Calming the Tides

Jack in London

yay! finally the second chapter arrives! now this is a really long chapter and it has absolutely zero Serenity in it, so bear with me. Its pretty much exactly what happens in the movie. so sorry its so long and tedious! I promise the next chapter will have Serenity in it!

Jack in London

It was not yet noon, but the streets of London were crowded with people. Children darted around the legs of adults, chasing each other and shrieking with laughter while their parents attempted to keep them in line. Everyone seemed to be talking all at once.

“Pirate execution today!” one man shouted. “Watch him swing!”

A few boys were gathered around a stand, jumping to grab the hanging pirate puppets a man was selling. A few more boys chased after each other with wooden swords.

“Take that, you!” one of the boys shouted, swinging his sword at the other.

“Hurry, Papa!” a little girl cried, darting through the crowd. “Or we’ll miss the hanging!”

“It’s not a hanging, dear, it’s a trial,” her father corrected. “The hanging comes this afternoon.”

He took his daughter’s hand and, together, they made their way too the courthouse, where all the people were flocking. The inside was already packed. There was no room to sit, so everyone had to stand. Children were leaning over the balcony railing, dangling their hanging puppets over the heads of the people below.

“Order! Order!” one of the officials shouted.

The crowds fell somewhat quiet.

“Now appearing before the court,” the Bailiff announced as the prisoner was dragged forward, a sack over his head, “the notorious and infamous pirate, pillager, and highwayman - Captain Jack Sparrow!”

The bag was whipped off the prisoner’s head, revealing a man with scraggly gray hair and a short beard. The man was round and looked to be nearing his sixties.

To anyone who had seen the real Captain Jack Sparrow, it was obvious that this man was not him.

“I told ya!” the man protested. “The name's Gibbs! Joshamee Gibbs! How many times do I—“

“Hear ye, hear ye!” the Bailiff interrupted Gibbs. “Presiding over these trials, all rise and attend to the right honorable Justice Smith!”

Everyone who was sitting stood up and faced a set of oak doors near the judge’s seat. Some of them bowed and some of them went down on one knee as the doors opened and a man in a white wig stepped through them and into the room. The crowd returned to their seats as the judge sat down and adjusted his glasses.

“Now,” the judge said, smiling through a powdered mustache and beard to reveal a gold tooth. “What do we have here?”

“Jack?” Gibbs asked, recognizing at once the judge to be the real Jack.

The jailor clubbed Gibbs on the back of the head and the crowd roared.

“Not necessary,” Jack told the jailor. He then returned his attention to Gibbs and asked, “You were saying?”

“I don’t recognize him,” one of the jury members whispered to another, but he said it so quietly that almost no one heard him.

“Jack Sparrow is not my name,” said Gibbs, over the whisper of the jury member. “My name is Joshamee Gibbs!”

“Is that so?” asked Jack, peering at a paper in his hands. “It says ‘Jack Sparrow’ here.”

“I told ‘em!” Gibbs defended. “I’m not Jack Sparrow, who I would be happy to identify to the court if it would help my case.”