katleept: (Wick!)
katleept ([personal profile] katleept) wrote2015-05-11 11:01 pm
Entry tags:

The Rest of the Story

Title: The Rest of the Story
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Character/Pairing: Jack/Will
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge: [livejournal.com profile] writers_choice: #609: Captain
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 1,132
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.




They call him a Captain, but little do they realize that he is not in control of much of anything these days. He steers the Pearl, sets the course, still fights the best fight known to Pirate or man, but when the ship is still, when the days are long, when the nights are quiet, he remembers and aches. He's ready to lay down his mantle, beyond ready to lay down his anchor. He's tired of these endless voyages, but he has nothing beyond this ship.

He's set sail time and again for treasures of which he regales his crew. He keeps them busy, constant with orders and ideas of his new quests. He doesn't give them a quiet moment, because he knows what happens out on the high seas when you have too much time on your hands. When you have too much, you think far too much, and the great Captain Jack Sparrow is weary of thinking. He's weary of plotting and of remembering and of scheming dreams that never happen.

He's tired of shutting his eyes, tired of seeing one face before all others, hearing a voice calling him in the waves that he doubts ever speaks his name. Will didn't love him. He loved Elizabeth. It is for her he pines, to her he chooses to go. He doesn't care about him. He was only a way to a means. He used him to rescue Elizabeth, and that was all he ever wanted of him.

Jack used him, as well. He's quick to let any one know that. Will Turner didn't mean a thing to him when he first took the lad's hand except for a way out of that prison and off the island before Barbossa and his crew could reach him. They were each a way to the other's means, but somewhere along their journey, Will became more to Jack. He became more to him, and he hasn't stopped being more to this very day.

The Pirate Captain thought he had seen it all. He'd certainly seen more than the boy, but then, he'd never seen a blacksmith like him before. He'd never met a man who could hold his own against him or would hold his own against his side when he didn't have to for the cost of his own life. But Will did. Even after Elizabeth was freed, he continued to have Jack's back and his side. He saved him more than once, and although Jack claimed otherwise, that loyalty left its mark somewhere within him, somewhere deep inside his very soul.

He burned him. He touched him in a way like no other had before or has seen. He left his mark on his soul, and to this day, although he knows the lad is dead, having given his soul to be with his father in Davy Jones' locker, Jack still hears him call him. He hears his voice in the sea, and that is the true reason why he keeps sailing until he has to come ashore lest the madness of following a voice to a destination he can not reach drives him the short rest of the way to complete insanity.

"LAND AHOY!" Jack blinks, neither knowing or caring that the kohl markings around his dark eyes has become mussed. Land. Soon, he will be able to set his weary, booted feet upon another island. Soon, he will be able to leave his Pearl and leave these voices behind. He smirks at himself. There are other voices in the wind, but only one in the ocean itself. It is that one from which he needs a break but yet also wants to cling.

He looks out to the horizon where the sun is sinking low, and he wonders. They say that Davy Jones' ship still sails some nights besides All Hallow's, but he's looked. He's searched all seven seas and hasn't found a sign of him yet. Perhaps he should turn his ship around and keep looking. Perhaps if he went again to the triangle, he might yet find him there.

But Will doesn't want to be found. He wants Jack to continue without him, and why shouldn't he when Jack never told him what he meant to him? The Pirate scoffs at himself. He is the thief, but yet the boy stole his heart and more. He stole a part of him, Jack knows, that will never be whole without his love, a love he also knows he will never attain.

The sea laps against his ship. The wind pulls at his beaded hair. Exhaustion tugs at his bones. The past and the weary ache to find Will again pulls to his heart. But his soul sings. It sings with a need that can not be sated for he can not give it what he needs. He can not find Will, though he has tried and will try again and again until he is so old he can no longer set sail.

But for tonight, he docks ship. For tonight, he lets his crew play and do what they will, take what they want, while he sits alone. Bottle after bottle, he downs of rum, but at the end of each bottle is always the same face. When he shuts his eyes, he always sees the same sad smile. When he listens to the night, the wind and the sea, it's always the same.

"Jack. Jack. Jack." It is Will's voice always. "Come find me," he calls. "Come love me," although he'd never say such aloud. He never wanted Jack the way Jack wants him, after all, or so the weary Pirate Captain believes until he shuts his tear-filled eyes and finally lets exhaustion claim him.

Then for a while, always too short a time, in his mind, Will is smiling at him, his arms open wide. He slips into his arms, and Will greets him with a kiss. They hold each other. They dance. They talk, laugh, and share secrets, share stories, share tales of hunting for each other. They live and love there in those few short hours.

But when Jack's reddened eyes reopen the next day, Will is always gone. He stumbles back to his ship and heads out again, the wind and the sea still playing a game of tag with his heart and soul. "Jack. Jack," they whisper in Will's voice. He wants so badly to answer them, but he can not find Will and never sees the lips moving aboard the Flying Dutchman, the lips that do call his name and say so much, too. "Jack, I'm sorry," they say and, "Jack, I love you," but Jack never hears the rest of the story for his search is never finished until the end.

The End

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