Disclaimers: POTC isn't mine, nor are its characters.

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'At last!' exclaimed James with relief. 'Thank you, Mr. Baker. Keep a good watch on the land as well; we must not be too far from Africa I think…'

When she heard the announcement, Lawrence ran to the top deck.

'What is the plan now?'

'Bring Sparrow back to Port-Royal, alive.' He tilted his head on the side as he watched her.

'Now that I think of it, you haven't met him yet, have you?'

'No, indeed… The only pirates I've seen were during the attack we've faced together and in Tortuga.'

'Then you won't be disappointed by that one; he is one of the most… unpredictable pirates I've ever met.'

'After all I've heard about him, I can't wait to finally make his acquaintance.'

James frowned seeing how enthusiastic she was; he knew that there was something about Sparrow that drew women to him, and he feared Lawrence wouldn't be the exception.

'Just… When you see him, promise me not to trust him; Sparrow is treacherous and manipulative; he would harm you without any remorse…'

'James, he's a pirate, why would I ever trust him? And besides, I know nothing will happen to me as long as I'm with you; I've already told you that.' She smiled at him, touching his hand briefly before they raised any suspicions.

The Dauntless followed the Pearl's course for hours but no matter how fast they sailed, they pained to reach the pirate ship. The more they sailed, the closer the African coasts were; but they couldn't afford to stop anywhere; the end was so near. When they crossed the strait of Gibraltar, the Dauntless finally caught up with the ship she was following; James ordered his men to stand ready to board at any moment.

The wind had stopped blowing, the air was heavy, the sky yellowish, and the Dauntless pained to advance; a storm was brewing, and it would be a harsh one.

At one point, the winds gained a sudden force and blew harder than ever, the sky was filled with dark clouds, then the rain started to pour heavily on them; it wasn't a mere storm, but a hurricane.

The men on board were restless; some had already taken shelter in their quarters while the others, drenched to the bone, tried to follow their orders.

The Dauntless swayed, rocked by the waves and the violent winds. In the tumult, they had completely lost track of the Pearl, the main objective for now was survival.

James hated hurricanes as much as any sailor, but it was nothing he couldn't handle; he was confident that with the right analysis of the events and the right orders, they would go through it without much damage and catch up with the Pearl at last.

And then all happened suddenly; the members of the crew nodded to each other and all ceased to work.

'Go back to your posts!' shouted James at the top of his lungs. 'I know you're angry but this mutiny will condemn all of us if you don't do your work at the moment. I can't do this without all of you!'

'That's exactly our point, Commodore' said the man who looked like he was leading the mutiny. At his signs, all the men went inside, washing their hands off the fate of James Norrington and the only person who was still on board with him, Lawrence.

Speaking of Lawrence, the young woman had wrapped her legs around the left wing mast of the main one, struggling to tie the final knot that would keep the main sail up. Doing this task alone was already tedious, but when the rain was pounding overhead and the wind blowing hard, it was a real tribulation. The top sail of the main mast being already torn, Lawrence gave up on this once and proceeded to climb down; when she looked down, she noticed there was no one to be seen on the decks except for James at the helm. Her hands sliding over the wet wood, she hurried and jumped the last feet to save time and run to the mizzen mast.

'Lawrence!' she heard James shout. 'Please…' She looked up and saw his silhouette with difficulty. She couldn't see his face clearly, but she already knew the sight would break her heart, and indeed it did.

After she had run up the stairs, being careful not to slip or be washed overboard, she went straight to him and was struck by how hurt and devastated he was. At any other time, she would have thought how attractive he was being that drenched, but now wasn't the time at all.

'Oh James…' she said, her voice betraying the sadness she felt as her tears were mingled with the rain.

'I am so sorry, I am so dreadfully sorry.'

He shook his head, trying to keep a brave face for her.

'You must go take shelter with them, they will take care of the ship once they are assured that I've been taken by a wave. You will survive if you stay with them. Please, go.'

Lawrence opened her mouth in disbelief, she wanted to slap him and make him think straight.

'Have you lost your mind? I am not leaving you, never. James, don't you know it already, I would die for you; I love you James!'

This time, it's was James' turn to be speechless.

'Oh Lawrence, Lawrence, my beautiful Lawrence, I should have told you this a long time ago, and now nothing happens as I wanted it to be.' He cupped her face with one hand. 'I love you Lawrence. I didn't know what love was before I met you; I know that we are both assured of the other's feelings, we are both going to die in a hurricane. How is that for a tragic end, Shakespeare?'

His declaration made her heart burst with even more cries, and yet she smiled through her tears.

'But we are not going to die, James. We will live, if not for the ship and the crew, then for each other. We've have wasted so much time, we cannot die like this, not now. It isn't the end of the novel, but a turning point leading to a new chapter.' She put her hands on his cheeks and did what she had wanted to do for months; she placed her lips over his and kissed him.

Before she knew it, James had already wrapped his free arm around her waist and was kissing her back with as much passion.

Now, this kiss wasn't the most ideal one, it wasn't even a good kiss in the midst of all this rain and tears, fuelled with hunger and despair, but to them, it was the most perfect moment they had lived.

Lawrence wished they could stay like this forever, but she knew she couldn't; with a heavy heart, she stepped back. James protested and tried to hold her closer but she was resolute.

'James, we will have the rest of our lives to do this, but right now, there is something vital that I must do. We will go through this, I promise.' She gave him a quick kiss. 'I love you.' She smiled and rushed down to the mizzen mast.

James watched her go with regret and pride; she was perfectly right, kissing and holding each other wouldn't give them immunity against the blasting hurricane, and she was oh so brave.

When she had reached the intersection of the mast, she was towering him but she dared not look down, her task was too important. She crawled towards the end of the right wing, wrapping with much difficulty the heavy sail as she went along and tying it. She almost was blown off by a strong blast of wind but held on tightly and proceeded to do the same with the other side of the mast. Her arms ached with pain and exhaustion, the rain made her vision blurry and her eyes heavier; but the thought of James kept her going. Of all the experiences she had had since the beginning of her journey as a sailor, this one was the harshest she had lived.

'Lawrence, don't!' she faintly heard James shout from below as she started to climb up the top of the mizzen mast.

'I've got to!' she shouted back, still keeping her eyes up. The higher she climbed, the more precarious her ascension was; for once, she was glad she was a light-weight. Her legs and her arms were trembling, she had never been that high before; she took a deep breath to gather her strength and did what was expected of her without as much trouble as she had had with the other sail. As she was sliding back down, she cut her right palm with a splinter; she bit her bottom lip to stifle her scream and continued her way down.

When she passed James' height, she heard him shout her name.

'It's over Lawrence, the foremast is broken!'

'What?'

'The foremast!' he said, pointing to the forepart of the ship. Indeed, the mast had broken at its middle, making any tentative to wrap its sails unnecessary.

Lawrence realised with dread that with a broken mast and only one pair of hands to work on the deck, there wasn't much hope of sailing through this hurricane. She looked up at James and showed him with her hands that she was going downstairs to get some help.

She knocked on Commander Johnson's door but when she opened it, she realised his quarters were empty. She went straight to Pardy's and that outraged to see that Pardy, Johnson and Doctor Hunter were all drunk, close to the other, with bottles of whatever alcohol they had found in their hands.

'You should be ashamed!' she shouted before storming out to the crew's deck. She wouldn't waste her time on careless and ungrateful officers.

She opened the door leading to the crew's quarters, not caring about knocking and climbed down the stairs. 'We need your help' she said, breathlessly. 'Please, we won't survive if none of you comes to help us; we can't do it alone. Please!'

'We don't care if you die with him; you're not one of us, you're just the pretty boy of the Commodore; we have nothing to do with you.'

'I don't care whether you like us or not. Didn't you hear what I just said, we will all die!' She looked for a familiar face but when she saw one of the men who had belonged to the former crew of the Dauntless, she saw him look the other way.

'You coward! You shameless cowards!' she tried to find a more fitting word to insult them but couldn't find it in her heart to curse men who were too stupid to realise the real danger of the situation and who were about to die.

She climbed up the stairs and screamed as forcefully as she could; never in her life had she felt so angry and so desperate.

James turned his head to the source of such scream, eyes wide with fright.

'Lawrence!' he shouted, fearing the worst had happened to her.

He sighed with relief when he saw her walk in wide strides towards the top deck.

'I can't even find it in me to wish them ill fate…' she said once she had reached him. He was struggling with keeping the control of the helm; the wind was blowing even faster than before; the ship was starting to get out of hand.

She positioned herself close to him and helped him keep the wheel straight. James let her come closer by placing his left hand next hers, so that she was now manoeuvring the ship with him inside his embrace. He placed a kiss over her wet hair, his eyes still set ahead.

'Lawrence, I'm sorry to tell you this, we're…'

'I know' she refused to hear him say those words. 'I know. But remember, it isn't your fault, none of this. It is our fate; we can't do anything against it now.'

The Dauntless got hit by a huge wave that destabilized the balance of the ship; the two lovers jerked ahead, crushing Lawrence between James weight and the wheel. She hissed in pain, knowing she would have nasty bruises on her stomach and chest, but then she shook her head, laughing, as she realised she wouldn't live to see the damage.

'What is it Lawrence?' James asked; his voiced sounding tired.

'We've lived together as friends for over a year, and now we'll die and lived forever as lovers, isn't it sweet? Not as glorious as Dido and Aeneas, but still, I think Greek poets would have written nice stanzas about us…'

James smiled sadly. 'Yes, I also think so.' Seeing there was nothing to be done, James took one hand off the wheel and took Lawrence's chin so that she faced him, he placed his other one around her waist. Lawrence let go of the wheel and put her hands around his neck. They locked eyes, forest green piercing through blue-grey trimmed with red.

Their heart beats faster, warmth and butterflies spreading over both chests and stomachs.

'I love you so much Lawrence' James said before capturing her lips and kissing her with all the force he had left in him. He wrapped both his arms tightly around her, as though she were the safety rope that would save him.

Around them, Poseidon was taking over the Dauntless, unleashing his best waves to purify the sinful man-made creation that was this war-ship and blessed the union of these two lovers, so far away from home. The winds and thunder also consecrated them with their cheers, leading them into one last dance before everything faded to darkness and silence.