Another Day in a Life or Two

Chapter five 



Jack had excused himself in order to relieve himself immediately after the papers had safely made it into Will’s pocket. In another words he’d gone and tugged off, then replaced the ribbon tying his hair back loosely, splashed copious amounts of cold water on his face, damned the ruffles on the front of his shirt to seven hells for getting wet from the spilled water, cursed himself right along with the ruffles for being a coward and after heftily scolding himself for such behaviour he’d sturdily reminded himself of who he was, and had actually managed to prepare to throw himself to the lion. 



The lion attacked the instant Jack was back to the living room. 

“We’re not going to a casino, I hope. I’d hate to leave you behind again.” Will’s voice trailed from its initial graveness to one barely covering his smirk. 



“No. We‘re not. Besides it was your idea with the James Bond-theme to begin with. I only played along.” Jack swayed his way past the beast to the rack where the rest of his outfit was hanging and held his arms out so Will could help him with the cufflinks of his shirt. 



Will laughed softly at the mock-indignant tone.“Right, so you spent a fortune and nearly two weeks gambling, alone, only because you were humouring me?”

Watching Will fiddle with the silver clasps, instead of sneering something to retort, though it was tempting, Jack found the words to start his divulgation with. 

“D’you remember the night when you told me I should go and live my life?” The temperature in the room dropped several degrees the instant he finished the sentence.

That night had been a living nightmare. The memory of Will telling Jack to leave, to live without him, to go and have a normal life still made Jack shudder and raise the old resistance in him. The thought of a life somewhere without his William had brought a burning-cold hand creeping under his rib cage, squelching his heart. The feeling was still fresh after a decade. 



They had fought and shouted all night, both the captains practically sprouting roots to stand behind their words and forgetting everything and everyone around them. The crew of the Dutchman had wisely stayed out of their way, every last one of them nowhere to be seen untill the storm had passed. 

Will had been insisting that Jack was good for more than what he had, more than him, deserved something much more better. He’d tried to raise such fury in Jack that he would just leave at the next port and not look back. It was for his own good. 



Will had been terrified of the thought of it actually happening and wishing for it with all his being. Only the best for Jack, and he thought he knew what the best for him was. Living like this wasn’t freedom. Freedom was out there, somewhere. Somewhere, where people could walk on dry land as they wished. That’s how the day and age worked. 



In his corner, Jack had tried to explain that he was bound to the sea just as much as Will was, had been since the day he was born. It was his calling, and not only that, but would Will seriously expect a pirate to give up his treasure for something as trifling as a life at land? It was such a clichéd oxymoron right from the beginning up until the end anyway. A pirate on land, hah! What sort of a meagre life would it be anyway, surrounded with landlubbers who had no knowledge of an adventure of any kind? And to top that, the life on land had this gigantic fault in it; it didn’t contain Will. He could never be happy anywhere else but where he already was. Happily. 



Finally they had come to some fragile agreement, agreeing that Jack would inform Will immediately if his desires happened to change. It could hardly be described as an accord. More like two rabid foxes in heat. 



Right until the arrival at the next port where Jack had left the ship. 



When he came back they hadn’t touched the subject again, although Jack could smell it in the air sometimes when he was pacing across the deck of either one of their ships. 



Will of course thought it was because he wanted to leave, that he was staying there only with the shreds of some misplaced conscience holding him down with whatever guilt Jack had come to harbour. 



Jack knew it was because the world had shrunk into the size of a needlepoint, everywhere, and sometimes it troubled him. Simple as that. 







After an icy pause, which Will disguised as concentrating on the fastenings of Jack‘s sleeves, he looked up at Jack. 

“Yes. I remember.” The quiet whisper clearly indicated that it wasn’t one of Will’s more pleasant memories either. 



Trying to hold his bearings and keep to the course he had planned for the conversation, Jack reached for the cummerbund on the clothes rack, handed it to Will and turned around for girding his loins up. Literally and figuratively. He spoke tentatively from the corner of his mouth. 

“Then you might also remember me going ashore for a month, eh?” 



Will tugged the ends of the sash a little bit harder than was necessary, pulling a short groan and an ‘oof’ out of Jack before closing the clasp and answering flatly. 

“Yes, I do remember.” 



Wheeling Jack around by his shoulders to face him, Will had a nasty remark on his tongue, all ready to snap and lash out. It died in its tracks at the sight of Jack’s eyes, clouded over with something Will interpreted as sorrow. 



Jack wiped some invisible dirt off Will’s shoulder and continued with a casual tone. 

“That’s when I was talking with the producers, the director and the writers, and planning the schedule for all this.” 



Waiting for Will to process that chip of information, Jack took the black tailcoat off the rack, shook it out just for the hell of it and carefully enrobed himself. 



Will was still dumbfounded. “What writers? What are you talking about?” 



Jack felt a flutter of guilt in his brain for keeping this a secret for such a long time. So much so, that the contrition nearly made him tuck the tails of the tailcoat between his legs for good measure. 

Instead, he smiled nervously and ran his hands up and down Wills arms to appease the aggravation that appeared in the clench of Will jaw and, yes, there it was, right under Jack‘s hands; the tensing of Will‘s whole body, all readied to sprint to action if needed. 

“You know, luv, the movies? Pirates of the Caribbean? The ones telling the tale of one brave William Turner and some of that old knave Jack Sparrow’s. And some of Elizabeth’s…Someone had to write it down.” 



The ‘what?’ Will quipped was obviously rhetorical, so Jack waited again. 



Slowly, through the swooning feeling, it started to make some sense to Will, although there were still huge gaps in the explanation. This meant that he’d been on the wrong track all along with his suspicions about the origins of the detailed descriptions in the movies, and that pushed him out of balance. 



A slight shake of his head and a deep furrow on his brow accompanied the gasp in what the word came out. “Why?” 



Jack appeared so ruminant and fell silent at the question for such a long time that Will opened his mouth to ask it again. He closed it when Jack stroked his hand along Will’s arm and closed his hands around Will’s wrist, fingers rubbing soothing circles on his skin, smiling warily. No, not warily. Jack looked…shy. 



“I couldn’t think of a better way to tell you.” 

Jack had loved this man for centuries now. Loved passionately. Had, from since the first year or two he’d lived in denial, closing his eyes from the option that the notorious Captain Jack Sparrow might actually be a living, breathing creature that had a weakness. Those years were peppered with a few innocent moments, and later the few stolen moments that would have turned not so innocent, if Jack hadn’t had his soul in a twist at the thought of possibly infecting the young lad with what he was carrying. 

Jack had seen people die of the disease, and after accepting the thought of loving someone, allowing himself to fall under emotions that could get dangerous if anything went wrong, watching Will die because of Jack was a fate he’d avoid at any cost. The irony of it all was revealed later when it was obvious that Will had very probably been infected anyway, right from the beginning, just because of his own curiosity toward Jack. 



So, back in the days of insufficient medical information they had an understanding. Although Will went around understanding a lot less than Jack, it was Will who had demonstrably produced a child. A bastard child, later fathered by a gentleman adventurer. A child Will had decided never to meet to prevent further problems and possible hardship for Elizabeth. Jack had used all his negotiation skills to convince the captain of the Dutchman to go and be with his son for a day, under the guise that he was a distant relative. 

Jack never told Will how beautiful they had been on the beach that day, the father, mother and the son. 



Jack never told Will how he had sold his soul for the second time around to bargain with the gods, just in case the Dutchman needed a new captain after the visit. It had been a good deal, what with Will able to get his heart back and going on living, and Jack taking over the task and performing some additional duties he‘d rather not think about. 



After Will had come back onboard that evening, they had talked through the night. ‘‘Liam,’ he said his name was‘‘, Will had told Jack. ’It was incredible, Jack, I love him,’ he’d said, his face lit up from his excitement. Then he’d uttered the seal of all their destinies; ‘But I never want to see him again. Please, don’t ever make me go back.’ Jack never did. The deal he’d made was off and Jack had everything he had ever wanted. 

Will had not once wavered from his determination towards his decisions, nor wearied in his stance as the Captain of the Dead. 



Will had fought beside Jack through countless battles, through events unspeakable by any mortal, all the way to the days of renewed, renamed glory. 



In other words, not to diminish, but to simplify, Will had not once left Jack’s side in life or death, not in love or loss. 

This man was the only weakness Jack had ever truly recognized in himself, the only other real thing in his life, side by side with the Black Pearl. Will was the only thing that had made the world go around for him when he’d lost, retrieved, lost and retrieved the Pearl again. 



Even when Will was gone for his duties, or Jack was at some port, there was always only a heartbeat separating the men. 



Will was all Jack needed. 



The first time the thought had crossed Jack’s mind, he had closed his eyes to it. Not very probable for a man like Jack to think like that. Didn’t seem possible. It had been hard enough to accept the loving-part of it, making this here notion more than improbable to ever even occur to him. 



Yet it did, since when he opened his eyes again, the thought was still there, all shiny and bright and…beautiful. Just like it was right now. He would still sell his soul for the man. Although now the feeling was maybe stronger than ever. 



Jack swallowed the ‘And to give you something to remember me by,’ that had formed and nearly escaped his mouth, and raised his hand to cup Will’s face, his other hand drawing emphasis to his words in the air. 

“It’s not exactly how I wanted it to be, but ’s the closest I could get, what with all the restrictions they had to work around and all that. ” 



Pressing his forehead against Will’s, Jack went on in a tone that reflected long suppressed pain. 

“And I couldn’t tell them everything. You see Will, some things are between you and me and they’re meant to stay that way.” 



Jack closed the distance between their lips, smiled against the softness of Will’s and kissed him fondly, slowly, to capture the moment. Another moment only for them. 

Will returned the kiss shyly at first, afraid that he would break what ever spell it was that was making this happen. 

After eliciting a contented sigh from Will, Jack was ready for the rest of it. The temperature of the room had definitely risen again. 



“You see, I needed to make you realize that I’m never going to leave you, if I can still be the one making that choice.” 

He was still pressing their foreheads together, Jack holding his hand on the back of Will’s head to keep it like that, staring each other eye to eye. 

“I would never leave the brave, heroic, stubborn, silly, righteous, loyal, beautiful man that you are, and I want you to know it. Need you to really, truly understand, so that you don’t ever have to doubt me again.” 



He let go and stepped back to make Will look at him properly. To force Will to see his lover in all his glory and demise, the core being of him lacerated and bare, and to make Will take in every word. “Virtuous.” Jack added as an afterthought after tilting his head to accommodate the boiling pressure he felt in his temples. “Human.” 

Will stayed quiet, in awe of the myriad of feelings flickering on Jack’s face and in his voice, leaving the arena for Jack to go on with his monologue. 



“What would I be without my voice of reason? What would Captain Jack Sparrow be without you, hmm? Think about it.” 

Jack turned and took a few paces to press his forehead to the wall behind him for a moment. It wasn’t for dramatics. 



He’d been bottling this up for so long, it nearly swept his feet from under him now that it was all trying to get out in one breath. The wall felt wonderfully cool against his skin. “I love you, I love the Pearl and I love my life.” Jack stated, his hand rising to finger his beard braids, only to pinch around thin ether. He ended up thumbing his bowtie instead. “Those are the things I refuse to give up, and I know I continue having ’em only thanks to me possessive nature.“ 



He turned around to face Will again and leaned his back to the wall. 

“I’m not bound by any law of man or gods…Not like you’re bound to the sea and the Dutchman…“ 



Jack assured himself that his legs would carry and stepped to Will again. 

“So, William Turner.” Jack straightened himself to all his height. “Do you allow me to be bound to you, untill death do us apart, which is unlikely to happen, but if such a thing does happen that we get all tired of this and we actually want to die, and we do die, given that we can find a way to arrange such occurance?” 

It was amazing how easy it was to say it out loud. It had been quite some time now since Jack had let anything even remotely near the truth pass his lips towards the man standing in front of him, and that hadn’t diverged much from an outrageous lie. At least it didn’t, if everything went according to plan. Bloody gods and their demands of payment. 



Gathering both of Will’s hands to his own, Jack swallowed hard. Then he kneeled on one knee, staring at Will’s shoe in utter fascination of how detailed it suddenly seemed to be. Robbing his sense of sight of the beauty of the phenomenal veracity of the shoe, Jack cleared his throat and lifted his head, locking his gaze with Will. 

“Mister Turner, will you marry me?” 



Where Jack had buried it with great care, Will was sure his heart leaped and flipped. Were it in its original owner, it would have been in his mouth and down to his toes at the same time. 

Will was overwhelmed with all that had been revealed, he could hardly breath. He’d known for certain there was something going on during the past years, since Jack had decidedly been omitting some details about his time on land and his phone calls and other contacts, but this…All this would never, in a thousand years, have crossed Will’s mind. 



Battling the fog closing in on his brain, the pieces of the puzzle clicking into their rightful places, Will began to realize that Jack had just unravelled one of his biggest schemes, and handed his heart to Will on a silver plate for him to either take or discard it, once and for all. 

Feeling a bit more than a bit lightheaded, Will had the strangest feeling of hinges of a tiny door creaking as it opened a fraction somewhere inside him. Marvelling at the novelty of this part of him that he hadn’t even known was there, Will closed his eyes to feel it closer. His eyes flung open wide in astonishment when he recognized it. Then his eyes focused on the man kneeling before him. 

Judging by the look on Jack’s face, he was waiting for something. Something that acknowledged that Will had in fact heard and understood what had been said. 



“Yes.” There weren’t words big enough to do his answer justice, but the small, barely heard one made all the difference. 



Jack let out the air in his lungs he’d been holding and dipped his head down in blissful relief, unable to stop the chuckle that came with it. 



“What? Now?” Will suddenly remembered what the old, blue and borrowed stuff was all about and their clothes seemed suspiciously ceremonial now that Will had been given all the dots to connect and see the whole picture. He pulled Jack up to get to the same eyelevel. “And…where? How?” It occurred to him that they were, actually, both men. Not the most common sight at nuptials. 



Smiling brightly, Jack winked at Will, his hands pointing every which way as he wrapped his master plan up. “Yes, today. You’re here, I’m here, it just so happens that this city registers same-sex marriages, and it has all been arranged. That’s how.” Jack was so ecstatic by this going so well, he was shaky for an altogether different reason than he was a moment ago. 

He had to let out some of the gloat he felt for himself, or he would just burst from it. 

“Isn’t it a remarkable coincidence?” 





The smug grin on Jack’s face brought Will back to reality and erased any movement-impeding feelings of cautiousness from before. Will regained the control of his body, instantly using it to swoop Jack in for a hug.

After the first rush of the joy of feeling the other there, so close, so very real, vouching to them both that this was really happening here and now, the brutal force melted to a gentle embrace, leaving both men leaning their heads against one another’s shoulder. 



Will closed his eyes and let Jack flow through him, all of it, everything Jack was at this very moment. He understood the smug grin that was Jack’s wont, since at times like this, Will had his own. 

There was something very important Jack had forgotten. He was dealing with-, actually, make that getting married to, Captain William Turner…Will Turner who shivered when Jack eased his hands under Will’s tuxedo and slowly caressed his back through the shirt only. Jack who responded to the involuntary reaction by flushing himself against Will and sighing deeply. 



Reluctantly Jack checked the time for the thousandth time for the day and peeled himself off Will. 



He coughed to subside the annoying lump that had again mysteriously crept into his throat before grabbing the tall hat from the bottom of the clothes rack, twirling it over for a round of approval and placing it on the top of his head with a tap. “How do I look?” 



His answer was slowly rising across Will’s face, starting as innocent little flecks on his cheeks and ears before spreading to a full blown blush.