This is one
of those, what I call, 'Brain Flash Fics'. You know, how a
story just flashes across your mind unbidden and demands to be written
no matter what else you might have going on at the time? I was making
icons for the Highlander episode Timeless and watching Pirates of the
Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, and the two melded
together to create this fic. Listening to the At World's End soundtrack helped a
lot too. You may recognize the title of the story from the soundtrack
as well.
It is sad, and it
is angsty, and I went through a pile of tissues writing it. But I hope
you enjoy it!
Rating: PG
Notes/Warnings:
Character death
Character(s):
Jack Sparrow/OFC, Methos
Summary: Methos
helps a newly immortal woman deal with the impending death of her
mortal husband.
One Day
by Ithildin
c. September 2007
“Charlotte,” the man’s voice said
softly from behind her. “I have done
all I can. There is nothing left now but to make him comfortable.”
She
didn’t respond, continuing to stare out at the ocean. But he waited, as
the summer night fell like a cloak all 'round. Waited for her
acceptance that her husband was dying. And for acceptance, finally, of
what she was. Of what they were.
The crickets and the
frogs had started their night song, blending with the music of the surf
below, the warm scents of the Carolina evening caressing the evening
air. Still, she was silent, and that silence became something akin to
an ache as it stretched out in the dark. Death warring with life, night
with dawn.
Finally she turned to him, reaching
out a hand, a
hand he took in a reassuring grip. There was no mystery to what she was
feeling. How many times had he, helpless, watched a mortal wife or
lover die? He remembered each and every one. Their smiles, their
laughter, and the sheen of their hair; Methos carried their memories
through all the ages.
“How long?” she asked, her voice
catching.
“He will be gone by the dawn. I am
sorry, Charlotte.”
She
nodded. “As am I, dearest Benjamin. After all, he was your friend
before I had ever met him.” Squeezing his hand, she took a deep breath.
“I should go to him.”
“I will stay.”
“You needn’t,” she protested, but
only half-heartedly.
“Yes, I do.”
“Thank you. For everything.” Forcing
a small smile, she gave his hand one last squeeze before going back to
the house.
“Everything is what I will always
give you,” he said softly into the night as she disappeared from view.
@_____________________________@
Sitting
gently on the edge of her husband’s bed, she unconsciously held her
breath as she looked for evidence that he breathed still. She choked
back a sob at the barely visible rise and fall of his chest.
“I
will not have you weep for me, Lady Sparrow,” he told her in a voice
that wasn’t much more than a whisper, his brown eyes opening. They had
lost none of their depth or power, even with age and illness. Charlotte
found herself held by his gaze just as she had that first time more
than forty years before.
Shaking her head, she caressed his
cheek. “I have not been that since we cast our lot with the Revolution.”
“Aye,
but it suits you nonetheless. You have always been my lady, my love.”
He fixed his eyes on hers. “Are you going to argue with a dying man?”
his voice strengthened, sounding more like his younger self than he had
in some months.
“No, Jack.” Smoothing back his hair,
she kissed him softly.
“That be something, I suppose. Seeing
as you’ve been a vexing and contrary woman from the first day we met.”
“Might
I remind you that you seized my ship! I believe I had more than some
small reason to be vexing given the circumstances,” she said primly.
He
took her hand in his. “That I’ll warrant, my love. That I’ll warrant.”
Sighing softly, he seemed to drift off into sleep. Charlotte placed her
free hand over his heart, devastated by the weakness of its beat. A
tear slipped down her cheek as she closed her eyes, fighting back the
grief that threatened to overwhelm her.
“And disobedient,” she
heard him say softly as his fingers brushed the tears from her face.
“We have had a good life, lass. We’ve lived every moment to its fullest
-- loved every moment. No one could ask for more; no man could ask for
more. Aye?”
Taking a shaky breath, she couldn’t
immediately
answer. “Aye,” she finally said. “I love you, Jack Sparrow. I will
always love you.”
“Always is a very long time, love;
especially for you.”
“I am so sorry!” she cried out, heart
breaking.
“For what?”
“We were supposed to grow old
together; till death us do part. It was not supposed to be like this!”
she exclaimed angrily.
“No!”
That one word was barked like an order from the captain on deck. “No,”
he said more gently. “That day when you took the shot that was meant
for me, when you died in my arms. That day, my heart died with you. And
then, beyond all hope, you were given back to me. Knowing you will live
on, that you will carry with you the memory of our love and life, that,
Charlotte, m’dearest one, that gives me peace.”
Taking a deep
breath that rattled in his chest, he coughed weakly. Charlotte pressed
a goblet of wine that Benjamin had mixed with medicine against his
lips. Jack grimaced a little at the taste. “Remind me to protest to Doc
Adams. Wine instead of rum! The man has no soul!”
Laughing softly, she settled him back
against the pillows. “I shall make sure to, husband.”
Once
more, he seemed to drift away. But this time, he didn’t immediately
reawaken. Charlotte didn’t know how long she sat at his side, his hand
in hers. Time no longer seemed to hold any meaning. Time, the enemy.
Time, the trickster. She wanted to rage and scream against this fate.
She was timeless, immortal, but totally powerless to stop the
inevitable march of Death this night.
@_____________________________@
She’d
fallen asleep, head on his chest, arms wrapped around his frail
shoulders. The feel of his fingers brushing through her hair woke her,
as it had countless times before in their years together. Swallowing
hard, the realization that this would be the last time struck home.
Then
the hand tightened and she heard his gasp of pain. Sitting up with
alacrity, Charlotte gripped his hand as the spasm of pain tore at him.
Reaching for the drugged wine, she held it to his lips, and he drank
weakly. Sighing he sank back into the pillows.
“I shall fetch
Benjamin,” she told him, setting the wine back on the bedside table. He
was slipping away, away from her, into the void.
“No, milady.
There is naught that the good Doctor can do for me now. We both know
that.” Shaking her head in denial, she looked away, even though she
knew he spoke the truth. “And I have said all to him that is needed,
and he to me. We have an accord,” he said with some satisfaction.
“An accord?” Charlotte looked at her
husband sharply. “In regards to what, might I ask?”
He
had closed his eyes, a smile settling across his lips. “Benjamin will
look out for your welfare when I am gone.” There was a squeak of
outrage at his pronouncement, but he ignored it. “It has all been
arranged.”
“He will do no such thing, Jack
Sparrow! You cannot hand me off to another man like… plunder!” she
sputtered.
One
eye cracked open and the slight smile of before was now fully formed
and smug. “Are you not?” This time it was a shriek of outrage. “Calm
yourself, lass. I’d not like you to be killing me before my time.” He
laughed weakly, obviously very pleased with himself. “A temper like
Calypso herself.”
She shook her head in long-suffering
exasperation. “Very amusing, I am sure!” Charlotte knew he’d wound her
up because it was one of his favourite things to do, and because it he
knew it would distract her. He never changed.
He just nodded, drifting away once
more. And once more, she sat at his bedside, waiting.
@_____________________________@
The
next time he opened his eyes, they were serious. “I do not want you to
set your heart away after I am gone, Charlotte. I have walked the lands
of Death before, and what is to come holds no fear for me. But
Charlotte, my love, what I do fear is that you will stop living your
life out of grief. I need to know you won’t be doing that. Remember our
years together with joy, and take that joy into the life you will lead
after I am gone. Do that for me, my bonnie lass, the one last thing I
will ever ask of you.”
Tears burned behind her eyelids, and
she blinked furiously, trying to hold them back. “I will try, Jack. I
will try.”
Then
he said something she never expected. “Benjamin loves you.” She looked
at him in shock. “Did you think I knew it not all these years?” And
then came the second shock. “And you love him.”
What was
between her and Benjamin had never been spoken of by either of them.
They both loved Jack, and what the two immortals felt for each other
didn’t require words. But she’d never realized that Jack had seen what
lay between them.
Shaking her head in vehement denial,
she took his hands in hers. “He… We… I never, Jack, I swear to God…”
Cutting
off her panicked rambling, he said, “I know that too. You have been
ever faithful to me, even when I became an old man and you were frozen
in that moment of your first death. And Benjamin would never betray
either himself or us in such a manner. But after I am gone, do not cut
him from your life out of some sense of guilt. Do not lock your heart
away in a chest, Charlotte. Live your life and be happy.”
This time, he didn’t scold her as she
started to cry.
@_____________________________@
It
was nearly dawn, the sky beginning to lighten, the first early birds
chirping sleepily outside the window. “Help me outside, dear heart. I
want to die with ocean air in my lungs, and the wind in my face.”
Nodding,
Charlotte helped him to the chair on the small balcony outside their
bedroom. He waved away the blanket she would have placed over him. “I
will not die like a withered old man,” he told her. “Now fetch the rum
from where you hid it in the wardrobe and drink with me.” At her raised
eyebrow, he added, “I think you will find the bottle a little less full
than when you placed it there.”
Laughing, she did as she was
bid, bringing back the bottle and one goblet. She took the goblet,
giving him the bottle, and he smiled his approval. Taking a deep swig
from the bottle, he sighed, sinking deeper into the chair. Charlotte
pretended not to notice as his lips tightened in pain once again.
Then Jack said, “A toast to my Lady
Fair, whose love is as vast and enduring as the sea.”
Charlotte
responded, “To my husband and most beloved pirate, Captain Jack
Sparrow. Long may you be remembered in story and song.”
“I’ll drink to that.” She could
barely hear the words, and she snatched the bottle of rum as it slipped
from his hand.
“Jack?”
she whispered, feeling for a pulse and finding one, though it was
barely there. Pressing her lips against his, she kissed him gently, but
with all the love she had in her heart. “My pirate,” she whispered
against his lips.
“Always, milady,” the words coming
out like a breath.
Charlotte
ran her fingers across the faded ‘P’ brand scar on his lower arm, then
kissed the inside of his palm. “Do you remember that last voyage to
China?” she asked softly, not really expecting a reply.
“Aye. We should go again, you and I.”
“Yes, we should.”
“If you promise not to get yourself
shot this time.”
“I promise.”
“Good girl.”
The sky continued to lighten. Soon,
it would be dawn.
“Charlotte?”
“Yes, Jack?”
“Tell Mr. Gibbs to lay in a course
for Tierra del Fuego; I feel like taking a real journey. What say you
to that?”
She
took a steadying breath before replying, “Aye, Captain. I would like
nothing better than to take another journey by your side.” The pulse
under her fingers grew weaker. “Nothing better,” she whispered.
“Ahhhh…
sweet freedom. The Pearl and the open sea, with you at my side.” He
took a deep breath and he smiled, then his spirit slipped away on the
dawn.
Charlotte stared out at the dawning
day, tears running
unnoticed down her face. As the sun broke across the horizon a flash of
brilliant emerald green light suffused the morning sky then was gone in
the blaze of a new day.
@_____________________________@
Epilogue
Pushing
away the black veil from across her face, Charlotte knelt down next to
Jack’s grave, rearranging the flowers that lay on the fresh sod.
Finally, after some unmeasured amount of time, a hand reached down to
her.
“It will be dark soon.”
“Yes.” Taking the hand, she let him
pull her to her feet.
Methos reached out a finger, wiping
away the tears on her face. “Let me take you home, Charlotte.”
She shook her head. “I won’t be going
back there, Benjamin. It isn’t home anymore, not without Jack.”
“Then
let me take you wherever it is you want to go.” His hand was now
cupping her face and for just a moment, she allowed herself to lean
into his touch. “Charlotte, I…”
“No, Benjamin, please don’t say
anything!” Pulling away from him, she reached into her pocket. “I’m
going away tonight, by myself. I cannot be with you. Not now… not yet.”
She could hear Jack’s voice floating on the wind Don’t lock your heart in a chest. Briefly, she closed her eyes. I’m sorry Jack, but I cannot do as you
asked.
“That
is not what he would have wanted for you, Charlotte. To be alone in the
world; removed from all that you love.” He raised a hand, as if he
would touch her, then stopped. “From those that love you.”
“I know,” she whispered, looking down
at the small box she now held in her hand.
Methos followed her gaze. “Jack’s
compass.”
“Did
you know he told me that after we met, it never worked for him again?”
Then her eyes met his. “I looked at the compass today, Benjamin.” She
pushed it back into her pocket.
He let out a snort of disbelief.
“This is madness! Do you mean to tell me that you are leaving because
of some superstitious twaddle?”
“If it makes you feel better
to believe that, then yes,” she replied coolly. Then her voice
softened. “Benjamin, please. You always tell me that there is time for
everything; that this unnatural life of ours is worth living. Prove
that to me now. Let me leave here tonight, by myself. Give me the time
to find my heart’s desire again.”
Taking her face in his hands, he
searched her eyes. “You do not know what you ask,” he said fiercely.
“Do I not?” Reaching up, she kissed
him then; passion mixed with grief. Then she whispered, “One day,
Benjamin, one day.”
Briefly, he closed his eyes as if in
pain, then he nodded, stepping away from her.
Methos watched her walk away, a
figure in black soon swallowed by the darkening sky. “One day, my
dearest Charlotte.”
End
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