(OT: Pretty self explanatory. A necessary section, but definately not my favorite. My apologies for the short length.)
Will exited the brightly lit chamber, his left hand gripping the hilt of the saber slung at his hip. He realized he, the captain, and Elizabeth were the last persons to leave the shack, and he instinctively maneuvered around the lady to speak to Barbossa.
"How exactly will we travel to Singapore?" William asked as they began their short trek to the longboat.
Barbossa gestured to the Pantano River's winding path and through the dense foliage. "There be a ship worth commandeering just beyond the swamp."
"And what are our means of evacuating the ship?" Elizabeth inquired curiously, careening around Will's muscular figure. Captain Barbossa grinned impishly, chomping into a fresh green apple as he marched ahead of the two lovers. Silence was his answer, but Will was confident a scheme was lurking in the captain's mind, just as it did with Jack.
Will cast a final glance around the chamber, looking over Elizabeth's unfastened blonde locks, and he sighed as he took a few steps forward. The woman abruptly grasped his arm, yanking him backward before he began the descent. Will spun around quizzically with one eyebrow arched, wondering why she would wish to speak with him now, at an inopportune moment. They had not even exchanged brief comments to one another for three days.
"Will." Elizabeth's voice pitched back and forth. "I'm sorry about the way I spoke to you the other night. I was far too harsh, and I just…"
"It's fine," Will replied, his voice firm but gentle in the same breath. "I understand." Or at least, Will thought he comprehended the direction her heart had taken. He crossed his arms, gazing at Elizabeth and awaiting her reply, if there was to be one. The man wanted his beloved to make him even further understand the depth of her emotions, but he knew that it was an extremely slim chance she would open up to him.
"You understand…?" she repeated, which made Will squint in uncertainty. He attempted to interpret the expression in her eyes, but it failed him, just as it did every time they had talked since the kiss. She then added in an almost inaudible tone, "So you understand that I need time."
It wasn't a pledge to loving Jack...But Will did not expect a straight-forward confession from the woman, and he wasn't even certain if he could handle the impact of such a blow. With his frustration mounting by the minute, his stomach knotted and swirled. He wondered why this bewitching woman would not just end his suffering. How much time could Elizabeth require to realize that he was not her soul-mate? He returned his gaze to her plain countenance as he clarified even further.
"You desire time...To contemplate Jack." Will attempted to make the inquiry entirely specific, but his intention when awry with the first flush of her cheeks.
Elizabeth's lip quivered, and her taut expression revealed that her mind raged with self-loathing and her own questions. Elizabeth whispered in an incomprehensible voice and then faltered with the shake of her head. "Will," she nearly shrieked, her voice rising to a trilling resonance. "I don't want to talk about this!" She galloped past him, her arms pinned to her sides, and her eyes glistening with fresh tears.
Will was suctioned into oblivion. She did love Jack, but Will presently wondered if she was dealing with mixed emotions about him as well. Perhaps, his eyes glimmered at the thought, the cause was not lost…But then, she would have revealed more of her emotions if that was the case. Although Elizabeth stood before him, day after day and slept near him night after night, he could not bring himself to dedicate himself to the woman, not fully and freely as he used to. His father was out there, facing a fate worse than death, and those two priorities, one to save his father and the other to not lose Elizabeth, jerked him left and right. As Will climbed into the longboat alongside Captain Barbossa and Tia Dalma, he caught a glimpse of Elizabeth's clenched jaw, and he then stared out to the river and to the expansive sea. He would continue to press the issue against Elizabeth, but once he was assured that her opinion had formed, he would focus his energy on employing the Black Pearl for his own purposes.