As Long as We Both Shall Live
Chapter 3
If Elizabeth hadn't been so busy worrying, she was sure she would have immensely enjoyed the voyage to Tortuga. She had a little experience sailing – James had taken her out on small, rented boats when she had expressed an interest and he had taught her the basics. Working on the Interceptor was an entirely different experience, more challenging and with an element of teamwork that hadn't been so necessary on the smaller boats.
Jack and Will were making deceptively casual small-talk. Her ears pricked up with interest when she heard Will mention his father, in a tone of voice that indicated he expected Jack to know who he was talking about. After a little bit of dancing around the subject, he finally made his point.
"You knew my father." Will said.
Jack seemed to consider for a moment before admitting to it, he went on to describe what he knew of the man which went well until he mentioned that 'Bootstrap Bill' had been a pirate. Will hadn't liked that and an argument had erupted, which mostly involved Jack repeatedly explaining that his father had been a pirate and Will repeatedly denying it.
Elizabeth would not have intervened if Will hadn't taken his sword out. Like it or not, she needed Jack alive if she was going to rescue James. Will was so busy glaring down his sword at Jack that he didn't notice her approach and the sudden and unexpected force of her blade slamming down on his own abruptly knocked the sword from his grasp, much to Jack's amusement.
Elizabeth picked up the sword before Will could make a lunge for it and tucked it into her belt. "You can have it back once you stop trying to kill our guide." She told him. "And you," she directed at Jack, "stop provoking him."
Jack gave a mocking salute. "Yes sir." He then turned a sceptical look on James's sword, that was still held in her grip. "I hadn't realised that swordsmanship was now included along with needlework in a lady's education."
"The two activities share some common ground." Elizabeth said, holding her head high. She wouldn't let herself fall for the bait. "A pointy end is used to stab something. Men make it sound so much more complicated than it is."
Behind her Will made an offended noise and Jack smirked. "What a neglectful education you have received." He bemoaned dramatically. "I have already given young Will here a lesson on fencing, it would be unfair of me not to offer the same to you and clear up your… misconceptions on the matter."
"Ignore his mockery, Elizabeth, you don't need to prove anything." Will said, glaring at the pirate.
Jack held a hand to his chest and put on a theatrical show of offence. "I don't mock." He protested. "I'll have you know, women are perfectly capable of swinging a sword. I've been threatened by many a woman!"
"Why am I not surprised about that." Will retorted.
A fencing lesson wasn't actually a bad idea, Elizabeth mused. She had only ever fought James and she had always thought that he was holding back out of fear of hurting her. One time he had accidentally knocked her over while blocking one of her attacks and he had spent the rest of the evening guiltily fussing over her imaginary bruises. If they were going to be up against actual battle-hardened pirates, she needed some experience against another opponent. She needed to see whether the tricks she had learned would have value in a real fight.
"A lesson might be useful." Elizabeth said with a dismissive shrug. She didn't want to appear too keen. "Especially if Will has already had one."
Jack grinned widely, a wicked glint in his eye. He gestured at the clear area near the central mast, which would give them enough space to spar. Before she could move towards it, Will stepped in front of her, shaking his head. "This is a bad idea. Elizabeth, you could get hurt."
Elizabeth felt a stab of irritation at the young man. "If I was worried about getting hurt, I wouldn't be here at all." She said coldly, pushing past him to face the pirate captain.
Will caught her by the arm. She wrenched it out of his grip and gave him a warning look. He clearly didn't want her to fight and he hesitated a moment before leaning in slightly to hiss a warning. "Be careful, he cheats."
Not much of a surprise, but still something to watch out for. Elizabeth nodded in thanks and stepped closer to Jack. The pirate had his sword out already and he gave a few experimental swings, twirling the blade elaborately in a way that was clearly meant to impress her. With less theatricality, she unsheathed her sword and shifted into position.
As they circled one another, Elizabeth could almost hear James's voice in her ear. "Men will underestimate you. They will be overconfident, and their guard will be down. Take advantage of that."
Without warning, Jack suddenly attacked, lunging low with his blade. Instinctively Elizabeth parried the blow, knocking his sword away from her leg and aimed a slash at his shoulder that he deftly dodged.
"Well, it seems the lady isn't entirely untrained." Jack commented with a smirk, retreating slightly. Elizabeth could have cursed- Jack's first swing had been a test and she had now lost some of the advantage of surprise.
"No matter what happens, stay calm. Fighting emotionally or panicking will worsen your technique and risk giving your opponent an easy opening."
She forced herself to calm. Jack turned to say something to Will, opening up his left side. She seized the opportunity and attacked. Jack was seemingly used to such tactics and was able to deflect her lunge before launching into a quick series of stabs and slashes. He was quicker than she would have expected, but she managed to fend him off.
If Elizabeth hadn't been so determined to prove herself and wipe the smug grin off Jack's face, she would have actually enjoyed the fight. It was exhilarating to face a new opponent, sword fighting on the deck of a ship with the salty sea air whipping around her face. An adventure she had never thought she would ever get the chance to experience.
Her enjoyment dimmed when she remembered exactly why she had gained this opportunity.
Like a shark smelling blood, Jack appeared to detect the slight falter in her movements and increased the onslaught of his attacks. His open smile showed little strain – he was toying with her, not taking her entirely seriously as an opponent.
A plan formulated in her mind. She held off on attacking, focussing instead on deflecting and dodging his attacks, all the while slowly reducing the distance between them. Once she was near enough, she ducked under a sword swing and stamped the heel of her foot down on his instep hard. The blow startled Jack enough that he yelped in pain and she used his momentary distraction to kick his leg out from underneath him, sending him sprawling to the floor.
Holding her sword to his throat, Elizabeth suppressed a grin and waited patiently for him to recover.
"You cheated." The pirate said in disbelief. Will, who had remained surprisingly quiet during the duel, was staring at her open-mouthed with surprise.
She shrugged. "Fighting with honour is for fairy tales and tournaments."
It had been the lesson James had been most keen for her to learn. He had only agreed to teach her swordplay in order for her to be able to defend herself. Survival, he had said, was the only important outcome. It did not matter what she had to do to achieve it.
For a moment she thought Jack might be about the declare the bout void and deny her victory, but instead he erupted in a gale of delighted laughter. "We might make a pirate of you yet, my lady."
Calling Tortuga a cesspool would have been an insult to cesspools, and yet Elizabeth could not find another description for it. Every criminal and man or woman running a dishonest living seemed to have gathered there and Elizabeth found her hand resting on her sword for much of the walk through the pitiful excuse for a port. Will looked just as uneasy as her while Jack seemed completely at home.
Elizabeth averted her gaze when the first elaborately made-up lady of the night approached the group, certain she was about to make some sort of untoward offer to the two men, only to grin when it turned out the woman had a personal grievance against Jack. The grin turned into an outright laugh when the second woman stepped up to deliver another resounding slap.
After that, they went around looking for Jack's choice of quartermaster. They found him passed out drunk in a pigsty and woke him up none-too-gently with two buckets of water ("One for the smell," Will said). She was surprised when she recognised him as Mr Gibbs, a sailor who had served aboard the Dauntless on its voyage to Jamaica. She had not given him much thought since then, dismissing him as one of the many superstitious sailors that called Port Royal home. Even after his change in circumstances, he still eyed her warily as though she was an omen of ill things to come.
Jack's received his third slap of their stay on Tortuga, this time not from a sex worker but from a plainly dressed woman who had come to the same pier as the other crew members that Gibbs had recruited. She seemed a lot more angry than the other women and, as it transpired, for good reason. Jack had "borrowed" her ship in the same way he had "borrowed" the Interceptor.
"You'll get another ship!" Jack blustered in a desperate attempt to placate her.
"A better one!" Will interjected.
"A better one." Jack confirmed.
"That one!" Will said, pointing at the Interceptor, in an obvious attempt at being helpful.
"That one?!" Jack repeated incredulously, before seeing the considering look on Anamaria's face. "Aye, that one." That seemed to win over the woman, and indeed the rest of the crew.
Elizabeth quietly simmered with anger until the pier had cleared to leave her Jack and Will alone.
"The Interceptor isn't yours to give." She hissed furiously at Jack, also sending a vicious glare at Will for suggesting the idea in the first place.
"It is." Jack protested. "I stole it fair and square."
"Commandeered." She corrected acerbically. "Which implies it was to be given back!"
"Did I say that?" He asked, looking across from her at Will. "I don't remember saying that."
Elizabeth bit her tongue before she could deliver another scathing retort. She turned on her heel and marched back to the ship imperiously, leaving the two on the pier.
It would be fine, she reassured herself. As soon as James was rescued, they would come up with a plan to steal the ship back. She might even be able to rope Will in on the scheme if she piled on the guilt enough. It would serve the pirate right to have that which he had stolen thieved back from under his own nose.
Onboard the Interceptor, Jack gave the heading for the Isla de Muerta and they set sail. Elizabeth's heart felt lightened at the fact that they were finally, finally on their way to rescue her husband. Jack had not told the crew of this particular facet of their plan, insisting that his goal was to retrieve the Pearl and revenge himself on Barbossa. She understood why. She doubted they would even have half the current crew if they knew that one of the objectives was to save the Scourge of Piracy, who was determined to destroy their livelihoods.
There was one little niggling worry though. Gibbs had served on the Dauntless and would likely recognise James. What he would do with that information, she did not know. He did not seem the type to be malicious or cruel, but that did not mean that he wasn't friendly with any of the men that James had arrested or killed over the course of his career or how personally he might take any of those losses.
Gibbs and Will became quite friendly over the journey, to the extent that the older sailor told him and Elizabeth about Jack's past and his history with the island and Barbossa. The story of the pistol with one shot that Jack seemed reluctant to use. There was also some absurd tale about Jack trussing up some sea turtles, that Elizabeth immediately dismissed as a ridiculous lie but the more gullible Will seemed to tentatively accept it, even as Jack tried to convince them it involved a rope made of his own hair. Elizabeth scoffed but said nothing, Gibbs had clearly bought the tall tale hook, line and sinker and she wanted to stay on his good side.
It was late when the island finally came into sight, as dark and forbidding as its namesake implied, and not helped by the rays of the setting sun that seemed to bathe it in blood. The rest of the crew was left onboard while Elizabeth, Jack and Will (who seemed reluctant to leave her alone with Jack) went ashore.
They arrived just in time to watch the end of a strange ritual. Elizabeth's heart jumped in her throat when she saw James roughly shoved to his knees besides a large ornately decorated chest filled with gold coins. He was alive and, she looked him over as best as she could given the distance between them, mostly unharmed from what she could see. The man handling him so roughly looked to be the captain, Barbossa.
The assembled crowd was surprisingly quiet for a group of pirates, all utterly engrossed in the show that Barbossa was putting on, only interrupting with cheers at brief appropriate times. His voice echoed clearly across the cavern, so much so that for a moment it crossed her mind that he could have made a good living on a theatre stage if he hadn't turned to a life of crime.
"Gentlemen, the time has come!" He called out, buoyed by triumph. He continued to speak, with little of it making any sense to Elizabeth - a lot of nonsense about a curse finally coming to an end.
"The cursed treasure of Cortes himself." He dragged his hands across a chest filled to the grim with gold coins, the details of which she couldn't decipher from the distance.
"Every last piece that went astray, we have returned. Save for this!" At this he thrust a coin in the air and Elizabeth felt herself grow cold. He could only be speaking of the medallion that she had kept hidden for so long, the one that James had been carrying when he had been taken. This was all her fault.
"Jack, we need to stop them now." She said to the pirate urgently. Who knew what they might do to James now that it seemed they had finally reached their goal.
"Not yet!" He insisted, gaze fixated on Barbossa. "We'll wait for the opportune moment."
Elizabeth's attention was immediately diverted back to the scene in front of them as Barbossa continued his speech. "...Despairing of ever finding the lad." He was now gesturing at James, making a cold shiver run through her. Behind her Jack and Will continued to argue, but she paid them little attention.
"And who among us has paid the blood sacrifice owed to the heathen gods?" Barbossa shouted to his crew.
"Aye!" They called back.
"And whose blood must yet be paid?" Pointed, threatening. Barbossa clearly playing to his crowd even when he already knew the answer.
"His!" They shouted in unison.
What were they talking about? Elizabeth thought frantically. How could James's blood be of any importance to them? Was human sacrifice just part of their sick ritual?
Barbossa whispered something to James, who only glared hatefully back at him. Bound and restrained, there was little else he could do. He pulled out a knife and before Elizabeth could so much as scream, he sliced across the palm of James's hand, put the coin against the wound and flung it straight back into the chest. James looked just as surprised as her and the rest of the pirates at not receiving a more grievous injury.
"Waste not." Barbossa justified. "He might be worth a decent ransom."
Then another strange thing occurred, all the pirates stood their eyes closed as though awaiting something. After a few moments of silence, one of them opened their eyes and glanced around. "Did it work?"
Worried in case something worse might befall James if their ritual had failed somehow, Elizabeth left Jack and Will squabbling and began to sneak her way closer to James's location. She kept her ears pealed to listen to the pirates arguing over not feeling any different and how could they tell whether it had worked or not. A gunshot echoed around the cave and for a moment her blood ran cold as she feared the worst for James, poking her head out briefly to check on him she was relieved to see him unharmed. That lasted only a moment as she watched in stunned horror as a pirate that had been shot in the chest looked at the wound disbelievingly but failed to fall to the ground dead.
"You're not dead." Another pirate pointed out. This promptly led to another round of shouting about the curse still being upon them. Elizabeth took advantage of the chaos to speed up her descent and slip into the water.
"You! Marine!" She felt herself freeze as she heard Barbossa's attention turn back to James. "Your father, what was his name? Was your father William Turner?"
What? The change in questioning left Elizabeth confused. That was the name of Will's father, not James's. Why would they think James was Will?
"While the identity of my father has been of some debate in my family, I don't believe William Turner was one of the suggested candidates."
God damn it James, Elizabeth fought furiously, now was not the time to make a snarky remark.
"Where's his child?" Barbossa railed. "The child that sailed from England eight years ago? The child in whose veins flows the blood of William Turner? Where?!"
When James failed to respond to his questions, a defiant glare his only answer, Barbossa struck him violently across the jaw with his pistol, the blow strong enough to send James falling down the pile of treasure, gems and coins disturbed and filling the air with their delicate tinkling sound.
Now was her chance, Elizabeth realised. The pirates continued to argue, this time over whose fault it was that the wrong man had been brought to the cursed island, and she quietly made her way to the southern side of the treasure horde, moving as silently as she could through the still water. Elizabeth found James slumped over, still looking a little dazed from the brutal blow to the head Barbossa had delivered.
He looked awful. The pirates clearly hadn't trusted him with a razor and the stubble that had grown on his face over the last few days was rapidly turning into a beard. He had been in at least one fight, there was a dark bruise over his cheekbone and another yellowing at his temple. He was wearing the uniform he had been wearing when she had last seen him, sans coat and hat, all torn and dirtied from his less than gentle handling from the crew of the Pearl. His wig was gone as well and his long dark hair was untidy and coming loose from its normally neat queue.
When she finally came into his view, James looked at her as though he didn't believe she was really there, shakily reaching out a hand to touch her as though to confirm she was real. When his fingers met solid skin, his eyes widened in shock and she had to quickly clamp a hand over his mouth in fear he might make a noise that would give them away. Once he calmed, she carefully removed her hand and impatiently indicated for him to follow her. The medallion had fallen beside him and lay there innocently, as though it had not been the cause of all their problems. A split-second, possibly stupid decision made her reach for it and tuck it in the pocket of her breeches.
They quickly and quietly made their way out of the caves, pace speeding up when they heard the outraged furious noises the pirates made as they realised James had escaped their grasp. They came across Will in the corridor, James automatically shifting to place his body in front of hers before he recognised the other man.
"Commodore Norrington." Will greeted awkwardly with a small nod.
"Mr Turner." James returned politely, as though they had bumped into each other in the streets of Port Royal rather than a hidden cave on an island in the middle of nowhere.
"Where's Jack?" Elizabeth asked, looking around for the flamboyant pirate.
"He fell behind." Will said grimly. She wanted to question him further but then James was pulling her along and the sounds of the pirates brought her back to the reality that they were currently trying to flee. They managed to escape with little difficulty and promptly boarded the Interceptor.
Once onboard James shot her a look that demanded explanation as he realised one of the ships under his command was currently being operated by a group of pirates. She did her best to convey an apology with her eyes even as the pirates hastened to make sail and get away from the island before Barbossa and his crew could follow.
Gibbs accepted Will's excuse for Jack's absence easily enough, possibly preoccupied by glaring at James warily. If James recognised the man, he did not say, instead allowing Elizabeth to pull him away to one of the cabins so she could see to the cut on his hand.
Once the door was closed and they were away from prying eyes, Elizabeth flung her arms around James and buried her face in his neck, trying to hold back tears of relief. He hugged her back just as fiercely.
"I thought…" she swallowed heavily. "I was convinced I would be too late. That they would kill you." She felt rather than saw him shake his head.
"I'm sure they wanted to." He pulled away to gently cup her face in his hands. "Gods, Elizabeth. I thought I would never see you again." She placed her hands over his, attempting to reassure him that she was fine and she was here with him.
After a moment he removed his hands from her and she immediately missed the warmth. "Elizabeth, what on earth are you doing here? Why did you come after me? Do you have any idea how much danger you're in?"
"I came after you because I love you, you idiot." Elizabeth snapped heatedly. "What was I supposed to do? Wait home and pine while Groves and Gillette debated the proper protocol for contacting the admiral?"
"Yes." He replied bluntly. "At least then you would have been safe. I could never forgive myself if something happened to you because of me, I'm not-"
"Don't you dare say you're not worth it, James Norrington." Elizabeth interrupted darkly. "If you get yourself killed over something as stupid as that, rest assured I will find a witch to bring you back just so I can murder you myself."
That quietened him for a moment. Looking over his bruises she was a little guilty for being so harsh, but not enough to actually apologise. He could be bull-headed sometimes and needed to be told when he was being stupid.
Before the argument could continue, there was a knock at the door. Elizabeth stifled a sigh and went to see who it was. Will stood there awkwardly.
"Now isn't a good time Will." She tried to tell him, only for James to interrupt.
"No, the timing is fine. I needed to speak to Mr Turner anyway."
"Oh," Will looked surprised, no doubt wondering what James might possibly have to discuss with him when they shared so little in common, "what of, sir?"
"Barbossa." James said grimly. "When his men abducted me from Port Royal, it is because they thought I was you. I believe you're in danger."
"What?" Will sounded horrified and Elizabeth remembered what the pirate captain had been saying in the cave. So focussed on James's safety she had forgotten that Barbossa had mistakenly called James the son of William Turner.
"The things I have seen…" James shook his head as though to dispel a horrifying nightmare. "If I relayed it all you would think I had lost my mind, so I will focus on the most relevant facts. Barbossa and his crew believe they are cursed and the only way they can lift that curse is with your blood and an Aztec coin."
"Why me? … what coin?" Will asked baffled.
"The reason they need you is because of your father," James answered compassionately, "as for the coin…" he hesitated, glancing in her direction.
Trying to push down the guilt, Elizabeth reached into her pocket to reveal the treasure in question. Will's eyes lit up in recognition as he saw the medallion.
"It was a gift from my father." Will confessed, taking it from her gingerly. "Jack Sparrow told me that he was a pirate. He's the reason all this has happened."
"None of this is your fault, Mr Turner." James said. "We have no choice on the families we are born into, and we should not be held accountable for their sins."
Elizabeth had only met Admiral Lawrence Norrington once, but that meeting was enough for her to know just how sincere James's words were meant. Will looked as though he was going to say something more, maybe question James on the details of the curse Barbossa and his crew claimed to suffer from (which Elizabeth was also very curious about), but before he could there was a sudden clamour of noise from above as something happened above deck.
James was the first out of the door, already re-assuming the mien of a commanding officer, with Elizabeth and Will quick to follow. The sight they were greeted by, not too far in the distance filled Elizabeth with dread.
The Pearl was gaining on them.
Author's Note: James "I'm not a damsel but I am in distress" Norrington has been rescued, but for how long? (Yes I am sort of picturing that scene with Meg from Disney's Hercules). Herc
