Tie that binds
Title: Tie that Binds
Rated: G
Summary: The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. Jack comes to terms with his rules.
Pairings: Jack/Elizabeth; Will/Elizabeth (implied)
Warning: morose
Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney does, no money being made off this.
A/N: this is based on my own ruminations and is not meant to reflect spoilers for AWE.
This story was written in Feb 2007 before the release of AWE.
"Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants!
Or... do know, but are loathe to claim it as your own."
Aye, Jack Sparrow did know what he wanted, what his heart wanted most, what he did not want to claim. Aye, Jack was in love.
"He fell in love…with a woman."
A woman named Elizabeth, Lizzie, Miss Swann. A woman with different names, but still all the same woman.
A woman who was as beautiful as the sea after a storm.
A woman whose very nature was as wild and unpredictable as the ocean herself and whose soul could not be contained nor tamed.
"It was a woman, as changing and harsh and untameable as the sea."
A woman whom many men loved, but understood that loving her meant keeping her free.
Many thought that William Turner was the reason that Jack never made his claim, that young William was the reason for Jack's restraint. That Jack was an honourable man.
Jack would have them believe that. The truth was far deeper and less cavalier. Jack could not claim her. Jack had found his strumpet, but was incapable of wooing said strumpet; all because of his own set limitations. What a man can do, and what a man can't do.
He could accept that she had chosen young William because young William was willing to die for her or not. He could accept that he himself was the one that actually did die for her. He could accept that she thought she loved Will or he could not. He could accept that he could claim her, but he couldn't accept that love had a price.
The truth is that love is a tie that binds. Where is the freedom in that? He strived to attain freedom. He fought for that freedom. As did she. He did not want to be bound, but as he found out, he already was.
So the truth was that he couldn't claim what his heart wanted most... not because she technically belonged to another man... not because said man was the son of his good friend... but because the girl had what he already had lost... Freedom.
Jack could never force her to choose, Jack would never ask her to choose. Freedom or love. He wouldn't, couldn't be the one that bound her; he couldn't be the one responsible for her love.
Jack could understand this and accept this. He could understand that the very time he fell in love and lost his heart, it would be to a woman he could never keep.
"Him never stopped loving her. But the pain had caused him was too much to live with, but not enough to cause him to die."
This is why Jack was once again Captain of a ship; this immortal ship... why he was alone in his cabin...why he was incapable of feeling... incapable of loving again...
For he could accept that he loved someone so much that he set her free, but he couldn't accept the pain.
And this was why his heart was now in the hold of a chest and he alone held the key.