his sister. Pitch-black eyes were searching the dock incessantly as soon as he was back on the jetty. Tara could tell how guilty he felt.

"Did you see her by any chance?" he whispered to Henry, then also looked at everyone else. "Did anyone see where she fell in the water?"

Before he could get an answer, Jack pulled himself back onto the jetty as well, immediately prancing around the children like a startled, soaking wet hen.

"Are you all right?" he urged, then eyed James' hand closely. "Did you cut yourself on the glass?"

"No, but … Papá, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drop the Pearl!"

"It's clear that wasn't part of the plan," he grumbled.

"We can dive in again!" James suggested. "And look for her at the bottom and –"

"No, Jay, it's fine, she's …" Jack paused and looked into the blue waves for a second. The sun was reflected on the ever moving surface and Tara briefly thought to herself that Sparrow's heart was breaking audibly that very moment. "The Pearl," he then spoke up again, "is just a ship. It might be time to let her go – the bottle never did her justice anyway."

Tara had expected him to be completely beside himself and snap. In fact, in her first impulse, she had thought he was more concerned with the bottle than the children – but she had been wrong.
He was a good man and, counterintuitive as it seemed, a really good father.

It was therefore also the moment when she finally decided for herself that one more child with him would basically not make the mess any worse either.

James, however, quickly startled her out of her reveries. "Do you hear that? Something strange?"

"A kind of bubbling?" Tia agreed, looking intently into the bay just as her brother did. "Yeah, in the middle of the dock!"

Tara heard it, too. And now she also saw it. Bubbles were rising in the turquoise water again – but this time it was myriads of them, and bigger than any she had ever seen in her entire life.

And the bubbling quickly became a mighty fountain, quite as though the contents of the bay would have to give way to the witchcraft of these waters – or even Scylla and Charybdis from the depths.

"Qué rayos …" Tara swallowed, and she fell silent in such astonishment that now even Jack paused.

He heard it, too, how the sea gave way …
Suspiciously and slowly he turned around, and he glanced up seized by a rare awe. Not least because he thought he sensed the presence of ancient magic working – and yet it was utterly impossible.

But the surface of the water seethed, it glowed – until in big waves it gave way to black wood, then black sails, under thousands and thousands of sparkling drops of salt and water.

"Fair winds and following seas," Elizabeth said under her breath. A little genant, she added, "I guess Gibbs would say that now …"

The sight of the Black Pearl in all her glory, far from the little bottle, succeeded in the impossible: Everyone fell silent.
Even Sparrow.

His daughter, however, soon found her voice again. "Maybe she needed the sea," Tia whispered. Immediately she beamed at Jack. "Papá, she probably just needed water! James set her free!"

"Did I?" James considered his sister's words, but then nodded with conviction. "Yes, I apparently did!"

"No kiddin' …" Jack mumbled, not taking his longing eyes off his miraculous ship.

"I didn't break it, Papá!" James cheered so much even Jack woke up again. "She's whole! And no longer in a bottle!"

"I thought I'd remember it being a bit bigger, though," Tara muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest right next to Jack.

"You just can't help but claim that in many a context, aye?"

"I can't. For the life of me." It wasn't entirely easy for either of them to remain serious in the face of Elizabeth's throat clearing and repressed prudishness, but they tried their best.

"Children, can you feel it?" Jack finally whispered, leaning towards them, proudly looking from Tia to James. "Magic. In the air, in the waters. You've obviously made use of it."

"You think so?" Tia glanced at James in utmost amazement. "That's pretty handy."

"Oh yes, keep that alive like you keep your freedom," he said to them. "Because most people lose both once they grow up."

"Oh, stop it already, I know that face."

Jack still stared at the Pearl. "Tara, just look at her …"

"A showpiece, Sparrow, I can see it."

"That you have to drag everything through the mud."

"You of all the human souls in the world say that? To me?" She laughed out when he did. "What are you still here for? Off to the water, show the children that cursed ship!"

Teague's pistol was still smoking. He had recently received a visit from Gibbs – it was a remarkable coincidence, or a touch of destiny, that the first mate of the Black Pearl was now with him. At first, however, Teague had suspected an intruder from which he had to defend himself with a shot.

But from the highest point of Shipwreck Cove, they were now both pleased at the sight of the harbor. Things came full circle when Gibbs muttered fair winds and following seas, glancing at the most notorious galleon of the Caribbean waters. Her black sails were now impossible to ignore, and hopefully it would forever stay that way.

A ship with history, Gibbs liked to call her. A ship that people fought over and whose crew would always become part of the legends on the horizon – what a shame it would've been if she had continued to stay away from the sea. Freedom was her calling, not glass and limits.

Teague could only agree, even if he did it without a word. He played the guitar. His son had the compass back that Tia Dalma had given him, he loved the family he hadn't deserved before – and the Pearl once again blessed the crystal clear salt water with her majestic presence.

It was now only a matter of time before she'd velvety glide through the Devil's Throat, thus giving him, and everyone else, a well-deserved respite from his mad son and his constant babbling …

"I want Teague to take good care of you while he's got nothing else to do, savvy?" He brushed her hair over her shoulders, his look one of very atypical longing.

"When he's not playing, he always does," she claimed. "You'd better look after yourself, though, don't you sail through the Hurricanes, yes?"

"Only Commodore James Norrington was that insane, chasing …" Theatrically, he looked up at the sky, already unable to not chuckle. "Who was he chasing again?"

"You, of course. Who else."

He winked with a grin, his gold teeth as shiny as ever.

"Tonto …"

They could hardly stall any longer. And she swallowed, about to try catching smoke for the third time in her life. Still she took heart, for the twins. "Listen, in seven weeks your kids will be seven years old. That would be a bloody good time to come back."

"They did mention that, you know? About … forty-nine times. I'd also quite certainly have to sail through no hurricanes at all that way – which only insane Commodores would attempt …"

She was visibly relieved that he already had that time slot in mind himself. "As if we'd guessed it all those years ago."

"Or destiny scheduled it." He smirked. "Seven weeks, then?"

"Yes, but not years. Alright?"

In feigned distress, he mumbled, "I very much hope I do remember it this time …"

"Sparrow, ¡te aviso! If you're not here on their birthday, don't even dare show up again!"

"Needless to warn me, sweetheart, hands off the weapon." He kept her hands in his for safety, mischievous as ever, he then stole a kiss. "Take what you can."

"And give nothing back!" Gibbs shouted all too cheerfully from the railing above them before Tara could even think of it herself.

Hectic activity aboard the Black Pearl had meant Goodbye for them all these years ago, but this time at least it wasn't a Goodbye in anger and tears.

"Don't fly away!" Jack admonished his children as he bent down towards them. And yet he sounded like someone who would encourage them to do just that at any given time. "Stay clever and don't get caught borrowing, aye?"

"How come we don't get to sail as well?" James was still infinitely offended that he could not accompany his father.

Cautiously, Jack looked up at Tara, then whispered, "We'll talk her into it, matey. Next time."

"I mean we'll be seven by then!"

Jack nodded, highly dramatic. "Exactly, Jay, and really almost grown up." He tapped the tip of his son's nose, then beamed at him. "See you soon."

James thought it over, but finally pushed the annoyance aside and hugged his father as tightly as Tia. At least until he made a proper mess of James' hair and put the very pearls back on Tia he had once again stolen from Hazel in the meantime. It quickly made both children run back to Kate giggling. James tried to unknot his hair while Tia wanted to save the necklace from their outraged mother.

"I just couldn't help it, they're so shiny …"

"Jack, damn you! Tsikwâ'yä translates to sparrow, not magpie!"

"Pirate!" he sang, as he so often did.

She groaned and yet waved it off.
Eventually everyone gave up …

"My regards to the horizon. And don't you die."

That was all she needed to say, he knew exactly what that meant. "I'll miss you, too, darling. But you just won't believe me, right?"

"Depends on you coming back first …"

"Well, then." He winked. "Hasta luego."

"Vaya con Dios …"

She gulped as he turned, already heading for the Pearl's gangway.

This was it, the opportune moment. And it was about to pass irrevocably. She couldn't let that happen, though. Not again.

"Sparrow! Wait!"

Her heart was pounding, and he was doing just what she asked. And now, regardless of her unhealthy pulse, she owed it to him to take steps towards him.

And as she stood before him again, she wanted to be at a loss for words, but she forced herself to confess.

"This time I should probably tell you before you disappear."

"Tell me wha-" His confusion promptly swung into genuine surprise at the way he looked at her. "No, don't you say! Are you sure?"

"They're feeling like they did then," she replied with a quick glance down her cleavage, "I'm not entirely certain, but I guess so."

His face lit up in pure euphoria as he looked into her eyes again. "Heady tonic – nothing but good times ahead!"

She wanted to be cynical, but the desiderata under his skin had taught her to try better. "Do you really think so?"

"How could I not," he retorted in absurd joy, "just look at the first two …"

"Wanna bet?" she asked in amusement. "Will it be two again, and this time you'll be the one looking after them?"

"Maybe it's even going to be three …"

"Ni pensarlo. One more is more than enough, you'll see."

"So will you finally admit it?" He kissed her again, though only fleetingly because he would be back soon anyway. "How much more life has to offer with mere guidelines?"

She couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head. "Get the hell out of here, Sparrow …"

Hoist the colors,

so much for the once intended one-shot … But by my standards, I still kept it quite short :D

Thank you kindly for being aboard, I hope the voyage of the Dawn Treader – yes, wrong fandom, I sail too much – could entertain you a bit and made you smile here and there.

In any case, I had a blast taking a trip to the Caribbean again, where the world of Fanfiction had once started for me.

So thank you very much for any fave and follow and, of course, a huge special thank you goes out to Ella – your kind feedback was such an inspiration, I truly can't thank you enough for it!

Never let the wind be taken out of your sails :)

xx

Dalia