A/N: Thank you for favouriting, adding this to your alerts, reviewing and simply reading up to this point.

Last chapter: It was revealed where the natives live and Elizabeth decided not to stick around and be killed for Jack stealing water from the fountain.

*My spelling is Canadian*

The second I hit dense trees I swerve to the right, heading deeper into the island. Twigs snap underfoot and branches claw at my head, clutching at my hair and leaving bark splinters in the scratches across my face.

For the first time in a long time, I think only of myself.

The forest floor is soft, damp from the rain. The humidity here is lesser than it was through the jungle but still choking, smothering.

I stop beside a large tree, hiding myself from the direction I came. I hear nothing. Taking the moment, I untie my boots and tug them off my feet. With laces tied together, I sling them over an arm. Barefoot, I can run faster.

My heart slows, allowing me to listen to the forest.

Birds chatter. A stream trickles to the left. I feel dizzy, exhilarated.

Perhaps just dizzy.

I twist my arm to find the point where I felt the prick, expecting to find some sort of dart. Instead, there is only a metal tip embedded in my flesh and a slow trickle of blood running from my bicep. I squeeze the skin around it, hoping to dislodge it. More blood. No luck.

A snap of branches behind me.

I push off from the tree and keep running, deeper into the tangled mess of sharp wood and thistles. I don't feel the pain of them digging into my arms and tearing at my legs, but they slow me down.

I cast a glance over my shoulder, only slightly relieved to see no one following. I slow to a jog but continue deeper into the woods.

I wasn't made to run this far. I can feel the heaviness of my limbs as I slow my pace, the undeniable strain of my lungs as I gasp for breath, the aching in my knees from the impact of heel on dirt.

After a few minutes of practiced breathing and maintaining a steady pace, the forest ahead turns to jungle. I come to a stop at the edge of the transition, a wide strip of grass between the two. I lean forward and peer both ways, wondering at the oddity of it.

I hear the snap of twigs again and before I can fully turn my neck to look a body slams into me at full force, knocking me to the ground. I shriek out of surprise as my shoulder hits the ground, the same one I had been dropped on earlier.

My assailer groans as his crushing weight falls onto me, pinning me to the ground.

I choke, gasping for air as his shoulder digs into my throat.

"Elizabeth?" Jack questions. "Sorry." He quickly rolls off of me, allowing me to turn onto my side and regain my breath.

We don't move for several minutes and I keep my back to him, closing my eyes.

"Where are they?" I ask eventually.

"They gave up," Jack answers. "Turned around and went back, I'm assuming."

I roll onto my back, elbowing Jack in the chest. He says nothing and we stare up at the thin canopy of trees, breathing. Just breathing.

"Now what?" I ask, knowing we can't just lie here.

He doesn't reply.

I turn my face to the side, to see if he's asleep. He blinks at the sky.

"Jack?"

"Hush luv, I'm thinking."

He closes his eyes and I turn my face back to the treetops, thinking as well.

Sleep, I want. I close my eyes. A real mattress. Real clothing. Something soft; a nightgown. Water. Mostly sleep.

I can picture my old room, white sheets waiting. A window looking out to the ships in harbour is cracked open to let in a breeze. Cold wind.

Even the tiny bed I had fallen asleep in- once- in a blacksmith's shop. Forbidden, but welcoming.

My hammock on The Pearl, rocking me to sleep. More forbidden, somehow.

I long for the red sheets of my bed, in my cabin. I want my ship, wherever she is.

I can feel the rocking now, lying on my bed of dirt. Thinking. I slip into a trance, seeing the shape of twisting gray curtains in the distance and reaching for them. I'll be sick later, but for now...

"Let's find somewhere safe to rest, and we can come up with a plan later," Jack says, startling me. The heat of his arm against mine disappears as he sits up, lurching to his feet.

"Why can't we just rest here?" I ask. I can hardly keep my eyelids open.

"Do you want to live?"

He reaches down and grabs my arm, pulling me to stand.

"I'd rather sleep," I grumble, teetering a little.

Jack releases me and looks at his hand. He wipes it on his shirt. A thin streak of red is left behind.

"Sorry," I say.

"Are you bleeding?" he asks.

"I got hit by something; I can't get it out of my arm."

"Let's see." Jack squints at the dart tip. "Hm."

"I think I'll be fine."

"You're still standing," he shrugs.

"Just tired."

"We should keep moving then, find somewhere safe if you or I pass out again."

He walks away, crossing the strip of grass to the jungle side. I pause in the middle of the stretch to put on my boots, using it as an excuse to sit down again.

Jack stops and waits, watching me struggle to get them on the right feet.

"They had better not come after you tonight," he states, chuckling despite our situation.

"They would be coming for you too," I remind him, less jokingly.

"Difference now being that only one of us can die," he says, grinning.

"You believe that was the Fountain?" I ask him seriously, shielding my eyes from the sun to look up at him. I feel it must be something else, that the drug simply had a different effect on him. I know it was in the water, the vials told me enough. But why is he still conscious? Was it too diluted?

"I've never felt better, I believe that. There's something odd about this place, don't you think? Jungle to forest? Water that doesn't flow anywhere? The biggest trees anyone's ever seen?"

"That was never part of the legend," I argue.

"I thought you'd learned that most legends don't live up to their names," he smirks.

"I did learn that. I just didn't think I'd be continuously disappointed by them."

"There isn't much disappointing about a Fountain of Youth," Jack says, walking back to lend me a hand. He crouches to tie my shoe laces, slapping my hands out of the way and bending my knee to my chest. "That is what we're talking about? The water?" He unties my knot and starts again.

"It might not work. How do you know?" I ask quietly, ignoring his question.

"I just know."

"That's what will get you killed," I point out. "Overconfidence leads to foolishness. If it isn't the Fountain of Youth, and I'm inclined to believe it isn't, then you'll find your immortality to be short lived."

"Concerned?" he asks, looking up from his work. He waits for my answer, breath brushing my knee.

"Hardly," I answer.

"Then we'll focus on keeping you alive darling," he says quietly, sarcasm subtle.

"Kill me now and you won't have to worry about it."

"I'm not worried about it."

He finishes the one shoe and I draw up my other leg. He reaches for the laces.

"You are worried about it," I say matter-of-factly. "Or you wouldn't have come back for me at all, before."

He quirks and eyebrow but keeps tying. Finally he pulls me to my feet.

"Then I'll kill you when you're sleeping," he whispers in my ear, and turns for the jungle.

I know that was fairly fast-paced, I didn't want to bore with too much detail of running around.

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