-1A/N: To all my lovely reviewers, thank you! You're the best!

PART II

"So, have we reached the necessary revelations yet?" asked a familiar voice. Elizabeth opened her eyes to see Jack standing before her. He happily waved a rum bottle in one hand, the obvious prize from his excursion to his cabin. Not much time had passed at all.

With a heavy sigh, Elizabeth patted the seat next to her, inviting Jack to sit. Where he'd originally planned to sit out of reach, he couldn't resist the invitation to share that line of body heat he loved so dearly with her. The pirate plunked down beside her, offering a swig of rum. Once upon a time, she would have waved it off, but tonight she gripped the neck of the bottle and took a sturdy swill. Jack smiled, nearly a baring of teeth, at the way she delved deeper and deeper into the life of a pirate.

Elizabeth's throat burned and her head spun from imbibing in the foul drink. "You could at least do me the courtesy to tell me just what I'm supposed to be ruminating about," she said, handing the bottle back to Jack.

Smiling like the cat who ate the cream, he took a pull on the bottle of rum. "You can't guess?"

"I'm sure I could, but guessing won't get me out of this," she said, rattling her chain emphatically before Jack.

"No it won't. Only the truth can set you free," he said with a wry smile. Elizabeth watched those lips, and couldn't decide whether she wanted to slap that smirk off his face, or kiss it.

It was as Jack and Elizabeth sat in a standoff of stares that yet another emphatic click alarmed Jack. He looked down at his wrist, to see the damned woman had done it again. "Now what did you go and do that for, love?" he asked, not sure whether to laugh or take out his key and unlock it. Best to leave the key hidden until he really needed it, he decided.

She shrugged infuriatingly. "I just like to do it, it seems."

Narrowing his kohl-lined eyes at her, Jack crossed his arms, pulling the chain as he did it. "Fine."

"Very fine. If you would care to take out your key…"

Blasted woman. Jack decided to change the subject, to something that would take the smug right out of her smile. "So, since we're here, I think I might as well tell you you're about to make the most horrible mistake of your life."

"Is that so?" Elizabeth asked, realizing that once again, she was in for it. Even if she agreed, no one likes to be told such things.

"It is so, and I think deep down you agree with me. You can't marry William, love." Jack made an interesting picture, waxing philosophical, with a shackle about his wrist.

"Why? Because you want me to marry you?" she replied acidly, looking off to the star filled sky.

One black eyebrow raised. "I'm not askin' you to marry me."

"You did once."

He shrugged. "Well, that was before you fed me to a kraken."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at Jack. "One could easily say that after kissing a woman as you just did ten minutes ago, that your motives of saving a poor girl from herself are a bit tainted, Jack."

He smiled wryly, loving the challenge of sparring with her. "And one could just as easily say that after kissing one back so enthusiastically, perhaps you shouldn't be marryin' the man who isn't said kisser."

"And said kisser most probably wants to keep the said kissed. And since everyone seems to want to marry the said kissed, what else is she to assume than that's what you bloody want too?" she demanded, exasperated.

Jack held up his hands in a mock surrender. "I did ask you once, and I still would if given the chance, but that's not my point."

Elizabeth blinked, not having expected him to actually admit it. It was almost too soon, to feel him so close again without her senses reeling. Shoving down those emotions for the moment, she asked exasperatedly, "What IS your point?"

Jack turned to look down his nose at Elizabeth, suddenly serious. "That never a more disastrous match were made, than you and Will. Either your soul will crush his, or you'll settle down to a boring life and rot inside. Neither sound pleasant to me."

She laughed cynically, rocking her head back against the mast. "Strange, a pirate caring for pleasantry." When Jack did not laugh in turn, Elizabeth fought off a shudder, his eyes boring into her. At that moment she felt he could see straight to her soul. Unable to bear his gaze, she looked down at her chained hand in her lap. Jack watched her quietly, waiting patiently.

Finally, she spoke. "It's not easy, you know. Realizing that just when everything you've ever wanted is at your fingertips, you don't want it anymore. You realize you need something else. Something your family nor your fiancee nor any part of your old life can give you." She looked back up to Jack, and could see in his eyes he understood perfectly. Her voice trembled as she went on, a lump forming in her throat as she reached for the deepest truth within her. "You start to want that horizon. Lust after it. You start to steer yourself into the storm, just to see what happens. Just to see if you can win."

Jack studied her carefully, feeling so akin to the words she pulled from her soul. He knew at that moment if he couldn't have her, he would die alone. No other woman would do. "Sounds as though you have an answer, love," he said quietly.

"There are no answers, Jack. I'm so confused."

He raised an eyebrow. "And what's so wrong with chasing that horizon?"

"The heart I shall crush on my way there," she answered. "Will is so…good. So pure. I'd rather face a kraken than see such anguish on his face."

"And what about you? Is your soul worth so little? Are you really willing to let yourself rot in the prison of a household, brats pulling at your skirt from every direction?"

She shook her head solemnly, tears now brimming in those lovely brown eyes. "I don't know."

Jack reached to his belt, and startled her by dropping something into her lap. Turning the object over in her hand, she recognized the slick black surface of his special compass. "This is almost like cheating," she mused, running a finger over the smooth surface of the compass.

"It's not cheating. Nothing's more frightening than the truth, at times. I dare you to look."

"This isn't a game," she scolded.

Jack laughed, a harsh sound. "Never said it was. You've got to follow your heart, love. Everyone has a human right to do that. Open it; if you really don't know what you want, it won't tell you. Believe me, I know."

Steadying her shaky hand, Elizabeth clasped the lid, and flipped the contraption open. Both she and Jack held their breath as the needle spun round and round, to the left and to the right, seeming to not want to settle upon any particular point. Just as Elizabeth was about to close it again, certain she knew not her own heart well enough for a compass to read it, the needle lay still.

In the next 20 seconds you could leave a review, assuring the appearance of the next and final chapter… Don't make me hold it hostage. :)