the Dalaverse

This is already up at ff.net. I wrote it on a whim and it's super-short.


"A Harbor in the Tempest
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Disney



She is awakened by both of them dreaming, on either side of her. Jack twists and flails, mumbling in a voice that is quiet but nonetheless breaks the silence of the cabin. Will shivers, his hands tunneling underneath her body. She decides to deal with him first. He has thrust his head under his pillow and she pulls it away, baring his face. She strokes him with gentle fingertips, along the curve of his ear, the pads of her fingers unconsciously checking his pulse. It quickens and then slows as he comes out of the nightmare. He blinks up at her, skin turned shadowed gold in the light from the candle they always keep burning. With a grateful sigh he pulls her close, kissing her neck through her hair.

Jack says “No!” to whomever he is fighting off and they both turn their heads toward him. It isn’t unusual for them to share dreams with a common theme; Elizabeth knows that had she not woken up, she most likely would have joined them both. She dreams often of the Black Pearl as it came into her view eleven years ago, rising out of the mist, skeletal like its unseen crew. Barbossa’s hateful monkey almost always makes an appearance, screeching, its skull shining dirty ivory under the light of the moon as it paws at her body and tugs at her hair. After all the things she’s seen, she still hates that tiny creature with a passion.

Jack always makes her describe what she dreamt aloud, which helps to dispel it, though not as much as their hands on her skin after she has finished. Will does not reveal his dreams, and they both know that Jack is always visited, at the end of his night’s wanderings, by the sight of Bill Turner rotting in the depths. She asked him once why he dreams of something he wasn’t there to witness and Will answered for him: it is because he wasn’t there that he dreams about it.

Now Will shifts beside her, stretching one leg across them both and pulling himself over to lie on Jack’s other side. He brushes Jack’s tangled hair away from his face while she takes hold of one Jack’s hands and squeezes it. Her other hand finds Will’s on Jack’s stomach. She’s glad he is awake; she knows she can’t banish Jack’s demons on her own.

“Jack,” Elizabeth murmurs, her lips at his throat, “you’re only dreaming.”

Will slides both their hands under the material of his shirt, against his skin. “Come back to us.”

He starts awake, needing a moment to orient himself before he relaxes under the their touch. Then he slides one hand behind Elizabeth’s neck, drawing her head down to cradle against his chest. With his other arm he pulls Will in against his side.

She can remember thinking that this would be difficult – that as badly as she wanted it, in the end the blood and sweat and salt tears would overcome her.

Jack is kissing Will now while tugging her nightgown down over her shoulders, baring her flesh to the chill air. He presses his mouth to her breast to warm her, Will’s hand snaking over his shoulder to caress her cheek

It isn’t difficult. It is the easiest course she has ever taken. The three of them guide one another through the rocks in the shoals with the same graceful effort it takes to sail the ship.

Elizabeth has learned how to sail from Jack, and from Will; as she slides onto the one and the other tightens his arm around her, she tells them both how much she loves them for it.



Told you it was short.