Thank you so, so much to Smithy, lady angst, WillsElizabeth23, AKA Parfait, Telcontar Rulz, lynxlan, Princesa Moanna, Nicole Kazan, and Master of Time for the reviews!!

And now for anonymous reviewer responses:

Smithy: Indeed, though stressful situations are a bit away from being resolved. I wouldn't worry too much for the new baby. It is a Turner/Swann after all. They're made of pretty resilient stuff. Thanks for the review!

WillsElizabeth23: It surprised me as well! Who knew I would kill off a canon character? You are correct. Will is in a very tight spot right now. However, Jack, despite his belated and sometimes bizarre timing, won't leave Bootstrap's only son to rot. :) Thanks for the review!

Master of Time: Thanks very much! I'm so pleased that you are enjoying it! I apologize for not enabling it earlier. It's extremely sweet of you to go to such lengths to write a review! (and you were correct to go to Arquenniel :) )

Chapter 17: The Night Goes On

And I can't stand the pain
And I can't make it go away
No, I can't stand the pain
How could this happen to me?
I made my mistakes
Got no where to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me?

Untitled

By Simple Plan

Elizabeth forced her head high as she strode past the crew and scrambled down the hatch. She didn't make a sound while stepping past the crew's quarters, moving beyond the empty hammocks with a good amount of speed.

She knew where she was headed and nothing could burst free before she got there.

A door was yanked open and then she was in the deepest hole of the Black Pearl. Curling into the farthest corner and the smallest ball possible she finally let out a deep breath.

Don't think about it, don't think about it, she pleaded with herself but it was like fighting the tide of the ocean. Just when you thought your mind had receded from those memories they flooded back to hit you full force.

The light in their eyes when they said his name...it nearly suffocated her. Their delicate faces and soft accents…she bit her knuckle.

Who wouldn't try to catch their eye? And here she was as big as a tub of rum, dirt under every fingernail, blood spattered, seawater creasing her clothing, and the stench of rum clinging to her hair.

Cotton's death seemed to pulse heavily in her mind and her heart felt as though it was physically breaking.

Will had…she couldn't say it, even think it!

A horrible half chocked sob burst from her lungs, burning like acid in her mouth as tears cut paths down her filthy cheeks. Her waist ached with each heavy breath she took.

To find him after so long to see him bending over the corpse of a good friend…the last fringe of fortitude she had been clinging to crumbled away.

She didn't hate him though. She wouldn't, couldn't hate him. How she wanted to, how she wanted to rant and rave and curse but it was impossible. He was too good, too loving, too utterly perfect.

The days spent with him were buzzing with laughter and devotion. The days spent with him were peaceful and filled with love.

She stroked her belly as if drawing strength from her child. A child that might never meet his father…but…

Had she lost him?

Had all she believed in been a lie?

He had never lied to her before…he was always good and true, steady.

Elizabeth pounded her free fist into the dark paneling of the floor. Will…how did this happen? How did I become so confused?

She did not doubt her own love for it caused the fierce throbbing in her chest, still…so many weeks of anticipation…so many hopes and dreams lying in shambles at her feet, half sunken in filthy, smelly seawater.

Unbridled rage slid through her veins as a poison, corrupting all in its course. It ate up the logical thought process and swallowed her deep driven trust in her husband. All that it left behind was hate.

Hate for the very one that she had loved.

Give me a reason

Why you hide away so much inside.

If there's a reason,

I don't know why.

Is there a reason

Why a broken heart begins to cry?

Is there a reason

You were lost although you don't know why?

Give me a reason

Why you never want to say goodbye.

If there's a reason

I don't know why…

Someone Said Goodbye

Enya

Utter and potent confusion was Will's greatest obstruction as he stumbled up the stairs after Elizabeth. His limbs were suddenly swallowed by fatigue and his breathing erratic. What on earth had she meant?

"Elizabeth…" he tried to cry after her but his lungs refused to suck in enough air to cooperate. He was on deck now, trapped in a wreath of fleeing pirates and Navy men. His vision spun and he was forced to lean against a railing.

The pain in his side had multiplied horrifically past the aching that had been his constant companion for the past few weeks.

He could see the Pearl, guns roaring, gliding next to the Waking Power but slowly she was gaining speed and the Waking Power was lagging behind. Panicked, he realized that the Pearl was pulling away with an intention to leave. 'Those who fall behind are left behind…' the pirate's code seemed to mock.

He saw a slight gleam of golden brown and immediately knew that Elizabeth had made it back to the Pearl. A thin strand of comfort was offered to him in that Hawthorne would not get his hands on her but how he longed to be with her.

He moved forward hoping to join her when a soldier intercepted his path. Completely annoyed, he lifted his cutlass and bore into the man.

Yet, somehow, the soldier held up under his ferocious attack. Gripping his side in one hand and his weapon in the other he made to attack again. He was in mid-strike when the Pearl reached full canvas. Adrenaline pumping, he swiped to the side, catching the man's thigh, and struggled towards the rail.

The Pearl's black hull was already detached from the Waking Power leaving him with one escape option.

To jump and swim.

And that was practically suicide in his current condition. He was a strong swimmer, yes, but fighting a current was not something one should be doing with a nearly healed hole in their side.

Though, did he have much of a choice? Elizabeth was there, on the Pearl, hating him. Was he just going to stand aside?

With a feral lunge, he ran at the rail, preparing to hurdle the side, his decision set and cast in stone. Placing his feet squarely on the wooden planks and planted his free hand on the rail's smooth surface, he leapt.

A flash of light shone brilliantly in his line of vision and suddenly he was flying not forwards but backwards. The last thought echoing in his head as he slammed unto the deck was 'Elizabeth'.

Hawthorne was submerged in the worst headache known to man…or at least the worst he'd ever experienced. It traveled from his temples to the nape of his neck in horrific levels of speed, bearing its potent and piercing pain back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

In fact, his pain level was so high his stomach had decided to refuse to keep down even water. The ship's imbecilic and mediocre surgeon had brewed all sorts of concoctions to cure or at least alleviate his ailment. He had even managed to stuff a particularly nasty brew down his superior's throat before he was hollered at, then, moments later, thrown overboard.

Hawthorne thought it a fitting punishment considering the way his gullet burned and twisted at contact with the foul creation.

So, it was under the strength of rage that he staggered to the main deck, still reeling like a drunk. Barking orders that had no intelligent thought behind them he managed to arrive before his assembled crew, barely avoiding a collision with his first mate Dickens…or was it Hickley…no matter.

Behind Dickens or Hickley, however, was a matter indeed. A large, rather strong, infuriating matter.

Hawthorne shoved his first mate aside and stared down the aforementioned matter he believed to be the cause of all his calamities and misfortunes.

The dark eyes met his fiercely as before, yet swirling with unspoken emotions and pain.

"You." Hawthorne growled. "You told them, didn't you?"

"Told who what?" Will's tone was drier than a desert plain.

"You told the pirates! That's the only reason they escaped! Somehow you informed them of our strategy!"

Will's temper flared. "And just how would I have done that?"

Hawthorne's face turned an interesting shade of red before he snapped, "Bring them out!"

That was a command Will didn't understand until the captain's cabin doors were flung open and the three Wood's girls were dragged out. Abrasions in varying amounts of damage littered their arms and faces but all in all they seemed well.

Without a word they were pushed to the main mast, pressed to the rough wood, and held there at the wrists by thick shackles.

"Let me tell you this right now, Turner, straight and clear. You are going to repair this ship until each board, nail, and scrap of canvas is in perfect order. Until then and only then will I allow these wenches to receive food and water. Finally, when I have decided due punishment has been appropriated for your conspiracy will I allow them to return to their cabins. Do I make myself clear?"

There was no answer but Will's eyes were as dark as a midnight sky and his jaw was tight.

"Now, Turner, if I were you I'd get to work."

"Cap'n," Gibbs had been trying for the last twenty minutes to capture Jack's attention. So far his success had been…well…nothing. He leaned forward to tap Jack's shoulder then, at the last moment, opted against it as Jack swerved in time with the Pearl's rolling gait.

"Cap'n?" He ventured, unsure whether to continue his quest for answers.

"Mr. Gibbs!" Jack whirled abruptly, nearly smacking right into his gristly first mate. "Where 'ave you been? I tolerate no lollygagging on my ship. Now what do you have t'say for your miserable self! Speak, man!"

"Cap'n, sir, the crew…" Gibbs faltered. "They're uneasy with the latest turnabouts. They're wanting to know where we are headed…"

Jack's mouth twitched in clear frustration.

"Cap'n, they're near mutinous."

Jack made no move to answer but grasped Gibb's rum stained collar, shoved him to the helm, and stalked to the front of the deck, glowering like a cat caught in a spring rainstorm. "For all of you indolent lumps of lard," Jack shouted over the crew's noise which immediately silenced, "who have the guts to call yourselves pirates and wanted to know my heading, Captain Jack Sparrow's heading, we are in the general navagatorial direction of Alabanza Vacía."

The crew's shifting and shuffling ceased immediately. The silence and jarring fear that squashed all good humor could have been a heap of wool blankets it was so stifling. It was as if they were suddenly thrust six feet under but had not the time to react.

It might have indeed been better if they had passed on though, for Alabanza Vacía was the scum pit of the world. Not even pirates dared to go there. Only the most coldhearted bloodthirsty tyrants made that place their abode even for a short time. Slavers and all other sorts of flesh dealers crowded at her pubs and clamored to buy her best 'stock'. Hardened men with no hearts downed the fruits of her labors in the fields and smoked the pleasures of grasses she offered with taunting and deceptively empty hands. She offered a full bushel of happiness then in a moments notice its allurement and bliss faded like the wisps of smoke veiling her heights to show what she really held.

Nothing.

Undeniably, she was a fickle and blatantly cruel mistress at the day's closing, one whose nets and snares were to be avoided at all costs. So, to suggest that they walk into that abyss was as attractive as being asked to stroll over the edge of a cliff.

"Captain, you know da stories of dat place." Marty's short build was tense and his tan face stormy. "To go dere brings ill fortune."

"…I know that." Jack informed then in a haughty tone.

"But, Captain, why stir up a bee hive like that one?" Gibbs questioned, not in the least convinced that this was a safe venture. Under normal circumstances, well, as normal as they could get with Jack Sparrow at the helm, he would have trusted his captain explicitly but the last few days had shaken that trust - badly.

"We are going there to deposit a load of merchandise given to us in Nassau. And now, as this is my ship, making me the captain and giving me the authority, leave, sanction, you bloody well know what I mean to give orders, I order you to stop gawking and get your pitiful, measly, bilge rat selves back to work."

For a moment no one moved. Gibbs was the first to snap out of the daze that seemed to swallow their ability to stir. "You heard what the captain said! Get moving, you lazy yobs!"

And in a rush of stamping they returned to their stations, hearts heavy with misgivings.

TBC...