A/N: Now that I'm on vacation, I can update more quickly! (Dances gleefully)
Disclaimer: PotC belongs to... (bugle sound) Disney! Haha I just had this image of that Disney logo castle thing with the shooting star and everything.
Jack stopped in his tracks. The few other crew members drew ahead of us, walking in the direction Jack had pointed out, into a small jungle. The air was hot and still, despite that it was night.
"Lizzie." His voice sounded astonished.
"Jack." I smiled at him weakly through my tears. "Yes, I love you."
"You... do?"
"Yes." He smiled his roguish smile now, the one I was so used to, the one I loved... He put his arms around me, pulled me closer. His lips were less than an ince away from mine. I could feel his warm, intoxicating breath on my face, could see every single eyelash that rimmed his dark, alluring eyes.
I closed my eyes and leaned toward him. I couldn't remember when exactly our lips touched, but it was a long time before they parted from the long and deep kiss.
"I've loved you ever since you burned all the rum," he whispered, chuckling. "How long... for you...?"
"I don't know," I said. "I don't know. But I realized... this morning. After I left your cabin."
"But Jack," I said stubbornly after a pause, "you can't be seen with me!"
"Well then," he said, his voice holding a touch of annoyance now, "I s'pose we'll just have to spend the rest of our lives playing a child's make-believe game, then, and you can go marry the whelp and lie to him every day saying you love him, and on his gravestone you can carve 'beloved husband' and it'll be a lie to him even when he's dead!"
"Jack!" I said, unable to admit that I was in love with both on them, "No, he--I don't--I didn't... mean it like that..."
"Course you didn't mean it like that," he said. "I wouldn't have said it if you did, because if you did mean it like that, then I would be stating the obvious. And since it's just the two of us having this conversation, I wouldn't need to state the obvious because there wouldn't be anyone to state the obvious to, seeing as you would obviously know what you meant, and I would know, too, because if I didn't I wouldn't be presented the choice of whether or not to state the obvious! Savvy?"
I didn't even try to figure out what he meant this time.
"I think it'd be a good idea to continue," I said, starting to walk again.
"Excellent idea," he agreed.
"So... why did you say that?" I asked.
"Because I was wondering what you did mean by that."
"I meant what I said," I said. "If Will finds out, he'll kill you, and I can't let that happen!"
"Well, now that I know he'll kill me, I can let him find out and I'll be ready."
"That's awfully reckless, if you wanted to know."
"I'm a reckless person," he said impatiently. "Pirate, after all."
"I don't want you to risk it," I said slowly.
"I'm a risk-taking person, too," he added. I sighed.
"I refuse to put you in danger."
"And you're going to let yourself live unhappily with stupid bloody Will?" he asked incredulously. "What kind of a pirate are you?"
"One with a more... noble attitude than yours!" I said fiercely, and immediately regretted it. Very noble--chaining him to the mast to guarantee that you would come out alive--very noble, eh?
"Jack," I said quietly, "Let's not talk about this now."
"Suit yourself, but you started it."
I smiled weakly. The crew members had stopped to wait for us in a clearing in the jungle.
"This is the spot," Jack announced grandly. There was a little murmuring. Jack strolled to the center of the clearing, removed a rock that lay there, and gestured for the crew to dig.
"Jack, don't you think that's a bit of an obvious hiding spot?" I asked skeptically.
"But I highly doubt anyone would come here," said Jack. "You can't get here unless you already know where it is."
"How many islands like that are there?" I asked.
"More than you need to know, love," he said with a wink. I ran forward to help with the digging, and soon we hit something solid.
"Please tell me it's something really worth coming for," I said to Jack as we hauled the chest out. "I'm not looking forward to dying at the hands of Emera and Aryza because 'the payment isn't fair' or something like that."
"Must I tell you once again that I'm Captain Jack Sparrow?" he asked exasperatedly. "I told you to trust me!"
"I do!" I protested. "It's just that--"
"Listen, I refuse to put you in danger," he said. I sighed, but couldn't help smiling a little at those words.
"All right," I said. "All right."
Jack fumbled among the many trinkets in his hair until he finally found a small key, which he inserted into the lock of the chest. He lifted the lid of the chest, and we gather around to look in eagerly.
It was like a classic story. Mounds of gold coins and jewels lay inside, sparkling in the faint moonlight. Ragetti reached forward to grab some, but Jack stopped him.
"You don't want to be doing that," he said, grinning. "There's stuff there that can burn out your eyes when you touch them, even through a piece o' cloth or something." Ragetti looked shocked and backed away.
"So how are you going to get it out?" I asked teasingly. "Simply by being Captain Jack Sparrow?"
"More or less," agreed Jack. He snapped the chest shut and locked it again, tied the key to another trinket in his hair, and stood up.
"Ragetti, Pintel," he said. "I would like you two to carry this chest back to the ship." I opened my mouth in astonishment and closed it again. The two obediently lifted the chest together and walked away.
"See, darling?" Jack said smugly. I stared.
"Oh," I said at last.
"Never would have thought of that, eh?" He smirked. We started to walk back.
"Who were you and the twins fighting the 'said battle' last time you were here?" I asked.
"Curious again?" asked Jack. "Captain Merlow."
"You're not talking about...?"
"The man from the prophecy, yes."
"Don't tell me you were fighting over his gun?"
"I won't tell you we were fighting over his gun."
I stared at him exasperatedly. "I should have known you'd want something vile like that. And you asked the twins to help you with that?"
"Yep."
"Don't tell me another reason you want to kill Merlow is because you want the gun..."
"I won't tell you another reason I want to kill Merlow is because I want the gun."
"Jack!"
"Because I don't want his gun! There's only one way to kill Merlow, remember? And if you kill Merlow that way, the spell on the gun is broken, so there wouldn't be any point in kililng him for the gun because in killing him the gun is just an ordinary gun. Savvy?"
"Oh," I muttered. "Right."
I climbed onto the ship, followed by Jack, and immediately found Will watching us.
Oh, bugger.
"Will!" I said, trying to smile. "Why didn't you come? I was wondering where you were!"
Will pulled me into a kiss, whispering, "I just remembered that as captain of a ship, Jack can perform our marriage right now on this ship. Or on the island, if you'd like. Our wedding was postponed anyways, why not now?"
"What? No." I said it so suddenly and strongly that I surprised myself as well. "No--I mean ye--I mean--I'm not ready..."
NO! I'm not going to marry you! I'm sorry, Will, but I don't love you anymore! I don't want to be your wife!
"Elizabeth?"
I shook myself out of my thoughts.
"I'm not ready," I repeated, hoping desperately that Will could not read my mind and trying to find something to say. "In an hour or so..."
"Is that a yes?" asked Will. I suddenly realized what I had done. No! It's not a yes!
I nodded.
"On the ship then?" I said slowly.
"As you wish," said Will. I feigned a surprisingly radiant smile.
"I'll just--go--get ready--er..." I ran below deck and burst into my cabin in tears.
What have I done?!?! There's no way out of this!
I looked up suddenly and found Jack standing in the doorway.
"I assume you are having a fit of anguished emotions?" he said. There's no way out of this.
I slowly resigned myself to this fate.
"Jack," I whispered, staring at the wall, unable to look at him. "Captain. Get yourself ready."
"What?"
"After we set sail, all right?"
"Lizzie, darling, what are you talking about?"
"Will and I are going to get married."