Note: The baby gifts that Jack brings in chapter one makes this scene inconsistent with what I have already written; however, the idea simply wouldn't leave my head and demanded to be written. So you, the reader, have the choice of whether to believe that Jack first visited Elizabeth to meet the new baby and bring them gifts, as chapters 1 and 2 state, or whether this is what really happened!

More controversial adult themes, but nothing really graphic this time. Use good judgment, as always.

"Elizabeth, you're a bloody marvelous woman," Jack told his wife, once he had caught his breath after their lovemaking and could speak again.

"Thank you," she replied, still breathless herself. She reached out a hand to touch him as they lay side by side on a blanket. "You're pretty wonderful yourself."

Jack shook his head tiredly. "I was just lying there passively. You're the one what brought me through the front doors of bliss and out the other side. Bloody amazing."

"I do my humble best. Can't have you missing all your port doxies, can I?"

"What doxies?" Jack asked, with a blank look.

"The girls you used to have in every port?"

Jack shook his head. "As far as I can remember, you're the only woman I've ever been with, sweetheart. If there were any others, you've successfully driven them all straight out of me head."

Elizabeth smiled and rolled over to give him a gentle kiss—such sentiments needed to be rewarded! "I love you," she told him.

"Aye, and you just proved it to me, in spades," he teased, sliding his arm around her so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

"Still, it's only been… how long has it been for you, anyway, since you've been to bed with a woman?" she asked. "Before me, I mean?"

"Why d'you want to know that?" he asked, looking guarded. "Looking for an excuse to slap me?"

Elizabeth shook her head against his shoulder. "No slaps, unless it was a lot more recent than I think it was."

"Hmm, now, there's a question. When do you think was the last time I went whoring, then? Do tell, lovey."

"Well, my guess would be… after you dropped me off in Shipwreck with Teague? You know everyone in Shipwreck, it seems, and you spent most of your nights on the ship. Was it then?"

"Uh-uh."

"When you went back to Flimwell alone?"

"Nope."

"Give me a hint, Jack!"

Jack slanted a dark look down at her where her head rested on his naked shoulder.

"It—it wasn't with Angelica, was it? At the Fountain?"

"It was most certainly not with Angelica!" Jack replied, obviously stung.

"Well, I didn't know. She is very beautiful."

"Aye, she is," he said with disgust. "So is a cobra, the way it draws you in and mesmerizes you before it strikes you dead."

"It's not like I was much better, when I chained you up for the kraken," Elizabeth said.

"Darling, it's like I told her when we gave her to Will: I've been eaten up by a kraken, and given the choice between 'em, I'd pick the kraken over her any day!"

"Ouch," Elizabeth said, not without sympathy. She kissed his bare chest. "All right, then. I promise not to get all insecure, or slap you or anything, just as long as it wasn't too recent."

"Define 'too recent'."

"Any time after my first talk with Will, when you and I ended up drinking in the crow's nest. That's when I started to realize how I felt about you."

Jack breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, no, it was ages before that. No more guesses?"

"No, tell me."

"The truth?"

"Yes, the truth!" Elizabeth was getting impatient.

"Right, then. The truth is, there have been only three since you came and got me from the Locker. Two in Tortuga and one in Port-de-Paix. That one was the most recent."

"How recent?"

Jack hesitated for a moment.

"Jack! How recent?"

"Truth? Right before I visited you in New Flimwell."

"Which time?"

"The first time."

"No, really."

"'Struth, darling. I was with her about two weeks before I saw you again and got to meet your wee Jacob."

"But Port-de-Paix is a week away from New Flimwell."

"Aye, well… after I left her, I got drunk for about a week. Then I went to see you after I sobered up."

"Good God! What did this woman do to you?"

"If I tell you, I need your word that you won't tell a soul and you'll never use it against me," Jack said cautiously. "Not even when you're angry at me. I'm not sure you'll want to hear 'bout what happened, 'cause it was during my, ah, 'congress' with another woman."

"I'm a big girl. I can take it. What'd she do to you?"

"Nothing extraordinary, actually. Nice enough girl, told me her name was Diana. She'd not been in the business long. We met, talked, reached an accord regarding price, went back to her room, and got down to it."

"Then what?"

"You promise you're not going to hit me?"

"Poor baby. I promise. What happened?"

"Well, things were progressin' apace, and then I got a little carried away and called her 'Elizabeth.'"

Elizabeth gasped and covered her mouth in shock. "Oh, no! What'd she do?"

"She stopped dead and stared at me. Asked me how I knew that was her real name! Quite a coincidence, eh? But I just told her I knew it before, and we continued." Jack paused for a moment, eyebrows furrowed, remembering. He went on slowly, "I'd never had that before, never been able to call out your name during a 'pleasurable encounter'."

Jack tipped Elizabeth's face up, to look her in the eyes. "Liz, it was like a dam broke inside o' me when I said your name, and it was the right name. I started hugging her and crying, told her I loved her, said I had to have her with me or I'd die. Promised her the finest gold and jewels if she'd only be mine. Begged her to marry me, in fact, pleaded with her to leave her husband and sail away with me. She does not, to my knowledge, even have a husband. I hope not, anyway. Poor chap's been cuckolded by half the island if she has."

Elizabeth's jaw dropped and her eyes got huge. She swallowed hard. "I take it she didn't accept your offer?"

Jack smiled sadly. "I hadn't had me eyes open when I made it, love. She waited till I'd finished and opened my eyes again. Then she gave me the sweetest smile you ever saw. I got dressed and started getting out me coin, but she stopped me. 'Jack,' she told me. 'I'll not take your money, nor hold you to any of that, on one condition.' 'What's that?' I asked her. She told me I had to promise to go find 'my real Elizabeth' and say all those things to her."

Jack stroked Elizabeth's hair. "Before then I'd had no idea my feelings toward you ran so deep, but there it was. Bit hard to deny. So I took a few days to reassess the situation, take stock of things, get used to the idea—"

"Drink an entire cask of rum."

"That's what I said. After I sobered up, I followed my compass and there you were."

"But when you found me, you didn't tell me any of those things," Elizabeth pointed out. "Why not?"

"Well, I nearly tripped over Jake's cot as I was climbing in your bedroom window, didn't I? I know what I told you then, but in truth I hadn't known about the baby yet. He changed things, of course."

"But after that you still tried to get Will released for me. Why? Why would you do that?"

"Well, sweetheart, I loved you. Wanted the best for you, and knew that wouldn't be me."

Jack's matter-of-factness about his sacrifice touched Elizabeth's heart. "You're insane. Deeply crazy and utterly mad, not to see how perfect you are for me."

"Well, we pretty much proved that yesterday, love. How mad I am."

"No, I don't mean that. I mean that you are the best man for me. Even Will admitted to me that you've always understood me better than he ever did. Plus, you're a good man. I've always known that."

"What about the fact that I first visited you with every intention of seducing you away from Will and sailing away with you on my ship? Does that sound like something a good man would do?"

"A good man who had a change of heart when he saw that there was an innocent baby in the picture. Yes."

"But if he hadn't been in the picture, love?"

"Jack," Elizabeth said with a kiss, "I'd have gone."

"Oh, really?" Jack said skeptically. "You'd have sailed away with me? Slept in my bed? Given yourself to me? You'll never make me believe that."

"You have no idea how lonely I was—or how much I missed you! If I hadn't had a baby to look after, I might have succumbed. I've have hated myself for it, and I'd have resented you for it, and we would never have been happy. We probably wouldn't have stayed together, but I still would have been ruined and sabotaged any chance I'd ever have of making a decent marriage."

"Far be it from me to cause a young girl's ruination. Again, I mean. I guess it's a good thing things worked out as they did."

"True. I never thought my best chance of a 'decent marriage' would be with you of all people, but it's too late for objections now, my lad. I have you in my clutches, Jack Sparrow, and I am never letting you go. Never, ever." Elizabeth smiled evilly.

Jack lay back comfortably on the sand. "I've rather enjoyed your clutches so far, sweetheart."

Elizabeth lay down next to him and nestled into his body. He turned over to face her, tipping her face up to kiss her lips before drawing her in closer. She nuzzled his neck and pressed her lips against his throat, enjoying the little gasp it elicited from him.

"I like the way your clutches feel, too," she said sleepily. "I like that you touch me so much. Even completely innocent, like holding my hand—it makes me feel all safe and cared-for."

"It's 'cause you are safe and cared-for," Jack replied, shifting around to get more comfortable. He yawned and then told her, "You do the same for me."

Elizabeth smiled, letting her eyes fall closed. "You're a big, tough pirate," she pointed out. "You need someone to make you feel safe and cared-for?"

Jack smiled, kissing the top of her head. "Don't tell anyone, darling. My reputation would never survive."

"I'll take care of you, my Jack. Even your reputation is safe with me," she promised as she drifted off to sleep.

Jack contentedly inhaled the scent of her hair, draped his leg around her legs so that his body was completely wrapped around hers, and followed her into sleep.