OMG, you will NOT believe this! Remember how my whole ordeal was solved when my local theater decided to add the 8 PM show? Well, I though I'd just go at 6:45, but then someone told me they were going right after school to get them. So I called and found out that the box office opened at 3:30, so right after school, Lindsay and I drove to the mall like mad people and got THE FIRST TWO TICKETS!!! Not to mention Jack Sparrow is making an appearance tonight at the theater, lol. I just can't get over how lucky I am! Well, I hope you all have fun tonight, and enjoy the movie (and the story if you have time).

. Reviewers .

x) hArDy-BoYz-GiRl - I'm so sorry to hear that! I hope you get to see it soon. Wikipedia has a summary of the whole movoie, but I couldn't read the whole thing... Thanks for reviewing! Enjoy the chapter and the movie!

x) Lucifer's Light - Oh man, I couldn't beleive what just happened, lol. I just got the first ticket! It's impossible! lol.. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and go enjoy all the piratey goodness tonight!

x) Cat18 - Elizabeth meets Jack this entire chapter, lol. They have lots of convos in the story, this being their first real one. Thanks for reading, reviewing, and I hope you keep reading! Enjoy Pirates 3!

x) waterspirit2007 - I'm glad you love it! Hope you like Pirates 3 when you get to see it! Thanks for the review, and enjoy!

x) Captain Uschi - Aww, why til Saturday? I was in a fix when I found out I was going camping right after school tomorrow, so yeah. My fortune's changed. Thanks for reading and reviewing! Enjoy Pirates 3 and the story!

x) Clea Lupin - Yes! I'm getting so much positive feedback and I love it! And you love it! Wonderful! Haha... enjoy the chapter and At World's End! Thanks for reviewing!

x) xxcuriosityxx - Yay, someone understands the snow! Woot! And thanks for the compliments! I've actually sort of developed a soft spot for Norrington, so I want to write about him. Plus he's crucial to the story! Enjoy the story, Pirates 3, and thanks for reviewing!

x) Florencia7 - It actually came to me easily on how to write the first few scenes. I get in this mood for this story, and it just sets off this brilliant use of grammar and writing that I stare at sometimes, lol. Thanks for the review, and enjoy the movie and the story!

x) Perfect Pirate Captain - Thank you so very kindly! I do feel proud of this story, even though I'm not quite finished with the next chapter yet. BUT! Thanks for reviewing also, and I hope you keep reading and go see Pirates 3!!

x) Piratesfinatic - LoL, it's cool. My sister and friends do it sometimes. I'm sorry you miss the premiere, but have fun in Chicago! Let me know how it went, and see Pirates 3 ASAP!! Thanks for reviewing! Enjoy!

x) dextriin - LoL, read on! Thanks for the review, and enjoy the Pirates 3 and the story! Woot!

x) DeppnBloom - Nice name, lol. Love that... Anyhoo, glad you liked it! Enjoy the rest as you read on, and keep reading! Enjoy World's End, and thanks for the review!

x) Sophie - Yay! I'm so very happy you do! Thanks for reviewing, and Happy Two Hours and Forty-Five Minutes til PotC 3!! Enjoy!

- Dis/Claimer-

. Chapter Three .

"Psst."

Elizabeth stopped, looking at a man with his arms reaching through the bars at her.

"Slip us a key, eh? Come on, Pretty."

She kept walking; the man's soft pleads dying away behind her. Then, in a stretch of moonlight across several cells, she saw one of them occupied, its prisoner sleeping on his side against the far wall. She turned to the cell hoping it was he. As she touched the cold bars, she observed quietly. The silhouette seemed to fit his outline.

"Jack?" Her whisper got no response, so she hissed a little louder. "Jack?"

Jack's eyes flickered open, and disbelievingly he saw –and heard – what he assumed to be Elizabeth. It was Elizabeth, unless he was drunk off his head or hallucinating from heat. Given there was no rum in his system since the day before and it happened to be in fact snowing outside, Jack squinted in the darkness silently at the figure.

Elizabeth backed away, ready to believe she had mistaken the man in the cell, when his voice came: "And to what do I owe the pleasure of the lovely Miss Swann visiting me lonely cell at this hour?"

She whirled back around, kneeling on the ground and grasping the iron grate.

"I… I came for the truth," she managed.

Jack sat up, his face caught in the light. It cast a strange shadow unto him, but the shadow lessened as he moved closer to the cell door and Elizabeth. He sat on the floor at eye level with her. Under his gaze, she felt she should say more, and more came out.

"I want to know that I stood up for you for a good reason and not just my own," she added.

Jack looked at her pensively for a moment. She looked sickly in the cold light with a bluish glow on her. Her curls were windswept, and she shivered slightly. Most importantly however, he knew she wasn't leaving. Damn persistence. Why did she have so much of it?

"Why did you stand up for me?" Jack asked. After an unresponsive silence, he went on. "Because the act of a sophisticated woman standing up for the rights of a known notorious pirate is an act said to be nonexistent. I've never even heard of such a thing until this very morning."

Elizabeth glared at him a moment. "I stood up for you because I do not want to be one of them," she said angrily. "I don't want to believe that you did it, contrary to popular belief."

Jack smiled humorously. "Torn down the middle are we?"

"Yes," she finally admitted quietly.

"Ah…"

"Don't act that way," she said bitterly. "You have given me many reasons not to trust you, and you have endangered Will's life more than once. How am I to know what happened?"

"So that's what our little trial is all about then?" asked Jack. "To find out the truth of dear William's fate and leave poor old me at the hands of your fine officials of justice?"

"I need to know what happened to him, Jack." She looked away, fidgeting with her cold hands as tears again tried to creep along her eyelid. "I have to know. I deserve to know."

Jack agreed with a nod, watching her. "But," he said, taking her shaking hand through the bars, "I wonder still if my testimony will hardly be considered as anything to Lord Cutler Beckett."

"He's not a judge, so you will not have to endure that sentiment." She left him caress her hand, his just as cold but offering some relief.

"A highly revered power and influence, though, I'm afraid," Jack pointed out. "He'll be representing your cause, which happens to be something unanimously different than what you wish to represent."

It was a statement left open for her to reply to; it almost came off as a question or a hope. Elizabeth sighed. "Beckett has something more behind all this. He has no evidence to prove you did anything to harm Will. He seems only to want you put to death… And I won't let him without legitimate reason."

Jack understood what she meant. If I were you and I found out that I killed my husband-to-be, I'd want to kill me, too.

"I didn't mean… I don't want them to execute you," Elizabeth said suddenly. "I don't want to be like them. I don't want to condemn you for something you did not do."

"And what if it turned out that I was on the other end of that bloody sword?" Jack asked. Again, Elizabeth looked away, not sure of her answer. Jack read her, though, knowing she would change her tune if circumstances had been that way.

"That's why I came," she said from out of the silence somewhere. She lifted her head, keeping her eyes down. "I need to know what you saw, how you got here, everything." She mustered courage to bring her eyes to his face. "Otherwise, there is no way I can help you."

Jack made a face. Help him? She wanted to help him?

"Jack, please," she said breathlessly at his silence. "It would mean everything to me."

"You know you've got to do better than that," Jack said with a grin he could not help to reveal. "What's in it for me?"

"The information you give to me could possibly save your life," Elizabeth countered.

"I had no idea you were in the business of saving lives," Jack said with a touch of sarcasm. His voice turned cold. "I was led to believe you had just the opposite services. And they're very good-"

"Just stop," Elizabeth hissed through built-up tears. She glared angrily at him for the harsh rebuke on her actions at the time they had been carried out. She recoiled her hand from Jack's immediately, and Jack pulled his back through the bars slowly.

"What company are we," he mused as Elizabeth relived her regrettable past briefly. Jack watched her eyes turn to glass and narrowed his own. "Killing and saving each other every run in we have. Can't seem to keep a happy medium…"

Elizabeth's core of mentality hardened as she pressed her lips together and looked at him. Suddenly, Jack noticed how she transformed from the appearance of a translucent apparition to a cold stone fixture. He winced slightly; the grin-iron bars couldn't stop her hateful stare from penetrating him.

"Did you do it?" she suddenly shot out.

"Would I tell you if I did?"

She paused, even more angered. "No."

"Then why ask?"

Elizabeth swiftly turned, grabbing his pistol and pointing it at him. Jack remained calm, however. "Do not presume that you can get the upper hand here, Jack," she said dangerously. "Your odds are not good, and I'm sure you've seen worse. But you are on stand for murdering Will," – she loaded the gun and gritted her teeth – "something I will not take lightly under any circumstance."

Jack glanced everywhere else until he finally looked down the barrel of his own gun. Again.

"I've killed you once," Elizabeth reminded him. "And I can certainly do it again."

Jack sat back, shaking his head. "No."

"No," Elizabeth repeated slowly and thrown off slightly. Her hand relaxed in question.

"No," Jack stated again. "You won't."

Elizabeth sneered again, raising the gun half a foot or so from his face. "Try me."

Jack sat quietly, leaning away with a surprised expression. Her threats were getting far more convincing, and she had, after all, killed him before as she said. But she wouldn't do it this time. Not when it came to dear William. She needed him, and he needed her as much as he did not like to admit it.

Oh well, he thought. There are worse people that have held my miserable existence in their hands.

Jack looked at her hard face without expression. She remained steady, and Jack made no attempt to lower the gun for her. His eyes squared with hers.

"I arrived yesterday-"

"Where's the Black Pearl?" Elizabeth asked immediately.

Jack stopped, annoyed. "Would you care to hear me out or interrogate me?"

"Your preference," she said, hate still flaming in her eyes.

He took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly as he watched her. "I arrived yesterday in a small bartered craft," he said. "Gibbs is bringing the Pearl here the day after tomorrow, though that may not paint a pretty picture for me."

"Why aren't you with the ship?" she asked. Jack smirked.

"I find secrecy in this port is much better than parading my ship around given previous encounters," he said. "Don't you?"

In a sudden bout of frustration, Elizabeth cast the gun aside and turned back to Jack. For some reason, she still seemed dangerous to him. He waited for her to recollect herself, but she raised her head and spoke.

"Why were you going to see Will?" she almost whispered. "When?"

"If you'll recall, dearest Lizzie," Jack said, repositioning himself, "your dearly beloved owed me a sword."

Elizabeth froze and fell into a memory during their time at World's End. Will had taken Jack's sword from him in the middle of a battle, and Jack had to resort to using a rifle for a time. He made sure Will knew he owed him a sword, and she nodded as something pieced together. She looked up at Jack, eyes shining. He leaned forward again, eyes still locked to hers.

"I came to do other ruthless pillaging of course, but I wanted my sword," Jack continued. He paused and looked away from her, twisting his lip between his teeth. "I... don't know if you noticed," he added, "but my replacement sword happens to be the swords in question in regards to Will's death."

Elizabeth stared at him in disbelief as if it were some sort of confession. She closed her mouth, swallowing a hard lump. "Y-you…"

"I arrived at the smithy after he was cold," Jack told her. "Just before daybreak and not a minute before or after. I can give you my word on it, but seeing as I have no witness…"

"You mean to tell me that you just walked in and found Will dead?" she half-spat.

"His apprentice ran in with several officials as soon as I laid eyes on him," Jack said. "Therefore, you can draw your own conclusion."

Elizabeth found it hard even to sketch one. Her fingers delicately fell onto the iron grate bars again as she took a deep breath, trying to make it fit. They had just walked in and assumed it was Jack since he was there.

"As I said," Jack suddenly spoke with a sullen smile from his cell, "wrong place, wrong time."

It seemed to register in her eyes, and Jack was glad to still be alive in her presence. Elizabeth stayed silent for time, though, caught between thought and grief. She finally looked at Jack again.

"Why is Gibbs bringing the Pearl here?" she asked. "If you wanted your arrival in Port Royal to be so secret, why not the exit as well?"

His golden grin appeared. "Now where's the fun in that?" The remark was almost a gloat. Elizabeth's face turned serious again, and his smile vanished.

Suddenly, a loud clang came from a distance. Jack and Elizabeth both looked up the hallway, and her heart started to race.

"I shouldn't be here," she whispered hurriedly as she gathered her skirt and stood. "I must go."

Jack reached through the bar and grabbed her dress. She looked down at him in shock as he looked up at her as a common beggar man would.

"Keep a sharp eye," he said lowly, slowing releasing her nightgown with a meaningful look. Elizabeth stared at him a few seconds longer before taking off.