Fate Intervenes

Chapter Three: Saying Goodbye

The roster was full, signed with the names of roughly thirty men, and Barbossa read over it with a keen eye, placing a pair of silver spectacles on his nose. Elizabeth had never seen him use them before.

" Immortality had its advantages," Barbossa said coolly. " Namely, that one never dies, and therefore, never ages."

Elizabeth could not find the courage to ask his age, but his quick and hushed reply of, " Forty-eight", beneath his breath silenced any questions she had.

Looking around, she tried to find Will, who had followed them onto shore and subsequently disappeared. Winding between notched tables, overturned stools, and the bodies of drunken sailors, she sought out his familiar face in the Barnacle. But he was not to be found. Biting her lip, she turned, nodding once to Barbossa before ducking out the door, into the muddy streets.

The taverns and ramshackle homes of Tortuga's residents were all open to the night air, the scents of spices, damp earth, and alcohol drifting on the tropical breeze. Elizabeth missed the stinging salt of the sea, the familiar crashing of waves against a hull…even the thunderous roar of the current at Port Royal. Tortuga was calmer geographically, but she knew she wouldn't find what that couple in the shadows seemed to be doing at Port Royal. She squinted, then jerked away, repulsed.

She knew Will wouldn't wander far, as he was unfamiliar with this territory, and disinclined to befriend any pirates. At least, not any she had met so far.

As she continued searching, poking her head into various inns and shadier places of business, she grew disheartened. She needed to find him before they left, to sail to who knew where. Barbossa seemed to be completely calm in his plans, and she trusted his judgment.

But could she trust her own?

--

Will stared into her eyes, a deep, watery blue. Her blonde hair was curled into ringlets, her breasts pushed up invitingly into her cranberry corset. The black laces were obviously undone, and her lipstick was smeared only slightly. The air around them was hot and stuffy, the inn dim and dusty.

" You've got such wonderful hands," the woman mused, grasping Will's hands and twirling her bejeweled fingers around his own pale ones. " What exactly do you…do with them?"

Will cleared his throat. " Blacksmith," was all he managed to say before her toes snuck up his pant leg.

" Interesting," she said softly, her lips barely moving. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. She looked at his chest, reached a finger over and started to untie the laces in his shirt. " How long are you going to be in Tortuga?" she asked loftily. She sighed piteously, batting her eyelashes. " It gets so lonely here…especially at night."

Will coughed, uncomfortable. " I'm sorry to hear that, Miss…"

The woman laughed easily. " Jeanette." She offered no last name. " Jeanette," she repeated.

Will nodded, whispering her name. He looked at his glass of ale, picked it up, and took a long drink. What was he doing here? Nothing more than entertaining a woman for sale for a few moments, he didn't intend to do anything with her. He wanted to find Elizabeth, tell her he was staying. He couldn't watch her struggle to find Jack, worrying for him every day while he stood by, loving her all the same. Part of him said he couldn't stay here, either, temptation would grip him and he would succumb to his urges, or the urges of others. He couldn't say which.

Jeanette stood and turned, adjusting one of her ripped stockings. Her lace garter slipped, and she seductively rolled it back up her thigh. Will's eyes traveled no further. He coughed. She suddenly threw herself on him, her hands sliding up over his abdomen and onto his chest.

Will stood quickly, backing away. His glass fell to the floor and shattered. " I'm sorry…I can't do this."

Jeanette pouted. " But I was just getting to know you…"

Will sneered, " Yes, but I do not wish to know you." He laid several coins on the table and left, pushing open the doors and inhaling the sweet scent of the night, letting his oppressed lungs expand. He collapsed against the wall, his hair and scalp damp with sweat. He found a dark alleyway, and was about to walk down it when a hand pressed onto his shoulder firmly.

" Will?"

He pivoted. Elizabeth was staring at him intently, her eyes wide. " Barbossa's raised a crew; we're leaving soon. The roster's full."

" I'm not going."

" What?"

" I'm not going, Elizabeth." Will stared at her, then remembered his shirt was undone. He hastily tried the leather strips, his fingers shaking.

" I thought Jack was your friend!" Elizabeth replied heatedly, her hands planted on her hips. She was not, at this moment, a very convincing man.

" Acquaintance," Will corrected her for what promised to be, in his mind, the first in a long line of such clarifications.

Elizabeth sighed. " Is this what you want? To stay here with…" Jeanette stood in the doorway, her corset much looser than before. Her eyes narrowed. " Ah. I see. Cheap pleasures."

Will growled, " It's not like that. I can't go with you, Elizabeth. I can't search for Jack. My heart's not in it."

Elizabeth hissed, " You said you'd do whatever it took to find him, to bring him back…you said if there was something you could have done, you'd have done it." Her eyes watered, and her jaw trembled. " You promised."

Will shook his head. " I did no such thing, Elizabeth. I told Tia Dalma I would travel to the ends of the earth when it was just Jack we were looking for, just him. Not you and him, not so that I could watch you two explore the islands of the Realm. I don't want to see you run off with him, only to be used, and hurt, or worse."

Elizabeth shouted, " I don't need your protection, Will! I'm not some…some porcelain doll you sit on your shelf and dress with finery and jewels and can never move."

Will sighed. " That's never what I intended. I just don't want you to make decisions you are going to regret later."

Elizabeth sniffed. " I don't regret anything. Not a single thing. My life is mine to live, Will."

Will growled, " As is mine." He turned and walked away, then, realizing he had left her there, in the street, he came back.

Holding onto her elbows, he said softly, " I still love you, Elizabeth. With everything in my body and soul, I love you. Promise me…if this search for Jack turns out to be nothing but a hopeless undertaking…you'll come back to me." He traced her jaw line with his finger. " Promise me you won't forget about me."

Elizabeth smiled sadly. " How could I forget about you, William Turner?" Quickly, she stood onto her tiptoes, kissed his cheek, and walked away, disappearing into the night.

For the first time in his life, Will felt the burn of tears.

--

The Silver Dagger waited patiently at port, gently rising and falling with the waves, now inky black. The white moon cast dappled shadows across the water. Elizabeth sat on deck, wrapped in an itchy wool blanket, holding a mug of something that tasted vaguely like tea.

Leaning her head against the mast, she closed her eyes, letting herself slip into dream, the gentle rocking of the boat lulling her. Her lips relaxed, her feet slid along the deck, and the mug hung at an awkward angle from her fingers.

She saw, like a horrible nightmare, the Kraken, rising out of the depths of the sea, engulfing the Black Pearl and dragging it beneath the waves, the mast splintering, debris littering the white foaming ocean, the sails rumpled and torn. She heard Jack screaming, tearing at the beast, chained to the mast…his brown eyes wide, his mouth forming a horrified howl as the beast's teeth loomed ever nearer…the last thing she ever said to him replaying in his mind, as he bitterly cursed her name before death…

Elizabeth bolted upright, drenched in a cold sweat, screaming. The mug clattered to the deck, the hot liquid scalding her hand. She thrust her fingers into her mouth, doubled over in remembrance and pain. Tears dripped down her nose, and she curled tighter upon herself, trying to erase the fictitious memory.

" Pirate."

Footsteps approached her, and the form of Barbossa knelt beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. " Miss Swann?"

Gibbs rushed forward from the aft deck, tucking his hip flask away and reaching into his pocket for a spotted handkerchief. " Miss Swann…was it an apparition you saw? The ghost of Captain Jack, perhaps?"

Barbossa glared, his teeth clenched. Gibbs tried a softer approach. " Tortuga plagues the mind and the soul, Miss Swann. Don't let anything you've seen here afflict you none. The tide'll turn, you'll see, we'll be sailin' in the morning for Jack and we'll find him, mark my words, we will. A crew never deserts their captain."

Barbossa looked uncomfortable. Gibbs corrected, " Well, rarely deserts their captain."

Elizabeth sniffed, wiping her eyes. They were red and puffy now, and she stared at the faces of the haggard men before her. " What have I done?"

Gibbs rested a thick hand on her shoulder. " Oh, now, you did nothing to be ashamed of, Miss Swann. ' Twas Jack's idea to stay behind, Captain as he was, good and true through to the bone. Her Blessed Son knows he was a man of honor and valor…"

Elizabeth shook her head. " I chained him to the mast," she said softly, her voice heavy with sorrow and shame. " I knew the beast was looking for him, not for us…we had to escape, we had to leave the Pearl behind. I made him do it."

Barbossa's lips worked for a moment. " Ye…ye sacrificed the Pearl to the Kraken? Is that what the lot of ye did to her? Plunged her beneath the waves, with his bones a'strapped to her?"

Elizabeth sobbed, " I'm sorry the bloody ship means more to you than---"

Gibbs shook his head. " If Jack's still on the Pearl, he's got a chance." He hung his head, clenching his fist, shaking it. " He's got a fightin' chance, so he does."

Barbossa stared out at the horizon. " If the Kraken's beneath, and the Pearl with it--"

Gibbs stared at him. " What other chance do we have? We check there first, Captain, is my venture. If the Kraken's nowhere to be found, we search out Davy Jones. Surely since he controls the beast, they can't be more than a league apart."

Barbossa scratched his chin thoughtfully. " Perhaps 'tis the best course of action. The Pearl's got a curse on her so brutal the devil himself wouldn't dare set foot on her lest we branded him first. She protects her own. As do we, as men of the sea." He looked at Elizabeth. " And, I suppose, a woman of the sea."

Elizabeth whispered, " Jack called me a pirate before I left him."

Barbossa's eyebrows raised. " Did he now? Well, that bodes well for our quest, does it not? Pirates all, aboard this ship."

Elizabeth looked up at him. " So there's hope, then? Jack isn't completely lost?"

Barbossa nodded slowly. " Jack's got a spirit in him won't die even if Davy himself puts him in a locker of his own. Men have gone mad seein' and livin' what Jack's been through, and he's not changed a bit."

Elizabeth smiled, thinking of this. The Jack she knew, the Jack she loved, untouched by time and suffering. If only she had spared him one last trial. " I suppose you'll have to brand me then?"

Barbossa lifted her hand, sliding back her sleeve. " On this purest of skin? Fairest of fair? I think not, Miss Swann. 'Tis what dwells in your soul, one with the sea and the brine, that matters in the makin' of a pirate. Any man can burn his flesh, but 'tisn't every man will die for the flesh of another."

Gibbs straightened. " I'd take a blade for any of these men, mark it."

Barbossa said chillingly., " I suppose you would. The time may come when one--or several--of us may have to. 'Tis a burden I'm not quite familiar with yet, but once we find Jack I'm sure mortality and I will become better…acquainted." He stood, helping Elizabeth to her feet. He looked at her burned hand. " Clean and wrap this, Miss Swann. I'll find our heading. We sail at dawn."

--

The morning sun rose, pink and gray, staining the horizon in muted light. Elizabeth stood on deck, the cool wind on her face. Barbossa stood before her, at the helm, straight and tall, casting an imposing shadow. A compass outstretched, and a map opened before him, held fast to the railing with a small dagger, he pointed their course. " Hard a'port!" he shouted, spinning the helm, and turning the ship to the left. It obeyed with the wind it had in its sails, righting the ship and pointing her to the open sea. " We search for the Pearl, and if what we seek be not there…" He trailed off, then turned and spoke to Elizabeth.

" …We sail on Miss Swann's word."