A/N: Time for another chappie! XD

In an instant both Jack and Elizabeth sprang to their feet and hurtled down the stairs leading to the deck, where the crew members were just starting to pour out of their cabins looking very confused. Behind The Lurker, The Pearl was slowly making a turn to the left, looking as if it were going to pull alongside the Lurker's left. Jack anxiously scanned the water for any sign of the serpent while Elizabeth hurried off to untie the sails so the ship could sail quickly. The Pearl was now edging along the Lurker's side, and in the water the back of the serpent was seen doing a dive down into deeper waters.

The crew members of the Lurker hastened to take over untying the sails, and Elizabeth backed off, looking about in a fluster. Jack made his way back towards her and spoke quickly.

"The ugly snake went down deeper; it's probably planning to ram its head through the bottom of the ship!"

Elizabeth's eyes grew wide. "I have to turn the ship!"

Jack rolled his eyes, "You think so!?"

Without replying Elizabeth made a U-turn and ran back up the steps to the wheel two at a time. She let her hands quickly grasp the pegs of the wheel and began turning to the right, as the Pearl came parallel on the left. Just as the water began to circle, the Lurker cleared away, and the head of the serpent rose at full speed in between the two ships, looking furious that it had missed its target. Its eyes glanced between the two ships and then it dove towards the Lurker, its mouth wide open bearing sharp teeth.

The crew members jumped aside as the serpent made contact with the Lurker, wood chips flying in all directions. When it lifted itself back up there was a gaping hole in the deck, revealing the store rooms under deck. Elizabeth left the wheel momentarily to see how bad the damage was, and when she saw the hole in her brand new ship her jaw dropped in frustration. She was about to turn back to the wheel when her eyes caught sight of thin long poles under deck. As she looked at them from the wheel down into the hole, a smile formed on her face.

Meanwhile, the serpent had turned to the Pearl, where Barbossa was manipulating the ship into swift turns to the left and right, jerking it side to side to keep the serpent busy trying to lock on to target. Its long head kept diving towards the Pearl, but nearly every time it missed to go splashing back into the water. This was very helpful to the Pearl, as it took the serpent great effort to keep heaving itself up out of the water time after time, and it was obvious that it was getting tired.

"Jack!"

Jack looked up at Elizabeth from where he had been standing on deck. She was pointing at the hole that the serpent had made minutes earlier. A bit baffled he strode over to the hole through the panicked crew members and gazed down. He saw rum bottles, mostly broken now, lots of toppled shelves, and then he saw strange poles. He looked back at Elizabeth. "Poles?"

"Yes!" She yelled.

With a curious shrug, Jack jumped down into the hole landing on the lower deck floor. He dusted his hands off as the ship gave a lurch to the right, indicating the serpent had probably hit it with its tail while chasing after the Pearl. He balanced himself and then made his way to where the poles had been set. He found them quickly and picked up as many as he could and ran towards the lower deck's stairs that led back up to the main deck. When he got there he saw that the serpent had shifted its attention back to the Lurker, and was swimming towards it from where the Pearl had led it off to.

Making an anxious face, Jack hurried towards the captain's wheel and raced up the stairs to it, Elizabeth looking nervously in the direction of the serpent as she directed the Lurker to swerve to the right. Jack let the poles drop to his feet, wiping his hands on his pants and then looked up at Elizabeth.

"Great!" She managed as the serpent started to rise up in the air maliciously. "Here." She grabbed his arm with a firm grip and yanked him towards the wheel, where he got the picture and grabbed hold of the wheel while she moved over to the poles. She picked one of them up in her hands and held it up in the air at a slant, and realization dawned on Jack. He let go of the wheel and reached his hands out to help hold up the pole. The serpent, who didn't see anything threatening about this picture, continued to hurtle down through the air towards the two people. At the last second someone on deck had decided to fire a canon at the serpent, which blew it off balance, hitting it in the side of its neck. The serpent lurched off course with a perilous scream of anger.

Jack was getting up to go back to the wheel, but Elizabeth stopped him.

"Wait, it'll be back…"

Looking back out over the rim, Jack saw that the serpent was shaking its head to clear its thoughts and then its eyes locked on with Jack's. The serpent gave a low growl that seemed to gurgle a bit from all the water it had swallowed, and Jack quickly grasped the pole again to help Elizabeth.

The serpent did indeed come back for another shot, although this time it was twice as angry. After rising up in the air it furled its neck into a loop curling backwards and shot forward as if it had been slung from a sling shot. Elizabeth and Jack braced themselves for impact as it hurtled towards them monstrously, gripping the pole tightly. Without thinking, Elizabeth quickly grabbed another pole and held it up with her free hand. Jack, noticing this, quickly did the same so that three poles now were held up, facing the serpent. An instant later the huge jaws of the serpent opened wide and came crashing on top of Elizabeth and Jack, but in another instant it had stopped cold in its path. Elizabeth opened her eyes, after having closed them from being so tense. All three poles had pierced through the serpent's mouth and came jutting out the top of it through its head. Despite this the serpent was still alive, though only by a sliver. In response to this the same crew member who had lit the canon a moment earlier, lit the canon again, and it blew through the serpent's neck at the same place as the other blow. Other canons were lit as well, and soon the serpent was being blasted all over by the canon balls. It gave one final attempt to lunge forward at Elizabeth and Jack before going limp and sliding over the railings and back into the waters, where it sank downward.

Panting, Elizabeth stood and walked over to the railing to look down, and there was no sight of the serpent anywhere. Jack came over beside her to look for himself and smiled.

"Well, it got what was coming to 'em."

Elizabeth couldn't help but chuckle at that.

The Black Pearl came sailing back up to their side and Barbossa looked over at them, scrutinizing. Jack waved with a smile showing his teeth.

"Show off!" Barbossa yelled at him. "Just had to kill it, didn't yeh? I could've done it…" And he kept on mumbling grumpily.

"Well," Elizabeth said, turning to Jack. "I'll have to get that gaping hole fixed now…"

"Just get the crew to hop to it." Jack said as a matter of fact kind of way. With that he turned and walked to the wheel, Elizabeth following.

"Now, I believe it was my turn to steer while you were supposed to go and take a nap." Jack stated, glancing at Elizabeth.

"Oh alright." Elizabeth said, turning and walking down the stairs.

The rest of the day the crew spent mending the hole in the deck. They used spare wood from the layer deck to nail back in place to the hole, and they used wood glue to make it sturdier. When they had all finished the sun was setting lazily back beneath the water. The Pearl had long since gone back in place, sailing behind the Lurker, and Jack had been steering for a long time now. He wasn't sure rather or not Elizabeth would even wake up to take a night shift, which, being a pirate, didn't really bother him, as on the Pearl he usually captained without sleep for long amounts of time.

About a half hour later he did hear foot steps coming up the stairs and turned to see a still half asleep Elizabeth. Slightly surprised, he relinquished the wheel and she took it, her eyes slowly becoming more alert. She had put her old pirate hat back on before she'd come out of her cabin. Jack watched her for a few minutes before he reluctantly decided to leave her. As he was turning to the stairs, he heard the sleepy voice of Elizabeth.

"Jack…about last night…"

He slowly turned around and saw Elizabeth gazing at him steadily.

"What about last night?" He asked with a far off hint in his voice.

"Well…" She blinked slowly. "I just never knew it meant so much to you."

Jack took a few steps closer. "That's a lie, Elizabeth. We both know it means everything…at least it does to me."

Elizabeth wasn't sure what to say. "Well then why did you never say anything to me after I came all the way to the Locker to find you?"

Jack Sparrow squinted his eyes in thought. "I never thought you'd expect me to say anything. I thought it was just a…an act of mercy towards the better of the Pearl's crew, what you did."

There was a long pause of silence after that had been said. Elizabeth didn't dare speak now, for fear she might say something she'd later regret. Jack merely looked at her for a long time, his gaze never faltering, and he finally spoke. "It was just a gesture…wasn't it? Nothing more?"

"No…nothing more." She managed to whisper.

Jack wasn't convinced, but he decided he'd had enough. He turned and walked down the stairs, leaving Elizabeth to the wheel just as he had the night before.

Elizabeth quickly flung her hand up to her eye as soon as he was out of sight and wiped one tear from her eye. She finally realized she'd made a big mistake. She should have never married William. She knew, that, had she had known that Jack did harbor a few feelings for her, she wouldn't have ever been able to make up with William at all, rather she would have gotten to know Jack better. She always got herself into fine fixes such as this. She turned back to the wheel and continued steering the Lurker on into the night, followed closely by the Black Pearl.