Thank you, thank you, thank you to reviewers, willabeth0906, and AKA Parfait!!

Chapter 13: Decisions

Elaine struggled to regain her poise, but it was difficult as she felt as though her feet had been knocked out from underneath her. Her hope that they could feign innocence and avoid any unsavory situations had been shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Search the house and barn, bring out anyone you find." The man commanded tersely.

"Please, no!"

Elaine quickly took over where her sister had left off, hoping to repair whatever damage had been caused. "Our mother, sir, she is very ill! She cannot be moved!"

"You should have thought of that before you 'forgot' how to speak English." He said with a tone as slick as butter.

Mariel and Elaine watched in horror as the house and barn were flooded by troops and they could not do anything to hinder them. "Elaine," Mariel whispered, shocked, "Je suis désolé, je ne sais pas… /I am sorry, I did not know…/"

"Shh, Mariel, s'il vois plait. /please/"

There was a loud exclamation in French and moments later the door banged open and out tumbled Lucienne, clad in a pure white night gown complete with mob cap.

"Maman!" The sisters shrieked as she toppled over into the long, thick grass just past their porch.

Another loud scream came from the barn and out came Celia, hair tousled and furious. "What is the meaning of-" her words fell short seeing the official on horseback and her mother sprawled on the ground.

The official evenly pulled leather gloves from his hand and stared deliberately at the three girls. "Where is he?"

"Who?" Elaine managed a confused expression.

"William Turner." He dropped the name clearly, carefully watching their expressions.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Perhaps you will…" the officer waved at two soldiers who leveled their muskets at the three sisters, "now."

Celia's head lifted faintly but a swift warning glance from Elaine silenced any words she may have spoken.

The officer dismounted smoothly, stared about him, then shouted, "William Turner, if you are on this premise, you will reveal yourself to my men and cause no difficulty or these lovely young women's deaths will lay on your conscience."

There was a pause.

"Colonel Edwards!" Will's accented voice carried clearly across the wind. "I would have thought you to be a gentleman." He stepped out from the barn. "But threatening helpless women is hardly chivalrous."

"It seems, I, too, need to reconsider preconceived notions, Mr. Turner." Colonel Edwards stiffened, seeing that none of his men were around Will. "Killed all those men by yourself, did you?"

"Who said they were dead?"

"Come, now, this has gone long enough. Surrender."

"Let them go first."

"Very well. I shall prove to you that I can, indeed, be civil." At his signal, the guards lowered the firearms. "I have kept my end of the deal, Mr. Turner, will you honor me and keep yours?"

"I would hardly call it an honor to be in your presence but I am a man of my word. Do not harm them." With obvious reluctance, Will moved from the shadow of the barn.

Soldier rushed forward, grasping tightly at the blacksmith's arms and shoulders. A few cuffs and blows later several burly soldiers clamped his wrists into a thick set of shackles even as another set of soldiers scuttled into the barn and returned with the unconscious forms of two redcoats.

"Excellent." Colonel Edwards smiled thinly. "O'Connor," a gangly aide urged his horse onward to be handed a heavy coin purse. "See that Mrs. Hickens receives her reward for turning a criminal."

The young soldier assented quickly then spurred his horse to the white cottage next door.

"Now, onto chastisement." Faster than a blink of an eye, Colonel Edwards raised a pistol, aimed it, and fired.

"No!" Will lurched forward, dark eyes flashing in fury, and his captors had to fight to keep a firm grip on his shoulders and forearms.

Lucienne's pale face crinkled in pain and her cornflower blue eyes lost their vibrancy then she slumped to the ground, a round hole, spilling blood, in her heart.

The three sister's faces were the meaning of shocked. For a moment they all stood there, motionless, until in one burst they darted towards her, shoving past the redcoats.

Will, however, was satisfied with a heated verbal thrashing. "Coward! How could you do that?! I surrendered!" He knew at this point that it was useless to contest the soldier's powerful clutches but he couldn't help pulling at them anyway. "You promised you wouldn't hurt them!"

"If you recall I never specified who 'them' was. You should be grateful I did not punish you further for your rebellion and shot them all." The colonel was ever calm, ever icy, and ever unyielding to giving any mercy.

The three sisters cradled their mother's already cold body in shaking hands. "You have no decency, sir!" Mariel shouted, blind with tears.

"I believe I do. You hid away a fugitive of the law and rebukes must be doled out. Even so, be consoled, mademoiselle, for it could have been your heart that the bullet pierced."

Mariel hid her face in her mother's nightgown, fighting back more frenzied accusations.

"Take him away." Colonel Edwards nodded to the guards holding Will then pivoted to face the girls. "It has been a pleasure dealing with you, mademoiselles." He bowed tersely then mounted and rode away, leaving the three sisters, sitting in their front lawn, holding the body of their mother.

The prison within the British camp was in surprisingly better shape than the quarters Will had been sleeping in. They were by no means accommodating but they were dry and the bars detaining him were well crafted.

Will would have searched the every inch for an escape route but it seemed the British had wizened up. A guard was posted twenty-four hours a day and so far his eyes had never strayed far.

The young blacksmith exhaled noisily and slid farther down the wall, the crudely cut stones digging into his back. He had watched the patches of light on the floor, streaming from a window hacked high in the wall and barred with strips of iron, creep from the hallway and the guards lap to the tip of his toes and the straw covered floor.

Sunlight was beginning to fade and the quiet squeaking of mice had become a soft chorus echoing down the corridor. In moments, the light would die away all together and he would be left in darkness.

A loud clanking sound reverberated down the stones. Will straightened uneasily. Long ago he had memorized the prison noises and this was not one of them.

The edgy feeling multiplied when his guard stood, heels snapped together and polished musket raised in salute.

"Bring the prisoner." A long-faced man in uniform drawled.

The door grated open and two men entered with a set of manacles. "Hands out." The first commanded curtly.

Deciding that it wasn't worth fighting, Will dispassionately let them grab his wrists, watching as they fastened the metal, the lock falling into place with an ominous click.

Elizabeth felt an immense sense of relief to step aboard the Black Pearl again. It felt right, as if the pieces of her journey to find her husband had just fallen into place.

Breathing deeply of the briny air, she turned full into the wind and savored the bright sunlight. There was no corset or stuffy clothes to restrict her now.

She had managed to find a large pair of breeches, a wide shirt, and the leather overcoat. The change in attire was not something that she rued.

Now all that need to be attained was Will. And, with a knowing glint to her honey brown eyes, she turned towards Jack. He had just the thing to get them to Will in short duration.

It was to the sound of clattering irons that Will was escorted into Colonel Edward's office.

His anger had melted away leaving behind a lead like weight of hate for this eerily cunning and cultured man.

"Ahh, Mr. Turner, I'm pleased to see that you could be swayed to join us." The Colonel turned from the open window, a benevolent smile painted on his clean-shaven face.

"If by saying swayed you mean brought in shackles and under gunpoint then yes, I am."

"Captain Hawthorne," Colonel Edwards took a deep breath, lifted a thin tome, opened the cover, and droned, "I believe our guest needs a small 'aide memoire' of who holds his fate."

The man almost leapt forward, a feral light in his expression. With a horrendous sneer he eagerly threw his fist into Will's unprotected stomach.

Dots of color, all sizes and shades, filled Will's vision and for a long moment all he could do was gasp air into lungs that seemed to have forgotten how to function.

The heavy blow had glanced off his still healing gunshot wound and the tenderness of that injury made itself know in volumes.

"Captain," The Colonel glanced up from his book, "I should think that your duties in this instance could be carried out with less zeal." He commented as if the action was tedious or dull, after seeing Will heave for oxygen.

Hawthorne's eyes darkened in rebellion but he wisely responded, "aye, sir."

"Mr. Turner, multiple times we have brought an offer to you-"

"I told you I would not comply." Will rasped, his vocal cords also recalling how to force out sound.

"Then perhaps it is time, we up the 'ante' if you will." The colonel set his manuscript back down on the cluttered but impeccably neat desk, his fingers lingering on the leather cover. "You were apprehended on the property of Mrs. Lucienne Woods, formerly married to James Woods and once a citizen of France, not overlooking her…offspring, of course, who also hid you from His Majesty's officials. We all are aware of the just punishment for what transpired. Mrs. Woods received hers but I have yet to dole out reprimands to her daughters…"

"We agreed that if I turned myself in you wouldn't harm them. You already violated that accord when you murdered Mrs. Woods." Will snarled, not caring at this moment if he did obtain another beating.

"If you will bear in mind, Mr. Turner, that I said nothing about that if you did not cooperate that I would not refrain on a latter day from serving justice."

"How can you call this justice?! This is a mockery of justice! This is blackmail." Will dropped the word like a well placed blow to heated metal. Perhaps it would change their tactics. Though, Will thought grimly, it was not likely.

Unfortunately, his intuition was correct. The colonel smiled coldly, "Quite right, Mr. Turner, and this time you will adhere to our commands."

Four hours.

That was all he was given to decide, the lives of the Wood girls or Jack's. The Wood girls had saved his life and for it they had lost their mother but Jack was a long time friend, almost a brother.

Will's head felt as though it had doubled in size, bruises littered his torso where Hawthorne had decided he needed to hasten the conclusion to Will's choice.

The soldiers had also opted that the manacles would become a permanent part of his wardrobe as they had not removed them but instead locked him in his tiny cell and walked away, the same guard as before staring him down.

So, it was with festering animosity that Will sat in the decayed straw and thought about the choice before him.

He could choose to refuse and the Wood girls would likely be killed. Or he could accept and track down Jack for the British.

In his heart, he knew which one he had to choose but it still made the final call no less difficult. He also understood that Jack could get himself out of practically any fix but then again he had already gotten into several scrapes that only Will could pry him out of.

There was a commotion at the door and as Will glanced up he saw the sun low in his cell floor. Had four hours passed already?

Captain Hawthorne stepped into view, a spiteful smirk playing on his lips. "So, Turner, have you decided?"

"Jack!" Elizabeth stepped up to the pirate captain as he directed the Pearl out of the bay. "Jack, I need something from you."

"Do you now?"

Elizabeth pointedly ignored his remark. "Your compass. I need to borrow it."

"An' why would that be?"

"To find Will. It's the fastest way."

Jack turned, letting Gibbs take the helm. "'Liz'beth, listen. Didn' you hear what ole' Charles said back there?"

"Since when does Jack Sparrow take orders?" Elizabeth demanded.

Jack gave a half-hearted shrug. "Maybe I wan' to try it for change."

"Jack! Listen to me! It wouldn't take long to retrieve Will! I know it wouldn't! I can feel him close by! Jack, please."

"I'll take you to your whelp if you'll help me. That was the agreement, savvy?"

Elizabeth's lips compressed. "But what about Will?"

The pirate captain regarded her with the most sincere expression she'd seen.

"We'll get him back."

TBC...