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“Will, watch out!” Elizabeth shouts, sprinting over on the rain-slick deck with her sword in hand. She raises it, deflecting the blow that surely would have cut her fiancé down.
Will turns, sparing a quick glance over his shoulder before going back to fighting his own pirate. “What did you want to do when we get to town?” He runs the pirate through with his sword, shoving the dead man back with a kick.
“I don’t know!” She responds, standing back to back with Will now. They spin around in a well coordinated motion, as if they had been doing this for a lifetime, the sharp sound of swords colliding follows shortly after. “Maybe we could find a hotel? Or a Tavern? I’m sure that after all this, we’ll be able to sleep like the dead!”
They should have been in Tortuga ages ago. However, when they were about to pull up to the docks, they were attacked by a rival band of pirates.
Who were looking for Jack Sparrow.
Always Jack Sparrow.
Will laughs, moving up the stairs to the captain’s wheel, where Gibbs had been overrun with the rival group long ago. “I’m sure that I can sleep anywhere as long as it’s with you!” He slashes at the pirate that was threatening to send Gibbs overboard, throwing him into the water instead.
He chances a look at the deck, the rain pouring down impossibly harder now. It seems that they were finally gaining the upper-hand.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Will whirls around. His sword raised and-
All air is immediately knocked out of him as a dagger is shoved deep into his gut. The pirate before him grins, eyes wide with chaos and bloodlust. Will tries to heave in a breath, but the pain only grows as the pirate drags the dagger across his abdomen.
“Come here you mangy bastard!” Gibbs shouts, running across the wood at full speed. He tackles the pirate cornering Will against the railing, stabbing him and pinning him to the deck. The older man stands quickly, looking towards the younger. “You alright, Mr. Turner?”
Will turns, hopefully hiding the blood that was beginning to spread across his shirt. He grips the dagger with a trembling hand, yanking it out in one swift move. His breath catches in his throat as suppresses a groan of pain. “I am- I’m fine!” He responds, hopefully keeping his voice as even as possible. “Go help the others!”
“With your wife in charge, I doubt that they will need it.” Gibbs chuckles, descending the stairs as quickly as he possibly could with all the rain running down them. “But you got it!”
The younger man watches as the skirmish slowly comes to a close, bodies falling and being thrown into the water in every direction. He doesn’t quite register when he falls to his knees but all he knows is that one second he was on his feet, and in the next he definitely was not.
“Will!” He hears Elizabeth calling out for him and he tries to pull himself into a standing position. However, the railing was too slick from the rain and his grip fails almost immediately.
Attempt after attempt, there was no success.
Will tries calling for her in turn, but his words were caught and carried away with the sound of the rain. So, he decides in his ever-growing wisdom, to drag himself.
He stabs the dagger into the wood, pulling himself forward.
Inch by inch.
“Will?” Elizabeth calls out again, her voice becoming more frantic. “Will! Where are you?”
Another stab.
Another inch.
Will hears other members of the crew calling out for him now, but he cannot answer them. He needs to focus.
He cannot lose the momentum that he worked so hard to build.
Stab.
Inch.
Stab.
Inch.
Will groans, a surge of pain flashing through him. He’s almost to the stairs now. He can do this. He can make it.
Stab.
Inch.
When he finally arrives at the stairs, it’s almost as if he were standing on the edge of a canyon. The distance from here to the rest of the crew seems almost insurmountable.
“Will!”
Will stabs the dagger into the railing, one arm hauling himself up while another wraps around his midsection. He takes one careful step down. One down.
A couple more to go.
He dares to take another one and almost immediately regrets it.
His knee gives out and he falls down the stairs in a clatter, limbs flailing for something to grab until he lands in a heap at the bottom.
Will lays there for a moment, staring up at the sky above him. The rain is still falling, but now at a much diminished rate.
“Mr. Turner?” A concerned voice asks, one that Will distantly recognizes as Gibbs. He turns towards it, watching as horror dawns across the older man’s face. “Ms. Swann! Here! I’ve found him!”
Gibbs kneels at his side, shouting something that Will is unable to make out. A crowd gathers around the duo moments later, and he looks around, searching for Elizabeth. “Where…”
“I believe that she was searching for you below deck.” Gibbs looks up, eyes hardening into one of authority. “You! Go find Ms. Swann! And you, you lazy bastard, take the wheel and dock us!”
There were sounds of feet pounding on the deck as Gibbs’ orders took effect. The older man looks down at him. “You’re a better liar than you would like to portray yourself.”
“Well, I have-” Will winces, huffing a pathetic excuse for a laugh. “I have learned from the best.”
A bag, one that Will recognizes as the one storing their basic medical supplies, is dropped next to his head. Gibbs rifles through it, looking at the man who’d dropped it. “Where’s the rum?”
“What rum? There’s no rum!”
“Then what are you hiding behind your back?”
“Nothing, sir! It’s just-” The man looks between Gibbs and the converging crowd. “Oh, fine! Here!”
The bottle is tossed to Gibbs, who catches it just before the glass hits the ground. He reaches into the bag and pulls out a needle and thread, dousing the small piece of metal in the newly acquired alcohol. Harsh, cold air stings at Will’s body as his shirt is torn away. “Mr. Turner, what could have possessed you-”
“I was fine.” Will interrupts, watching as Gibbs threads the needle.
“You won’t be once Ms. Swann sees the state that you’re in.” Gibbs grumbles, holding the bottle tight in his hand. “This is going to sting.”
“What’s-” The scream that erupts from Will’s throat as the alcohol was poured over his wound was so loud that he was sure that it’d be heard from coast to coast and across all the seas. His fingernails dig into the wood beneath him as tears gather in his eyes.
“Will!” Elizabeth’s voice cuts through the ringing in his ears. A hand tightly grasps his own and he flops his head over to look at her. The same horror that spread across Gibbs’ face moments earlier speedily finds a home on her features. “What’s happened?”
Will winces as the needle is pushed into his skin, slowly piecing him back together. “Your husband is a self-sacrificing liar.” Gibbs responds gruffly, continuing about his work.
“Self-sacrificing…” Elizabeth turns the words over, eyes flicking down to look at him. “Will, you didn’t.”
Will blinks, trying to get his vision to focus on the figure above him. Nausea rolls through him in waves, threatening to drown him.
And Elizabeth must notice his struggle also, because her voice becomes frantic once more. “Will? Will, hey. Look at me. You’ll be alright. Just stay awake, you hear me? Stay. Awake.”
Will grips her hand tighter, trying to take as deep of a breath as he could. He’d do anything she asked of him, so he tries to comply.
He really, really tries.
But there is not much that he could do to fight against the blackness encroaching on his vision. “‘lizbeth…”
Will numbly feels hands on his face, her voice still continuing to cut through the fog. “Will, please stay with me. Don’t go where I can’t follow.”
— — — — — —
Will wakes with a start, chest heaving as pain explodes across his abdomen. A damp cloth falls into his lap, having been jostled from its former place on his forehead. His eyes wander down to find the source of the pain, and they quickly spot the snugly wrapped white bandages encasing his torso.
He tries to swallow- anything to rid himself of the dryness in his throat. It only makes matters worse.
Will now feels as if he’s swallowed a glass full of… well, glass. He leans back now, slowly reclining himself back into a horizontal position.
He tries to think.
He’s injured. That much is obvious.
And sick, judging from the cloth that is now clutched tightly in his right hand.
What happened?
Last that he knew, the Black Pearl was headed for Tortuga. He and Elizabeth were intending to take a well deserved vacation and then depart from there.
Where were they going after that?
Not even they knew.
Will blinks, trying to clear the fog that has taken over his mind. Nothing.
C’mon, man. Think.
“You don’t get injured lounging around on deck…” He mumbles to himself, taking as deep of a breath as he could. “I-”
“You do get injured when you get stabbed and neglect to tell anyone.” A voice says from the doorway. A voice that Will knows very well.
And one that he couldn’t ever forget.
Will turns towards it, trying to clear his throat once again. “Elizabeth…” He croaks, her name reduced to nothing more than some broken and mangled thing.
Elizabeth steps forward, the stress that this situation has brought her becoming evident. Her hair was messy and splayed out in nearly every direction. And her eyes now have dark shadows residing beneath them.
She takes a seat at the edge of the bed, carefully guiding a glass of water to his lips. Will drinks it thankfully, sighing as the liquid eases away the soreness in his throat.
“What’s happened?” He asks quickly. “Where are we?”
Elizabeth reaches forward, brushing away some of the hair that had fallen into his face. “We arrived in Tortuga about two days ago.”
Two days…
“Two days? Elizabeth- what?”
“You were stabbed by a rival gang of pirates who were looking for Jack. You didn’t think to tell anyone that you had been injured until the skirmish was over.” She places the cloth back on his forehead. “Mr. Gibbs had to stitch you up on the Pearl. He sends his apologies about his needlework.”
Elizabeth moves to get up but Will reaches out with a clumsy hand, encasing her hand with his own. He blinks against the oncoming wave of exhaustion. “Are you alright? You are not harmed?”
“I’m alright.” She responds quickly, simply. Her eyes watch him for a moment, making him feel as if he’s on display for anyone to see. “You should rest. The fever has only just broken.”
“Stay with me?”
“What?”
“Stay with me.” Will swallows, not letting go of her hand. “I doubt that you have allowed yourself to sleep much while… while I…”
Elizabeth’s features soften, watching Will yet for another moment before she slots herself in beside him. She rests her head on his shoulder as if the spot was made for her. “You’re foolish, you know that?”
Will chuckles weakly, a small smile crossing his face. “If I did not before, I certainly know now.” He grabs her arm, gently draping it across him.
Something in the room changes. Something that could have been missed if they didn’t know each other so well.
“Elizabeth?” He presses into the silence. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“You’ll be here when I wake, right?”
Will smiles softly, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Always.”
