"Well, we didn't really have much to make..." Ella said disdainfully, shuddering at her memory of the dusty pantry. Elizabeth snorted knowingly, rolling her eyes at Jack.

"Did you really think there would be Ella?" She asked with a laugh. Ella shrugged.

"I don't know really Liz..." She said, "But I did managed to find this." She added, triumphantly holding up a brand new, unopened bottle of rum. Jack's eyes instantly lit up.

"Tha's even better!" He exclaimed, snatching it from her and eyeing it lovingly.

"God that's pathetic." Liz said dryly, as she, Ella and Will watched him take a sip.

"You're jus' jealous, love." He slurred at her, nodding at Ella. "Lizzie had 'er chance with me...but she choose good William here, right lad?" He asked Will teasingly. Will shook his head and hid a smirk. Jack Sparrow would never change.

"You frighten me..." Liz said, turning to leave and Jack nodded.

"As you do, me..." He replied before motioning Ella to sit as Liz and Will left. "Have a sit?" Laughing nervously, she obliged.

"So tell me about your childhood Captain." She said, folding her hands in her lap. He made a face.

"Not so much to tell...my mother's name was Cora...she was a good woman...too good. You remind me of her, matter o'fact." He said and she gave a small chuckle.

"Me?"

"Aye. Not so much yer looks but jus' the way ye are...quiet...good..." He took a long sip of rum. "My father loved 'er somethin' terrible, but she died when I was young. Ah...no need to drag that up..." He said, getting out of his chair. Ella frowned.

"You run from your pain." She observed. He turned to look at her with a pout.

"Do not."

"Yes you do." She replied, not missing a beat.

"Do not." He said, coming closer to her as she stood up and grinned at him.

"Do too." She said, folding her arms across her chest. He sighed, showing defeat as he began to turn away and as she began to revel in her victory, he turned back around and said,

"Do not." Sticking his tongue out, he took another drink and sat in a nearby chair, singing to himself. She simply shook her head, allowing a small smirk to play on her lips as she cleaned up.

"You're awful pretty when you smile like that..." Jack slurred tiredly, fighting an alcohol induced exhaustion.

"Flattery will not get me into your bed, Captain..." She said lightly, suppressing a laugh.

"Not even if I say please, pet?" He asked watching her dust off the table. She stopped to look at him calmly with kind eyes.

"No..." He eyed her for a minute and thought, a grin creeping over his handsome face. She hated to admit that, even as filthy as Jack Sparrow seemed, no amount of dirt or grime could hide his boyish good looks. She imagined he must have been something of a beautiful man in his days with the East India Trading Company, and couldn't help thinking what good a bath could do him.

"What are you staring at love?" He asked, his head cocked to the side. Startled, she jumped in horror at the realization that she was gaping at him like some dolt.

"I...nothing Captain. Just thinking is all." She said, returning to her task of dusting.

"What about a kiss?" He asked, making her whirl about in surprise.

"What do you mean?" She asked, backing up and nearly tumbling over the table as he rose gracefully from his chair. Too graceful for a drunk man.

"You said flattery would not get you into my bed, but how about a kiss?" There was a teasing tone in his voice and he was so close that she could smell the rum on his breath, which was, to her surprise an intoxicating smell.

"C-captain Sparrow...I am not going to be another notch on your belt...I-I can't..." She stammered helplessly, gripping the table.

"What harm can a kiss do?" He asked, setting down the near empty bottle of rum. Her eyes flitted from his to the door and back to his eyes.

"Captain...I...it can do plenty of harm...please...I don't want you to hurt me!" She said suddenly, escaping him and facing the wall, tears coming to her eyes as she remembered Samuel. She sighed and rested her forehead against the cool wood of the wall.

"Look Captain, I know you don't take much seriously...but I can't risk that...I can't risk..." She stopped talking to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat.

"What can't you risk?" He asked, his voice completely different than it had been a minute ago.

"I can't...I can't fall...I just can't!" She said and her stuttering confirmed what he had realized. She was afraid to love him. Not that he wanted her to, Hell...he'd just wanted to kiss her pretty lips.

"Oh...I see." He said, moving closer to her, but in a less threatening way. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he sighed.

"I used to be like you Eleanore. I did. I was so serious...my work was my life and I loved my work. When I was seventeen I fell in love with a girl. I had planned to ask her to marry me, but it was revealed her father had committed some crime and was to be sent back to England to be tried. She begged me to do something to save him, since his intentions had been good. I wanted to, but I was so set in my belief in the King's law, that I did nothing. And I lost her. She married, of course, and had her babies...while I was still alone. After I left Port Royal and the East India Trading Company, I realized that life is too short to be serious all of the time, and I vowed to enjoy the rest of my life. And I have...at least until you came into the picture..."

Angrily, she turned to face him with tears of frustration in her eyes.

"Well, I am sorry to inconvenience you Captain..." She said bitterly.

"I'm not." He said slowly as she glared at him.

"You're not what?" She asked sharply, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her dress.

"Not sorry...not sorry a bit...you see, I went about it all wrong...I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my piratey ways...but what I should have done was face my problems and fight for myself. Cutler Beckett needs to be exposed for the scum of the earth he is...sweetheart...I've been to Hell and back again and you are the least of my worries..."

As she sniffled, he noticed the way the light from the sunset surrounded her like an ethereal halo, and she became a goddess like creature. It was almost as if Aphrodite herself was standing before him. The gold light surrounded the rust colored of her hair, making it seem brilliant red. The blue of her eyes gave the illusion of glowing as her skin took on the golden hue as well.

"Your fiancé was a fool." Jack said sincerely. Her eyes widened.

"Meaning what?" She asked, a tremor in her voice.

"Well love, to put it plainly, if he could see you the way I am seeing you right now...he'd die. Just one kiss, love, please?"

Jack was secretly horrified that he had been reduced to begging a girl for a small kiss when he could just as easily go back to Tortuga and pick up a wench or two. Or four as had once happened but that was another, quite long, story. She sighed in confusion and defeat.

"Just one kiss...quickly please." She consented, closing her eyes and puckering her lips. A sight that would have been quite comical to him had he not wanted her so badly. The innocence of her astounded him.

To his surprise, he was able to be calm and gently took her delicate face into both of his hands and pressed the softest of kisses to her lips, which were delightfully full and lush. As their lips touched, an entirely different feeling came over Jack. First there was the undeniable lust he always felt when he kissed a girl, but there was something else. It was overwhelming and he couldn't quite decide what it was, but judging from the way she was clinging to his shirt as she had the first time they had kissed at Admiral Norrington's wedding reception, she'd felt it too. As both were quite swept up in their small moment of euphoria, neither noticed that the compass, which had been sitting on the table, took on a quite slower sort of a spin, now alternating back and forth.

Breathlessly pulling apart, they stared at each other in utter disbelief and Ella realized that she was clutching both of Jack's hands.

"Oh Ella, I..." He began at a loss for words. She smiled, flushed and nodded.

"Something just happened here didn't it?" She asked and he nodded, toying with his beard. All of his years of pirating went out of his head and nothing but the boy he'd left in Port Royal was left behind.

"Eleanore, you make me want to be a good man again..." He said, looking at her with an adoration he'd once seen his father look at his mother with. Tentatively, she touched his cheek with a small sad smile.

"You always were a good man, Jack Sparrow...or should I say, John..." A sly smirk crept over his face.

"No one has called me that name since the day I left."

"Jack, I..." She began shyly, in her quiet way.

"What is it, pet?" He asked, twirling a piece of the brilliant mahogany hair between his index finger and thumb.

"I think I want to stay with you...indefinitely..." She said his mouth dropped.

"As in forever? As in, until eternity or some nonsense?" He said, his nerves getting to him. This was a woman, asking him to commit to her. There was no way...Jack Sparrow didn't settle down, he was a pirate. His love was his ship, and the sea. And yet, he found himself replying calmly to her.

"I want you to stay." He said in response, claiming her lips once again, not knowing what he'd just gotten himself into. He didn't even want to think about it, he wanted nothing more that to drink in this moment and enjoy her time with him. God knew he couldn't allow her to stay...though he found himself begging the Gods for a way to be with her and still be himself.

As luck would have it, fate made his decision for him and the sound of distant cannons, brought both of them out of their world. Taking her hand and not caring who saw, Jack led her out onto the deck where Gibbs and his father stood brooding.

"What's the fuss?" He asked Gibbs, who pointed to the approaching H.M.S. Interceptor, no doubt headed by Admiral Norrington himself. Silently, he cursed his fate and gripped Ella's hand. The color had drained from her face. Elizabeth and Will stood closely by and also watch as they approached.

"It seems we've been discovered Mr. Gibbs..." Jack said regretfully, squinting into the sunset.