Epilogue:

Four months had passed since the Brethren's battle with Jones and Beckett. Four months since Elizabeth last laid eyes upon James Norrington's face, and yet she could still recall its every nuance with perfect accuracy. The shape of his lips when curled in a loving smile, the strong line of his jaw, his proud straight nose, and the color of his emerald green eyes when they glittered with laughter.

She clung to these details in her memory, praying they would never fade.

She needed them. It was all she had left of him, and she needed those memories like she needed air to breathe.

After all, she was not alone anymore, and the child growing in her womb would need them too. She would want to know about her father. What he looked like, what he'd done in life, how he talked and the things he would say.

How he would have loved her, if he could be here today.

Elizabeth didn't know why she felt so certain it was a girl, but it was a feeling that refused to relent. Even when Jack knocked on her belly playfully, saying "Hello little bump, how are you today?" and the babe would kick fiercely in response.

Jack would insist that meant the child was a boy, but Elizabeth knew it only meant she was a Norrington.

The babe would bear her name, but James' too. Josephine Lydia Swann-Norrington, conceived on the Flying Dutchman, daughter of an Admiral and a Pirate King. What a legacy to inherit. What an unlikely beginning to life.

Elizabeth walked on the beach of Shipwreck Cove, making her daily ambulation of the island. The midwife groused that she needed to stay in her room at this stage and not move about, but now that the morning nausea had passed she longed to wander in the sand in the soft dawn light. She was the Pirate King, and not even the frightening Mrs. Merriweather could tell her what to do.

Somehow, walking in the surf helped her feel closer to James. She wondered where he was. Had he gone to the place where they had seen her father? Did he sit in a little boat and wait for the Dutchman to ferry him across? Across to where, she wondered? No one seemed to know that part. She hoped he was happy, or at least at peace.

She remembered how she had railed at Bootstrap Bill, after all was said and done. The Dutchman re-emerged from the surf and aided the Black Pearl in blowing the Endeavor to flinders. Afterwards she had boarded the Dutchman and searched frantically, hoping to see James among the crew, hoping for the slim chance that Will in his new powers had managed to revive him. But when she'd asked Will had just shaken his head sadly, those soulful dark eyes filled with regret. "I would return him to you if I could," he'd told her sadly, and even after everything that had happened between them, Elizabeth believed him.

When Bootstrap had dared pipe up about the duties and constraints of the new captain of the Dutchman Elizabeth had flown into a rage and done her damndest to kill him again, and it took three men to prevent her from doing so.

The Pirate King only compounded her reputation as a fierce ruler from there.

But also, a fair one.

Oh, the plans she had for this place.

With a bit of organization she believed she could take the crumbling bones of this dusty outlaw city and transform it into a wealthy utopia, a rebel stronghold for misfits of every color, a country of their own where all men and women were free and equal, so long as they did their share. The Code was already surprisingly egalitarian, and Teague laughingly offered his assistance where he could. Like his son, the old Code Keeper seemed mightily amused by the ways of the Pirate King.

They had already doubled their fleet by picking off the straggling ships of Beckett's grand armada. Most turned out to be toothless merchants present just for show, some even going so far as to paint on gun ports to give the appearance of ferocity from a distance when in fact they were simply store ships, filled to the gills with goods. Goods Elizabeth was all too happy to add to the coffers of the Brethren, which she in turn sent to sell in the American Colonies at cut prices, free of the King's staggering taxes. A tidy little profit had been made. Someday there would be a war there, but until then Elizabeth intended to do business.

Elizabeth wondered what James would have thought of her scheme? Would he have been horrified by her undermining of the King's authority, or proud of her hard work and enterprise? Probably a mixture of both, she thought with a smile. Poor James had always been at odds when it came to her mischief. Even when she was a girl, a mere brat causing trouble aboard the Dauntless, there had been a sparkle in his eyes as he scolded her.

She touched her belly, running her hands over the taut roundness, marveling that there was a person growing inside her. "Will you run me ragged the same way, little bump?" she asked her child, but received no answer.

It seemed only Jack's voice inspired the babe to violence.

Elizabeth looked down the long shoreline, thinking maybe it was time to turn back. The sun was rising higher in the sky, she was hungry, and she had to pee. In fact as of late she always had to pee. But something in the distance caught her eye. Something washed up on shore. It rather looked like a body, which of course was no novelty here on an island populated by pirates.

But her curiosity was piqued, and she had to know. Determined, she marched forward through the surf and the sand. As she neared closer her legs began moving more quickly of their own accord, and before she knew it she was running.

It was a man.

A tall man, with dark hair, in a tattered linen shirt and dark breeches.

By the time she reached him she was in tears, and she fell to her knees beside him. How was this possible? Was she hallucinating? With trembling hands she hauled him over on his back, afraid of what she would find.

But somehow, he was whole, his eyes closed as though he was merely asleep, and her fingers raised to reverently trace the line of his cheek.

He was warm.

"James?"

Eyes flew open, the most startling shade of green.

His voice came rough, as though it had not been used in some time. "Elizabeth?"

The next few moments passed as a blur. She might have screamed, but only in joy. In a flurry of affection she covered his face with kisses, her sobs only increasing as she felt his flesh warm and supple beneath her mouth, beneath her hands. "Oh God," she said, over and over. "It's you. It's really you."

Then she was in his arms, pulled into his lap, and his mouth on hers breathed life into Elizabeth she had not known she'd lacked. Hungrily she returned his kiss, her greedy hands fisting in his shirt and his thick dark hair. Time seemingly stood still, and as they kissed wave after wave crashed over them, soaking them through. Neither cared in the least.

"How is this possible?" she asked when they finally, barely, parted.

James frowned a little, looking around. He had no recollection of his journey, nor did he have a clue where he was. Only that Elizabeth was here, in his arms, and thus all must be right with the world. "I haven't the slightest," he finally answered with a sheepish smile.

Then it dawned on Elizabeth.

Will.

Will had found a way to return James to the land of the living.

"I think the Captain of the Dutchman granted us a boon."

James frowned, still trying to remember. "Jack?"

"No. Will. Will stabbed the heart."

"Ah." Somehow, he wasn't surprised that the Blacksmith shouldered the burden in the end. A trick on Sparrow's part or a twist of fate, James didn't care to know. However, there was one question of the battle that burned. "Did any of my men survive?" he asked quietly, as though afraid of the answer.

"Some of them," she answered. "They got away on the Pearl." Murtogg and Mulroy were their most baffling new recruits, of whom Jack seemed inexplicably fond.

James looked around, taking in their verdant surroundings. A mountain rose high behind them. "Where are we?" It didn't look like the beach at Port Royal, and the terrain was all wrong.

"Shipwreck Cove."

His hand strayed to her waist, and he was surprised to encounter the ripe roundness of her belly where usually there was nothing but flat taut abdomen. When he looked to her with eyes wide with question, eyebrows raised high, she broke into a wide smile and her hand covered his. "James Norrington, may I introduce you to your daughter, or as some of us call her, little bump."

James' mouth hung open with surprise and wonder, his large hand reverently smoothing in a circle over her belly. As though being reunited with Elizabeth had not been enough of a gift, a baby?

Their baby?

It was too sweet, too lovely to be real.

"Not so little," he finally said with a joyous laugh, and kissed her again. "How long?" Since the battle went unsaid.

"Four months."

She watched as he counted back in his head, and the realization that dawned on him. "On the Dutchman then?"

She laughed. "Yes. After all our manic swiving on Tortuga, you managed to impregnate me after one little tupping on the Dutchman. I hope you're proud of yourself," she teased.

His smile was a beautiful thing. "It was obviously the power of the uniform," he teased back, winning a howl of laughter, and more kisses than he could count.

Elizabeth had never been so happy as she was in this moment, and had never felt so complete as she did in James' arms, with the swell of their growing child between them.

Finally, with the sun a great deal higher in the sky, Elizabeth said, "Darling, I have so much to show you. Come, let's go back to the city."

James pressed his lips, obviously a bit apprehensive of how his appearance would be received in a city full of pirates, but Elizabeth squeezed his hand reassuringly. "You are mine, James Norrington, and therefore you will be welcome. I swear it."

"Does that mean you're still King?"

"Indeed."

Why was he not surprised?

They helped each other to their feet, both a little shaky on their legs. With exultant smiles they clung to each other, and Elizabeth put her ear over his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his beating heart. She kept expecting to wake up from this dream, but every second that went by seemed to prove it was reality.

James tilted her face to his with a hand on her cheek, stroking a wild salt-kinked lock away from her eyes. "This just leaves me with one last question, Your Highness," he said, a seriousness entering his voice that worried her a little.

Elizabeth looked up to him expectantly. We'll be fine, she told herself. Whatever it is, we'll be fine. She feared he would object to life here, even though they obviously could never return to England or her colonies without running the risk of hanging. Somehow, a pirate island in the middle of the Caribbean was the safest place for them to be. He paused for long enough that finally she prompted impatiently, "Well?"

His lips twisted in a smile, obviously suppressing a bigger one. She did not always take kindly to his amusement at her exasperation. Slowly he dropped to one knee, holding her hand in his. "Elizabeth Swann, my Liege, mother of my child and the most brilliant woman I have ever occasioned to encounter…will you finally marry me?"

All her fears vacated in a sweeping tide, leaving her filled only with fierce joy and singing light. "Yes. Yes of course I will bloody marry you!" she exclaimed, pouncing on this beautifully daft man who she loved with all her heart.

James pressed his lips to hers in the warm soft sand, and between kisses and laughter Elizabeth said again and again, "Yes."

The End

A/N: Thank you everyone who has read to the end and I would enjoy hearing your comments, they absolutely make writing a story like this so very rewarding!

Thank you for your support!