POTC Ficlet: "Up and Down As Tide"

[veronica_rich]

Title: "Up and Down As Tide"
Rating: PG
Jack and Will or J/W - your choice
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or turn a profit off their portrayal
Summary: How does an upright citizen like Captain Turner solve a problem like Captain Sparrow? Written for the "changing tides" prompt at jackwill.
A/N: Unbetaed. Written on a feverish brain. Feedback welcomed.


Christ, how he’d hated this man! First, he’d lulled Will into a false trust, forcing him through his own conscience to offer up his own life to protect Jack’s against the commodore and the Crown; then he’d hurled that life against the sharp edges of Davy Jones’s self-hatred and immolation.

Finally, he’d turned against Will in the basest way he could: Trying to seduce away the one person who would willingly become the orphan's new family.

This wasn’t even dwelling overmuch on the dramatic pause that had given Jones the chance to kill him. And against his better judgment Will had tried to forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Jack’s face, the absolute horror, shock, and pain in his expression as the life dribbled out of Will into wet, algae-slicked planks the day he was born into captaincy for the Ship of Death.

But dying upon those same planks now was a drowned, battered shell of the pirate Will had been forced to recognize as a good man despite Jack’s constant streak of self-service. The kneeling captain slid large hands into the half-corpse’s matted black hair, cupping the sides of his head, and closed his eyes. Energy flowed from skin to skin as he tightened and flexed his fingers, willed from beneath the mingled admiration/repulsiveness he’d always harbored for Jack, until he felt the head lifting, moving on its own.

He opened his eyes and stood, offering his fellow captain a hand up. Jack eyed it, then took it, his dark eyes never leaving Will’s as he followed. There was no disappointment, no mocking this time – rather, Jack’s own brand of admiration and respect.

And perhaps something else … a thing that matched the shift in Will’s own perception of the maddening personality that had perplexed him since the night Jack had waved off his crew’s betrayal with a “They done what’s right by them.” Something that had kept him from taking off Jack’s head on a couple of occasions since, when he would’ve been quite justified in doing so.

Something that made him pull back Death’s hounds this very night and not force a decision between service and demise upon the strange, sparkling fellow. Something in the blood that now flowed and pooled under the guidance of tides and moon and sun rather than of a heart.

“Some rum, pirate?” he finally asked, letting the smile touch his overwise eyes.

After a few beats, Jack nodded almost imperceptibly. “Aye,” he assented, still gripping Will’s hand in a prolonged clasp. “That’ll work, blacksmith.”

Comments

[mamazano.livejournal.com]

See, I don’t see things in the same light as others do. For starters, I don’t see Will going over to the Dutchman as a betrayal at all. Or, if you want to call it that, it is about as benign a betrayal as you're likely to find.

Will Turner does not die. Jack merely sends him on a dangerous mission. And everyone seems to forget the fact that Jack knows Bootstrap Bill is on that ship. Jack is reuniting Father and Son, exactly as it happens. Who is to know what Jack was planning? Will is a resourceful guy, going off onto a ship to pair up with his father, and find the key. And to top it off, WILL ACCEPTED THAT ASSIGNMENT.

Grant it, there is a strategy to not telling Will -- if Will knew what was going on all along, would Jones have taken him on the ship? The betrayal had to feel real to Jones in order to get Will on the ship at all.

Again, Will did not die. Jack plays all angles. If Will hadn't been able to escape and return, one could even imagine Jack making his way onto the Dutchman, and teaming up with Will to get the key.

Also, I don’t believe Jack was trying to seduce Elizabeth, more like playing a game of one-upmanship with her. Her betrayal of Jack was far worse, and yet she get the excuse of having done it because she did it for Will? No fair, says I.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Compared to things other characters have done in these movies, I'm willing to concede Will's lashing and Jones sending the kraken after him in the Edinburgh pales in comparison.

Will did accept the trade to go onto the Dutchman for Jack - to get Jack's compass to free Elizabeth. Jack saw an opportunity to gain something for himself out of someone else's desperation, and he took it. He's a pirate; it's what he does. He did it in CotBP as well, sparing Will's life from Barbossa's desperation to gain both mortality and his own commodoreship. Will should have remembered that and asked more questions before he agreed to do anything for Jack. But he's not necessarily going to remember that years later in the middle of the night, trying to make a quick decision of whether to save Jack's life or let him perish - stream-of-consciousness and all that.

Will died when Jones stabbed him - or rather, he would have certainly died if Jack hadn't helped him stab the heart and Bill hadn't carved out his heart (though I take some issue with the second one - I'm not sure it was necessary and can only guess it falls under the category of Bill not knowing any better or being in his right mind). It's what makes it hard for him to stay angry at or annoyed with Jack here. Mixed feelings.

Whatever Jack was trying to do to Elizabeth, I have no illusions that if she'd stripped to her skin and offered herself up to him, Jack would've slept with her. That doesn't mean it was his primary objective, or that she is who he most wants to have sex with - again, he's a pirate. He's an opportunist, and non-rape sex with a pretty girl is a fairly nonviolent opportunity.

This is why I read your stories; I count on you to come up with a different POV that I can enjoy and also see some logic in. :-)

[mamazano.livejournal.com]

I do believe that Jack meant for Jones to return Will, and tried his hardest to get him back. Now the lashing is not Jack's fault, though the Kraken pursuit is a direct result of Will stealing the key.

There was a line or two left out in editing, that had Jack making the deal with Will - he would trade the compass if Will would do something for him in return, a typical response from Jack.

But I still do not believe there was a "betrayal" by any means. Will went on this quest willingly, as he had gone in CotBP. Jack asked him then, "One question about your business, boy, or there's no use going. This girl? How far are you willing to go to save her?" I don't think this is totally about Jack being selfish and wanting something for himself. He knows Will well enough to realize that he will do rash things when it comes to Elizabeth and tries to at least see that the outcome is not as dire as it could be.