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“Guiding a ship, it takes more than your skill
It's the compass inside it's the strength of your will
The first ensign watched as tempests all tried me
I sang in the wind as if God were beside me
Captain Jack Sparrow hobbled up the plank and fell over a barrel the second he was back on board. “Go on, set sail, get out of here,” he called up to Anamaria who had just taken the wheel. The crew, including those just returned from the raid, sprang into action, pulling up the anchor and boarding planks, tying off some lines and releasing others, turning the sails to catch the wind, and steering away from the dock. Gunfire chased their exit, and was answered by the few able to between their duties.
Still thrown over a barrel, wheezing and trying to catch his breath, Jack made a quick survey of the bounty. There would be enough food and drink so that there was no need to return to the land for quite a while, and enough plunder so that the crew wouldn’t grow restless for their small share of riches. A very successful raid for all, apart from the one bullet which hadn’t exactly missed. Jack struggled to straighten himself up to get up to the quarter deck and his wheel.
“Jack,” a strong voice spoke in his ear and arms wrapped around him not in embrace but to help support him.
He shook his head, straightening but still leaning somewhat on the barrel. Even leaning, he looked stoic as he stood, his hair blowing over his shoulders as The Pearl tore through the water, gaining speed. Even bleeding out his belly, he looked strong and noble. Will knew better and held him up. “There was a time when no gun could ever catch me.” He winced, clutching at his stomach. “I must be losing my touch.” His saving grace was that it was difficult to see how badly he’d allowed himself to be injured as night surrounded them and the lights from the village were quickly fading as they hit the open sea.
Will knew better than to take such words from Jack Sparrow as the complete truth. “There was a time when you did not have cause to intentionally take a bullet intended for the man beside you.”
Jack’s mouth broke into a grin to admit that was the truth, but no longer the case. But it left his face quickly as the ship rocked violently on a wave and pain coursed through him. He fell against Will, who held him steady. “Thank y’lad,” he whispered, resting his head on Will’s shoulders as his wound bled into Will’s shirt.
Will sat him down on the deck, amidst the bustling to clear the goods down to the hold and secure the ship. Anamaria called down, “Oy, Cap’n! Where to now?”
Will took a quick survey of Jack’s face, reading his expression quite clearly. They’d done well during the raid, it seemed, perhaps better than Jack had expected. “South-east,” Will called back, seeing the glimmer in Jack’s eyes and knowing he’d judged correctly. “Head for the high seas and the unexplored islands!” Jack nodded to confirm, unable to speak loudly for the pain and breathlessness. He threw his head back, looking up at the stars and marking the way the ship moved beneath them.
Will knelt down on the dry deck, fumbling with Jack’s clothes. Jack grinned and watched as Will undressed him with the sort of skill that only came from practice. He leaned back against the barrel with a sigh at the way Will cared for him gently. Will’s hands were the hands of a blacksmith, so toughened after years of working iron, and always would be calloused and rough. And yet, they could maneuver and touch with such softness as was not believable. Topless, Jack closed his eyes and took in the sea breezes, letting them fill him with the same sort of comforts as Will brought. He knew the sea better than anything, as though born in the waves and as though it were salt water itself running through it rather than blood.
“So much blood,” Will remarked calmly, ripping off his ruffled sleeve and using it to wipe away to blood so he could find the bullet hole. “It’s shallow,” Will said after a few moments, where his back bent and his neck craned and his eyes squinted. “It should come out before I tend to the wound.”
Jack’s chest puffed up with a deep breath, and he opened his eyes. Then he nodded and sighed with resolve. “What do you need for it?”
Will pressed the cloth to the wound to stem the bleeding. Penetration had been minor, but it still looked terrible, and Will was amazed Jack had been able to stand at all let alone walk. Will looked up, spotting Mister Gibbs nearby, and called him over. Looking into Gibbs’ eyes with seriousness, Will explained, “I’m going to need a few things. A lit fire, as hot as you can make it without burning the ship down. A pair of iron tongs, they’re in my berth if there’s none by the fire. As much water as can be spared. And a few cloths, the cleanest that can be found.” Once Gibbs was gone for preparations, Will slid his arm around Jack’s middle. “We need to get you down below—”
But Jack shook his head. “Stay here,” he whispered. “I want to stay here. I want to stay on deck.” He leaned forward, giving a strong sigh as he leaned into Will, who nodded and asked for the fire to be rebuilt in the iron basin on the deck.
It wasn’t long before the fire was burning brightly beside them, which was good as Jack had begun to shiver. Both Will and Gibbs had to pull him back as he clung to Will for warmth. Will eased him down onto the deck, flat out, so he could see the injury more clearly. Will pulled a small knife from his boot and carefully cut off the very end of his belt, then placed it in Jack’s mouth. “Bite down on this. It’s going to hurt.” At Will’s assurance of the pain, Gibbs pulled out a small flask and offered it over to Jack to help dull the pain with alcohol. Will was pretty sure Jack was at a level of inebriation great enough not to specifically require more, but he supposed it didn’t hurt matters either. Whether from the pain or the apprehension, Jack drained the whole thing in a short series of gulps, then replaced the piece of leather. Gibbs looked like he could have used a few drops himself but helped restrain Jack all the same as Will he set the iron tongs in the fire to heat.
“Be strong,” Will whispered with a strong look into Jack’s eyes. They were outlined in dark black but filled with soft worry. He nodded and closed his eyes. After cleaning them best he could with water, Will plunged his fingers into the wound. He looked carefully by the firelight, and quickly extracted the small round bullet. Jack shouted with pain though the leather strap in his mouth muffled the sound. It took both Will and Gibbs to hold him back, as well, as he fought physically against the pain. In the struggle Will lost hold of the bullet and it plunked onto the deck as he pulled it out. The bleeding was far worse now, as was the pain, and Will needed to close the wound. That would worse than anything to that point, Will knew, but it had to be done. It took a few more minutes for the tongs to get hot enough. They weren’t exactly red hot, but they were getting close. With the metal heated, he carefully pressed it to Jack’s side, over the wound. Jack yelled so loudly the piece of leather tumbled from his mouth and he passed out from the intense pain. But he was not bleeding any longer. Will poured a bit of alcohol over the wound, then some water to wash away the blood on Jack’s chest and his own hands. Then he wrapped the relatively clean cloth around the tender skin. “He’ll be all right,” he told Mister Gibbs, who took it as a sign to put out the fire and leave them alone.
Or as alone as they could be on the deck of such a small ship. It was getting much easier to be around Jack and not second guess himself, but Jack was always the easiest to understand when asleep. Even though Will knew not his pain or his dreams, there was still less mystery to the man then. Will leaned against the barrel as well, pulling Jack up off the cold deck and against his chest to keep him warm. Even in sleep, Jack was shivering a little. Will rested his head on top of Jack’s and put a hand to the man’s forehead to check him for fever. He was warm to the touch, but not too terribly.
Will allowed himself to relax for the first time that day, pinned between Jack and the barrel. He could tell from the movement of the boat and the sound of the wind that they were going faster. He looked up at the sky with a sigh, trying to make out familiar patterns in the stars. But the night was partly clouded over, and half the stars were hidden away from his view.
“That’s how ye know you’re a sailor,” said Jack slowly, coming to and apparently immediately understanding what Will was doing. Jack’s voice was still soft, and it seemed as though talking too loudly or taking in too deep a breath caused him pain. “When ye start to learn the way around using the stars.”
Will looked down to see Jack smiling. “The stars of the sea are the same for the land2,” he replied with a shrug. It was true, of course, that they were the same stars he had always known. But there seemed to be more of them out now from this different viewpoint, filling the sky in a dome all around him. If he looked from the ship in any direction, he’d see only the sky meeting the water. All he could see at night were the dark waves and the stars. And now the stars seemed to have a purpose.
Likewise, he had always been Will Turner, but out at sea, he had new purpose, a new place in it all. A place beside Jack. “That’s likely so,” Jack said, wincing as he sat up on his own. It took him a few moments to get his breathing regular again, and he shivered to be without Will’s warmth, only then realizing how much of a difference it had made. “But did you notice those stars before as you do now?” Will shook his head. Truth was, he hadn’t noticed a lot of things until he’d left to sail away with Jack. And he hadn’t realized how much more there was to know until he’d started to learn the ways of the pirates. “Here,” Jack said, holding his arm out to invite Will to come closer. He liked holding Will, and made a point to do it regularly. Will understood and never seemed much to mind. “Just watch me side, savvy?” Will smiled and nodded, and scooted over a little, leaning back against Jack. The man’s arm came around him from behind, the ring-clad hand resting on his chest, fingers flexing absentmindedly against the fabric of his shirt. The shirt would need to be discarded sooner or later, what with the bloodstain and one sleeve missing. Of course, Jack’s was blood-soaked and torn to pieces as well. But there was time for that later, and both seemed to know they would be warmer together than down below retrieving new shirts.
“You watched my back,” Will said, picking up the hand and his fingers with its. “Least I can do is watch your side. Besides, I should be holding you.” Jack shook his head and bent it forward resting his forehead on Will’s shoulder. “In fact, I should be helping you down to your cabin.”
Jack shook his head again and tightened his one-armed hug around Will. It made him feel better to know Will was safe. And the best way he could think of for keeping Will safe was to look after the young man himself. “Just let me rest a while here. Keep watching the stars for me and I’ll be fine.”
Will nodded and took the order, gazing up to the stars and the clouds and getting a sense of where they were among it all. The way the boat slid through the water with a gentle rocking, was as though rocking a babe to sleep. Shivering a bit still, Jack gave a relaxed sigh. Will smiled and began humming a pirate song, the only thing appropriate for a lullaby. The sound was lost to the wind for all except for Will and Jack. But the rocking ship and soothing wordless noise sent Jack to sleep quickly, leaning against Will’s back for warmth, his head still on Will’s shoulder. The beads and bangles in Jack’s hair clinked against each other as his body relaxed and went weak, swaying with the will of the ship. Jack was always strongest like this. On the deck, moving in tune to the ship and the sea he knew so well. Will could only hope that soon he would be moving in synch along with all three.
1&2- Both of these were taken out of the glorious Dar William’s song ‘We Learned the Sea’ They were too perfect not to write about and include. #2 was the original title of the story before the call of the pun took over :-)