Elizabeth turned as she heard the familiar sound of sails flapping in the wind. But it couldn't be what she hoped with all her heart, could it? The only ship in Davy Jones' locker was currently lying along the shore, broken beyond any use. Yet just as this thought formed Elizabeth saw the patched sails and the blackened figurehead peak over the dune, pulling the Pearl into the waters at the edge of the beach. And with them they brought the man they had come all this way for.

He was back.

And she was free.

Elizabeth could be free of her guilt now, she had rescued him and now they were even. Yet she kept her eyes trained on him… To check he was still there, that he wasn't a mirage she warned herself. You don't have to feel anything for him now.

too late.

keep your eyes on him, your heart with him.

Before she could get a hold of herself, shake the voice from her, he had stepped onto the beach and was striding towards him, towards her. And that tiny whiser became a thousand shouting voices surging through her blood, through every party, urging her forwards

run to him, hold him, kiss him, be with him.

So she moved, A few faltering strides, almost running, her mouth spread into a smile she never knew she could give before that voice, running ahead of her as always, caught her short and made her stop dead

run to him. It called hold him, kiss him, be with him, let your arms tell him how much you missed him, let your mouth tell him how sorry you are, sorry from tricking him, sorry for killing him, sorry for –

I killed him.

I killed Jack Sparrow.

Looking straight into his eyes she sane how world-weary he was, how lost in everything he seemed to be and he seemed… emptier than before,

A new wave of guilt and self-loathing washed over Elizabeth. But why should she still hurt so much for a man she cared nothing for?

Her little voice was unusually silent.

WILL! WILL!

Elizabeth was screaming so loud she thought her head would explode, yet she made no sound. She couldn't make any sound. Whatever made her shout; made her laugh, sing or even smile had been ripped from her, it was as though she had lost part of her own being. Elizabeth felt empty, felt nothing, not her heart as it broke around her, not her own body.

In some deep recess of her mind she new she was floating, knew that Jack was carrying her but she didn't care. She had lost everyone she had ever loved, James, Will and even her own father. What was the point?

She gave up.

She let go of Jack.

Yet she didn't plummet into the surging, angry sea like she thought she had wanted to. Instead the arms around her tightened slighty, refusing to drop her, pulling her in closer. The smell of Jack seeming to almost strengthen her as he whispered to her, in a voice so soft she could hardly believe it was his

"Don't let go."

i wont

And for once she did what that little voice told her to do.

hang on to him. don't let him go.

And so the time came for the difficult goodbyes. She didn't know how to say it, but Elizabeth tried her hardest to bid farewell to the pirates, the good men who had saved her life time and again. Although she expected to hear about them or even see them again, it would and could never be the same.

Nothing was as hard though as saying goodbye to Jack.

She couldn't understand why

you know why

but it hurt alot to leave him. This was one pirate Elizabeth doubted she would ever see again, he was heading for things more exciting than visiting a lone woman on a forgotten shore. So she went to say goodbye; to kiss him farewell, but stopped short again, not because of Jack's words or because she thought it was wrong but because of, surprisingly, what that little voice shouted at her, mixed with what she saw deep in those chocolate eyes of him.

don't.

let it be.

let him be.

don't fall in love with two men.

not now.

Almost nine months on and Elizabeth Turner slipped into bed in the cottage she has bought by the sea. As she fell into sleep she could feel the light touch of a phantom arm over her bulging stomach, for although he was not there Elizabeth knew Will was watching over her, protecting her and their child. I t was this arm that reminded her of this, stopping those dreams of death that had haunted her at first. Then, almost as soon as she had fallen asleep she was awake again with a gasp, her hand grasping her swollen stomach as a pain shot through her like nothing she had ever felt before. This was it.

Five hours later and Elizabeth lay in the doctor's home, her newborn son in the cot beside her, asleep and perfect. His mother, however, was not so. Elizabeth was gripped in the midst of a fever so intense that the doctor gravely told the midwife they may have to find a new home for the child in the morning. Unconscious, she tossed and turned through the night, sweat pasting her hair to her pallid face. Her shallow breaths could barely be heard in the room. Yet again she felt, as the back of her mind, that phantom arm wrap around her, comfort her, help her. In a less lucid state she would call it Will's but right now her little train of wanderings had become her whole mind, for she knew this arm was different.

She couldn't breathe. Her corset was so tight she could feel it crushing her ribs, squeezing all the air out. Then, black. Elizabeth did not know how long she had been out, all she knew was that the thing that choked the life out of her had been removed and she could breathe again.

Elizabeth's eyelids fluttered, her body stilling.

She heard the voice of her rescuer, an accent she could not place but obviously a man who did not stumble over words. And so she turned to face him, eyes widening as she saw her –

"son. Mrs Turner? I said you have a son."

The doctor handed the child over to Elizabeth and she smiled, weakly but with a joy she had never felt before. Was lucky to feel. Whatever, whoever had pulled her out of the fever had saved her life and allowed her son to have a mother. That strong, tanned arm had pulled her back, not letting go for a second and she had seen who it belonged to, seen the bird in the sunset.

So she loved him.

She loved him then so completely that she thought her heart would break. This love was no fleeting though or little voice but an all-consuming adoration for the man that saved her life, that had been saving her life forever.

"What will you call him?"

jac-

"Jack."

She didn't need the voice to speak for her now. Elizabeth knew who she loved, why she loved them and now, finally, her mind was at rest.

Elizabeth Turner, woman, loved Will Turner more than he could ever know, for he owned her heart as she owned his. He protected her from demons, protected her when she carried their child and for this she would be with him until the end of her days.

lizzie swann, pirate, loved jack sparrow more than he would ever know, for he owned nothing of her and she nothing of him. he saved her when she gave birth to her child, saved her from herself and for this she would be free for him until the end of her days.