Hello again! I'm so sorry this chapter took so long. Hopefully the extra length of the chapter will make up for that . This chapter is a bit more serious, and it was a pain to write, so I would love to hear what you thought of it.

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em

Will began telling the story of what had happened just shortly after Jack had regained the Pearl.

"Everything was just...perfect. Elizabeth and I talked of marriage, you had your ship back, and the Navy hadn't seen hide nor hair of you, though I don't think Norrington was really all that concerned with finding you, to be honest."

"Not that he could if he wanted to..." Jack said. Glancing up from studying his fingernails, he noticed the look Will was giving him for interrupting his story, and gave a small apologetic grin.

Will cleared his throat and continued on. "As I was saying, everything was perfect until one night. I was just finishing the last order of the day. I remember trying to finish quickly because I promised Elizabeth that I would come to see her as soon as I was finished for the day. And then-" Will stared as the floor, his brows furrowed and his eyes filled with confusion. "And then everything went black."

Jack stared at Will patiently, waiting for him to continue.

"I remember waking up blindfolded, and from the rocking motion, I could tell I was on a ship. I had no idea where I was or where I was going, and when I yelled for help they gagged me. When the ship docked they dumped me on the docks and were gone before anyone even found me. When someone finally stumbled upon me and untied me, I found out I was here, in Tortuga."

Jack remained silent and narrowed his eyes, his mind already trying to piece things together.

"Since I had nothing to barter passage back to Port Royal, and the only sailing skills I had was what little you taught me, I had to earn not only enough money to get back, but enough for food and lodging while I was here. I did odd jobs, repairing weapons and whatever else I could to make a little money. I tried to send word to Elizabeth, but I knew that every time I paid someone to take a message to Port Royal, they would just take my money and fling the letter into the sea as soon as they pulled out of port. I had almost made enough money to buy passage on the next ship bound for Port Royal, when I saw the Black Pearl anchor in the harbor. "

Jack perked up at the mention of his ship

"The Pearl was stopping briefly for supplies, and I managed to find you and told you everything that had happened. You told me you'd bring me back, but you were suspicious. I should have listened to you, but I was just so eager to get back to Elizabeth that I kept begging you and wouldn't listen to reason." Will winced as he spoke, and looked up at Jack apologetically.

"We arrived at the island at night and were careful to keep out of sight. You anchored the ship far down shore from the city and the harbor so that there was no chance of anyone seeing us. There was no way that anyone could have known we were there. There...there was just no way!"

"Will! Take a deep breath and tell me who discovered we were there."

Will realized that Jack had already pieced together what he was about to say, and simply blurted out, "The Navy."

Jack closed his eyes and sighed, letting his shoulders drop slightly. "Go on."he said, eyes still closed.

" Before we could even load a cannon, they had us completely surrounded. You had purposely anchored far from shore in able to make a quicker escape, but it was like they knew what we were going to do before we did."

Jack opened his eyes and concentrated his dark stare on Will. "The Pearl?"

"Since you had already narrowly escaped the noose before and still had a price on your head, Gibbs and Ana knew they couldn't risk you being captured again, and they knew you wouldn't leave the Pearl willingly so they-uh. They pushed you overboard and you had no choice but to swim to shore and watch the Pearl surrend-"

"WHAT?"

"They were out-manned and outgunned. They thought it better to surrender then have the Pearl be blown into oblivion."

By this point in the story, Jack had his face buried in his hands. "N wa appenddo oo?"

Will furrowed his brow and leaned in closer to Jack. "Come again?"

Jack pried his face out of his hands and reiterated, "And what happened to you?"

It was now Will's turn to hang his head. "When they found me on the ship and accused me of running away and participating in acts of piracy with you, and I had nothing to prove that I had been doing otherwise. The governor couldn't rightly grant me clemency again, but he was still quite lenient, giving me only a few months jail time. While I was serving my time Elizabeth came to visit me. I tried to explain to her what had happened, but she refused to listen to anything I had to say, she said that she just came to say goodbye and announce her engagement to the Commodore. Then she threw a letter at me and left. The letter was addressed to Elizabeth from me. It said that I wouldn't be happy living here with her, and I wanted a life on the sea like my father and left to Tortuga in search of the Black Pearl."

"Ah, I'm.. flattered Will." Jack said somewhat awkwardly.

"I didn't write it!" Will spat back indignantly.

"Oh."

"Someone forged it and left it at her house on the night I was kidnaped. I-I never saw her again after that day." Will bowed his head, and Jack suddenly became enthralled with rafters of the smithy as he waited for Will to regain his composure.

After a few sniffles Will concluded his story. "After I served my time, I used the money I had earned to get back to Port Royal, and used it for passage back to Tortuga. I couldn't bear to live in Port Royal and have to see Elizabeth anymore."

"Let's see if I understand. I'd dead, you're a fat, lonely drunken, blacksmith in Tortuga..." Jack got up and paced around the room, ticking things off on his fingers as he said them. "...and Elizabeth is married to Commodore Norrington, who has my ship-"

"Governor."

"What?"

"He's the governor now. Appointed by the King under Swann's recommendations after he retired."

"Oh, lovely."

Jack paced only a short while before spinning around with a flourish to face Will. "Well, what's say we fix all this now."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"Will, you really must stop drinking. I'm afraid it's damaged your short term memory.

Sitting in that very harbor is the solution to all our problems. All we need is to make sure we're going in the right direction and a little bit of lightning, and we can fix this before it even begins."

Wills eyes went wide filled with a hope that he had not felt in years. "Jack, do you really think we can do it?"

"'Course we can! But first, I believe a little detour is in order."

Will gulped, afraid to ask, "Where?"

"Why to Port Royal to pay a little visit Governor of Jamaica and his lovely wife, of course."

"I was afraid of that."

"We're going to need to get some information before we just go gallivanting off into the past. Well, shall we?" Jack strode confidently out the door. Will followed quickly behind, casing one last look into the Smithy before he headed out into the night.

Thanks for reading and please take a minute to tell me what you thought of this chapter. The next chapter will have a lot more humor.

Next Chapter: Memorial