A/N: Hello again! Sorry about the wait…blame my teachers. This chapter is less talk, more action, so I hope you like it!
DISCLAIMER: OI! I own NOTHING, savvy? 'Cept the plotline and any characters you don't recognize. No, not even the lyrics.
I saw you going down
But you never realized
That you're drowning in the water
So I offered you my hand
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It was midday when Jack ordered the anchors lowered. There was no sign of land at all. It seemed as if the captain had merely chosen a random spot to moor that tickled his fancy.
"Cap'n, there's no land," Gibbs worried. Jack smiled. Gibbs worried more for his captain's sanity.
"Take a look through this spyglass, Mr. Gibbs, and tell me what you see in a general…that way direction." Jack gestured at the horizon. Gibbs took the small spyglass and raised it to his eye.
"Um, Cap'n? There's nothing but empty horizon."
"Really?" Jack looked surprised. "Look closer then." Gibbs leaned forward and focused on the horizon, turning the end of the spyglass this way and that. Then his hand paused. "Ah, spotted it, have you? And did you happen to notice 'er colors?" Jack pressed. Gibbs peered closer.
"Aye, that I do."
"And…?"
"The…East India Trading Company, Cap'n. Should we run?"
"That is not just any East India Trading Company ship, Mr. Gibbs. That is the mother ship."
"What's yer point, Cap'n?"
"That is the only ship that Lord Beckett finds fit for himself to sail on," Jack hinted, placing a light stress on the name. Gibbs looked blank. Jack rolled his eyes. "Lord Beckett is the man that our former crewmate hoped to gain 'is life back from."
Gibbs quirked an eyebrow. "Eh?"
Jack raised his head to the sky and sighed. Would one not think that after being with me as long as he has that one would be able to figure out my hints? Even if it wasn't that long? God, give me something easier to reason with. Might I request a lump of coral? "By using the heart of Davy Jones."
"So…you think the heart is on that ship?"
"No. I know the heart is on that ship."
"Jack! What're we doing here?" Will's voice asked.
"Mr. Gibbs and I have reason to believe that the object we are searching for…is just on that horizon," Jack explained.
"What do you mean?"
Jack told Will what he and (eventually) Gibbs had seen. "Are you a strong swimmer?" he added.
"Fairly…why?" Will said. Jack took him aside and voiced the first stage of his plan. "What does that have to do with swimming?" Will questioned.
"You'll see soon enough." Jack smiled mysteriously.
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"They will come back for us, won't they?" Will asked nervously, watching the Black Pearl and the Silver Mermaid sail away.
"O' course they will. They all know that with the luck I have (well, luck to them, but actually incredible wit), I'll find some way out of my predicament to haunt them all. Don't worry about it," Jack reassured smoothly. "Just let me do the talking." He began to row towards the horizon.
"We're not just rowing up to the ship!" Will cried. Jack frowned.
"Boy, do you take the man who has already been mutinied upon one too many times in his life for stupid?"
Will shook his head.
"Good. Just trust me. Savvy?"
When the white sails were just barely visible to the naked eye on the horizon, Jack stopped rowing. He pitched one of the oars as far away as possible. With the other, he pounded the bottom of the longboat until he had a hole a good eight or nine inches wide. The he pitched off the other oar. "What are you doing?" Will asked apprehensively.
"Don't talk. Just help me get water in. Lots of water," Jack said. "Trust me," he added when Will still looked hesitant. "Jump up and down, splash it in with your hands, whatever, just as long as it gets water in here." He immediately began jumping, arms flailing about. Will reluctantly followed suit, though with less arm waving. "Right. Stop. Stop. Just wave your arms and yell," Jack said when the boat was about half-full. "Oi! OI! HELP! OVER HERE!"
"Hey! Hey! Down here!" Will bellowed, waving his arms frantically. He could see a spyglass glinting from the rail.
"Try to cover your face a bit so they don't recognize you. Keep yelling," Jack muttered. "OI!" The water in the boat had reached their knees by now, and it was icy cold. Suddenly, the boat dropped from underneath them. Will went under and came back up spluttering. Jack only just managed to stay up, still waving.
"You m-must b-b-be mad," Will growled, the effect ruined by his chattering teeth. He discreetly pulled out his ponytail and let his hair flop messily over his face. He swam after Jack towards the ship. At the side, two ropes were dropped for them to grab. "Or brilliant," Will added appreciatively, beginning to climb.
Jack reached the rail first and collapsed onto the deck face-up. Will made quite a show of being to weak to get over. He finally slithered down onto the wood in what looked like a dead faint. "Good one, mate," Jack murmured in his ear. "Very convincing."
Will felt a pair of hands turn him over, and he struggled not to close his eyes tighter against the blossom of pink-orange sunlight on his eyelids. "Turner and Sparrow," said a silky voice. "Carry them to the brig until they wake up and we can hear their story." Two more pairs of hands, considerably stronger than the first, grabbed him by the shoulders and knees. He left himself limp in the arms carrying him with an effort not to grab his sword and give them a few cuts to remember. He could tell they were going down by the cooling of the air.
Jack was laid down beside Will on the floor and the door slammed shut. They didn't even take our weapons! Jack thought gleefully. How stupid can they get? Cautiously, he cracked an eyelid and instantly found what he was looking for: a solitary guard outside the cell.
So slow were Jack's movements that they were painful. The knife slid from its sheath in an agonizingly sluggish way. It slid up his sleeve, the metal giving him gooseflesh, and he had to make a conscious effort not to shiver. He inched along the floor like an inchworm on its back, a quarter inch at a time. The damp wood grazed along the back of his neck, making all the little hairs stand on end. Then he let the knife handle slide into his hand, stood up, grabbed the guard, and pressed the knife to his neck in one fluid movement. "Don't make a sound unless I say so, mate," Jack snarled softly into the man's ear. The guard nodded fearfully. "Good. So tell me…where does Beckett keep the heart of Davy Jones?"
"I - I can't say," the guard stuttered. The knife pressed harder, drawing a drop of blood.
"You can if I say I won't slit your throat this instant," Jack threatened.
"Or I could stab you in the back, whichever you prefer," Will put in. He pressed the tip of his sword into the guard's back.
The sensation of his own blood trickling over his Adam's apple seemed to embolden the poor guard. "Beckett keeps it in his office, heavily guarded."
"Guarded by what?" Jack said.
"I don't know."
"Are you sure?"
The guard swallowed. "Yes."
"The keys to the cell, then."
"I really shouldn't…"
Jack pressed dangerously hard, knowing exactly where to stop. "If you don't, then I'll take them by force," he hissed. Shaking, the guard handed over the keys. Jack smiled kindly. "Thank you," he said politely, and slit the guard's throat.
"Did you have to do that?" Will stared pointedly at the pool of blood on the floor.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it was entirely necessary. He would've warned Beckett that I was coming," Jack reasoned.
"You could've just knocked him out," Will said stubbornly.
"Let's see you knock someone out through these little squares. I could barely get my arm through to grab 'im, let alone get enough leverage to knock 'im over the head," Jack returned. He fumbled with the keys for a moment, and the door swung open. Beckoning to Will, he stepped lightly up the stairs and bashed the man at the top over the head. "Happy now?" he grumbled to the former blacksmith.
"Quite," Will said.
After a few minutes of slinking through the shadows, jumping every time one shifted, they came upon a fine mahogany door. Jack put a finger to his lips and knocked smartly on the door. "Yes?" Beckett asked irritably.
Jack swung the door wide. "Why, hello again." He grinned, drew his pistol, and shot Beckett in the chest. The tradesman slumped to the floor.
"Jack!" Will seethed. "Not exactly stealth! That will have caught the attention of just about everyone! Maybe there's some little old deaf lady in Australia who didn't notice us! We could have extracted information from him like we did the guard!"
"Who's to say he didn't have a pistol on him? Just find the heart, grab it, and go," Jack mumbled. "So much for 'heavily guarded'…" Footsteps in the hall spurred their search.
Mercer strode in quickly. "Lord Beckett?"
Jack looked up. "No, I'm afraid you're mistaken," he said kindly. He picked up the nearest heavy thing he could reach and knocked Mercer out. Then he ducked under Beckett's desk and swiped a metal box-like contraption with a piece of paper on the top. "Found it," he said. "Let's go."
Will and Jack slipped like a pair of shadows from Beckett's office. They flattened themselves against the wall and waited as a few soldiers trotted by in perfect formation.
"Longboat," Jack ordered. The deck was, luckily, completely empty.
"'Ey! You two!"
Or so they thought.
With almost inhuman speed, Will whipped around and hurled his sword through the man's chest.
"As I said before, that is a wonderful trick," Jack marveled as Will retrieved his sword. "And I thought you wanted to just knock people out?" Will stayed silent. Jack smirked and lowered the longboat. "Think about what I said in that cave," Jack said. The words obviously stung like a slap, but still had a truthful ring to them.
In the longboat, they both took an oar and rowed away from the ship with all their might. The guns were already being run out and loaded. The first cannonball exploded in the water right next to the boat, showering Will and Jack in frigid water. The next barely missed tearing a hole in the bow. The third rocketed past them and blew a hole in the hull of the Trading Company ship. It was forced to pay attention to the firing ship rather than the escaping longboat. Suddenly it was two onto one as the Silver Mermaid began to fire off volleys at an incredible speed.
The Pearl came up beside the longboat and tossed down a pair of ropes. A cannonball tore a gaping hole in the longboat. Will flew backwards with a yell of surprise. Jack had already wound his hand around the rope and was being pulled on board. He swore when he looked back. "OI!" he yelled when he had landed on deck. "MAN OVERBOARD! BRING 'ER AROUND!"
Gibbs didn't bother repeating the orders; he spun furiously at the wheel until it would go no further. The rest of the crew worked their fastest on the sails, all the while trying to avoid being caught in the snapping canvas.
Jack hid the metal contraption behind a barrel and climbed to the bow as it swung around. He could see Will, and the boy didn't seem to be moving.
The crew clearly had no idea how to pull an unmoving man from the water. They threw down boat hooks, grappling hooks, but managed to miss Will every time. "Oh, bugger it all," Jack muttered. He pulled himself onto the railing and leapt.
As he hit the water, Jack couldn't help a little shiver running through him at the icy coldness. His eyes stung when they opened. Ahead, the dark shape of a limp body was slowly sinking below the waves. Jack breached for a brief breath and then submerged. Small, colorful fish scattered as he swam past a coral reef. He shoved it with his boots to gain speed. His lungs screamed for air and his muscles protested at the hard labor.
Will was slowly fading from sight. The darkness was beginning to consume his shape. A hand snatched the puffed out sleeve of his shirt. Jack's head broke the surface, spitting out water and gasping for air. He dragged Will up and struggled to propel himself through the waves. Now, with Will's deadweight weighing him down, Jack could barely keep his own head above water. He gritted his teeth, grabbed his escaping hat, crammed it on his head, and kicked out hard.
The cold was beginning to slow him down. More often than not, he got salty water in his lungs instead of oxygen, and had to pause to cough it out.
A longboat was making its way towards them.
Jack lifted his free hand and waved it above his head.
The cold was dragging him down…Will was dragging him down…He was dragging himself down…
A strong pair of dirty hands seized Jack roughly by the shoulders.
"Jack! Give me Will and hold on to the side. Yer gonna be fine." This was Gibbs.
The East India Trading Company ship had long since realized that it was hopelessly outnumbered. It had ceased fire and turned around back toward where it had come from. Cannonballs were no longer whizzing over Jack's and Gibbs's heads at every turn, making it easier for this to be accomplished.
Jack hoisted Will into Gibbs's waiting hands and heaved himself over the side of the boat. He methodically placed his hands on Will's middle and thrust downwards a few times. Will didn't move. Jack made both hands into a single fist and swung it down into Will's stomach.
Will practically exploded. Water shot up from in between his lips. He rolled over onto his side, clutching his stomach and retching sea water violently into the bottom of the boat. Jack leaned back away from him, though otherwise he remained calm. Will's vomiting soon turned to choking. He coughed up blood that seeped into the boat's wood and was unable to draw breath.
"Jack! What do we do?" Gibbs said, wide-eyed with horror.
"There's nothing we can do. Except wait," Jack said grimly, settling into a more comfortable position.
Will was finally able to settle down and suck in much needed air. He lay at the bottom of the boat in a fetal position, his breath ragged and his eyes closed.
"Will," Jack said. "Say something, mate."
Will groaned.
"Did it hit you?" Jack asked.
Will groaned again and nodded.
Jack swore under his breath. "Where?" Will put his hand on his side and grimaced in pain. Jack carefully removed Will's shirt and hissed at the wound. It was purplish yellow mixed with black, and probably included a couple of broken ribs. Jack tore the shirt in half and tied it tightly around Will's lower torso, ignoring the younger man's weak protests. Gibbs sat and watched the whole process silently. "Gibbs, get us back to the Pearl. Now," Jack said in a low, urgent voice. Gibbs nodded and began to row steadily towards the ship. "Will, see if you can sit up here."
Will gripped the seat tightly and painfully settled into a sitting position. By the time he had done so, the nose of the longboat was nudging the Black Pearl's hull. Jack helped Will out of the longboat and onto the deck, then into a hammock. "You're not going to be up and about for a while yet, mate," Jack said.
"But Jack…what about the Mermaid?" Will whispered hoarsely.
"I'll tell Cotton, his parrott'll give the orders, it's been around ships for so long. Don't worry 'bout it. I've got it all under control."
Will smiled faintly. "Thanks, Jack. I knew I could count on you."
"Always will, mate." Jack gave him a half-smile. "Get some rest. I'll check on you later." He walked out of the crew's cabin, and Will closed his eyes.