Summary: When Jack and his crew find a young princess's tomb, they do not realize the danger they are in until Jack suddenly begins to think he is a child again… As the crew panics and searches for a way to return the gold and break the curse, Will Turner becomes the official caretaker of "Child Jack". As Will keeps Jack out of harms way and teaches the "young" Jack about piracy, he learns new things about Jack... and about himself.
Takes place between CoTBP and DMC.
Chapter Twelve: We're not going to sit here and rot…
As Jack laid in bed, soundly asleep… Will and Elizabeth were in the other room, discussing what they were to do about Jack.
"I don't think I can keep him here much longer…" Will chewed his bottom lip and he ran a hand through his thick hair. "I mean, I can't take him outside or anything, and now that Norrington knows that I have him here…"
"You can't help him leave either…" Elizabeth finished his sentence for him in a soft, breathy voice. "If you stay here with Jack, then you can't leave the house… No doubt, James had probably told my father some things and I'll probably need to stay at home more often than not."
"And I can't help Jack escape or Norrington will hang me for harboring a fugitive."
"I could lend you one of my servant ladies. They won't speak a word of Jack."
"No, I couldn't… surely your father would begin wondering why all of your maids keep coming to stay with me… That'd ruin my credibility."
"That only leaves you with one option then…" Elizabeth's eyes grew wide and she looked at Will, hoping; praying that he was not thinking what she was.
"I'll have to leave with Jack. Tonight." Will nodded slowly as the realization dawned upon him.
"B-but… where will you go?" Elizabeth's voice weakened even more and was so soft that it was straining Will's ears to actually hear her.
"I'll probably have to take him to a port… Or just a vacant island where I can chart out my maps and decide where to go from there."
Elizabeth looked at the ground and she took in a shaky breath. It almost hurt her physically to even ask him,
"When will I see you again?" She felt her eyebrows arch as she saw the blank expression that washed over Will's face. He shifted awkwardly and sighed…
"I don't know." He leaned over and rubbed his forehead… "I don't know.
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"Shh!" Elizabeth whispered to Will as the blacksmith dropped a rather large, heavy Jack into the dinghy. It was dark outside, and the only light was that from the moon, and the light that reflected from the ocean. "They'll hear you!" She tried so hard not to speak above a whisper, but she was heartbroken, and she felt that she may not be able to hide the tears that threatened to leak from her eyes, even though it was dark… and Will may not be able to see her eyes anyway, she still tried to hide her tears.
"We'll only be gone a few days." William did not look at her, instead he just took all of his packed up belongings and began to shove them away into the dinghy as it bobbed in the shallow waters at their feet.
"You can't really be leaving like this, Will…" Elizabeth could not hold it in any longer, and a lone tear slid down her cheek and glistened in the moonlight. William noticed it right away, and he cupped her cheek in his palm, drew her face close to his, and kissed her deeply. Jack wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned his head away. "I'll be back, Dear, before you know that I'm even gone!"
When the words left his lips, he turned around and hopped into the dinghy with Jack and they shoved off and floated into the open waters. Elizabeth waved to them from the shore and Jack waved back, and he whispered as loud as he possibly could…
"Goodbye, Fair Princess!"
It was not long before they were so far out in open water that Elizabeth could no longer be seen… Jack's heart sank and he leaned against the wooden side of the dinghy as they sailed for a destination that was unknown to Jack.
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"Are we there yet?"
"No." Will sighed.
"There yet?"
"No, Jack. Not there yet."
A couple of seconds went by…
"Now?"
"No!"
"Now…?"
"NO!" Will took in a sharp breath, then calmed down before speaking again… "I'll tell you when we get there."
"Okay."
There were a few moments of very sweet, pure silence between them.
"Are we halfway there?"
Frankly, Will completely ignored Jack for the next few hours or so…
It was not until the sun had began to peak over the horizon when they had finally reached their destination. A small, random island that sat lazily on the water… by now Jack was fast asleep, his mouth was wide open and a thin line of drool was sliding out from the corner of his mouth as he stored soundly. Will rowed onto the shore and dropped the anchor of the dinghy.
"Come on, Jack…" He helped the pirate out of bed and Jack slumped over, as he was still half-asleep. Will pulled Jack from the boat and began to drag the sleeping pirate across the sand and into a vacant hut that sat safely hidden in greenery.
Will threw open the door and continued to drag Jack inside. He laid Jack on the floor and let the pirate continue sleeping… Once Jack was laid down, Will took a short pause to catch his breath… after all… Jack was not exactly light. He then moved out again to gather all of their possessions from the dinghy. Will was not making any plans to stay there very long… but in the meantime, he felt it was best they at least got comfortable.
He rolled out a map on one of the old, dusty tables, and a large cloud of dust flew out from underneath the old fabric. Will fanned it away and stared at the map, making little marks here and there with a feather pen. Jack continued snoring, completely oblivious to Will was doing.
Once the plans were made and the paths were chosen, Will set down the feather and rolled up the map again. He threw it idly onto the furniture nearby, and he grabbed the pirate who was sleeping on the floor by his underarms and dragged him to a bed.
They shared the bed that night, since it was the only one there, and both of them slept rather peacefully.
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The light that shone through the window almost burned Will's eyes. He moaned softly and fluttered his eyelashes for a moment before slowly peeking his eyes open… The first sound he heard surprised him very much.. it sounded like singing…. Drunken, singing…
"Seeling snells awong… garner heers in con… then wen wonning wong…"
Will blinked, at first thinking it was his imagination… but no. He forced himself to sit up and he noticed the absence of weight in the bed. Jack was sitting on the floor, blowing spit bubbles and singing this song in strange, baby-talk. It was something Will had not only not expected, but Will had not heard before.
"Sann song, selling sway, wen won in wey…" Jack continued singing. Then, Jack paused a moment and spat raspberries with his mouth, creating more white, foaming bubbles. He giggled.
"..Jack…?" Will whispered softly. "You're awake."
The pirate turned his head to face Will when he heard his name being called. He only stared blankly for a while, and then continued with his gibberish song. Will grunted and pulled himself out of bed.
"Come on, Jack…" The pirate either did not care, or did not understand because he blatantly neglected Will's statement and continued with whatever he was doing. Will was growing impatient, and he grabbed Jack's arm tightly and pulled the pirate to his feet. "Come on, Jack!" He spoke with louder volume, and a hint of annoyance.
Jack complied, but gave no verbal response. Will led the pirate to the other room where the map was laying on a couch. He snatched up the map and yanked it open, reviewing his notes from the other night.
"Okay Jack… We'll be sailing only for today and we should at least reach Tortuga by nightfall… We'll see if we can get some contact to your crew, and they'll come pick you up and you'll be safe."
Jack's eyebrows arched in confusion and he looked at Will questioningly.
"…my crew…?" Jack echoed.
Will mentally kicked himself for talking too much… In all honesty, he did not want Jack to know about his crew, his life as a pirate yet… especially since he had learned that Jack really did not want to be a pirate.
"Uhm… Is that what I said?" Will tried to change the subject as quickly as possible. "That's not what I meant to say…"
"Wha did ye mean to say, then?" Jack was sounding very serious now… almost too serious for a child and Will was nearly shaking with guilt. He could not bring himself to tell Jack anything yet, but he also could not bring himself to lie. He rubbed his forehead in frustration and he turned to Jack and sighed…
"Just forget it, Jack… pretend I never said anything." Will kicked himself again when he noticed that Jack's eyes widened as if he suddenly found out a really, deep, dark secret.
"Yer lyin' to me!" Jack cried. "Ye do know somethin'!"
"Jack!"
"Tell me! I have a crew?"
"Jack…." Will could not hold it in… and the truth began to leak from him like lava from an erupting volcano. "… You are under a curse! You think you are a child, but your not… You're a pirate and your crew cares about you so much that they left me with you to go and break the curse!"
The words were like daggers to Jack's body and the pirate found himself choked up … as he must've stopped breathing when Will had told him this.
"T-that's not true!"
"It is, Jack! I've sailed with you before, and you told me tons of wise things… My father was a pirate…"
Jack stopped processing Will's words through his mind, and it all because nothing but a blur. Jack's vision went fuzzy as well as tears formed in his eyes. He couldn't hear anything anymore, he could not feel… he couldn't explain why he felt the way he did. He wanted to die…
"No…" Jack whispered. "No!" Tears poured from his eyes like rivers across his dirty face and he sniffed loudly… but despite the sniffing, trails of clear mucus still slid down his upper lip and dripped down to his chin. "No! Ye're lying!"
"Jack…" Will reached out to grab Jack and hug him, but the pirate shoved his arm away, and without warning, he let out a long, screeching yell that would have popped light bulbs and cracked glass… The pirate threw back his head and sobbed. "Jack….!" Will tried to stay calm, but Jack would not let Will come near him.
Will sighed… crying would not help their situation in the slightest.
"Jack! Come on, stop this…"
"No! Get away from me!" The pirate turned around and ran out of the open door that led outside of the hut…
"Jack!" Will called, but by now Jack had ran so far that he was completely out of sight…
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"He ran away…" Will had to repeated it to himself to make sure that this was not a nightmare and that he was still not dreaming.
It was already nighttime, and Will had searched all across the smile island but has had no luck in finding Jack.
"He's still out there… he has to be!" His rationality was backed up by the sight of the dinghy, still bobbing along in the water next to the dock. "He hasn't left the island… We're the only two here."
Will paced across the wooden floor of the hut. He could not stop worrying about Jack and what could have happened to the poor blighter.
"I shouldn't have said anything…" Will shook his head. "I shouldn't have spoken so fast without thinking!" But you knew this would come up sooner or later… Will shook the though from his head. He wiped away the tears in his eyes that were making his eyesight impaired. "Jack just doesn't understand yet…" Will spoke to himself just above a whisper. "Jack doesn't know how much I care….right? He'll come back safe and sound before I know it… right?" For some reason…. He was not feeling very reassured.
Author's Notes:
I've been working vigorously on these next two chapters. :B
Anyway.
That's all.
R & R.
