A/N: Let me just start off by apologizing for the long delay... I was out of town, and then I got busy, and this chapter was a buh-loody pain to write anyway because I had to double-check all of the card game rules... This is like the one card game I don't know, haha. In this particular time period, they used early verisions of the cards we know today, but for the sake of the story we're going to assume the suits are exactly the same as ours, savvy?

Thanks for all of the reviews! You have no idea how much they inspire me. Please let me know what you think should happen in upcoming chapters... After all, I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't for my faithful readers, so you should have some say, yeah?

"Show me a gambler and I'll show you a loser, show me a hero and I'll show you a corpse." -Mario Puzo

Will did not know what Jack and Elizabeth were doing, but he did know one thing: he had time. He had enough time to do whatever he damn well pleased, and he planned to use that time to his advantage, because Heaven knew that Jack Sparrow already had enough advantages on him. Like Elizabeth remembering him, for starters...

Glaring at nothing in particular, he shuffled through the deck until he found the cards he was looking for. He replaced the cards in his hand with them, nodding in satisfaction as the candle light flickered.

Ace of Spades.

King of Spades.

Queen of Spades.

Jack of Spades. Will scowled at the mention of him.

Ten of Spades.

Soon, Elizabeth, you'll remember me...

It's strange the way some memories are coming back to me now, while many others still remain lost in the voids of my mind. For instance, I cannot recall my birthday, but I can tell you that in my childhood, I wanted a unicorn more than anything else in the world.

I thought it would be splendid to own a mythical creature, one who would follow me everywhere and love me for who I was. I even asked Father for one, but he laughed at me and said that unicorns weren't real.

I didn't think true love was real, either.

But then I met Jack.

Will started as the door to the cabin opened. Glaring in disapproval as his Elizabeth walked in holding hands with Jack, he took another swig of rum to drown his dismay.

As Jack sat down across from him and gave the cards a suspicious once-over, Will was distracted by the possibility of being caught in the act. He was so distracted, in fact, that he did not notice Elizabeth's lips, thoroughly kissed, or her eyes, which sparkled like one thousand gems.

He didn't notice that Jack was speaking to him until much later.

"-and, of course, I was just assisting your lass here with her dress. Ye are in favor of her health, aye?"

Will nodded weakly, starting to feel the heavy effects of too much rum.

"Then why wouldn't ye be wanting her sleeping?"

Will turned the deepest shade of anger. "It is not that I don't want her sleeping! I just don't want her sleeping with a pirate!"

Jack merely smirked. "And I suppose you have never slept with my Lizzie, aye?"

Will turned colors again, but this time it was the pink flush of embarrassment. "I am no pirate."

"No pirate, eh?"

He answered stronger than this time. "No, I am not a pirate."

Jack turned Will's cards over with a flourish, revealing the straight flush. "Interesting... Very interesting..."

Elizabeth listened in horror to the proceedings in Jack's office. She had been wrong. She was not engaged to Jack- she was engaged to Will.

She was wrong, and she had slept with William Turner.

The pain cut her deeply like a hot knife through butter, and she gasped in horror.

How, she wondered, can I remember none of this?

Her forehead throbbed suddenly, and she hit the desk in a dead faint.

Neither of the men noticed that the woman they were fighting over was unconscious on the desk.

"If a pirate is a man who cheats, lies, or otherwise deceives to get his way, and you have cheated, lied, or otherwise deceived to get your way, then it stands to reason that you are one, mate." said Jack, almost conversationally.

Jack reached out to Will's side of the table, where he retrieved all of the cards and began to redeal. One for Will, one for him, one for Will, one for him... He shifted his own cards so that they sat side by side, like two people waiting for something. "Your bet."

Jack laughed at Will's look of pain and determination until he saw him pull a lock of hair from his pocket. That would be Elizabeth's hair, of course. No other such locks gleamed like molten gold. Will put this gold, more precious than metal, in the middle of the table. "Dear William," said Jack guardedly, "I would be raising, but I prefer my lasses to have hair on their heads, so I will not deprive her of any more."

"Then what are you going to-"

"There we go, then." said Jack, pulling off a swatch of Elizabeth's dress that had gotten caught on a hook of his sleeve. "I call."

Jack flipped the next three cards over. A Jack of Hearts, a Queen of Hearts, and an Ace of Black Pearl. He squinted- no, no, no, that was a diamond. 'Black Pearl' was not a suit... Jack shook his head, whipping his dreadlocks back and forth, and instead decided to look at the three cards as a good omen. Himself, his Lizzie, and the Black Pearl.

And a bed. Where was the Ace of Beds?

Ignoring this temporary problem, he realized it was his bet, and pushed a shiny pistol to the middle of the table. "When you lose," he said quietly, "that might start to look really friendly."

"If I lost, I wouldn't be receiving the pot now, would I?"

"Aye, true. Then I would make the assumption of-"

But Will surprised him, tapping his own pistol at his belt. "Just in case," he muttered, "I have one, too."

Elizabeth wearily cracked her right eye open, offended when she realized that the two men fighting over had not noticed her faint. She was a woman, for pirate's sake! She should be fawned over, she should be treated with compassion, she should certainly not be ignored when she falls into a state of unconsciousness!

She rubbed her eyes to clear her vision when she remembered that the gamble for her future was taking place a few feet away. She glanced over at what appeared to be a lock of her hair and a scrap of her dress (Were they mad?) and at the center three cards: a Jack of Hearts, a Queen of Hearts, and an Ace of Black Pearl.

She smacked the side of her head.

Black Pearl wasn't a suit...

It was in fact the Ace of Diamonds, though why she hadn't seen that at first she couldn't tell you. Unless it was an omen of some sort... Jack, Elizabeth, and the Black Pearl. She rather liked the sound of that.

And diamonds. Thank goodness that was the Ace of Diamonds. Every woman, she thought, loved diamonds, no matter how long the said woman had been at sea.

"I raise. If you win... I want her to have something of mine." Will pushed his silver ring to the center of the table.

Jack noticed that the silver ring would make a very nice toy for an undead monkey as he flipped the next card over in the center. Ten of Hearts. It was odd, he thought, how so many of the center cards had those big, scarlet hearts on them.

It was odder still how it made him think of Elizabeth.

He poured himself another glass of rum.

Jack pushed a bulging bag of coins into the center of the table. "If you take 'er, I'd like you to buy her a nice set of woman-ly undergarments as a gift from me. Plenty of lace, if you please."

"JACK!" shrieked Elizabeth.

Will grunted, pushing into the center an equally large bag of coins. "I call this bet on one condition."

"Aye?"

"Buy yourself a set, Sparrow."

My latest recalled memory involved Will and me when we were little, which confuses me. How long have we known each other?

We were flying kites in a field somewhere on a windy day. His navy and silver kite soared beautifully, but mine only hovered a few feet above the ground. Being only five, I was silently willing myself not to cry. I tried imagining the kite flying as high as his, but somehow the pink ribbons of my kite could never quite measure up.

When Will noticed my expression, he wrapped the string of his kite around his ankle and turned to me. He gently unclenched my hands from the fistfuls of string I held, and I held my breath as my kite flew as high as his.

"Sometimes, Miss Swann, you have to let go to make things happen."

Will stifled a yawn as Jack turned over the final card. He felt like he had been sitting there for hours, when he knew that in actuality it was only one or two at most.

King of Spades.

Why did that make him picture himself digging his own grave?

"As a courtesy to you, you may start this bet..." Jack raised his eyebrows as he waited for what was coming.

Will began unbuttoning his shirt. (A/N: OMGOSH! OMGOSH! THE ONLY TIME I LIKE HIM IN THIS FIC!)

Jack shielded his eyes. "If we ever begin a game that involves the removal of clothing, ye'll be the first one to know."

"No... It's just..." his voice broke. "She used to like sleeping in this shirt."

Jack hurriedly moved the game onward, embarrassed by such a strong display of emotion. "I raise," he declared.

A minute went by.

"With what bet?"

"I knew we would get to that." Jack swooped over behind the desk, where Elizabeth was sitting. He picked her up, carrying her back over to the table. He placed her down in the middle of the table, letting a hand trail down her back when he knew Will wasn't looking.

Jack laughed at Will's startled look. "Weren't the stakes Elizabeth in the first place?"

Will nodded weakly.

"We may now," exclaimed Jack dramatically, "examine the hands."

Will suddenly realized it was storming. He thought about the last storm on this ship, when he waltzed with Elizabeth to no music whatsoever as the rain made his clothes stick to him and her long hair curl. The lightning lit the boat every minute or so, casting an eerie glow around everything.

They had kissed in the rain until a large clap of thunder made them jump apart in surprise and then fall laughing back at their own folly into each other's arms.

He had clutched at her hands tightly, because he knew she was terrified of storms. "Don't hold my hand so tightly, Will," she snapped abruptly.

The lightning flashed again, casting her into such a different light that at first he didn't recognize her.

Jack suddenly noticed it was storming. He had always loved storms, being a caption and a nautical man. The rain was the only fresh water besides drinking water that he ever came into contact with, and the loud thunder always made him think of defeating other ships.

The rain washing down his back always made him feel clean, and it made staying in bed that much more fun, especially if you had a nice companion to stay in bed with.

The ship was beginning to plunge and lift as the waves shook the boat, and he knew that if it were not for the fact that they were still docked at Morliko he would have to cut the card game short. He briefly wondered if the doctor was still on board, but his attention was drawn back to the pressing matter at hand.

It was the first time that he, Captain Jack Sparrow, had not cheated in a card game.

And, quite frankly, it terrified him.

Who moved the rum?

Elizabeth suddenly noticed it was storming. She felt an immediate rise in terror, and the adrenaline began to pulse through her blood stream, bringing a flush to her cheeks and a tremor to her hands that had nothing to do with the fact that she was near Jack.

It was irrational, but she could say without a doubt that she was terrified of storms.

She found it ironic that the thunder and lightning were equally as petrifying to her as the results of the card game.

Will turned over his cards, prepared for the worst. Instead, what he saw made him gasp in delight.

"Jack of Diamonds and Spades!" he cried. "That's three of a kind! I'll be taking Elizabeth, if you please."

Jack silenced him with a glare. "I haven't yet turned over mine."

He turned them over just as a sudden gust of wind knocked open the window and blew the candles out, casting the room into utter darkness.

Ok, so you got the longer chapter you've all been waiting for! You better love me, because that took like a reallllllly long time to write, haha. I'll get the next chapter up faster this time! And if you're betting illiterate like I am, you combine your hand with the cards in the center to make the best possible hand. So since there was one jack in the center, he had three of a kind. I hope that clears up the confusion I just felt when I reread that last paragraph or so!

Please review and let me know how you liked this chapter. It had a lot more humor in it than usual, and I also did a lot of perspective switching.

Free rum to the first person to review this chapter!