Last Wish

Title: Last Wish

by lostwiginity

Chapter:1/2


The door to Admiral Norrington’s office was opened by a servant and
Teech entered. The Admiral was sitting at his desk, looking up from the
paperwork. As far as Teech knew the Admiral had only two facial
expressions to offer, one being stern and the other being strict. Both made him
nervous. Right now, the Admiral looked at him sternly.

“Captain Teech, you’ve come back already?”

Teech smiled. At least he had good news to tell. News that could even
cheer up that crabby senior sitting in front of him.

“Sir, we managed to capture a pirate ship. I thought you might take a
look at the captives, sir.”

Norrington looked at the captain, annoyed.

“A pirate ship? There are no pirate ships in the Caribbean anymore.”

The reaction didn’t please Teech at all. He got annoyed as well, though
he tried to hide it from his principal.

“There is one left, sir. Was one left, sir. The Black
Pearl.“

Teech waited for a moment. But since his Admiral didn’t respond, he
went on.

“I brought the Captain with me. He’s standing in front of the office
door. Shall I bring him in, sir?”

The Admiral just nodded. So Captain Teech turned around, opened the
door and gestured the men outside to come in.

Two soldiers entered James Norrington’s office. They brought a prisoner
with them.

“You’ve done very well Captain Teech. I need to talk to the captive in
privacy now.”

It was a very unusual demand, but Teech didn’t query it. He seemed to
left a good impression on the Admiral for once, he wanted it to last. He
and the soldiers left the office.

James stood up and walked around his writing desk past the pirate and
locked the door. He turned towards the captive and they stood for a long
time in total silence.

“Five years?”, James finally asked. Jack nodded.

“Almost six, now. Did you miss old Jack?”

Yes, Jack had become old. James could see from Jack’s hair; it had
greyed a bit the last time he saw the pirate, now it was totally white. His
face looked still young though. James had to lean really close to see
the tiny wrinkles at the corners of kohl rimmed eyes. Close enough that
Jack couldn’t resist leaning forward and putting a peck on James’
mouth. He smiled, and James’ expression was neither stern nor strict. He
wrapped his arms around his lover.

“Of course I did.”

James felt Jack’s cheek on his own. Though Jack grew older, though he
spent every day in the salty air, his skin felt warm and smooth, like
James remembered from last time. He wondered if Jack’s body still felt
like it did five years ago. He wanted to know if his pirate gained any
new scars or another tattoo and he wanted to find out. The mere thought
excited James. He hadn’t felt like this for…

“Five years…”, he muttered into Jack’s neck.

“Don’t tell me you lived in celibacy all through them? You know, if you
didn’t treat your subordinates like the incompetents they are you might
even profit of it. And they might overlook you're just a grumpy
old man.”

James knew his lover, and if he wanted to be with him right now the way
he wanted to, Jack would have kept silent. James smiled to himself.
‘Not silent necessarily, but he would have stopped talking.’ So he broke
away from Jack and continued their conversation.

“How come the most unqualified boy of all the Captains who observe my
command got to capture the legendary Captain Jack Sparrow?”, he asked.
Jack shrugged.

“’Got lucky, I guess.”

“If I let you escape from the noose again the Navy will want to get rid
of me for good.”

“Well, then don’t.”

James frowned. It was an answer he neither expected nor wanted to hear.
Was Jack trying to trick him? What for?

“You want me to hang you”, he stated.

“It’s the only option, now, is it?”, Jack smiled.

James nodded, his face was stern again.

“I think we can put up a scaffold today in the evening already”, the
Admiral answered. “Unless you want to get hanged with all of your
crewmembers?”

“No, it’s fine. ‘Scaffold for one, please.”

Somehow the whole conversation was making James very angry. Didn’t that
bloody pirate realise that he was going to die? Or did he just bluff
again? The Admiral couldn’t cope with his prisoner anymore, so he got him
sent back to his cell.

***

It seemed so surreal when they talked about it back in his office. Now
James looked at the scaffold and the pirate standing on it. He still
hoped this to be a trick, but he doubted it.

Every man of Jack’s crew was imprisoned and unable to help him out, Mrs
Turner and her husband left Port Royal and went to England years ago
when the Governor died. The new one was more than happy to attend the
execution of the very last pirate in the Caribbean.

Also, Jack didn’t look like he planned to escape anytime soon. He just
stood up there restfully as the charges were read out loud, noose
around his neck and his hands shackled.

“…hung by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your soul.”

“Hold on!”, James shouted. Everybody on the town square watched the
Admiral walking towards the scaffold at forced pace and stopping right in
front of the convict. But nobody heard what they were talking about.

“What is it, now?”, Jack asked, but he didn’t sound too interested.

"I never told you how much I loved you.“

“You did tell me a long time ago. And so did I.”

“But I never told you just how much.”

“Is it worth asking? Are you trying to protract this, because that
doesn’t change -”

“Enough to give it all up.”

Jack stopped mid sentence. The Admiral had managed to keep calm all the
way through the ceremony, up until now. His voice became angry, though
he didn’t raise it. There was frustration and pain in his eyes.

“And you know perfectly well what I mean. This, I mean this -”, he
snarled and grabbed on his uniform. Then he took his wig off, shook it
angrily before Jack’s face. “This! I would have given it all up; the Navy,
my home, my life. I would have come with you, anytime you had asked me.
You just had to ask.”

Jack stood still. Even when James threw the wig at him he didn’t
flinch. The Admiral turned to leave.

“I knew.”

James turned around again and looked at the pirate. He didn’t know if
he had misheard. He couldn’t even tell if Jack had said anything at all
just now. Jack’s face was blank and one could have thought that person
with the noose around his neck never had said a sentence in his whole
life. But then he continued talking and James knew he wasn’t just
imagining it.

“I knew you would have given it up for me. That’s why I didn’t ask.”

James grabbed a fistful of Jack’s hair, pulled him closer and kissed
him. Many of the onlookers gasped, women in tight corsets fainted, some
just watched the sight, amused. The pirate didn’t care, and neither did
James, not anymore.

Jack parted his lips and gave in, but only for a moment. Then he pushed
James back a little to raise his shackled hands, caressing James face
with them. Jack drew his love closer as to whisper into his ear.

“You still know about my wish? About the Pearl?”

James nodded. They had talked about it years ago, decades now. James
never forgot.

“I’ll see to it that it will be done.”

Jack nodded back and smiled. James turned around, once and for all. He
waved at the hangman, not even looking at him, to go on with it. The
crowd looked after the Admiral, who retreated without another word or
glance towards the convict. They turned their eyes back to the scaffold
immediately when they noticed the wooden hatch swinging open and heard
the pirate’s neck snapping.

When the execution was over, James Norrington was nowhere to be found.
Later that evening two guards reported that their Admiral ordered to
bring the captive crew back to the Black Pearl, and that the
Admiral had sailed off with them.