One Step, Two Step:
A Pirates of the Caribbean one-shot:
The waves crashed against the longboat as I rowed towards the island. She stood on the beach, baby at her hip staring out at me. The wind blowing through her sandy hair and the glow of the afternoon sun made her seem like an angel.
I jumped out of the boat near shore and pushed it up onto the beach. She walked towards me, smiling.
"Jack." She said.
I looked at her. I hadn't seen her for about almost two years, not since the Great Battle. I smiled back at her.
"Elizabeth…Mrs. Turner…" I replied, reminding myself that I had no chance with her. She was Will's.
"It's good to see you again." Elizabeth
"It's been too long." I answered, suddenly feeling quite awkward. Why did I come here in the first place? To woo Elizabeth? I had always thought she was beautiful and graceful, and sometimes vicious. I looked over at the baby. He had her sandy brown curly hair, and William's big brown haunting eyes. Just staring at those eyes reminded me all too much of watching Jones' thrusting a sword into William's heart. I shuddered. Jones' was dead now though and Will had taken his place aboard the Flying Dutchman.
The baby stared back at me now, sucking on two fingers. His eyes filled with curiosity
"This is Jack." Elizabeth told her son. "He's a very good friend of ours."
She called me a friend. A friend. After all that I put them through, she still considers me a friend.
"Hello…" I said to the baby.
"His name's William." She told me.
"Figures." I mumbled.
Elizabeth gave me a look then laughed.
" I wanted to keep Will's memory alive, until he comes back." She explained. I saw the sadness in her eyes when she said that. 10 years is a long time to be away from the one you love.
I looked down at my feet, so she couldn't read my face.
I'm here. Will won't be back for a few more years, I thought. I quickly stopped myself. What was I bloody thinking?? If I tempted Elizabeth, she and Will would never be together. She has to stay faithful or her son will never know his father.
Elizabeth pulled William off her hip and stood him up on the sand. He fell down.
"I've been trying to get him to walk, but he's so attached to me. He never wants to leave my hip." She told me.
He's not the only person who wants to be at her hip, I thought.
Elizabeth let William sit in the sand. He grabbed it by the handfuls, trying to figure out exactly what it was.
Elizabeth smiled down at him then turned to me.
"Why did you do it?" She asked me.
"Do what?"
"Save Will." She replied. "You always used him as a way to get what you wanted so you wouldn't have to do it. And you had it. You had the heart in your hand, the one thing you wanted most and you gave it up to save him." Elizabeth sighed. "I can't always figure you out, Jack."
I took a brave step towards her. "Jones' heart wasn't what I thought I wanted most…"
She looked away quickly. "Please, Jack. Do not tempt me."
I stepped back.
"Do you know how many times I've pictured us together? How I could just run away with you, to be free of sitting here on this god forsaken island waiting eight more years for Will?!" she yelled.
As William heard his mother yell, he started to cry. Elizabeth scooped him up in her arms and placed him back on her hip. She turned back to me.
"Why did you come here, Jack?" she asked.
"I don't know." I said quietly.
"Do you still love me, Jack?" she asked.
"Yes…" I whispered.
She stepped towards me. "If you really do love me, Jack you'll let me be with Will."
I nodded. It was time to move on. Time to stop trying to relive the moments I had spent with Elizabeth.
On the island…
…aboard the Black Pearl…
"Goodbye, Jack." Elizabeth turned and started to walk away.
"I already did." I called after her.
She turned around. "What did you say?"
"I said, when I helped Will stab the heart, I was letting you be with him. I could easily could have stabbed the heart myself, lived forever. Even me and you could be together." I explained. "But I didn't. You love each other more than I'll ever know. I mean, you're waiting on this bloody island for him. Face it, love. You don't love me. You loved the thrill of living on the edge, being free, and I gave you that. You never loved me. You love Will, and you always will."
"Do you mean it, Jack?" she asked. "Do you truly mean it, Jack?"
"Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?" I smiled.
Elizabeth laughed. "Maybe."
"Isn't that what mates are suppose to be…honest?" I asked.
Elizabeth smiled. "Yes, I think so."
"Well, don't be mad at me if I get this whole mate thing wrong…I've never had friends…just enemies!" I joked.
Elizabeth laughed. "Well said."
I smiled at her. "Truthfully, I never stopped loving you. But I need to move on, take baby steps away from the past. This is the future, I can't relive the past."
"Baby steps?" Elizabeth asked.
"Baby steps." I repeated. "Maybe me and little William here can learn together?"
I kneeled down in the sand and spread out my arms. "Come here, Will."
Elizabeth placed William down in the stand. At first, she held onto his hands so he could balance. Then she let go. William started to wobble a little and almost fell, but he quickly got his balance back.
Elizabeth gasped. "He's standing on his own."
William looked over at me and smiled.
"Come here." I called.
And then William took his first steps towards me and I took the first step from moving away from my past.
One step. Two step.