A/N: I apologize in advance for the shortness of this chapter. It is just so hard to add anything to it. Don't give me to much grief for it, I promise I'll update soon!

Chapter Sixteen

Will ran down the beach, faster than he ever had run before. Tears where dripping down his cheeks, but confused with the sudden tropical downpour. He hadn't cried in a long time, and could barely admit to himself that he ever had before...But he remembered it despite, and it was vividly in his mind. It was the morning that he had left Port Royal...the morning he had left Elizabeth...the morning after they had unknowingly conceived a child...

Will sat on the edge of the bed, buckling down his shoes. He gazed around the room, looking anywhere but at her. He couldn't look at Elizabeth. Sleeping so innocently. It was her wedding day...and he wasn't the groom.

He stood over her, pondering waking her, but he knew that would only lead to more tears and more pain. Without a second thought, Will walked to the window, blew Elizabeth a kiss and climbed down the trellis.

Then he had hightailed to the beach, trying to leave all his hurt behind him. He didn't know where he was going, but he also didn't understand quite why he had left Elizabeth sleeping naively in the room upstairs.

Will ran along the shore for almost ten minutes, but couldn't take it any longer...the pressure...the pain...tripping over himself he plummeted into the sand, bursting once again, into tears. Crying for everything that weighed him down. His lost childhood, Elizabeth,...Norrington.... his banishment. Just as the sun began to rise, Will stood up and taking one last, deep breath, he had saluted Port Royal for one last time. Then turning the sharp corner that ended the Fort's territory, he had vowed to make do with his new life.

He hadn't exactly succeeded in starting a new life. He had become a pirate, and succeeded in finding a new Will Turner, he had made new friends, even had a "girlfriend" or too, if that is the appropriate word for it. But he had never succeeded in forgetting about Elizabeth. Though he for sure had an A in effort.

As he ran this time, he had the same intentions. He was leaving Port Royal again...for good this time. But what was he running from? There wasn't a banishment pushing him or forcing him this time. In fact, this time he actually HAD something. He had a son, and a woman who loved him.

And this time she wasn't bound to another man.

Will stopped. He was in exactly the same spot he had been in ten years ago. The corner up ahead would relieve him of Port Royal forever. But he couldn't make the turn. His lifeboat was just up and around the bend. Why weren't his feet moving towards it? Will stooped down low to the ground, grabbing a handful of wet sand, squeezing it between his fingers, then watching it fall lazily to the earth. Running towards the boat he pushed it out into the high tide of the surf and began to paddle away...