Author's Note: Here I am again! Did you start to wonder what happened to me? Sorry, I've been busy and to top it off I'm getting sick now, but nonetheless here I am! Hope everyone enjoys chapter 6! On we go then…

Chapter Six

Once Bill lay down his coughing eased up enough to let him sleep a little and Jack exited the cabin to stand at the helm as usual. He loved staring out at the endless water and letting his thoughts drift over him. He and Bill had been through so much together in previous years and now it was about to end for good. His friend was dying; he seemed to get a little worse every day.

Will was in for the shock of his life. He seemed to have long since given up any hope that his father was still alive. Jack had picked up on that when he had first met him and he had spoken of his father in the past tense. Jack had felt a little guilty going along with it but there had been no helping it, he had just been keeping a promise he had made to Bill a long time ago.

Jack stood at the helm until it was dark and he could no longer tell the difference between the black of the sky and the black of the water. As it became even later and still Jack stood at the helm his crewmembers eventually came back aboard the ship from Tortuga. As they passed him they greeted him but he barely seemed to notice, so lost in his thoughts was he.

"Captain!" A sudden shout jolted him out of his reverie. He turned to find Annamaria standing just behind him.

"Yes?" he inquired.

"Bootstrap needs yer help," Annamaria informed him quickly.

Jack immediately started toward his cabin, "What's wrong with him?" he called over his shoulder to Annamaria.

"I'm not quite sure, yer cabin door is locked," Annamaria said as she fell into step with her captain. "But when I passed by I heard him shouting out and yelling. I don't think he knows what he is doing and I thought ye should know."

Jack nodded and as that they came into sight of his door he too could hear the shouting. Jack quickly pulled out his key and unlocked the door. "Stay near," he ordered Annamaria. "I may need yer help."

"Aye sir," Annamaria said as Jack darted quickly into the dark cabin. He switched on a lam and turned to Bill who was tossing and turning.

"No!" he said quite loudly in his sleep. "I had no choice! I couldn't help it! I had NO CHOICE!" he said, the last two words become an ear shattering shout.

"Here mate, calm down," Jack muttered as he put his hand on Bootstrap's head. To Jack's dismay he was burning up. "Anna!" Jack called out quickly and she immediately entered the room. "Fetch a bowl of cold water and a cloth," he instructed before she was even all the way into the room. She turned to leave and as Jack waited for her to return he tried to calm Bill, who was getting increasingly more agitated.

"You deserve to be cursed!" Bill said suddenly and forcefully, and Jack knew that, in Bill's head at least, he was once again talking to Barbossa. "It wasn't right," he muttered weakly as he fitfully shifted his position. "Not right with the code or with anything else."

"It's all over now mate," Jack informed him, though he wasn't sure if Bill was even aware of his presence. "It wasn't yer fault. Ye did what ye had to."

Just then Annamaria came back with the cloth and water. As she handed it to Jack she said, "Does he even know yer there?"

"Not sure," Jack told her as he moistened the cloth and pressed it to Bill's head.

"It's gonna be a miracle if he survives the two and a half weeks to his son's wedding," Annamaria muttered, watching the feverish man on the bed before them.

"He'll make it," Jack said. "Never underestimate any living soul's will to survive."

"I guess," Annamaria said softly. "Do ye need me for anything else Captain?"

"Not right now," Jack said and Annamaria exited to go to bed.

For now Bill seemed to have calmed down some, occasionally he would mutter something but overall he seemed more relaxed then he had been a few moments ago. Jack turned the cloth over on his friend's head and leaned back in his desk chair. He briefly wondered how many sick people were going to be in this room. Well, Norrington had mostly been bruised and hung over, he mused to himself. After all he had been beaten pretty badly.

"Throughout the night Jack kept up his vigil, having to frequently remoisten the cloth and turn it over. Bill continued to shift between fits of coughing and murmuring things, sometimes from the past and even the present, and sometimes things Jack couldn't make any sense of. "Carol Anne!" he cried out at one point. Carol Anne had been his wife and Will's mother. She of course, had been dead for some time now.

"He'll never understand," Bill muttered as his fever spiked up. He abruptly turned and the cloth fell off his head and to the floor. "I had to stay away, he would have been in even more danger with me there!" A hacking cough cut of his ramblings and when he moved Jack saw a spot of blood on the pillow.

"Ye talking about Will?" Jack asked as he tried to mop the blood up. He didn't expect an answer, but Bill seemed to get even more agitated.

"My son," he muttered anxiously. "Barbossa is after him! He'll kill him!"

"No, not anymore," Jack said, adjusting the cloth that Bill had knocked down again.

"Should've helped Jack," he mumbled after a few more minutes. Jack glanced up at him but didn't say anything yet. "I was a bloody coward. If he lives he'll likely come after me as well as Barbossa. He'll never forgive me."

"Sure I will William," Jack said calmly, "I've told ye before it wasn't yer fault, savvy? I understand why ye did what ye did. Hell mate, I even told ye to stay out of it." Again Jack had to rewet the cloth, realizing even as he was doing it that it wasn't enough. Bootstrap's fever was fast getting out of control. It was getting much higher and Bill was getting rougher, with the wild frenzied strength that people with intense fevers develop.

Jack was on his feet and at his cabin door in an instant. "Gibbs!" he hollered as loudly as he could. There was a distant crash somewhere on the ship and Jack guessed Gibbs had rolled right out of bed at his call. He quickly went back to Bill's side and stripped him of everything except his briefs. "Gibbs!" he yelled again as he struggled to get a flailing Bill up out of bed. "Easy William," he muttered.

"Ye called me Cap'n?" Gibbs said blearily as he appeared at the door.

"Need yer help," Jack panted, "His fever is way to high and we need to get it down fast, savvy? Help me get him off the ship and into the water."

"Aye sir," Gibbs said, ducking a swing from Bill, who didn't seem to be aware of what was going on or what he was doing. "He's really out of it, isn't he?" Gibbs commented as they struggled out the door.

"He is at that," Jack agreed. A few minutes they were walking down the gangplank, and once they were on the docks they headed to a part where the water was shallow and all three entered it hurriedly.

"Cold," Gibbs panted, still trying to hold onto Bill, who was still struggling.

"Dunk him all the way under," Jack ordered. Working together they managed to unceremoniously do just that and after a few seconds they allowed him to come back up for air. They repeated this a few times and to their immense relief it seemed to be working, the cold night time water was doing its job.

"He don't seem so hot to touch anymore," Gibbs said.

"Aye," Jack agreed, "We'll keep him in here a few more minutes though, savvy?"

Gibbs grunted affirmatively and they did their best to support Bootstrap, now and again dunking his head for good measure, making sure he stayed cooler. After a bit it seemed like he was out of danger of his fever spiking up to uncontrollable heights again and he was now much calmer, though he still didn't seem to be really aware of his surroundings. "Reckon we could take him back to the cabin now," Jack said. "He's still got a fever but it don't seem to be to worrisome of a height anymore.

So out of the water they struggled, half carrying, half dragging Bootstrap between them. Once they were on deck Jack said, "Go on ahead and make sure the cabin door is open and his bed is ready."

Gibbs nodded and gratefully slipped out from under Bill's arm and hurried ahead. Jack supported Bill until they got to the cabin where Gibbs was straightening Bootstrap's bed. He stepped back as Jack entered and lowered Bill onto the bed. "That'll be all for now," Jack told Gibbs, who nodded and left, presumably to go back to sleep. Jack put another wet cloth on Bill's head and leaned back in his chair as his friend shuddered and broke into a sweat.

"Fever's finally breaking," Jack muttered, observing the sweat practically pouring in rivers off of his friend. "Knew we'd make it through this," he said as he leaned forward and turned the cloth around.

After a couple of hours when the sun was starting to rise and Bootstrap's fever had went down considerably and he had gotten some relatively relaxed sleep, which had only been interrupted by a few coughing bouts he moaned and opened his eyes. "Jack?" he mumbled weakly when he spotted the figure leaning back in the desk chair.

"I'm here," Jack drawled, "And I rather think yer lucky to be here."

Bill chuckled weakly, "I don't feel very lucky at the moment," he muttered. "What happened?" he asked as he took in the fact that he was drenched in sweat and almost completely naked.

"You had a fever," Jack informed him. "At one point it got so bad I had to get Gibbs in here to help me get you out of here and into the water."

Bill groaned as he tried to sit up and his world began to spin. "Okay, no sitting up," he mumbled to himself dazedly as he lay back down.

Jack couldn't help but grin a little, "Give it some time mate," he advised.

"Yeah. How long have I been out of it?" Bill asked.

"I would say about twelve hours altogether. Annamaria came to get me about you at around seven last night and it's around sunrise now," Jack said, suppressing a yawn.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say ye didn't get any sleep," Bill said, watching his friend.

"On the bright side I did get to go for an early morning swim," Jack commented wryly, by way of answer.

Bill snorted in laughter, "That's one way to look at it, it can't've been all bad then," he said, still grinning. He sighed and after a moment said, "How am I going to make it to my son's wedding Jack?"

"One day at a time mate, one day at a time," Jack said. "That's all ye can do."

"I guess so," Bill said, frustrated, "But suppose after all those days I'm not alive anymore?"

Jack studied his old friend for a moment and said, "Ye'll make it William, because it's the only way to see yer son and see him get married. Besides, weren't ye the one telling me ye'd make it?"

"Aye," Bootstrap agreed, "I suppose yer right mate."

"Course I am," Jack said with a grin, "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow after all."

Bill chuckled, "Aye, how could I forget?" he asked, amusement in his eyes.

"I haven't the faintest idea mate," Jack said, a faint grin gracing his handsome face.