"Couldn't resist, could you love? Had to have a taste"
His hollow words kept echoing in her head. And that smile that no amount of Confusing tears would tear from his face. That was the most confounding part, the knave didn't even seem surprised, much less hurt. Not that she'd wanted to hurt him. She'd never wanted to hurt anyone.
"Pirate"
It was true. Her actions couldn't be justified. It wasn't that she'd kissed him. Elizabeth knew she'd hurt Will, but that didn't matter. It was the final act that filled her heart with guilt. She didn't have to do what she'd done. For days, she'd been in denial, telling herself it'd been done for the best. But the truth was, they could have stuck to the shallows to avoid the Kraken. True, facing Jones was inevitable, but that wasn't the point. And now, even worse, they had Barbossa to deal with. Tia Dalma hadn't helped much either. Provided them with a captain: yes, heading: kind of, but ship? No. So, here they were, attempting to, as Jack would've put it, "Commandeer" a ship, from Tortuga no less. And from where she was, it was going to be all too easy. Distract the captain, while Will, Cotton, Gibbs and Barbossa sail off. And she was to be once again left ashore. Even that stupid undead monkey was going along. Unfortunately, cross-dressing wouldn't help her this time, either. Will had made her promise she would lie low till he returned. She knew he'd seen the kiss; but he refused to bring it up. She'd wanted to reassure him that was really nothing, but now she knew it was a lie. Whether her feelings for Jack were just a passing infatuation or a something deeper, she wasn't sure of yet. She needed time to think, but being left entirely alone, on this filthy spit of land wasn't what she had in mind, either.
There they go, she thought, and this idiot was still blathering on about his bloody ship...well, Barbossa's bloody ship now. She faked a racking cough and excused herself for "a spot o' grog". He offered to oblige, but she ducked away into a crowd quickly avoiding an uncomfortable situation.
"Well," she said out loud to herself," I guess I find an inn, or something".
She wandered the streets till she found a less lively part of town, here there were small children in rags, and scantily clad dumpy women. The latter quickly livened up. The Not-so-Innocent knew why- a ' young man' was coming. One of them gave Elizabeth a smile,
"Looking fir a good time, gent? I've a fine mattress in the back quarter." Elizabeth smiled, and shook her head denial, thinking, "Good they still think I'm a man. at least the disguise works, all though almost everyone stares incredulously at the sound of my obviously soprano voice."
She got on near the very ends of this street and still found nothing suitable, soon, she was wandering in a swampy area, void of all other human life. A frog croaking in the distance lulled her into a false sense of security-she began a full-hearted banter on the past year. It ended with a passionate denial of any feelings for Sparrow,
"And to think he thought it was out of curiosity!"
"Well, love, it I'd known you'd felt that way, I would've done a good deal more than just kiss you back. I do love a good chase, and the customary spot of rum, naturally. And you have been a worthy pursuit, thus far."
She turned to see the one person she hadn't expected to see ever again,
"Jack? Are you back?"
Then, her tone changed,
"How dare you, what the bloody hell do you think you're doing? You're supposed to be dead!"
He saucily sloshed through the undergrowth separating them, ignoring her last statement entirely. Obliging his own inner drive, he reduced the space between them to mere inches,
"Now is that how you really want it, Lizzy?"
He leaned in to kiss her, but she smelt rum on his breath, more than usual, and something else foul. Elizabeth ducked out, and shoved part of her shirt across her breathing passages.
"My god, Jack, what is the stench?"
He casually lifted an arm and smelt the underside, with squinting eyes, he too nearly chucked at the scent of himself,
"Suppose Kraken slime takes a good deal more washing than a dip in the ocean to get off".
Shrugging his shoulders, he threw his hat to the ground, flopped himself down beside it, and pulled out an all too familiar bottle,
"Drink?" he offered.
He shrugged when she said nothing,
"Your loss."
All the while, Elizabeth had been eyeing him, trying to deduce how he'd survived. Now, he sat on the ground, with an entirely washed up look about him. She remained standing, totally unsure of what to do. This isn't what she wanted, William Turner was her fiancé. He was good, charming, loyal, sweet, and brave. Not like this rogue before her, who sat there inspecting his own gold teeth with slightly reflective doubloon, obviously polished for just this purpose. He turned to her, gave that smile that had so unnerved her as she'd sentenced him to a horrible death. He leaned against the trunk of a tree and sighed.
Jack:
How did he survive? Did it matter? He was alive, and more importantly alone with a woman of aspiring personality traits, and a few other endowments he couldn't help but admire. The fact that she'd tried to kill him disturbed him slightly, but most women he'd known had tried to kill him at one time or another. He tried to think back, eyebrows crinkling at the effort to work his mind, and was confounded with terrifying images of the Kraken, baring down on him from all sides. He remembered slashing like mad at the innards of the beast with his cutlass. Than, exhaustingly
hot squishiness gave way to peaceful cool serenity of the sea. He'd surfaced. He remembered haunting visions of both Turners, the various crewmembers, but most vividly, the dark-hearted woman standing before him. Yes, she was dark-hearted, in a way he couldn't help but admire. Yet she obviously still clung to her drab fiancé, Turner Jr. Or perhaps not. Jack let the rum fill his throat with a satisfying swallow of the burning liquid, it reminded him of her kiss. Despite years of downing the stuff, he'd never accumulated a resistance. Strange, he thought, as the darkness clouded in and he passed out.
Elizabeth watched unsurprised, but with wide eyes, as her would-be-dead captain sunk even further to the ground. It was then that she realized something she'd never seen on him before. Well, several things actually, first, there was the worried look that settled over his face. Than, a piece of rolled parchment slipped out of one of his belts. She shook her head at the idea that he trusted such a torn, rotten thing to keep his sword and gun close at hand. Her curiosity peeked, as it often did, and she reached for it. her fingertips graced the tips of the frayed edges when Jack's hand shot out and gripped her wrist tightly.
"I wouldn't be doing that if I were you, love."
He opened his eyes, bleary and disoriented. She relaxed, just as he'd hoped. Pulling her none too forcefully onto his lap, he smiled congenially,
"Well this is a good a spot as any to continue our former activities, so where were we?"
Parting his many gold teeth, he misses her lips entirely as she stands and kicks him.
"Now that was too cold, pet. What happened to the Lizzy I remember, or was that just a cold-hearted seduction meant solely for your own gain? In which case, I maintain my previous judgment of 'pirate'."
"Jack, what I did was entirely out of self survival. I can't believe I wanted to partake in that ridiculous journey to save you from Davy Jones knows what."
At the sound of the sea devil's name, Sparrow immediately stiffened, looking suspiciously at the mucky swamp waters, he backed half a dozen paces from the shore.
"About that, squid lips didn't hang about to chat, did he? Maybe decide to give up his career of soul hunting?"
She stared at him, mouth partly open to form a perfect little 'o'. He decided that to conquer those pretty little lips again, he would indeed need to bathe...a lot. Wait, what was he thinking? This bit wasn't worth the fight. There were plenty of willing barmaids that did a good deal less cringing at the sight of his face. Looking around, he realized it was getting near nightfall, he began to whistle and walk in a general direction back towards town. To maintain his healthy-well, not really-but at least bachelor lifestyle, he separated himself from the tempting nymph.
Elizabeth had no intention of following him. She pulled out the compass she'd kept, hoping it would show her at least which way Will was. Instead it spun around all too quickly to point where Jack had sauntered off. Throwing the obviously broken thing down, she looked around for a space to lie down for the night, but found none. Instead, she climbed up a sturdy tree and tried to become comfortable,
"In the morning, I'll have to find passage to Port Royale."