Thanks you so much reviewers!
Bluekrystal1: Don't worry, I wont leave you hanging (There's quiet a bit more and it is finished.)
Bittersweet46: Thank you. I'm forever worrying that my characterizations are off. I don't know about you but as far as I'm concerned that's the most important thing – that they be believable otherwise you might as well read original fic, eh? My beta for this hasn't seen the movie yet (!) so I had to just hope my Jack and Will seemed enough like themselves. And you read my silly Jack vs Grey! I though nobody had ever seen that silly little ficlet! Thanks again.
Lauza: Hmm ... no, I don't think I'll bother continuing it. Just kidding ;) There's plenty more. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
voy222: Thanks for the encouragement! Funny you should say it seems different – I felt like it was too much like many other fics out there. I'm very pleased it doesn't come across as too... clichéd? ...repetitive? ...been there read that? You know?
Note: Warnings and info can be found in chapter 1.
Will stirred at the familiar voice. He struggled to focus on the blurry figure. Seeing his obvious difficulty, Jack moved closer to the bed Will was lying on.
"Jack, it IS you," Will said, sounding somewhat relieved. His voice had a roughened edge to it, almost as though he'd been screaming. Taking in the puffy, crimson-streaked eyes, Jack figured out it was more likely there was another reason for the gravelly scrape to his voice.
"What're you doing 'ere, Will?" Jack asked. He held back the natural impulse to make some kind of suggestive comment about just what he figured Will should be up to with his new fiancée. Quickly considering the date, he amended that it was likely that should be wife, not fiancée. But if Will was here, in Tortuga, a place he'd claimed to loath last time they left it together, then that could only mean something had gone very wrong. "You didn't lose yer bonny lass to cursed pirates again now did ya?"
Jack could hear Shelly snort softy behind him and he turned to glare at her before returning his attention to Will. He winced at the look of absolute despair that had returned to Will's face.
"Oh Jack, I-I did lose-"Will began before a surprise cough interrupted him. Jack watched as Will curled on his side, breathing hard through his nose, arms tightly curled around his chest.
Unable to stop himself, for Jack knew what it was like to hurt that much, he placed a reassuring warm hand on Will's shoulder. "s all right, lad. We'll talk more on it later. Be back in a jif."
Jack quickly spun around and left the room before he lost the ability to go. Will looked up at Shelly, unshed tears in his eyes.
"Rest quiet now, boy," Shelly said softly. "Hurricane Jack'll surely return for ye."
"Thank you Miss Shelly," Will said looking for all the world like he wanted nothing more than to burst into unmanly tears but was holding it back for all he was worth.
Shelly was headed for the door when Jack's arm came through the doorway and yanked her out in a hurry. She was about to rebuke him when she caught the look in his eyes. Will's expression had nearly broken her heart, but seeing Jack's barely contained, seething rage was something all together different. Feeling his fingers bite into her upper arms as he held her pinned to the hallway wall wasn't exactly pleasant either.
"What...the hell...happened...to Will," he growled out.
"Same thing I tol' ya downstairs, Jack. Fight, losin' end," she said, nodding her head towards the open door.
"Captain Sparrow," Shelly's husband Nicholas said from behind them. "I'll be askin' you to unhand my wife now."
As though he was only just now realizing his position, Jack let go of Shelly and backed off.
"My sincerest apologies," Jack said seriously to both of them with a slight bow and clasped hands.
Nicholas nodded and Shelly returned to Will's room, giving Jack a very cold look as she went by.
"So you know the Turner lad then do you?" Nicholas inquired.
"I know 'im. I know tha' it would take one hell of a fight to put 'im in such a state. Will can hold 'is own," Jack said.
"I don't think he was trying to win, or at least not tryin' that terribly hard," Nicholas explained. "Caught part of the mess m'self. He did well enough but seemed like his heart wasn't in it. Was outnumbered as well."
"Why didn't you do somethin'?" Jack asked, his tone somewhere between honest uncomprehension and anger.
"Not my place an' you know that, Jack. I pulled him out when things got too rough, but you know I'm not 'ere to be watchin' over every argument and brawl that happens under this roof."
Jack sighed. He understood where Nicholas was coming from, even if he wasn't sure he agreed with him at the moment. "I'm goin' to send one of my men to find th' doctor." Nicholas nodded as Jack continued, "An' then I'm gonna 'ave a little talk wif Will. Would you 'ave Shel send up a couple bottles when she's done?"
"I'll be bringing them up," Nicholas said as Jack headed for the stairs.
"I am sorry 'bout that. Didn't meant it," Jack said, gesturing the hold he'd had on Nicholas's wife. He was still embarrassed with himself for nearly losing it on Shelly.
"I know Jack, but she's a touch funny 'bout some things. If you want to still be breathing tomorrow, best to not ask her to be servin' you."
Remembering the poisoning victim of before, Jack nodded and added, "I'll be keepin' that in mind."
He went downstairs.
Jack knocked lightly at the door to Will's room. The doctor had come and gone, having been retrieved in record time by Henry. Shelly was back downstairs. Jack had made certain of this before returning from the noisy tavern into the relative quite of the upstairs boarding rooms. He planned on giving her a wide berth for the rest of this visit and hoped he'd be back on her good side next time he arrived in Tortuga.
Opening the door slowly, Jack poked his head in. Will looked over and again appeared relieved to see it was Jack. Taking this as his cue to enter, Jack came inside, shutting the door behind him.
"Are you feelin' any better?" he asked as he made his way to the chair beside the bed.
"Yes, thank you, Jack. I understand I have you to thank for the doctor's visit."
Jack looked slightly puzzled as he considered Will's words and tone. The young man certainly looked better. Jack could see fresh bandages wrapped tightly around his chest under the open shirt. The doctor had also covered the gash on Will's arm. The bruises that were just now starting to darken were still present, of course, and a number of minor cuts were clearly visible. Overall, Will looked pretty bad still, but now that he was sitting up in bed against a pile of pillows and wasn't as pale, he looked far better. But there was still a look in his eyes that all but screamed that he was anything but all right, and his tone and wording was almost formal in stark contrast with his earlier words.
It was obvious that Will was hiding something. Jack had long since admitted to himself that he wasn't always a subtle man, but this was clearly a situation that would require some level of tact and subtlety. On the one hand, he wanted to joke that he'd had a hard time choosing between sending a doctor to Will or one of the lovely "ladies" instead, that he'd been unsure who would make Will feel better in the end. However, since Will was clearly falling into formality to distance himself from Jack, this didn't seem to be the best of all conversation starters.
Jack leaned over to the small bedside table snatching a bottle of rum that Nicholas had obviously remembered to leave for him. He took several swigs before offering the bottle to Will. As expected Will refused, a look of distaste on his face.
"Go on. I won't be spreadin' rumors an' tarnishin' yer reputation for just 'avin' a bit now, 'specially considerin' yer injured an all."
With a weary smile, Will said, "Jack, I very much doubt you could do any more damage to my reputation."
Not sure if it was intended as an insult, Jack decided to let the comment go. For now anyway. "It'll help ye feel better. I've been hurt far worse b'fore and this," he said, sloshing the steadily emptying bottle for emphasis, "has often been of a great deal of help."
Will looked like he was considering the rum for a moment when he remembered the doctor had left him a bottle of medicine.
"The doctor left that," he said, pointing to a small bottle of dark liquid sitting on the table.
Jack picked up the bottle and uncorked it, giving it a sniff. He couldn't remember where exactly he'd smelled the medicine before but it brought up very unpleasant, if hazy, memories.
"I'm not entirely sure I trust that man," Will said, referring to the admittedly shifty doctor who'd visited earlier.
Jack pushed the small cork back into the bottle. "Well, can't hurt anymore, eh? Might as well give it a shot, hmm?" He unthinkingly tossed the bottle the few feet to Will who caught it with an audible hiss. The sudden movement had started his already sore, broken ribs, to hurting all over again.
Jack watched as Will threw back a large mouthful of the medicine. Something wasn't right, he was more sure of it than ever. Will, an excellent swordsman, had been trounced in a fight - in a place he'd loudly vowed never to visit again - and now he was gulping down an unknown medicine from a person he obviously had doubts about. Jack considered Will's behavior to be too rash and unplanned at times but this was too far off. And if all of this wasn't evidence enough that something was very wrong with Will, then that ever present look of despair in the lads eyes was.
Jack leaned forward and snatched the small bottle back from Will. Since he had no idea of its contents, he couldn't be sure, but somehow doubted it was supposed to be consumed in one sitting as Will had seemed intent on doing.
"Tha's prolly enough for now," he said, setting the little bottle beside his own rum bottle on the bedside table.
By the time he looked back at Will, he could see the drug taking effect. The boy's eyes were at half mast and his pupils so large they nearly blocked out all colour.
"Better?" Jack asked.
"Mmm Hmm," Will murmured, clearly not feeling as much pain. In fact, judging by the little smile on his face, Jack would venture Will wasn't feeling much of anything anymore. He surreptitiously tucked the bottle into the drawer and out of Will's reach when he wasn't looking.
'Well, I'd been planning to get him drunk and talking, but this was just a whole lot faster and easier,' Jack thought. 'Best be getting' rid of the rest of that stuff though. Anything that works that fast can't be good for him.'
"So Will," Jack began, rum bottle comfortably held in his left hand. "Exactly what 'er ye doin' in Tortuga of all places?"
"Hated it here," Will said, his words slightly slurred. "So I had to come."
"Allllright," Jack said. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. If he couldn't make sense of what Will was trying to get across, then this would be something of a waste of time. He decided on another tactic. "Where's Elizabeth, Will?"
"She left me," Will said nodding slightly, brown creasing. "She left me standing in front of the priest."
"You don't mean-"Jack began before Will interrupted.
"Yup, right there at the altar," he said. There was a noticeable lack of emotion behind the words as though Will either was too numb to feel it or simply refused to feel anything at all at that moment. Jack watched as the young man's trembling fingers pulled at a thread in the blanket.
"I wanted her Jack," Will continued, his voice suddenly too full of emotion, his words nearly choking on it. "She's all I ever wanted, all I ever dreamed of for 10 years. I saw her, in her wedding dress. She was the most beautiful sight I'd ever dreamed of. Like an angel, she seemed to float down the aisle." His voice turning flat again, he continued, "But I knew. The moment I looked into her eyes. She didn't want to be there."
"Will I-"Jack started, but Will charged on.
"She waited until the last moment. She looked at me and I could see it all in her eyes. Said she couldn't do it, couldn't m-marry me," Will finished with a choked sob. He seemed to swallow down his sorrow as he looked out the tiny window across the room, into the dark black.
Without thinking, Jack got up and sat on the bed beside Will and pulled him into an awkward hug.
"What are you doing?" Will asked, sounding slightly alarmed, though it had taken several moments for his mind to catch up with what was happening.
"Shhhh," Jack shushed him softly. He wondered whether he'd pushed the boy too far, trying to get the truth from him. But it seemed that Will needed to say it, let it out. It might be Will Turner in his arms, but this was by no means the brave sword fighter who had challenged him in a dusty blacksmith shop not so long ago. Somebody had seriously hurt the young man, and while Jack could see the wounds on Will's body, it was becoming increasingly clear that the source of most of the pain couldn't be traced to brawling pirates. No, this pain had a different cause, and Jack found himself wishing for a moment that he'd put a bullet into the head of the girl back on that burning beach.
Coming back from his thoughts, Jack realized that he'd somehow managed to arrange himself behind Will so that the boy's trembling back was pressed against his chest, his arms encircling the slightly shaking body. He could tell that Will wasn't crying, but the strain of holding so much sadness inside was causing the quaking Jack felt against him.
"It's never going to feel better is it, Jack?" Will asked in a small voice. "It's just going to go on forever, this..." he trailed off.
Holding Will tighter, Jack found himself instinctively rocking them both a bit. Eventually Will's tremors ceased.
In a tired sounding voice, Will asked, "Jack?"
"Mmm?"
Sleepily, but now sounding clearer than he had all night Will continued, "You know that feeling when you realize that tomorrow you'll find things terribly awkward, but for the moment you couldn't care less?"
"Yes, Will," Jack said. Then he waited. And waited.
After several moments, it occurred to him that Will had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep.
tbc...