When one of Captain Jack's old enemies makes his way up the ranks in the banking community, he charges Jack with a large unpaid debt. With no way to pay back the money he owes and facing a lifetime in a maximum security prison, Jack's only escape might be his craziest scheme yet... He has to fake his own death!

☠💀☠

Over the years, it became apparent to young Maggie Sparrow that people tended to look down their nose at pirates. Maggie may be just a little girl but she wasn't a simpleton, she had understood from a young age that the snooty upperclass people hated her kind. But it didn't faze her, the way Maggie saw it, even if she were the polite little yuppy daughter of a upperclassman, there would still be people who looked down their noses at her. Just because one isn't a pirate, doesn't mean they can't gain some enemies in any particular setting.

Unfortunately, even though Maggie wasn't the cream puff daughter of some upperclassman, she still had to deal with those kinds of enemies.

All of this went through Maggie's head when she was helping her father dock the Pearl in the harbor in Negril. She noticed a snooty-looking man in a sincere suit walking down the docks towards them.

At first glance Maggie didn't like him. She didn't like his clean cut suit, she didn't like the way he strutted down the docks and she especially didn't like the way he turned up his nose at the sight of her and her father.

"Jack Sparrow!" He called to Maggie's father.

"Yes... I'm sorry, do I know you?" Captain Jack asked him, confused.

"I'm Samuel Dreyfess" the man introduced himself.

Captain Jack stared blankly at him.

"I used to be pirate" Dreyfess explained. "I used to go under the alias of Stingray Sam?"

"Stingray Sam!" Jack looked shocked.

"Who?" Maggie asked.

Samuel looked down at Maggie and forced a smile. "Why don't you run along while I have a talk with your Daddy?" He asked in a sugary voice.

"Are you going to carry on talking like this?" Maggie mocked his tone.

"Whatever you have to say, can be said in front of my daughter" Jack told him.

"I assume you pirates are familiar with something called the East India Trading Company?" Dreyfess asked.

"Yeah, we know those jerks" Maggie frowned. Or at least she remembered Cutler Beckett and how he took over the sea's and nearly destroyed piracy forever.

"Well, I now work for them" Dreyfess said with pride. "In fact I'm one of the lead bookkeepers in accounting."

"Alright, so you got a boring job with a snobby company" Maggie rolled her eyes. "What do you want us to do about it? It's your life, you screw it up however you see fit."

Dreyfess gave her a look. "Actually, the reason I'm here is to remind Mr. Sparrow--"

"Captain!" Jack & Maggie corrected in unison.

"Whatever floats your boat" Dreyfuss quipped.

"Ship!" Maggie corrected him.

"Jack, do you recall how our last meeting ended?" Dreyfess asked him, a smug smirk tugging at his face.

"I assume you're referring to how I robbed the Governor of Nassau's mansion and left you behind as jail cover?" Jack asked.

"Precisely" Dreyfess nodded.

"I have no recollection of that at all" Jack shook his head.

"Well, since I'm now out of jail and have since cleaned up my act" Dreyfess grinned. "It is my sincerest pleasure to give you this." He handed Jack a thick envelope.

Captain Jack opened it and pulled out a folded stack of papers. "What is this?" He asked.

"It's a bill, Jack" Dreyfess explained. "A large bill that has been building up for almost thirty years."

"A bill? For what?" Jack asked.

"You do remember when you were in the employment of the Company?" Dreyfess reminded him.

"Unfortunately, yes" Jack frowned.

"Well, when you left the employment of the East India Trading Company, you charged a hefty amount of costs to a company credit" Dreyfess explained. "Then you quit and as you did, you caused mass destruction stole company property. And when I took over the company's accounting a few years ago, I saw your name all over the pile of unpaid debt and I thought to myself, this is my way of getting revenge."

Suddenly a group of men came marching onto the dock and quickly began boarding the Pearl.

"What are they doing?" Maggie asked.

"I took the liberty to impound your ship in a secured harbor, so you can't leave this island until your debt is paid" Dreyfess explained, with a smug look on his face.

"You're a real jerk, you know that?" Maggie told Dreyfess. "You have no right to impound the Pearl! That's our home!"

"Maggie, please" Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "Just how much do I owe the East India Trading Buggers anyway?"

"The grand total of what you owe is on the bottom line of the last page" Dreyfess answered. "And I took the liberty of adding in the inflation costs, since it's been almost thirty years."

"You better keep your head on swivel, mate" Maggie told him, angrily.

"Calm down, Luv. It can't be that much" Jack flipped over to the last page and stared down at the total. "See? I only owe them six point five guineas."

Maggie glanced down at the page as well. "Daddy..." she said. "That's six point five million guineas! There's no way we can afford that!"

"I'm sure you'll come up with the money, Mr. Sparrow" Dreyfess grinned smugly. "Because if you don't have it by five p.m this Tuesday, you'll be going to jail... for life."

"But that only gives us three days!" Jack told him.

"That's not my problem" he shrugged.

"Dreyfess you can't do this, you crooked son of a bugger!" Maggie snapped.

"Can't I?" Dreyfess asked her. "It's tough being this powerful, it really is." He patted her head before turning on his heel and walking off.

"Touch my head again and I'll stab ye in the neck, ye stinkin' sack of fish gizzards!" Maggie fumed. "Absolute power corrupts abso-bloody-lutely! What a hateful motherbugger!"

"Relax, Luv" Jack reassures her. "We'll get an attorney, I'm sure we can find a way out of this."

Maggie took a deep breath. "Alright, but make sure it's someone cheap!" She told her father. "We're in the hole financially as it is!"

☠💀☠

The next morning Maggie and Captain Jack went downtown to see the only cheap lawyer in town that wouldn't ask too many questions. His name was Mr. Malden and although Maggie hadn't met many laywer's before, something told her this guy was a misfit in his profession. But given their current situation, she was willing to give him a try.

"Hmm... I'm sorry I can't seem to understand how this paperwork applies to your case" Mr. Malden said, looking over the documents. "According to this reference number here, you're being sued for failing to acquire an agricultural permit allowing you to castrate a flock of ostriches?"

Jack glanced at the paperwork from across the desk. "That's not the reference number, that's just the date" he explained.

Mr. Malden nodded.

Maggie sighed. "For the love of Anne Bonny's bountiful brassiere, Daddy" she said. "When I said find a cheap lawyer, I didn't mean this bloody cheap!"

"Well, unfortunately there's no way you're going to win this one" Mr Malden shook his head. "With the bank being so closely involved with Mr. Dreyfess, you don't have a hope in hell to win this."

"Oh, brilliant!" Maggie scoffed. "Then what was the point of even coming down here?"

"Now hang on! I may not be able to help you settle this in court" Mr. Malden lowered his voice. "However, there are ways around it. Now Dreyfess and his mate at the bank aren't going to stop demanding money until Jack here is either in imprisoned for life... or dead."

Captain Jack's eye widened. "Might I derive from you suddenly hushed tone and shifting gaze that you're suggesting I commit suicide?"

"No way! Not a chance!" Maggie shook her head.

"Let me finish" Mr. Malden told them. "I heard a rumor about a man who had found himself in the same kind of trouble as you. But instead of suicide, he faked his death."

"Faked his death?" Maggie quirked a brow.

"Oh yes" Malden nodded. "He dug up some bones from an old cemetery, layed them out in his parlor and set fire to his house. The authorities were none the wiser."

"Sounds perfect!" Jack grinned, opening up to this idea.

"Now hang on there!" Maggie told them. "There's no sweet flipping way we're digging up some poor sod's dusty old bones and setting buildings on fire!"

"Who says we have to?" Jack smirked.

"Daddy, what are you thinking? I know it's nothing good, because you got that glint of insanity in your eye!" Maggie put a hand on her hip. "Malden, why would you tell him this? You are the worst lawyer ever!"

Mr. Malden shrugged. "My job is to defend the innocent" he stated. "But if the innocent aren't innocent, I don't have to deal with them."

"Meaning...?" Maggie questioned.

"It means I promised you a solution and you got one!" Malden shrugged. "It might be illegal, but it's less work for me."

Maggie rolled her eyes "I stand corrected... you're the laziest lawyer ever!"

☠💀☠

"Wait, where did he get a rowboat?" Mr. Dreyfess asked. "I impounded your ship!"

"What does it even matter?" Maggie sobbed. "He's gone! He's never coming back! My Daddy's a Deadie!"

Less than two hours later, Maggie and Mr. Gibbs were standing on the docks putting on the performance of a lifetime by sobbing (fake) tears. Mr. Dreyfess and one of the local physicians, Dr. Parkley had come to investigate the supposed death of Captain Jack Sparrow. ...Who was actually hiding out an inn on the other side of town!

"The Captain took a rowboat out on the water" Mr. Gibbs said, putting a hand of Maggie's shoulder. "I told him not to go because he was too drunk, but he said he wanted to go watch the whales."

"He loved to watch those whales" Maggie sniffled.

"He left ten hour ago!" Mr. Gibbs wept. "But then just the front half of his rowboat washed up on shore. All by itself!" He pointed to half a rowboat the crew had found and placed in the tide.

"My poor Daddy, he's probably just a pile of bit-size chunks in a whale's belly right now!" Maggie wiped away her tears. "Well, I guess the only thing we can do now is get the paperwork done and get in contact with the family to tell them what happened."

"Hang on" Dr. Parkley said. "I can't declare Mr. Sparrow legally dead until we find and examine the body. Until we do, your father is just a missing person."

"What?" Maggie said. "But didn't you hear me? He's gone! He's in the land of the Deadies! He's kicked the bucket! Handed in his dinner plate! Pulled the choke chain! Had a meeting with old Mr. Grim! ...Dead!"

"But you can't prove it, can you?" Dreyfess sneered.

"That's it!" Maggie growled, lunging for Dreyfess.

Mr. Gibbs held her back. "Forgive the young lassie" he smiled reassuringly. "She's delirious with grief!"

☠💀☠

"So I'm not dead?" Jack sighed as the crew returned to the inn.

"Not until we can get your dead body as proof" Maggie informed him.

The crew sat around them having drinks in the inn's tavern. Everyone was putting their heads together, trying to come up with a way of producing Captain Jack's dead body... without actually killing him. Maggie even took out some books from the island library, all about medical research and coroner procedures. There was even one book entitled 101 ways to pull off a life insurance scam.

"Perhaps we could chop off the Captain's arm and present it to the the doctor?" Scrum suggested. "And we tell him that we wrestled it away from the whale what swallowed him. His severed arm is part of his body, right?"

"No!" Jack told him.

"Actually I'm fairly certain it is a part of your body!" Scrum nodded thoughtfully.

Captain Jack sighed "Not now, Scrum."

"Listen to this! This could be just the ticket!" Maggie pointed out a paragraph in one book. "According to this medical book, there is a drug that slows down your bodily functions to the point where you will cease to have a detectable heartbeat or pulse. It's called Digoxin, commonly referred to as the Zombie Drug."

"Zombie drug?" Scrum asked. "But what if Jack comes after us and tries to eat my brains."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "If he goes after you, Scrum, he'll just have to go hungry!"

"Besides it's either I do this or go to jail forever!" Jack told him. "I've been to jail a number of times, but I'm not staying there the rest of my life!"

"Just cool your daiquiri's, Daddy!" Maggie said. "This drug isn't even legal and it's near impossible to find around this area!"

"Wait, what's the name of that drug again?" Marty asked.

"Digoxin. D-I-G-O-X-I-N" Maggie explained.

"I actually know a guy who has some. He's helped a cousin of mine, he runs a funeral home up in the mountains" Marty explained. "He helps people pull off life insurance scams all the time. He gives you the drug, lays you out in a coffin and you wake up twenty-four hours later and afterwards just disappear. And he'll do it for dirt cheap too!"

"That's perfect!" Maggie said.

"Alright, mates" Captain Jack grabbed his hat. "Finish your drinks and practice your yodeling, we're going up the mountain."

☠💀☠

Upon arriving at the funeral home the crew of the Black Pearl met the funeral director, who kinda freaked Maggie out. And it wasn't just that fact that the man made his living preparing corpses for the boneyard. The funeral director was a tall skinny pale man with dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn't had a good sleep in a while. His black hair was swept back in an attempt to hide his obscenely whitening roots.

Aside from there was his name...

"What did you say your name was again, mister?" Maggie asked.

"Cadavers" the man answered in a heavy Hungarian accent."Cornelius Cadavers."

"Cadavers, huh?" Maggie nodded. "Well, no one can say you didn't pick the right career..."

"So Mr. Cadavers" Captain Jack approached him. "While I have every faith and trust you can pull off this... project. I feel the need to inquire about how this process works? I am a  newcomer in this faking one's own death trend."

"Of course, Captain Sparrow" Mr. Cadavers nodded. "Follow me to your quarters."

As Maggie and the crew began to follow the elder man down the hallways to a back room with different models of caskets. Maggie noticed that Mr. Cadavers seemed to be biting back a smile, that was another thing about this guy that she found unsettling. His whole attitude towards their reqest seemed strange. It was like he was overjoyed or excited to be putting Jack into a death-like sleep.

Finally Mr. Cadavers stopped in front of a dark mahogany casket that had been picked out for Captain Jack.

"Once Captain Sparrow is injected with the drug" Mr. Cadavers explained. "We will lay him in the coffin and roll him out for viewing. Then he should wake up in about twenty-four hours."

Maggie's eyes widened. Whoa! Back up, Dracula!" She told him. "What do you mean should?"

"Well, on very rare occasions the individual may need an adrenaline injection to the heart in order to reanimate him..." Mr. Cadavers chuckled.

Maggie chuckled nervously. "Jesus, Joseph and Mary Reed! This is spooking me out!" She whispered to her father. "I'm staring to think we shouldn't go through with this."

"Don't worry, my Luv" Jack patted her head. "Daddy'll just have a little nap in this surprisingly comfy satin coffin and then he'll wake up and take you out for ice cream!"

Maggie couldn't tell if her father was brave, stupid, crazy or in denial about the situation at hand. Either way he climbed into the casket and let Mr. Cadavers inject him with the drug that would slow his heart rate.

"I love you, Daddy" Maggie told him.

"Love you too, Precious" Jack kissed her forehead. "See you tomorrow!"

"And there you are" Mr. Cadavers finished the injection. "Now count backwards from ten."

"Right" Jack nodded."What number do I start with?"

"...Ten" Mr. Cadavers told him.

"Of course!" Jack said "Ten... nine... uh, seven?"

"Eight" Maggie corrected.

"No thanks, I already did" Jack told her. "But when I wake up, could you make me a sandwi..." Jack voice trailed off as his body drooped unconscious in the casket.

Mr. Cadavers chuckled darkly. "Nighty-night, sweet prince..." he whispered to Jack's nearly lifeless form.

As Mr. Cadavers went about his work in another room, Maggie shuddered disturbed.

☠💀☠

After Captain Jack 'died'... so to speak, the crew went downtown to see Dreyfess and tell him the news. Dreyfess wanted a dead body as proof and now he had a dead body as proof. Well, more or less dead...

Maggie and Mr. Gibbs met with Dreyfess in his office that very same afternoon. When they broke the new of Jack's 'death' to Dreyfess, Maggie had to bite back a smile as his face scrunched up in anger. He knew he wasn't gonna get his revenge after all.

"So now that Captain Sparrow is no longer with us we'd like to close any accounts he might've had with your company" Mr. Gibbs explained.

"Since he can't pay them back now..." Maggie whimpered "Y'know cause he's a deadie. My Daddy's a Deadie now."

"Yes, you mentioned that" Dreyfess stated.

"Here's his death certificate" Mr. Gibbs placed the slip of paper on the desk.

Dreyfess looked at the death certificate and scoffed. "A piece of paper doesn't prove anything!" He said. "You pirates are just trying to get out of paying back what Sparrow owes me."

"I assure you Captain Jack Sparrow is no longer with us" Mr. Gibbs told him.

"I don't believe you" Mr. Dreyfess stated. "And my superiors at the East India Trading Company will most certainly take my word over any of yours. Sparrow will pay or he will be put away forever."

Maggie knew the situation was getting dire, so she did the only thing she could do to make their scam more convincing... She burst into tears!

"W-w-why must you be so heartless?!" She sobbed loudly, surprising both Dreyfess and Gibbs with the sudden outburst.

"Mmm-my-my Daddy is dead!" She bawled. "I'll never see him again! And you sit here and deny it all! I just want to go home and grieve in peace! For God's sake have some respect for the dead! I lost my father for crying out loud!" She paused to pull a tissue from her pocket and blow her nose loudly. "Fa-first I-I lose my Mummy and now my Daddy too?! I'm nobody's little girl anymore! I'm a-an orphan! WAAAAAAAAAH!"

Maggie's fake tears must've been convincing enough, because Mr. Gibbs was even starting to shed some tears as he hugged her in comfort.

"It's alright, Luv" he told her. "The Crew and I were your family too. You remember that!"

"Alright!" Dreyfess exclaimed, getting sick of this display of emotions. "I'll process all of this..."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" Maggie sniffled.

"...As soon as I see the body myself" Dreyfess said.

"Absolutely" Mr. Gibbs nodded. "Whatever you need to do to make it official."

"You can see him right now if you'd like" Maggie said. "He's laying in the funeral home right now. Dead."

"I'll be the judge of that..." Mr. Dreyfess said.

☠💀☠

"So... you weren't kidding?" Dreyfess exclaimed upon seeing Jack's passed out body in the casket.

"Yeah, there he is... my poor Daddy" Maggie whimpered. "Not an ounce of life left in him." She pretended to sob.

I should win an award for this performance She thought. Or at least get a hefty raise in my allowance.

"My God, Sparrow actually died!" Dreyfess breathed. "I... I must apologize... I'm very sorry for your loss."

"Thank you" Maggie nodded. "So you'll process my Daddy's death and get rid of that large bill."

"Yes, I believe this all checks out" Mr. Dreyfess nodded. "Under the circumstances, Sparrow will no longer be on the company's overdue fee's list."

"Thank you" Maggie said.

"Oh... also if you don't mind my asking" Dreyfess said. "When's the funeral?"

Maggie and Mr. Gibbs glanced at each other.

"The funeral?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, I was wondering if I may come and pay my respects. I actually feel quite terrible about this" Mr. Dreyfess confessed. "After having previously known Sparrow and having been so hateful to him during our last meeting... If you don't mind that I come?"

"Uh..." Maggie mumbled. "Of course! Yes, if you feel the need to stop by and say your final farewells, by all means. Uh... the funeral will be at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Alright then" Dreyfess said, walking out the door of the funeral parlor.  "Tomorrow it is then."

"Tomorrow" Maggie chimed, waving him off.

"Maggie, what are we gonna do?" Mr. Gibbs asked. "Now we have to stage a fake funeral?"

"Relax, Mr. G" Maggie said. "Dad was injected at nine o'clock this morning, Mr. Cadavers said the effects of the drug will last precisely twenty-four hours. Dreyfess shows up down at the cemetery at eight a.m. That'll give us an hour to put on a little mock funeral and once he leaves, Daddy will be waking up. All we gotta do is make sure, Dreyfess is outta there by nine o'clock on the pin!"

Mr. Gibbs sighed. "This scheme just gets more and more complicated and stressful as we go along!" He exclaimed. "I mean, how did we even get to this point. With the drugs and the dead bodies and the fake funerals!"

"Don't worry. Nothing can go wrong!" Maggie told him. "As long as we stick to the plan and everything happens on time."

☠💀☠

The next morning at the cemetery, Mr. Gibbs, the crew and Maggie dressed in a black dress and matching veil, had gathered for Captain Jack's mock funeral.

(Maggie's funeral attire)

However it was now eight-thirty a.m and Dreyfess was nowhere to be seen. He was running late and Maggie was running out of time! The drug would wear off in exactly half an hour and Captain Jack would awaken.

"Where is he?" Maggie growled. "He's late! Now we only got half an hour to make this funeral look convincing and get Dreyfess out of here, before Daddy wakes up!"

"He's probably just running late" Mr. Gibbs assured her.

"Well, we're running out of time!" Maggie told him. She turned to the crew "Alright boys, because of Dreyfess were gonna have to hurry it up. So when Dreyfess shows we have to speed through the funeral send him on his way. So fake cry as fast as you can!"

"How should I cry?" Scrum asked her.

"With your eyes, Scrum!" Maggie told him.

"Yeah, but what style of crying?" Scrum asked. "I could do the standard 'boo-hoo' while drying my eyes with a handkerchief. Or I could do the whole 'whaaaa! Why?!' And throw myself across the casket. Which do you like better?"

"Just shed a few fake tears and make it look convincing" Maggie rolled her eyes. "We don't have the time nor the patience for dramatics. And while your at it get yourself a life... cause mines too chaotic for the both of us."

"I'm here!" Dreyfess called, entering the cemetery.

"About bloody time!" Maggie muttered to Mr. Gibbs, waving him over.

"I must apologize for my tardiness" Mr. Dreyfess said as he join the group.

"Oh, that's quite alright" Maggie forced a smile. "As long as you got here before the body starts to decompose. Let's us begin with the ceremony."

Maggie stepped up to the podium and began to speak. "Good morning everyone" she started. "Today we gather to honor Captain Jack Sparrow. Sure he was a lunatic and he got us into some crazy situations, but he was our captain our friend and my father. And he also didn't want a long service at his funeral. So let's all go home now! Bye-bye! So long! Thanks for coming out!"

"Wait, what about the burial?" Dreyfess asked.

"Burial?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, when a person dies you're suppose to bury them" Dreyfess clarified. "I'll help if you like?"

"Oh!" Maggie nodded. "Of course! The burial! I was so confused with grief, I almost forgot!"

The crew worked together to lower the casket containing Jack into the hole. Then they all grabbed a shovel and started burying it.

"Maggie" Mr. Gibbs hissed. "What now? We're running out of time here!"

"First we gotta get him outta here!" Maggie whispered back. "Alright Dreyfess, if you don't mind we'd all like to get back to our ship and mourn in peace."

"Of course, I went down to the docks earlier this morning and told them to get it out of storage" Dreyfess nodded. "It'll be waiting there for you."

"Thank you!" Maggie nodded.

Dreyfess began to walk out of the cemetery but stopped and turned to them again. "Actually if I may speak personally for a moment" he said.

Oh, for the love of... Maggie thought.

"I must admit I thought this was all a scam, but now that I see that it's clearly real..." Dreyfess sighed. "I do feel pretty bad about myself. After knowing Sparrow prior to all of this and knowing I treated him so badly the last time I saw him..."

Seriously?! Maggie thought. He choses now to grow a conscience?

"After wanting revenge of Sparrow  for so many years I never thought I'd feel bad for him" Dreyfess said. "But now I do. The death of a person can really make you think."

Maggie glanced down at her wristwatch. They now had less then a minute before the drugs wore off and her father was still buried six feet underground!

"Alright, Dreyfess!" Maggie told him. "We got some family stuff to deal with back at the Pearl and you're not family! So if you don't mind..."

"Fine!" Dreyfess snapped. "Just trying to show some respect, but why should I care about a bunch of ignorant pirates anyway! Goodbye and good riddance to all of you!"

As soon as he stormed out of the cemetery, Maggie turned to the crew.

"Everyone start digging!" She shouted.  "Use the shovels! Use your hands! Just dig! He should've already woken up by now! We have to get him out before he runs out of oxygen!"

The crew all started shoveling and digging, the dirt was flying everywhere.

"Hurry!" Maggie urged them.

"We're trying!" Marty told her. "But it's a lot easier burying someone, then it is digging them up!"

"That must be why people never dig them back up afterwards" Scrum nodded.

"Shut up! Shut up for a second!" Maggie listened as they stopped digging. A muffled cry could be heard beneath them.

"Daddy's shouting for help! He must be running out of air!" Maggie cried. "Keep digging! Faster! Faster!"

Maggie and the whole crew kept digging until they reached the casket. Maggie's heart was hammering in her chest as they hoisted the casket out of the earth. What if this could be it? What if her father might actually die after all?

Maggie immediately flipped open the casket lid and Captain Jack's limp body rolling out.

Maggie sobbed loudly, this time for real. "He's dead!" She threw herself onto Jack's chest. "Now we've really done it! He's dead! He's dead! Daddy!"

"My God!" Mr. Gibbs breathed. "What do we do?"

"I've got plan B right here!" Came a voice that sounded like dead dry leaves scraping on pavement.

The crew jumped and turned to see Mr. Cadavers appear seemingly out of nowhere. He approached Jack and injected a syringe of adrenaline into his the left side of his chest. Maggie stared wide-eyed as he did.

The crew all gathered around to see if it had worked. Would Captain Jack come back to life?

"Can you see the color returning to his face?" Scrum asked. "That's usually a good sign."

They hovered above their Captain, staring and studying his face. Then Captain Jack's eyes fluttered open and he shrieked, causing the others to shriek as well.

"Jack! What was that for?" Mr. Gibbs asked.

"What do you mean what was that for?" Captain Jack panted. "I wake up and see a bunch of ugly mugs like that and I thought I died and ended up in the bad place!"

"Daddy!" Maggie jumped into his lap and hugged him, causing him to fall over. "You're alive!"

"Of course I am!" Jack told her. "Takes a lot more than death and being buried alive to stop Captain Jack Sparrow."

"That's nice..." Maggie nodded. "Kinda makes me question what'll happen when you actually do kick the bucket. But that's nice!"

☠💀☠

That afternoon the crew hoisted the Black Pearl's anchor and left the harbor of Negril. They were finally free from Dreyfess and his men and returned to sea.

As Maggie prepared for bed that night, Captain Jack knocked on the door to her cabin.

"You want me to tuck you in?" He asked.

"Sure" Maggie said, climbing into bed.

"Mr. Gibbs tells me you really took control in my absence?" Jack said, tucking her in.

"I guess so" Maggie smiled.

"I'm proud of you, Darling" Jack kissed her forehead. "You're becoming more and more like a real captain everyday. Just like me, a brave, fearless leader."

"I was a little scared when I thought you were gonna die of suffocation" Maggie admitted.

"You're allowed to be scared in moments like that" Captain Jack told her softly.

"I know" Maggie nodded. She looked up at him "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Magger's" Jack told her.

"After everything that happened the last couple of days, I think I should start telling you that more often" Maggie said.

Captain Jack smiled, kissing her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere for a long time, Luv" he told her. "I love you too much to leave now."

AN: Next update will be up soon and it's a Halloween themed story.