– Chapter Ten–
It's not very long and it's not very inspired. But enjoy it, because, I'm having a rough week with goddamn homework. I'm sorry about the long update thing. I've been to Europe and back, which was awesome!!!! So blame the jet lag or something. Not long 'til AWE comes out! SQUEEE! And Deathly Hallows (7th Harry Potter) OMG this year is turning out to be frigging great! LOVE YOU ALL. Specially those of you who take the time to review and reassure me that I'm not going off the rail entirely.
Love, Jay.
The making of this chapter owes a lot to Coldplay's album 'A Rush of Blood to the Head' Go listen to it, it's fantastic.
She could barely remember what her father looked like, what he'd said when he'd tucked in when she was young… She couldn't quite recall the sound of his laugh and the colour of his smile.
Elizabeth let her head fall back and winced at the pain that shot through her as her head hit the door behind her. The stars were painfully bright, twinkling cheerfully. Surely the moon had no right to be that brilliant. Tia had kicked her out of her cabin hours ago with a bottle of rum and a command to 'drown yer sorrows'.
Elizabeth had simply complied. She hadn't the will nor the strength to fight against Tia's wishes.
Will's condition had worsened before she'd left. Tia was treating his wounds, stitching up the gashes that marred the smooth brown muscles of his back. The scars hadn't escaped her notice. The thought that it had happened to him while she was flirting with Jack on the Black Pearl was almost too much to bear. She felt unbelievably guilty.
The bottle slipped from her limp hand and rolled across the deck. It tossed and rolled as the ship flew across the waves. Elizabeth followed its progress and started with shock as its journey across the deck was cut short by a booted foot.
Cerys looked down at her, expression inscrutable, one hand ruffling her salt and pepper curls.
"I heard what happened, I'm sorry," she looked and sounded uncomfortable.
"You make it sound like he's dead." Elizabeth said roughly, wincing at the strange voice that came from her mouth.
"Is he?" Cerys' dark eyes were hard and unforgiving.
"N-no," Elizabeth couldn't disguise the tremble in her voice.
Suddenly the door banged open and Elizabeth fell backwards onto the floor. She found herself looking up into the dark doll-like face of Tia Dalma.
"He's sleeping," the healer said distractedly, her gaze shifting between Cerys and Elizabeth.
Morning was breaking over the world when she pulled up a chair inside and watched him sleep, wondering exactly when their perfect fairytale love had fallen apart. Looking at his face properly for the first time in ages, she noticed that he didn't look like that boy in the water. He looked like someone else. How long had it been since she'd looked at him properly? Looked at the love in his eyes and not taken it for granted. There were lines of pain around his eyes that she'd never noticed before. She tried to brush them away with hands that were brown and callused with wind and sea.
Now she was afraid that the love that was once there would be gone and her feelings would be unrequited. Before he'd been the one that wasn't sure if he wasn't good enough for her. Now she wondered if she was good enough for him. But not even these gloomy thoughts could quell the feeling that was making her heart want to explode. They were finally together after so much trouble and Jack wasn't between them preventing that happily-ever-after.
An unexpected smile burst out of her, for no reason at all. When was the last time she smiled just because she could? She found his hand and held it and when she looked back at his face he was watching her smile. He looked better; there was colour in his cheeks and almost no pain in his eyes.
Falling off her chair in her haste she leaned over him and buried her face in his chest. He smelt like Will. That thought was almost enough to bring her to tears. Tears of happiness.
"Thank you," he whispered, his voice ragged.
"For what?" she inquired, not moving.
"Rescuing me," he paused, "again."
"Can we start over again?" Elizabeth looked up, kneeling on the floor and leaning her elbows on the bed. Will didn't say anything.
"So much has happened, I'm not sure we can be what we were when this started."
"Is that a no?" Elizabeth moved away a little, bitter disappointment poison on her tongue. Sitting up, he grabbed her elbows and pulled her up onto the bed. Elizabeth was quite surprised to suddenly find herself so close. His grip relaxed as he realised that he had startled her, but without hesitation she leaned forward and kissed him. For a heart-stopping moment he didn't move. Then he pulled her a little closer with a groan that made her insides flutter. Her fingers somehow got entangled in his hair, as she straddled him, their mouths only coming away for a brief second to breathe.
"Elizabeth," his breath was heart-thrillingly ragged, "You're almost too much for me."
His warm hands were braced on her hips, sliding under the thin cotton shirt she wore. Pleased little murmurs were involuntarily escaping her mouth at the tremors that his fingers sent shocking through her. Will moved his mouth to her neck and Elizabeth threw her head back, gasping for breath. Indecent and unladylike thoughts took over her mind.
"Will," she whispered, after a long minute. He looked up, brown eyes meeting hers with an unspoken smile. "Will you marry me?"
Leaning forward, he placed a chaste kiss on her open lips. "Yes," he murmured. The vibration of his voice against her cheek made her shudder in a very pleasant way.
x
Cerys lit her pipe, savouring that first breath of sweet smoke. Contentedly she put her feet up on Tia's table and eyed the other woman across the room.
"What now?"
Tia Dalma looked up from the map she was studying.
"What d'you mean, 'what now?'?" she mocked waspishly.
Cerys glared at her. Eventually Tia sighed.
"To tell the truth, I'm not quite sure. You'll have to ask the Captain."
Then it was Cerys's turn to sigh. She had been avoiding Hector, for reasons she couldn't quite explain. Not even to herself.
"You love him, yes?" Tia asked, black eyes boring into Cerys.
"As wise as you are, Tia Dalma, you seem to know nothing of love." Cerys nervously ran her hand through her short streaky black curls.
"True, I have never been in love," Tia Dalma "And of that I am quite glad. For it seems to me that love is simply pain."
James Norrington, half asleep on the bed behind Tia's screen, agreed wholeheartedly. But Cerys sat up straighter, taking another drag on her pipe and glared down at the witch-woman.
"Love is more than pain. It's having a simple word from the mouth of the one you love brighten your day. It's more than desire; it's fondness, affection, laughter and contentment," her voice softened as she continued. "It's feeling safe with the one you love even when you're far from safe."
Tia snorted and brushed her fingers at empty air as if dismissing the gypsy's point.
"I never thought you'd be one to go in for all that sentimental drivel, girl," Tia laughed again and passed the map across the table. "Take this to the Captain. Maybe he'll 'brighten your day'," she laughed mockingly, black eyes sparkling.
James heard nothing but a long stream of curses and then the cabin door slammed. Cerys was gone.
Cerys marched across the deck, her movements merging with the roll and swell of the waves. The wind whipped across her face, making her eyes water.
She opened the cabin door, just as a gust of wind came up behind her. The icy cold gust ripped the door handle from her grip and slammed it against the opposite wall. Hector looked up abruptly.
"What's wrong now?" he asked snappishly, taking in her watery eyes.
Cerys ignored him and unrolled the map across his table. She completely disregarded the fact that there was other stuff on the table, just brushed it way crossly. Hector frowned faintly as bottles of rum and ink smashed on the floor.
"Where do we go now?" she demanded,
"I'm glad to see yer feeling better," he said dryly, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up on the desk.
"I neither have the time, nor the patience for your foolery," Cerys snarled, her heart thundering in her chest as he looked up at her with those icy blue-grey eyes.
He didn't look at the map, but merely stabbed his finger down in what seemed to her a random spot in the middle of the Ocean.
"That is where we head," he whispered,
"There's nothing there," she pointed out in a completely flat voice, "That's the middle of the Ocean."
"At that precise spot, lies an island and on that island is another world. It's not on the map because nobody knows where it is." he looked up, "because those who go there, don't come back out."
"You did," she said quietly, as their eyes meet across the map.
"I didn't come out, you pulled me out. You and Tia and the other girl."
"No…" Cerys cried softly, putting her hands to her face, "No, it wasn't my fault."
"The girl that you killed, what was her name?"
For a moment, the dark-haired woman didn't speak, then…
"Anamaria," Cerys didn't look up, "I didn't kill her, she was dying."
"Why?"
"Jungle Fever,"
"No, I mean why would you do that?" his voice softened, "Why would you go to all those lengths to save someone you'd forgotten about?"
The candle flickered as the wind whipped through the open door, Cerys shivered.
"I never forgot you," and it was then that he realised that she was crying. He got up quickly and came closer to her.
"Stop living in the past, Cerys, what happened then happened. We can't change it."
She didn't say anything, only hugged herself tighter, lips pressed together in an effort to suppress either fury or tears, he couldn't tell.
"I love you," he whispered, looking away with shame.
She looked up then, dark eyes shining with tears or happiness. Then she came closer, pulling him closer.
"Dance with me," she demanded, smiling that familiar bright smile.
x
The beach stretched as far as the eye could see. It was infinite, it never stopped. It was only when Jack came across his own footsteps when he realised what and idiot he had been. He flopped down on the wet sand, looking up as a dark figure emerged from the fog.
Anamaria looked down at him fondly, her dark hair swinging around her face and almost hiding her smile.
"I told you we were walking around in circles."
Jack just glared.
She sat down beside him, looking out at the frothing grey seas.
"Are we to say here forever, Anamaria?" he asked after a while, impatient with the silence.
For a long time she didn't say anything, so long that he'd almost forgotten that spoken. She looked back down at his familiar face and deep brown eyes and whispered something he wasn't sure he was meant to hear.
"I'm not sure that I'd mind staying here forever."
x
Okay, I'll admit that whole 'Will you marry me?' bit was so totally copied from the trailer. But I like that bit in the trailer and I thought it fitted.