"Still haven't escaped the brig, Sparrow?" Collins taunted with a smile. He held his lantern up, his face shined from the sweat on his cheeks.
"Not yet, but don't worry, I won't disappoint you." Jack grinned. Elizabeth could see his gold teeth glitter in the light. She then cracked a smile herself.
"Oh, I think you will. Once we dock at Port Royal, she will be branded and, not long after, you will both hang." He was enjoying trying to threaten and scare them. But Elizabeth saw no trace of fear on Jack's face.
"Let me ask you something, Collins. What did the Company tell you about me?"
"You are an insane, mostly drunken, good-for-nothing pirate."
"Good, so they didn't lie to you. But they did forget to mention that I am not stupid."
"What are you getting at, Sparrow?"
"The Company and I, as you mentioned before, are not strangers to each other. We've done our business in the past. Made deals, plotted schemes, thrown wonderful parties...so you must know that I know how it works. I can read it like a book, sing it like a song, bake it like a loaf of bread-"
"Get to the point, Sparrow." Collins interrupted. Elizabeth was glad that he said it, so she didn't have to.
"Alrighty then, the point is, I know the Company. The Company always wants something. They're very good at bribes. You want something from me and Liz. What is it?"
"Information. Purely information."
"What kind of information?" Jack inquired. Elizabeth was liking the sound of this. Maybe they didn't have to die after all.
"Locations of pirate lords, secrets to unsolved legends, the truth about the new Captain of the Flying Dutchman...things like that." Never mind, she didn't like it any more.
"And if we tell you all of this-"
Elizabeth finished Jack's sentence, "You won't kill us?"
Collins snorted, as if they had asked the stupidest question he had ever heard, "Why would we not kill you?"
"Because we offer you information in return!" Elizabeth shouted.

Jack stood up and walked towards the door of his cell. His face was inches from Collins', his eyes narrowed. Collins' face betrayed him, anyone could tell he was terrified. Jack angrily whispered, "Why would we give you information without expecting life in return?" Elizabeth could barely hear him, so she jogged up to the front of her cell, listening in. Collins was smiling now, he replied with a growl, "Oh, believe me, Sparrow. After I'm done with the both of you, you will be confessing to me like you would to a priest."
"I don't think so." Jack retorted matter-of-factly.
"Oh, I think so. You're not stepping off of this ship until I have all of my information."
"Well, you'll not be hearing a thing from me, count on that."

Elizabeth saw Jack make a sudden movement with his arm, but she couldn't tell what he'd done. She turned he attention back to the conversation, "Or me." she added. An evil laugh escaped Collins' lips as he walked back up the steps to the upper deck. She heard the door slam, then turned to Jack, "What's going on?" The smile on Jack's face was too big to be innocent.
"Nothing, love." He replied. The smile was still there, though. Her hands tightly gripped the cell's bars.
She sighed, "Jack, what do you think all of this is about?"
"As far as I can tell, Lord Duran is the new Beckett, so to speak."
"Oh-"
"And this bilge rat, Collins, does all of his dirty work. The Company still wants all the pirate lords of the Brethren Court. And they want the answers to Calypso. Mostly they want to know about Will."
"Will?"
"The new captain of the Flying Dutchman. Your husband. Remember him?" He pursed his lips and faced her, he had not moved since Collins had left.
"That's not what I meant, Jack. How did they already know about Will being-"
"Captain?" He interrupted her, "news travels fast through the Company, love. And they know everything. I wouldn't be surprised if they knew about the details of you wedding night."
"Jack!" She raised her voice, gritting her teeth.
"What?" How could he talk about such a thing?
"How can you talk about such a thing?"
"I'm just putting it in perspective for you." The smile on his face went from devious to teasing.
"Forget it. All I know is, we need to get out of here." She let go of the bars and started pacing. A jingling sound ceased her thoughts. She smiled, clicked her tongue, and turned to face him. He had the keys.
"You have the keys."
"I have the keys." He was holding them high and shaking them in tune.
"But how..." She didn't even bother finishing.
"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow...savvy?" He reached through the bars and unlocked his door. He was clever. They weren't going to die now. Elizabeth was so happy that when he unlocked her door, she didn't have time to think about what she was doing. She ran out quickly after the door opened, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.

When their lips parted, she understood what she had done. Her arms dropped faster as they'd ever moved before. She tried to cover it up with a cough.
"Sorry, Jack."
"S'alright, Lizzie."

Then she realized, he hadn't kissed her back. Before she could wonder why, he grabbed her arm and said, "Time to go!" He started walking up the steps, then stopped mid step. He let go of her arm and started to walk back down, "Jack, where are you going?" "I was distracted. Almost forgot my effects." He slipped on his jacket, strapped on his belt, put on his hat, and had his sword in his hand. He threw Elizabeth her sword, too. She held it and he was walking up the steps again. Before she could open the door, he glided in front of her and put his finger to her mouth. The touch sent a spark through her lips. Then, he spoke, "We have to be very quiet. If we're lucky, most everyone will be sleeping and there will only be one or two guards outside. We'll get past them, steal...er, commandeer a long boat, head back to Curdy, grab the thump-thump, and sail to Tortuga." He dropped his finger from her lips, the sparking stopped.
"You make it sound so easy." She replied, rolling her eyes.
"Well, hopefully it will be."

Jack slowly opened the door. It creaked slightly, almost making Elizabeth gasp. She stepped through and looked around. The cool night air felt good on her skin. Almost tip-toeing, they walked towards the long boats. Jack's eyes were all over the place, watching for any soldiers. Elizabeth's grip on her sword was so tight, she was sure she'd have blisters in the morning. Then, she heard a footstep behind her.

She turned around, and her blade crossed with a soldier's. She swung her sword, it kept coming down to meet his. This was one of the many times she was thankful Will had taught her how to handle a sword. Turning her head, she saw Jack crossing blades with Collins. In the seconds she saw, she could tell that Collins was an excellent swordsman. Before she knew it, her sword had cut into the gut of her attacker.

It was all a blur after that. She ran to help Jack, but before she could catch up, Collins' sword stabbed Jack's right side. She gasped, but not see any trace of pain on his face. Collins pulled out his bade swiftly and they continued to fence. Then, the cavalry arrived. She and Jack were cornered at the starboard side of the ship, soldiers surrounding them, guns in hand. She was now standing beside Jack, and she could hear him breathing heavily. His ragged breath signaled that his injury was painful.

Collins had the tip of his sword poke Jack's throat, but not enough to cause blood flow. "Honestly, Sparrow," he questioned with a smile, "did you think you could escape?" Jack, hardly breathing, smiled back and replied, "Didn't want to... disappoint you." Elizabeth glanced at his wound. The blood from it caused a stain on his shirt, and with every second, it was getting larger.

They had to escape. Jack needed immediate medical attention or he would lose most of his blood...and the results of that could be...
without thinking twice, Elizabeth stabbed Collins in his right leg and pulled Jack and herself over the side of the ship, into the sea. She heard Collins' yelp of pain as she had removed her blade from his leg. She looked over at Jack's floating body...he was unconscious.

Pain shot up through Collins' leg. He saw Elizabeth pull Jack into the ocean with her. His men readied their guns, but he shouted, "Hold fire!" If Sparrow and Swann were dead, he would never get the information he needed. His men stared at him in confusion. Holding his leg, he explained, "They'll most likely swim to the nearest island. We'll get them in the morning. Sparrow's wounded. They've got no where left to go."

Elizabeth held on to Jack's limp, unconscious body. She practically had him over her shoulder. Swimming as fast as she could, she headed towards the nearest island. As far as she could tell, the Nemesis wasn't turning around to follow them. She didn't have time to wonder why. She had to get Jack to shore. His side needed to be tended to. As she got closer to the shore, she didn't have to swim so hard. The tide carried her and Jack, making her job so much easier.

When Jack woke up, Elizabeth was kneeling over him, trying to remove his jacket. He kept drifting in and out. His eyesight was becoming clearer. Then, she had his jacket off and was starting to remove his shirt. Was he dreaming? The sharp pain in his side immediately convinced him no. The sting made him bite his lip.
"Lizzie, what are you doing?"
Her eyes rolled again, this time in relief, he could see, "Oh, Jack. You're supposed to be asleep."
"Am I not? What are you doing?"
"You're hurt Jack. Collins stabbed you in your side."
"'Tis nothing, love. I've been through worse."

As she laid his shirt aside, he saw her eyes wander to the two bullet holes in his chest, and the long line of scars on his left arm. "So I see." She then grabbed the hem of her dress and ripped a long piece off. She began to dab his wound with it, soaking up the blood. She continued this process for what seemed like hours to him. After her dress was about half as short as it had been before, she was able to stop.

He gazed up at her. The moonlight did such justice to her beauty. She then bent her head down and blew softly on his wound. Her cold breath made most of the pain in his side go away, but it only added to the pain of his heart. Did she know what she was doing to him, sitting so close that he could hear her gentle breathing? It took all of the strength he had left to not just sit up, take her face in his hands, and kiss her passionately.

He hadn't kissed her back, back on the Nemesis, because he'd known that she knew it was wrong. And he'd known she'd regret it when she'd come back to her senses. Then, she would have thrown a tantrum and scolded him for kissing her back.

When she finally quit blowing on the wound, she stood up, "I think the bleeding's mostly stopped. I'm going to search for some firewood." "I'll go with you!" he exclaimed, starting to stand up. She took hold of his shoulders and laid him back down gently.
"You need to rest."
"I feel fine. I told you, I've been through worse."
"Yes, but you weren't with me then. If I HAD been there during those past incidents, I would have told you to rest." Then a smile spread across her face. He recognized it as her I'm-right-your-wrong smile. He'd seen it before.
"Fine."

After the fire was lit, Elizabeth sat down beside Jack. She let out a long sigh. Jack mimicked her by doing the same. Then he heard her mumble under her breath, "We're devils, we're black sheep, we're really bad eggs. Drink up me 'earties Yo-Ho..." He smiled secretly, then asked, "What was that, Elizabeth?"
"Nothing, I was just thinking about the time-"
"Barbossa marooned the two of us on that bloody island." He interrupted her, finishing her sentence.
"Yes, I'm sort of having a deja vu."
He chuckled, then sang just loud enough so she could hear him, "We kindle, ajar, inflame and ignite-"
"Drink up me 'earties Yo-Ho!" They sang in unison. Both of them laughed and continued to sing,
"We burn up the city, we're really a fright..."