There are so many wonderful things in this story, I hardly know where to start =)

Possibly my favourite line in the whole thing was he carried his command like a slightly-oversized mantle, whereas Jones had dragged his behind like a bloodied, tattered petticoat.—fantastic imagery and contrast.

Then again, the descriptions of Will's reaction to what has happened to him and to the news of the baby were great; Will is so intrinsically good and that comes out on a lot of what he says here. Also love Bill's humour; offering to give "the talk" and his references to Jack. Oh, and Will is half Irish...this pleases me deeply ;)

It's always nice to see a bit of interaction between these two—it's such an awkward (but interesting!) relationship, with so many doubts and hang-ups from the past, but Bill clearly does care about his son, and Will wants to care about his father...hopefully things'll improve over the ten years: Will might find things go slightly better if he will actually talk to people.

And you threw in a little bit of curse-breaking hope! Excellent =)

Just...lovely, altogether.