Searching for Paradise

Chapter Four

Elizabeth Swann groaned as her eyes scanned the piles of paper in front of her before looking back at the grinning face of Jack Sparrow. The eccentric man, who she had begun to refer to as pirate, had just asked her for "FD: 1126starb main hull copyC" which was a particular set of construction plans that were currently 'filed' somewhere amongst the masses of documents littered across the office table. "Poor Lizzie, I'll come back shall I?" Jack said, chuckling to himself as he exited the office. She groaned but chose not to even bother looking for the document; she was almost certain that he was just making them up because he found her predicament amusing. "So much for just answering the phone" She grumbled to herself while rubbing her tired eyes.

Elizabeth had turned up to her new job on Monday to find that she had been enlisted to restructure the filing system (or lack there of) of the National Maritime Museum's latest project: the construction of the replica of 'The Flying Dutchman'. In all honesty she had been surprised to find that the Dutch ship which often featured in fictional pirate stories had existed in real life and made its voyage in 1821 from Holland to England and then onto the Cape of Good Hope where it sank and became the legend she had read about. Although while she found the ship's story captivating, she loathed that designing and building an old wooden boat was an elaborate and complicated process that required a surplus of construction plans and documentation. This loathing, though, was nothing when compared to her new found hate of 'the one and only' Captain Jack Sparrow.

Elizabeth found Jack infuriating. Not only because he had staggered in hung over and stinking like rum everyday since she had started, but because he was the cause of the problem that she had been left with. According to Captain Hector Barbossa, the construction team leader, Jack had been in charge of filing the documents that were created, adapted and used by all those who were involved in the project from day one. Although apparently he had 'simply forgotten' about the job and the few documents that were filed in any sort of order were done so alphabetically which she had found to be a completely unsuitable way to file papers that were being updated and recreated regularly. Therefore she had more work than she could handle on her own which was only made worse by the constant interruptions made by the builders and engineers who wanted her to search through the mess for one document or another.

Although, in truth, it had not taken her long to get the hang of the task, unfortunately though, it had not made it any easier. Over the past four days she had worked harder than she ever had done as she endeavored to organise the hundreds of charts, plans and documents into a more manageable state. And today was had been no exception. In fact today had been particularly hard as Jack Sparrow seemed to be out for revenge after they started the day off on a bad foot.

Elizabeth groaned as she glimpsed a dark haired man enter the room. "For Christ's sake! It was only a glass of water; it's your fault for turning up drunk you pathetic old man!!" She blasted before turning around to Will Turner standing in front of her with a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face.

"Do you know how long I've been looking for a girl who would attempt to drown Jack with a glass of water" He said his eyes sparkling with mirth. She blushed hard in response and managed to stutter out a response that sounded something like "ummerrnotno" which only proved to make her blush harder. "Although, I am slightly confused by your presence here..." He said his handsome smile dropping as his face changed to a look of confusion.

Elizabeth shook her head, "OhI, I mean, I work here, well I only started on Monday, but yeah, its my job now… this" She said, ushering around the room at the mess of papers. She sighed inwardly when he nodded in what seemed to be further confusion leading her to begin the silent mantra 'Must practice being coherent in the presence of Will Turner, must practice being coherent…' She was pulled out of her thoughts as another man she had yet to meet entered the room.

"Evening Will" The handsome newcomer said, his voice thick with and old English accent which led her to think that he must be from somewhere in South Africa.

"Oh hey James" Will replied turning to face the man. "You look like hell" he stated bluntly giving Elizabeth the impression that the two were quite good friends. "Yeah I know, I've had a hell of a day, I spent all of last night finishing that contract I was doing. Bloody incompetent engineer, you owe me big time for not helping me out on this one… the idiot made that many errors… and it didn't help that Annie wouldn't settle. I spent the night wandering back and forth between the nursery and the study."

Will frowned, "I really thought Cotton could handle it, he's pretty highly accredited."

"Yeah? I'm starting to think he's insane… that obsession with the parrot… it's a lot worse than you think…" the man named James said with a shudder. He then turned to acknowledge the Elizabeth. "Excuse my rudeness, I don't think we've met" He stated.

Elizabeth smiled, "We haven't. I'm Elizabeth Swann, the new…. 'organiser'."

James chuckled, "New would suggest that it was organised in the first place. I'm James Norrington, the CDA that's making sure this one is doing his job." He said pointing at Will. "Actually speaking of jobs…" He said turning away from Elizabeth to look at Will.

Will sighed, "I haven't forgotten…"

"Quite impossible around here it seems, always something waiting to be done." James said, "Well it was nice meeting you Elizabeth"

"Oh, you too" She said, "Actually, do you need any of the construction plans?" Elizabeth asked, "Because I usually go home in an hour, and well, to be honest, it might take me that long to find it".

"Yes but my memory doesn't work when I've had no sleep, so I'll leave it to Will." He said to her before turning back to look at Will. "I'll go set up"

Will nodded, "My laptop is already up there, and so is my mobile… don't answer it, Langley wants me to take over Marty's project, I'm avoiding making a decision."

"Marty?" James questioned but before Will could answer James' expression changed to one of understanding. "Oh, the short one?! I thought they'd got rid of him"

"I'm not sure if that's politically correct, but no, he does quite good work"

"He reminds me of an Oompa Loompa" James replied honestly causing Elizabeth to laugh. He looked at her, "He does, just without the orange skin and green hair."

"And every other feature" Will added rolling his eyes, "You know it's amazing that we get any work done, with your big mouth"

"I'm going, I'm going" James muttered before leaving the room.

Will shook his head before turning to look at Elizabeth. "We're going to need…"

"Wait…" She stated, interrupting him. "You know why I'm here, but I don't have a clue why you're here."

Will blinked. "This is my project" He stated seemingly astonished by her admission, "I'm surprised they didn't tell you. I'm the head engineer on the Replica, but it's not just that, this is my boat." He explained. Elizabeth looked at him with slight confusion in her features to which he just smiled, "I'll explain it one day, when I find the right words. Anyway for now… we are going to need FD: 1126starb main hull copyC, it was on the desk… last time I saw it". He told her as his eyes wandered over the desktop.

Elizabeth groaned inwardly as she realised that it was the document Jack had asked her to look for earlier. "Erm, I'll do my best" She stated glancing around the room, fuming inwardly. 'I am going to get him for this' She thought to herself.

"Thanks" He said, interrupting her thoughts of revenge. She smiled in reply as he and James left the room.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

An hour later…

"Yes!" Elizabeth exclaimed. She was standing awkwardly on the back of a chair that was leaned up against the shelf in the small storage cupboard that joined the office. She grinned as she triple checked the serial number of the document that was in her left hand while she used her right hand to keep her balance in the unsteady position. "And five minutes to go!" She exclaimed looking at her watch, "Beat that Jack Sparrow!"

"Err Elizabeth?" Will said, causing her to jump in surprise. She gasped in surprise as she fell into the man's strong arms. "There are about one hundred ladders, maybe more, out the back you know." He said his lips so close to her that she could feel his breath on her forehead. If she hadn't frozen stiff at his touch she probably would have managed to get him to find a way to put her down so they could get out of the cramped cupboard. "I didn't mean to startle you, I was just coming to ask you if you had found that document yet" He said putting her down somewhat reluctantly.

"Oh yeah" She said, snapping out of her thoughts and turning to face him. She held up the document with a grin before realizing just how close he was to her. "Elizabeth, I" He whispered before leaning in to meet her mouth with his. His hands rose to her cheeks as he kissed her gently, sending her soaring, and then crashing down, literally.

"Lizzie!!!!" The voice cried from the office, forcing Will and her to part suddenly, much like guilty school children. Elizabeth, who had lost all feeling in her body when his mouth met hers, crashed to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Will asked his tone revealing a mixture of humor and concern.

"Yes, I mean, not really, but I will be…" She stuttered.

"What are you two doing in here?" Jack, the owner of the voice, asked as he stuck his head into the cupboard.

Elizabeth glared at him, "That bloody document, I am going to get you so bad Jack" She growled before handing the construction plans to Will. In truth she really couldn't care less about the plans at the moment; she just loathed him for interrupting.

"We'll obviously I know what your doing in here Lizzie, but what is Will doing in here?" He asked raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"I came to see if she had found the document Jack," Will said shortly, he also seemed unimpressed by Jack's timely appearance. "And I do not want to hear from Elizabeth again that you've been hiding construction documents, particularly the ones that James and I are using."

Jack groaned, "You're no fun anymore kid" He stated before prancing off in his usual fashion.

"Sorry about him" Will apologised awkwardly.

"It's ok, I have to run anyway, I'm going to miss the bus" She muttered glancing at her watch. "I'll see you tomorrow?" She asked

"Yeah, about that, have you got something nice you could wear?"

Elizabeth looked at him, "How nice?"

"I've got a fundraising gala to attend, I was hoping you would go with me" He said, "I understand if you don't want to… I just don't really have a choice… I have to attend as a representative of the Replica."

Elizabeth bit her lip. As much as she hated galas she couldn't bring herself to say no to him. "Sure, why not, I haven't been to one since I was a teenager anyway"

Will's face lit up with a wide smile, "Great, it starts a 6:30, I know it's a little earlier than we agreed…"

"That will be fine, I'll see you then" She said, her heart thumping in her chest.