By WriterfromWardrobe
Word Count: 1311
Rating: PG
Summary: What if Carina (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) was Jack Sparrow and Angelica’s daughter?
Written prior to Dead Men Tell No Tales being released to theaters, I heard this theory that Carina Smyth could be Jack Sparrow’s daughter, so these were my reasons for why this was possible and my own little take on how this could have been revealed.
***
“I’m with child – yours!”
She was desperate; she did not want to be abandoned on this godforsaken island. Could he blame her? He knew what it was like to be marooned – to not be trusted. She had wits, though; she would be off this island within a fortnight. She would probably be back in his life some year when he least expected it – and she would be at him for revenge.
“Jack, may I say something, something I should have said to you the moment we first met?”
He turned around to face her. Her face had softened, but he knew this was just another part of her frantic attempt to not be left here on this desert island with the hot Caribbean sun.
“Go ahead,” he prompted her.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“As do I.”
She tried to kiss him. Her Spanish charm always won him over – well, not this time.
“I got to go.”
“Jack!” She ran, chucking sand and rocks after him as he made his escape. “This isn’t over, Jack!”
—
“The Dead have taken command of the sea. They are looking for a Pearl, a girl, and a Sparrow.”
—
Carina slid an inquisitive look Henry’s way. “You don’t mind that I am outspoken, bold, forward-thinking, and fighting for a woman’s rightful place in education?”
By the tone the headstrong young lady used, Henry dared not disagree. Carina was one person he would rather not argue with. Still, everything she had asked was true – he loved her for all those things, but now she acted like it was impossible to accept.
“Of course. You’re a pioneer. You’re really smart, and you’re not afraid to be yourself and speak your mind.”
Carina rummaged through the bag on her bed, packing up her few belongings before departing. After all the time they had spent together with Jack and his misadventures, this was the first time Henry had ever known Carina to be quiet.
“You’re the only person who sees it that way,” she finally spoke. “No other man does. Mr. Smyth did not see it your way.”
“Mr. Smyth? Your father?”
“He was no father of mine!” Carina’s dark eyes flashed with anger. “After my mother died and I started getting these ‘crazy notions’ to go to University, he told me what my mother was – what I am. She was a vixen who flagged down the merchant ship he was on. She charmed him. They wed. I was not his. He said she was a pirate. I am a pirate.”
Henry almost revealed that his mother was the Pirate King when Carina pulled a small rag doll out of the bag. It had long black hair and wore a red bandanna.
“My mother gave this to me to play with when I was little. She said never to show it to Mr. Smyth.”
Henry gingerly touched the toy, surprised by its resemblance to a certain pirate. He carefully lifted one of the arms.
—
Meanwhile, Jack’s adventures were not quite through. At least the two youngsters were back on land and out of harm’s way, though that was small comfort. Salazar and Barbossa stood in front of him on the aft deck, their swords pointed at his neck.
“Ya know, grantin’ a dyin’ man his final wish is customary –”
“Not pirates!” Salazar stressed. “Men, yes; but pirates do not get any last requests!”
“Oh, booger.” Jack tried to play it cool; he’d always been able to talk his way out of these messes in the past. “Then I am afraid, ya leave me only one cho–”
His left arm suddenly shot up.
The two captains brought their swords closer. “Don’t try anything funny, Jack,” Barbossa warned.
The pirate tried to bring his arm back down with his right one, pushing on the left arm as though it were an unyielding lever.
—
Carina allowed Henry to take the doll into his hands. He moved the arms aside to get a better look at the toy’s clothes.
—
Both arms stuck out away from Jack’s sides, making him resemble a scarecrow. One fist struck a Dead sailor in the face. All of Salazar’s and Barbossa’s combined crew jerked back, not knowing what to expect from the pirate.
“The effects of drink were never like this before – I think,” Jack thought aloud, looking from one arm to the next.
—
Even the clothes looked like Jack’s, Henry thought, turning the doll over in his hand to finish his inspection.
—
Jack whipped around with one of his outstretched hands knocking a sword out of one sailor’s hand. Barbossa lowered his own weapon in confusion while Salazar roared in frustration.
“Don’t look away when I’m talking to you!”
—
“It’s just a doll dressed up like a pirate, that’s all.”
Carina stared at Henry in astonishment. “How can you be so daft?”
Henry stood up from the chair he had been sitting in. “What? Do you want me to say, this looks just like Jack? What that might imply?”
“I am well aware of what that means!” Carina snapped, snatching the doll back from her friend’s grasp.
—
Jack spun back around, arms flopping about.
—
Carina scrunched the toy up in the palm of her hand.
—
Jack kicked Salazar in the knee. Barbossa could not figure out what Jack was doing; and guessing by the confusion on the pirate’s face, Barbossa had a sneaking suspicion that Jack did not know, either. He stepped back, increasing the distance between him and the unpredictable pirate. Salazar on the other hand came at Jack, his sword raised over the pirate’s bent body.
—
A pirate.
That’s what she really was.
A pirate.
She had never believed it before. She thought Mr. Smyth had only told her that to humiliate her, just like how every other man had humiliated her whenever she had tried to set her course as an astronomer. Now, a doll in her hand was taunting her, humiliating her with the worse accusation one could ever be given.
A pirate.
She chucked the doll out the window of her lodgings, hoping something terrible would happen to it on the street below, hoping she would never see it again, hoping that she would never see the real Captain Jack Sparrow ever again.
***
Jack was suddenly airborne, missing Salavar’s downward swipe by less than an inch. The sailors ducked as the pirate sailed over their heads and over the side of the ship.
“Sorry I couldn’t stay and chat longer!”
Free of whatever constraints had taken hold of him previously, Jack was able to start swimming as hard and fast as he could. The water began to ripple in the near distance, and Jack shuddered at the thought of Salazar’s sharks. Out of the frying pan and into the fire! Just then he saw the telltale wooden crocodile beak. Good timing, Willie boy!
“He’s getting away in the Dutchman,” Barbossa exclaimed. “We won’t be able to chase that ship down!”
Salazar joined Barbossa at the rail. “We’ll make for the mainland and track down that girl. He’ll come for her.”
Barbossa frowned. “You honestly think Jack will show up to save her skin? Ha!”
“I’ve my sources,” the Dead Captain said easily. “I’ve heard she’s his own flesh and blood.”
Barbossa’s face contorted in complete confusion as Salazar barked the order to change course. Then Salazar gazed back out to sea from where Jack had given him the slip once again.
“This isn’t over, Jack.”