On deck, the Caribbean sun was lowering in the sky as the crew returned to their posts. With his job no longer in need of doing, William turned towards the plank that connected his ship. The sea breeze carried his hair. "Will," Elizabeth approached him, "may I have a moment?"

Will looked her over. He couldn't tell if she was more alive than when he'd left her due to the Agua de Vida or her current place aboard the Pearl. He decided not to dwell on it. "Of course." He faced the woman that used to be his wife. The woman he would forever love. For a moment, he wanted to yell, to blame, to cry, to beg, to carry her away and set sail. But, he knew none of that would change anything. She was Elizabeth Swann. And he'd never wanted her any other way. When she wrapped her arms around him, he had no choice but to bury his face in her salt-scented hair.

"I'm so sorry, Will," she whispered. "I waited for you. I waited for so long."

"I know," his words disappeared into her hair. "I have a feeling," he pulled back to face her, "even if I were there, you still would have ended up right where you are. Funny; but, I think that would have hurt even more."

She gave him a sad smile. "Perhaps you're right. After all, a king shouldn't abandon their subjects."

"I love you, Elizabeth," He spoke as he pressed himself from her. "I'm sorry we can't share a life together. Please, find happiness. In my stead."

"Wait!" She grabbed his hand. "You don't have to forfeit happiness, Will."

"I don't have a choice." He shook his head. "I'm cursed to complete my duty."

"What if we could set you free?"

Will's brow furrowed, "What?"

"We're charting course for an item that can cure any curse, Will- it could cure yours!"

"…Me?" For a moment, hope fluttered within him.

"Yes, you and your father. Sailors were lost at sea long before Davy Jones. Other entities can guide them home. You deserve a second chance at life."

"I-" he stalled, "Elizabeth-"

"You don't have to say anything now. We will find you. We'll find you once again when we have that treasure. I promise you," she held her hand forth for him to shake.

"I should know better than to trust a pirate," he gave a smile as he shook her hand, "but if it's you, Elizabeth- I await the day I see your ship on that horizon."

They parted, no longer wed, but with the deepest of love shared between them.

"Come over here, co-captain," Jack reached for the girl in a white cotton shift who lay beside the fire on an uncharted island. The very same island that rumrunners once used to stash their treasure.

"Ah!" Elizabeth took a swig. "I do believe you mean your majesty." She looked at the stars, clear in the summer sky. "Who would have thought we'd seek solitude on the very same isle we sought to escape?"

"You mean the very same isle where we lost all the rum."

"The very same isle where I saved your drunk-"

He kissed her, the taste of aged sugarcane on his tongue halting her thoughts. He pulled back slowly, his dark eyes swallowing her whole. "You were saying?" Any time she questioned her decisions in life, anytime she was lost, all he had to do was look at her, just that way, and she knew she was exactly where she was meant to be.

"I was saying," she spoke as she straddled his waist, "you're wearing far too much clothing on a night like this."

"Your majesty," Jack's voice was low as her hands deftly unclasped his belt, "I am but a humble servant."

"And I am in need of your services," her hands traveled from his heart, down the ridges of his bare abdomen, towards the hair that teased what lay beneath his trousers. Her fingers spread, dipping beneath them and wrapping around the length of him. He kissed her until he could no longer take her toying with him.

"What would you have me do, majesty?"

"Touch me."

His eyes traveled up her veritable form at the invitation. "Where?"

"Everywhere."

His hand began on her bare leg, his finger ghosting her skin up to her juncture. Then, he switched tactics to trailing her arm, moving in circles around her chest yet never providing attention where she needed it most. His hands wound themselves in her hair.

"You torment me, Sir," Elizabeth squirmed.

"Aye, just as you torture me. Your pert breasts," he paused to trace her nipples through the fabric, "your salacious curves," his fingers mapping her midsection, "a body more precious than gold," he squeezed her as she sat astride him. "Far greater than any treasure I've ever known. You, Elizabeth, are my horizon."

"…Jack," she brought her lips to his tenderly in the moonlight, "I think I love you, Jack." And where a proud majesty stood was now a meek young girl.

Love. Love had cursed them, torn them apart, and brought them crashing together like waves in a storm. It wasn't the first time Jack had heard the phrase. But, it was the first time he was able to fully comprehend it's meaning. And he was about to reciprocate in full.

"Elizabeth," he lay her down on a blanket on the sand, "say it again."

She bit her bottom lip, "I love you, Captain Jack Sparrow."

Those words broke any dam that was holding him back. He kissed her fully, removing any vestiges of clothing they had left. "You shall always remember this as the day you-"

"Shut it, Jack," she smiled broadly as she inspected his body. "Let your skin do the talking."

His kohl-rimmed eyes soaked up the beauty beneath him. "Aye." Was all that he could say before his lips met hers and her softness swallowed him completely. The sound of the waves and the crackling of the fire mingled with her moans. Her eyes reflected the embers. In that moment Jack felt a weakness and strength foreign to him.

"Jack," she breathed.

"I love you," his brow moved at the strange sentiment, "Elizabeth."

She smiled as a warm tear fell.

"Perhaps I have since the moment I slashed your corset, all those years ago."

"And perhaps a girl fell in love with the stories of a pirate many years before."

He smiled genuinely, burying his face in her hair, "So, you had heard of me."

"Indeed," she folded her arms around his neck. "I was fascinated, and strangely jealous."

"Oh?" He nibbled her collar, "Of the women?"

"Of your freedom." She wrapped a leg around his. "Nothing else to be jealous of."

He pulled back to examine her with a smile. "Aye, Lizzie. I'm all yours. Every filthy inch of me."

"Good," Elizabeth pulled him close, "because I'm going to put every last one to use."

He grinned, "that's my girl."

"Always," she gave him a look of trust he'd never known.

He kissed her hand, pledging fealty to the only monarch he'd ever recognized. "Always."