William held out his hand to Elizabeth. She hesitated for an instant before she took it, and they walked together into the captain's cabin. Elizabeth closed the door behind them. She leaned against it for a moment, just looking at him. Will had been a part of her life since childhood, but the events of the last several years had changed both of them in profound ways. There were changes that she hadn't had the chance to learn about before they had been plunged into a morass of betrayal, misunderstandings, heartbreak, and death. Their shipboard "wedding" had been wildly romantic to a girl who fully expected to die in the next few minutes; the reality of being alone to bear and raise her child over the last eighteen months had been anything but that.

The consummation of their "marriage" had been nice, but even though she loved Will, it hadn't really sunk in at the time that he would be gone for years afterwards. For that one day it had seemed as if he was once again the Will of her childhood, the Will that she had fallen in love with. It wasn't until after he had returned to the Dutchman that she began to realize that it was real: that she had bound herself in matrimony for the rest of her life to a man she might see perhaps four more times. A few months later when she realized she was pregnant, the dismal reality truly hit her, that she would have to carry, bear, and raise their child entirely on her own. She would age, while he would look exactly the same. Even their baby would eventually age past his father.

When Aunt Agatha had informed her that she wasn't really married, she had been upset, yes—but there had been a guilty instant of sheer relief before the grief had set in. She felt that same relief now, looking at him across Jack's cabin.

"Let's sit," she told him.

Will nodded, obviously feeling just as uncomfortable as she did. She took Jack's usual spot at the end of the table, and Will pulled out the chair just around the corner from it.

Elizabeth asked him about the Dutchman, about his job as ferryman, and about his relationship with his father. Then he wanted to hear about the past year, about their baby, and about their battle with influenza. She told him about her friend in the village who had written to Jack, and that he had come and got them out of there just in time to save them from the pirate attack a week later—a pirate attack that her friend had not survived.

As they talked, the discomfort between them melted away and they were once again the friends they had used to be. Elizabeth got up after a while and got them some wine.

"Jack doesn't know I found this," she told him. "But when I was recovering, I had to stay in here for days, and there was nothing else to do but go through his things!" She giggled, a little embarrassed. "Don't tell him."

Will nodded. "I wish you could have seen Jack telling me about what he had to do to save your life," he said with a half-smile. "First time I've ever seen him actually sweat. He thought I was going to kill him, especially after he told me about the bathing."

"What bathing?"

"He didn't tell you?"

She shook her head.

"He had to give you a bath before they brought you and the baby onto the Pearl. Apparently it was by necessity a very thorough one. He was horribly self-conscious and embarrassed about it."

Elizabeth chuckled. "I'll bet he was! I don't blame him for not telling me! He must have thought I was going to kill him!"

Will smirked. "Actually, I think he thought I was going to kill him. But quite frankly, I'd expected you to be angry about it. You seem surprisingly sanguine."

Elizabeth flushed a little. "Jack and I had a big misunderstanding, my first morning here. I misjudged him very badly. In the course of working it out, we worked out several other misunderstandings as well. We owe our son's life to him, Will, and I owe him mine at least a dozen times over."

"Jack's a good man," Will agreed.

"With very little evidence to the contrary, as it turns out" Elizabeth murmured to herself. They fell into a silence for a few minutes and then she took a sip of her wine and asked, "Will—Will, is it true that we're not really married? My aunt and Captain Teague told me so, but I didn't know what to think."

Will swallowed hard and nodded, shoulders slumped. "Apparently there are a number of reasons it was never valid in the first place... but Elizabeth, even if it was valid at the time, it wouldn't be any longer."

"How can that be?"

Will licked his lips. "Well, I died. Jones stabbed me in the heart and it stopped beating. Marriages last 'until death do us part,' and I was quite dead."

"But you're alive! Your heart is beating, even though it's still in a box, but you walk around, you sail, you talk, you sleep, you eat—"

He shook his head. "I don't eat. I don't sleep. I walk and talk and sail, but I'm not exactly alive. If my heart were placed back into my body, it wouldn't beat anymore. I'd be dead." He met her gaze seriously and reached over and took her hand. "You're a widow, Elizabeth. You were widowed less than ten minutes after you were married. I'm so sorry."

"So we couldn't remarry, then?" She had to make sure, before she could close this chapter.

He shook his head. "Even if we could, I wouldn't do that to you. It would be terribly foolish. Your aunt had some choice things to say to me about that, and after I calmed down and thought about it I realized she was right. It would be nothing but selfish to keep you tied to me for the rest of your life when I can't even be with you. Besides, the dead can't marry, and I am, technically, dead."

"But what about our wedding night? We have a child, Will. I'm sure the dead can't father children!"

Will cleared his throat and flushed a little, shifting nervously in his chair. "That was a special case, it seems. A one-time gift from Calypso, or so she told me."

"You've spoken to Calypso? Since she regained her powers?"

Will flushed darker. "Of—of course. She's the goddess of the sea. I see her often."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, thinking of Jack's warning before she'd seen Will. Something about knowing that Will had to get some things off his chest?

"Will, is something going on between you and Calypso?" she asked quietly.

Will didn't answer, or meet her eyes.

"Will?"

"There wasn't," he told her quietly. "I have been faithful to you as well, I swear it, until I found out that you and I weren't married. Now… there is 'something going on,' as you put it. I don't know yet how serious."

"Oh," Elizabeth said, a note of dismay in her voice. "And here I was concerned that you'd be lonely out here by yourself for a decade."

There was another awkward silence. Will fidgeted.

She gave a cynical chuckle. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I still remember how she fawned all over you, when I first met her at her house. She acted as if you and she were old lovers, talking about when you'd been there last time."

"Yes, but what about you and Jack?" Will asked, with a calculating glint in his eye. "I've not forgotten the way you kissed him, right before the Pearl went down. Then he tells me about making regular midnight visits to you while I'm gone! The two of you looked quite cozy just now, holding hands and teasing and all."

"If you recall," Elizabeth shot back, "I kissed him to distract him from what I was about to do to him—something for which he's been generous enough to forgive me!"

"So there's nothing between you and Jack?" Will pressed.

"I care about Jack a great deal. He's been a very good friend to me, and that's all he's been so far, so you can just take your insinuations right back below the waterline with you!" Her eyes flashed. "And even if there might be more than that between us at some point, it would be none of your business now that you're not my husband. Whatever 'something' you have going on with Calypso is certainly none of mine." She closely resembled her aunt in her fury.

Will ducked his head, cowed. "You're right, of course. I'm sorry." He took both her hands in his. "I am so sorry, Elizabeth—for all of it."

She began to calm down. "You don't owe me any apologies for marrying me, Will."

"Never that. I'm just sorry I married you and then left you. And truly, I don't begrudge you your relationship with Jack, of whatever sort it may be. Or with whomever you may find in the future, as long as he treats you well and makes you happy."

"And I suppose you're free to associate with the sea goddess if you like," Elizabeth muttered a little sulkily.

Will laughed at her, and after a moment she smiled back. "She only likes me for my 'touch o' destiny,' he said, mimicking Calypso's accent.

Elizabeth gave him a knowing smile. "Oh, I doubt that's all she likes you for."

Will squirmed in his chair. "Elizabeth..."

"Will, I don't want you to be lonely. In Flimwell I had Mrs Thomas, and I had Jack, and here I've had my aunt and Captain Teague and Tai Huang as well. When you're at sea, you don't have anyone who isn't your crewman. I've had weeks to get used to the idea that we're not married, and part of that was getting used to the idea of us being free to find other people. If you can find happiness with Calypso, or with anyone else, you have my blessing."

Elizabeth gave him a self-conscious smile and told him honestly, "I may still be a little jealous, but that's my problem, not yours—and it doesn't reflect my deep, true feelings on the matter, only my shallow, superficial ones."

Will nodded, his face softening. "That's exactly how I feel about you and Jack. I feel as if you're mine and mine alone, but beneath that I know I can't be with you and I really do want you to find someone to be happy with. Even if it's Jack," he added, spitting out the name with a hint of asperity.

"Oh, very nice," Elizabeth mocked playfully. "Very noble! I even believed you, right up until the end there."

Will tried for a moment to get her to believe him, but then he gave up with a rueful laugh. "You're right. I can't stand him half the time. I hate the thought of him taking care of you, him being all the things to you that I should be but can't. I hate knowing that he knows you better than I do, and always has. I hate the thought of him touching you."

Elizabeth stared at him, eyes wide. "Will…"

He reached across the table and placed his hand on hers. "But the thing is, Elizabeth, I love you. You've been my friend since we were children. Even if you're not my wife, I want what is best for you. And much as I loathe the idea with every fiber of my being, I really do think that what's best for you might actually be Jack—simply because he can take care of you, and he can be all the things to you that I should be but can't, and he does know you better than I do, and always has."

"I don't hate it, though," Elizabeth confessed in a very small voice, eyes downcast. "The thought of his touching me. I'd been so afraid that it was someone else who had cleaned me up before they took me on board. Ragetti, can you imagine? Eugh! Or even Gibbs? Knowing that Jack was the one who bathed me is really a huge relief. I'm so sorry, Will. I don't hate the thought of him touching me." She looked back up, eyes filled with trepidation. "Does that make me whorish?"

Will was silent, staring at her. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. He shut his eyes and shook his head, and then spoke. "You're not a whore, Elizabeth. I am a wretch. I'm completely eaten up by jealousy over the thought of you with another man, when you're not the one who has been unfaithful."

"We really aren't married, Will," she reminded him. "I'm not sure it counts as adultery."

He gave her a pained smile. "But you haven't taken up with Jack before talking things over with me, have you? I have, with Calypso. I could have found some other treasure and got it myself instead of asking her for her help, but I didn't. I could have paid her for that treasure with some other kind of coin, but didn't; I chose to give her what she asked for, because I wanted it, too. It might not have been adultery, but it was infidelity. I am truly sorry. And I'm sorry about being such a jealous wretch, too. Please believe me—I would rather have you with someone who can take care of you, and suffer the pangs of jealousy over it, than have you be faithful to me and be completely alone. You deserve to be loved, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth smiled for a moment, but then sobered. "I'm not sure Jack feels anything like that for me," she said. "Aunt Agatha seems convinced he does, but he's such a good friend already—and he has always been a bit flirty with me, so it's hard to tell."

Will raised one eyebrow and gave her a half-smile. "I think you may be surprised at his depth of feeling for you. If you can ever get him to be serious, I think you'll find that he's… well, quite serious."

"Do you really think so?" Elizabeth asked, blushing a little.

He nodded. "Would you like that? Do you… like… him?" He couldn't quite keep himself from grimacing at the thought.

She graciously ignored the face he made. She shook her head, not in negation, but in confusion. "I hardly know. For so long I've been used to rebuffing him and keeping him at arms' length. I have been faithful to you, Will, in body, mind, and heart." She purposely didn't mention her dreams, which had been fairly redolent of Jack for the last year or so, and some of them quite… charged.

She went on. "But now everything is different. Knowing that I would be free to reciprocate such feelings—if he indeed has them for me—well, it changes things. I'm just not sure how, yet. He's been my best and closest friend for over a year now, and he's the only person who ever really understood me. Sorry," she added apologetically, "But it's true; you said it yourself."

Will nodded, with a resigned air.

"He seems to know what I'm thinking, most of the time, even if I don't admit to myself what I'm thinking. For a pirate, he demands an appalling amount of honesty from me, but he usually gives me the same in return. We trust each other. I think I could come to love him if I allowed myself to. It's just that for so long, thoughts of Jack have been firmly lodged into the 'friendship only' portion of my mind. It's the 'allowing myself to' that is likely to prove problematic."

"I think," Will told her with a grimace, "—and I really, really hate myself for telling you this—but I think he might be willing to help you along there, if you gave him half a chance."

"Perhaps," replied Elizabeth, lowering her eyelids demurely.

Will smiled for a second and then sobered. "In any case, much as I hate him sometimes, he's a good man and a good friend the rest of the time. It seems we both owe Jack a great deal. I want you to know that no matter how things work out between you, you will both have my friendship. And I was thinking... you might want to see if you and your aunt can do something to make him respectable again. Piracy is becoming more and more dangerous, and if it looks as if Jack is going to be a permanent fixture in your life, then you'll want him around for Jacob's sake as well as your own. Eh?"

Elizabeth smiled; that tag question was very like Jack's usual manner of speech. For a man who claimed to hate Jack, Will had obviously been heavily influenced by the man! "You're right, of course," she said. "I'll give it some thought. After we solve this Angelica problem, that is."

Will stood up. "I must get back to my ship. I'll leave from here, and you can thank Jack for both of us for arranging this chance to talk." He held out his arms and she went into them with no awkwardness this time, although it was eerie and a little chilling not to feel a heartbeat in his chest and to feel his skin so cool. They embraced for a minute or two, and Will whispered in her ear, "We were friends before we fell in love, and we'll be friends even if we love other people. We'll at least have that."

"And we have Jacob," Elizabeth reminded him.

"Aye." Will stepped back and squeezed her hands. "Will you bring him to meet me, when I can go on land again?"

Elizabeth smiled mischievously. "If you're sure you can tear yourself out of Calypso's arms, then yes."

Will laughed. "Just make sure that your torrid romance with Jack doesn't make you forget me altogether! Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder where she had smacked him. They laughed together for a moment, just as they had done as children, and then when the laughter faded, they both had the same impulse. They leaned closer and kissed.

It was not a kiss of longing, nor of desire.

It was a brief kiss, a fond kiss, a friendly, affectionate kiss.

It was a kiss goodbye.

Will brushed her cheek with his knuckles, smiled, and vanished.