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The crew of the Black Pearl was relieved to be slipping quietly out of the mouth of Port Royal Bay... the moonless sky cast a dark pall over the already somber mood aboard the ship, as the captain and first mate sat and drank a full tankard of rum before they chose to say a word. As each gathered their thoughts, they kept glancing at each other, taking deep, tired breaths and looking away from each other several times. It was then that Elizabeth noticed that they were both wet... at some point, both of them had been in the water... a thought that made her shudder.

Finally, as the crew waited respectfully, William spoke first. "It took much longer for Jack and I to row in than we thought it would. Just as we had expected, there was a great deal of debris under the surface, and we had to be as quiet as we could. We chose to finally pull the longboat ashore as far away from the torches of the fort as we could... it was quite rocky, and we had a tough go of it trying to find a suitable place to hide the boat."

He paused, looking at every face of every crewman there. Jack cast his eyes down, as William said, softly, "There are no docks... there is no waterfront..." He looked at his wife, who was letting it all sink in, "... there is no town. Only the fort." He lost his voice momentarily, as his mind wandered back...

... as the pair crept along what was left of the cobblestone streets, it was incredibly eerie to both of them how deserted and quiet the once bustling seaport was, now. There was hardly anything there that Jack recognized, having only been in Port Royal a few times.. the last time not being a visit that he cared to remember... he had been pulled from the damp brig of the Dauntless and dragged up to the prison at the fort, where he awaited hanging... William's eyes nearly teared up as he looked up at the fort and remembered seeing his friend handled quite roughly while he had been pardoned for his acts of piracy in order to rescue Elizabeth. The only Navy personnel who had treated Jack kindly were the two guards, Murtogg and Mullroy. Most might consider the two simpletons, but they were good men, brave men, who were simply not suited well to military life. Commodore Norrington was not unkind to Jack, but merely treated him as if he were a non person as Jack was taken away. Luckily, William thought, James thought of things much differently, now.

Jack placed a finger to his lips and looked at his friend, as they heard footsteps... a small detachment of guards, walking through the deserted street... pressing themselves up against a wall in an alley, they heard the voices of the individuals as they passed. "Didja hear that Governor Swann's daughter is alive, and is sailing with the Black Pearl?"

"Aye, I heard that the young blacksmith, Turner, has turned up alive! The sailors in the tavern in the village near here said that he was the captain of the Flying Dutchman, but damned if he is alive!"

"Heard that Sparrow had been killed, too, but that can't be..." Jack's glowing eyes had a sparkle in them as William's eyes crinkled at the edges... they had been sailing together for nearly two years, now, since World's End, and William had been first mate for almost a year. News traveled slowly, or they were just living fast!

As the group passed, the two friends made their way up the winding streets toward the Governor's Mansion. Neither of them was prepared for what they saw...

Jack had never been there, but he could tell that the home had once been quite grandiose...the destruction was devastating. The once stately home was in ruins. The plaster upon the outside walls was crumbling, exposing the brick and morter walls beneath like a forlorn skeleton. All of the windows were broken, staring out into the night like hollow eyes...and the front gate and walls were caved in. As they carefully approached, William's eyes filled with sadness. This had been a lovely colonial home at one time...

Going inside, the destruction almost made William become overcome with emotion. The stairway was collapsed... the ceiling was gone, and the home was nearly impassible due to the rubble of the roofing tiles that now were piled in the middle of what once had been the large entry hall. Looking all around him, he felt the arm of his companion go around his shoulder to comfort him. There was no reason to stay here. It was gone. In a husky whisper, the captain said, "Are ye alright, lad?" William simply nodded, and then said, "Let's go..."

As he turned to step out of the ruined doorway, he happened to look down, and smiled, wryly. Amidst the piles of debris was the remains of the small candelabra that he had pulled an arm off of while delivering James Norrington's sword to the governor... he wondered if the servants ever found out who had broken it and placed it hurriedly into hiding.

They traversed down the side of the house, and William could not help but look up at the window where Elizabeth's room had been... how many times had he gazed at the light above, desperately in love and thinking that he would never have a chance to express his love... Jack chuckled quietly, and whispered, "... an' of course, ye never figured out how t' climb up th' bloody trellis, did ya?"

William shook his head honestly, and whispered back, "No, but I wasn't a pirate then, mate..."

Watching the back of the pirate captain who was carefully picking his way through what was once the gardens, he found himself smiling slightly as he pondered the life that he and his wife led, now.

"Izzy," Jack continued the story, as he gently patted her hand. She was trying not to cry, and swallowed hard, as she looked into Jack's brown eyes. "Izzy, darling, ye'll be glad t' find out tha' most o' th' servants o' the governor's mansion survived. William an' I were able to make it t' th' village tavern about two miles past th' fort, an' I loaned him me hat an' coat t' wear so's he wouldn't be easily recognised. I hid outside, an' he was able t' ask around about some o' th' townfolk."

Looking up at his newest crewmen, Jack said, as kindly as he could, "... we were not able t' find out much about Navy casualties, mates..." Angus and Giles nodded sadly, as their captain continued, "... th' town was pretty much wiped out o' wot military was there... William was told tha' most o' th' personnel at th' fort is fresh from England..."

Jack's voice grew a bit dark, as he said, "Imagine. Th' fort is built so bloody well that only th' barracks collapsed. Killed most o' th' men there... collapsed right into the yard where th' gallows stands." He frowned darkly, and muttered, "Th' gallows...still stands..."

"The servants were gone by the time the aftershocks destroyed the governor's mansion." William pulled his wife close, as she smiled, shakily and said, "Estrella?"

William nodded, "Your personal maid went back to London." Elizabeth wiped her eyes and smiled. Estrella had been a loyal maid, and had seen the love blossoming between William and Elizabeth before either of them even saw it.

Elizabeth finally looked up at her husband, and asked what she had been dreading, "What about your master at the blacksmith shop... John Brown?" William's face grew somber, but he was not as upset as she might have thought.

"Well, my love, he is dead... but he was gone long before the earthquake." William's voice grew a bit bitter, as he said, "After I left you in the jail to find Jack, and I never returned, the blacksmith shop went out of business..."

"Jus' left everything there... everything but th' donkey, I s'pose," Jack said, enigmatically, as suddenly William shot him a glare. Jack closed eyes halfway and smiled slightly.

William's mood turned sad, as he took up Elizabeth's hands, as the others listened raptly, "... the men that I talked to at the tavern said that after 'young Turner turned pirate for good' and it was up to Master Brown to run his own smithy, he could not fill the orders and could not find an apprentice to put up with his laziness. He closed up the shop and drank himself to death not long after you and I left Port Royal."

"Are we surprised?" Jack asked, blithely, as he wrung out his hair a bit... they had not said how they had both come back to the Pearl with wet hair and damp clothing.

William did not answer... it seemed that there was something else that happened during their foray into the ruined Port Royal that he did not wish to discuss in front of the others. Jack looked at Joshamee Gibbs, who turned to the rest of the crew and said, "We are t' get th' Pearl far outta th' bay, gents... man your posts an' let's catch what little wind we have t'night... let's let th' cap'n an' Mr. an' Mrs. Turner have a bit o' privacy..."

As the crew reluctantly went to their duties in order to put some distance between themselves and Jamaica, William leaned forward toward his captain, and said, "Jack, we have a need to continue our conversation with Elizabeth in your cabin..."

Elizabeth was puzzled, as Jack seemed to expect William's slightly irritated demeanor, and they picked up their mugs of rum, and retired to the privacy of the captain's quarters...

To be continued...

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