Disclaimer: Don't own POTC...

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Jack screwed his eyes up against the sun's glare and could just make out the faintest grey smudge on the horizon. He glanced up at the firey orb in the sky and, as he had expected, it was beginning its descent towards the ocean. It was around four in the afternoon. They were a bit furthur from land than Jack had expected, but that was probably due to the exhaustion and several frostbitten feet of the following crew.

The hours wore on as they plodded steadily towards port. It was getting dark, and Jack was beginning to get worried. The crew couldn't bear another all-night forced march. And neither could he. They didn't have enough supplies to stop and make camp - they were eating more than normal just to keep warm. They could only forge onwards in hopes of reaching Port Royal before the cold began its plunging nighttime spiral.

Jack's mind began to drift away from his logistical worries and back in time, back to his Dona Esperanza. Anything to escape from this. Oh, God, it was cold, so cold...

Jack smiled as Dona Esperanza blearily blinked her eyes open. She looked around her, disoriented. As she should be. When she had fallen asleep, she was in a creaky cell in the brig, huddled in Jack's arms. Now, she was still with Jack, but not in his arms. After the incident with Alderman, Jack had figured waking up next to a man would have been a bit too much for her, so he'd reluctantly disentangled himself from her embrace and had taken her somewhere more comfortable. She had spent the night in Jack's cabin, on his meager pallet, with him standing guard outside the rest of the night lest Alderman would try something again.

She started when he leaned forwards towards her. She more than started, in fact. She recoiled from him so fast it was like watching greased lightening. She backed up against the wall, pulling the blankets up over her as if to conserve her modesty, though she was still fully dressed.

"Stay away!" she said, her voice tense. It was obvious that Jack had at last found a woman who was impervious to his charm. "Don't touch me!"

Jack leaned back into his chair, tipping it back on two legs in a relaxed fashion, and propped his feet up on the edge of his otherwise occupied bed. "Fine," he said carelessly, holding up his hands to show he wouldn't try anything funny. "I won't touch you, I swear. I'll just sit here, alright?"

Esperanza stared at him out of untrusting, fearful eyes, like a vixen that's been cornered by the hounds. "You're a pirata. How can I trust anything you say?"

Jack shrugged. "I got Alderman off you, didn't I?"

"How do I know you're not just saving me for yourself?"

Jack shook his head disbelievingly. "Senorita - I'm surprised at you! I would have thought a high lady of culture such as yourself could recognize a gentleman when she saw one."

Esperanza's face smoothed over into an unreadable mask. The cold beauty was back - any emotion was gone from her feature. "I thought I could," she said in a flat tone. "But I was wrong."

Jack was instantly suspicious. She was hiding something. But she was getting touchy, so he supressed his curiousity and let his better judgement take over. "Very well," he sighed, standing up. Dona Esperanza flinched when he did so. "I'll just leave you in peace. Maybe you'll be able to realize my intentions are not what you think them to be."

With that, he turned and silently left the room, locking the door behind him.

Jack was suddenly aware of a squeltching underfoot and was snapped back from the past. Water was leaking up onto the surface of the ice, softening it. Jack hurriedly backpedalled until he was on solid ice and looked behind him to make sure all of the crew were accounted for. He was surprised to see how far ahead of them he was. The sun was sinking behind the horizon off to Jack's right, and as he turned to face it, he caught a glimpse of what lay before him.

True, there was Port Royal, seeming little more than a cluster of snow-covered shacks on the edge of the harbor. Smoke was pouring liberally out of the distant smokestacks, creating a foggy haze that lingered above the town like a cloud on a still day. But that wasn't what Jack was looking at. He was looking at the ice between him and Port Royal.

Cutting through the ice was a broad trail of ocean, allowing the supressed waters to leak out like blood from a wound. Jack could see it was as wide as a medium sized vessel, but there was no conceivable way for a normal ship to break through the thick ice. Unless...

"Alderman," Jack breathed, his breath a faint white mist in the frigid air. He didn't care about his soggy feet, his numb hands and ears or his raw wind-chapped face - he knew he had arrived too late. Deadeye had gotten to Elizabeth before he had. Jack inwardly winced at the agony Will must be going through. Will must think Elizabeth was dead...

"How do we cross THAT?" muttered Jack and looked towards the ship's trail throught the ice, not realizing that Anamaria had come up behind him.

"We'll go 'round is all," stated Anamaria sensibly, steadying Jack with one hand as he predictably whipped around to see who was behind him, not such a good idea on the water-slick ice.

When Jack stared at her blankly, she sighed and pointed in the direction of Port Royal. "Look. Y'see the 'ole in th'ice? There's only one o' those line thingies, an' it's only on one side. We'll jus' walk in on this side o'the trail, an' Bob's yer uncle! We're in port! Now, can we please hurry up? There's a pint or two with me name on it sittin' in that pub, and I ain't waitin' any longer."

Jack grinned at the simplicity of Anamaria's logic. "Righto! Good thinkin' lass! If we pick up our sorry ol' boots we'll be knockin' back rum 'fore y'can say Black Pearl!"

"Black Pearl," said Anamaria promptly, her eyes shining with mischief.

"I didn't mean it li'erally, ye fool! Now 'urry up th'others, ye smart alec!"

Anamaria walked off chuckling, leaving Jack to strike out towards Port Royal shaking his head and muttering about the insanity of women.

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A/N: hey, I just noticed all the stars I put in to make the flashbacks more obvious were disappearing when I uploaded the document. Sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean to confuse you unnecessarily - this is already confusing enough as it is! (I should know - it's my head this story is coming out of. Trust me, you don't want to visit in there. VERY RANDOM AND POINTLESS.)

Darn school, taking up all my evenings with homework...sigh. Well, hang in there - I'm not giving up on this, despite 2 IGCSEs I have to study for... (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!)

Oh, yeah, just for future reference to anyone else who makes a character walk from Tortuga to Port Royal, it's about a thousand miles, give or take a hundred. It would take about three months to walk that far. But Jack and crew walk it in about 3 days. Hee hee... sheepish look Oops...

What the hey. For the purposes of the story, it's fine. Besides, what would Will do for 3 months? Sit around watching Elizabeth lie there like a log? Much more convenient this way. And besides the logistics of that, who wants to read about a group of guys and a woman walking across flat, white frozen ice for 3 months? Nobody. It's too boring!

Wow, this was a long author's note. Will resolve HW crisis so I can write more. Don't like leaving you guys in the lurch.

(Might write a quick oneshot for a break...I just have to remember to bring the essay home from my desk. It involves Jack pondering stuff and love and more stuff. It actually inspired this story, so I think it'd be interesting to see where this fic sprang from...)