Disclaimer: I don't own Pirates or anything associated with it (though if whoever does own it--Disney, I guess--wants to get rid of it, I'm very willing to take it off his hands...). I'm not making any money off of this story (because if I were I would be in the Caribbean, not posting a fanfic about it).
Chapter 9, Black Pearl, 3 bells into the night watch
Elizabeth and Bill made it back to the Pearl only to find that Jack was nowhere in sight.
"Where's Jack?" Elizabeth asked Gibbs.
"Out lookin' for Will. He heard a rumor that Will might be up at the fort, and he went to investigate. Don't worry, he didn't go out looking like a pirate. He's not that daft." The old pirate checked his pocket watch and glanced out at the docks. "He ought to be back soon. Port Royal's not that big, and Will's pretty easy to spot."
Elizabeth ran her hand through her hair--or, rather, she tried to, but was stopped by a clump of mud and matted hair. "Maybe I should take this chance to wash up, then." Bill took her to his cabin and gestured to a small basin of water. "That's all I've got, but you can use it. I'll go see if Jack's got a cleaner dress around here."
As Elizabeth did her best to clean the mud out of her hair, Bill rummaged through Jack's things. Finally he came back, holding a dark gown. "This looks like it'll fit, don't it?"
Elizabeth turned to look at it, dreading the thought that it might be the same dress that Barbossa had given her. It wasn't, to her relief; it was a deep midnight blue, with a slightly more modest cut than that of the other. She smiled. "That will do fine," she told him.
Bill spread it out on the bed. "I'll let you change into it, then," he said, and walked out.
Turning back to the basin, Elizabeth finished cleaning the mud out of her hair as best as she could, and wiped her face and hands on the inside of her battered gown. She hurriedly changed into the blue gown, then decided to put her hair up loosely, to hide whatever mud she couldn't wash out of it. She found a mirror and a hairbrush in a drawer, along with a few hairpins, and she put them to good use (though she refused to wonder why Jack had such things aboard his ship).
By the time she was done, nobody would have known what she'd gone through that night, let alone the last year and a half. Satisfied with her appearance, she hurried out of the cabin to see if Jack had returned yet.
He had, and he was standing by the mainmast talking to Bill. Will was nowhere in sight.
"Jack?" she called, hurrying towards him. "Where's--"
"Will?" Jack finished for her. He sighed. "Not here. He's away--looking for you, I'd imagine."
Elizabeth felt weak. "What?" she whispered. After all that, he wasn't even here to welcome her home? And what about the children--had he taken them, too? Or had he hired somebody to care for them while he was away?
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth," Bill was saying.
But she was already moving on. "Fine. I'll be home to welcome him back." She was already halfway down the gangplank.
"Then I'm coming with you," Bill said, jogging to catch up. "No more episodes like last time." Elizabeth flashed him a grateful smile.
Jack sighed. "AnaMaria," he called wearily, "you're in charge until I get back." And he, too, hurried to catch up to Elizabeth. "I better come along, too."
Elizabeth remembered the way home perfectly, and she practically dragged Bill and Jack along with her. Never mind that she was still muddy and disheveled, never mind that she'd been awake for nearly 20 hours. She was going home, and nothing could abate her enthusiasm.
Her house was not dark, as she'd expected it to be; there were several lights on, including in what Elizabeth remembered as Will's study. It gave her hope--someone was there, and if it wasn't Will and the children it should at least be someone she knew.
She debated just walking in, but she realized that, if it wasn't Will who was home, whoever was there would probably panic if some strange-looking woman claiming to be the mistress of the household just barged right in. So, taking a deep breath to calm herself, she knocked on the door.
A strange young man answered. "I'm sorry," Elizabeth said before he could get a word out. "I was looking for the Turner household."
"This is the Turner household," the man told her. "I am the butler." He paused, studying her. "If you're here to propose a relationship with Mr. Turner, however, I suggest you go home. He's not likely to admit you, and even if he did, he wouldn't accept. Poor man still thinks his wife will come back to him one day. It's a waste of your time."
Elizabeth wasn't sure how to take that. She was delighted to hear that Will still had faith in her, but this new butler's tone suggested that many other ladies had come to her home intending to win her husband's hand. Besides, no butler should be sharing that kind of information with a stranger. But she smiled. "Oh, no. We need to speak to Mr. Turner, but it has nothing to do with proposing anything."
The butler frowned. "I'll announce you, miss..."
She paused. Finally, she decided to give her maiden name and act like a cousin, hoping that Will would be more likely to admit family. "Swann. Miss Swann." She smiled. "And yes, I am related to Governor Swann. I've just arrived in Port Royal tonight and I was hoping to meet my family."
He nodded. "Come in, please."
She followed him in, Bill and Jack in tow, and the butler closed the door behind them. "Wait here," he instructed. Elizabeth nodded and looked around. Will hadn't changed a thing--all her decorations and furnishings were exactly the way she'd left them.
Bill chuckled at the look on her face. "Good to be home?" he asked.
"You have no idea," she answered absently. All that was missing was her family...
"Jack, I thought you said Will wasn't home," Bill was saying. Elizabeth glanced at the pirate. She'd wondered the same thing.
Jack shrugged. "That's what I was told. It's not my fault somebody lied to me," he said defensively.
Before Elizabeth or Bill could say anything, the butler came back in. "I'm terribly sorry, Miss Swann, but Mr. Turner wishes to see no one this evening. Perhaps if you'd like to come back tomorrow...?"
I knew I shouldn't have given my maiden name, she thought miserably. "I'm afraid that's just not an option, sir," she said. "My business is quite urgent--tell Mr. Turner that it concerns Bootstrap and Sparrow, among other things."
The butler frowned. "I'll convey your message, but I wouldn't expect anything." He disappeared again, but this time Jack followed him. Elizabeth had half a mind to stop him, but she realized that he might sway Will's mind and let him go.
This time, the butler took far less time. "He says to admit you--your friend is already there." He seemed slightly miffed at Jack's lack of etiquette, but he was hiding it well.
Elizabeth could barely contain her excitement as they walked down the hall. But, to her surprise, she was nervous. "You should go in first," she whispered to Bill.
Bill shook his head. "You've waited two years for this, and I'd already resigned myself to never seeing him again. You go ahead." They had reached the study door by now, and Bill gently pushed her through the door.
"Will?"
His head, which had been buried in his hands, shot up. "Elizabeth?" He half-rose from his seat by the fireplace in disbelief. "You're alive?"
She smiled, amazed to feel tears wetting her cheeks, and suddenly she found herself in his arms with absolutely no idea how she got there and absolutely no reason to care. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she drank in his presence and reveled in the kiss he planted firmly on her lips.
"I half believed you were dead," he whispered when she broke the kiss.
"And I half believed I'd never make it home to convince you otherwise," she whispered back. "You have no idea what I've been through."
Holding her as if she'd disappear if he let go, he kissed her again. "Yes, I do," he answered. "I imagined a thousand different fates for you each day, each worst than the last. The only thing that kept me from racing off to find you was that somebody had to stay here and watch the kids."
Her head shot back and a knot formed in her stomach. "They're okay, aren't they? I left them..." In all that time, she had never let herself think that they weren't all right.
Will smiled. "They're fine. They were found the next morning, but they had to get your father to come and let them out. Jack wouldn't budge for anybody else, and he wouldn't let them take Grace, either. He minds well, when he needs to." He smirked. "Though, recently, he's taken to not minding his bedtime. I put him to bed hours ago, but if I know Jack, he's snuck out of bed to play with his ships again."
"His ships?"
Will explained, "James Norrington gave him a set of toy naval ships for his birthday, probably thinking he'd get the boy interested in a career in the navy. But--" he looked at Sparrow, who was standing off in the corner with Bill and watching the couple intently--"I think Captain Sparrow over there will be delighted to hear that he painted one of them black, calls it the Black Pearl, and has it destroy the other ships on a daily basis."
Elizabeth chuckled, but Sparrow was grinning from ear to ear. He came over and pounded Will on the back. "Sounds like quite the kid you've got, there, Will. Good name, too."
Will smiled back, but his eyes never left his wife's face. "Do you want to go upstairs and see him? He'd be delighted to see you--he asks me about you every day."
"Yes," Elizabeth told him, warmed by the thought that her little boy remembered her promise. "But first, I have another surprise for you." She stepped aside to reveal Bill standing by the doorway.
"You don't remember me, do you, Will?" he asked as he walked over to his son.
Will shook his head slowly. "I do... but I don't remember how."
"Serves me right. I shouldn't have left you so early. But what's done is done. Do you forgive me, son?"
Will's eyes widened. "But... you're dead!"
Jack rolled his eyes. "Hard to die when you've been cursed. Even if you are underwater."
Of course. Will couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it himself. "My father..." he muttered.
"Yes, well... I hear you've grown into the kind of man I can be proud of, Will. Good with a sword, too, or so Jack tells me." It was obvious that both men felt awkward.
"You two should spar," Jack suggested, coming up and looping one arm around each man's shoulder. "That would be quite the match."
Father and son exchanged identical glances, and burst out laughing.
"As spectacular as that fight may be, I'd really like to see my children," Elizabeth reminded them.
"Right! The kid!" Jack exclaimed. Elizabeth smiled and rolled her eyes, and Will cut him off before he could say more.
"Well, let's go see if he's awake." He led them up the stairs and, sure enough, there was a light coming from under the closed door of the nursery. "I'll go in first," Will whispered. "Stay quiet, now, so we don't wake Gracie."
He crept to the door and slowly opened it. "Jack, shouldn't you be in bed?" he demanded quietly.
"Yes, Papa," Jack muttered, properly ashamed as he gathered up his toys.
Will chuckled. "Don't look so sheepish, son. I'm not angry with you tonight. In fact, I've got a surprise for you."
Elizabeth stepped into the nursery before Jack could guess what his surprise might be. "Hi, Jack," she whispered, kneeling down and holding her arms out to him.
Jack grinned and ran to her. "I knew you were coming!" he cried happily.
"Shhh!" Elizabeth admonished, wrapping her arms around him in pure delight. "I promised I'd come back for you, didn't I? I'm sorry it took so long."
"That's okay, Mommy. You had to chase the bad guys very far so they couldn't get Gracie and me."
Elizabeth smiled, but changed the subject. "I'm not the only surprise your papa has for you tonight."
"Really? There's more?" He sounded so excited he could burst.
"Two more, actually," Will added. "This is your grandfather--" Bill smiled warmly at the boy, who smiled tentatively back--"and this is Captain Jack Sparrow." The pirate grinned and bowed.
"Wow, really? You're a pirate?"
"We both are," Bill said, amused.
Little Jack looked back and forth between the two men, awestruck and, for once in his young life, speechless.
"Why don't you show Grandpa and Captain Sparrow your Black Pearl?" Elizabeth suggested.
"Okay!" He took Bill in one hand and Sparrow in the other. "C'mon!" He dragged them over to a pile of toy ships strewn across the floor and proceeded to show them off. It wasn't long before they were engaged in the sea battle of the century--Sparrow, at the boy's insistence, was captaining the Pearl against every ship in His Majesty's fleet (captained, of course, by Bill and young Jack), and winning quite thoroughly.
Elizabeth smiled at the sight, then turned to Will. "Grace must be in a different room so she can actually sleep?"
He smiled and nodded, taking her hand. "Yes. Maybe when she's older they can share the nursery, but for now I decided it was best to keep them separate. Come on."
She followed him down the hall a ways to Grace's room. Grace was, in fact, sound asleep in her crib, and she didn't move as her mother crept up to her side and smoothed out her hair.
To her surprise, Elizabeth's eyes filled with tears. "I didn't think I'd ever see her again. Or you, or Jack... I never stopped trying to get home, but somewhere along the way I think I lost hope. I was only trying because it was habit," she whispered to Will.
He smiled and put his arm around her waist, pulling her close. "I thought you were dead. I thought I'd never see you again. When you walked into my office, I couldn't believe my eyes," he whispered back.
"I'm glad we were wrong," Elizabeth sighed as she laid her head on her husband's shoulder.
"Me too."
The End
Well, not only was that the end, it was also the longest chapter in the whole story. Everybody cheer! And please, if you have any suggestions about how I can improve my writing, let me know. That's what the reviews are for anyway--so I know how to improve and then I go and do it so my next story is even better (speaking of which, my next story is going to be the back story to Cinnamon's "Rum Clouded Memories" if I can get it to work for me. So, while you're waiting, check out RCM if you haven't already. It's a good story, and I'm working hard to make sure that my spinoff is worthy of it). And I have a one-shot about Will called "Aim" that will soon be joined by one for Barbossa and one for Jack, though I'm not sure whether I'm going to make a collection of one-shots or just let each have a story of its own. So I would love it if you would be so kind as to check those out too.
To those of you who stuck it out until the end: THANK YOU! Without your support I wouldn't have bothered finishing this story, and I'm eternally grateful for your help.
Specifically, to Missy Mouse, special thanks for being my most consistent reviewer--I looked forward to your reviews and I greatly appreciated your encouragement. You're the greatest!
Many thanks and best wishes,
JSK
