A/N: I'm back! I got a little overly obsessed with The Vampire Diaries: Damon/Elena style so I've been reading that and writing drabbles for it (but not posting yet) and praying that she picks Damon in the finale this thursday, but I had to get this chapter out. Think i've finished this story so I may put it all up tonight and go back to writing The King and Her Men. Jack is telling me Damon has had enough of my attention. ;)

Disclaimer: you know I don't own this. but I love to pretend. ;)

Chapter 18: Favorable Wind

No more no less. I won't forget. -Breaking Benjamin

Jack helped Elizabeth down from the railing. "I must say, you do make a rather intriguing speech, love."

"I learned from the best." She murmured, her head still reeling from the intensity of the moment.

He smiled a bit and then his face grew serious. "Elizabeth, I…."

A tear slid down her cheek. She thought she knew what he was trying to say and she couldn't bear to hear it. "No need to be sorry. I deserved it."

He lifted her chin up gently. "Why do you continue to think so highly of me?"

"You're a good man." She replied…which was only half true. And I love you…

He eyed her for a few moments longer and then left her to her thoughts. Whether he wanted to know what she was going to say the night before or not, he had a ship to run, a battle to fight.

JEJEJEJE

"We have a favorable wind, sir."

Beckett looked up from his tea and felt the breeze ripple his hair. "Oh, so we do. Signal Jones to give no quarter. That should brighten his day." Beckett chuckled.

"And mine. Jack, your tables are finally numbered. You won't betray me again."

JEJEJEJE

"To arms! We give no quarter!" Mercer shouted to Davy Jones and his men.

Jones began to smirk and laugh. Finally. I can rid the world of Sparrow and Calypso once and for all.

However, his jubilant thoughts were short-lived as a single raindrop landed just below his eye. He reached up and wiped it away with one tentacle. Something close to fear shot down his spine.

His head shot up.

Storm clouds were beginning to brew above them all. "Calypso." He knew instantly that she had been freed…this did not bode well. He should have captured her when he went aboard the Pearl. "NO!" He shouted furiously. "The fools should NEVER have freed her! She'll be the undoing of us all!"

JEJEJEJEJE

James had been watching the goings on around him a great deal. Elizabeth's speech had touched his heart. He knew she was talking about Jack…and him although he'd never ask an apology of her. No one could help who they fell in love with. No matter how irrational it seemed to everyone else.

James had also been watching Calypso. At the moment, she had her arms raised to the heavens, a look of concentration on her face. A dark thought came to his mind that she may not be completely on their side just yet. He wondered what her real intentions were…especially when it began to rain.

"Have you noticed, on top of everything, it's raining?" Pintel exclaimed behind him exasperatedly.

"That's a bad sign." His friend replied.

James looked over his shoulder from the line he was tightening. The two men were looking at the sky with blank confusion.

"It has to be Calypso's doing." He muttered, and then saw something in the distance. The ocean looked odd…it looked very much like a…

JEJEJEJEJE

"MAELSTROM!" Gibbs shouted, prompting the crew into quick action.

From across the deck, Elizabeth's frightened eyes met Jack's. A fierce determination that was almost excitement lit his. Before she could say a word, he was at the helm, shouting orders all the way.

"Brace up the yards, ya cockeyed deck apes…dyin' is a day worth livin' for!" Barbossa shouted at his end of the ship, echoing Jack's own orders.

Elizabeth followed Jack to the helm, spyglass in hand.

He glanced at her briefly, but had no time to talk. The maelstrom was getting close.

Calypso, standing at the bow of the ship threw her head back and laughed. She could hear the conversation aboard the other ship. "You are a lying fool, Davy Jones."

JEJEJEJE

"Veer out!" Mercer was shouting.

Davy Jones merely smirked. "She'll not harm us. Full bore and into the abyss!" He thought there was no way he could lose. After all, he had told her that his heart would always belong to her the night before. That should suffice as a pacifying gesture on his part, surely?

"Are you mad?"

He laughed then. "Ha! Afraid to get wet?"

Mercer merely sputtered behind him. He rolled his eyes. A pathetic excuse for a man, if he were worth anythin' he would already have killed Beckett and taken his place.

JEJEJEJEJE

"On our stern and gaining!" Elizabeth called out.

"More speed!" Jack shouted.

"Haul your wind and hold your water!" Barbossa shouted.

JEJEJEJEJE

"Blow cannons!" Jones shouted, a smile on his face.

JEJEJEJE

"Jack! Take her out or she'll overbear us!" Elizabeth exclaimed nervously.

"No. Farther in! We'll cut across to faster waters!" He answered.

"Prepare to broadside!" James yelled from below as the Dutchman came alongside them.

"Captain the guns!" Gibbs this time.

"At the ready!" the crew shouted.

"Batten down the hatches! Stick to your guns! Sight the flash!"

"Hold it! Wait till we're more to port!"

"Fire!" Jack exclaimed. Barbossa and Elizabeth echoed his sentiment.

The Dutchman returned fire.

"It be too late to alter course now mateys! Ha ha ha ha!" Barbossa laughed excitedly.

JEJEJEJEJE

Will felt the blisters on his hands burst open as he began prying the last bolt from the bench in the brig. A gasp flew from his mouth as blood trickled down his fingers and onto the empty slot where the bench once sat. The pain might trip him up later, but it was necessary unless he planned to rot in the brig. He didn't have the fortune of Jack's blind luck behind him this time. He'd betrayed them.

It had taken a lot of his strength to burst the bolts from the floor even if they were already impossibly loose. The barnacles and bacteria had broken down the bolts and the wood surrounding it, but not nearly enough to make it easy.

Once free from the floor, the bench could be used as a lever to burst the door free, even from the inside of the cell. Half-pin barrel hinges…

He took a moment to bind his hands with strips from his shirttails and catch his breath.

Once sure that his bindings were secure, he hefted the bench up and lifted the metal door up and out of the hinges. He cringed at the loud noise it made as it clattered to the floor and quickly set down the bench, poised for a guard. There was none in sight. Frowning, he made his way out of the brig. Then, he realized why no one came when he broke free. From the sounds of it, it had begun to rain and an all-out war had originated between the Dutchman, and as he reached the main deck he found, the Black Pearl.

He tried not to think about the beautiful blonde woman he could distinctly hear echoing Captain Sparrow's orders on the other deck; instead ducking below cannon fire and making his way to Captain Jones' cabin for the second time.

On the other side of the door he kicked in, he found two very scared British soldiers in their full regalia pointing their guns at him.

"Hold it or I'll shoot!" One spoke up. Then a cannonball burst through the back wall of the cabin making all three of them flinch.

Will raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here when you could be elsewhere?"

"Someone has to stay and guard the chest." The other one spoke up indignantly.

"There is no question, there has been a breakdown in military discipline aboard this vessel."

"I blame the fish people."

Will rolled his eyes and stopped listening to their bickering. Instead, he inched his way around them and scooped up the chest as well as his sword, which was lying nearby. He was gone before they even knew he'd taken the chest.