Mary flew Jack and James over onto the Dutchman, the surging tempest wind flailing her so much it felt like a gang throwing rocks at her. Jack leapt off of her onto the deck, fighting his way through the white water. James followed suit, joining up with Bootstrap. Somewhere in the heat of the battle, Beckett and Mercer had switched weapons, the latter whacking away at Bootstrap with a piece of wood.

Time to regain your honor, James thought, nodding to himself, and then lunged at Mercer with a bloodthirsty cry. Splinters flew every which way, blending into the sharp rain. At last he had cut enough away to find a face with a twinge of fear behind it. Still crying out like a primal animal, James rammed his sword into Mercer's throat, the fresh iron smell of blood mixing into the stormy air. He did not look away until the body slumped to the deck, an abrupt howl catching his attention.

Elizabeth had caught Beckett's cheek with the poker, slicing a deep gash into the side of his face. Clutching his cheek with his free hand, he continued to fight her until he smacked the poker out of her hand.

"Just good business, Miss Swann."

No, no, not Elizabeth, James prayed. He received a quick answer, seeing Beckett's head jerk back, droplets of blood spraying out into the rain. Jack had not moved after firing his pistol. They all watched the dark blood snake down the side of Beckett's head, giving him plenty of time to realize what just happened. He gave a stunned look and then toppled overboard into the churning sea.

"Pirate King Sparrow," she whispered down to him, her face blanched. She ran, well, James noticed, more like fell straight into Jack's arms, cleaving onto him as if he would be torn from her at any second. The winds stopped rustling. The sea relented.

"It's the eye," Mary said. "'T'wont last long. Who am I takin' back to the Pearl?" She paused in front of Jack and Elizabeth, still burrowed into one another. "Say, Jack," she tried again. "Let's get your little family to calmer waters, eh?"

"Not James," Elizabeth said suddenly. "James has to go with you to England."

"England?"

"England, love?"

"Yes." She gave a shiver pulling away from Jack just a little but he pulled her back to him, his arm covering as much of her back as it could. "It's all in the letter. Please, Will. It has to reach the king."

"It will, Elizabeth. I promise," he said.

"Come on then," Mary said to them, used to bearing the weight of humans by now. "Ought to charge ye money seein' as how often I do this," she said to Elizabeth, hoping to earn a smile.

"Thank you, Mary." Elizabeth brushed the edge of her wing. "What would we do without you?"

"That's certainly better than money," she beamed.

Jack didn't know how long the eye would last. That wasn't what worried him at the moment. He lifted Elizabeth off the deck and carried her over to their bed. She seemed all right enough, stretching her legs out to lie down, but her arms were still latched around him.

"Don't go."

"Got to take us out of here," he said, brushing back her hair. It was already hard enough to tell her no, wanting nothing more than to lie down next to her and press his chest into her back as tightly as it would go, interlock her fingers in his and kiss them and tell her from now on she would always be safe. It was hard enough to tell her no without her pleading with him. "You know I'll be right back." He stroked her hand and kissed it. "I'll be right back, Elizabeth," he said against her skin, turning her arm over to plant a kiss on her wrist. "What the bloody hell is this?"

"Just my brand," she said against the pillows.

"I'll…"

"You'll what? Kill him twice for me?"

"Fine time for you to try to be funny," he said, using his teeth to undo his lace. He wrapped it around her wrist and then wove it up and around her hand, knotting it off.

"I've never seen you without your lace," she said.

"I've never seen you with a pirate brand."

"Do you really have to go?"

No. No, I don't have to go anywhere, love. We'll just lie here and I'll make you forget you ever lost any of your gorgeous skin, he wanted to say. Instead, he kissed her hairline and whispered into it he would come back.

"Mr. Gibbs," he said, once he closed the door.

"Aye!"

"That's right we're in the eye and I need you to make sure the Dutchman doesn't depart just yet."

"That's a bit confusing, Jack."

"Not at all. I have to attend to something and I will make as much haste as can be made, but we will need the Dutchman to spirit us away after I attend to said something so I have to leave ye here to be sure to tell the good captain of the Dutchman we will need to be spirited away upon my return."

"From said something?"

"There, you're making sense!" Jack patted his back. "Oh, and I have a feeling Lizzie's about to fall asleep on us all, so see to it she doesn't wake up all alone, eh?"

"Right."

"Good man."

Elizabeth snapped her eyes open, cursing herself for having fallen asleep. In the eye of a hurricane and she had fallen asleep.

"Rest easy there, Miss Elizabeth. That's quite a nasty burn, that is."

"Mr. Gibbs? What are you doing in here?" She blushed.

"Just lookin' after you is all. We're waitin' on Jack before Will sends us on to Shipwreck Cove. There, there, ye only been sleepin' for a little while. Just dozed off, ye did. Happens to the best of us."

"Has it ever happened to you?" she asked, sitting up in bed.

"Er, once," he sighed. "Captain 'bout had my hide."

"Had your hide for what?" Jack asked, carrying a box under one arm and a bundle swung over his back.

"That's the best looking Father Christmas I've ever seen," Elizabeth said.

"Aye, and it's all for you, darling. Mr. Gibbs, you may signal to Captain Turner we are now ready to leave." He waited for Gibbs to go out the door. "Probably the least best time to be responsible for ferrying the dead to the afterlife, I'd wager. Can ye imagine Barbossa, Beckett, and Mercer all on one ship?" He sat down next to her. "It rightly boggles the mind. Ye don't mind we're going back to the Cove, do you? I figured we could secure your kingship, retrieve Marty and Cotton and maybe a few other good hands and then take off wherever the wind wants to take us, all while avoiding Captain Teague, of course."

"What did you bring with you?" she asked.

"Ah! Here. You can start with that." He handed her the box. "I was taking an abridged and no-frills tour of Port Royal when I stumbled upon a certain house I just couldn't help but let myself go in."

"This was my mother's china," she said, her fingertips brushing one of two plates.

"That was the first thing that warranted pilfering. Then I thought to myself, 'it shouldn't be too hard to find Lizzie's old room,' and it wasn't. Now, since ye have said you don't care for Marlowe and a couple of others in my collection, I brought you some of yours."

She took out the books, the same ones she remembered being on her nightstand. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"I took the liberty of opening the drawer to your table, hope you don't mind, and found just a few items. They're all in there, of course, but it was the little compartment underneath that intrigued me."

"You, you discovered my compartment?"

"A pirate lass you were long before I came along," Jack said, his forehead drooping down against her cheek. "I figured you might like to have some keepsakes. Such a rich wedding invitation." He picked up the invitation to her parents' wedding. "Pity we didn't have such, but then again, we would have had to have had a longer engagement to have time to process such fineries. Bet they didn't know that day they'd be getting a pirate for a child, eh?" He tapped the invitation and she almost laughed away her budding tears. "These, though. These I was touched you saved." His hand reached into the box and scooped out the pressed orchid petals.

"Why shouldn't I save them?" she asked. "They were absolutely beautiful."

"They were. So was this." He stood and rummaged through the bundle, pulling out a pair of shoes, earrings…

"These are my undergarments!"

"Those are beautiful, too, but that wasn't to what I was referring," he said, his voice muffled from the bag. "Here we are." He pulled out an indigo dress and took it over to the wardrobe. "In case you should like to dress up on special occasions…or not so special occasions. I will enjoy taking it off of ye. I promise I'll find ye more if ye want." He sat back down on the bed. "Sorry I couldn't take everything."

"You didn't have to take any of it," she sobbed, throwing her arms around him. "Thank you, though."

"It's a bit hard to hear you when you cry," Jack said, holding one of her hands with his, his other stroking her hair. "Now, love, don't…" He held her hand tighter. "You just go on and cry then, love. Don't hold anything back."

She wept on him for what felt like hours before she wiped her cheeks and leaned into him to kiss him.

"And I am sorry 'bout you and Nor…James," he said, clearing his throat at the name. "Still, it was a might harsh for ye to send him to England. I don't know anyone who'd like to go back there."

"What?" She sniffled one last time and went to the basin to run the water over her face. "No. That's not a punishment. That's a reward for him."

"How's that?"

"It's just like what I did for you and the Pearl."
He squinted at her, leaning back a little on the bed, watching her come back over to him with a suspicious expression.

"What did you do for me and the Pearl?"

"As far as anyone in the East India Trading Company's employ is concerned," she said, propping herself into his lap. "This is a legitimate ship that belongs to a legitimate privateer…that is not Captain Jack Sparrow," she said before he could argue. "Our demises were reported to the king and this ship, wherever she may be and for however long, is simply doing what the East India Trading Company has requested of her."

"In other words, they'll turn a blind eye to our 'acquisitions,' as it were?"

"Precisely."

Jack frowned at first, the expression wielding Elizabeth's face to do the same, but she noticed his eyes far away in thought.

"We'd still have the Royal Navy after us?"

"Oh, undoubtedly," she said, nodding. "And other pirates. Don't be so quick to dismiss those. They can turn on each other like cuttlefish."

"Lizzie…"

"Savvy?" she added, unable to keep a straight face after saying the word.

"Lizzie?"

"Yes, Jack?"

"I love you," he laughed. Letting out a giggle, she threw herself into him, knocking him down onto the bed, lifting his shirt up to form a half circle of kisses around his stomach, dropping down a little to kiss his hips. Her hands found their right positions, her husband's lusty moan providing amazing incentive.

"Does that mean I should go lower?" she asked with an impish smile, undoing his trousers. She placed her hand around him.

"Lizzie…not so…we have loads of time, darling…" he grunted and she giggled, enticed even more with just how undone she was rendering him. His eyes half-closed, his mouth savoring the sensation, she couldn't resist and scooted up to him to kiss his lips. The next thing Elizabeth knew, she was on her back, a wanton pirate captain straddling her and reaching under her shirt.

A/N: The last chapter will be posted sometime next week. Jack's reaction to Elizabeth crying is based on my husband's reaction to me crying once. I had broken my wrist and was just so humiliated and tired and worried about missing classes that I just broke down after it was set. He tried to calm me and tell me not to cry at first, but he changed his mind and just said to go ahead and cry and let it all out, which I think is more unselfish since it really gives the other person what they need. "Brave new world that has such people in it" is from The Tempest.