I can never come up with good titles. This is a new fic, from Teague's perspective, about Jack's life growing up. I really love their relationship.
R, to be safe.
He wasn’t in the room when he was born.
He didn’t get to see it. He would always wonder about that, what it had been like. Always wondered if he should have seen the first breath, the first tears, the first wiggling of arms and legs. But he didn’t- there was a huge store. A typhoon, the natives called it. Wind and rain everywhere, men almost drowning, rain so thick you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
As Captain of the ship, he had to be out there. Bracing the lines, helping the crew, saving the ship. The storm had come up while she was in labor and he didn’t have a choice- he had to leave to save the ship. He was Captain, no one knew better than him how to keep the ship from sinking.
He hadn’t wanted to leave her. Hell, the doctor they had on board was hardly capable, in his opinion. But he had left, knowing he must. He had left her there in the bed, waiting for the child to be born.
Teague had never thought about this day. He had never thought of being a father. Hell, he hardly even thought about his own father, the man so different from himself. A good, solid man, no pirate. He had had six brothers and sisters. Children had never crossed his mind. What was a pirate to do with children?
Katia hadn’t wanted children. She had told him so, when they first met, four days later married. She was all pirate as well- she had said time and again she had no use for a baby. And for the past couple years it was just the two of them, on the high seas.
This baby was an accident. It happened, although there wouldn’t be any more, they both vowed. This one they would raise as well as they could, be good parents, raise him on the ship.
The storm finally cleared up somewhat, dying down to just a lashing rain. Soaked to the bone, he made his way back to his cabin, his heart thudding with every step of the way. Had she had the child? Was she...alive? Was the child alive?
His face didn’t move- Teague was not big on expressions. But inside his heart fluttered like the daintiest bird.
He pushed open the door and his body relaxed for just a moment. Katia was fine, she was sitting up in bed, her long hair pulled away from her face. “About time you got here.” She smiled.
He held his hands in front of him, as close to an apology as he could muster. He had wanted to be there. She knew that.
Then he saw him. In the cradle they had bought in India, there laid a small brown baby, with wild black hair. Teague leaned over to look at him, studying every feature of the small face. The baby’s eyes stared right back at him, his fists clenching and unclenching.
“The doctor says he’s healthy.” Katia announced, her voice proud. “He hasn’t slept at all, though.”
He didn’t know what possessed him, but he reached down and picked up the boy, letting the small blanket surrounding him slip to the floor. He was warm, a warm squirming mass. He looked like Teague, but had Katia’s huge eyes.
The baby’s head rested against his chest and for a moment, father and son were peaceful.
“So Jack Teague, is it, then? What of a middle name?” She asked, her hair falling loose from its confines and tumbling down over her shoulder.
They had decided on Jack, after the sailor who had introduced them in Mexico. But the middle name was still uncertain.
He thought of his ship, the beautiful ship he had worked so hard for and now worked so hard in, day after day. The ship that brought him peace, that took him from one adventure to the next.
The Sparrow, he had named it. The Sparrow was freedom, complete freedom and happiness.
“Jack Sparrow Teague.” He told her, watching the child’s eyes slowly close. As if he had been waiting on Teague to arrive.
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