That night, nothing Charlotte said could make it any better. "I'm proud of you," she tried. But Norrington suspected that this was a lie. "You had the courage to do your duty no matter how hard..."

"No matter how hard?" he repeated sloppily. "You don't know how hard! Now grvme here give it here that rum!"

She sighed and handed over the bottle. "Last bottle. This is enough for tonight."

"No such thing." He looked up at her blearily and tried to smile. "I'm drowning my sorrows, rrmember? Drownng m'bloody- about Jack. How did I-"

"It looks to me like your sorrows can breathe underwater, James. Give it up." She sat down on the floor beside him and held him close. "It's all right if it hurts - that just shows you've got a good heart."

"Well I don't. Want. One!" He burped and then nodded so emphatically that his wig slid off. "Awana be like a pirate. No conscience." Charlotte ducked beneath his wild gesture. "No heart." She ducked again. "Youcn betray whoever you want and kill evrrybody and nnnubody cares!" He lifted the rum bottle as though to smash it and then changed his mind - it was, after all, the last one he was getting tonight. "We both killed Jack and he's probablby out mmm throwingm party - and lookame!" He wiped his sleeve across his face, staining it with an unappealing mixture of snot and rum and tears.

"Now that's not true," Charlotte said with conviction. "Barbossa is not out throwing a party and I wouldn't want to be in his shoes tonight any more than I'd want to be in yours. I'll bet that right this minute the Pearl is a war zone - Elizabeth is going to have plenty to say."

"Mmn I'll bet." He snorted.

It was better to see him rejoicing in somebody else's misery than wallowing in his own. Thrilled to have finally found a way of cheering him up, Charlotte continued: "I know that pirate's in love with her, and now she's going to despise him. So-"

But Norrington was turning bitter again. "Oh yessh - she's good at that, despising always dsspising people who love her, isn't she."

It took her a moment to put it together. "Oh! No, James, come on, that was so long ago. Nobody despises you. Look-"

"She yelled at me anthen she slapped me." He laughed suddenly in a way that was not at all pleasant. "So whudddya think she'll do thish time?" He tried to play out the scene in his rum-soaked brain, but it turned out not to be nearly as funny as he was hoping: Elizabeth would shout and rail. Barbossa would take exception and would... what? Shout back? Draw a sword? A gun?

Suddenly Norrington was concerned. After all, the pirate had already demonstrated a willingness to harm and in fact permanently mutilate Elizabeth; Norrington had watched him brand her like an animal when she was barely eighteen years old. And that was when she hadn't even done anything wrong.

If she lost her temper with him - and she probably would... Norrington lurched to his feet. "We have to go."

"Go?" Charlotte rose too. "Go where - we're on a ship!"

"Elizhabeth - she could bbe... I have to find the Govrnnor," he decided a moment later. "He'll sort thshhole thing out, I'm far ttoo drunk."

"James, please... darling, you can't-" but Charlotte eventually just shut up and helped him dress. After all, if unnecessary worry for Elizabeth would help take his mind off his own recent brush with murder, then she would let him worry unnecessarily. And she was sure it was unnecessary. After all, she thought, even if Elizabeth doesn't have that pirate completely wrapped round her finger - and she DOES - he can hardly walk. She is in no danger whatsoever. Probably.

The note Barbossa had left on his pillow said: Elizabeth - Me and Jack are playen a game. Loser gets hanged by the peacock in return for the Pearl's safe passege. Come dawn, turn the ship around and look for a boat and fetch up the one of us whos still alive. I'm crossin my fingers it be me.

He had started to sign his given name and then changed his mind, so the signature now was just a blotch of ink. Still, it wasn't exactly likely Elizabeth would be confused over who had written the thing, and so he waited in the lifeboat with perfect confidence until she came for him.

He could tell as soon as he hit the deck that she'd told everyone. "A moment of silence for Captain Sparrow," he growled, leaning on Willie, who had appeared at his side for just that purpose. "And then the lot of ya get back to work."

Elizabeth put her arms around his neck as soon as the men had dispersed. "Captain, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I know what he meant to you. You were so brave, the both of you... you saved the ship from a bloodbath and I-"

"Let go," he snarled. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Look, we'll find him at World's End, Captain, we will. I promise. Whatever it takes, you know I'll stop at noth-"

"I don't want to see him, and I doubt he'll much want to see me either."

"What? Why?" She tried again to be comforting. "Look, I know you must feel responsible - I did when Will died, even though there was nothing I could have done - but Jack knew what he was getting into. It could just as easily have been you who lost, he knows that, and he won't hold it against you any more than you would have against him." She paused, knowing he wouldn't really want to share but still curious to know what contest they would they stake their lives on. "What game did you play?"

Several expressions flitted across his face and then he turned away. "It's called The Trust Game," he spat at last. "Whoever's stupid enough to trust the other, loses." Her eyes were wide but she couldn't find words, and eventually he looked over his shoulder at her. "Go on - you can start hatin me now. I have a couple hours' head start on ye, so you've got some catchin up to do."

He stalked off to the cabin as forcefully as he could, and she followed. "What? Captain? Captain, what are you saying? You're saying you, you handed Jack over without his permission? I don't believe-"

"Aye. Drugged him up and dumped him over while he was asleep."

"N-no, I refuse- I mean... you didn't. Did you?" He tried to shut the door on her, but she shouldered her way into the cabin anyhow. "Captain, listen to me. Listen..."

But instead of listening, he lunged at her and got her by the shoulders. "Well? I had to get the bloody Navy off our backs! What should I have done, then? What would you? Hmm?" He was shaking her the way he had in the cave all those years ago, and she got ready to flinch in case he hit her. "Well? No ideas? I knew it be- but-... Come - y'ave to help me, you useless trollop!"

He shoved her backwards and she stumbled and hissed "Trollop?" while trying to catch her balance, but Barbossa didn't hear her because he was busy throwing a bottle against the wall. She flinched at the sound of the glass shattering, and tripped into a chair, knocking it over. "NOW YOU CALM DOWN!" she shouted. Once nothing else was falling or breaking, it was suddenly very quiet so she repeated softly: "Calm down or you're going to hurt yourself."

They heard a timid knock at the door. "Mama? Captain? Is everything all right in there?"

Elizabeth struggled to her feet and set the chair to rights. "Everything's fine, darling," she said sweetly.

She glared daggers until Barbossa muttered, "'Salright, boy, get gone," then led him to the bed and made him sit down.

"Captain... I wasn't going to criticize you." This was not entirely true, but after having a moment to think about it she'd decided that he was beating himself up enough not to need any help from her. She decided, instead, to attempt to make him feel better - after all, there were rough seas ahead and they would need him at his best. "We've been down this road before, remember?" she coaxed. "You killed Will once to get Davy Jones off our back, and as I recall, you reminded me that there's almost nothing I could say to you that wouldn't make a hypocrite of me - considering the time I did it to Jack."

"S'different though." He dragged himself all the way onto the bed and lay back, staring up at the ceiling. "Jack and me been partners for years."

He seemed to be through lashing out, so Elizabeth climbed up and stretched out next to him. "Jack's a smart man," she reminded him. "If he hasn't learned by now what to expect from you, then..."

He looked over at her. "Why thank ye, Elizabeth, for that positively glowin assessment of me character."

"Tell me I'm wrong," she challenged. When he didn't say a word, she propped herself up on an elbow and sighed down at him. "See? You're a pirate. Turning on each other is what pirates do. Besides, we are going to rescue him, are we not?"

"Course."

She bent to kiss him on the forehead. "Then maybe there's not much harm done. Just get some sleep, all right? We need you to be as well as you can." She laid a damp cloth over his persistently-feverish forehead and started to stroke him to sleep.

It felt so good to be taken care of that he almost let the matter drop. But only almost. "Elizabeth?" He opened his eyes against the rag and asked slowly: "If it were your William who'd done it..."

Her hand tightened over his and though it took a moment, she gave him the truth. "I'd probably tell him it was disgusting and unforgivable."

He nodded. "Thought so."

"But you're not Will. Listen... Jack will probably forgive you," she said after a moment. "I would. Eventually."

He snorted. "Jack'd forgive anybody anything. 'Swhy he's dead and I'm not." He shifted a little and yawned. A moment later, as he was drifting off, out of habit he mumbled, "Night, Jack."

He was too sleepy to notice that it was not Jack's voice that answered Gnight mate, and certainly not Jack who kissed him on the cheek and burrowed into the pillow next to him.

Swann held a perfumed handkerchief to his nose so that he wouldn't faint. "In there?" he asked.

"Yes, there," Norrington answered dully, without looking. He had to keep his head down because of how much the sunlight hurt his eyes. "God only knows what's in there that's so precious to those pirates, but that's where they are going. Considering Elizabeth is on the ship, that means she is going too. Wonderful."

"Is that... fire? Those rocks appear to be moving... Commodore, that's a place fit only for nightmares - you cannot tell me we're to allow Elizabeth - with my grandson, no less - to sail into it?"

"I gave my word." Last night Norrington had drunkenly decided to try and steal Elizabeth back from the pirates, but by the light of day it was clear that doing so would violate the agreement for which Barbossa had paid so dearly. It would be not only unfair, but also unwise, considering the sort of mood the pirate was likely to be in today. So he was thinking that perhaps just going home was a better idea.

"Oh, use your brain, man!" Swann faced him irritably. "You promised to allow him go where he was going - and to send Elizabeth over onto his ship. You said nothing about fetching her back again before his ship sails into suicide."

Norrington didn't answer, but his wife spoke up timidly from his side. "Barbossa can hardly complain, James - it's the sort of loophole he might think up himself. Tell him you're only holding onto her until he actually makes it out alive from where he's going. If he really cares for her he won't fight it." She slipped his hand in his. "You can protect her..."

"Because I'm fantastic at protecting people." He sniffed loudly and spat on the deck, still tasting rummy bile at the back of his throat. "Especially friends who time and again, solely out of the goodness of their hearts have neglected to butcher me when we all know that's really what they should have done and-"

"James." Charlotte licked her fingers and tried to smooth down bits of his wig that had not responded kindly to a third-rate rinse job last night in a bucket of seawater. At least we got most of the vomit out, she thought. "This is time for action, dear. Elizabeth could need our help. There will be plenty of time to think about Jack later. Now fix your collar." She turned to Swann. "Governor?"

Although reluctant to get any closer to the pirates than he had to, after one more spyglass full of the fearsome waters at World's End, Swann gave his permission resume pursuit of the Pearl.

Norrington went to look for some coffee to help him feel like a human being again.

"Do you think they're really going to hang Jack?" Willie asked Barbossa when he woke up from his nap. Elizabeth had kept the truth behind Jack's unfortunate disappearance a secret.

He's dead already. Died at noon. But Barbossa didn't say it. "Stop askin me questions. Now... that ring you're wearin around your neck..."

Willie's hand went to its chain uncertainly. "It's my father's wedding ring."

"I know. Give it here. You can have it back later," he growled in response to the boy's look of unhappy confusion. "I just need to borrow it for somethin. Aye, thanks. Now go away." Barbossa disappeared into his lair with his prize.

When he finally came out again, Willie and Elizabeth were sitting together talking in the shade of a cannon. He settled down dizzily beside them. "Here." He dropped the ring in Willie's lap and explained to Elizabeth, "The witchery is done now - so even if somethin happens to me you'll be able to... you know."

Elizabeth's eyebrows went up. "Give me your hand. No - the other one." She snatched up his left arm and pulled his sleeve up roughly.

"What're you lookin at?" he growled, averse as ever to surprises.

She ran her finger over the brand on his arm. "Just checking to make sure it's still there," she teased. Setting Will's ring up for her and not holding it hostage for anything... that was nice of him. Almost too nice. He must really be feeling guilty about Jack...

"Ah." He relaxed, then grinned and touched the mark as well. "Pirate til the end of time, miss. I suppose that ring's my share of good deed for this month. This year, maybe."

"Mmm, yes, I know. I-"

But before Elizabeth could finish, Willie jumped forward. "What's that? Let me see that!" he gasped.

Barbossa showed him. "What - ye didn't know I'm a pirate?"

"No but I mean-... do all pirates have these?"

"No, only the ones stupid enough to get caught. Or the ones stupid enough to do it to 'emselves for some reason. I'd be in the latter cate- Ho! Where're you going?" He and Elizabeth looked at each other as Willie ran off down the hold. "What was that about?"

"I've no idea. He's never seen my brand, that much I'm sure of," Elizabeth said.

A moment later Willie returned. "Is that what this thing is for?"

Elizabeth and Barbossa both recognized the rusty P immediately. She spoke first. "Willie! That's mine!"

"Actually," Barbossa corrected, "If memory serves, that be the head of a brand belongin to a man who met an unfort-"

"Willie doesn't need to hear about Lord Beckett," Elizabeth interupted. "But what he does need to do is explain why he's carrying around property that belongs to his mother without her permission."

Willie explained to Barbossa, hoping the captain could somehow get him out of trouble, "There's a sword hanging on her bedroom wall that I like to play with. I can't reach it, so I get out boxes from the closet and stack them up underneath and climb. One time I noticed that one of the boxes that said Shoes clanged and rattled when I moved it. So I opened it up and there were all kinds of crazy things!"

"Can't blame the lad for being curious," Barbossa chuckled, clearly flattered that Elizabeth kept and treasured mementos from their last voyage together. "Say, you didn't happen to find a-"

"That will be quite enough!" Elizabeth snatched the brand away and handed it over. "Here, Captain, you might as well keep it, I very much doubt I'll have use for it in the future." Barbossa was eyeing her son in a thoughtful way she didn't particularly care for, so she added, "Don't even think about it. You and I are pirate enough for the whole ship."

Then they both thought of Jack and sobered up immediately.

Later on Barbossa stood brooding at the helm, thinking about the troubles that lay ahead. It was depressing enough already, so when someone came and informed him that there were troubles coming from behind as well, his bad mood rose to epic proportions.

"Sir, it's that Navy ship again, sir. It's coming. What should we do?"

A voice of reason would be helpful here, so Barbossa turned out of habit to confer with Jack... and then remembered that Jack wasn't there, because he'd just killed Jack.

Well. "Kill 'em," he snarled. Ordinarily he believed that thinking should come before acting, and that negotiation could solve more battles than actually battling, but at that moment he was just at the very end of his rope. "They're breakin the deal, tryin to stop me goin where I want to go... I want every last one of 'em's heads piled in my cabin before sundown." He turned to storm off and then continued to rave over his shoulder: "I want them all dead and I want that ship at the bottom of the sea! Kill 'em all and cut 'em to pieces, yarrrr!"

Gibbs began to give the orders: all hands, let's go, run up the Jolly Roger and load the guns.

"With what?" someone asked. It had been a running joke for years, ever since the time Captain Sparrow (may he rest in peace) had made them fire stale bread instead of cannonballs.

But Gibbs wasn't laughing this time. "Give 'em some nails and crushed glass. Captain's in a foul mood, that ought to cheer him up some."

"Nails and crushed glass?" someone asked from beside him.

Gibbs looked down and frowned. "You'd best get below for this, kid."

"Nails and crushed glass?" Willie repeated. "We're going to shoot that at them? My grandfather is on that ship!"

Gibbs was hardly listening. He swigged from his flask and thought through how best to organize the battle, and told the kid: "Then your grandfather oughtn't to have crossed Captain Barbossa, ought he. Get yourself below. Get Miss Elizabeth out of here too. Get the both of you to where it's safe. This could get a little messy."

The Pearl fired first, and Norrington didn't take it lying down. After a round or two of cannon balls had been exchanged, though, the ships closed distance on each other and started the killing by hand.

Barbossa himself was right in the thick of it, even though he knew he wasn't doing so well. He knew he was hallucinating a little bit - every now and then he would catch sight of Jack out of the corner of his eye, or parry a blow that wasn't there, and then realize that it was just his woozy mind playing tricks on him.

But when he caught sight of the peacock - the treacherous cur who had taken Jack and then not upheld his half of the bargain... he knew it was no hallucination.

"You!" A path cleared for Barbossa as he barralled across the deck. "You! We had a deal!" He sheathed his sword and pulled out a pistol, long before he was near enough to have a clear shot. "Course it be too much to ask ye to stand and fight like a man... Just hold still, so that I can shoot you like the dog you are!"

Amazingly enough, instead of protesting that he had come in peace just to keep Elizabeth out of danger, Norrington complied. He dropped his sword and clasped his hands behind him and faced the pirate with his head high. "Do it."

Barbossa would have - had he not caught sight of (hallucinated) both Elizabeth and Charlotte standing watching from a distance. Charlotte had her hands together in a prayerful gesture, but Elizabeth just shook her head at him with her arms crossed firmly over her chest.

He narrowed his eyes and stuck his pistol into his belt. "Pick up your sword," he ordered with disgust. "Your wife shouldn't have to see that."

Norrington did, and held it uncertainly for a moment, then stood up straight and looked down the blade at his enemy. "You deserve to die as much as I do."

"Aye." Barbossa drew his cutlass and meant to make some snide remark about speaking of people who apparently deserve to die, how's Jack... but Norrington jumped on him before he could get the words out.

Norrington was hungover and Barbossa was injured, but they both had enough demons to exorcize that it was one hell of a sword fight anyway. People cleared away from them to give them space to butcher each other unimpeded, and they made good use of it, jumping around and throwing things at one another and slashing and parrying with everything their decades of experience had taught them.

But unfortunately they were not allowed to fight in peace forever - Willie eventually saw what was happening. It was two people he cared about trying to kill each other, so he dashed between them and grabbed onto Barbossa's arm and shouted "No!"

Barbossa tossed the sword to his left hand, held Willie out of the way with his right, and continued to fight. Willie twisted free and tried jumping in the way of Norrington's blade. Norrington only just managed to turn it aside in time. This time they both shoved the boy out of the way and kept fighting, frantically now because the sooner they ended this the less likely they were to stab the kid and God only knew what Elizabeth would do if that happened...

Barbossa finally had the upper hand. He parried Norrington's blade and knocked him to his knees, then kicked the sword from his hand. He swung his bloody cutlass in a wide arc in order to gut the peacock once and for all, but at the last second Willie threw himself forward and got squarely between Barbossa's blade and its victim.

Barbossa let go of his sword in the nick of time, mid-swing, and it went flying across the deck.

TBC.