A/N: Originally written for the "Tuesday Celebration Flash" on AO3 for Cruria
A Matter of Inches
The shop had a chill to the air despite the heavy humidity outside. Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow as Jack led the way deeper inside. There were only a scattered few lamps set about the place making it feel much later than the early afternoon hour. The outside sunlight fought to make its way past the heavy curtains and thick layer of grime coating the windows.
"You're certain this is the place?" Elizabeth whispered.
Jack paused and grimaced. "Not precisely," he admitted in a similarly hushed voice. "But we'll have our answer soon enough, eh?" Then he pressed onward, not even pausing to eye a tray of cut glass baubles. The very air of the shop hung heavy as if it did not care for their intrusion.
Elizabeth sighed and followed along until they reached a long counter and simple wooden cash box. That Jack cast a long glance at before shaking his head to himself and pressing his hands onto the counter. He looked positively disturbed.
When no one emerged, Elizabeth rocked between her feet. "Hello?" she called out.
A beat of silence.
She furrowed her brow as she listened. Was that the sound of footsteps from the back room? From below? It was difficult to make out. "We're looking for-" she called once again.
The back door opened with a harsh screech of metal as the hinges protested the lack of attention. "You seek a change," the apparent shopkeeper drawled as he stepped behind the counter.
If Elizabeth was pressed to describe him, she would have little to say. As her eyes danced from one feature to another they seemed to ebb from her memory like sand through the hourglass. She knew he was a man and that he was here now. That was all.
"Yes," Elizabeth answered when Jack refused. He had danced backward from the counter, retreating behind the tip of his hat. He hadn't been keen on coming here, but Elizabeth had insisted.
"There'll be a cost," Jack had warned her. "The Maestro isn't as kind hearted a wizard as dear ol' Tia Dalma was." When asked to elaborate, he refused. It had taken several weeks of cajoling and nudging to get Jack to ferry her from Shipwreck Cove to this shop, his best guess of where the man could be found now.
The shopkeeper - the Maestro, Jack had referred to him - leveled a wide grin at Elizabeth. She didn't like how many teeth it managed to show. "A change of fate. There have been many fates bound to yours, Lady Swann."
Elizabeth held his gaze firmly with her own. She had survived bloodthirsty battles and overwhelming, lonely weeks and months. She would not be scared away by someone simply because they knew her name. "Yes," Elizabeth admitted. It was foolish not to. There were so many lives that had been twisted because they brushed against hers: Her father. James. And of most relevance-
"But you seek to change the fate of the captain of the Dutchman?" the Maestro questioned. His head tipped and he turned his gaze to Jack briefly. "And you have returned with her, Sparrow. Two birds flying against a headwind stronger than either. But together… Hmm."
He peered down at a ledger that Elizabeth thought certainly hadn't been there moments ago. Pages were turned carelessly until he stopped at one. "The thread you wish to unravel stops eight years past. I wonder. Are you prepared for how the tapestries of your lives may change with that?" The Maestro's finger tapped on the page before he snapped the ledger closed.
"Many lives ran together to create that thread. The Dutchman's captain has swept the seas and repaired the mess that was made. And you wish to undo that all?" he asked.
Elizabeth looked back at Jack reflexively. They had discussed this in the abstract on the long voyage over, once Elizabeth had worked through what would be enough to - hopefully - change fate. But it was one thing to say something and another to follow through. It wasn't Jack's strong suit.
He bounced forward while still avoiding meeting the Maestro's eye. "Not undo it all," Jack replied. "Just shuffle the deck. Put a different man in the chair. Someone who can still get the job done."
"But not Will," Elizabeth confirmed.
"And what do you think it would take to make this change?" the Maestro questioned. "These are matters of life and death."
That, too, had haunted Elizabeth's days and nights. "Inches only," she answered firmly. She had the moment seared in her mind when Davy Jones' sword had pierced through Will's heart. The wound had been mortal. Another might not have been, were the ship to have shifted or Will been given the time to move. "Inches or seconds."
"Shouldn't be too hard for you, eh?" Jack said, finally daring to look at the man fully. He immediately directed his gaze back to Elizabeth when the Maestro peeled his lips back into another wide grin.
"Aye, I can manage inches for you. Even over eight year's time," he replied. Leaning down behind the counter, Elizabeth felt the hairs on the back of her neck relax as soon as he was out of sight. Her heart beat more strongly in her chest than it had in years, or so it felt.
He could make the change, yes, but what of the cost?
The Maestro returned to view and with him the chill in the air. He extended his hand to the pair. Inside his long fingers was a tiny bird's egg, no larger than two of Elizabeth's thumbs. "Take it," he ordered when both Elizabeth and Jack remained frozen.
Jack gestured widely for Elizabeth to proceed, skittering to stand offset behind her. "Ladies first," he grunted.
She didn't want to move closer to the man who's face seemed now to have shifted. From what, she could not recall. But still Elizabeth took the egg, turning it gently in her palm. It was completely unblemished. "What is the price?" she asked. They had danced around their ask and now it was time to pay.
The Maestro clapped his hands together and returned to his ledger. After a long stretch of moments whereby he combed through the pages, he looked up. "There is yet another whose destiny you have shaped. It seems only fair that to change one fate you must change another's."
Elizabeth's chest tightened. From behind her, Jack held up a finger. "I'm fairly certain we've acknowledged that my fate will be gettin' changed already," he said. "What with the captaincy and the responsibilities being transferred."
The Maestro shook his head. "I speak of a soul whose fate the lady Swann has shaped from before their birth," he insisted. He extended his hand once more and waited.
The tiny egg sat still in Elizabeth's palm. She considered it carefully, the potential that it contained. Truly she did not want to make the decision between those that she loved once more. Yet once again that was the position she had placed herself in, and she knew that she would not be able to stomach another ten long years alone with Henry.
From within Elizabeth's pockets she pulled out a small locket, one that she had carried for just over seven years. She did not have to open it to recall the delicate portraits contained inside. One for her lost husband and one of her soon-to-be-lost son.
Jack stiffened next to her. He let out a nervous laugh to cover up the motion. "Well, there's no one saying that you can't set that thread back in place with nary a worry," he said.
Elizabeth dropped the locket into the Maestro's waiting hand. "I don't think that's how the price works, Jack," she said softly. He coughed and fell quiet again.
The Maestro however was ignoring their conversation as he clicked the small trinket open. After a deep breath, he nodded. "This is suitable as hoped. You can have your inches, both of you."
He turned, ledger in hand, and disappeared with another shriek of the door's hinges. As soon as it had closed behind him, the egg in Elizabeth's palm began to shake. A tapping noise echoed from the tiny item, the sound filling the room.
The cold, musty air was flushed out with a spray of salt and gusting wind. Underneath Elizabeth's feet, the floorboards pitched and yawed, dumping her onto her side with a graceless thump. Jack was pulled away in a jarring snap. Elizabeth looked up and-
Davy Jones whirled around and thrust his sword into Will. He twisted violently, a manic kind of gleam to his eyes. Will's face twisted in pain and Elizabeth was screaming again. Something was different though or maybe it was just right even among the wrongness that was Davy Jones refusing to yield to Jack's threats. Elizabeth threw herself to Will's side and pressed her hands firmly against the bleeding wound.
Will's shoulder had been run through. He coughed with each inhale but his eyes remained sharp despite the unquestionable pain he must have suffered. "Jack!" he bellowed. "Do it now! "
Elizabeth dared to look as Jack plunged the jagged end of his sword into the beating heart of Davy Jones. Bewilderment ran hot through the crew as they watched their captain fall, but all that Elizabeth could focus on was the way that Will staggered to his feet before leaning bodily against her. Will needed attention, immediately, but the wound was survivable. Jones had missed his heart by the barest of inches.
There was a relief more tangible than the rain pouring down on them when Elizabeth threw them back to the Pearl, leaving Jack to his crew and the ocean ready to swallow them whole.
A/N: Blanket statement that I am now putting on my oneshots - Please do not ask if I am continuing these. They are single "chapter" fics which I am considering complete. Thank you. - DragonMaster65