Work Text:
I’m not like the others…
Her name was Laurel Marcel, a woman taken aboard the Black Pearl under Barbossa. Laurel had been a teen, lost and afraid, without her mother and father for the first time. When Barbossa asked for her name, her voice failed her – as each crew member chortled, her confidence faltered until her voice was locked inside her in some hidden chamber of the heart. Laurel was raised to work aboard the vessel, and six months after her seventeenth birthday, the seven that had been taken aboard had dwindled to two. The teens had taken to walks on the docks while the crew was in town, and once in a blue moon one would run off. Barbossa received the same lie each time, that the teen had become ill with the twelve hour flu that seemed to attack vessels around the summer months. The ill man or woman would become sick for twelve hours, and then fall, dead. Since the conditions of the work cabins weren’t sanitary, the lie was believed more often than not. Soon, Laurel was all who remained.
Jack had seen a side of Laurel that the others didn’t. He had seen the small twist of her hand as she fiddled with her locket, which told that she missed her homeland. He had seen her twirl a lock of sun-bleached blonde hair around her hand, an action that told that she was troubled by some conundrum. When she would reach for his hand, he knew she needed comfort. He could confide in her all that he wished to achieve in his time as a pirate, and knew that she would never tell a soul. She could tell him all about her homeland with a simple movement and a heartfelt stare. The two understood each other in a way that others couldn’t. He wanted to ask for her hand, but she hesitated. She told him that she was unworthy of him, how in the end all their love could produce is heartache, and that she couldn’t tie him down forever. He countered with a tale about how he was unworthy of her. In the end, they were wed.
I was born four years later. Jack had decided on the name, and Laurel had nodded her acceptance. The name that had been chosen was Jessica Josefina Sparrow – Jessie or J.J. for short. The name Josefina came from Laurel’s older sister, who still lived in France. I’d like to say that the rest of their lives were as happy as that moment, but that would be a terrible lie. When in the dock of Port Royal, a little while after my third birthday, the vessel was ransacked. Jack and most of the crew were at the local tavern. Laurel and the lookout were the only two on the vessel, besides myself, when it was bombarded by naval ships. I’m sure you understand why I don’t head into specifics. Needless to say, Jack came back to the vessel to find his wife of seven years murdered. He was inconsolable.
That’s how I find myself, Jessie Sparrow, back in Port Royal on the eve of Laurel’s murder. A little over ten years have passed. Not much about my father has been altered by time, save for the lack of a ship…
In fact, that’s why we’re here.
First Order of Business: Find/Recapture the Black Pearl.
Second Order of Business: Find Father a Decent Mate