Whoa! Sweet reviewer response! But sadly, I am in the worst rut ever – I can't get to Pirates 3 opening day! No one within a 60-mile radius is showing the Thursday night 8 PM show, the midnight show, and after school Friday, I'm going camping all weekend! I swear my dad wants to ruin me… I don't even like camping that much (except for the food, lol)… But yeah. THIS – SUCKS. But I am glad to have gotten good feedback! Thank you all!

. Reviewers .

x) Florencia7 – Thank you very much! I actually had a rough time thinking up a prologue for this story, but the timeline thing seemed to work the best! Hope I've got you hooked! Thank again for reading and reviewing, and enjoy the next chapter!

x) Lucifer's Light – Thank you! As I told Florencia7, the beginning was hard to fit at first, but it is now most efficient! Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you stick around to read more!

x) missrissa77 – Thanks! Hope you continue reading, and thanks again for reviewing! Enjoy the chapter below!

x) German – Hope you keep reading! I promise no disappointment. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and keep reading! Enjoy!

x) kcpiratey05 – You'll just have to keep reading, lol. Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you do stay with the story! Enjoy the chapter!

x) Piratesfinatic – Thank you! I'm updating right now, but my future posts may not be this close together. I've got the first four chapters written, so I could post frequently til I run out, lol. Thank for reviewing, and enjoy the story!

x) dextriin – It was intense, huh? LoL… I like the timeline set up because it does give you that effect, and it worked! Thank for reviewing, and keep reading!

- Dis/Claimer-

. Chapter One .

Elizabeth shivered in her sleep all night without knowing it. Her body racked with a particularly violent shiver, and sometime in the middle of the night, she pulled her blankets around her tighter. And now as morning came, it was still miserably cold in her room, though she could not figure out why for the life of her as she drifted in and out of sleep before dawn.

The night went by slowly with her fighting off the chill late in the year. Of course, as soon as she was able to finally rest decently, she was being roused from her impossible-to-acquire position of tolerable discomfort.

There wasn't even a knock at her door. The door simply opened, hitting off the wall. She pinched her eyelids closer together in annoyance as the governor came forward to wake her. He was the only one who dared enter her room in such a manner.

"What's going on?" she asked groggily, not opening her eyes.

"Elizabeth, wake up."

She opened her eyes with newfound concern. Her father sounded terribly worried and flustered, and upon sitting up and looking at him properly, he looked as if he had endured a night much worse than hers. She felt troubled to see him this way. He had never looked like this before.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Governor Swann looked entirely uncomfortable when he tried to speak, but he kept a calm intonation the best that he could. "Something has happened."

Elizabeth waited, but he said no more. He looked pained. Elizabeth took a deep breath, looking him in the face. He did not want to look at her, but his eyes could not leave hers.

"Father, what is it?" she asked. He tried to speak again, but his voice failed him. "What?" Elizabeth couldn't think of what could be wrong. Had Lord Beckett done something? Was Will all right?

Her eyes shifted at the thought. She looked back up at the governor, fear shining bluntly in her eyes.

"Has something happened to Will?"

Governor Swann looked at the floor briefly, and Elizabeth panicked. Her heartbeat quickened and paused, as he looked her in the eye with hardly any control again.

"He's dead, Elizabeth," he said hesitantly. "H-He was murdered."

Her eyes grew as her gaze fell to the floor. Life poured out of her large eyes as denial, anger, and shock replaced it. She stood up abruptly with an immoveable expression causing her father to step back in surprise. She did not speak; she stood in a stupor as a wrenching ache took over her body. The governor continued to speak, upset at being the bearer of bad news to his own daughter.

"That boy Nathaniel found him in the shop last night. He came straight here and woke me and..." The silence from Elizabeth was beginning to make him extremely uncomfortable and worried. "Elizabeth, you need to sit down."

Her eyes flashed suddenly, and she was pulled back by his last words.

"No, no," she urged, placing a restraining hand on her father's arm gently. "I have to go. I have to see him. Where's my coat?"

Governor Swann was afraid she would do this. He shut his eyes, shaking his head. "No," he said firmly as possible. "I will not let you see him in such a state."

"I'm going." She moved around him, picking up her dressing gown and throwing it on quickly.

"No! You are not going down there."

An anger rose from inside Elizabeth as she met eyes with her father from across the room. "Do not wake me with such news and expect me to take it sitting down."

x x x

Snow was actually drifting and blowing around outside. As Elizabeth and her father stepped out of the carriage and up to the shop's door and knocked, she watched a collection of flakes tumble around at the mercy of the soft wind. Suddenly, the door opened, and the newly-restored-to-position Commodore Norrington greeted them grimly. He hung his head at the sight of Elizabeth, but she only waited impatiently for him to move.

"Elizabeth wishes to see him," the governor said to Norrington, overly stressed by the situation.

Norrington glanced at her with pity, as she remained waiting on the stair. "You shouldn't see this," he warned gently. "It is a haggard sight, Miss Swann; not one you will wish to remember him by."

Elizabeth took a step up staring through the Commodore. "Let me in, please," she said, her undertone impatient and demanding. Norrington stood in debate with himself for a long second before reluctantly stepping aside to let her pass. The governor cast him a distraught look as Elizabeth entered. They followed behind her closely.

Elizabeth saw everything moving too quickly and too slowly in a mesh of unreality as she entered the shop. The gray sunlight came in through the roof, but the windows all around were closed and locked, giving the shop a very different appearance and atmosphere. She stood numb from the cold and her panic wearing only her coat over her dressing gown with strands of wisped curls lifting lightly in the soft breeze.

Her eyes caught the sight of men in red coats in the middle of the shop, and her heart gave a violent palpitation. Will was under their leaning bodies. She knew it but denied it for as long as she could. She could deny it forever and-

She then looked in disbelief at the man she saw next to the officers, hands bound in iron with two of the men holding him stiff and motionless.

It was Jack.

Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Why is the rum gone?"

"Peas in a pod, darling."

"The Black Pearl is freedom."

"Curiosity."

"Keep telling yourself that, darling."

"Welcome to the Caribbean, luv."

"Pirate."

She locked her eyes on him, and his traveled casually onto her as if he had expected this. She made her way over to him in a fleeting stride overwhelmed with confusion and - dare she admit it – a touch of comfort for seeing him there as that instant. She reached him, looking him over with a loss of words.

"Jack... What-?"

"Wrong place, wrong time," Jack said with a weak smile to her. He appeared quiet, but if she knew anything about him, wheels in his head were turning as he took in all that was being said around him.

"Wh-? Why is this man in chains?" she asked of the two men holding him.

"Because Jack Sparrow is suspect to the murder of one William Turner."

Attention shifted to the back doorway as Lord Beckett entered the shop with more men. Elizabeth, having a profound dislike for the man, wore a look of foreboding anger when gazing at him. He gave an emotionless glare as usual as he came up to the group. Elizabeth still stood in front of Jack, a protectiveness for him suddenly coming over her.

"We are not sure that is what happened," Norrington said at Elizabeth's reaction. "But if that is the case-"

Suddenly, a gunshot sounded, and they all started, including the men around Will's fallen body. They scattered, and Elizabeth's hand shot to her mouth in wretched terror as her body tensed and failed to function for half a moment. She stood paralyzed at the sight, tears, subconsciously it seemed, forming around her eyelids. Jack was taken aback as well as he stared uncontrollably and expressed a look of disgust.

"Does this crime look worthy of any citizen of the settlement Port Royal to you, Commodore Norrington?!" Beckett shouted loudly. Elizabeth grasped Jack's vest, feeling that if she let go all life would be lost to her. "This man was slaughtered gruesomely, and no one has the tendencies of a murder so heartless and uncivil than that of the pirate standing in our presence!"

Elizabeth looked at Jack's chest in thought before gathering herself to think, her mind in a whirl. She looked up at his eyes. He gave her a look similar to that everyone had that morning - blank, pitiful, and silent.

You didn't do it, Jack. You couldn't have.

"Please do not intercede again, Mr. Norrington, am I clear?" Beckett asked distantly.

"Yes, sir," Norrington replied lowly against his merit. "My apologies."

"He will be sent to the gallows immediately," Beckett ordered, lowering his voice some. "Take him."

"Wait!" Elizabeth grasped the cold iron around Jack's wrist before they pulled him away. The soldiers stopped, and Elizabeth looked at Beckett angrily. "You cannot pass judgment so quickly. It's unfair."

"Fairness does not apply to the life a pirate leads of thievery, lies, and murder," Beckett said in a smooth tone. "It is only fair to you, Miss Swann, that we see to it that your fiancé's murderer is jailed and executed as soon as possible. I have even contemplated thus far not making it such a public and formal affair."

Mr. Mercer, who stood next to him with his usual disturbing glare, casually pulled out a long dagger, admiring the blade. Elizabeth looked back at Beckett, but neither of their expressions had changed much. Elizabeth simply felt more sick and angry as Mercer walked over to Jack, still flashing the blade. She looked at the ground, still in shock and confusion. Governor Swann rushed over to stabilize her.

"Lord Beckett, you are upsetting not only my daughter, but me as well," he said firmly. "This is not the place or time!"

"But it is, Governor, as you will realize." Beckett looked over at Will's body. "For at the scene of a crime where emotions are driven by anger and sorrow, judgment," - he said the word sharply upon turning back to the governor - "is very easy to pass."

"I withhold judgment," Elizabeth said then, her mind still doused heavily with distress. Each of them looked at her, but she fixed her gaze still on Lord Beckett. "I do not feel certain that all has been laid bare before me, and I deserve to know the truth."

"I'm afraid-"

"Lord Beckett," Elizabeth interrupted. "If you harm him in any way I will be sure to write to the King and advise him that justice is not properly being represented in this port by your means. I will see to that you are hereto stripped of your title and your dignity." She glanced over at Jack who stood idle and silent, appearing humble to the circumstances. Her gaze shifted back to Beckett. He frowned almost furiously, but it was dismissed.

"As far as I recall, the terms of justice for Captain Sparrow are seemingly nonexistent."

"Keep in my mind, sir, that I am the governor's daughter, and he has fair rights to a trial if I request them."

Jack bent his brow. A trial? No gallows? Not just yet?

"You have no jurisdiction or political say in this matter-"

"You will find that she does," Governor Swann interjected.

"She is the daughter of an appointed power, not a royal bloodline, therefore her words are void to action," Beckett said. "Women hold no authority in such affairs."

"But you will see that I do," the governor said. Beckett glared at him, but Governor Swann fought to be swayed by his eyes and said, "Sparrow is not to be harmed. You will see to it that he has a trial readied as soon as possible."

The presiding stared him down without a word.

"That is the final say in the matter," Governor Swann said somewhat uncertainly.

"Until then he will be imprisoned," Beckett said. "With strict regulations."

Elizabeth looked at Jack. He was thanking her through the same expression he had been wearing, but she still saw it. She just didn't know what was going to happen next.

"Those terms will be met under my supervision," the governor said, walking away from Elizabeth. Beckett glowered at this, and reluctantly muttered 'to the fort.'

The majority of them went, Jack included. She watched him go blankly before she saw Will before her again, and an overwhelming feeling clutched her. She touched her chest and slipped to her knees suddenly, Norrington trying to catch her as he came from the other side of the room. She sat there still staring, the largest feeling of defeat and loss attacking her then. The image burned into her memory permanently.

"Miss Swann?" She did not look at him, only Will's body and the sword that remained upright in it. Norrington looked up quickly at the remaining soldiers. "You there," he said to one of the men, "have this man's body removed as soon as possible. Respectively," he added pointedly.

"Yes, sir."

"Elizabeth? Elizabeth, come," he said gently, her name not passing his lips for some time since his restoration to Commodore. He lifted her arm, helping her to stand. Overwrought, Elizabeth now began to let the situation break her and the barrier of denial she had put up. Norrington turned her away from Will's body and began to walk her out of the blacksmith shop.

"Sir! Where are you going?" Gillette asked.

"I'm escorting Miss Swann away from here. I will return shortly, and I want orders carried out in full."

"Yes, sir."

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