Disclaimer: Johnny has yet to put himself up for sale…
A/N: Heh heh heh! The WHOLE WORLD IS TURNING UPSIDE DOWN IN THIS CHAPTER! MUAHAHA! The story really picks up right here, right now! By the way, I'm putting a warning on this chapter b/c I'm trying to keep this story T, but the subject matter is getting more intense, so YE BE WARNED! (May be upgraded to M soon if I feel that it's too much for T.)
Ch. 5- Newly Acquired Knowledge
Jack grinned at his wealth of knowledge. "See, the secret to Singapore is that…" He was interrupted by a squeal emitting from behind Will.
"WILL!"
Hearing his name, Will turned around just in time to have a pretty twenty-something girl catapult herself into his arms. She ambushed his lips with her own, as if she wanted to make sure she wasn't dreaming. After that vigorous welcome, Will spun them around, grinning like a love-struck Tom Cruise. As the girl was released from Will's arms, Jack gasped, while the girl's eyes widened. Elizabeth. Jack.
"Jack, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Jack." Will introduced them excitedly. "Jack, Elizabeth is-"
"Vice President Swann's daughter." Jack finished for him, rubbing his face with his hand. It's going to be a long dinner…he thought.
"Oh yes, it is a small world, isn't it, Mr. Sparrow?" Elizabeth sighed.
Will's eyebrows knotted. He looked back and forth between them. "How do you…?" He pointed his fingers at them. "…You two know…?"
Jack didn't want any part of this. "Elizabeth, you may do the honors, milady." He made a mad dash for the dining room.
Elizabeth covered her face in her hands, whispering "Jack Sparrow. Jack. Sparrow." and shaking her head back and forth. Finally uncovering her face and regaining her composure, she pulled her long, brown hair into a ponytail. She swallowed hard. "Look, Will, it's not a big deal. Jack and I dated a few years ago…when my Dad was starting the campaign with yours. We had been dating a couple of years and then got engaged, but the wedding was called off. I met you about a year later, and, well, you know the rest. So, there's the story." She looked away from him, her cheeks reddening profusely and her eyes beginning to water.
"Oh." Will felt like he was choking.
"I'm so sorry." Her head was hanging down as she tried to stop her guilt.
"There's nothing to be sorry for." Will rubbed her back, pulling her into a hug. "…I just need to know one thing, Liz." He raised her face up. "Did you love him?"
"…Yes…I did, Will." Her eyes were like a window. Jack broke her heart.
"Do…do you still love him?"
"No." The words came out quietly with strong defiance. "I love you."
Will let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I love you too."
Elizabeth pulled away from the hug and wiped her face. "Look at us!" She groaned, "This is the first time I've seen you in four months, and already we have a rough moment…" She was teasing him, but Will could see that there was a serious side to this that she was trying to hide.
"I missed you," he reassured her. "…I missed you like a blind man misses sight."
"I missed you too, Prince Charming." She smiled.
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A few hours later…
"Why didn't you tell me you were formerly engaged to my girlfriend?"
Jack spun around quickly to face Will. "Good to see you too."
"Stop trying to be funny, you liar."
"I never lied to you! Firstly, I didn't know that you and Liz were dating. Secondly, I didn't have any idea if you two even knew each other or not! Thirdly, based on the previous two, I didn't know you two knew each other!" Jack frowned, "In all our conversations, never once has the topic of relationships come up. The information about Liz wasn't relevant until now."
Will's anger began to subside. Despite that, he paced the room feverishly.
Will opened and closed his mouth several times, not able to put his thoughts into words. Jack sat against his bed, intently examining his fingernails.
"Love?" Will finally managed to splutter out.
"Did I love her?" Jack queried, still trying to look nonchalant by picking at a nail. His eyes were crossed with concentration as he stared at the finger, straining his ears for Will's response.
Will coughed uncomfortably. "Yeah…"
"Oh, no way." Jack replied, his tone unreadable. Will spun around, his eyes wide with surprise. "I just dated her for three years and then got engaged for the fun of it…" Jack's tone was now decidedly very sarcastic.
Will's face still looked confused. "OF COURSE I LOVED HER, YOU IDIOT!" Jack roared. His face was screwed up in frustration and anger. "And still, even to this day, I make myself suffer for breaking off the engagement."
"Well, no one was forcing you to break it off, Jack!" Will spat out. "You broke her heart, you fool!"
"The break-up couldn't be avoided." Jack's eyes took on a dull glow as he said this. His muscles loosened. He slumped his head onto the palm of his hand. "It's better that it ended before the actual marriage. It would've been worse if I'd gone through with it. It would have been worse for both of us…"
Without warning, Jack stood up and crossed to the door, leaving his own room.
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Jack set a brisk pace as he set off down the hallway. He quickly looked over his shoulder, exhaling quietly when he saw that Will wasn't following him. He shot down the first stairwell he found, dashed down two flights, and came out in the large entryway.
"Great, the most public place in the house. This is really where I want to be," Jack grumbled.
Not knowing where he was going, he chose another stairwell and went up a flight, coming to rest in a hallway full of doors. He felt good and lost now.
It was surprising that after having stayed there for a month, he didn't know his way around better. He used the excuse that it was a big building. The truth was that Will was always with him and showed him where to go.
As Jack's luck would have it, someone opened a door and stepped out into the hallway. The young woman closed the door, turned a key, and faced the hallway, prepared to walk to her desired destination. She stopped dead in her tracks, her arms falling slack at her sides.
Elizabeth shook her head. "What're you doing here, Jack?"
"Well, me, I'm staying here as a favor for the leader of the free world…and you?"
"You know very well that I live here."
"Well, I thought your plans were to study in England?"
"Yes, Jack, and they still are. If you didn't notice the rather prominent British accent and vocabulary, I just got back from a four month stay in London."
Jack rubbed his chin. "That is an excellent point, luv."
"Please don't call me that. I'm sure that Alex would prefer that you save the sweetness for her."
Jack cringed. He had forgotten about his fake girlfriend "Alex." His intentions with the idea were noble (he had wanted Liz to think that he was transitioning into life just fine), but it seemed ridiculously immature in hindsight.
"Oh, yeah, Alex. Well, truth is, we're not together anymore." Jack shook his head convincingly.
Liz nodded with a knowing look. "Well, considering that she was a pilot, then a doctor, then, the next week, a scuba diver, a relationship would seem rather difficult." She caught Jack's eyes. "You don't need to pretend. We both know why you ended our relationship, and we both know that "Alex" wasn't a ploy to get me back. What, exactly, she was used as, however, I'm still not sure about."
Jack sighed. Note to self: Never, ever, ever, in any situation, take Mike's advice. "I wanted to make you think that I was adjusting just fine and had met someone else. It was Mike's idea. Mike's an idiot."
"Yes, I would have expected as much. For both the reason and whose idea it was in the first place. Yes, Mike is your best friend from high school; No, he does not always have good relationship advice."
Jack grimaced. "Yeah, thanks for the newsflash."
"My point is, Jack, that we both know why you broke it off and we both knew that it wouldn't be easy for you to continue on with your life with your newly acquired knowledge. I feel as though I'm being very vague here, Jack."
Jack felt his cheeks get hotter and hotter every second. He was sure they must be very red by now. Coughing embarrassedly, he said, "I know very well what you mean, thanks…" in a slightly resentful tone.
Liz knew he was embarrassed. He had been just as embarrassed all through dinner earlier. "How're you doing?"
"I'm…fine."
"No you're not."
"Y'know…why do you ask a question if you already know the answer?" Jack asked with an air of annoyance tingeing his accent.
"Because, dear, I wanted to know if you were going to hide it from me as usual…" Elizabeth inserted the term of endearment to show him just how close to him she really was, whether he liked it or not. "I know you much better than you would like me to."
"I told you, Liz, I'm fine."
"You are bloody well NOT fine, Jack! I saw you through dinner, remember? I was sitting across from you!" Elizabeth put her hands on her hips and continued, "Don't think I don't know what your face meant, Jack. Whatever it is that's going on with you right now, you're depressed."
Jack had been preparing himself for when she would tell him exactly what it was that he was suffering from. Thank God, she didn't. She didn't know why he was depressed. That was the key to everything.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Liz's eyes were wide with sympathy.
"Not particularly."
Sensing that he was shutting down, Elizabeth stopped pushing at his emotional fortress. "Alright then, I'm going to go visit Will. If you ever decide that you trust me, come talk to me." Her tone showered Jack with icy sparks.
"Oh yes, eleven PM is definitely a choice visiting time." Jack grinned, trying to lighten the mood.
"My relationship with Will has nothing to do with you, Jack." Elizabeth's voice was even colder than before, "Goodbye."
He stood aside to let her pass to the stairwell, then trudged back to his own room, his escape quite forgotten. She kept saying 'Jack'! Yes, Jack IS my name! Using it in every sentence, however, is not a requirement! Arriving back in his wing (with the use of a map he found while wandering around along the way), he was relieved to note that Liz was not in the hallway, therefore she was probably in Will's room, meaning he was safe from her newfound iciness towards him.
Nudging the door open with his arm, Jack turned on the overhead light. He was relieved to find that Will had gone back to his own room. Sighing, he shuffled to the bathroom and turned on the shower. He undressed, dropping his clothes on the floor apathetically. The warm water was a welcome intruder on his tired body. As he was lathering his hair in shampoo, he heard turbulent voices from outside.
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Meanwhile…
"So why the hell don't you two just go on and hit it off again!" Will bellowed.
"Because we're not right for each other, Will!" Elizabeth said through clenched teeth.
"And why not? You both say you were in love!"
"WELL THINGS CHANGE!"
The two stood in Will's room, staring each other down.
"Jack has circumstances," was Liz's simple comment.
"He seems pretty fine to me!" Will glared, crossing his arms over his chest.
Elizabeth turned and grabbed the door handle, wrenching it open. Her face was streaming with tears. Will followed her.
At the touch of Will's hand on her arm to stop her, Elizabeth spun around. Will felt his insides collapse; in her eyes danced the most painful sadness he had ever beheld.
In a violent whisper came the response. "Jack broke up with me because…because…" She was visibly gagging with the pain in her chest, "Because Jack likes men!"
Will's lungs collapsed. Quivering like a fish out of water, he stared at Elizabeth, the features on his face contorted into a huge question mark.
Suddenly feeling the need for justification, Liz continued. "I mean, of course we, you know…" She paused, collecting her composure, "in the middle of our engagement, though, he went through a really rough period. I thought it was just cold feet. I spent every day with him, hoping that he'd realize I wasn't going anywhere. That he'd realize that I loved him with all that I am. But, uh," she swallowed, "two months later, he broke it off. I eventually gathered an idea as to why."
Will couldn't believe what was happening. His father couldn't possibly have had an omen…could he? How could his father have had any inclination to this when he, Will, Jack's closest friend in this desolate house, didn't? It wasn't that Jack was gay that bothered him…it was that he didn't know until now. You think you get to know a person, and then you find out something that had to have affected them deeply, and you realize that you don't know them like you think you did.
Elizabeth, who was by now feeling very ashamed and guilty, fled back to her own room in a tearful storm. Will was rooted to the spot, unable to take it all in. Jack. He needed to see Jack.
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"Hey," Will choked on the greeting, swallowing in his nervousness.
Jack's head turned towards his voice. "Oh, hey, wasn't expecting you." Somehow, Jack didn't look particularly excited to see him. "I thought that Liz was coming to see you?"
"Argument…hey, how did you know she was coming to see me?"
"I saw her in the hall when I left here earlier. We had a nice little chat…that ended in her hating my guts." He looked at Will sympathetically. "More so than before." So they had an argument, huh? That must be the terrible screeching I heard in the shower…and then, of course, after the shower, too. That shower is not going on the list of Top Ten Greatest Showers Ever. Too many distractions.
Will stood sheepishly near the door, contemplating how to word his delicate questions. He really didn't want to do this. In fact, he was dreading it more than anything he had ever dreaded before. What if Jack got defensive? What if he denied it? He had no doubt that Liz's information was correct, because she had a knack for finding these things out, but he still couldn't believe that Jack would keep such an important thing from him.
Noticing how nervous Will looked, Jack tried to comfort him. "So do you wanna talk about this, er, argument thing?" He really didn't have much experience with this "consoling" concept, but for Will, he would do just about anything. Will was all he had in this Godforsaken house, so he wouldn't give up on him easily.
"The argument itself really isn't very important. Just…stuff." Will paused for a long time, contemplating the best mode of escape. Maybe he could spontaneously combust. But, alas, no, because now Jack was standing up and walking towards him, his eyes imploring the young Turner to open up to him. "Jack, Liz told me."
"Told you…?" Jack's eyebrow was cocked.
"You're gay."
A momentary flash of fear crossed Jack's face and his eyes grew wide and troubled. But he didn't move. Chewing his lower lip in thought, Jack rubbed his hand along the back of his head in his signature action.
He swallowed hard. "Yeah." A sad sigh escaped from his lips. "Yeah." He shook his head, wishing to death that he could take it all back; that he could have just married Elizabeth and lived a lie. "If only things could've been different," He murmured.
At this point, Will was literally falling apart at the seams. "What discretion were you using when you decided to keep this from me?" Will prodded angrily.
"The 'I don't like to be judged' discretion."
"I don't judge."
"To hell you don't!"
"I honestly don't mind."
"Oh, so dear daddy hasn't instilled that value in you yet?"
Will hit his breaking point. "If you haven't grasped this from the month of conversations we've had, I could hardly care less what my father says."
They were standing face to face, two pairs of bright brown eyes opposing one another.
Impulsively, Jack closed the distance between them. "What would he think of this?" Will could feel the breath from the last word graze his lips. In an instant, the firm lips of the actor were pressed against those of the president's son. The kiss was soft. It was telling.
Will felt a spark course through his body, his lips relishing the contact. Finally his mind caught up with the rest of him. This is Jack, your friend! Not good! Not good! Soon after that came the thought of Liz. What had he done? How many lives would be ruined by his…his what? Was it a mistake?
Jack had pulled away and was examining the look on Will's face. "Surprised?"
"…Yes…No…Maybe…?" He stared at Jack's face.
"I'm sure I can fix that." The mischievous smirk on his face made Will grin. Wait! No grinning! Not allowed! This is…confusing! Not fun!
But now Jack's lips were coming towards him again, and he was only too happy to kiss now and think later. Suddenly the lips abandoned their advance. Jack pulled back again.
"Are…do you want this?" Will heard a touch of fear hidden in Jack's question.
"Five minutes ago, if you had asked me if I wanted to kiss you, I would have instead asked where you hit your head and whether a hospital would be necessary to restore your sanity. Now, it feels so…right. I don't want to think, Jack. I don't want to pull away." He lightly grasped the sides of Jack's face into the palms of his hands and brought him closer, finally feeling lips against his own. The delicious spark ran through him again, making his nerves tingle. The contact was exhilarating. Jack was pulling him closer and closer, until he could feel every inch of his body against him.
I 3 reviews! Reviews make me write! Question: Would I keep my faithful readers if I upgrade to M? It's looking rather imminent…