Another Day in a Life or Two

 

Chapter 4

Startling abruptly from being half asleep Jack shot a panicked glance at the clock on the nightstand. It would be the end of the world as they knew it if they overslept. In a lifetime or two, where time usually had no meaning what so ever, it was today that had to be lived by the second.

Luckily it had only been a few minutes of dozing.

Jack looked down on himself to see the sleeping man nuzzled against his side, wrapped around him like a koala hanging from an eucalyptus tree. He reached out his fingers to touch Will’s lips slightly, and received the reaction he was going for when Will licked his lips out of reflex. Jack moved his fingers, hovering them over Will’s nose up between his brows and managed to get the man to wrinkle his nose from the tickle. A gentle poke of a finger between Will’s eyes had the man turn to his other side and Jack got his arm released. 



He had to get up. It wouldn’t do to drift back to sleep, so he decided to find something to do. Something that didn’t require much in the fields of concentration. Having his thoughts constantly turning to re-checking that everything that was supposed to be done, was really done, and to the growing anticipation, now and then stopping to marvel at the interesting feeling of what was definitely fear nagging somewhere in the crevices of his brain, didn’t leave much room for intelligent activities.

The television. Yes. That would suffice.

Jack got up, grabbed the coverlet from the floor where he’d carefully placed it before tumbling on the bed, wrapped it around his shoulders and walked around the bed to pull the covers over Will’s relaxed form, careful not to stir him out of his slumber. Still he couldn’t resist sweeping the unruly curl of hair out of his face. “Wake up rested, Will. ‘S going to be a long day yet.”

 

Slouching himself on the recliner in front of the television, Jack flicked through the channels half-mindedly, stopping at a classics movie channel showing ’Highlander’.

Nice bloke that Connor, perhaps a little jumpy, maybe even slightly paranoid, but pots, kettles, who isn’t? It had bored Jack near an impossible death when the two blacksmiths hit it off and couldn’t stop talking about the craft for hours… Right up untill Connor had the sudden silly notion of something along the lines of ‘There can only be one,’ and was daft enough to draw his sword on Jack. Then again it could have been something he said…maybe. Jack and Will had come to the conclusion that the man needed a bit of practice in the footwork department but had a good sword arm nevertheless. Had to, wielding that huge thing around.

Letting his mind wander around the memory of the encounter, Jack occasionally snickered at the brutal happenings on the screen and bided his time untill the end credits started to roll. It was time to wake Will up.

Walking back to the bedroom, Jack smiled warmly at the sight sprawled on the bed. Everything was just like he’d left it, only the insubordinate curl was crossing Will’s face again. To the day Jack hadn’t yet caught the curl in action but was determined to find out all about its stealthy movements. Uncanny ability for simple hair to sneak about like that.

Jack crouched next to the bed at the same level as Will. Waking the lad up was serious business and even if Jack‘s life wasn‘t in any direct danger, a black eye was never that pretty to look at. It was safe to say that Will had a tendency to wake up with a start. A whole history around pirates and pirate vessels can do that to a man. Saved their lives a few times, it did, back then.

Blowing the amazing curl away, Jack put his hand on Will’s upper arm gently and with tiny rubs of his thumb began to open the curtains that Hypnos had veiled over Will.

Whispering, Jack started a ramble of words, designed to chase away any deity, were it Hypnos or his brother. “Luv, wake up, time to get the rest of the day sorted out, and you can’t do that all lying and lingering around.”

The thumb pushed gradually harder. “Well, you could, if this was a normal day, but as it happens, it is not, and I can’t come lie there next to you, thus, it’s not at all fair.“

Jack took notice of Will’s eyes moving under their lids and talked a little louder.

“Which means you need to wake up.”

Will blinked a little so Jack talked Will out of it the rest of the way. “Seriously now, open your eyes and take a deep breath and there you go, all wakey-wakey for Jackie.”

Will opened his eyes and was greeted with a wide smile and a soft pat on his shoulder.

“Where are we? I had this dream where there were hundreds of people and they all wanted to talk to me. You weren’t there, which was odd…” Will’s voice trailed off while he took in the surroundings and came about from his disorientation. “Oh, right. That’s where. Why did you wake me? Is everything alright?”

Stroking Will’s arm for assurance, Jack gave a quick kiss on the tip of Will’s nose in an appreciation for the concern. ”Everything’s just peachy, no worries.” He stood up and yanked the cover off Will. ”Now, up with you and to the shower. Need you nice and clean in a few hours.”

Noticing Will’s lips threateningly curling to form a ‘Why?’, Jack dropped the coverlet he’d been using as a cloak, grabbed Will’s legs, turned the man and dropped his feet to the floor in one firm motion. “No questions. I’ll explain everything when we get to that.”

Suspicious, but still too drowsy to object, Will got up and glared daggers at Jack.

“Fine, then.”

Jack squeezed himself between the bed and Will’s back and pushed him forward, towards the bathroom. “Fine, then. Good. Go. Shower. I promise you oranges by the time you come out.”

The door almost hit his nose when Will pushed it shut.

 

 

While Will was showering, Jack reached for the phone on the nightstand and called room service.

“Yes, hello, this is room 305. Could you have the items delivered here, pronto, thank you. And the food. Don‘t forget the food. Especially, what ever you do, don‘t forget the oranges. I promised oranges and if there ain’t any, the hellion is sure to eat me by the looks of it.”

With that, Jack hung up and walked over to the closet in the room. He grabbed a coat from the rack, running his fingers along a seam appreciatively. “Amazing, the tailors in Singapore.” There was a touch of nostalgia in his low voice. Not that this particular frock coat was made anywhere near Singapore, but the original one, the one that had been used to model this one, was. No, this one was actually delivered to a local postal office and picked up this very morning. It came with a familiar looking, though terribly starchy feeling sash.

He eased the coat on and tied it with his sash, wearing nothing else.

With a knock coming from the door, he grabbed the blue fedora from the floor and placed it on his head.

Will came out from the bathroom, tying a towel around his waist. The towel dropped along with his jaw at the sight of two sets of suits neatly arranged on coat hangers hanging from a rack.

On the table there were two boxes that apparently contained some sort of flowers, and two empty miniature bottles of dark rum.

On the recliner was Jack, leg spread over the arm rest with a disturbingly, eerily familiar looking jacket and sash on, eating peanuts from a small glass bowl, the fedora hat dangling from his foot.

Coming to from the shock of the odd sight, Will got the control of his vocal cords back. The peculiar sets of clothing did, at least in someway, explain why Jack had insisted on staying at the hotel in the first place, but then again, Jack could have just bought them while they were on shore.

Fighting to keep the exasperation out of his tone, Will inhaled slowly before talking.

“What now then Jack? I thought we were going home.”

Jack continued with eating the peanuts, checking each one swiftly but carefully before devouring it.

“’S a surprise.” His voice was clear indication that it should be obvious. “Now, that white one is for you, and that red shirt to go along with it.”

He was pointing at the items as he was addressing them.

“My turn with the shower. As much as I hate washing your sweet scent off me right now, I can’t be smelling of lust where we’re going.”

He kicked the fedora to where ever it happened to land, glanced at the small bowl and offered it to Will. “Peanut?”

Will seemed averse, so Jack put the bowl down to the table. “Fine, so they’re here if you want some.” His plan had now commenced. All he had to do was try to keep calm and try not to spoil it before time.

“No, Jack, goddamned peanuts? Are you kidding me?” Will lost the fight against his tone as he was stunned by the overwhelming absurdity of it all. He crossed his arms on his chest, pursed his lips and glared at Jack. The day hadn’t so far been what he had been expecting it to be after ten years at sea, and Jack‘s insistence on Will doing the stupid interview, and now this oddity right here was just getting over the line.

Jack rose from the chair and walked over to fuming Will. Closing his arms around the naked, still a bit damp man, he kissed the tight line of lips softly, repeating the motion until they relaxed and returned the kiss.

“Will.” Jack was looking him straight in the eyes, his voice as soft as the kisses had been, filled with assurance. “Do you trust me?”

Will didn’t have to think for the answer as it came to him instantly even if he was still highly annoyed. “With my heart.”

Jack cleared his throat from being suddenly moved by the words. They couldn’t be more true. This was exactly why he was doing what he was doing.

“Good. Well, then if you’d be so kind and wear these clothes and the décor along with them, and I promise you, on pain of death, you won’t regret it. Savvy?”

Jack stepped away from Will, took off what little clothes he had on, handed them to Will and went to the bathroom. He came back to peek his head out the door to plead once more with the stubborn man. “Please? We don’t have much time.”

Shaking his head, not believing he was doing this, Will tossed Jack’s clothes on the recliner and took the clothes hanging on the rack.

“This better be good, Jack Sparrow.”

But, then again, if Jack was dragging the pain of death into the conversation these days, it meant something.

And now he could hear the bloody pirate laughing quietly in the bathroom.

 

Jack looked in the mirror, shuddering from the accidental sight of a razor placed neatly to the side table of the sink. Once, a long time ago, Jack had had the misfortune of having to have his face, and head, shaved, completely, and he had feltnaked beyond belief. After that, everything reminding him of that incident made him uneasy. Terrible, terrible feeling it was indeed. At least after that, he knew better than to wager important things on foolish bets and a harsh lesson it was.

He stepped into the shower.

The shower was the latest model, obviously, the kind that saves water by only releasing a shower when there was something in the reach of the sensors, buttons embedded to the wall to control the heat of the water. Jack was shortly wondering how come Will hadn’t had any trouble with it, but knowing that Will was the one with the technical expertise, he didn’t ponder it for long.

The man had an amazing ability to understand the function and the basics of any equipment brought to him, were it electronics or hardware. At least when he wasn’t fed up and tense and anxious up to his gills…

Everything in this hotel suite was new and mostly remotely controlled. The luxury of the suite had stunned Jack enough to have him struggling to keep his casual behaviour towards it all. It’s not that easy to see a television rising out of nowhere for the first time, and make it seem like it’s something you’ve seen so much of, you’re already bored by it.

After the bell boy left, he had spent a good while ogling at the thing with Will.

The production company of “Good Morning World” had kindly agreed to arrange delivery and pay for everything that Captain William Turner’s ‘manager’ had dared to ask for, including the running bill for the room service of the hotel, and the minibar, so Jack thought he had made a fairly good deal.

The only thing they were paying for themselves were the cabs they needed for transportation and even with that, Jack felt it was still coming from the producers’ pockets since they had, on top of everything, paid a handsome fee for Will for appearing on the show. That fee was safely deposited into Will’s own bank account of which the man was oblivious about himself. Well, he should be, as the account was three hours old.

There was also the fact that he had had to find a way to get out of Will’s sight today for an hour or three, so arranging the interview behind Will’s back had been a great opportunity for that. Jack felt blessed about not being jammed in traffic, especially by the time when he was still coming back to the hotel to tuck some stuff away from sight, and still had to get to the café on time.

Being late would have probably raised some questions, and Jack just wouldn’t have had the plausible answers.

The questions if Jack had missed something of the interview were genuine, since the latest hi-tech palm-computer had been acting up, and he had actually missed some part of it. Even if multitasking was the word of the day, trying to watch TV and talking with a clerk at the Municipal Register Court at the same time was damn near impossible.

Jack couldn’t wait to get back to the Dutchman, and maybe tempt Will to go to the Pearl for a few days, just the two of them. But first things first. He stepped out of the shower.

 

 

Jack kept checking the clock on the wall frequently as he was putting his clothes on.

Looking in the mirror he straightened the bowtie under his chin and turned to see how Will was coming along.

“No, no!…no. You’re going to strangle yourself with that, let me.”

He batted Will’s hands away from a perfectly decent tie knot to have something to do that needed even a bit of concentration. Otherwise he’d just start banging his head against the wall to focus as his thoughts ran in circles, occasionally bumping to each other.

He tied the tie for Will with nimble fingers and stood back to look at the result.

With the white tuxedo, trousers and tie, dried-blood-red shirt and shoes matching the colours, he was indeed an impressive sight.

Jack reached his hand to tuck a wonder-curl of Will’s hair that had miraculously escaped from the band holding it back, behind his ear.

Jack had to swallow hard to stop himself from choking on the lump in his throat that had been there unwontedly often today. “You look gorgeous.”

The whisper made shivers run down Will’s spine and he somehow managed to adjust to the blossoming idea that what ever this weirdness was, something good was bound to come from it. Jack had been acting strangely, even for Jack, and although Will was certain that he was quite capable of brushing his own hair, opening his own bottles and peeling his own oranges, the concern and care Jack kept lavishing on him was touching.

Prying his eyes off the glorious sight, Jack grabbed the flower box from the table. “Now, something blue.”

Jack took the blue rose and pinned it to Will’s tuxedo’s front pocket. “There. That’s fine…then, something old…”

He looked around to find something suitable. The only things old were Jack’s coat and sash, and for some reason he didn’t see how to fit them to the look. And if the thought process wasn’t distressing enough, he was smacked with the rapid realization that even those weren't old. Focus.

 

He shrugged to dismiss the thought and went on.

“Well, I’m going to be there, and I’m old, so that’ll have to do.” He stopped at the thought for a moment and realized something quite astonishing. “You’re really old too, so that part is definitely covered.”

Will was trying to remember what this reminded him of, but the memory escaped him every time he tried to grasp it. He found it easier to shut up and let Jack go on with his doings and ask questions later. Right now he wouldn’t get answers anyway, so he just sighed.

Jack noticed the sigh and grinned. Everything was going according to plan, and so far it had been easier than he had dared to think.

“Something borrowed.” Jack glanced at the peanut bowl as they were just about the only thing in the room that weren‘t their own, and were discreetly portable, but discarded the idea when another one popped to his mind.

He untied the only charm from his hair he hadn’t untied before in attempt to convincingly look like he belonged here. Then he tied the small, round blue and silver plate to Will’s hair behind his head. Looking at the ornament in its place, he gave a laugh at his own asininity. The plate was not only borrowed now, it was blue and quite old.

Never mind. It could only be better with double of everything.

With a nod, Jack accepted the appearance of his lover to be sufficient for the occasion and walked to the elaborate book shelf in the room. He closed his eyes tightly for a moment and braced himself with a deep breath. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out a small stack of papers.

The stare he felt piercing the side of his head while he stepped to the sofa was like an electric arc.

“Come, sit down.” Jack sat down and patted the seat next to him.

Will sat next to Jack and looked at the dubious papers quizzically. “What are those?”

Jack cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “These, my dear William, are our lives, right here, black on white.” Jack drummed his fingers over the stack of papers.

Will was perplexed and waited for an explanation. Asking questions would probably be futile.

Jack took the first paper on the stack in his hand and studied it before turning towards Will. “William Turner…You seem to be twenty-six years old. Your father, William Turner Senior, died in 1992, at the age of seventy-eight and your mother was seventy-six when she passed away three years after Bill. You were born in England, in the respected town of Portsmouth…How’s about that?”

Will had turned completely mute. He could open and close his mouth repeatedly, so the basics were intact, but no sounds came out.

Deciding that the silence was, in fact, a good thing, Jack continued, “And me, well, let’s see…Oh, they must have heard me wrong, that can’t be right…” He was interrupted by Will who miraculously had found his voice again.

“Jack Sparrow.” The regained voice now resembled thunder, and made Jack wince.

“Will, wait. I can explain.”

“What is this charade Jack? Portsmouth? My mother? How dare you?”

Jack had expected an outburst over the forged papers, but this was ridiculous. Will looked like he was ready to strangle Jack. Lot of good that would do even if he did, but the whole idea was disagreeable. More talking was in the essence here.

“How was I supposed to get your authentic birth certificate? Or mine, since I highly doubt there has ever even been one?”

Jack waved his hand through the air to indicate that all papers there had ever been regarding either one of their identities had been long gone. “And if I did, what good would it do anyway, huh? Born in the late 18^th century? That would be convincing at the bank.”

Stunned, trying to grasp the meaning of the words bubbling from the mouth of the man who had just few moments ago begged for Will’s trust, Will took a second to fortify that trust as it was on the brink of failing. “Birth certificate?”

Jack was pleased. Now they were on the same page again and Will would listen.

“Yes, you’re going to need one, as well as these other papers.”

He grabbed the rest of the papers from the table and started piling them onto Will’s lap.

“Your birth certificate, your bank account details, your social security number and such…” Lastly Jack placed a small booklet on top of them.

“Your passport.”

With that, Jack couldn’t help but flinch and drop the booklet as if it burned. If he failed with the plan to get Will on land more, that would be useless. But it was there, so Jack would just have to get it right.

“Will, I got me a birth certificate too, and before today I never needed one. It’s just…it’s only so far you can go with the internet and all the other gadgets. Sometimes you need real paper in this world.”

Will hadn‘t been able to follow Jack‘s train of thought for a while now, so he decided to start with the simple things.

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you. But first, please, put those papers in your pocket. I want to make sure you have them with you.”

Like a robot, Will did what he was told. He would have probably jumped off the balcony if someone had told him so. Right about now he’d do anything for an explanation. Every bit of the patience he had felt before was simply gone.

Jack watched keenly at the papers disappearing into the folds of Will’s tuxedo’s pocket.

Now everything was ready. There was only one more thing Jack had to do before they were good to go.

He had to explain.