The candlelight played softly on Elizabeth's skin, highlighting her beauty in golden light. Will lay beside her, drinking in every detail of her appearance, not quite able to believe that he had her back again. His arm curled possessively around her swollen belly, and he smiled as the baby within his wife's womb kicked at the restraining limb.

Elizabeth stirred, laying her hand atop his as she opened her eyes to gaze lovingly into his. He leant down to kiss her, caught up in the tender moment that passed between them. Her smile was balm to his aching heart, soothing the guilt he felt at not having been there with her throughout her pregnancy.

There was a crash from below their window, and they heard clearly the sound of Captain Jack Sparrow stumbling out onto the street, obviously staggering off to find another tavern for the evening.

'Alright, alright, I'm going, savvy?' he bawled at whoever was bothering him.

Elizabeth winced as one of the bar wenches from below answered him, in a particularly strident voice.

'Don't you dare try to talk so familiar with me, Jack Sparrow!'

'Captain, it's Captain Jack Sparrow, and my comment's weren't aimed at you, love,' he called across the street. 'Savvy?'

'Yes?' she answered.

Will looked at Elizabeth's wide smile in confusion. She laid a finger against his lips, listening to the confrontation below them.

'What?' Jack had replied to the woman, obviously slightly confused himself.

They heard the sound of footsteps on the cobbles, and then the barmaid's voice again.

'Don't you remember me, Jack Sparrow? Savy?'

Will blinked. There was something different about the way she said the word, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Elizabeth was giggling quietly beside him.

'Savvy?' Jack said, apparently searching for a name.

'You might remember me as Savannah,' she told him, her tone acid.

There was a pause, and Will could almost see the look of bemused concentration on Jack's face as he tried to remember who the woman was.

'Savy, darling,' they heard him say, switching on the charm with ease. 'Where have you been these past few months?'

Silence was his answer, until the sharp crack of hand against cheek echoed through the night air. As the sound of his boots faded into the distance, the couple shared a grin, each reflecting on their somewhat bizarre relationship with the irascible pirate.

'When were you going to tell me what's going on between Marin and Jack?' Elizabeth murmured, having just realised that Will had managed to avoid this subject when they were talking before.

Will grinned impishly.

'Can't you see it, 'Beth?' he asked her. 'He's falling for her, and she's not completely immune to him either.'

Elizabeth's smiled was wry.

'I find it hard to believe that Jack Sparrow would let himself fall for anyone,' she said dryly. 'How can you tell?'

'It's so obvious, 'Beth,' Will told her, amused by her refusal to admit the truth. 'You can see it in the way he looks at her, you can hear it when he talks.'

She frowned.

'What do you mean?'

'He looks at her the way he looks at the Black Pearl,' he murmured, watching as surprised comprehension began to dawn on his wife's face. 'When he calls her love, it sounds so much more intimate than for anyone else. He's always near her, or watching her.'

'And when their eyes meet, it takes a few moments for them to look away,' Elizabeth mused, her tone thoughtful as she gazed into her husband's eyes. 'What of Marin?'

At this, Will's smile turned gentle. He had grown fond of Marin over the weeks he had sailed with her, somehow giving her the place of younger sister in his heart. He had no wish to see her hurt by Jack Sparrow's refusal to admit his own feelings.

'She's fallen,' he told her, 'hard. Her eyes light up when he walks into a room, she seems to have difficulty breathing when he's around. He infuriates her, but she can't bring herself to dislike him. And, of course, she's in complete denial that she feels anything for him.'

Elizabeth rolled her eyes in exasperation. She trusted Will's judgement, knowing he would never tell her anything of which he wasn't absolutely certain. She did have a tendency to get overexcited, especially if what he told her had something to do with her friends, as this did. Her eyes narrowed in thought.

'I know that look, Elizabeth Turner,' Will said, his tone wary. 'What are you planning?'

She smiled mischievously.

'If they're not prepared to admit how they feel about one another, then we'll just have to give them time to come to terms with it, then won't we?'

Will sighed wearily, lying back against the pillows as she nestled closer against him.

'And how do you propose we do that, 'Beth?' he asked her.

'I'll think of something,' she promised, a huge yawn breaking into her speech. 'You just have to talk to Jack.'

Will exchanged a look with the candle by the bed as his wife settled down to sleep against his chest. Talk to Jack? It would be easier to resurrect Barbossa than get Jack to talk about his feelings. A tiny foot connected with his ribs, making him jump in fright. Elizabeth laughed sleepily. Oh, well, Will thought, leaning across to extinguish the candle. At least it was a challenge.

*~*~*

In his cabin in the stern of the Red Dragon, an old sea captain was examining a piece of parchment, turning his newly returned locket over and over in his hand.

'Four,' he muttered to himself. 'But where's the fourth?'

There was a knock at the door, and he hurriedly replaced both parchment and locket within his coat.

'Yes?' he called, leaning back in his chair.

'It's Marin,' came the voice on the other side of the cracked wood. 'I need to talk to you.'

Elias frowned in sudden concern. It wasn't like Marin to actively seek him out to talk. She was a master at slipping important snippets into everyday conversation.

'Come in, lass, it's not locked.'

The door opened quietly, and Marin slipped in, her face thoughtful. She smiled faintly at him as she took a seat, but it was clear that something was bothering her. Elias leant forward, across the table, to take her hand in his.

'What is it that troubles ye, lass?' he asked, a softness in his voice that no other had ever heard.

'Just some things that I've heard and seen,' she said quietly. 'I don't understand them, and it's making it hard for me to think clearly.'

Elias nodded slowly, waiting for her to begin, for undoubtedly she had questions.

'Why are our lockets so similar?' she asked, and he felt a sudden cold constrict his heart.

He could not tell her, bound by blood and duty to keep to his code, but how could he explain that to his young companion? He would have to lie to her, and yet she would not forgive him lightly when the truth would be told.

'I have no idea,' he lied easily, his gaze steady on hers. 'I was intrigued by it when ye were younger, but I just passed it off as coincidence. Such things do happen, ye know.'

Marin nodded, agreeing with him.

'But, is it still coincidence if I came across another such locket?'

Elias kept his face carefully blank, pretending surprise like a master.

'Another, lass?' he asked. 'And where might ye have seen this other?'

Marin couldn't meet his eyes.

'Around Danielson's neck,' she muttered.

Elias withdrew his hand from hers, frowning in shock and anger at the young woman.

'And how came it to be that ye were so close to the scum that ye could see his personal effects?'

Marin winced. His tone was cold, and she could feel the anger beneath his words.

'Because . . . because I went on board with Jack when he rescued Will,' she told him. 'But it wasn't his fault! I . . . I sort of made it impossible for him not to take me.'

Elias regarded her for a moment.

'How, lass?'

She swallowed, feeling guilty that she had somehow set Elias against Jack once again, all with her own stupidity.

'I didn't describe the locket to him,' she murmured. 'He had to take me, don't you see? He didn't have a clue what he was looking for!'

'And ye refused to give him that clue,' Elias said softly. 'Lass, ye're a fool. If any harm had come to ye on that ship, young Will would not have got his lass back, and Jack would now be lying beneath a dock somewhere, dead as a doornail.'

A single tear leaked from her tightly closed eyelids.

'I know,' she whispered. 'And I'm sorry, Elias, truly I am. I never thought that I would be in any danger.'

Elias turned away. The danger that he had feared would fall upon his Marin had come. Danielson would be coming after the both of them, determined to have the lockets. But he would never have the secret, of that Elias was certain.

'Tell me what happened,' he ordered her, and haltingly, she did.

There was only one moment that threw Elias into a deeper despair than ever.

'I pulled away from him, into the lamplight, and he stared at me like he'd seen a ghost,' Marin told him. 'He went pale, and then he said 'So Delaney did have a daughter'. What do you suppose he meant?'

Elias closed his eyes in defeat. He turned back to face her.

'He meant that ye have the look of yer father, lass.'

Marin drew back in shock.

'My father? But . . . my father's dead, you told me that,' she protested.

Elias nodded.

'Aye, that I did,' he admitted. 'What I didn't tell ye was that yer father was a merchant man, and well known among these islands. Owned a whole island himself, he did, and left it to ye in his will. Robert Delaney was a good man, lass, a great friend to me.'

His face darkened in anger as he recalled what had torn the good man from his daughter when she was so young.

'Just after he sent for ye, his ship was attacked by pirates,' he told her, his voice tight with the effort of keeping his temper under control. 'Everyone aboard was killed, and shortly after the same was done to another merchant ship. Except the second time there was a survivor. Ye.'

Tear rolled freely down Marin's cheeks as the horror of her father's death came crashing down on her. With an amazing leap of intuition, she made the connection between the pirates and the lockets.

'It was Danielson, wasn't it?' she said. 'He wanted my father's locket, but he had already sent it to me. That was why he killed my father and sank our ship. Why you didn't want me going anywhere near him.'

'Aye, lass, that's it,' Elias sighed. 'He'll be coming after it, now he knows ye still live. I had hoped he would give it up as lost to Davy Jones' Locker, but now he knows.'

He turned away from her, to gaze out the window at the lights of Tortuga.

'And I have too many secrets and promises to keep before I can tell ye the truth of this tale, lass,' he told her. 'Don't try to make me tell, my bond is held by a force more powerful than ye. All I will say is that we must retrieve Danielson's locket before he retrieves ours, and then set about finding the fourth, wherever it may be.'

Marin nodded, still lost in a sea of disjointed memories and overdue grief for her father's untimely death. It made sense now that Elias had taken her as his own, if he had, indeed, known her father. Bitter resentment boiled within her as she felt her anger grow, all directed at the man who had stolen from her the only family she had ever known. Danielson.

Then the tears came, a tidal wave of emotion that washed over her, making it impossible for her to do anything but give in to it. Somehow she found herself in Elias' arms, as he rocked her to and fro, murmuring softly to her as he had in the aftermath of the battle that had orphaned her.

'Hush, lass, ye're safe with me,' he murmured, stroking her hair gently as she sobbed like a child in his arms.

As he held her close, his hatred of Danielson sharpened to a point. The captain of the Stella Maris had caused his Marin too much pain, too many times. He would pay for the heartache his selfish actions had caused to a heart too young to understand.

*~*~*

Hey there! Sorry, no author's notes this time . . . . job hunting is such a bore isn't it? But I hope two chapters makes up for the lack of skit. Read and review, you guys! I love you all!