Work Text:
POST SEASON 1 FIC, IN THE IMAGINARY UNIVERSE WE WERE ALL WRITING IN BEFORE SEASON 2, WHERE EVERYTHING IS SOLVED AND EVERYONE IS SAILING TOGETHER:
(I’m taking the David Jenkins approach to fanfiction. Meaning that canon only exists when it’s convenient for me and is irrelevant if it isn’t.)
Thinking about Hornigold at this ungodly hour.
Izzy, Ed, and Jack as three boys trying to pretend to be tougher and more mature than they really are, and raising themselves with zero adult guidance surrounded by violence at an extremely important time in their development
Thinking about them trying to take care of each other the only way they knew how. Izzy and Jack looking for Ed, who’s hiding in the belly of the ship during a storm. Izzy and Ed taking turns sharing a hammock with Jack, because he gets nightmares but refuses to admit it. Ed and Jack doing stupid shit and making asses of themselves when Izzy is feeling shitty, because they know Izzy is secretly amused by it. Izzy making sure Ed never has to kill anyone on raids. Izzy gets his first period and thinks he’s dying but Jack was raised in a brothel and calmly tells him it’s normal while getting him clean rags. They all just take care of each other.
And slowly, what they have corrodes, along with their boyish innocence. Jack will grow to insist that no pirate has friends, and they’re all just in various stages of fucking each other over, and drink like a fish. Ed will have ups and downs that get more frequent and severe as he gets older, and eventually Izzy will close off and ignore any part of him that shows vulnerability in order to protect Edward - like he did on Hornigold’s ship. And slowly they stop talking. They stop searching for each other in storms. They haven’t shared a hammock since Ed got the captains quarters on their first ship, and they haven’t slept alongside each other since the crew started to talk about mutiny and Izzy had to move from the captains cabin they’d taken over together, into a first mates cabin on the other side of the ship.
And then Stede comes along, and brings Edward - Eddy, The Ed that Izzy knew when they were kids - back. And Izzy goes to get Jack to snap him out of this because doesn’t he know that’s not allowed anymore? That they have to be strong?
And after all the bullshit with the English, they run into Jack at port. He’s obviously a mess, but what else is new? But, it hurts more than before, to see him like this. The Revenge is devastatingly emotionally healthy, and Izzy doesn’t have much practice with locking away his own emotions anymore. And whereas before what he had to compare how Jack turned out was your typical pirate - not very well adjusted - now he has Stede fucking Bonnet, and Ed flouncing around in dressing gowns, and talking it through as a crew. Jack is a fucking mess.
Nothing has changed, but somehow everything has changed. So Izzy asks Ed to give Jack a ride to wherever he needs to go. Room and board, till he gets back on his feet. He doesn’t disguise it as advising Blackbeard, or as a sarcastic remark. It’s not a devious plan to prove the Revenge isn’t a magic ship and can’t really fix everything.
Jacks going on and on about how his last crew is full of sun-sa-bitches that betrayed him to privateers, but he managed to sweet talk the captains wife and escape, and he’s goading Stede to get a rise out of Ed (“Hey! Steve! Wanna play whippies?”)
Just a total fall down fuck up, the way we love Jack to be.
And Izzy just quietly - not looking at Ed, he never makes eye contact with Ed these days - He tilts his head in his direction, and whispers, “Eddy.”
Ed looks up at Izzy, absolutely shaken. Izzy doesn’t look at him. He’s fiddling with his collar because he’s nervous, and Ed hasn’t seen him do that since they were 15.
And Ed just whispers “Okay.” Because what else can he say? To Izzy, who never asks for anything? Who hasn’t said *Eddy*, so soft and full of heart and vulnerability, since they were boys? “Stede?” Ed asks. And Stede looks like he wants to fight it, but he evaluates the look in Ed’s eyes and just nods. Tells the crew to get a room ready for their new guest.
And the crew complains about one of them having to give up a room, to which a huge fight breaks out. And Izzy automatically says that Jack will have his room, and he’ll sleep on deck. And just like that Jack boards the Revenge to dry out and recover.
(Two nights in, Izzy wakes up on deck to Jack curled into his side)
(Some things never change.)
Jack is shocked by the fact that he doesn’t have to earn anything they’re giving him. Rations, clothing, a room to stay in. The crew is keeping their distance because they’re (rightfully) nervous about Jack being a traitor etc etc
But eventually Jack gives up on antagonizing everyone and just… seems fine with being left alone. Perfectly content. He even sits at the edge of the group during story time, watching the crew like he just can’t figure them out.
So the crew slowly start accepting him again. The real him. Not the over the top version.
(And what if Jack is actually smarter than anyone gives him credit for? One day he’s talking about how all relationships amongst pirates are fake and Ed snaps and is like “IT WASNT FUCKING FAKE TO ME. I would have taken a gut shot for you when we were sailing together under Hornigold. Are you telling me that was all a power play for you???”
Jacks taken aback like “What? No? The only people I ever actually liked was you and Iz.”
Izzy, deadpan: “Jack. You literally love everyone. You do nothing but befriend strangers and party with them. You’re friends with everyone. On every ship I’ve ever seen you on, you’ve been fucking half the crew.”
Jack, getting more heated: “Yeah, that’s how you don’t get yourself killed or ganged up on. Why do you think no one picked on you antisocial angry little psychos, with your brooding tragic backstories, like you and Eddie? Because you were friends with Calico Mother-Fucking Jack, the guy who knows *everyone.*”
“Seriously. Blackbeards terrifying and all, don’t get me wrong, but you’re just one fleet. People who fuck with *me* all the sudden find it *real* difficult to find a fence to sell their shit to, or a ship willing to take them on, or a port that won’t turn them away.”
Ed, chuckles nervously: “I think you may have had a bit too much to drink.”
Jack: “Eddie. Come on, Mate. We’ve been sailing along a busy trade route running from the Republic of Pirates to Nassau for weeks, under an unknown flag in a ship that looks like it’s housing the bloody queen, and we have not been boarded once. You don’t find that odd?”)
And yeah, one night, Jack fills a sack with valuables and starts untying a dinghy from the side of the ship to make a grand escape. And Ed catches him and is like “Dude… I mean. If it’ll help you get back on your feet you can have them? I don’t even know, dude. It’s just stuff. And most of it I got during- well. Shit part of my life, really. You can take it but… you sure you don’t want us to drop you off at port in a day or two? You don’t have to sneak off, mate.”
And Jack’s like “You really have turned into a sissy. I’m stealing from you. I manipulated you into taking me on board, and now I’m stealing all your shit. This is what *real* pirates do.”
And Ed’s like “I mean. You can’t steal something if I’m literally giving it to you, mate.”
And Jacks like “See? You take the fun out of everything, now!”
And Izzy, half asleep from on deck, just shouts, “Would you two shut the fuck up!”
And Jacks like “You’re not even going to tell your first mate I’m stealing from you?”
Ed: “Hey Izzy! Jack’s throwing a fit because he can’t fuck us over by stealing shit I already told him he can have!”
Izzy, disheveled, walking over to the taffrail to look down at Jack: “What the fuck? Where are you even going to go, dipshit?”
Jack, glaring: “This is a clown ship!”
Izzy, rubbing a hand over his face: “Sure is.” Sigh. “Jack, nobody is going to kick you off when we make port tomorrow. There is no other shoe that is going to drop. This really is just a harmless clown ship full of morons. Yes, you deserve to be here and to be happy. You’re our friend and we love you. Now stop being a self destructive twat and get the fuck back on the ship.”
Jack blinks a few times and just slowly climbs back aboard. Ed is looking at Izzy like he’s never seen him before. How did he know exactly what to say?
Jack gets to the top and rubs his eyes, whispers “Did’ya really mean that, Iz?”
Izzy just sighs, pulling him in for a hug and rubbing his back. “Yes. Now go to bed, John.”
The next day everyone talks things through.
And they all realize how deeply the Hornigold years affected them, as well as the years of unhealthy coping afterwards.
And story ends with them stopping at an island for a beach day, with Ed and Jack running around on the beach, playing like the kids they never got to be…
Stede and Izzy are sitting further up on the beach watching them, having a heart to heart. In which Stede talks about how much he’d hate to get sand in his fancy clothes and Izzy talks about how he’s not sure he’ll be able to keep up with everyone.
And they both stare at eachother for a moment before mutually getting up and running towards Jack and Ed to join their game anyways, and they all giggle and run around playing tag.
The End.
Additional scene:
Debating whether or not final relationship should be Steddyhands with an occasional Jack cameo or not. Like Jack is a mostly platonic addition about 80% of the time.
Like the crews like “just to be clear… we have two captains… does that mean Izzy and Jack are going to be co first mates?”
Izzy’s just like “ABSOLUTELY NOT. If Jack comes anywhere near my ledgers I will throw him overboard like Lucius.”
Addressing Jacks Queerness/Sexual Identity:
Honestly I was thinking CJ is Demi and sex neutral but has a ginormous crush on Izzy and just deeply loves Ed. And later Stede. I was thinking of Steddyhands plus Jack being a dynamic of like that Garfunkel and Oats song “you and me and me and you just us… and your friend Steve”
Jack meeting Frenchie (who in my mind is aspec in a QPR with John)
Frenchie talking about a fun night he and Wee John had and Jack immediately makes a sex joke.
And everyone just kinda stops and is like “hey dude, I know you probably don’t know this, but Frenchie is kinda uncomfortable with sex jokes and stuff so we don’t really do that…”
And Jacks just like “uh what??? What kind of a pirate doesn’t like sex?? Fucking and drinking, that’s the whole point!”
“Dude… don’t be a dick. Not everyone is super into sex.”
And Jack is just like “Well yeah no one is actually *into* sex. It’s just how you prove you’re the top dog.”
And everyone’s just like “… sorry what?”
“Yeah. You ever seen an alpha dog get on top of another dog to establish dominance? It’s just nature and shit, mate.”
Queue shock and horror from the crew who are all looking at eachother like … you hearing this?
So basically just… the idea of everyone sitting there, in the Galley or around lantern on deck, chillin. And there Jack is just like “…What? What did I say this time?” Because he thinks he accidentally said something offensive. Which is usually the case. And he’s… genuinely worried about it. Everyone is just staring at him.
And Oluwande just goes “Dude. That is so sad.”
At the same time as Lucius exclaims “What kind of sex are you having?!”
Jack is fucking mortified, flushing red. “I’ll have you know I’m really good at sex! Ask Blackie!”
Lucius, turning on Ed: “You’d BETTER not be the cause of this!”
Ed: “I have no idea what this is about either, mate! Jack - what the fuck?”
Jack: “Wait, you guys actually *like* sex??? That is SO gay!”
Anyway basically Jack’s worldview shatters, because as far as he knows every interaction, every intimacy, is obviously just a way to use someone to get ahead. Like his mother used to pretend to love her clients for a night to put food on the table, and he used to pretend Hornigold was a father figure to him to stay under his radar
And anyway his mother always used to tell him that she only kept him around to wash her bedding and in case she ever got the chance to ransom him back to his father.
And Hornigold kept him around because he was good at figuring out explosives.
And he’s never liked sex, and the people* he’s been with have always been “scratching an itch”, so he just sort of assumed everyone felt that way???
So he relays this to the crew and Ed and Izzy are just staring at him like he’s out of his mind.
Additional exchange between Jack and Izzy:
“What do you want?” Izzy throws his hands up in the air. “Do you want me to go back in time? Undo Ed’s choice to have me as his first mate? Do you want me to tie you to the mast, because it’s the only fucking way to stop you from running away? Huh? What do you want from me, Jack?”
Jack says nothing. Looks out at the ocean, like he’s trying to memorize it. “I’m sorry,” he says, then cracks a small smile - not a shit eating grin, or a cocky smirk. Something soft, that Izzy’s never seen on him before. “If it makes you feel better, Iz, if anyone could have fixed me - it would have been you.”