nineteennitytwo: I know! It took long enough!

bmdrose: Thanks! It makes me happy that you like Jack&Izzy and took the time to review.

callieandjack: Elizabeth's such a huge help with stuff like stating the obvious and so on!

Fairy Skull: Yeah, I am! It should be v. good!

keiraliz: WELCOME BACK!!!! That all sounds soo AMAZING! I am sooo jealous!!!!!!!!

Nelle07: You'll have to see, won't you? HAHAHA! Love being evil!

klutzygall2: Well, pirates IS rather addictive, so they're half right!

Valor: YAY!!! T-t-t-t-tt-ort-t-t-tuga here we come!

"In love?" I repeated. It felt like an age had past since anyone had said anything. Elizabeth was just staring at me. Say something Isabel, I told myself. "That's… How do you…? Who…? When…? Could it be…? I mean, he doesn't seem like he ever would…"

What on earth was I burbling on about? Why couldn't I finish a sentence? Elizabeth was grinning at me.

"Is everything alright, Izzy?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. Finally, a complete sentence… even if it was a one-word one. Lets try another one, "That's wonderful!"

Two words, I was getting better.

"Do you really think so?" Elizabeth's smile grew wider.

"Of course, I mean, it's a bit of a shock! Who do you think it is? There are no women aboard the Pearl, so I suppose she must be from Tortuga or some other port… or maybe it's not a woman at all…"

Elizabeth looked like she was about to slap me. "It isa woman and there are women on the Pearl, Isabel!"

"Who?" I asked. She stared at me. Then it hit me. "Anna-Maria!"

"NO!" she sounded like was deciding whether to laugh or cry.

"Well then who?!?" I sighed. She was really beginning to get annoying now. She had that stupid little grin back on her face. I often wondered why she was my best friend. Really, what was the point in having a best friend if all they did was wind you up?

"I really don't think I should be the one to tell you," she said. The smug tone of her voice made me snap.

"Fine then, don't tell me! I can figure it out for myself, if he is in love with anyone at all, which he may not be! It's just you guessing! What proof do you have?"

The smile was gone from her face. She glanced around the deck. "It makes sense," she said quietly. "The Compass doesn't point to the chest because he's in love; therefore the chest is not what he wants most."

"But he showed me the compass and it just kept spinning," I said.

"Well maybe he doesn't think he can have the one that he wants,"

"'Loathed to claim it for his own,'" I murmured, quoting Tia's words about Jack's compass. I looked around for Jack and sighed. "What woman couldn't he have?" Elizabeth's smile at my words made me flush involuntary.

"What do you mean by that, Izzy?"

My insides squirmed with embarrassment. It had sounded different than I had intended it to and I didn't want her to get the wrong idea. "I just meant that he's… nice and… he's not… unattractive… and he's confident, I've seen him around women and he's not shy, he wouldn't be afraid to tell her how he felt."

I'd managed to clamber out of the hole I'd almost dug myself into. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "There's a difference between hitting on a prostitute and being in love," she said.

"Unless he's in love with a prostitute," I pointed out. This made Elizabeth laugh.

"Isabel!" someone shouted. I sighed and narrowed my eyes. Did men not understand how important it was for women to gossip? I turned around. It was James, typical. He looked more than a little cross. What reason did he have to be cross with me? I had done nothing wrong!

"Hello James," I said glumly. He smelt like he hadn't washed since he left Port Royale a few months ago. He probably hadn't.

"What are you doing here?" he snapped.

Nice to see you too, James, I thought, but I didn't think he'd be best pleased if I said that out loud.

"James-" I didn't even have a chance to take a different approach.

"What are you doing here?" he repeated again.

"I'm just going to…" Elizabeth slipped past us and managed to escape.

"You should be in Port Royale," James was looking at me with the same look he'd given me when I was four and had drawn on the wall with the quill he'd left lying around. This time it didn't make me feel bad.

"If I had stayed in Port Royale I'd be dead by now," I said. "I would have been hung for helping Jack. Lord Beckett came to arrest us and you."

"Arrest you?" James turned pale.

"Yes. That's why I came here. To escape."

"You shouldn't have had to do that," he said and I could see a look of shame and self-doubt in his eyes. I knew instinctively that he was blaming himself. "I will clear our names, Isabel. I promise I will, you won't have to live like a pirate anymore, I swear. I knew I shouldn't have let Sparrow go!"

He walked away, muttering darkly to himself about stupid mistakes and revenge. I sighed. None of this was James's fault; I would have to make him see that.

I looked around the Pearl, at her deck and sails. I looked at her crew who were hard at work but enjoying what they were doing. Lastly, I looked to her slightly mad and possibly recently in love Captain who had just finished falling over. If this was the life of a pirate, I loved it.

***

The following day Elizabeth produced the Letters of Marque and showed them to Jack and Gibbs. I frowned at them, "How did you get those from Beckett?"

"Beckett?" Gibbs repeated. He and Jack exchanged a look.

"Yes, they're signed Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company," Elizabeth pointed to the Letters.

"Will was working for Beckett and he never said a word," Gibbs fumed. "Beckett wants the compass… only one reason for that."

Another dark look past between Jack and Gibbs. "Of course," said Jack. "He wants the chest."

"Yes, he did say something about a chest." Elizabeth got a withering look from both men for confirming what they already knew.

"If the Company controls the chest, they control the seas," said Gibbs ominously.

"A truly discomforting notion," Jack agreed.

"And bad, bad for every mother's son who calls himself pirate," Gibbs muttered. He glanced around the Pearl, "I think there's a bit more speed to be coaxed from these sails."

"Might I inquire as to how you came about these?" Jack asked Elizabeth.

"Persuasion," she replied.

"Friendly?" he grinned.

"Decidedly not," she said curtly.

Jack waved the Letters around under our noses, "Will strikes a deal and upholds it with honour and here you are standing here with the prize. Full pardon, commission as a privateer on behalf of England and the East India Trading Company," he turned away, stuffing the Letters into his top pocket, "as if I could be bought for such a low price!"

"Jack, the letters… give them back!" Elizabeth protested.

"No." Jack grinned, "Persuade me…"

"You do know Will taught me how to use a sword," she said in what she must have assumed would be a threatening manner.

Jack was unfazed, "Like I said, persuade me."

Elizabeth glowered at him and stalked off. I followed her because she looked like she was in the mood for a rant and they were always quite funny.

***

I didn't think about Jack being in love again until later that day. It only took one conversation to make me see the truth. And it wasn't even a conversation I was part of.

It was the middle of the day and I had found it to be a pleasant one so far, but Elizabeth was looking incredibly unhappy. She was sitting on the stairs of the Pearl with a rum bottle in her hand. Before I had a chance to talk to her Jack sat down beside her. It was nice of him to try and cheer her up. He must have said the wrong thing because after a few seconds she walked away. He followed her, which was good of him. I realized that I'd look like an idiot if I just stood and watch them talk, so I stopped watching for a bit.

The next time I turned around and saw them I stopped breathing. He was about to kiss her. I was sure of it. It seemed to me like they stood like that for an age. It may have only been a few seconds; it may have been hours for all I knew, time had no meaning anymore. Then Elizabeth turned and walked away from him. My eyes stung as if I'd just been slapped. Jack's eyes met mine. I think he tried to say something to me, but I can't be sure because I was gone.

Elizabeth.

He loved Elizabeth.

Love you guys,

XX