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

Disclaimer: Disney owns POTC.

Chapter 35

"What kind of ignorant is at the helm", muttered Jack, staggering to his feet, and helping Elizabeth to stand up.

Governor stood up and brushed down his clothes. He was beginning to learn not to expect that there were certain things that could not happen to him. To some extent, he was also, at least partly, responsible for it. He had let Elizabeth read all these books about the adventures that he had considered merely fantasies. He was content that she was eager to read. Eager to learn history and geography. And not until was it too late, he had discovered that her interest was no longer not only abstract, but that it became for her a part of reality, which she expected sooner or later to come true. And it did come true, he thought glancing at Elizabeth and Jack talking about what was going on now, while the emotions flickering in their eyes were as if disconnected with current events. They always seemed nigh unconsciously lost in some strange contemplation when they were looking into each other's eyes.

"We did not make port, did we?", asked Elizabeth, standing still, trying to figure out whether the ship was still moving.

"I'm afraid is not the port that we'll be making anyway", answered Jack rather quietly, knitting his eyebrows.

Elizabeth looked at him in a silent demand for an explanation. Jack glanced around the room.

"I suggest we sit down on the floor and hold on to something", he said, not exactly giving her the answer she hoped for.

"Why?", attempted to ask the Governor, although he doubted to receive a satisfying response.

The response, however, came in the easy-to-understand form of another violent shake. Elizabeth almost fell, but Jack caught her just in time. The sudden feeling of his arms around her, sent shivers up her spine, reminding her why she has been always finding it alarmingly difficult to be near him, and think clearly – at the same time. And she really wanted to think clearly now.

Jack sat down on the floor, pulling Elizabeth to sit beside him. The table was secured to the floor, so it was a good object to hold on to. Governor Swann, who at first did not think that Jack was being serious, after a moment of hesitation sat on the floor as well, feeling more than ridiculous. He was the Governor, sailing on a pirate ship, sitting on the floor in pirate captain's cabin, holding on to the table's leg... Now. How sensible was that? He was not sure whether it was all more amusing or more horrifying. Moreover, the longer he thought of it, he was gradually becoming more and more astonished at his own consent to Elizabeth's marriage plans.

He sighed, and glanced at Elizabeth and Jack, who were sitting on the other side of the table. It did not please him to see Jack's arm around her, and Elizabeth's head resting against his shoulder. The sight was for some reason unsettling, even though they were engaged... (and now they even had my approval, he reminded himself with a sigh).The Governor was shaken out of his thoughts by violent vibration, and all of a sudden, the ship began as if sail, or move very fast forward.

"What is exactly happening right now, Jack?", asked Elizabeth's, looking up at him, having the impression that he was keeping some information from her.

"It'd be better for you not to know that, darling", stated Jack, knowing in advance that this answer was probably not going to make her happy.

Darling. The Governor chuckled.

"Jack!", she shot him an impatient look. "Tell me this instant what's happening!"

Jack looked at her, smirking. She did not like that smirk. She knew what usually followed it.

"No", he said indifferently, and ostentatiously looked away.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. She did notice that he occasionally (and more and more frequently as of late) enjoyed treating her with some kind of playful arrogance, teasing her, just to show her that it was really him who was always in control of the situation, despite her efforts to win their little arguments, or make him tell her what he did not want to tell her.

"Jack!", she exclaimed hitting him lightly on the shoulder. With her father sitting so close to them, she was really unable to use any other method of persuasion. And she knew that Jack knew it, and it upset her even more. "Tell me right now."

"No", repeated Jack stubbornly.

The Governor watched them from the corner of his eye, not knowing what to think. Were they serious? Were they really arguing? Were they just pretending to argue? Were they joking? To him their behaviour seemed rather peculiar. He did not know any engaged or married couple who would behave like that. There was this connection between them, strange closeness (should he call it friendship?), unaccounted for in the world he knew only too well, the world of marriages of convenience, marriages for variety of reasons, and hardly feelings.

Yet, apart from the friendship, there was also love, subtly visible in every look, and every gesture. If Governor Swann was to be honest with himself, he had to admit that if Jack Sparrow was not a pirate, an outlaw, and a seemingly half-insane man, he would have to consider him and Elizabeth to be an extremely well-matched couple.

Deep in thought, and hardly believing that he was actually thinking what he was thinking, the Governor was suddenly brought back to the reality by Elizabeth's voice, urging him to hold on. He gripped the leg of the table in the last moment, before the ship suddenly dropped sharply downwards, as if falling into a precipice.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, as Jack locked her in his arms. She buried her head into his chest, and held on to him with all her strength.

"Now, can you tell me what has happened?", asked Elizabeth when the Black Pearl apparently finally came to a still stand.

Jack looked at her intently, narrowing his eyes, and after a moment (of what Elizabeth thought was the time that he needed to formulate a coherent answer), he brushed a loose lock of her hair behind her ear, and got up without a single word.

Elizabeth, clearly enraged, followed him with her eyes, as he walked away and around the room, collecting all the items that fell to the floor, and putting them back in places.

The governor stood up, glancing at Elizabeth, who was with absent-minded fury smoothing her dress.

She was about to say something, when the door cracked open, revealing Lord Cutler Beckett in the doorway.

"We have reached our destination", he said with a small sneer, ordering the soldiers to bring Jack, Elizabeth, and the Governor on deck.

"Which is?", tried once again Elizabeth whispering the question into Jack's ear, while the soldiers were clasping their hands in irons.

Jack looked at her smilingly. My beautiful, ever-inquiring Lizzie.

"The sea", he at last whispered back to her.

Elizabeth blinked. "I know we're at the sea", she snapped quietly.

"We're not at the sea, luv", said Jack quizzically, as the guards escorted them from the cabin, up the stairs, and on the upper deck.

When they came on deck, Elizabeth was completely taken aback by the sight. She looked around disbelievingly. The Black Pearl was as if surrounded by seductively humming waterfalls. High, and overwhelmingly beautiful, perfectly blue, breathtakingly stunning. The soldiers seemed to be awe-struck as well. They all stared around, hardly believing their eyes.

Jack leaned towards Elizabeth, and she did not know whether it was rather his words, or his mesmerizing voice that caused her to tremble, but she found herself shivering in amazement, when he whispered:

"We are in the sea, Lizzie."