Title: Eternity
Rating: G
Genre: General/Drama
Summary: Ficlet. Three scenes from the life of Bootstrap Bill Turner. He no longer has an eternity.
Disclaimer: Oh, do I wish I owned Pirates of the Caribbean. And Orlando. And Jack Sparrow. But I don't. Instead, a funny little mouse does. It's a travesty, I tell you!
Bootstrap loved the sea, but to spend months swimming at the bottom of it was a bit too much. The smell of the sea has bitten into his skin, and he fears that he would one day find out that the blood in his veins had turned to saltwater.
He keeps going however, not because he actually really wants to reach land, but because survival has become a habit with him. He is used to the struggle of living, and keeps on even though there is no need now, not really.
He sees nightmarish things, vile creatures that should not be seen by human eyes. He walks past remnants of sunken ships, remembers the feeling of being on board one. Bootstrap remembers the roll of the deck and wind in his hair. And he remembers being on land, of going home. Remembers his wife and his son and wishes to weep, thinks that a few more drops of saltwater won't matter, they will be lost in this vast prison that he once loved.
But he keeps on, and eventually reaches land. He stays in a tiny hut and tries very hard not to think about his family, about Jack, about his failings as a father, as a husband, as a friend.
After all, he has an eternity to repent for his mistakes. It wouldn't do to start too early.
~*~
One bright day around noon, he cuts his hand on a blade and the blood flows freely, stinging. A heart that has been dormant for nearly a decade is alive again. Bootstrap is alive, and somehow, somehow he has been freed.
He does not celebrate, just goes to the nearby tavern and drinks himself into a stupor, trying to ward off the realization that if he has been freed, then it means that his son (little William, who was so young the last time he saw him) is probably now dead.
Bootstrap no longer has an eternity to mourn his son, and he wishes he did. It is the only way he can think of to honor his namesake.
~*~
A few months later, Bootstrap is in the town square, bartering for food, and sees two men walking towards him. One man walks with a distinctive swagger that is almost painfully familiar, and the other is a tall boy-man with dark eyes and curly hair.
Bootstrap cannot breathe. He stumbles towards them, unsure as to whether or not this is real. He walks faster and faster until he is at a run. The boy-man, and it is Will, Will his son, sees him and smiles, yells something that Bootstrap cannot make out, and runs as well.
And there is sunlight and strong arms around him and a voice crying out, "Father. Father." And beyond that, Jack's voice, with that same ring of not-quite-madness, saying, "Ah, but didn't I tell you, Will?"
Bootstrap will have to hurry now, for there are stories to tell from both sides, explanations, apologies. There's a new life to be made, and old bonds to be forged again. And after all, he no longer has an eternity to accomplish all this.