Beyond the Horizon (JELSA)

-Make Way!-

"Look at you," his mother said. "You've become so strong and handsome."

"Mother-"

"When are you coming home, Jack?" She asked, tear-eyed.

"I'm not." Jack said firmly, not able to look his mother in the eyes. "Father will never forgive me."

"It was an accident-"

"You tell him that!" Jack exclaimed, he was frustrated. Jack looked down and rubbed his temples. "It doesn't matter. I work for the company now, I've already betrayed my heritage."

"I won't tell him that. I miss you, Jack." His mother sighed, her dark eyebrows low over her amber colored eyes. Despite the fact that she was middle-aged, she still looked stunning. With only slight traces of grey in her long brown locks. Jack looked a lot like her, as a young boy he resembled his mother a lot. As he was getting older he started to look more and more like his father.

"How much of the cargo do you want?" Jack asked coldly.

His mother wanted to keep the conversation going, but she knew it had no use. Asking more questions would only upset her son, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. "What do you carry?" She asked.

"Barrels of sugar and rum."

"Just a few barrels, to keep my men satisfied. I can't return empty handed." She said. There was a tense silence between them.

"I didn't recognize your ship," Jack remarked, trying to break the tension. "What happened to the Jolly Roger?"

"I couldn't sail it anymore. It is were you and Emma were born, too much memories. I also couldn't sell her, I tied 'er up to the docks in Shipwreck cove and that's where she has been for the last two years." She said, then the corners of her mouth turned up and a small smile formed on her thin lips. "You loved that old galleon."

Jack smiled too. "Yeah, I did." He remembered how easily he climbed up the ratlines back then and how he could sit in the crow's nest for hours watching the horizon.

"I should go back, they must be growing impatient." She said, the smile fading from her face.

"Listen, my men will take care of the barrels. I don't want to risk being seen by your crew." Jack said.

"Very well." His mother said and she slowly turned around.

"Wait!" Jack said suddenly and took a few steps towards her, making the distance between them smaller. She turned back to face Jack, he opened his arms and wrapped them around his mother's narrow frame. She was shocked at first but she quickly relaxed and embraced her son, inhaling his scent. "Take care of yourself, mother." Jack whispered into her ear.

"You too, son." She said softly as she pulled away. There was a lump in her throat but she managed to swallow it. Her son had become a grown man, she needed to let him go. The fact that he had a good job reassured her, she no longer had that fear of not knowing what had happened to him. That dreadful feeling that had been eating away at her for the past two years.

The two went their separate ways again. Jack ordered his men to load a few barrels of rum into the hold of the pirate ship. Then they sailed away, the remaining part of the vogaye went without any complications. They buried the old captain at sea, they gave him a small funeral with some of them saying a few words. After that, they didn't speak of him again. Jack was responsible for all of the captain's duties. Fortunately, he had done all of them before so it came quite naturally to him. The only task he hadn't done before was updating the ship's log. It was about the only thing the old man did without Jack's assistence.