Title: Always Mine (Though You Never Were)
Series: POTC
Pairings: One-sided Elizabeth x Will, Jack x Will (but nothing other than words touch)
Rating: PG, because it's slash
Author's Reason: I watched POTC 1 and was inspired by the first line I use in the fiction.
Negative: People are going to hate that there is nearly no plot. That Jack and Will never get together even though they love each other and that Elizabeth doesn't get her way. They'll probably also hate this story. I'll eventually make a better one shot with some more story and less time skip.
Note: This was originally titled 'After Thought' and was about Will's one-sided love and what went on during their adventures and not so much about the adventure. I just felt like I needed to do it, and in the original…Jack dies. Yep. So this is all of POTC and five years later.
"My place is between you and Jack," William Turner said defiantly to Commodore James Norrington, looking nearly- if the setting hadn't been so bloody serious- comical in his proper attire.
There was no question as to what he meant with those words, and Elizabeth knew she could never have him at that instance. However, side-stepping around James, she took up her spot beside him, ready to support him. "As is mine."
Indeed, and that was how it all started.
There was no romance or courting between Captain Jack Sparrow, the pirate with long hair and a braided goatee and a ship named Black Pearl, and William Turner, a blacksmith and the son of pirate Bootstrap Bill Turner.
In fact, there needn't be any.
Will was in love with the pirate, and that was that.
Elizabeth felt her heart stop and Will's hand tighten unbearably around her own as Jack stepped back against the battements, saying in his silky voice, "This is the day you will all remember as the day…"
Then he tripped, and Will stopped living for five seconds.
So they ran forward in disbelief, looking over the edge and breathing in relief as they saw Jack bobbing along the waves with the Black Pearl rushing to aid him and Mr. Cotton's parrot flying above in circles, crowing.
"You almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow," Will finished after the Commodore decided to give Jack a day head start on running away and Elizabeth's father strolled away, leaving them to stare at the retreating backs on the Navy.
As they turned to one another, Elizabeth wanted nothing more for all this to be concluded with a kiss, but those were not for her but for another.
So she turned and watched her greatest love lean over the battements and shout to the one he loved like she loved him, "We had better meet again, Jack!"
That was that.
Will waited for many a months, but never again did he meet his Jack.
His Jack, who was probably at Tortoga celebrating his new ship and making up some tale about his escape from Port Royal.
His Jack Sparrow, who was most likely lying in a dirty bed with some whore who wanted him for his gold.
His Captain Jack Sparrow, whom he longed for as much as he did the sea.
For the sea was one and the same with Jack, to William at least.
At his side, Elizabeth comforted him, reassured him, and wept with him on those so very lonely nights.
--
Then a new adventure came, giving Will the excuse to find Jack for some compass the Trading Company wanted.
The one that didn't work.
Unfortunately the conclusion of this adventure wasn't so grand a thing for Jack, Will, or Elizabeth.
"Its after you, Jack," Elizabeth spat at him, shaking with anger. This adventure had stroked the fires of jealousy back to life in her heart. She had watched Jack sacrifice and save and sacrifice Will so many times over for the thing he wanted, some heart in a chest.
Will didn't care, because he knew Jack wouldn't let him die, and inside Elizabeth burned with hatred for the pirate. Now, all of it came out.
From the lifeboat that the remainder of the crew was lowering down, Will watched with sorrow in his eyes.
Jack met his eyes briefly, and the fear was obvious along with the determination to keep Will safe.
Will turned his eyes away as the boat went over the side and he was told to get in along with some others. Down it kept going.
Elizabeth…
She pushed the Captain back with her lips, her body. Kissing him, she locked his hand to the main mast and pulled back.
Her lips moved as she spoke words that didn't reach Will's ears, because he was staring in shock and rage at Elizabeth. How dare she touch him…?
Her eyes met Will's briefly as she took her seat in the boat and they rowed away.
"Jack," Will sighed, watching the Kraken surface again to take the Black Pearl. He sobbed in pain as the ship was crushed.
Elizabeth gripped herself, biting her lip and looking away. It hurt to see what she had done to her love, but all at once it felt good too. She looked up, jumping in guilt as Will's red eyes met her own.
They screamed with distrust and suspicion and fury.
They rowed all the way back the witch woman Jack had brought them too before. She fed them and gave them drinks to warm them against the cold…and the sorrow.
"Is there anyway to bring him back?" Came forth the question.
"Sail to de ends of de Earth," she had answered in a nutshell. She told them, though, that they would have to be taken by someone who had been there before.
Out came Barbossa.
Will stopped breathing.
It was obvious what he and half the people in the room were thinking. Didn't Jack shot him? Wasn't he supposed to be dead?
The answers were obvious too. Yes, he was shot and he was mortal when it happened. Yes, but apparently God, who Will hated now, was merciful on the bastard and the Witch had nursed him back to life.
However, even though anger, shock, pain, loss, and awe, Will realized that this man would lead him back to Jack and the Black Pearl and the sea he belonged to.
Barbossa bit into a green apple and savored the taste, as he looked them over.
--
Will wasn't sure how they had done it, but they had.
Elizabeth was gone for good married to Norrington as she had promised so many moons ago.
A new crew was up and running the newly born Pearl along with Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Cotton and etcetera.
Captain was back…Jack that was.
Barbossa got the Black Pearl as he was promised, as well as Jack under his command on the Pearl.
Jack had been happy to return, and losing his ship as opposed to his freedom to Davy Jones was fair enough.
Will had seen the darker side of Jack through this last ordeal, and finally he could see the story coming to a close. His heart leapt with hope and anticipation as he cornered Jack one night.
The next day, if nothing was encountered, William was to be left of in New Providence to seek a new life. "Jack?"
That was the only thing he managed to say when suddenly Jack jumped out at him with confession after confession.
He didn't like Will…in the way Will liked him. He was straight, as straight as they come in fact. He loved someone else, and he was so sorry. He had been so protective of Will because he felt like the son Jack had never had, and because he thought he owed it to ol' Bootstrap.
Will choked back the emotions and the things he had been going to say.
There was a silence.
"I never said I loved you, Jack! I bloody hate you!" Will turned sharply on his heel and never once saw the tearful Jack he left behind on the ship the day he left.
Jack had said what he said to protect young William from himself and the danger that came with being near him! He knew what Will had went through for him, he knew. His old pirate heart ached as he leaned over the side of the docked ship as his William walked away for good.
He cried in his cabins, while Will vowed never to love another again.
--
They never saw each other. Not once.
It was on a lonely day in cold, cold December, maybe even Christmas, when Will heard a knock to his door.
Mr. Gibbs himself, a five year older man, just as Will was, stood outside of his door, the winter wind sending snowflakes into his house.
There was a dark look to the pirate's eyes. He removed his hat. "'Ello, Mr. Turner, Jack is dying."
It was so casual that the blacksmith had thought he had misheard. "Where…?"
"Hospital just down the road, mate, told us to take him down here."
Will was off in a second, running barefoot through the barely there frost. It was cold but not enough for frostbite, not that he cared.
--
Seeing his condition, Will was hurried in. He made it to Jack's room with no help at all, his instincts on high alert.
Jack lay on the white sterile sheets bloodied and wet and shivering.
"Davy Jones's Locker, Jack! What did you do?" Will cried out, kneeling on the floor beside Jack's bed.
Those beautiful brown eyes, lined with kohl, slid open to greet him and Jack smiled. "Ello, love."
Jack told him everything that had happened, not just recently but the last five years.
Then, pausing after how he got his wounds, he murmured, "Mine…" His shivering fingers touched Will's warm rosy cheeks and traced his nose and eyes.
Will shook his head.
Jack grunted, "You were always mine…though you never were. Ironic, really, me happening to say all this after a rejected you so bluntly…"
A nurse came in a cleaned the wounds, bandaging Jack up and giving him some medicine.
Will looked up at her.
"We have to keep watching him, but he's stabilized now," she said sweetly as she took in their linked hands. Then she left.
"Hear that, mate? 'Might be able to go back to sailing after all!"
"You…fool…" Will sobbed, resting his head on the bed. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…!"
Jack smiled. "Of course you do, love."
That was that.
Jack was nursed back to health and stayed with Will on New Providence, letting his crew and Barbossa do as they pleased.
They weren't in a relationship and they never would be, but they were together and wasn't that what really mattered?
Will thought so, but it didn't really matter. For once, he was glad that there was some happily-ever-after still left in the world.
Fin.