It took no time whatsoever for Jack to go from reclining in his chair several feet away to backing the young messenger up into a wall, knobby fingers clutched at his throat just beneath his chin. Jack absently noted the man's Adam's apple bobbing nervously as he growled, "What *about* the blacksmith?"

"H-He's not dead!" the man managed to choke out. "He's done th' killin'!"

With a final narrowing of his dark eyes, Jack jerked his hand away and glanced over at Francois, then pushed past the crewman out of the war room. He stopped a few steps beyond the doorway, looking about, and then stalked toward the knot of men gathered around the mast, wondering what the hell Will had gotten himself into this time while alternately sighing inwardly with relief he was not the one deceased. Scares like that weren't good at Jack's age.

"But he was protecting me!" came a familiar, squeaky tenor somewhere in the midst of pirates. "Don't kill him, please! It was me!"

*That damn fucking nobility. Every goddamn time.* Jack shook his head, a lot of Will's immediate peril suddenly explained by David's pleas before Jack himself even knew the finer details. "Out of my way!" the captain demanded, shoving someone in his way aside. "Move aside! MOVE!"

One apparently didn't like Jack's tone and turned on him. "Wot th' hell you-" His eyes bugged out, his bravado apparently shriveling as Jack's hand was at his throat, the sharp point of a recently-hidden dagger near to piercing the tender flesh.

"Son, you're pissing me off," Jack gritted at the crewman, leaning into his face, his moustache nearly brushing the fellow's chin. "Unless you'd like to be wearin' this, step aside an' tell your buddies to move, too."

"There's no need for threats, Captain Sparrow." Francois's voice, loud and calm, was right behind him. "We'll find out what's going on soon enough. AVAST!" he raised his voice on the end command. "Where be th' smith?"

"'Ere, Cap'n." Jack withdrew his blade and shoved his crewman away, turning toward it. He'd penetrated the crowd far enough that when the people immediately surrounding Will moved away at Francois's order, Jack could see Turner at the mast, his arms behind him -- presumably tied around the column of wood -- and David in front of him, shaking his head wildly and blinking, still pleading for nearby pirates to leave Will alone. The reason Will himself wasn't speaking became evident as soon as Jack spotted the gag between his lips. *Boy, is this familiar,* he reflected, namely to balance out the mixture of fear and the first stirrings of rage somewhere inside.

"Now what's going on?" the Spanish captain demanded, in English.

"He killed Knuckler!" a rather fat pirate charged, coming to a furious stop before Francois. "Run 'im through with his sword!"

"Did you see it?"

"Saw it wit' me own eyes! He warn' doin' nothing, an-"

"That's not true!" David piped up, the fear in his eyes momentarily replaced by a glaring fury. "He was trying to hurt Will!"

Jack cocked his head and met Will's eyes over the gag -- they were neither as frightened nor as angry as they should have been, merely darting here and there trying to take in everything. He rolled them, and Jack blinked in surprise; Will was being dismissive of this witch hunt?

"What, exactly, was he doing?" Francois directed this question at David, and everyone's eyes turned on the boy, who seemed suddenly smaller than his actual spare frame.

"He -- h-he was in the f-forge, and he-" David paused and swallowed, shutting his eyes tightly and shaking his head.

Jack had an idea. "Here, boy, tell me, then." He crossed the few steps between himself and David and lowered himself to one knee, gesturing at his own ear. When David shook his head still, his large blue eyes blinking with unshed tears, Jack reached up and put a hand on his back. "Jus' whisper it t' me, savvy? Nobody else'll hear it, an' I'll tell 'em for ye." He flicked his eyes meaningfully toward Will, then back to David, widening his eyes as he spoke again, slowly, trying to convey the order to acquiesce without saying as much. "You wan' 'em to let your brother go, don' you?"

David's eyes widened, then softened in comprehension. Quick lad. He leaned in and whispered, then. "That m-man came in the forge while we were working and … and he said things about me that made Mr. Turner angry, and said if Mr. Turner didn't listen t-to him, he'd do things to me. Then he got behind -- he moved behind h-him, and he …" The boy trailed off, and Jack pulled away, seeing the confusion in the blue eyes. Suddenly, the pirate understood what David's mind was still too inexperienced to grasp, and he stood, abruptly wheeling on Francois.

"Seems your crewman wasn' quite satisfied wit' whatever he's gettin' elsewhere, an' decided to attack my men," Jack pronounced deliberately, eyes narrowing. "Your *guests,* Captain."

"He's lying!" Jack caught the fat pirate's movement in his peripheral vision, lunging at David; instead, he met with Jack's unmoving form as the captain took two swift steps back and wedged himself firmly between the enraged man and the scared boy. "He didn' do no such thing!"

"What, exactly, did Mr. Turner do?" Francois directed to the crew at large, before nodding at the man standing nearest Will, who'd answered when the captain had asked where the smith was. "Zeke?"

"Ran 'im through with his sword, sir."

"How?"

"Near as we can figger, through th' gut from in fron'. Knuckler was standin' behind 'im, an' he-" Here, Zeke paused to raise a skinny finger toward Will, "he stabbed behind 'im, ran Knuckler clean through."

Jack had to suppress his laugh at the mental image put together from Zeke's and David's accounts. Trust Will to be able to do his work and dispatch an enemy sneaking up behind him, at the same time. He sobered quickly enough when he realized what it must've taken to rouse Will to that point -- the smith was a relatively peaceful man, not given to indiscriminate injury or killing. "Sounds like defense," he told the other captain. "You should untie 'im."

Francois sighed. "As I was telling' ye earlier, you're hardly in a position to be givin' me orders aboard me own ship, Sparrow." The crew nodded in agreement, scowling in Jack's general direction.

Realizing that a bit of diplomacy was in order, Jack briefly closed his eyes and nodded toward the other captain, placing his palms together briefly, beseechingly. "Apologies, Elias … but he *was* tryin' to protect 'is brother. Surely the Spanish Crown don' endorse th' buggerin' of little boys on their vessels, do they, now?"

Jack's lips quirked just slightly at the position he'd deliberately put Francois into. It didn't matter if every pirate on board secretly got off on raping children -- to admit to doing or fostering such a thing aloud, even in such uncouth company, was worse than the insinuation of fucking one's own mother. *Sorry, Mum,* he winced inwardly, imagining how his dam might've taken such a comment had she still been alive.

"As I was saying," Francois finally continued, glaring at Jack, then around at his crew, "this is my ship, and I give the orders. And my orders apparently weren' clear enough: Our guests are not to be harmed in any fashion. Nor is my crew to be used for target practice," he aimed at the gagged Will Turner. "You have a problem, it comes t' me or Zeke."

"Or me," Jack quietly put in, maintaining his stationary position, one hand crossed in front of his other arm, gripping its wrist. He flicked his dark-rimmed eyes neutrally at Francois, who only growled.

"Release him, and back to work. Enough of this foolishness!" Elias pointed at Will. "You -- go below an' get rid o' that body. Throw it o'er." With that, he wheeled and headed back to his war room, presumably to grab a bite of his own lunch. Jack safely assumed his own meal was over.

Within two minutes, Will was unbound and licking at his dry lips in an effort to regain some of the moisture leeched out by the dirty gag, as the crew dispersed to their individual stations. "Pah," the smith spat a couple of times, while rubbing at the rope marks on his wrists. "Wonder where that thing's been."

David practically threw himself against the smith and snaked his arms around the man's midsection. "I'm sorry," he shook his head against Will's sternum, where his head burrowed.

"For what?" Will patted his back comfortingly. "You didn't do anything."

"You wouldn't've stabbed him if-"

"David." Jack interrupted the proceedings. "Not your fault, boy. Mr. Turner doesn' always think things through before 'e acts." Jack expected the glare Will leveled at him over the boy's head, but continued. "Honest men do some stupid things, sometimes."

The boy blinked up at Jack. "But you say you're dishonest."

"Which means I'm not given t' doin' stupid things." He sighed, frustrated he couldn't put into words his relief that this little drama was over with -- or his increasing worry that this wasn't the end of it, after all. He couldn't watch after the two of them every moment. Still … today was one day. "C'mon, I'll head back to th' forge with you two." He dropped his voice. "We may as well take an inventory, see wha' we'll need t' secure for when we get off this boat."

"We hardly need a caretaker, Jack." This from Will, who was still looking adorably defiant.

"Maybe not," the captain nodded in agreement, deliberately borrowing from a comment of Will's three days ago. "But sometimes watchin' your back is me job, comprendé?"

The brow furrow disappeared, and the dark eyes widened a fraction, much of the challenge dissipating. "All right," Will nodded, one arm still around David's back. "This way, then."