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

Spoiler 1: (sighs with relief)

Spoiler 2: Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own POTC.

Chapter 30

She kissed him.

Jack slowly went back to his cabin. First time in his life he felt as if he was in a situation without a single way out. He did not know what was happening. Was it really happening? No. She could not lie like that. She could not pretend... It was her who had come to find him. He remembered the look in her eyes, the way she kissed him, the way she smiled, and gave in to his touch every time he touched her. It was not, it could not have possibly been fake. She loved him. She said she loved him. What got into her?! His every thought soaked up anger and sorrow, mixed together. He was almost losing the contact with the reality, thinking about her lips touching... He gasped and shuddered. It was unendurable. He has never thought he could be really jealous of any woman at all. And now he was more than jealous. He was simultaneously listless and furious.

Jack mechanically pressed the knob, and went into his cabin.

"Jack. Glad, you're back", said Philip Fairwood contently. "Tell me, do you know where is this pistol... Jack?"

Jack ignored him. He headed for his bedroom, and slammed the door behind him. The doctor jumped up at the sound of the door being slam rapidly, and sighed. He had a vague impression that he knew what was going on. At least partly. He considered knocking on the door, but the idea proved unnecessary, as Jack opened the door himself, and came back into the larger room.

He stood silently for a while, wrinkling his forehead.

"Ye said that there's something he likes better than just killing people", said Jack without a word of introduction, looking at Philip Fairwood searchingly.

"I believe so", agreed the doctor. "And I guess you're getting yourself unnecessary frustrated", observed the doctor pushing himself up from the chair.

"And what is that supposed to mean?", asked Jack impatiently.

"Oh, you know", Philip Fairwood waived his hand dismissively.

"But ye don't know", countered Jack sharply, a certain image flashing across his mind.

"Oh, I think I do", said the doctor, trying to suppress a smile. "My advice, if you're interested in such, be that you stop judging people by their actions, and actions by the people who perform them, and instead start thinking about the reasons behind the people, and their actions. Oh, and perhaps as an extra task you could also restrain yourself from punching kids", he added, finding it very difficult to keep a straight face at this point.

"I'm more than happy to see ye in such a fine mood, however-", began Jack, rather annoyed by the comment, as it inescapably brought some unpleasant associations.

"However", the doctor cut in, "you could finally let me tell you something, which I'm unsuccessfully trying to tell-", he raised his eyebrows. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back in a moment", said Jack, walking out of the cabin.

The doctor sighed and shook his head. I guess I'd have to do it myself, then.

"Elizabeth!", Will ran after her, trying to grab her by the arm.

"Leave me alone, Will!", shouted Elizabeth, when she finally stopped running.

"You kissed me", he said in a low tone of voice, as a form of explanation.

"No, I didn't!", she countered angrily, with the tears sparkling in her eyes.

Will blinked. There was no point in arguing with her right now.

"Alright", he said quietly, and stared at her for a moment.

She stood leaning against the railing, looking somewhere in the distance, traces of tears all over her face, her eyes red, her lips trembling. She turned away from him, and after a moment of hesitation he finally walked away. Whatever was her reason for kissing him, it had nothing to do with him. Now he just wanted to leave the ship immediately.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, feeling the tears gathering under her eyelids. Her mouth felt bitter after that kiss, and she tried not to think about it.

"I told you to leave me alone!", she said loudly, suddenly feeling somebody's hand on her shoulder. She turned around, ready to tell Will...

But it was not Will.

"I can't really remember that sentence", said Jack, slowly drawing his hand away.

Elizabeth glared at him in silence. He could see she was crying, and that she looked devastated. He scolded himself for ever thinking that she was insincere. He still did not know what exactly was going on, but he remembered the doctor's words, when they had talked the other night before he and Elizabeth set to find the Black Pearl, that Harness wanted to make people suffer, and Jack somehow felt that there was a strange connection between this fact, and what was happening right now. Especially, that the captain's body disappeared, and that right before Jack got sick he noticed that the blood-stained bullet was still in that pistol, and that he shot Harness with a regular bullet which could do him no harm.

"Leave me alone, Jack. Please", Elizabeth said quietly, and wanted to walk away, but he grabbed her by the wrists, and pulled her towards him.

"Are ye going to tell me why ye did this?", he asked with a flash of something almost dangerous in his eyes.

Elizabeth tried to look away, but somehow she could not. She was mesmerized by the look in his eyes, a mixture of frantic desperation, condescending coldness, and passion. She has never seen him like this before. But she was not frightened, although it crossed her mind that it was probably what the expression "the most fearsome pirate" really meant.

"Are you going to threaten me?", she asked, trying to sound condescending herself.

"If necessary", he replied with a trace of a sneer flickering across his mouth, and gently pulled her closer towards him.

She could feel his hot breath on her face; intoxicating. She tried to concentrate on what she was supposed to do and say, on what she should do and say.

"I'll scream", she whispered, feeling the grip around her wrists tightening.

"For dear William to the rescue, aye?", he smirked, shifting his eyes from her lips, to her eyes.

She was not sure whether he was really mad at her, or maybe... But it was not possible. He did not know... But still, he looked at her, a smile flickering across his face, as if he was not as serious as he pretended to be.

"Maybe", she said cautiously, her eyes darkening. She could not take her eyes off him. And she knew he noticed it. He always did. "I want to get off this ship", she added quickly, trying to focus. If he knew... She knew that he must have been angry with her for that kiss. And it must hurt him as much as it hurt her, or even more, because he was unaware of the causes. But she wanted him to hate her, because then he would not suffer that much.

"It's me ship, and ye don't step off it unless I tell ye to, darling", he said firmly, letting go of her wrists, and instead locking her in his arms.

"So tell me to", she whispered breathlessly, as his lips almost touched hers, when he tightened his embrace, bringing her face nearer his.

Jack grinned, and brushing a strand of her hair away from her face, whispered decidedly:

"Never."

"Why not?", asked Elizabeth resignedly, feeling as if she was losing a battle.

"Well, because", he started casually, with a half-smile, entangling his fingers in her hair, which she did not even bother to prevent, both too puzzled, and too amazed by the unexpected turn their conversation has taken. "I need ye on my ship, Lizzie", he said matter-of-factly. "I need ye in my life", his tone of voice suddenly solemn. "In my mind", he said quietly, tracing her jaw-line with his fingertips. "In my heart", his lips hovering over hers. "And in my bed", he added with an arrogant smile, counteracting any of her possible amendments, by crushing his mouth against hers.

"Mr. Gibbs?", asked Philip Fairwood finally finding the man he was looking for.

"Aye", said Gibbs, turning towards him. "Doctor Fairwood. I heard Jack's recovered", he added cheerfully.

"Yes, he is", smiled the doctor. "But this story's not over yet", he added seriously.

"Aye", nodded Gibbs knowingly. "I knew it was a bad sign, when that evil man's body had disappeared."

"Yes", agreed Philip Fairwood. "It's never a good sign if a body disappears. But what I want to say is that... I'd appreciate it if you could lend me... a pistol."

"A pistol?", repeated Gibbs, somewhat confused. What does a doctor need a pistol for? "And what kind of a pistol?", he inquired.

"Doesn't matter", said the doctor with a faint smile.

"Aye...", nodded Gibbs hesitantly.

"So... ye don't love me, aye, luv?", asked Jack breaking the kiss for a moment.

"Aye", confirmed Elizabeth. "I don't", she said impatiently, pulling him back into another kiss.

"That's interesting", smirked Jack, hugging her closer, and intensifying the kiss. "Very interesting", he muttered, as her hand slipped under his shirt.

"And very convincing, indeed", an ominously sounding voice suddenly broke in.