"Secure the mast tackle, Mr. Turner!" Cried Bosun through the crack of thunder and the drenching sound of rain.
Bootsrap heard the order, but looked worriedly up at the canon he was helping hoist, trying to judge if he could leave his post here.
Will spun around looking at Bosun, wondering if he realized that Will could not leave his post as he was helping with the canon. Will was about to ignore the command, but then the Bosun's voice ripped out again,
"Set to it!"
Will frowned, but ran up to the helm. Will eyed a crewmember who was already pulling, and doing his job.
"Step aside." Will yelled through the pouring rain, not stopping to look at the crewmember.
Bootstrap looked confusedly at a young, obviously new member to the crew as he told him to step aside. No one on this ship would ever be so charitable. But at his command to step aside Bootstrap was indignant, not one to be told what to do by a man younger than himself.
"Mind yourself!" He yelled back. The younger man would still not leave. Something must've been wrong in his head. Bootstrap yelled again, "Let go, boy!" This time Bootstrap looked him in the eye.
Suddenly he was frozen. His hands stopped moving. It seemed his heart had stopped as well. It was Will. Bootstrap knew it somewhere deep down in what was left of his soul. He hadn't seen his son since the day he left him and his mother behind. Will had been a small child then. Yet he knew. Almost desperately, Bootstrap knew. He was still staring at Will who was looking confused and annoyed. Then Bootstrap realized what Will's presence here must mean. Will had sworn an oath to Jones. Will was doomed to the same fate as himself, but at a younger age.
"No!" Bootstrap gasped. Will couldn't be here. It was too atrocious, too cruel. Suddenly, his hands slipped off the rope, and Will was sent tumbling across the helm, stopped only by the hard, wood banister.
Bootstrap stood still frozen. His eyes watched it all happen, his ears hearing the crash of the cannon against the deck. Yet it was as if he was watching and hearing it all happening from a far away place.
It was his son they were hauling up. It was his son they were forcing against the ropes. From his far away place he heard,
"Five lashes will remind you to stay on 'em!"
Suddenly his muscles acted without his will as he ran down to them.
"No!" Bootstrap yelled as he stopped Bosun from cracking the whip.
"Impeding me in my duties?" Bosun asked greedily, as if he could not wait to whip Bootstrap next for such a display. "You'll share the punishment."
"I'll take it all." Bootstrap replied dutifully. He was not going to ruin the one opportunity he'd had in a long time to be a good father.
"Will you now?" A voice came from behind all of them. The voice of Davy Jones. "And what would prompt such an act of charity?"
"My son." Bootstrap looked back at Will, who struggled to turn and see Bootstrap as he said it. His father…
"He's my son."