10.

Aboard the Black Pearl, Esmeralda crept into the captain's quarters, mindful of her footfalls before exhaling a sharp sound into Jack's ear in an attempt to surprise. Jack didn't acknowledge her, continuing to read. Esmeralda slinked a hand down his chest from behind.

"You normally want to play. Why doesn't the Sparrow want to play?" Esmeralda stepped around and perched upon on the desk then brushed her bright red nails against the side of Jack's face.

"The Sparrow's reading," Jack murmured, his mouth turning up into a smile he couldn't fight off as Esmeralda toyed with his beard. He glanced up from the pages, meeting her challenging gaze.

"But this is important. Look what I found." Esmeralda revealed the tablets previously hidden behind her back. "Curse tablets. Surely there's someone you want to curse." Her eyes lit up and she shut the book Jack was reading and shoved is aside, reaching for his hands. "A lover? A friend? A mother?" After forcing her palm upon Jack's, Esmeralda exhaled a knowing sigh. "A father," she corrected, her voice a knowing near-whisper.

"No," Jack stumbled over the word some, but repeated it, assuring Esmeralda as well as himself. "No. No one. Truly." Then, to avoid sounding overly sentimental, he added, "Why stick my hand in someone else's life where it clearly doesn't belong?"

Esmeralda played with Jack's hair, wearing a disappointed look. "Red would curse his enemies with me on several occasions."

"I'm sure," Jack replied flatly at the mention of Esmeralda's former love. "Are there not love tablets?"

"Why seek that which you already have?" Esmeralda asked, her dark eyes studying him closely as she stroked a hand through his hair then rose from his lap. "One day, you're bound to want to curse someone," she said, leaving the two tablets stacked on the desk before him.

Jack's eyes remained on the tablets for a moment then rose to her retreating swaying hips.

"I curse you, Esmeralda," Jack spoke into the sable hair fanned across her neck, his arms suddenly snaked around her waist, eliciting a pleased laugh from the throat he kissed, "for being such a compelling distraction."

.

Elizabeth watched Jack smooth kohl under his eyes to deflect the light of the high sun, and something about seeing him apply it further humanized him. Jack felt more tangible than ever before.

He's just a man, she reminded herself.

In a way, Elizabeth built Jack up to be larger-than life—recounting stories she was told before they met, living through the progressively more unthinkable with him, and saving Jack from an eternity of his unresolved earthly matters, an eternity of carrying the weight of the Pearl as Sisyphus carried the weight of a boulder. However, Jack cheated even that fate, by the sounds of it, from the stories she eventually heard about Jack's time spent in the Locker.

Elizabeth listened to the mundane slap of the ocean against the sloop and smiled at the burn of her skin from the high sun. She remembered missing moments like these, the quiet moments at sea which were still grander than the most thrilling moments on the countryside. If she was honest with herself, she had fleeting hopes on more than one occasion during her time away from sea of the Black Pearl sailing to her with a full crew and a certain Captain waving to her, hanging from the shroud of the ship—

"Oi! Elizabeth!" The sweeping wave of a hat beckoning her forward paired with a wide smile that would eventually soften, hopeful and perhaps a tinge lonesome. "Come home."

Elizabeth returned home to the sea in a quieter yet somehow more unexpected way, just the two of them, and she discovered more about Jack than she ever ought to. There was a part of Elizabeth that wanted to live in this sunbathed moment with Jack forever.

Sunlight causes a rise out of people—it's only natural, human nature, to enjoy basking in the heat and appreciate the way the sun leaves its burning mark. However, Elizabeth was well-aware the sun also had its way of fading the brilliance from colors or could cause materials to grow weak or warp into a different form entirely, forever changed, then cast aside. Jack was sunlight, and Elizabeth must make peace with returning to the shade at some point, she reminded herself.

"Almost a full morning passed and not a single squawk from Miss Swann," Jack murmured, leaning against the helm of the sloop. "What plagues your mind?"

"Must it be plagued? Can it not be content?" Elizabeth replied, turning to face Jack, wearing a small smile as she shielded the sunlight from her eyes.

"All the better thoughts to share," Jack prompted, looking at her expectantly. After speaking with Teague, Elizabeth couldn't help but see Jack's father in that coaxing, calculated expression.

"Just," she paused, wondering if she should admit to waiting for Jack to come back to her on land and give her a much-needed push, as he always seemed to do for her, at just the right moment. "Thanking the sky," Elizabeth decided on, picking up her tricorn hat from where it rested at her feet and placing it upon her head. She leaned her crossed arms against the tops of her knees, watching the lazy waves. "I know you find it silly, but I always dreamt of this."

"I find a governor's daughter dreaming of becoming a pirate silly," Jack corrected. "Dreaming of this? Open sky, open sea—only things worth dreaming of."

"When I was little, dreaming silly dreams, I would wish to be a pirate and imagine that in that same instant somewhere a true pirate was thanking the moon he was one." Elizabeth turned to face Jack. "Couldn't have been you," she reasoned. "If you weren't thanking the moon that you were a pirate, what did you thank it for? Or dream of?"

"A crew," Jack answered. "I was so alone in those earlier years. I thirsted for adventure too often and burnt myself out quick. It takes a lot out of you, doing this sort of thing on your own for too long. Most nights, I looked up at the moon and thought, surely there is someone out there who wouldn't mind sailing by my side."

Elizabeth's hand reached at her neck, thumbing over the pendant.

"Then I met Gibbs," Jack finished, his mouth turning up. "Of course, he did lose the Pearl. Still haven't forgiven him for that yet. All in time, they say." Jack let the phrase hang in the air for a moment. "Ah, anyway, hope he's well."

Elizabeth's hand trailed from her chest and she let the moment pass, not correcting him. Jack happened to meet Gibbs, but surely Gibbs wasn't the one sent to him by the moon. She checked her waist again for Will's heart. Best to let some moments pass, she supposed.

"It's a troublesome thing to thirst for adventure, Elizabeth," Jack mused, a gentle warning. "Once you get a taste, you're never satisfied with normalcy. After Esmeralda's betrayal, I spent ten years chasing the Pearl. Then I got what I wanted. Thought I wanted," Jack amended, his voice sounding hollow. "Everything got muddled up after that."

"Not as fulfilling as you would have hoped," Elizabeth offered softly, then, stronger, "Chasing gold and petticoats was never enough for Jack Sparrow? Fitting. You're not the common pirate."

"Captain," Jack corrected with a smile. He returned his attention to the ocean, turning the wheel. "Could say the same about you, love."

Elizabeth studied Jack for a moment and she lost herself in their shared memories until Jack glanced over at her, seemingly noticing her staring.

"What took you so long anyway? To come back."

I was waiting on you with every back and forth of the tide.

Elizabeth would have answered in earnest, however, she couldn't admit that during a period of feeling so lost, so unlike herself, she clung to memories and completely dreamed up scenarios featuring Jack and the rest of the crew of the Pearl. In the end there, she spent much more time with them than her husband, after all. Elizabeth chastised herself, recalling the nights when pressing her hand to Will's heart in the glass casing or holding it close to her chest, to her own heart, felt like the sole purpose tethering her to the earth, to this life.

"Lizzie?" Jack prompted, and hearing the moniker fall from Jack's lips made her heart skip a beat in a way it never did before—the name weighted with the beginning of their last few moments.

Elizabeth decided to sidestep the question, posing her own instead.

"If you knew it were your last day before your last breath, how would you spend it?"

Jack answered, quick as a whip. "Like any other. Sailing."

"Then you've lived well, Jack, as you should live every day like your last."

There they were again, returned to the topic of the brevity of human life. She felt as if she lived many lives in one. Her life longing for adventure, her life after, then grappling with the revelation that adventure cost her Will, her simple joy that wasn't so simple anymore. Elizabeth's hand smoothed along the twisting handle of the sword Will crafted. She missed the racing of her heart that came with their stolen glances and whispered exchanges from when she was younger, but she grew up. She changed. There was a part of Elizabeth that feared she would feel the same emptiness she felt when she was landlocked even once reunited with Will. There was a part of her that feared she was stunting a new incarnation of herself by chasing the same longing. She already sailed after Will once before. Had she not scolded Jack for "telling the same tale" when they reunited? Should she criticize herself in the same way?

Elizabeth turned the pendant over once again with one hand, the other resting atop Will's heart at her waist. Jack's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"Should make it there around sunset, at this rate."

Elizabeth felt her heart drop. She felt as if her journey with Jack just started and, most upsettingly, as if she hadn't spent her time with Jack well. Elizabeth was suddenly rethinking mundane moments on the countryside and heated arguments at sea. She felt the urge to drink with him then, for an excuse to become maudlin, bathe in nostalgia with him, and indulge in more admittedly interminable discussions. Elizabeth wished there was more time. She then couldn't believe herself for thinking such a thing. Their purpose would be fulfilled. They would save Will and move on with their lives, respectively. She retrained her mind to focus on what thoughts Jack may be turning over in his mind instead of her own.

"Are you ready to see her again?" Elizabeth asked, her voice soft.

"I have to be, now don't I?" Jack paused then answered truly. "I am. I absolutely am. The staff Esmeralda wields only has power as long as a heart is weighed down by an ultimate betrayal of her making. I'm awful tired of carrying that weight, Swann."

Elizabeth stepped forward, toying with the pendant once again, this time with both hands.

"Jack?" She didn't continue until he looked to her. "When I chained you to the Pearl—"

"All forgiven, love—"

"No." Elizabeth's voice caught and her eyes avoided Jack's for a moment, collecting herself before meeting his gaze again. She neared the helm, knowing if there was any time to share the confession, it was now. "Yes, the kraken was after you—sacrifice one for the benefit of many, as you said—but, selfishly, I," Elizabeth paused, meeting Jack's eyes, hoping he would understand so she wouldn't have to elaborate, "also needed you out of my mind."

Jack's eyebrows drew together, confused. Elizabeth sighed, resting a hand against the helm, so near his.

"The compass. It kept pointing to you, Jack."

"Oh." After a beat, Jack started digging in his pocket. Once he freed the compass, Jack thrust it into her hands. "And now?" He looked at Elizabeth expectantly. "Go on, open it."

With shut eyes, Elizabeth relented. Peeking one eye open at the spinning arrow, she noticed it didn't appear as if it would stop. Jack peered over the compass, and if Elizabeth's heart wasn't racing, she would have had no choice but to laugh.

"It's not bloody stopping," Jack said almost accusingly. He cleared his throat and straightened his posture, taking the compass back and tucking it away. "Like I said, we're alike."

Elizabeth squared her shoulders and walked past Jack. Once secluded, she exhaled slowly, glad the arrow hadn't stopped. She was not sure she could stomach the answer either way.

.

Once they reached their destination, Elizabeth didn't want to believe it, but believe it she must. Elizabeth looked to Shipwreck Cove, as memorized by the structure—crafted just as its namesake stated, of wrecked ships—as she was when she first saw it. However, the Cove admittedly looked different, clearly becoming more of a ruin as pirating dwindled out at the hands of those who valued the power life can offer over the adventure. Her hands still rested against the sides of the sloop, hesitant, as Jack tied the ship to the dock.

"Shipwreck Cove." Jack rested his hands on his hips and he tilted his head back, taking in the sight. "Looking a little more wrecked than ship these days," Jack noted. He turned to Elizabeth, offering a small, closed-mouth smile before reaching into his pocket, slipping a capsule of parchment on a string around his neck.

"What is that?"

"Death passport. Instructions on how to navigate the afterlife," Jack explained, giving the crafted necklace a tug. "I didn't have one last time. I won't leave my death fate up to chance again. If anything would kill me, it would be facing Esmeralda. I need some means of protection since someone ridded me of my talismans," he said, narrowing his eyes at Elizabeth playfully as he ran a hand through his hair.

Elizabeth remembered the variety of beads and amulets that used to adorn Jack's hair, probably still in the drawer of the bedside table on land. Even so, Jack was a compendium of all the places he traveled in his personality. He didn't need the physical manifestation of it, although, he seemed to have a superstitious connection to the trinkets. Jack would get new ones if he bested Esmeralda, Elizabeth reasoned. Once, she corrected, pushing the word "if" from her mind.

Jack took Elizabeth's hands into his own, drawing in close to her. "It's best you stay put. I don't trust her with you."

Elizabeth opened her mouth, about to fight Jack on that point until he turned away from her, not allowing an answer. No more than a few steps later, a gust of wind blew Jack's tricorn hat clean off. His hand instinctively reached behind his head, a moment too late. The hat fell at Elizabeth's feet and she picked it up, staring at it wordlessly. She ran after Jack, meeting him just as he turned in her direction.

"You can't go in there," Elizabeth murmured, "without your hat."

"The hat would miss me too much?" Jack asked wryly, wearing a knowing look.

"Yes," Elizabeth answered, her voice catching on the word. Looking into his dark, searching eyes, her voice weakened even more around her next words. "So much it might die."

"And the hat," Jack indulged her, tilting his head to the side, "does the hat have something to say?"

Elizabeth felt the same way she did the day she left the Black Pearl all that time ago, and she already felt like she was saying all the wrong things, speaking like a child returning playthings to a chest instead of a woman standing before the man she cared for deeply, the man who left her ever-changed since saving her life upon their first meeting.

Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Jack to place the hat upon his head. She swallowed down her emotions. This wasn't goodbye yet. They still had Esmeralda to take care of.

Looking up at Jack, she had no haughty remark, no timely quip, no inciting tease—just a determined fire in her eyes.

"I know this is your matter to right, but I won't let you do it alone," Elizabeth said defiantly. "I won't just wait behind. Not this time. I'm going with you."

"Something told me you'd say that." Jack smoothed the back of his hand along her cheek, a smile playing on his lips. "Righting matters of your own."

Elizabeth closed her eyes, leaning into the feather-light touch. When she blinked her eyes open, she refused to meet Jack's. His hand lowered from her face and he rested it on the smallsword at his waist instead.

"This is it, Swann. Off to slay the she-beast. Let's see to it we do it properly—break that staff and get our bait for William," Jack paused, a thoughtful look washing over his features, "because I'm not sure I can live through another death."

Elizabeth shook her head at Jack, smiling. She tried to ignore the growing anxious feeling in her chest that even Jack playfully tipping up her chin couldn't ease.