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The Only Rules That Matter (TheCorsair, Madame Mim)

"If we hurry," Gibbs said, "we can canvass all of Bayonne by nightfall. He can't have gotten far - the treasure ship only made port three hours before we did."

"I'm going to kill the boy," Jack muttered. "What was he thinking?"

Gibbs chuckled. "Probably that he's the namesake son of the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow."

Jack ground his teeth. "Abandoning his family. Pretending to be me in Tortuga. Trying to steal a French treasure ship. Kidnapping a nun. What does he think he's playing at?"

"Well, like I just said..."

"Gibbs?"

"Yes, captain?"

"Shut up."

The Esmerelda was a good ship, but she was hardly the Black Pearl. Sadly, Barbossa had his ship and he didn't have time to track the man down. Not with what he'd learned in Tortuga and Port-au-Prince. He'd had to set sail, pursuing the French ship that had a week's head start on him, and he'd made Bayonne only three hours behind it.

With the Pearl, he could have caught it while it was still at sea.

"Now," he muttered, looking around, "if I were a damnfool boy who'd run iff with a nun - because I doubt it was really a kidnapping - where would I go?"

"Somewhere private, no doubt," Gibbs remarked.

"Hmm?"

Gibbs laughed. "Your boy's more of a man, if you hadn't noticed. And the nun's young, and comley, they say. So..."

"Fuck," Jack groaned.

"Precisely!" Gibbs clapped him on the shoulder. "Oh, and ye did notice that other ship?"

"The Revenge. Yes. I wonder what business Blackbeatd has here?"

"Dunno," Gibbs said. "But I'm glad it ain't us."



"He's somewhere in Bayonne," snarled Edward Teach, staring across the deck at the city. "And he has my daughter." With a growl he turned towards his crew. "Ten guineas to the man who finds my Angelica! And a sack of gold to the man who brings me Captain Jack Sparrow!"
 
Angelica was positively glowing. They'd been married for an hour, and though Jack had seemed contemplatively quiet she had been chattering on about how much her mother would like him. They would live in Spain, of course. And they could go rescue his mother once she'd made it home and let her mother know she was safe. She was sure, after all, that talk of a disappeared nun from the convent where she'd been sent would have reached her by now. Word travels fast amongst sailors; she knew her father well enough to know that much.

Her father. He wouldn't be pleased, certainly. As they walked down the street hand-in-hand she looked idly out to sea. Angelica stopped. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. No, thinking of her father hadn't caused her to start seeing things; it was really there. The Queen Anne's Revenge sat in the harbor, looming over the others. Her father was here, and that most certainly wasn't a coincidence.

"Fuck!" She tightened her grip on her new husband's hand. "Jack we need to run. Now." Angelica started pulling him at a sprint through the crowd, glancing over her shoulder every now and then on the lookout for her father's men. She was so busy looking for them that she didn't notice when she bolted head-first into yet another problem. "Oof!" The former nun wound up pulling Jack down with her as she fell ass-backwards onto the pavement. "So sorry, I--Captain Sparrow!" Her eyes went wide and she looked from him to Jack and back again. The son really was the spitting image of the father. "I...you...we can explain..."
 
Jack had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since the wedding. Things had moved so quickly. Yes, he'd been the ond to propose. It seemed the right thing to do, given how many times they'd had sex on the voyage. He'd been surprised they managed the trip undiscovered, and it was just a mercy they hadn't been caught literally with their pants down. And it wasn't as if he didn't like Angelica - she was bossy, yes, but so was he. And they got along well. But...

To be honest, it was just the speed. And the fact that he hadn't been able to tell his mother or sisters, let alone invite them. Still, that might have been for the best. It saved a whole lot of awkward conversations that started with "you're awfully young" and ended with an outraged "Jonathan Sparrow!" But maybe he could have diverted the questiin by bringing up...

"Fuck!" Angel gasped, gripping his hand. It was on the tip of his tongue to leer and make a comment, but there was fear in her voice as she dragged him behind her. "Jack we need to run! Now!"

"What?" he asked, trailing in her wake as she pushed through the crowd. "Why? What's going on?" She kept looking back at the harbor with panic on her face. What had she seen?

But then she colidded with someone and stopped short, sending him flying past and crashing to the cobblestones before a figure that did a quick dance to avoid being knocked over. Scrambling to find his feet, he looked up and gaped in shock. "Mister Gibbs?"


"Well, lass," Captain Jack said slowly, hitching his thumbs in his sword belt. "You know my name, but there's many that do and I've not met them all, so why don't you explain..."

"Mister Gibbs?"

"Wait..." He stared down at the other figure, half-crouched on the cobblestones with a cutlass on his hip and a battered tricorn on his head, and did a double-take. "JACK?"

"Dad?" the boy gasped, staring back with equal shock. "What areyou doing here?" they both demanded in unison.

Captain Jack sighed. "Looking for a damnfool boy who impersonated me and ran off with a nun when I should be..." Two more voices jumped in as he finished saying "...looking for your mother!" Jack's angry response of "I was looking for mom mingled with the girl's heated "I am not a nun!"

"Nit dressed like that you're not," Captain Jack snapped, catching her wrist before she could slap him. "And I didn't deserve that." He glared at his son. "And why didn't you stay with your sisters?"

"Captain..." Gibbs began, warningly as the girl struggled against his grip. "We din't have time for this!" she barked, raking her nails across the back of his hand. He yelped and let go.

"Not now, Gibbs!" he barked, glaring at his son. "Well?"

"Well what?" his son demanded.

"I'm going to..."

"Captain!" Gibbs said urgently, pointing. Jack looked, to see a mountain of a man with a long, curly black beard on the other side of the square, flanjed by a dozen cutthroats. The man was pointing right him. "Captain Jack Sparrow!" he roared, drawing a heavy cutlass. "With my daughter!"

"Bugger me," Captain Jack breathed. "Bkackbeard has a daughter?"

"Blackbeard!" Jack squeaked.

"I'll make her a gift of your balls!" Blackbeard roared.

Captain Jack jerked his son and Blackbeatd's daughter to their feet and shived them in the direction if away. "Run!" he ordered, taking to his own heels as the mob if pirates surged forward with a shout.
 
Angelica pushed herself to her feet as Captain Jack Sparrow looked down at her and began to ask her who she was. He stopped short and father and son started making demands of each other. So his father was looking for his mother. Well then they could just go to Spain and--

"...and ran off with a nun when I should be.."

"I am not a nun!" Angelica said hotly.

Not dressed like that you're not."

Anger boiled inside her as she wound back to slap him, but he caught her wrist as she did so. She struggled against an iron grip--like his son his lanky physique belied surprising strength--while the men argued. And wasn't that the way it always went? Gritting her teeth she pulled again. "We don't have time for this!" Angelica raked her nails across the back of Captain Jack's hand, staggering when he finally let go. The badger-looking older man seemed to be the only one paying attention.

A chill ran down her spine at the all-too-familiar voice. She didn't need to be told to run. Grabbing the younger Jack's hand she took off at a sprint again through the crowd.

"If he catches us he'll kill you," she panted. "God only knows what he's heard about you!" She opened her mouth to say something else but only a yelp escaped as a strong, calloused hand grabbed her and yanked her hand out of Jack's grip. Blackbeard's men had surrounded them. "Let go of me you bastard!" Again she struggled, but this slab of man was even stronger than Captain Jack.

"Oh no you don't. Cap'n wants a word with you, missy," he growled before glaring at Jack. "You too, boy."
 
Well, this was bad.

Captain Jack turned in a slow circle, looking at the men surrounding him. The girl was furious, Gibbs looked worried, and his son was terrified. And angry, which was not an uncommon mix of emotions in his experience. So, he did the inky thing he could think of, and raised his hands with a grin. "Parlay," he announced.

"Aw, shit," one of the ruffians spat. "Shoulda just gutted him," said another.

"I wish to parlay," Captain Jack announced again. "And by tge Code, that means..."

"The Code's just a suggestion," Blackbeard roared, pushing into the ring of men. "Not a law!"

"True," Captain Jack agreed, looking around and grateful that Blackbeard had chisen to argue. Because there were few men that could out-talk him. "Just a... suggestion. But! So many of the compacts of the Brotherhood are based in the Code!" He was talking to the men, now. "Ignore one part, and what do we ignire next? Division if shares? Every man, a say."

"He called fir parlay, Captain," one man called. "We should listen." Other voices chorused agreement.

With a grin, Captain Jack hooked his thumbs in his belt. "Now," he asked, swaying forward a little. "What is it, exactly, that you think I've done?"
 
Parlay? Angelica rolled her eyes. Who the hell did he think he was dealing with? This was Blackbeard; he rarely paid any mind to the rules of the Brethren Court!

"You," Blackbeard snarled, drawing a large cutlass, "absconded with my daughter on the eve of her vows!" He leveled the sword at Jack. "You've done God knows what to her, and you'll be returning her now, with a cut of whatever you've got in your hold for my troubles."

"I'm not some prize to be bought and sold!" Angelica snapped. She stepped in front of the younger Jack, hoping to keep him hidden from view and out of this. He played by his own rules, but her father was more likely to have a bit of respect for and negotiate with the notorious Captain Jack Sparrow. He'd run the son through without a second thought. It was safest to let him assume it was the elder Sparrow who'd stolen her away and hope the younger knew enough to keep his mouth shut.

"Young lady you hold your tongue!" he roared. "When I get through with him, you're--"

"Father, I am my own master and I make my own decisions," she interrupted sharply. "He didn't abscond with me, I left that convent you dumped me in. And I'm not going back, no matter what you do." Angelica folded her arms over her chest and lifted her chin, jaw set stubbornly as she scowled. "Try and take me and I will fight you all the way back to Haiti. And if you try to make me go back there I'll only run away again. I will never quit running until you just leave. Me. Be."
 
"Ed - may I call you Ed? Listen to me, Ed," Captain Jack broke in as the girl wound down her impassioned speech, "this isn't getting us..."

Teach backhanded Angelica, staggering her backwards against the purate holding her. "You will respect me, girl! I'm your father!" He raised his fist again. "And you will..."

With a cry of rage, Jack grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him round. Startled, Blackbeard didn't react in time to keep the boy's fist from smashing into his face. There was power in the blow, driven as it was by muscles developed learning the blacksmith's trade, and Teach crashed to the ground in a spray of blood. "She's my wife, you son of a bitch!"

"Bugger me," Gibbs groaned in the sudden silence.

"If we're lucky," Captain Jack added, then did a doubke-take. "Wife?" There was an echo, and he realized it had come from the sprawled, rising figure of Blackbeard. Then a sharp cry, as the girl freed herself by biting the wrist if the man that held her.

Captain Jack spun, rapier flashing as he cut down the closest man if Blackbeard's crew. "Run!" he bellowed. "Run for your lives!" Blackneard was bellowing as well, but his message was different.

"Kill them, you dogs!"
 
He wanted to call her father, the fearsome, notorious Blackbeard, Ed? How had this man survived so long?? He started to say something but if he finished she didn't hear it; her face stung and she cried out as she staggered back against the man holding her. It wasn't the first time Angelica's father had hit her, of course...but it was the first time somebody had stood up for her when it happened. Unfortunately it was Jack, and he did it in the worst, most Jack-like fashion imaginable.

"Fuck," Angelica groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose with her free hand.

She didn't wait for the revelation to sink in for either of their fathers before baring her teeth and biting hard enough on her captor's wrist that it drew a little blood. Angelica had started sprinting before Captain Jack even had time to get his sword out and tell them to run. Her father now seemed hellbent on killing both Jacks, and she dreaded whatever punishment he might have in mind for her. Jack caught up and she grabbed his shirt to direct him as she careened down an alleyway.

"That was stupid! So stupid!" she railed as they barreled down a street parallel to the one they'd started on. "He'll swear revenge, I know he will. He holds grudges for decades, Jack!" Down another side alley and she switched directions two streets away. "We need to split up. He'll be more focused on dragging me back to Haiti then finding you and your father later. We can meet back up once it's dark then sneak out of the harbor."
 
Captain Jack sprinted after his son and brand new daughter-in-law. "That boy," he snarled, "has a talent for trouble!"

"Takes.. takes after... after his dad..." Gibbs wheezed.

One of Blackbeard's crew, more clever or more familiar with the city than the others, lunged out of a side street. Jack punched him with the basket hilt of his rapier and lept iver him. "Funny, Gibbs..."

Up ahead, he could hear his daughter-in-law talking about splitting up. "Not happening," he declared as he shot past, grabbing her hand and dragging her until she started running again. "You... don't know... my wife. She'd kill me." A few paces later, he tossed a question behind him. "Jack, can you use that cutlass?"

"I've had some lessons!"

"Good enough. Draw, son, because we're out of street!" Ahead, the road opened into a sea wall and a breathtaking view of the harbor about 80 feet below. "How about you, girl? Can you use a sword?" Panting for breath, she nodded. Jack tossed her his dagger. "Then try and get yourself one."

"Ship's not that far, Captain," Gibbs gasped, pointing. Jack looked, then grinned as he saw the Esmerelda less than a quarter mile off.

"Good eye, Gibbs," he said. "New plan." With that, he grabbed his daughter-in-law and chucked her off the wall as Blackbeard's men swarmed out of the alley.

"Dad!" Jack shouted.

"Then go get her!" Caotain Jack shouted, drawing and cicking a pistol. He leveled it and fired as he saw Blackbeard, but missed and struck another pirate. The rest dove for cover as he drew his second. Behind him, Gibbs and Jack lept into the sea.

Teach peeked out, then jerked his head back as Jack fired again. "That's your last pistol!" he gloated. "Now I'll carve yer heart out!"

"I don't think so," Jack replied, balancing on the seawall with iis rapier in hand. "But you'll always remember this day, Ed!"

Drawing his cutlass, Blackbeard lumbered forward. "And why's that?"

"It's the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow," Jack grinned. Then, saluting, he dive backwards into the sea.
 
"If we get separated...or can't find each other...we meet...at my mother's house," Angelica panted, weaving through the crowd and pulling Jack down another narrow alley. "Maria Delgado. Barcelona."

"Not happening. You...don't know...my wife. She'd kill me." Captain Jack dragged her along before instructing his son to draw his sword.

"And you don't know me," Angelica argued stubbornly, pulling her hand out of his grip.

They staggered to a stop along the sea wall. Panting, she nodded when asked whether she could use a sword. She'd picked it up in her travels, and her father hadn't disapproved of a girl learning how to defend herself. The badgerly man pointed out that their ship wasn't that far and with little warning her new father-in-law shoved her off the wall. She screamed briefly in alarm before coming to her senses and pulling herself into a dive. Angelica fought against the current as she swam underwater towards the wall, pressing herself flat against it. Jack and the older man plunged in next, but she didn't swim to them. Instead she found a chink in the wall and squeezed into it. She was doing this for Jack's own protection. Her father would be focused on finding her. If they were together he would never stop hunting them, and that would get him killed. She waited for Captain Jack to follow and for them to start swimming toward their ship before starting in the opposite direction, staying well out of sight of the Queen Anne's Revenge and waiting until nightfall to come back ashore. Sodden and sad, Angelica started down the road to Barcelona and home.
 
"Angelica!" Jack shouted as Gibbs dragged him from the railing. "Angelica!"

Captain Jack knew that agonized tone of voice, and sympathized. He'd nearly gave voice to a similar cry, when Jenny had been taken. But now was not the time. "You know where to find her," he snapped, "I heard you two plan it."

"She's my wife," Jack shouted at him. "And I'll..."

Captain Jack backhaned him. Not a hard blow, but sharp and stinging and strong enough to stun Jack into silence. "On this ship, I am the Captain! And if you ever want to see her again, you will do as I say! Now hop to the mainsail, son! Hop to it!" He headed for the sterncastle and the wheel. "Men of the Esmerelda," he shouted, "There lies the Queen Anne's Revenge, captained by a mad dog of an Englishman who will hunt us to hell and back for his own sport!"

A murmur surged through the crew, fearful and anxious. "Now! I propose to make it difficult for him to do this very thing! So hop to it, sea dogs! Hop to it, free men of the Brotherhood! Run up the sails! Extra cloth!"

"What are you planning, captain?" a voice called.

Captain Jack raised a hand as if in thought. "I'm glad you asked that - it's something devilishly clever, me lads. I'll cover the name of the Esmerelda in glory, I will, and you'll all have a tale to drink on for years." He grinned. "Because you'll be the crew that sank Blackbeard's ship!"

A cry rang out and the deck crews set to work with a will. Captain Jack spun the wheel hard to starboard, bringing his ship around in as tight a circle as he could manage and headed straight in towards shore and the docks. Gibbs joined him, broad face full of concern. "What... what are you..." He stopped, then stared at his captain. "You're not actually..."

"Run out the guns!" Captain Jack thundered as the docks grew closer and the stern of the Queen Anne's Revenge became clearer. "And yes, Gibbs, I am."

Gibbs swallowed and crossed himself. At two hundred yards distance, Jack spun the wheel to port and the Esmerelda turned hard. "As you have your target... fire!" Cannons roared, pounding the stern of the Queen Anne's Revenge with solid shot and making the heavier ship lurch and jump in the fusillade. Wood and glass exploded as the entire sterncastle came apart, and the mainmast creaked and sagged and pitched sideways across the dock as a lucky shot snapped it at the deck. Somewhere inside, something exploded. Not the powder magazine of course - that would have reduced the entire ship to matchwood - but a cannon or two that added to the wreckage. Lurching sideways, the ship rocked then smashed into the dock and tore itself loose from the pilings.

The crew cheered and howled wildly as Jack spun the wheel and the Esmerelda caught the winds and headed for the open ocean. Sure, there would be pursuit. But with the amount of chaos he'd just generated, his ship would have a long head start on any stern chase the port officials cared to make. "That, Mr. Gibbs, is how you make an escape."

"Your mad, Captain," Gibbs replied. "Barking, howling mad."

"No I'm not." A beat. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."


Later that evening...

Once he heard the call to enter, Jack pushed open the door to his father's cabin. His hands and arms and back ached from the work he'd been put to, but he felt... good. The pirates of the Esmerelda had accepted him quickly, without anything resembling the hazing he'd been put to on the merchant ship he'd sailed to Tortuga. Not that he hadn't been given the scut work, mind. He was low man, after all. But, they seemed to accept him as one of their own.

His name might have helped with that, mind. They seemed to worship his father. They regarded him as a lunatic as well, but a lucky lunatic who spread gold and good fortune around the whole crew.

"Captain..?" he asked, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light of the oil lamps. It smelled of rum in the cabin, rum and burning whale oil and dishes that needed washing. His father sat at a small table, tankard in hand, staring at a chart.

"Over here," Captain Jack said, waving him over and pouring a second tankard. "Needed to talk to you, since you're involved now as well."

"You've been drinking," Jack said, scornfully.

"Course I have," John responded, looking straight at him. "Can't do what I need to do, sober."

"What is it you need to do?" Jack asked, sitting and taking the tankard. Rum, of course.

John sighed. "Find your mother."

"What about Angelica?" Jack shot back.

"Her too. But she's gone to her mother, and your mother has been kidnapped by pirates." John leaned forward, peering at him with hard eyes. "So, take a minute and consider this. Who's more likely to treat a woman decently and leave her unharmed? Her own mother, or a band of kidnappers and pirates?"

Jack started to answer, then stopped. Tales he'd heard of the things pirates did came back to him, and he shuddered and tried not to throw up as he realized what could be happening to his mother right now. "I... that..."

"Drink that," John ordered. "It won't settle your stomach, but it'll give you an excuse if you puke. But I know where she is, now." He grinned without humor. "I've got the last bearing I need, until we get a whole hell of a lot closer." He jabbed his finger onto the chart. "The South China Sea, son. We're bound for China." His expression grew softer. "And then we'll get your Angel as well, son. Once we know if your..." He bit the sentence off, pain flashing across his face. "Once your mother's safe, Jack."

Jack drained half his tankard, suddenly glad that Scarlett and Giselle had made him practice drinking the stuff in Tortuga. "How... how do you know?"

John gave him a conspiratorial grin, and tossed a compass box on the table. "With this, son. A gift from a goddess, it was. A gift from a goddess."
 
Six months ago...

"They'll work you to death, you know."

"Good thing I was planning on that anyway, Leftenant." Jenny continued to haul line.

Leftenant Briggs seemed to have taken a special interest in her since she'd been kidnapped three weeks ago. It was explained to her that the Company had commissioned the new Pirate Queen Ching Shih to kidnap her and hold her hostage to get her husband to comply with their demands. Two weeks ago she'd been let loose to wander the Guafù de Kongbù, so long as they weren't within swimming distance of land, and it had only taken two days of complete boredom for her to begin working alongside the sailors and learning anything they were willing to teach. Briggs seemed to have a knack for finding her whenever she happened to be working alone, usually for the purpose of expressing his concern.

"And...you're not worried about that big fellow?"

"Nope."

One particularly terrifying-looking man named Bohai had even started teaching her how to fight, both with fists and swords. Her ribs ached, since he never struck her in the face but had no problem landing on other parts of her body blows which he seemed to be claiming weren't even that bad. One of the other women--women pirates who seemed to get treated no differently than the men--had seen them and there had been a bit of trouble with the captain over it, but one of the Company sailors had been kind enough to translate that she'd asked Bohai to hit her. That had led to even more misunderstandings of a different sort, but eventually everything worked out for the best and the terrifying Bohai had since taken to affectionately calling her bù wáwá while she called her muscle-bound mentor Qīfù. Using a broken Cantonese-English hybrid and lots of hand signals and pictures he'd expressed concern to her about Briggs, but she shook it off.

"You're awfully brave, you know," Briggs said, leaning against the railing as he watched her, letting his eyes linger. "Even braver than most of these women, I'd wager."

"I've got five children, Leftenant, including a teenager. It's awfully hard to scare me." Jenny gave him a tight smile and didn't pause in her task until she felt his hands on her waist. Forcefully reminded of her assault two years ago she froze and closed her eyes, taking slow, deep breaths.

"I scare you." Briggs's breath was hot on her ear even under the blazing Pacific sun.

"I've had much worse experiences with men from respectable families than I have with pirates and gypsies and other sorts of rogues," she replied icily, trying to force her arms to move again but unable to.

"All I wonder is what it might be like to hold you," the officer said casually. "How good your tits might feel in my hands..."

"Last respectable man to wonder that decided to find out for himself, Leftenant Briggs," Jenny said, finally able to make herself step away from him and continue hauling line. "I took his eye out for his pains."

Present Day (September, 1716)

"Duìzhang, chuán!" Bohai handed her the spyglass and Jenny squinted through it.

"Dài tā zou," she instructed him, handing the telescoping glass back to him before descending the stairs to the main deck. Hóng Zhēnnī was known for working with her crew to bring in a ship and it was one of the reason her people loved and respected her. "Um...Haidào?" Slowly she was learning with the help of Bohai and the rest of the crew, but her Cantonese was still childish at best.

"Dāngrán," the first mate answered before frowning. "Bùshì Hēi Zhēnzhū?" When she shook her head Bohai laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Women huì zhaodào tā, chuánzhang."

Jenny frowned. "Zhaodào?" After a moment of thought Bohai shaded his eyes from the sun and mimed searching for something then spotting it. "Find?"

He nodded. "Shi. Find." His English was just as broken as her Cantonese, but they were both getting better. "We find your husband, bù wáwá. Soon."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I hope you're right, Bully. Anyway, they're not flying colors; might as well board them." Jenny sprung into action as Bohai shouted her translated orders to bring in the Esmeralda.
 
It had been a long voyage, and for the most oart a boring one. But nit as long as it could have been, because Captain Jack had taken them north, through the long-sought Northwest Passage. Nobody in the crew understoid how he'd done it, since nobidy believed the passage existed, but Captain Jack had found it.

His son had an idea of how it had worked, of course, and that kniwledge frightened him. He'd had the night watch, and heard something splash into the sea. Creeping aft - creeping, because a sudden dread had seized him - he had seen hus father speaking with a woman formed of the sea itself. No, not speaking. Shouting. Demanding. Raging. And the woman, who spoke with a voice he'd heard in his dreams, agreed in the kind of vouce he'd hearx amused adults use with angry children.

Young Jack didn't sleep welk for a few days after that. But the routine of ship life, combined with lessons in navigation and sailing and fighting and carpentry and anything else useful soon settled that. Quick enough, he was far too exhausted to worry about giant women made of seawater.

The Esmerelda passed between Canada and Greenland, then sailed due west until she rounded Alaska and steered south intto the Pacific Ocean. Captain Jack and Mister Gibbs began watching the charts and the compass bearings more closely, bucking up the grumbling crew with tales of the treasures of Asia. Silks and jade and pearls and opium and silver, waiting to be tirn from the Company and the coffers of Canton and Hong Kong.

Finally, something happened.

"Sail!" the watch shouted. "Three points to starboard... no, three sails! No, four!"

Captain Jack dashed to the prow, opening his soyglass as he did. "Junks," he said softly. "Sao Feng, or his successor, and probably won't be any too pleased when they find we're not a lost Dutchman."

"Shit," Gibbs muttered, spitting. "Can we outrun them?"

"If this was the Pearl, absolutely. But she's not." Jack clicked the glass shut. "So we'll make them chase us anyway, because the Esmerelda a nimble ship. We'll let them chase us to within four hundred yards, then give the kead iur broadside and sail between and blast two more to hell. Then we'll board the hindmost and see the treasures of the east firsthand!" He shook his fist. "Who's with me?"

The crew roared approval.

"To it with a will, lads! Full sail, and break out the arms! Load your pistols, and prime your powder, and the devil take the hindmost!"
 
"They're running?" Jenny lowered her spyglass and scowled at the Esmerelda. Bohai gave her a quizzical look, but she just shook her head tersely and pursed her lips. "Don't they know who we are?"

~*~

Four months ago

"Don't you know who I am?" Briggs was drunk, but he was still strong.

"Get off me!" Jenny struggled for her knife but he snatched it from her just as she was about to reach it. "I'll scream!"

"You're on a shipfull of pirates, love," he grinned. "Who's gonna care?"

The Queen cared, as it turned out. Briggs had brought a complaint against Jenny to the captain when she had dragged her nails across his face and bitten his cheek so hard her teeth had gone straight through and she'd had to spit out a chunk of flesh before running topside. His mistake. Rape and attempted rape were punishable by death in Ching Shih's fleet. Jenny had been honored the offer, but she'd refused: an eye for an eye and all that. Besides, Christ had instructed her to turn the other cheek. And so she turned that other cheek so she didn't have to watch when Bohai had lopped of the Leftenant's head and dumped his body into the sea for the sharks.

~*~

"Jiāotán qítā chuán. Shuō um...tāmen women cèyì, ah...bùyào guānbì, zhídào bojiao," Jenny instructed, motioning to the man with the semaphore flags.

Bohai said something completely different to him before he started actually waving the flags. "Gàosu tāmen women de cèyì," he corrected.

"Huh?"

"Gàosu, tell. Fāsòng xiāoxi dào: send message." He grinned cheekily when she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Qīfù!"

Bohai laughed at her retreating back as she went to go help run up a sail. The wind was on their side.

~*~

The battle had been long and tricky. The captain of the Esmerelda had certainly known what he was doing, and it had taken several balls to the main mast to take him out. Red Jenny always left her prey alive, but not usually in any condition to sail any time soon, so no blows had been struck below the water line despite the ferocity with which her opponents had struck back. They'd managed to take out one of her junks, and she'd made sure those sailors were safe on the other ships before she'd brought the Guafù de Kongbù itself into the physical fight. In the end it had really come down to having more ammo: four on one wasn't a fair fight, especially when they were bigger and faster. But, Jenny reminded herself, the Esmerelda was full of pirates so fair play wasn't exactly a priority.

"Ni zhīdào gāi zěnme zuò," she called sternly to her crew as they boarded the other ship. "Ni bù shā, chúfēi tāmen xiān shā. Lipin zhi."

"Gěi lùnwén," Bohai corrected.

"Gěi lùnwén," Jenny shouted, rolling her eyes. "Whatever!" She herself grabbed a stack of tracts before heading over to the plank being set between the two ships.

"Why you give Christian papers to pirates?" Bohai asked, following with his cutlass drawn. "What is purpose."

"Because maybe I can do some good, change some hearts while I'm out here since I can't go home," Jenny said with a shrug. "I mean, you saw the Light, didn't you?"

"That because I be no good at any religion," he laughed.

"I am no good," Jenny corrected with a smirk. He pulled a face at her.

"Qīfù!" he mocked.

~*~

The boarding of the Esmerelda was bizarre to say the least. Her main mast was in splinters, her sails full of holes...but they weren't taking on water. They were boarded, but nobody seemed interested in fighting them. In fact, most of the Chinese pirates ignored them, instead going straight into the hold to start bringing up any loot and provisions they had stored. The only enemy pirates who seemed interested in them at all were ones handing out pamphlets. Young Jack stared at the title of one.

"God in Three Persons and the Eternal Sonship of Christ?" he read before looking at his father. "The Hell??" Turning the pamphlet over he saw printed the words of the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary, along with a list of Bible passages which proclaimed God the one True God and Jesus His Son, including John 3:16. "What sort of pirates are these?"

"It's because I'm concerned about your souls, gentlemen," said a familiar voice across the deck, though it wasn't in answer to him. "Theft, drinking, gambling, murder, fornication: all sins. A berth in Fiddler's Green doesn't sound terribly pleasant when you know that Christ has built your mansion in His Eternal Kingdom if only you accept Him into your hearts, does it?" Then she came into view: amongst all the Chinamen was a tanned woman with coppery curls and deep green eyes. Her freckles were more pronounced after months in the Chinese sun, and her silk clothes were more flamboyantly colored than Jack had ever seen, but the pirate was most definitely his mother.

"Ma?"

Jenny froze. Turning she saw both Jacks and color drained from her face. Instead of addressing them directly she shouted, "Bohai!" A tall Chinaman who appeared to be just one slab of muscle answered and she jerked their head in their direction. "Nà liang gè zài jiānyù li. Ràng women dédào zhànlìpin hòu, biérén qù."

Bohai frowned. "Dàn... Women cónglái méiyou fànrén." She shook her head ever so slightly and comprehension dawned in his eyes. He snapped at a couple of passing women and ordered the two to be shackled and taken aboard before turning to his captain. "Ni zhàngfū? Ni de...érzi? Tā bi wo de zhàopiàn dà. Tā wèishéme zài zhèli? Ni you yīgè shēngbìng de xiao nühái, tā yīnggāi zhàogù ma?"

Jenny shook her head frantically as the first mate's questions came at what seemed to her a mile a minute. "Màn, màn!" she begged. He repeated his questions more slowly, and Jenny watched her men being led away. "That is exactly what I mean to find out."
 
"Your mother?" John asked, for about the twentieth time. "You're sure?"

"Yes, dad," Jack sighed, for abiut the twentieth time "i'm sure."

"And... she was in charge?"

"Yes, dad."

"Huh."

John was still trying to wrap his head around it. The fight hadn't gone as expected, of course. None ever did, and he'd gotten the poor Esmerelda further than she'd had any right to manage before a coupleof lucky cannon shots had crippled her. It had probably been a matter of time, after that. Or so he assumed - flying wood from the mast had grazed his skull, opening a bloody, ugly gash that someone had bound and leaving him dazed and half-conscious. Even now, his head ached like a hangover.

"Your mother," he repeated again.

"Dad!" Jack snapped, exasperated.

Chains clashed and jangled as John raised his hand. "I'm just..." He shook the chains and grimaced as his skull throbbed. "Why would she have had us chained and stored below decks, then? And why... no, how did she end up giving orders? Sao Feng's a son of a bitch, and..."

"He's dead," an accented voice interrupted.

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy," John replied, looking over the newcomer. He was a squat-looking man, broad-built with heavy muscle under a layer of fat, hard eyes glittering in his sallow, bland face. Despite his bulk he moved with a swift grace.

"Which one of you be Jack Sparrow?" the pudgy-looking killer asked.

"Me," both men said automatically.

The broad man regarded them with reptilian disinterest. "No," he repeated, "which one of you is Captain Jack Sparrow? Hong Zhenni, she ask this."

"That'd be me, then," John said. "Who's this Hong Zhenni, then? Sao Feng's replacement?"

The big man laughed. "No," he said, gesturing. "You two come, follow me. You ask her yourself."
 
One Month Ago

"I'd heard you were called Hong Zhenni. I thought it was because you killed so many." Ching Shih pulled gently at one of her spirals to watch it spring back into place before tucking it behind her ear. "Now I see it is because you have such exotic coloring."

"Not so exotic," Jenny argued lazily. "Got two girls with the same exact hair, and so's my gran."

"I thought you'd had children." The Queen ran her fingers gently over the stretch marks across her stomach then up to her heavy breasts. "Everyone always talks about you as Jack Sparrow's wife, but they never say you are a mother."

"Of five." She took another long drink of wine. "We've worked hard to keep that a secret so no one tries to hurt them. I think he probably tries to keep me secret too for the same reason, but figures the Company would use that to their advantage. The oldest is fifteen, and my baby's almost two."

"That explains it." Ching Shih's hands slid from her belly up to her breasts and circled her nipples. Jenny was drunk and horny and lonely, and the Queen's hands on her body felt nice even if she couldn't remember quite how they'd wound up lounging on her bed in the Captain's cabin, naked to the waist. "I was wondering how anyone could have been so...voluptuous." She leaned down and closed her lips around Jenny's nipple, teasing it gently with her tongue.

"Mmm..." Jenny closed her eyes and leaned her head back, enjoying the attention even as Ching Shih's hands slid lower down her body again. The touch of another person was wonderful, even if it wasn't... "John." She opened her eyes and pushed herself up into a half-sitting position. "Your Majesty I'm honored but my hus--" Her lips were stopped with a hard kiss.

"Your husband is not here," Ching Shih whispered against her lips before straddling her and guiding her hands up to her own breasts. "Men are not a necessity, Jenny Sparrow."

Ching Shih's breasts against hers felt good, felt right. Her skin under her hands, the friction as she grinded against her, drawing moans of want from her lips, her lips, the taste of her nipples...it felt like a part of her she had never realized was there was opening up. A loud moan escaped Jenny's lips as the Queen drew her tongue across her clit, and that seemed to break the spell. She squirmed out from under her, clumsily trying to cover her nakedness and not succeeding.

"I can't," Jenny slurred. "I'm drunk, and that's no excuse to let you...I can't. My John's been faithful to me, I'll be faithful to him."

Ching Shih seemed to consider her for a moment. "Loyalty and honor. I have a great deal of respect for that, even if it goes directly against what I want so badly for myself." Her eyes flicked up and down Jenny's naked body. "I see now why your men love you."

Jenny smiled weakly. "Thanks."

"Still. It's hardly fair, isn't it, to leave us both so aching like this?" The Queen stretched out on the bed again, discarding the rest of her clothes before sliding her fingers between her thighs. "It isn't being unfaithful if I'm not touching you." Jenny didn't like to admit how much she liked watching her touch herself, how much she enjoyed touching herself in front of the other woman. The Pirate Queen held off, insisting that they reach their release together, holding hands as they cried out for one another. It hadn't happened since, but Jenny simultaneously felt a deep shame and an aching arousal whenever she remembered the way the woman's body had looked, the way her breasts had felt.

~*~

Jenny sat on the edge of the bed in the Captain's cabin, arms folded across her chest when her husband and son here brought in. She said something to the squat man and he undid their shackles before taking his leave. Keeping her arms folded she stood in front of them and looked at them in an angry silence for a long time.

"Seems I have to just have you captured to get you to listen to me," she said at last before slapping her husband across the face. "That was for abandoning us," she snapped before slapping the other cheek. "That is for being more concerned about your pirate politics than for the welfare of your family! And this--" She slapped him a final time. "--Is for apparently bringing our son with you to find me! And you, young man...!" Jenny struck Jack, though not as hard as she had her husband. "What the hell are you thinking?! After all these years, after we've both worked so hard to keep you out of this life, you're just going to turn around and turn pirate anyway? If I'd wanted you to spit in my face I'd have asked! You're supposed to be looking after your sisters and your brother! You leave the sailing to him," she jerked her head at John, "and you stay with your family!"

Spinning on her heel she turned away in disgust and strode over to the desk to pour herself a drink. Jenny found she drank much more while she was at sea, but there had been no children to justify temperance combined with the misery of missing her family and the fear that Anne might be...No. She wouldn't finish that thought. Instead she took a gulp of baijou and shook her head. She wanted to ask about Anne but was terrified of what the answer might be. Instead she focused again on her anger.

"What took you so long?" she demanded of her husband.
 
John stared at the woman across from him, mind reeling. He had a number of specific mental images of what his Jenny looked like, and it was hard to reconcile any of those images with the fierce pirate queenbefore him. When had his Jenny taken to wearing trousers? Or a sword and pistols, for that matter. And...

His head rocked as she slapped him, berating him for abandoning her. Abandoning their famiky. "I may have deserved..." he began, only to be interrupted by a second slap as she raged at him for putting the Bretheren ahead of her.

"I definitly..." he started, only to get slapped a third time, this time for leading Jack astray. "And I did no such thing! I found the boy in France,after following him there from Haiti!"

She ignored him for the space of time it took to down a drink. "What took you so long?"

John sighed, letting his shoukders slump. "Well," he said slowly, "it took longer to get home than I anticipated, on account of Hector hijacking the Oearl. Fifteen foot fishing biats may not look like much, but they're also terrible choices fir crossing the Atlantic. But I got back to Dover despite that, only to find you and our sonbith missing." He shot a glare at Jack, who looked aeay.

"Right. So, I couldn't set out right away. Fidhing boat, remember? So it was back to London and Newgate, to get a ship and a crew. But then I got side-tracked because our son," he gestured with his thumb, "decided togo to sea all on his own to find you, and I couldn't very well let him wander round on his own niw could I? So I caught up with him in France, and we took thd nirthern passave to reach here, thinking you needed rescuing. Which reminds me..."

Stepping forward, he looked Jenny right in the eye. "Yku've got a ship, love. Why didn't you come home yourself? Pirating in the blood?"
 
Jenny clenched her teeth. It seemed that John's delay in coming for her seemed to be Jack's fault. The boy had good reason for not trusting his father to pay much attention to them, but he should have known better. Eventually John would always come for them; that was the one thing they could always count on. She snorted in anger and glared at her son. Jenny opened her mouth to reprimand him properly and maybe even admit she'd been wrong at least on that last point, but then John said the very wrong thing.

"You've got a ship, love," he said with a tone of accusation. "Why didn't you come home yourself? Pirating in the blood?"

"Oh fuck off!" Jenny snarled. "First off: I was kidnapped by pirates because of you. Second off: I was kidnapped by pirates working with the East India Trading Company because of you. Third off: I'm fortunate that the Company decided to work with Mistress Ching instead of someone like, say, Barbossa. Or Gentleman Jocquard. Or Blackbeard. Or Rackham. Or your father, if he hadn't known who I was. You know, someone who wouldn't hesitate to have me raped and beaten and murdered, like pirates do." She folded her arms across her chest and leaned against her desk, eyes boring into her husband. "Think they just stole me away from my family, away from my nursing baby, away from my dying daughter, my children with their absentee father, then gave me a boat and I said 'okay'?" she demanded.

"I worked my way up from captive to captain, John," she pointed out. "And Mistress Ching is strict with her captains. Anyone who starts giving their own orders, orders that don't come down from her directly, is beheaded. And my orders are to stay out to sea so that the Company can't accuse her of welching on their deal, because they don't want me trying to get home." Jenny took another long pull on the bottle. "So, upon pain of getting my head lopped off, I stay out to sea and prey on other pirates. It cuts down on competition, I spread the Word of the Lord, and wait for you. Because lucky for you Mistress Ching took a liking to me and decided to make a deal with me, too. So long as I followed orders, if and when you found me I get to go home. A messenger has been dispatched and once she arrives to see for herself in person that you did indeed decide to take a break from pirating to show up for your family, I'll more than happily order my friend home and turn command over to Bohai."

Jenny glared at him for a long moment. "So fuck you if you think I haven't done all I can to get home alive. Because I care about our children, John." Unfolding her arms and gripping the edge of her desk she turned a stern gaze to her son. "Now you, young man," she said in that tone of voice which almost always meant a walloping. "What in the blazing inferno of Hell were you thinking, going off to Haiti?"
 
"I... I'm sorry, Jenny," John murmured, deflating. "I tried. I wanted so badly to... to just be John again. To just try to be your husband again, to try and be a father to our children again. I..." He swallowed. "I care, Jenny. I...x

She rounded on their son. But something had changed in the boy, John realized. No, not 'boy'. Man. Jack was growing into a man, wasn't be? "Tortuga, nit Haiti," he declared, squaring his shoulders. "You always told me I favor my father, and when you were taken... well, someone had to do something. So I left the kids with Uncle Sean, and I figured I'd find you. I'd raise a crew and steal a ship and find you myself." He stared his mother in the etes. "Because someone had to."

Then he deflated. "And... well, dad woukd probably have found you more'n a minth ago, if I hadn't. And if he hadn't come looking fir me, well, Blackbeard would've gutted me like a fish."

By now, John had rallied. "So," he said, pouring himself a gkass of whatever it was that Jenny had drunk. "I think we're all agreed? I'm a terribke influence on our family, because I've led two members of my family into piracy? And we all had reasons for what we did, and now it's time to head home, and I'll orobably be grovelling and apologizing for years after this." He swigged back his drink. "Am I missing anything? And when should I start grovelling?"
 
Jenny ignored her husband. She was tired of his excuses, of his empty apologies and faithless promises. Instead she rounded on her eldest. Him she could perhaps prevent from taking the same path his father had.

"Oh you certainly favor your father," she agreed icily. She wouldn't be shamed by her own son. "Is that all you ever heard? That you're your father's son? You never heard me beg you never to go to sea? You never heard me tell you that the only cargo a ship holds are death and broken homes? All you ever took out of anything I've ever said to you is that you're like your father? You've got me in there too, boy! And your sisters need you! And I know you don't trust Dad, God knows you don't have reason to, but you should have known that he will always come for us. Always. Have a little faith in God to direct his sails, at the very least."

Jack deflated. "And...well, dad would probably have found you more'n a month ago, if I hadn't. If he hadn't come looking for me, well, Blackbeard would've gutted me like a fish."

Jenny's eyes widened and her face flushed. "Blackbeared--!" But John had rallied and interrupted, probably trying to take the focus off of Jack. She let it go for now, but the issue was most certainly not closed. "You led me into nothing, John Sparrow," she snapped. "I was taken, then I did what I had to survive to the best my conscience would allow. I got here all on my own, and I take responsibility for my decisions." She looked pointedly at him. "You should start grovelling as soon as is convenient and pray that Anne is still alive by the time we get home. It'll take the Queen at least a week to reach us--she mostly stays near the mainland anymore--then we can head home. Until then it's best you remember that there is only one Captain Sparrow giving orders on this ship, and I'm it. And--absolutely not young man!" Jack had been pouring himself a drink before Jenny snatched both cup and bottle from him.

"Ma I'm fifteen--!"

"I know that, Jack, and I recognize that you're a man now," Jenny said evenly. "But I'm still your mother and you've no business with paint stripper like this. You stick to rum like you ought." Her tone and expression made it very clear the issue was closed.

"Yes ma'am," Jack mumbled after defiantly holding her gaze for a moment, scuffing his toe against the floor.

"Good. Now." She tossed back what little Jack had poured and looked them both over. "You'll both work just as anyone else does. Anyone gives you any guff you tell me, but Bohai will be keeping an eye out as he's the only one right now knows who you are to me. You'll work with the crew, eat with the crew, sleep with the crew unless I say otherwise." Her eyes flicked to her husband momentarily--he would most definitely not be sleeping with the crew--before focusing on them both again. "Out there you address me as Captain or Chuánzhang and you treat me as such. That means no arguing, no backtalking, nothing that could be construed as insubordination as the punishment for such is keelhauling or whipping, depending on what exactly you did. My men love me because I'm fair: I work alongside them, I eat with them, and I don't play favorites. You two are no exception to that. Do I make myself clear?" Jenny raised her eyebrows and looked at them expectantly. "Good. I'll introduce you to my first mate then you'll get to work." She strode over to the door and waited for them to follow, but as soon as she was out of her private quarters she adopted a familiar mincing swagger as she led them across the deck to Bohai.
 
"Absolutely clear, Captain Sparrow," John replied, sketching an ironic little salute. When Jack didn't answer, he elbowed the lad in tbe ribs. "Isn't she?"

Jack jumped. "Uh... yeah! Yes, yes! That's right!"

Jenny swaggered out the door, her stride the same sort of rolling gait that he'd adopted over the years. It did pleasant things to her backside, too, things thet were only accented by the oddly appealing trousers she wore. He'd met female pirates before, but most of them tried to disguise their gender - away frim their crews, at keast. The idea of men's clothing cut to fit a woman well was a strange ine.

"Dad?" Jack muurmured. "Keelhauling? Whipping? Mom's joking, right?"

"Doubt it," John answered thoughtfully. "Hong Zhenni, they're calling her. Red Jenny, captain if this ship." He bit his lip. "You don't get to be captain of a pirate ship without being tough, smart, and ruthless. And you keep the job by keeping the crew's loyalty." He glanced around. "Everyone pushes, a little. But step out of line and she'll have to bring the hammer down. To keep herself safe."
 
"Stop ogling the captain, John," Jenny said casually over her shoulder as she led them across the deck. She had a sixth sense for those sorts of things after decades working in a bar, and that sense was especially keen when it came to her husband. "If you were anyone else I'd have to have your eye put out. Taking advantage of your association is hardly fair. Oh, and John?" She stopped and turned to look at him. "If I get back to Ireland to find my daughter has died alone...just go back to your bloody Brethren Court and don't come back. Qīfù!" This was addressed to the large slab of muscle who had accompanied her aboard the Esmerelda. He turned and grinned.

"Chuánzhang Bù Wáwá," he returned cheerfully.

"Oi! Just got done telling these two off, none of that cheek," she chided, though she smiled at him. Bohai had been her friend almost from the beginning, had kept her safe in several situations, and had stood loyally by her when she was nominated captain after the old captain had been taken down in a battle. There had almost been a mutiny over this Englishwoman--a label she had quite resented--leading them, but Bohai was respected and well-liked by the crew so when he'd gone to bat for her he'd quieted their resentment and doubts.

"Is English only today, Captain?" he asked in a mockingly obsequious tone before glancing over to the men behind her. He knew perfectly well why she was speaking her native tongue instead of practicing her Cantonese.

"For you maybe," Jenny replied. "It's a two-way street you know. You said you wanted to learn: here's a chance to test your fluency!" She grinned and clapped a hand heartily on his shoulder before looking at her men. "This is my first mate, Bohai. He's had my back and saved my arse more often than I care to mention. Bohai, this is my husband John and my eldest son Jack."

"Captain Jack Sparrow?" he asked, shaking their hands in turn.

"That would be John. I've made it clear though that there's only one captain on this ship. John and Jack, Jack and Young Jack, I don't care how you do it so long as you can keep 'em straight. Bohai'll take care of you, lads," she added. "He'll show you the ropes, give you assignments, knock anyone who gives you a hard time on their arse if you can't do it yourself. Just take care you don't go picking at anyone: I don't like brawlers on my ship. Understand?" She looked pointedly at Jack, who had been in more than a few scraps growing up mostly in defense of his sister or his mother. The boy had a temper, but there were punishments for picking fights just as there was anything else. "I'll give you men time to get acquainted. Supper's at sundown. See you then."

With that Jenny swaggered off back to the Captain's cabin to change clothes. She wore her silks and her fancy hats to board ships to give a good impression, to show off Mistress Ching's wealth and prestige to the other pirates. Silk didn't breathe, though, and was highly impractical to work in. Instead she changed into a sleeveless cotton shirt which wrapped around her and tied with a string at her ribs and short, loose work pants before heading back out. If John should look her way he would notice that her arms and legs were tan and her biceps as they flexed were stronger and toned from long, hard days of work in the sun.

"She talk about you a lot," Bohai mentioned casually as they worked. "Botha you, and the others. Her brothers and daughters and baby. She ah...she tell me about your Annie." He shifted uncomfortably. "I give sorry." Bohai kept his eyes on his work as he spoke, not wanting to seem intrusive. "Is good though, that you find her. She miss you, miss her babies, her family. Zhenni is a good captain and we are non-happy seeing her leave...but is better this way. She need you more than we need her."
 
"I'll give you men time to get acquainted. Supper's at sundown. See you then."

Jenny swaggered off and John watched the rolling sway if her hips appreciatively. She might be angry at him, and she certainly had reason to be angry at him, but that didn't keep her from firing his blood and fueling his imagination. Because damn if this life didn't seem to suit her.

Bihari cuffed him playfully in the back of the head, sending him staggering. "Hong Zhenni, she say you no stare. Remember?" the big man remonstrated.

"Mate," John laughed, stooping to pick up his hat. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. What makes you think I take orders."

"I've heard that, yes," Bohai conceded.

"Good." John looked around. "Just so we understand one another, mate."

"I hear you been yánsú... how do you say? Marooned, more than once, for it." Bohai cracked a broad grin, as if it were a huge joke.

"Murdered for it, too." John looked Bohai in the eyes, and grinned. "Twice. Now, the Captain's given an order. Where do we start?"


They started with holystoning the deck, a necessary bit of scut work that was universally loathed as back-breaking. So, naturally, it was given to the newest recruits. Jack hated it within minutes, but managed to swallow his complaints. After all, he wasn't going to be shown up by his father, and for all his faults that man was cheerfully scraping away while maintaining a running dialog with anyone who cared to talk.

"So," John said, "I'm noticing a pattern here. Steal booty that ain't yours, beheaded and chucked overboard. Rape without permission, beheaded and chucked overboard. Fall asleep on watch, beheaded and chucked overboard. Disobey orders, beheaded and chucked overboard." He looked up at Bohai, wiping sweat from his forehead. "How about lipping off to the captain?"

"Beheaded and thrown into the sea," Bohai confirmed, his broad face splitting in a grin. "Rules are simple and easy to remember, yes?"

"Are... did mom make those rules?" John gasped, horrified.

"No. And she be Captain, when you work. Not mother." Bohai ruffled the young man's hair with good humor. "They be Ching Shih's rules. Hong Zhenni just enforce them."

"Has..." Jack didn't know if he wanted an answer to the question boiling up in him. "Has she..."

"She's the captain, son," his father said. Jack stared at him and then, suddenly queasy, headed for the side.

John watched his son heave his guts out, then sighed sadly. "Hard news," he said, stripping his shirt off and mopping his face with the damp cotton. "Wish I could have spared him. Would to God I could have spared them both."

"She talk about you a lot," Bohai mentioned casually as they worked. "Botha you, and the others. Her brothers and daughters and baby. She ah...she tell me about your Annie." He shifted uncomfortably. "I give sorry."

"I'm sorry too, Bohai." He tossed the shirt aside and picked up the holystone once more. "Seems that's all I do anymore, apologize and be sorry." He attacked the deck, feeling the rough stone scrape at the timber. "Maybe they'd all be better off if I never made it back from the Locker. She's never have been caught up in this, then."

Bohai kept his eyes on his work as he spoke, not wanting to seem intrusive. "Is good though, that you find her. She miss you, miss her babies, her family. Zhenni is a good captain and we are non-happy seeing her leave...but is better this way. She need you more than we need her."

"You think so?" John snorted. "She needed her husband, Bohai. Johnathan Sparrow, the man she married. Not the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow, successful pirate and failure as husband and father. Maybe she should have run off with that gypsy."

Bohai rolled his eyes. "Or mebbe you whine like a grandmother," he laughed. "Mebbe so you man up, show Hong Zhenni you good man." He paused, thinking about that. "I mean, you Captain Jack, right?"

"Yeah, mate. I am."

"Then you good liar. Should be easy, convince Hong Zhenni you good man."

John went still for a moment. Then, out of nowhere, he started laughing.
 
Bohai watched sadly as the boy heaved over the side of the ship. "First time Hong Zhenni had to enforce rules," he recalled, "she able to hold it ten whole minutes before she do the same. I hold her hair back many times. Still, even." It was good that they had found her so she could go home. She had made the best of her lot and did a good job, but the pirates life was not for her and, as much as he'd miss her, he knew that.

Dinner was, as mentioned, at sundown. Rowdy men joked and pushed in line to get their food before sitting at several long tables. Bohai directed John and Jack to the middle of the center table before himself taking a seat to the right of the empty chair at the head of the table. Runners were sent to give the skeleton crew their meals and still the head seat was empty. Jenny made sure all of her men--and women--got enough to eat before she herself got anything. That was how she'd done it at home with her children for many years and now saw it as only fair. If she couldn't provide for the people under her charge, then she ought to suffer the worst of them all in whatever shortcomings there were. One thing John might notice that was different from his own ship, however, was that the crew wasn't eating. Finally Jenny sat with her own bowl, still dressed in her work clothes but now sporting a large, western-style hat with an enormous ostrich plume. Almost as one the crew down to a man folded their hands and bowed their heads; she had them trained well.

"Bless us, O Lord!" Jenny intoned loudly so everyone could hear, "and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty through Christ our Lord. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen." Not everyone crossed themselves, but everyone echoed "amen" before digging in.

Jenny hadn't required the entire crew to convert, obviously, though she had been working on the ones she found promising: she didn't require everyone to believe the prayers she said first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and at each meal, but she did require respect from those who chose not to believe. The murmur of steady conversation filled the room as the crew talked amongst themselves. Jenny herself talked animatedly with Bohai and a severe-looking woman on her other side, though she occasionally chided crew members she caught forgetting their table manners.

"There's not one set of manners for the Pope in Rome and another set of manners for the crew of the Widow's Revenge," she'd chide in Cantonese, much as she did her children in Gaelic at home. The crew member would look properly cowed, correct themselves, and carry on. Although she did have to deal out her fair share of martial punishment, Jenny preferred to spare the rod, particularly since her crew were adults. She'd found the missionaries who went abroad were often cruel and tried to convert the godless through fear tactics; she preferred to get to know her crew and show them the Way through Christian kindness and treating them like actual, real people. Only a small fraction of her crew bought it, but she figured that given enough time she could change all of their hearts toward the Lord.

"Mister Sparrow," she called down the table to her husband when the meal was nearly done, "I'd like to see you after supper please. In my quarters." Without another word she went back to ignoring them just as she would any other new recruit. There were a couple of "ooh's" like a student had just gotten in trouble in front of the class, and a few men near John elbowed him teasingly. They didn't really make the connection: her surname had been translated to Máquè, so as far as they were concerned her name was Zhenni Máquè, or simply Hong Zhenni, rather than Jenny Sparrow.

After the dishes had been cleared, the after-meal prayer said, and those on first watch sent to work Jenny retreated to her cabin to wait for her husband. With a sigh she let down her hair, scrubbing at her scalp with her nails, and changed into a pair of soft silk pajamas. This wouldn't be a pleasant conversation, so she might as well be comfortable.
 
John grimaced as the crew whistled and hooted and catcalled, then focused on the unfamiliar meal before him. Rice and fush he identified, but the rest of it was pretty foreign. Obviously. Still, it was tasty, and he'd had plenty of experience eating unfamiliar foods. And his son, who had clearly gotten over his earlier nausea, was setting a good example. So he dug in, fumbling with the unfamiliar eating sticks.

"Bohai?" he asked after a bit. "Does anyone actually believe in Christ? Ir is this just a game of humoring the captain's eccrenticities?"

"This is China, Captain Jack," Bohai grinned. "Plenty of room for plenty of gods." He smacked his lips as he ate. "And Hong Zhenni has strange gids and strange beliefs, but she makes us rich. So why not pray to Jesus and Mary, as well as Buddha and the Jade Emperor?" He gestuted at the necklaces around John's neck. "Or Allah and... whoever that eye be?"

"Maat," John said out if reflex. "And they're just for luck, mate. I don't..."

"Luck, yes! Jesus, him lucky god." Bohai grinned. "And pirates, we need all luck we can get."

John considered that, the resumed eating. "Do you happen to have a razor I can borrow?" he finally asked. "And a mirror?"



John knocked at the captain's door, something he really wasn't used to doing, and waited to be bid entrance. The room was decorated in exotic colors and ornaments, but his wife's tastes were very much in display. Even in the neatly organized, incongruous collection of blades and firearms. "You wanted to see me, Captain?"

He was somewhat changed in appearance as he stoid before her. The swaying gait remained, as did the insolent slouch - both were ingrained into him by now. But the dreadlocks were gone, hair cut oddly short and self-barbered into a semblance of order. He'd shaved as well, and scrubbed the kohl from his eyes, and removed the earrings and necklaces and finger rings.

He'd kept his sword and dagger, though.

"Able seaman John Sparrow, ma'am. As requested."
 
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