Title: Empty
Author: Xehra (xehra1@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG-13 for slash implications
Category: Reflection
Setting: Post-POTC
Summary: Norrington muses over why he let Jack go
Disclaimer: Disney owns it all (never thought I'd ever put THAT in a fic disclaimer... )
Thanks: To my beta, Miss Bridget
***
We couldn't afford to give him a day's head start, and everybody knew it. The Pearl was the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and now that she was not even a small dark mark on the horizon, there was no hope of catching Jack Sparrow.
Unless he wanted to be caught.
This one thought I allowed myself to speculate upon only in the smallest hours of the morning, when sleep had eluded me for hours and I tossed upon my bed. When dawn broke we would ready the fastest ship we had in the harbour and give chase to the pirate vessel, though the entire Port down to the smallest child knew it would be to no avail. We knew not where it had gone, and the rolling waves had covered the trail of the black-flagged ship.
My wakefulness was not due to this regrettable circumstance, however. I had made my decision the instant Jack had tripped over the parapet. It had galled me, of course, twisting my guts into sailor's knots, but my hands had been tied - by the sentiment of my men and my Governor, who had all fallen under the spell of the silver-tongued pirate.
It was only later, as I lay trying to sleep, that I realised his magic had ensnared me also.
I had given up Elizabeth. The girl who I had watched grow into the finest woman I had ever seen; the one whom I had adored from afar for years uncounted, waiting for the right moment. Waiting for a time when I would deserve her, to meet her eyes and see in them admiration and not the cool disinterest I had become accustomed to.
And then... there had been Will, always in the background, always so carefully polite but so obviously devoted to Elizabeth that it made my own love seem a small candle held against the glare of a blazing sun. In the end she had chosen him, risked all to save him; and in doing so distanced her soul from me and severed the thin line of attachment that existed between us.
I wondered why it had hurt so little. I had handed Will's sword back to him so calmly, giving my blessing to their union, graceful in defeat. The men only saw their characteristically stoic Officer making a tactical retreat, cutting his losses and bowing out with dignity.
None of them guessed that real reason I capitulated so easily wasn't because of Elizabeth's choice, but because of the pirate that had lead us all a merry dance...
I didn't know it myself, until that next morning dawned and I drew back the curtains to witness the bustle of the Port. Maybe Captain Jack Sparrow would let us catch him; maybe I would be able to discover why my world seemed so empty without him.
END
Author: Xehra (xehra1@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG-13 for slash implications
Category: Reflection
Setting: Post-POTC
Summary: Norrington muses over why he let Jack go
Disclaimer: Disney owns it all (never thought I'd ever put THAT in a fic disclaimer... )
Thanks: To my beta, Miss Bridget
***
We couldn't afford to give him a day's head start, and everybody knew it. The Pearl was the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and now that she was not even a small dark mark on the horizon, there was no hope of catching Jack Sparrow.
Unless he wanted to be caught.
This one thought I allowed myself to speculate upon only in the smallest hours of the morning, when sleep had eluded me for hours and I tossed upon my bed. When dawn broke we would ready the fastest ship we had in the harbour and give chase to the pirate vessel, though the entire Port down to the smallest child knew it would be to no avail. We knew not where it had gone, and the rolling waves had covered the trail of the black-flagged ship.
My wakefulness was not due to this regrettable circumstance, however. I had made my decision the instant Jack had tripped over the parapet. It had galled me, of course, twisting my guts into sailor's knots, but my hands had been tied - by the sentiment of my men and my Governor, who had all fallen under the spell of the silver-tongued pirate.
It was only later, as I lay trying to sleep, that I realised his magic had ensnared me also.
I had given up Elizabeth. The girl who I had watched grow into the finest woman I had ever seen; the one whom I had adored from afar for years uncounted, waiting for the right moment. Waiting for a time when I would deserve her, to meet her eyes and see in them admiration and not the cool disinterest I had become accustomed to.
And then... there had been Will, always in the background, always so carefully polite but so obviously devoted to Elizabeth that it made my own love seem a small candle held against the glare of a blazing sun. In the end she had chosen him, risked all to save him; and in doing so distanced her soul from me and severed the thin line of attachment that existed between us.
I wondered why it had hurt so little. I had handed Will's sword back to him so calmly, giving my blessing to their union, graceful in defeat. The men only saw their characteristically stoic Officer making a tactical retreat, cutting his losses and bowing out with dignity.
None of them guessed that real reason I capitulated so easily wasn't because of Elizabeth's choice, but because of the pirate that had lead us all a merry dance...
I didn't know it myself, until that next morning dawned and I drew back the curtains to witness the bustle of the Port. Maybe Captain Jack Sparrow would let us catch him; maybe I would be able to discover why my world seemed so empty without him.
END