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

Spoiler: character's death (please, don't cry...); character's departure (just pretend you're sad); character's arrival (???)

Disclaimer: I don't own POTC.

Chapter 31

Elizabeth's stiffened. She suddenly realized what has happened. She looked at Jack apologetically, as if she has done something terrible. It startled him how pale she was. She wanted to pull away from him, but he held her as before, and did not let her go.

"Jack", she whispered, but he only hugged her closer in response.

"How lovely", said Harness with a sneer. He looked at them coldly. "I guess we can forget about our little agreement", he hissed, eying Elizabeth, and approaching slowly.

"Nothing's better than a little blackmailing, aye?", observed Jack with a knowing smile, steadily returning Harness' gaze.

Elizabeth glanced up at Jack in surprise. How did he know?

"Not much left to do", said the captain, narrowing his eyes. "It's going to be a very sad ending."

Elizabeth stirred nervously, trying to break free from Jack's embrace, determined to do something, or at least try...

Jack, however, had no intention of letting her do anything. He did not look at her, he just shook his head very slightly, as if signalling to her that she should stay put.

Did he had a plan? It crossed Elizabeth's mind that he had a plan. She always thought that he had a plan, even if he did not have a plan. And even not having a plan in the case of Captain Jack Sparrow was also a kind of a plan in itself, was it not? Elizabeth blinked, consumed for a moment by her own thoughts. It occurred to her that she trusted him more that she could have ever imagined she might. Now, the question was, did he really have a plan, after all?

Jack had a plan. He has decided not to let Elizabeth do anything stupid again. No killing him. No saving him. No kissing the whelp. No burning the rum. And... that would be it.

As for Harness... Philip Fairwood mentioned something... What did he say? Oh, he did not manage to say anything, because Jack rushed out of the cabin to find Elizabeth, and make sure she was just doing something infantile, and not really having second thoughts of some odd kind... And of course she did not Well. Maybe he should have listened to the doctor first...

"I am very sorry", sneered Harness, pulling out his pistol, and aiming it at them.

"I am very sorry too."

Everybody looked in the direction from which came the voice. It was Philip Fairwood, with a pistol in his hand.

Harness smiled, glancing at the barrel that was pointed at him.

"I'm sorry to inform you, but what you're doing displays little sense", he said in a low, but piercing tone of voice.

"Does it?", asked the doctor coming closer.

Jack took a quick look around. He liked people talking. He liked other people talking. It was always very helpful to have a person who was trying to kill you, engaged in a conversation with somebody else.

"In case you, whoever you are", said the captain with a wave of his hand, "failed to acknowledge one very important detail, I'll be as kind as to tell you that the only bullet that can kill me happens to be inside the pistol that I'm holding right now ", he explained with mock patience, and turned back to Jack and Elizabeth.

"Ah, yes", sighed the doctor. "A blood-stained bullet."

"Exactly", said Harness with a grimace.

"Well, it's quite fortunate then, that I don't need it", said Philip Fairwood, cocking his pistol.

Harness looked at him steadily, his eyes narrowed.

"You don't need it", he said, more annoyed than interested, or angry.

"I don't need your blood on the bullet, because", he paused, the expression on his face suddenly very serious. "Because I have it in my veins."

Harness' face was expressionless, and because of that it was impossible to predict what he was going to do. And what he did was, with his eyes still fixed on Philip Fairwood, shooting twice in the direction where Elizabeth and Jack were standing. An evil grin crossed his face, but it disappeared, when the only reaction than came from the doctor was a raised eyebrow. Harness turned his head...

Elizabeth and Jack were gone.

"I think we should help him somehow", whispered Elizabeth, when she and Jack crept to a hiding place behind the main mast, from which they could observe the scene, without being seen themselves.

"He'll be fine", said Jack reassuringly, guiding Elizabeth to sit down, and sitting down himself beside her.

"Jack!", exclaimed Elizabeth, slightly surprised by his carelessness.

Jack hushed her by putting a hand over her mouth.

"It's a family affair, Lizzie. It'd be rude to interrupt, don't ye think so?"

She did not think so, but was quite unable to express her opinion with Jack's hand still covering half of her face. She brushed his hand away with her hand, but he caught her hand in the process, and smirked:

"Back to being harsh with me, aye luv?"

"Harsh with you?", she asked in bewilderment.

Jack stopped smirking, and leaning closer to her, asked almost morosely:

"Why did you kiss that...", he found it difficult to come up with a word appropriate enough for her to hear it.

Elizabeth's facial expression softened. She smiled faintly, and resting her forehead against his, told him what had happened, and why she had done what she had done. She tried not to make it sound too grandiloquent.

"I did it for you", she concluded in a barely audible whisper, nervously pulling one of the trinkets in his hair. She blushed, thinking that it must have sounded quite grandiloquent after all.

Jack listened to her intently, watching her throughout her telling him of the story. She averted his eyes, until he lifted her head, propping her chin with his hand.

"I wish ye'd give up that method of rescuing people in the future, luv", he said when she finished. Elizabeth shot him a puzzled look, uncertain whether he meant it as a joke, or rather as a grudge.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then two shots were heard. Jack lifted his head slowly, to see what was happening. The sight was hardly enjoyable, but relieving nonetheless.

Harness laid on the deck, and Philip Fairwood stood near him, with his pistol still aimed at his grandfather, or rather at somebody whom his grandfather had become, somebody who had died long time ago, and who now finally departed, but still departed too late for the possibility of being remembered for whom he had been before he became a monster.

The doctor slowly lowered the pistol.

"Stay here, Elizabeth", said Jack, standing up.

Elizabeth quickly stood up as well.

"Why? It's over. Isn't it?", she asked, holding on to Jack's sleeve.

Jack sighed in exasperation. She was a curious choice for a wife. He smiled to himself at his own thought. Wife. Elizabeth – a wife. His wife. That was stunning. And thrilling. And amusing.

"Yes, it is", he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "But as we've, hopefully, learned from our previous over-adventurous over-experience, sometimes when something is over, it still doesn't mean that it is over."

Elizabeth was not satisfied with the answer. She did not want him to go. Alone. Somewhere. Anywhere.

"I'm going with you", she said stubbornly, staring at him with a resolute expression in her eyes.

Jack rolled his eyes, and grabbed her by the hand, and held it firmly, while acquiescing to her request to go with him. He thought that there were some vital improvements to be introduced to their relations once they get married. As a wife she will have to listen to him. This is how marriage works. Wives listen to their husbands. Or at least he hoped so. Not that there was a great chance (even if as a general rule it was true) that it would work with Elizabeth...

"It's over", said Philip Fairwood blankly, and sighed heavily, still staring at Harness' body.

Jack looked with disgust at the captain's body, which laid in the pool of blood, and it occurred to him, that it was perhaps not a particularly suitable sight for a woman. Even if said woman was a pirate.

"To Captain's Quarters, luv", he whispered into her ear, spinning her around, and pushing lightly towards the stairs.

Elizabeth looked at him indignantly. Did he now want to be giving her orders?!

"Don't send me away, Jack. I'm involved in all of this", she said in a low, but slightly annoyed tone of voice, staring at Jack steadily.

Jack looked at her, quite amused. Maybe it was a high time to set up some rules. Or at least tease her, a little.

"Lizzie darling", he said quietly, looking at her meaningfully. "I want ye to descend below this instant. Removing dead bodies from deck is no work for pretty lasses such as yerself, savvy?"

Elizabeth blinked.

"I thought I'm a pirate", she whispered, leaning towards him.

Jack raised his eyebrows, and chuckled. What frustrated him in a way lately, was the fact that every time she was standing in front of him, the only thing he could think of, was pulling her into a kiss. No doubt, if she knew it, she would regard it as a proof of his treating her not seriously as far as the ever so vital to her being-a-pirate matter was concerned.

On the other hand, he still enjoyed teasing her.

"You're not a pirate, luv. I'm a pirate, and you're... my bonnie lass", he stated with a grin, which was promptly erased by a slap.

Elizabeth headed towards the stairs, frowning.

Jack sighed, not very pleased with how it all turned out.

Philip Fairwood did not really hear any of this. He was still contemplating what he had done. Not regretting, but just thinking about it, considering it.

"I guess that's it", he said more to himself, than to Jack, finally putting the pistol away.

His bonnie lass!... So that was it. That was the freedom. And she thought that Jack was the one person who knew well that she needed to be free, and independent, and not to be ruled by anybody. But so it seemed that he just considered her to be his property, to be kept away from serious work and real life at the sea, and everything she actually might be interested in. It was irritating. Still, she regretted that she slapped him. She was about to go back, and... But she ran across Will, who shot her a morose look.

"I'm leaving", he said, staring at his boots.

You have said that to me already.

"Oh", she acknowledged, rather plainly.

Will looked at her, hurt by her indifference, despite that he did not really expect anything more than that.

"I'll get aboard another ship, maybe go back to Port Royal for a while, and then... But I guess you're not interested in my whereabouts anymore, Elizabeth", he concluded bitterly, looking away.

"Yes, I mean no, I-"

"I wish you well", he interrupted her, and looked at her solemnly.

"I wish you well too", said Elizabeth with a small smile, and they stood in an awkward silence for a longer while.

"Good bye, Elizabeth", he said quietly.

"Good bye, Will."

He looked at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to say something yet, but she did not say anything more.

"Good bye", he repeated in a barely audible whisper, and walked away.

Elizabeth watched him disappearing from view. So... it was over too. Will was gone from her life. Strangely, she did not feel sad about it. She felt sad over him feeling sad, perhaps, but as for her... she did not feel like his departure has changed anything. As if it did not matter. She did not like feeling so indifferent about it, but somehow it just did not affect her very much. If at all...

"I think I have to apologize".

Elizabeth startled, as she felt somebody wrapping his arms around her from behind, and whispering into her ear. She turned around, trying not to smile.

"I'm listening", she said, narrowing her eyes.

Jack looked at her the way that was always making her feel uncomfortable. As if he was seeing in her face something that she did not want him to see. As if he was reading her mind.

"I apologize, then", he whispered with a courteous bow of his head, and kissed her.

"I'm not a bonnie lass", she mumbled, entangling her fingers in his hair.

"Yes, ye are", countered Jack insistently.

"No I'm not", she breathed, opening her eyes to look at him.

He looked at her with a roguish smile, brushing away a few strands of her hair from her face.

"Yes, ye are", he said challengingly, and leaned to kiss her, but was interrupted by the appearance of Gibbs, who broke in hesitantly:

"I'm sorry Cap'n, but it seems that we've a problem."

"And what kind of a problem do we have, Mr. Gibbs?", asked Jack, noticing with disappointment Elizabeth slipping away from his embrace.

"A kind of a problem we don't like to be having, I guess", replied Gibbs, with a rather grim look on his face.