Disclaimer: don't own POTC...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sorry, who?" asked Elizabeth.

"Dona Esperanza. But ignore the title. Call me Esperanza."

"Oh." Elizabeth's sense of propriety kicked in. "Nice to meet you."

Esperanza snorted in a most unladylike fashion. "Drop the pleasantries. I'm sure you don't really care about that sort of thing anyway."

Elizabeth smiled. "Yep. Now, where are we? What's going on? And why - "

'Slow down, slow down!" chuckled Esperanza. "It's a long story and I only hope we have time for it. Don't," she held up a hand as Elizabeth started to ask another question. "It'll all become clear when you hear this. Make yourself comfortable. We're going to be here awhile."

Elizabeth plopped onto the ground and sat cross-legged, looking up at Esperanza with an expectant expression reminiscent of the story-hungry child she once was. Esperanza leaned back against a large granite boulder which Elizabeth hadn't noticed before - it was mostly hidden by the mist - and began.

"This all started long ago, when a young pirate captain and his men boarded our vessel. I wouldn't yield my valuables to him, as the other passengers had done. My family had lost everything in a foolish bet on the outcome of a horse race, and I was travelling to the Americas in hopes of better fortune. I was not about to give everything I had to a seaworn rogue! And so, he kept me on his ship while he let the others go. I did not trust him, what with his outlaw way of life and wanton habits. But that all changed when his first mate tried to have his way with me."

Elizabeth gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. "You poor dear! You must have been - "

"I don't want your pity," interrupted Esperanza in a harsh tone. "It came to nought, anyway. My mysterious captor hauled him off me. Then for the next several weeks, he kept me in his own cabin, caring for me, trying to win my trust. But I still wouldn't allow myself to trust him..."

"Get away from me."

She stared distrustfully at the man approaching her bed. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone? Couldn't he see that she wasn't interested in him?

His hopeful face fell, though he tried to hide it. "Right, miss. I'll just be goin' then." He turned and began to slowly trudge out of her room for the umpteenth time that week.

Esperanza stared at his retreating back with a slight twinge of guilt. He looked so dejected...would it really do any harm if she let him stay so he could say what he obviously wanted to say? He reached for the doorhandle to leave, but she quickly made up her mind. "Wait," she called. He turned around, any traces of his most recent disappointment erased and replaced with shining hope. "You can stay," she said, and he started to hurry to her side, but she continued. "But only if you keep your distance."

"That's enough for me!" he said cheerfully, and plopped down on a chair as close to the bed as he thought was appropriate. Esperanza turned away and stared out the window. They sat like that in silence for what seemed to be an indeterminable length of time. And with each passing minute, she felt the young pirate's eyes on her more and more acutely. At last, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Stop staring at me; it's incredibly rude!" she snapped. His stare was making her seriously uncomfortable, and she didn't know why. She was used to men staring at her when she passed them in the streets, when she attended balls and parties. Normally, she didn't even notice. So why was he different?

"Sorry," he said softly. His earlier jovial tone was replaced with something else, something gentler. It was making her nervous and fidgety. "But I can't help it."

"What do you mean, 'you can't help it'!" she forced the words out in the most scathing voice she could manage under the circumstances. "Of course you can. So stop it."

"I can't help it," he repeated, locking eyes with her, and moving to sit on the side of the bed. She edged away from him, but did not break eye contact. "I can't help it; you're - " He faltered and hesitated, seemingly unsure on whether or not he should be saying what he was saying. "You're just so beautiful..." He reached a hand out towards her face, as if he wished to gently run his fingers down her smooth cheek. She slapped his hand away.

"Stop it," she said, but with less conviction in her words this time. She was seriously taken off guard. Whatever she had expected him to say, this certainly hadn't been it. "I told you to leave me alone. And I meant it. I'm not the person you want to be falling in love with."

He smiled, that dashing, roguishly crooked grin of his. "Too late, love. You had me from the moment you refused to hand over your jewellry. You've got spirit. I admire that. You're not afraid of me."

"I've told you to keep your distance. Doesn't that tell you something?" Her voice was trembling slightly. Why did the world have to change so suddenly all the time? She was prepared for this.

He chuckled at her words. "You tell me to keep my distance not because you fear me, but because you are afraid to get close to anyone. You were hurt, weren't you?" He laid a sea-roughened hand gently on her cheek. "I can see it in your eyes."

She could feel the tears welling up, the constricting of her throat. Why, oh why hadn't he listened? Why couldn't he just stay away from her? Why did he have to understand her every action and every hurt and try to heal it? Why?

"Yes," she said softly. "But I don't want to talk about it." She looked away as the first tear burned its way down her face. And then another.

"Okay love," he whispered, wipeing the tears away with his thumb. The tenderness in the way he said 'love' was enough to break any resolve she had left. As more tears slid slowly down her cheeks, he once again wiped them away. "You don't have to talk about it." And then he kissed her.

She felt the gentle brush of his moustache and beard as he softly kissed her cheek. As more tears ran down her face, he kissed, lightly, softly, across her cheekbone down to the corner of her mouth. She hadn't felt so loved since before her engagement. After all the recent pain and hardships she had suffered, she hadn't believed she would ever find something like this again. But she was wrong - the world has a funny way of giving you what you want in the most unexpected ways.

He rested his forehead against her and cupped her face in his hands. He kissed her forehead and then brushed the errant strands of hair away from her face. She couldn't take it any more. She hesitantly wrapped her arms around him, and he took it as an invitation to kiss her on the lips. After their lips parted, they merely sat on the bed, arms around each other. He cradled her in his embrace, holding her in a way that made her feel safe and loved and strong all at the same time. As she sat there, feeling that all was going right - at long last - it was then that she realized she felt something more than comtempt or anger towards her captor. It wasn't love, but it was close. She sighed and closed her eyes, content that they stay like this forever.

Elizabeth whispered sadly, her mind drifting to thoughts of Will, "Sounds like heaven."

Esperanza smiled wryly. "Yes, well - it was shortly after that that everything went wrong. His first mate became insanely jealous. He wanted me for himself. But Jack wouldn't let him."

"Hold on a minute!" cried Elizabeth. "Jack? As in Jack Sparrow?"

Esperanza smiled, in her eyes a faraway look, as if she were remembering happier times. "Yes. Jack Sparrow. My beloved bird." Her eyes darkened. "My little sparrow that flew away and never came back. He betrayed me."

Elizabeth sensed that Esperanza was about to go off-subject, but she wanted to know the complete story first. "So what happened next?"

Esperanza seemed to shake herself. "What happened next? Benjamin went mad. He challenged Jack to a duel and lost. That very night he tried to take me from Jack's cabin."

"Did he succeed?"

"No." A cloud came over her features as she once again remembered the past. "He did not."

The ship rolled sickeningly as she crested the peaks of the stormy sea. It was not a full-blown gale, but it was getting close. The crew was bunkered down in the belowdecks, and only the barest bit of canvas was being used to keep them going with the wind. Many of them were feeling the weather. But inside the captain's quarters, up on deck, all was calm.

Jack had extinguished the candles lest one of them fall and cause a fire. The windows were tightly closed and the gap under the door was blocked with cloths so the rain would not penetrate the chamber. In the bed under a sheet and a threadbare blanket, Jack and Esperanza were snuggled close together and sound asleep, oblivious to the storm raging outside.

Several hours later, the storm had become an angry gale, roaring through the rigging and pelting the Pearl with heavy rains. The sea was not a happy mistress this night, and tossed the little ship unmercifully about on her waves, sending the Pearl where the sea's whims would take her. But in the cabin, all was quiet, and the lovers slept on, entwined in each other's arms.

Suddenly, there was a particularly brilliant flash of lightening followed by a tremendous clap of thunder. Esperanza awoke with a start. For a moment, she was disoriented, but then the cabin was relit by another lightening bolt, and she got her bearings. She nestled deeper into Jack's arms, but no matter how hard she tried to shake it, she could not help but feel that something was wrong.

The cabin door creaked open during a lull in the storm and Esperanza stiffened. The dreadful duel in which both Jack and Benjamin had participated had just been that afternoon, and the memories of it were still fresh in her mind. Benjamin, upon losing, had screamed, "It's not over Sparrow! She'll be mine! You see!" He was out for vengeance, and despite Esperanza's warnings, Jack had not put Benjamin off the ship. And now, as the door opened, Esperanza felt the icy hand of fear grip her heart. Had Ben come for revenge?

She poked Jack in the ribs. He awoke with a grunt. "Wha - ?" he asked blearily, before she could shush him. Then Benjamin struck. With an inhuman screech of rage, he hurled himself towards the couple. Jack reacted with lightening speed and leapt out of bed to meet his attacker, cutlass in hand. What he hadn't counted on was Benjamin's two pistols.

Esperanza screamed as twin muzzle flares blinded her momentarily. When her vision cleared, Jack was standing with his back to her, clearly looking down at his chest. He staggered around to face her, but it was too dark to see him clearly. A lightening flash lit the room, revealing the two round, gunpowder-blackened wounds on the left side of his chest. Blood was already gushing out of them to stain his shirt a livid red. She was too horrified to speak.

Jack tried to smile for her. "Sorry love," he said. Then, cutlass still in hand, he fell out of her line of sight.

Esperanza's cutting sadness was instantly transformed to sheer terror as Benjamin lowered his pistols, laughing maniacally. "I bested ye in th'end, didn't I, Jack Sparrow?" Still laughing, he kicked Jack's body and turned to Esperanza. "Now I've got ye all t'meself...at last!"

Esperanza suddenly realized what an awful situation she was in. Jack was the only thing standing between her and Ben, and now that he was gone...Esperanza shrank back against the wall. Ben lunged onto her with a suddenness that was almost unbelievable. She fought desperately to keep him off her, but he was too strong. He disregarded the buttons on her thin shift, grasping the material and brutally ripping it. The flimsy garment tore, sending buttons pinging everywhere. She tried to cover herself, but he forced her hands away. It was only now she started to scream.

He seemed to be everywhere at once. She struggled, but she dimly registered that she was fighting a losing battle. He would win. But she kept screaming, and she kept fighting.

Suddenly, Ben reared back and struck her across the face. "Shut up, whore!" This only made her scream louder. So he hit her harder.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Each phrase was punctuated with a brutal blow to her face. Her nose was bleeding and it felt as though several teeth were loose. "SHUT - !"

Ben stopped abruptly as a wiry figure hurled itself at him, flinging him backwards off the bed and off Esperanza. She was sobbing and gasping for breath as she groped for the sheet to cover herself. She backed into the corner and watched a battle of titans unfold.

The two shadowy figures grappled with one another. They fought with an intensity that would probably never again be matched in hand to hand combat. For a while, the bulkier figure - Benjamin - seemed to be winning, but then Esperanza's savior gained the upper hand. He whipped a knife out of somewhere and Esperanza saw the blade flash as the smaller shape struck. Ben reeled back, screaming in agony, collapsing to the floor, as the rest of the crew poured in.

In the faint glow of the lanterns they brought, it was plain that Ben had lost an eye to his assailant. Blood was oozing out from between his fingers as he lay moaning on the floor clutching the socket.

"You're lucky I didn't drive that in any deeper. You'd have been a dead man. Which you are now anyway, for what you've done." The man with his back to Esperanza was hunched, the knife still clutched in his hand. He dropped it and staggered towards her. He fell to his knees at the bedside, clinging to the bedframe for support.

"You alright love?" he asked in a faint voice.

"Jack!" Esperanza exclaimed, and scrambled towards him. She suddenly realized that the whole cabin covered in blood. His blood. It covered the floor, it had spattered on the walls as a result of the fight. He had gotten up, after being shot twice in the chest, to save her from Ben. She got onto her knees beside him and just as she did, he collapsed sideways, hitting the floor with a dull thud.

"Jack!" She scooted to him and cradled his head in her lap. "Jack, please don't die!"

He snorted weakly. "I can't leave you and the Pearl all alone can I? Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head. "No; no I'm fine. Oh, Jack - " Her throat caught. There was so much blood. "Jack, what about you?"

He sighed, shaking his head. "Don't worry 'bout me, love. As long as you're alright, I'm fine. Don't worry," he repeated. "Jack'll still be here t'take care of you. I promised, didn't I? Now hush. I'll be fine." His voice was getting fainter, and his eyes were becoming unfocused. "I love you.." He slipped into unconsciousness.

"How awful for you."

Esperanza shrugged. "I've blanked that from my mind. But let me tell you this one thing: Jack emerged from that encounter a changed man. He had to talk differently because the bullets had pierced his lung - it didn't heal properly and he probably still talks that way."

Elizabeth nodded. "Hell yes! Slurs, right?"

Esperanza smiled slightly. "Yes, that's it. And his liking for rum? Well, we gave rum to put him to sleep and to take away the pain. I guess he discovered the joy of other alcohols other than wine. Anyway, Jack ordered Alderman - yes, that's right," she said, in answer to Elizabeth's surprise. "His name was Ben Alderman. Now because of what Jack did to him, he's only known as Deadeye Alderman. Alderman set out for revenge again. This time, he's enlisting the help of an old Japanese spirit to do it. He wants to destroy all pirates so he can kill Jack."

"What do you mean, Jack betrayed you?" queried Elizabeth. The question had been nagging her since Esperanza had mentioned it.

Esperanza gazed off into the distance, her eyes shining with an unreadable emotion. "He left me in Tortuga. He said he was going after the treasure of the Isla de Muerta. But he never came back. Then Alderman found me. He ripped my soul from my body and imprisoned me in here. He will use me to kill Jack's heart, and then he will kill Jack himself."

"Wait - stole your soul? But that means - "

"Yes," interrupted Esperanza. "He has stolen your soul too. I just hope your pirate is more faithful than mine is..." she looked away again. "...or we're all going to die."

--------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: READ AND REVIEW! READ AND REVIEW! AND NOT JUST MY ONE PAL WHO I HAPPEN TO KNOW IS READING THIS! (that means u, loosecrew! wink) PLEASE! I DONT WANT TO DIE SO YOUNG! CHARLES DICKENS IS KILLING ME! (honestly, if i write about this sort of stuff, what makes you think i'd read something like "Great Expectations?") PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE READ AND REVIEW!