Will never felt complete unless Elizabeth was in his arms, depending on him. She hadn't hugged him like that since before their trip to the future, when she still loved him. Now they were together, but for how long? Soon she would be running back to Jack, throwing her arms around him, greeting him with a kiss.
Will forced these thoughts from his mind as he comforted Elizabeth, forcing himself to just enjoy the moment. When Elizabeth finished crying, Will turned her to face him. He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her honey-brown eyes. He did not want to get too close; his breath smelled like rum and, besides, Elizabeth had Jack; she didn't need Will anymore.
Elizabeth let Will wipe the tears from her face. She smiled sadly and reached up to wipe similar tears from his face. Will, confused out of his mind, decided to take a chance and brought his lips up to meet hers. Elizabeth was so upset and so weak that she didn't protest, but she didn't kiss back, either. Will, realizing this, pulled away and looked at her with sadness in his heart.
Elizabeth, unsure of what to think, got up silently and left. She slipped into her room and bolted the door shut. She lay down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, lost deep in thought. She knew that Will still had feelings for her, but did she still fancy him? She tossed this thought around a few times in her head before she finally drifted off to sleep.
Captain Jack Sparrow, meanwhile, was having thoughts of his own- on Elizabeth. He guessed that he had hurt her, but he didn't think that he had hurt her so much that she would turn back to her old love, Will. Jack, unable to concentrate on his map anymore, mulled things over. He sympathized and admitted to himself that she had a pretty good reason for being upset; he hadn't thought that her own name was important enough for him to bother recalling. And it sure didn't help that he had waved her off like she was nothing.
She was something, he knew. He had never been the one to find a girl and stick with her; he liked to keep his playing field open. Elizabeth should be no different, he thought to himself. But still, it had hurt a lot when he glanced out of the window of the Captain's Quarters and saw Elizabeth kissing Will. She had left after that, for reasons unknown to Jack.
I am her heart's choice, Jack thought to himself, but it didn't seem to help much. I guess her heart has made another choice.
Jack reached behind him and to a box of slightly wrinkled oranges that he had nicked from Tia Dalma's house, peeled one, and ate it. He had squeezed them, sucked them, and mixed them with rum, but he could still not re-create the delicious taste of orange soda that he had experienced in the 21st century.
Feeling like he needed to let out some steam, he grabbed a pistol from his dresser and went to find the undead monkey.
Will, instinctively, reached for a bottle of rum, then sighed, pulling his hand back. He brought himself up and went to wash his face in the basin of water near the privy. He splashed water in his face and stared at his reflection in the tub. He'd hated who he'd become. His hair was tangled and his eyes were bloodshot. He sniffed himself and detected the rank stench of rum and vomit.
Realizing that he had to make several changes in his life if he ever wanted Elizabeth back, he bent over the basin and washed his hair. When he was finished, he grabbed his shiv (a small knife) and cut his hair to a reasonable length and combed it to a presentable state. He turned the knife blade at an angle and shaved. Making sure no one was around, he stripped down and scrubbed himself clean, then changed into clean clothes.
Looking good and smelling fine, he was set to find Elizabeth until he realized that his breath was still disgusting. He crawled around the cabins a bit, before finally locating a single piece of gritty soap. He got it to a lather and ran some of it over his teeth and tongue, gagging. He rinsed and spit off the side of the deck and into the water below.
Screwing up all his courage, he knocked on Elizabeth's bedroom door. There was no answer; he knocked again, more furiously this time. A groggy voice answered, "Go away; I'm asleep."
"I know that you are not, Ms. Swann," Will replied. A groan was heard, then the shuffle of feet and the unbolting of a latch and Will was met by a very red-eyed Elizabeth.
She looked uncomfortable. She was about to ask him to leave, when Will piped up, "We need to talk, Ms. Swann."
"Please," she beckoned him inside with a small wave of her hand. "And call me Elizabeth, Will."
Will stepped smartly into the room. "No, under the circumstances, I think it is best that I call you Ms. Swann, and that you refer to me by my surname as well."
Elizabeth, slightly taken aback, gave a small nod. "As you wish, Will- I mean, Mr. Turner."
"I just want to say," Will thought about his words carefully as he said them. "That I completely respect your decision to choose Jack over me, as I only want you to be happy, Ms. Swann. I hope you two will be very happy together, and I wish you the best of luck." He forced a smile and turned briskly on his heel to leave. "Oh, and one more thing, Ms. Swann." He pulled out the cloth wrapped around the rings that he had found outside. "I see that you removed the rings. As is best, I suppose, but they did hold such fine memories." He tossed them to her and left.
Elizabeth slid them under her pillow as she went to find something for dinner.
The pirates returned happily with stomachs full of food and rum. They had brought some back with them, of course, and Elizabeth had managed to mooch some delicious beef and a couple of pieces of bread off of some of them. Will, after being offered some ale, made sure to refuse it altogether and instead eat some hard biscuits.
After a week of continuous drinking, Will found that he couldn't just stop cold turkey, so he took a sip here and a sip there, just enough to make his migraines go away. He woke up sweating and screaming in the middle of the night with pounding headaches. He often had to rush to an empty bucket to throw up, or to the basin of water to splash himself in the face and wipe his brow.
Elizabeth was pleased at the sudden change in Will's attitude, apart from the fact that he insisting on calling her Ms. Swann.
A couple of nights after the stop at the port, Elizabeth bolted straight up in bed, awakened by the sound of men and guns on the main deck. Someone pounded on the door, begging her to get up but to stay in her room and out of the way of the battle, unless the ship was sinking, when it would be proper for her to leave.
Elizabeth rushed around, grabbing her belongings and throwing them into a chest, in case they were forced to abandon ship. She pulled on her pirates garb and threw the door open, where she was met by a very worried looking Will Turner.
"Please, Ms. Swann. You must stay here. It's for your own good," he pleaded.
"Not bloody likely," Elizabeth stuffed her hair inside her hat, grabbed a sword, and went to join the battle.
Captain Jack Sparrow was quite occupied with two English Navy officers who were trying to get him in chains. He kneed one of them in the gut and flipped over the other, grinning as he stepped backward. "Sorry, mate. Captain Jack Sparrow don't do chains."
He sprinted away, thinking he was free. He met Gibbs and barked orders at him, telling him to take the ship if he could; sink it if he must.
"Aye, sir," Gibbs rushed off.
For some reason, the officers seemed intent of getting Jack in handcuffs. Jack evaded them as much as he could, getting smoke in his eyes from the cannon blasts, slipping on the bloody deck.
Jack tripped over the dead body of one of his crewmates (impaled with his own sword). Jack removed the cutlass from the corpse and brandished it at his aggressors. Thinking quickly, one of them kicked Jack directly between the legs. The Captain gasped and collapsed to the ground, remembering that he had used that same technique on a man named Nott when he was in the 21st century.
One of the Englishmen grabbed Jack and pinned his arms behind his back. Jack heard the clink! sound he had heard so many times before. He grimaced; they had finally gotten Jack Sparrow in chains.
On of the younger men turned to the obvious leader of their group and asked, "Should we take him back or toss him in the boat?"
The other Englishman's upper lip curled. "Seeing as this is Jack Sparrow-"
"Captain Jack Sparrow," Jack interrupted angrily. "And what do you say I give you an orange and we call it even. Eh, mates?" He raised his eyebrows, attempting to buy himself a bit of time.
"Throw him in the boat," the Navy officer said, and Jack found himself being lifted up tossed in a small rowboat with no oars. Beside him, a small stack of explosives sat.
"Oh Bugger," he whispered under his breath.
Elizabeth stopped dueling with a sailor long enough to gaze out at the water and see one of the older officers push it out and toss a lit match into the boat.