dwgm | Fic: 'First Times' (Jack, Will, Gibbs, Norrington, Cotton

The drabble challenge prompt at

blackpearlsails this week is First, and this subject came immediately to mind, lol! Many thanks to

hereswith for the quick beta, and to

linaelyn for allowing me to borrow some details from her fabulous Letters of J. Gibbs, Able Seaman (Rated PG).

This post-AWE conversation fits rather nicely in my Second Chances universe...

~ First Times ~

"So that really was your first time? Your One Day with Elizabeth?"

Will scowled. "Only you would dare voice such a question, Jack."

Gibbs chuckled. "Aye, but we're all thinkin' it, lad." He passed Will the bottle of fine aged rum they'd all been sharing.

Will accepted it, drank, then passed it to Cotton, whose twisted smile was apparently contagious. Will's scowl eased to a softer expression. He said, "Yes, of course it was. For both of us. You know that."

"How the blazes would we?" Jack said, and immediately regretted his mean-spirited tone, which smacked strongly of jealousy. Predictably, Will fixed him with a penetrating eye and a raised brow, and Jack shifted in his chair and reached for the bottle, muttering, "Aye, well. The blind leading the blind, then. The mind boggles."

"I can see yours does, at least," Will said, sounding amused. "Though how either of us could be considered blind after the company we've kept the last few years is difficult to fathom. And that little talk you had with Elizabeth in your cabin before she came to me was… useful. To say the least. We owe you thanks."

The others stared, first at Will, then at Jack, open-mouthed. Jack cleared his throat, but his voice was still annoyingly high-pitched as he countered with an innocent, "What?"

"Talk?" said Gibbs.

"Speaking of mind-boggling," Norrington said at his driest, taking the bottle.

Jack looked down his nose. "I do have vast experience in these matters, y'know, mate."

"In the debauching of virgins?" Norrington sniffed his disbelief.

"Strange as it seems, former admiral, they trust ol' Jack. Vast experience, I assure you."

"Oh, my God." Norrington took a deep swig.

"That's what they say, all right," Jack agreed, "though they're generally more enthused, if you get me drift."

There was a pause, and then William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, began to snort with laughter.

Jack grinned.

Norrington shook his head. "Insufferable. You can't always have been so skilled."

"I've a natural aptitude for it. Had some excellent tutors as well."

"And your first time?" Will queried, still amused.

"She was one of the best,” Jack reminisced. “I was little more than a lad, gave Teague the slip an' stowed away on a ship bound for Port Royal, which was far less infested with commodores and governors at that time. The captain found me and, as he'd a grudge against Teague, he took me to see Amelie Dubois soon as we'd landed, gave her a gold guinea to take me under her wing. As it were."

"Ah!" Gibbs nodded. "Owner of the Maison Rouge back then. Finest bawdy house in the eastern Caribbean."

"So it was," Jack agreed. "I was there a whole week before Teague caught up with me, damn the old bastard for spoiling me sport. And that of Madame Dubois. I was a fast learner."

Norrington drank again.

Jack made a grab for the bottle. "Here, give me that, you can't have it all." Norrington gave up the bottle readily enough, and Jack said, "So tell us about your first time, James-me-lad. Housemaid in the pantry? Dockside doxy luring the unwary mid?"

Norrington frowned, but then, as memory asserted itself, almost smiled. "Neither. She was my age, her family's land marched with that of mine. We thought we were in love. It was the night before she was to leave for London, to be presented at court and enter society. She assured me her heart was mine, but she was married within a few months to a man with great wealth and position. I could hardly blame her. A penniless midshipman could not compare. She looked something like Elizabeth, if I recall with any accuracy."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Trust you to provide a tragic note. How about you, Gibbs? Jenny wasn't your first, was she?"

"She were, though," Gibbs said. "Oh, I'd kissed a few, and maybe more than kissed some of 'em, but it were Jenny I bedded first, and her as sweet and untouched as a new morn. But that ended tragic, too, if you'll recall."

"Right," said Jack. To Will's enquiring look he said, "They were to marry and then Josh was pressed. It was more than a year later he found out she'd died in childbed."

"That's terrible!" Will exclaimed, clearly horrified. Clearly thinking of Elizabeth in the same context.

"Aye," said Gibbs, his voice rough with emotion. "But I can never be sad thinking of me Jenny-bird. Those were golden days we had. Golden days."

"And Golden Nights, too, eh?" Jack smiled.

Gibbs nodded dreamily.

Will took up the bottle and sipped, then his eyes rose to the avian-adorned man opposite him at the table. "So, Cotton. You're the last of us. Can you tell us about your first time?"

"Hoist the colors!" Parrot exclaimed and cocked his head to the side. Cotton smiled and nodded.

Gibbs said, "Cotton was a slave in a sultan's palace as a lad. The ladies of the harem took a liking to him and 'twas almost more pleasure than a body could endure."

"A surfeit of riches, in fact?" Norrington looked bemused.

"Cotton had the luck—" Gibbs began.

"Splice the mainbrace!" Parrot confirmed.

"—'til it ran out and they took his tongue!"

"Using it for something other than talking perchance, Mr. Cotton?" Jack asked, looking sly.

Cotton inclined his head, and made some motions suggestive of feminine royalty.

"By the saints! Ye don't mean the sultan's daughter?" Gibbs exclaimed.

Cotton gave a fatalistic and somewhat rueful shrug.

Parrot squawked, ruffled his feathers, and growled, "Shiver me timbers!"

Norrington was rendered speechless.

And, taking the bottle from Will's slackened grasp, Jack said emphatically, "I'd say this calls for another drink."

~.~