Pirates of the Caribbean Oneshots

Conversation (2)

The fact was one he had made peace with many years ago. He had known for over a decade, had adequate time to feel regretful and to ponder what could have been. The information had then been buried deep, and for the most part, forgotten.

But now, three words had brought everything back to the surface, spoken innocently by the one he'd loved for over two years.

"I want children."

Jack recoiled, staring at her, momentarily speechless. "I beg your pardon?" he eventually said quietly, heart rate increasing.

She looked at him. "We don't have to get married if you don't want to, we've already been intimate, but I'd like to do...um...more. More often. Try for a baby."

He turned over in the bed to lie on his back, staring at the ceiling rather than looking at her. For a long moment, he was silent.

"I'm afraid you want something I can't give you," he eventually said quietly.

A sigh. "When are you going to be ready? We don't have forever. And should something happen you, I'd like to have-"

"Listen to what I said." Jack cut her off with a slight frown, head turning to fix his gaze on her. "You want something I can't give you. If I wasn't ready, I'd have said I'm not ready, or suggested we waited, or something to that effect. I can't give you what you want."

She was silent for a moment, brow slightly furrowed in thought. "Oh," she eventually said. "You can't..."

"Well done," he said quietly, voice flat.
"I can't. I can have sex, I can do everything except provide the necessary components to cause you to end up with my child. I don't know exactly what's wrong, but I do know that whether I like it or not, children won't be a part of my future. Not my own, anyway."

He spoke again. "We can still have s-where are you going?" His head tilted slightly as he watched his girlfriend get up and change into her clothes.

She glanced over her shoulder sadly. "I need some space. I'll see you later Jack."

After she'd left, Jack lay quietly for a long while, fighting back tears that were threatening. Eventually, he got up and wandered into the kitchen. He paused briefly upon seeing the silhouette of a figure sitting in the fireside chair, steam rising from the mug balanced on his knee.

"Should've known you'd still be up," Jack muttered.

His father's dark gaze flickered up to him. "What's wrong Jackie?"

Dropping into his usual chair at the table, he fiddled with the ring on his forefinger subconsciously. "I presume you saw her leave?"

Teague hummed in affirmation, lifting the guitar that rested against his legs and shifting the mug so his instrument settled across his knees. Rings glittered in the firelight as he picked a string idly, the note mingling with the quiet crackling of the fire.

"What'd ye say to her?" he asked, still playing that single note, picking just the bottom string of the instrument.

"That I can't...have children..." Jack murmured quietly.

The guitar silenced as Teague turned his undivided attention to him. He rose, stoked the fire and put the kettle over to boil. Once he had placed a steaming mug in front of Jack, and sat down with his own cradled in weathered hands, his gaze fixed on his son.

"How did that particular topic of conversation come up?"

"She brought it up, completely out of the blue." Jack sighed, twisting a ring on his finger. "Seems she's fine with waitin' to marry, but wants a baby now."

Teague took a slow sip of tea. "I presume you did tell her that it's not necessarily that you don't want kids?"

Light glimmered on the ring Jack was twisting. "Of course I did. I explained everything. Didn't make any bloody difference. Now she "needs some space" apparently, which sounds like a fancy way of sayin' "fuck you" to me."

He sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair. "It never bothered me before I met her..." he said quietly. "I never thought I'd meet anyone I love like her, someone I can actually see a future with. Except now I can't, because apparently she needs something in her future that I'm physically unable and also mentally unwilling to provide."

His voice wavered and eyes dropped as he swallowed, struggling to keep his composure.

"C'mere," Teague murmured.

Obeying, Jack found himself being drawn onto his father's lap, his upper body wrapped in a familiar, comforting embrace as his head automatically settled in the crook of Teague's neck.

"M' sorry..." he murmured softly.

"Ssh, no call for apologies Astóirín. Nothin' to be sorry for, it's entirely understandable that you're upset."

Broad fingers stroked Jack's hair gently as he breathed in shakily, trying to stay composed. "Don't think she's going to come back..."

"Fuck her." Teague responded with characteristic bluntness. "If she couldn't appreciate what the two of ye had without needing more to be satisfied, she's not worth it, so fuck her. There are other women out there more worthy of you."

Jack sighed softly. "And how many of them will want a hoarde of youngsters to fill a home? It's what society has drilled into women that they need to be successful; marriage and children. Why would a woman stay with me, an outlaw from civilisation who can give her nothing?"

Taking a sip of tea, the older man kept his dark gaze on his son. "Considering the women you grew up surrounded by, you know not all women think they need those things. You're fairly good-looking, with a relatively decent personality-" he ducked as Jack aimed a playful cuff at the back of his head "-you should have no bother finding someone who appreciates you for more than what's between your legs, and the fact that it only shoots blanks."

"And does the lack of future grandchildren bother you?" Jack asked, sitting back in his own seat and suppressing a laugh at his father's way of phrasing the issue.

Teague shrugged lightly. "Not particularly. Hazel's given me enough nieces and nephews to spoil, as well as Cormac's whelps, and their whelps."

"Captain Teague likes children, who'd have ever thought?"

"The few of the Court who've been there since you were born. Rhodes, for one."

Head tilted, Jack studied his father for a minute. "Rhodes is the same age as you?"

"Older, I believe actually. He was already a Pirate Lord when I joined the Court. Admittedly the youngest at the time before I took my seat but I think he's two, maybe three years older than me. He's about Cormac's age."

Jack hummed thoughtfully but was otherwise silent. "Fuck her is right," he eventually said softly but decisively.

"Mm. Don't dwell on it Astóirín. Everythin' in life happens for a reason. Now, seein' as we are both sitting here, I have a distraction from your love life that doesn't involve drinkin' yerself to oblivion."

"Mm? What's that?"

"This." Standing up, Teague lifted something off a chair up onto the table with a grunt of effort.

The Pirata Codex.

"About time you started learning it, methinks."

Stepping back slightly, Jack eyed the book hesitantly. "Do I have to?" He looked at his father, worry suddenly clouding his gaze. "Something you're not telling me?"

Teague raised a brow in confusion, then smiled a little in understanding. "Other than the fact I'm seventy-three in a couple of weeks time? Contrary to Court rumours, I am most definitely not immortal an' I fully intend to ensure you receive full training before getting this." The skull ring glittered as he indicated it before unlocking the Codex.

Knowing full well that his father, in his usual quiet manner, was diverting his thoughts from the events of the last few hours, Jack refilled their tea mugs before sitting down to begin learning the duties of his future position, pushing thoughts of women and non-existent children far from his mind.