Happy 4th of July everyone!
And if you don't celebrate this, then happy Wednesday!
-Captain Autumn

He grabbed my hand in an icy cold grip, pulling me to him as he spat in my face, "I know that you know where he is." He said, leaning closer so that his face was just inches away from mine, "And you're lying to me."

"Let go of me." I hissed at him, trying to break free. But his grip was strong as he said, "You know damn well where he is. TELL ME!" When I didn't answer, he threw me to the floor and spat, "If I don't find him, you're as good as dead, love." He leaned down and kissed my frozen lips, before locking the bar door behind me and leaving the brig that he had me in.

"Miss Swanson, my dear. What a pleasure to see you again." Beckett said, once again in that good natured voice. Oh, yes. But we all knew that he was a demon in a powdered wig. He took my hand and kissed it, before I pulled it quickly out of his hand. He smiled as I did that and said, "Still hard feelings for me, Miss Swanson?"

I was about to say Swann...then Jones, when I finally mananged to say in a rude voice, "It's Turner."

"Ah, Mrs. Turner. My mistake." He said, glancing at Will who was walking closer to us with a look on his face that said 'don't even think about trying anything'. Will was so cute when he looked like that, though Beckett looked completely unphased. The Kraken seemed to be enjoying this as he lifted his head up out of the water, causing Will to glare at it. I was really starting to think that it just loved to make its owner mad. It was quite amusing actually.

"You never answered my question, Beckett. What the hell do you want. You have should have burned over a cnetury and a half ago with the rest of the bloody EITC. Why are you here?" Beckett smiled up at Will (yes, up. Remember this man is shorter than me even.) He looked up at Will and said, "I told you, you should know."

"And I'm telling you, that I have no idea what you're talking about." Will said, narrowing his chocolate eyes down at Beckett.

"Ah, look. A Christmas elf has come aboard the Dutchman." Came a teasing voice from behind us. I couldn't help but laugh as Jack staggered over to us, wrapping his arm around me, and making a point to lean over to Beckett as far as he could as he said in a whisper, "You sure to tell your captain that I've been a good boy this year."

Unlike Will, who was still determined to keep an angry face even though I could tell he was trying not to laugh, and Beckett, who of course didn't find it funny...I laughed making Jack's head bigger than it already was. Jack was beaming as he rested his head on top of mine as he stood behind me and said, "I know why you're here."

"Shut up, you damned squid I heard you." Will yelled of off the railing down at the Kraken who was spitting water up at him. I really was starting to like this Kraken. I mean, Will was always so sweet and gentlemanly...and the Kraken made him a completely different person.

Actually, I think he or she or whatever gender it was, was just happy that I was back on board. I used to feed that thing so much when I was little sailing on this ship with my father. I spoiled it, and it remembered.

"I guess no one heard you, Sparrow." Beckett said, honestly having to stand on his toes to get just a little higher and he still didn't even come close to matching Jack's height. "I've come for the map."

Ah, the mysterious map that no one has ever seen or touched but the captain. Jack wrinkled his nose as he said, "Map? My dear little elfie-kins, I do not know of this map that you speak of."

Beckett took a step forward so that his head rested almost under Jack's chin, causing Will to drop his serious face and laugh. Beckett narrowed his blue eyes and spat at Jack, "Can you stop making jokes about my height?"

"Can you stop being ugly?" Jack snorted. I laughed too, but secretly was cursing myself for ever thinking that that man was handsome. Yes, Beckett. I mean, once you get past his height and being evil, he really wasn't...you know...alright, I fancied the man when I was younger. So make the Kraken eat me for it...go ahead, because he wouldn't eat me. He likes me.

The Kraken, I mean. Not Beckett.

"That map leads to the gates of the next life. Now, where is it?"

"Hold up." I said, wiping my head around to look at Jack in the eye. "The gates to the next world? As in the waiting area for heaven or hell? And you bloody kept that from me? Do you know what this could do to someone like me?" Jack blinked at me before saying in a calm voice, "That's exactly why I kept it from you."

"What?"

"You know that place in the world's end where dead souls travel by boat?" When I nodded, he said, "Where do you think they go?"

"I just thought that they endlessly floated around until the world ended but since we are at the end of the world I guess..." It was somehow making sense. Jack nodded and said, "So, the curse isn't lifted until we go thru these gates and get an emerald that locks in place next to the amethyst on the chest. So, basically, we're still cursed and will be until we get said emerald from the liason between heaven and hell."

"Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt this, Sparrow, but I've got an emerald to find. Give me the damn map." Jack just stared down at Beckett like he had just grown another head. Rolling his black eyes, Jack said, "Why the bloody 'ell do you need it? You're dead!"

"Exactly! For the past century and a half I've been in Davy Jones's locker, thanks to you! Before that bloody pirate with a smoking beard rescued me from that hell. But that's just it. Since I'd rather die than work on this crew, I need that emerald to get my life back."

Silence accompanied his statment. Getting it finally, Jack laughed slightly as he said, "Ah, yes. Because with out said emerald that's just it. You would be hell because your a bad person, and that's where bad people go."

"Very good, Jack. Did you figure that out on you own?" Jack glared down at me as I said that to him. Smiling up at him, Jack turned back to Beckett and said, "Why does Smokie-beard want it?"

"Blackbeard?" Beckett asked as if there was possibly another man that lit his beard on fire...well, that was that man in Spain...he didn't have a beard though. "Same reason. You live a life as awful as we've lived ours, you're scared of where you're going to end up." Jack smirked at Beckett, patting his head and said, "Sorry, Christmas. I don't have that problem." I laughed as Jack made a face and strolled back up the decks.

"What's your answer?" Will asked him, in that same voice that he had used eariler. The "Captain" voice. Not "I'm talking to my wife" voice. "Because you know, I can kill you again and send you back to the locker, which is mine now you know. Your choice." Will propped his leg up on a barrel and stared at Beckett, waiting.

Beckett, thinking this over, said, "Do I have a choice?"

Will stared at that man like he had just sugggested he go stab his heart. "I just told you your choices. You can serve on this ship not trying anything, or I'll send you back to my locker. What'll it be?" Beckett blinked up at Will, before saying, "Fine. I'll stay here."

Will smiled and said, "Welcome aboard the Flying Dutchman-" He tossed a mop at him and whispered, leaning down to him like Jack had done earlier, "-deck swabber." Smirking at him for a moment, Will wrapped an arm around my waist and led me up to the deck where Jack had just disappeared to.

"Where's your cousin?" Jack asked me, looking up from his snow covered chest. He rested it on the railing, still holding it to keep it from falling, and glanced over at me. I smiled and said to him, "Jumped ship this morning."

Jack didn't even have the decency to hide his smile as he said, "She will be dearly missed...let's not dwell on our misery-" He pointed down to the amethsy. "While we were in Singapore, I mangaged to collect this pearl. " He said, snapping it in place beside the amethyst. "That means forgivness, eternal life, that whole thing. The emerald means redemption and the sapphire, which I have no idea where the bloody 'ell that one is, means pretty much eternal damnation."

"That's a lovely thought." Will said in a less than happy voice. Turning my attention away from my clearly disturbed husband, I said to Jack who was trying to unsnap the pearl, "So, the amethyst means immorality?"

"Yes." Jack said, looking up at me.

"I'm confused. Each jewel has a power, why?" Will asked Jack, brushing snow out of his curls. Jack stared up at his former first mate and said, "Well, William. My uncle, like most pirates, was afraid of what would happen once they died. Since their only alternate fate was serving on this ship, they needed a different route. So, the Brethren Court came up with this chest. Once all of the jewels are together, the person in possession of that chest would be the most powerful man on this earth. But after Maelstrom killed my uncle, the Court became scared that Maelstrom would come after them to get the chest. Knowing they wouldn't stand a chance against him, they took each jewel and spread them amongst the seven seas."

"So, that's what we're after now. Barbossa knows that we have the key and the only thing else he can beat you to is the jewels." Jack nodded when I said that, and said, "You catch on quickly, unlike your dear husband." Ignoring Will's face, I looked down at the chest. Snapped in place was an amethyst and a pearl. Just beside it was a diamond.

"What's the diamond mean?" I asked Jack, pointing to it since I hadn't noticed it before. Jack smiled as he said, "The most powerful of them all, in a way. Some mate in London found it for me, that's why I went with you..." Jack stopped for a minute, then he continued, "The power to travel back in time is what it possesses. Mighty good power if you use it in the right way. Some many people make the mistake of thinking that they're God...that's why no one ever has touched this chest besides me, and of course Maelstrom's crew. They make that mistake, and they ultimatley live in a hell..." I noticed how dark Jack's gaze looked when he said that. It was as if he was almost talking from experience. I was about to ask him about it, when a piece of ice broke off of an ice mound and collided with the deck, sending the chest to the ground with a crash.

"Damn it!" Jack yelled when the diamond snapped off of the chest and began rolling to the edge. Running over to it, I managed to grab it. Then, another piece of ice hit the deck, causing me to flip over the railing with the diamond in hand. "ELLE!" Jack and Will ran over to the other side of the ship, to see that they were too late. I'd already hit the water.

As soon as I did, though, a white light engulfed me...

"Darlin, did you just hear a word that I said?" I pushed a curl out of my face and smiled over at him. He was standing on a dock, throwing a rock out into the ocean. His long, dark hair was pulled back, leaving a single curl hanging in front of his face...he was wearing a ruffled shirt that was open just a little to reveal a very muscular and tanned chest. He turned around to face me, a smirk spreading on his very handsome face.

I was sitting on the beach, digging my feet into the sand when he came over to me and planted a kiss on my neck. "I'll take that as a no." He whispered into my ear as he wrapped his strong arms around me. Laughing as I leaned back, as he sat down and put a leg on either side of me, I laid back on him and smiled up at him. He was playing with one of my curls.

I was staring at my dress as it blew in the wind, when he whispered to me, "You never listen me." I looked up at him, smiling. Even though he was staring at the horizon, I could see that he was smiling too and it wasn't at the sunset, it was at me. I snuggled into him as I said, "Well, yes. But that's mainly because you never make sense."

He snorted and said, "I always make sense, love." When he saw me roll my eyes he nuzzled my neck and whispered, "I always make sense, you just choose not to listen to when I talk." I moved so that I was looking into his eyes. He smiled as I did that and said to him in a teasing voice, "Well, darling. When someone is that entirely handsome, it's hard to listen to him whether you choose to listen or not to listen to him."

He stood up, pulling me with him. We walked in silence down the beach, our hands entwined with one another. He stopped, and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his head on mine as he said, "You know I love you."

I laughed as I put my hands on his arms that were holding me tightly and said to him, "Yes. I know that do." I spun around and wrapped my arms around his waist, as I leaned up and kissed him. When I pulled back, I rested my head on his shoulder and said to him, "I love you too, Jack."

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DUN DUN DUN...
You know what to do.
Five reviews, new chapter.

Yeah, I know I said Blackbeard was in this chapter, but he wasn't.
He will be soon though.

Love you guys!
-Captain Autumn-