Michelle and Robert walked through the streets of Port Royal without talking. Robert led them to the church that their wedding had been held at. They made their way to the back where the priest's office was. Robert lifted his free hand and knocked on the door. "Come in," a voice said from inside the room. Robert opened the door and walked in, Michelle trailing behind. The priest was sitting at a desk with papers scattered around the top. He was short and plump, with glasses and a warm smile. "Mr. Bennett, Miss Davis, please sit down," he said, gesturing towards the chairs in front of him. Robert let go of Michelle, to her relief, and sat down in the chair closest to him. Michelle followed suit and sat down in the other. "I am so sorry about your wedding," the priest began. "Father John, who was supposed to perform the ceremony, was found later tied up in his room. I guess the pirate did that to him."
"It's quite alright," Robert assured the man. "But we wish to be married as soon as possible."
"I understand," the priest responded. He shuffled the papers around on his desk, finally picking one up and reading it. "Let's see," he said. "The next available time is one week from today."
"That will be perfect," Robert replied. He stood up and offered his hand to Michelle. "We must be going. We only have a week to plan our wedding."
Michelle put on a fake smile. "I can't wait," she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Either Robert didn't catch it or just ignored it, because he returned the smile and said to the priest in a cheery voice, "We'll see you in one week, Father." They turned around and left the room. Once outside the church, Robert turned to Michelle. "I need to go back to the fort now," he started, "so why don't you go to Elizabeth's house and work out the arrangements for our wedding? I saw that you didn't have your wedding dress when you got of the Expeditious."
Michelle smiled innocently. "I took it off on the Black Pearl, and Jack and I were just so busy that I didn't have time to put it back on. Bye." Michelle turned her back to Robert, who had an angered expression on his face, and she walked to Elizabeth's in slightly better spirits. She may have to marry the guy, but that didn't mean she couldn't mess with him. Her good mood, however, diminished when she reached Elizabeth's house and remembered what she was there to do. She raised her fist and knocked on the door. Soon after, Elizabeth opened the door. "Michelle! Come in," she said, ushering her in to the house. "What are you doing here?"
"I just came to tell you that I'm going to get married to Robert," she told her solemnly.
Elizabeth had a surprised and shocked look on her face. "But you hate him."
"I know that," Michelle said. "But he got Jack out of prison, and so now I have to marry him."
"But how do you know Robert's not lying to you?" Elizabeth asked.
"I went down to the fort. Jack wasn't there."
"So maybe he did get Jack out of jail," Elizabeth said, "but that doesn't mean you have to marry him. You don't love him."
"I'm not about to go back on my word," Michelle snapped. "And not everyone is fortunate enough to marry the person they love." Michelle sighed. "The wedding's a week from today. I'm going to need a new dress, and everything needs to be prepared."
Elizabeth gave Michelle a hug. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it all."
"Thank you," Michelle said. She said goodbye and walked home, the whole time thinking about the wedding and how much she was dreading it.
(.)
The next week seemed to go by slowly. If she wasn't being fitted or going over seating arrangements, Michelle was staring out at the ocean from her house, letting the minutes slowly tick by. Elizabeth worried about her, but she didn't talk to Michelle about not having the wedding again. She knew that Michelle wouldn't back out of her bargain.
The day of the wedding was beautiful; the sun was warm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. But even the day couldn't make Elizabeth cheerful. Today, her best friend would make the worst decision of her life and marry Robert. Elizabeth arrived early and started busying herself with preparations for the wedding. An hour before the wedding was to start, Robert arrived with some navy officers to make sure everything was going smoothly. Elizabeth avoided talking to Robert. She didn't trust herself to say something nice to him. She was about to turn a corner when she heard him talking to another officer. She started to turn away when she heard Robert mention Jack.
"So everything's in order for Mr. Sparrow's execution?" Robert asked the other man.
"Yes, it is going to take place the same time the wedding is planned to start," he replied.
"Good. And are you sure nobody knows about this?"
"No Lieutenant, we made sure of it," he assured Robert.
"Make sure no one finds out. I don't want Michelle to have to worry about that pirate on her wedding day."
"Of course sir," the man replied.
Elizabeth had heard enough. She ran away from the two men so they wouldn't catch her eavesdropping. Jack was at the fort, and he was to be hanged! Robert had tricked Michelle! Elizabeth ran out of the church towards Michelle's house. She had to be warned.
(.)
Michelle woke up to the sunlight streaming through her window. She pulled the blankets over her head and tried to go back to sleep, but she knew she had to wake up. It was her wedding day after all. The thought of her wedding made her stomach churn. 'But I have to do it,' she thought to herself. Grumbling, she slowly pushed the covers down and got out of bed. She got dressed into a plain dress; the one she would wear at the wedding was at the church dressing room. Once she was dressed, she walked to her kitchen and made a small breakfast, making sure to eat slowly. The more she stalled, the longer it would be until she had to get married. Once she was done, there was a knock at her door. 'Probably Elizabeth coming to bring me to the church,' she thought. She stood up and brushed the crumbs off her skirt before answering the door. When she opened the door, she let out a surprised gasp. It wasn't Elizabeth who was at the door; in fact, it was the last person she expected.
"Mr. Gibbs?" she asked, staring at the man in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
"Can I come in?" he asked, staring nervously around the street.
"Of course," she said, stepping away so he could walk inside. She closed the door and turned to him. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on the Black Pearl with Jack?"
"That's why I'm here," he said. "Jack hasn't come back and we've been wondering where he was."
Michelle gave him a puzzled look. "Well, he's not here. He was being held prisoner at the fort, but he was set free a week ago. They sent him on a ship to Tortuga."
Gibbs shook his head. "We hadn't left Tortuga since he was taken, and he hasn't been there, so I decided to come here and look for him."
"That makes no sense," Michelle started, but was cut off by the front door swinging open, a very winded Elizabeth in the doorframe. "Elizabeth!" Michelle called, hurrying over to her. "What's wrong?"
"They have Jack at the fort," Elizabeth said between gasps of air. "He's going to be hanged in less than an hour!"
Michelle's eyes grew larger. "We have to save him then!" she said, a plan formulating in her head. "Elizabeth," she started, "go to the wedding and stall for me. We can't let Robert know where I am. He'll be after me in a second. Gibbs and I will go to the fort and look for him." Elizabeth nodded and ran back out the door. "Come on Gibbs," Michelle said, walking towards the door. He stopped her and offered her a gun. "Let's hope you still have that sharp eye of yours," he said. Michelle took the gun and held it firmly in her hand. "Let's go save Jack."
(.)
Elizabeth rushed back to the church and went in to the dressing room where Michelle was supposed to be getting dressed. She locked the door and started moving things around in the room to sound like she was getting Michelle ready. A knock came from the door, followed by Robert's voice, "Elizabeth, I saw you rush in. Is Michelle in there? Because if she isn't, I can go over to her house and pick her up."
"Yes she is," Elizabeth yelled through the door. "I'm just getting her ready now."
"Can I see her?" he asked.
"Of course not," Elizabeth replied. "It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding."
"Well can I talk to her then?"
"No. She lost her voice last night and can't talk," she said, making stuff up off the top of her head.
"Well, I hope you feel better Michelle," Robert said before walking away. Elizabeth sighed. This was going to be difficult.
(.)
Gibbs and Michelle ran as fast as they could to the fort. When they finally arrived, they quietly entered and walked down the main hallway, looking and listening for any guards or signs of Jack. Soon, the path divided in half. Gibbs took the right fork while Michelle took the left. She walked down the hall, making sure she made as little sound as possible on the stone floors. She turned a corner and saw a guard standing a little ways away in front of a door. She turned quickly back around the corner and kept quiet. The guard hadn't seen her, so she was safe at the moment. Fingering her gun, she decided she had to kill the guard. The room he was guarding could be where Jack was. She stepped back in to the hall and expertly shot the man. She walked in to the hall and moved the guard's body away from the door. Although she had killed men before, shooting him had made her a little queasy. She tried to open the door the man had been guarding, but it was locked. She turned back to the guard and found a key ring attached to his belt. She took it off and started trying the keys in the lock. On her fourth try she heard the satisfying click of the lock opening and slowly pushed the door open. Inside, sitting on the floor watching the door with interest, was Jack. His face lit up when he saw Michelle, and immediately got up and wrapped his arms around her. "Are you okay?" Michelle asked, almost in tears.
"Of course I am," he said. He lifted her chin up and gave her a kiss. "How are you?"
"Oh Jack, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Robert said he let you go so I would marry him but was going to make you get hanged and I was so worried I would be too late-" Jack silenced Michelle by putting a finger over her lips.
"Not so much at once," he said. "I'm alright, and you're alright, so that's all that matters." He was about to kiss her again but stopped, his brow furrowed. "What was that about marrying Robert?"
"Robert said that if he got you out, I had to marry him. So, he told me you were gone. We were supposed to get married today, but I don't want to, I was just going to do it to save you."
"Don't worry about it," Jack said. "I'm fine. Now all we need to do is get out of here."
They left the room and started to walk quickly down the hall. "Gibbs is here. We've got to find him before we leave." They made it to the intersection where Gibbs and Michelle met. "He went this way," Michelle said, going down the hall, but Jack stopped her.
"Michelle, we've got to leave," he told her.
"But we need to get Gibbs!" Michelle protested.
"We can't risk being caught. Gibbs understands. We have to keep to the code."
"Oh the code," Michelle mockingly replied. "And let me ask you, was Gibbs following the code when he came back to find you? I think you owe him a favor."
Jack looked at Michelle, but knew she wasn't going to change her mind. "Alright," he said, sounding disappointed, but in truth he was glad that he was convinced not to leave his first mate. Jack caught up to Michelle, and the two of them started walking down the hallway.
(.)
"Elizabeth, open this door right now!" Robert yelled, banging on the door.
"You can't come in!" she cried, desperately trying to get him to go away.
"Michelle needs to come out right now! The wedding is about to start. She needs to be out here now."
"Just give her five more minutes," Elizabeth pleaded.
"I did, ten minutes ago," he said. "Now, it's time for her to come out." Elizabeth heard a jingling outside the door, and before she could do anything, Robert had the door open and was looking for Michelle. But all he saw was Elizabeth. "Where's Michelle?" he demanded, walking up to Elizabeth. She didn't respond to him, opting to glare at him instead. "Where is she?" he asked again, grabbing Elizabeth's shoulders and shaking her.
"Where do you think she is?" she said in a cold voice.
He looked confused for a moment, but then realization dawned on him. "Damn it!" he yelled. He turned around and ran out of the church and towards the fort.
(.)
Not long after Michelle and Jack started looking for Gibbs, they came across a bunch of open doors. Looking in, they saw the many offices had no doors closed. Every closet had been checked. They figured this was the work of Gibbs, and that he wasn't too far in front of them. They walked ahead and heard a loud bang and a grunt from the room just ahead. They looked in and saw Gibbs opening a closet, his back to them. A sly smile spreading across his face, Jack motioned for Michelle to be quiet and pulled out his gun, making sure that Gibbs could hear him cocking it. Gibbs noticeably tensed, and slowly reached for the gun at his side. "I don't think you want to be doing that mate," Jack said, causing Gibbs to jump in surprise and turn around with his hand clutched to his chest.
"Sweet mother of pearl Jack, you almost gave me a heart attack," he said.
Jack chuckled. "I couldn't resist mate," he replied with a wink to Michelle, which made her giggle. "Now, let's venture to the Pearl, shall we?" Jack asked, gesturing towards the door. The three of them walked out of the room and made their way down the hall, not running in to anyone on the way. "Not a busy day is it?" Michelle commented. They looked outside the fort to make sure the coast was clear. There weren't many people out, and no one was paying any attention to them. "Ok here's what we should do," Michelle said, turning to Jack and Gibbs.
"Hold on," said Jack, cutting Michelle off. "Who said you were the leader? Last I checked, I was the captain here."
Michelle smiled. "Go right ahead, Captain."
Jack raised a finger and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He moved his finger to over his lips and started thinking.
"I think we should walk out like nothing's wrong, and try to attract as little attention as possible to ourselves. What do you think Captain?" Michelle asked, an amused look on her face.
"That's a brilliant idea," Jack said, as if it was he who suggested it. "We will initiate the plan," he paused for dramatic effect, "now."
The three of them, as inconspicuously as possible, walked out from where they were into open view. Just as Michelle suspected, no one noticed that two pirates, one of them scheduled to be hanged in the hour, and a woman walked in to their presence. They almost made it, silently congratulating themselves on their success. But they're cover was blown by a familiar voice yelling, "Stop them!" They looked back and saw Robert pointing at them. By now, he had caught all of the men's attentions and they started looking around, not quite sure what to do. Michelle, Jack, and Gibbs started running to the end of the fort where they could quickly escape to the Pearl, which was anchored in the secret cove. A couple of men were near and tried to fight them off, but Jack and Gibbs quickly got rid of them. They finally exited the fort and were on the way to the cove. Michelle could hear the scurrying of feet behind them. She turned around to see how close they were, but what she saw made her turn pale. Robert, who was still at the fort, had a pistol cocked and ready to shoot. And it was pointed at Jack. His back was to Robert, so Jack didn't see the gun. Not thinking, Michelle ran up to Jack and wrapped her arms tightly around Jack's neck as the shot was fired. She felt a searing pain in her shoulder that made her cringe and slowly fell to the ground. Jack turned around, wondering why Michelle had grabbed on to him, but the confusion in his face soon switched to sadness and concern when he saw the blood that was staining Michelle's dress. "Oh God no," he moaned, getting down on his knees and holding Michelle in his arms.
"I'll be fine Jack," Michelle croaked, trying to conceal the pain in her voice. "You've got to run before they catch you. You'll have enough time."
"I can't leave you here," he said, not moving from her side.
"You need to. They'll stop for me, giving you time to make it to your ship."
"But Michelle-"
"Just do it Jack!" Michelle yelled, taking him by surprise. "I don't want to have been hurt and end up having you captured. I want you to be free. Now go!" Jack hesitated, he didn't want to leave her alone and injured, but he could see by the look in her face that she would kill him if he didn't leave. He got up reluctantly and started running away with Gibbs, but not before glancing one more time at Michelle.
Just as she had thought, the navy officers stopped when they got to her and didn't go after Jack. They helped her back to the fort, where a doctor was fetched immediately. Robert was livid. "I can't believe he did that, throwing you in front of him. The man can't even take his own bullets," Robert said, trying not to think of the truth, that Michelle had sacrificed herself for Jack. But Michelle wasn't paying attention. The pain was very strong, and soon she slipped off into unconsciousness.
[A/N: I am so sorry this chapter is so late, but finals are next week, so my teachers are giving me as many projects and homework as they can before the finals. It's madness. But I'll be out of there next week, so I'll have the next, and final, chapter up next weekend! After that, I may not write for a while because I'm moving to California, but I have a lot of story ideas that I can't wait to start.
Magicgirl810: Thanks. Sorry this took so long.
TriGemini: What can I say? Robert is very sneaky, and he made it look like Jack wasn't there anymore, so Michelle had only his word to believe.
Sparrowsgirl-13: Thanks. And I'm glad you liked the cookies. I made them myself.
XPUNKROCKGODDESSX: Nice bursting into song there.
Mer2y: Was that good enough intervening? And so they're still not together, but at least Jack's out.
IceSpikeXBlackRose: Thanks. Sorry I didn't write fast, but at least I had a rescue attempt.
Shards of Dawn: lol Robert deserves sharp objects being thrown at him. I'm so happy that you loved False Identity and Forgive and Forget. And your name is really cool.
Piper8188: What can I say, Robert is an evil kid.
Ok that's it for the review responses. Thank you to Stina and Chelles for beta-ing! R/R!]