Summary: Elizabeth realizes, the night before her wedding, that she doesn't love Will. One-shot. Post COTBP AU. Willabeth and Sparrabeth.

Prompt: It's the night before your wedding and you finally admit to yourself that you don't love the person you are able to marry. Write about what happens next.

Off To A Merry Life

In the past few months, Elizabeth Swann had had her doubts; about who she was marrying; about whether she truly loved him or not. But now, she was certain of it. She did not love Will Turner.

Of course, she had, but no longer. Ever since she met him, when he was pulled from the wreckage of a burning ship, she had felt an attachment towards him. It wasn't a few years later when she realized it was more than friendship. To her, it had been love. It really had been.

He had even told her his own feelings, confessed his love to her, before saving one certain pirate from the gallows. She'd been slightly overwhelmed, surprised that he felt as she did. For a few months, all was well. They were happy, her father approved. Will even proposed.

But then she started wondering about someone else; about the pirate captain- Jack Sparrow. She remembered reading tales of his adventures, getting saved by him herself, fighting a cursed pirate crew alongside him. She remembered being stranded on an island with him, realizing that there was a man behind the legend; that not everything went as smoothly as the tales said.

She felt something for him, then on the island. It was like the same feeling she had felt for Will, but stronger. Love.

For the past few months, it wasn't Will whom Elizabeth saw in her dreams. It was Jack, the wily pirate himself.

She tried to deny it, to fight it. But she could not. She found herself constantly wondering where the pirate was, whether he was alive- last she had known, Commodore Norrington had set sail after him. She dreaded to hear the news of the pirate's capture or demise. The thought of a world without him now, having met him, was unbearable.

She began to feel unhappy with the thought of marrying sweet Will, who had risked his life chasing pirates to save her. She yearned to sail upon the seas, beside her captain; beside Jack.

She didn't know what to do.

She didn't want to break poor Will's heart, but she didn't wish to feel suffocated- albeit that it'd be less so than if she had married her last fiance, Norrington himself. She probably would have jumped off the fort herself if her father had not given her and Will his blessing. But now, even Will did not seem to be enough for her. Will, who had done so much for her…

But Elizabeth found she had no choice.

Her love for Jack was far stronger than her love for Will. She would not condemn herself to a life she didn't want. Gosh, she sounded like a pirate already.

And so, now, on the eve of her marriage to Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann packed, changed into male attire, and wrote a letter. Then she snuck from her father's manor, down to the docks. She quickly found herself hired aboard a merchant ship bound for Tortuga, where she would begin her search for Jack Sparrow; the man she truly loved.

By morning, she would be long gone. Her letter would be all that she had left for them. Will and her father would be heartbroken. But she would finally be free.

"Dear William Turner,

I'm sorry. But I must live a happy life, and I'm afraid that Port Royal has no place in it. You will always have a place in my heart, Will, and I hope the best for you. I wish you a long life and a merry one.

All the best,

Elizabeth Swann"