This is the second in a line of letters that I am having Elizabeth write. I am planning on having others write letters to each other as well. So, enjoy.

Elizabeth's Letters

To Gov. Swann

My father,

My protector,

My best of friends.

Father,

You will never know how devastated I felt when I saw you in that little boat.

You will never know how much I wanted for you to hold me, to tell me just one more time how much you loved me.

You will never know how much it meant to me when you said "I'm so proud of you." Never, in a thousand years would I ever have expected that. All my life, you have called me wild, willful, sometimes even mad. You have told me that I exasperated you, have actually driven you to tear up one of your best wigs, but that you have never once doubted that whatever I did with my life, I would be wonderful at it.

Which is why you were so concerned with the pirates. I suppose you can't be blamed. I would have been concerned if I was you. I must have driven you mad.

Like that time when I turned fourteen, and you caught me trying to climb out my window to go to sea. You had come in to see the makeshift rope of sheets hanging out the window, and saw my head ducking beneath the balcony. In one fell swoop you strode over, pulled me up, and had me over your knee, spanking me like I was four again and had just done something very naughty. I was furious. So were you. But neither of us could stay that way long.

Within the week I came to you trying to hold back tears. It was late at night, and you were working. You looked up, and saw my face, and you got up and strode over to me, asking concernedly what was wrong. It took a moment, but I finally composed myself enough to ask a question I had been wondering about for quite some time.

"Do you ever wish I wasn't here? Are you ever ashamed of me?" I looked at you with my eyes full of tears, and you simply embraced me in a strong, loving hug, the kind I miss now more so than ever.

"My sweet girl, I have never once thought that. I love you so much, even when you drive me mad. I may on occasion wish that you would be taken by pirates, but I also know that would never work," I looked at you curiously, and you continued. "You would only drive them even more mad, and they would return begging me to make you come home."

I laughed so hard at that.

But still, I always wanted to make you proud of me. I never thought I could actually do that. I was always making a fiasco of things. It was ridiculous. I believe that you thought it was a miracle that the Commodore actually proposed to me. It was my one salvation. Once I was married, I would no longer be your problem. But that all changed with what you said to me that night after I had accepted the Commodore's proposal.

"… But you know… Even the right decision, if made for the wrong reason, can be a wrong decision."

You have no one to blame but yourself for what happened afterwards. I realized things that I hadn't before. I did what I knew I had to do.

But I still made a mess of things. But it turned out to be good.

I made the right decision for the wrong reason. It turned out beautifully. Until I saw you at World's End.

I hadn't seen you for nearly six months. I had barely thought of you, because I was so busy doing pirate like things that I knew you would not approve of. I decided that I had years and years to argue with you about what I did then. I truly did miss you. I knew exactly what I would say to you. I would come in, you would bluster a bit, and then I would explain.

I never dreamed I would see you there of all places.

I was so happy to see you. I had felt guilty about leaving you like that, and now I could apologize.

And then… you were dead. It hit me like a slap across the face. It was so sudden. My chest felt so tight, like I couldn't even breathe. It was horrible. I know for a fact that if hadn't been for Will, I would have jumped off that ship in a heartbeat just to reach you. I was crushed. For a while after that, I hated everyone. I hated everything. I was numb. I wanted to kill everyone who ever wished you ill. For a little while, I wanted everyone to die. Everyone.

Including Will.

Including Jack.

Including Barbossa.

Everyone who had helped, I even wanted them to die. I hated everything.

But then I remembered what you told me last. "I'm so proud of you." Would you have been proud of me like that? Hating everyone? No, I knew you wouldn't. I knew for a fact. Even when you were gone, I still wanted your approval. It means so much to me even now. Even gone.

Father, you could not have said anything more special to me than that. It hit me suddenly that even turning out the way I did, even being a pirate, even having killed people, you were still proud of me. The fact that you loved me had never hit me so much as it did in that moment.

And now, even though I know you can never read this letter, that I will hide this letter along with the others, I want you to know that

I

love

you.

You, who was always there for me.

You, who supported me in just about everything.

I love you. I miss you. I'm still your Wild Girl. You are still my Silly Papa. And I will always love you.

Always. I can never say that enough. I think you know how I feel.

Always yours,

-Lizzie

Okay, read and review! Be kind, though. Its my first POTC fic.