Elizabeth woke to find the pillow sticking to her cheek. The cruel realization that she had sobbed until she'd cried herself to sleep struck her heart. The cruel realization that Will was not warming her side chilled her to the core. His words came back to her, screaming accusations in her head and she shut her eyes. The cruel realization that her husband placed no trust in her was too much to bear.

Lying there on her side in a dark cabin on a bobbing pirate ship without her husband or her children choked her. Elizabeth sputtered, her throat tight. Air refused to find and fill her lungs. She couldn't breathe. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't breathe. Gasping hard, she bolted upright.

Wrapping her robe around her body, Elizabeth stumbled in the dark, fumbling to find the door. Its handle met her fingertips at long last and she wrenched it open and tore up the steps as fast as her feet could carry her. She tripped on the ledge of the last one. It sent her fast forward onto her hands and knees. Not being able to see for the tears, she lay there until the pain in her knees faded enough to stand. When she did, the din in her ears was deafening. She clapped her hands over them. Eyes squeezed shut, the screaming and the sobbing and the clang of steel roared in her head.

Steady hands caught her arms and shook her.

She shook her head.

They shook her harder.

When she opened her eyes, they were too blurry to see through. She blinked. The noise still pounding in her head, she felt like screaming. Had she been able to breathe, she would have screamed as loud as she possibly could.

Hands yanked hers from her ears. "Miss Elizabeth!"

She shook her head and gasped, recognizing the boy's voice. Isaac, she knew, would help her. But where had he come from? He hadn't been aboard the Pearl, had he? Wouldn't he have already tried to calm the storm if he had been? The questions reeled in her head. She shivered, reaching for her throat. She clawed desperately at it, trying to loosen something that would allow her the air she could not get. Dizziness was setting in and she wondered if she was to suffocate scared and alone without the family she so loved by her side.

"Help, now!" Isaac's voice boomed. "Miss Elizabeth can't breathe!"

Just then, the world went black. When light began to filter in again, several mangy pirates, eyes wide and mouths twisted with worry, were staring down at her. Elizabeth blinked.

"Feeling better, love?" Isaac popped into view.

She gasped. All of the pirates reached for her. She shook her head to let them know that she was fine. Well—as fine as one could be when their heart ached so much it felt as if it would tear itself apart. Elizabeth ignored the tears that threatened to come and focused instead on the boy above her. She forced a smile on her face.

"We thought you sailed right off up to heaven," he admitted. His blue eyes saddened. "Would've been a real shame too to lose such a lovely lass to the choirs of charming cherubim."

"How awful!" Elizabeth's eyes twinkled at him up at him. "Flirting with a married woman by cracking a joke about the possibility of her death—is that what London's taught you, Isaac Faust?"

He grinned. "That and a little bit more!"

As the lad helped her up, she couldn't help but notice, despite his youth, the steady strength in his hands. She had always noticed such things being in love with a blacksmith. Every man, she'd found, used his hands in a manner that was unique to only him. Her father's hands were careful and deliberate. James Norrington's hands were precise in all of his work. Jack Sparrow's hands were everywhere. Will's hands, though rough and strong from the grueling hours spent laboring with metal in the smithy, were gentle. And Isaac's hands were the hands of a patient, steadfast young man.

She marveled at that fact, remembering a time when his hands had been smaller, and a great deal weaker, than her own. The little scamp that had long ago sailed into their lives had grown into a young man. Lean like Jack he was, and with the same lively face and dark flowing locks. If she didn't know better she would have thought that the two were of the same bloodline. "You look brilliant!"

"Why thank you, m'lady." Isaac tipped his hat to her. "You're looking quite fetching yourself Elizabeth. What's that look you've on? Fainting sick woman?"

"Something like that, I believe."

"Well at any rate, these fine gentlemen saved your life," he told her, waving at the other pirates. "Or they were willing to. You, however, started breathing soon as you passed out."

"Thank you," she nodded, reaching out to squeeze the filthy hands of all of the men. "You're all good men. All of you, even you, Cotton."

The mute sailor smiled.

"You hear that?" Isaac let out a wolf whistle. "Cotton I think she's sweet on you, man. I might have to be jealous I might!" He laughed as Cotton winked at Elizabeth. His grin grew when the man patted him on the head. He threw an arm around Elizabeth. "Bloody hell Elizabeth! It's good to be home!"

Elizabeth forced another smile, not wanting to ruin his moment. With the way things were on the Black Pearl, it wouldn't be long before someone else did.

"Walk with me?"

Strolling along the deck of the Pearl beside Isaac, Elizabeth pulled the robe tighter around her and let the cool breeze fill her lungs. She was grateful for it. The strange attack earlier worried her, but the beautiful night and lush tropics around them soothed at least a bit of her anxiety. She had allowed the young man to take her arm and chat her up, hoping that his bright voice and demeanor would improve her mood. It had somewhat, especially his stories about London which brought back some of her fonder memories of old. In the days of her youth she and her grandparents had visited the great place a great many times and so she held the city dear to her heart. Isaac's enthusiasm brought the memories back to her, and she was delighted to listen-and to think of another place and time when the problems that she faced were but nothing.

"It was. different," Isaac finished.

They came to a stop and turned to look out over the still waters of the lagoon. The waterfalls, pouring their steady stream of silver into the black waters, filled their gaze. Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, different." She smiled wistfully, thinking of her grandmother delighting in spoiling her in secret with armfuls of boys' clothes, romps through the drunker parts of town, and songs about sailors, pirates, and various other disreputable people. "Why did you leave?"

Isaac turned, blue eyes baffled.

"You seem to have enjoyed London," she explained. "So why did you leave?"

"Aye. It was a good time." He shrugged and looked out over the water again, his gaze sweeping over the perimeter of the midnight green surrounding them. A swirling swarm of fireflies flashed as he turned back to her. "I'll always remember it. But it wasn't my home."

Elizabeth glanced up at him, catching the light of understanding in his eyes. She sighed.

"What's so horrible now that you're dwelling on the fondness of the past?"

"You've always been quick to notice things. And I thank you for your concern," she said, taking his hand and squeezing it in hers. "But I don't wish to spoil your homecoming with my own woes."

"Nothing could spoil it! Nothing!" Isaac plucked her hand off of his with the other and brushed a soft kiss over her fingers. "But if a lady does not wish to speak of her issues, a gentleman pirate such as myself shall not press."

"I am most gracious, Sir Pirate," she laughed, accepting her hand back. "Perhaps you would be so kind as to walk a lady back to her cabin so that she might sleep again before the light prevents her from doing so?"

"But of course, m'lady!" Isaac winked at her and offered his arm. "Anything for a most lovely lass like yourself, Elizabeth." He paused and looked down at her. "Same cabin I presume?"

"Indeed." Elizabeth allowed him to lead her toward it. When they reached the stairs, she let him usher her in front of him. "How did you know leaving London that the Pearl would be here tonight?"

"I didn't!"

At the cabin door, she stopped and turned around to look up at him. "Then."

"We're in Tortuga! I knew someone could tell me where Jack was. Or Alice. Or both." He grinned. "God willing. As luck would have it, I was just about to talk a lass into a room at Jolly's Folly when a rather excited looking fellow came in bawling with his stinking breath about having just spotted the Black Pearl in the bay. 'Course it's always best to take such talk with a grain of salt and all being that rumors and gossip abound 'bout Jack and this ship, but. the smelly fellow mentioned it disappearing right into the rocks so I knew his story was true."

Elizabeth arched a brow.

Isaac grinned. "Hidden passageway. Most useful trick and all the rage in modern piracy! All of the most famous and sought after scallywags are using them."