Why Is The Rum Always Gone?

by Chucky Ray

After Jack's twelfth time into Tortuga to get more rum Gibbs finally asks him the question that has been on his mind for years. Just a sad short drabble that is a prequel to Pirates of The Caribbean and The Search for Treasure Cove and based upon a roleplay.

Jack parked his ship by the dock and walked (or rather staggered) into Tortuga for the twelfth time. Joshamee Gibbs trailed along behind him. "I'm starting to get concerned about you Captain." He began. "I'm afraid that yer gonna pass out if ya drink anymore rum." He told him before Jack suddenly stopped and then turned around to face him.

"Oh really!? Is that right!? Well just because you're my first mate doesn't mean that you have to follow me everywhere!" He pointed out while talking with his hands before he turned back around and staggered into the pub with a hiccup.

"So what will happen if you pass out and never wake up if I'm not around?" Gibbs wondered while he followed him inside.

"My heart will stop and I will die what a ridiculous question." Jack told him while slurring his words together.

"Come on Jack, I know you better than that. You used to be horrified of death." Gibbs told him when suddenly he stopped to turn to look back at him with eyes full of pain and sorrow.

"Yes but she changed all that." He replied.

"Angelica?" Gibbs questioned him with uncertainty.

"No. I was on the rebound with her. What I had with her is all in the past now." He replied when suddenly Gibbs widened his eyes in shock.

"You mean Elizabeth?" He asked him as Jack quickly turned his head away from him and glanced down at the ground miserably.

"Yeah,.. her." He told him as he went up to the bar to get another bottle of rum. He tried not to think about how much he missed her, how beautiful she was, how they were like "peas in a pod." As Jack sat down Gibbs sat down next to him.

"Captain, are you in love with her? Is that the reason you've been drinking so much lately and why the rum is always gone?" He wondered as Jack bit off the cork to the bottle of rum and then spat it back out suddenly being reminded of how Elizabeth had left him to settle down with a man he considered to be one of his best friends and had a child together.

"Aye Mister Gibbs,.. that's why." He replied before he started drowning all of his sorrows inside his rum bottle.