Oedipus Jack
Title: Oedipus Jack
Author: Tiamary
Pairing/characters: J/E
Rating: Mature
Summary: Jack returns to Shipwreck City to find out if the rumor about his father’s recent marriage is true.
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Disney, and I am making no $ from this fic.
Warnings: Language, violence, drug abuse
Author's notes: PoTCfest challenge: From round one, #7: Jack and Elizabeth, knowingly adulterous, dirty talk
Chapter 6 - The Teague family tension boils over at the Sunday Feast. PLEASE NOTE: Posting Errors fixed, and the paragraphs are now in the right order.
Chapter 6
Elizabeth wondered if she’d be going to the Great Hall alone tonight. It was Sunday, when many of the pirates enjoyed thumbing their noses at the notion of observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy by gathering for a riotous feast. French accordion players on one end of the hall competed with Spanish guitarists on the other end for dancers and adulation, while most of the company ignored the musicians in favor of singing sea shanties in their various native tongues, at the top of their lungs, and deliberately out of tune. That is, when they weren’t busy swallowing rum and ale in massive quantities.
It wasn’t Elizabeth’s favorite way to spend an evening - she enjoyed the food and music but not the rampant drunkenness and misogyny - but it was a distraction from mourning her child and living with a man she didn’t love. Teague preferred the quiet of makeshift opium dens to drunken revelry, so he viewed the weekly feast as his generous concession to the interest of his wife’s happiness.
However, it was after 8:00 on this particular Sunday, and Teague was still sleeping it off. Elizabeth donned breeches and a jacket as she always did when she went out alone - men’s’ clothes made self-defense much easier - and was just about to make her way down the stairs when Teague awoke.
“Are you coming to the hall?” Elizabeth asked him.
“Oh er…yea. Got to wake meself up a bit. Where’s me snuff?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes as he fumbled in his pockets and found a miniature box filled with a powdered stimulant of some sort. It was as if he’d made a pact with one of the more sinister gods, a pact that protected his life but not his health or character, resulting in ever-increasing degeneracy of body and spirit.
“Right then, bitch. We’re off then.”
“I’ve told you not to call me ‘bitch.’”
“I mean it as a compliment, bitch,” he leered almost good-naturedly as he gave her bottom a half-hearted slap. Elizabeth curled her lip but chose to say nothing more. She had reason to hope this situation wouldn’t last much longer.
&&&&
Jack Sparrow sat in a hard wooden chair at Shipwreck Tavern watching Hal, Annie, and a handful of ragtag pirates whose name he didn’t bother to remember play deuces wild. He’d spent yesterday’s winnings on sweetcakes and rum fifteen minutes after quitting that game, and this evening he’d bet and lost the one lira remaining from the coins Elizabeth had given him. So he was flat broke. He wasn’t touching what he now thought of as The Baby Gold.
“Joining us for the feast after this, are you Jack?” Hal said.
“Aye, if I can drink without paying.”
“You know your money’s no good here. It’s an honor serving the great Captain Jack Sparrow.”
“’Preciate that, mate.” Jack was beginning to admit that being a hero had its advantages. Annie’s eyes twinkled at him from across the table.
“Will you be my escort, Jack?”
“What, darling? And have every doughty young lad in Shipwreck challenging me to duels left and right? I’m too old for that kind of thing, lassie.”
Annie blushed. She was adorable. And somehow she’d retained her innocence and love of life in this hellhole. If he were 20 years younger he’d deflower without delay.
“As if the lads here would duel over me,” she giggled.
“I’d duel over you, Annie-girl,” Hal declared, “But I notice you have not asked me to escort you.”
“Why don’t you escort me then, Hal?”
“Fine then. I will.” Hal and Annie got up. “Coming, Jack?”
“In a moment. You two go on ahead.” ‘Needn’t have worried about her pining away for me.’ Jack thought. ‘Women. So fickle.’ The thought of fickle women made his mind go to Elizabeth. That wasn’t entirely fair, he conceded Elizabeth wasn’t fickle. She’d only ever loved one man and desired one other as far as he knew. It was his fault as much as hers that her desire had not led to a tryst. How many women had he, Jack, bedded? Not so many as he would have the pirate world believe, but there’d been over a dozen. He was hardly in a position to judge.
He hadn’t intended to bother going to the feast tonight but Elizabeth was going to be there and where Elizabeth went, it seemed he must follow. It was bally awkward that he, Elizabeth and Teague arrived at the same time.
“Come to join us, then, son?” Teague muttered. His speech was no longer slurred. He must have taken something to offset the opium. ‘Lucky us,’ Jack thought.
“Pass up an evening with my dear mum and dad? An unthinkable state of affairs, pater.”
“Cassis belli,” Teague said. “That means ‘a case for war,’” he added for Elizabeth’s edification.
“I studied Latin, John, I know what it means.”
Jack was puzzled. “What, exactly, is a case for war, Captain Teague, eh?”
“Never mind that. Where in this bloody joint do we find a place to sit?” They had sauntered toward the head of the table.
“Alors! Capitan Jean Sparrow, take my seat, s’il vous plais,” exclaimed a blond-bearded Frenchman who had commandeered what would be the seat of honor if anyone were being honored.
Jack winked at his father, whose mouth was pressed into a tight line. He noticed that Elizabeth looked anxious but he didn’t care. “Merci, mon ami.”
“Claude LeCesne, at your service, mon capitan.” The Frenchman bowed. “Capitan Teague. Capitan Swann.”
“Madam Teague,” her husband snapped.
“Mais non, c’est bien,” Elizabeth assured Claude. “Merci beaucoup.” But Teague glowered at Claude as he threw himself into a chair and put one leg on the table. Claude beat a hasty retreat.
Teague inclined his head toward Elizabeth. “Get us some rum, Betsy, there’s a girl.”
“Let me,” Jack said.
“No, I’ll go. You two sit and have a father and son talk.” Elizabeth seemed glad enough to get away. The more Jack saw of the tension between his father and stepmother the less jealous and the more
concerned he became. Elizabeth was the toughest woman he’d ever known but Teague was the most dangerous man of his acquaintance. The danger lay in his seeming vulnerability, the stiff walk that belied his ability to attack with the swiftness of a cobra, the seemingly booze-addled brain that was clever enough to deduce intentions and plan revenge to the most exquisite detail when he was crossed. Jack wasn’t at all sure if Elizabeth appreciated all of this.
Elizabeth returned with two small bottles of rum and set them on the table with a thunk. “What about you,” Jack asked.
“None for me, thanks. Someone in this family has to keep a clear head.”
‘Two of us,’ Jack thought. He planned to keep the drinking to a minimum. Teague, on the other hand, drained his bottle in less than a minute.
“Rum’s gone,” he muttered.
“Here, take the rest of mine. I had a few at the bar before getting here and I’d like to stay awake awhile longer.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Why Jack,” Elizabeth teased. “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d give away rum.”
“Let the lad alone, Betsy. It’s enough he lost his woman to me without you challenging his manhood.”
Silence. Elizabeth didn’t look at either of the men in her company, choosing to fix her gaze on something across the room. After a few stunned moments Jack turned to his father.
“Elizabeth was never my woman, and she didn’t challenge my manhood.”
“Horse shite!” Teague shouted. Everyone at the table started. Teague never raised his voice. No one knew what to expect now.
“Everyone in this room knows you had some kind of thing with the bint, everyone in this room knows she chose me over you. Me. Sixty-five years old, can barely walk or piss, don’t even bother to fuck anymore, me good looks gone, and she chose me. Over the great Captain Jack Sparrow, savior of the world from tyranny, who women want to shag and men want to - be honest, shag.”
“John, that’s enough,” Elizabeth said quietly, as Jack fought the urge to get to his feet and shove his sword through his father’s skull.
“Here, Teague, have some respect,” Hal snapped from the other end of the table. A terrified Annie tried to shush him.
“Aye, Teague, don’t talk about our Jack like that!”
“He ‘did’ save the world from tyranny!”
Teague arose from his chair and climbed onto the table. He wobbled a bit but somehow remained on his feet. The rest of the pirates quieted down. Teague lying about in a stupor was scary enough. This Teague had them shaking in their boots. He took his snuffbox out of his pocket and helped himself to a generous portion of white powder.
“Look at him, gentlemen. Jack Sparrow. My son, weak little poof that he always was, all grown up and turned famous outlaw. Thinks he’s better than me now. Thinks he’s surpassed his old man. The adventures of Captain Teague are nothing to the legend of Captain Sparrow, aye, gentlemen? And yet this beautiful lady, the world’s first pirate king, spurned him and married me. What’s the matter, Jackie? Can’t get a woman unless you pay her?”
Elizabeth shot to her feet. “John! How can you?!”
Jack stood slowly, keeping his patience for now, but the ire in his eyes warned of worse to come. “I seem to have become a bone of contention in our happy family unit,” he enunciated slowly. “I’ll remove myself, you, Elizabeth will calm down, you, Father shall be victor of the field, and everyone will be happy. Aye?”
“You’re not going anywhere, boy. Not until Elizabeth tells the company here that she married me, not because you weren’t around but because she wanted to. She preferred me to you. Is that not so, my darling?” Teague stepped off the table, almost lost his balance but regained it and rested his hand on his sword, drumming his fingers on it. Jack unsheathed his sword, not taking any chances. Elizabeth looked from one to the other, and Jack could see that she was trying to figure out what to do, what to say to diffuse the situation. Buggar that.
“You don’t have to do what he says, Elizabeth. We need not be afraid of him, not here, not now.”
“Don’t you dare come between me and me wife, boy.”
“Isn’t it true that a union isn’t considered legitimate if there’s been no consummation, Father? You just said you don’t bother to fuck anymore.”
“Oh but it’s been consummated Jackie. Once is enough, ain’t it, Betsy?”
Elizabeth’s were black with rage. Still, she managed to take a deep breath and address Captain Teague in a civil manner.
“That’s enough, John. I married you, not Jack. What more do you want?”
“I want you to tell the world you wouldn’t have that wanker son of mine if you were the last two people on earth, trapped on a desert island with one day left to live.” At the words “desert island,” Jack recoiled. Teague leered. He’d hit a nerve.
The room roared with silence until Elizabeth spoke. “No, Teague. I won’t say that. I won’t show disrespect to my husband’s son.”
“Careful, bint. So much is at stake. The sea is vast, so many on sail on it and in it.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. Was that a reference to William Turner? How could Teague harm an immortal? Will was quite safe. Nonetheless, the threat was effective. Elizabeth’s face turned white as ash. “John,” she said in a tight voice, loud enough for most of the room to hear, “I married you because I chose to. And if Jack asked me to run off with him right now, I would say no.”
At that, something sank inside of Jack. Undone again by the power of Will. Elizabeth would throw Jack Sparrow in front of a firing squad if she thought it would keep one man from so much as looking crooked at Will Turner. He put his sword back in its sheath. “You two deserve each other,” he said. “Gentlemen. Sic transit the great Captain Jack Sparrow.” He stalked from the room, his head high, but unable to evade the cloud that hovered over him. The respect he’d commanded since he’d arrived in Shipwreck had diminished, and he saw more pity than admiration in the pirates who silently watched as he departed.
“Here! Where’s the rum gone?!” Teague cried, and at least three bottles were slid his way. He drained them all in a shot as the fickle crowd cheered him. He sat down, happy, triumphant, looking ten years younger. The musicians were playing again, the men were shouting and eating again, and all were merry except for Hal and Annie, who decided to leave, and Elizabeth.
“Disgraceful,” Elizabeth hissed.
“Aye. What a pathetic excuse for a son be the fruit of my loins. It’s his mum’s fault. She had really bad eggs.” Teague laughed at his own joke while Elizabeth’s eyes flitted around the table, wondering if anything on it was heavy enough to knock Teague unconscious.
It turned out to be unnecessary. In two minutes he’d passed out.
This time it was Elizabeth who jumped on the table.
“Gentlemen. Now that Captain Teague is lying upon the floor, drooling, I have something to say to all the company.”
The music and revelry continued. Elizabeth took her gun out of its holster and fired it into the air. That got their attention.
“I said what I did to prevent father and son from killing each other, but I am free to speak my mind now. I despise that dissipated wretch who used to be the proud Keeper of the Code. I understand he was once a man to be respected, a man to be reckoned with, but he’s now a degenerate and a madman. I don’t know if it’s thanks to the drink or the opium or the Pox he claims he contracted in his youth, or all three, and I don’t much care. But I admire his son, Captain Jack Sparrow, above any other man living. The reason I am not Jack’s wife or lover even as I speak is - he rejected me, not the other way around. And with good reason. I behaved badly toward him and I suppose I’ll be paying the price for that for the rest of my life. But if he would have me right now I’d be his in a heartbeat. You can tell Captain Teague that when he wakes up, for I won’t be speaking to him again. Thank you all for listening, and I bid you good-night.”
The crowd erupted in cheers as Elizabeth leapt from the table with a flourish and strode from the Great Hall.