Twelve Years before Curse of the Black Pearl
"Go away, James!" Megan Seymour turned her back on the young man in the uniform of the Royal Navy. She spoke to him over her shoulder, her voice loud to avoid being lost in the wind, "I refuse to support your dangerous notions of honor."
James Norrington sighed. He had know she would take his enlistment badly. She saw his leaving as a betrayal of herself, of their love. Why couldn't she that her father would never let them be together until he had distinguished himself in some way?
"Megan, I am doing this for us, not for honor."
"You are doing this to become someone important."
At last, she was getting closer to understanding. "Once I've made a name for myself, your father will allow you to marry me."
"If you want to marry me, do it!" she answered, facing him again. "Forget the Navy. Forget Father. You are important to me, that is all that matters."
He shook his head. "It is too late. I have fulfill my commission."
Megan looked him straight in the eyes and told him, "Then do not bother coming back to me."
Megan walked away and James knew she meant it.
One Year before Dead Man's Chest
"Sir," Gillette addressed Commodore Norrington as he stood on the deck of the Dauntless.
"Yes, Gillette?"
"The storm the locals have been warning us about is becoming visible on the horizon astern."
"And?" asked Norrington irritatedly.
Gillette blanched. "Sir, would it not be prudent to sail west to the nearest port?"
"Do you doubt the strength of the Fleet's craftmanship?"
"No, sir, of course not. But..."
"This the last bearing we had on Sparrow. I will not allow him to escape because of some damn storm," said the Commodore vehemently.
"Yes, sir," said Gillette in a tone of admiration tinged with fear.
After the hurricane
An almost dead Lieutenant Andrew Gillette was clinging haphazardly to a piece of debris from the Dauntless. His fingers and toes were numb. The many cuts had sustained were burning from hours of soaking in the salty seawater.
As far as he knew, no one else had survived. He had watched his crew mates and friends perish while he was power to help them. Peter had been washed overboard in the storm; when the ship began to come apart a falling beam had caught Collins in the head; those who had survived the disintegration of the ship were overtaken by fatigue and slipped into the sea. The last Gillette had seen of the Commodore was when he dove off the ship after one of the men.
Out of the stillness he heard voices nearby, "...messy. There's nothing left to salvage."
"Suppose we should go back 'n' tell Cap'n," said a second voice.
Too weak to call out, Gillette prayed that they would see him. He began to lose hope as the voices drifted further away.
"Hey! Stop! Look there! It's a man over there in the wreckage."
"You there! Can you hear me?"
Gillette managed to raise one hand slightly. He heard the furious paddling of oars before he slipped into unconsciousness.
Midway through Dead Man's Chest
Three pirates knelt in the sand with their ears to a small chest. The deep beat coming from within made their faces light up with fascination.
Elizabeth Swann was the first to speak, "It's real!"
"My god, you actually were telling the truth," said Norrington in disbelief as they stood back up.
"I do that quite a lot," replied Captain Jack amused. "Yet people are always surprised."
"With good reason!" said a new voice. They all looked over in surprise to see Will Turner.
"Will!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "You're all right! Thank god! I came to find you!" She kissed him while the other men awkwardly averted their eyes.
"How'd ye git here?" Jack was curious.
Will answered, "Sea turtles, mate. A pair of them, strapped to my feet."
"Not so easy, is it?" joked Sparrow.
"But I do owe you thanks, Jack."
Jack looked at him confused. "You do?"
Will elaborated, "After you tricked me onto that ship to square your debt with Jones..."
"What!" Elizabeth turned a furious gaze to Jack.
"What?" Jack tried to act shocked.
"I was reunited with my father."
"Oh! Well," said Jack, "you're welcome, then."
Elizabeth was not amused. "Everything you said to me...Everything was a lie!"
"Pretty much. Time and tide, love," replied Jack. He then noticed that Will was fiddling with the chest. "Oy! What're ye doing?"
"I'm gonna kill Jones," he answered with determination.
Fluidly, Jack drew his sword. "Can't let you do that, William. 'Cause if Jones is dead, who's to call his terrible beastie off the hunt, eh? Now. If you please: the key."
"Jack," warned Will, "I promised to free my father. And I keep my promises."
"Isn't there any other way to stop the Kracken?" asked Elizabeth. The last thing she wanted was to see the man she loved fight the man she might love.
"Not that anyone's yet found," said Jack. "The only thing that'll keep the thing back is land..."
"Wait!" exclaimed Norrington. They all turned to him, and he continued, "What if the beast was lured into a tight area, say a cave or small inlet, then a rockslide trapped it there?"
"That's crazy, mate," said Jack. Then he grinned and added, "We're finally rubbin' off ye."
For the first time since he left home, James Norrington knew how good it felt to be a part of something.
Two Months Later
The Black Pearl creaked in its moorings. The water was lightly ruffled by a cool night breeze. Elizabeth took one last look as she stowed away aboard a neighboring vessel. The Meriones was leaving early in the morning, long before Jack and his crew would be sobered up.
Ever since Will had rejoined them on the island, she had been struggling to suppress her growing feelings for Jack. James' teasing and allusions hadn't helped any either. It only got worse after they got rid of the Kracken, as they sailed around leisurely, each of them trying to decide what to do next.
Jack planned to continue with what he had been, of course. James seemed to be enjoying the pirate life more all the time. Will wanted to marry Elizabeth and settle down. And Elizabeth had no idea what she wanted. Part of her cherished the warm comfort Will provided, but another part longed for adventure and intrigue with Jack.
Finally, she had decided to leave the Caribbean far behind her. It had taken her a few days to work up the resolve, but there was no turning back now.
The next morning aboard the Black Pearl
My dear Will,
I regret to break our engagement. I love you very much, but marrying you would have been a mistake. Please forgive me for leaving you this letter, rather than speaking to you before I left.
The only explanation I have is that I love you, but at the same time I desire Jack. I beg of you not to blame him, he could not have known. This has been tearing me up inside for so long, I realized that I could not marry you unless I was devoted to only you.
Please do not bother looking for me, I do not wish to be found. Perhaps, someday, our paths will cross again. If that day every comes, I pray that our meeting will not be bitter to you.
With love always,
Elizabeth
Will had read the letter over and over and over since he had awoken alone a few hours earlier. He ignored her request not to look for her and insisted that Jack and the crew assist him in his search of the port. All they had learned was the names of a dozen ships that had left port that morning, all headed in different directions.
Now that Elizabeth's departure was certain, frenzy had given way to an overwhelming numbness. He knew though that soon enough the loneliness and heartache would plague him. His only hope was that the sea would help him to heal.
Jack seemed confused. Every so often Will would hear him mutter, "Bloody woman is damn crazy, and not in a good way."
From the sympathetic, knowing glances he was sending, Will guessed that Norrington knew why Elizabeth had left. That thought gave him the disconcerting idea that he was only one of many destined to be broken by Elizabeth Swann.
Over the Next Five Years
"Ah, Governor Swann," greeted Lord Beckett as he sat behind his desk, "thank you for joining me."
"What exactly is it that you want?" asked Swann suspiciously.
Beckett seemed to find that question amusing. A cruel smile adorned his face as he answered, "I thought perhaps you might be interested to learn that your daughter was last seen aboard a ship bound for Ireland."
Horror spread through the governor as he considered what this despicable man might do with this information. Elizabeth could be blackmailed, arrested, or even executed.
These troubling thoughts consumed him over the next few days. The worst part was that there seemed nothing that he could do to protect the one person he loved more than anything in the world. As long as Beckett was alive Elizabeth would never be safe.
"As long as Beckett is alive," he spoke into the darkness one night.
At first, the fact that he even had the idea appalled him. But the more he thought it, the more acceptable and logical the idea became. If it was Beckett or Elizabeth, there was no question. He would kill a man protect his daughter.
In the end, Swann actually hired two shady thugs to kill Lord Cutler Beckett. They made it look like a robbery gone wrong. He paid them well and they escaped in the night.
********
The crew commanded by one Captain Jack Sparrow was enjoying a bit of shore leave in Tortuga after a particularly bountiful raid on a merchant vessel on it's way to Port Royal. Sparrow himself was regaling some of his peers with tales of his encounters with Davy Jones. Will was smiling as he listened to the gross exaggerations, quite similar to Gibb's storytelling.
Most of the rest of the crew had found warm bosoms to occupy themselves. Norrington, however, sat alone in the shadows nursing a bottle of rum and drawing considerably less attention than the last time he was in this particular establishment.
James cursed himself for not noticing the man until he spoke. "How long ye been out of the Navy?"
Warily, Norrington took a slow swig of rum to allow him more time to assess the man before him. He was on the older side judging from his white hair and wrinkles; and he had scars testifying to his battles over the years. Still, the man appeared harmless enough. The man was sharp though, Norrington had disposed of the remains of his uniform some time ago, yet this pirate had immediately known he was out of the service.
Dryly James answered the man, "Not long enough."
The man chuckled and sat down opposite James. "My name's Ed Louis, I be captain of the Reflection. I also be lookin' for a new first mate."
"Is that so?"
Ed leaned in. "More specifically, I be wantin' a man of yer previous employment."
"And why is that?" Norrington was curious. The last thing he wanted to do was stay aboard the Pearl forever under Sparrow's command.
"I've found it 'elps to 'ave someone aboard 'oo can think like a Navy man in a fight or pretend to be one of 'em," explained Ed. "Ye interested?"
Continuing to be concise, James replied, "Very interested."
"All right, mate, we're putting out with the tide." As he stood to leave, Ed turned back to ask, "Out of curiousity, what was yer rank?"
"Commodore," he answered bitterly.
"Commodore," repeated Ed surprised. "Ye aren't Norrington, are ye?"
James nodded sullenly. He expected the Captain to take back offer right then.
"Ye'd do well to change yer name. What's yer mother's maiden name?"
"Warner," he answered a bit confused.
"Well then, I'll see ye aboard the Reflection, Jim Warner."
******
Captain Jack Sparrow was in an unfamiliar position: on his knees before a woman. He wasn't sure what had come over him, other than his desire to have Anamaria back on the Pearl as his first mate.
"What about Turner?" she wanted to know.
"Whelp's a terrible mate. 'Course he can't help it, bein' a eunuch and all," exaggerated Jack. "'Sides, you are the best mate in the Caribbean."
"Well, ye shouldn't have sailed away without me!"
"I swear that was an accident. We thought ye was aboard."
Ana glared. "Then why didn't ye come back for me?"
"Thought you might be mad."