The stuffy ceremony at the church ended within a few minutes of Cori's strange departure, but it still felt like all of ninety-nine eternities to the poor bride and groom. The reception, however, was another story entirely.

This being a ball, an open bar, a feast, and plenty of young, unmarried girls parading around in their livery, Jack was over the moon- and then some. Will, however, was perfectly content every which way to spend the entire evening mooning over his new bride.

To him, their love seemed still unreal, like it was some sweet, taunting dream that might end any moment, and he swore upon his life he'd rather die than wake. But Aletté held a different sort of joy- true, her heart was almost filled to the bursting with love, but also with a sort of triumph. A spiteful kind of triumph over the world around her, the knowledge that her life had gone from hell to heaven, and nothing had made her cave.

Well, almost nothing.

Will might have hurt her, but it was out of duty- or was it love? No. Perhaps simply law and morality- how dull life must be, the simple compliance with law and morality, not a thought to the divine happiness one person can give another! The heroes of her life story, she reflected, were all those who opposed that- either law, morality, duty, or perhaps all three. She, Aletté, had done so with morality. Will had broken the bonds of duty, Morgan, who had abandoned her home, and Cori also, had jumped from the towering fortress of law.

And then, she giggled at the thought, there was Jack, who had abandoned all three.

"Crowded in here, isn't it?" Will whispered in her ear, his breath sending hot shivers down her neck. "Think maybe we should slip away?"

Aletté felt his hand lock with hers. "What do you mean?" She whispered back.

Her question was answered by a skilful hand slinking up her spine and toying with the clasp to her dress. Aletté shivered. "Coming?"

Her skin erupted in heat, and Aletté could have sword every person in the palace could hear her heart beating in her ears. Will sprang to his feet and made for the door, pulling his bride by her hand behind him.

"Lady Aletté!" King Rico called out. "Our Lord and Lady, leaving so soon?"

The couple froze in their tracks, trying desperately to come up with an excuse for leaving their own wedding reception. From the back of the hall, Jack motioned to Will, understanding the reason for their departure without needing explanation. He smiled and nodded to his friends, only to happy to oblige a decoy.

"My dear people!" Jack called from the flanks of the crowd. "Would it be at all possible for any reasonably intoxicated lady to follow me back to the beach and take a little… walk?" He winked, then hiccoughed, and Aletté was sure the latter action had been genuine.

The crowd around them gasped in horror and disgust. Will, seizing this 'opportune moment', pulled his bride out through the doorway and into the hall. Stealthily, they slunk down the corridor to Aletté's apartment.

Aletté had been expecting that Will would be following her lead here on in, he seeming so gentle, she being an ex-whore. But, like many times before, she was mistaken. Thrown to the bed rather roughly, Aletté barely had time to think before she realized her dress was already being pulled down about her shoulders. Will's lips were mercilessly sucking the skin between her throat and breasts.

She moaned blissfully.

Will positioned his head up atop of hers. He stroked her fine blonde hair sentimentally. "You are the strangest sort of ecstasy." He murmured, more to himself than to her.

Aletté smiled, swallowing an emotional lump in her throat. "There never was a time I didn't love you." She smiled painfully, memories of the past jabbing at old wounds. "Before I knew you, before I breathed my first breath, before my birth, when I wasn't half alive, when I was nothing but a soul, I loved you. All my life I've loved you." His lips brushed with hers briefly. "I found you, and you weren't mine, but I've always loved you. There never was a time-"

His callous fingers stayed her words. "I cant tell you that I feel the same way, Aletté." She sat up, propped up on her elbows.

"What do you feel?"

"It's not that I can live happily with you- that's what I had with Elizabeth. It's just that… I cant live happily without you."

Bride and groom smiled at each other lovingly.

"Kiss me, William Turner."

He complied with a soft butterfly kiss on her nose. Aletté felt herself melt in his embrace.

There never was a time I didn't love you.

-Fin