"No, no, no! You're doing it all bloody wrong!" Jack retracted his hand abruptly and Elizabeth sank like a stone to the bottom. "You're not letting yourself go."

She came up sputtering and frustrated. The salt water stung her eyes and burned her lips. "Why'd you let go?"

"Because you're not listening! You were just lying about, having me do all the work. If you want to swim, luv, you'll have to do it by your ownsies. I won't be there all the time to drag your carcass to shore!"

She huffed. This was most assuredly not fair.

"Just let yourself go, like lying back in your bed." With that, he lay back in the water, his entire body bobbing to the surface. He skimmed along like an empty ship. How could he so easily float when she sank like a cannonball? And why did he look as though he didn't have a care in the world?

Jack flipped over, his bare feet stirring up little puffs of sand in the clear water. "Shall we give it another go, darling?"

She nodded and lay back, feeling his rough hands on her upper and lower back as he supported her. "Just relax. Don't think of nothing weighty, think of a ship in the water." His voice was soft and almost hypnotic, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on the pleasurable sensations of the water lapping her gently and Jack's featherlight touch. This time, however, she didn't think about how utterly wrong this was. She relaxed so much that she didn't even feel Jack withdraw his hands.

"Lovely, isn't it?"

"Mm," she purred. She'd never felt so relaxed, so free, in her life.

"You're floating, you know."

"Albeit with your help, Jack."

"No, sweetheart, all on your own." Elizabeth's eyes popped open to the sight of Jack floating on his back next to her. Her reaction to this shock was to immediately sink. Again.

When she finished scrubbing the stinging water out of her eyes, again, Jack was no where to be seen. She turned towards the beach, figuring he might have gone ashore, perhaps for more rhum. But he was no where to be seen there, either. Panic welled up in her throat. It was a small island, where could he have gone?

"Jack ," she cried. "Jack... Captain Sparrow?" Her voice quivered and raised with her panic as her eyes scanned the shore. He couldn't have drowned, could he?

She was so ensconced in finding him on the shore that she was taken by utter surprised when something strong and tight wrapped around her ankle. She only had a moment to register before whatever it was hauled her off her feet and pulled her under.

Her mouth filled with seawater as she struggled. She had the irrational belief that she was going to be dragged out to sea by an octopus. Hadn't that been what Commodore Norrington had told her? A fanciful tale of a man eating octopus? Suddenly, it didn't seem so fanciful after all. It, whatever it was, wrapped another thick tentacle around her waist and started dragging her towards... the surface? That wasn't right. The Commodore had said it dragged men out to sea to devour them whole.

She dragged a deep breath into her aching lungs as she broke the surface. It was dizzying, the sun glittering off the water and the lightheaded breathlessness. After a moment, she realized that whatever had her by the waist still had her and, not only that, she was pressed against something that felt decidedly solid, like a body. She turned herself around and was face to face with a very wet, very smiling Jack Sparrow.

"Bloody pirate!" she slammed her fist into his chest. "How dare you! How could you? I thought you had drowned or run off or... or..." Her head drooped in defeat, her crown resting against his throat. "You frightened me."

"Where would I go, luv?" The rumble of his voice was soothing against her forehead. "It's not as though I've got a boat hidden away on the back side of the island." His other hand came up to rest in her tangled hair, soothing her like a child. "Sorry for the fright. I forget you're not used to games like that."

She brought her face out of his chest. "I was swimming for a bit, though, wasn't I?" Her eyes, when they met his, glittered with pride.

"That you were, luv, that you were."