Kin
Part Five : In Which the Ocean Brings Comfort
by : epiphanies
The ocean whispered to her.
"Desdemona," it sang, sweetly seductive, entrancing her, pulling her from her sheets to stand at her window.
"Desdemona," it called to her, "We know you're there, Desdemona."
The waves clutched hungrily at the shore, "We know you're listening. Come to us, Desdemona. Your father calls for you...he calls for you. He needs you, Desdemona..."
She clutched her window sil and her eyes grew wide with terror as, in that moment, a form was gently washed ashore. A man.
A dead man?
She gasped and seized her doorhandle. She fled into the hallway, heading for the stairs-
"Not goin' off to meet some eunuch blighter for a midnight stroll, are we?"
Jack's gold teeth glinted in the light of his candle. She tried to push him out of the way, but he grabbed her arm, concern in his eyes.
"Wha's'matter, love?"
Instead of speaking, she pulled him down the stairs with her, out of the tavern and onto the beach.
"Des-de-bloody-mona!" he gasped, gaping at her, "What-?"
Then he stopped. He too saw the man, newly washed ashore, laying on the beach.
"Bloody hell," he cursed, and they rushed down to the wet sand. Desdemona felt a foreboding thud in her chest.
She soon found why.
"William," Jack whispered, and placed his hand over his heart at he knelt down with her. Tears filled her eyes and the world began to spin...
The last thing she heard was an alarmed,
"DESDEMONA!"
She awoke on the sand of the beach, and sputtered.
"Father," she whispered mournfully, and lifted herself up to look about her, searching the shoreline for any sight of him. Where had he gone?
"I'm here, love," said a voice from behind her, and she whipped around to see Jack with his arm around her, he too sitting in the sand, crosslegged. He looked disturbed...in a drunken kind of way.
"Jack, where did he go?" she demanded, and upon no answer, looked over at what he was entranced with. Her hand slapped her mouth, wondering why she'd not smelled the smoke in the first place.
The tavern...
It was nearly gone. From what she could tell, only the few pillars holding it up remained.
And her father was nowhere to be seen.
"Jack!" she turned and shook him, and he looked at her with distorted eyes, "Jack! Listen to me! Where did my father go?"
"Your father be long gone, Little Miss Turner," his eyes rolled around in his head a few times, and he swayed before falling backward into a drunken coma.
"Damn you, Jack Sparrow," she whispered, turning to look out at the sea, lapping, lonely and cold, "Why could have you not lied to me? Told me that it was more than a dream, more than a wish. That he had just been here, laying beside us, and that he'd started breathing. You're a dishonest man, why could you not lie?"
She got no answer.
She felt a blanket envelop her and Will's voice whisper, "If he could have, he would have."
"If I knew it could bring me comfort, Will, I would walk into that ocean right now. But there is nothing to tell me, not a sign or a hint. I want my pain to end."
He sat down beside her, pushing Jack over, and put his arm about her.
"Where is Elizabeth?" she asked softly.
"On the ship already."
"What ship?"
"The Pearl. We're going back to Port Royal."
"You cannot leave Jack here."
"Of course not. We've rounded up the crew, all we need are you and Jack."
She paused, "Jack - and I?"
"I'd like you to come and see our wedding. As my sister."
"Half sister," she reminded him, and smiled, "and I'd be glad to."
"Good."
And with those words, she leaned on her brother's shoulder and fell into a dreamless slumber.