Never Learn by scheherezhad

Rating: PG

Summary: Will's been having nightmares.

Disclaimer: The mighty Mouse owns the characters and whatnot, I'm just borrowing. Please don't sue.

Author's notes: To my fabulous and wonderful moriavis, who made sure I saw the Gayest Feather Ever. Consider this a bit of recompense for a)never finishing that RL/SS fic, b)making you suddenly realize LXG was terribly slashy, and c)for arguing about whether you have legions of fangirls and pimps (even though you do). Muah.

Feedback: Please. Praise me, criticise me, outright flame me. I don't care; I just want to know what you really think. scheherezhad@yahoo.com

Before his grand adventure to rescue Elizabeth, Will Turner did not dream. He slept soudly and deeply, but when morning came, there were no strange images lingering behind his eyelids, no peculiar reminders of events that hadn't actually happened. That was why Elizabeth liked to tell him about her dreams; she thought it a terrible shame that he had none of his own.

After his adventure, however, Will began having nightmares.

Most began innocently enough, opening with him walking through town, arm in arm with Elizabeth, or him working at his forge, sometimes even with him watching Elizabeth walking down the aisle toward him at their wedding. The strange thing was, it was always night.

The dream he was having this night had begun at the wedding. He paced nervously through his dressing room, fussing with his clothing and waiting for his summons to the altar. It came in minutes, and he drew himself up, squared his shoulders, and made his way to stand before the priest. The music began, the people stood, then...Elizabeth appeared on her father's arm, smiling brilliantly.

He watched breathlessly as she approached in her white gown, and she finally reached him.

"Who gives this woman?" the priest asked pompously.

"I do," Governor Swann replied, placing Elizabeth's hand in Will's.

Elizabeth kissed her father lightly on the cheek, then turned to Will and promptly screamed. Her bouquet fell to the altar steps as she stepped back, trying to rip her hand away from his, and that was when Will looked down. He saw that he was standing in a pool of bright moonlight. Moonlight that revealed his true form.

Will Turner was a skeleton.

He awoke with a tight chest and a pounding heart, and when the dream images came back to him, Will began shaking. He stumbled from his bed and threw open his window's shutters, letting the moonlight stream into the room. Several minutes passed before he could convince himself that he was not cursed. It wasn't easy to go back to sleep.

In the morning, he went to visit Elizabeth to discuss their plans for after the wedding. She had already made all the plans for the ceremony itself, but they still hadn't agreed on where to go for their honeymoon trip. Will wanted to visit England, and Elizabeth was set on staying closer to Port Royal, preferring a vacation at a lavish country inn that would cater to their every desire so that they could spend their time on more romantic pursuits.

"I have spent the better part of nine years waiting to marry you, William Turner," she told him when he brought it up again, "and I plan to spend every possible moment afterward with you."

"But, Elizabeth, England. A chance to visit home again. I've checked, and there's a ship planning to set out two days after the wedding--"

"No, my handsome pirate, I'll not have us traipsing off across the ocean for months." And she'd kissed his nose lightly, ending the discussion.

He had the dream again that night, only this time, he didn't know he was a skeleton until he lifted Elizabeth's veil to kiss her.

The dreams continued to come as the wedding drew closer, and Will woke up every night and stood in the moonlight to prove to himself that he wasn't damned with the burden of pirate's gold.

On the night before the wedding, he had his worst dream yet. In this one, he and Elizabeth had been married for years and had five lovely children. He opened the door to the nursery to say good night to the children before they went to bed, and six skeletons draped in stolen gold and looted clothes grinned back at him. Three girls, a little boy, and Elizabeth holding a baby's bones to her decayed breast.

It was the only night Will awoke with a scream.

He jerked upright and tossed aside his bedclothes, desperate to get into the moonlight, but he realized it was raining out. There would be no moon tonight. He made to open the shutters anyway, but they parted of their own accord before he was halfway to them. A dark, wet figure clambered in and landed on the floor with a thud, making Will jump.

Out of instinct, he grabbed a sword and brandished it at the intruder. "Stay where you are."

"Now, now, lad. Don't you remember what happened last time you pulled a sword on me?"

Will started. "Jack?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow. How many more times 'm I going to have to tell you before you learn?"

"What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in almost a year, and suddenly you're climbing in my window in the middle of the night." He put away his sword and lit a lamp as he spoke. "Dripping wet, as well," he added, seeing the puddle Jack was leaving on the floor.

"Well, I couldn't very well come in in the middle of the day, now could I? Commodore'd clap me in irons an' toss me out wif them other pirates out past the harbor."

"Or at least he'd try. You're Captain Jack Sparrow, and you'd weasle your way out of it somehow." Will handed the other man a large cloth to dry himself with.

Jack made a twirly gesture with the hand he held the cloth in. "Now you're gettin' it, lad."

"You didn't answer my question. Why are you here? And on tonight of all nights! I'm to marry Elizabeth tomorrow."

"I came back for the one what got left behind, savvy?"

Will sat down on the bed, leaning forward with his arms across his knees, and said, "I thought those who fell behind were left behind. I also would have thought that would especially hold true when one has been left behind for a year. Why are you really here?"

Jack rolled his eyes and addressed the ceiling. "Why is it a man can tell the truth an' get accused of lyin', but when he lies, everyone thinks it's the truth?" He looked back at Will. "I came back for you, Will Turner. The Pearl needs a first mate, and there hasn't been a one she's liked better'n you."

"Even though I never was actually her first mate?"

"Don't be thinkin' you know better than the Pearl what she wants. Now are you coming or not, Will?"

"I told you, I'm to marry Elizabeth tomorrow," he replied rigidly. He felt bad when he saw the disappointment on Jack's face, but the look was gone a second later as Jack made to clamber back out the window.

"And here I'd thought I could make a real pirate out of you like ol' Bootstrap. But if you're stubborn enough to stay on land, that's your own curse."

Something clicked in Will, not quite enough to see, but enough to feel. Then Jack was gone, and Will resolutely closed his shutters and went back to bed. He had a wedding in the morning.

"...that's your own curse."

Elizabeth swatted at her maids' hands as they tried to tie her corset off too tightly again. "I'd like to be able to breathe to say my vows, you know."

A younger serving girl came rushing in just then. "Oh, Miss Swann, they made me come up to tell you, and it's just horrible, so I begged them not to make me be the one to tell. I know you'll be just terrible upset about it, and on today of all--"

"What?" Elizabeth interrupted, her blood rushing in her ears.

"Mister Turner, he's...he's gone. The valets went 'round to collect him this morning, and he'd disappeared. Some of his personal effects were gone, and his newest swords have gone missing from the smithy. I'm so sorry, Miss Swann."

Elizabeth immediately sank into a chair, blinking helplessly against the tears. It must have been the pirate blood in him.

Seven months later, Will Turner was indeed the best first mate the Black Pearl had ever had. He'd realized when he woke up to get ready for the wedding that Jack had inadvertantly told him exactly what those dreams meant: by staying with Elizabeth, he was cursing himself to a life of unhappiness that would have eventually overtaken the entire family.

Throwing what he couldn't bear to leave behind into a pack and grabbing a few swords, he'd taken off. Jack couldn't have gotten very far, but even if he had, Will would have caught up somehow, even if he'd had to row after the Pearl himself. Fortunately, he had found Jack lounging in a boat at the shore when he reached the docks.

"Where's that pretty head gone off to now, love?" the real Jack asked, pulling Will out of his reverie.

"Nowhere far," he said, settling into Jack's side when the man wrapped an arm around his waist. "Just thinking about the moment I realized I was in love with you."

"And just when would that have been?"

"When I came back to the ship and you told me you would have come back to Port Royal every year until I joined you. How could a man say no to that?" Will turned to embrace his lover. "I love you, Captain Jack Sparrow."

Jack swept the young man into a kiss, then pulled back and tapped him lightly on the cheek. "I love you, too, whelp. But it figures you'd finally call me Captain when you should just be callin' me Jack."