Disclaimer: Nothing within this story belongs to me.

A/N: I only watched the complete series for the first time this week (I know, shameful, I've missed out) so I hope this is up to standard and you enjoy it.

If anything is amiss, don't hesitate to R&R and tell me, but no flamers please :)

Upon the Horizon

"Crewmen!" The shout came from behind the helm, where the Captain stood, his long curls tied back with a sombre black ribbon, bellowing orders and looking every inch the commander of his monstrous vessel. Such was the authority in his voice that every man on deck straightened up slightly in stance and listened. One, younger, member of the crew risked a salute but his arm fell slack under the stern gaze of the Captain.

"I meant no disrespect, sir..." stammered he, but the apology was lost as orders began to issue from the tiller.

"Turn her about men! Unfurl the sails! We shall have a favourable wind behind us!" This said, the Captain turned his back on his crew and allowed himself a grim smile as shouts of "Aye, Capt'n!" echoed around the vast area of the ship.

"William," one voice rang out above the others and the battered wood of the steps groaned under heavy footfalls as the speaker approached. "I beg your pardon sir, I meant Captain Turner –"

"Calm it man," only one man aboard the 'Flying Dutchman' was ever known and ever permitted to call him by his given name.

"Is that anyway to address your father, boy?" Bootstrap Bill's lips quirked up at the corners.

"Is that anyway to address your Captain?" Will shot back with a rare show of a genuine smile, an old mischief apparent in his the eyes that were so often rendered empty. "Spit it out." Bill chuckled.

"With all due respect, Captain, but what are you doing?"

"We are just now returning from a voyage escorting those unfortunate souls who have perished in the waves to my locker, have we not?"

"Indeed, we have, sir."

"And, it has now been, three thousand, five hundred and forty-eight days since our last call to port." One finger, adorned with a heavy, gold signet ring absently traced crude scratches in the wood where a short dagger had counted off the days for nearly a decade. "It's only four days now."

"Which direction, Captain?" Bill understood immediately.
"I'll take the helm." He decided, "We have to – I have to – get to her."

"To Eliza –"

"– DON'T. Speak. Her. Name!" All at once the calm that had settled between father and son evaporated. Will's whole body tensed; his hands became claws, clutching at the rail. His jaw stiffened and his back and shoulders grew rigid. Captain Turner could have been a statue had it not been for the breaths that were now ripping from his lungs in short, ragged gasps. He seemed to have lost all control.

"Please...To hear her name is torture to this soul. To know what I once had I can no longer claim as wholly my own." Bootstrap Bill nodded and knew to press him no further.

"Which way then, Captain?" The sense of duty seemed to awaken Will once more. He relaxed his position and spread his arms wide, feet planted firmly on deck, letting the wind wash over him and through his hair and waiting for the call he was sure would come. He sucked in a long breath of salty air and grinned as at once, a sharp tugging from the empty cavity in his chest told him where his heart lay.

"South-west," he breathed, "SOUTH-WEST!"

-x-x-x-

The light filtering through the gossamer drapes, told Elizabeth it was just before sunrise. She lay in her large bed, wide awake and uncomfortable, wanting to move. Adrenaline and anticipation had not let her sleep at all that night and she was too anxious to lie still any longer. She took her worries, instead, to the large balcony, where she leant against the cool, iron railings and stared out to sea, the stone slabs comfortably cold against the soles of her bare feet.

"Keep a weathered eye on the horizon" his words came back to her now, as the sun peeked just above the waves at the very edge of her vision. "Keep a weathered eye on the horizon". He hadn't said for what. Will...She missed him terribly and there was only one way she could think of to bring him closer. Feeling it would be a distinctly morbid thing to do, Elizabeth smiled softly to herself, her white, silken gown blowing about her legs with the wind as she turned her back on the sea, the one thing she was supposed to keep an eye on, and padded back into her bedchamber to fetch the item she longed to hold from atop the table beside her bed.

The intricate key that lay cold over her heart was a reminder every day of the price she paid, of the price Will paid, and now as she held it in her palm she had a sudden desire to fling it from her, to crush it, to destroy it, in the hope that everything it stood for would be destroyed too, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She hated herself for even considering it. The key and the box she searched for now were part of each other and so, in a way, Elizabeth saw the key as part of Will. It was, in an oddly poetical way, the key to his heart. Only, it literally was.

Accompanied, then, by the box, Elizabeth returned to her vigil over the sea, settling herself cross-legged on the floor and taking the heavy chest into her lap, content just to feel its weight upon her and to listen to the beats of the heart emitted from within in time with her own. This sound twinned with the noise of the waves formed a strange yet hypnotizing lullaby and enabled her to sleep awhile, her back resting on the door behind her. Today might be the day, she thought before finally succumbing to the land of dreams, Will's face the last thing she saw before sleep overtook.

"Elizabeth!" The sound of her own name shook her from her dreams just as the sun fully emerged above the horizon. "Elizabeth!" A gentle smile spread across her face and, still half asleep, she opened her eyes.

"Will?" The shock of hearing his name tumble from her lips brought Elizabeth to her feet as she scrambled in a most unladylike way to lean over the balcony's railings. "Will, darling, is that you?" The young man, up to his knees in the warm water, grinned, his face unchanged in ten years since she had last set her eyes upon it.

"Truly, Elizabeth, it is. I'm here." Elizabeth burst into tears and turned away, blindly fighting through the curtains back into her bedchamber and down the stairs coming out, onto the beach and running towards the sound of his voice.

"Will...Will..." A shaft of proper sunlight was his cue to take his first steps onto land in a decade and gave him permission to finally take her into his arms once again.

"I'm sorry, I really am, darling. Please, don't cry. Here..." He held her at arms length, his eyes moving hungrily up and down her as if to rememorize what he had missed and wiped away her tears with the pad of his thumb, a warm smile on his face that melted and mended her broken heart in the same instant.

"Hello, Mr Turner," Elizabeth composed herself and gave him a coy smile and a laugh. Will laughed with her and pulled her close again, breathing in her faint perfume and tracing the smooth curve of her exposed shoulder and neck with calloused fingers.

"Hello, Mrs Turner." Elizabeth giggled, and several more tears escaped her eyes, their tracks glittering on her cheeks in the early light, causing her beauty to take on a tragic look, only enhancing the splendour of her features. It had been so long since she had heard those words and there hadn't been a day go by in the last decade that she had not longed to hear them.

"What are you thinking?" Will's fingers drifted lower, skimming the pale area of her collar bone and pulling the top of her nightgown lower with gentle tugs. His lips trailing kisses as his fingers moved on. Her eyes flashed to his face and he gave her a gentle smile in return.

"I'm thinking about you." She answered truthfully, a wicked grin spoiling the calm façade she had hoped to retain and reaching up to ease his jacket from his shoulders. It was soon joined, in the sand, by various other items of clothing as their lips met and one by one, the layers were removed.

"Good thoughts?" Or bitter thoughts? Will dared not voice the latter question.

"Good thoughts." She agreed, "The best." And suddenly there was no more need for words as her mouth was hot and heavy upon his, a fire having been ignited within her, kindling a craving that could not be satiated. She needed him; every last part of her needed his touch, his warmth and his kisses. She had been starved for far too long and all other thoughts were lost, eclipsed, in this moment as she pulled him even closer, giving herself entirely to him, surrendering all hold on herself and living...breathing...feeling again. The beach became close to silent once more as neither spoke and the only sounds that were heard for a long time were splashes of the waves on the sand as they came together as one.

"Will...?" Hours later, when the sun was almost at its peak in the sky, Elizabeth spoke, breaking the comfortable quiet as she lay in Will's arms and with the sand warm beneath her bare back.

"Mmm...?" The languid tone of his reply matched hers as a hand ran lazily up her thigh.

"I missed you." Will laughed.

"And there was me thinking you were about to deliver something deep and profound." He laughed again. "I missed you too."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"Kiss me." Will obliged. "Kiss me again." Will laughed and did as he was told, rolling on top of her and pressing her deeper into the sand but even as they laughed sundown was coming, drawing closer every second, every moment bringing it closer, every hour taking him further away again. They tried to forget but their shadows grew longer as the sun dipped further toward the horizon once more.

"I can't stand it!" Elizabeth burst out impetuously, an hour before the night could claim the sky and the sea, Will. She had been staring transfixed at the sky for nigh on an hour, anxiously tracking the progress of the sun as if hypnotised.

"I know." Will reluctantly clambered to his feet and snatched up his clothes, "But..."

"Don't tell me there's nothing I can do, William Turner, please let me come with you, let me join your crew. I know how." Will tucked his shirt quickly into his trousers, considering his reply, before settling down beside her once more and pulling her into his arms. Wrapped in his worn jacket, Elizabeth seemed very vulnerable.

"I know you do, but you know you can't." Elizabeth frowned.

"There has to be a way. I'll cut my own heart out if I have to." As if to prove her point she seized Will's dagger from its sheath at his hip and placed the point over her heart. "God help me, I will." A frantic gleam in her eye told Will she wasn't lying.

"That won't help either," he said gently, taking hold of her wrist and attempting to coax her hand away. The tip shifted, leaving a shallow cut as a mark of her promise. "Don't...Here..." The hand upon hers was calloused but warm and Elizabeth unwillingly let the dagger drop. "Thank you." The sharp point was replaced by her lover's lips, and Will could feel her heart thrumming beneath her skin.

"Look at me." It was somewhere between a request and an order. It was almost a plea, to Will's ears. "Will, look. I'm getting older. You'll never change as long as you live, which, as you're immortal, will be quite a while." Will cracked a smile but left her to continue. "But me, I'm already ten years older than the last time we met and if you can only come ashore once a decade think how many more times you will see me; four, five? And what will I be? Who will I be? What will I look like? No, don't speak yet, I need to come with you. I need to be with you. There has to be a way because I swear –" she pointed to the bloody line above her heart, "– I will die if I can't."

"I was dying without you. I need you too. I will find a way." His thumb traced the cut. "When I return in a decade's time I won't be leaving without you. I will find whatever I have to find."

"But escorting -"

"I can do both. Will you wear this for me, while I'm gone?" He slid the signet ring off his finger and pulled a lace from his boot, tying it like a pendant.

"Of course." Her smile was marred by tears as the 'weathered eye' she had been keeping upon the horizon spotted a ship emerge from the waves.

"And, before I go, Mrs Turner, I have a request."

"Oh, yes?"

"Kiss me."

-x-x-x-

Like I said, I'm new to the Caribbean as it were, so please just R&R to tell me what you think.

Reviews are love and help me update quicker with the sequel (a proper feature length fic) so please, press the button...Reviewers get a day to themselves on a Caribbean beach with the delightful Mr Will Turner :)

Yours,

Louise x