A/N: I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides trailer yesterday & this is what came to me after watching it lol Please note: this is not a very serious story ;)

PS. I'm hoping to update Thunderhearts within a week!

Disclaimer: Pirates of the Caribbean belong to Disney. You may also encounter a couple of sentences that belong to Margaret Mitchell and James Cameron ^^

Sticks & Stones

"What is that?"

Jack jumped up, dropping the stash of papers to the floor. "Nothing!" he exclaimed with a very fake smile, quickly collecting the pages and hiding them behind his back.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him, closing the door behind her.

Jack's mouth twitched.

"Jack, what are you hiding there?" Elizabeth asked, coming closer to him while he started walking backwards.

"It's nothing important, really," Jack said in a slightly faltering voice, trying to keep a smile on his face.

"May I see it?" Elizabeth insisted, backing him against the wall.

Jack glanced right and left, and then gave Elizabeth a bright smile producing the papers from behind him and holding them in front of Elizabeth's face for three seconds before... hiding them again.

The expression on Elizabeth's face immediately turned from mildly annoyed to very irritated.

"It's really nothing, Lizzie," Jack said almost pleadingly, wincing. He hesitated for a moment before adding in a low voice. "It's a script."

"A script?" Elizabeth's eyebrows knitted together in confusion but then her face lit up. "A script of Pirates of the Caribbean 4?"

Jack tilted his head to the side, trying to decide if saying "no" would actually help. "Well..."

"I want to see it! I want to read it!" Elizabeth said excitedly, biting her lip in cheerful anticipation.

Jack wrinkled his nose. "This isn't a good idea, love," he said cautiously, causing the excitement on Elizabeth's face to fade rather rapidly.

"What do you mean?" she asked, a hint of alarm in her voice.

Jack rubbed his forehead in a nervous gesture. "Because you see, Lizzie... you're not in it," he said at last with a sincerely sympathetic, slightly fearful grimace.

Elizabeth just stared at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean I'm not in it?" She finally asked, perplexed. "How can I be not in it?" Am I supposed to be left standing on that beach forever?"

Jack vigorously shook his head. "I'm sure it's just some sort of a misunderstanding, love. They hired a new director, you know, and he must have got everything mixed up."

"So who is in it?" Elizabeth demanded with a pout.

"Well," Jack cleared his throat. "Me," he said, half-hoping it would suffice but Elizabeth looked at him expectantly, her eyes fixed on his face. "Gibbs!" he said with a smile, grateful for a shadow of a relaxed look that passed across Elizabeth's face. "Barbossa," he added in a disgusted voice; Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Teague, Blackbeard, and zombies," Jack said in one breath, purposefully shuddering; Elizabeth bit back a smile.

There was a pause.

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"Oh, and there is a Will-looking guy that falls in love with a mermaid... I think."

"A mermaid?" Elizabeth gave him a disbelieving look. "Zombies and mermaids are going to be in it, and I won't?" she asked, beginning to look upset again.

"I hate to tell you this, Lizzie, but... you said yourself that you didn't want to be in it. Don't you remember?"

Elizabeth snorted. "So much for your tremendous intuitive sense of the female creature. I was being coy!"

Jack flinched. "I know," he mouthed with a frown. "But the producers thought you were being serious and they must have convinced the new director that you were being serious and that's why-" he stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, stiffening.

"That's why what?" To his dismay Elizabeth did pick up on the broken utterance, and gave him a suspicious look. "That's why what?" she repeated in a louder voice.

"That's why... that's why they went for mermaids instead," he said with an uncertain smile.

Elizabeth eyed him warily. "Are you having an affair with a mermaid in this movie?" she asked in an icy tone, squinting, and out of the corner of his eye Jack could see her hands rolling into fists.

"No!" Jack protested in all sincerity. "Of course not! Mermaids are deceitful creatures, every sailor knows that! How can you even suggest something like that?" he said, aiming to sound offended but Elizabeth obviously would not have it.

"Let me see the script," she said through her teeth.

"I already let you-" Jack started but trailed off when Elizabeth unceremoniously snatched the papers out of his hands.

"Lizzie..." he tried to take the pages away from her but she shot him a glare and turned her back to him.

Jack stared at her back awaiting the worst.

And he did not need to wait for long.

"Who is she?" Elizabeth shouted, swirling to face him again, and pointing to a female name on one of the pages.

Jack blinked, shifting his eyes between Elizabeth's face and the script. He swallowed. "I have no idea!"

"Liar!" Elizabeth snapped, quickly perusing through the pages. "Where are you going with her?"

"I think it's a total coincidence, seeing how the Pearl-" Jack started but Elizabeth was apparently paying no attention to whatever he might say.

"Why is she looking at you that way? Why are you looking at her that way? Why are you grinning at her?" Elizabeth gave Jack a sharp look from above the pages.

"It's a fake grin, Lizzie!" Jack reassured her ardently.

Elizabeth said nothing, her eyes returning to the script in her hands. Jack watched her face in dismayed anticipation, his eyes widening when Elizabeth's eyes widened as well.

"Why are you holding her that way?" she asked in a whisper, her face pale.

"I'm quite sure I'm strangling her in that scene!" Jack said quickly but fell silent when Elizabeth's sad gaze met his.

She looked at him for a moment in silence and then straightened up, quickly blinking back the tears and throwing the script to the side with fury. "I should've listened to those who were warning me! You're a despicable, untrustworthy, rum-soaked, wobbly-legged, duplicitous pirate!" she shouted, shaking from anger.

"Lizzie!-"

"Leave me alone! I don't need you! I don't need to be in any bloody movie with you! I don't want to! I can do whatever I want! I can do Pride & Prejudice 2, I can play Hamlet, I can call Orlando & he'll get me in the Hobbit movie! Ha! How about that?" Jack opened his mouth to speak but Elizabeth cut him off. "You're irritating, troublesome, bothersome, and, and, and," she waved her hands in the air, "lazy!" she added triumphantly.

"Lazy?" Jack blinked.

"Yes, lazy! I made as many movies as you and you're... three times older than me!" Jack was about to protest but seeing how furious Elizabeth was he thought better of it. "On how many Vogue covers have you been anyway?" Elizabeth thrust up her chin, and turned around, heading for the door.

"Lizzie, where are you going?" Jack ran after her and almost tripped over his own feet when she suddenly turned around. "Lizzie-"

"I'm going back to Will!" she screamed. Jack's eyes widened almost to the point of no return. "I'm going to drown myself and then live with Will on the Flying Dutchman happily ever after! I don't care about you!" she continued before Jack managed to interrupt her. "I don't care about Pirates! You can marry Scarlett, Giselle, Barbossa, all of them at once! in the next film if you want!" She angrily pulled the door open, and walked out of the cabin, turning toward him one last time when she was already in the corridor. "Frankly, Jack, I don't give a damn!" She exclaimed condescendingly and shut the door so hard that it fell out of its frame and rattled to the floor.

Jack stared at the fallen door in stupefaction for a second.

"Jack, what is going on?"

Jack looked up at the sound of Gibbs' voice, his face darkening. "It's all your fault!" he bellowed glaring daggers at Gibbs and throwing random pages of the script on him.

Gibbs stared at Jack in bafflement. "My fault?" he asked tentatively.

"Shiny, eh?" Jack exclaimed, mocking him, and then rushed after Elizabeth.

He ran up the stairs and headed for the Black Pearl's stern where he found Elizabeth already standing on the other side of the rail, preparing to jump.

"Not good, not good," Jack ran toward the stern, muttering under his breath. "Lizzie, no! Please, don't do this!"

"Go away!" Elizabeth shouted over her shoulder.

Jack stopped in his tracks, trying to quickly come up with a plan of action. "Have you ever been to Wisconsin?" he asked, clandestinely taking a step forward.

"What?"

"I remember when I was a kid, me and Teague, we went ice fishing out on Lake Wissota. Ice fishing is, you know, where you-

"I know what bloody ice fishing is!" Elizabeth cut in, irritated.

"Lizzie-"

"Go away!" Elizabeth repeated, leaning forward even more.

Jack swallowed, watching her with wide eyes. "Lizzie... I should have told you every day from the moment I met you," he blurted out and then drew a breath and added barely above a whisper. "I love you."

For a moment, Elizabeth remained motionless and he could hear the wind brushing loose strands of hair off her shoulders. At last she looked over at him, giving him a questioning look.

"You know, Lizzie... It was originally my line... but they gave it to Will," he said with a shrug, a ghost of a roguish smile flitting across his face.

Elizabeth looked at him, and despite the semi-darkness around them he could see her eyes glittering with tears. He walked toward the rail, and reached out for her hand. She slipped her hand into his, their eyes locked.

Jack helped her to step over the rail, and when she was back on deck he cupped her face in his hands and whispered: "That script doesn't matter, Lizzie. Nothing matters. The horizon is ours to chase and we will continue chasing it together. Savvy?"

Elizabeth gave him a bright smile and closed her eyes when he kissed her.