Waki 22

Sorry for the wait, peoples. I have been busier than stink this last little while, what with Otafest and going to see POTC3. IT IS SOOOOO GOOD!!!! Mwahahahahahahahahahaha Explodes. Anyways... Expect random references to it, much the same as how there are random references to the second one in here. Because I'm just that cool. Anyways... Input is muchos appreciato, as always. And yes, there will be a random "In the past!" Thingamajigger in between EVERY chapter, extending up into the forseeable future. So there.

"JACK!!" Bill roared, belting down the dirt street. "GET DOWN RIGHT NOW!!"

Jack looked up, startled by the noise. It almost made him slip and fall, one foot reaching out for the thin branch and hitting nothing but air. His hands shot up and wrapped around another branch, more of a twig than anything.

"Don't do that!" He whined. "You could'a made me fall!"

Bill stopped under the nearest arching branches of the giant oak, his hands pressed together over his mouth in the classic gesture of maternal concern.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Bill bounced on the tips of his toes, ready to launch into whatever action it would take to catch the ten year old.

"There's a bird's nest up here." Jack explained, taking his next tottering step. "It's the same kind of bird I saw on the day you found me."

"So you're going to break your back trying to thank it, I assume?" Bill asked, following his progress along the ground.

"Nah." Jack shot him a brilliant smile, the kind that always made him feel better, no matter how horrid the world seemed to be. "I'm gonna introduce you. Jack's heroes."

He laughed and took another tottering step. The branch made an ominous cracking noise. Bill had time to whisper a heartbroken 'no' before it gave way entirely, sending both boy and nest tumbling towards earth. The imagery was almost too painful for words. His little bird, falling broken from the sky.

Except…

Bill was there to catch him.

Wham.

"Bill?" Jack asked, looking down at the apparently unconscious man, young face full of concern. "Bill, are you alright? BILL!!"

One chocolate brown eye cracked open, absolutely glittering with amusement.

"When I told you to get down, this wasn't what I had in mind."

Jack laughed. He laughed, and then he hit the other man upside the head and started to cry.

"Awe, hush now…" Bill stroked his tousled black hair. "I'm all right. See? I'm fine. No need to cry."

The older man paused, then sighed, reaching out and picking up the shattered remnants of the bird's nest.

"Well… At least, not over me. Poor babies."

Three brown-speckled eggs lay broken over the grassy earth, the strange twisted forms of the creatures inside glistening in the strong morning light. Jack looked at them and started to cry even harder, grabbing hold of the front of Bill's vest with tiny fists.

"I'm sorry, birdies." The boy sobbed. "I didn't mean to kill you…"

"Silence, mon petit oiseau. C'est tout exact. Ne pleurez pas. Veuillez ne pas pleurer." Bill sighed again, continuing to absently stroke his young charge's hair.

Jack sniffed, removing one hand from its death grip on his shirt to wipe at his dark eyes.

"What were they, Bill?" He asked, his voice little more than a whimper.

"Sparrows, Jack. Sparrows."

According to Babelfish, the random French translates thusly…"Hush, my little bird. It's all right. Don't cry. Please don't cry."