Let's give this another go, shall we, Jack thought to himself, ordering the crew to haul the pallet line once again before Barbossa returned to the upper deck. Climbing up the steps to the helm, he narrowed his eyebrows at Tia Dalma smirking right at him, her forearms resting on the helm's spokes. She turned away from him, flaring out her arm and skirts to peer down at the crew.
"I might have thought you'd sent that Mary creature to take your place as official supernatural nuisance."
"Ah, Jack, I did miss dat tongue." Eyes still on the crew, the corner of her mouth twisted up into a grin. His lips curled at the endless possibilities that could have triggered that grin. Tiptoeing to the edge, he looked down to see James Norrington helping to trim the sail. Now that is interesting, he thought, making sure to step back as casually as he could to the helm. For several minutes, all he could hear was the sound of the ship slicing through the churning waters, his favorite sound in the entire world. Seems it transcends worlds, mate, he reminded himself. Checking over his shoulder, he sighed at Tia Dalma still near. "Yer welcome," she hissed.
"Oy, now, shouldn't it be you saying that to me, regarding something in my possession which can be used as a means to free ye?' He considered drumming his Piece of Eight for effect, but decided against it. He was sure she knew that his Piece of Eight was in fact what he used as his Piece of Eight, but best leave some room for doubt.
"Never mind me comin' and getting' ya den."
"Something tells me it wasn't you doin' most of the work."
"I did trow a bomb for ya."
That did register a slight snicker, but he pretended to clear his throat. Sunset could not come soon enough. Her head slanted to catch his attention, he gave her a wink.
"Mr. Gibbs!" This would get rid of her.
"Aye?"
"While you're down there, throw our dear friend the Commodore into the brig."
"I think he's an admiral now, Jack."
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and said rose has a nice heaving into the brig ahead of him, savvy?"
"Aye!" Gibbs ran off with a wicked grin.
"What ya tryin' to do wit he?" Tia Dalma challenged. As if on cue, James bounded up the steps.
"What's the meaning of this, Sparrow?"
"Admiral, eh? That's not usually the effect of losing one's commission, 'tho I confess, it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of any military men aboard my ship. The last one, I think, was you, who made it rather impenetrably clear you had your own ideas about what to do with the heart of Davy Jones when and if we found it. Found it we did, and lo and behold, it was not in my possession and you've returned to us as an admiral. Ergo, you are not a man to be trusted on board this vessel."
"And what would you have done with it?" James blurted, seized by both arms by Cotton and Gibbs and dragged down the stairs. "God help us all if you were the captain those lost at sea had to count on! Sparrow, you conniving bastard! I won't spend this journey in the brig of a pirate ship!"
"We'll let ye out at sunset!" Jack yelled down to him, his hair falling in front of his shoulders. Yes, yes, that was a satisfying sight. He could stand a little taller now.
"Proud, wicked Jack." Tia Dalma shook her head.
"Captain's prerogative, Tia, meaning I can do anything as I like." Almost anything.
"Ye won't be da one to take Davy Jones's place. Him already in mind."
"Ye said that as though you wanted to hurt me just now," he pouted.
"Ya keep it up, Jack, and I tell ya, yer compass gwine be given back to me."
"Take the bloody thing. It's what's led to this mess." He bit the insides of his cheeks, the weight of his compass in his pocket growing heavier and heavier with each thought of giving it back to her. It had worked, for the most part, finding him what he needed for the last ten years. But would it ever work again? Afraid to continue this line of discussion, he chose the only option left available to him. "Just because ye have someone in mind for the job don't mean they'll jump at the chance to take it."
"Proud, wicked, stupid Jack!" she purred with violent eyes, taking a sharp turn towards the steps.
"Mr. Gibbs!" He stuck his head out past the railing, his hair falling over his shoulders.
"Aye!"
"Young Mr. Turner is out of hearing range and quite unarmed. It would be most ungentlemanly of us to not give the Admiral some company, savvy?"
"Aye, Jack!"
Will paced the smaller of the two cells making up the Pearl's brig, unnerved by the ethereal stillness with which James Norrington sat in the cell across from him. Letting his forearms dangle through the bars, Will wedged his face between them at the sound of light footsteps.
"Elizabeth, go get the keys from Jack or Gibbs or whoever has them and let us out of here." He didn't mean to snap the order at her, taken aback by her sudden flinch.
Positioned right between the two cells, just out of both men's reach, she hugged herself.
"Why didn't you tell me about what you had planned with Sao Feng?"
"I needed the Pearl. It's the only ship that can beat the Flying Dutchman. If I hadn't promised him anything he would have been waiting with his entire fleet just as I told you he would. I suppose it wasn't your burden to bear." Repeating her words to her gave him a dark satisfaction, but it waned upon seeing her eyes flare, fuming at him before cooling into the deathly calm warrior eyes she always wore when cornered, almost always. Instead, they both jumped at the sharp laugh.
"Sao Feng is dead," James said. "If I were in a better mood I would explain the irony to you."
"If he's dead then what's become of his Piece of Eight?" Elizabeth asked, nearing his cell.
"Who knows? Hopefully for the pirates, he passed it on to a successor, as they are all supposed to. If I were you, I would start praying the new pirate lord of this sea didn't receive very good continuity."
"You're on this ship, too, Norrington," Will whispered with a bite. "If he sinks the Pearl, you'll go down with her and we'll all have a run-in with Jones."
"We need his Piece of Eight to free Calypso," Elizabeth said more to herself than to either of them, biting down on her bottom lip. "I'll come back at sunset."
Wasn't your burden to bear, what stupid words, she cursed while she sewed a patch into Gibbs' vest, the flowing, steady motion of the needle and thread busying her hands. She took her time with the stitching, knowing a mended vest would be a fair trade for the key to the brig.
"Ah, a bit of needlepoint for you. You know, I always thought you were rather good at it."
She looked up to see her father sit next to her.
"Where have you been?"
"Strangely sipping wine and eating rations in the galley with a Mr. Cotton. He had his tongue cut out, I was told, and he has a parrot who sits on his shoulder and says words every now and then."
Hearing the faces that were so familiar to her now they seemed like they had been with her for her entire life described in such a new way by fresh eyes brought a smile to her face.
"Yes, apparently Captain Sparrow has quite the wine collection, can't see him missing the one we finished."
"You and Cotton finished a whole bottle of wine?"
"Oh, forgive me, my dear, I didn't fill you in on all the details. While I was conversing with, well, Mr. Cotton's parrot, these two dirtier…" He flailed his hands searching for the right words. "…cruder men entered, one with a wooden eye, and they took the bottle from right off the table and drank from it straight. I'd never seen such bad manners, but then they asked how I was doing on board the ship. This…I have a renewed appreciation for your versatility, daughter."
"You get used to it, Father," she said, shaking her head at the preposterous discussion they were having. Oh, and while we're on the subject, Father, since you've last seen me, I've commandeered a ship without firing a shot, hit your beloved James over the head with a rum bottle, failed to recover the dead man's chest, and…tears glossed over her eyes at just the thought of everything that happened after that.
"I'm so proud of you, Elizabeth."
"That's the last thing I deserve to hear right now."
"Why? Elizabeth, I could scarcely have survived half the things you've managed to do and whenever I've had the misfortune of seeing you in danger you've always stared right back at it." He stroked a bit of her hair. "You have no idea what a rarity that sort of courage is. I must ask, though, because I can't help but notice that you and Will have not exactly, exactly…"
"Been speaking?" she offered with cold sarcasm.
"Yes. Is there anything you wish to tell me?"
They were large, concerned eyes, she noted, the lines around his face and the gray in his hair more prominent than ever. There were so many things she wished to tell him.
"I can't tell you."
"If you can't your father, who can you tell?" He took her hand at the strain her body mustered to keep her face from crumpling. "You do know I'm bound by my duty as your father to still love you no matter what it is," he said with a small smile.
"Father," she gasped, falling onto his shoulder. "I've done the worst things, things I didn't even know I was capable of doing." It took an eternity to spill out that sentence, her voice struggling to keep from sobbing.
"My dear, when desperate times call for desperate measures…well, it's as if you've been at war. We'll set it right, whatever it is. Please. Please let me know what you've been up to since I last saw you."
"All right," she said and took a breath.
"There are nine pirate lords and your navy has never captured any of them?" Will blurted, his cramped surroundings taking their toll on him. He had just been told the names of the pirate lords who would be awaiting them at Shipwreck Cove, each one infamous in his or her own region.
"If they were easy to catch they wouldn't have the status of being a pirate lord, would they?" James snapped back. "You've sailed with two of them, Mr. Turner, and committed crimes right along with them. The least they could have done was told you all this."
They only left out the number, Will considered before deciding he had no desire to defend pirates today.
"Perhaps they told the future Mrs. Turner, seeing as how friendly they all are with her."
Will rushed to the bars.
"I know what you're insinuating! You betrayed us all when you took the heart. You're in no position to judge anyone!"
"And neither are you. Don't forget you're right here across from me."
"Have you two been arguing all day? There's really no need for it." Elizabeth came into view with a long black key in her hand, a picture of serenity.
"Did you know there are nine pirate lords?"
"Nine? No, I didn't."
Will shot a look at James, changing it into a smirk when his cell door opened. She unlocked the other door and stood there with them, staring back and forth at them.
"It's almost sunset," she reminded them when they failed to go up to the main deck.
"What's the plan for capsizing the ship?" Will asked, the gears in his mind coming back to life with each step he took.
"I don't know. Perhaps your ghost girl will have a bright idea."
"Those are fairly accusing words coming from you." They stopped in the middle of the stairs, blocking James.
"They're not accusatory at all. They simply imply that Mary seems to be quite fond of you in spite of the fact you were going to risk a man's life for a ship. I remember once when you disapproved of that sort of thing."
"I did, and I still do. But I said to myself, 'what would a pirate do?' and I arrived at my answer. Is that how you came to your decisions?"
"If I may pass and not be included in this lovers' quarrel…" James coughed.
"I told you why I did it! I did it to save you, to save everyone!"
"Then why did you feel like keeping it a secret?"
"We discussed all of this, Will!"
"No! No, we did not discuss it at all. All we agreed on was that we possibly can't trust each other and you're not making matters any better the way you're acting now!"
"Oh!" she grunted. "And had I told you everything, would it have changed the fact that you needed the Pearl to rescue your father and would have done anything to do it? Would it? Of all the asinine choices! Did you forget all those times you'd come to the house to just sit in the parlor with us? Remember? We used to both have a cup of warm milk while Father would smoke his pipe and you'd tell me when it was time to go that you were imagining we were your family the whole time because you didn't have one! That's the father you're even tempted to save at my expense? The father that left you without a family? Oh, you think I didn't know about the choice you had to make, but that's what you get for being on a festering piece of wood we just so happen to call a boat and everyone on it is too fond of telling stories!"
They both exchanged pained expressions before slowly coming together into a hug.
"My God," James mumbled, rolling his eyes.
"We can't get married," Will sighed, holding her a little tighter, his cheek on the top of her head.
"We can't?" she asked with a guarded optimism. Both of them emitted embarrassed smiles. "I was so worried I was the only one having doubts." She covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes, unsure whether to laugh or cry. "Will, I love you. I'll always love you, but…"
"I know. I, I thought for so long we'd…promise me this—when we're done here, when it's all finished, if you change your mind and want to rethink a wedding, you'll make sure I'm the first to know."
"The same goes for you. Will, you promise me something. Promise me from now on I finally have a brother." For a straight ten seconds, James counted, Will and Elizabeth locked eyes before pecking each other's lips and continued up to the main deck.
A/N: And here's where I lose any traces of willabeth readers. I hope this got across the idea that, at least in this story, Will and Elizabeth both were trying to make more of their relationship than there actually was. There is still love there, just not the kind required to make a marriage and I tried to have them both kind of have that epiphany at the same time. Too soon? Too rushed? Too far overdue? Let me know! "Bashful sincerity and comely love" comes from Much Ado About Nothing and I think the full quote is a sweet, beautiful description of Will and Elizabeth's relationship. "I never tempted her with word too large, but, as a brother to his sister, showed bashful sincerity and comely love."