Destiny Interrupted

Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack/Will/Elizabeth. NC-17. ~2500 words.

Serving on the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann Turner had learned through experience that complicated tactics led to tactical complications…

Headfirst

Serving on the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann Turner had learned through experience that complicated tactics led to tactical complications. Will’s wife had also learned that Jack was the sort of man who was content with waiting for the opportune moment, while she preferred to manufacture her own opportunity.

And so it was that Will, who was busy penning the day’s log at the small desk in their private cabin, found himself being asked what he honestly thought of the Captain.

“He’s a good man,” he answered.

“A good, strong man,” Elizabeth added. “And handsome as well, wouldn’t you say?”

“He has his charms,” Will replied, unaware of the determination glittering in his wife’s brown eyes.

“Yes, he does,” Elizabeth agreed. She ran an ivory-handled brush through her hair repeatedly, freeing it of the tangles that came from a day of wind and sea. “Jack is a good, strong, charming, handsome man.”

Will paused briefly with the feather of his pen rasping against his lip. “He’s clever, also,” he added, and dipped the quill in a small pot of ink. His broad shoulders knotted beneath the thin cotton of his shirt as he resumed writing. “You resemble each other in that regard.”

The ship swayed gently, and Elizabeth put aside her hairbrush. She clasped her hands in her lap as she silently worked out her phrasing. “Will, I should like to ask you a question,” she said.

“My answer is yes, provided it is under my terms,” Will said. The tip of his pen never halted in its scratching while behind him, his wife opened and closed her mouth in confusion.

“You were going to ask if our bed was big enough for three, were you not?” he stated plainly.

Elizabeth chewed on the inside of her lower lip. “I had planned to approach the subject in a less direct manner,” she said, “but, yes.” She picked at a loose thread in her shift; the wind had been stolen from her sails and doubt had risen to take its place. “Do you think me depraved?”

Will set aside the logbook to rise and walk over to Elizabeth. He took her hands in his and smiled at her as he lowered himself to one knee. “I love you dearly,” he told her. His brows drew together earnestly, and his smile softened. He rubbed his callused thumbs across the smooth backs of her hands. “I know part of your heart belongs to Jack,” he said softly, and he tightened his hold on Elizabeth’s hands, “Yet, I do not fear that your love for me is any less for it.”

*

Even without the kohl, Jack’s eyes were dark. His heavy lashes fluttered like the wings of his namesake—startled into motion by Will’s bold question. His eyes swiftly narrowed to slits, and Will watched a slow, creeping grin spread across Jack’s face. “Thought ye’d never ask,” Sparrow said.

He threw an easy arm around Will’s shoulders and started them strolling along the deck. “You’ve thought this over, aye, mate?” Jack asked. His free hand swayed in the air, fingers rolling an invisible coin along his knuckles.

“The request is not an idle one,” Will answered solemnly.

Jack stopped them in the narrow shadow of a sail. He pursed his lips and drew in a deep breath, noisily exhaled through his nostrils as he took a step back from Will. He ran an eye up and down Will’s frame as if measuring his conviction. “Aye,” Sparrow said, and he clasped his hands together. “Why don’t I go find some rum, and you can fetch that wife of yours?”

Will blinked. “Now?”

Jack took a single, swaying step back and cast a significant look upwards at the sails that were hanging limp. The beads and baubles in his hair clicked as he cocked his head and fixed an eye on Will. “Ye’d rather play cards?” he asked.

“Not particularly,” Will admitted.

*

Will found Elizabeth quickly enough. She was leaning on the rail of the foredeck, looking down into the clear, glassy water of the Caribbean. Having long since given up the burden of skirts, she wore a soft, flowing blouse and a simple pair of breeches, her trim waist swathed by a wide sash of purple silk.

Will snagged the end of the sash and rolled the fabric between his fingers. It was patterned with shimmering threads of silver and worth a small fortune. He had found it in a chest taken from the hold of a fat merchanter bound for Seville. “The Captain requests your presence in his cabin,” he said, sliding into place beside his wife.

“So he’s agreed?” she whispered. Both her nervousness and her excitement were poorly masked.

Will chuckled and pressed a kiss into her hair. “Did you really expect him to say no?”

*

The experience was not nearly as uncomfortable as Will had feared it would be. It helped, in no small part, that there was true affection in Jack’s eyes when the man looked at Elizabeth. And, although Elizabeth sparkled at Sparrow’s attention, it was in a way different than she did to his own. However, what weighed most significantly was that Will felt no decline in her love for him when Elizabeth lay down beside him and knew another man’s touch.

*

For all its lack of discomfort, the new dynamic of their relationship was a strange thing for Will to become accustomed to. The nights that they spent with Jack were growing increasingly frequent, and soon he felt it would merit a serious discussion.

“What’s on your mind?” Jack asked, his voice shattering the silence and the steady progression of Will’s thoughts. Jack rolled onto his side and stretched an arm out lazily to tap Will on the shoulder.

Between them, Elizabeth complained sleepily and burrowed deeper into the bed. Will lifted his head carefully to peer over at Jack.

Jack prodded him again, the pirate’s blunt nails tapping against the bare skin of Will’s chest. “You’ve been acting queer all night, mate,” Jack said, keeping his voice low.

Will pressed his lips together, trying to phrase the sundry thoughts that had been drifting around in his head. “I suppose,” he said slowly, rolling the words around on his tongue before releasing them into the quiet, “I’ve just been wondering where we’re going.”

“By that do you mean this?” Sparrow waggled a few fingers at the bed. “Or, by this do you mean that?” he asked, moving those selfsame fingers through the air.

Will blinked, trying to decipher what Jack had just said, but after a moment’s reflection brought no clarity, he shook his head. “The three of us,” he explained. His fine brows drew together to form a severe crease. “Rather, Elizabeth and I, and… you and Elizabeth.”

“Ah,” Jack said, and settled back, folding his arms over his chest.

“Ah?” Will prompted. He propped himself up on an elbow. “What does that mean?” he asked. He studied the other man, but, having gotten his answer, Jack seemed content to resume the drift towards dreamland. “Jack?”

The shadows were heavy things, spilled like ink across the planes of Jack’s face. Will caught the flash of ivory and gold when the pirate’s mouth split into a crooked, fleeting smile. “It means,” Jack mumbled, turning onto his side, “wherever you want, love.”

“Wherever I want?” Will repeated. “That makes no sense,” he accused. He waited, but there came nothing else from Jack’s direction but the soft, even sounds of breathing. Will stifled a sigh.

It wasn’t until his mind was threaded through with the misty tendrils of a dream that he began to comprehend Jack’s answer and that the man had called him “love”. And by then, Will was too far gone to feel any which way about it.

*

In the morning, Will had all but forgotten the hushed exchange, and he went about his day like any other. When evening came, so did the usual routine, only this time, when Elizabeth drew them towards the bed, Will hesitated.

Jack called him on it.

“I don’t want you to leave, I just-” Will clenched his jaw when he ran out of words. He could hardly say what he wanted when he didn’t precisely know what that was.

He heard Elizabeth gasp when Jack grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him against the wall. He had no fear that if it came down to it, he could break free, but Elizabeth was quick to rush forward and seek to pull Jack away.

“Bide,” Jack said to her sharply, but this was no order given on shipdeck, and Elizabeth’s brown eyes blazed defiantly. She redoubled her efforts, tugging violently at Jack’s arm.

Will was certain she couldn’t overpower Jack, but he was less certain that she wouldn’t resort to biting. Jack appeared to come to the same conclusion, and with a frown and a judicious twist of his arm, turned the tables and pinned her tightly to his side.

“Please,” Jack added politely, before turning his attention back to Will.

Ignoring as best he could the woman trying to twist out of his hold, Jack craned his neck and flashed a quick smile. “Now then, Will,” he said. “If it’s not my leaving that you desire, shall I tender a guess?”

With Elizabeth squirming and spitting out a slew of angry curses, Will had the sudden urge to laugh. Her kicking threatened to plant more bruises on him than the hand pinned firmly against his shoulder.

Paying more attention to the language coming from Elizabeth than he was to Jack’s question, Will bit back another laugh as he offered a nod. “Be my guest,” he said, and was entirely unprepared for the kiss Jack planted firmly on his mouth. Will felt a shock run up his spine as Jack’s lips stayed pressed against his and he worried that the shriek of surprise that echoed through the cabin had come from him and not Elizabeth.

His heart thumped savagely against his ribs when Jack finally drew away. The pirate’s arm was still tight around Elizabeth, but she had long since ceased fighting his hold, and simply moved with him, her mouth agape.

Jack freed her gently, letting his hand rest lightly at the low of her back and raising a finger to her cheek. “Best shut that mouth of yours before I get any ideas, love.”

Will felt as if he had just taken a cannonball to the stomach. He remained frozen in place, and although the swells had been gentle all day, he felt as if the deck beneath his feet was pitching wildly.

“You kissed him,” Elizabeth said.

“I did indeed,” Jack said, sounding positively amused.

“But, he’s a man!”

“A year on the Pearl and ye ain’t got a clue as to what goes on belowdecks?” Jack shook his head and looked to Will again. “Ye want me to do it again, love?”

Time caught up with Will like a rush of blood to the head. His tongue felt thick inside his mouth, and he ran the tip of it against the backs of his teeth. This was a situation that neither he nor Elizabeth had anticipated, and he didn’t know quite what to think when his body urged him that yes, he did want Jack to kiss him again.

“If my wife has no objection,” he managed, looking towards Elizabeth.

Her eyes were round, but she gathered her composure swiftly. She kissed Will on the cheek and stepped back with a graceful nod.

Jack lifted his right hand and shook it loose. He wriggled his fingers and splayed them to nudge aside the loose strands of Will’s hair. Jack’s fingers skimmed beneath Will’s ear, and curled at the nape of his neck before the pirate drew him forward into a kiss.

The kiss began slowly, as a soft and searching dance. It was not unlike the first time he and Jack crossed swords. They learned each other’s rhythms step by step, and Will grew increasingly accustomed to the scratch of the pirate’s moustache as Jack’s lips rubbed against his. Jack gathered Will’s face in both hands, and Will was dimly aware of Elizabeth watching them intently. He slid a tentative hand under Jack’s shirt as the man’s tongue thrust deep into his mouth.

Jack was all sinew and muscle, firm beneath Will’s fingers. He knew nearly every inch of the pirate’s skin by sight, but touch was different, and Will discovered anew the rough edge of a scar not a handspan away from the ripple of Jack’s ribs.

His breath hitched as he felt Elizabeth’s arms wind around him. She pressed her cheek flush in the space between his shoulderblades, and Will shivered as her hands roamed over his torso. Her fingernails dragged across the taut muscles of his stomach and slowly moved downward to where his cock strained against his breeches.

Jack caught Elizabeth’s wrists before she could undo the buttons of Will’s breeches, and with a gentle tug, he urged both her and Will towards the bed.

They fell into the mattress in a tangle of limbs. Will immediately found himself at the mercy of two mouths and two sets of hands. He writhed under the onslaught, seeking out whatever flesh he could with his own lips. He felt dizzy and warm, and was certain that the pink of desire that blossomed across Elizabeth’s breasts found an equal flush across his face.

He wasn’t sure who it was that undid the buttons of his breeches and pulled him from his smalls, but when he looked down it was not his wife’s mouth that swallowed him whole. Will shuddered at the sight of Jack’s dark head descending upon his cock, and he moaned as Elizabeth crawled up to lay beside him. He wound a fist into her hair and kissed her feverishly. There was something new and exciting in the familiar softness of her lips, and he felt his heart swell in his chest.

Will untangled his fingers from the waves of Elizabeth’s hair and gathered the soft weight of her breast into his hand. She moaned into his mouth, and it was his undoing.

Before he knew it, Jack was collapsed beside him, breathing as heavily as he was. Will waited until his breath came more easily before he twisted his head to face Jack.

He wanted to say something, but could think of no words to express himself.

Jack relieved him of the obligation. He gathered Elizabeth’s fingers in his and kissed her knuckles. Jack’s fingers darkly contrasted Elizabeth’s as he lowered her hand to rest on Will’s chest and held it there. “Wherever you want, love,” Jack said.

“Love,” Will echoed quietly.

“Aye, love,” Jack repeated, and Will felt Elizabeth smile against his shoulder.

*

End