A/N: I love Sparrabeth so much it isn't even funny. xDDD. And yeah, this whole Will being captain of the Dutchman blah, blah, blah never happened. They live together. (Or used to! Muahaha!)

OH AND IF YOU'RE READING THIS AND YOU WANT PART TWO OF MY FIC AWE I AM SO SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPLOADED IT YET BUT I SWEAR I HAVE WRITTEN IT. Just give me time, please.

Tears spilled down her cheek as she gathered up her clothes and personal belongings. She made her way to the front door of their very small, yet somehow very roomy cottage. Looking back, she pleaded Will to let her stay, to forget what she had said, to never again yell at her like that even though they both knew she had brought it on herself.

He was resolute. He was unyielding. He would not let her stay, not after what she had told him.

She gulped some air and, with shuddering breaths and wobbling legs, walked out of their house and out of his life.

There was a cold gust of wind, and she thought bitterly how it symbolized the rest of her life from this point. It was all downhill from the starting point, as her father liked to say.

"Elizabeth," she heard a gruff, all-too-familiar voice drawl before she was even five feet away from the door. Turning around so quickly that she dropped her things, she gasped.

In the shadows between her and Will's—excuse her, Will's cottage and the next was the man who had ruined her marriage. The man who had ruined her life, and yet he seemed to make it what it was.

"Jack."

"Heard what you said in there."

Her hand flew to her mouth. "No…"

"Yes, darling. I did." He came out of the dark and smiled and she remembered why she had been attracted to him in the first place. He was the epitome of everything indecent and pirate-related, and she had sworn to leave that life behind long ago. But here he was and he was real and there was no going back.

"I— I didn't—"

"Of course you didn't. You were angry at William; you wanted to hurt him. You didn't mean a word of it." His words were level and serious, but his eyes knew better.

She shook her head. "No, I didn't."

He shrugged and moved closer to her. Too close. Close enough that she could smell the blend of rum and smoke, a smell she had long grown accustomed to. "Then why, pray tell, are you still here? You could have walked away from me as soon as you saw me. You could have run. You could have cursed me and told your precious William that I was here so you could have me properly executed. But you didn't, Elizabeth, and I'll tell you why. Because you meant every single word you said in that house. Because you may have loved William at one point but along the way, along the drunken nights on islands and kisses you didn't mean and weren't sorry for, you fell in love with me. And I am not about to let you walk away from me a second time, love. Not again."

She blinked and wiped some of the stale tears away from her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but he shook his head, took her hand, and began to walk towards the dock right next to the neighborhood her house was located in. "Come on, love. The Pearl's been waiting for you."