Chapter 10

2 days, Elizabeth thought to herself as she did her best to walk away as calm as possible from Chloe, 2 days and everything will be okay. Everything will be normal. Will, William and I can finally start our life together as a family. Everything will be okay… right?

She could her Chloe laughing as she walked away but Elizabeth did her best to block it out of her mind.

Finally Elizabeth found Will and Joey waiting in line at one of the game, she ran over to them and took Will's arm.

"Come Will, it's time to go," Elizabeth said trying to hide her emotions.

Will looked up at her confused, "But Momma we were—"

"No buts it's getting late, and you have school tomorrow," Elizabeth said sternly.

Joey looked at her confused, "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine, we need to go Will," she said trying to ignore eye contact with Joey.

"But Momma I just wanna pl—"

"William Turner, I am your mother. If I say it's time to go, then it's time for you to go."

Will looked down for a minute sad and then looked up, "I'm sorry Momma."

"It's okay, now said goodbye to Joey and we will be going."

"Bye Uncle Joey, Thank you for playing the games with me," Will said hugging Joey.

"No problem, we'll have to take a rain check on that dinner," Joey said as he hugged Will back.

"Thank you Joey, I'll see you in the mourning," Elizabeth said rushing as she took Will and began to walk away but Joey stopped her.

"Is everything okay?" Joey said without moving.

Elizabeth couldn't turn around to see him, she stood up straight, "Yes, we're fine, I just need to get Joey home since he has school tomorrow and—"

Joey came up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder, "But are you okay? You don't seem… like yourself."

Elizabeth still didn't turn around, she said slowly, "I'm fine Joey, just let us go."

Joey didn't want to let them go, he knew something was wrong and he wanted to find out what. But he knew how Elizabeth was and felt that it would be better to just let her go. Joey put his hand down and Elizabeth ran along with Will. Joey watched them until they disappeared around the corner.

"I just care about you so much…" he whispered quietly, almost under his breathe. He was confused as ever and was determined to figure out what had happened to make Elizabeth leave so fast.

Elizabeth tried to get home without being suspicious, which was hard when every two minutes someone she knew would show up and try to start a conversation but she just said she needed to get home and ran along.

"Momma, why are we going so fast?" Will asked confused as he was almost dragged along.

"Because," Elizabeth didn't know what to say, "Because I need to do a few things at home, I think I left the stove on."

They finally reached the hill and used the last of their strength to run up the hill and into the house. Elizabeth dragged him up the stairs of the porch and into the house, Will went into the living room and laid down on the couch.

Elizabeth fumbled trying to lock the door as quick as possible, she knew that most likely Chloe and Mat would be plotting something and Elizabeth didn't want anything bad to happen. She then walked to the living room to get Will, "Come Will, it's time for b—" she stopped as she saw him sleeping away on the couch, she giggled a little bit and headed over to him. She took him into her arms; he was big but strong from the different jobs over the years. She then took him upstairs and put him in his bed safely, turned off the room light, and went into her room.

Elizabeth was exhausted, what am I going to do? She thought to herself. She walked over to her tall dresser and opened the top of it; she took everything out of it and reached to the bottom. She pulled out a flat box. She took it over to her bed and sat down as she opened it. It was filled with memories; memories of her life before Will became Captain of the Flying Dutchman, before little William, before her life became what it is today. There were little scraps of paper; letters to and from Will, her father, and all the people she loved that she had lost so suddenly. Trinkets from her days as in Port Royal, and also ones Will had given to her while on there journeys through Port Royal, Tortuga and even Singapore. She then remembered something else that she had saved. She got up quietly and went to her closet; she opened the doors and cleared the floor so that she could find the hidden place in the floorboards. There was dead silence, she felt the floor until she found the spot and then put her head to the floor and waited a moment. A faint heartbeat could be heard coming from the spot, Elizabeth smiled and continued to try and remove the floorboard. It was hard to move since it had been years since she even thought of it. She was so close, this was her closest possession, she guarded it with her life, it was her life. Finally the floorboard came up and Elizabeth put in aside, there it was, sitting inside the hole in the floor, exactly where she left it the last time she saw it eight and a half years earlier. She then went into a daze and remembered the day she last saw the chest and put it in its resting place.

"Elizabeth where would you like these bags?" Chloe said as they walked inside of the new home.

"Right over here, I'll take them up later," Elizabeth said as she carried the newborn baby boy in her arms.

The baby began crying, "Ohhhh Will, don't cry love," Elizabeth said calming the baby.

It was young Will; he was only a month or two old. Elizabeth and he were settling into there new home and Elizabeth had just made her first few friends on the island.

"He's adorable," Chloe said sitting the bags down and coming over to Elizabeth, "And look at those big brown eyes!"

"Just like his fathers," Elizabeth said sweetly.

"Really? When will he be arriving?"

"Who?" Elizabeth asked confused.

"Your husband, Will's father."

"Oh, he… he's… he'll be here as soon as he can. He's a captain of an important ship," Elizabeth didn't know what to say since she couldn't tell this new person of her and Will's secret, at least not yet.

"Ohhhh, a captain… that's very good, you must be proud."

"Yes, yes I am," Elizabeth said smiling. Will had finally fell asleep in her arms, "Ohhh, looks like someone finally fell asleep, I'll lay him down upstairs and then we can finish putting things away."

"Sounds good," Chloe said Elizabeth took Will upstairs.

Chloe looked around the home, it was already furnished, Elizabeth had known a friend who had had it prepared for their arrival. He was some ragged man from Tortuga, he was a smooth talker, easily won Chloe over but he was there for business and left a few days before Elizabeth and Will's arrival. He must have been a Captain of some sort because he left on a large ship with black sails. Chloe saw the ship a few more times coming in and out but she never saw the man again, it was said that he would come and check up on Elizabeth and the baby.

Chloe then found a rather strange object under a blanket, she lifted the blanket, it was a chest, the chest that held the heart of the Captain of the Flying Dutchman, Will. Chloe knelt down to it and began to look at it as Elizabeth came down the stairs and saw her.

"This magnificent, where did you get it?" Chloe asked in amazement of the object.

"Don't—" Elizabeth said running over and taking the chest, hiding it back under the blanket.

"What's in it?"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

"Then why can't I see it?" Chloe said trying to get the chest back.

"Stop, it was a present, it belongs to my husband…" Elizabeth said defensively as she took the chest back into her arms.

"Okay, okay…" Chloe said baking away.

"I'm sorry, I just… it's fragile."

"I understand… well if you don't need anything else I guess I'll be heading back to the tavern."

"Thank you for helping me out, it was very sweet of you to help us since we were new and all."

"Your welcome, do you have a job yet?"

"Well I have had an offer down at the old dock, so I'll probably start there Mon—"

"Oh no, no, no. That place is horrible! Here come to this address…" Chloe said writing on a piece of paper from the desk in the living room, "This is the restaurant where I work, and the boss is always looking for more help. Come on down when you feel like it and I'll show you around."

"Oh I couldn't impose—"

"Just come down when you feel like it, if you don't like then you don't have to work there. The hours are good, the pay is steady, and it's safe, which is hard to come by here."

"Alright…" Elizabeth smiled.

"I really must be going, the storm is arriving and I still need to run to the town store," Chloe laughed as Elizabeth followed her to the door.

"Aw yes, well be careful," Elizabeth said sweetly as she opened the door and Chloe went out.

"Hopefully see you next week!" Chloe said cheerfully as she headed out onto the pathway.

"By—e, thank you again!" Elizabeth said closing the door. She locked it and watched as Chloe walked away.

"Finally," she said under her breath. She headed over to the chest and took the blanket off of it.

"I know the perfect place to keep you," she said to herself. She picked it up and headed up the stairs. She peeked into Will's room; he was sound asleep, peacefully tucked away in his cradle.

She then went into her bedroom and to the closet. The small closet was empty because she and Will had only been there a few days. The night before Elizabeth had carved a spot in the floor, just the right size for the chest. She knelt down and held the chest close to her; she felt the faint heart beat close to her. The heart beat of Will, her one true love, her husband who would be separated form her for a decade until his time was up on the Dutchman.

The chest was her only way of knowing Will was still out there, yearning to be with her. She knew that it would be too emotional to leave the chest out for her to see every mourning when she woke up. She felt that the only rational thing to do would be to stow it away safely from anyone else's reach. She would keep it there until Will came back, then everything would change and they would be happy together. The rain began hitting the window and the room illuminated with the lighting, which was followed by sharp cracks of thunder.

Elizabeth was crying as she slowly laid the chest into the hole, "Eight and a half more years… then we will all be together… forever," she said as she stared at the chest inside the hole. She then took the piece of floorboard and put in back over the hole. No one would ever know where it was, or even that it existed.