CHAPTER TEN: SINS OF THE FATHER
Will decided he liked the sea, a few hours after the commandeering of the Interceptor. The roar of waves, the salt air, the vast horizon. It was both comforting and empowering all at once.
Jack had been quiet since their escape, merely steering the ship and gazing at the waves. Will, who had been mulling over how he'd approach the pirate about this ever since they'd departed, decided now was the best time to risk it.
"When I was a lad, I lived with my mother in England," he told Sparrow, attempting to give the appearance of small talk. "Then, when she died, I came out here, looking for my father."
"Hmph," was the pirate's reply, before putting his attention back to steering the ship.
"My father? Bill Turner?" Will stared into Jack's face. "At the jail, you only agreed to help me when you knew I was named for my father. At the time, it was what I wanted, so I didn't press the matter. I'm not a simpleton, Jack. You knew him."
Sparrow turned, reluctantly looked his young charge in the eyes. "I knew him. I was one of the few who knew him as William Turner. Most everyone else just called him 'Bootstrap' or 'Bootstrap Bill'."
"Bootstrap?"
"Good man, good pirate," Sparrow told him. I swear, you look just like him."
Will's veins turned to ice. What was this? "He wasn't a pirate. He was a merchant sailor, an honest man!"
"He was a bloody pirate, a scallywag."
Will, before he knew what he was doing, had his sword out and in his hand. The man he'd idolized in his mind for years...it wasn't possible... "He was not a pirate!"
Sparrow sighed, rolled his eyes. "Put it away, son. Not worth your getting beaten again."
"You didn't beat me." Will was happy to bring this sore point up, if only to avoid the topic of his father for a while. "You ignored the rules of engagement. In a fair fight, I'd have killed you."
"Not much incentive for me to fight fair, then, is it?" The pirate suddenly whipped the wheel around, and before Will could figure out what was happening, he had been smashed in the chest by a large piece of mast, and was now clinging on for dear life as he dangled over the sea.
Sparrow kept his hand on the wheel, looking deadly serious. "Now, as long as you're just hanging there, pay attention. There're only two rules in this life what matter: what a man can do and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that you father was a pirate and a good man, or you cannot, but pirate's in your blood, boy, and you'll have to square with that someday." He paused for a moment. "Or me. I can let you drown. But I can't get this boat to Tortuga all by me onesy, savvy?"
The pirate swung the wheel around hard, and Will went crashing to the deck. When he looked up, Sparrow was holding his dropped sword out to him, hilt-first. "Can you sail under the command of a pirate, or can you not?"
Will was still for a few moments. Then, he reached out and grabbed the hilt. Jack smiled and pulled him to his feet.
Then, Will took in what the pirate had said, and frowned. "Tortuga?"
Jack grinned, turned back to the horizon. "Tortuga."