A/N: My wonderful reviewers: thank you so much for your reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Jack, Elizabeth, etc. I sold them to Disney long time ago...

Chapter 11

Jack, who had not been very fond of the doctor already, now disliked him even more. The doctor's superfluous appearance ruined the moment, ruined the moment that Jack had not even hoped for so soon, yet, it was nevertheless gone now, and from Elizabeth's behaviour he suspected that she will take special precautions in the future in order to keep her conscience clear.

For she walked beside him with a clearly guilty expression on her face.

They strolled along the streets of Tortuga in silence. The day was bright, and humid.

Jack wondered whether she was thinking about them, or rather pondering over the doctor's words...

The doctor had told them, that Elizabeth may never get her memory back. Of course, her memories might as well come back at any moment. But it was impossible to determine the chances for either of these versions.

Should she never remember of the past... It was a dangerous thought. And an alluring one, too. Jack felt uncomfortable. Yesterday, he really had planned on telling her the truth... someday. Today, however, he began to realize that his definition of "someday" was more than ambiguous.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Elizabeth was stealing glances at him. A barely visible smile flickered across his face. In one swift movement, he grabbed her hand, and laced it through his arm.

"I don't want to lose you," he explained, shooting her a brief, casual look.

Elizabeth stared at him for a moment as they continued walking. She did not know what to say. On the one hand, she wanted to make it clear to him that what had happened (or rather what had almost happened) in the morning was accidental, unintentional, improper. But on the other...

"Neither do I," said Elizabeth under her breath.

"What was that, luv?" Asked Jack looking at her curiously, even though he had heard what she had said well enough.

Elizabeth was considering leaving his question unanswered, but eventually decided to say something.

"I said," she started quietly, her eyes fixed on the ground, "that I don't want to lose you either," she concluded, her last words barely audible. Why am I saying this?! He's going to think... God knows what he is going to think.

Elizabeth was afraid to look up at him, so she just kept her gaze on her shoes. Nevertheless, she wondered what his facial expression might be like right now. Was he smirking? Grinning? Sneering? She wanted to know, but did not dare to look.

Jack watched her intently. She felt his eyes roaming over her, and it was making her nervous. Paradoxically (or not), she tightened her grip around his arm. She just did not want to fall down. She felt almost too nervous to walk.

Jack smiled, more to himself than at her, since she was not looking at him at the moment anyway. He has never thought that strolling around may be that pleasant. He has always considered walking simply as the process of getting from one place to another. And now he did not care from where, and to where he was going.

"Shouldn't we start asking?" Asked Elizabeth in a low tone of voice, and finally looked up at Jack.

"Asking?" He echoed, suddenly shaken out of his thoughts.

"If anybody knows me," hinted Elizabeth, finding herself gazing at him intensely. She quickly looked away, hoping that he had not noticed.

"You're welcome to stare at me as much as you wish, Lizzie," he grinned to her dismay, after a moment of silence, during which she had hoped that her gaze had escaped his notice.

"I did not-," she looked at him, and broke off, as her eyes locked with his. She forgot what she was going to say.

She did not know what exactly was going on. She should concentrate exclusively on thinking about her life, about her past. Maybe if she would think hard enough... But somehow she kept thinking about him instead. She felt guilty, and she was angry with herself. And she did not understand why she was thinking about him.

Strangely enough, she hoped that he was thinking about her too... Why do I want him to be thinking about me?!

"Let's start asking, then," said Jack, looking around.

"Asking?" Elizabeth gave him an absent-minded look.

"If anybody knows ye, luv," smirked Jack, leaning towards her, and planting a soft kiss on her cheek.

She looked away hurriedly.

He desperately wanted to kiss her on the mouth. That one memory, that one kiss tortured him. It tortured him, because it had happened only once. He needed to kiss her again. But he did not want to scare her. He did not want her to think that he was some seductive, untrustworthy, lustful pirate... which he was... trying not to be... right now...

Million thoughts flickered across Elizabeth's mind. She wanted to push him away; she wanted to throw her arms around his neck; she wanted to slap him; she wanted to kiss him; she wanted to kiss him, kiss him, kiss him, kiss him-

"Lizzie?"

She turned to him abruptly. "Yes?"

"What have you been thinking of?" Asked Jack, looking interestedly into her quizzically glimmering eyes.

"Nothing," she shook her head, and looked away, furtively gasping for air.

It so seemed that on the entire island of Tortuga Elizabeth was unseen, and unheard of. Nobody recognized her. Nobody claimed to have ever seen her. Nobody even recollected hearing any news about a missing person. She was as much of a stranger to people here, as she was to herself.

Interestingly enough, it turned out, however, that almost every person that they had encountered, had known Captain Jack Sparrow. Elizabeth observed in wonder all the people who greeted Jack, who waved their hands in his direction, who invited him for drinks. There was also a considerable amount of women either smiling at him, or frowning at him, but they did not come close, perhaps because of Elizabeth's presence.

"If you were to lose your memory," said Elizabeth, as they walked as far as the end of the town, "you would have had no problems with finding out who you were."

She stared at the ground, and although Jack could hear a trace of playfulness in her voice, he could also hear the sorrow.

And he was the one to be blamed for it. He had just spent four hours carrying out a viciously purposeless search, and observing her face repeatably brightening up with hope, only to fade into resignation mere seconds later, when another person had shaken his head, or shrugged his shoulders in denial.

He was disgustedly impressed by his own craftiness. Yet, he had lied in his life for more trivial, more unimportant, and decidedly worse reasons... So it was not at all that bad, after all... above all... all in all...

Of course it was bad!... It was... He stopped in mid-thought, as he felt Elizabeth head leaning on his shoulder. He looked at her. She walked beside him, still clenching his arm. As a matter of fact, she has not let go of his arm even for a second since they began their fruitless recognition quest.

The wind gently tugged on the loose, golden brown locks of her hair, which sparkled in the sun. She seemed sad, and she was beautiful. And she was here. She was here with him. She was holding on to him, as if he was the only person in the entire world. As if he was her world.

And it would be more than a lie to say that he did not like this idea.

In fact, he more than liked it.

A good man, he sneered to himself. What an insight, Lizzie. What an insight.

"I know what we could do now," whispered Jack into her ear.

She cringed, feeling his breath on her skin. She looked up, meeting his gaze. She was beginning to feel stranger and stranger in his presence.

She gave him a questioning look.

"I'll show ye something, luv," he said with a roguish smile.

Do whatever you want... Elizabeth looked away, as her eyes flew wide open in terror at the sudden realization of where her own thoughts were heading.

They walked out of the town along a small path leading across the forest. At the end of the forest was a glade, beyond which was only a steep, high cliff. As they reached the edge of it, a soft moan escaped Elizabeth's mouth, when she saw the spectacular view stretching away before them - the immense, endless, beautiful ocean shimmering with all the shades of blue.

"It's breathtaking," she said quietly with a smile, taking a few steps forward om her own, but Jack quickly wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her from behind toward him.

"You want to be careful, Lizzie," he whispered. "You don't want to fall down from here. It's rather dangerous."

She wanted to answer, but the words flew away from her, as his lips made contact with her skin, kissing lightly the side of her face, her cheek, her chin...

"What are you doing Jack," she demanded, struggling to sound matter-of-factly, but failing terribly.

"What do you think I'm doing?" He asked teasingly, brushing his lips along her neck.

"I've no idea," she lied in a faltering voice. "That's why I'm asking."

He stopped, and she opened her eyes with reprehensible regret. He spun her around, and locked her in his arms, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Do you think it wise, darling, to wander around with a pirate?" He asked narrowing his eyes, and tightening his embrace.

Elizabeth's eyes widened, as she suddenly realized... Pirate. She had never actually thought of that. She had never thought about him in terms of a pirate. Yes, it did make sense now. He looked like a pirate... He was a captain... It had just never crossed her mind before...

Yet, there was also something else... Pirate... The word sounded strange... Strange... It meant something... Only she did not know what it meant...

She shook herself out of her musings, realizing that she should be rather pushing him away instead of just letting him hold her while she was mulling over her unimportant mental associations.

"I have told you already that I trust you," she said defensively.

Jack rolled his eyes in exasperation. "No, no. Ye're not supposed to say that. Ye're supposed to be beggin' me right now to spare yer life," he explained patiently with a sigh.

Elizabeth burst out laughing. Jack looked at her in sudden awe. Had he ever heard her laughing? He quickly reviewed all his memories of her in his mind. She had smiled, she had grinned. But she had never laughed.

He propped her chin with his hand, and looked her in the eyes, with a half-grin. Elizabeth stopped laughing, but a smile was still flickering in her eyes.

"You underestimate me, luv," he whispered.

To his surprise, she leaned into him, and whispered: "And you underestimate me."

Jack pensively brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, gazing at her steadily. Elizabeth stared at him, her eyes curiously roaming over his face.

After a moment of silence, he said in a strangely hollow tone of voice:

"I have something to tell you, Elizabeth."