Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: I'm sort of in a rush to end this story before 11th grade starts and slaughters the hell out of me…and I'm really praying that inspiration doesn't fail me now. Lucky for all ya'll that I watched Pirates of the Caribbean today, and since I went on the RIDE in California, I'm re-enthused about PotC. Anyway, here comes a milestone: Chapter 35. We're back at Port Royal and awaiting the clashing between the Swann sisters, huzzah!

1.

The journey back to Port Royal was a quick one, peaceful and uneventful. My sea legs, it seemed, would never leave me, as I felt quite at home on the tiny boat that boasted the name Titan. Seeing as how Will and Jack had sailed the giant Interceptor together, it was a mystery to me why all three of the men escorting Mary and myself back to Port Royal were needed to sail the Titan. Then again I hardly understand the ways of men and suspect I never shall know the reasoning behind the madness.

We spent a large part of the night on the deck of the ship, staring up at the stars and listening to the slap of the ocean on the hull of the boat. Land may be beautiful, but there is never a sight quite like the open sea - and the open sky. When the moon is out, it sends shards of light across the ocean on the waves, like the very echoes of stars; they are just as unreachable as their counterparts in the sky.

The dolphins that had first joined us had gone off sometime in the middle of the day, but the speed that they graced us with was not diminished in the slightest. With them gone I felt an odd sense of loss and loneliness, and the ocean became a strange sort of limbo. Part of it was heavenly - it was wonderful to feel the sting of saltwater on my face again. Another part of me felt more than usual the unsteadiness beneath my feet as the sea rocked us. It was troublesome, because never before had I been so aware of the movement. Will was here and I was happy, but things seemed different to me now. I told myself that it would just take some getting used to, to make the transition from being his best friend to his fiancé to finally his wife - with everything that being a wife entailed.

Thankfully, Will did not pursue his natural rights as my husband although that might have been because there was no place for him to do so. Mary and I slept in the cabins alone - the Commodore insisted on Mary sleeping separate from the men, and since she was frightened to sleep without the company of a woman, I had to stay with her. It wasn't that she didn't trust the Commodore, First Mate Gillette, or Will, but it wasn't proper for an unmarried woman to sleep alone. I believed this to be true. My sister and I, when we weren't of mind to murder each other, had always shared a room. There was less of that of late because it seemed Elizabeth and I were always about to kill each other.

On the third day of sailing as I headed up to the deck to do nothing but breathe fresh air - I still wasn't a very good sailor but the Commodore had been so kind as to not make me swab the deck - I saw a tiny speck on the horizon that Gillette kindly informed me was Port Royal. "We'll be there by this evening, if not earlier, Miss Swann," he said with a respectful nod of his head. I stared at him, taken aback. He and the Commodore hadn't been properly respectful since they had reached the island. They were always ready with one quip or the other, which Gillette had assured me was due to the lack of a real crew, or, he added with a teasing grin, a real mission. He confided to me that Commodore Norrington was hardly the stiff-necked prude that he pretended to be, to which I scoffed at. But it seemed that indeed without a crew and having completed his mission, the Commodore had become something almost resembling human.

Mary was quite taken with him.

She never said anything, of course, but it took her at least two hours after she awoke to fix her hair properly and make sure every stitch of her borrowed dress was in place before chancing a stroll up to the deck. She still turned a bit green whenever she did, but it actually worked to her advantage. Whenever she looked less than healthy, the Commodore glued himself to her side the way a nanny might. I found it rather disturbing, but Mary seemed to enjoy it.

Gillette and Will were left to tend to the sailing whenever the Commodore was preoccupied, so I resumed my stay in the crows' nest, still my favorite place on any sailing vessel. This morning, however, the Commodore called me down.

"We shall be at Port Royal within a few hours' time, Miss Swann," he began. Both the Commodore and Gillette didn't seem to find an island wedding quite satisfactory, and still insisted that until I was married on Port Royal, I would be Miss Swann. "As lovely as you look in whatever animal you are wearing, I think you have shocked the general public of Port Royal one too many time. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of bringing you a proper dress. I'm sure Miss Porter will help you get dressed but I do suggest that you wait until we are closer to the Port."

"Why's that?" I asked bluntly.

"To put it delicately, Miss Swann, I do not know what state the dress would be in when we reach Port Royal, if you put it on too early," he said snobbishly, adjusting our course. Somewhere along the way he and Gillette both had swapped their powdered white wigs for common sailor's hats, and they both looked generations younger. It surprised me to learn that underneath his ridiculous wig, the Commodore had chestnut brown hair a few shades lighter than Will. And Gillette's hair was nearly as vibrant at Mary's!

"Of course, Commodore," I said, fumbling a curtsy in the narrow island dress. "I take it upon myself to remind you to put on your wig before we reach the Port, else you want everyone to know what fine brown locks you have to your credit, sir." Commodore Norrington smiled vaguely. "Of course, Miss Swann."

I stayed on deck for hours, watching the tiny speck that was Port Royal grow. It grew in relation to the tenseness I was feeling in my stomach - I didn't know how my father would respond once I got back, but I was sure it wouldn't be good. And of course we must hurry up the wedding, for propriety's sake. It would look suspicious if the proper amount of time was forsaken in planning my wedding - then the townspeople would certainly know that something was amiss, and my name would be smudged. But I still did not know whether or not I was with child, and if we waited too long I would be showing signs of pregnancy too early in my marriage.

"Oh, bother," I said anxiously under my breath. How would I keep the events that had come to pass from my father? It was usually very easy to keep things from him, the poor dear wasn't very bright. This, however, all seemed unavoidable. He would certainly find out that I had acted like less of a lady and more of a pirate since leaving. If he ever found out just how much I was like my mother, it might just ruin him.

"What's wrong, my love?" Will asked, standing next to me. I sighed. "Oh, Will, we've really made a mess of things." I put my face in my hands and he drew me closer. "What are you talking about, little wife?" he asked. I shrugged him off angrily. "Oh don't call me that, William! I would have thought you of all people would have at least a little respect for your wife!" I snapped. He looked shocked, and then angry. I readied myself for a fight.

"What should I call you then, if you aren't my wife?" he snapped. "How about my name, Will! None of this 'wife' this, 'wife' that rubbish. I wont have it, Turner! I'm still a person even though I'm married to you!"

The Commodore and Gillette were watching with interest. I was anxious and frightened and ready to rage. "Like I'm some sort of pet, hmm. I was worried about this, now what will we do?" I muttered under my breath, sending Will seething. I couldn't believe the nerve of him! From being my best friend, my equal, he diminishes to calling me 'wife' like I'm some sort of doll! Oh ho, I think not, William Harold Turner!

"Perhaps you should go below, Miss Swann. Send Mary up here so you and Mr. Turner may have your privacy," Commodore Norrington suggested. "Very good, Commodore," I said stiffly, storming off to the cabins. "Mary, the Commodore wants you," I snapped. She leapt off the bunk she was sitting on and fluttered about fixing the bows on her dress and every perfect strand of red hair.

"Good Heavens, woman, just go!" I said tiredly, and she cast a disgruntled look at me before hurrying up the ladder to the deck.

"Christina, what's the matter with you?" Will asked. I fought down the urge to shriek with anger and vexation. Marriage, it seemed, did not suit Will and I very well, a thought which both terrified me and nearly broke my heart in two.

"We're hardly married at all and you're acting like you can't bear the sight of me."

"Hardly married, Will? What the bleeding hell d'you mean by that?" I demanded. He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. "Well, it was an island wedding, so I suppose it barely counts -"

"Barely counts?" I was shrieking now. "So you just have your way with me like I'm some Tortuga tramp after a marriage that barely counts for anything? Do you know the amount of trust that I gave to you - I broke the first rule that I was ever taught, ever! I'm probably damned to Hell, and if I'm with child by you, Will, whatever reputation I had is gone! The child will be a bastard and its father acknowledges our only marriage as something that barely counts! Oh, God!" I sat down on a bed, shaking. Far too much had changed since I left Port Royal, and all of it hit me at the same inopportune moment. I wished severely that Jack was here.

"Christina, that isn't what I meant!" Will finally sounded more like himself, but it didn't register with me. I pressed a hand to my heart and tried to breath slowly.

"Do explain yourself then, Will, before I lose my head completely."

"You've already done that," he muttered under his breath, coming to sit next to me but thankfully refraining from touching me. I might erupt into spiky shards if he tried to. "Of course the marriage counts, my love, you should know by now that I speak out of my arse half that time," he said bluntly, finally sounded like the blacksmith I had known and loved for eight years.

"Oh, thank God, Will, you're finally sounding like yourself again." I slumped over and leaned on him tiredly, wanting to forget everything that had happened between us. I was certain that things would be find once we returned to Port Royal and had an official marriage. Once it was all written down on paper and witnessed by the entire bloody town, I'd feel safe. I declined to think of what it would be like to see Elizabeth again, or how many things there would be to worry about once we got back to the Port. There were too many things to worry about. The huge pile of orders Will would have to get through before we could get married, where we would live, if Will would accept a house from my father as part of a dowry, or if he would be a numbskull and insist on paying for our own house himself. I was even less eager to think about where my place would be in this glorious marriage. Certainly we wouldn't have any servants or cooks, and so that would be something I would have to learn to do. I was quite sure Will wouldn't accept servants from my father, but perhaps the old cook from the mansion could teach me a thing or two so that Will and I didn't starve.

"Oh, Will, we've got so much to do! We must get married at Port Royal right away; oh, how people will talk, meddlesome bothers that they are, the lot of them! I hate them, I truly do!" I said, wringing my hands nervously. Will kissed my hair and took my hand, our rings glinting cheerfully up at us. "Shh, don't worry about it, love. When have you ever cared for what people say?"

"Oh, how could you understand! It isn't myself I'm worried about, I know they think I'm a pirate or worse! It's my father - he couldn't stand it if I ended up like my mother. She broke his heart and there were rumors around her that she was - well…"

"What, Christina?"

"Well, that she was a - you know, a loose woman."

"You aren't a loose woman, Christina!" Will sounded stern. I stuck out my chin and glared up at him. "Don't you go bullying me, Mr. Turner, it wont work! Of course I'm not. You know I'm not, so do not even try to look menacing!" Will looked thoughtful.

"Your father loves you very much, Christina -"

"Yes, as much as a man can love a daughter who isn't Elizabeth," I snorted. Will rolled his eyes and continued.

"I'm sure he will just be glad to have you home. We will get married with as much speed is necessary but if you tell me that you care for what people will say, then you are not the woman I fell in love with."

I opened my mouth angrily, but Will glared hard at me. I stared past him as I thought about what he said. I had always prided myself on not caring what other people thought of me, but perhaps I really had. I had always cared that people thought Elizabeth was the prettier one, if I hadn't cared then I would never have been so jealous of her. Caring about that, however, never got in my way when I wanted to do something. I'd wanted to learn how to swordfight, and I'd gone out and done that. To hell with whatever consequences I might face if anyone found out I'd been hopping around, advancing, retreating, lunging and parrying in a shift with the blacksmith's apprentice.

I had left Port Royal to try to break some of the tameness that Will had placed on me, and instead I was becoming more domesticated than I had been since leaving! Had I lost my head completely because some man had made love to me before the papers were signed and the ink was dry? Indeed, the ink hadn't even been written yet, as it were. The quill hadn't even been made! But unless I went about boasting my island wedding, nobody would know. And if they would talk, then let them talk!

I raised my hand to the blue tattoo on my shoulder. Barely three days from that precious island and I had all but failed Naneth and Maurya and Taeryn already. Where was the strong raven-girl they had allowed to join their way of life, to marry by their customs? She certainly wasn't this thin-blooded idiot worrying about having bastard children and what the bloody townspeople would say. How ashamed my mother would be of me! My mother, who followed her heart right out of Port Royal, crushing hearts around her on her way out, too brave, too proud, and too real to stay where she was in chains. I would not be her; I would not, I was sure of it, abandon my family like she did. But I would not lay down and be bullied by the wagging tongues of people I did not know nor did I care about.

"What a fool I've been, Will," I said, turning to him and kissing him hard on the lips. He was so taken aback that we fell onto the bunk with me atop, but for once I was not awkward or embarrassed or timid. I kissed Will with a passion that I hadn't known I could possess.

Moments later, when we broke apart, Will spoke. "You are a confusing woman, Christina, but whatever led you to do that," he indicated how I was breathless with my lips inches from his, "I certainly hope it doesn't leave you anytime soon."

"Oh, shut up, Will."

1.

Elizabeth turned and ran back to the carriage. She must tell her father that Christina was coming home! What a celebration it would be. Governor Swann was getting to old to have to face his daughter getting kidnapped by or running off with pirates. His daughters, mercilessly like their mother as they were, seemed intent on breaking his heart or making it rebel against his body and kill him.

"Father!" she cried, running into the mansion and ignoring how her hair came undone from the neat arrangement of curls it was in. She pulled her hat off anxiously and swore under her breath when its delicate bow tangled into a knot under her chin. With a yank, the silk ribbon tore, but Elizabeth was beyond herself now. Christina was home! Finally, she apologize and have her sister back! Finally, those idiot rich families would stop talking about her like she was that hussy, Ariel. Finally, the townspeople would stop looking at her as if they'd like to throw mud at her when she walked by. And finally, best of all, Jerome would stop looking at her with his stupid rogue twinkle in his eyes. Oh, how she hated him!

"Father, oh do hurry! Christina's back, she's here! They're finally back! We must hurry down to the docks!" Elizabeth paced back and forth in the atrium of the mansion wishing the old man would hurry his step a bit. Christina was his eldest daughter after all, and she'd been gone for months.

"I'm coming, my girl, I'm coming." He ambled down the stairs and Elizabeth was struck with how old he looked. She suddenly wanted to rage against Christina for the stress she'd caused their dear old father by running off. She wanted to rage, too, at the pirates who had kidnapped her earlier in the year, for that too had surely taken a toll on Governor Swann. "Do, hurry, Papa, we must be there to meet her!"

Governor Swann looked up at the girlhood endearment that Elizabeth had uttered, seemingly unaware of it. "Alright, love, I'm here. I daresay the carriage is waiting?" He suddenly felt a good deal happier. His eldest daughter was back, and from the looks of it his youngest was set on making amends. It had taken ten years, but perhaps his two best girls were on the way to become something like friends again. He certainly hoped so; it was ever so tiring to hear them harping at each other every day for ten years. Some peace and quiet in the house would do him some good.

"Now you listen to me, Elizabeth. Christina may not be happy to see you, and knowing her she's been through all sorts of adventures." Governor Swann suppressed a shudder to think of all the adventures his dark haired daughter was likely to get into. Oh, how people would talk! Luckily no one from England kept to check on Port Royal anymore. If they were to know how Governor Swann couldn't keep his own two daughters in check, the post would surely be taken from him. Then again, they did know of his superb job quelling the pirate threat earlier in the year. He had been calm in the face of danger, even though the life of his youngest was at stake. That certainly had earned him some points in England. He was really set for the rest of his life, then.

Elizabeth, instead of looking hurt like he suspected she might, was looking stonily reserved. "I know, Papa. I intend to apologize, even though I know it's not likely she will accept my apology. Oh, Father, I am so very sorry for what I did! I realized now that I don't even love Will, really. I thought I did, but he was telling the truth when he told me he didn't love me… and I tried to take him from her anyway."

"Oh, you are so young, Elizabeth. In time, all these hurts will be forgotten. In time, all hurts are," the Governor said sadly, thinking of his Belynda once again. With Christina gone, he could hardly remember what Belynda St. Paul's face had looked like. Sometimes he could convince himself that the blonde-haired, powdered woman in the portrait actually was Belynda. Sometimes he could convince himself that she hadn't run away, that she'd died in childbirth with his daughters, Elizabeth and Christina. He could never really convince himself that she loved him, though, and that is what stung the deepest.

Elizabeth seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Are we going to tell Christina about Mother, Papa?" she asked, tempering the unpleasant topic with the sweetness of calling him 'Papa' again. Governor Swann sighed. "Oh, I suppose we must. She does have a right to know, after all. And since you told her that the woman in the portrait isn't your mother as she naturally was, I'm afraid Christina's been more fascinated than ever with Belynda. I wont be surprised if she set off to find her."

Elizabeth frowned, disgruntled. Why anyone would want to go looking for a hussy like Belynda St. Paul was beyond her. The carriage jolted unpleasantly, and Elizabeth hit her elbow against the door. She rubbed it hard, and chewed her lip thoughtfully. She supposed she should make some allowances where her mother was concerned, but she didn't feel inclined to. Lost love or not, Belynda should not have run off on her family, no matter how lukewarm she felt towards her husband. She had two daughters to take care of! And now with her mother gone and her father - her real father - never having been in her life, Elizabeth was sorely confused. She decided to forget about them both, not think about them until answers presented themselves. And she wasn't about to go hunting for people who didn't care enough to stay around, or at least come back to give her some answers. No, that was for Christina. Elizabeth Swann had a father, and he was sitting across from her in this damnably bumpy carriage. No matter who that silly hussy had been with before her marriage to the Governor.

The carriage stopped abruptly and the driver got out to pull down the steps and open the door. He helped Governor Swann out of the carriage first and then offered Elizabeth a hand down. In the same moment, the Commodore was helping Christina up onto the dock. The tiny boat that he'd taken out sailing to find her, the Titan, was anchored a few paces away, and a tiny row boat had had to take them closer into the harbor,After months of being apart, the Swann sisters' eyes, dark brown to light, met.

A/N: Damn it. This story keeps getting longer and longer. I want it to end already! I want to start something new! R/R please.