Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Pirates of the Caribbean – shame!

Chapter 2

Will and his crew including Jack's crew, sailed as fast as they could to the bearings that the pirate had given them. It did not take too long to reach the area and they were greeted with debris from the destroyed ship.

They scanned the waters for any sign of Captain Jack but could see nothing.

"Where are you Jack?" Will asked quietly after they had searched for over an hour. One hour later there was still no sign of the pirate captain and Will was beginning to lose hope when he spotted something in the water. It was small and very familiar. It was Jack's compass.

Will sent one of the crew to fetch it immediately and when it was placed in his hands he looked at it while it was still closed.

Before Jack and Will had parted company, Jack had told him how the compass worked. It would point you in the direction of the thing you wanted most in the world and the thing that Will wanted most in the world at that moment was to find Jack.

"Please show me where he is." He begged the compass and opened it. It gave him a heading almost immediately and Will ordered the crew to set sail in that direction with haste.

Will wished his ship was as fast as the Pearl, true it was fast but nothing could compare with The Black Pearl when she was at full speed.

He willed his ship to go faster and took the helm to guide her to where Jack was.

He was not all that far away from the wreck and it was not long before Jack's piece of wood was spotted floating on the waves with the pirate captain atop it.

The longboat was dispatched to pick him up carrying Will and some of the crew of the Pearl.

They came up alongside Jack and Will noticed the blood coming from his head and his leg that was twisted at a funny angle. He also noticed that although the captain was unconscious, he was breathing shallowly for which Will was very relieved. At least he wasn't dead.

"We will have to be careful with him." He instructed the crew who nodded glad to have found their captain.

As gently as they could, they lifted Jack into the longboat and rowed as fast as they could back to the waiting ship.

As soon as they boarded and hoisted Jack up as carefully as possible, Will ordered that he be placed in his cabin on the bed.

He ordered for water, rum and clean cloths to be brought to his cabin and when they arrived, he mopped Jack's bleeding head up and bandaged it as gently as he could. He was glad that the bleeding had stopped as it meant he was healing.

Now for Jack's leg, it was still jutting out at a funny angle and Will did not have any experience of broken bones. Broken swords yes but not bones. They would have to make haste back to Tortuga and hope that there was an available doctor to fix Jack's leg.

"Return to Tortuga." He ordered emerging from his cabin and addressing Gibbs.

"Aye cap'n." Gibbs said and ran off to chivvy the crew into action so they could get back to Tortuga as soon as possible. The crew of the Pearl looked distinctly worried about the state of their captain but they threw themselves into operating the ship. They all liked Will and they all knew Jack was his priority at that moment.

Will returned to his cabin and sat on the bed watching Jack who lay unmoving though his breathing was slightly less ragged now.

Will soaked a sponge in water and wetted Jack's lips as he knew he must be dehydrated having spent probably at least three days with nothing to drink. He squeezed the sponge allowing a few drops of water to trickle into the pirate's mouth. He kept this up until he had delivered a fair amount of water. Still there was no response.

He couldn't stand seeing the pirate captain looking so helpless and a tear ran down his face. He was glad that the two of them were alone though if Jack were to wake and see him, he would probably tease him unmercifully.

"Please wake up Jack." He whispered pleading. "Don't you dare die on me Jack Sparrow! I've waited too long to find you again to lose you now. We're going to get the Pearl back for you Jack. We'll hunt down and kill every last one of those pirates who left you here to die but I need your help so please wake up."

Will stared at Jack's face but it remained as still as before. He turned round and buried his head in his hands.

"Captain Jack Sparrow." A faint voice came from the bed and Will whirled round to see Jack's eyes open!

"Jack! I thought you were unconscious."

"Aye whelp I was and if ye hadn't rescued me I'd likely be dead." Jack croaked his throat still dry from lack of water.

"Where's me rum lad?"

Will smiled the overwhelming relief that Jack was awake again washing over him like the tide. He grabbed the rum bottle that had been brought to him and held it for Jack to drink from. Jack took a gulp and lay back on the pillows.

"Me head is killin' me." He said.

"Yeah you had a gash on it."

Jack tried to move but fell back and cried out in agony when pain shot up his broken leg.

"Try not to move Jack, we have to get you back to port and your leg seen to by a doctor." Will said gently and for once the older pirate said nothing but merely nodded.

Jack lay and studied the young man before him. His appearance had changed since he had last seen him. He wore a bandanna and his hair had grown. He wore clothes suitable for a pirate and very different to those he had last seen him wearing.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Will said and the door opened to reveal Gibbs.

"Cap'n Turner the crew thought you migh' be hungry." He said and Jack raised an eyebrow at Will's title.

"Cap'n Jack you be awake." Gibbs said and beamed. "T' crew will be mighty relieved o' that."

"You can tell them Gibbs." Will said smiling and Gibbs set the tray down and left the two pirate captains alone again.

"Captain Turner eh?" Jack said and Will nodded.

"Aye this is my own ship. After we parted I couldn't keep away from the sea and returned to Tortuga. It took me a while but I finally became captain of my own ship and I have spent most of the time searching for you Jack."

"Ye have done well fer yerself whelp." Jack said and Will thought he detected a note of pride in his voice.

"I have a good crew behind me. I did bring yours with me too as we intend to go after the Pearl when you are fixed up. After that I would like for my ship to join yours in its travels. What say you?"

Jack considered this for a few minutes. He was more than a little glad to see Will again as he had missed him badly these last three years but thought that he would be settled and married by now.

"You'll sail under me command?" He asked and Will grinned.

"There's nothing I'd like more."

"And yer plunder?"

"Twenty-five percent." Will said chuckling.

"Well Captain Will Turner I believe we have an accord." Jack said holding out his hand.

"We do Captain Jack Sparrow." Said the younger pirate shaking Jack's hand. They laughed Jack wincing slightly at the pain in his leg. Will produced an extra bottle of rum and winked at Jack.

"I probably like rum as much as you now." Jack laughed wincing again slightly.

"I don' know about that mate. Ye might love it but can ya drink me under the table…bed?" he corrected himself.

"Let's find out." Will said smirking. Jack couldn't know that he was a hardened rum drinker after spending the biggest majority of the last three years drinking it rather a lot.

Two hours later the two pirate captains were laughing and polishing off their second bottles of rum each.

"Well young Captain Turner." Jack slurred. "Ye can definitely hold ye drink well."

"Thank you Jack." Will said also slurring.

"Ye know mate, my leg don' hurt no more so when we get back to Tortuga make sure I have plenty o' rum so I don' feel no pain in me leg."

"Aye Jack I'll do that for you." Will said.

Together they drank their way through another bottle each before passing out on Will's bed.

The following morning Will woke and found Jack's arms wrapped round him. At first he made to move but Jack seemed to have tight hold of him and Will decided it was rather nice to feel the older pirate's arms round him and so he snuggled into them.

Jack opened one lazy eye and looked down to see a mass of soft hair snuggled into his arm. He smirked and decided that he felt too nice and warm to move.

He reached over and stroked Will's hair marvelling at how soft it felt under his callused hands. He wondered if Will's hands were weathered and thought that they probably were though not as bad as his own. Will had had a very different upbringing to his own though being a smithy would have given his hands at least a degree of toughness.

He felt down to where Will's hand was and felt the palm. Well they were fairly rough but still had a slight softness to them. Jack thought they were perfect on Will who was tough but soft too. Jack smiled affectionately. He wondered if he had rubbed off on Will at all and figured due to the amount of rum he had consumed the previous evening that he definitely had rubbed off on him.

Will moaned softly in his sleep and stirred opening his eyes. He looked up at Jack and saw he was awake.

"Morning Jack." He said.

"Captain Jack." The pirate corrected with a grin.

"Aye Captain Jack."

Will rose from the bed as gingerly as possible so as not to jar Jack's injured leg. Jack still grimaced though and Will looked apologetic.

"Sorry Jack."

"S'ok whelp just give me me rum."

Will fetched a bottle ignoring the slight throbbing in his head from his rum-induced hangover. It would be a while before he consumed quite so much rum again. He passed the bottle to Jack.

"Drink up captain, we'll be in Tortuga soon and you told me to make sure you were drunk so you better start now."

"Thanks mate." Jack said gratefully and took a long swig from the bottle.

Will left the cabin and emerged into bright sunlight.

"Mornin' cap'n." Gibbs said. "We'll be in Tortuga soon. Cap'n Jack okay?"

"Yeah we hit the rum last night." Will said and Gibbs laughed heartily.

"Good stuff." He said taking a swig from his own hip flask.

Will grinned and walked up to take the helm from Anamaria. He reached into his pocket and realised that he still had Jack's compass. He took it out and opened it. To his surprise it pointed in the direction of his own cabin. He shook it and looked again but got the same result.

"What does that mean?" He wondered out loud. Was his cabin the thing he wanted most in the world? His cabin…or the person inside his cabin? Will shut the compass with a snap and thrust it into his pocket quickly. That couldn't be right could it? Jack?

He shook his head and tried to concentrate on sailing his ship back to Tortuga.

TBC…