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Elizabeth went ahead with the bottle of rum in her hand, and lit several candles in Jack's cabin, as Jack and William followed... but as soon as the cabin door was closed, William immediately pulled Jack's arm around his own shoulder and curtly said, "To your bunk... let's get that boot off right away..." Jack bit his lip silently, as he lifted his right foot up and painfully hopped his way over to his bunk on the other side of the cabin. Elizabeth looked up in alarm, "Jack! You're hurt!"

As they helped onto his bunk, and put his right leg up gingerly, William carefully pulled Jack's boot off as the captain winced and grunted a bit in pain. William shook his head angrily, as he saw that Jack's right ankle was swelled up to twice the normal size it should be, and was turning a deep, dark shade of purple, and the skin was scraped raw. Elizabeth's mouth dropped open and she said, "What on earth did you do to yourself?" No answer was given, as William sat on the edge of the bunk and gently worked Jack's foot around to determine if his ankle was broken.

"Ouch!" Jack whimpered, "Owwww." William glared up at his companion, as he said to his wife, "Get some canvas strips so we can bind this ankle up. It's not broken, but it's twisted and sprained pretty badly... it's a wonder that you could walk on it, you daft fool, let alone try to hide that it was injured at all from the rest of the crew! I ought to go ahead and break it for you, anyway! Is it any wonder that you always get sick or banged up all the time? You're so bloody careless!"

Jack's face was sullen, and he was rather surprised that William was so upset with him. They had not had one single cross word about anything, to his recollection, since the events at World's End, their friendship was that strong, but it was like he was looking at the intense young blacksmith, again.

As Elizabeth returned with some strips of old black canvas from the Pearl's sails, she winced as William carefully made certain one more time that the injury was not severe, and then asked one more time... "What on earth did you do, Jack?" Even she was surprised at how upset her husband seemed. William gently began to bind Jack's ankle, and said, tersely, "We almost foundered in the longboat, and Jack nearly drowned..."

Elizabeth's hand shot up to her mouth. Her eyes widened, "What happened?" Then, poking Jack hard in the arm with a finger, she said, "And you said that 'careful' was your middle name!"

Jack growled at her, then took up the story, looking at the angry William with a defensive expression. Turning to speak to Elizabeth, the captain said, " As well as I can usually see in th' dark, there were so many obstacles... so many things tha' we bumped against under th' water...chimneys... tiled rooftops... of all things, we were damn near taken out by a bloody submerged flag pole!"

The captains' eyebrows drew together in a slight frown, as took a long, slurping swallow of the rum, then wiped his mouth with the back of his branded arm. Looking at the brand, momentarily, he carefully pulled his shirt sleeve down over the stark white scar, and slowly buttoned the cuff, for no other reason than he was just not in the mood to look at it. William finished bandaging Jack's ankle snugly, and finally simply looked at his captain, who was obviously in some discomfort. He tied off the bandage and shook his head at the captain in some sort of resignation.

As Elizabeth sat close to her husband, she took his strong blacksmith's hands in her own, and hesitatingly said, "... Will... the smithy.. is it.." William squeezed her hands, and shook his head. "That, my love, is why Jack nearly drowned."

"What??? At the smithy?" Elizabeth spun around and stared at Jack, who was taking another long drink, looking back at her evenly. He began to smile, strangely, but then winced a bit and said nothing, tilting his head to one side and nodding toward William. William was definitely not smiling.

"The blacksmith's shop is gone... it is also under about 30 feet of water." Looking at Jack, William got an edge to his voice, again, "The flag pole that we got hung up on was the one that was in the square across from the smithy, outside of the dress shop that you used to frequent... "

Elizabeth was still staring at Jack out of the corner of her eye. She then looked at William and said, "Yes, the Belle Image dress shop that I would visit, after which I would then sneak over to the smithy to spend time with you when Father thought I was having a fitting..." they both smiled a bit at that one. How innocent they were, then...

"Well, the longboat got hung up on the top of the flag pole, which was just under the water's surface and Jack, in all of his infinite wisdom and athletic prowess..." William threw his friend a sarcastic look, "...Jack decided to go into the water see if he could go underneath the boat, and force the bow free."

William narrowed his eyes at a now expressionless Jack, who let his first mate continue... his loyal first mate, who was now directing his angry, hot words at the captain.

"...I nearly worried myself into a state when you went underwater and did not come back up, Jack! I am not one given to panic, anymore, but..." William pointed an frustrated finger at his captain and finally sputtered, "...you helped me to regain my heart from the Dead Man's Chest and reunite me with my wife, Jack, but then you damn near stopped that heart with a heart attack! I couldn't even yell at you until now! Is it not enough that Elizabeth and I have lost all that we had of our past lives, but to almost lose you, again, too?" William's face was filled with anguish. There was a momentary silence between the two men.

"Ye know I can swim like a fish, William!" Jack argued a bit lamely with his first mate... but he knew, now, just how much this disaster had affected this strong young man.

"I know, Jack, but it was like swimming in black ink, and there was so much dangerous debris lying underwater that you could have been injured or killed by... fallen timbers, loose stone, broken glass... and we had to remain silent while all of this was happening so as not to get caught!" William's anger cooled, as he searched for words, "Jack... I... can't believe that you did what you did... "

As it all sank in with William what might have happened to the captain, his fury completely dissipated, and Jack's trademark bravado melted in front of all of them, sympathically, as William put his bandana'd head into his hands. Elizabeth said nothing, as she did not know what to do for either of them, except to let them talk this out.

Not raising his head from his hands, William said, softly, "Jack was under the water for too long... I was frantic when he wouldn't come out from under the longboat... I slipped myself down into the water to try to find him, without making any noise... it wasn't until I saw bubbles coming to the surface that I realized where he was, and that he was in trouble. His foot had become entangled in the loose rope strung from the flagpole, and we nearly had to break his ankle to free him before he drowned... he had been much deeper in the water than he said that he would be..."

As Jack cleared his throat a little, he finally was able to say, "I'm sorry, lad..." his face brightened, slightly, "... but th' smiffy was where we met, remember?... where this whole adventure really started, ye know..."

William looked up, his handsome face filled with distress, "... Jack... you could have died down there... we could have lost you over a material thing..."

"But I didn't die... you saved me, again. I just took in a bit of water, tha's all... an' it was worth it," was Jack's mysterious, slurred reply. "I coughed th' water up quietly, didn't I?"

William stared at his captain in frustration, as Elizabeth bit her lip, nervously. Jack was given to some very mad moments, and this had been one of them. "Jack... why were you down so deep in the water... why?"

Elizabeth gazed at her two men. As they both took several swallows of rum, William stood up from his chair, and as Elizabeth gasped in wonder, William slowly pulled a sword from his scabbard... not the sword that he had assigned to himself as the weapons master of the ship... amazingly, this was one of his own, hand forged swords... not one of his more ornate creations, but an unmistakable piece of Turner craftsmanship... it was only slightly damaged from weeks underwater, but the rust that had formed would be easily cleaned by an expert's loving hand... William held out the fine weapon for all to see, his feelings clearly etched upon his face.

Jack was speaking with a very odd tone to his voice, "Ye don't have one o' your own swords, mate... I knew about where th' door o' th' smiffy was to th' east o' th' flagpole...I just found it in the dark, swam in by gropin' along, an' grabbed wot I could... I remembered where th' rack was right by th' door... I'm glad it was a finished one, an' that I didn't cut me hand off in th' dark.. I rather wish that it was th' one that you'd thrown at th' door t' stop me from escaping..." the captain concluded, simply.

William hung his head in exasperation and gave up. Jack had a hint of that gleam in his eye that always worried the Turners. Elizabeth turned back to Jack, and finally her tears began to spill. "Jack..."

Looking up at the young couple, Jack turned the bottle of rum around a few times in his slender hands, and blinked his dark eyes at them, hard, "In finding a sword in th' dark in a place I'd only been once... that was plain, dumb luck... as for the events o' th' rest o' th' evening..." Jack's voice trailed off as he looked directly into his anguished young friends' faces, and very suddenly spoke his heart, in the strangely direct way that was his habit, when he chose to do so.

"When th' two o' you had your wedding stopped by Cutler Beckett, ye had no idea wot would befall all of us, savvy? Ye knew tha' neither o' ye would be able to return t' your homes after turnin' pirate... an' now there is nothin' left o' th' homes tha' ye left behind... aye, th' town will probably come back, but not th' way that ye both knew it." The captain took a much smaller sip of rum, his dark eyes never leaving theirs.

Turning to Elizabeth, the captain leaned forward, his hands in midair, and said, "Your late father took 'is job as governor as seriously as my father does, as Keeper of th' Code, Izzy. I never held a grudge against th' governor because he was doin' 'is job nearly as well as I do mine. He was an honorable man. An' exceptin' for th' two o' you, I woulda been dancin' th' hangman's jig at Gallow's Point, back there..." Jack tossed his head to the Jamaican shore that was further and further away with every wash of waves at the ship's dark stern. "... be glad, love, that th' governor did not see wot William an' I saw tonight in wot's left o' Port Royal... your town's waterfront an' main square... it's all at th' bottom o' the bay, now... many, many lives were snuffed out in a matter of minutes..."

Turning his face away from the emotional young couple who had lost everything except their memories of the town where they had both grown up, the captain looked at the beautiful sword that he had groped his way into the smithy in watery blackness for, and muttered, "It was th' least tha' I could do, t' try t' get one o' William's swords for 'im before we left... William doesn't even carry one o' his own fine swords..."

Tilting his head to one side, and sounding as if he were talking to himself, Jack continued,"...it struck me as William an' I were looking about in th' ruins o' th' Governor's Mansion... if it weren't for th' good fortune of your wedding bein' interrupted, wif all that followed, William coulda been workin' at th' smiffy th' day th' quake hit... I assume that th' two of ye woulda lived above th' shop, Izzy... the two o' ye coulda ended up just bein' numbers on a casualty list... Instead, for better or worse, you're sailin' on th' Black Pearl wif a daft scamp like meself... think about it..."

Jack's hand vaguely waved a small circle in the air, and he took yet another swallow of rum.

William stood with Elizabeth, caressing the rusting masterpiece that Jack had risked his life for, both of them silently and sadly thinking this over... Jack looked at the young couple, and grew concerned when he saw the same tangled jumble of emotions that had overtaken William's tanned face on the day that it was revealed that he would be able to leave the Flying Dutchman.

Jack painfully got up from his bunk, to comfort his first mate and tearful quartermaster second mate, in his odd manner of simply looking at them appealingly...they were momentarily overwhelmed with sadness... grief... and were washed over with relief that their friend's actions were not, once again, his undoing.

Jack peered into his friends' faces, and started to speak. Much to his surprise, he was wrapped in a three way embrace. He tried to back up for a moment, and then acquiesced, only because he was balancing upon one foot... he decided that it was best to let the young ones release the feelings of loss...anxiety... and the feeling of complete understanding of the implications of their own decisions about their lives as pirates.

Finally, the fussing of a newborn baby in the cabin across from the captain's caused them to compose themselves... in keeping their arms about each other for only a moment longer, Elizabeth said, quietly, "In the words of a despicable man who tried to destroy us, a marriage was interrupted, and fate intervened... our marriage was merely interrupted, but it was not destroyed... fate intervened, and guided us all to the right end... away from Port Royal and to our lives aboard the Black Pearl."

Gazing lovingly at her husband and their friend, she gave them both one more affectionate embrace, burying her face deeply in a mix of William's dark, curly hair and the captain's tangled, water dampened braids, "... and to use the words of another pirate captain that shall remain nameless out of respect to our best friend, I would like to request that we put the town to our rudder and 'ne'er return'..."

William softly stroked his wife's golden locks, his eyes closed, as Jack smiled, "Th' request shall be granted, tha's a safe bet, lass..."

A soft knock upon the door caused them all to look up, and Joshamee Gibbs' voice said quietly, "Cap'n, if you're ready, Mr. Cotton's time at th' wheel is up, an' your time at th' helm is nigh..." Jack replied through the door, "Tell Cotton that I'm comin', an' he can go get a plate o' supper in th' galley..."

The young couple helped their captain pull his boot back on, with only a small hiss of pain, and they accompanied him out of his cabin and into the now warmly lit decks before them. The breezes were soft, and the sails were full and dancing lightly. It was always exhilirating to feel the water pass under the Black Pearl's smooth dark hull... caressing her like a lover... a feeling that the Turners loved and knew that they were born to, just as Jack Sparrow was. Port Royal was only the place that they had started this life. The town was devastated ... but they had been, also, at one time... it would come back from devastation, just as they had, but without them to help rebuild it.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," William Turner the Second said, emotionally, as he took his friend's shoulders into his hands, " ...thank you for letting us come back here just one more time, to see things for ourselves... now, my friend...bring us that horizen..." The captain smiled slightly, and patted his first mate's shoulder with real affection.

With only the smallest bit of help from his young friends, he hobbled up the stairs to the quarterdeck. The captain took over the wheel, and gave it a hard, determined spin, with the Turners at his side... as the mighty Black Pearl turned her bowsprit out into the dark Caribbean Sea, the churning waters off of her stern pushed Port Royal, Jamaica, out of their lives, and into all of their pasts, forever... for it was a place they would never return to, except to visit the Port Royal that now only existed in their memories...

THE END

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