To be a Father

Title: To be a Father
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own PotC
Summary: Takes place after first movie. After pursuing Sparrow for a few months, Norrington captures a pirate ship and finds a sick toddler hiding on board.

A/N: Thank you reviewers! I am so glad to hear that people are actually enjoying this story. Someone suggested I should lower the rating on FF.net, so that more people could read it. I’ve decided that I’ll keep this at a T rating on FF.net and the M rated stuff will be on AdultFF.net.

Chapter 4

The whole group seemed to deflate a bit at Alice’s words. Watching Penny reunite with her mother and knowing that Alice had no idea what was going on left a painful lump in Norrington’s throat.

He motioned for the Turner’s to take a seat on the other side of the room so that he might speak with Alice a bit more privately.

“Forgive me if I am being too forward, Miss Clark, but please look closely at Penny. Do you recognize her at all?”

Her eyes widened and she held Penny out in front of her to get a better look.

“No. But I should shouldn’t I?” She asked sadly.

“Mama?” Penny asked, uncertainly.

Alice turned very pale and almost dropped Penny to the ground but Norrington was able to catch them both.

He helped her to a chair and would have taken Penny from her, but the child was holding onto her mother’s dress with a death grip,

“Take deep breaths, Miss Clark,” he instructed as he knelt before her.

“In this dress that’s easier said than done, Commodore,” Alice said with a small grin.

He returned her smile glad that she seemed to be getting herself together.

Alice turned her attention to Penny again, looking the girl over very carefully.

“She doesn’t look like me at all. Though it’s clear that she believes I am her mother. I would have never believed it otherwise,” Alice whispered running a finger over one of the Penny’s chubby cheeks.

“Does she seem familiar at all?” Norrington asked again.

Big green eyes filled with tears as she stared intently at Penny’s little face.

“I want to say yes, but she’s no more familiar than anyone else I’ve seen…”

The tears spilled over and Norrington handed her a handkerchief.

“What kind of mother forgets her own daughter?” She asked and started sobbing which made Penny start crying too.

Norrington found himself reaching for her without thought. Fortunately, Elizabeth swept passed him and gathered the mother and child close to her before he could make contact.

“Commodore, perhaps you and Will could go ahead to the dining room? We’ll be along in a moment,” Mrs. Turner said giving him a significant look.

“Er, um… yes, we’ll just wait for you there, then,” Norrington said and fled the room.

Will followed quietly, keeping his thoughts to himself.

The commodore couldn’t believe his own behavior. What had gotten into him? In the course of his life he had, on occasion, had to deal with crying women before. But never in all his years had he felt the need to physically comfort one. It just wasn’t done. So why then had he reached out for her?

Despite his intentions, she was a woman he had only just met and it would have been entirely inappropriate for him to hold her the way he had wanted to.

“Drink?” He asked Will, apparently he wasn’t yet coherent enough to speak properly.

“Thanks,” Will answered, watching him curiously.

Norrington moved to his liquor cabinet and poured out some scotch whiskey into two tumblers. He handed one to the other man, clinked the glasses together and slammed the drink back savoring the delightful burn.

Norrington had to bite back a laugh at the sight of Will Turner attempting to cough up his lungs. He got a bit concerned when Will’s entire face turned purple as he desperately tried to catch his breath. The commodore pounded on the younger man’s back and soon he was able to breathe properly.

“Not much of a drinker, eh Turner?” He asked tauntingly.

“Ale, wine, rum. I can handle those just fine. What was that?”

“Whiskey.”

“I shall avoid it in the future,” Will said, and swayed slightly.

Norrington laughed and Will grinned at him.

An awkward silence settled over the two men after that. Luckily the women appeared shortly thereafter. Neither Alice nor Penny had a trace of tears on their face. All three were smiling and obviously in much higher spirits than a few moments before.

Cheering up others was something Elizabeth had always been good at. It was one of the first things that had attracted her to him.

Dinner was pleasantly uneventful. It consisted of polite small talk between bites of exquisite cuisine. Even Penny did very well, hardly getting any food on her dress at all.

After dinner they decided to go for a stroll on the beach. At the word ‘beach’, Penny scrambled down from her chair and went running off down the hall. Alice and the Turners looked at him questioningly.

“She has a bag of toys that I only let her play with on the beach so that she doesn’t get sand in the house,” he explained, blushing slightly.

The others smiled at him, charmed at how well he was taking care of the young girl. While they waited on Penny, Elizabeth engaged Alice in discussion of the latest fashion and their shared dislike of corsets.

Penny returned with her bag and a cloth in her hand. She walked right up to Alice, who was listening to what Elizabeth was saying and handed her the cloth.

Norrington watched in surprise as Alice calmly took the cloth from the girl, and tied it loosely around Penny’s face so that it covered her mouth and nose. Her actions were obviously well practiced as she had given very little thought to what she was doing.

“What is it?” Alice asked when Elizabeth had stopped talking and the men stared at her in shock.

“How did you know to do that?” Norrington asked gently.

Alice looked down at Penny who was impatiently trying to pull her to the door.

“I don’t know, it was automatic… Something I’ve done several times before...” She trailed off wincing as she put a hand to the back of her head.

“Are you feeling alright, Miss Clark?” He asked.

Alice took a breath and nodded.

“Yes, let’s take Penny to the beach before she tears my dress,” she said smiling at the little girl’s enthusiasm.

It was a beautiful evening. The ocean breeze was warm, and there were no clouds to hide the thousands of stars or the softly glowing half-moon. The four adults strolled pleasantly along content to watch Penny’s excitement, as she’d stop every few feet to shovel wet sand into her bucket.

With a rather obvious wink at Alice and the commodore, Elizabeth pulled Will to walk up ahead of the others.

Norrington sneaked a glance at the woman who walked beside him, and was relived to see that she was too busy watching Penny to notice Elizabeth’s wink.

“The Turners told me that you healed a man’s hand last month,” Norrington said, after mentally discarding several conversation topics.

He wanted to ask her about her past. How she originally came to Port Royal and what it was like in Greece, but to ask her such things when she wouldn’t remember might upset her, and that was the last thing he wanted.

Alice nodded.

“I have a lot of um, medical information in my head. I get the feeling that I read a lot of books on medicine. I healed the pirate because I felt indebted to them for saving my life. But I don’t want you to think I condone or sympathize at all with pirates,” she said eyeing him nervously.

He laughed and she visibly relaxed.

“Well, since you felt indebted, I guess I can forgo arresting you. Just don’t let it happen again,” he teased.

“I’ll do my best,” she said with a giggle.

Penny suddenly let out a delighted squeal and came running up to them proudly holding a seashell.

Alice clapped for her, and Penny handed the shell to Norrington.

“Dirty!” She said, pointing to the wet sand that clung to it.

“Well let’s clean it up then,” he said, leading her carefully to the water’s edge.

He could feel Alice’s eyes on him as he squatted beside Penny and rinsed the sand from the shell and her hands.

“There you are,” he said standing up and pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket to dry their hands with.

Penny ran to catch up with the Turners so that she could show them the shell.

Norrington offered Alice his arm and they continued their leisurely pace.

“So, the first thing you remember is the pirate ship?” He asked before he could stop himself.

“I’m sorry, Miss Clark. If you’d rather not talk about it, I understand,” he continued in a rush.

She gave his arm a small squeeze.

“No, it’s fine. I can’t remember much before waking up on the Pearl. The captain said I was floating on some driftwood, and if I think about it hard enough I can vaguely remember being in the water. But I can’t remember how I got there.”

They were both silent for a moment.

“It’s a good thing that Sparrow came across you when he did,” Norrington commented.

She nodded.

“I am grateful that Captain Sparrow’s ship came along when it did, but I have to admit the whole experience of being aboard a pirate’s ship was rather unnerving.” She shuddered.

Norrington stopped and turned to face her.

“Did they do anything to you Alice? Did they hurt you in anyway?” He demanded, forgetting himself for the moment.

Alice tilted her head as she studied his face. She seemed confused as to why the commodore could possibly be so concerned about her.

“No, it was nothing like that,” she insisted, and he relaxed slightly.

“I didn’t mean to imply that anything, … untoward happened. I mean, it is obvious that Captain Sparrow thinks very highly of his own charm, but once I told him that I wasn’t interested he didn’t bother me further. I just didn’t like how dirty everything was. Mold was a real problem, and prolonged exposure to it was beginning to make me ill. All of the pirates preferred rum to good food or any drinkable beverage. So the lack of good water had me a bit dehydrated. I had a cabin to myself at night, but it was much to hot to stay in during the day. And I’m sure you’ve noticed the lovely sunburn I got from staying on deck all day,” she said with a smile.

Her words reassured him and they began to walk again. He proceeded to describe to her the procedure that the British Navy followed to keep the ships cleaned. It was a conversation that would have bored Elizabeth Turner to tears, but Alice was very attentive and frequently interrupted him to ask questions when she didn’t understand something. She even added a few suggestions that he considered trying the next time he was at sea. It was easily the most pleasurable conversation he had ever had with a woman.

Penny returned to them, tired of the Turners, and lifted her arms for Norrington to pick her up. They heard her yawn from behind the cloth and she reached out to give Alice her seashell.

“Mama hold,” she said, and snuggled into Norrington’s chest.

Alice looked at the shell in her hand.

“I haven’t anywhere to put it,” she said, and moved close to place it into a pocket on Norrington’s shirt.

He could feel her fingers against his chest and their eyes met making her simple action much more intimate.

They broke apart at the sound of Elizabeth and Will’s laughter as they raced back toward Norrington’s house.

“Shh,” Penny reprimanded them with closed eyes.

Alice and Norrington laughed softly and turned to follow them back.

“So, I assume you will want to take Penny back with you to the Governor’s Mansion tonight,” he said, unconsciously tightening his arms around the little girl.

Alice considered it for a moment.

“I will of course want her with me, eventually. But as she is already asleep, it might be best if she stays here tonight. That is, if you don’t mind…”

“Not at all. Penny is always welcome in my home…”

His heart began racing as he forced out three more words, “…, as are you.”

They stopped walking and turned to face each other again. Her eyes flew up to meet his.

“I don’t know what your future plans consist of, but I wanted you to know that.”

Alice’s eyes got bright and she looked away.

“Thank you, Commodore. That really means a lot.”

She was smiling when she looked back at him.

“The only thing I have planned for my future is to remember my past. Mrs. Turner mentioned that you might be able to help me with that.”

He nodded and they started walking again.

“I recently met a woman who knew you rather well. Perhaps I could take you to see her tomorrow?” He asked.

“Yes, that would wonderful.”

“Then Penny and I will pick you up after breakfast.”

End Chapter 4

A/N: Don’t forger to feed the author! J