FicWad

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me," Jack sang tunelessly as his dingy rose and fell gently beneath him. He could feel the last rays of the setting sun warming his body as he lay there, bottom on the floor, back against one seat, legs flung over another. His hat was firmly in place over his eyes, shielding him. One hand lay on his stomach, fingers tapping to the song; the other hand kept the pole in place as he waited for a bite. "We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me hearties..."

"I turn my back on this world for three days and this is what you've become. Why am I not surprised?" a hauntingly familiar voice drawled, breaking into Jack's song.

He frowned. Pushed his hat back.

His eyes agreed with his ears. "Jamie?"

James Norrington gave him that beatifically sarcastic smile he was so well capable of. "Hello, Jack. You're looking well."

He sat up. Ran his eyes over James's body. Clean clothes, no beard, hair drawn back in a neat brown queue. Not in uniform, but not in dishabille either. A vast improvement on all accounts.

"So do you," Jack said. Cocked his head. Shrugged. "Considering." He leaned forward and poked James in the chest.

Solid flesh.

"I was led to believe, in a rather offhanded manner, in a comment not directed at myself but overheard nonetheless, that you, James Norrington--I'm not sure of the rank anymore, seeing as I've been understandably out of the area for quite some time--had left this too solid flesh for less fleshy parts of the hereafter," Jack said. He pulled his bottom off the floor of the boat and onto a seat, putting him across from the corporal specter.

James shrugged. "I come to you with compliments from Tia Dalma. Or, rather, the great, powerful, and beauteous Calypso, goddess of the sea. It seems that you, Jack, were a degree less reprehensible than the other brethren and never completely sought to use her to your own ends." He leaned forward, moving until their legs pressed together. "According to her, she expected you to pull some kind of misdirect when it came to handing over your piece of the nine pieces of eight."

Jack, who still wasn't entirely convinced he wasn't dreaming, jerked his shoulders in an approximation of a shrug. "Thought about it. Can never trust a man who keeps a monkey. Or Elizabeth. But, in the end, well. I know something about being imprisoned. Better a free and angry goddess with knowledge than a trapped woman with a temper."

"Really?"

"Apparently so," Jack said, smiling. He poked James in the stomach again.

James caught his hand. "I'm real, Jack. I'm here."

"Why?"

"Calypso demanded it of her new captain," James said with a shrug. "You were, are, apparently, a favorite. One who quite frequently uses others." He smiled. "And yet, somehow, those he uses, if they are deemed worthy, end up with what they wanted." James shook his head, those pretty green eyes that continued to dance in Jack's dreams, eyes that followed him to and from Davy Jones's locker, locked on to his own. "You wanted eternity. Eternity on the sea. And yet you gave it to Will."

Jack shook his head, waving his free hand as if to push away the words. "There's a job to do that comes with that ship. And only one day for every ten years ashore?" He snorted. "'s not the life for me, luv."

"'If I could sail forever with a crew content only to sail, with the promise of good food, and good rum, and means to purchase the necessities of life, then pirating wouldn't be necessary," James quoted. He touched Jack's face. "You would do anything to sail forever. Even ferry those lost at sea to their final destination. And you gave that up."

Jack pulled James's hand away. Kept it in his own. "Will is a responsible lad. A good man. Would do much better by the goddess. By the dead." He cocked an eyebrow. "Although why he let you up..."

"Believe you me, he fought. Oh, how he argued." James's grin lit up his face.

Jack wanted to taste that light. "Did he now?"

"Of course. The dead should stay dead. And, as I died to save his Elizabeth, should stay dead without having to put up with a lifelong annoyance." If possible, both the smile and the light intensified. "He thought she meant to release me to continue to hunt you down. And thought it unfair to both me and you."

"What did the dear old girl say to that?"

"I believe she is still laughing."

"And Will?"

The smile softened. James moved forward. One leg was between Jack's splayed ones; the other pressed against the outside. "Will, in the manner of all happily married men, wishes you joy."

He raised his eyebrows. Looked James over before meeting his eyes again. "Did he now?"

James nodded.

Jack thought about this unexpected turn of events. Looked over his shoulder to make sure Calypso wasn't there at his back, laughing at him. Checked over the side of the boat. The sky.

"It's just us," he said.

"It is," James confirmed. "And we're equals now. Neither of us is prisoner. Neither of us is in command of the other. We are free to do as we wish."

Jack removed his hat. Tossed it aside. "I am captain of this vessel, you do realize."

James smiled indulgently. Placed his hands on Jack's chest. Slid them up, under the heavy coat. Pushed the coat off, bringing his body close to Jack's. Knelt between his legs, raised his face. "Captain you may be. But to me, you will always be Jack. My Jack."

He lowered his face to James's. Just barely brushed lips. His forehead pressed against the silky smooth one, so fair, so clean. "Will you follow me to the ends of the earth, Jamie?"

"And beyond." Lips touched. Hands on Jack's neck. In his hair. "Time and again you've showed me that honor is not necessarily found in uniform. And Lord Cutler Beckett did much to prove that honor and respectability are not one and the same." Again with the feather-light touch, wet this time. Lingering. "I've died for honor. Let me live, now, free as well."

Live free. A gallant goal for any man. An epiphany for this one.

Jack pulled James to him. Captured his mouth in a proper kiss, hard, wet, full of teeth and tongue and hands tugging and pulling. Clothes pulled askew. Bodies lying awkwardly over roughened planks and rigging. Hot bursts of pleasure, fire skirting over skin. Groans and gasps and pretty, pretty lips falling open. Pale skin flush, perspiration sliding down silk. Tongues scrapping over sensitive patches, fingers twisting and heat building. Higher. Hotter. Pressure. Mounting. Faster and harder. Building, pressing, thrumming and....

Jack came. Loudly. Messily. Over James's face, his hand. Head thrown back, limbs trembling.

Sweaty and shaking, Jack fell against James's heaving body. Pressed his forehead against a sweat-slick chest. Rained down kisses between heaving pants.

"Is that what freedom is like?" James asked sometime later. The night wind blew over them, caressing their bodies.

Jack snuggled further into James's embrace, seeing warmth as the night chilled him. "Dunno. Everyone experiences it different."

"How do you experience it?"

Jack propped himself onto his elbow. James's eyes were on his face, unblinking. Curious and open. So unlike the guardedness of before when the chains of society and so-called honor had trapped him so.

"Freedom is... an open sea. A good bottle of rum. The stars at night, guiding your way. And, if you're very lucky," he added, finger tips tracing James's finely arched eyebrows, "someone by your side who isn't afraid to do the impossible once in awhile."

James's lips twitched. "What we just did, what I just felt. That was the impossible."

"Was it?"

"A moment of utter..." James shook his head. Shrugged. "Words fail me."

"Aye." Jack leaned down. Kissed him. "Aye, Jamie. Freedom. It 'tis the undiscovered country."

"And just as terrifying as death, in its own way." He frowned. Shifted his body closer to Jack's. "And yet... it's the most beautiful."

Jack took his hand. Kissed the palm of it. "Aye. That, my James. That it is."

Fin