Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or anything else from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, even though I should with the amount of money I have sunk into the franchise.
This story is dedicated to two of my best friends Ashley and James, who helped to inspire me into writing it.
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Elizabeth had her arms wrapped about Jack, taking steps closer to him, and leaving no room in between their bodies. Her lips were harshly pressed against Jack's, although he did not seem to mind it one bit, and took great pleasure in returning her kisses. Those kisses that were only supposed to be meant for her fiancé. Betrayal.
The supposed "love of her life" stared on at the scene that took place on the deck of the Black Pearl after being attacked not only once, but twice by the Kraken. He could not tear his gaze away. His heart had been ripped out and stabbed by his one true love. This shock had just about killed him on the inside, and he was lost in a reality that did not exist… or so he thought until he caught Mr. Gibbs saying, "… Will, step to!"
Reality hit him hard as he pulled his eyes away from the scene and stepped down the ladder towards the long boat. His emotions raced wildly between dejection, anger, and just emptiness as he took his seat and waited on the betrayers.
Will put down his mug of rum, or more like slammed it into the table. Nothing but the sight of the horrible event ran through his mind. He put his hand up to his head to massage his temples, the drink starting to get to him. It was apparent now why Jack liked to visit Tortuga… to get a drink and think things over…. also, maybe to find a wench… or two.
"So, what's going through your heard, Mr. Turner?" asked Barbosa, as he took a seat next to Will at the table with two mugs of rum.
The young man returned the mug to his lips, not wanting to answer the new captain's question. Instead he stared down the length of the mug, choking down the awful tasting liquid, which up until now, he had never sampled before. For now, the drink was an escape from this reality and that was all he wanted.
"Ah… some problems with the Mrs., no doubt," Barbosa said with a grin and then took a gulp of his own rum.
After a moment of inhaling more of the drink, Will placed his mug down and replied, "We're not married."
"Aren't ye now? Because I was sure after our little quarrel on Isla de Muerta that ye would have taken the lass back to have married her," Barbosa continued.
"Lord Beckett intervened during the ceremony and arrested us for helping Jack, and frankly, now I do not know if I want to marry her," explained Will, finishing off his drink.
"Is that so?" questioned Barbosa, as he casually slid his extra mug into Will's hand. A smile was hidden behind his moving lips, as he could see how he would get his entertainment for the night if the lad did not notice as to how much he was drinking.
Without paying any attention, due to his state of mind, Will picked up the new mug and began to drink from it. For a moment, he thought that he noticed something different about the mug, and pulled it away from his lips to look at it. There was more liquid in there than he thought. He could not have been drinking for the past hour and only managed to have actually swallowed a few sips. For a few moments, he stared hard at the mug, something not feeling right at all to him, but in the end, he decided to push those thoughts out of his head and continue drinking.
Barbosa on the other hand, let his eyes try to penetrate Will's mind to see what was going on in there during those few seconds. At first, he thought that the boy was on to his tricks and would shove the mug off to the side or question him on how he came upon the second mug. However, after seeing him pick it up a second time to take a swig out of, he knew that he had Will right where he wanted him.
His eyes then looked around the tavern, looking for something, but not letting anyone in on his search. It did not take long before his blood shot eyes laid upon two figures: that of a tall thin man with shaggy hair and another of a short, plump older gent sitting around a small table, trying to keep a low profile. The two seemed to have been waiting on something and unnoticing to most, slightly turned their heads towards the crazy captain, who grinned and nodded his head. Seeing the signal, they both stood up and went to the bar to order several large mugs of rum.
"So tell me, Mr. Turner, how are ya feeling?" asked Barbosa, with a slight grin, not in the least trying to cover it up, noticing Will not look entirely like himself.
Will placed his mug down and narrowed his eyes, over looking his fingers, and just sort of studying them before responding. "I feel something... a slight tingle in my fingers," he then looked up to face Barbosa, his eyes a bit dilated. "I think it's affecting me."
"Nonsense. The only thing that's affecting you, is yer mind. Ye've been thinking too hard, which is altering yer senses, boy," explained Barbosa, in the most convincing way possible.
It seemed to have worked, because Will, once again, let the idea leave his mind as he went back to drinking. He knew that he should not be doing this, because he had seen what had happened to Jack after he drank so much… or at least Elizabeth had told him of what had happened when she was trapped on the island with Jack before the British Royal Navy had rescued them. Drinking while being depressed was even worse, and he had learned that while in England. He saw what it did to his mum on those few nights that he would sneak downstairs to talk to her but ended up staying hidden on the stairs, scared to intervene while she was in such an emotional state. One wrong move and all of the tears streaming down her face could turn to tears of anger and a bottle be thrown at him. The boy had seen enough in the streets, while growing up, to know better than to interrupt an upset person who had been drinking. Even though he loved his mother very much, he was always scared to talk to her on the nights that she mourned the loss of her husband… his father.
Tears threaten to fall, as he tightened the closure on his eyes to keep from other seeing it, and he used his sleeve to wipe them away quickly. Of all of the places in the world and with all the people around, this was the one spot that he could not cry. He knew that he would receive no sympathy from Barbosa, and all the other pirates would point and laugh in their mockery, at least those who were still sober enough to get their bearings straight. No, now was not the time. He could do that later when he was either alone or with the people whom he could trust, which were now down to practically no one.
Will tried to push the thoughts of his mother out of his mind and with one huge gulp of rum, it seemed that he succeeded. As quickly as he took that gulp, a shocking pain hit him. His head began to spin, leaving nothing but blurry images in front of him, and although he tried to blink his eyes to bring him back to his sense, nothing seemed to help. He put his hands to his head, and tried hard to stifle a scream of pain, and he quickly pulled his head down to the table with hands still clinging to his hair.
"Ah, Masters Pintel and Ragetti. How nice of you to join us," he faintly heard Barbosa say, through his pounding headache.
"We've gone and done just what you said of us," said Ragetti, laughing a bit to himself, and he placed the trey of mugs on the table.
Barbosa narrowed his eyes at the one eyed pirate, whose laugh quickly disappeared. "He's still alert enough to comprehend what we be saying," whispered the old captain, as he grabbed one of the new mugs and swapped it out with Will's empty one.
"So, what do ye want us to do?" asked Ragetti.
"How about we…" started Pintel.
"No. Not yet, we must be waiting until he's just about there before we do anything," interrupted Barbosa with a grin across his face, and then he turned his attention back to Will. "Now, go ahead and take another swig, Mr. Turner, and ye'll find yer headache will start to disappear."
Will lifted his head up a bit and opened one blood shot eye to spy the mug, still contemplating it. He slowly reached out with one hand to take it. After taking a hold of the cold mug, he just laid there motionless. Nevertheless, with a little encouragement at the thought of his headache disappearing, he managed to lift the container up to his lips and have a swig. Rum. Why did it have to be more rum? At least as he drank the sticky liquor, his headache seemed to have subsided. Maybe Barbosa actually knew what he was doing.
It did not take long before his mug was empty once again, because with each swig, Will felt more and more alive… somewhat giddy. A feeling he had not experienced in so long, he could not be sure if he had ever felt it in the first place. "You know, up until now, I had never touched this stuff," he said, as Pintel swapped out Will's empty one for a full one without the boy even noticing.
"Is that so?" questioned Barbosa, not the least bit interested, but trying to keep the conversation going so Will would never notice his mugs being swapped out.
"Aye!" Will replied with a bit of a laugh and another swig of rum.
Barbosa then nodded towards Pintel and Ragetti, and the two pirates laughed a bit to themselves as they made their exit out of the tavern. "So, tell me, what made ye change yer mind?" questioned Barbosa, as he took a small sip of his own rum.
"Oh, I don't know," responded Will with another long guzzle of the dark liquid, finishing off that mug as well, and once again Barbosa switched out the mugs. "I'd seen Jack drinking the stuff and he never seemed worried when he did, so I figured may be there's something to this… this… whatever!" and he exploded with laughter, as he slowly began to lose his mind.
"Aye, the rum always did seem to calm Jack down," started Barbosa, and then he decided that he better see if the boy even comprehended what he was saying. "But, ye know that he never drank this much, fer fear that he could not command his own crew… which of course we all knew he couldn't do with or without the drink."
"But that's because Jack could never hold his liver… lover… liquor! That's it!" Will finally spat out, laughing some more at his own mistakes.
Barbosa grinned, laughing a bit as well, and nodding his head. "That he couldn't," added in the old scalawag. After one more mug of rum, the lad should be drunk enough to begin his plan he thought to himself.
"It's not amazing all of the women even knew about him. For God's sake, the man was incapacitated the majority of the time, he probably knew every wench from this side of the Caribbean to the other," Will managed to get out, although his words were now a bit slurred together.
"Aye, that be true, and he be known furthermore. There not be a Pirate Lord of the Fourth Brethren Court that Jack did not seem to bring dishonor to, except perhaps Mistress Ching, but that be another story," stated Barbosa as he swapped out the mugs for the last time.
"Oh, really? No wonder everyone had heard of the great Captain Jack Sparrow," laughed Will as he downed about half the mug in one gulp and then hiccuped.
Barbosa joined him in laughing, if the night's entertainment was enough for him, talking that way about his former shipmate was. Nevertheless, now was not the time to be doing that, cause if he did not plan it just right, there would be no fun in doing it. "So, what ye be thinking of the pirate's life, eh?"
"What can I say, except…" began Will as he lifted his mug up in a mock toast. "A pirate's life for me!" and he finished off his mug and slammed it down into the table, while starting to sway a bit.
With that, a grin spread across Barbosa's face, and he knew that now was the opportune moment. "So, it be a pirate's life ye seek then. Well, we'll have to make it official," he said, standing up.
"What? Where are we going," Will managed to get out, standing up and leaning against the table as the rum swallowed his brain whole, limiting the control of his movements.
"Ye'll see," said Barbosa, heading for the door. "Just follow me."
Will then started to follow him, falling over into pillars, backing up into other people, and the occasional stumbling over his own two feet and the randomly placed chairs in his way. When he finally made it to the door, leaving behind a trail of angry pirates, Barbosa was laughing it up, and finally took a hold of his shoulder and led him into the cold night air. The change of temperature just about knocked Will over, if it was not for his captain holding onto him. It was like he had left his sea legs back in the tavern as he stumbled down the road and into an old building that had long been abandoned except for the occasional drop ins meaning to do something without the whole world seeing.
As the door opened, Will covered his ears from the terrible screech left by un-oiled hinges and had to squint his eyes from the bright light that the few lanterns gave off. All that he could make out was Ragetti and Pintel sitting on barrels near a fire with a poker in halfway stuffed in and snickering to themselves, a bucket of water next to the fire, a pile of hay off in a corner, and Barbosa standing next to him. "Come in, Mr. Turner," said Barbosa.
After a moment, Will managed to stumble in and fall in to the pile of hay, as Barbosa closed the door behind him. The young man, lifted his head to look around and saw Ragetti standing up and going over towards the fire and reaching in for the hot iron. "What… What's…. going on?' Will slowly spat out in a slur.
"Well, to be a pirate, ye must have the proper décor of something that symbolizes that yer no longer wanting to be among the civilized," explains Barbosa, and Will gave him a confused look. "It means ye won't be looking prim and proper anymore."
Ragetti then walked over to Barbosa with the hot rod, as Pintel went over to Will and pinned him down. "Here you go," said Ragetti as he handed it over to Barbosa before taking a step to the side, moving his hand in front of his face to cover a smile.
Seeing the smoke come off the glowing iron, Will's eyes widen and he began to struggle under Pintel, trying to get away. His senses were starting to return, but not enough to physically be able to push Pintel off him, which he could have done on any other occasion. "Stop strugglein'," said Pintel, trying to keep him down.
"Don't worry, Mr. Turner, this won't hurt a bit…" said Barbosa, as he leaned in with the flaming hot pick towards Will, and then he looked up at Pintel and Ragetti. "At least not us…" and with a laugh, he pierced Will's earlobe, as the young pirate let out a blood-curtailing scream.
The next morning, Will woke up on the floor of one of the quarters of the tiny ship that Barbosa and the crew had managed to commandeer the night before. A horrible throbbing pain ran trough out his head. As he reached up with one hand to put to his forehead to try to calm the hangover, his hand brushed up against his ear, and he felt a cold piece of metal attached to it. The shock surprised him so much, that in spite of his hangover, he managed to stumble across the room until he came across a bucket of water and looked down into it to see his reflection. In the water, he saw a small piece of metal that now decorated his earlobe. The cold piece was now permanently attached to his body, and it was done so against his will. All he could manage to say was, "Barbosa," before falling back.
He closed his eyes, everything that had gone on the night before bobbed about in his head, much like the ship was doing on the open ocean below. It did not take long before the thought finally struck him…. He was now one of them. He was a pirate.
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A/N: Will's response to Barbosa when asked how he feels is Legolas' line during the "Drinking Game" in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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