Lord Knows I Can't Change
Chapter Fifteen
Will looked up from the wheel when he heard the pirate fall.
His face and his body told Will what the blacksmith already knew, but had been denying with every ounce of his being.
William was gone.
Will barely felt the swell of pain that was gradually traveling from his heart to every nerve in every inch of his body.
His father was dead.
Elizabeth turned away from the sea and unhurriedly made her way back to the deck.
Will watched her through blurry eyes.
Her fingertips lightly brushed over the edge of the railing that Bootstrap had rescued her from. She rose her hand to her eyes and studied her fingers before slowly lowering her arm back to her side and resting her eyes on the sea.
Bootstrap had fallen overboard.
Elizabeth had killed him.
"It's not your fault." Elizabeth's head snapped around when she heard the pirate captain's voice. Jack's head was bowed and he still sat in the same position he had since discovering Bootstrap to be gone. "Don't be blammin' yourself, Miss. Swann. Ye did not murder William."
Murder William. William was dead.
Will lowered his eyes and shut them tightly.
It hurt…
Elizabeth shook her head. "He died because he rescued me, Jack," she dropped her eyes from the pirate to the Pearl's worn deck. "I killed him."
"And how exactly did you? You were in the cabin with Will and I. You are not responsible for his death, Elizabeth."
His death.
Will squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.
Oh God, it bloody ached...
"How did I?!" She repeated in an incredulous tone as she looked back at the pirate, angrily blinking the blurriness away. "He fell overboard because he was foolish enough to rescue me! I killed him, Jack!" Jack slowly rose his head and his eyes locked with hers.
The evident fury laid across her face slowly diminished.
Jack's eyes had tears in them.
A pirate's eyes were crying.
"William saved you, Elizabeth Swann." Elizabeth was not familiar with this side of Captain Jack Sparrow. The pirate had never appeared as the type that would feel the pain caused by the death of a loved one.
His tears were pain, and that pain was threatening to spill from his eyes.
Pirate captain or not, tears were human, and Jack was human. He was not immune to feeling.
"Saved you and threw you in my cabin where you were greeted by a wave that jammed the bloody door shut! Exactly how did you kill him, Elizabeth, how did you push him off of this ship?!" Elizabeth opened her mouth in hopes of some form of logical response, but all that came out was a low sigh. Jack was right.
Kill him.
Will vaguely wondered if the pain he was feeling was the kind that you felt while dying.
Perhaps he was dying.
"Is there any chance that he's still…-" Elizabeth trailed off as she turned back around and let her eyes roam over the sea. "Still…-"
"No." Pain laced the word that left Jack's mouth and Elizabeth had to shut her eyes to keep her tears from winning. "The waves were just too large, too frequent… -He either drowned or was crushed by the Pearl. William is dead, Elizabeth."
William is dead. Dead and forever coincided.
If Will was not to die, then would he be dying everyday for the rest of his life? Every day his nerves would tingle? His heart would stop beating? His breath would catch in his throat?
Death and forever coincided.
Will would be dying everyday for the rest of his life.
"What if he, like, latched onto the ship, Jack?" Elizabeth's tone held an optimistic hope that her eyes did not. "Say the window to the brig? -Those waves were tall enough to aid him in reaching it… -He could have grabbed on, Jack…" Her voice quieted as Jack slowly shook his head.
"William is dead, Elizabeth." The words hurt to say, to even think. His throat and tongue were bleeding from having said them twice now. "Stop being a simpleton."
"I'm not being a simpleton, Jack Sparrow! It's called having hope, Jack, it's called not giving up!"
"Your words are no incentive for me to hope, Miss. Swann. Hope is wasted on the weak, on those who spend their bloody lives hoping that one day the person missing will magically pop back up and be alright, Elizabeth, be fucking unscathed!" Elizabeth couldn't decide if Jack's words held more anger than they did pain. "William is dead, Elizabeth, he is bloody dead!...-" Jack bowed his head once more. "He's dead, he's gone." Pain. They held more pain. "And he can't come back this time, Miss. Swann, don't waste your strength hoping for the unfeasible." Elizabeth said nothing. What was there to say even if she could find her voice? Hoping for the dead to come back was like hoping to live a life isolated of pain. Neither could be done.
Bootstrap couldn't be gone! He couldn't be dead! Will had just met him; his father had just become part of his life!
God would not take him away; God could not take him away!
It hurt, oh God, it hurt!... –Everything tingled and everything ached and his mind was spinning and his heart was pounding and his breath was diminishing…-
"You can't be gone!" Both the governor's daughter and the pirate captain turned their heads to Will when the blacksmith's voice broke the deafening silence that had settled on the Pearl. "You fucking liar! You said that you'd be here, dad, you promised to be here if I would let you, and I was going to let you! God damn you you stupid blighter, I was going to let you!" Jack lowered his head in an attempt to block his friend's painful, agitated cries. One of his friends had already been killed; he couldn't listen as another one died. Will furiously kicked at the side of the helm and stormed down the stairs. He locked his eyes on Jack's fallen form. "Oh, so you've given up then, Jack?" Jack said nothing and Will rolled his eyes. "You're a pirate, Jack, you mean death and your career is death… -Yet you're crying at death? Letting death defeat you?!"
"Will-"
He spun around when he heard Elizabeth's voice. "And let me guess, you've given up as well, eh?" Elizabeth lowered the hand that she had extended back to her side and said nothing. Will laughed softly. "You've both given up. After my father saved both of your asses a thousand times, you can't even repay the favor once." Both Elizabeth and Jack remained silent and Will held his hands up in front of him as if he were telling somebody to halt. "He's not dead; my father is not a victim to Davy Jones'!" The lad spoke the words through clenched teeth. "You two give the hell up, I don't care, but I'll find him, I swear that I'll find him!" Will let his eyes roam over Jack's solemn form and Elizabeth's sympathetic eyes one last time before turning on his heel.
The blacksmith promptly ran into Barbossa.
Will stumbled back a few inches due to the direct impact and rose his eyes to the man's. "What do you want?" His voice was cold and his tone was wounded.
Bootstrap had to keep himself from grinning.
This would be easier than he had originally thought.
"It's William." Will's eyes seemed to lose some of their fury at the mention of his father's name.
"What about him?"
"He fell overboard, Will… -I tried to save him, but couldn't. The waves were just too strong and… -He's still alive, Will, can't you hear him shouting for your help?" Will dropped his eyes from the older man and turned them towards the sea. "He needs your help, William Turner." Will looked back at Barbossa. "Won't you help your daddy?" Elizabeth watched the scene in disbelief. Barbossa had murdered Wren and had tried to mostly everyone else that Will knew and cared for, including himself.
Why the blazes was Will trusting the word of a cold blooded killer?
"William's dead, Barbossa." Barbossa's eyes shifted to Elizabeth and he watched as she wrapped her hand around Will's wrist and pulled the older man away from him. "You know that."
"Your fiancé is keeping you from rescuing your daddy, William?" His eyes never left Elizabeth's. Will looked down at the hand that was wrapped around his wrist and shook his head as a baffled child would to its parents.
"I don't know," he answered softly. Truth be told, he really didn't know. He wasn't even sure whether Bootstrap was alive or dead.
Elizabeth stared at the blacksmith in utter shock.
He was trusting a cold blooded killer more than he was his fiancé. More than he was his friends.
"He's calling for your help, Will, are you going to allow Elizabeth to keep you from answering his pleas?" Elizabeth released Will's wrist and in one swift motion had her hands on his shoulders and had turned him towards her.
"Will, he's lying, alright?" Her eyes roamed over her fiancés. "William is… -Barbossa is lying." Elizabeth searched his eyes for any sign that the blacksmith was comprehending what she was saying. There was none.
Will was in total denial.
"You and Jack gave up." His voice was hard as ice and as sharp as glass. Elizabeth vaguely wondered why the words had not cut her face.
"No, Will, no we didn't." Tears filled Elizabeth's eyes as she ran her fingers through Will's hair. "Your father died, Will, Barbossa is lying… -We aren't. Jack and I, we aren't." Will allowed his eyes to roam over Elizabeth's for a brief second before he met her gaze.
He forcefully pushed the lass down to the deck of the Pearl.
"My father is not dead, Elizabeth! You and Jack just gave up! You're lying!" Elizabeth said nothing as she pushed herself into a sitting position and stared at the blacksmith, her expression one of pain whilst her eyes could not be described. Too many emotions hidden behind a wall of tears. "I hear him calling," he didn't break his eyes away from hers, "and I'm not like him, I won't ignore it, Elizabeth." Will turned back to Barbossa and the older man raised an eyebrow. "Show me to where he is, Barbossa." Barbossa nodded and tried to hide the grin that wanted desperately to form on his frowning mouth. Turning, he signaled for the lad to follow him with his right hand before turning his head and slowly walking away.
A hand on Will's wrist halted the blacksmith's steps.
Will turned around and came face to face with his best friend.
"Thought you had given up." Will said dryly and Jack did nothing. Will rose an eyebrow at the man. "What do you want, Jack?"
"You believe Barbossa." Was the pirate captain's simple response and Will shook his head faintly, his eyes never leaving his best friends.
"And…?"
"And you're not a simpleton, William Turner, you yourself told me this two years ago and I believed you." Jack's eyes were cold and Will found himself unconsciously rather nervous. Friend or not, Jack was still a pirate, and was quite capable of hurting him. "You believe Barbossa. You believe the man that killed your mother."
"Jack, what are you get-"
"The man that tried to murder you, tried to murder Elizabeth. The man that marooned me and dumped your father into the sea. You believe his words." Will said nothing. "Barbossa hates you, Will, as he does all of us, which includes dear William… -And yet you believe his words, you believe that he tried to save William when all of his life he has wanted nothing more than to kill him." Jack let go of Will's wrist. "You're not a simpleton, Will; you know damn well that he pushed William off of this ship. You know that, Will. Don't let your pain cloud your mind as Barbossa let his greed cloud his. You see where it led him, Will, who's to say similar fortunes won't happen to you?" Elizabeth stood to her feet behind Jack and walked over to the pirate and the blacksmith. Her eyes went from Jack to Will and she set her gaze on him. The lad dropped his eyes from Jack and he backed away, turning on his heel as he started off to where Barbossa had been. Elizabeth stole a quick glance at Jack before following her fiancé, hoping to somehow make him understand that Barbossa was lying, that Bootstrap was dead, that Elizabeth and Jack were telling him the truth.
Will reached the area Barbossa had walked to a few seconds later and frowned. He wasn't there.
Will and Elizabeth turned around with a start when they heard what sounded like either Jack's or Barbossa's pistol slamming into something. Jack stumbled and raised his hands to his head in evident pain. Swaying harder, the pirate captain nearly fell and was caught just before he hit the deck.
Barbossa held him upright with his arm around his neck and his pistol, cocked and loaded, pointed to the side of Jack's throbbing head.
Will and Elizabeth froze.
To Be Continued…
AN: Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! If you kill me I won't be able to continue and you won't know what happens next so mleh! This was the second part in the three part final fight scene. Sixteen shall end it all. As of now, eighteen is definitely going to be the last chapter. I will post replies to all of my reviewers and everyone else that has helped me in some way with this story as a chapter nineteen. A sequel is already in the works, and it already has a title, which is Do I Have To Cry For You?, so yes.
I will have sixteen up ASAP! Look for it around Sundayish, possibly late Saturday night. I don't know. Sixteen (I don't think) will be all that long, but it will be involved, so shrug. I'm also going to be editing earlier chapters of this story. Correcting various typos and what not.
Thanks to everyone that has read and reviewed or just read.
Please review on your way out! :)