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.

Long Author’s note: (Skip it if you just don’t care, and aren’t going to leave a review anyway) First off, I’m sorry about the delay in getting this posted. I had the whole chapter finished, and ¾ of the next one, then my computer crashed! Three hours of work, that I don’t get paid for btw, completely gone! So I waited a couple days and started over. Here is the result.

This has been the hardest chapter to write so far. I have so much exposition to get out through Alice, and since it’s Norrington’s POV I can’t tell you what is going through Alice’s mind. So, please just try to remember all of the emotional stuff she is going through in this one day… her daughter nearly dying, her memory returning, etc…

I hope Alice’s story is acceptable, I can’t tell you how many different scenarios I went through before deciding on this one. It’s a supernatural twist, and if you don’t like that kind of thing, then you’re better off reading a different fic.

Finally, the dates are calculations I did from info I got off of Wikepedia. (Which isn’t always correct) So please don’t rag me on the dates, I tried to stay as accurate as possible, but quite honestly the exact dates are not essential to the plot of this story. This story is purely for my enjoyment, if you get something out of it too, I loved to hear about it.

Sorry for the long note. I just want you to understand where I am coming from, and hopefully stop some potentially unpleasant reviews. I hope you enjoy…

Chapter 7

The rain beat a steady rhythm on the roof of the house. The day that had started out so nice and beautiful had turned ugly and frightening the moment Penny was stung. The little girl was now sleeping deeply, while the adults sat in the parlor sipping tea in an attempt to calm their frazzled nerves.

When Alice had confessed that her memory had returned in full, a million questions had popped into his head to ask her. Instead, he had suggested tea in the parlor.

Angry dark storm clouds blotted out the sun, and the only light in the room was coming from the fire in front of them. It was as dark as if it were midnight and not late afternoon. They didn’t mind the darkness though.

Norrington and Alice were quite content to sit silently in their comfortable chairs and listen to the storm outside.

Alice kept glancing his way as if expecting him to begin interrogating her at any second. The Commodore wanted to ask questions, but at the same time he wanted to put it off as long as possible. He had felt that he had finally made some progress with her today, but now… Now it was almost as if he had to get to know her all over again. What if she no longer cared for him?

“How do you want to do this?” She asked before he could make up his mind.

He gave her a blank look.

“What do you mean?”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I had assumed you would have questions…” she trailed off uncertainly.

He tried to give her a reassuring smile.

“I do. I just don’t want to push you,” he lied taking a sip of his tea.

She didn’t respond, just looked at him expectantly.

He cleared his throat and decided to start with something simple.

“Where are you from? Usually your accent is British, but now and then you slip into one I have never heard.”

Alice frowned.

“You had to start with the toughest one, didn’t you,” she said with a sigh.

That was a tough one?

“I don’t… I don’t know if I should answer that, but I don’t see how I can get around it,” she said.

He noticed that her hands were shaking slightly as she sipped her tea.

“What could be so terrible about where you came from? I promise I won’t think any less of you,” he tried to reassure her.

“You’ll think I’m mad,” she said flatly.

Now, he was really curious.

“Why would I think that?”

“Because what happened to me… I can’t explain it. It shouldn’t be possible…” she trailed off and looked down at her teacup.

He took a deep breath.

“I do have some experience dealing with… seemingly impossible things. I may not react quite as badly as you might think.”

She was silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts.

“I was born in the city of Dallas, in the state of Texas of the United States of America.”

Alice looked at him warily as if expecting him to either laugh or yell at her.

“United States of America,” he repeated. The words were unfamiliar on his tongue.

“Sometimes we call it USA,” she offered, as if that would clear things up.

He contemplated the fire for a moment then shook his head.

“I know of all the territories of the Americas, but I have never heard of the USA.”

She sighed and looked away from him.

“You wouldn’t have heard about it as it has not been established as country… yet.”

“What do you mean, yet?” He asked, but already the answer was forming in his mind, outrageous though it was.

Alice took a deep breath.

“I was born on July seventh, nineteen hundred and eighty-one.”

He opened and shut his mouth a few times, but nothing would come out.

“I know it’s preposterous, and I wouldn’t blame you if you decide to throw me out…”

Norrington frowned at her.

“I’m not going to throw you out, and I don’t think that you’re mad. Let’s just talk about this for a moment.”

He closed his eyes, trying to think of the right questions to ask.

“You were born in the year nineteen eighty-one?” He asked, opening his eyes so he could see her face.

She nodded.

“And how did you come to be here in sixteen sixty-seven?”

Alice shook her head.

“I don’t know how I got here… I was on Spring Break from med-school when I…”

Norrington held up a hand for her to start.

“What is ‘Spring Break’? And what is med-school?”

She blushed.

“I’m sorry Commodore, I’ll explain as best as I can.”

He nodded and she continued.

“I had been attending Medical School for two and a half years. It’s a university specifically for people who want to become physicians. You see, men and women have the same legal rights in my time and it’s not unusual at all to have a female doctor.”

Norrington took it all in stride. There were bound to be several huge changes in the world over the next three centuries. Before he met Alice, he’d have never thought a woman competent enough to master something as complex as medicine. Seeing her in action this afternoon with Penny had only reiterated his opinion of her. Any other physician would have tried to bleed the girl, and Penny would probably be dead.

He suppressed a shudder and gestured for her to continue.

“Every spring, school lets out for week. We call it ‘Spring Break’. Most of us try to travel and have fun during it.”

“A week? That’s hardly enough time to get anywhere and back,” he commented skeptically.

Alice giggled.

“Sorry, but you’ve got to admit that out of everything I just said, you picked the least unbelievable thing to comment on.”

He smiled at her.

“I’m not going to describe future methods of transportation, let it suffice to say that we can get around a lot faster in the twenty-first century. Anyway, for this particular ‘Spring Break’ I was on a cruise. A leisurely voyage to Jamaica and back, with a few stops along the way. My last excursion was in Port Royal.”

“Really? Port Royal is still thriving three hundred years from now? I’ll bet it’s a popular tourist destination,” he said with a small smile of satisfaction. Perhaps they would manage to not be over-run by pirates as most believed.

“Actually, there’s not much left… Port Royal is popular mainly to scuba divers… Um, people can hook themselves up to a container that holds air. That way they can dive down deep and stay there for a while without having to come up for air,” she explained.

His mouth actually drooped open in shock at that.

“Since I was a young boy I’ve had dreams where I could breathe underwater.” His voice took on a wistful edge.

“Port Royal was hit by an Earthquake and most of it sunk beneath the ocean.”

Norrington blinked, the hard fact knocking the pleasurable daydream of breathing underwater out of his head.

“An Earthquake? When does it happen?” He demanded, getting to his feet.

She remained seated and looked at him sadly.

“In another twenty years or so. You can’t stop an Earthquake, Commodore. We’ll just have to leave Port Royal before then.”

He slowly sat back down.

An Earthquake?

He looked around the parlor, already mourning the loss of his house. Alice was right. They would need to move far away from this place. They (yes, they. She had said ‘we’, after all) would have to leave before then. Did that mean she intended to stay with him?

“Please continue,” he said, settling back in his chair once more.

“I had a few hours until I needed to return to the ship, so I decided to just wander around and look at things. There was no warning before the storm hit. I ended up getting tossed into the water by the strong winds. I was in the ocean, fighting to stay above the water for what felt like hours. Then suddenly, everything stopped. The water turned still and peaceful, and I washed up on the beach. It didn’t take long to realize that everything had changed. Port Royal was much larger, and filled with inhabitants wearing strange clothes. My mind rejected the idea that I had actually been thrown back in time, but the more things I saw the more I realized it was the only explanation.

I had been fortunate enough to hold onto my backpack through the storm. I had a few snacks… um, they were packaged in sealed containers, so they were water proof. I also had two bottles of water and my medications. I had enough provisions that I wouldn’t starve for a day or two. I need other things to survive though, so I sought out a herbalist and was told about the midwife. She was a great help, and within a few months I was able to find herbal replacements for all of my most important medications.”

Norrington took a sip of his cooling tea.

“So you stayed with the midwife and helped her in her shop?” He asked after a moment.

She nodded.

“I didn’t know what else to do. I had no family or money… all I had was two and a half years of modern medical training, and that was what she needed.”

Alice coughed then stood up and refilled both of their teacups. She returned to her seat and resumed her tale.

“I spent two years with the midwife. They were the most challenging of my life. I had a lot to learn about seventeenth century medicine and life in general. Most of it was very discouraging, but eventually I found a way to blend my medical knowledge with hers and treat people to the best of my ability.

Through traders from the East India Trading Company, I learned of a physician in Greece who had made some sort of break-through with diabetes, a disease I have struggled with myself for several years. After much correspondence, I went to visit him. He was not what I expected and the entire Greek culture was very different than what I had imagined. I did not realize that I had come to a time when Greece was under Turkish occupation. The country was predominantly Muslim, and my physician friend was pretty much hiding out on an island. The people there practiced the ‘old ways’, and that was how I found Penny.”

“Found Penny? She is not your daughter then?” Norrington asked, stunned.

Alice gave him a hard look.

“I have cared for and loved Penny from the time she was an infant. I am her mother in every way that counts,” she said fiercely.

“But no, Commodore, I did not give birth to her. I found her on one of my walks around the island. She had been exposed. Are you familiar with that?” Alice asked him.

He shook his head, suddenly feeling nauseous. Her sigh of dismay did not make him feel better.

“It’s an ancient tradition. A baby is exposed by having the bottom of their feet cut open and leaving them out in the wilderness.”

Norrington was horrified.

“And, this was practiced often?”

Alice shrugged.

“Often enough. Usually a priest or priestess would make some sort of negative prophecy concerning an unborn or very young child and would call for the child to be exposed. They believed that if it was the will of the gods the child would be spared.”

“That’s absurd,” he scoffed.

“They are a very superstitious people, Commodore.”

He shook his head, growing quite angry.

“And why did they do this to Penny?” He demanded.

“It was a small island, and so it wasn’t difficult to locate her parents. The father claimed that he had had a nightmare the night before Penny was born, and they exposed her because the gods willed them to. But Commodore, these people were very poor. They already had three children, and I doubt they could have afforded to feed another. They had placed her along the same path that I walk every morning. It wasn’t a coincidence. They intended on me finding her and taking her in.”

“Why didn’t they just bring her to you in the first place?” Norrington asked, bewildered.

“I might not have taken her in then. But there was no way I could give her back to parents who had intentionally harmed her and left her alone. I would not punish Penny for her birth parents actions.”

Norrington nodded in agreement. He might not like how Alice came to adopt Penny, but was very glad that she had.

“As soon as Penny was well enough to travel, we returned to the midwife. Spanish Town was in great need of a healer when I returned, so Penny and I went there to set up shop. Unfortunately I did not have the respect or protection that the mid-wife had, and my shop was constantly a target of thieves and pirates.

A pirate decided that I would be a high-priced sale on the slave market. Abducting me wasn’t as easy as he thought, for I was able to second-guess him several times before he got angry and grabbed Penny instead. Of course I did exactly what he asked after that. We were held on his ship for two weeks, when we came across another pirate’s ship and Penny and I were able to escape onto it. I don’t remember much after that. Just another storm and being in the water again. Then Captain Sparrow pulled me out and you know the rest.”

The Commodore was silent for a long while. The fire had almost completely burned out before he finally spoke.

“What was it you used to save Penny earlier today?” He asked, finally.

“It’s called an Epi-pen. It has a medication that instantly combats the effect of a severe allergic reaction. I had five in my pack, as I share Penny’s bee allergy. I had to use one on Penny when she was a few months old, and then another one today, so I have three left…”

“We must keep them in a safe place. And I need you to show me how to use them. I may not know much about the healing arts, but I know Penny would have died earlier if not for that Epi-Pen,” he said.

Alice smiled reassuringly at him.

“It will get less severe as she gets older. All of her allergies will.”

He was glad to hear that.

“Does this mean you believe me?” She asked softly.

He studied her for a moment, really thinking the question over.

Finally, he nodded.

“I have no reason to believe you would lie. However, you can’t prove yourself, so I think it might be best if you pretend you have continued memory loss. Some people may not be as accommodating as I have been.”

At first she looked like she was going to object, but then thought better of it.

“Very well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’d like to take a nap before dinner. I’m feeling rather drained,” she admitted, getting to her feet.

He stood as well and nodded.

“Shall I wake you in a few hours?”

“Please,” she said, and made her way upstairs.

Commodore Norrington cleaned up the tea dishes, his mind in a whirl.

Three hundred years in the future! His mind could barely fathom such a thing. He tried to imagine himself suddenly thrown three hundred years into the past and grimaced. The world was so primitive then, would he have been able to survive it? Did this time seem primitive to Alice?

He thought of Alice’s comment earlier about a basin and running water. How many conveniences had she left behind? She didn’t seem to mind fetching water from the well. Perhaps she had been here long enough to get use to the way of life here.

At least he didn’t have to worry about any competition. Alice hadn’t mentioned any lovers. He wondered if he should try to kiss her again. Despite everything, he desperately hoped that they could pick-up where they had left off. Perhaps after dinner they could go back to the beach…No. He wouldn’t risk Penny being stung again.

Maybe after Penny was in bed… no, they couldn’t leave her alone in the house. If only Martha were here.

Thinking of Martha made him feel ashamed. He had worked the woman into illness and had yet to check on her. Perhaps he could pay her a visit tomorrow. Maybe Alice would know of some herbs or treatments that would make her better sooner.

After rinsing the tea dishes, he started on dinner. It was easy to loose himself to the methodical slicing of meats and vegetables. Most of his men would laugh if they knew how much he enjoyed cooking. As a bachelor not too far away from his fortieth year he had learned long ago that the more effort he put into it, the more enjoyable the meal was. His mother had made sure he knew how to cook before he left England over nine years ago.

“I won’t have my son starving on some God forsaken island because his mum isn’t there to cook for him,” she had said when he’d protested the cooking lessons.

“Mum, I can eat at pubs, or even hire a cook…”

“James Norrington, you save your money! There’s no reason for it when I can teach you.”

His mother had been stunningly beautiful when she was younger, and through a lot of luck had married well above her station as a cobbler’s daughter. Norrington’s father had had more than enough money for them to have servants, but his mother insisted on doing things herself. It was a good thing too, as Norrington’s father had ended up gambling away most of their fortune.

Norrington was in his teens before he realized that his friend’s mothers didn’t know a thing about cooking or cleaning. Inadvertently, he had revealed his mother’s activities to his friends, and the gossip had been nearly unbearable.

That was one of many issues that led him to join the Navy. There would be only a pitiful inheritance when his father died. Not enough to live on for long, anyway. So, he had chosen a life at sea, vowing to do his best at whatever was asked of him. Even so, learning to cook was not something he’d ever considered.

He had been ready to flat out refuse when his mother had said, “If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me. I won’t know what you do when you get there, but at least I’ll know that you can look after yourself if you have to. I’ll sleep better a night.”

What could he say to that?

Norrington was startled out of his reminiscing by a piercing scream followed by the sound of Penny crying.

He stood in the doorway to the girls’ bedroom, panting and still holding an onion.

“What is it? Another bee sting?” He glanced anxiously around the room and tossing the onion on the dresser.

Alice, wearing the same thin, sleeveless linen nightgown from that morning was sitting on the bed holding Penny in her lap and rocking them back and forth.

She lifted her head from where it had been resting on Penny’s to look at him.

“No bees, Commodore. I just had a nightmare. My scream woke Penny and scared her, but neither of us has been harmed,” she explained calmly.

Norrington slowly walked over and sat beside them on the bed. Alice might have sounded calm, but she was as white as her nightgown and her hands were shaking.

Penny immediately crawled into his lap when he sat down.

“Mama scared, Comdore,” she said, sniffling.

Alice gave them both a shaky smile.

“I’m not scared anymore Penny.”

Norrington had to stifle a laugh when the two-year-old raised a skeptical eyebrow at her mother. The amusement was lost on Alice, who turned her face away and tried to hide a sob.

Penny gave Norrington a worried look.

“Penny, go play with your toys for minute,” he said, setting her on the floor and pointing at her box of blocks in the corner of the room.

She gave him an ‘I know what you’re doing’ look, but obediently went to the box and started playing.

Norrington turned back to Alice, who was still turned away, trying to get her emotions under control.

He slid closer and cautiously patted her on the back.

“I’m s-sorry. It’s just too much…” she trailed off with another sob.

Norrington gave into his desire from the night before (had it only been one night?) and pulled her into his arms.

“It’s okay Alice. I’m here for you,” he murmured, stroking her hair as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

A few minutes passed, and Alice seemed to have gotten herself under control, but did not pull away from him.

“Are you okay?” He asked, quietly.

“Yes,” she whispered, her breath tickling his neck in a pleasant way.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She stayed quiet for a moment, and then said, “I dreamed I was drowning. It was just a side effect from getting my memory back.”

Norrington frowned and leaned back so that he could tip her chin up with his finger. Her green eyes sparkled with tears.

“Alice, it’s okay if you’re not ready to tell me, but you don’t have to lie about it. Not to me.”

The adoring look Alice gave him made him blush, and the air around them seemed to change. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her swollen lips then back again.

“I love the way you say my name,” she murmured, lightly running her tongue along her lips.

“Alice is a lovely name,” he said, suddenly feeling very warm.

“You have me at a disadvantage, Commodore,” she said, her lips turning up in a teasing smile.

“How’s that?” He asked, his voice had gone deep.

Her smile grew wider and she tilted her head playfully.

“I don’t know your given name,” she said with a fake pout.

He wondered how that big bottom lip of hers would taste…

“That is a problem. Whatever shall we do about it?” He asked, teasing her.

She leaned in close to him so their lips were only inches apart.

“You could just tell me,” she whispered.

“James,” he answered automatically.

His heart began racing as her head moved even closer.

“James,” she repeated, letting her lips slightly brush his as she spoke.

Norrington claimed her lips with a growl that sounded almost animalistic. Her lips parted on a sigh and his tongue slipped into her mouth to rub sensuously against her own.

His arms tightened around her, pulling her as close to him as possible.

The thought had just crossed his mind that she tasted like peaches, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain on the side of his head.

He pulled back dazed and put a hand to his, now throbbing temple.

“Penny!” Alice scolded, holding up the block that the little girl had beamed him with.

The last thing he heard was Penny giggling, then the world turned black…

End Chapter 7