A/N: Sorry for the long wait but here's chapter 2! I hope you guys like it and please remember to leave a review.

Disclaimer: PotC belongs to Disney.

And a HUGE thank you to my wonderful, brilliant, and talented beta- Jack.Sparrow.1245! What would I do without you?

Chapter 2: Rude Awakenings

Elizabeth felt excited at the thought that she had seen a familiar face again. Granted, that face was not that of her husband, but it was still familiar nonetheless. Familiar and so very welcome to her eyes. She liked to think that she and Jack were friends. She held him dear in her heart and seeing him was always a pleasure.

Why are you thinking about Jack? You should be thinking about your husband. Will… Will… Wi-Jack-ll…

Oh, it was pointless to try and steer her thoughts away from the man who steered the Black Pearl. Completely hopeless. She did, however, manage to focus her thoughts on a certain letter that she had given to the aforementioned pirate, one that would soon reach her husband. She couldn't wait to see what Will would write back to her. Just the thought that she might read something that he wrote to her, after all this time of being away from him, made her heart flutter in anticipation. What she couldn't pinpoint, however, was whether that anticipation was a result of expecting the letter back or the person who would deliver that letter.


It didn't take very long for the Flying Dutchman to cross paths with the Pearl. In fact, after just a few days of leaving Lizzie's humble island, Captain Turner had popped up from the depths of the ocean in his dreary ship looking for none other than Jack Sparrow.

Will had no hidden intentions, he simply wanted to ask if Jack could do him the favor of checking up on Elizabeth to see how she was doing, see if she needed him.

Little did he know, Jack had already done more than that.


Jack was in his cabin looking at a few maps, trying to find the best route to the Fountain of Youth when his first mate Gibbs walked in.

"There be a ship comin', Cap'n." he announced.

"Colors?" inquired Jack, his eyes never leaving the map he was studying.

"None." He grimaced. "We think it's the Dutchman." he said, bracing himself for what the Captain's reaction would be.

Jack stopped what he was doing and looked up at his first mate, a smile as wide as the horizon playing about his lips. "The Dutchman, ye say?"

"Aye, Cap'n."

"That's bloody fantastic." he said genuinely.

"Cap'n?" he asked, confused as to Jack's behavior.

"Our dear friend Miss Swann - that is, Mrs. Turner - gave me a letter to deliver to her brave, darling William. What… fortuity that he has decided to show up." he said, smirking.

In a matter of minutes, the Flying Dutchman was anchored right next to the Pearl. Jack scanned the deck of the familiarly terrifying ship for its newly not-so-terrifying captain. Will spotted Jack and smiled, waving for him to come aboard.

This should be interesting, he thought to himself as he crossed the gangplank, fingering the letter just inside his coat pocket.

As he approached the young captain, Jack put on a ridiculously forced smile, the nature of which said captain failed to notice.

"Well, well. If it isn't Captain Turner. Tell me, mate, how's the afterlife been treating ye?" he asked in a playful tone.

"I've been well, Jack. And you? I see you got the Pearl back." he pointed out, looking at the ship which was bobbing on the waves.

Jack's face twisted into one of confusion. "How'd ye know I lost her?"

"News travels fast around here. Each person that dies has a story to tell," he looked down at the deck grimly, "but no one ever tells of my wife."

"Speaking of your bonnie lass…" He smiled, thinking of her golden wisps of hair and how he wanted to bury his nose in it to smell the sweet scent that was purely her. He wondered what it would smell like. Would it be like fresh roses or newly fallen rain? Perhaps sweet strawberries or the sea? Where was he? Ah, yes. "I've some news from her." he said, testing the waters to see just how interested Will was.

His face immediately brightened. "You've heard from Elizabeth?"

He simply nodded, producing the letter he had been so anxious to bring up.

"It's a letter." said Will blankly. "From Elizabeth?"

Jack rolled his eyes at the boy's stupidity. "Yes. From Elizabeth." he replied mockingly, handing it to him.

"How did you acquire this?" he asked, staring at the envelope in his hand intently.

"I paid her Royal Highness a visit."

Will looked at his friend in appreciation. "Thank you for checking up on her." Jack could have sworn he saw a flicker of a smile from the captain before him.

"How…how is she?"

"I didn't spend much time with her, actually." he lied. "But she seemed...alright."

"Alright as in 'good' or alright as in 'not so good'?" Will asked, unsure.

"Alright as in content. Neither depressed nor ecstatic. Can't expect much more from a woman abandoned on an island, now, can we?"

"I didn't abandon her." His gaze grew distant. "We made this decision together. It was a mutual agreement. I promised to return in ten years and she promised to be there."

Jack narrowed his eyes, waiting for him to open the letter and, after an immensely long moment of silence, he decided to voice his opinion.

"Aren't ye going to open it?"

"The letter?"

Be patient, Jackie. He's just a whelp. "Aye, the letter." he answered as calmly as possible.

"Yes," he sighed, "I suppose I should."

Jack watched in wonder as Will slowly opened the envelope and took out the letter. Before he even looked at the letter, the Dutchman's captain admired Elizabeth's handwriting on the envelope, making him miss her even more. Jack was tired of waiting. He might as well sail to Tortuga and around all of Africa and then come back and dear William would most likely have not read the bloody letter yet. Yet, to Jack's great pleasure, Will unfolded the letter and began to read.

The boy's face smiled at the endearment with which she addressed him but soon enough, his face fell. It continued to fall as he read on, wondering what was going on and where he went wrong. By the time he finished the letter, his face was downright morbid. His demeanor was depressing. He was the incarnation of sadness.

He put the letter down. "I don't believe this."

"What is it, mate?" Jack asked.

"This letter…" Oh, bugger. "It's from Elizabeth?"

"Aye."

"Are you sure?" he asked sadly.

"It's from her, mate." he lied smoothly.

"I just can't believe this." He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and dismay. "How could she do this to me?"

"What exactly does the letter say?" he asked with perfectly feigned ignorance.

"See for yourself." he mumbled, giving the letter back to Jack.

Jack, who knew all too well of the letter's contents, pretended to read it carefully, his face growing slightly more aghast with each line.

"I assure ye, mate," he started, "I knew not of the vicious wording of that letter. Seems like our- that is, your- dear Elizabeth turned pirate after all."

"What are you even talking about?" Will winced. "Elizabeth is not a pirate." he said slowly, enunciating every syllable.

"On the contrary, mate." Jack smirked. "You see, Elizabeth is a lying, deceiving murderess. She's got quite a long list of victims there. In case ye haven't noticed, it always starts with a kiss." He paused and noticed with utter joy that Will's face began to pale. "She's got Sao Feng's, Norrington's and my blood on her pretty little hands. And yours, for that matter."

"That's enough, Jack. Elizabeth is a good person with a good heart. She didn't kill anybody."

"I'm somebody." he pointed out with childish impishness.

Will searched for an answer, for a way, any way to take the blame of all those deaths away from his wife. He did not want to believe that this was true. He couldn't let those thoughts take over his mind, because if they did it would eat him up inside until he was nothing but a shell with no heart (not that he had one, but he liked to think that he still had feelings).

"Yes, but she didn't kill you. Last time I checked, Elizabeth wasn't a sea monster."

"Might as well be." he muttered under his breath, smirking slightly.

"The Kraken killed you, Jack, the Company killed Sao Feng, and Davy Jones killed Norrington. He killed me, too." he said with conviction.

"In all actuality, mate, if your little lass hadn't gone over to brandish her sword with Jones in the first place, ye wouldn't have had to try and save her, which would have resulted in ye not being stabbed by old fish face himself, savvy?"

"She was trying to help…" he replied weakly.

Jack tried to make him hate Elizabeth but he only seemed to be hurt. This was hardly the reaction 

he wanted to elicit from Turner. He wanted him to despise Elizabeth with a passion because that was the only way to be sure that he would never interfere with her life ever again and he would be free to live it with her without worry. This, though, this just bloody ruined everything. Perhaps a new approach would be more effective?

"Well, what are ye going to do? She obviously doesn't want ye anymore."

"And since when have you cared what she wants?"

Always. "I don't. Personally, I find the whole situation amusing. When she gave me the letter, she seemed so eager for you to read it. Oh! And, I hate to tell ye this, but she did request a reply from ye. Lord knows what'll happen to me should I show up without one, aye?"

"If a lack of reply leads to your death, then who am I to oblige." Will countered sarcastically.

Jack tilted his head back in mock hurtfulness. "Don't blame the messenger. Isn't that what they say?"

"I hardly think that saying applies here, considering I doubt you've forgotten that it was you who made her turn pirate in the first place. You're the one who showed her freedom and adventure and made her crave after it. It's your fault that she became the Pirate King and, if not for you, Elizabeth and I would be living safely and contently in Port Royal like we've always wanted." he said coldly.

"Ye mean like you've always wanted. Well, at least you're making some progress, admitting that she's a pirate. And a hell of a good one, at that. Might I remind ye that she's had the displeasure of being stuck on land just like ye wanted. I guess she's had enough time to rethink her choices and has decided to follow her heart for once. If ye loved her at all, ye'd let her go."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you." His voice dripping with venomous disdain. "Then I suppose you would offer her a place on the Pearl? Sail off as though I never existed? As though we were never married?"

"I'm not here to tell ye what to do. I may, however, tell ye that letting her go would be the best course of action. After all, isn't it a husband's duty to respect his wife's wishes?"

"What would you know about matrimonial duties, Jack? You, who has never had eyes for one woman alone as I have for Elizabeth. Women are toys to you. You have no idea what love really is. It is not something to be taken lightly. And I am sorry to inform you that until I speak with Elizabeth, I refuse to take any course of action."

"And just how do ye plan on doing that? Ye can't step on land." he pointed out challengingly.

"True enough, but you can bring her here on the Pearl and I can speak with her. We can sort this whole mess out together." he said, a threatening tone evident in his desolate voice.

"Oh yes, the three of us should be able to come to a lovely conclusion, I assure ye that, mate." he said jokingly.

"I'm serious, Jack." He sighed unhappily, tiredly. "Could you please, please do me this one favor?"

"I think I've done enough favors, considering you're not dead."

"No." His gaze grew blank again. "But I'm dying on the inside. Please, Jack. Bring her here. I need to talk to her."

"And what would I get in return?" inquired Jack after a moment of silence.

"Well, for one, I'll restrain myself from running my sword through you." He replied, only half-joking.

Jack studied Will's face carefully and came to the conclusion that the boy really was in the mood to kill something, or someone and, seeing as how he did not want to be that someone, he nodded his head slowly and retreated to the Pearl.

Before he re-submerged, Will shouted over the waves, "One week, Jack."


Jack grimaced, trying to think of a way out of this one. Strangely enough, after this last encounter, he came to find that he seemed to fear Will Turner more than he ever did Davy Jones. That was a problem in itself. Another problem was how he was going to convince Elizabeth to come see Will when he didn't want her to see Will. If she met with Will, then all of his hard work will have been for nothing. She will find out that he forged a letter from her that led Will to believe that she did not love him, which, from her original letter, was clearly not true. And yet, he liked to believe that it was true. That he only voiced the feelings she was too afraid to express herself. But still, he felt like a dirty, back-stabbing pirate. Which was what he was. A pirate.

He smirked to himself. At least there was one good thing that came from all of this. Soon enough, he would be sailing on the Black Pearl with Lizzie, just like he had initially tried to persuade (persuade me) her to do before. And somehow, the destination to which they would be sailing to seemed to be of little importance. All that was important was that he would be with her again. With Elizabeth. With Lizzie…

Elizabeth had not expected to hear from Jack so soon. She thought it would take months, perhaps years for him to reach Will or vice versa and return to her island to give her Will's reply. But on one Sunday morning, she opened the door and beamed with radiance as she saw the one person who had been there for her all this time. Her single visitor. Her savior. Her lov-

Oh, come on now, Elizabeth. Stop thinking about him that way. And- and stop staring at him like that!

"Jack." she said simply. Simply sweetly. Or was it sweetly simple? He just didn't know.

"Lizbeth. An' how are ye this fine morning?" he asked kindly.

"Surprised." He furrowed his eyebrows. "I just didn't expect to see you so soon. Not that I mind 

you visiting, it's just…"

"I can understand, luv. Ye just missed Captain Jack Sparrow, aye?" he asked arrogantly.

"Aye." she whispered, transfixed by the way his fathomless eyes were setting her entire self ablaze. "Aye… I mean, I didn't, I…" she trailed off, not wishing to cause any more confusion. "What are you doing here? Did you find Will?" she asked, her voice a little steadier than it was before but she could not say the same for her weak, trembling knees.

"I did indeed. And… we need to go." he stated decidedly.

She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Go? Go where?"

"To the Black Pearl." He spoke uncertainly.

"I thought that I had made myself perfectly clear. I'm not leaving." she replied resolutely.

"That's not what I meant, luv. Ye won't be leaving him since it's him who wants ye to leave."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, now even more confused than before.

"It's Will. He wants to see ye." he said irately, something which Elizabeth was shocked to notice.

"Oh, I… I see." she said indifferently. "Are we going, now, then?"

"Aye. Pack some things. We should be out for at least a week."

She smiled at 'we'. "What did he say?" Jack shot her a baffled look. "About the letter. Was he… did he seem excited? Elated? Happy?"

"Let's save these unimportantly ineffectual and worthless conversations and/or questions for later, savvy?"

"And who are you to determine their worth, Captain Sparrow? How do you know they are of no use?" she asked indignantly.

"Because there's only one question that you could ask me that would be of importance. I thought ye'd be quicker to try and find the answer to it but considering what ye said at the time, I shouldn't be surprised." he said sternly, recalling that fateful day in which she left him on the Pearl to die and was supposedly 'not sorry'. Now that he thought about it, she'd never asked for forgiveness...

Did she think, perhaps, that she did not deserve it? Or did she simply think that any efforts to earn said forgiveness would be futile, that Jack would never forgive her. The fact of the matter is, had she just asked, he would have. He already had.

He noticed with utter dismay, after a few silent moments, that her gaze had grown empty and her face became solemn. She looked up at him with glassy eyes and tugged on his sleeve as well as his heart.

"It's not as though I didn't want to ask. I was outright afraid. Why bother to ask for something that is completely out of the question? I don't know whether or not you care to hear this, but I am sorry." The tears began to flow. "So terribly sorry." she whispered, her sniffles the only audible 

sound in the house. "Do you-"

"Aye. I forgive ye, luv." he said, so quietly that she wasn't even sure he had said it all. It took a while before she comprehended what had just happened and a beautiful smile glittered across her lips.

"So-"

"So we have to go. Forget packing, luv." He pulled her arm, practically dragging her out the front door and only looked back when she resisted, firmly planting her feet on the ground. "Dress or nothing, right?" he spoke into her ear softly, his warm breath tickling her neck.

A small nod of approval was all he needed to lead them to the dinghy and sail it to the Pearl, docked just off shore. And in that longboat (she shuddered, thinking of the circumstances the last time she had been in a longboat), all she could think about was the journey ahead and the man who was waiting for her. Yet…

Yet, most of all, she was anxious to be on the sea again. With Jack. To be free. With Jack. To be on the Black Pearl. With Jack.

Jack…

--

A few days later…

As Elizabeth saw that they were nearing the ship, her husband's ship, she ran to Jack, who was at the helm. He had no complaints when she pulled him away from his thoughts for a moment. Seeing the bright smile on her face, he both resented and cherished it, for every time she smiled, the world seemed to be a better place and yet the reason for which she was smiling seemed to dim his world.

"What is it, Lizbeth?" he asked concernedly.

"It's just… I'm just so happy to have you in my life, Jack. Thank you, so much for doing this for me. I think I need it. I think he needs it, too." she said to him, knowing perfectly well that he knew she was referring to. Will.

He swallowed. "Aye. Well, how could I not follow the orders of Captain Turner?" he replied with a hint of irony in his voice.

"Yes, well… thank you, again. It means everything to me." She smiled at him even brighter than before, placing her gentle hand on his shoulder.

You mean everything to me. "Well, you're welcome and all that." he said, smirking. "But now, if you'll excuse me, luv, I've got to get this ship over there or your gratitude will have been in vain."

She laughed very softly and walked towards the rail while Jack returned to the helm. While she toyed with a piece of cloth from her shirt, she began to have second thoughts. It felt so wonderful, so right to be back on the Black Pearl. It felt like home to her and she was beginning to believe that it would always feel more like home than that abandoned, lonely cottage she had on her island. It would never be a home. It was more like a prison. But it was a different kind of prison for it wasn't a guard that was keeping her in there. No, it was a mere feeling that kept her from escaping the four walls that locked her up. Guilt. Guilt, and guilt alone.


Will noticed a ship approaching and, with utmost apprehension, pulled out his spyglass to see Elizabeth, his beautiful Elizabeth, his wife looking smilingly at… Jack. His heart sank as the words from her letter began to flow back to him at an alarming rate. He hadn't seen nor heard from her or Jack in the past few days and he had waited offshore, occasionally returning to the depths to ferry a few souls.

He continued to watch astonishingly as she approached Jack and took his attention off of the helm yet again. He could only wonder what they were saying…


Elizabeth was nervous to be seeing Will again. She knew they were getting closer and she wondered how he would respond to her letter. Perhaps he had written one himself and preferred to deliver it in person? Why else would he want to see her if he could not be with her for long? Would the temptation not be too much for them to handle, making the next ten years or so even more difficult to endure? Still, she owed Jack. She owed him her life. And now, after she had taken his, he still continued to do favors for her. She could only wonder why…


Jack could tell from the corner of his eye that Elizabeth was approaching him yet again. The reason for said approach, however, was unknown. Did she even realize how she could seduce him without even saying a word? Could she even begin to comprehend the effect that she had on him? It was beyond anything he had ever experienced. It was an attraction so clear, so concise that he could barely decipher it. He turned around to face her, slightly startling her.

"Yes, luv?" he inquired, feigning annoyance at her tendency to interrupt him during his captaincy duties.

"Jack…" She bit her lip wearily, having no idea how much he had to control himself not to kiss her right there and then. "You do know how much you mean to me, don't you? I mean, the things you do for me. You don't-"

"Don't worry about it, darling."

"No, Jack. Listen to me. Please?" She pleaded with her eyes and he gave a small nod, encouraging her to continue. "You don't have to, especially after the things that… happened… between us and yet you do. I am ever grateful for that, Jack."

"Willing to show that gratitude, are ye?" he asked, half-heartedly joking, secretly wishing that she would.

She looked as if she was actually considering it when she gave him a smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek softly. When she pulled back, the look on his face was quite humorous, his jaw dropped and eyebrows furrowed. Just as he was about to comment on how grateful he was for her gratefulness, she interrupted him, yet again putting him in a dismal state.

"So what did he say to you when he read my letter? You never answered me that back on the island." she asked innocently, failing to notice how her captain (her captain?!) seemed forlorn.

After clearing his throat, he blankly replied, "He just said he needed to see ye as soon as possible." It wasn't a lie and yet, considering that the letter itself was a lie, he was certainly not sinless.

"I think I'm going to rest for a bit. Will you let me know when we arrive?" she asked, yawning slightly.

"'Course, luv. Shouldn't be long, the Dutchman's right…" he trailed off, squinting into the distance, leaving Elizabeth perplexed.

And when she turned around smiling at Jack's suddenly uninhibited expression, that smile froze on her lips as she encountered what could possibly be the most beautiful sight if under different circumstances: an empty horizon.

The Flying Dutchman was nowhere to be found.