Disclaimer: Woe is me, no profit for me, yay is the people who really own the people and things I borrow.

A/N: In this chapter (and in later chapters, too, perhaps) I will take the liberty of including as completely canon some of the deleted scenes. So if something sounds quite unfamiliar, and you haven't surfed through the deleted scenes, go get yourself a Pirates DVD and do so. (You see, Mousey, I'm even advertising for your products here. And still making no profit with this tale.)

Mini-Speech on Norrington, if you care to read: Anyway, the particular tidbit I mention here concerns a scene in which Norrington's character is softened a bit (which was left out for whatever reason). Personally, I'm not one of these overly prejudiced people who sees him completely as a villain, anymore than Jack is completely a hero. Norrington is not a static character, he changes a bit over the course of the film, even if just noticeably. He actually released Elizabeth from their betrothal without a fuss, let Will off for helping Jack escape, and basically let Jack go then. Tell me, is that really such a bad guy? I think they should have left the aforementioned scene in because for some people, the evidence at the end of the movie is not enough to prove to them that he isn't a loathsome caricature, and is, in fact, a three-dimensional character.

Chapter 11: Elizabeth, and a Sailor's Delight

"So, how long until your baby is born?" Gwen asked. Honestly, she was curious. But mostly, she wanted to wanted to detract Elizabeth's attention away from her plaited hair. She actually rather liked it, and the odd hairstyle did defeat the wind. She just didn't want to talk about the fact that she'd let Jack do it. Elizabeth had been on deck when she'd left the captain's cabin a few minutes ago. No doubt she'd seen Gwen go into his quarters half an hour earlier as well.

Elizabeth reflexively laid a hand flat against her stomach, falling for Gwen's purposeful sidetracking. "Around the first of the year," she answered.

"You must be thrilled."

The other woman smiled candidly. "Will and I were beginning to fear we would never have children. I think my father was too. We've been married two years already."

"So you married soon after your adventure. With the curse and Jack and the Black Pearl, I mean. You said that was only two and half years ago."

"Yes," Elizabeth affirmed.

The two women stopped in their walk around the deck to watch a pod of shipfish speeding through the water, keeping pace alongside the Pearl.

"The first time Will ever told me he loved me was on the day of Jack's execution," Elizabeth explained.

"His execution?" Gwen repeated. Now that she thought of it, she recalled that some of the crew, in her brief conversations with them, had alluded to Captain Sparrow and the gallows. "This tale I haven't heard."

"Well," Elizabeth began, watching as a dolphin jumped out of the water and dove in again with a splash. "The Black Pearl and her new crew- most of them are still here, a few new faces, though- well, they left Jack as soon as they had the ship back from Barbossa's men. Left him directly in the custody of Commodore Norrington, really, the bloody pirates.

"But Jack said they had done what was 'right by them' and sort of... forgave them, in a way. Excused them, at least." Elizabeth frowned and her face took on an introspective expression. "I think Captain Barbossa's death changed him a bit more than he would be willing to admit."

"How so?" Gwen asked. She knew, from Elizabeth's and Will's earlier story-telling, that Barbossa had aimed his pistol at Elizabeth, and that Jack had shot him before he could shoot her.

"Well. That's another story, I suppose," Elizabeth said. "Perhaps he would talk to you about it. It isn't discussed anymore with anyone else."

Gwen tried to gather an argument to properly deny that any confiding sort of friendship or intimacy exited between herself and the pirate captain, but she knew how suspicious it must look to Elizabeth. There was no denying she had only just left his company, whether or not she could pretend she had braided her hair herself. And they were always bantering back and forth. That was obvious to anyone. Gwen wondered briefly whether Jack enjoyed time in her company as much she was secretly beginning to enjoy his presence. She also wondered if Elizabeth knew about the night she had accidentally spent in the captain's quarters as well. Quite possibly. She had been spotted by one crewman as she sneaked out, and there's no telling what the man had told his shipmates.

"Do go on," Gwen said after a moment, neither confirming or refuting the other woman's subtly-raised suspicions.

"Well," Elizabeth said, breaking her searching stare, "when we were back aboard the Dauntless, Jack's only complaint was that Norrington didn't let him keep the bit of treasure he took away from the cave with him. He had a crown on his head, a few gold chains, that sort of thing."

"I can imagine," Gwen said drily, actually picturing Jack with a golden crown and golden smile.

"As soon as we arrived back in Port Royal, his execution was set for the very next day. It was there that Will told me he had always loved me."

Gwen smiled at Elizabeth's remembrance of romantic felicity.

"It was either because he felt he had to say it in case he was executed himself for what he was about to do and wouldn't get a chance, or because he had found the courage to carry out his plan and had a bit left to spare for me and his confession. But he said that he loved me, right there, before my father and Commodore Norrington- I was engaged to him then, you know-"

"No, I didn't know. You hadn't mentioned."

"That was how I persuaded him to go back to save Will from Barbossa, by accepting his proposal right after he rescued Jack and me from that island. Not a bad man really, he talked to me later that night to make sure I had agreed to marry him unconditionally. He wanted to know that I would have agreed to marry him anyway, even if he had refused to go back for Will, before he could allow himself any satisfaction in our betrothal. Of course, I assured him I would have. It actually pained me to lie to him.

"But back to the execution. Right after Will made his confession, I noticed Mr. Cotton's parrot- you've met Mr. Cotton- and I realized the Black Pearl and her crew had decided to come back for Captain Sparrow. Will never did tell me whether or not he knew they were there in the bay before then.

"When he started pushing through the crowd toward the gallows, I pretended to swoon at his words. Those and that stupid corset as well. I still don't like the things."

Gwen nodded appreciatively. "I would like to see a man wear one and not feel faint from lack of air."

Elizabeth smiled, apparently as happy as Gwen was to have a female friend to share such opinions with. "Yes. Well, it worked, and the Commodore was distracted long enough with trying to recover me for Will to make his move.

"Then the drum-roll suddenly stopped, and I sat up to watch just as the gallows dropped."

"Well, he didn't hang," Gwen said almost impatiently after a moment. She had allowed Elizabeth's story-telling to work its trick with her, and for a moment she had been horrified at the captain's terrible luck. Until she realized in the next second that the man was, of course, perfectly alive this day.

"He very nearly did. Will threw a sword at the last moment, which stuck in the trapdoor just as it dropped. Jack managed to balance himself, somehow, suspended between that sword and the rope pulled taut around his neck until the noose was cut and he could jump free.

"Long and short, at the end of the day, Will had been excused again for throwing in his lot with a pirate, my engagement with Norrington was broken, Father had grudgingly acknowledged Will as my chosen suitor, and Jack had his Pearl back.

"It wasn't a bit funny at the time, of course, but it's actually rather amusing to think back on. You should have seen Jack. As mad as any fool sometimes. About to be hanged and he was just enjoying the list of his crimes being read aloud."

"Which were?" Gwen prompted.

"Well, let's see..." Elizabeth said. Her eyes grew distant as she tried to recall specifics. "Piracy, of course. Smuggling. Impersonating a member of the Royal Navy, impersonating a cleric of the Church of England."

Gwen lifted an eyebrow.

"Arson. Kidnapping."

"And he would have me believe he's not a kidnaper."

"He didn't kidnap you?"

"Not... exactly."

Elizabeth gave her a puzzled look, but let it pass. "I'm not sure he really is. He just takes advantages that are offered to him. The day I met him, after he saved me from drowning- you remember me telling you that much? Well, the commodore tricked him into shaking his hand in congratulations and thanks. Of course, then he found the pirate brand Jack bears on his wrist and arrested him on account of his past crimes. As they put him in irons, I was trying to plead for his sake, for saving me. I was standing just a bit too close to him, and he took the opportunity. Jack took me hostage, kidnapped me, essentially, for a few moments to help him escape. Since his hands were occupied with holding me captive and holding one of the soldiers' guns to my head, he made me put his belt and weapons back on for him. And his hat."

"Really," Gwen said incredulously.

"I told him he was despicable," Elizabeth said, clearly feeling like this made them even. "Let's see, what else? Looting. Poaching. Pilfering. Sailing under false colors."

"I've seen his collection of 'false colors,'" Gwen said, thinking of the stack of neatly folded flags on the shelf in his cabin even now.

Elizabeth gave her a mildly amused but appraising look at Gwen's indirect admission to spending plenty of time in the captain's private domain. Gwen frowned. By her estimation, it was only a matter of time before Elizabeth would have her telling everything there was to know about herself and the captain. Which wasn't much, at least, she told herself.

"What are you ladies discussing so seriously here?"

Elizabeth smiled at her husband. "I was just telling Gwen about Jack's execution. Do you remember that?"

Will grinned. "How could I forget?" he said, focusing on something over Gwen's shoulder. "I've regretted that day ever since."

Gwen turned to find that Jack had joined them as well, which was the reason for Will's less-than-truthful, baiting comment.

"Regretted that you took Elizabeth away from her only love?" Jack asked with an assumed remorseful air and a heartbroken sigh.

"I forgot depravity," Elizabeth said to Gwen, "in his list of crimes."

"You wound me," Jack said. Then he turned more serious and gestured pan-optically at the clouds brooding in the distant sky on the opposite side of the ship. "I thought I'd warn ye in case ye hadn't noticed. Storm's brewing. Likely it'll be right on top of us by afternoon."

Elizabeth and Will both frowned deeply. They'd both been through the fury of Caribbean storms at sea and weren't particularly eager to repeat the experiences. Gwen had had the surprising good fortune to have met only relatively calm seas while aboard the Graymere, which was her only other aquatic experience, and preferred not to alter that record of easy sailing.

"I'd really rather it didn't," Gwen said.

Jack laughed. "Then you can tell it it's not welcome. I've seen men chuck a bottle or two as a peace-offering to 'em. Waste of good rum. I doubt that a sea-squall would listen to a little squaw when even rum can't sway its mind."

Gwen wasn't familiar with the term "squaw" but smiled up at Jack anyway. "Well, perhaps it will listen to me."

Gwen hadn't seen Jack since mid-morning that day. She had eaten lunch with the crew and then lingered in the galley learning to play some non-wagering card games from Will and a few of the pirates while Elizabeth took an afternoon nap, as she had recently acquired a habit of doing. Gwen didn't realize how many long hours they'd all been sitting there playing until she noticed the galley's population picking up again in anticipation of another meal. When the cook came out, heading above decks with the captain's meal, she stood and stretched her stiff muscles and took leave of her companions to join the captain for dinner, as she was accustomed to doing.

She'd spent the last few days pondering her proposal for the captain, and she had come to a conclusion this afternoon that she would attempt to raise the subject again. She wanted to become at least a temporary part of the crew.

She crossed paths with the cook on his way back down to serve the crew, and he winked at her as she approached the captain's door. Frowning slightly at the man's suggestive gesture, she opened the door to the captain's cabin, not bothering to knock. Was everyone on this ship starting to suspect something was, in fact, going on between herself and the captain?

"'Evening, luv," Jack said without turning as she entered and shut the door. He was bent over his table, where he had spread a chart out. He was eating while standing over it, studying.

Her previous thoughts forgotten, Gwen recalled the last words she had exchanged with him and couldn't help bringing them up again. "Did you notice the lovely weather we had today?"

He turned to find her standing just behind him, a smug smile on her face, her new braids swinging alluringly. "As a matter of fact, I did notice," he said blandly. The waves had been a little choppy, and still were, but the storm had seemed to veer off and circle around them. It was almost eerie.

Feeling her point (that he had been wrong about the weather) was well made without having to speak another word, Gwen helped herself to a chicken leg and sipped from a mug of water. She glanced at the other mug, the one with Jack's rum in it. He wasn't looking. She quickly snatched it and gulped half the bracing liquid, this time ready for the sense of freedom and relaxation it would provide her.

"Red skies at night, sailor's delight," Jack said after a moment.

"Hmm?" Her mind already felt hazy and pleasant and different, like it had the last time she had stolen rum from him. She was now working on her words to tell him she was wanted to stay on board for a while.

Jack gestured toward the view out his small window, where the sky was crimson with sunset. "Fair weather tomorrow as well," he observed.

Gwen didn't say anything.

"I told Gibbs ye were a good luck woman," Jack said at length. "I think I may be starting to believe it meself now."

Gwen smiled, allowing herself to accept his words without comment. It was a sort of compliment from him, to admit that a woman might be worthwhile on her own account, and she took it as such. She put down her chicken bone and moved to stand beside him. She was about to ask him a question about the chart on the table when the ship, which had been riding relatively high swells most of the day, dodged beneath her rum-affected feet as the Pearl plunged into a particularly high crest. Jack, perfectly steady in his years of seamanship and drunkenness, caught her as she stumbled.

He righted her, and she started to thank him. But then she realized he had not let her go yet. When she glanced up at him questioningly, her own intense brown eyes locked with his even darker eyes. She wasn't sure whether he moved first or if she had.

Suddenly his lips were pressing against hers, his mustache and beard itchy but strangely pleasant against her skin, his beard braids tickling her throat when she angled her head back to meet the taller man.

Jack's arms slid from her upper arms, where he had caught her, to meet at the small of her back, and Gwen didn't struggle as he pulled her against him within his embrace. She was uncertain of her actions, but her body was suddenly tingling with an odd excitement that perfectly matched the thrill of the rum coursing into her system. She wrapped her own arms uncertainly around his waist, and when she felt his tongue run along her closed lips, she parted them.

Gwen involuntarily moaned, a soft, throaty sound, as his tongue invaded her mouth.

Jack plunged deep into her mouth, searching her, learning her with his tongue. He rimmed the sharp points of her canines and explored the ribbed edges of the roof of her mouth. He was unprepared, however, when she began to war against him with her own tongue. Slowly, he drew his lips away from her and opened his eyes to look at her. Her eyes fluttered open and she was staring up at him as well.

Without a word, Jack hugged her body even tighter against his, feeling where her hips pressed against him, and the hardened nubs that were her nipples just a few inches below his own. He covered her mouth with his again in the same instant, his every attempt at invasion met until finally Gwen's tongue was the one exploring his mouth.

He was beginning to lose control, something he never forfeited to his partners, and he couldn't bear her touch as his arousal began to grow noticeably. If he didn't stop, and soon, she would soon find herself flat on her back on his bed. On the table, more likely. He forced himself, however unwillingly, to turn loose of her.

Gwen was surprised when Jack's hips bucked away from hers and he broke their kiss. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern, desperately wondering what she had done wrong.

Jack was cursing inwardly because she had gotten everything too right. Damn the tavern-wench he'd had just the other night, damn that girl for now seeming so pathetic compared to the excitement Gwen provoked from his body, and damn himself for stealing what had obviously been Gwen's first kiss.