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Love on the High Seas: Love and Freedom
by Pirate Turner
Jack pulled Will close as he saw his beloved Pearl sailing into the port. "She's comin', luv," he whispered excitedly, watching the proud flag flying from her mast. He gave Will's hand a tight squeeze. "We're saved!"
Will was not quite so convinced. "If she gets here in time, sweetheart," he gently reminded his beloved Captain. His worried brown eyes gazed up into Jack's handsome face. He reached a cuffed hand up and gently stroked his flesh. "These may be our last moments together," he whispered chokingly as his fingers trailed over Jack's silken mustache and ebony beard. He knew the guards would catch up to them at any moment.
"Nonsense!" Jack cried with a proud toss of his head that jingled the many, colorful beads strewn throughout his long locks. "She's pulling in now! Everythin's going to be okay! Remember what I told ye, luv: Th' flag an' me Pearl stand fer more'n what we are an' what we do. They stand for freedom, an' that freedom will be ours again! Our family won't let us down!"
Will's heart boomed inside his heaving chest and ears. "I pray you're right, my darling," he said, sending a prayer up to their Goddess, a Lady of awesome power and infinite love Whom he would have never thought he would one day be praying to before he'd fallen in love with his soul mate, "but know that I love you no matter what happens!"
Jack looked down into Will's eyes as he realized, for the first time, just how truly frightened Will was. He took his face in his chained hands and brushed his thumbs across his cheeks. "We're going to get out o' this, Will," he spoke in firm belief, "but no matter what, I love you too!"
He pressed his lips to his in a kiss that blazed passion and love through both their entire beings. Hope touched Will's soul for the first time in days while Jack's soul sang his joy. His tongue slipped into Will's sweet mouth and sparked a passionate duel with his mouth's sword.
Will moaned softly as passion, hope, and love flooded through every pore of his heart, mind, and soul. Jack had to be right! They had to live for there was still so much he wanted to do with the man he loved, and they would live for they would do it all together! They would do everything together!
Will's pounding heart was now a roar through his ears as one enormous boom of passion after another resounded through him. He yearned to be able to wrap his arms around his love but could not for his hands were still chained together, and so he strove with his hands, mouth, and tongue to show Jack just how infinitely much he loved and would always love him alone.
Will was so lost to their kiss that he did not hear the shouts as guards rounded the corner, but Jack's trained ears had picked them up when they had still been blocks away. He waited as long as he dared before lifting his head, glaring at the guards, and swiftly putting himself in front of Will. "Stay behind me."
"No," Will protested. "Jack, I love you, and if we die, we're dying together!" He stepped around him and stood defiantly at his side. "I wont' live without you!"
"No need to, pup," growled a voice that was very welcome to both Pirates' ears. "Leave off my sons!" Wolverine commanded as he charged the guards.
They opened fire, all their bullets trained upon the short runt of a man, but he kept running. His deadly claws quickly began to make short work of the guards and their guns. "Get 'em to the ship, Cole!"
Jack made a gallant bow. "Ye will always remember this day," he boldly told the guards who his father was swiftly slicing and dicing, "as th' day ye almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow."
As another huge boom shook the island, Will staggered and would have lost his footing if Jack hadn't grabbed him. Will realized then that it was not just the sound of his heart full and passion and love for the Captain of his soul but rather also Faith's expertly-shot cannonballs that he had been hearing.
Jack turned Will and himself to face Cole Turner, who stood behind them, bouncing an energy ball up and down in his hand. "Your father always likes to do everything the hard way," he remarked with a small smile.
"Aye," Jack proudly agreed, casting a glance back at where the legendary Wolverine was unleashing his full berserker fury on the witless guards, "that he does. Take Will home now, Cole."
Will was quick to protest, "I'm not leaving without you, Jack!"
Cole got a clear shot, lobbed his energy ball into a trio of soldiers, grabbed Jack in one hand and Will in the other, and shimmered all three of them back to the Pearl. Once they were safely on their ship, Cole saluted Jack. "With your leave, Captain, I shall return for your father."
"Get him back!" Jack commanded. As Cole shimmered, Jack looked around and was surprised to find that every one of his people, save his father and Cole, stood aboard the Pearl. "Xena," he questioned, spying the valiant woman whose service on the Pearl had earned her her own ship, "where's the Witch?"
"She's fine," Xena assured him, lifting her hands from the Pearl's steering wheel, "and waiting safely back at the island." She gestured to the wheel as she stepped back. "Your ship, Captain?"
"Thank you, Captain," Jack returned as he strode boldly forward. He touched the wheel gingerly at first, then caressed it as though his Pearl was a long lost lover.
Will and the rest of the gathered Pirates watched their Captain Sparrow's reunion with his ship in silence. Will had once been jealous of how Jack touched the Pearl and held her in such reverence, but he had long since learned that the Pearl was both far more than a ship to his beloved Captain and far less than his love. Will knew he had Jack's love but that it was the Pearl that gave his sweet soul mate his freedom, and so he smiled, his brown eyes dancing, as Jack took the wheel in his hands with an audible sigh of pleasure and relief.
Gentle breezes whispered over the Pearl and the Pirates. Jack raised his head and smiled at his mother even as the winds began to rise and whip around the ship. Cole returned with Logan, and Ororo let her hurricane fly straight onto the island. Mother and son shared a smile as Ororo explained in her gentle, lilting voice, "No one captures my children."
As the howling hurricane began to ravage the island whose militia had dared to capture Captain Jack Sparrow and his love, Jack smiled at his people and gave his Pearl's wheel a spin. "Let's go home!" he cried out amongst celebratory shouts as the ship turned toward the island that had now become their home away from the sea.
Snikt! Will looked to Wolverine who stood beside him. The much shorter and older man had just unsheathed his claws. "Let me get those off o' ya." Will held out his hands, and Wolverine carefully slashed his chains. Will rubbed his wrists as his bonds fell to the deck.
Wolverine went next to his son. "Good to have ya home, Jack."
Jack grinned, relishing the feel of the Pearl in his hands, the wind in his hair, and, most of all, his freedom. His dark, kohl-rimmed eyes left his flapping Pirate flag that decreed his freedom to look at his father. "It's good to be home," he agreed.
Logan stepped closer and cut the last lingering physical bonds from his son as Jack lifted one hand at a time from the Pearl. "Don't go gettin' yaself captured again now, son," Wolvy instructed as he stepped away and took his loving wife's offered hand.
"Not like that was me intentions, Dad!"
Ororo squeezed Logan's hand and softly caressed her son's face with a gentle breeze. "Welcome home, Jack," she told him.
"Thanks, Mom."
They smiled fondly at each other before Logan led her away. One by one, the other Pirates walked by and wished Jack a fond "welcome home", many also stopping to exchange a few words with Will, until at last, only Jack and Will were left standing by the wheel.
Jack grinned at his love. "See, darlin'?" he asked. "I told ye we'd make it home."
Will smiled brightly. "That you did, luv," he answered, walking behind him and wrapping his arms around him, "and I thank our Lady Aphrodite and Every One of the Gods and Goddesses you were right." He squeezed him tightly and lovingly gave the back of his neck a gentle kiss.
Jack sighed happily. "As long as th' Pearl still stands," he told his beloved, "under me name, Captain Jack Sparrow, an' our flag still flies, we'll be free, my heart, but there's somethin' I treasure even more'n gold, riches, an' freedom, more than anythin' else."
"What's that, darling?" Will asked curiously as he proceeded to nibble Jack's neck.
Jack's smile lit his entire handsome face and outshone even the hot rays of the golden sun as he confided, "Your love. I love you, Will!"
"I love you too, Captain Jack Sparrow; my dearest, darling, beloved Captain of my heart, my Jack!" He held him in his arms and continued covering his neck in loving kisses and soft, tender nibbles until long after the sun had gone down. When Xena quietly returned to take the wheel, Jack let her have it, and he and Will walked away, hand in hand, and into their cabin to enjoy the grandest element of freedom: love!
The End