Norrington's Darling

Let's Go Say Hi To Dad

POV: Zuri Norrington

When day dawned several days later, I at last left James' side. The sky was too bright and the sea too beautiful. James was gone. Everything ought to be in shades of black and grey. I stared at everything for a moment, hesitating on the threshold. I was not entirely sure I was ready to face the crew, not to mention the Brethren Court.

Tia was the first to notice me. She crossed to me and gave me a tight squeeze. "I know it hurts, love, but you must be strong. Your brother needs you and your father waits in Shipwreck Cove."

"Did you know he would die?" I whispered.

She shook her head. "His death I was not certain of, but I knew something was to happen to change fate. I assumed it was your baby, but..." 

My baby. I'd thought often of them in the past few days. Mainly I wished they could have met their father.

I looked up at the crew. They had gone silent; they had noticed me. I noticed each and every one of them wore a new black ribbon around their arms.

"Well? Don't just stare at me, carry on, carry on!" I ordered, trying to be myself. I didn't feel like me anymore. I felt like an imposter trying to fit into someone else's skin.

The crew all turned to the island we were before, perching themselves at the edge of the ship. Tia had drifted off without my noticing where she'd gone.

"Look alive, and keep a weather eye!" called Gibbs. "Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck."

"You heard 'im!" shouted Pintel. "Step lively!"

"You know, for all that pirates are clever cobs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things," said Jack as I made my way to him and Gibbs.

"Aye," said Gibbs, patting my shoulder as I joined them. 

"I once sailed with a geezer lost both of his arms and part of his eye," said Jack, remembering. I remembered the sailor, too. He'd been nice.

"And what'd you call him?" Gibbs asked.

Jack looked a bit awkward. "Larry," I said for him, and Jack repeated it after me, waving a hand in my general direction. Then he turned and went up the stairs, leaving Gibbs with an alarmed expression on his face. It softened when he noticed me. 

"You alright?"

I looked down. "I miss him," I said honestly.

"I miss him, too," Gibbs admitted. "He was a good man and a wonderful friend. A doting husband, it seemed."

"And he would have made an amazing father?"

"Heh?"

"Gibbs, there's something—" I faltered. "Something I have to say, but...don't tell Jack. Not yet. I have to tell him on my own and I'm not ready for that. He didn't know James like you did."

"Aye," Gibbs said warily, unsure of where this was going.

"When I departed for the Flying Dutchman that night, the night James...the night he...died...I was going with news. James found out that night that he was going to be a father. I'm three and a half months pregnant, Gibbs, and I'm going to be a single mother. I've no idea what to do."

"Well, I'll tell you, it's going to be difficult, but—"

"—and why I could not leave Jack to his well deserved fate," Barbossa was saying to Tia. He quieted, but the expression on her face was telling. He knew she was Calypso and now he intended to...free her? Use her? He ordered Pintel and Ragetti to take her to the brig. They complied. I looked up to see Jack watching the ordeal.