Title: "All the Way Home"
Author: monimala
Fandom: POTC: AWE
Rating/Classification: NAC, W/E and J/E hints.
Disclaimer: All belongs to the House of Mouse, not I.
Summary: 500 words, takes place after "At World's End." The ship with black sails always comes round.
When the baby is nearly six months old, the ship with black sails comes round. It makes port and Uncle Hector --the lunacy of that makes her laugh and laugh-- brings trinkets from the Indies, as well as black pepper and salt. He informs her, teasingly, that the Brethren miss their king.
"Aye, and what of their prince?" she counters, stifling a giggle at the most fearsome pirate on the high seas counting the little royal one's pigglies and taking them to market and home again.
With her son on her hip, she watches the Pearl sail away, knowing the colors are hoisted just for her. That night, she makes a rich, spicy stew and tells the baby about her first parlay with Captain Barbossa and his crew of the damned.
When the boy is but three, a ship of blaggards come in search of Will's heart. Somewhere between Singapore and Tortuga, they learned that her man captains the Dutchman. They don't live long enough to teach that lesson to anyone else and she and Uncle Jack --the lunacy of him makes her laugh and laugh-- sheath their bloodstained swords with a beautiful symmetry.
"D'you fancy immortality, love?" he asks over cups of rum long after the child's been put to bed. "I could get you a dram, you know."
The jewels in his hair glint, the beads making clacking noises as he nods his head to a rhythm only he can hear. The fire from the hearth brightens the gold of his teeth and reminds her of a coin she once wore religiously around her neck. She shakes her head no, warning, "But perhaps some day I shall fancy a trip."
"Fancy it? You ought demand it," he scoffs. "Can't have that lad of yours turn landlubber, Cap'n Swann."
"No," she agrees, "I expect not, Captain Sparrow."
She walks him to the cliffs where the black sails blow at half-mast. "I'll see you again, Jack?" she wonders, the weight of his rings heavy against her palm.
"Of course you will, Darling," he sighs against her cheek. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
That night, she tells her boy about how she once escaped a rumrunner's island with the help of two giant sea turtles. "More, Mama, more!" he laughs at the lunacy of it.
The day he turns six, they hoist the colors just for him.
**
"It's almost time." It's two months till 10 years, until Will returns to her from sunrise to sunset. Barbossa's hand is steady on the wheel and her man's namesake is learning to tie the rigging with Mr. Gibbs.
"No worries, love," Jack murmurs, with his vaguest wave. "Plenty of time to get back in your skirts and welcome 'im proper-like."
"That means you'll have to get out of them," she laughs.
"Fancy that, Cap'n Swann."
"Fancy it?" she scoffs. "I demand it."
A wolfish grin splits Jack's face. His fingertips dance across her toes and take them to market and home again.
--end--
May 28, 2007.