A/N: Just a little reminder: the actual AWE plot doesn't affect this story:)

Spoiler: Ragetti: "I thought he was dead!" / Pintel (annoyed): "Read the A/N!" / Ragetti (hurt): "Ye know I can't read!..."

Disclaimer: I don't own Jack, Elizabeth, etc.

Chapter 32

Jack and Elizabeth followed Gibbs, and once on deck they were confronted with a rather unpleasant sight of a very uncomfortably significant number of people dressed in only too familiar uniforms, acting as though they owned the ship.

Some members of the crew stood around stupefied, shooting at Jack expectant looks, waiting for his reaction.

From all the places around the world, Jack expected Tortuga to be the last place to be overtaken by East India Trading Company. The port somehow always managed to defend itself, as well as it has never been really attacked.

"They seized Tortuga?", asked Elizabeth in a disbelieving whisper.

"No", answered Philip Fairwood, who remained on board, and was still on deck.

Jack gesticulated for him to explain.

"I'd know it. I live here, right? Besides, there are no other ships. Just one ship over there", he said pointing at one, impressing ship, floating on the right side of the Black Pearl.

"Oi!", exclaimed Jack, noticing one of the soldiers attempting to change the ship colors. "What are ye doing?", he asked angrily coming up to him.

The soldier looked at him, baffled, and slightly frightened by Jack's appearance and tone of voice, but then he straightened up, regaining his self-confidence, as a certain person suddenly approached them.

"He just follows the orders he had been given."

Jack raised his eyebrows, and turned around, only to see yet another unpleasant sight.

"My orders", completed his utterance Beckett.

"Ah. I knew he looked way too smart to be doing this on his own", smirked Jack, pointing at the soldier, who glanced at Beckett.

Beckett sneered slightly, waiving at the soldier to walk away.

"Oh", he said, when Elizabeth approached. "Miss Swann. I had not been expecting seeing so many familiar faces in a place such as this one. But I will not doubt the possibility of most unlikely encounters in most unlikely places anymore, I guess", stated Beckett in an annoyingly calm tone of voice. "Oh", he added with a trace of a smirk, when Elizabeth slipped her hand under Jack's arm, taking the place beside him.

"What does he want?", Elizabeth turned to Jack, ignoring Beckett.

"I've no idea, luv. He was not as polite as to kindly state his purpose just yet", answered Jack, addressing Elizabeth, as if Beckett was not there.

"Warrants for the arrest, I imagine", said Elizabeth, pouting her lips.

"Letters of marque, that'd be my guess", Jack expressed his opinion with mock excitement.

Beckett was shifting his eyes from one of them to another, waiting patiently for them to finish their musings, while they continued ignoring him.

"And he probably wants a chest", added Jack knowingly.

"Or a compass", offered Elizabeth, narrowing her eyes.

"Or... what was it...", Jack waived his hand, as if trying to remember something. "A hand? A kidney? A knee?"

"A heart!", exclaimed Elizabeth, as if miraculously finding the right answer.

"Yes! Exactly!", smiled Jack, and he and Elizabeth finally turned to Beckett, looking at him questioningly.

"That was very entertaining", said Beckett tonelessly. "Now...", he started, calling some soldiers to him with a gesture of his hand. "I actually simply need this ship for a certain reason at the moment."

"Me too", said Jack with a smirk. "So I need to decline yer offer."

"I am afraid I made no offer", said Beckett with a half-smile, and signalled the soldiers to capture Jack and Elizabeth. "Lock them in the captain's quarters for now, and the crew in the brig", he said indifferently to one of his men. "But we will return to this conversation", he said reassuringly, addressing Jack. "But I want to set sail first", he added with a slight sneer.

The door slammed shut behind them, and Jack briefly wondered how Beckett got the keys to his quarters. Even he did not have the keys. He misplaced them somewhere a long time ago.

The idea of Cutler Beckett steering the Black Pearl was repulsive, but at least Jack stayed on the ship, and therefore could think about doing something, instead of standing on land and watching the ship sailing off.

Elizabeth sighed. She could not believe that as soon as they got out of their previous troubles, and everything was about to start going smoothly at last, they found themselves in unenviable circumstances once again.

"I thought he's lost his commission after the king had been informed about his malfeasance and misappropriation", said Elizabeth irritably.

"Aye", answered Jack, leaning against the door, and listening carefully.

Elizabeth shot him a questioning look. Jack waived his hand after a moment of silence, and walked away from the door, and towards Elizabeth.

"He put the guards outside", said Jack in a low tone of voice, pointing at the door.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and bit her lower lip. Jack tried to think of a reason for Beckett to be in need of the Pearl. His reasons, whatever they might be, were bound to be revealed sooner or later. As soon as Jack realized that, he decided to wait calmly for what was there to come, especially that Beckett apparently wanted something apart from the ship from him after all. That was probably why he left him aboard. As long as there was something that he wanted from him, there was the sea of possibilities at hand... At least theoretically.

"So what we do now, Jack?", asked Elizabeth in a sad tone of voice, looking absent-mindedly around the cabin.

Jack looked at her, a full realization of the situation suddenly dawned on him. They were locked. They were alone. They were locked alone in his cabin.

"Well", he began, coming closer to her. "What would you like to do now, Lizzie?", he smirked, sneaking his hand around her waist, and clasping her in his arms.

"It seems that we should try getting out of here", said Elizabeth hesitantly, placing her hands on his shoulders, her heart beating faster, the longer she was staring into his fathomless eyes.

"Getting out?", repeated Jack doubtfully, outlining her lips with his fingertips. "And why should we want to do that, luv?", asked Jack, kissing delicately her slightly parted lips. "Why should we want to do that right now?"

"Don't know", muttered Elizabeth, letting her eyelids fell over her eyes.

"Ah", grinned Jack, drawing back a little, to look at her. "I say... we take advantage of this disadvantageous situation, and make up for the time we've wasted...", whispered Jack, skimming her neck with his lips, while her hands clenched around his shoulders in a silent response.

Their lips brushed lightly once, then again, and again, until they fell into a long, passionate, fiery kiss. He held her close, his hands roaming up and down her body, entangling in her hair, caressing gently her neck and her face, memorizing everything about her; memorizing her.

He discovered long time ago that to him, and for him, she really was as untamed, as unutterably beautiful, as unsettlingly intoxicating as the sea. Looking into her eyes, he felt as if he was looking into the ocean. But while a part of the ocean's charm was that he could never really grasp it, encompass it, understand it, the enchanting feature of Elizabeth was that each day brought her closer to him, every day it occurred to him that he knew her better, could read her thoughts, her dreams, and fears better. Strangely enough, it was giving him peace. It was making her more his.

Jack loved the sea. But did the sea love him back? He loved Elizabeth. And she loved him. He could feel her, he could feel her touch, her timid attempts to decipher him, to know him like nobody has ever wanted to know him before. She wanted to get into his soul, and first time in his life he felt that he actually might let somebody do this. He might put the legend away, and let her see through him.

Quietly, somewhere in his mind he could hear a voice whispering something he has not yet been able, or ready, or brave enough to admit even if only to himself: that to him she was not only much like the sea. To him, she was almost much more than the sea already.

He gently slipped the dress down her shoulders, staring into her glimmering eyes. She looked at him lovingly, smiling only faintly, raising her hand to run it across his face, leaning to kiss him. He kissed her deeply, his hands manipulating with the clasps on the back of her dress.

He grinned when Elizabeth began whispering dreamily his name, every time they were forced to break the kiss in order to catch a breath.

It was exactly when it just crossed his mind that it all turned out rather fortunately, after all, and that it was rather nice of Beckett to lock them alone in the captain's cabin instead of the brig with the rest of the crew, when the door creaked open, and two soldiers rather unceremoniously pushed the frowning Governor Swann inside.

"You have no right-", shouted at them the Governor, but they shut the door without even listening to him for a moment.

The Governor sighed in exasperation, and turned around, only to be startled by the sight of Elizabeth in Jack's arms.

Jack quickly removed his hands from Elizabeth's bare shoulders, pulled the sleeves of her dress up, smoothed them down hurriedly, and turned towards the Governor with an innocent smile. Elizabeth blushed, and did not even dare to look at her father at the moment, vaguely imagining what kind of an expression she may find on his face. And she did not really want to see it.

The awkward silence filled the room.

"Anybody there for a cup of", Jack hesitated, realizing that he has got no tea in his cabin, "rum?", he finished with a smirk, after a moment of consideration.

Elizabeth chuckled. Governor Swann looked at the ceiling. Jack looked at the ceiling as well, but could not see anything interesting there. Elizabeth closed her eyes, and sighed.