A/N: it's been a while, hasn't it? Hehe…) I swear to god I had the worst writer's block I have ever had in my entire life…but I pretty much know what's going to happen in the next chapter, so hopefully it won't happen again. Forgive me? )

DISCLAIMER: if I owned them I wouldn't be so dead to the fanfiction world. Actually, I would be, because I would be making movies, but whatever.

Chapter 14

Elizabeth peered through the spyglass toward the horizon. She angrily snapped it shut and stormed over to Jack. "There's an East Indiaman on the horizon," she informed him.

Jack smiled. "That's nice, luv. Get Barbossa, will you?"

Elizabeth told Barbossa what was happening as they walked. "And we've only twenty bloody cannonballs left!" she worried.

"No need to fret, luv," Jack said soothingly. "We can do the same as on the Interceptor if we run out. There's a port about ten leagues from here we can stop and restock on ammunition and provisions."

"And if they capture us?" Elizabeth demanded, hands on hips.

"They won't," Barbossa said confidently. "We'll fire off a broadside or two and board 'em. Simple's that."

"Sounds good," Jack said cheerily. "Barbie, tell the crew, will you?"

"If ye swear never t' call me that again," Barbossa growled, stalking off.

Elizabeth looked at Jack.

"Barbie?"

Jack shrugged.

"Sounded good at the time."

She rolled her eyes and leaned up against him. "So who do you think's been made Lord now that Beckett's dead?"

Jack blinked.

"I dunno, luv. Could be your bloody friend Norrington."

"Friend? Hardly," Elizabeth snorted. "Could be him. I suppose we'll find out soon enough."

"I suppose," Jack said.

The East Indiaman drew nearer as the crew ran out the cannons, waiting for Jack's signal.

Elizabeth opened her spying glass again. Jack followed suit. "Well look who it is," he murmured. "Norrington and the assassin."

"Mercer," Elizabeth said. "Neither of them is lord. They're…he's not even on deck. Probably too cowardly to show his face, if Beckett was anything to go by."

Jack collapsed his spyglass. "Tell the men on the cannons to fire the starboard side for a broadside on my signal. If anyone's still loading, tell 'em to put in chain shot."

Elizabeth ran down the stairs. "Wait for the Captain's signal and fire only on the starboard!" she yelled. "Any still loading, use chain shot!"

"Aye, aye!" the crew chorused.

However, none were still loading. This made Elizabeth nervous. If Jack had wanted chain shot, it had meant he was concerned about the outcome of the fight and that it may have been their only chance, but if there was no chain shot in the volley…

Shaking her head, she made her way back up to top deck. The crew would surely put chain shot in the next volley and increase their chances.

Back up on the quarterdeck, Elizabeth told Jack of the shot problem.

"Damn," he muttered. "We'll get it in the next."

Raising his head, he called over to the East Indiaman. "What do you want?"

"Jack Sparrow!" Norrington shouted back. "Surrender without a fight and you and your men will come to no harm!"

"We could tell ye the same thing!" Barbossa bellowed defiantly.

"Then we are forced to fight!" Norrington called formally, but before he had gotten to the word 'fight,' Jack roared, "FIRE!"

The cannons thundered beneath the deck and blew holes through the East Indiaman. Almost immediately it opened fire in return. At least five redcoats flew from the decks; nearly ten pirates followed suit.

Jack swore as the soldiers started to board. With a snarl, Elizabeth wrenched her cutlass from its sheath and charged into the throng alongside him. As soon as they had entered the fight they were separated by the heaving mass of men.

Elizabeth quickly dispatched two soldiers, and a third slumped to the deck as the hilt of her cutlass struck his head.

"Elizabeth?" said an incredulous voice.

Elizabeth whirled around, teeth bared. "Have you a problem, Mr. Norrington?"

"Elizabeth," Norrington murmured again. He pulled her aside. "I don't want to see you hung."

"Yes, well. Neither do I."

"Look…I could get you clemency when we get back to Port Royal if you were engaged to me. If you would agree…"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Norrington, but my heart belongs to another," Elizabeth said coldly.

"Will cannot grant you clemency, Elizabeth."

"Of course. I know that. Will is dead."

Norrington looked at her sadly. "Your heart cannot belong to a dead man, Elizabeth."

"I know these things, Mr. Norrington. My heart belongs to Captain Sparrow."

He shook his head. "If your father ever knew…but of course…"

"Of course what?" Elizabeth said sharply.

"Of course…he couldn't know," Norrington said. "Your father died a month ago."

Elizabeth swayed with shock.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, touching her arm.

"Don't touch me," she gasped.

"Elizabeth…"

"I said don't touch me!" She tore herself away and threw herself back into the crowd. In a blind anger, Elizabeth ran one soldier through and broke another's neck before stabbing him in the back. As she fell upon another, he cried out.

"Oi! What're you thinking? Elizabeth! It's only me!" Jack yelled, grabbing on to her wrists.

"He's dead!" she screamed, her vision blurred with tears. "Move! I – I've got to – BLOODY MOVE!"

"Calm down!" Jack bellowed, turning her around and holding her hands behind her back. "Now, what's happened? Who's dead?"

Elizabeth didn't answer; her eyes widened with fear. "Jack, move, please move, for Christ's sake – MOVE!" She heaved her shoulder into him with such force that they both fell to the deck. It felt as though she had been punched in the arm. Jack looked slightly panicky.

"Elizabeth!"

"Next time I say move," she snarled, clamping a hand around her arm, "bloody well move, will you?"

Jack nodded distractedly, picking her up and elbowing his way through the crowd.

Barbossa turned around as Jack shouldered past him. "What's 'appened?" he said, seeming genuinely concerned as he ran though the man he had been grappling with.

"I can walk, you know, Jack, it's only my arm," Elizabeth objected.

"I don't care. She's been shot," Jack said, frantically pushing his way to the captain's cabin. Barbossa followed, knocking one of the soldiers out on this way.

Jack laid Elizabeth down. She looked up fuzzily and laughed when he fumbled behind himself for a bandage and ended up smacking Barbossa in the nose. That was the last thing she saw before losing consciousness.

… … …

When Elizabeth woke, she was propped up against a wall. Someone next to her was pressed up against her good arm and had their own arm around her waist, keeping her sitting up. Whoever it was was very warm, and this she was thankful for.

Elizabeth opened her eyes and smiled faintly. It was, of course, Jack. He was apparently asleep, his head tilted back against the wall and his mouth slightly open.

"Mornin'," said a soft voice on her other side.

She started.

"Cheery little place, this, isn't it?" Barbossa continued.

Elizabeth looked around at the cell.

"They caught us," she said in a quiet voice. "Damn…where are we?"

"They brought us back to Port Royal," Barbossa said. He lowered his voice as Jack shifted. "Try not t' wake 'im up. He's so bloody worried he gets t' be an annoyance. Anyway…Jack convinced 'em not to sink the Pearl. Told 'em that it'd be useful t' the Tradin' Company. Why 'e would ever give over the Pearl t' those fools is beyond me, but ah well."

"Have they put us on trial yet?" Elizabeth asked.

"No," Barbossa said. "However, our hangin's set for dawn, the bloody b-"

"What? My father wouldn't – no, of course he wouldn't, he can't…" She exhaled and let her head fall back against the wall.

"So it was him," Barbossa said. "Jack told me ye said someone was dead."

Elizabeth nodded mutely. There were a few moments of silence.

"'M sorry," Barbossa said awkwardly.

Elizabeth nodded again. "Thank you."

Jack shifted once more and his mouth closed. "Elizabeth," he mumbled sleepily. "How's your arm? Does it hurt?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"You don't think so? Come on, luv, it either hurts or it doesn't."

Barbossa leaned over and smacked him in the head.

"Shut up."

"Ouch! What?" Jack said.

David crawled over to the bars separating the crew and him from Barbossa, Jack, and Elizabeth. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Yer twelve-year-old son caught on somethin' was wrong before ye did, and he's in the next cell over, idiot," Barbossa said scornfully.

Jack cast him a withering look. The older pirate didn't seem to care.

"Lizzie, what's the matter?" he asked gently.

"He's dead," Elizabeth whispered.

"Who?"

"He…my father. He died a month ago. I don't – I don't kn-know how…"

"I'm sorry, luv," Jack murmured, closing his eyes briefly. "I can't say as I knew 'im well, although he did try to hang me, but I'm sure he was a good man."

"He didn't really want to hang you," Elizabeth choked, forcing a smile. "He said he was b-bound by the l-law…and that p-perhaps when following the r-right path d-demanded an act of p-piracy…that perhaps…piracy its-self was th-the right course." She let out a strangled sob and bit her lip hard.

"He would have bloody well let me go," she heard Jack breathe. "I'm so sorry…" He cradled her against himself, careful to avoid touching her bad arm.

Elizabeth went limp against him and barely noticed as one hand left her for a minute, tore off part of a sleeve of his shirt, and reached over her head, then came back. A moment later she felt Barbossa tying the makeshift bandage around the first. Apparently it was bleeding through. She forced her concentration on the burning pain rather than on her grief. But she couldn't help remembering the fear in her father's voice when Mercer had found she was not in the carriage…she would have been willing to bet that the assassin was at least partly responsible for her father's dead. She sobbed harder.

The cell door banged open. Elizabeth heard Norrington's voice above her. "Elizabeth, come with me for a moment. I can take care of the shot," he said.

She felt Jack's arms tighten protectively.

"I'll go, Jack," Elizabeth said. "They've probably better than what we've got in here."

Jack's grip relaxed slightly.

"You sure, luv? You'll be all right?"

Elizabeth nodded and gulped.

"I'll be fine," she said shakily, wiping her eyes and standing. She followed Norrington out of the cell, which he locked, and into a different room, where he closed the door.

"Sit," he said, gesturing to a chair.

Elizabeth sank into the chair and allowed Norrington to remove the blood-soaked bandages for a look at the wound. As he cleaned it, she suddenly couldn't stand it any longer.

"What happened to him?" she asked quietly.

Norrington looked up.

"We guessed it was a stroke," he said. "It was very quick. He died in his sleep."

Elizabeth forced herself to nod, and it came a little harder than she meant it to.

"Better than…that what I…"

"You thought Mercer had something to do with it," Norrington guessed, reaching back for a clean bandage and starting to wrap it around Elizabeth's arm.

She nodded again.

Pausing, Norrington listened, as though nervous someone would hear him. Then he turned back.

"You guessed right," he murmured, so softly that Elizabeth almost had to read his lips to comprehend what was being said.

"I heard Beckett giving Mercer the orders myself," Norrington admitted, looking down at the bandage as though fascinated by it. "It was still very quick…but Mercer somehow slipped poison into Governor Swann's evening tea."

A/N: dun dun DUN…next chapter we find out who was made Lord after Jack killed Beckett. And I guarantee you that not one of you will expect it. Even I didn't expect it until I finished writing this chapter. So…I hope this looooooong looooong chapter made up for my looooooong loooooong absence from the story. Leave me some love! I'm almost to 100 and am completely psyched about it! D