A/N: Thank you, THANK YOU everyone who has been following along and left a comment, it is the most wonderful reward! You make this writer very happy indeed! :)

And, no M yet. They started talking, and we all got side tracked... ;)


Chapter 9: Monsieur le Comte

"Why did you give Teach the compass?" Elizabeth asked as they walked through the dense underbrush, ducking an unruly branch that flew past her head after Jack sliced it in two.

"Because I actually want him to find the Fountain," said Jack, for once open about his plans with her. "It will set the stage for negotiation, love. For, he has the Pearl aboard the Revenge. Anjelica showed me his magical collection of ships in a bottle."

Elizabeth's mood dampened at mention of that woman again. "Is that why you were so friendly with her?" she asked stiffly. Even with her hand in his, he felt her drawing away from him, like the tide pulls at a piece of driftwood back out to sea. After all this, he simply couldn't stand it.

Quite suddenly he hauled her back into his arms, bending her backwards with his ardor. His mouth crashed over hers, and once more she felt herself melting beneath his attentions, a plaintive moan escaping her when he drew away. "I used her, Lizzy. It's not nice but there it is. I do what I have to, but you're the one…" He faltered, wrinkling his nose in a way that would have been comical, had her sanity not clung to his every word. "You're the one," he finally repeated, his voice husky, placing a hand over her heart. "Hold that here, and meanwhile I'll do my best to get us out of this in one piece, eh?"

She nodded, pressing her cheek to his with a sigh. "I'm sorry."

Elizabeth felt Jack pause, before pulling her closer. "S'alright, luv. You didn't know."

"No, I mean I'm sorry. For everything, Jack." She buried her nose behind his hear, inhaling his scent and finding she didn't really ever want to move from this spot. When he realized what she meant—the Kraken, her stubbornness, her jealousy—everything, his hold upon her tightened.

"Me too, love. Me too." They embraced for what felt like forever, and yet never long enough, before Jack pulled back. "Shall we find those chalices, then? I feel a sudden and unyielding need to see you in the cabin of the Pearl, preferably sans knickers."

She laughed, swatting him playfully. "What do you have against my knickers, Jack?"

"They offend me most completely," he jested, pulling her along the path. "I told you it should be a dress or nothing at all."

"You prefer me helpless, and trussed like a calf in corsets?"

"Now, Lizzy, we both know you're never helpless. Besides, I rather liked taking you out of your corset the one time." He threw her a mischievous gold grin over his shoulder.

"By cutting me out of it? You would be hell on a lady's pin money, Jack Sparrow, I can rightly see that."

"And since when does a King worry about pin money?"

Elizabeth laughed again, though this time it had a bitter tinge to it. "A King who does not have access to her own inheritance, perhaps, and watches her uncle fritter it away by the fistful on gambling and his wife's absurd tastes."

Jack paid her a wry little smile over his shoulder. "Ah yes. Can't touch it till y've been properly married off. Perhaps we'll have to do something about that." He thought a little bit, and once he warmed to the idea there was an infectious spark in his eyes, and he rambled excitedly. "Wouldn't I make a splendid Count?" He fluttered his fingers in the air before them, painting their futures in his imagination. "Le Comte de Monte Cristo, perhaps. Always liked that name…A mysterious and dashing foreigner who saved you from yet another interlude with Caribbean pirates. What an aptitude you have for stumbling into such troubles, Miss Swann! Anyways, you were so overcome that you agreed to marry me on the spot, right on the deck of my beautiful ship, La Perle Noir! Monsieur le Comte speaks hardly any English, of course, but sometimes the bond between a man and a woman transcends all language…"

He turned to gauge her reaction to his little scheme, finding her spiced-rum colored eyes glittering with amusement. She was trying not to smile, and failing spectacularly. "Are you saying you mean to win my hand by impersonating foreign nobility, Jack?"

Jack squeezed her fingers, his black eyes positively dancing with merriment. "Aye, well, I asked ye outright once to no avail. But let it not be said Captain Jack Sparrow ever lacks for creativity in a scheme."

Elizabeth pressed her lips, thinking back on that day on the Pearl, and how her heart sang when Jack proposed mar-i-age. Her heart, wicked thing that it was, whispered that she could forget about all her promises to Will Turner so easily in Jack Sparrow's arms. "You can hardly blame me for not taking you seriously that day," she countered. "We both know you were far more interested in getting me into your cabin, than actually marrying me."

Kohl-lined eyes narrowed in her direction. "And why are you so sure of that, your nibs?"

"Because…" Frowning, Elizabeth realized she wasn't sure she really had a good answer. The fact was, even if sometimes in a very roundabout way, Jack had always been good to her. Marriages were built upon less than that every day. Annoyed by her guilt, she huffed, "I was engaged to another man at the time of that proposal." She felt a pang in her heart for the late William Turner. The thought of Will would always pain her, though she found the edge of that pain had dulled with time.

For just a fraction of a moment Jack faltered, reminded of her first and perhaps truest love, before turning back to the path ahead. "Sorry, Elizabeth. Shouldn't have mentioned it."

Suddenly she felt very low for cutting Jack down when in his roundabout way he was trying to be sweet. "Jack…" Elizabeth searched her heart, and the words that fell from her lips next felt startlingly true. "I never would have wished Will's fate upon him. But I have come to think we would have been an ill-suited match, in the end. I wanted to say yes that day, you know. But I was afraid. Afraid of disappointing Will. Afraid that all the vicious whispers behind our backs were right, that a union between a blacksmith and a governor's daughter would never work. Afraid that I would be nothing but a plaything to you. A young woman alone on ship full of pirates…" She shook her head. "I had to keep what little power I still had."

Jack halted in his tracks so abruptly Elizabeth bumped into him.

He whirled, his hands upon her shoulders, his grip tight enough to bruise.

"Of all the men in your life, I never tried to take your power, Elizabeth. You may accuse me of many underhanded things, but never that."

Upon their very first meeting he'd set her free from society's confinements, slicing away that restrictive undergarment that attempted to suffocate her, and he'd only continued the trend in every encounter after that, offering her liberty with open palms at every turn. He'd always seen her for what she was from the very beginning. Peas in a pirate pod. Virgin Huntress, Woman Warrior, the goddess Diana and Athena melded in the flesh. He'd made her a bloody king, for Christ's sake. What could be more empowering than that?

Elizabeth gasped, surprised by the vehemence in his tone. "I suppose I didn't see it like that, then. It was hard not to feel like a puppet at the end of your strings, the way you manipulated us all two and fro."

Jack pressed his lips, unsure he could defend himself against that one. "I know I put you in danger plenty," he finally said. "But never anything I didn't think you could handle perfectly well."

"You thought me capable of fending off a hungry Kraken?"

She regretted saying it the moment the words left her lips, watching the spark fade in Jack's eyes, replaced by a shadow she desperately wanted to chase away.

"Touché, love. In the end, I certainly deserved what I got."

He turned to start walking again, but it was Elizabeth who grabbed him this time, frown lines deep upon her brow. "I wouldn't go that far."

She willed him to believe her, coffee-colored eyes earnest as they met his. She didn't know what would be best: to have it out once and for all over that damnable cephalopod, or to never mention the bloody thing ever again.

Jack saw something in her face that caused him to soften, the tension releasing from his shoulders. He reached up to cup her face, brushing the backs of his fingers against her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered closed for that simplest of touches, even as her arms burned where he'd gripped her so hard before. That was life with Jack, she realized. Pain one moment and exquisite sweetness the next, but never did a moment pass with him in which she did not feel extraordinarily alive.

She wanted that.

For always.

"The answer's yes, you know," she sighed. "If you ever should like to ask me again, that is."

She felt his lips brush hers, and her heart made a good attempt at fluttering out of her chest. Elizabeth couldn't quite bring herself to open her eyes just yet. If this was a dream…she didn't want to wake up. "I should like to, I think," said Jack quietly, his voice a low rumble deep in his chest.

A slow smile curled her lips, a tingling warmth coiling in her belly as the meaning of that sank in.

I should like to.

His words echoed in the halls of her heart, a place that had been so utterly empty for so very long. They filled her with elation, a happiness so sweet it almost felt as though it should be forbidden. Steadying herself with hands on his chest, she could feel his heartbeat beneath her palms as she stood on tiptoe to press her lips to his once more. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her snugly into his warmth, and for a few blissful seconds they were able to forget about Teach, the Fountain, and this bloody jungle that would relish the chance to eat them alive.