Disclaimer: I don't own it. Everything you recognise belongs to Disney. No
infringement is intended and I'm certainly not making any money from this story.
Summary: Jack and Elizabeth in the cave at Isla de Muerta.
Author's note: Another of my short 'Elizabeth reflects on Jack at various points
during the movie'. It's almost turning out to be a series...
Clarity
by Hereswith
She saw his face, after he pulled the trigger. And the memory would stay with
her, the rest of her days. As a reminder. As a warning, perhaps. Because the
man she glimpsed, in that brief chaotic instant, was a stranger, cold and fierce
and dangerous, like some magnificent bird of prey and not like a sparrow at all.
On the island, she had questioned the truth of the stories and tales, and his
expression had changed and darkened somewhat, as he showed her the
scars, but even that darkness, and the sudden sobriety that had so unnerved
her, was nothing, compared to this. Had not frozen her solid, quite like this,
in disbelief and something eerily akin to fear.
She had danced with him, half-naked, in the flickering firelight. She had sat,
half-drunk, by his side in the sand, teaching him the words to the song from
her childhood, in between fits and bursts of helpless laughter. His, as much
as hers.
But she did not know him.
And she had never thought, never imagined she would be relieved that they
were, however momentarily, on the same side.