A/N: This chapter is really kind of two chapters all rolled into one, since I'll be away most of the weekend and can't update til I come back. Leave me lots of nice reviews to come home to! Thanks to everyone who's written so far.

Despite everything Elizabeth ended up spending three more nights in Barbossa's cabin, until she was sure the tear on her arm wouldn't reopen against a swinging hammock. She didn't see where the captain slept during these nights, and in fact she suspected that he didn't sleep at all – he looked awful and was constantly in a foul mood, cursing and railing against even the small spot of bad weather they came up against.

"Things are not goin accordin to plan," he snarled at Elizabeth one morning when she asked him what was the matter.

She didn't understand. "What, the rain? This is nothing."

"Yes, exactly! I mean...arrr... Are you feeling any better?"

The distraction was successful: Elizabeth began to grouse. "No, as a matter of fact I am not. You were right – bruises came out the next day, real ones, that haven't gone away yet. Don't tell Will or he'll come after you again. My arm feels awful, it's itchy as though something were crawling in it…"

Barbossa wanted to say, maybe something is, but instead told her, "That just means it's starting to get well. Does it still bleed?"

She shook her head.

"Perfect. Then you can start to sleep in a hammock again and I can have me cabin back."

She glared up at him. "Any attempts to throw me out will probably be more successful once you've untied me," she pointed out.

"Aye, fair enough." He went to work on the knot, but was interrupted by a banging on the cabin door.

"Sir I think I've found you a storm!" It was Gibbs, and he was mightily excited about something. "We'll barely have to change course!"

Elizabeth frowned. "We're looking for a storm?"

"Drunk fool," Barbossa snarled to himself, and stormed out of the cabin to chew Gibbs out for his big mouth.

"No! No! Wait, you have to untie me first!" When it was clear he was not coming back, Elizabeth seethed silently for a few moments and considered her options. The last time she had called for help the results had been disastrous, so this time she rolled over onto her side and carefully moved her injured arm towards the bedpost, praying that the moist webby clots would hold.

In the last few weeks the pirates had helped her develop quite an arsenal of curse words, and she ran through the whole thing while she worked on the knot. When she was finally free, eyes watering with pain, she sat up and examined her cut. Her mood improved slightly: it had not reopened.

Will, meanwhile, was struggling with his own delicate problem. He knew the voyage could never work if the two most charismatic figures on board were forming separate and hostile factions. So, much as it burned to ask forgiveness of a pirate, and sickening as it was to dismiss an injury done to Elizabeth, he finally steeled himself to go through with it.

He went and stood at Barbossa's shoulder while the captain was staring into his spyglass. At least that way he could manage the task without being forced to look at him.

"I need to talk to you." Blunt, almost urgent.

Barbossa's mouth twisted but in profile Will couldn't tell if it was an attempt not to smile, or merely distaste. "Then talk."

"I...uh." Will grasped the railing so hard his hands hurt.

"A truly remarkable event," Barbossa said a moment later, without lowering his spyglass. "Will Turner's courage fails him, for the first time in recent memory."

"Well it looks like your cruelty is still working fine," Will shot back, "So at least we know some things are still right with the world." He did not seem to realize that he had been paid a backhanded compliment.

But after a moment he winced. "I shouldn't have said that. I came here to apologize."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I should have known better the other morning. You've always behaved like a gentleman where Elizabeth's concerned..."

"Setting aside the time I took a belt to her," Barbossa corrected cheerfully. He snapped his spyglass closed and turned to look Will in the face. "I'm not concerned with what you think, boy, I'm concerned with what you do. I cannot have ye challengin my authority in front of the crew. That can lead only to trouble."

"I- I know. I lost my head. I thought you'd hurt her and I couldn't think. I apologize."

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that thinkin is supposed to come before acting?"

Will laughed a little. "You mean other than Jack? I've lost count of the times I got his 'opportune moment' lecture..."

"You'd do well to take it to heart. And to prove to me that you'll obey orders from now on without question."

Will was surprised at how easy he'd gotten off. "I will," he assured. "And...also...I know you've been teaching Elizabeth...helping to look out for her...whatever. She appreciates it. So do I. You can count on me, from now on, I mean it."

Barbossa just grunted and waved him away.

Will went, having no way of knowing that his life depended on whether or not the captain was fully convinced.

This time Gibbs had really and truly found a storm. High winds, sheets of rain, and seas choppy enough to make even Jack (the monkey) seasick.

Gibbs hollered for the captain to drop canvas, but Barbossa thought if they could only just hang on a little longer, they might come out on the other side of the worst of it. With the fierce wind at their back would make spectacular time. Of course, the plan had the slight disadvantage of risking all their lives, but one couldn't have everything, could one?

Will overheard the brief argument and muttered, "I hope you know what you're doing."

As though he could read minds, the captain looked over at him and grinned. "Afraid, boy?"

Will shook his soaked hair out of his eyes. "Not a chance!" And it was true. Given the choice he knew he would probably have made the same decision - only without weighing the pros and cons first. But he wasn't entirely insensible to danger, either - when the weather got really bad, he made Elizabeth go below deck.

But eventually the storm worsened to the point that she was called back up again. "I can't do anything - I'm hurt, remember?" she shouted at point blank range to the captain. The wind was so bad she didn't even know if he heard her.

As it turned out, hearing each other was exactly the problem. The wheel had become a two-man job, and with both Barbossa and Gibbs glued to it, communication with the crew was suffering. "You can pay attention, and run messages," Barbossa shouted back. "Now-"

"Look!"

Cotton was waving his arms desperately, trying to get the captain's attention.

"Find out what he wants."

She fought her way over to him and eventually understood his pantomiming (The parrot had taken refuge in the hold and so could not translate).

"The lines are fouled up there," she explained, pointing, once she had made it back to Barbossa. "That sail - see it? It's caught..."

He squinted up into the driving rain for a moment, then turned his attention back to his violent struggle with the wheel.

"Someone'll go aloft and set it right," he barked. "Go! Find Turner!"

"Aloft?" Elizabeth could barely withstand the ship's pitching with both feet flat on the deck and the railing to hang onto. How was Will supposed to climb in this weather? But she fetched him anyway and briefed him on the situation.

"Shall I cut it loose?" He had to scream to be heard, even at a distance of six inches.

"It won't come free on its own and we can't risk the mast. Aye, cut. Elizabeth!" Barbossa let go of the wheel for one instant to shove a coil of rope into her hands. "Tie one end there. Then make the other end fast to Turner...very fast."

Elizabeth gaped at him, but when he shoved her away she did as she was told. She got the rope around Will's waist and made a solid knot the way Barbossa had shown her. "This will hold," she yelled into his ear.

Will yanked on the knot. "I hope so," he yelled back. "Elizabeth – for luck." He kissed her hard on the lips, quickly, and went up.

Elizabeth stared after him, a hand pressed to her mouth, too frozen with terror to look away. She watched him dangle precariously over the raging ocean, sawing away at a thick rope with his puny little knife. Her heart caught in her throat every time a wave leaped up or he slipped and had to regain a better grip, but each time he weathered it and continued to work. Finally, the rope parted and he stuck the knife between his teeth, his job finished.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief.

But it was cut short as the ship bucked wildly and tossed Will out of the rigging and into the sea.

"NOOO!" Elizabeth screamed at the top of her lungs. "WILL!" She lunged for the railing, fully intending to go over after him.

Fortunately Barbossa was a step ahead of her. As soon as he saw the boy's hold slip, he left the wheel to Gibbs and bolted. Before Elizabeth was even within grabbing distance of the rail, he had his arms around her and tackled her to the deck. "Get ahold of yourself," he ordered, "This be no time to lose our heads!"

She was thrashing around like a dog on a beehive. "Get off me! Will! WILLLL!"

Barbossa got up and dragged her to her feet, holding onto her hair with one hand and Will's rope with the other. "Wait til she dips again, and we'll haul him aboard. Understand?"

A moment later, the And Back dipped again, and there was enough slack to take the rope in another few feet. Elizabeth pulled as hard as she could, but it was as though she were trying to lift up the Governor's mansion all by herself. "Why isn't anybody helping?" she cried.

Barbossa was losing patience with her. "They're makin sure the rest of us don't sink to join him," he snarled. "Now, if you want to save your precious William, it's heave when I say so and no more words. Ready, heave."

Between the rain and her tears, Elizabeth could see nothing at all. She followed orders until she was at the very end of her strength, but when Will's limp body finally crashed up against the railing, the sight shook her so badly that she collapsed in a heap. The captain had to lift the boy over by himself.

He shook him and when that failed, gave him a good solid knee to the stomach. Will erupted in a fit of coughing at once and attempted to sit up. "Take him below and make sure he gets the water out of him," Barbossa ordered Elizabeth. "And then get your pretty little carcass back up here at once, hear? We need every hand."

Barbossa lurched across the deck and regained the wheel. "All goin according to plan, cap'n?" Gibbs shouted. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Oh yes. As long as we all make it through til tomorrow, things are going just perfect." Barbossa glared at him, annoyed that a split-second decision had robbed him of his easy chance to get rid of Turner for good. "Now enough with the stupid questions. We've gone off course - again. Get back to work!"

It was hard to tell, because the sky was inky black and the lightning the only source of illumination the whole time, but it turned out they fought the storm for the rest of the night and much of the next morning. Around the time when the sun would be highest in the sky - if there had been a sun shining at all, which there decidedly was not - Gibbs was the first to perceive the end of the nightmare. "Look cap'n! Grey!"

He was right. Thick grey clouds - which normally don't look all that appealing - signaled the beginning of the end. The constant pelting assault from on high transformed itself into normal rain. The waves gentled so that even Elizabeth could keep her feet under her (as long as she held onto something). And, best of all, in the distance they could see rays of sunlight, rather than lightning, reaching down from the sky to the sea.

The And Back was still afloat and was moving with a speed Gibbs had never before seen from any ship. The plan had worked. Gibbs glanced sideways at Captain Barbossa, who stood with his hands on his hips looking very wet, very worn, and very proud. Gibbs tried hard to squash the superstitious urge to make a sign against the Evil Eye... But then he chanced to look back into the monstrous storm the captain had called for and then beaten, and he found he couldn't help himself.

TBC….

So soon we're going to have Jack. We will also have Norrington again and some other surprise guests. No OC's though, so I guess process of elimination means that any "surprise" guests won't really be surprises. Oh, well.