A/N: My dearest reviewers: thank you so much for your reviews!

Spoiler: Oh, dear. I don't really know how to tell you this... But please have some faith in this story... It'll be alright... Soon...

Disclaimer: I don't own POTC.

Chapter 29

Elizabeth walked around the upper deck purposelessly. She felt worn out. Leaning against the railing, she considered half-seriously jumping over it, and disappearing in the blue Caribbean waters forever. Maybe she should have drowned long time ago. Maybe it was her destiny, changed somehow, changed... Thoughts about Jack came flooding in at the recollection of that day in Port Royal.

But it was gone now. Everything was gone.

She continued walking, when she heard somebody calling her. She turned back mechanically, and noticed Philip Fairwood, who was applying a dressing on somebody's face. When she came closer she noticed that the face belonged to Will.

"What's happened to your face?", she asked wearily, slightly surprised.

Will sighed. Was everybody going to ask him this question all the time? Maybe he should make a general announcement? He opened his mouth to reply, but the doctor helped him with the answer:

"Nothing", he said with a smile. "That's what I was told."

Elizabeth did not seem to be listening.

"Glad to see you getting some fresh air, Elizabeth", said the doctor, looking at her concernedly.

She looked at him blankly.

"Yes", she nodded after a moment of silence. "Actually... Jack woke up. He is... alright. He is not ill anymore", she informed him in a low tone of voice, looking away.

Philip Fairwood, who has just finished putting a dressing over Will's nose, turned around, and looked at her intently.

"Is he now?", he asked somewhat astonished, although definitely content.

Elizabeth nodded.

Will listened to them baffled.

"That's very... That's very good", said the doctor thoughtfully. "I guess I go see for myself, then", he added, without taking his eyes off Elizabeth even for a moment.

There was something in her face that worried him. She looked more depressed than before, and this alone was strange enough. Moreover, she was very pale, and her eyes were red from crying. But she did not look as if she was in a mood for talking, so the doctor decided to go see Jack, and find out more about his miraculously improved condition on his own.

Elizabeth walked away, deep in thought, and she leaned against the railing, looking out at the sea. The ship was rocking softly, steadied by the anchor, not moving, and yet in constant, unrestrained, inescapable movement.

"Are you alright, Elizabeth?", asked Will quietly, standing beside her, wondering why she looked so sad. From what he heard he understood that Jack had been presumably ill, but now he was not ill (all in the course of one day, right?...), and although the whole story in his opinion did not make much sense, it seemed that, in general, there was nothing to worry about right now.

She did not answer.

"Did he hurt you?", he asked nervously, as a sudden thought flashed across his mind.

"Will, please", she whispered impatiently. She sounded very tired.

"When did it happen?", he asked hesitantly, after a long pause.

Elizabeth looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"I'm leaving", he said firmly. "I'm getting out of here right now. I want to say good-bye to you, and I don't want you to hate me", he said very quickly, without looking at her.

Elizabeth wanted to protest, but he continued, cutting her off.

"But before I leave, I just wanted to know when it happened? Have I done something wrong? Or maybe", he hesitated, "maybe it was all an illusion. Tell me, Elizabeth", his voice became suddenly very solemn. "The day we met", he looked at her searchingly, and she turned towards him too. "Would you ever got interested in me, would I have ever got to see you again after I had been rescued, if it was not for that medallion?"

Elizabeth's eyes flew wide open.

"What do you mean?", she asked with a frown.

"I mean that maybe you considered me to be a part of some story, of a fairy tale, a half-real person. Maybe it were the things that you have associated me with, and not me as a person that you loved? You thought I was a pirate. And I was not a pirate. In fact, I am not a pirate even now, after everything that has happened."

"Are you saying that I wanted to marry you, because you had a piece of gold tied around your neck?", Elizabeth asked angrily, hardly believing her ears.

He wanted to say no, at first, but then realized that it was more or less what he was really thinking of lately. It was true, in a way.

"In the beginning", he said, looking at her pensively. "Before we got entangled in all of this. But now I actually think, that you wanted to marry me, because you treated me as a version... of him."

"As what?!", exclaimed Elizabeth indignantly.

"As a version of him", Will repeated calmly. "A variation. A substitute."

Elizabeth blinked, baffled.


Philip Fairwood found Jack pacing around the cabin. It was a strange sight. Ten minutes ago the man was dying, and now he was briskly walking around the room. The doctor came in unnoticed, and when Jack finally saw him, he almost screamed at the sight. He did not know that Philip Fairwood was aboard. He did not even know that they were docked in Tortuga. He seemed not to know much at the moment in general.

The doctor attempted to pursue the topic of the mysterious illness, and he wanted to examine Jack's arm, but Jack was disinterested in any of these issues, so Philip Fairwood temporarily gave up. Arguing with Jack Sparrow was a pointless adventure. He knew that much.

"Have ye seen Elizabeth?", asked suddenly Jack, turning towards him.

"Yes. That's good that she went to get some fresh air, after sitting here for so many hours. I was worrying about her."

Jack demanded an explanation. Philip Fairwood delivered him a short history of his illness (now, strangely, he wanted to talk about it), and told him in a half-jocular fashion about Elizabeth caressing him all the time, changing compresses, kissing him, when she thought the doctor was not looking.

"I've no idea what kind of a spell you put on the girl, but it's certainly working", he concluded good-humouredly.

Jack wrinkled his forehead, and stared at the doctor blankly. Now he was really puzzled. So she had spent the entire day holding him tight, and worrying about him, wishing for him to get well, and then when he did got better, she told him that she did not love him, and she slapped him! Until then he hoped that she was an exception, but it just so seemed that women loved slapping him for some reason. This time, however, he was absolutely sure that he did not deserve it. The sense of it all was clearly missing.

"So where did you say that she was?", asked Jack heading for the door.

The doctor told him where he has seen Elizabeth. Jack rushed out of the cabin. He was determined to find out what was wrong, and why she had kept calling the slimy, annoying, swordless, nose-broken whelp's name (the level of his own irritation over the incident quite surprised him) when Jack had kissed her. It was even worst than slapping, although it actually was like slapping in a way.

He stepped on deck, and almost immediately spotted Elizabeth... And she was talking with the aforementioned... person.


"A substitute?!", Elizabeth was frowning. "Who do you think I am? You thought that I would marry somebody only because he reminded me of somebody else?!", she was going to walk away, and finish this ridiculous conversation, when in the corner of her eye she noticed Jack emerging from below the deck.

And it reminded her of the situation. She got temporarily distracted by Will absurd musings, but then it all came back to her, and she felt her heart sink. You can't let him die.

So she did the only thing that came to her mind. The only thing that would leave no doubts. The only thing that could shattered everything. And she had to shatter everything in order to save him. So when she was sure that he saw her, and pretending not to see him herself, she suddenly leaned forward, and kissed Will on the mouth. He was shocked, yet elated, so he deepened the kiss, and then he felt her stiffen under his touch. He opened his eyes, and saw her crying. She took a brief look somewhere in the distance, and then ran away from him without a single word.

But Jack did not see her crying, or running away. He just saw her kissing not him. He sat on the stairs trying to make something out of it, but he could not. He only felt something cold running through his veins. Or maybe something hot. He could not tell.

She bloody kissed him. Why did she bloody kissed him. His eyes were open, but he saw nothing. Nothing except that.