I was (almost) threatened not to drop this story! Not that I had any intention to. Still, I feel so special now! You can inwardly thanks the guest who wrote this review, they got you this chapter sooner then it was planned to be finished.


Will and Will are adorable... I want a hug... please...


Chapter 5: Situation

Will ended up watching over Elizabeth and Will the younger at Norrington's request. He couldn't say he wasn't pleased because as always, Elizabeth was fun to be with, and he got to see his other self open up a bit, gradually for sure, but still way faster than he had himself done.

No, he wasn't upset by the decision, but he had to admit that his new task had some disadvantages.

Once already he had had to keep the kids from falling overboard, for Elizabeth was eager to learn everything she could, so eager she had climbed in the ropes and unsurprisingly fallenas she had tried to get a better view of the Dauntless, and without surprise, his younger self had hurried to catch her, only managing to grab her ankle and get himself half over the rail. In fear, Will had teleported himself from two meters away right to them, and pulled them back up. Luckily, the sailors had been too busy worrying and hurrying to the children, and hadn't noticed a thing.

Well, now he knew he could still teleport himself anywhere he could see.

But if that supernatural incident hadn't had repercussions, another one had. The blood stain from when his arms had rubbed against the rail was still visible, and yet the young man had no apparent wounds. Left, that is. Everybody had then fussed over the children, wondering if they had been the ones to be wounded, but except a couple of bruises for the boy and a swollen ankle and a bump on her head for the girl, they had been alright.

Now, everyone was pondering what could have happened.

"Maybe it's a stain from the last battle, like, we forgot to clean this place?"

"Of course not, it was two months ago, idiot! Forget not seeing it, it'd be all dried up by now if that was it. No, someone must have been wounded and not told about it, last night or something."

"Yeah, right, but do you see anyone wounded here?"

The sailors bickered for a while, and Will sighed deeply, despairing to have some time alone and remove the godforsaken splinter of wood that had made its way into his arm and had stayed there as he had healed. It was hurting, unpleasant, and completely undeserved.

Gibbs muttered something under his breath about ghosts and deities, before sending a dark and pointed look to Carter, who shifted uneasily and turned on his heels to check on the chidren, as if he had something to hide.

James observed the whole scene, perplexed. The governor was scolding his daughter not to get up in the cordage ever again, and the yound Miss just listened to her father, a stubborn look on her face. Will Turner was quiet and likely trying to erase himself from the world, as if it was all his fault. The lieutenant hesitated for one second, then made a move to tell the boy he had done nothing wrong, and he had even saved Miss Swann, so he shouldn't feel that way.

Wilhem Carter was there before James even got the chance to approach the boy. The lieutenant backed away, leaving the two Wills to discuss the event alone.

So James, with nothing better to do, went to have a look at the blood stain that was everyone's latest topic of conversation. He bent over the rail, and touched the red liquid with the tip of one finger. Sure enough, the thing was fresh. He glanced over at Carter, puzzled.

But no, the young man didn't have any wound, hidden or not. He was scratching his left forearm, but that was all.

Someone came next to the lieutenant to look at the blood too. The man mumbled under his breath, and James looked sideway to discover Joshamee Gibbs, glaring darkly at the blood stain.

"I say that's not normal, mark my word. There's something fishy about the castaway, and that has nothing to do with piracy..."

Gibbs was obviously not talking for James to hear, or he'd have talked louder. So the lieutenant simply ignored him. After all, Gibbs had this habit to add "mark my words" every three sentences each time he thought a situation doubtful and supernatural.

What he couldn't ignore, though, was the fact that Gibbs was suspicious of Carter.

Gibbs was a bit paranoid, and always jumping on the supernatural explanations, true. But he was doubting Carter, as James did. Not in the same way, sure, because the lieutenant couldn't feel anything "fishy" about the young marooned blacksmith, only something strange. But both of them found there was something wrong with the young man. And James couldn't just ignore that.

Wilhem Carter seemed normal. But at the same time, he seemed off. He had this thing about him, too perfect, too nice, too knowledgeable. If the Navy officer hadn't known any better, he'd have thought Carter was a man of good education, for he knew too much for a blacksmith. He knew sailing, he had obviously found his sea legs quite a while ago, he could read and write, and what else? James couldn't be sure, but the knowledge Carter had displayed during the past few days was more befitting of an old man with too many summers.

"And that's not all... There's this new star, all bright and shining, that appeared in the skies the night before we found him! Witchery, I say, and the castaway is the cause of it!"

James walked away from the sailor, wondering if the man had drunk, again. But at the same time, he knew he'd be out on the deck tonight, to take a look at that "new star". Maybe Gibbs was just imagining things, and it was yet another of the classical stars he had forgotten about in drunken stupor. Or maybe not.

The young lieutenant sighed. Joshamee Gibbs was a good sailor, who knew what he was talking about, and did what he had to do without questioning orders. If only he could lay off the bottle...

James glanced one last time to the children who were with Carter and the governor. They had been lucky, this time. If Miss Swann had fallen, the crew would certainly have been able to retrieve her, but who knew in what state? Before, or after she'd have drowned? She was but a child, and he was certain she couldn't swin. Turner's intervention had been great help, though James would have liked it better if the boy hadn't almost fallen overboard with the girl in his attempt to rescue her. If he had gone all the way, they would have gotten another child to save...

Which lead him to Carter.

Miss Swann had slipped away from the blacksmith's watchful eye for a mere second, and gotten herself in quite a mess. The lieutenant couldn't say he was surprised. She obviously had a fierce temper. Even if she overall behaved like a proper young lady, she didn't seem afraid of adventures and dangerous situations. She even seemed to crave for them so much it might end in some kind of unpleasant situation one day. He didn't wish it to happen, but being realistic, he wasn't going to deny the girl would probably, somehow, manage to get herself into trouble in the future.

He hoped not. But he felt she would.

Yet, despite the danger Miss Swann had faced and kindly shared with the Turner boy, Carter had been there fast enough to avoid any lasting hurt. James still couldn't believe how quickly the young man had joined the children and taken care of the situation. The lieutenant had heard the scream, and then the second one, he had turned to look, he had seen, he had feared. Then he had blinked.

The next thing he knew, Carter was holding onto Will Turner and reaching for the governor's daughter.

But he could have sworn he had seen the man standing at least two meters away only a moment before.

James must have been wrong, surely there was an explanation. Maybe he had seen Carter talking with the governor before, and had assumed he hadn't moved. Maybe, when he had looked at the two children, he hadn't paid attention to the young man running to get them, because he had been too scared for the kids.

But somewhere in the back of his mind, Gibbs' voice was nagging at him, telling him there was something "fishy" about all that, telling him he wasn't wrong, that he had seen Wilhem Carter here one moment and there the following one.

James scoffed at the thought. Right, trust Joshamee Gibbs' judgement over your own, it's certainly the thing to do! The man drank too much for his own good, and he was supernaturally hard-wired.

Shaking his head in disbelief at his own thoughts, the lieutenant left the deck to Portwell's cabin, where he had been headed before the incident.

Will glanced at Norrington as he passed by them, but quickly reset his attention on the boy sitting next to him.

"Let me see your arm, William. I want to make sure you're only bruised."

His younger self hesitated a second then held up his left arm, where he had collided with the rail in his haste. The skin was already turning a disturbing color, Will noticed, but aside from that, the only other damage he could see was a scratch.

He had been foolish to let his attention wander away, even if it was Governor Swann talking to him.

Hell, he remembered the incident from the first time around. It had happened the day before, in his original timeline, and when he hadn't seen it unfold at the predicted hour, he had guessed his presence had erased the event, since Elizabeth had been listening to Gibbs' story-telling while his younger self had been sitting on his lap at the time. But if his presence had effectively altered the events, it hadn't changed Elizabeth's bravery and impulsiveness. The girl had been busy the day before, but now she had found the perfect time to do her stunt, and things had happened, in the end.

He couldn't assume his mere presence would make people wiser, though he could turn the tide of events a bit, knowing the personality flaws of many people.

Maybe he should try to rob back the aztec coin from Elizabeth, so that she wouldn't fall in the water with it and alert Barbossa and the other cursed pirates, eight years from this day? He apparently couldn't simply make sure she wouldn't fall in the water, because it'd most likely end up happening no matter what, later perhaps, but happening anyway. He'd think about it.

"You seem alright. Next time, just try to prevent her from doing something dangerous, will you?"

Will almost gnashed his teeth as he said that. He was asking a lot of the boy, knowing Elizabeth, and more importantly, knowing how he had himself been at the time.

Will the younger blushed a lot, and looked away.

"Will?"

Damn. That was odd, calling himself like that, yet not being the "himself" he was calling. Not that he'd have called himself out loud if this "himself" had been him, that would be downright strange. Unless your name was Jack Sparrow, of course. Jack was strange, strangeness was his natural state. Wait a minute, was he really thinking about that?

Will shuddered. For a moment, he had been under the impression he was channeling Jack.

An idea that was downright disturbing.

His younger self shifted on his feet, and Will waited patiently. Eventually, the kid let it out.

"I think she was trying to cheer me up."

Oh, so that was why he was feeling guilty. Question being, why had he forgotten about that particular thought over time? Every memory with or about Elizabeth had always been a treasure to him, more than ever at two times in his life: when they had drifted apart growing up, because of their social backgrounds, and during the long years between their reunions, aboard the Dutchman.

"I've... I've been having nightmares."

Will frowned, then realization dawned upon him.

The nightmares. Of course. That was the reason he had tuned out this particular memory. Because of the nightmares. The bloody nightmares. Those dratted, damned, twice hated nightmares that had haunted three years of his life after the attack.

He really didn't see what he could do about those, but he wasn't going to sit around as his younger self suffered from fear and recollections in the dark of the night, alone, scared, trashing in his bed over and over again, until he woke up with a silent scream on his lips. There was no way he'd live this again, even if he wasn't actually the one living it, and even if said "one" wasn't actually living it "again". William Turner didn't deserve to suffer from those nightmares.

Will checked around that no one was listening, and lowered his voice. He could get away with what he was going to do because his younger self was exactly that, younger. But if anyone else heard, they'd surely think there was something unnatural going on. He had already made an enemy of the ship's cat, and Gibbs was always eyeing him warily, and he wasn't even going to talk about Norrington who seemed to spend half his time observing him.

Luckily, the cat was nowhere to be seen. After the outburst of power from their first encounter, the animal had been avoiding him like the plague, and he only caught sight of an accusing glance now and then, from afar. Gibbs had disappeared from the deck, and Will had seen Norrington enter the captain's cabin.

All clear.

"Nightmares about men who weren't men, right?"

The boy's eyes widened, and he was about to talk when his older self put a finger before his lips.

"Shhh, don't talk about it, they wouldn't believe you."

Will paused a second, and amended.

"Well, Elizabeth and Gibbs might, but they would talk about it to someone else, and it'd end up with you being labelled a liar, or maybe a poor boy who imagines things because he's too afraid of what he saw. Trust me, you don't want that to happen."

He himself hadn't told anything back then, but he had seen the reaction of the Navy men after the fight at Isla de Muerta. They hadn't said anything, all looking to the commodore, who hadn't said anything, because he had already lost the Interceptor because of this nonsense, and wasn't foolish enough to write a report mentioning undead cursed pirates.

Will looked his other self in the eyes, and all he could see there was fear.

The memory from the first time he had seen the skeletal pirates, the memory he had kept away all these years, resurfaced. He shuddered as he pushed back the Eleanor's Jewel's deck, the dead, the blood, and the ray of moonlight that had made its way through the fog.

"There were men, pirates who looked normal enough, though very dirty, and they were killing everyone searching for something, searching for someone, and finally, searching for you. You don't know why, but you heard them say they wanted the child, and you were the only one aboard the Jewel. You hid, and you jumped over the rail the first chance you got. And they blasted the ship, and you climbed on a piece of wood, a piece of the Jewel, and then you saw it."

Will the younger was now in his arms, shivering, sobbing in fear. The boy didn't know how Wilhem Carter knew all that, but it was the truth, and despite the fact that the man was bringing the memories back to the surface, despite the fact that the images from his dreams were pounding loudly at the door of his mind, Carter was still the safest person he knew. In the young man's arms, he felt as if, despite the dread, despite the fear, nothing would harm him. Carter felt like family, like a father, like a brother, but more, oh so much more, because he knew exactly who William was, as if he had been William at one point, and so, was able and willing to shield him.

Carter was whispering in his ear now, but it wasn't frightening, it wasn't threatening, it wasn't taunting. It was just a whisper, because no one else than the two of them could know of the secret, because they couldn't talk about undead pirates to the others, and because his fears and nightmares weren't to be shared.

"A ray of light came through the fog, and under the moonlight you saw what they really were. They weren't men. They were monsters, of bones and rotten flesh."

The boy tried to nod, but his head was already against the young man's shoulder, and he couldn't. Yet, Carter seemed to understand, and just held him in his arms, and just stayed there, conforting his younger self.

He waited a long time.

And the boy, exhausted by his day, exhausted by the memories and the fear, slowly, very slowly drifted to sleep.

Will carried him to where he slept, and tucked him under the sheets. There, he stood another while, looking at the boy, looking at his past, not sure when he had started to be this miserable, whether or not it had stopped at some point, or if his life and death had always been a succession of misfortunes.

When he left and went back to the deck, Norrington and a few other sailors were out too, working for some, watching over the work for the others, and even enjoying the silence of the night when they could.

The lieutenant was staring at the stars, actually, and when Will followed his gaze, his eyes locked on a star that wasn't meant to be there, a star that reminded him of something, but he still couldn't get what it was.

The former captain of the Flying Dutchman did his best to walk away silently, but Norrington seemed to have an uncanny ability to sense his presence at all times, and the man turned to look at him. Dead in the eyes.

"Have you ever seen this star before, Mr. Carter?"

Will winced in the dark, and walked over to the lieutenant, feeling he was doing something dumb.