That afternoon when Jack returned to the Black Pearl, Will was waiting for him in his cabin. "Hello, Jack," he said.
"Ahhhh!" Jack yelped again. Heart pounding, he glared at Will. "Will you stop doing that?"
Will laughed. "Jack, I don't get very many pleasures out of captaining the ship of the dead. Seeing you shriek in fright like a little girl? That's pretty high up on my list these days."
Jack took a deep breath, calming down his heartbeat and breathing. He cast a sidelong look at Will. "I'd say you need to get yourself a girl, but considering how that turned out last time, maybe you should just take up knitting."
As Jack intended, the reminder of Will's newly single status wiped the grin off the other captain's face. "I have a message and some cargo for you," Will said stiffly.
"Cargo? Oh, did you bring a treasure after all?" Jack asked lightly. He was surprised when Will flushed a little and nodded.
"I did. It's in the hold already, and I need you to give me your solemn word of honor—such as it is—that you'll see that Elizabeth gets all of it."
"And what do I get out of the deal, pray tell? It's a bit rough, having to carry around a treasure on me own ship and not be able to keep any of it, nor my men either."
Will nodded. "Especially for someone like you, eh?"
"I'm not the only one around here obsessed with treasure, don't forget," Jack reminded him. The last time he'd said that to Will, the "treasure" he referred to was Elizabeth, and he could tell by the tightening of Will's lips that Will remembered and made the connection.
"Well, that brings me to the message," Will said. "I met with Calypso and asked her for a favor. She granted it. She has renounced her claim on La Isla Muerta. You're welcome to go and get that treasure any time you want. That'll be your payment for delivering this treasure to Elizabeth and her aunt, untouched."
Jack was stunned. "You serious, mate?"
Will nodded.
"Now listen. I know that woman. She never does anything without payment. What on earth did you have to offer her, to get Isla Muerta back from her?"
Will looked away as his color rose. "I'd rather not say."
Jack started to smile. "Ah. Sits the wind in that quarter?"
Will said nothing, and didn't look at him.
Jack's smile broadened into a grin. "You and Calypso, eh? And here I always thought the expression 'to plough the sea' was only figurative."
Will's face went bright red, and suddenly Calypso's voice came from the far corner of the cabin. "Jack Sparrow, you makin' trouble fe my William?"
Jack whirled to face her. "No, no, not at all, love. Just wondering what sort of payment you asked him in return for those two treasures, that's all. We all know you don't work without payment."
"Dat be true," she told him with a smile. "But what William an' me work out between us stays between us. Unless you really want ta know?" She asked innocently. "An' are willin' ta pay de price for de knowin'?"
Jack looked closer at her face, and then at Will's. She looked fiercely mischievous, while Will looked deeply embarrassed. "Uh, no, no, I guess not. Ignorance is bliss, after all," he hastened to say.
"So you don' make trouble fe me an' my William, an' we don' make trouble fe you an' your Elizabet'. Eh?" Calypso said slyly.
"'Me and my Elizabeth,' eh?" Jack said skeptically. "Who have you been talking to?"
She gave him a dark smile. "You a mon of da sea, Jack. All your business take place on de sea. I am de sea. I see it all, I know it all. You glad dat Elizabet' an' Will bot' widowed now. Am I right?"
"Ah, well," Jack began, flustered. Will's dark eyes pinned him with a stern glance. "To be honest, if Elizabeth is free and looking for a replacement, I don't care so much about the marital status of Mr Turner, here. Not my type, you understand," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, he's free to find someone new as well. Although it seems as if he already has," he taunted.
Will buried his face in his hands and groaned. Calypso smiled and caressed the line of his jaw, which he clenched. Then Will looked up. "So you're after my wife now, is that it, Jack?"
Jack raised his hands in defense. "Whoa, whoa, William. I merely expressed an interest in whether or not she was going to be seeking a replacement for you—I never said anything about filling that role myself. Also, I must remind you, she's not your wife. Not to put too fine a point on it, but she never really was in the first place. She does need someone, though. When her aunt goes back to Port Royale, she's going to be all alone again if she doesn't remarry."
"Remarry? Yes, she could remarry," Calypso told him with glee. "If she could find a man who can be what she needs!"
"Jack?" Will said slowly. "You said she needed her husband with her. I'm not free to be her husband, and as it turns out, I'm not her husband. But what about you? Why not fill that role yourself?"
Jack scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. She'd never have me. She's always known exactly what she wanted, and she's only ever wanted you."
"Dat not true," Calypso said. "You wrong about dat girl, Jack. She ver' conflicted 'bout de men she love."
"Man, don't you mean?" Jack asked. "As in, singular? As in, him?" he pointed to Will.
Calypso shook her head. "Dat girl not know what she want. Did you never see your compass spinnin' in her hand? Mos' of de time it point at you."
"Whaaat?" Jack drew out the word, skeptical. "Goddess or not, love, I think you're a bit touched." Jack tried not to look as dumfounded as he felt.
"It my compass. I know where it point."
"I did see her kissing you just before the Pearl went down," Will added pensively.
"She was only distracting me so's she could shackle me to it," Jack protested. "Chaining me up for kraken-chow."
"She kissin' you goodbye," Calypso pointed out. "Knew dat be her last chance."
"I saw the way she kissed you, Jack," Will said. "That was no mere distraction."
"If she was all that enamored of me, why did she choose you?" Jack demanded, starting to get irritated.
"You offered her a choice?"
"Aye, I did. Proposed to her right here on the deck of me ship after I sent you over to the Dutchman. She turned me down flat. Didn't even have to think it over. Just shoved her nose in the air and told me 'no, thank you!'"
"Any chance she might have thought you were only joking or flirting?" Will asked calmly.
Jack opened his mouth to reply with an angry no, but then he remembered the lighthearted, sarcastic banter the two of them had indulged in for much of that entire voyage. It was one of the best times he'd ever had with her, just talking, teasing, and matching wits. She might very well have thought he was joking, or she might have known that he couldn't officiate at his own wedding and assumed that the rest of the question was just as bogus as the "wedding" would have been.
"Jack," Will began, leaning closer and looking at him intently. "You said Elizabeth needs her husband. Jack, could you be what she needs?"
"Could I be you, you mean? I doubt it, and why would I want to?"
"She doesn't need me, Jack. She's been getting along fine without me for 18 months, partially because she has you. But you say that you're not enough for her, the way things are. You say she needs a husband. Could you be that?"
"Could I marry her, d'ye mean?"
Will nodded, one tiny jerk of movement.
"She'd never marry me."
"Not what I'm asking. Would you marry her?"
"Going to kill me if I say yes? Or if I say no?"
"Neither. Would you marry her, if she agreed? Would you take care of her? Raise my son, be stepfather to him? Give her more children if she wants them? Provide for her? Would you?"
Will's rapid-fire questions attacked Jack's usual composure like cannon fire.
"In a heartbeat," he replied, without even meaning to. He groaned and covered his face with his hands, his voice coming up muffled from between his fingers. "Me dad always told me I had bleeding awful taste in women, and he's been right, up till now." He looked up sharply. "I've never made a move on her since she married ye, though, Will. Give ye my word. Been a friend only."
"So you said, and I appreciate that."
"And why are you trying to pair me up with your widow, anyway?"
"Just thinking about what you said last time," Will replied. "About her needing a husband. You obviously care for her already."
Jack cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. "Time enough for that after we deal with Angelica. Can't afford to be distracted now."
"You do love her, though. Don't you?"
"If I do, then she should be the first one to hear me say it, mate."
"Fair enough."
"Feel bad enough that Elizabeth almost got killed because she was friends with me. Don't want to have to deal with anything else until after we see to this threat."
"You're aware that it probably won't be the last time she gets threatened because she's friends with you, right?" Will taunted. "You might want to try using the Isla Muerta treasure to pay off some of your outstanding debts. I say 'some,' because it would probably take several treasures to pay them all off!"
"Oh, shut up," Jack told him sourly.