Elizabeth woke up in the middle of the night, the scenes still fresh in her memory. Jack's lips, the touch of his hand, the look on his face when he realized she'd chained him to the ship. Then the kraken. The creature eating Jack alive and then the Pearl. And it was all her fault. She had left him behind, she had killed him.

After all the craziness she'd seen at Tia Dalma's, Barbossa alive, the promise of bringing Jack back, it was all too much, she had to be alone. She needed a few days out of all that. In the following day they set sail to Port Royal, in order to get things ready for the big rescue. Gibbs insisted to be left in Tortuga, and so did most of the crew.

"We'll bring him back." Will said, walking towards her on the deck. "I promise."

She nodded. She wasn't strong enough to talk, or to look at him. She kept staring at the stars while Port Royal came closer.

"We all miss him, Elizabeth."

"You don't…" She tried to say, but tears started streaming down her face. "You don't understand." She managed to say after a while.

Will looked at her. After seeing what he'd seen on the Pearl, he understood. "I do, actually." And walked away.

Elizabeth found herself standing in front of her house. It felt like she'd never left. The gates were the same, the front door, the painting. She knew she couldn't stay because of Cutler Beckett's threats, but she had to speak to her father, who was in the house under the king's men watch.

She managed to pass through the guards and sneak in through the back door. When she found herself climbing up the stairs she stopped and took a look around, which she regretted in the same second. Everything was the same except it wasn't. Jack wasn't there. He wouldn't be anymore. She was crying again and when she realized she'd left the place. Her father wouldn't understand and she didn't want him to see her like that.

She went to the port to look at the ships, as she used to do when she was a little girl. She'd dream about the pirates and their adventures. Life can be pretty ironic, can't it? Why was it so hard to live in a world without him? She had once, hadn't she? She used to loathe him. Why, all of a sudden, a world without Jack Sparrow felt a world in which was not worth living?

After one or two hours, she couldn't really tell, she felt something in her pocket. It was a ring. An emerald ring Jack had given her.

"Lizzie, can I talk to you?" Jack entered the cabin, pretending to be covering his eyes with his hand.

"There's no way I can get you to call me Miss Swann, is there?"

"Lizzie is easier." He sat on the bed right beside her. "I have a gift for you."

"Do you now?"

"Here." He opened his hand and there was a magnificent emerald ring there. "It reminds me of you, I'd say."

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Can't I give my friend a gift?" The look on his face wasn't the one of a friend, but she went with it.

"You're not the kind of friend that gives other friends gifts and don't ask for anything in return."

"And this is a proof that you don't know me at all, Miss Swann."

She smiled at him and let him put the ring on her finger.

"There. See? It looks much better on your finger than it does on mine. Moreover, you get to think of me whenever you look at it."

"I don't need a ring to think of you, Jack." Elizabeth looked at him, a half smile on her face.

He leaned to kiss her but stopped halfway through.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I might do something stupid on the next few days." He said in a low voice.

"What kind of thing?"

"Something I'll certainly regret later. So I have to ask you something."

She didn't know what to say, so she just waited.

"I want you to make me do the right thing, okay? Even if it kills me."

"Jack, I don't know what you're talking about."

"You will, in a while. And when you do, please make me be the good man you think I am."

"You are a good man, Mr. Sparrow."

He chuckled. "Don't let anyone make you think otherwise, love."

Jack stood up and left the cabin.

Elizabeth smiled at that memory. How she wished she didn't have to make that choice for him. But he'd asked her, hadn't he? "Even if it kills me," he said. He knew exactly what was about to happen, that bastard. He knew she'd have to make that choice for him because he was not brave enough to do it himself. But in the end he faced the beast. She didn't see it, but she had no doubt he'd died with his sword in hand. He probably even said "Hello, beastie."

"Elizabeth?" Someone called her from behind.

For a tiny second she hoped it was him. But she knew it wasn't. It was Will.

"We have to go. Barbossa's waiting for us." He walked to the port and Elizabeth followed. She wasn't quite sure about why they'd stopped there if they could only stay for a few hours, but it wasn't a completely bad idea in the end.

She held the ring with both hands and whispered "I'm coming for you, Mr. Sparrow."