A/N: Wow! Everybody really liked the last chapter! lol. Hope this one's just as good. It's a more…um…emotional chapter rather than action. Enjoy!
pghal6: Yeah, that was different from the usual. I'm very proud of myself for that, lol. I don't usually make up something original and I finally did! Yay! Will, as you said, is a stupid, hot pirate. Do you think he'll ever understand his feelings?
Forensic Photographer711: Yeah, that idea of Anna saving Will popped into my head while I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean one day, lol, and I stuck with it! Thanks for the review.
American Drama: Glad you enjoyed the chapter, I did too!
Sexxi Guys My Anti Drug: Glad you liked the chapter. Thanks for the review. Hope you like this one just as well.
somegrl28: Wow, my idea was smart? Awesome! I never really intended to put that little chat between Anna and Barbossa in there but it seemed like it fit so I put it there. It also gave me an excuse to keep Anna on the ship because I didn't want to maroon her, lol.
obliviongates: I'd love to kill Barbossa too but, well, Jack's covered that for us so it's a bit too late, lol. I would kill myself too if I had to stay with Barbossa. No more cliffhangers? They're the best part of torturing readers! You can't possibly deprive me of that! lol.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Pirates of the Caribbean. I only own Anna Wilson and any other characters you do not recognize.
Chapter Eleven: Waiting
Will was shoved into the only empty cell in the brig. The other cell was packed with the Interceptor's crew. One pirate gripped Anna's arm harshly and walked her to the crew's cell.
"Don't put 'er in there!" another pirate protested.
"Why not?" the pirate holding Anna's arm asked.
"Because the crew will try to escape. There's no room in there anyway," the other pirate said.
"Fine."
The pirate shoved Anna into Will's cell forcefully. He slammed the cell door shut and locked it. Anna stood still inside the cell, still in shock from Barbossa's intentions with her. She didn't notice Will looking at her.
"What did he say to you?" Will asked, startling Anna.
"What?" Anna asked not catching what Will first said.
"What did Barbossa say to you?" he asked again.
Anna looked down and leaned against the cold metal bars.
"N-nothing," Anna said, struggling to get her words out. She'd always hated lying.
"I don't believe you," Will said putting his hand under Anna's chin and lifting her face up to meet his.
Anna said nothing. She hated Barbossa more than anything in the world. She hated him for wanting to kill Will. She hated him for wanting to lock her up on his ship. She hated him for taking Jack's ship. If he never had taken it, she wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place.
"Please, tell me what he said to you," Will pleaded softly.
Anna hesitated. "He just babbled on about how tortured he is by this curse and how he was lonely and other crap like that," Anna mumbled.
"Lonely?" Will asked, his eyes growing with concern.
Anna gave him a questioning look.
"What does he mean by lonely?" Will asked.
Anna shrugged, afraid to say any more.
"Anna, he doesn't mean to…" Will asked afraid of the answer he already knew. "That filthy bastard." His hands curled into tight fists.
"I don't know what he means to do, Will," Anna said as her voice cracked.
She sunk down to the floor and sat with her knees to her chest. Will looked down at her. His heart panged watching her. He couldn't help her even though his heart told him to put his misery aside and hold her. Will's eyes widened in realization. That something inside him, urging him to get closer to Anna, was his heart. He sunk to the ground, ready to kill himself from his ignorance.
'How could I be so stupid?' he thought to himself, burying his face in his hands.
Anna watched Will sink to the floor. He looked angry with himself. He looked defeated and confused. Anna's heart lurched again. She quickly shook it off. She knew she had no chance of ever being with him no matter how much she loved him. Love…
'Do you love him?' a voice in the back of her head asked as though trying to taunt her with making leaving Will even harder. She was afraid of her own answer, afraid of how hard she could make living without Will be.
'Yes,' she answered herself in her head. She hated her answer. She wished it wasn't true but she knew that she could only fool herself for so long, no matter how painful the truth was.
……………………….
The brig of the Black Pearl was silent for what seemed like hours. There was little light and no windows. Everyone lost track of time. Anna and Will sat on opposite sides of their cell, afraid to look at each other or talk to each other.
Will tried to clear his mind of his surroundings and it would always wander to the godforsaken spit of land that Elizabeth was marooned on. He thought of his last look at her and lost all hope of ever seeing that face that intrigued him so. He thought of what his life would be like if everything he had ever hoped for came true, hoping it would make him happier. Although he was happier when thinking of such fantasies, he still didn't seem whole. Something was missing in them. Everything he wanted was right before him, but an empty space in his heart still wasn't filled. A longing and desire that his heart knew but his mind didn't, wasn't found. His happiness fell away to the dark brig where he awaited his death, less than a day away.
……………………….
Anna braved the ache in her heart to come and looked over to Will. She couldn't take the longing anymore. He looked run down as though all his happiness was drained out of him. She knew what he was thinking about.
'Elizabeth…' a voice in the back of her head taunted. Her heart panged in sadness at the name. But she also knew that wasn't the only thing he was thinking about. Any hope was gone from him. If he even escaped from the cell, there was nowhere he could go. He was going to die, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
The thought made tears prick at the corner of her eyes. She couldn't stand thinking he would be gone forever. He was the only one that could make her think she was worth more than just a prize that would win a man a good fortune. He made her believe there was more to life than tea parties and pretty dresses. Without him, she would be forced to live the high-class life she was destined to the day she was born.
She sighed looking back away from Will, stopping her mind from the fantasies that flooded it every time she would think of his name.
……………………..
Two pirates, one with a wooden eye and another that was short and stocky, came down to the brig with two mops and a bucket of what looked like tar, most likely for fixing the serious leakage problem that flooded the brig. It was the next day. Will was restless, Anna could tell. He paced the cell and gripped the bars with white knuckles.
"Will…" Anna said startling him with the sound of her voice. She hadn't spoken since they were first thrown into the brig.
He looked over at her. "Yes?" he answered.
"Are you okay?" Anna asked nervously. "You don't seem yourself."
Will sighed and let go of the bar on the cell and relaxed his hands. He shook his head in a way to stop the conversation. Anna pressed on though.
"Will…" she pleaded quietly.
He looked up at her with sad eyes. He turned towards the pirates and shook off his emotions.
"You knew William Turner?" Will asked one of the pirates. He stopped mopping the floors and glared at Will with his eerie yellow eyes.
"Ol' Bootstrap Bill, we knew 'im," he started, "Never sat well with Bootstrap what we did to Jack Sparrow, the mutiny and all, said it wasn't right with the code. That's why he sent off a piece of the treasure to you as it were. He said we deserved to be cursed…and remain cursed."
The other pirate snickered. "Stupid blighter," he said smiling and leaning on his mop next to the other pirate.
"Good man!" Gibbs said from his cell as the whole crew of the Interceptor listened to the story.
"Well, as you can imagine, that didn't sit too well with the captain," he said smiling evilly.
"That didn't sit to well with the captain at all. Tell 'em what Barbossa did," the other pirate said laughing.
"I'm telling the story!" the first pirate yelled. "So what the captain did, he strapped a cannon to Bootstrap's bootstraps."
"Bootstrap's bootstraps," the other pirate snickered.
"The last we saw of ol' Bill Turner, he was sinkin' to the crushing black oblivion of Davy Jones' Locker," the first pirate said evilly. Will leaned down on the bars and looked to the floor as he found out that his father was dead.
Anna walked up behind Will and placed a hand on his shoulder. Will reached up and touched her hand and held it tightly.
"Course it was only after that we learned we needed his blood to lift the curse," the pirate telling the story said losing the evil sound in his voice.
"That's what you call ironic," the second pirate said as they both started laughing.
Will and Anna were oblivious to their jokes. "I'm so sorry, Will," Anna whispered.
He squeezed her hand a little more before standing up. He turned to face her. He gave into the pressure of his heart to hold her. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest. He rested his chin on the top of her head. Anna buried her face into his chest and held onto him tightly. They jumped apart when a loud clang of metal echoed through the brig. The door of their cell was opened.
"Come on, boy," a pirate said pulling him out of the cell. He closed the door but Barbossa stopped him.
"Bring the lassie, too," Barbossa said smiling at Anna. "I'd like to have a woman nearby when the curse is lifted."
Anna cringed at the thought and moved to the back of the cell trying to stay as far away as she could from Barbossa.
The pirates smiled. "Aye captain," one said and opened the cell. He walked in and grabbed Anna's arm forcefully, yanking her out of the cell.
"Come on, luv. There'd be no sense to be hiding," the pirate sneered.
"Leave her alone," Will said, anger clearly rising in his voice.
"I thought I told ye that we were done with negotiations, Mr. Turner," Barbossa said shutting Will up. He looked back at Anna. His eyes were apologizing but Anna smiled back weakly.
"I'll be fine, Will," Anna said quietly as they were pushed out on the deck.
"Shut up!" the pirate holding her yelled.
Pirates bound Will and Anna's hands with rope and were pushed into the boat with Barbossa. Most of the crew got into their own boats and came ashore also with them. The sky was dark. The air was cold and foggy, unusual for the Caribbean.
They rode in silence into the caves of the Isle de Muerta. Will looked at the familiar sights of crabs, skeletons and gold littering the caves. The only light came from the torches the pirates held. He looked at Anna who was nervously wringing her hands in each other. She looked up at him. He smiled weakly gaining a partial smile from Anna.
They looked away from each other as they heard a cheer from the pirates. The boats were beached and the pirates eagerly hopped out of the boats. A pirate grabbed Anna's arm and pulled her out of the boat. He didn't wait for her to catch her balance. She tripped on the side of the boat and nearly fell into the water. Will caught her arm and steadied her.
"Thanks," Anna smiled.
A pirate pushed her forward and into the opening of the cave where the chest lay.
"No reason to fret, just a prick of the finger, a few drops of blood," a pirate said pushing Will past Anna.
"No mistakes this time. He's only half-Turner, we spill it all!" another pirate said and pushed Will forward even more.
"Guess there is reason to fret," the first pirate said and started laughing.
"Shut up," Anna said glaring at the pirates.
"What? Don't want us to poke fun at yer lover, eh?" the pirate snickered.
Anna stopped short. "He's not my lover," Anna said glaring at the pirates even more.
"Maybe not, but ye want to be, don't ye?" he asked and laughed pushing her forward through the crowd of pirates watching as Barbossa brought Will behind the chest of Aztec gold.
The pirates started chanting. Anna was now in front of the crowd, facing Will. He looked down at her and smiled weakly. She smiled for a split second back. She watched Barbossa take a knife out of his belt and raise it in the air, beginning a speech.
"Begun by blood, by blood un-" he began but was stopped suddenly as the chanting stopped along with it.
A/N: Ahhh! My chapters are getting shorter and shorter! I've got to make them longer! Hope you liked this chapter anyway. I did know the pirates names but Anna and Will don't and this chapter's mostly from their point of view so I didn't put the names down. Please review!
