To Cheat the Hangman
folder
Pirates of the Caribbean (All) › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
4
Views:
1,533
Reviews:
5
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Pirates of the Caribbean (All) › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
4
Views:
1,533
Reviews:
5
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
To Cheat the Hangman
To Cheat the Hangman (formerly “For Posterity”), by Hellborne
Pirates of the Caribbean - R
Copyright: Characters, not mine, See the Mouse. Story, mine, but I make no money. He does, but not on this.
Summary: It is horrible to lose a lover to murder. Worse to look back and know you could have stopped it with but a single command. Few men know the real story of the Captain Jack Sparrow legend, or the fate of Commodore Norrington. Fewer would be believed anyway, if they did have the nerve, or the heart to tell it. One man did, then, to set the record straight for posterity. He’d always had the nerve, and his heart already broken. Slash, Angst, Rape (as memory only – no details), Deathfic.
Archive: Fine…just let me know the URL.
Beta: The great, fantastic, most perfect BetaGoddess in the world and her pet jackal…Pendragginink!
N/A: Anyone who has read my story “The Makings of a Pirate” might recognize some of the happenings in this story. This is AU from that, as that story is not a slash.
* - * - * - * - * - * - * - *
Chapter 5 – To Cheat the Hangman
The writing started.
"With all of us on board the Dauntless, we had a fighting chance, as my crew had no chance to live if we lost. That gives a man great strength, lad. Never forget it. Desperate men have the strength of three complacent men. As my men and I fought from one side and Lizzy and her crew from the other, the men on the Dauntless were realizing that we would never give up. Lizzy and I made it to the quarterdeck, and somehow managed to back Commodore Norrington up to the rail. He saw that his men were beginning to be beaten back, and I offered him to surrender to save the lives of the rest of the crew who weren't already dead. He agreed, boy. He agreed because he didn't want more of his men to be killed. Captain Gillette witnessed it, boy. The Commodore gave up." The old man shook his head, apparently to clear it. He seemed stuck on a single thought. "Before he was able to call out to his crew, however, I'd heard a crack from above, and tackled him. One of the beams had finally given way from our earlier attack. Had I ducked and left him, boy, he'd have been killed. But I didn't. However, I didn't wager on another of his crew doin' the same thing, and the extra weight in the tackle threw your Commodore and myself into the sea.
"As he was on the bottom of the two of us, his head hit the water hard, and it knocked him out. I managed to get him to the Pearl, since I didn't know how to get from the sea onto the Dauntless without a ladder, and I knew every inch of the Pearl and how to enter her. As soon as we made it onto the deserted deck of the Pearl, I put him in my cabin, hoping he wasn't dead. I didn't want the whole of the British navy on my tail for killin' their Commodore. He was alive, but that was all I could tell. Anyway, Lizzy made an accord with Captain Gillette that the Dauntless would go on its way while we went on our way. She thought I'd died with the Commodore. She had Ana Maria take the helm of the Pearl, and we parted company."
The pen stopped. "Ana Maria? You said she would kill you if she saw you again."
"Aye, boy. She claimed she would. But on the venture to take back the Pearl, I offered her the Interceptor as recompense for the Virgin, and it put her in a better mood. She became my first mate, and when the Interceptor blew up because of that son of a whore Barbossa, she stayed with me on the Pearl."
The writing started.
"Let's see...oh yes. As soon as I knew that the Commodore would stay alive, I walked out of my cabin to go back to the Dauntless so that they could take Norrington back with them. But the Dauntless was missing, and I had nowhere to put him. So I kept him in my cabin till he woke up.
"Thinkin' I'd gone back on me word, he woke up sore mad and the language from that man was neither from an officer nor a gentleman. Me, I listened to him squawk for a while, then pulled me sword on him to shut him up. Then I got me an idea, and decided to give him a taste of what slavery was all about. He was made to do various menial chores around the Pearl, even wearin' proper slave garb and havin' my mark on him."
The boy gasped. "You branded him?"
"No boy. I painted it on in permanent ink. I already told ye, I don't approve of slavery. It stabbed me to the quick to treat him so poorly, but I knew it had to be done. By the time I had finished, he knew he didn't want to protect slavers and slavery, but he didn't know what to do as Commodore. I offered to let him taste freedom for a while as part of my crew, and because I worded it in just the right way, he accepted.
"We became very close, Jamie and me. As close as Bill and me, and for the same reasons. I'd introduced him to the Pearl. I had him take over the helm for a day. She claimed him then, and at the end of our agreement, he signed on as a permanent member of the Pearl's crew, and my lover.
"We changed his name t'protect his family honor in England, callin' him Robert James. But he was still my Jamie in my heart and in the Pearl's.
"We fought together with the Turners for many years, until the Turners' ship was finally sunk on its way back from Old Providence. I'd say that was 10 years after Jamie joined me. I never heard the whole story about it, but just that it had been attacked by the Spanish, thinkin' it were a pirate vessel and out for their gold. There were no survivors from the Night Falcon. I know that. At least we made sure that there were no survivors from the Spanish ship once we found her.
"Jamie and I continued on our slaver attacks, and still the people here at Port Royal believed I was a pirate and that I'd killed Jamie.
"During one raid, we lost enough of the crew that we needed to recruit more, so we went to Tortuga. There was a good looking band of young men that answered my request, and we took them on board and pulled out to sea, teachin' them about what we did. I had a bit of a bad feelin' about them, as did Jamie, but we couldn't put our fingers on it. They just seemed a little clean to be pirates, but seein' as they were green, we thought they just hadn't gotten to that point yet and let it go.
"A couple of nights after we’d attacked a particularly large slaver, while I was at the helm, I was watchin' the stars as I'm wont to do on the mid watch, when suddenly everything went black. When I came to, I found Jamie and I and the rest of the older crew had been put in the brig, and our new recruits were pourin' powder around the hold and the edges of the bulkheads. We arrived in Port Royal to discover that those 'green' crewmembers were British sailors and soldiers sent by your Commodore to arrest us at any cost. They blew up my Pearl once we were removed. Well tell your Commodore this, boy. I didn't kill James Norrington. HE DID. Jamie was hung in that very yard out there three days after we arrived. There was nothing I nor anyone that could do anything about it, either. Jamie'd sworn me and the rest of the crew to secrecy. I wanted to tell him. Lord I wanted to tell the Commodore who Jamie was. But Jamie was adamant, and he died for his stubbornness. That would be nine years ago.
"When the rest of the crew broke out while they walked my Jamie to the gallows, I didn't want to go with them. I wanted to die with my Jamie, but the crew dragged me away. We somehow made it to Tortuga. I don't really remember how, as I wasn't paying much attention to anything. Your Commodore had taken everything I was living for away from me. He couldn't have hurt me more by hangin' me.
"But by then I was old enough that I couldn't start over, nor could I even whore for a livin'. An old man of 63 with stiff joints isn't likely to be accepted as crew on a ship no matter how much experience he might have. And besides, the sea had stopped callin' to me. I figure that it had been the Pearl's song all along, wafting on the waves till it found me. But she was gone, so the song was gone as well. The others put me up in an inn for a month and brought enough of the treasure back that I could live comfortably for the rest of my life.
"But last week, I received the message from your Commodore that he wished to speak to me about Jamie. When I got here, I was brought to the Commodore's office, and he told me to tell you everything before I die. Well, boy, I'm 72 years old or thereabouts, and still feel in the prime of life. So tell Commodore Gillette that he'll have to hang me after all. I won't just up and die for him. Tell him that from Commodore Jack Sparrow." He leaned back, falling asleep against the cell wall.
The writing stopped. The youth picked up his pen and papers and tucked them under his arm. "I will, sir. I will."
The boy walked to the gaol entrance and looked back. The old man had apparently fallen off of the bench. He carefully went back and opened the cell door, ready for any tricks to try to escape. The old man didn't move. Toy boy bent down and touched the old man's throat. Then he dutifully rose and left the gaol, cell door swinging wide, to report to Commodore Gillette: Jack Sparrow had cheated the hangman one last time.
* - * - *
End
Pirates of the Caribbean - R
Copyright: Characters, not mine, See the Mouse. Story, mine, but I make no money. He does, but not on this.
Summary: It is horrible to lose a lover to murder. Worse to look back and know you could have stopped it with but a single command. Few men know the real story of the Captain Jack Sparrow legend, or the fate of Commodore Norrington. Fewer would be believed anyway, if they did have the nerve, or the heart to tell it. One man did, then, to set the record straight for posterity. He’d always had the nerve, and his heart already broken. Slash, Angst, Rape (as memory only – no details), Deathfic.
Archive: Fine…just let me know the URL.
Beta: The great, fantastic, most perfect BetaGoddess in the world and her pet jackal…Pendragginink!
N/A: Anyone who has read my story “The Makings of a Pirate” might recognize some of the happenings in this story. This is AU from that, as that story is not a slash.
* - * - * - * - * - * - * - *
Chapter 5 – To Cheat the Hangman
The writing started.
"With all of us on board the Dauntless, we had a fighting chance, as my crew had no chance to live if we lost. That gives a man great strength, lad. Never forget it. Desperate men have the strength of three complacent men. As my men and I fought from one side and Lizzy and her crew from the other, the men on the Dauntless were realizing that we would never give up. Lizzy and I made it to the quarterdeck, and somehow managed to back Commodore Norrington up to the rail. He saw that his men were beginning to be beaten back, and I offered him to surrender to save the lives of the rest of the crew who weren't already dead. He agreed, boy. He agreed because he didn't want more of his men to be killed. Captain Gillette witnessed it, boy. The Commodore gave up." The old man shook his head, apparently to clear it. He seemed stuck on a single thought. "Before he was able to call out to his crew, however, I'd heard a crack from above, and tackled him. One of the beams had finally given way from our earlier attack. Had I ducked and left him, boy, he'd have been killed. But I didn't. However, I didn't wager on another of his crew doin' the same thing, and the extra weight in the tackle threw your Commodore and myself into the sea.
"As he was on the bottom of the two of us, his head hit the water hard, and it knocked him out. I managed to get him to the Pearl, since I didn't know how to get from the sea onto the Dauntless without a ladder, and I knew every inch of the Pearl and how to enter her. As soon as we made it onto the deserted deck of the Pearl, I put him in my cabin, hoping he wasn't dead. I didn't want the whole of the British navy on my tail for killin' their Commodore. He was alive, but that was all I could tell. Anyway, Lizzy made an accord with Captain Gillette that the Dauntless would go on its way while we went on our way. She thought I'd died with the Commodore. She had Ana Maria take the helm of the Pearl, and we parted company."
The pen stopped. "Ana Maria? You said she would kill you if she saw you again."
"Aye, boy. She claimed she would. But on the venture to take back the Pearl, I offered her the Interceptor as recompense for the Virgin, and it put her in a better mood. She became my first mate, and when the Interceptor blew up because of that son of a whore Barbossa, she stayed with me on the Pearl."
The writing started.
"Let's see...oh yes. As soon as I knew that the Commodore would stay alive, I walked out of my cabin to go back to the Dauntless so that they could take Norrington back with them. But the Dauntless was missing, and I had nowhere to put him. So I kept him in my cabin till he woke up.
"Thinkin' I'd gone back on me word, he woke up sore mad and the language from that man was neither from an officer nor a gentleman. Me, I listened to him squawk for a while, then pulled me sword on him to shut him up. Then I got me an idea, and decided to give him a taste of what slavery was all about. He was made to do various menial chores around the Pearl, even wearin' proper slave garb and havin' my mark on him."
The boy gasped. "You branded him?"
"No boy. I painted it on in permanent ink. I already told ye, I don't approve of slavery. It stabbed me to the quick to treat him so poorly, but I knew it had to be done. By the time I had finished, he knew he didn't want to protect slavers and slavery, but he didn't know what to do as Commodore. I offered to let him taste freedom for a while as part of my crew, and because I worded it in just the right way, he accepted.
"We became very close, Jamie and me. As close as Bill and me, and for the same reasons. I'd introduced him to the Pearl. I had him take over the helm for a day. She claimed him then, and at the end of our agreement, he signed on as a permanent member of the Pearl's crew, and my lover.
"We changed his name t'protect his family honor in England, callin' him Robert James. But he was still my Jamie in my heart and in the Pearl's.
"We fought together with the Turners for many years, until the Turners' ship was finally sunk on its way back from Old Providence. I'd say that was 10 years after Jamie joined me. I never heard the whole story about it, but just that it had been attacked by the Spanish, thinkin' it were a pirate vessel and out for their gold. There were no survivors from the Night Falcon. I know that. At least we made sure that there were no survivors from the Spanish ship once we found her.
"Jamie and I continued on our slaver attacks, and still the people here at Port Royal believed I was a pirate and that I'd killed Jamie.
"During one raid, we lost enough of the crew that we needed to recruit more, so we went to Tortuga. There was a good looking band of young men that answered my request, and we took them on board and pulled out to sea, teachin' them about what we did. I had a bit of a bad feelin' about them, as did Jamie, but we couldn't put our fingers on it. They just seemed a little clean to be pirates, but seein' as they were green, we thought they just hadn't gotten to that point yet and let it go.
"A couple of nights after we’d attacked a particularly large slaver, while I was at the helm, I was watchin' the stars as I'm wont to do on the mid watch, when suddenly everything went black. When I came to, I found Jamie and I and the rest of the older crew had been put in the brig, and our new recruits were pourin' powder around the hold and the edges of the bulkheads. We arrived in Port Royal to discover that those 'green' crewmembers were British sailors and soldiers sent by your Commodore to arrest us at any cost. They blew up my Pearl once we were removed. Well tell your Commodore this, boy. I didn't kill James Norrington. HE DID. Jamie was hung in that very yard out there three days after we arrived. There was nothing I nor anyone that could do anything about it, either. Jamie'd sworn me and the rest of the crew to secrecy. I wanted to tell him. Lord I wanted to tell the Commodore who Jamie was. But Jamie was adamant, and he died for his stubbornness. That would be nine years ago.
"When the rest of the crew broke out while they walked my Jamie to the gallows, I didn't want to go with them. I wanted to die with my Jamie, but the crew dragged me away. We somehow made it to Tortuga. I don't really remember how, as I wasn't paying much attention to anything. Your Commodore had taken everything I was living for away from me. He couldn't have hurt me more by hangin' me.
"But by then I was old enough that I couldn't start over, nor could I even whore for a livin'. An old man of 63 with stiff joints isn't likely to be accepted as crew on a ship no matter how much experience he might have. And besides, the sea had stopped callin' to me. I figure that it had been the Pearl's song all along, wafting on the waves till it found me. But she was gone, so the song was gone as well. The others put me up in an inn for a month and brought enough of the treasure back that I could live comfortably for the rest of my life.
"But last week, I received the message from your Commodore that he wished to speak to me about Jamie. When I got here, I was brought to the Commodore's office, and he told me to tell you everything before I die. Well, boy, I'm 72 years old or thereabouts, and still feel in the prime of life. So tell Commodore Gillette that he'll have to hang me after all. I won't just up and die for him. Tell him that from Commodore Jack Sparrow." He leaned back, falling asleep against the cell wall.
The writing stopped. The youth picked up his pen and papers and tucked them under his arm. "I will, sir. I will."
The boy walked to the gaol entrance and looked back. The old man had apparently fallen off of the bench. He carefully went back and opened the cell door, ready for any tricks to try to escape. The old man didn't move. Toy boy bent down and touched the old man's throat. Then he dutifully rose and left the gaol, cell door swinging wide, to report to Commodore Gillette: Jack Sparrow had cheated the hangman one last time.
* - * - *
End