A/N: Welcome to The One-Shot Game! Which is a terrible title, because what the heck do you name a story that is literally 30 different fandom stories. But yeah, a different one-shot every day in November, as my NaNoWriMo project.

Anyway, first on the fandom list is Pirates of the Caribbean, because I literally just binged all five movies in five days. I know I'm the only one on the planet who loves each and every one of those movies to pieces, but come on, everyone loves Will and Elizabeth, right?

Here we go!

Ch.1—How to Find the Dead

Elizabeth never thought to see Jack again after she and Will had sailed away to have their one day before his ten years at sea. She'd never thought she'd see any of them, really. But then, Jack was always one to do the unexpected. He would always pop up where you least expected.

She was sitting on her hill that overlooked her beach, when she saw a small boat come into view. She stood up and shaded her eyes with her hand, squinting as hard as she could to try and tell who it was. But it was some time before the figure began to take the shape of Captain Jack Sparrow. For one moment Elizabeth wished she could just let him sail by; pretend she hadn't noticed him, and let him figure out whatever mess he was in at the moment by himself. She had gotten in so much trouble because of Jack. Will was cursed because of Jack!

But…Will was also alive because of Jack. And she was married to Will, because of Jack. It was difficult to remember sometimes, but she really owed much more to him than he owed her. And with that thought in mind, she lifted her skirts and rushed down to the beach as he was pulling his boat up on the shore. He looked up at her and gave a startled cry, almost falling backwards into the boat.

"Jack, it's just me!" she said.

"I know who you are," he said. "That's precisely why I screamed." He looked around in surprise. "Wait…"

"This isn't Port Royal, if that's what you were aiming for," she said. "You were close, but this is an island just east of it. It's more hidden, and virtually abandoned."

"Except for you, it would seem." Jack said. He looked down at her stomach, and raised an eyebrow. "Well would you look at that," he said, reaching out his hand to touch her ever-growing midriff.

She slapped him and turned away. "I'll be having none of that, thank you," she said. "And because I know you're going to ask, no it isn't yours. It's Will's."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, dearie," he said. "You're not going to name it William, are you? I think that name might be a bit cursed and overused by now."

Elizabeth blushed slightly. "I don't know," she admitted. "I feel like I don't want to name it without Will's input, but I can't exactly ask him."

Jack pulled a bottle out of his boat and put it to his lips. "Why not?"

"Because he's stuck at sea for another nine and a half years, that's why," Elizabeth huffed.

"Darling, we found Davy Jones easy enough, did we not?" Jack asked. "It's very simple to know where the Flying Dutchman is going to be. She'll sail where death sails."

"But I can't just go around looking for fresh shipwrecks."

"I didn't say shipwreck, did I now?" Jack asked. "I said death. Or near death, anyway. That's all it takes." He tipped the last of the rum into his mouth and handed her the bottle. "Trust me, Elizabeth, the captain of the Flying Dutchman always has impeccable timing." He shoved his boat back in the water and clambered in, turning back to tip his hat at her. "Give my regards to the whelp." Then he sailed away, leaving her with an empty bottle and an open mouth at what he was suggesting.

It only took her a moment to recover though, to angrily throw the bottle into the sea after him, and march back to her house. But the thought didn't leave her mind. Will hadn't been gone that long. A little more than half a year; that was how long it had been since she'd seen him. She hadn't allowed herself to miss him yet, because she knew there was so much more time for that. But she did miss him; she ached for him every day. There had never been a smooth moment in their relationship, and she'd been so hoping that when the whole mess with Davy Jones and the East India Trading Company had been sorted out, then she and Will could just go back to normal, domestic lives in society. She'd loved being a pirate, but she was ready to become the governor's daughter again, and right all the wrongs that had been done to her family by Lord Cutler Beckett. And she had done quite a bit of that. Will would have been proud of her for how much she overturned Port Royal, and made it the peaceful town that they'd loved and grown up in. But this little island was where she spent most of her time, as it was quiet and she could just stare at the sea without any tongues wagging. For of course no one knew she came here. She was known to go on many business trips, but this was really where she was going. She forbade passage to this island, but the reason she gave was that it was infested with many poisonous creatures, which she knew was a blatant lie. So she'd gotten along very well on her own.

But she still desperately missed the man she loved. And the thought of going to speak to him, just once more, was so very tempting to her. It had never even occurred to her that she could just go meet him, if he couldn't come to meet her. But the Flying Dutchman sailed underwater most of the time, and if it happened to be above water because it was at a shipwreck, than it would likely be very dangerous to bring another ship anywhere near that, or else it would turn into a wreck as well.

But this other option; she would never have thought of this other option on her own. And she'd been quite ready to dismiss it even when Jack suggested it. Because there wasn't just her life to consider. There was her son's as well. What if Will was just a second too late?

But she was going to risk it. She had to risk it. She needed to see him, just once. He didn't even know she was pregnant. He would go all those years never knowing he had a child, if she didn't tell him now. She knew she wouldn't be able to go through with this once her son was actually born. So it had to be now.

She took a small boat as far out into the middle of the sea as she thought her strength would allow. She made very certain that there were no lands or ships in sight, and she also kept a very close eye on the weather. This was terrifying, what she was doing. She'd had to do quite a number of horrifying things in the past few years, but this was by far the scariest. She carefully tied a rope around a rock she had brought; the heaviest rock she could find. Then, with hands that she willed not to shake, she tied the other end around her ankle.

Will had better come for her. If he didn't, if he was watching this and thought she was bluffing, then she was going to have some choice words for him when he came to retrieve her soul. And what would happen to her child, would Will take his soul, too? Or would that soul just cease to exist?

She didn't want to think about that at all, and so hastily threw the rock in the water and jumped in after it.

The minute she hit the water was the most terrifying minute of her life. The last time she remembered feeling this scared was when she saw Davy Jones plunge a sword into Will's chest. She felt like she was going to die in that instant, too, and she was feeling it again. She was sinking…she was losing oxygen…he wasn't going to come for her…

And that's when she felt something hard touch her feet, and she felt herself being raised upwards. She took a gasp of air as soon as she was able to, and was suddenly aware of someone crying, "Elizabeth! Elizabeth, wake up!"

She opened her eyes and saw Will bending over her. He looked both angry and worried, but she couldn't do or say anything other than sit up and throw her arms around him. He hugged her tight, but then pulled her back and glared at her. "What were you doing?" He asked. "You could have died, do you realize that?"

"I knew you wouldn't let that happen," she said softly.

He frown melted, and he sighed, reaching out to gently caress her face. "Oh Elizabeth…"

She slowly lifted his hand off her face and lowered it to rest on her bulge. His face lit up, and he looked down at it, then up at her. "Elizabeth, is that…? Are we…?"

She nodded and smiled, and he suddenly leaned in to kiss her. She was entirely happy for all of five seconds, before he jerked back and looked angrily at her again. "So you endangered the life of our child as well?"

"I know," she said. "But I had to do it, I…I couldn't bear the thought of you not knowing…"

"But in this way?" He asked. "Where did you even get the idea to do this?"

She paused, then admitted, "Jack may have suggested that you'd be where death was."

"Jack." Will spat out the name, then looked at Elizabeth warningly. "Elizabeth, I know he's the reason we're both here, and together, but you must keep our child out of his path at all costs."

"I know," Elizabeth said feelingly, and then she smiled. "It's a boy, by the way. I want to name him William."

"Of course you do," Will said, rolling his eyes and smiling. "Well, at least be kind and give him a decent middle name like Henry or something, so he can go by that."

She nodded, and kissed him again, before she took the rope off her leg and returned to her boat. "Tell him this story, Elizabeth!" Will called as he disappeared again. "Warn him against doing what you did!"

And then he was gone, leaving her again alone, but feeling completely satisfied all the same.