Amnesty Fic #2
Feb. 20th, 2007 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onemuseleftTitle: It never had one. I just called it "the potc crossover"
Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho/Pirates of the Caribbean
Character/Pairing: Yuusuke, Botan, Will Turner, Jack Sparrow, assorted others. Pretty much all the PotC cast showed up at some point
Summary of Completed Fic: Essentially, this was supposed to pick up after the end of the first movie (written well before the second movie came out). For a variety of reasons, the method Jack and Will used to break the curse was only partially successful. Both of them are starting to be consumed by the curse again and it's affecting other things as well - like Will's unborn child.
Meanwhile, Koenma decides he really wants Jack's compass before it wreaks anymore havoc in the world, so he sends Yuusuke to get it back. Only he neglects to mention the "stealing it from pirates two hundred years in the past" part. That wacky Koenma. Yuusuke wakes up on Tortuga with no idea why he's there.
Why I Stopped Writing: Because this was written solely as amusement. Because it never would have worked within the context of the second PotC movie. Because it would have been better without the crossover aspect.
What I Would Change/Would Like to Continue With: I still like the PotC side of the story and may continue on with that at some point. The YYH side was totally gratuitous, though and didn't add a whole lot to the story (although having Jack and Yuusuke on the same ship was so much fun to write).
The moon reflected off the water, blue light lapping against the rocks as the tide eased out. Will Turner dug his toes into the sand stretched, rubbing out the kinks in his shoulders from a day spent wielding a hammer. The cove was cool and quiet this evening, a perfect place to shrug off the heat and strain of working a blacksmith's forge.
Behind him he could hear the rush and murmur of a town settling down for the night. Port Royal had its share of the nightlife, but nothing outrageous, not with the fort and Commodore Norrington overseeing the island. Most of the inhabitants would be sound asleep before the moon was even high.
Will held back a sigh and caught himself as his gaze drifted over the water. There was a merchant's ship, berthed out toward the mouth of the cove. They'd come in after dark and had set anchor rather than attempt the docks in the dark. Will wondered where they'd come from, and where they were going, and whether there was someone aboard who'd be willing to carry a letter if they were heading in the right direction.
Yes, yes, he scolded himself. Even if an honest merchant's vessel would be willing to go anywhere near Tortuga – which it wouldn't – the odds that they'd cross paths with Jack are slim to none.
It had been six months since the old pirate had last been around. He'd shown up at the house in the early morning, dressed as a nun of all things. He'd stayed three days – apparently the Pearl had gone out "fishing" while he was there, which Will took at face value – and had quickly tamed the household servants into terrified obedience. The governor had cooperated by not having him arrested, and Jack had shown his appreciation by stealing only half the silver and candlesticks he would have otherwise.
Elizabeth had loved every minute of it, Will remembered fondly. Jack had nearly talked them both into leaving with him, but Elizabeth wouldn't leave her father alone.
She must have suspected about the baby by then. Indeed, it was only a few weeks after Jack left that Elizabeth had come to him with the news. A baby has no place on a pirate ship. The pang in his chest no longer surprised him. He could recognize regret for what it was.
When the child is older, he told himself for the dozenth time. When the child is older, when Elizabeth is provided for, when your father-in-law has returned to England, which he is aching to do. Then you can find Jack. Then you can sail again.
Elizabeth knew he was wishing to be gone. Elizabeth had nearly sent him along with Jack six months ago, but now Will was glad he hadn't left. He'd stay to see his child born, then he'd go with Jack for a time, until the pirate's path brought them back to Port Royal.
Then, when the child was older and no longer as dependant, perhaps he and Elizabeth both could leave for a time. She missed the freedom of the sea as well. She missed Jack as well.
Will laughed quietly to himself as he reached for the flask of water dug into the sand beside him. There were many wives who sent their husbands out to sea for months at a time, but few who'd forgive them for wanting to be gone when they had no financial need. And fewer still who'd be willing to go as well.
He drank deep until the flask was empty, making a face as he tipped it back to get the last drop. The weather was so hot this time of year – he felt he was always thirsty, no matter how much he drank.
It was time to head home, anyway. The cook would have dinner ready, and the governor would be returned from the fort. Will pushed himself to his feet and started along the beach back toward the manor.
He was still a distance away when he heard the commotion, and saw the lights blazing in the manor house. He broke into a jog as he came up the beach, worry sinking into his stomach as he saw the front door wide open, and half the household staff gathered on the veranda. He opened his mouth to call to them, when one of the women saw him and gave a scream.
"Mr. Turner!" Katie, one of Elizabeth's younger maids, stared at him, a hand pressed to her breast, another fluttering over her mouth. "Mr. Turner, sir, I didn't realize it was you!" She looked shaky and frightened and the look only deepened as Will jogged up the steps. "In the moonlight, why – you looked half dead, sir!"
The words rang hollow in the back of his mind. "What did you say?"
"Will." The governor appeared in the doorway, grave and pale. The staff fell silent in the face of the master of the house, and Will stared at his father-in-law. The governor, normally a pleasant, happy man, even when his daughter was running about with pirates and marrying beneath her station, now looked tired and scared. "Will, it's Elizabeth. She's gone into labor."
"But the baby's not due for two more months," he said stupidly.
Governor Swann's face crumpled, and he held out his hand to clasp Will's arm at the elbow. "Come, my boy. She'll want to see you. She's… having a hard time of it."
"What happened?" Will demanded as the governor led him inside, past the group of huddled and nervous servants. The parlor was brightly lit; Will felt as if every candle and lamp in the whole house must be burning. It did nothing to dispel the growing darkness in his chest.
A desperate sound, half moan, half wail, came from upstairs, and Will could recognize Elizabeth's voice beneath the pain.
"My lad, I'm so terribly sorry." Governor Swann gripped both of Will's shoulders and forced him to meet his gaze. "Will, she's miscarried. The child-"
"No," Will denied. "No. She was healthy, she was-"
"There was too much blood, and the child is too early. The doctor says there is no hope for the child." The governor searched his face intently, his own eyes betraying grief. This was his first grandchild they had just lost, Will realized in some dim corner of his mind. His first grandchild.
Will's child. Dead. "Elizabeth?" he managed to ask through the tightening in his throat.
"She will need you now."
That was no answer, and Will knew it, recognized the look in the governor's eyes. There were no certainties yet.
They may still lose Elizabeth as well as the child.
A clatter of footsteps on the staircase broke the spell, and Will turned his head to gaze up as May, a cook who'd been with the governor since the crossing from England, hurried down the steps. "Governor Swann," she called. "Governor, the doctor sent me to get you."
"Come lad," the governor said quietly. "Brace yourself and come with me. May, are you leaving?"
The older woman nodded slowly. "Governor, the doctor told me not to set foot in that room again. I-" she bit her lip and wrung her hands, looking distraught. She had served the family since Elizabeth was a toddler, Will knew. She doted on Elizabeth. "I think something's terribly wrong, sir."
Will took the stairs at a run, as Elizabeth cried out again, a scream of pain that made May flinch and caught his breath in his lungs. He burst into the room he and Elizabeth had shared since their wedding and froze at the scene before him.
Elizabeth lay back against the pillows, sweat-soaked and drawn, her face pale and lined with pain. She wore only a simple shift, and the sheets beneath her were covered in blood. Her eyes were clenched shut and her breath was coming in rapid, desperate gasps.
The doctor knelt at the side of the bed, a cloth-wrapped bundle at his side. He stared up as Will burst in. "Close the door, Mr. Turner," he rasped.
The governor nudged Will all the way inside, and carefully closed the door behind them. "Doctor Harker, how is my daughter?"
The doctor spoke in measured tones, each word carefully pronounced and spoken as if he were afraid he might say the wrong thing. "She has lost a great deal of blood and the – trauma of the – miscarriage," he hesitated, shaking his head. "She should recover, but whether she will ever bear another child, I cannot tell you yet." He gestured toward the bed. "I have given her a sedative, and something for the pain. She should sleep as much as possible until she begins to heal. I am afraid that if she becomes hysterical she will hurt herself past the point of healing." He seemed to notice the bloodstained bed for the first time. "She will, of course, need to be cleaned, and moved to another room. I would recommend no one mention the baby until she herself brings the matter up."
"She will live?" Will demanded. He felt light-headed, as if only half the doctor's words were penetrating. "Elizabeth will live?"
"Your wife should recover," Doctor Harker stressed.
"The baby," Will said. His eyes caught on a bundle of blue cloth tossed carelessly across a chair by one of the windows. He recognized Elizabeth's gown from that morning. The material was dark, no stain showed. But the floor beneath it was streaked with half-dried blood.
Will clenched his hands until his nails bit into the skin of his palms. "What happened, Doctor Harker?"
"I- do not know," the doctor said quietly. "Mr. Turner, I have never seen anything like it."
Will frowned and the governor stepped past him. "Anything like what, Doctor?"
The doctor reached over to the small bundle of cloth beside him. "I have attended any number of births since arriving in Port Royal, Governor Swann. I have seen miscarriages, I have seen deformities. I – I do not know what happened to your daughter's child."
Will found himself crossing the room toward him, his legs carrying him without any conscious input from Will himself. He knelt beside the doctor, who looked away.
The red cloth covering the remains of what would have been his first child had once been a pillowcase. Will fought back an irrational anger at that – there had to have been something more appropriate, but the child was beyond any insult or sense of impropriety. He reached out and touched the cloth hesitantly, the pulled back the corner.
"It will not help you to see this," the doctor said quietly.
He pulled the cloth away.
"Oh, my God." The governor's voice was shaky and Will heard a thud as the man sat down heavily on a chair beside his daughter's bed. "Oh, my dear God."
The impossibly tiny form was obviously that of a child. But the flesh was mottled and dark, and bone showed through where the skin had rotted away completely.
"It could be that the child died some time ago, and her body simply did not abort it till now," Doctor Harkness said quietly. "Or it could have been a disease, some sort of deformity of which I am not aware. But Mr. Turner, Governor Swann, the Caribbean is rife with superstition. If the servants had seen – such rumors would not do Mrs. Turner any good at all. I thought it best to send the women away and send directly for you."
"You have done well," Will said quietly, through numb lips. "Doctor, I think you for saving my wife's life." He shuddered and carefully covered the small corpse again. "Governor-"
"I will take care of Elizabeth," governor Swann said quietly. "You take care of… the child."
Will carefully gathered the child up, making sure the pillowcase was wrapped securely around it. He hated himself for it, but he did not want to see it again.
"I'll run to the church," Harker said quietly. "We'll see the child put to rest tonight."
****
The moon had hidden behind the clouds by then, so they gathered together with lanterns and a torch.
The minister did not ask to see the child, but spoke softly over the tiny wrapped form, prayers to ease it into the next life, words of comfort to ease the minds of those who witnessed. Will dug the grave and kept his face down, concentrated on lifting one shovel full of earth after another until the grave was deep enough.
The child was buried in the silk christening gown Elizabeth had bought when she discovered she was pregnant.
Then the minister and Harker left, and Will leaned against the shovel and stared out over the ocean.
****
Yuusuke.
An unfamiliar man's voice, slurred and oddly-accented. "What's this, then?"
Yuusuke grunted irritably as someone's foot connected with his ribs and tried to flip him over. He rolled away from it and tried to pull the covers over his head, but his fingers only touched what felt like – straw? He frowned and found himself reluctantly waking. This can't be good.
Yuusuke.
The foot prodded at his ribs again and Yuusuke slapped at it irritably, connecting with a poorly-aimed hit that the owner of the offending foot probably barely felt. A raucous laugh was the only response and Yuusuke gritted his teeth in annoyance. Just what he needed. Someone interrupting a perfectly good hang-over.
Funny thing – he didn't remember drinking.
Must have been a hell of a drunk, then, he decided with the grim cheerfulness of the condemned. Keiko would kill him for sure.
But, straw? Where exactly had he fallen asleep last night?
He grit his teeth against a surge of nausea and rolled onto his back. He sensed the foot approaching again and grabbed it before it connected. He twisted, and was rewarded with a satisfying thud as the owner fell heavily enough to make the ground shake. Yuusuke yawned and forced his eyes open.
The first thing he saw – and really, he had almost no choice about it, considering the way the woman was leaning directly over him – was a huge pair of breasts. Yuusuke contemplated those for a moment, decided he'd seen better, and checked out the rest of the woman. A gaijin, a white woman, with hair nearly the same color as Kurama's and a tiny pointed nose. Her skin looked almost sickly pale, but her cheeks were bright red with makeup. Yuusuke looked further down and saw she was wearing a dress with huge billowing skirts and laces up the front. There was a word for that, but damned if he could remember what it was. He was pretty certain no one dressed like that anymore. "You alive down there, love?" she asked and it took Yuusuke a minute to realize she was talking to him and not her companion.
"I'm fine," Yuusuke assured her. He paused, then repeated himself. "I'm fine." No, that wasn't right. He crossed his eyes and tried to watch his mouth move as he said again, "I'm fine."
"Well, glad to hear it." The woman gave him a wary glance, obviously suspecting there was something not quite right about him. Yuusuke had clapped a hand over his mouth and was muttering phrases. She turned her attention to the man lying beside her and put her hands on her hips. "Come on, lover boy. Up you go."
Yuusuke sat up, folding his legs under him as her companion stood. The guy was huge, Twice Yuusuke's weight easily, and several inches taller, but little of it appeared to be muscle. Maybe once, but to Yuusuke's eye he had the look of someone who had gone to seed. If there was muscle on the man it was buried under several inches of fat. He carried a huge mug of something – something alcoholic from the smell of it – and he'd managed to keep from spilling it when Yuusuke knocked him over. Now he stood unsteadily, rocking slightly back and forth, and glared irritably at Yuusuke.
The woman slid an arm around his waist and pressed her impressive cleavage against the man's arm. "I thought we were going back to your place," she giggled, tugging at him. "Come on, love."
The promise of getting laid apparently outweighed the appeal of beating the crap out of Yuusuke. The huge guy just gave Yuusuke one last glower before stumbling off with his girl. Yuusuke hoped she was charging him by the hour.
"Yuusuke," he said experimentally. "Urameshi Yuusuke." Well, that came out all right.
Now that he was alone, he took a look around. He was lying on a pile of damp straw in the middle of an alley, between two small, stone buildings. It looked to be mid-afternoon, and at the mouth of the alley he could hear people shouting. But not a word in Japanese.
"Including mine," he muttered.
All right. So you're not in Tokyo anymore. He put out a hand to brace himself as he stood, pausing a minute to let the dizziness fade. And something tells me this isn't a hangover. Damn.
Yuusuke.
"huh?" He whipped his head around, overbalancing and nearly falling against the wall. "Oh, geez." He clapped a hand over his stomach. "Botan, whatever this is about, can it wait till I'm done throwing up?"
A scolding voice, right in his ear. "Be serious!"
Yuusuke yelped and staggered forward, then turned and pointed an accusing finger at the girl. "Don't do that!"
Botan crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes at him. In her pink kimono she looked completely out of place in the dank alleyway. "You've got a mission," she informed him.
Yuusuke nodded a little unsteadily. "Okay, fine. I'll go kill Koenma's latest evil god-slash-renegade tantei. But first, I have to find out where I am, what I did to get here, and whether Keiko's going to kill me for it." His eyes crossed briefly. "And why I'm speaking English. This is English, isn't it?"
"It is."
Yuusuke glared at her suspiciously. "Wait a minute. Why are you speaking English?"
Botan laughed nervously. "I mentioned you had a mission, right?"
"Botan…"
The ferrygirl had the decency to look sheepish. "It's very complicated, Yuusuke. When the opportunity came, Koenma just sort of took it. I'm sure he'd have warned you beforehand if he could have."
Yuusuke thought about that for a moment. "Where am I?"
"Tortuga."
He nodded. "And where is Tortuga?"
"The Spanish Main."
He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Okay. And the Spanish Main is?"
"In the Caribbean." She beamed. "About three hundred years before you were born."
"Right. I need a drink."
"No you don't." Botan grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Listen, Yuusuke, this mission is very important. I don't actually know why, or how, because Koenma said it was too important to go telling everyone and that if I knew I'd spill the beans to half the Spirit World before he was even done telling me, but he did tell me that it was very important and that I was to make sure you didn't pull any of your usual nonsense. So shut up and listen."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty." Yuusuke couldn't quite keep the defensive tone out of his voice.
"You look fifteen," Jack said critically.
"Comes in handy sometimes," Yuusuke said. "Makes people underestimate you, if they think you're younger than you really are."
Jack gave him a once over that was almost indecent. "I doubt you've ever needed much help getting people to underestimate you." While Yuusuke sputtered, he spun around on the ball of his foot, his sash flying out with the wind. "Mr. Gibbs!"
A stout, older man paused with an armful of rope. "Aye, Cap'n?"
"This is Mr. Yuusuke." Jack leaned sideways and presented Yuusuke with a flourish of his hands. "He is a strapping man, twenty years of age despite all appearances to the contrary who has been here in Tortuga for two weeks, despite being unable to name a single inn in town. He wishes to join our crew and sail off to a life of adventure and derring-do, although he is completely unable to tell the yardarm from the mizzenmast. He claims to be leaving no trouble behind him, though he does seem to have misplaced his personal effects, and most of his clothes." Jack gazed back at Yuusuke from beneath a curtain of beaded hair, and though he was not smiling, the pirate's dark eyes were laughing at him. "Does that about sum it up, lad?"
Yuusuke shrugged and grinned. "You forgot to tell them about my invisible girlfriend."
Jack clapped his hands delightedly. "How could I forget! A shipboard romance! Mr. Gibbs! Find Mr. Yuusuke and his invisible girlfriend a nice quiet nook in which to sleep!"
"Jack!" Anamaria's shout caught them both up short and they turned. The first mate was shoving her way through the crowd, dragging a young boy behind her.
Jack paused and smiled. "What's this, Anamaria? A new boyfriend?"
His first mate glared at him while the boy snickered behind her. "This lad's just come in off the Sea Mare-" Jack snorted disdainfully, to which Anamaria just shrugged. Yuusuke wondered if it was the ship itself or just the name they found so objectionable – "and he has some interesting information for us."
Jack smirked at the boy and waggled an uninterested hand at them both. "The Sea Mare is a mangy privateer ship captained by an even mangier dog whose idea of interesting news falls to which whore has the best stamina. And his crew, by all accounts, is not much more discerning." He smirked again for good measure and spun on his heel.
"He says they put over in Port Royal a few nights back." Anamaria said.
Jack spun back around. "Is that a fact?" His eyes narrowed and the boy took a hasty step backwards, then in a moment, the intensity vanished, replaced by his usual vague amusement. "Well then. We're always interested in news from the lovely, civilized, Port Royal." He perched at the edge of a nearby crate and assumed an air of boredom. "Do share."
The boy couldn't have been more than twelve, and small for his age at that. He looked back and forth between Anamaria and Jack, but if he was looking for reassurance, he was left wanting. "Well, Captain Sparrow, it's just rumors, you know. But I heard from one of the girls over at the Faithful Bride that you'd be willing to pay for word of the governor's family."
Anamaria's gaze locked with Jack's and something unspoken passed between them that Yuusuke couldn't discern.
"All right, lad, you've caught my interest." Jack spread his arms and leaned back so far he almost over balanced. "So, what ripe news of the Port Royal royalty have you?"
The boy beamed, obviously pleased to have won the pirate's interest. "The word on the docks is that the governor's daughter went into labor a week past."
Yuusuke bit his tongue. Who the hell cared about some girl having a baby?
"Is that a fact?" Jack said softly, and Yuusuke glanced at him surprised. There was something very hard beneath those words, something a little bit dangerous.
I wonder how well he knows the governor's daughter?
"Yes, sir!" The boy nodded. "The maids sent for the doctor in the middle of the night. They said you could hear the governor's daughter screaming for hours."
"And the young mother?" Jack asked. He sounded so unconcerned that he had to be interested.
"Not a mother anymore," the boy said promptly. "Babe was born dead, he was. They say," he leaned close and lowered his voice, "that the babe was more'n half skeleton when it was born."
Yuusuke, who had found himself leaning in to hear the boy's whispered words, jerked back in disgust. Anamaria's hand clamped down on his shoulder, holding him in place, and he craned his neck to look at her. The first mate was staring over his shoulder with grim eyes.
The captain had stilled at that last. Yuusuke didn't think he'd seen the man so still since he'd met him, even asleep.
"Crude gossip," Jack said finally, in a hoarse voice. "Barely worth attention, let alone coin." He glared when the boy tried to protest, but flipped a small coin toward him. It flew past the boy's ear and clattered on the stones. The boy scurried after it without looking back.
"Captain," Anamaria said urgently.
"Get Mr. Gibbs, Anamaria. Send him to my cabin. And gather the crew." He aimed a tight, mocking smile at Yuusuke. "You wanted to travel with the crew of the Black Pearl, boy? Well, you've got your chance. We'll be leaving Tortuga tonight."
****
Eventually they made it to Port Royal where they collected Will and Elizabeth and set off to return the gold to the Aztec gods it was stolen from in the first place. Yuusuke spent the second half of the story desperately avoiding Jack's compass so that he could stick around and help them break the curse.
"Yuusuke, please stop insulting the scary foreign gods!"
Although help is a subjective term.
Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho/Pirates of the Caribbean
Character/Pairing: Yuusuke, Botan, Will Turner, Jack Sparrow, assorted others. Pretty much all the PotC cast showed up at some point
Summary of Completed Fic: Essentially, this was supposed to pick up after the end of the first movie (written well before the second movie came out). For a variety of reasons, the method Jack and Will used to break the curse was only partially successful. Both of them are starting to be consumed by the curse again and it's affecting other things as well - like Will's unborn child.
Meanwhile, Koenma decides he really wants Jack's compass before it wreaks anymore havoc in the world, so he sends Yuusuke to get it back. Only he neglects to mention the "stealing it from pirates two hundred years in the past" part. That wacky Koenma. Yuusuke wakes up on Tortuga with no idea why he's there.
Why I Stopped Writing: Because this was written solely as amusement. Because it never would have worked within the context of the second PotC movie. Because it would have been better without the crossover aspect.
What I Would Change/Would Like to Continue With: I still like the PotC side of the story and may continue on with that at some point. The YYH side was totally gratuitous, though and didn't add a whole lot to the story (although having Jack and Yuusuke on the same ship was so much fun to write).
The moon reflected off the water, blue light lapping against the rocks as the tide eased out. Will Turner dug his toes into the sand stretched, rubbing out the kinks in his shoulders from a day spent wielding a hammer. The cove was cool and quiet this evening, a perfect place to shrug off the heat and strain of working a blacksmith's forge.
Behind him he could hear the rush and murmur of a town settling down for the night. Port Royal had its share of the nightlife, but nothing outrageous, not with the fort and Commodore Norrington overseeing the island. Most of the inhabitants would be sound asleep before the moon was even high.
Will held back a sigh and caught himself as his gaze drifted over the water. There was a merchant's ship, berthed out toward the mouth of the cove. They'd come in after dark and had set anchor rather than attempt the docks in the dark. Will wondered where they'd come from, and where they were going, and whether there was someone aboard who'd be willing to carry a letter if they were heading in the right direction.
Yes, yes, he scolded himself. Even if an honest merchant's vessel would be willing to go anywhere near Tortuga – which it wouldn't – the odds that they'd cross paths with Jack are slim to none.
It had been six months since the old pirate had last been around. He'd shown up at the house in the early morning, dressed as a nun of all things. He'd stayed three days – apparently the Pearl had gone out "fishing" while he was there, which Will took at face value – and had quickly tamed the household servants into terrified obedience. The governor had cooperated by not having him arrested, and Jack had shown his appreciation by stealing only half the silver and candlesticks he would have otherwise.
Elizabeth had loved every minute of it, Will remembered fondly. Jack had nearly talked them both into leaving with him, but Elizabeth wouldn't leave her father alone.
She must have suspected about the baby by then. Indeed, it was only a few weeks after Jack left that Elizabeth had come to him with the news. A baby has no place on a pirate ship. The pang in his chest no longer surprised him. He could recognize regret for what it was.
When the child is older, he told himself for the dozenth time. When the child is older, when Elizabeth is provided for, when your father-in-law has returned to England, which he is aching to do. Then you can find Jack. Then you can sail again.
Elizabeth knew he was wishing to be gone. Elizabeth had nearly sent him along with Jack six months ago, but now Will was glad he hadn't left. He'd stay to see his child born, then he'd go with Jack for a time, until the pirate's path brought them back to Port Royal.
Then, when the child was older and no longer as dependant, perhaps he and Elizabeth both could leave for a time. She missed the freedom of the sea as well. She missed Jack as well.
Will laughed quietly to himself as he reached for the flask of water dug into the sand beside him. There were many wives who sent their husbands out to sea for months at a time, but few who'd forgive them for wanting to be gone when they had no financial need. And fewer still who'd be willing to go as well.
He drank deep until the flask was empty, making a face as he tipped it back to get the last drop. The weather was so hot this time of year – he felt he was always thirsty, no matter how much he drank.
It was time to head home, anyway. The cook would have dinner ready, and the governor would be returned from the fort. Will pushed himself to his feet and started along the beach back toward the manor.
He was still a distance away when he heard the commotion, and saw the lights blazing in the manor house. He broke into a jog as he came up the beach, worry sinking into his stomach as he saw the front door wide open, and half the household staff gathered on the veranda. He opened his mouth to call to them, when one of the women saw him and gave a scream.
"Mr. Turner!" Katie, one of Elizabeth's younger maids, stared at him, a hand pressed to her breast, another fluttering over her mouth. "Mr. Turner, sir, I didn't realize it was you!" She looked shaky and frightened and the look only deepened as Will jogged up the steps. "In the moonlight, why – you looked half dead, sir!"
The words rang hollow in the back of his mind. "What did you say?"
"Will." The governor appeared in the doorway, grave and pale. The staff fell silent in the face of the master of the house, and Will stared at his father-in-law. The governor, normally a pleasant, happy man, even when his daughter was running about with pirates and marrying beneath her station, now looked tired and scared. "Will, it's Elizabeth. She's gone into labor."
"But the baby's not due for two more months," he said stupidly.
Governor Swann's face crumpled, and he held out his hand to clasp Will's arm at the elbow. "Come, my boy. She'll want to see you. She's… having a hard time of it."
"What happened?" Will demanded as the governor led him inside, past the group of huddled and nervous servants. The parlor was brightly lit; Will felt as if every candle and lamp in the whole house must be burning. It did nothing to dispel the growing darkness in his chest.
A desperate sound, half moan, half wail, came from upstairs, and Will could recognize Elizabeth's voice beneath the pain.
"My lad, I'm so terribly sorry." Governor Swann gripped both of Will's shoulders and forced him to meet his gaze. "Will, she's miscarried. The child-"
"No," Will denied. "No. She was healthy, she was-"
"There was too much blood, and the child is too early. The doctor says there is no hope for the child." The governor searched his face intently, his own eyes betraying grief. This was his first grandchild they had just lost, Will realized in some dim corner of his mind. His first grandchild.
Will's child. Dead. "Elizabeth?" he managed to ask through the tightening in his throat.
"She will need you now."
That was no answer, and Will knew it, recognized the look in the governor's eyes. There were no certainties yet.
They may still lose Elizabeth as well as the child.
A clatter of footsteps on the staircase broke the spell, and Will turned his head to gaze up as May, a cook who'd been with the governor since the crossing from England, hurried down the steps. "Governor Swann," she called. "Governor, the doctor sent me to get you."
"Come lad," the governor said quietly. "Brace yourself and come with me. May, are you leaving?"
The older woman nodded slowly. "Governor, the doctor told me not to set foot in that room again. I-" she bit her lip and wrung her hands, looking distraught. She had served the family since Elizabeth was a toddler, Will knew. She doted on Elizabeth. "I think something's terribly wrong, sir."
Will took the stairs at a run, as Elizabeth cried out again, a scream of pain that made May flinch and caught his breath in his lungs. He burst into the room he and Elizabeth had shared since their wedding and froze at the scene before him.
Elizabeth lay back against the pillows, sweat-soaked and drawn, her face pale and lined with pain. She wore only a simple shift, and the sheets beneath her were covered in blood. Her eyes were clenched shut and her breath was coming in rapid, desperate gasps.
The doctor knelt at the side of the bed, a cloth-wrapped bundle at his side. He stared up as Will burst in. "Close the door, Mr. Turner," he rasped.
The governor nudged Will all the way inside, and carefully closed the door behind them. "Doctor Harker, how is my daughter?"
The doctor spoke in measured tones, each word carefully pronounced and spoken as if he were afraid he might say the wrong thing. "She has lost a great deal of blood and the – trauma of the – miscarriage," he hesitated, shaking his head. "She should recover, but whether she will ever bear another child, I cannot tell you yet." He gestured toward the bed. "I have given her a sedative, and something for the pain. She should sleep as much as possible until she begins to heal. I am afraid that if she becomes hysterical she will hurt herself past the point of healing." He seemed to notice the bloodstained bed for the first time. "She will, of course, need to be cleaned, and moved to another room. I would recommend no one mention the baby until she herself brings the matter up."
"She will live?" Will demanded. He felt light-headed, as if only half the doctor's words were penetrating. "Elizabeth will live?"
"Your wife should recover," Doctor Harker stressed.
"The baby," Will said. His eyes caught on a bundle of blue cloth tossed carelessly across a chair by one of the windows. He recognized Elizabeth's gown from that morning. The material was dark, no stain showed. But the floor beneath it was streaked with half-dried blood.
Will clenched his hands until his nails bit into the skin of his palms. "What happened, Doctor Harker?"
"I- do not know," the doctor said quietly. "Mr. Turner, I have never seen anything like it."
Will frowned and the governor stepped past him. "Anything like what, Doctor?"
The doctor reached over to the small bundle of cloth beside him. "I have attended any number of births since arriving in Port Royal, Governor Swann. I have seen miscarriages, I have seen deformities. I – I do not know what happened to your daughter's child."
Will found himself crossing the room toward him, his legs carrying him without any conscious input from Will himself. He knelt beside the doctor, who looked away.
The red cloth covering the remains of what would have been his first child had once been a pillowcase. Will fought back an irrational anger at that – there had to have been something more appropriate, but the child was beyond any insult or sense of impropriety. He reached out and touched the cloth hesitantly, the pulled back the corner.
"It will not help you to see this," the doctor said quietly.
He pulled the cloth away.
"Oh, my God." The governor's voice was shaky and Will heard a thud as the man sat down heavily on a chair beside his daughter's bed. "Oh, my dear God."
The impossibly tiny form was obviously that of a child. But the flesh was mottled and dark, and bone showed through where the skin had rotted away completely.
"It could be that the child died some time ago, and her body simply did not abort it till now," Doctor Harkness said quietly. "Or it could have been a disease, some sort of deformity of which I am not aware. But Mr. Turner, Governor Swann, the Caribbean is rife with superstition. If the servants had seen – such rumors would not do Mrs. Turner any good at all. I thought it best to send the women away and send directly for you."
"You have done well," Will said quietly, through numb lips. "Doctor, I think you for saving my wife's life." He shuddered and carefully covered the small corpse again. "Governor-"
"I will take care of Elizabeth," governor Swann said quietly. "You take care of… the child."
Will carefully gathered the child up, making sure the pillowcase was wrapped securely around it. He hated himself for it, but he did not want to see it again.
"I'll run to the church," Harker said quietly. "We'll see the child put to rest tonight."
****
The moon had hidden behind the clouds by then, so they gathered together with lanterns and a torch.
The minister did not ask to see the child, but spoke softly over the tiny wrapped form, prayers to ease it into the next life, words of comfort to ease the minds of those who witnessed. Will dug the grave and kept his face down, concentrated on lifting one shovel full of earth after another until the grave was deep enough.
The child was buried in the silk christening gown Elizabeth had bought when she discovered she was pregnant.
Then the minister and Harker left, and Will leaned against the shovel and stared out over the ocean.
****
Yuusuke.
An unfamiliar man's voice, slurred and oddly-accented. "What's this, then?"
Yuusuke grunted irritably as someone's foot connected with his ribs and tried to flip him over. He rolled away from it and tried to pull the covers over his head, but his fingers only touched what felt like – straw? He frowned and found himself reluctantly waking. This can't be good.
Yuusuke.
The foot prodded at his ribs again and Yuusuke slapped at it irritably, connecting with a poorly-aimed hit that the owner of the offending foot probably barely felt. A raucous laugh was the only response and Yuusuke gritted his teeth in annoyance. Just what he needed. Someone interrupting a perfectly good hang-over.
Funny thing – he didn't remember drinking.
Must have been a hell of a drunk, then, he decided with the grim cheerfulness of the condemned. Keiko would kill him for sure.
But, straw? Where exactly had he fallen asleep last night?
He grit his teeth against a surge of nausea and rolled onto his back. He sensed the foot approaching again and grabbed it before it connected. He twisted, and was rewarded with a satisfying thud as the owner fell heavily enough to make the ground shake. Yuusuke yawned and forced his eyes open.
The first thing he saw – and really, he had almost no choice about it, considering the way the woman was leaning directly over him – was a huge pair of breasts. Yuusuke contemplated those for a moment, decided he'd seen better, and checked out the rest of the woman. A gaijin, a white woman, with hair nearly the same color as Kurama's and a tiny pointed nose. Her skin looked almost sickly pale, but her cheeks were bright red with makeup. Yuusuke looked further down and saw she was wearing a dress with huge billowing skirts and laces up the front. There was a word for that, but damned if he could remember what it was. He was pretty certain no one dressed like that anymore. "You alive down there, love?" she asked and it took Yuusuke a minute to realize she was talking to him and not her companion.
"I'm fine," Yuusuke assured her. He paused, then repeated himself. "I'm fine." No, that wasn't right. He crossed his eyes and tried to watch his mouth move as he said again, "I'm fine."
"Well, glad to hear it." The woman gave him a wary glance, obviously suspecting there was something not quite right about him. Yuusuke had clapped a hand over his mouth and was muttering phrases. She turned her attention to the man lying beside her and put her hands on her hips. "Come on, lover boy. Up you go."
Yuusuke sat up, folding his legs under him as her companion stood. The guy was huge, Twice Yuusuke's weight easily, and several inches taller, but little of it appeared to be muscle. Maybe once, but to Yuusuke's eye he had the look of someone who had gone to seed. If there was muscle on the man it was buried under several inches of fat. He carried a huge mug of something – something alcoholic from the smell of it – and he'd managed to keep from spilling it when Yuusuke knocked him over. Now he stood unsteadily, rocking slightly back and forth, and glared irritably at Yuusuke.
The woman slid an arm around his waist and pressed her impressive cleavage against the man's arm. "I thought we were going back to your place," she giggled, tugging at him. "Come on, love."
The promise of getting laid apparently outweighed the appeal of beating the crap out of Yuusuke. The huge guy just gave Yuusuke one last glower before stumbling off with his girl. Yuusuke hoped she was charging him by the hour.
"Yuusuke," he said experimentally. "Urameshi Yuusuke." Well, that came out all right.
Now that he was alone, he took a look around. He was lying on a pile of damp straw in the middle of an alley, between two small, stone buildings. It looked to be mid-afternoon, and at the mouth of the alley he could hear people shouting. But not a word in Japanese.
"Including mine," he muttered.
All right. So you're not in Tokyo anymore. He put out a hand to brace himself as he stood, pausing a minute to let the dizziness fade. And something tells me this isn't a hangover. Damn.
Yuusuke.
"huh?" He whipped his head around, overbalancing and nearly falling against the wall. "Oh, geez." He clapped a hand over his stomach. "Botan, whatever this is about, can it wait till I'm done throwing up?"
A scolding voice, right in his ear. "Be serious!"
Yuusuke yelped and staggered forward, then turned and pointed an accusing finger at the girl. "Don't do that!"
Botan crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes at him. In her pink kimono she looked completely out of place in the dank alleyway. "You've got a mission," she informed him.
Yuusuke nodded a little unsteadily. "Okay, fine. I'll go kill Koenma's latest evil god-slash-renegade tantei. But first, I have to find out where I am, what I did to get here, and whether Keiko's going to kill me for it." His eyes crossed briefly. "And why I'm speaking English. This is English, isn't it?"
"It is."
Yuusuke glared at her suspiciously. "Wait a minute. Why are you speaking English?"
Botan laughed nervously. "I mentioned you had a mission, right?"
"Botan…"
The ferrygirl had the decency to look sheepish. "It's very complicated, Yuusuke. When the opportunity came, Koenma just sort of took it. I'm sure he'd have warned you beforehand if he could have."
Yuusuke thought about that for a moment. "Where am I?"
"Tortuga."
He nodded. "And where is Tortuga?"
"The Spanish Main."
He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Okay. And the Spanish Main is?"
"In the Caribbean." She beamed. "About three hundred years before you were born."
"Right. I need a drink."
"No you don't." Botan grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Listen, Yuusuke, this mission is very important. I don't actually know why, or how, because Koenma said it was too important to go telling everyone and that if I knew I'd spill the beans to half the Spirit World before he was even done telling me, but he did tell me that it was very important and that I was to make sure you didn't pull any of your usual nonsense. So shut up and listen."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty." Yuusuke couldn't quite keep the defensive tone out of his voice.
"You look fifteen," Jack said critically.
"Comes in handy sometimes," Yuusuke said. "Makes people underestimate you, if they think you're younger than you really are."
Jack gave him a once over that was almost indecent. "I doubt you've ever needed much help getting people to underestimate you." While Yuusuke sputtered, he spun around on the ball of his foot, his sash flying out with the wind. "Mr. Gibbs!"
A stout, older man paused with an armful of rope. "Aye, Cap'n?"
"This is Mr. Yuusuke." Jack leaned sideways and presented Yuusuke with a flourish of his hands. "He is a strapping man, twenty years of age despite all appearances to the contrary who has been here in Tortuga for two weeks, despite being unable to name a single inn in town. He wishes to join our crew and sail off to a life of adventure and derring-do, although he is completely unable to tell the yardarm from the mizzenmast. He claims to be leaving no trouble behind him, though he does seem to have misplaced his personal effects, and most of his clothes." Jack gazed back at Yuusuke from beneath a curtain of beaded hair, and though he was not smiling, the pirate's dark eyes were laughing at him. "Does that about sum it up, lad?"
Yuusuke shrugged and grinned. "You forgot to tell them about my invisible girlfriend."
Jack clapped his hands delightedly. "How could I forget! A shipboard romance! Mr. Gibbs! Find Mr. Yuusuke and his invisible girlfriend a nice quiet nook in which to sleep!"
"Jack!" Anamaria's shout caught them both up short and they turned. The first mate was shoving her way through the crowd, dragging a young boy behind her.
Jack paused and smiled. "What's this, Anamaria? A new boyfriend?"
His first mate glared at him while the boy snickered behind her. "This lad's just come in off the Sea Mare-" Jack snorted disdainfully, to which Anamaria just shrugged. Yuusuke wondered if it was the ship itself or just the name they found so objectionable – "and he has some interesting information for us."
Jack smirked at the boy and waggled an uninterested hand at them both. "The Sea Mare is a mangy privateer ship captained by an even mangier dog whose idea of interesting news falls to which whore has the best stamina. And his crew, by all accounts, is not much more discerning." He smirked again for good measure and spun on his heel.
"He says they put over in Port Royal a few nights back." Anamaria said.
Jack spun back around. "Is that a fact?" His eyes narrowed and the boy took a hasty step backwards, then in a moment, the intensity vanished, replaced by his usual vague amusement. "Well then. We're always interested in news from the lovely, civilized, Port Royal." He perched at the edge of a nearby crate and assumed an air of boredom. "Do share."
The boy couldn't have been more than twelve, and small for his age at that. He looked back and forth between Anamaria and Jack, but if he was looking for reassurance, he was left wanting. "Well, Captain Sparrow, it's just rumors, you know. But I heard from one of the girls over at the Faithful Bride that you'd be willing to pay for word of the governor's family."
Anamaria's gaze locked with Jack's and something unspoken passed between them that Yuusuke couldn't discern.
"All right, lad, you've caught my interest." Jack spread his arms and leaned back so far he almost over balanced. "So, what ripe news of the Port Royal royalty have you?"
The boy beamed, obviously pleased to have won the pirate's interest. "The word on the docks is that the governor's daughter went into labor a week past."
Yuusuke bit his tongue. Who the hell cared about some girl having a baby?
"Is that a fact?" Jack said softly, and Yuusuke glanced at him surprised. There was something very hard beneath those words, something a little bit dangerous.
I wonder how well he knows the governor's daughter?
"Yes, sir!" The boy nodded. "The maids sent for the doctor in the middle of the night. They said you could hear the governor's daughter screaming for hours."
"And the young mother?" Jack asked. He sounded so unconcerned that he had to be interested.
"Not a mother anymore," the boy said promptly. "Babe was born dead, he was. They say," he leaned close and lowered his voice, "that the babe was more'n half skeleton when it was born."
Yuusuke, who had found himself leaning in to hear the boy's whispered words, jerked back in disgust. Anamaria's hand clamped down on his shoulder, holding him in place, and he craned his neck to look at her. The first mate was staring over his shoulder with grim eyes.
The captain had stilled at that last. Yuusuke didn't think he'd seen the man so still since he'd met him, even asleep.
"Crude gossip," Jack said finally, in a hoarse voice. "Barely worth attention, let alone coin." He glared when the boy tried to protest, but flipped a small coin toward him. It flew past the boy's ear and clattered on the stones. The boy scurried after it without looking back.
"Captain," Anamaria said urgently.
"Get Mr. Gibbs, Anamaria. Send him to my cabin. And gather the crew." He aimed a tight, mocking smile at Yuusuke. "You wanted to travel with the crew of the Black Pearl, boy? Well, you've got your chance. We'll be leaving Tortuga tonight."
****
Eventually they made it to Port Royal where they collected Will and Elizabeth and set off to return the gold to the Aztec gods it was stolen from in the first place. Yuusuke spent the second half of the story desperately avoiding Jack's compass so that he could stick around and help them break the curse.
"Yuusuke, please stop insulting the scary foreign gods!"
Although help is a subjective term.
