"I don't want to be alone anymore Jack."

For once in his life, Jack didn't know how to get out of the situation he was currently in with Ella clutching the lapels of his coat and crying softly. He wasn't touching her, or holding her and in fact, he was terrified at even the thought of it, but he certainly couldn't pull away from her. It reminded him of a time when he was a boy and he'd seen a poor little dog stuck under a fence. He couldn't just leave it there, so he helped it out and took it home. He missed that little dog, who he had named Poseidon for his love of the sea. So what was he supposed to do now? For whatever reason, he brought his arms up from his sides to support the girl's shoulders as they rose and fell with her sobs.

Clearing his throat, he eyed his bottle of rum helplessly and said,

"Uh...there, there love...don't worry about it. You'll find some young buck who will fall head over boots for you and you'll get married and reproduce just like everyone else in the natural world. Of course, that life isn't for everyone...I'm alone and I am just fine thank you very much..." She looked up at him tearfully.

"You don't want to fall in love?" She asked innocently and he chuckled.

"Not really a matter of want so much as can't, pet...I mean, my current line of work doesn't exactly allow for a wife and three pups now, does it?" She sniffed.

"Well, no not exactly..."

"You see...we could be great friends, you and I...you understand..." He joked, patting her shoulders and handing her his somewhat filthy handkerchief which she gladly accepted and offered back to him when she was finished. He cringed.

"No, no love...you keep it." He said with a shudder.

"What about the compass?" She asked suddenly. He shrugged.

"What about it?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Well...it pointed to me...I mean, don't you ever wonder if it means anything?" She asked and he sat down at the table, an amused smirk on his face.

"It means I'm headed straight for Hades...I am anyway, once they catch me..." He said, his voice still light and uncaring. She sighed and sat down.

"How I wish things were simple like they used to be, before marriage and spinsters and parties and Cutler Beckett...I miss the freedom of being a child. Going to lessons and birthday parties...doing chores and taking care of my father, evil as he was." She looked up at him. "Sometimes I wish I were like Liz...able to rebel..."

"Liz'beth can be a very trying girl...trust me...she tied me to my ship and allowed a beast to eat me alive..."

"I'm sure she had a good reason." Ella said softly. He tipped his bottle to her.

"Well, there is that...but nonetheless..."

"You're impossible." She said with half a smile as she fidgeted with one of the candlestick holders on the table. He grinned.

"I's quite simple really love...just admit your true lust for me and I will happily oblige your pleas..." She just rolled her eyes at his obvious joke.

"No, I'll pass thank you Captain..." She said, and he frowned.

"Look, if you don't want to marry Beckett, then don't. It's not as if he's the almighty king." He spat out Beckett's name like venom. She winced.

"It's not that simple Captain..." She went on. "Look, I wouldn't have thought anything about this whole thing, but that compass pointed to me Jack. For a reason...it was created by Aphrodite herself!" She sighed. "Before I came to the Caribbean those Gods and Goddesses were just stories, pretty fairytales. I went to church every Sunday and believed what I was supposed to believe. Then, I came here and you kissed me that night and everything just...changed. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I felt something for you that I hadn't felt since...well, in a long time."

"Someone hurt you lass, didn't they?" Jack said, recognizing the heartbroken look in her eyes.

"Forget I said anything Jack...just forget it...I have to go..." She said, getting up and attempting to walk past him. He grabbed a hold of her wrist and pulled her into his lap, trapping her escape.

"Tell me." He said, pushing his rum aside. It was empty anyhow. She rolled her eyes.

"Nothing...it's just...I was engaged...before...to a Lieutenant...he wanted me to...you know to...do...things...with him." Jack nodded.

"Yes...that is generally what men look forward to in life..." He replied. She glared at him a moment.

"We were to be married in two weeks time...but he told me if I loved him that I would come to him, so I went."

"Ah, the old if you love me routine..." Jack chuckled.

"Yes...well, somewhere between my dress and corset, my conscience got the better of me and I told him to stop but he didn't. I begged him to but he only became more determined. I thought he was going to rape me...he was going to rape me...but my father walked in. Of course I was blamed, being the girl...I received seventeen lashings with the switch. One for every year I had shamed my father. Father had a heart attack and was never the same and I spent my time caring for him. Samuel, my fiancé got a girl pregnant not long after that and was forced by her parents to marry her. They live in England." She stopped, realizing she was sitting in the Captain's lap as if it were the most casual thing to do.

"Your old man beat you?" He asked, nearly horrified. Even in his filthiest moments as a pirate, he'd never laid a hand on the fairer sex, though Anamaria had tempted him many a time.

"Only when I was bad..." She said lamely. "You know what frightens me the most though, Captain?" She asked.

He looked at her expectantly.

"Lord Beckett is just like my father..." She said and Jack thoughtfully played with his beard.

"Seems to me love that you have a decision to make, and I can't make it for you pet. I also wish there was something I could do, but I have nothing to offer you..." Carefully, he lifted her small body from his lap. "Now, I'll leave you to your thoughts Ella..." He said beginning to leave, rather, flee from this situation. She frowned at losing the warmth he'd provided.

"Jack?" She asked and he turned around, dreading what she was going to say.

"Yes?" He asked and she sighed.

"Could you send Elizabeth in here? I must speak with her." He nodded, making her smile.

"Thank you."

"Why Governor Swann, we've just received word from your daughter. Also, Lord Beckett is here to discuss your retirement..." Weatherby Swann's butler came into the room with a letter, which he snatched from the man, frowning at the word retirement.

"Finally...what does she say?" He asked and began to read it.

Father,

Don't worry, Will and I are fine. Please keep this confidential but let James Norrington know that his sister is safe. Also, Will and I have a bit of news...your dreams of becoming a grandfather are soon to be a reality. I am expecting.

All our love,

Elizabeth and Will

Weatherby had to wipe away the tears in his eyes at the joy her news had brought him and set the note on the end table in his library as he was interrupted.

"Governor, how good it is to see you." Cutler Beckett said, stepping into the library.

"Thank you my Lord, what is all of this nonsense I hear about my retiring...?" He asked and Beckett sat down.

"Precisely...as you probably have guessed...my political career has been quite fruitful these past few years and I have decided to further it by becoming Governor once you retire."

"But Lord Beckett, I have no plans to..."

"You do now, Governor...you see it's the saddest thing...you ordered all of those slaves with nowhere to house them until they are sold into the colonies. Everyone knows you've gone senile. Not to mention illegally giving money to pirates."

"I never ordered any slaves ever or gave money to pirates...it's a disgusting trade...it's..."

"Oh I beg to differ...here are the forms which you signed allowing these things to happen." Weatherby looked at the forms and gasped.

"You...you forged my signature on these things..."

"What proof do you have? Now, I suggest you go begin practicing your resignation speech." He said as the Governor glared at him.

"You're going to pay for this Beckett! You're nothing but a crook!"

"Ah, but a clever crook..." He said as the Governor left the room hastily. A piece of paper caught Beckett's eye as he unfolded it from the end table. A slow smile formed on his face as he read it.

"Now I have you my sweet..."

"Are you...sober?" Sea Sponge asked as he came to his son's side where he stood on the upper deck of the ship.

"Barely..." Jack said, trying to hide his sobriety. As he looked at his father, he tried to remember his mother and how they had been the times that they'd been together. His mother, Cora, had been an English heiress and his father a fisherman, as far as she knew anyhow. She'd been a beauty with honey blonde hair and light skin and he remembered her singing a lot. His father had looked, well, like him. Dark hair and eyes with tanned skin and a beard. His father had been quite a bit older than his mother who had been just fifteen when she married Grant Sparrow and bore him a son, who she named John after her father. Her father had disowned her and Cora had followed her new husband back to the Caribbean to live. He'd cherished her above everything, and in her entire life, she never knew her husband was a pirate.

Grant had always managed to convince his bonny lass that he was just a humble fisherman and he'd never been caught. She was a soft spoken girl, who had a love for life that Grant had seldom seen. Since he was gone nearly six months out of the year, the five months they had together was taken advantage of and they'd had another child after John, who they had called Bess, but she'd died at the age of three unexpectedly when she'd contracted Scarlet Fever. His mother hadn't had any children after Bess.

John had also grown up thinking his father was a fisherman, and had found himself a natural sailor, learning from observation. When he was fifteen, he enrolled in the Navy and was trained to be a Lieutenant, but was soon promoted to Captain. Just before his promotion, Cora had fallen ill with something that the doctors couldn't diagnose...there was no treatment and six months later, she was gone. Grant fell into a despair and had disappeared from Port Royal, vowing never to return and leaving John with the house. Soon after his promotion, he found out his own father was one of the most notorious pirates in the Caribbean. They'd lost all contact then, until Beckett had turned against John and sunk his ship, The Wicked Wench. Vowing to fight Beckett until the day he died, John joined a band of pirates and soon came face to face with Davy Jones himself.

Jones had raised the Wench, for a price of course. He renamed her The Black Pearl.

"She's been in there for two hours...what can they be doing?" Jack asked no one in particular, though he received a peculiar look from Mr. Gibbs.

"Ye must be kiddin' Cap'n...those lasses cud blather for days if ye lets 'em." He said, attending to the crew. Will looked up from where he was fixing a break in his sword.

"Elizabeth won't be much longer...I know her." He said and sure enough, as soon as he said it, the two women emerged from inside the chambers and embraced. Elizabeth made her way to Will and sat beside him as Ella stepped up to Sea Sponge.

"Rather nice today, isn't it Captain?" She asked and he nodded pleasantly.

"Indeed love..." She turned to Jack.

"I believe we need to talk." She said and he looked uncomfortable, following her.

"Wha's this about pet?" He asked, once inside the confines of his private chambers.

"I have considered my options and made a decision Captain..." She said softly, nervously.

"Wonderful, and this has what to do with me?" He asked and she sighed.

"Everything..." Going on, she said, "I want to help you Captain...but you don't seem to want my help...however, with Liz's persuasion, I have decided that I will persist."

"Meaning?"

"What is your favorite dinner Captain? I shall make it tonight." She said and he frowned.

"I don't see how this has anything to do..."

"I have decided to stay with you...no protests until we have resolved this compass problem of yours...now I'll ask again, what is your favorite dinner?" He groaned and pulled a fresh bottle of rum from his rack.

"Surprise me love..."