They share one last passionate kiss and then she turns, heading towards her ship and is gone, disappearing just before she hits the water. He sits and watches as her ship slowly turns, sailing off into the sun, and is gone as well.
~A year later.~
Elizabeth stares down at the baby in her arms, sleeping peacefully as ever, completely unaware of what is about to happen. A tear slides down her cheek, just one, and she refuses to give in to the incredible sadness bearing down on her. It's for the best, she knows. She has a job to do and even a normal ship is hardly a place for a baby.
A tiny voice in the back of her mind, the small part of her that is still Elizabeth the governors daughter, tells her a ship is no place for a married woman either. She ignores it like the pirate she's become. It's not as though she has a choice.
"What if he is not there, Cap'n?" A quiet, hesitant voice asks. She takes a deep breath before responding, her voice sure and steady.
"Then you'll have to bring her back. I'll think of something." She places a gentle kiss on the sleeping babe's forhead before handing her off to her first mate, and her voice takes on a rare threatening tone. "If you come back without him, though, and I find out that you did not hand him straight over to his father, Bill…"
Bill Turner carries his granddaughter carefully in his arms.
"Don't worry, Cap'n Turner." He replies. "She is my granddaughter, after all."
This seems to calm her, if only a little, and she begins to lower the long boat the rest of the way into the water. She watches as her father-in-law cradles the baby while another crewmen paddles them to shore and longs to be going with them.
9 years, 1 month and 3 weeks seems like an absolute eternity.
She feels as though she may cry again. She orders another crewmen to keep watch as she slips below into the belly of the Dutchman. She sits in the organ room and plays a simple, sad tune to drown out the sound of her sobs.
Above deck the sails seem to wilt and the sky darkens. The ship creaks and groans, responding to its captain's dark mood.
No one dares to ask if she's alright.
Fate has an odd way of cutting things close. Will has only just walked out of the tavern he and Jack always go to whilst in Tortuga when he is stopped by none other than his father. The fact that Bill Turner is there at all is odd enough.
The fact that he's there carrying a crying infant, telling Will that the child is his, is almost more than Will's mind can process at once. Well, almost more considering his head is swimming in several tankards of rum, anyways.
"I'm..a father?" He stares down at the baby with dull eyes, trying to clear his thoughts a little, unwilling to believe it. "But what am I supposed to…"
His father sighs.
"Yes, that is what happens when a man and woman make love. Have you heard anything else I said, or is that all that made it through your rum-soaked head?" It was a rather harsh thing to say, but the way Elizabeth talked about Will made it seem as though he wasn't like other men. Bill did not fancy the idea of his son becoming too much a pirate. "You're to take care of her; she cannot stay with Elizabeth."
Will takes the child into his arms, very gentle, if hesitant and a little awkward. The babe's screams die down some, as though she can sense the man holding her is her father.
"Right, yes, of course she can't." Will says, his thoughts beginning to catch up with him. "Uhm, h-how is Elizabeth?"
"She can't stand having to give the baby up. But she's stronger than any woman I've met before. I know she will be alright."
Will only nods, his attentions focused almost solely on his daughter now. He knows his Elizabeth plenty well enough to believe what Bill says.
"Did she name her?"
Bill smiles now.
"Emily Turner."
"Elizabeth's mother's name was Emily, I think." Will chuckles softly, holding the baby a little closer as he swears he can feel her shivering. "I'll call her Emily Elizabeth. My daughter. I know nothing about taking care of a baby, but I'll do my best."
"That's all she would ask."
"Send her all my love."
Bill doesn't respond. Will sees movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he looks up, his father is gone.