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No profit, no foul, no way they would let this ever happen in a Disney movie.
The Waiting
Charles Dubois tried not to cringe as the Dauntless wove her way through the passage. The walls rose, sharp and forbidding, on either side of the ship. The sailors, a few navy mutineers but mostly escaped slaves, performed the complicated routine of rowing, pulling the ropes secured to the dark, damp walls and, it seemed, a liberal application of sheer willpower, to manoeuvre the huge ship through the narrow crevice in the mountain.
He gasped as the Dauntless slid past the grey walls to glide across the bay. Brilliant blue water sparkled up at him, the green on the shores was so vivid it did not look real, and the white sands of the shore glimmered. Like some unearthly paradise. “Should I be frightened?” he whispered so only Jacob could hear his words.
Jacob squinted. “Hmm. I think not.” He put a reassuring hand on Charles’s shoulder. “My family will welcome you; my mother could very well smother you with attention. The only thing you’ll have to fear is growing fat from their care.”
“And what of Will Turner?”
Jacob smiled. “Is that what you’re worried about? I would think it is the other way around. Should you not resent him for what Nagaraj did to you because of his memories of Will?”
Charles shrugged. “That wasn’t Will’s fault.”
“And did Will not give you that wound on your shoulder?”
Charles blushed. “Aye, sir. But you kissed that better.”
Jacob cleared his throat. This lad was surely going to kill him. That soft voice pulled at his very heart. And the way Charles was looking at him through lowered lashes affected his anatomy in a considerably lower location. “And that is why I love you. You are able to forgive, and to move on, and what is more, you have shown great courage in coming here when you know Nagaraj is not far behind. I will do everything in my power to protect you from him.”
“You look well, Jacob,” Alphonse enthused. “I haven’t seen you look this good since…” His voice trailed off when he saw a man climbing from the longboat. He was tall, with broad shoulders and willowy limbs, close-cropped hair and the biggest, roundest brown eyes Alphonse had ever seen. Absolutely exquisite he was, and for the most part it was because he looked almost exactly like…
“Saints alive!” Tessie exclaimed. She’d rushed down to the beach to see her youngest son, and here was the spitting image of her stepson.
Marina got out of the boat and poked Charles in the back. “Get a move on, dearie, my shoes are getting wet.”
“Marina!” Tessie pushed Alphonse out of the way and rushed to her daughter’s side.
There was much ado as various family members were acquainted and reacquainted. When they met up with Anamaria and Kay in the village, Tessie had all her children together for the first time in fifteen years. She would have been overwhelmed, if not for the presence of the nervous-looking Charles.
“Look at this. Where’s my Bill? He has to see this to believe it. I never seen the like, that is the god’s truth. I never.” She ran her hand over the bristly hair. “Just wait until Will sees you…”
“He already has, mum,” Jacob interjected. “This is Charles Dubois.”
“Charles?” Tessie stared at him critically. “You mean the Charles who tried to kill my stepson?”
“I, um… I didn’t know who he was… I was just…” Charles stammered at Tessie.
She frowned at the sight of the bruises on his body and face. “Did your nasty captain do that?”
“No, Jacob would never hurt me! I mean, Captain DeMaurier.”
Tessie grinned broadly.
“She meant Nagaraj,” Jacob whispered.
Charles blushed. Beautifully.
Will Turner tucked his shirt into his trousers and smoothed his hair down. He should have known better than to think he could walk all the way down to the beach without Jack waylaying him. Not that he did not appreciate being waylaid by Jack. In truth, it had been a thoroughly enjoyable waylaying.
He ran his finger through the hair just above his left ear. Damn. It was all sticky now and would dry to a hard crust in another few minutes. He plucked a broad leaf off a shrub and tried to scrape the congealing seed from his hair with it.
Captain Jack Sparrow sauntered down the pathway with a satisfied grin plastered across his face. He tossed a clump of hair over his shoulder and felt his kerchief shift, reached up to straighten it, obscured his own vision and ended up bumping into a tree. Damn, he felt good. He rubbed a hand over his beard and noticed a little daub of semen on the edge of his moustache. He licked it lazily. Damn, but Will tasted good. He spotted Will up ahead, and came to a halt a few feet from him.
“Trouble with your hair, eh?” he drawled.
Will grimaced. “I wish you’d warned me. There isn’t time to wash it out. We’re late. The Dauntless must have arrived ages ago.”
Jack leaned forward and weaved his fingers through the damp strands. “We can meet up with everyone in the village. Don’t fret; you look fine, mate, in fact, you look better than fine. You look delicious,” he sidled up to Will and licked his cheek. “Hmm, and, if I do say so myself, I am rather delicious as well. Ooh, your eye’s a bit red, luv. Did I get you there?”
“I’m fine,” Will said in an irritated tone. “Just stop licking me. What will the other pirates think?”
Jack laughed. “The other pirates? They’ll think, ‘Oh look, there’s that lucky Captain Jack Sparrow. He gets to lick the most beautiful man on the Spanish Main! I wish I was him.’ That’s what they’ll think.” But they wouldn’t say a word of it aloud. No, they wouldn’t dare.
Will Turner stepped toward Charles, not entirely believing what he saw. “You?” he said. Fists clenched, he took a step toward Charles, menace written all over his face.
Charles wisely stepped a little to the left, so Tessie came between him and Will. Charles looked over at Jacob and saw the light in his eye, a light he believed only a man’s lover or his mother could recognize immediately. He believed that firmly, until he saw Will look into Jacob’s eyes, and then the harsh look on Will’s face softened, and by the time he turned back to Charles he was smiling.
“You got away from that snake,” he said.
Charles nodded.
“I’m glad.”
Jack wanted nothing more than to pummel Charles. He had threatened Will, and remained a threat to Will, and should not be holding out his hand in friendship like that. And Will should definitely not be clasping his hand and touching his shoulder like that in response. And Charles had absolutely no right to put his hand on Will’s shoulder. Jack started to spring forward, to stop this aberration from going any further, but Kay grabbed his wrist.
“Let them be,” she told him.
But Will was pulling Charles toward him, embracing him like a long-lost brother, and the sight of those pale hands coming around Will’s back and Will’s long body pressed up against the other’s slim body was too much. All those long limbs. Both those lean torsos. Those impossible cheekbones side by side.
Kay’s hand slid up Jack’s arm and her grip tightened. It was enough to steady Jack. Not enough to stop his head from spinning, but enough to keep him from falling over. He hadn’t felt this dizzy since the first time he saw Will and Bootstrap hug.
“Don’t they look lovely together?” Claire cooed from somewhere over Marina’s shoulder.
Jack and Jacob looked at each other sharply. “No,” they said in unison.
Kay stroked Jack’s arm. “Shh, Jack. Don’t be foolish.”
Foolish? It wasn’t foolish; it was reasonable. Charles was too slender, too exquisitely sculpted, too beautiful, and altogether too much like Will. He looked even more perfect with his hair gone. Jack could see, without the distraction of the curls, that Charles’ cheekbones were a touch more angular than Will’s, his nose that much straighter, his eyelashes a shade longer, his everything was a little more refined, like someone’s perfect idea of Will, not the real thing.
It was eerie.
Except it wasn’t, because Will had a huge grin on his face and Charles was smiling back, and Will was asking all sorts of questions and Charles was trying to answer them, and it was clear that they were two separate men, and that Charles was not some sort of mirage.
By the time Jack was brought forward to greet Charles, he was almost able to speak.
It took a fair amount of courage, but Charles faced Jack. “Nagaraj is coming for you. To kill you. But he wants…” His gaze drifted to Will.
Jack nodded. It didn’t matter how spectacular Charles looked. It didn’t even matter that Charles still had an arm around Will’s waist, and Will had his arm around Charles’s shoulders. Under any other circumstances, he would have taken the time to grow tremendously hard and perhaps even moan at the glorious image.
But Nagaraj was coming for Will. That took precedence.
The meeting about who would stay and who would go was held in the village. It was obvious that the refugees should leave aboard the Black Pearl – it was the fastest ship and would take more of them further away from the battle than any other. Young Frank and Jonathon were enraged. They wanted to fight, but they were being sent away with the children.
Elizabeth insisted on staying. “He’s my husband, and if he’s so upset about me leaving, well then he should be allowed to tell me in person,” she reasoned. Alex was horrified, but had to reluctantly agree once Elizabeth added, “Besides, if I’m not on the Pearl, there’s no reason for him to go after it. It’s safer for everyone.”
After that, Marina had insisted on staying on the island. Jack had seriously doubted the usefulness of a Madam in a battle, until Marina grabbed a pistol from one of the pirates and said, “See that gull?” and then – bang! - there was a dead gull lying at Jack’s feet. Marina pointed to a cliff overlooking the entrance to the bay. “I’ll be right up there…” She stroked the barrel of the pistol.
Jack did not want to know where she’d learned to shoot like that.
None of the adults who weren’t pregnant or injured wanted to go on the Pearl. Even Anamaria, who was pregnant, wanted to stay. However, it was decided that there had to be a compliment of fighters to defend the Pearl from possible attack, and eventually it was decided that Bootstrap would lead them, with Mr. Gibbs as his first mate. So, the Pearl was readied for sail right away.
“What the devil is wrong with that cat?”
“Nothing.”
“It just keeps getting fatter and fatter.”
“She’s pregnant.”
Jack stared down at Monkey, who was dragging a scrap of linen from somewhere into the corner of the room, where she appeared to be constructing some sort of nest. “Does every bloody female on this island get pregnant? Is there something in the water?”
“They’re aren’t any other cats on the island,” Will mused.
“Well, don’t look at me. I bloody well didn’t do this one!”
Will giggled. “I wasn’t saying that. She must have been pregnant when we got her.”
“You got her, not me,” Jack said, shoving the last of his many weapons into a large sack. He looked around the cabin. “I’ll miss her.” Referring to the Pearl, of course. Not the cat.
“It won’t be for long.”
“I know.”
“The Pearl will come back as soon as we’ve dealt with Nagaraj and Norrington.”
“I know.”
“It’s the safest place for the children, and the women. Or at least the pregnant ones.”
Jack smiled. So many of the women were staying to fight. He almost felt sorry for Norrington. He was going to so hate being beaten by women.
“The cat stays on the Pearl, Jack. But we have to go ashore now.”
Jack nodded. He stroked the surface of the doorframe as he passed through it. “I’ll be back, luv,” he whispered. “Keep safe.”
Charles paced nervously across the deck of the Dauntless. “How long do you think?” he asked for the third time.
Jacob grabbed his arm. “Mr. Gillette, you have the wheel,” he said as he dragged Charles down the stairs and into the captain’s cabin.
“You’re too tense,” he said, pushing Charles up against the wall.
Charles bit his lip. “I’m sorry. I suppose I’m nervous.”
“You need to relax. Fear can be useful in battle, but this fretfulness will not do.”
Charles bowed his head. “My apologies, Captain. I will endeavour to…. Ahhhhhh.”
Jacob looked up at Charles as his lips caressed Charles’s linen covered cock. He breathed out, hot and moist. The stirring of the flesh underneath the trousers was exquisite.
“Um, aren’t I supposed to be doing that for the Captain?” Charles choked out.
“If you honestly want to, you may. But not until I’m finished…”
Alphonse peered out into the night. The moon was a thin sliver in the sky, and the stars mostly hidden by cloud. He could barely make out that there was an ocean at all.
“He can’t see us any better than we can see him,” Matthew said as he stretched out on the grass of the watch hill next to him. “And he likely won’t be here for another day at least.”
Alphonse nodded.
“So…” Matthew trailed his lips over the back of Alphonse’s neck. “I think we’ll have to do something to pass the time.”
Alphonse shivered.
Matthew slipped his hand up under Alphonse’s shirt. “Mmm, I love to feel your skin. Almost as much as I love tasting it…”
Alphonse shuddered.
He was glad they’d volunteered for the first watch.
Will hugged his knees to his chest. “Is it always this tense?”
Jack looked up from the knife he was sharpening. “Hmm? Before a battle?”
Will nodded.
“I suppose. Don’t really know. I’m usually on the other end of the battle, if you know what I mean.”
Will nodded again.
Jack put down the knife. “Need some help with that?”
“What?”
“The waiting.”
Will bit his lip. “What did you have in mind?”
Jack grinned. “Thought you’d never ask, luv…”
Next: Chapter 92 No Quarter
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