Chapter 48:  Home

 

Jack watched as a few crabs scuttled from the ocean and then became the form of the goddess Calypso.  He glared at his daughter’s mother and murder hatefully as it began to rain harder.  Calypso approached Jack and the other pirates who were there.  “The Brethren Court once held me captive in a mortal body.  For that, you will die.”  Jack continued scowling at the woman in silence.  “But the gods are not all merciless.  Anyone wishing to renounce the Brethren will be spared.”

Well, that was it then.  They would be fools not to accept that, wouldn’t they?

“And let you win?”

Jack looked at Norrington in surprise as he and Elizabeth emerged from the forest.  Elizabeth went right to Will, seeming to assume that Norrington would follow, but Norrington stood between the representatives of the East India Company and the Brethren Court.

“You can’t win, Calypso,” a voice said quietly.  Jack stared at Lord Beckett in shock.  “We will not be your puppets—your pawns.”

“Then you will be dead.”

Beckett grinned gloomily.  “I’ve died before.  It seems to be a less-than-permanent state with me.”

“Do you care to see if you come back a third time?”

Beckett gulped.  “We will not fight for you.”

Calypso turned to the sea, the waves growing more treacherous.  “The waves are not selective about those they take down.  We can destroy everyone on the water.”  Beckett watched, his eyes widening in horror as a terrible storm began brewing.

Beckett watched the storm increase in intensity.  “You would not kill so many people.”  Calypso stared at him unblinkingly.  Beckett looked at Norrington, who shook his head, and then turned his eyes back to the ships.  He put a hand to his head and closed his eyes.  “Fine,” he breathed.  “Fine.  We’ll fight for you,” he said dejectedly.

Calypso smiled, and the storm decreased in intensity, but did not dissipate completely.  Norrington shook his head and sighed heavily in disappointment.

“I cannot be responsible for the deaths of hundreds under my employ,” Beckett told him.  “Would you like all that blood on your hands?”

Norrington looked at the ground.  “No.”

“James Norrington,” Calypso said, taking a step closer to him.  “What will it be?  Joining us…or death?”

Norrington raised his eyes to hers and gazed at the goddess for a few moments in silence.  “Why are you asking?” he said quietly.  “Why is what side I choose so important?”  Calypso said nothing, her eyes narrowing.  “You have not asked anyone else personally.”

“I asked Lord Beckett.”

“Lord Beckett is in control of the entire East India Company.”  Norrington eyed Calypso inquisitively.  “But I am one man…one man who refuses to fight for you.”  Jack the Monkey suddenly appeared from the shadows of the trees and crawled up onto Norrington’s shoulder.  “And nothing you say or do will change that.”

The bell on one of the ships began to ring, the sound echoing eerily across the water.

“Do you hear its sepulchral tone?” Beckett muttered.

The storm suddenly began to fade.  The clouds began to drift away, the waves calmed, and the rain became little more than a light mist.  Calypso looked around in confusion.  “What?”

“A call to all, pay heed the squall…”

Everyone looked up at the sound of the mystical voice on the wind.

“And turn your sail to home,” Jack sang quietly with a faint smile as he looked up at the sky.  “Jackie?”  Dare he believe it?  His brow suddenly furrowed.  “But then who…?” he muttered to himself.

Calypso’s eyes widened and she looked up at the dying storm.  “Impossible!”  She growled in anger as the storm regained its intensity, and she glared accusatorially at Norrington, who smirked, before vanishing into the sea.

Lightening struck, waves crashed, the wind howled—yet somehow all the ships at sea managed to remain afloat, as though something was attempting to keep the storm from destroying them.  Something…or someone.

Jack smiled as tears came to his eyes.  “Jackie,” he breathed.

“She’s alive?” Ragetti exclaimed excitedly.

“There will be no battle here today,” Jack announced.  “Libertas is fighting for our freedom.”  He looked at Beckett.  “As long as you agree to a truce.”

Lord Beckett’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded.  “A truce.”  He smirked.  “For now.”

“We aren’t fighting or anything?”  Jack turned to Gillette, amused.  Gillette shifted his weight nervously.  “Well, then…I hope you don’t mind…”  Jack laughed.  He could do little else—his daughter was alive and free.  And so were they.  “I’ll just…go then…”  Captain Gillette nodded to Norrington as he passed and joined Lord Beckett.

Beckett was watching Will and Elizabeth as they embraced happily.  It seemed that the two would have to separate again.  Beckett looked up at the sky and sighed as he took a small bag from inside his coat.  “I believe this belongs to you.”  Elizabeth looked at the pulsating bag and Beckett in surprise.  “Take it before I change my mind,” he muttered after a moment, glancing up at the sky again.

Elizabeth smiled broadly and took it before kissing William passionately.  “I’ll take better care of it, I promise,” she whispered against his mouth.

Beckett looked at Norrington, who remained standing in place and staring up at the sky.  “Admiral?”  Norrington shook his head slightly.  “All right.  Goodbye, Admiral.  Come, Captain.”  Beckett and Gillette turned to leave.

The allies of the Brethren Court all turned in the opposite direction to leave as well, and Elizabeth came to join them as Will went to board his ship.  She kissed Jack’s cheek as she passed him to join the Brethren.  Jack looked up at the sky.  “Thank you, Jackie.”  He chuckled.  “Libertas.”

* * *

James closed his eyes, feeling the rain on his face, which hid the tears that were escaping his eyes.  Jacqueline was alive.  Or, at least, some part of her was in the goddess Libertas.  But even as the storm above raged, he remembered how Jacqueline, or the ghost of her, had told him she was dead.  Was Libertas a different woman, a different entity than the woman he loved?

The battle of the gods seemed of die.  But it was not over, and James knew it.  Libertas had just delayed him—held them off.  “And she will grow stronger over time.”  James opened his eyes and turned to the man who had spoken, the monkey moving to his other shoulder as though to get out of the way.  Jack was standing nearby, his scars stretched by his small smile.  “She’s alive.”  James nearly stepped back, slightly afraid that Jack may attack him.  He had every right to, after all.  But Jack made no such move.  “Calypso seemed to think that you were valuable in some way.”  Jack took a step forward.  “So it’s you, then.”

James stared quizzically at Jack for a moment before speaking.  “What are you talking about?”

“Jackie chose you.”

James’ brow furrowed.  Jack rolled his eyes and reached out a hand.  “She’s in here, isn’t she, mate?”  He put a hand on the right side of James’ chest.

James coughed.  “Well, yes, but my heart’s on the left…”

Jack laughed and shook his head.  “Your heart, yes.”  Jack removed his hand.  “Go on.”

James wondered if Jack was drunk (as usual), but put a hand to the right side of his chest anyway.

Ba dum.

James’ eyes widened.

Ba dum.

But that was impossible.  He felt the other side of his chest.

Ba dum.

He had two hearts.  But how could that be true?

James Norrington…My heart is yours.  And then she had been gone…but her heart…  He looked at Jack in shock.

“I suppose you aren’t as bad as all that, if my daughter entrusted that to you.”  Jack nodded towards the retreating Brethren.  “I have room aboard my ship, until you decide what you want to do with your life and all.”

“Thank you.”  James again looked up to the sky.  “Will she come back?”  Jack was silent.  “Jack?” James prompted.

Jack shook his head.  “I don’t know.”  He looked up at the clouds above them.  “I really don’t know.”

“You mean I may never see her again?” James asked quietly.  Jack said nothing, confirming his fear.  “But she’s alive.  We won.”  A tear trailed down his face, camouflaged by the rain.  “We won.”

“This battle, mate.  The war is not won.  There will always be those against freedom.  But now freedom is free.  The gods cannot defeat her.  Not now.”  Jack smiled sadly before he turned and slowly walked away.

“I love you, Jacqueline,” James breathed.  “I always will.”

* * *

James Norrington sat at the desk, writing a letter.  The person he was writing to would never read it, yet he had been writing such letters since the Black Pearl made port in Tortuga.  He was a fool and he knew it, but that did not stop him as he wrote his letter.

My dearest Jacqueline,

Yes, I am writing to you again, despite your absence from the mortal world.  I cannot bear that thought of never speaking to you again, and somehow (and I know I’ve said this before) writing makes me feel a bit closer to you.  I am a fool, I know.  And insane?  Most likely.

My promotion ceremony is today.  I admit that I question my decision to return to duty—after all, I will once again be fighting pirates while in such a position.  I hope the decision is not against your wishes; I know not what else I can do.

Lord Beckett used his influence to help me regain the rank of Admiral in the British Royal Navy.  He has also released my manor from the possession of the East India Trading Company.  I plan on moving back in there after the ceremony.  My servants have already returned and have prepared the mansion for me.  But I fear that it will only pain me to walk in the halls you once walked and sit at the table where you once ate.  Again, I am a fool.

I have been living in the Turner household for some time now.  Elizabeth has been extremely kind.  We are alike, in a way.  Both our loves are somewhere far away, in some other world:  you with the gods, Mr. Turner in the afterlife.  But we differ in that Elizabeth knows that she will see her husband again, while I fear that I shall never see you again.

Why have I not seen you?  Calypso had the ability to assume human form at will.  Do you not have that same power?  Is that why you have not come to me, even for a brief time?  If not, why have you not appeared?  Why do you force me to face the cruel world alone?  Can you not face me, even for a moment?  I just want to speak to you, to see you, to hold you, even if it’s for one last time.

I love you, Jacqueline.  I reiterate that in every letter, and whisper it every night.  Surely, sometimes, you hear?  Or feel it?  Or can you not?  Your heart is in my body now.  Does that mean that you can no longer return the feelings I hold for you?  Am I now loving a being who cannot love me in return?  I pray not.

But I am run away with emotion.  I have yet to tell you about John—you remember him, I am sure.  He is living with Elizabeth, Jane (Elizabeth’s maid), little William, and I.  John misses you, my love.  He even refers to you as mother.  And yesterday he called me father.  I have no children of my own, and never shall, but he has begun thinking of my as his father.  It is a great honor.

I shall always

“James?”

James turned around, pausing mid-sentence in his letter as Elizabeth entered the room.  She sighed.  “Oh, James.  You’re writing another one?”

“I know; it’s foolish,” James said, putting down his quill.

Elizabeth smiled sadly, shaking her head.  “Perhaps Ro—perhaps Jacqueline has been reading them.”

James’ heart (his heart, not Jacqueline’s) skipped a beat.  “Oh, dear…I hope she didn’t read the second one I wrote…”

“Why?” Elizabeth asked with an amused grin at James’ sudden unease.

James coughed.  How was he to explain this?  “It was in Tortuga.  I was a bit…inebriated at the time…”  He flushed.  James had been much less than gentlemanlike in the second letter he had written, given the rather large amount of rum he had drunk, and the letter had included more than a few detailed reference as to what he would like to do with Jacqueline in a bedroom.

Elizabeth shook her head, smiling softly.  “You should be getting dressed, you know.  The ceremony starts in less than an hour!”

James looked at the partially completed letter before taking a small key and opening a drawer in the desk and gently putting the letter in it.  He then closed and locked the drawer.  “I’ll be ready in time.”

“James?”  He turned to Elizabeth again, who was gazing at him sadly again.  She had apparently seen the tears in his eyes.  “Oh, James…”  She embraced him.  “It’s all right.  I understand.”

James shoved her away much more roughly than he had meant to, but he did not take the time to apologize.  “Understand?  No, you don’t understand!  How can you?  You ended up with the fairy tale,” he snarled.

Elizabeth gulped, her gaze now fearful.  “No, I didn’t.  Seeing the man I love once every ten years is not a fairy tale.”

“At least you get to see him. And at least you know how he feels for you.  At least you know that he loves you!”  James turned his back on her and took a deep breath, trying to calm down.  After all, it was not Elizabeth’s fault.  “I’m sorry,” James said quietly.  “I didn’t mean to get angry at you.”

“You know how Jacqueline feels for you, James.”

“Do I?”  James shook his head with a small chuckle as Jack the Monkey jumped from his perch and onto his shoulder.  “She never told me.  Never.”  He sighed, stroking Jack’s head.  “From what I know of her, she could have merely been using me the entire time.”

“You don’t believe that,” Elizabeth said quietly.

“When it comes to Jacqueline, I don’t know what to believe.  Jack, stop that,” James scolded the monkey as he tugged at James’ wig.

Elizabeth walked up behind him.  “And yet you still write those letters.  And you still talk to her every night, don’t you?”

James swallowed and shifted uncomfortably.  He did not know that Elizabeth was aware of that little idiosyncrasy he had developed.  “Because I love her.  I just don’t know…”

“She gave you her heart, James.  What does that tell you?”

James touched the right side of his chest.  “I don’t know.  She was dying; I was the only one there…she could have just done this to save herself.  She was a pirate, after all.”

“I doubt that it works that way.”

“But—.”

“Stop thinking on it, James.  Go on; get ready for the ceremony.  You get your rank back today.”  He heard Elizabeth leave the room and close the door behind her.

“My rank, yes.  But not my life or love…”