Again, unattached and one shot. I guess I'm on a roll with these little pointless things heh. This is JE but not shipper, as so many of mine are. I can't help it if it's just weird and unnatural to write Jack in a shipper light. Read, friends, and tell me what you think!

I disclaim rights to the movie, and this is non-fiction, naturally. Don't ask about the title.

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More Lost

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Elizabeth Swann was gone.

Some said that it was intentional. Others said it was an accident. The rest argued whether it was destiny, or a lie entirely.

Rumors spread like bad luck in such a small, but prominent port town. Within days, so many scenarios were floating around the mansion in which he lived in that the governor didn't know whether to curse his neighbors, or mourn the loss of his daughters.

As far as he honestly knew, Weatherby Swann had lost his daughter to the sea after falling from the battlements, just as she had before. Only this time, apparently there hadn't been a blasted pirate there to save her. Either way, only two weeks after Jack Sparrow nearly escaped a hanging and left the port, Elizabeth Swann disappeared with only her bonnet floating in the harbor. Now that he thought about it, Governor Swann remembered his daughter cursing a corset that day, a mere 48 hours before her wedding to Will Turner. Perhaps she had fainted once again... But that's certainly not what the townsfolk thought.

They let their tongues run wild with dirty lies about his beloved daughter. They went as far as gossiping that the governor had shoved her off of the fort in desperation after failing at trying to talk her out of marrying the blacksmith. Others said that the Commodore had done it, for the very same reasons. The old father really had no idea where the commoners got the time or imaginations to come up with such things.

It had been years now, and they still talked about it. He had overheard one of the new maids questioning in hushed tones whether or not Miss Swann had been carrying a bastard child and had jumped to save face. The older maid answered that no, she hadn't, but rather had been shot dead by the pirate that had nearly escaped a hanging in Port Royal. Another more seasoned maid argued that the same man had pushed her to her death.

The two of them were closer to the truth than anyone would ever really realize, unless of course, they happened to come across the Black Pearl and see for themselves.

Elizabeth Swann had surely jumped. Jumped and free fell so many long feet with her arms wide open, knowing somewhere in her soul that she'd miss the rocks. She'd landed in the cool waters much too quickly, and had struggled for sometime to find the surface after the impact, but soon emerged with a smile. There were no marines coming for her, no spectators peeking over the edge of the fort to see if she'd survived.

And she swam.

The cliff wasn't as big as it seemed to be from the level of the water, and she made it around and into a small cove with a sandy beach within minutes. She left her dress behind and swam in her chemise, not caring anymore if she was seen with bare arms and ankles. Elizabeth stumbled onto the sands and fought to keep her balance after leaving the pull of the water behind. It took her some time to catch her breath before she could continue at any respectable pace, but soon was carefully tiptoeing through a dense forest in her bare feet. With only a few itching spots and splinters, she made it through and lay back in the sand of a second beach to wait. It wouldn't take long, she knew.

The Black Pearl wouldn't dare show her black sails anywhere near any port under the protection of The Crown for some time, but she had been told that someone would fetch her right in the very spot that she was in. She could do nothing but believe it. It had been two weeks to the day since she had watched the Pearl sail away, sitting in one spot atop the fort for hours. "Two weeks, love," she remembered hearing, as crisp and fresh in her memory as if it had just been muttered in her ear. "A cove, some five miles north of yer port. If you're there, you'll be retrieved. If ye aren't... ye aren't."

She was there.

Lying on her back in the hot sands of an empty beach with a smile gracing her features.

Her ears picked up the sounds of an imperfection in the patterns of the quiet waves, and she sat up to see a dinghy approaching her, closer than she had expected. She served Joshamee Gibbs with a wide smile and accepted his help into the boat when he was close enough.

And without a word, she was on her way to The Pearl, and to the life that awaited her there.

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I very possibly might write a follow up to this, with more about 'the life that awaited her there'... but for now lemme know what you think.