Power of the Sparrow

Title: Power of the Sparrow
Author: Hellborne (the_ferret_mom@yahoo.com)
Age Rating: 18+

Disclaimer: Characters, if you saw them in the movie, not mine. See the Mouse. Story, mine, but I make no money. He does, but not on this.

Typing convention: / is used for thoughts. * - * - * is used for scene changes and passages of time.

Summary: Will gives Jack a birthday present. Unfortunately, it's cursed. J/W, O/J.

Warnings: Torture, N/C, SMBD, slash, H/C, angst, lemon, major sadomasochism.

Betas: The two greatest BetaGoddesses in the world, Pendragginink and Littlebird! You're both truly magnificent, and I wouldn't be able to write half as well without you!

NOTE: I live for reviews. Being quite depressed lately about my health and missing my job, I could really use some reviews...and don't think I'm begging for cudos! I happen to love flames and constructive criticism just as much and sometimes more! Lord knows, without constructive criticism, I'd have never fixed some of the boo-boos I've made!

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Chapter 16 - Hell Hath No Fury

"Pearl?"

She was gone. She whom he loved, whom he had courted in his dreams and desires for so many long years, was gone.

Jack reflected on the conversation that had just transpired between him and his Lady and blanched, imagining he could feel his blood turning cold and suddenly draining into his toes.

/Pearl, love. My William needs me and I him. I'll be with you soon enough. And as the greatest treasure is well worth the wait, we'll both do well to resign ourselves, however difficult, to being patient./

There came a light tapping at the door, and Jack lay breathless on the bunk, unwilling to move, or unable to. "Enter." His voice was still somewhat hoarse from the previous pleasantries, it carried just enough.

Will entered the cabin and moved quickly to Jack, panic-stricken. "Jack, are you all right? I heard you screaming, and when my father disappeared I feared the worst."

Jack smiled wanly. "I'm fine, love. My Lady is a fine woman, beautiful and loving, but she cannot compare to you, my dear, sweet William." Jack's eyes closed in spite of all valiant effort to keep them open as he felt Will's strong hand touch lightly on his chest and his rough blacksmith's fingers gentle at his neck checking for his pulse and fever. He did not want to see Will's eyes, those clear windows to his soul, grow deep with concern upon feeling the thready heartbeat.

"Summon the crew and give Ana the helm, lad. Have her set course for Port Royal." He paused, exhausted to the point of illness, then said decidedly without excuse, "I need m' rest."

Smiling at Will's sudden gasp at such an intimate and uncharacteristic admission, Jack covered Will's hand on his chest with his own, pressing it to his heart for a moment before lifting it to his lips for a kiss and then letting it go, dismissing Will, but clearly not rejecting him. The pirate's one hand grasped the front of Will's shirt, pulling him closer and with his lips at Will's ear, in a voice so tired and faint Will nearly wept and had to hold his breath to hear the words, Jack whispered, "And I'd like you to rest with me."

Will left the cabin, eyes shining, hurrying to do his lover's bidding.

By the time he returned, Jack, obviously done in, hadn't moved a jot and in fact had already fallen asleep. Will swiftly removed his clothes, folding them with meticulous care; a habit born of never having had more than one set of clothes at a time, with no hope of replacement and climbed cautiously in next to Jack so as not to disturb him. As soon as he got settled in, however, Jack shifted, draping himself contentedly over Will, apparently finding him a fine bed-pillow, a blissful smile on his lips, a smile which Will, carried off on the wings of sleep, soon matched with an equally pleased smile of his own.

* - * - *

When he awoke, Jack was gone.

Will dressed quickly and left the cabin, heading to the galley in search of breakfast. Halfway there he turned to look at the bridge and saw Jack, standing at the helm, in serene reverie; the beatific expression on his face telling Will that the erstwhile pirate captain was deep in communion with his Lady. He continued to the galley, returning with two steaming bowls; he carried them, hot as they were, up the steps to the bridge, where he sat on a box next to the helm and started eating, patiently waiting for his lover's attention.

When Jack finished his conversation and turned to Will, he had tears in his eyes, his voice a hushed whisper of despair and disbelief. "William, she won't let me go."

"What?" Will couldn't quite figure out what Jack meant by that.

"Pearl. She asked me something yesterday just as I was falling asleep, and by the time I realized what I'd agreed to she'd disappeared. Now she wants me with her...permanently."

"You mean by choice? She wants you to...willingly go to her...NOW?"

Jack nodded. "Aye." Will's eyes grew wide and seeing his alarm, Jack hurried to explain. "But I'm not going to do it, love. I'm not leavin' you b'fore my time. I'll never consider it. Not even for my Lady."

Relieved, Will smiled weakly and patted the box, offering Jack a seat next to him in an effort to hide the shaking of his hands. Jack secured the wheel with a tagline and sat down, gratefully accepting the proffered food and drink from Will.

"Jeezus!" Will suddenly grabbed Jack and dived to the deck, pinning Jack and his breakfast bowl of slumgullion and beans under him. A spar fell, crashing down exactly where Jack had been sitting. The older man's eyes widened. "Aye, a jealous one she is, my Pearl."

Will rolled off Jack and helped him up, eyeing the decidedly messy mysterious mixture of stewed meats, rice, various over-cooked vegetables and other sundry leftovers that once was their breakfast and was now smashed and dripping all over the front of Jack's jacket.

"So am I, Jack."

Jack laughed it off, scraping the mess over the side, picking strange shreds of meat off himself, tossing them to the gathering gulls. "You, Whelp? You're far and away too gentle and loving, quite scandalous for an iron-pounding blacksmith actually, to have a single jealous bone in your body." He brushed at the bits of rice still clinging to his jacket.

"Well, the iron-pounding blacksmith is in no mood for teasing. I'm serious, Jack. I care about you too much to allow this shrew of a ship to take you away from me." Will set his chin and crossed his arms, planting his feet in defiance, swaying to maintain his balance as the deck suddenly pitched under him.

Jack almost laughed again from the gesture, but contained himself, realizing that the boy was indeed serious and he stared at him, mouth hanging open in surprise. "William! I've never seen you like this!"

"And I've never seen the Black Pearl try to kill her lover, either. She won't let you go, Jack? Oh, now that's IT! Won't LET you go? HA! Want to know when I'M giving you over to HER? NEVER! I'm not giving you up, Jack. I'll see her scuttled first, keel over halyard, sink her plank by plank, split her to splinters right down to the waterline with a dull ax, pick her to oakum with my own bare hands if I have to!" Will looked amazed at himself, hearing his own bold resolve and puffing out his chest as he warmed to the words that were more promise than threat.

Jack's eyes widened as he saw that Will meant it, grimacing at the mental image of Will personally dismantling his beloved ship. "Easy, love, you've already won. I must say it feels right wonderful for an old pirate like me to be fought over by two strikingly good lookers such as you and Pearl, even if I am far too fetching to resist; I love m' Lady like my own life, Will, but not more than; if she's not willing to wait for me, then I'll not go to her when I DO die."

Will froze. "Jack, my father died, but didn't move on because the Pearl wouldn't LET him. He told me so himself. Since you've decided not to join her immediately, he could remain trapped here forever. Should you die, what's to keep her from doing the same to you?"

Jack frowned. "If she wants a willing lover, she'll leave me be to die in my own time. If she dares trap my soul, she'll lose my love completely. William, I could never love my jailer, master or mistress. My love must be freely given only to one who loves me back in the same way. Like you, love."

He took the blacksmith's face in his two hands and kissed him soundly. "And now, I believe I'll risk seconds on breakfast. I'm afraid the first go-round didn't settle too well with me. I hope scuttlebutt doesn't get around that I fed m' breakfast to the fishies. Folks are likely to talk. Can't be done. Bad for m' image." He chuckled and made for the galley. Will headed back to their cabin.

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"Look out below!"

Jack looked up sharply as he returned from the galley with his replacement bowl to view the Pearl's colors up close and personal; the huge flag fluttering down to drape itself gracefully over his head, completely blocking his vision. Trying to hold on to the bowl of steaming food whilst struggling to escape the heavy banner of the black and white cloth, he stepped backward, losing his balance with his foot caught in coils of line hanging down from a belaying pin at the bridge rail; the pin happened to be anchoring a line that reached high in the rigging holding aloft a barrel of tar the caulkers were spreading on the mainmast and spars.

The loops of hemp slid beneath his feet and the pirate toppled over backwards, smacking himself in the face with the dish of food. The stiff line wound up his leg, tightening around his foot.

Still trying to extricate himself from smothering folds of the flag and having difficulty regaining his balance with his feet tangled as they were in the mess of line, Jack reached out for support standing up, grasping the handle of the belaying pin.

The solid oak belaying pin broke in half, throwing Jack to the deck once again, the anchor pin choosing that moment to drop out of its socket and conk him on the forehead, allowing the taught line holding aloft the three-hundred pound barrel of tar to spring free.

The barrel hurtled towards the deck, dragging the pirate, who weighed considerably less than the barrel, across the quarterdeck face down, smacking his head on the railing which he nevertheless managed to grab on the way past. But with one hand pinioned to his side by the flag, now wound around him, the weight of the fast falling barrel was too much for him to hold with one arm. He heard his shoulder pop out of place as he was pulled free and down the stairs, cracking the back of his head hard on every step; he was dragged across the deck and up the mainmast by his ankle, bounced several times off the mast, snapping his collar bone on a spar on his way up.

He met the barrel coming down.

Cocooned as he was in the flag, he could not fend himself off the barrel as it collided into his unfettered hip and clipped his other shoulder.

When the barrel hit the deck, the impact burst the hoops holding the barrel together, spilling the tar out over the planking. Jack, now being heavier than the suddenly empty barrel, proceeded back toward the deck head first at full speed hitting the spar again on the way down, cracking several ribs, while his weight pulled the smashed barrel, still held together by its web of rope, back up the mast.

He met the barrel coming up.

It slammed into Jack's other shoulder, spinning him around and whacking his hip twice on the mast during his descent, momentum causing him to spin and swing on the rope holding his ankle.

The strength of the swing in addition to the quarter-ton extra poundage no longer pulling the mainmast several degrees to larboard; caused the mast to sway several degrees back to starboard, adding force to the swing of the pendulum that Jack had become and actually propelling him beyond the rail to splash unconscious into the Caribbean as the Pearl heeled over; he was slammed back against the hull as she righted herself.

Two of the deck crew worked like demons to haul their decidedly worse for wear ex-captain up and over the ship's rail by the line still snarled about his ankle and cutting deeply into his flesh. They tried to be easy with him, but he slithered out of their grasp like a seal and flopped, limp and unmoving, to the deck where he lay like a flounder.

Marty deftly untied the rope from the waterlogged pirate, but, as the diminutive man weighed considerably less than the empty barrel, he felt himself being lifted from the deck and let go the line immediately, causing the now unsupported barrel to fall, smashing itself on the deck, missing Jack's head by mere inches and sending several large and vicious splinters from the deck planking deeply into Jack's neck and shoulder. One long splinter pierced his right ear completely through, impaling itself in the side of his head.

Will rushed out of the cabin when he heard the commotion and hubbub, hurrying to where a weakly sputtering Jack, now face down and tar-smeared, was coughing up water along with the contents of his stomach, which fortunately wasn't much as he had twice missed breakfast, with the help of two large and beefy crewmen enthusiastically pounding that one's senseless self on the back which didn't do his shattered ribs any good at all.

The deck seemed to heave and slip out from under Will's feet as he ran and he nearly fell, skidding to a stop next to Jack. "What happened?!"

One of the men explained as well as he could what all he had seen. Will frowned as he barked orders to have the much battered and bleeding Jack carried into the cabin, shouting at the rest of the crew to "Bloody Hell recheck the entire ship, twice...for anything and everything needing it or not to be battened, fastened, flemished, fixed, secured, stowed, or cleated, and snap to it", lastly bellowing across the deck to a horrified Norrington "where the Hell is the blasted navy doctor and get him here quick, if not sooner or I'll personally slowly gut you sorry lot with a bent and rusty SPOON!" Will turned and meekly followed Jack inside.

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TBC

A/N: Am I going to kill Jack off? After all this? Hey, the muses are depressed as all hell...hit the REVIEW button and tell me off or something...let me know what you think, and be HONEST. That'll cheer up the muses...especially constructive criticism!