Summary: "Elizabeth had never heard him properly swear before. She stared at the door, her eyes burning with tears that had yet to come. The first mate supportively rested a weathered hand on her shoulder." Jack Sparrow returns to Shipwreck Cove when Captain Teague is on his deathbed. One-shot. Post AWE AU. Hints of Sparrabeth.
Silence Of The Son
The news spread from Shipwreck Cove within a couple of days. Just four days after the word got out publicly to the Cove's residents, the Black Pearl made port at the city.
The Keeper of the Code was dying. His son had returned to the Cove to bid him farewell.
The Pirate King heard the whispers of the locals as she made her way down to the docks to greet the ship's captain and first mate.
"Teague's whelp is here. Poor boy."
"Sparrow's come in to say goodbye to the Keeper."
"Looks like the lad's sailed in at last."
By the time she reached the famed ship, she discovered that she had missed the pair she had intended to meet. They'd gone off into Shipwreck City already. She made her way back through the maze of a city, still making a couple of wrong turns despite the couple of years' worth of experience she had of navigating the place.
When she arrived back at the Keeper's living space, the first mate sat outside the room his old friend rested in. The captain was not in sight, but the muffled voices coming from beneath the closed door told her that he had indeed made it there.
"How's he taking it?" The King asked the first mate.
"He's strong, Miss Elizabeth." The aged, mutton-chopped pirate told her. "He's holdin' up best he can."
She nodded, no more words needing to be spoken between them.
She listened to the voices of the captain and the Keeper, unable to make out anything being said between father and son. It slowly grew quieter, a telltale sign that the older man's time was upon him.
Then silence flooded the whole living quarters.
It lasted for a long moment.
"Dammit!" The captain's voice was raw with emotion.
Elizabeth had never heard him properly swear before.
She stared at the door, her eyes burning with tears that had yet to come. The first mate supportively rested a weathered hand on her shoulder. She turned to him after the silence stretched on a few minutes longer and he nodded towards the door to the room in which the son mourned.
She blinked in understanding, rising to her feet. Her hand hesitated on the doorknob. "What do I say to him, Gibbs?"
"Sometimes nothin' needs to be said." The man answered encouragingly. "Jus' be there with 'im an' I reckon he'll understand."
She nodded, twisting the door handle and pushing into the room. As she closed the door behind her, her eyes laid upon the Keeper's unmoving body and the still form of his mourning son, who didn't even turn to look at her. He sat upon the same chair she had occupied for the past week, his arms resting on his thighs as he distantly stared at the limp figure on the bed before him.
Elizabeth wiped at her eyes as they watered a little and came to stand alongside him. She instinctively wrapped an arm around his shoulders, drawing him against her hip like a mother would a child. Though she wasn't a mother and the grown man beside her was most definitely not her child, he didn't protest, letting her hold him as he silently grieved.
She'd only ever seen him so still, so quiet a couple of rare times. She'd never seen him allow someone else to support him. All three at once was certainly odd.
But Jack Sparrow did not cry.