-Previously-

Elizabeth wanted to learn what was in her future, so they (Jack, Elizabeth, and Will) went to visit Tia Dalma. She decided to send them in to the future- but she sent them too far. They ended up ion the 21st century and found out that they had to complete one special task each in order to get back. Will had to ward off an obsessive freshman, Jack had to outsmart a teenaged Barbossa and his crew, and Elizabeth - who was starting to develop feelings for a certain pirate captain- had to determine which man she liked best. Her heart chose Jack and left Will very broken hearted.

After their trip to the future, they returned to find that Spaniards had capture The Black Pearl. Jack and his crew then decided to steal an English ship, the Flipper. The English Navy then cornered Jack and his crew and a battle broke out, which only stopped after they had successfully locked Jack in chains and thrown him in a boat of explosives. Jack managed to escape from the boat before it blew, but was forced to drift lazily out at sea for a day before he washed up at a desert island. A dolphin led him to the Spaniards that stole the Black Pearl, who then locked him up and threw him in the brig.

Meanwhile, Will takes advantage of a heartbroken Elizabeth who believes Jack to be dead. Elizabeth, Will, and the rest of the crew had a battle on another ship and Elizabeth was accidentally stabbed. Her wounds were sewn up but she was still fragile; any sickness at all could kill her. Jack's old crew managed to reclaim the Black Pearl and free the old captain. Elizabeth then managed to slip him her old engagement ring (From when she had called off her engagement with Will) and asked him to marry her. Jack, looking out for her safety (and his own bachelor status) turned her down.

And so we begin our story, several days later.

"How's Elizabeth doing?" Jack asked the doctor casually, though he was anxious to know. She hadn't come out of her room in days, since Jack had refused her proposal, and he was awfully worried.

"Not so good, Cap'n." The doctor said. "She was doin' a bit better for a while, till you made her upset and she got worse." Jack's face fell; hadn't she seen his reason? "I ain't blamin' ye, Jack." The doctor added quickly.

"Aye," Jack was too depressed to tell the doctor to add the "Captain" to his name and turned to walk out.

"Jack." Will acknowledged the captain stiffly as they passed each other on the boat.

"That's Captain Jack to ye, Will," Jack retorted. He knew that Will thought it was Jack's fault that Elizabeth's condition was worsening instead of improving.

"My utmost apologies, Captain." Will snarled, his lip curling slightly.

They bumped shoulders as they moved in opposite directions. Jack had put up a front during their encounter, but inside he was just feeling worse. He stopped by the side of the boat and looked out, thinking deeply. It had been days since he had been stuck on that blasted island, all alone except for a dolphin.

Good ol' Sylvie. I wondered how ye are, Jack thought, smiling slightly. That dolphin had led him to the Pearl, so he had her to thank for the recapture of his captured ship.

"Captain! There's land ahead!" A call came from the lookout of the ship.

"Let me have a look," Jack attached a rope around is waist and shimmied up the rail. He swung his leg over the side of the crow's nest at the top and took the spyglass from the lookout. Indeed, there was a small chain of islands on the horizon. "Good. Keep ahead, men!" He called and made his way back down.

"Sparrow," one of the crew called (Let's call this man Radford, for a lack of better name) to the captain as he untied his rope harness.

"Aye, Radford?" Jack asked, discarding the rope and straightening himself.

"What really happened between you and Ms. Swann?" Radford was curious and eager to squash all the nasty rumors that were going around, most of which had been spread by Will.

"What's the word among the men?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"They say you took away her virtue, gave her a baby in her womb, then told her you never loved her and she was but a mark on your record." Radford told the other man. "They also say you left her in her bed to bleed to death and that if Will hadn't come along and stitched her wounds with strands of his own hair, then her body would have been pitched over the side the next morning."

Jack snorted threw his nose. "That's what you all have been saying!"

"Then it's not true, Captain?" Radford looked somewhat relieved.

"Not at all," Jack answered smartly.

"Then…what really happened?"

Jack swaggered to the other side of Radford and twirled his hair beads a little. "What really happened is this: I met her father, robbed him of all his valuables, jumped out the window, breaking all my bones, healed them magically, gave the jewelry I stole to Elizabeth, then chopped off all her hair and threw it down the latrine. After that I bought her a dog, introduced it to a girl dog, and then killed the boy dog and all its puppies, except for one, which I fed to the Spaniards, who gave me a cutlass in return, which I then used to perform an amputation on the girl dog. I later took the foot I cut off and gave it to the cook, and that's what you men ate for dinner. Is that any better for ye, mate?" Jack winked.

Radford was rendered speechless and stared unblinkingly at the person before him. "Jack…that's not…not really…true…? Is it?"

"Take a wild guess, Radford," Jack replied in a tone that suggested he was quite bored.

"Well, then? What is the truth!" Radford exclaimed, exasperated.

Jack became quite serious (which doesn't occur too often) and went on the tell Radford about everything that had happened between him and Elizabeth that night. Radford listened intently and nodded when he thought it was appropriate.

"So…now you see my reasons for not marrying Ms. Swann?" Captain Jack asked. Radford did not answer right away, but instead burst into a wave of tears.

"Calm down, man!" Jack became rather flustered, unsure of what to do to console his crew member.

"It's just…I- I- I got a woman I- l-love back home! And…And I don't w- w-want her to get hurt n-neither! She saw my reasons and w- w-wasn't sad at seeing meg-go, almost k-kicked me out of the h-house, she did! Your st- st-story got me to thinking' about that!" Radford sniffled.

Jack patted him awkwardly on his head before he managed to slip away from the weeping pirate and arrived on the main deck.

"How are we coming on that port?" Jack questioned the lookout, who was sitting above him, looking through his telescope.

"Good, sir. Should reach her well before the end of the day!" The man with the spyglass reported.

Jack nodded and began an inspection of the Black Pearl, looking over every aspect of it, from the mainmast to the foremast to the head to the quarters to the kitchen, where Jack ran his finger over the counters and examined the goo that stuck on it. He licked it and screwed up his face in disgust. "I hated that meat sauce the first time I had it."

Meanwhile, Will was pacing the deck anxiously. If they were making port, then maybe they could find a real doctor, one who could cure Elizabeth. It was their only hope. It was her only hope. He couldn't lose her. Not again.

Will stopped his pacing and stooped down. He had seen something on the ground under the crow's nest. It was a gun - Jack's gun- , black and with an empty barrel. It's a sign, Will thought to himself. It's a sign I should shoot Jack and tell him to get the hell off this ship and I should go reclaim Elizabeth. Will smiled a little and pocketed the weapon, sure that he would never do something so awful.

…Or would he?