"Good to see you." He sounded as mischievous as ever. With a winning smile plastered across his lips as though he was that little boy again, he clearly welcomed her in. "You're even on time …"
"So are you."
"Wasn't too difficult, I live here now. Again, somehow. For a bit …" He sounded a tad whiny with every syllable he added.
"Flying always on your mind, Mr Sparrow?"
"It's actually Captain by now."
"If I'm to call you Captain, Jackie," she chuckled, her face and demeanour still mysterious as the night, "you regard me as Lady from now on, aye?"
"I'd even introduce you as such."
Roxanna smirked as she looked him up and down before entering Teague's realm. "I kept hearing the wildest stories about you as you grew up to be who you are today."
"Did you believe them?"
"Most of them."
"What did they say?"
"That you're an infamously mad bird, Jackie. Freedom personified. Cunning, yet insane."
He only grinned, quite right she was.
"Whenever rumours spread about you, I mostly couldn't help but nod. It all sounded just like the clever little fellow I taught to play cards close to the vest."
"Glad you still recognise my handsome poker face."
"Old charmer," she retorted while rolling her eyes. "You haven't changed one bit, boy."
"Likely because I was always right even as a kid."
She couldn't suppress her laughter any longer. "Likely, yeah …"
"Good thing you saved my hand all those years back, who knows what I'd have done without it."
"Less right things, probably, for the sheer lack of said hand."
"I never forgot," he informed her, quite seriously so. "You didn't have to look after me, but you did whenever you could. Even though I mostly meant trouble."
"Sure." She tilted her head, smiling at him in a way he'd sometimes, as a child, wished his mother would have. "But you were a sweetheart, you know? You'd always offer me a slice of the bread you stole."
"Law of the streets. Never come with empty rights hands."
"Good boy." She winked. "The streets raised you well."
"Teague surely didn't," he quipped. "He's around somewhere, by the way."
"Sure he is, he lives here, too, doesn't he?"
"Oh, almost forgot …" Acting as though he was annoyed with his own oblivion, he winked. "You do know the way. And him …"
"Haven't seen him in years, though, it was just … good business once."
"I keep hearing that phrase in many a context," he chuckled, gesturing for her to follow him upstairs to the veranda. "He sometimes talks about you, you know that?"
"Does he now?"
"A real lady always leaves a lasting impression, aye?"
"But see," she whispered, grinning like a Pirate herself, "I am no Lady. Screw them titles."
"Right you are. I got rid of some of mine, too – only recently."
"I know." She whistled. "Everybody's talking about it, Jackie. Ching keeps boasting she's the Mistress of these waters now."
"Let's hope she knows them well enough to not navigate herself into the Devil's Triangle, shall we?"
"May she sail through thunderstorms. Couldn't care less about her, she's said to mistreat her girls just like –"
"Laurent used to. May he rot in hell. But come again … How did he die?" Like a saint he shrugged at her, and when she held him back from further moving upstairs, she somewhat knew that he believed in stories about her just as much …
"He was shot, Jack. Unfortunately."
"What a downright shame. Too gentle. Who fired the shot?"
"Antoine. His brother."
His eyes widened in frank surprise. "Boat-making Antoine – that Antoine I stole the Barnacle from? He was his brother and even shot that filth?"
"Yeah, he was somewhat fond of one of us girls. Things eventually escalated."
Jack smirked. "Had nothing to do with you, though, am I right?"
"I might have whispered one fact or another into Antoine's ear occasionally, just to speak the truth …"
"Bravo, then."
"I destroyed many a family, involuntarily, just by doing what I had to do, but that … see, that was a different caliber. Keeps haunting me."
Jack shrugged. "Really shouldn't."
She swallowed hard, noticing the same old guilt bubbling up.
"He forced you into a life no one would ever choose."
In a way, Jack knew that only voicing that as a fact could really help with grim memories rushing back. Remembering the reality helped.
"You know how that feels, don't you …" Roxanna let her gaze wander over bits of a scar on his chest, at least over what wasn't covered by his shirt. "As a boy, you had such noble high hopes. You kept telling me you'd make for a phenomenal merchant."
"I did! For a while at least. Ever so honest. Until I even managed to sell my soul!" Casually put, it sounded cheerful and mindless, but Roxanna recognised that darkness that had also crept into her life to change her plans.
She all but sighed. "What would life be without overcoming hardships …"
"Boring, perhaps." He briefly bit his lip before speaking his mind just as bluntly as back then. "As a kid, in a way, I'd really hoped for a boring life at some point, Roxanna."
A knowing smile lingered on her features. "Children of chaos always do."
Taking in a deep breath, she shifted her gaze up the old wooden steps of the stairs. "When I realised he wouldn't ever harm us again … Laurent, I mean … I felt free for the first time in forever."
"And that's when you chose to rather work with ladies?"
She nodded with a shrug. "I'd always helped out when one of the girls got pregnant, it was just …"
"Good business?"
"Logical. The right thing to do."
"Maybe a bit of everything, huh?" he negotiated with a wink.
"Maybe, merchant prince, selling ideas and dreams and souls – but let's get to said business. Introduce me to the masochistic angel putting up with you and your kids. Lovely boring, by the way."
"Ain't it?" He couldn't help but grin. "Follow me."
And she did just that. "Jackie, what's her name?"
"Tara. But worry not, she'll also respond to 'wicked witch' occasionally."
"Less boring already, huh? Bet you deserve it though, whenever she does."
"Of course I do." He looked over his shoulder back to Roxanna once they reached the kitchen. "Do you hear that?"
"I do, is that your father?" Roxanna asked upon noticing the guitar as well.
"I'm so close to just destroying that old thing. It's never the same songs, thank the heavens, he makes it up as he plays, but at this point, I'd even prefer old Jonesy's organ."
"But it's quite charming, that sound," she whispered, almost in awe. "So raw. And pure."
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me … Don't you tell him that."
"Praise a man?" She gave him an incredulous glance as they walked past Teague's dining table, aiming for the terrace. "Jackie, who am I? I'd rather drop dead."
"Well, I felt like you'd praised me earlier."
She shook her head, cackling. "Don't you trust your feelings then."
"You'll get along well with my lovely wicked witch."
"¡Lo he oído, Sparrow!" they heard Tara yell from the outside. "Deja de llamarme así!"
"I merely called you the light of my life, love," Jack sugarcoated, routined and calm as ever, it was but a reflex. "We've got a guest, mateys! Teague, stop playing for once, will you?"
He didn't. At least not until he saw who Jack brought along … After that, he and his guitar became suspiciously quiet.
"Edward," Roxanna casually regarded him before entirely ignoring how he was so startled by her appearance as to not even say a thing back.
She still looked … like a hell of a woman. Like the kind of queen that saw right through him. He hated that with a passion. He'd hated it back when he was drunk enough to take his stupid little revenge on Shoni with her all those years ago, he hated it now.
Intelligent, proud eyes judging him. In a way, he kept himself humble by adoring just that kind of person that'd give him the hardest of times …
"And you," Roxanna said as she approached Tara, "must be … the lovely wicked witch in question?" She winked, whispering on, "You know when I used to be accused of being one? Whenever I stood up for myself. Let's just claim it."
"Yes, let's! Thank you for even being here – you're Roxanna? The woman that once saved his right hand if I recall correctly?"
"Indeed, sweetheart." She winked. "Hope he's at least using it well on you."
Despite Teague's screwed up face and groan at these words, Tara couldn't help but laugh out loud with Roxanna, mumbling, "Oh, bless his heart, if he wasn't I would've probably never had his kids …"
"So kind of you to reduce my incomparable wit and charm to bits and pieces," Jack chuckled in the background, about to sit down next to Teague who'd, clearly, already dissociated.
"It would be kind of you in return," Tara was quick to answer – in a tone that made sure he wouldn't follow through with relaxing just yet, "to also use your right hand to serve our guest a drink, will you? Please."
"Aye, Jackie," Teague mumbled, "show us some manners and bring something strong along for me, too, I need to numb my ears and quickly so."
"Excuse me, Captain, were my insinuations too suggestive?"
"Him you call Captain?" Jack complained to Roxanna.
She just rolled her eyes. "You still get upset when the adults talk?"
"Where even are our fellow kids, while we're at it?" Jack proceeded to ask Tara.
"Brethren Court. If you whistle, however, I guess Pooch and they'd be up here in a –"
He did whistle, they were.
"Flawless recall," Jack whispered into Tara's ear with a grin, just when his kids began to whine.
"What is it? Why can't we play?"
"Say Hello. Roxanna's about to show us all how to best birth a child!"
Greet Roxanna they did, but Jack's euphoria was not mirrored by the children. At all.
"But Papá, Henry and I are boys, we don't need to –"
"Shut it, Jay, you both shall know before you go out there and cause the effect, aye? And Tia, my tiny Black Pearl – maybe it'll teach you to completely avoid the cause, savvy?"
She was clearly puzzled, merely shrugging.
"And you, Sparrow?" Roxanna smirked at him. "Will you stay as well?"
"It's never too late to learn something, aye?"
Teague sighed, out of the depths of his soul. "I'll get the drinks then."
"Will you also come back?" Roxanna vexed.
"To hand you your drink, aye. After that –"
"Do stay. Don't leave me alone with all those young folks, Edward."
As though he were thirty again, he couldn't help but give in. Heavens, her eyes … Piercing right into his darkest desires and most noble intentions.
"How complicated was squeezing those two out?" Roxanna eventually asked.
"Too complicated." Tara tried to quickly shake off the memories of all the blood. "It needed stitching."
"You were lying on your back while pushing, weren't you. That's the first thing we'll change. Did you have a breathing rhythm?"
"A breathing rhythm?" Tara repeated with wide eyes.
Roxanna all but smiled. "Thought so. I'll show you what seemed to help most during labour."
"Always assumed one can't really do anything quite so wrong in that regard, but –"
"Just shut it, Jackie," Teague was quick to groan. "Let the woman show us."
"Us?" Jack put his hands on his hips in honest astonishment. "All of a sudden, you of all people are eager to learn about breathing rhythms?"
"Are they always like that?" Roxanna whispered to Tara and Tia, rolling her eyes already as they both nodded.
"We've learnt to fade their voices out," Tia said, and even James and Henry giggled at that.
"I'll try it, too," Roxanna vowed as father and son kept discussing the intricacies of supposedly sparked interest.
Eventually the boys and Tia were breathing along with Tara and Roxanna, the latter of whom had also begun to incorporate when to best push.
"That way, you're working along with gravity rather than against your body and the pain, you see?"
Tara did – in theory at least. And once they finished their session, she felt at least somewhat prepared for what was still to come.
But whenever life seemed to indicate smooth sailing in one direction, a storm was likely to rise in another.
And so soon, with the fervent barking of Poochie announcing his very visit, Jocard hurried towards them, only briefly regarding the kids – unusual – and Tara – even more unusual.
"Sparrow, we need to talk. Now."
"Well, hello there and a nice day to you, too!"
"Come on." Jocard's expression remained stern, no one could possibly tell what he had on his mind.
"If you ask that nicely …"
Jack strode away with him, at least until they'd reached the kitchen inside – where both men knew nobody on the terrace could still hear them.
But watching them from afar was just as concerning. Jocard didn't have much to say, but whatever it was, it deeply concerned Jack at once. Nodding, he watched Jocard leave again, and when he returned outside on his own, Tara could clearly see him swallow whatever information he'd gotten.
"What?" In a way she knew it was in vain, if he wished to remain silent, he could do that ridiculously well for a person that talkative. "Jack, what is it? Sparrow!"
"Nothing." He held her gaze, a grave poignancy written all over his face nevertheless. "It's nothing for now, love."
"For now?" She urged, "Don't make me mad, Jack, out with it!"
"Jocard told no one but me for a reason, Sully."
"Don't Sully me now, don't protect me because I'm with child – just say it!"
"Not a chance. Breath on and –"
"Oh, you're infuriating, Jack!" Roxanna yelped.
Teague's coarse laughter seemed to confirm that. "Keep telling him …"
"Jocard!" Tara yelled down from the balustrade just when she noticed him sneak away. "Jocard, what did you tell him? Please, you can't just leave like that!"
His pleading gaze was the answer she got before he turned around and went on again.
"Bloody hell!" she hissed, glaring back at Jack. "Are you kidding? ¡Me explicas ya lo qué está pasando!"
He was about to do everything but that again just when she moaned and flinched, instinctively holding her belly to take a deep breath – but that didn't change the fact that her water had just broken.
"And there we go," Roxanna hushed, glaring at Jack as though it was entirely his fault.
"But you're already here!" he jested while he already hurried over to Tara.
As mad as he'd made her, now she held onto him and let him guide her to one of Teague's sunbeds.
"Impeccable breathing rhythm already," he commended, and that made her laugh for a moment there indeed.
"I'll go make preparations in your bedroom like last time," Teague announced, groaning as he got up to stretch. "Might be a long night ahead …"
Dear Guest Reviewer, thank you soo so much for your kind words from October, I know the latest update took me forever lol, but your review was such a huge motivation – thanks a ton for taking the time to comment again, I truly appreciate it so much :)