Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, they're owned by Disney and others. Though I do wish I owned Mr. Sparrow. ::evil grin::
Warning: Rated R for different reasons. Please make sure you are mature enough to handle this type of content.
To Reviewers/Readers: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing! Sorry about the shorts chapters, I try to use one major event each chapter. Sorry but that's the only way the chapters really fit. It's good though in a way, because it means it takes less time for me to update. =) Chapters will get somewhat longer as we go on.
Liz P.: Once again, thanks for the constructive criticism! I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed this chapter now that it's up. Like I said, it can be read into more than one way, and I'm glad that you've seen it in a different light than others have. Thanks a bunch!
Nav: You're welcome! =)
Anya Midnight: Don't worry, I'm not about to add a Sue; I have other plans for Jack's love life. XD
Beau Porteur De Diamant: You're welcome =) Oh, and here's your update. lol
Pirate Lass: LOL! Sorry about the wait for the update, I'll try to do it sooner next time! Aye, Jack does need a girl…
Jessica: Hehe, but I leave you in suspense if I don't say too much!
Sage32: Thank you for the input on that. As I've explained to others, I want to write in a way which can be interpreted in at least two ways, one being people like it, and the other way in which people may not agree on how it's written. If you have a bit of a disagreement with that scene, it's completely fine. In fact, it's great! That sounds crazy, but it lets me know that I've accomplished writing that can be taken in two ways. =)
Onto chapter seven!
Chapter 7: Bootstrap Bill
There was a stunned silence, in which everyone just sort of stared at the new Turner.
"Captain Sparrow?" Bill inquired, in such a low tone that he was almost whispering.
"Aye, William; it's me, mate! But you! How in hell did you escape the wrath of Davey Jone's Locker?"
"So yeh've heard the stories, have yeh, eh?"
"Aye. Care to share your version?"
"Aye, but we'd best sit down for this, and God, have yeh some rum? Please tell me yeh do."
"Aye, of course we have rum, you bastard! I shall go get a tankard. Mr. Cotton…'s parrot! Help me with the rum, eh?"
The parrot squawked and Mr. Cotton followed Jack under-deck to grab the rum.
* * *
Within minutes, the whole crew knew that somehow, Bootstrap was aboard and rushed over to hear his tale. Jack and Cotton had passed the rum around, and Bootstrap was ready. There were a few moments of silence, but then, at last, he spoke.
"As I think most of yeh know, me story starts when ole Barbossa got mad at me when I sent a piece of Aztec gold to me lad, and told Blackheart that he and the crew deserved to be cursed. Aye, as the story goes, he tied cannons to me bootstraps and sent me down to Davey Jone's Locker to die, but fortunately, I escaped."
"Now, Barbossa'd never possessed that wonderful knot tying skill that I'd always had. Byt the time I hit the water, both cannons were about to fall off. I pulled at 'em a bit and before I was 5 feet under, they were off. I swam back to the surface and noticed one of the many ropes that was cleverly attached to the Pearl. I had obviously jumped towards the side so as to take every opportunity that may arise, and immeadiately swam a few feet to the rope and held onto it for dear life. Barbossa ne'er had much brains, did 'e?"
"Anyweh, I remembered that our old, broken little boats were stored inside the main one, unlike our stable ones up on deck, so as to provide firewood, ammunition, etc. There were these little hinged, flap-like doors that were on the side of the boat that you'd pull up after lowering yourself down next to them in a good boat from up top, so you could then pull the old one up to the deck or do what yeh wanted with 'em."
"Already desperate to do anything that'd save me after being thrown off the boat, I decided to see if I could open one of the doors and see if I could hole up in there, or just get rid of some o' their spare wood to spite 'em. I swam towards the side of the ship, hanging to the rope, and pulled myself upward so that I could use my feet and the pressure of the rope to climb part of the side of the ship. I found a large hatch in no time. Next came the hard part, opening the hatch."
"I on'y had one free hand, and I knew I'd need a good two to open that hatch. 'Member how I said I was good at knots? Well, thank the good Lord that I was. I managed to tie the rope around me waist tightly and then tied it 'round me leg too. I had to let meself drop. I almost just touched the water andwas in a decent position to open the hatch if I was meant to with on'y me strength.
"I readied meself and pushed up the hatch. After a few desperate moments of trying, I knew I'd need to use me legs to push upward. It was going to be hard stayin' quiet like that, but I had nothing else to do."
"I bent my knees and swung a bit, so that finally me boots caught the side of the boat and me hands were on the hatch. I pushed upward with e'ry arm an' leg muscle I had an' that devil of a hatch lifted."
"Inside, as if by miracle, there was a crawlspace big enough for me to last in. Not wasting a second, I swung meself in and used the dagger that I kept in me boots to cut meself loose from the rope."
"There wasn't enough room for me to stand, but I could sit or laze comfortably. Just me luck, one o' Blackheart's crew who'd broken the boat a few months earlier had left 'is bottle o' rum in there."
"Fer two days I sat there, slowly beginning to lose it, and only sleeping and drinking. Then, after two days of waiting to die or something to happen, I felt the ship anchor! I looked out the hatch slightly, and blast! We'd reached Tortuga!"
"Somehow, part of my mind willed me to swim up to the shoreline, on'y a few feet away since we were docked. I opened that damned hatch and dropped into the cool water. I swam to the edge of the dock instead of the shoreline, and shimmied meself up one o' those poles that holds the dock up. I swung meself up onto the dock and quickly pickpocketed a few shillings. Then, off I scampered to the nearest offshore inn. The crew wouldn't catch me there; they kept too close to the Tortugan shoreline. I got fed an' well in under o' week."
"I tried sending letters to yer mum, boy, and waited 6 months fer no reply. I figured that you'd both set out fer somewhere new. I found meself a crew and stole a huge ship. We've been plundering around an' searchin' fer treasure ever since. We ne'er took prisoners though, unless they were rival pirates. We ne'er killed a man we didn't have to or any man that didn't deserve to go straight to hell anyway."
"We've stopped here an' were plannin' to stay on'y til tomorrow, but now the winds have changed."
Most were bewildered, it was impossible…no, it was actually just very improbable. No one knew what to say. At last, Jack spoke.
"Well, congrats, mate! Glad you survived, want more rum?"
"Have you e'er known a pirate to turn down rum?"
"Aye, this lass here and your son have turned it down before," he said, waving his empty rum bottle towards Elizabeth and Jack," but I'll go get some anyway," and he was off.
"Dad, there's someone you need to meet," Will said, bluntly," this is my wife, Elizabeth. We were married on this deck just over a month ago."
Bill reached over and clasped Elizabeth's hand," Pleasure to meet yeh, lass."
"Pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Turner."
"Eh, call me William."
"Aye."
"Here's the rum," Jack said excitingly, coming out of the under-deck area with bottles of rum in his hands, "are you staying the night here, William?"
"Aye, if yeh've got a room fer me."
"We've got a spare cabin, aye. Will, when he's done drinking show him to the spare cabin, eh, mate?"
"Aye, I will."
They all settled down for a last drink, and then they would head off to bed. Everyone's head was spinning; Bill was alive, so what were they supposed to do next?
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A/N: I hope no one had a hard time with the rough dialect, but I simply had to use it for Bootstrap! Sorry about how long it took me to update, I usually wait until I've received a decent number of reviews, and I didn't realize how many reviews I had. Letting all of you to bother reading this know, I'm planning on this being a longer fic. I have 17 chapters written in a notebook already, all I have to do is wait and then type and upload them. I still have more chapters to go, but so you know, there will definitely be more than 17 chapters, so…yeah. Please review! Once again, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! Thank you, Liz P. for that when you reviewed the last chapter!
Oh, and major conflicts will start in the next chapter!