A/N: Thank you very much for all the reviews!
Disclaimer: Disney owns POTC.
Chapter 42
"How can she be dead?!", exclaimed Poseidon, stupefied. He was not that much astonished with the fact that the girl was dead, as with the fact that it had happened without his prior acknowledgement or/and approval.
"Well, it happens sometimes", said Philip Fairwood sadly. "People die of... emotional exhaustion."
"Emotional exhaustion?", Poseidon repeated, staring at the doctor impatiently.
"Too much happiness", offered Jack in a solemn tone of voice.
Gibbs chuckled.
"You killed her!", all of a sudden shouted the Governor, causing the seaweed-haired secretary to drop all the papers that he was holding in his hands.
Poseidon stared at Governor Swann for a moment, before realizing that it was actually him who was the addressee of this accusation.
"I did not!", he stated indignantly, irritated that he had to answer questions instead of asking them.
"So who did it?!" inquired the Governor in a cracking tone of voice.
Quite impressing. Jack glanced at the Governor, and hugged Elizabeth closer.
"Yes. Who did it?!", screamed Poseidon.
The silence fell. The secretary managed to collect all of his papers from the floor, and when he stood up, he was confronted with a pair of very angry eyes. He looked around hesitantly, until finally acknowledging that the question was, oddly, directed to him.
"I-I do not know, Your Majesty", he stammered, blinking.
"It was nobody's fault", broke in Philip Fairwood, receiving a grateful glance from the seaweed-haired secretary. "Like I said. Emotional exhaustion."
The guests gathered in the ball room began speaking to each other in low voices, wondering what has happened, and what would happen next. A dead bride. It was obviously quite of an event.
"What should be done now", muttered Poseidon, more to himself than to anybody else, wrinkling his forehead, and staring at motionless, and apparently lifeless Elizabeth somewhat peevishly.
"I want to take my daughter and bury her in our family tomb", announced solemnly the Governor, keeping his eyes fixed steadily on the god of the sea. It is insane. He is insane. And I am insane as well. The Governor sighed.
"Well, I guess there is nothing else to be done", put in Jack matter-of-factly, cautiously staggering to his feet with Elizabeth in his arms.
"Let us take her home, so she can rest in peace", said Gibbs grimly. "May God have mercy on her soul", he added passionately.
Jack glanced at him, raising his eyebrows, but Gibbs failed to notice it.
The awkward silence fell again. Everybody looked at Poseidon expectantly.
Except for Jack, who was looking at Elizabeth. She looked much the same as when they first met. When he had pulled her out of water. She was neither moving nor breathing, but he had known that she was alive. He had wanted her to be alive, and there was something in her that had been dragging him to her from that day on.
He knew well enough how hard he had been trying to deny it, to hide it, to suppress it, to destroy it... Only because it had seemed so unthinkable, and he had never wanted things that was unthinkable.
Wanting something that you cannot have equals to not wanting, since the overall result is pretty much the same. So he had tried not to want her, and he was doing quite well, when all of a sudden she had kissed him, and chained him to that mast, and left him, and as she had left, in that perfectly opportune moment for getting rid of any feelings that he could possibly have for her, he had discovered that he... actually... loved her.
And then he had been claimed by the sea. The same sea (it just occurred to him) which had given her to him... Because, in fact, he had found her in the sea. Lizzie Lizzie. A smile flickered across his face, but vanished quickly. He had a vague premonition that they might be going through some "it's Miss Swann to you!" again after what was happening right now...
"Yes. You should take her home", said at last Poseidon, breaking the silence.
Governor Swann sighed inaudibly.
"We're going back on the Black Pearl!", ordered Jack rather loudly.
The crew timidly began heading for the door. Jack with Elizabeth on his hands walked in front of the column. Beside him went Gibbs, and the Governor, followed by Philip Fairwood, Cotton, Marty, and other crew members. Some soldiers, unsure as to what they should do, decided (although not explicitly invited to do so) to follow as well, since Lord Cutler Beckett's actual fate remained unknown (although there were some rumours, that he had been fed to Your Majesty's favorite crocodiles).
The ball room door opened before them, and just when they were about to step out of the room, Poseidon's voice stopped them. "Wait!", he shouted, approaching.
Struck by a slight suspicion, Poseidon decided to make sure that he was not being deceived. It seemed highly unlikely that anybody would risk deceiving him deliberately, however it also did not hurt to check, whether all was well in terms of truthfulness.
And so he had his own doctor come and examine Elizabeth.
The Governor watched with a pained facial expression the Poseidon's doctor checking Elizabeth's pulse, listening for her breathing, and heartbeat.
Finally, after several dreadfully long minutes, the royal doctor confirmed the bride-to-be to be decidedly dead.
Governor Swann was relieved.
"Is this really happening?", asked Gibbs in a cautious whisper, when they were all finally back on the Black Pearl.
"Yes, Master Gibbs, it is. But if ye don't set sail this instant it may stop happening", said Jack as patiently as possible.
"Aye", nodded Gibbs, and hurriedly went away.
Jack walked to the helm, as the Black Pearl began to roll smoothly backwards on the calm waves, the waterfalls humming quietly around her.
Poseidon watched the ship disappearing, feeling rather strange about the whole event. The visit, that ship again, that man with the dreadlocks, that man with the wig, that other man with the wig, that girl...
The black pearl...
The black pearl!!!
Poseidon's eyes widened, and he hurriedly moved forward in order to do something, but before he even managed to utter a word, the ship was pulled up towards the surface of the ocean, vanishing from view.
The god of the sea sighed heavily. He was not going to get that ring back. It was highly irritating.
After all, however, it was only a souvenir. He should quit being so sentimental.
"They all should just die off", he mumbled with annoyance, walking back to the palace.
Jack laid Elizabeth on his bed very gently. He placed her head on the pillow, and ran his hand across her face.
"Three more hours", said Philip Fairwood in a low tone of voice.
"I know", nodded Jack.
"Will she be very angry?", asked the doctor with a hesitant smile.
"How can I know?" Jack brushed her hair away from her shoulders.
"She's your fiancée", replied Philip Fairwood. "You ought to know what makes your wife angry. It helps, you know. It helps in evading family hurricanes, and such."
"Won't work", answered Jack quietly, smirking. "She herself is a hurricane."
Elizabeth woke up with a terrible headache. She opened her eyes, and sat upright in the bed. The room looked familiar. And the floor was not transparent... the walls were dark... the ceiling...
She blinked several times before it finally dawned on her where she was. She smiled happily, and jumped out of the bed, but then, feeling overwhelmingly dizzy, she collapsed on it again.
She waited for the dizziness to go away, and after a while it did go away, miraculously along with the headache.
She sat up, holding her head in her hands, trying to remember what has happened.
And after a moment of concentration she remembered what has happened.
Jack stood on deck, studying a map.
"Cap'n!", exclaimed Gibbs cheerfully, visibly happy to be at the open sea again. "Do we have a heading?", he inquired interestedly.
"Yes", replied Jack, glancing at him with a half-sneer. "I just enjoy hiding it from ye."
"Aye", nodded Gibbs hesitantly, and reluctantly walked away.
Governor Swann chuckled slightly watching the scene, but then his attention was redirected, and his eyes widened in pleasant astonishment, as he noticed Elizabeth approaching.
But she did not even glance at him, walking straight up to Jack.
"Jack!"
He turned around, bewildered, not expecting her to be awake already, but nevertheless very happy to see her.
"Liz-"
"Elizabeth!", Governor Swann exclaimed almost involuntarily.
"He deserved that!", stated Elizabeth angrily.
Jack put a hurt expression on his face, rubbing his cheek. One slap only. Not too bad, really.
"You poisoned me!", she shouted disbelievingly.
"No, I didn't!", retorted Jack firmly.
"So who did?", she asked impatiently.
"Philip did!", announced Jack cheerfully, happy to come up with an excuse.
"Because you told him to!", replied Elizabeth, shaking from irritation.
"Well", Jack seemed to consider it for a moment.
"It was just some kind of a sleeping liquid", Governor Swann suddenly broke into the conversation.
"Exactly!", agreed Jack triumphantly.
Elizabeth's attention shifted immediately from Jack to her father. She turned around, and looked at the Governor, her eyes widening in bewilderment.
"Father", she said in a faltering tone of voice. "You knew this?!", she stared at him disbelievingly.
The Governor coughed uncomfortably. "Well..."
"I can't believe it", Elizabeth blinked in utter confusion. She looked at her father, then at Jack, then at her father... She could not believe her ears.
"Lizzie...", Jack started cautiously.
She turned to him, and in a resolute tone of voice stated stiffly: "It's Miss Swann to you!"
I knew she would say that, thought Jack with certain satisfaction. An angry plaything.
Elizabeth shot both her father, and Jack some very indignant looks, and stormed off frustrated, and annoyed.
Jack sighed. A very angry plaything.