A/N: Thanks pirateslifeformee, for the review and the compliment :)

Finally, there is sand beneath our feet. Jack kneels and kisses it, saying something quietly to himself. I walk past him to the water, dropping my coat along the way and looking up and down the shoreline. I remove my boots and drop them in the dry sand, then start walking along the edge of the water. I leave Jack to lie in the sun.

I'm feeling slightly delirious, intoxicated, and tired and the familiar sight of the sea eases my mind.

After five minutes, when Jack becomes a blur against the sand, I find footprints. For a moment I am comforted to know that they are our own, from days ago. They're far enough back on the beach that the water hasn't erased them. I can see them move off in groups of three into the jungle.

Then I look to the horizon and see nothing but waves, and my heart sinks.

~*o*~

"The ship is gone," I report. Jack doesn't move, resting in the sand. "What are we going to do?"

He cracks open an eyelid, then closes it again in disinterest. "Why don't you come up with the plan this time?"

"Really Jack."

"I get us out of all the messes."

"Not true, and you know it. Now help me think of something. We can't just lie on the beach all day."

"We very well could, but we shouldn't," he grunts and sits up.

I turn away from him and look out at the water, frustrated that once again I'm marooned and abandoned, alone but for the one man I can't seem to crack and will never understand. I can feel the heat on my face from the sun and the scratches across my cheek from the woman's sharp nails sting. I touch them to feel the slight swelling around the thin lines. Hopefully there's no infection.

I turn my head to the left, looking far away at the spot we had been let off before. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a ship bobbing on the waves. Snapping my head back around, I see the full cream sails turning to face the island. It's not far off, perhaps two hours away.

"There's a ship," I comment. I shield my eyes with a hand and squint. In shock I widen them, taking in the familiar contours of The Dutchman.

"Where?" Jack asks. He sounds genuinely confused. The ship continues towards the island and I become more and more certain of which ship it is as I take in the faint silhouette of a figurehead. I let my hands fall to my sides in defeat.

"Nowhere, just thinking out loud." When I turn back to Jack, for the briefest moment he looks like someone else.

"Oh," he says, disappointed. As I stare, the image dissolves. When I look back to the ship, it too is gone.

As I fear my sanity may be.

~*o*~

"The beach is the safest place for us to be," Jack tells me, spreading out his coat on the sand and laying back on it. I can tell he's exhausted. He checks his dagger in his belt and reveals that he managed to keep his pistol as well, hidden beneath his coat.

"Nowhere is safe," I sigh. I ball my own coat into a pillow then throw it to the ground as well, wiping all of the sand away before resting my head on it. We fall silent for several moments, looking up.

"I keep looking at the stars," Jack says, "but I have no idea where we are."

"It's on one of my maps," I say, slipping into a trance as I watch the glowing lights. I recall the tiny dot with an 'E' scripted underneath it.

"And where are we?"

"It starts with an E." Jack doesn't ask anything further, knowing it really doesn't matter what that stands for or where we are, so long as we are here and set to remain here until we can come up with an escape plan. Tonight however, escape is past the limits of our tired bodies and souls.

"I had an odd dream last night," Jack changes the subject abruptly. "Maybe you're right about Dorian."

"I am right. The people here have the drug he makes so he must supply them with it," I say.

"In exchange for what?"

"I haven't quite figured it out yet, honestly. But it might have something to do with the water."

"The Fountain."

"Yes."

"So you do believe that's what it is?" Jack jumps on it.

"I've been thinking about what that woman said to me," I say, still gazing at the stars, wondering if he can see them reflected back in the water, wherever he is. The world is blue, the moon reflecting off the skies.

"What woman?" Jack asks, and I turn my head to him. How long was he really out for? When he turns to face me I look away, suddenly shy.

"The one who was talking to me when you were unconscious. She was leading the party that picked us up at the pond. She accused us of stealing and said we didn't deserve to live forever."

I stare at the sky, feeling his eyes on me still. I'm blinded by the moon. "Is that how you got these?" he asks, and I feel his hand brush over my cheek.

I touch the scratches. They've stopped bleeding but my fingers make them sting.

"How are you going to know if you've really found it?" I ask, ignoring his question.

"I suppose I won't for some years."

"But then you'll be too old to go searching for it, by the time you realize you've aged."

"I'd already stopped searching for it, remember?" he says sombrely.

"Do you still want it?" I ask. I remember his obsession with it, the need that seemed it would never end. The thing that drove us together again, his simple request for help that turned into my everyday life, searching for the Fountain. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to live forever. It would be too painful."

"How so?"

"Leaving people, having them leave you."

Jack sits up, then speaks quieter than before, "You haven't left him."

I think of changing the subject, feeling his eyes on my face, making it hard for me to speak. "But I have been," I sigh. "First off, I'm doing a terrible job of what he asked me to do. Secondly, since joining your crew I've been so otherwise preoccupied that I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've thought of him, and hardly consider the task of remembering him to be one of my more important duties."

"Then maybe you have left him" he says, and flops back down beside me.

"I've been living," I say.

"Then why would you not want to live forever?" Jack asks, turning my question back on me.

"It's just more time to think about things," I say.

"Maybe you should stop thinking entirely," he suggests.

I can't help but smile. "If one of us doesn't start thinking, we'll be stuck here. Forever."

"Not with my brain," Jack objects. "But perhaps we will come across that tiny body of water again and take some of it with us, just in case."

"In case of what?" I ask, hoping he doesn't insist on wandering back there.

"In case you change your mind, or something very important requiring enchanted water and various other things in some form of a ritual comes along."

"The second is more likely," I laugh. I'd made it clear to him a long time ago that I wasn't interested.

"You still haven't given me a decent answer to my question," Jack points out.

"I don't want to live forever," I snap, and I feel Jack flinch slightly beside me. "No matter how many times you ask or how many years pass, I won't think any differently."

"But why not?" Jack asks after a pause.

"I'd rather die tomorrow," I sigh.

He lets the conversation trail off and we both shiver as a cool breeze comes off the water.

I close my eyes, lulling myself to sleep with the thought that that might happen. I imagine the tribe finding us, eating us. I see the Pearl, in the distance. I envision slamming Dorian's head against a rock until he bleeds.

My dreams turn to nightmares and the world turns to ash.

Sometimes I wish it would.