Chapter 4! I love writing their banter in this. Read and review! 3

For a long moment, long enough to hear several rounds of bell ringing outside, reverberating through the dark night, she let it roll around in her head, a dangerous phrase for a woman like her...prove it. He barely knew her, he had said as much himself...she barely knew him, and yet here they were, like two seasoned card players, slinging words and challenges back and forth.

Prove it.

Defensive, a great black wall dropped behind those two words...that was the real challenge. Climbing it, that wall, to see the next challenge behind it, and the one after that, and after that...he didn't think she could do it, and as his eyes burned in the darkness, burning into her own steady gaze, she realized that somewhere inside, he wanted her to prove him wrong.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Captain Sparrow...but aren't pirates creatures of survival?"

"The smart ones are, aye."

"And would you consider yourself a smart pirate?"

"Would you?"

His mouth twitched back and forth in a smirk that couldn't decide whether it was coming or going.

"Considering recent events, I would say not."

Carefully watching his reactions, she noted that his eyes narrowed as his head tilted forward a little.

"Do explain, love. However, I'll warn you to choose your words carefully."

Close enough to inch her head a bit forward and kiss him, she noticed. She was strangely fine with that.

"A bit sensitive, are we?

"Allow me to remind you, as we have already discussed, that without me, you would be a pile of dress and bones on the bottom of the ocean."

"Would be, yes, but that doesn't matter anymore, since I doubt there is going to be another event where you can flaunt your heroics."

"Heroics?" he scoffed, barking out a laugh. "I hope that isn't your tactic, making me out to be some white knight in shining armor."

Him, a hero. What a repulsive thought.

"No, but you are something."

They locked eyes, hers sparkling like the embers in dying firewood, his hidden in a shroud of shadow.

"...Go on."

Smile, assume a serious stance, turn away…

In the end of her seconds-long deliberation, she settled on the smile.

"What are you here for, Captain Sparrow?"

"A drink, some sightseeing, and I even thought about kidnapping a governor's daughter once or twice. I decided it was too much of a risk."

Hah.

"Was your plan to sightsee the inside of a jail cell?"

"No-"

"Or perhaps to sightsee the inside of a blacksmith's shop?"

"Well-"

"Or maybe sightsee the inside of the governor's daughter's bedroom?"

"I wish-"

"The bottom of the ocean? Commodore Norrington?

"That pile of powder and stockings? God, no-"

She stopped short, arching an eyebrow at him. "Oh, he's not that bad."

"He tried to kill me!"

Probably not the first person, she mused.

"So have plenty of other people, I'm sure."

"Well, none of them had quite the same self-righteousness about it."

His fingers tapped on a bar, tap, tap, tap...he looked like he was trying not to fidget. The corner of his mouth puckered and twisted...he was chewing on the inside, and he was staring at her again with that calculating gaze.

"What?"

He smiled a little at her sharp tone.

"You...didn't really want to marry Norrie did you? I mean...sure, social security, you get to wear pretty dresses whenever you want, drink tea, lay back and think of England every night...but please don't tell me that you actually wanted all of that?"

"How did you know-"

"Lucky guess."

The damn pirate already knew the answer. He just wanted to hear her say it.

"Lay back and think of England? Not every man is inept with women-"

"No, no, actually they pretty much all are."

"My point, Captain Sparrow, is that...is that, well, is that I'm sure Commodore Norrington would have made a fine husband."

He turned and started to pace back and forth, a maddening thing to watch him do. It made her feel on edge.

"I agree with you, love. But...there is a difference between something being fine, and something being wanted. For example...I am sure that many ships," he turned and pointed out of the little window, wagging his finger back and forth, "out there are just fine to sail on...but none of them are my Pearl."

"We're equating people to ships now?"

An offended look crossed his face.

"Oh, no, definitely not. Ships are far more important."

Her mouth dropped open a little, but she recovered quickly.

"So, let me get this straight. You came here to...what, commandeer a ship?"

"Aye, that was the plan, until your future husband saw fit to become inconvenient."

"Right...but from what I can gather, you were well on your way to taking a ship...until…"

She stopped, wanting the satisfaction to linger within her chest for a second longer.

"Until what?"

"Until I fell. See...you could have just ignored me, but you decided to wave your commandeering goodbye, and risk your life just to save me."

"Are we back to complaining that I saved your life?"

"No, we are back to proving that you did it for reasons other than they couldn't swim."

His eyes narrowed like a hawk...but he didn't say a word.

"I'll take your silence as agreement. I think you saved...no, I know you saved me because you're a good man."

"A good-oh, for the love of God, I'm a bloody pirate."

"I know."

This time, he turned completely away from her as though she was the sun and he had been staring directly at it for too long.

"Pirates aren't good."

"...Yes, we have an entire area of the fort dedicated to that very notion, complete with a rope and an executioner."

"And several dangling pirate skeletons on the way in."

"I hope you saluted them."

"I did, in fact...but you think I'm good?"

"I know you are."

"So...I will take that as a no to marrying Norrington, then."

"You...what?"

"Well, there is no way that you could possibly be happy with him when he wants to hang me...not when you are so hell bent on proving that I don't deserve the noose."

"You sound like you want me to marry you instead."

His head whipped around followed by the rest of his body. "Marry me? I would hang myself in the gallows before I made the foolish mistake of marrying anyone."

Why did she suddenly feel disappointed by that?

"...Oh."

"Oh," he mocked.

She started to play with one of the bars, drawing shapes and lines on it. "...You seem...awfully blaise about dying for this."

"For what, dragging you out of the ocean? Actually, I am a little vexed about it. I hardly think that is a reason to kill me. But in case you didn't notice, I have twenty-three iron reasons to not waste my time worrying about something I can't change."

"So, what, you are just going to lay down your weapons and surrender...just like that?"

"In case you forgot, my weapons are out there, with you-"

"-It was a figure of speech-"

"-And unless you have the ability to pry open iron bars, I see no escape plan."

No, she couldn't pry open iron bars…

...but she didn't want him to die.

She barely knew him, had only been speaking with him for a half hour at the most, but felt like if he died...a piece of her would hang with him.

"You can't," she stated plainly and firmly.

"I can't? Can't what?"

"Die."

He stared at her for a long moment then, studying her. Only when she cleared her throat did he speak again.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, love, but we all die eventually."

"Well, yes, but you can't die now. Not like this."

Couldn't pry open bars...but she could start a fire.

"Miss Swann...you need to come to terms with-"

"-No. I'll return in an hour."

"You're being reckless. I don't know how, or why, but please don't do something stupid."

Wrapping her night robe around herself and tying it, she looked at him over her shoulder. "I'm not stupid."

"I didn't say you were-"

"-Like I said, I'll return in an hour."

She made it all the way to the archway leading into the hall, before his voice rang out again.

"Miss Swann."

Turning halfway, she peered at him in the darkness. "Hm?"

"You're welcome."