Disclaimer: Nope. Still can't write about any of this. Tartar sauce.
AN (5/12): I'm in no mood to work on my senior project that's due on Monday, so here I am writing for all y'all. Fantastic, isn't it?
(5/18): Well, I survived that senior project. And I've finished nearly everything I have to do in school. So...updates should be a bit more regular. Unless I get into a writing slump again.
Homeward Bound: Chapter Two
A soft touch on Jack's shoulder made him wake up quite violently, as pirates often do because of the fact that people touching them while they are sleeping are probably trying to steal their money or put them in irons. Perhaps that was why he nearly punched Will in the head as he reached for the gun he wasn't wearing because he'd left it out with his soaking wet clothes. It was only after Jack sat up completely that he opened his eyes. "What?" he asked sharply. Jack didn't like it when people woke him up so early. The little room seemed to be just as dark as possible. Either it was still raining, or it was the middle of the night. Why would Will be such an inconsiderate host?
"Would you like to eat something, Jack?" Will asked, rather surprised to hear Jack snap at him so easily. "You've been asleep all day."
One of Jack's eyebrows quirked up beneath his still slightly damp red bandanna as he glanced towards the small window again. "What time is it?"
"Supper," Will replied, following Jack's gaze up there. "The rain stopped sometime last night, and you've been asleep all day."
"So ye said," Jack replied with a small smirk, inconspicuously stretching some of his fatigued muscles as he pulled the covers back. He felt much better now. Maybe some of what Gibbs had said was of merit.
"We all realize ye've been feelin' a bit under the weather, Captain. Ye jus' needs a bit of a rest, t' get back t' being the captain we all know an' follow. Jus' a week. Jus' stay there a week, Captain, an' I'm sure ye'll be better."
Captaining a ship can be a very stressful job, actually, and there's no real time to take a "sick" day off. People depended on you to make decisions, even if you were in bed. The only way to escape the myriad of questions was to leave the ship. Which was part of the deciding factor of Jack's current position. He didn't like land, but he needed rest and a fairly good friend to talk to.
"Are you all right, Jack?" Will asked softly, watching Jack much like a mother watches a toddler take its first wobbly steps or watches a child who has had too many sweets complain of a stomach ache. Jack got the distinct feeling that Will half expected him to throw up all over the bed. It was amusing, since Jack didn't feel nauseous at all. He'd merely been tired.
Jack grinned and nodded. "Perfectly all righ'. Jus' making up for los' sleep, ye see. Haven' done much sleepin' lately. Too many little problems on the Pearl tha' needed t' be handled." He stood up. "I feel much better now than I did before. I was walkin' in tha' rain a bit too long yesterday, since the Pearl dropped me off in Spittlefield." Spittlefield was about a days journey (in a carriage) away from the auspicious Port Royal and had much more lax security. It was easier for such an easily identifiable ship like the Black Pearl to anchor there and drop off cargo (or passengers) than to stop in Port Royal.
"You walked from Spittlefield in that?" Will asked, completely amazed. Just like his father would've been. Walking can still occur in rain, it just isn't as pleasant as walking when the birds are singing in the the trees and the sun is shining cheerfully overhead.
"Well, yes," Jack replied, chuckling and shaking his head. "Now... ye said somethin' about food, didn' you?" Jack seemed quite eager to get some food down to keep the mice inside his stomach from scratching and making him so uncomfortably hungry.
Will nodded and moved towards the door. "If you don't mind me asking, Jack, why did you nearly hit me when I woke you up?"
"Never wake a pirate up tha' way," Jack cautioned, following Will. "We've been teachin' ourselves not to trust anyone, especially a man who wakes ye by touching ye. Probably out t' steal your doubloons. Bes' t' hit first an' ask questions later."
"But you missed," Will observed. "Did you mean to?"
Jack merely chuckled. "Well, tha's really up in the air, isn't it? I might have remembered tha' I was in yer house, certainly. Or I might jus' be rather bad at punching people. Up t' ye t' decide." He chuckled again as Will shook his head, clearly confused. There were a lot of things about Captain Jack Sparrow that made little to no sense.
"Thanks," Will muttered sarcastically a moment later. "I'll interpret as you not being able to punch people." He grinned at Jack and the two fell into companionable silence as they made their way to the table. It really didn't take very long to reach the slightly worn table that the Turners had all of their meals at. Though it was worn, it clearly was still serviceable. There were three warm plates of some sort of chicken concoction laying on the table, just begging to be eaten. In the center was a pitcher of water and a bowl of fruit. Jack would've assumed the fruit was for dessert if he hadn't smelled that deliciously sugary smell coming from the kitchen. He wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled very good indeed.
A graceful woman stepped out of the small kitchen at about the same time Will and Jack sat down at the table with a bundle of pastel blankets in her arms. Both men instantly stood up (it was common courtesy, after all) and Will pulled the chair next to him with a place setting out, helping her sit down. After the brunette was settled in her chair with the bundle in the crook of her right arm, Jack and Will sat down again.
"Captain Sparrow," the woman said pleasantly, smiling charmingly towards Jack after Will said a few quick words of Grace for the food. "It is a pleasure to see you again."
Jack nodded gracefully back and replied, "Aye, Mrs. Turner, it really is." The two then looked down at their plates at the same time before both of them started laughing. Will joined in a few moments later. After they'd regained the ability to speak, Jack looked towards the twinkling green eyes directly across from him. "How are ye, Martha?"
"I'm fine, Jack," Martha replied, smiling her appreciation for his concern towards her. "As is Rebekah." She smiled down at the bundle in her arms, pulling back the blanket to reveal a rather pretty baby, as far as babies go. Rebekah had large brown eyes like her father and dark hair like her mother. She would probably be a beauty when she grew up, but Jack could only faintly see that. It was probably because he wasn't the doting father and could notice the slightly crooked nose Rebekah would be cursed with for the rest of her life. Ah well.
"She certainly looks fine," Jack commented, after he finished getting a quick sense of what the girl looked like. He didn't want to lie and gush and say that the baby was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, because she certainly wasn't, but she wasn't the most plain child or woman he'd seen, so kudos to Rebekah there. Besides, what was the point of complimenting a baby anyway? They can't understand the compliment.
Martha nodded and gently kissed the top of the little girl's forehead. Then she glanced over at Jack as Will glanced fondly down at his daughter. "What brings you 'ere, Jack?" she asked after a slightly uncomfortable pause in which Jack started eating the chicken laying on the table.
He swallowed quickly, setting his knife down on the table as he glanced between Martha and Will. Will was now no longer glancing at his daughter. Obviously he still was quite curious as to why Jack was here, wasn't he? Why couldn't they keep their questions to themselves? Sharing is really quite overrated, especially when you are a pirate. "I needed a bi' of a break," he said as soon as the food was to a safe and comfortable position in his esophagus. "I've caught a bi' of a cold an' Anamaria and Gibbs seem t' think I need a holiday, t' get better." He grabbed his serviette from the table and started coughing lightly.
"Oh," Will replied, the look of worry that had been on his face since Jack had arrived fading slightly. Just a cold. Well, pirates could get sick too, right?
Martha glared at Will for a moment, clearly waiting for him to say something further. When he didn't, she sighed softly and announced, "Well, Jack, you're more than welcome t' stay here. As long as you need to." Her enchanting green eyes were full of nothing but sympathy and friendship.
Disgusting. Jack almost felt like heaving the rather dry chicken he'd just swallowed back up. Would they give him that same look the entire bloody time he was here? Hopefully not. They'd get used to his coughing and then he could just be bothersome to them both as he tried to combat the boredom that would set in by this time tomorrow. Jack had never liked being left on land, nor did he think he ever would. All seventeen miserable years he'd been forced to live on land, he'd found ways to distract himself, yes (mostly by reading books on sailing and navigating and teaching himself to swim), but that was then and this was now and he was rather set in his ways. Like an old dog, being forced to move from the Caribbean to Greenland. It really wouldn't surprise him if he ended up getting sicker, from the fact that he'd be away from the sea and his true love. What if something happened to the Black Pearl while he was here? He couldn't live with himself if... oh. Well, Anamaria would take care of her.
Will nodded, cutting at his chicken with his knife. The look of concentration on his face while doing so was actually quite funny. Jack didn't know how he'd attracted a woman like Martha, frankly. They seemed like a mismatched pair. Well, not wholly mismatched, like Will and Elizabeth had been before splitting up. But that was something Jack didn't really want to know too much about. There had been some sort of catalyst during their wedding and they hadn't stayed married very long or something. It wasn't as though Elizabeth was dead, because she wasn't. She was safe with her new husband. Jack wasn't even sure what the man's name was. Elizabeth didn't like him and he didn't want to reconcile their relationship (if you wanted to call it that) any time soon. Maybe in a week or two. As it was, he'd rather wait here. Here was safe. He'd been here before, a year or so ago, shortly after they'd married. They'd welcomed him into their home for no real reason and Jack felt safe here. No where else, save the Pearl. But he needed to rest. "Thank ye, Martha," Jack replied with a characteristic half smile, looking down at his chicken again. "Yer a real life saver."
"It's no problem at all," Martha replied generously, fussing with Rebekah for a moment. She smiled at Jack and the table fell to silence. An overwhelming sort of silence that seems to pervade in every conversation at one time or another. This was rather uncomfortable, though. Jack was beginning to wonder why he'd let Gibbs talk him into coming here. He was a pirate. He was like a sore thumb. Everyone would notice him, right?
Once dinner was finished, Jack looked between Will and Martha for a moment. "So...wha' do normal people generally do, after dinner?" If he were back on the Pearl, he could just go up to the helm and stare off at the horizon. It really was the perfect place to think because his crew was under the impression they shouldn't bother him unless it was a real emergency. A bit silly, in Jack's opinion, but he could tell why they thought that way. For the past two years, whenever they had asked him questions while he was thinking, he'd been rather short with them. Mostly because they'd interrupted him with ridiculous problems or concerns or something. Now he had the reputation of being one of those you can't disturb. Jack really wouldn't mind if someone distracted him in an intelligent way, but hoping for that on a pirate ship really wasn't wise.
Will and Martha looked at each other for a moment, a look of slight embarrassment dancing across both their faces like an elephant being frightened by a snake or mouse. "Well, we could talk," Will finally said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. It wasn't as though he was uncomfortable. He just wasn't used to sitting down for very long, being a blacksmith and all, and sitting too long could be rather uncomfortable, hence the shift.
"We could," Jack replied, sighing softly. This was the moment he was dreading, wasn't it? Now they would ask him all the hard questions. All the questions he didn't want to answer he would certainly have to answer.
"Only if you want to, of course," Martha added, sensing the uncomfortable feeling dancing around underneath Jack's skin like some sort of insect, as she stood up and handed Rebekah to Will. The baby really was quite well behaved, even though she was chubby enough to weigh as much as two babies. Maybe she didn't have enough energy to fuss.
"It's time," Jack replied, standing and collecting the dishes. "Jus' give me a moment t'... collect my thoughts." He smiled briefly, indicating the dishes. "I can clean those up for you."
"Well... if you want to," Will replied, as society demanded. It was clear he'd rather see Jack do them than Martha, since she worked herself nearly to death each day by caring for Rebekah and keeping the house clean.
"I do." Jack chuckled at the look of surprise on both of their faces. He was a pirate, after all. Pirates weren't supposed to clean anything. Not only were they known for their complete disregard of rules, but they were known for the pungent odor that seemed to follow them wherever they went. Certainly not very hygienic, working hard all day and sweating profusely under the hot Caribbean sun. Of course, not many people smelled sweet. Bathing was rather superfluous, in most circles of society, and many people smelled bad. None smelled as bad as the pirate who had never bathed once in his life.
"Uh..." Jack, frankly, was amazed that Will could get anything out of his mouth, based on the way he looked. So much like Bootstrap, it was a bit scary. Should he tell... well, perhaps in the near future he would explain the whole issue with Bootstrap. "Thank you?"
"You're very welcome," Jack replied with a grin. "Now, if ye'll excuse me... I'll go an' take care of these dishes so ye can put Rebekah t' sleep." He didn't particularly want any interruptions, once he finally got started on the explanation as to why he'd decided to visit Port Royal. He coughed lightly and gathered the dishes up, taking them into the kitchen.
It was in complete disarray. Jack was definitely going to have to talk to Martha about this. He couldn't stand it when environments he was in were this messy. It just didn't compute with his brain. Something about it just kept him from concentrating. But he couldn't afford to be distracted that long. He had dishes to clean and then a whole life story to reveal. Well, maybe it wouldn't be his whole history... but it would certainly be a lot more than he'd ever told anyone.
Pity it was such a dark reason prompting all of this "fun" sharing, eh?
Blackmagic: Sorry it took me so long. School's been absolutely horrid. And I'm glad you liked the first chapter... If you get bored waiting for my next update, you can always check out my other stories.
CrazyPirateGirl: A lot of those questions you had in your review will be answered in the next chapter. Not all of them, of course, but a lot of them. This one is... rather not what you'll expect it to be. But thanks for the review, anyway.
Sunkist3208: Don't apologize...I know that things come up. Just glad you left a review this time. I'm rather interested to learn why Jack is there, too. He hasn't told me yet. And no... I didn't go with Will and Elizabeth, obviously. There's a reason behind that... but neither of them want to speak, either. Thanks for the review, Whitney!
Jack: Well... Jack can't be perfectly healthy all the time, you see. He gets stressed just like the average person and he's exposed to germs too. I'm glad you're feeling better, though, and thanks for the review.
DarkoBender: Thanks for the words of encouragement! I hope you enjoy this one. I dunno if I did...
Raisin: Well, Martha is Will's wife, as I've explained in this chapter. There is an issue in Will and Elizabeth's past... and I plan on explaining it. Even though this book is going to be set up a lot like Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and will shortly be mostly dialog. I'll explain it. And I'll explain all of Jack's illness, too. Because he is ill. Hence the coughing.
Thank you, as always, for the review! It always brightens my day when I see I have a review and then find out you left it. Like finding a chocolate egg rather than a hard boiled egg at Easter or something.
I feel I should tell you that I'm not giving up on the other two. Actually, I have half of the next chapter handwritten for Taste of Misery and all of the next chapter for One Night Stands handwritten. I'll type them up during Calculus on Friday.
Daisy: Well, I bet you get it a bit better now, don't you? Thank you for reading it. And I'm sorry that I let Katie say what she said to you... and that I disappeared. And that I don't seem to be there for you much anymore. Frankly, I'm just sorry.
ChaosLightning13: Well, I had to be careful with the last chapter and this one. Can't give too much away yet or I'll have a mob of angry readers outside my door. It's bad enough that Will and Elizabeth aren't married...
Thanks for the review regardless. It's great hearing from you again. Since you were the first to review for this, you get a bag of caramel Kisses. Lucky duck.