He broke himself out first and then he came to get me. I watched him lift the door free the way that Will had showed us the second time I had met Jack and something about the déjà vu of it all brought a smile to my lips. As he was lifting my door free of its hinges with the plank of wood he looked at me suspiciously. "What?"

"Nothing… am I not allowed to smile anymore?" I asked innocently. His eyes narrowed slightly, but I could see he was holding back a smile.

"I dunno, love. You tell me," he said. "You seem to have outlawed it for yourself."

"Well, every country in the world seems to have outlawed you and yet you're still here," I teased. He grinned at me as he chucked the door to one side. I missed being comfortable enough around him to tease him. I wondered how long it would last. The truce we had just formed seemed like a good idea- the battle had started, I could hear it. The Dutchman pitched back and forth and I knew that everyone involved had a huge sense of their own mortality. I know I did. But to one person, mortality soon wouldn't matter because, should everything go according to plan, there would soon be a new Captain for the Flying Dutchman. A future Captain who was, at that very moment, in the process of wrapping his warm arms around me and smiling down at me with those beautiful brown eyes. I knew that my fleeting happiness had reached the end of its short life.

"The heart," I muttered, too distracted to notice how close Jack was let alone register the fact that he was, of his own accord, moving closer still.

"What?" he sounded like I was distracting him from something he had been concentrating quite hard on.

"You have to stab it now," I said quietly. He pulled away from me. It was cold outside of his embrace, but not half as cold as I was inside. "Then we can win. You promised Will."

He looked at me and sighed, "I suppose we'd better go find it then, love."

"Immortality awaits you, Captain Sparrow…" I said in an attempt to lighten the mood. I turned away from him. I didn't want to see that smile that was sure to be on his face. The smile that told me how much being immortal truly meant to him. It was selfish of me, I know, not to want to see someone I love being happy, but getting what he wanted meant that I would lose him. As much as it pains me to say, this was probably for the best if I thought about it. Which, I can promise you, I did. "After all… it's all you've ever wanted…" I thought I heard him contradict me, but I was too far away by that point to be sure and he spoke quietly, if indeed he had said anything at all. I glanced over my shoulder at him, but not for long, my lower lip trembled slightly, "Which way?"

There was no reply. I heard him cross the floor and felt him take my hand in his. It had been shaking as much as my lip and it was cold, but all of that vanished when his warm fingers entwined with mine. I looked at him quizzically. "Might as well make the most of what time we have," he shrugged. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, it was hard enough to breathe without crying let alone say anything.

He led me away. I didn't question where we were going. Jack would get us there, he usually did. It's funny how things had a knack of working out for him. Lucky him. True to tradition, Jack found the right room. The Dutchman was under heavy attack and bits of wood and splinters were flying around left, right and centre. I wondered which ship out of the unfortunate Brethren had been stupid enough to try and take the Dutchman. There were two frightened-looking guards by the chest. I recognised them from Port Royale, but their names escaped me briefly.

"Halt there or we'll shoot!" said the shorter one. Mulroy? Was that right? It sounded so. That would make the skinnier one Murtogg? I hoped that I wouldn't be called upon to name them at any point. What was the point? They may as well be twins! There was a pause as Jack mulled over how best to get past them. Then a part of the wall behind them exploded into splinters and they both flinched.

"Good one!" Jack laughed. "Come to get me effects." He busied himself putting on his hat and picking up his pistol and sword, but I knew better than to think he had forgotten, or given up on the heart. He glanced at them as he shoved his hat on, "Admirable though it may be, why are you here when you could be elsewhere?"

"Someone has to stay and guard the chest," said Murtogg. His friend immediately turned to him and argued about the break down in military discipline on the Dutchman. Murtogg blamed the Fish-people. I was so caught up in the random stupidity of their utterly pointless conversation that Jack had to tug quite sharply on my hand to get me away from there. In his other hand was the chest. The door shut on their arguing and I turned to him.

"We need to hurry, love," he told me.

"I know that," I looked away from him. I could almost hear the clock ticking away what little time I had left with Jack. And each deadly tick brought fresh thoughts flowing through my mind, 'How long do we have left? Should I tell him how I feel before it's too late or will I let him leave not knowing? If he knew, would it change anything? What would he say? Could I deal with the answer, whichever one it was?'

Stepping out into the rain was a welcome distraction. It was torrential, maybe even rivalling English rain. We were soaked within a second of leaving the shelter of the galley.

"Lookee here boys, a lost bird," cold tones cut through what I had been thinking and served as another distraction from depressing thoughts about the dire situation considering my feelings for Jack.

'Shit!'

"Follow me, Belle," Jack breathed ever so quietly by my ear, letting go of my hand. Not sure why, but I obeyed without question as he started backing away from Jones and his advancing crew.

"A lost bird that never learned to fly!" Jones withdrew his sword. What the hell were we going to do?

"To my great regret," Jack replied, "But…" he ran up to stand on the side of the Dutchman. I ran just a pace behind him He grabbed a rope as I hopped up beside him. "Hold on tight, Izzy," he breathed ever so softly. Then he turned back to Jones, "… never too late to learn, eh?"

I just had time to grab a hold of his waist before he slammed the chest against something, freeing the rope and shooting both of us up into the air. There was a sickening jolt as my feet left the solid deck and then I felt like I had left my insides down there. Jack was the only sold thing in the whole world for a few split seconds. Colours and shades blurred around me before my feet found a narrow ledge and I wobbled around a bit before re-gaining my balance. By the time I had sorted myself out Jones was standing right in front of us.

'Shit!'

Quick as a flash, Jack pushed the rope into my hands. "Go!" he said and then he shouted, "Go!"

"No!" I shouted back. I barely had anytime to think, so I went with my instincts and they told me not to leave Jack.

"Love, this is my chance to get the key!" he said loudly enough for me to hear him over the rain, but quietly enough that Jones wouldn't hear him. "GO!"

I froze, not knowing what to do. I didn't want to leave him knowing that it may be the last time I saw him, but I didn't want to be there when he stabbed the heart. It would be too hard to watch. He made the decision for me. He pushed me off the mast. I had no choice but to grab on to it. I slid down a few feet, the rope grazing against the palm of my hands and leaving them searing in pain. I spun around in the air, completely disorientated by the whole thing. Two ships spun beneath me. The Dutchman and the Pearl. I should have guessed that only those aboard the Pearl would be stupid enough to try and take the Dutchman. But that also meant that now Jack had to stab the heart. It was our friends' lives that were in danger. Both ships were circling each other, but not of their own accord and I found myself staring into the heart of a massive, spiralling whirlpool. I swung round the Dutchman's masts trying to decide quickly what to do. I couldn't stay on the Dutchman for long; it was too risky as Jack and I were the only ones on board that weren't on Jones's side we would be the first to be killed. The Pearl was too far away for me to swing to, but I couldn't keep spinning for this long or I would be sick and my hands were beginning to slide from the wet rope.

I landed safely on another mast; only for it to jolt beneath my feet as it came into contact with the Pearl's mast. I steadied myself in time to see Jack fall from his high-up battle with Jones. I did it without thinking. I launched myself back into the air and swung to meet him mid-fall. I grabbed him in that spit second where we passed each other. His hands found the rope and he looked at me, as surprised as I was by the sheer luck of my timing.

"I thought I told you to go away," he shouted over the wind rushing past us and the noise of the churning whirlpool.

"Charming!" I said, although I knew he was joking. "I save you from being splattered all over Jones's deck or falling in that cyclone and this is the thanks I get? Next time I won't bother!"

He didn't answer, as we swung round he drew his pistol and aimed it at Jones. It pinged off the chest and he dropped it, sending it crashing to the deck below. There was no time to celebrate, we were slipping.

"We can't both stay here for long!" Jack shouted. I nodded and then, before he could say anything, I dropped. Hurtling through the air and praying I had judged it right. I thought I heard Jack scream for me, but it could have been the wind rushing past my ears. I put out my hands in the few seconds I was falling that was turning out to feel like a lifetime. They slammed into something very, very solid. I winced and clung onto the wooden boom of the Pearl. My hands, slipped in the wet and I struggled up to sit on the boom. I slid along to the rigging and started climbing, my cold, shaking hands often missing a few rungs on the way down.

A fresh attack from one of Jones's men meant I had little time to recover. My sword went straight through him and he fell face-first onto the deck. A cry behind me mad me turn, sword ready only to meet Elizabeth who had just finished fighting someone off. She ran to me, a brilliant smile splitting her face. "Will and I married!" she shouted happily.

I gasped and felt myself share her smile, "That's brilliant!" I glanced around us and the pandemonium. "But how on earth did you manage it?"

"Barbossa did it," she said and then running to the side she grabbed a rope that someone had just swung across on. "Come with me, Izzy!"

"But I just came from there!" I grumbled, but nevertheless joined the new Mrs Turner as she swung to the Dutchman.