A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 6 Tortuga

Jack was busying himself tying ropes, when Will said sharply: "I'm not a simpleton, Jack. You knew my father."

Annalise joined them on the deck as well, though she kept her distance in order to let Will have his answers at last. Will stared down at Jack, waiting, and Jack sighed, before he stood back up.

He turned to face Will as he finally admitted: "I knew 'im. Probably one the few who knew him as William Turner. Everyone else just called him Bootstrap or Bootstrap Bill."

He turned and walked to the wheel, leaving Will frowning in confusion as he repeated: "Bootstrap?"

"Good man." Jack added shortly as he removed the rope holding the wheel steady. "Good pirate."

Annalise blinked, while Will turned to Jack sharply. Jack turned to Will, adding on as though unaware of the bomb he'd just dropped on the younger man: "I swear you look just like him."

He then turned back to face the front while Will growled angrily: "It's not true. He was a merchant sailor. A good, respectable man who obeyed the law."

Annalise bit her lip, while Jack rolled his eyes before turning back to Will as he snapped flatly: "He was a bloody pirate, a scallywag. Look, even your friend believes me, why can't you?"

He gestured at Annalise as he turned back to the front, and Will shot Annalise a look of surprise just as she tried to school her features. Because she did believe Jack.

There had been that small bit of doubt, starting from when she had realized Jack knew Will's father, because it hardly made sense that the infamous Jack Sparrow would recognize Will's face based on his father's if Bill Turner had been the respectable sailor Will had always believed him to be.

Will's jaw locked and his scowl deepened as he read all this in his childhood friend's apologetic grimace, before he looked back down at Jack as he snapped at both his travelling companions: "My father was not a pirate!"

He drew his sword sharply, holding it to Jack's neck.

Annalise flinched slightly at the move, taken aback by Will's anger, but Jack didn't even blink as he said calmly, staring at the front of the ship: "Put it away, son. It's not worth you getting beat again."

Annalise glanced between them in surprise, while Will growled: "You didn't beat me. you ignored the rules of engagement. In a fair fight, I'd killed you."

"Then that's not much incentive for me to fight fair, then, is it?" Jack retorted as he glanced back at Will before he suddenly swung the wheel around.

Annalise stumbled, falling right into Jack's arms and he brought her down with him as he ducked as one of the sail yards swung around over their heads. Will wasn't quick enough to move out of the way, and he grunted as the yard caught him right in the stomach, causing him to drop his sword and instead cling desperately to the wood as the yard swung out over the ocean.

"Will!" Annalise exclaimed, reaching for the wheel in alarm in an attempt to swing her friend back to safety.

But Jack grabbed her arm and hauled her physically with him as he grabbed Will's fallen sword and pointed it at Will.

"Now, as long as you're just hanging there," he said to the younger man sarcastically while ignoring the protesting woman behind him, "pay attention."

Will grunted as he struggled to hang onto the yard while Jack continued calmly: "The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do."

Annalise glared at Jack, but he went on as he looked at Will: "For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that someday."