sorry guys its been a while ! i hope this is alright, its been over a year since i touched it.

Jack found himself sitting in his usual Tortuga pub. He sat alone at the unsteady wooden table in the far corner, his back turned to the rest of the pub. However anyone who had happened to glance in his direction, would have not recognized the infamous Captain. After the sacrifice of his beloved coat and hat, Jack had taken to wearing a hooded over cloak when he was not on the Pearl. Stolen from a wealthy man, the cloak covered the patch of severely shortened dreadlocks at the back of Jacks head. The cloak also served another purpose; it hid the fact that Jack was still alive.

It had been a month since that fateful battle with the East India Trading Company. Although Beckett was dead, the company still had an anti piracy policy to enforce. Only freshly reunited with the Pearl, Jack and his crew were attacked just off the coast of Argentina.

He had lost a handful of his dreadlocks in this battle after a near miss swing of a naval man's sword. Jack had ducked in time to save his head, but his beloved dreads had hit the bloodied deck with a dull thud. The man continued to swipe at Jack, his sword slashing through his coat and skin. If Mr Gibbs had not snuck up on the man, Jack was certain we would be resting in watery grave right now.

Jack had lost over half his faithful crew in that battle. He come to realization that they were never going to give up, until the noose was around Jacks neck and his feet hanging in the air. If h kept running he was going to lose more people from his life. He needed to be free of them if was going to get her back.

So a week after the battle, at two in the morning when Jack came on watch, he snuck off his own ship. He had purposefully not had the long boat cleaned of the remnants from the battle a week earlier. The small satchel he had packed contained his shredded coat and severed dreads.

Jack had rowed the long boat all night until he had come to the outskirts of Port Royal. Landing on the abandoned side of the island, just round the corner of the major port, Jack set up his rouse.

It killed him to say good bye to his hat and compass, but he knew either Elizabeth or Will would be able to identify these instantly, knowing that if they were not in his person something was seriously wrong.

Jack had had the feeling he was at his own funeral as he watched all of material things he had treasured floating away in the long boat of his Pearl. Jack waited long enough to make sure the boat had been caught up in the current that would take it to the shore of the port, before stalking into the bush hoping find a hiding place close to town.

Jack had managed to stay hidden for a week or so at the port .The day he had heard about his own "death" at the markets he knew his rouse had worked. Jack had wanted to go for Elizabeth then, but he knew it was too risky.

Since then, Jack had been sailing across the Caribbean as a stowaway on several ships, escaping from the storage of each ship every time they made port. He had found it particularly difficult to drag himself off one ship, physically and mentally, that was carrying an infinitely large supply of rum. The night before this ship docked, Jack had drunk himself to oblivion and almost missed his opportunity to get off said ship, it was only when the rum began to be unloaded that Jack had woken up.

Jack had been in Tortuga since that day, although grumpy at the fact that he now had to pay for the export rum, that he had enjoyed freely for several weeks on what he later learned was a rum runners ship. Two weeks ago he had finally found Gibbs. When the older man had asked why he did it, why did he fake his own death, Jack had only answered with two words

"Find Elizabeth."

All of a sudden another dark hooded figure slipped into the seat across the table from Jack. He momentarily reached for his sword, until he saw the familiar face of Gibbs. He had a deep cut on his right cheek and a heavy expression on his face.

"Did you...?" Jack began

"She's gone Jack"

"What do you mean she's gone Gibbs?"

"She's dead Jack"

"Dead?" Jacks voice was barely a whisper. He leaned back in his chair, the disbelief written across his face did little to hide the grief appearing in his eyes. Mr Gibbs continued to talk.

"While in Port Royal, I couldn't find of trace of her. One day I happened to run into young William. The poor lad, he awoke one morning to find Elizabeth gone, not a note, nothing. He said they searched for her for several weeks until they found one of her nightgowns in a back alley, bloodied and ripped from a struggle..."

Mr Gibbs stopped as he saw Jacks face pale slightly.

The world felt like it was closing around Jack, tightening its grip on him until he felt like he couldn't breathe. Deep despair pumped through him nauseatingly like waves.

All he had wanted was the opportunity to see Elizabeth one more time, to make sure she was truly happy with the land lovers lifestyle. He had known if she was happy he might be able to move one. But their last encounter, the look in her eyes gave him hope that he wanted to be on the sea, but more importantly, with him. Now he would never get that chance. Surely his beautiful Lizzie could not be dead.

"Did they find her body Mr Gibbs? " he said quietly

"Excuse me captain?"

"I said , did they find her body"Jack repeated , articulating his words carefully, learning forward in his seat, hope growing in his chest.

"No captain, but the evidence suugests... "

"But if theres no body Mr. Gibbs, whose to say she's really dead? "