PotC fic: We're Coming With You

[corrielle]

Title: We're Coming With You
Author: corrielle
Fandom: PotC
Characters: Norrington, Gillette, and Groves
Word Count: 478
Author's Notes: I got to talking with a friend of mine on tumblr, and she said something about how James' lieutenants should have gone with him... and I had to write this.  It is as close to crack as I'm ever going to get.
Summary: James Norrington is off to chase Jack Sparrow, but he isn't going alone.  His two best friends won't have it.

Lieutenants Andrew Gillette and Theodore Groves both stood just inside the door to former commodore James Norrington's cabin.  Andrew, who had forgotten that James was no longer his superior officer, stood ramrod straight, though this might also have been his resting posture.  No one was quite sure.  Groves, however, was basking in the freedom of not having to salute James every time he so much as blinked, and so he lounged indolently against the wall.

"Where will you go?" Groves asked.

James smoothed the wrinkles out of the two clean shirts he had just put in his sea chest.

"Wherever I think Jack Sparrow might be found.  I know the pirate ports well enough, though I expect I'll find him in Tortuga in the end," James said.

"Tortuga, you say?" Theodore rubbed his hands together.  "Well, that settles it... We're coming with you."

"You are?" James asked.

"We are?" Andrew asked at the same time.  Theodore was always springing unpleasant, life-changing surprises on him.  If they were both going to run off half-cocked after James, Theo should have at least had the decency to warn him first.

"Of course we are!" Theo said.  "We're friends, are we not?"

"Now and always," James agreed.

"And always will be a lot longer with the two of us watching your back," Theo said.

"He's right, you know," Andrew said.  "You'll need us."

"And besides... just think of it!  The three of us! In Tortuga!" Groves said.

Andrew was trying quite hard NOT to think of it, but Groves persisted.

"Perhaps we can all get eyepatches..."

"No, Theodore..."Andrew murmured.

"Can we at least drink rum?"

"Probably safer than the water..." James said.  He seemed to be warming to the idea of company on this mad chase of his.

"And there will be wenches!" Theo said.

"And the clap..." Andrew added.

"And ale!"

"Which will probably taste like piss..."

"And PIRATES!" Theodore's eyes gleamed with an unhealthy amount of admiration as he said it.

"Who will try to kill all of us if they find out we're men of the Royal Navy!" Andrew reminded him. 

"Good thing I'll have the two of you along, then," James said.

"Well, I'm off to pack," Theo said, and hurried from the cabin.

Andrew sighed. "I'm off to pack as well, I suppose... and to make sure Theodore remembers things like... socks.  You know how he gets when he's excited."

James laughed because he did know.

"You don't have to do this, you know," James said.  "My resignation leaves a vacancy, and 'Commodore Gillette' has a certain ring to it."

"Oh, but I do," Andrew said.  "Have to make sure that Theo keeps his head on his shoulders, and that you don't get a knife between the ribs."

And, Andrew thought, perhaps with the two of them along, James' soul would retain something of its former shape.