FIC: Gardens of Stone 1/2
Title: Gardens of Stone
Part: 1 of 2
Author: miss_drea_fic
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Pairing: Jack/Will, Will/Elizabeth
Rating: NC-17
Summary: A story told in fragments of two men who cannot be together but connect together all the same.
Disclaimer: The Mouse owns it all.
*
Innocence Lost
William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, stood alone on the green tinted bowsprit. Souls flowed around him, so many that even the water - which before looked to be made of starlight - glowed in the ether. For years he had looked for him, years that passed without much blink or worry from the others on his ship.
But over hundred years went by and Captain Jack Sparrow never once graced the water of his spirit world, nor did he invite himself on the black hull of his ship. To him, and everyone else, Jack Sparrow never died. At least, William mused, not in the water.
A hand fell on his shoulder. “What are you thinking so hard about, Captain?” came the crisp clear voice of then-Admiral James Norrington, his vowels softened by years at sea.
“Nothing to think,” Will said after a moment, rubbing absently at the scar on his chest. It pulled sometimes, or even hurt on odd days, almost like someone was touching and gripping his heart. But on close inspection of the land, his crew told him the heart was safe.
“Ah,” James said knowingly, “you’re thinking about Jack Sparrow.”
“Captain,” Will corrected absently. “And no, I’m not.”
“Do you grieve for him?” Norrington asked, stepping up to join Will, pressing them shoulder to shoulder in a rare show of solidarity.
William continued to gaze out over the water. “I don’t believe there is anything to grieve.”
At this, James gave his captain an incredulous look. “Surely you must be joking!” he said. “You two were...”
“Aye,” Will interrupted, agreeing. “Were.”
With a heavy sigh, Norrington stepped down onto the deck. “Captain,” he said formerly, “you are a fool.”
Finally William turned to face him and James was a little frightened of the look in William’s eyes. “No, I’m not so little, not so innocent. I’ve thought a lot about innocence and what happens when it gets lost.”
“I’m sure you have...” murmured James as his captain stalked away, because though there wasn’t much light, he could see the bluish tinge around Will’s face, and the sparkling shine of scales on the back of his neck.
It was only a matter of time before he’d realized he’d been forgotten too.
*
Surrender
Captain Jack Sparrow was hung from the neck until dead on August 5th of 1715. Elizabeth Turner attended his funeral, and cried deep cleansing tears as he refused her help of escape. “I’ve got a plan, Lizzie my dear,” he said, swinging his hand along the air, “don’t worry, I’ll escape.”
For one day, his body swung in the harbor, his hat tacked to a sign that warned pirates away. The morning after, his body, and his hat were gone. No one ever heard the name Jack Sparrow again. For a while, the aging woman had thought that the newest and notorious Calico Jack Rackham was her dear friend, but the man was too different, too blood thirsty. If he was her Jack, then he had changed for the worse.
Her son grew, and became a sailor with an gift for black smithing, but he too left her, and she was soon too old to make it to the hill over looking the cove where William would return to her. The fifth time he came, she died asleep in her bed, peacefully alone.
He never carried her in his arms again, but he took his only son with him, the boy chose to move on, change and grow with time and love. He’d been married, had children, crewing an undead ship of pirates and ex-Admirals was not his idea of the afterlife.
In the world of the living, a new pirate appeared, he warred for profit, and his name was Black Jack Davy. It was never again said that Captain Jack Sparrow had changed for the better. The first death, he said flippantly to the air, is always the hardest.
*
Fortune
Year 1743, and William could no longer remember the face of his wife or son. His father had moved on to lighter waters long ago, and James had stayed little longer than that. Only Joshamee Gibbs and surprisingly, Ana Maria, stayed on out of the original crew. Pintel and Ragetti had tried but they felt the pull of the light at the end of the world.
Even Barbossa tried, but Ana Maria threatened him with bodily harm and he gave in graciously. And at the year of the Lord, 1743, William found himself drinking alone in the new Capital of Jamaica, Kingston, listening to the stories that flew around the room.
“Have you heard about Black Jack Davy?” whispered a woman at the bar. “I’ve heard he’s a devil with a sword, and a demon in the sack!” The girls giggled at the notion and William began to tune her out. “He tells fantastic stories,” she said when she had finished bragging to her friends, “he even knows the details about the Flying Dutchman.”
William’s seat, which had been before that, tipped back against the wall, slammed back to the dirt floor of the tavern with a startlingly loud bang. “What was that?” he asked in the ensuing silence.
“What was what?” the whore said nervously, patting at her hair in an attempt to look coy.
William jerked his head at the gaggle of girls. “The man you spoke of. Who is he?”
“No body knows who he is,” the bar tender said in defense of the girl. “But we all know what he is.”
Overly patiently, William asked through clenched teeth, “well then, what is he?”
The girl who had been swooning over him before smiled brilliantly. “He is made of illusion, if you look at him too hard then he seems to disappear. Deception, mirages, even his ship isn’t real!”
And with that, William knew the truth.
The wind that blew through the room startled everyone to look at the door, but when they glanced back at the stranger with too many questions, he was gone. Another rumor started that night.
Seven Sentences of Sin
1. Wrath: William was never more angry than the day that Billy stopped visiting him with his mother, it was only once matched in anger when he found out that Elizabeth aborted their second child.
2. Sloth: The first time that William bypassed a ship, he felt ill for days; but the second and third, and twelfth time, he only felt cold.
3. Gluttony: He’d rut her raw, until she could take no more pleasure, her body sated and used in all the right ways while he was still hungry and terrified for more.
4. Lust: The third time he’d visited, she offered her arms to him and he’d given her a nice if not chaste hug - that night, he found himself pounding to his own fist, a very different name on his lips.
5. Envy: Billy got to grow up, William never did.
6. Pride: When James first pointed out the scales, William disregarded them immediately- but when the Angel Fish glow of iridescence crawled its way over muscle and sinew, it was only his ego that kept him from panicking.
7. Greed: It wasn’t enough to collect the souls of the lost at sea, he only wanted one.
*
Seven Sentences of Virtue
1. Chastity: Black Jack Davy only had women when he couldn’t take the strain anymore, but Black Jack Davy never learned their names.
2. Temperance: “Go,” he said to the young boy, “and tell no one of what you’ve seen.”
3. Charity: He left a bag of told on the grave site of a woman who had killed him, and every year when he returned to do it again, the gold was always gone.
4. Diligence: He listened avidly for stories, any sightings, any word of the man who haunted his dreams...and his nightmares.
5. Patience: “No.”
6. Kindness: He was sick, so Black Jack slipped the knife over his throat, feeling the tender squeeze of hands at his waist, and the man who would have died from a disease there was no cure for, died instead because of a friend.
7. Humility: When he drinks too much, he cries but the crew are too afraid to mention it.
*
The Time Line
1638 - I was born
1645 - I was born
1648 - I ran away from home
1653 - I went to the Caribbean on a ship
1656 - I was Nathanial Tash’s Cabin Boy
1655 - I fell in love
1660 - I met Bill.
1660 - I became a black smith
1660 - I became a Captain
1662 - I met Him, and fought undead pirates.
1662 - I met him and fell in love.
1670 - I became the Captain.
1670 - I gave up everything.
1700 - Elizabeth died and I felt relieved.
1700 - She died and I didn’t mourn.
1743 - Found you.
1743 - No, you didn’t.
*
First Times
1. Anger: When Jack Sparrow (now artfully know as Black Jack Davy) accidently stumbled upon Ana Maria, he knew that her angry slap was nothing compared to the enraged punch he was bound to get from William.
2. Hate: It was easier to pretend to hate him that let him know how much he was loved.
3. Love: It was harder to love him than to pretend to hate him.
4. Sadness: William left anyway, and Jack didn’t know what to do about it.
5. Happiness: So instead, he just ran after him.
6. Jealousy: William could clearly remember Elizabeth kissing Jack, and for once he thought clearly about it, and the Angel Fish scales began to slip off his body.
*
The Way Forward...
The scales jingled like coins hitting the deck as Jack climbed up the ropes on the side of the ship. He stood, his hair a little shoulder, his red bandana now a vibrant blue, the whale bone gone, and the beads a little less noticeable. Even his beard was clipped short, because Jack wouldn’t have been Jack without something on his face that bordered on ridiculous. “Why are you here?” asked William, still drinking in the sight of him.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jack asked diffidently, leaning against the railing of the ship.
William looked irritated. “I can think of several reasons.”
Jack’s lips pursed with some indefinable emotion. “Because,” he said haughtily, “ever action has a reaction.”
The eye roll he got was so William Turner that he couldn’t help but grin. The smile faded however when Will didn’t return the gesture. “Every action has a consequence too,” he told Jack pointed, before touching the space where his heart was supposed to be out of habit.
Jack thought for a very long time, before finally reaching into his loose white shirt and pulling out something on a long chain. “I know,” he said short, and a cursed medallion gleamed on his end.
A muscle in William’s jaw tensed. “Get off my ship,” he told Jack, and the pirate nodded once. He turned and smoothly dove over the side and William ordered Ana Maria to take her down immediately.
But the scales stayed on the deck of the ship until the water washed them away, and the sea of the dead was clean within a week. It wasn’t until then that William found him, floating along on a boat alone, a single candle flame between them, that William realized who had rescued his heart from Elizabeth.
“What about your immortality?” William asked finally, when they separated for air.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jack responded. “I buried it with her a long time ago.”
*End Part One
Part: 1 of 2
Author: miss_drea_fic
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Pairing: Jack/Will, Will/Elizabeth
Rating: NC-17
Summary: A story told in fragments of two men who cannot be together but connect together all the same.
Disclaimer: The Mouse owns it all.
*
Innocence Lost
William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, stood alone on the green tinted bowsprit. Souls flowed around him, so many that even the water - which before looked to be made of starlight - glowed in the ether. For years he had looked for him, years that passed without much blink or worry from the others on his ship.
But over hundred years went by and Captain Jack Sparrow never once graced the water of his spirit world, nor did he invite himself on the black hull of his ship. To him, and everyone else, Jack Sparrow never died. At least, William mused, not in the water.
A hand fell on his shoulder. “What are you thinking so hard about, Captain?” came the crisp clear voice of then-Admiral James Norrington, his vowels softened by years at sea.
“Nothing to think,” Will said after a moment, rubbing absently at the scar on his chest. It pulled sometimes, or even hurt on odd days, almost like someone was touching and gripping his heart. But on close inspection of the land, his crew told him the heart was safe.
“Ah,” James said knowingly, “you’re thinking about Jack Sparrow.”
“Captain,” Will corrected absently. “And no, I’m not.”
“Do you grieve for him?” Norrington asked, stepping up to join Will, pressing them shoulder to shoulder in a rare show of solidarity.
William continued to gaze out over the water. “I don’t believe there is anything to grieve.”
At this, James gave his captain an incredulous look. “Surely you must be joking!” he said. “You two were...”
“Aye,” Will interrupted, agreeing. “Were.”
With a heavy sigh, Norrington stepped down onto the deck. “Captain,” he said formerly, “you are a fool.”
Finally William turned to face him and James was a little frightened of the look in William’s eyes. “No, I’m not so little, not so innocent. I’ve thought a lot about innocence and what happens when it gets lost.”
“I’m sure you have...” murmured James as his captain stalked away, because though there wasn’t much light, he could see the bluish tinge around Will’s face, and the sparkling shine of scales on the back of his neck.
It was only a matter of time before he’d realized he’d been forgotten too.
*
Surrender
Captain Jack Sparrow was hung from the neck until dead on August 5th of 1715. Elizabeth Turner attended his funeral, and cried deep cleansing tears as he refused her help of escape. “I’ve got a plan, Lizzie my dear,” he said, swinging his hand along the air, “don’t worry, I’ll escape.”
For one day, his body swung in the harbor, his hat tacked to a sign that warned pirates away. The morning after, his body, and his hat were gone. No one ever heard the name Jack Sparrow again. For a while, the aging woman had thought that the newest and notorious Calico Jack Rackham was her dear friend, but the man was too different, too blood thirsty. If he was her Jack, then he had changed for the worse.
Her son grew, and became a sailor with an gift for black smithing, but he too left her, and she was soon too old to make it to the hill over looking the cove where William would return to her. The fifth time he came, she died asleep in her bed, peacefully alone.
He never carried her in his arms again, but he took his only son with him, the boy chose to move on, change and grow with time and love. He’d been married, had children, crewing an undead ship of pirates and ex-Admirals was not his idea of the afterlife.
In the world of the living, a new pirate appeared, he warred for profit, and his name was Black Jack Davy. It was never again said that Captain Jack Sparrow had changed for the better. The first death, he said flippantly to the air, is always the hardest.
*
Fortune
Year 1743, and William could no longer remember the face of his wife or son. His father had moved on to lighter waters long ago, and James had stayed little longer than that. Only Joshamee Gibbs and surprisingly, Ana Maria, stayed on out of the original crew. Pintel and Ragetti had tried but they felt the pull of the light at the end of the world.
Even Barbossa tried, but Ana Maria threatened him with bodily harm and he gave in graciously. And at the year of the Lord, 1743, William found himself drinking alone in the new Capital of Jamaica, Kingston, listening to the stories that flew around the room.
“Have you heard about Black Jack Davy?” whispered a woman at the bar. “I’ve heard he’s a devil with a sword, and a demon in the sack!” The girls giggled at the notion and William began to tune her out. “He tells fantastic stories,” she said when she had finished bragging to her friends, “he even knows the details about the Flying Dutchman.”
William’s seat, which had been before that, tipped back against the wall, slammed back to the dirt floor of the tavern with a startlingly loud bang. “What was that?” he asked in the ensuing silence.
“What was what?” the whore said nervously, patting at her hair in an attempt to look coy.
William jerked his head at the gaggle of girls. “The man you spoke of. Who is he?”
“No body knows who he is,” the bar tender said in defense of the girl. “But we all know what he is.”
Overly patiently, William asked through clenched teeth, “well then, what is he?”
The girl who had been swooning over him before smiled brilliantly. “He is made of illusion, if you look at him too hard then he seems to disappear. Deception, mirages, even his ship isn’t real!”
And with that, William knew the truth.
The wind that blew through the room startled everyone to look at the door, but when they glanced back at the stranger with too many questions, he was gone. Another rumor started that night.
Seven Sentences of Sin
1. Wrath: William was never more angry than the day that Billy stopped visiting him with his mother, it was only once matched in anger when he found out that Elizabeth aborted their second child.
2. Sloth: The first time that William bypassed a ship, he felt ill for days; but the second and third, and twelfth time, he only felt cold.
3. Gluttony: He’d rut her raw, until she could take no more pleasure, her body sated and used in all the right ways while he was still hungry and terrified for more.
4. Lust: The third time he’d visited, she offered her arms to him and he’d given her a nice if not chaste hug - that night, he found himself pounding to his own fist, a very different name on his lips.
5. Envy: Billy got to grow up, William never did.
6. Pride: When James first pointed out the scales, William disregarded them immediately- but when the Angel Fish glow of iridescence crawled its way over muscle and sinew, it was only his ego that kept him from panicking.
7. Greed: It wasn’t enough to collect the souls of the lost at sea, he only wanted one.
*
Seven Sentences of Virtue
1. Chastity: Black Jack Davy only had women when he couldn’t take the strain anymore, but Black Jack Davy never learned their names.
2. Temperance: “Go,” he said to the young boy, “and tell no one of what you’ve seen.”
3. Charity: He left a bag of told on the grave site of a woman who had killed him, and every year when he returned to do it again, the gold was always gone.
4. Diligence: He listened avidly for stories, any sightings, any word of the man who haunted his dreams...and his nightmares.
5. Patience: “No.”
6. Kindness: He was sick, so Black Jack slipped the knife over his throat, feeling the tender squeeze of hands at his waist, and the man who would have died from a disease there was no cure for, died instead because of a friend.
7. Humility: When he drinks too much, he cries but the crew are too afraid to mention it.
*
The Time Line
1638 - I was born
1645 - I was born
1648 - I ran away from home
1653 - I went to the Caribbean on a ship
1656 - I was Nathanial Tash’s Cabin Boy
1655 - I fell in love
1660 - I met Bill.
1660 - I became a black smith
1660 - I became a Captain
1662 - I met Him, and fought undead pirates.
1662 - I met him and fell in love.
1670 - I became the Captain.
1670 - I gave up everything.
1700 - Elizabeth died and I felt relieved.
1700 - She died and I didn’t mourn.
1743 - Found you.
1743 - No, you didn’t.
*
First Times
1. Anger: When Jack Sparrow (now artfully know as Black Jack Davy) accidently stumbled upon Ana Maria, he knew that her angry slap was nothing compared to the enraged punch he was bound to get from William.
2. Hate: It was easier to pretend to hate him that let him know how much he was loved.
3. Love: It was harder to love him than to pretend to hate him.
4. Sadness: William left anyway, and Jack didn’t know what to do about it.
5. Happiness: So instead, he just ran after him.
6. Jealousy: William could clearly remember Elizabeth kissing Jack, and for once he thought clearly about it, and the Angel Fish scales began to slip off his body.
*
The Way Forward...
The scales jingled like coins hitting the deck as Jack climbed up the ropes on the side of the ship. He stood, his hair a little shoulder, his red bandana now a vibrant blue, the whale bone gone, and the beads a little less noticeable. Even his beard was clipped short, because Jack wouldn’t have been Jack without something on his face that bordered on ridiculous. “Why are you here?” asked William, still drinking in the sight of him.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jack asked diffidently, leaning against the railing of the ship.
William looked irritated. “I can think of several reasons.”
Jack’s lips pursed with some indefinable emotion. “Because,” he said haughtily, “ever action has a reaction.”
The eye roll he got was so William Turner that he couldn’t help but grin. The smile faded however when Will didn’t return the gesture. “Every action has a consequence too,” he told Jack pointed, before touching the space where his heart was supposed to be out of habit.
Jack thought for a very long time, before finally reaching into his loose white shirt and pulling out something on a long chain. “I know,” he said short, and a cursed medallion gleamed on his end.
A muscle in William’s jaw tensed. “Get off my ship,” he told Jack, and the pirate nodded once. He turned and smoothly dove over the side and William ordered Ana Maria to take her down immediately.
But the scales stayed on the deck of the ship until the water washed them away, and the sea of the dead was clean within a week. It wasn’t until then that William found him, floating along on a boat alone, a single candle flame between them, that William realized who had rescued his heart from Elizabeth.
“What about your immortality?” William asked finally, when they separated for air.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jack responded. “I buried it with her a long time ago.”
*End Part One