"Will you keep it safe? It's always belonged to you," Will said, sadly, picking up the chest that now contained his still-beating heart. The key to the chest was tucked inside his vest, where it would remain until Judgment Day, if he had any say in it. But there was no point in keeping the heart himself. It was painful enough to think about not seeing Elizabeth for the next ten years without having his heart so close to him. Besides, his words were true - there was no one he'd ever given his heart to but her.
"Of course," she said. He could hear the tears that she was fighting off, just under her words. It was all he could do to keep his own voice steady, to keep his own tears at bay. There would be plenty of time for them later.
She took the chest from him and he smiled at her sadly. "Keep a weather eye on the horizon," he told her, and turned to leave. The longer he looked at her, the harder this would be. But the sun was setting, and whether he liked it or not, his place was now on the Flying Dutchman, and he would be drawn back to it.
He started to wade into the water, though he hardly felt the pull of the tide around his boots. The water was nothing to him, now, to walk through. There was no resistance, and the very sea seemed to give way to him.
"Will!" came the call, and he turned to catch Elizabeth in his arms. He should have known that it would never be so simple as all of that. She could not let him leave anymore than he could simply walk away. How he had ever thought he could...
He drew her as close to him as he could manage, kissing her with more passion than had even been in their lovemaking not an hour before. He cursed this fate that had bound him to a ship that he had no love for, away from the only thing he did have love for. Of course, his father was on the Dutchman, but how could anyone in the entire world compare to Elizabeth...to his wife?
As they kissed, he felt the pull of the ocean again, as if drawing him toward the very locker he was now responsible for. He could not let that be her fate! He could not...
He heard the crew come up around them, raucous as he'd ever heard them in his previous encounters, and Elizabeth was pulled from his arms. He opened his mouth, intending to order them to stand down and leave her alone, but the words did not come.
She stared up at him, uncomprehending, as the rag-tag team of pirates that had remained under Will's command drew their swords. They were in deep water now, both of them realized at once, and their eyes met.
Will smiled, a bit mischievously, and drew his sword, letting the point rest at her throat.
"Elizabeth Turner," he said, "do you fear death?"
Her mouth dropped open as she realized his plan. She gathered her composure, tilting her chin up in that way she had, and told him, "Yes. I do."