The song…DOES NOT BELONG TO THRICE!!! HAHAHA!!! This time it's Tsunami Bomb. The title of the song is 20 Goin On…. If you've been waiting for a punk group with a female lead singer here you go. Tsunami Bomb. That's they're name. Read my story.

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Chapter Seven

He Didn't Look Back 

~*~

No, you can't cheat timeDon't let that control your lifeGoes over your head, look over your shoulderWhen you look back you're that much olderIt slips away, be what you're becomingIt slips away, and not who you wereIt slips awayGrab hold of the here and now while you still have the chanceYou're holding yourself backTurn your face to the dayWhen you could be doing anythingDon't just dig your own graveWhen will you trust yourself?Take with you what you learnThe same as I doBe yourself, not who you were~*~

               "Can ye smell it yet?" asked Jack.

               "No," said Will. Jack shook his head and swigged a glass of rum. They were down to half a crate of the stuff, but they would be in Tortuga in a few days. Jack had imposed rum rations upon himself, and stricter ones on the rest of the crew, so everyone upon the Black Pearl was fairly cranky. Anamaria sat, a hollow look in her eyes as she clutched an empty mug. Will was thankful that he was not yet addicted to the stuff.

               "We'll be there soon," said Gibbs gruffly.

               "Aye. We're making good time," said Anamaria as she sadly looked into her mug.

               Will smiled but was suddenly overtaken with the urge to be alone. He excused himself and wandered up to the deck, to his thinking spot near the bow of the ship. He crossed his arms on the railing and leaned over, trying to discern the waves from the rest of the black sea. Whitecaps showed faintly in the moonlight, crashing against the black body of the Pearl.

               The thoughts came quickly, in a rush. He thought of Elizabeth and Serenity. He thought of Connor and Daniel. He wondered about where Serenity had been taken, or if she was still alive. What will I do if she's dead? He wondered to himself. I should have given my regrets to her parents…I must look like a fool to them. They're daughter is taken by pirates and I go around with the governor's daughter…I should have said something to them, anything to let them know how sorry I was. How sorry I am.

               I miss her so much…more than I miss Elizabeth, even. I love Elizabeth…but not with all my heart…

               Don't be silly, a different voice said. You're only thinking these thoughts because you've been away from her for so long. The salt is driving you mad. Once you get back to Port Royale, you'll remember. Elizabeth is the one for you. You're going to propose to her on the beach…well, not on the beach…you're going to propose to her and you're going to get married and have many children that are not girls and are not named Serenity.

               "I have to stop thinking about her," he said to himself.

               "Thinkin' about who?" said Anamaria. Will jumped.

               "Don't sneak up on me like that!" he said. Ana grinned her usual twisted smile and joined Will at the bow of the Pearl. Will sighed. He knew that Anamaria had a more sensitive side…especially when she wasn't drunk, but he had only seen it once. Humans are many faceted creatures, he thought. Is there a part of Serenity or Elizabeth that I have not yet seen?

               Is there a facet of Serenity or Elizabeth that I have been too blind to see?

               Ana repeated her question and Will pondered how to answer it. "I…" he began. "Elizabeth," he then said shortly.

               "Ah," said Ana. Some part of Will told him that she didn't believe him completely. "Well, that's life, laddie," she said comfortingly. "You'll see your wench soon enough." She then disappeared back inside the hold, to the rest of the rum rations and to Jack.

               "Thanks for your help," Will muttered under his breath, even though she was gone. He took a letter out of his pocket that he had managed to scratch down earlier that day. It was addressed to Elizabeth Swann, and her street in Port Royale followed. There was the letter, a fairly short one, devoid of the usual feeling that Will tried to convey into his posts. He had planned to mail it once they reached Tortuga, but now it didn't seem like such a good idea.

               He stepped away from the railing, tossed the letter over his shoulder, and didn't look back as it landed in the ocean.

~*~

               Daniel pulled at the ropes, hoisting the sails with the other sailors. Some of them spoke among themselves, but today Daniel wasn't in the mood for talking. His eyes strayed down the line to the left, landing on a floppy hat. Serenity was working as hard as any of the men, and she had gotten good at most of the jobs on deck. Daniel grinned. She hadn't stop to think of how she had become a pirate herself.

               He had never felt badly about what he had done to her. He had turned her life upside down and he had never had second thoughts about it. Men needed what they needed and that was a fact of life.

               Serenity scowled at the ropes as she worked. He supposed that she was miserable, but he didn't really care. He never had really cared. He had gotten what he wanted- he was back on his ship among his friends, his family, and now he had a woman to pleasure himself with. The other two women were pretty too, he supposed, but Serenity had some kind of hypnotic quality in the way she moved, in her person…but she was so uncooperative.

               Was that a bad thing?

               Standing next to Serenity was the outcast pirate. He had come in for a job one day and the captain had given him one. The sailor- Daniel didn't know or care what his name was- had worked on ships all his life and two more hands on deck never hurt. He was a good pirate, never remorseful about killing or stealing, but he had a respect for women that Daniel found a tad annoying. Women were on this earth for a reason. Why not take advantage of it?

               A few strands of hair had come loose from Serenity's braid and were hanging around her face, blown into her eyes by the wind. Daniel grinned at this for some reason. A voice somewhere inside him told him that he was a sick man. He ignored it as always.

               He only had one life to live. Why waste it?

~*~

               The sailors were eating the evening meal when the captain stood up and announced that they were headed for Tortuga. "Time for a vacation!" said the captain amid the hoots and hollers of his crew.

               Serenity only sighed and went back to her gruel. It didn't matter to her where they went. Maybe I can run away, she thought, a notion voiced by Graciela a moment later.

               "This is our chance!" she said. "Maybe we can get out of here, once and for all!"

               Rosalia smiled. "Maybe," she said timidly.

               "It wouldn't hurt to try."

               The tree women knew that they would never make it, but their lived had become a fantasy. If what had happened to them could happen, well…

               Anything could happen.