Will drops the wedding ring he had made and given to Elizabeth onto a table and stumbles back over to his bed. He snatches up the rum bottle and brings it to his lips, tipping it back, and drinks and drinks…
~Meanwhile~
Elizabeth lays in her bed, staring up at the ceiling of her cabin, wishing that she could just fall asleep. She tries to calm herself, but every time she closes her eyes she sees Will kissing Jade, or the face of her daughter. She feels so alone it hurts.
She wonders where the rage she'd felt earlier has gone. Now it has dulled and she just feels weary and hurt. She's beginning to wish she really had died when Davy Jones stabbed her…
And she stops that thought in its tracks. If she had truly died, then Emily would never have been born. In that, at least, she can take some comfort.
Well, at least she can normally. Now she does not even know where her daughter is or if she is alright. She wonders whether she really has a right to blame Will for Emily's capture. As big an idiot as he was being, she couldn't bring herself to believe that he would ever wish harm on or be careless with their daughter.
Or maybe he would. Elizabeth really doesn't know anymore. She's so very tired. She just wants to sleep.
Just…wants…to…sleep…
The rooms seems to tilt oddly, the edges of her vision are fuzzy. She is staring down at something…
Things become a bit more focused, though the room still seems to be moving. It's a rum bottle she's staring down at. She feels odd. Her head is swimming, but to her the feeling is not unpleasant and oddly welcome.
The bottle is more than half empty. Did she drink all that? Apparently she did. That would explain a lot.
Elizabeth glances up lazily as the door to the room she's in –her cabin –opens and Bill Turner walks in.
All is silent for a moment.
"She's decided to go after Emily."
Elizabeth isn't sure what he's talking about.
"I figured as much." She says, but that voice...it's not hers. Will. His speech is slurred and slow.
She realizes that she's seeing things from his veiw. But why? How?
She can feel what he feels too. It's so strange.
"…she is thinking more like Jones' with each day that passes, William." Bill is saying. Are they talking about her? Elizabeth can tell what Will is feeling. A wave of fear takes hold of him at Bills statement. It's dulled by the rum, but it is still there.
He's afraid of her.
He tells Bill he doesn't think she'll listen.
"…my Elizabeth would never allow herself to become that."
"She's no longer yours. She threatened the crew with three lashes if they 'dared to call her Turner again'."
Elizabeth wonders at just how eager she had been to make good on that threat too.
Will takes another long swig from his bottle of rum and she swears the effects are immediate. How can he possibly be enjoying this? But she can feel that he is at the same time she feels disgust at it.
Takes the edge off the pain, probably… A little voice in her head tells her.
"Is that your answer then, boy?" Bill asks, motioning towards the bottle in her – Will's – hand.
Will feels guilty, so guilty. He doesn't know what to do.
"Seems answer enough for me. Nothing I say or do will be good enough for her anymore."
Elizabeth catches a glimpse of what he's thinking. He's picturing her in the dress she wore the day they first kissed. He's thinking about how he risked becoming a criminal there and then and she seemed to have loved him for was perfect.
He's wondering what went wrong and when.
Bill looks angry.
"Did you know she could've been free?"
Will meets his father's eyes now. He's shocked.
"What?"
"If you'd remained faithful, as she truly believes you haven't…"
Will can't seem to decide what he feels now. He's wishing she'd told him; wondering why she hadn't.
"No! She-she never told me that!"
"She shouldn't've had to." Bill snaps back.
All is silent. Will feels hurt that she didn't tell him and angry with himself because he knows his father is right. It shouldn't have mattered.
He should've been faithful anyways.
"Perhaps I should talk to her again." He stands…and the room seems to turn itself upside down. He stumbles, clutches a wall, tries to move forward. Elizabeth feels sick to her own belly on top of the feelings she's still getting from Will.
She promises herself she'll never go near any spirits again.
"You're drunk, son," Bill tells him bluntly, "and the Captain is sleeping…"
Will is half way to the door; he stops and stands there, swaying dangerously on his feet. The strange movements make her think of Jack for some strange reason.
Bill steps forward and presses something into his son's hand.
It's the wedding ring she'd told him to give back to Will.
Bill makes a sudden and quiet escape.
Will stares down at it as a terrible mixture of greif and guilt and anger settles in his gut. He's thinking its hopeless now.
He thinks she hates him.
There are times when she thinks she does, too.
He drops the ring on a table, stumbles over to the bed. She wills him not to grab the bottle again, hates to see him do this to himself, but it has no effect. She feels both sorry for him and angry that this is the only solution he can seem to think of.
What happened to the Will that was willing to fight for her to the death? She tries to say something, to tell him to get up and go see her to spite what his father said. He's a pirate. Since when do pirates do as their told, and by there parents no less?
He can't hear her.
He brings the bottle to his lips and drinks and drinks…
Darkness takes over for a few moments.
She can feel the sand beneath her feet. Hear the tide coming in. She can see and think clearly; she is just Elizabeth again.
Her goddess's paradise brings her little comfort this time. She still feels the odd mixture of anger and sadness.
She stands there for a moment, bathed in the warm sunshine, staring ahead blankly and trying to get her thoughts in order.
Calypso appears behind her and leans in close, whispering into Elizabeth's ear.
"It is always bettah to know both sides of de story, my Lizzie."
Elizabeth closes her eyes, takes a breath, opens them back up and turns to her goddess.
"I suppose…it is. But that doesn't excuse the fact that he…"
"This I know."
"I have to talk to him."
"Tomorrow. 'im in no condition for talking now."
"Then I should go talk to Jack. See when things started changing. I want to know just when Will decided to crawl…into..a..bottle..." She trails off as her goddess leans in and kisses her lips.
For a while the gentle touch of her goddess is all she knows, and she is content with this. But she knows that sooner or later she will have to wake up, and she must talk to her goddess before then.
They are lying in the sand; Elizabeth has her head laid upon her goddesses chest. Her goddess is running a hand through her hair gently, soothingly.
"Calypso." Elizabeth murmurs in a gentle tone of voice she is beginning to use less and less.
"Speak yah mind, my Lizzie."
"I have to go after Emily. I wouldn't trust anyone else in getting her back, not anymore."
"I was expectin dis to happen when dey caught de girl."
Elizabeth sits up and turns away from her goddess, staring off into the incredibly blue water beyond them.
"If I stop doing the job… I know so little about the curse and how it works."
"It is my wish dat you will not have ta find out, my Lizzie."
Her goddess's arms are wrapped around her waist now. She leans back.
"It is for me ta choose whether you become like 'im who had de Dutchman to begin wit'. If I do not like what I see when I look at ye, den you will be on de outside as your are in here." Calypso taps Elizabeth's chest where her heart should've been. "Ye must know dat revenge is a dangerous path to tread, though, my Lizzie. You must watch yahself carefully when going after dese men."
Elizabeth knows what her goddess says is true, but she can't seem to help the murderous thoughts that enter her mind every time she thinks of the Company. She has control of a ship that she's sure could blast even this new flagship Will spoke of out of the water.
And they can't kill her. Will still has her heart, wherever he put it. She would be nigh unstoppable.
"I know, my goddess. I wouldn't wish harm on anyone, not like that. I only want Emily back."
She gasps when the skies above them begin to darken abruptly.
"Do not tink to lie to me, Captain Swan." Her goddess's voice is angry now. Elizabeth stands and turns, bowing before her goddess.
"F-forgive me, my goddess."
The clouds roll away, slowly. Calypso tells her to stand, then moves closer to her. Elizabeth stiffens.
Her goddess looks straight into her eyes, and Elizabeth is unnerved in a way she usually isn't, not in the presence of her goddess. It's as though Calypso is staring straight through her, into her very soul.
She shivers at the realization that her goddess could very well be doing just that.
"My Lizzie. Your tirst for blood grows stronger with each day dat passes. I tink you see what is 'appening all to well. De question is, what will ye do to stop it?"
"What? Th-that's not true, I-I'm not…" She attempts to protest, but the world around her is already swirling away and before she knows it she wakes up in her cabin with sunlight streaming in through one small window.
She has a feeling it will be a while before she'll see her goddess again.
She gets out of bed and begins to get dressed. She needs to talk to Will.
Will has only just made it up on deck when Elizabeth appears in front of him. His head is pounding and he thinks he might be sick.
He does NOT want to talk to his tempramental wife. Or, not wife, whatever she is, he doesn't know anymore and is already getting sick of going over it in his head anyways.
His stomach churns and the thought again strikes him that he may just be sick, period.
"Will." She says simply. He knows he probably doesn't look so good, but she doesn't seem surprised by this.
"Elizabeth." He replies and skirts around her to go…anywhere as long as it is away from her.
"We need to talk."
"We did. Last night. You pointed a pistol at my head. I think that told me more than your actual words did."
"Well, I'm not here to shoot you, even if I would like to. I'm here to ask…here to ask about Emily. I want to know what's really going on here."
He turns to her now and already looks defensive.
"I've not idea what you're talking about."
"What you told me last night, about her running off, it made it seem as though she does that a lot. Like she's used to being on her own, and you're used to leaving her on her own. She's seven, Will."
"She's smart for her age, and I told you about how she always came back. I never felt the need to worry."
"You're her father. It's your job to worry." Elizabeth raises her voice a little, and several members of Jack's crew glance their way.
Will pulls her into the nearest doorway with him. They are now in a small dark storage room. At least it's a little more private.
His stomach settles a little as the much dimmer light is easier on his aching head.
"Well, what about you? You said you had strange dreams about me, you knew about me and Jade. Personally I think you have some explaining to do, too."
"My goddess gave me the dreams. I'm glad she did, otherwise I would never have known what you've been up to."
"Since when is it your right to spy on me? And since when is Calypso your goddess."
"Since when do you drink as much as you have been and go off flirting with other women?"
"I've told you how sorry I am…"
"Sorry's not good enough, not for this. What is it with men…"
"Well, I could tell you what it is…" He steals a suggestive glance downward. They are pressed pretty close together in the little storage room.
Her eyes widen; this doesn't sound like her Will at all. She glares at him for a moment before slipping out of the storage room.
The pirates around her are smart enough not to even glance in her direction.
Will comes stumbling out behind her. Jack approaches them.
"Somethin the ma'er, Cap'n Tu…"
Her eyes narrow.
"Ah, Cap'n Swan then?"
Will staggers to the railing of the ship and she hears him retch.
"My should-be-loving-husbands a drunk, my daughters missing, I can't go ashore so I don't know what I'll do if they've taken her to land… I'd say everything is just peachy." She snarls as she pushes passed him, calling over her shoulder, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "So sorry you're not feeling well, Will."
Jack barely blinks and she is gone.
He hates it when she does that.
These chapters keep getting longer and longer. I can break them up some if you like shorter chapters, let me know.
Let me know if anything was unclear with Elizabeth's dream. I'm kind of experimenting with different writing styles and I'm not sure about how this chapter turned out.
Thanks for the reviews. :)