Chapter 2: Impossible
Gibbs watched Jack lean onto the outside wall of the inn, then looked up and down the street, making sure they were safe. Breathing heavily from the effort of practically carrying Jack out all by himself, his eyes wandered into the distance, they were making very slow progress, how will they ever make it to the Pearl? He momentarily considered leaving Jack there and getting help from Pintel, but Jack would not appreciate having been seen in such a state by the crew, so it had to be a no. But would he be not bothered if he was seen and recognized like this on the streets of Tortuga? "Come on Jack," he urged him quietly, "before somebody walks by."
Jack was blinking a lot, and staring, alternatively, as if lost, unless Gibbs guided him somewhere, but was still sure about the talking part, "e'er wonder why we keep doing it? Navvy after us, every man fe imself, long drawn bored weeks on sea without no catch, running out of rum...all that makes you want to use that pistol on yer ewn head? And we ne'er come up with an answer either. No a good one anyway."
"Can't say I don't e'er think about that Jack, but it's just who we are. It's what we do."
"It's what we do well, ei?" Jack gave him a half smile.
"Indeed. Captain? Will ye shut up? Walking and talking at the same time appears to be beyond ye, so...before you get even more philosophic, don't ye think we should head? Er...at least away from this place," he nodded towards the ground, indicating that they were not all that far off from standing exactly in the middle of...some unpleasantness that came from...some unknown origin, he didn't want to elaborate.
Jack followed his gaze, then quickly closed his eyes. He suddenly found a reason to move too if he didn't want to look more pitiable in front of Gibbs. He picked himself off the wall and moved himself along a few steps, but his stomach lurched and twisted and he was forced to stop again, this time leaning onto Gibbs as the wall was unreachable.
"Not like you, Jack. Is everything all right?"
"No," Jack admitted, going down on shaky knees and pulling the older man with him. Gibbs hardly had any time to entangle before Jack gave in to what his stomach would've wanted to do all along.
Gibbs tried to comfort him by patting his back, "I knew something was wrong with ye," he muttered. What was he going to do? Jack needed to lie down and sleep this out. The sooner they were back on the Pearl, the better. He maneuvered himself under one of Jack's armpits and hauled him up, panting heavily. "Was it something ye ate?" It certainly could have not been the drink, he had never seen Jack even have a proper hangover, like ever.
Jack shook his head. In fact, he didn't eat anything all day, it was just rum. "What about happiness?" Jack continued, as if he would've really had a partner to that conversation, "and I don't mean joy or pleasure," he sighed.
Gibbs frowned, just about managing to get them to a reasonably steady state when they could move into a particular direction, "what about happiness? We have the Pearl, don't we? That is, if we get there in time."
"I say the only thing worth living for is love!" Jack said rather loudly and suddenly, making Gibbs wince from the decibels in his ears, "don't ye agree?"
"I agree, Jack, I agree to anything."
It appeared to be the wrong thing to say, as Jack stopped again and patted his first mate's face with drunken benevolence, "thank you Joshamee, you're a good friend."
Said good friend cursed. They'd maybe reach destination if Jack wasn't maybe getting into the purpose of life on top of it. Staggering from side to side like a large heap or sitting down occasionally because Jack was either too drugged to walk or his stomach was rebelling, Gibbs swore he would never set foot in Tortuga again, and then he saw the Pearl in the distance.
Tbc