The door had no sooner slammed shut than when Will looked at Jack quizzically.
"Since when-?"
"Not important," Jack snapped, rising from his desk and poking his head out to ensure Evangeline hadn't stuck around to eavesdrop. Oddly enough, she had done what Jack had asked of her for once, and was standing with the crew. What didn't surprise him was the fact that she was attempting to start conversation with her captors, none of whom looked particularly interested in what she had to say.
Satisfied, he slammed the door shut once more and turned to face the current problem.
"What is important is what we plan to do with this boy," he continued, sauntering over to a cabinet that leaned worryingly to the left. He tugged the doors open and inspected the many, mostly empty, bottles of spirits that awaited him there.
Very little had changed since the last time Will had seen him.
Will's eyebrows lifted a fraction. "You'd kill him? Against your own daughter's wishes?"
His eyes twinkled and his voice carried a hint of tease; Jack caught it and glared over his shoulder before sniffing disparagingly.
"I've been dead once before, mate. I've no wish to experience again, especially not at her hands."
"I'd get you VIP treatment," Will said helpfully.
Jack's ears almost visibly pricked at the mention of a bargain, but when he saw the grin tugging at Will's lips he shook his head.
"Let's review," he said tartly, pouring a potent-smelling liquid into a pair of rusty, dented goblets. "You want the brat under control, or at least dead. I want the brat dead, or at least off my ship. My beloved spawn wants him cured, or at least safe, and Kidd just wants him to open the Gates for him."
Will's eyebrows shot up. "Since when was Kidd involved?"
"Since before I was," Jack said dismissively, waving the glass bottle over his shoulder and very nearly hitting Will's nose. "Point is, there's a way to make this work to everyone's advantage."
Jack tipped his head back and drained one goblet; Will's eyebrows lifted again and he started towards the other cup in Jack's hand. "Oh?"
"Oh," Jack confirmed, draining the second goblet without further ado. Will looked unimpressed, but not surprised. "We'll play dearest Evangeline's game, and keep him around until she finds some way to exorcise him. Or whatever it is she needs to do."
If Will had been uncertain before, now he was downright skeptical. "You'd do that?" he snorted in disbelief.
Jack shrugged. "Just doing my duty as a civilian."
"A civilian?" Will challenged. "Or a father?"
He watched triumphantly as Jack's mouth opened, then closed; then opened again, this time with an accompanying finger waving up in Will's face. By now he had given up on any intelligent response and rolled his eyes.
"It doesn't matter," he said, and Jack retreated. "What's in it for you?"
Jack grinned like the skull that flew from all too many pirate ships, the light catching on his silver and gold teeth. "In return for my services, all I ask is that you and your jolly crew keep an eye on Kidd's ship and blast it to pieces if he gets too close for comfort!" he said cheerily, poking the pearly scar over Will's empty chest cavity as if to make a point.
Will's face was an impenetrable wall. "I can't," he said flatly.
"Why not?" Jack demanded.
"I can't get involved."
"Your predecessor did," Jack pointed out.
"And look at what happened to him.
Jack opened his mouth to make yet another point, finger at the ready, but Will interrupted him.
"I have a duty to attend to, Jack. And I have no desire to abandon it."
He looked at Jack pointedly, who wrinkled his nose and stroked his chin distastefully.
"Don't have tentacles," he told Will helpfully.
"Well spotted," Will replied drily. "Davy Jones is a legend, Jack. I'd like to keep it that way."
"Well then," Jack quipped, making for the door. "Legends don't need help settling 'conflicts of territory', so I suggest you get on your merry way."
He opened the door and gestured for Will to leave, grinning rather as if he had a toothache.
Will didn't move.
"Go on. They're waiting."
Finally, Will relented. "I'll warn you if he's close," Will said reluctantly, and Jack smiled like a cat that had just eaten all of the canaries.
"That's all I ask."
"I can't promise anything," Will warned, stepping past Jack and moving through the door.
Jack's smile didn't waver.
The two captains moved down to the deck, where all activity stopped. Peering over a sea of heads, Jack could see that the crews of both the Dutchman and the Pearl were intently watching a draughts game between Kalepi and Evangeline. Evangeline, he noted, wasn't very good at it.
Will cleared his throat noisily, and the crew snapped to attention sheepishly. He gestured with his head, and just like that they melted through the wood and were back on board their own ship in the blink of an eye.
"And I win," Kalepi said, glancing up for the first time. His expression of triumph quickly changed to one of bewilderment. "Hey! Where'd everyone go?"
The crew of the Pearl had also dispersed, gathering to watch the Dutchman do its famous vanishing act. Jack had seen it all too many times and lingered; Evangeline noticed and swaggered over, standing next to her father and leaning in close.
"What did he say to you?" she asked him suspiciously.
Jack's cat grin widened. "Another deal with the devil," was all he said.