A/N: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews!:):)

A/D: Oh AWE awe!...?...:0...;) I've seen the movie yesterday, but since not everybody who's reading this has necessarily seen it already as well, I don't think I should be commenting on it in detail here, so I just say that it was awesome & the music was amazing, but... No. No spoilers. I promised, right?;)

Disclaimer: I don't own POTC.

Chapter 28

Will was fast asleep, when Gibbs knocked on his door to invite him for breakfast. But Will did not want to eat. He did not want anything. He decided to step on land as soon as they made port (not that he had much choice either...) He just wanted to forget, forget about everything, everybody... Elizabeth – is mine. He shuddered.

But it was so difficult to forget. How many times should I ask you to call me Elizabeth? Did she say should? Did she say must? Oddly, he could not remember. His memories were disappearing. Slowly, detail, by detail, but incessantly and continuously, nevertheless. Maybe one day he will remember nothing. Maybe one day he will be free. It was unthinkable right now, but someday it was bound to happen. Someday it will happen. Someday...

Will sat on the bed, and buried his face in his hands. How strange his life has become. And he never wanted a strange life. He wanted the most ordinary life imaginable. And yet, he could not have it.

It was already late afternoon, when he finally went out of the cabin. He felt that the ship was rather still. Did they make port? He could not tell. But he could tell that the ship was strangely quiet.

On the stairs, he came across a man whom he has not seen before. The man shot him a quizzical look, but Will just went past him wordlessly. He did not care who he was. He did not care about anything. To his surprise, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry...", started Philip Fairwood hesitantly.

Will turned around and looked at him wearily.

"If you don't mind telling me... what's happened to your face, boy?", asked the doctor with a friendly smile.

Will stared at him for a moment.

"Why should you care?", he asked, almost annoyed.

"Well", Philip Fairwood chuckled at this display of irritation. "I'm a doctor. I'm just curious."

"Oh", Will acknowledged quietly. "Nothing", he added dismissively, and attempted to walk away.

"It looks broken", said the doctor calmly. "Believe me, you don't want to just leave it like this."

Will stopped climbing up the stairs, and turned around again.

"I'm going to get myself something to drink, and then I can take a look at your nose. What you say?"

Will did not feel like talking to anybody, but on the other hand his nose hurt, although until this moment he did not really paid too much attention to it, and did not even feel much pain. The night before, after Jack punched him, he just went to the cabin and then went to sleep, unwilling to think, trying to keep from thinking as much as he could. Of course he did not take under consideration the possibility of having nightmares. But he actually did not have any nightmares. Neither did he have dreams. He just slept. And in his sleep nothing hurt. But now it did.

"Alright", Will nodded blankly.

"Good. Meet you on deck shortly", said Philip Fairwood, and walked away.

Elizabeth sat in the darkened cabin, her eyes burning from exhaustion, her head aching terribly, the pain almost unbearable.

He left maybe a minute ago. Maybe five minutes. Or... how long could it be? Did it even matter? She leaned down to look at Jack. His face was calm, and when she put a hand on his forehead, she could feel that it was colder than before. The temperature was going down. Elizabeth smiled faintly at this, put his bandana back on his forehead, tied it up, and pressed her lips against Jack's, but drew back quickly, not wanting the tears that were streaming down her cheeks to fall on his face. She brushed the tears away with the back of her hand, and then buried her face in her hands.

When she looked up, she almost jumped at the sight. Jack was awake, his head propped on his elbow, and he was looking at her, grinning. She did not smile back, and he stopped smiling, and wrinkled his forehead, noticing that her eyes were red from crying.

"Lizzie...", he straightened up in the bed, and reached for her hand, but she drew her hand away.

I love you, she heard her own voice resonating in her head, breaking through the headache.

She looked terrified. He was not sure, because it was dark in the cabin, but he had the impression that she looked terrified. He did not really know what has happened, but he remembered that suddenly he had felt not very well, and he had collapsed on the bed, and then... He did not know for how long he was like that, but right now he felt as good as ever.

"It's alright, luv", he mumbled, looking at her with concern, and trying to get hold of her hand again, but she quickly stood up, and just stared at him without uttering a single word.

I love you.

"I don't really know what it was, I just felt... I don't know how I felt really, but I feel quite alright now... ", he went on talking, trying to make out the expression on her face that he could not see very well in the darkness. He thought that maybe her reaction was a result of the worry caused by his quizzical illness. But it was over now. "Somebody's been worrying about her Captain pirate fiance, aye?", he asked smilingly, getting out of the bed.

Jack slid his feet inside his boots, stood up, and looked at her... Or rather at the spot where she was standing just a moment ago. A moment ago, but not now. He heard the door slam. She went out?! He looked around confused, wrinkling his forehead, and trying to figure out what was going on.

Why there was always something going on? And yet you could never really tell what it was.

Until it caused you troubles.

Elizabeth ran to her cabin, throw herself on the bed, and buried her face in a pillow, so that her crying was virtually inaudible. She felt as if her heart was being torn apart, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The only thing she knew was that she could not do that again. She could not kill him again. So she had to...

Elizabeth jumped up on the bed, when she suddenly felt something, somebody stroking her hair. She blinked in disbelief that he actually followed her there that fast.

"What-", she started, staring at Jack wide-eyed, with fear in her eyes, but he cut her off, catching her off guard.

Taken by surprise, she did not manage to push him away fast enough, and he succeeded in pulling her into a passionate kiss. Before she realized what was happening, he deepened the kiss, erasing all the thoughts from her mind., taking away the headache, making her feel safe.

But she was not safe. He was not safe. And she was doing it again. She was killing him again. The realization began echoing in her head, taking over, prevailing...

Jack had an unsettling feeling that something was wrong, but as his modest attempts to ask Elizabeth questions proved fruitless, he figured that it would be easier to get the information out of her by means of some friendly persuasion... Accidentally, it was what he wanted to do even without any specific reasons, so it was quite clever a solution.

She did not know what to do. What she could possibly do, when it was too late to run away from him.

And then it dawned on her. The idea flashed through her mind, almost hurting her, and she knew that it will hurt him even more than it hurt her, because she knew why it was happening, and he did not. It was viciously cruel, yet, it was the only way to save him. You can't kill him again. You can't...

When he let go of her for a moment, only to catch a breath, she whispered something, that he initially seemed to ignore, and just leaned to kiss her again, but then he opened his eyes, and looked at her, blinking.

He must not have heard her correctly. At first he thought that she did not say anything at all. Then, that she said something else. Then, that he heard something else than what she said. Finally, that the meaning of what she said had nothing to do with what she actually said... And then he lost his own line of reasoning, as she said it again.

He looked at her, but she did not look at him. She kept her eyes closed.

He drew back a little, and stared at her, baffled.

She knew she could not open her eyes. She knew that her eyes would betray her. The tears that she kept trapped behind her eyelids could betray her. And she could not let that happen.

When she said it for the third time, there was no longer denying it. He did hear her correctly, after all. And although he could not imagine why she would say that, the fact was that she did say that. She said it three times already, and he finally let go of her completely, when for the fourth time she whispered the word that in these particular circumstances sent shivers down his spine:

"Will..."

"What was that, Elizabeth?", he asked hesitantly, after staring at her for some time in silence.

"I've been thinking, and I-", the words just did not want to come out of her mouth, as if they were too difficult to be pronounced.

"And ye what, luv?", asked Jack, puzzled.

"And I think I made a mistake", she replied slowly, trying to sound casual.

Jack looked right, then left, then right, then at her again. He propped her chin with his hand, and tried to force her to look him in the eyes, but her eyes were closed. Elizabeth knew that she could not possibly avoid his gaze any longer, because it would look suspicious, so she opened her eyes cautiously. Her eyes were still red, but the tears have dried out. She looked at him blankly. Or at least she hoped she did.

It was so selfish to think about kissing him right now. Why should he follow her there? Why should he kiss her a moment ago? Why should he look at her? Why should he touch her? She was petrified, and she knew she had to be merciless no matter what, but she was paralyzed, she could not make herself move away from him.

"What is it all about, Lizzie?", asked Jack, looking at her searchingly, and tenderly at the same. It just occurred to him that he loved looking at her, memorizing every detail of her features, it made him happy almost as much as looking at the ocean. And he thought almost, only because he did not want to admit that...

"I don't love you, Jack", she blurted out, breathing heavily.

"What?", he asked mechanically, narrowing his eyes in bewilderment.

"I made a mistake. I love Will", she added tonelessly, her face expressionless. I love you, Jack.

She felt hollow inside. She felt absent. She could not imagine how he must have felt right now, and she noticed that although he still looked at her as before, there was a slight change in her eyes. His eyes dimmed.

But his reaction was far from what she expected.

"What makes ye think, darling, that I'm so much of a fool to believe in this?", he asked with a smirk. "Either ye tell me right now what's going on, or...", he rolled his eyes in search of a threat, but could not really come up with anything particularly scary to threaten her with.

"I'm serious", she mumbled, both stupidly happy that he did not believe her, and simultaneously utterly horrified that she might not manage to convince him; that she might kill him because of that; kill him again. "What makes you think I'm not?", she asked blinking frustratedly.

"Well", said Jack, seeming to be in a good mood again. "Let me think", he added thoughtfully, letting go of her chin, and tracing the outline of her lips with his fingertips, causing her to shiver, from both fear, and excitement.

Jack, don't...

"Perhaps 'cause ye're trembling right now, luv", he grinned, and leaned towards her, but then froze, as he felt a burning sensation on his face. He opened his eyes, stupefied. Elizabeth stared at him in dismay, her hand still raised, and trembling.

"Why did ye slap me for?!", he asked with such a sincere sense of unfairness in his voice, that it would surely make her laugh if the circumstances were different.

But she did not feel like laughing. Not at all. She felt like crying, like screaming. And before he had a chance to notice the tears running down her face, she ran out of the cabin, leaving Jack in a state of an overwhelming confusion.

Lizzie Lizzie, he smirked to himself, rubbing his cheek, but then his smile faded.

And what if she was serious, after all...?...?!...!