the Dalaverse

The little girl hanging off of Will is here to stay, and she also has a name now. I have a vague feeling that I might've cribbed it from somewhere, but fuck me if I can remember.



Nothing New Under the Sun (VII)



They didn’t discover their stowaway until strong winds from the north were bearing the Pearl away from the island at a brisk clip.

In all fairness, they never discovered her at all; she chose to make her presence known. Will hadn’t eaten all day and Jack was trying to tempt him with any manner of treats from the ship’s stores when the little attendant girl marched into the cabin, pulled a piece of dried salted beef from Jack’s hands, and stuffed it into Will’s mouth. He left his jaw hanging in surprise but dutifully chewed when she forced his mouth shut, and swallowed when she refused to turn him loose.

Jack sank down onto the bunk, shaking his head at the girl. “No. No, no, no – we’re taking you right back, young miss.”

The girl planted her hands on her hips and glared, just about eye-level with them because they were sitting. “I...go,” she said laboriously, her brow beetling as she fought down the unfamiliar words. “Will Turner baby,” she clarified, pointing to Will or more precisely to his mid-section. “Capitán Sparrow.” Her gesture to Jack was something more complicated involving both hands, and Jack suspected it meant something significant to her people even if he couldn’t figure it out.

“Did Sanna teach you to say all that?” Will enthused. The girl, reacting to his tone, dimpled proudly. “Jack, isn’t that remarkable?”

“I don’t care if the bairn can recite French poetry or bloody Shakespeare,” Jack replied. “We are sailing to that island and dropping her skinny arse back into her dam’s lap.”

Will opened his mouth with a cross look before pausing, seeming to think over his words. “Crude as it is, you have a point.”

“Well a’course I do –” said Jack, but Will was paying him no mind.

“What about your mother and father?” he said to the girl, puffing air out of his mouth when she shook her head. “Ah, mama, papa? Like me –”

“Will Turner!” said the girl eagerly.

Will grinned and tapped his chest. “Yes, that’s right. Like me, Will Turner, to the baby.” He lowered his hand to his waistline to illustrate. “Parents?”

Understanding flashed in the girl’s eyes and she said a couple of words in her language, lifting her hands above her head to indicate greater height.

“Parents,” said Will with a nod. “What will they say when they find you gone?”

The girl shook her head sadly. “No,” she said.

“They won’t be upset?”

“No,” she repeated, describing taller figures in the air again with her hands. “No,” she said emphatically, stabbing at the air in front of her invisible parents.

“Oh. You don’t have any, do you?” Responding to the sympathy in his tone, the girl shook her head again.

“No,” she said, one last time.

“Splendid how she learnt that particular word so well,” Jack muttered. Will shot him a look full of venom and raised hackles.

“I don’t have parents, either,” he said to the girl, pointedly ignoring his captain. Right, of course – Jack grimaced at his own stupidity and reached out to take Will’s hand. The boy looked at him archly again, but allowed the touch. Their visitor glanced back and forth between them and nodded once in approval. Jack was somewhat gratified, considering that she didn’t seem to like him overmuch, but she still had no place on his ship.

“Why do you think she’s here?” he asked, hoping to establish a reasonable front.

Will shrugged. “The pregnant women in the tent did seem to be well attended. Perhaps they’ve sent her along as a sort of nursemaid?”

“Thoughtful as that sounds, we’ve got to take her back, love,” he said as gently as he could.

“Why?” Will demanded, putting his arm around the girl’s thin shoulders. She snuggled against his knee, turning her nose up at Jack.

He could feel a vein beginning to throb in his forehead. “Because she doesn’t belong here.”

“You don’t want her here, you mean,” Will sniffed.

Jack stood and spread his arms wide. “Of course I don’t want her here! Look around, William – this is a pirate ship! We are supposed to be fearsome brigands, we can’t be chasin’ around after orphaned girl-children!”

Will straightened, looking offended. “What if our baby turns out to be a girl, hmm?”

“That is not what I –” Jack buried his face in his hands and groaned. “I have a reputation to uphold, Will...”

“I see,” said Will coldly. Oh Christ– that tone. Not that tone. He’d thought they were rid of that tone, at least for awhile. “You’re ashamed of me, is that it?”

“No, no, that’s not it at all,” Jack protested, blind-sided by this angle of attack. “I never said that – we weren’t even talking ‘bout you –”

“Oh! So now I’m hearing things,” said Will with hysteria bordering on the edges of his sarcasm. “I suppose pregnancy has driven me mad and insensible so you aren’t going to listen to a word I say for the next six months. It’s perfectly all right, I’m nobody important, I’m only your first mate and carrying your mangy, flea-bitten spawn.”

Jack could see no plausible way out of this fight, but he made a cut to freedom anyhow. “Will, sweet –”

“Don’t patronize me!” Will snapped. “This is just like him, you know,” he added to the little girl, whose eyes narrowed on Jack as she shook her head menacingly.

One day, Jack thought, one measly day of harmonious living and he was already being shouted at again. Perhaps there was something wrong with his water supply.

He had every intention of storming out of the cabin, pride too battered to listen to another word and patience too thin to trust his own replies, when Will’s eye suddenly flooded with tears. He brushed a sleeve across his face while the girl cooed soothingly and hugged his arm.

It was a trick, he told himself, crocodile tears to make him feel guilty. But Will’s helpless-sounding sobs were real, and his shirt sleeve came away wet, and Jack knew they would’ve worked even if they had been false tears.

“I’m sorry,” he said, kneeling in front of Will. It was best to just get that out early and often. “Please don’t cry, lad –”

Will sucked in a breath, his chest heaving. “You think I want to be crying?” His voice started out strong and angry, but quickly faded into a near whimper. “I hate acting like this – feeling like this –”

“I know, I know you do,” Jack murmured, kissing the center of his palm. The little girl clung protectively to his other arm and glowered at the man she perceived to be causing Will distress. Jack sighed, regarding her thoughtfully as he stroked Will’s forearm and listened to the sniffling die down. “You really want her around to help you through this, eh?”

With a tiny, hopeful smile, Will nodded. Reluctantly, hanging onto the ends of the words, Jack said, “The little bit can stay, then.”

He immediately found himself hauled up into powerful arms and hugged tight enough to crack a rib. “Love you,” Will whispered into his ear before releasing him and turning to smile at the girl.

“I go?” she asked, sensing that it had been Jack’s decision and directing the question to him.

“Yeah,” he said grudgingly, accepting an affectionate kiss on the cheek from Will. “You go.”

The girl tugged on Will’s hand and beamed. She was a cute little thing, Jack had to admit, especially now that she wasn’t trying to burn a hole in his skull with her eyes.

“We’ve got t’ have a name for you, though,” he said. She cocked her head quizzically and he pointed to himself. “Jack.”

“Sparrow,” she said, poking a finger into his chest.

“Right,” he said before putting a hand on Will’s shoulder. “Will.”

The girl held a hand to Will’s cheek and repeated, “Will.” She put her other hand on his stomach and added, “Will baby.”

“Yup, that’s Will’s baby. So we’ve got me – Sparrow – and Will, and Baby, and...” He held his hands out to her with a grand sweep.

The girl solemnly touched her hand to her forehead and said, “Idris.”

“There you have it,” said Jack. He shook her hand vigorously. “Pleasure to meet you, Idris.” She grabbed his hand in both of her own and twisted it this way and that, studying nails and joints and pirate brand with the concentration of a surgeon.

Will melted into his side, nibbling a damp trail down his neck. “Thank you, Jack.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack grumbled, annoyed with himself for being a soft-hearted pushover but grateful for Will’s return to a good mood. “Long as she’s not sleeping in here with us.” He flinched when Idris tugged on a finger that had been broken twice in the past, wondering how he managed to keep attracting strays even though he’d spent so long as one himself.