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But is it Love?

"I'll catch up with you momentarily," Laura quietly called to her brother as he headed up to the deck, before muttering to herself, "Now, time to satisfy a desperate rum craving."

Remembering that the captain usually kept a stash of rum hidden away in his cabin, she cautiously began creeping towards the room she had casually strolled to so many times before…until she happened to nearly trip on a sleeping crewmember clutching a half-filled rum bottle in his hand.

-Hmm, perfect timing-

After working the bottle out of the man's grasp without waking him, Laura walked to the bow, where she knew her brother would be.

"What took you so long?" he whispered while beginning to tie a British body to a barrel before noticing the rum in her hands. "The sun has barely set, and you're already finding the last of the rum from when we were attacked by Kraken."

"Oh, so that's why I had such trouble finding some earlier."

Will rolled his eyes at his sister's piratey attitude. Grinning, the girl aided her brother in making a breadcrumb trail for her sworn enemy with the thought that she had nothing to lose.

A few hours later, the twins had made considerable progress in their work. Surprisingly, they hadn't been caught. Then, while Laura was dragging the next British body over to Will while he was finishing off another barrel, they heard Jack's voice come from nearby.

"Bravo, you escaped the brig even quicker than I expected." The man continued while strolling towards them on the mast he had been perched on. "William, do you notice something? Or rather do you notice something that is not there to be noted?"

"You haven't raised an alarm," Will pointed out.

"Odd, isn't it?" the captain asked before pointing at the body draped over the barrel. "But not as odd as this. Come up with this all by your lonesome, did you? Or did my former colleague pitch in on the fine details."

As Laura opened her mouth for a smart retort, Will replied,

"I said to myself, think like Jack."

"And this is what you've arrived at? Lead Beckett to Shipwreck Cove so as to gain his trust, accomplish your own ends? It's like you don't know me at all, mate. And how does your dearly beloved feel about this?"

Laura gave up trying to defend herself, and simply listened to the conversation as Will hesitated in responding.

"Ah," Jack continued, "you've not seen fit to trust her with it."

"I'm losing her Jack," the older Turner confided. "Every step I take for my father is a step away from Elizabeth."

"Mate, if you choose to lock your heart away, you'll lose her for certain. If I may lend a machete to your intellectual thicket, avoid the choice altogether. Change the facts. Let someone else dispatch Jones."

"Who? You?"

"Death has a curious way of reshuffling one's priorities. I'll slip aboard the Dutchman, find the heart, stab the beating thing, your father goes free, and you're free to be with your charming murderess."

"And you're willing to carve out your heart and bind yourself to the Dutchman, forever."

"No mate, I'm free forever. Free to sail the seas beyond the edges of the map, free from death itself."

-Why do I not stop him from having that line of thinking? If I feel for him the way people suspect…unless I don't really have those sort of feelings for him. Anyone who's spent years in the companionship of one man has to have some sort of attachment. Maybe that's all it is, meaning I should feel no need to protect him. He can take care of himself like he has in the past. Oh dear, is that true or am I just trying to convince myself that he is not more than just a friend-

"You've got to do the job though, Jack," Will was arguing. "You have to ferry souls to the next world. Or end up just like Jones."

"I don't have the face for tentacles. But immortal has to count for something, eh? Oh!"

At this, Jack handed his compass to Will.

"What's this for?"

"Think like me it'll come to you."

The captain proceeded to breath in Will's face, causing the young man to fall overboard. He then turned to Laura.

"Well, aren't you going to go after your dear brother, or shall I sound the alarm?"

Ignoring the rum scent on the captain's breath, the girl stood directly in front of him.

"Try being me, Jack," she said, avoiding the temptation to either slap him or kiss him. Either one would have been equally effective, but, she instead jumped over the side after Jack pushed the barrel into the water.

"My regards to Davy Jones!" the captain called down to them as the Pearl sped away.

"I hate him," Will growled while clinging to the barrel.

"I noticed that," Laura added, "however, I don't know how much I can agree with you at the moment, so let's put a hold on that, shall we?"

--

Over an hour later, they were picked up by the Endeavor. Will was politely ushered into the Captain's Cabin, while Laura was, of course, pushed off to the brig without even a blink from her brother to show an objection. Once in her cell, the piratess simply sighed and sat down after noting that the doors had half-pin barrel hinges.

-No harm in taking advantage of a little quiet. To set my priorities straight, I have to help set my father free…that is obvious. Now I can figure out what my feelings for Jack really are-

When the light coming from the upper deck ceased to exist, Laura easily broke out of her jail, crept up the stairs, and hid in a dark corner of the ship, waiting to see where it was going.

--

The girl awoke soon after sunrise to see from her hiding place that Will and Beckett were climbing into a boat. Sneaking down a ladder and into the water, she ignored the yells of alarm over her escape, continuing to swim to the small island some distance from the ship. By the time Laura reached the spit of land which was the neutral ground for the two sides, the representatives of both divisions were already conversating. Will, Beckett, and, to Laura's dismay, Jones were on the British side, while Barbossa, Elizabeth, and Jack stood for the pirates.

"…If you wish to see its grand architect," Beckett was telling the pirates, "look to your left."

"My hands are clean in this," Jack defended, "…figuratively."

"My actions were my own and to my own purpose," Will stated as Laura walked over to the group and stood next to Jack. "Jack had nothing to do with it."

"Well spoke, listen to the tool," the captain said, looking at Laura. "What are you doing here?"

"Will," Elizabeth interrupted, "I've been aboard the Dutchman, I understand the burden you and Laura bear, but I fear that cause is lost."

"No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it," Will replied.

"If Turner was not acting on your behalf, then how did he come to give me this?" Beckett questioned, holding up the compass. "You made a deal with me, Jack, to deliver the pirates, and here they are. Don't be bashful, step, claim your reward."

As Beckett tossed the compass to Jack, Jones put in,

"Your debt to me is still to be satisfied. One hundred years in service aboard the Dutchman. As a start. As for you, Laura Lark Turner, I intend to have you serving right alongside your precious captain for all the trouble you've caused."

"That debt was paid, mate, with some help," Jack put in, motioning to Elizabeth."

"You escaped!"

"Technically…"

"I propose an exchange," Elizabeth interrupted. "Will leaves with us, and you can take both Jack and Laura."

"Done," Will said followed by Jack.

"Undone."

"Done," Beckett differed.

"Undone," Laura snapped.

"Done," Jones finalized, grinning gleefully at his achievement.

"Jack is one of the nine pirate lords, you have no right…" Barbossa argued to Elizabeth prior to her interrupting.

"King."

"As you command," Jack submitted, removing his hat and bowing to the woman.

Yelling, Barbossa unsheathed his sword and sliced Jack's piece of eight from his bandanna.

"What was THAT for?" Laura asked as Barbossa addressed Jack.

"If you be sayin' something, I might be sayin' something as well."

"First to the finish, then?" Jack questioned.

Laura and the captain proceeded to switch places with Will. Beckett stepped to the side, forcing Jack to stand next to Davy with Laura next to him.
"Ah, Beckett, we meet again," she said to the man on her right.

While Davy was speaking to Jack, Beckett went on talking to the pirates. "Advise your brethren, you can fight and all of you will die, or you can not fight in which case only most of you will die."

"You murdered my father," Elizabeth pointed out, to which the Brit replied,

"He chose his own fate."

"And you have chosen yours. We will fight, and you will die."

"So be it," he relented prior to saying to Laura, "There is still a chance we can come to some sort of arrangement, you and I, which would keep you out of the hands of Davy Jones."

"Would anything I do save Jack?" she asked. When the other man simply cleared his throat, she added, "I thought so," before climbing into the boat with Jack.

--

In the Flying Dutchman's brig Laura sat down, closed her eyes, and tried to decipher what Will's scheme was that caused her to end up in the brig as Jack began talking to himself once again.

"Bravo! You've successfully arrived aboard the Flying Dutchman as per the overall scheme. Oh, yes, chapeau, mate. Except for this little sojourn in the brig, everything's like clockwork. Go away! Or back to the locker? But without you, Jackie? Stab the heart, and live forever, as captain of the Flying Dutchman. Then again, if you're in the brig, who's to stab the heart? It does put immortality a bit out of reach. Peanut. What about your dear friend, Jackie? Do you plan on getting her out of this mess as well? Well, she hasn't exactly been very helpful as of late. Yes, but have you noticed that she has always acted different around you than anyone else? You have a point, there. Now, to get out of here…"

-Dear friend? Her? She? Was he talking about me?-

"Think like whelp…think like the whelp…think like the whelp…half barrel hinges…leverage! Wish me luck boys, I'll need it," he called after busting the door open and running out.

"Jack!" Laura called to him, causing the captain to stop ten feet from the prison door. "You're a genius."

Softly kissing him on the cheek, she proceeded to walk past Jack, momentarily leaving him stunned by her action.

As always, thanks for reading. Please, R&R.