Chapter Five
Where His Heart Lies

- The Queen's Palace, Neptuño -

"Yo, ho. Yo, ho. A pirate's life for me." She was humming to herself as she sat on the edge of the snowy balcony. Her golden brown curls were blowing gently in the wind as she focused her emerald eyes on the horizon.

She groaned as she unbuttoned the top button of her coat, despite her abuela telling her otherwise when she saw her skipping out of the palace. The Island of Neptuño was still buzzing that morning with the residents trying to get their last preparations in before the following day, which happened the be Christmas Day. She smiled to herself at thinking of this, and glanced out at her father's ship that was pulled into the port next to her mother's. She always had a question, though she never wanted to ask her parents because of the reaction of hurt she always saw on her mother's face when she asked.

"Annie, love? Mummy wants to know if you're going with her or not." The door shut gently behind the Prince of the Sea as he pulled his coat closer together and made his way carefully over to the railing where Annie was sitting. She beamed up at Will, before turning back to the horizon. "Darling, what are you doing out here?" Will asked her as he came to stand behind her, wrapping his arm around her to keep her from falling backwards.

"Thinking."

"Oh, are we now? And what would we be thinking about, love?" Will asked her, questioning. He knew from the previous years, and growing up with Lila, all of Annie's tricks. That's because Annie learned from the best. Lila. But there was someone that could outsmart her. Really only one person. Even the great Captain Jack Sparrow couldn't outsmart Lila. But Will could. And Will knew when he saw that gleam in Annie's eyes that she was deep in thought about something. As deep as a three year old could think anyway.

"Daddy, are you and Mummy pirates?" That had been the question that Will and Lila were most dreading. They had chosen to tell Annie the truth only when she was older. When she could fully understand their pasts. Because, being a Sparrow and Turner, Will and Lila both knew that Annie would have to confront their pasts as well as her own problems when she reached of age. But, they had hoped that question would never be asked. But now, it was.

"What gave you that idea, darling?" Will asked her, buttoning his own coat up. Yes, immortal though he was, Will could still experience harsh changes. As he was now, silently cursing his wife for making it snow in the Caribbean's. Annie just shrugged as she said, "Well, Uncle Jackie is 'cause he's gotted the Pearl. And he's got that tattoo on his arm...and Mummy has the same one too. And you both have ships, so I just thought that you were pirates." William stared at his daughter in awe at that statement. She had apparently been thinking alot on the this subject, though like Lila growing up, pirates was always Annie's favorite subject to talk of. Will often found himself recurring his past experiences to her at bedtime for her night bedtime story. He turned his hazel eyes to meet her emeralds as he said, "Of course not."

"I think you are." Annie said, swinging her legs back and forth. Will smiled over at her. She was gorgeous. Though she looked almost identical to what Lila looked like when she was Annie's age, Will did see alot of himself in her. Though, she was almost a recreation of his wife. He smiled, kissing her cheek and saying, "If you're going with Mummy, you had better hurry, darling." Annie nodded, turning around and swinging her legs off of the railing, before bouncing off of it. She hugged Will's legs, before turning on her heels and skipping into the palace. Will smiled to himself, before turning back to the snowy horizon. He closed his hazel eyes, and for some reason, a feeling he hadn't felt in years washed over him.

"William." He had fallen into such a deep train of thought, that her quiet voice made him jump. He whirled around to see Calypso standing behind him. She had changed since becoming Calypso fully, no longer Tia Dalma. Her face was free of markings as she now emitted that beauty that only goddesses possessed. She was wearing a floor length, white gown that seemed to emit a light as she walked towards him. Her black curls cascaded neatly, framing her face perfectly. And another thing that was different, she no longer had that horrid accent of hers. "We need to talk."

He sighed, turning his eyes back to the horizon. "The curse?"

"Aye." She whispered, coming to stand beside him. The two were quiet for a moment, before she followed his gaze to the horizon, and said, "The curse was only to be lifted if your true love remained faithful-"

"-Lila did-"

"-you didn't promise your heart to Lila, William. Your promised it to Elizabeth." Will closed his eyes, as a sense of dread and guilt washed over him. How could he have rightfully promised his heart to Elizabeth, when Lila had stolen his heart years and years before even meeting Elizabeth? That hadn't been fair. To neither Lila nor Elizabeth. While he loved both girls dearly, only one was the true keeper of his heart. "The curse isn't broken."

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"Why the hell would I be mad at you, Lila?" Will's voice came out harsh and rough. Lila just stared up at him, almost with a look of fear in her eyes. He couldn't bear to look at her as I said, "What? Did you expect me to wait for you until you came back?"

Lila's face changed from fear to anger as she spat, "Excuse me? You're the bloody reason I left, Will." When Will stared up at her in shock, he noticed tears were flowing freely down her cheeks as she said in a surprisingly calm voice, "I thought you loved Elizabeth. I thought I was in your way." So he had been right. He was the reason she left.

"I wasn't." Will said, softening his tone. "I only was with her because I thought you weren't coming back." Will watched as the crabs continued to move them down the ocean. "I loved her, Lila." He couldn't mistake the look of hurt in her eyes when he said that. He was telling her the truth, "But I didn't while I was with you."

"How can I believe you?" Will looked up at her when she asked him that.. He reached behind his neck and unhooked his key as he said, "Part of it will always belong to her. I want you to know that." He moved closer to her and whispered, "But she's gone. And I have to realize that. You're-" For the first real time, Lila looked up into Will's eyes as he said, "-you're here. And it belongs to you."

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"Calypso, is there anything that can be done?" William asked, voicing what he had asked all those years ago when Jack had been killed in the hands of his then fiancee. Calypso turned her black eyes to meet Will's as she said in a quiet, dread-filled voice, "Ten years at sea, for a day at land. Steep price to be paid for what has been done. William, I cannot change the rules. It had only been brought to my attention-"

"-Calypso, I can't leave her." Will said, as his eyes stung with unshed tears. He couldn't leave her, as he remembered the pain he felt when he left Elizabeth. But more so, the pain that he felt when Lila left him when he was only 20 back that awful day in Port Royal. Neither of them had known that that would be the day that would put their destinies in line forever. And now, Calypso was telling them after all those years of wishing he could be with Lila, and after all those years of being regretful and filled with pain, he had to give that all up again.

"-I cannot do a thing, William. I'm sorry." They fell silent once more, before she whispered to him, "One month marks the 100th year mark since you became captain. That's when you'll set sail." William nodded, feeling as if Davy Jones had pierced him with a sword once again. Actually, the way he was feeling at that moment, he would have much rather felt the pain that he had felt when he was murdered on the Flying Dutchman than feeling the pain he was feeling when Calypso told him he had to leave his wife and daughter for ten years. Calyspo nodded, not knowing what to say, and disappeared into a ray of light. Will fell silent, and focused his eyes back on the Dutchman, a ship he would always be bound to, a ship that right now, was his hell.

"Querido, we're leaving for town. We should be back in a few hours."
Will had to hold back his tears when he heard her soft voice come from behind him. She must have noted that something wasn't right with him, since Lila paused at the door, resting her hand against the frame, and stared at her husband for a moment, before asking him, "Will, are you alright?" Will only nodded at her, not sure if he could make eye contact with her at the given moment. Lila let the door fall gently behind her, as she walked over to Will and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Will, something's wrong?"

"How can you love me after what I did to you?" Lila was taken back by his question, and only stared at Will for a long time. She had never seen him look like this. His eyes were clouded over with an emotion, and his face was expressionless. Lila dropped her hand, unsure of what she could stay in response to that. "After what I put you through?"

"Will, I don't what your talking-"

"-yes, you bloody do Lila! How can you love me?" He whirled around to face her to see that she had a confused look on her face. Actually, her expression was that of a mixed confused and hurt face as she stared at him. When she saw that his eyes were sparkling with tears, she immediately dropped her own gaze from his and stared down at the snow covered balcony. The two of them were silent for what seemed to be years as they stood there. They could hear the faint voices of Rupert, Jack and Saphira inside, though that was all that could be heard next to the silence that Will and Lila were in and the ocean waves crashing against the side of the palace.

"What kind of question is that, Will? You can't ask me why I love you. I just do. I always have." Lila whispered to him, in a tone that he had never heard before. He couldn't place the emotion, but he knew that she was hurt. Why should she be hurt? Wasn't this partly her fault as well as it was his? "Will, if this about me leaving-"

"-I should have came after you-"

"-why are you bringing this up?" She practically shouted at him. "I thought we moved on from all of this, Will. I mean, bloody hell. We're married, we have a daughter...everything's finally okay and you start bringing this up? Darling, you may have had your heart literally ripped out, but that doesn't mean I haven't hurt over all of this too." Will turned to look at Lila once more as tears fell frozen at her rosy, tanned cheeks. Her voice was shaking as she said, "Do you know how badly it hurt me knowing that someone else had your heart?"

"She never did, Lila."

"Well...I didn't know that." She said, her voice filled with hurt, as she came to stand beside him. "Will, I love you. I don't care if you're Captain of the Flying Dutchman. I don't care if your heartless. I don't care about Elizabeth. I don't care about our pasts." She took his hand, as he fought to keep his gaze locked with her own intense emerald eyed one as she said to him in a softer voice, "I care about you. That's all that matters now, Will. Nothing else does." He leaned down and kissed her briefly, before resting his head on top of hers.

Lila, unsure as to why Will was acting this way, only wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his strong chest. She closed her emerald eyes momentarily, as the two stood silently on the balcony as the snow fell gently all around them. After a moment, neither of them spoke still. They didn't need to, because they both knew what the other one was thinking. It was unspoken. They didn't have to tell the other one, because they already knew.

But Lila would never know all the guilt Will was feeling at that moment. She didn't know the pain he was feeling for wrongfully giving his heart to someone, when it truthfully belonged to another. The pain he felt for not waiting for Lila. The pain he felt knowing that he only had a month left before he had to leave Lila and Anne for a decade at sea. And that, Lila still didn't know, for Will just had no idea how to break the news to her. He knew how she would take it, and thought it best to wait until after the holidays..

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"...Will, you know this. You've always been between me and Elizabeth. And you can't deny that." Her words pierced his "heart" at every word that she spoke. "It's always been that way. You could never decide between us. And somehow, I feel like I was just a...a backup. Wouldn't you feel that way?"

He let go of her completely so he could look into her eyes. When he didn't say anything, she continued, "Elizabeth's dead, so now you go to the second girl on your list. Do honestly want to be like Jack-" "You were never a damn backup, Lila." Will spat at her, anger filling him up. "I never once-"

"But that's how I felt, Will!" She said, "That's how I felt. I saw the way you looked at her...it killed me. That's why I left-" Will fell silent, though anger was still filling inside him. He wasn't sure if it was towards her, or towards himself.

"Well, Lila. I didn't think it fair that you expected me to wait for you." Will said after another minute of silence. Lila shook her head, allowing more tears to fall as she said, "Damn, Will. Can't you see? Do you not understand why I left? I left because I didn't want you to wait for me. I left so you'd be with Elizabeth."

She took a step towards him, "This was never about me." She turned around from him to start back down the path, leaving him in his painful thoughts. She stopped momentarily, though not turning back as she said,
"It wasn't your burden to bear-" Now she faced him, "-but after all those years of crying for you, I think it's time for you to bear it as well."

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William never fully understood the reasoning behind Lila's leaving. He never understood what went through her head that day she left. But after all those years of wondering 'what if', Will was finally coming to terms with everything that had been resting there under his nose, going unnoticed for all those years. Because now, after all those years of not understanding, Will was finally bearing the same burden Lila was bearing.

And there wasn't a thing he could do about it.