Will watches as the last of the Revenge's three large masts finally sinks below the water, leaving nothing else but bits of burning wood. He looks down at Emily, who is clinging tightly to his side. She seems dazed as she stares at what's left of the huge ship that had been her prison for over a month.
He glances back towards Elizabeth, who is standing near the helm and has a small, satisfied smile placed on her face.
Will's mind is only just beginning to catch up with the rest of him; he realizes that he is on the Dutchman, and that Elizabeth has just massacred the Revenge, and seems to be quite happy about it.
He supposes it shouldn't bother him. But the look on Elizabeth's face…
Bill Turner comes up and gently pries Emily away from him.
"Come along, Emily. Your mother and papa need to have a talk." He leads her away, and she clings to him just as tightly.
Will watches them walk off for a moment, takes a breath, winces as he just finally begins to notice the pain in his arm from where'd he'd been stabbed. He doesn't look down to inspect it, just tries not to move it too much as he makes his way towards Elizabeth.
The Dutchman's crew stare at him and murmur as he makes his way towards their captain, perhaps because they know what he is to Elizabeth, perhaps because he looks a mess at the moment (even for a pirate), perhaps because they'd seen Emily clinging to his side and it was a strange sight. He's not sure, and doesn't care. He hears Emily's friend – Jimmy Turnbuckle, he recalls his name being – sounding rather disturbed as he asks if they are really on the ship, the Flying Dutchman.
He ignores it all and walks straight up to Elizabeth, taking her by the arm and dragging her back towards her cabin.
"We need to talk."
"Must we really?"
"Yes." He emphasizes the word, almost hissing.
"Get your hands off me, I'm captain on this ship, you'll treat me as such, thank you very much. Why are you here, anyways?"
"I took the nearest rope and swung over to the ship I thought would be safest. It just happened to be yours. Your daughter's fine, by the way, and so am I. Not that you bothered to ask because you were too busy laying waste to what was probably the most powerful ship sailing these waters."
She seems a bit startled, then looks indignant.
"Emily would have been the next thing I asked about. Don't assume otherwise, that's hardly fair. Wait, why should you care if I destroyed the Revenge?"
"We had them running."
"They took Emily."
"But we'd already taken her back!" Will raises his voice.
"It was a Company ship!" Elizabeth shrieks in return.
"With no other ships to come and help it, it was hardly a fair fight!" He snarls.
"Since when do pirates fight fair?" She shrieks.
"Since when do you smile when sinking a ship with as many men as that one must have had?" He doesn't skip a beat.
She pause, scowls, throws up her hands.
"Ok, so I enjoyed watching it burn. Again I say, they had our daughter. It wasn't as though they didn't deserve it."
"And you think that I'm not myself."
"I hate you."
He doesn't say anything for a long while, just stares into her eyes.
"No, you don't."
"How do you know?"
"Because I know you."
She doesn't respond immediately. He shakes his head, and then, without any warning, he brings his one hand up and gently grabs the back of her neck, pulling her closer. Before she can make any move of protest he is kissing her. She stiffens at first, but then melts at the familiar feel of his lips on hers, leaning into him.
He pulls away after a long moment and gives her a little half smile.
"You don't hate me." He says and he sounds so sure of himself that it only makes her angry.
She brings a hand up to slap him…
…And stops when a wave of calm washes over, liking a cool drink of water on a hot day. Her goddess's doing, no doubt. She takes a breath and takes a good look at Will for the first time since entering her cabin.
What she sees startles her a little. His arm looks injured, his shirt is stained red, he looks pail…
He's bleeding! She curses herself for not noticing it sooner.
"Will, your arm!" She moves in closer, taking his arm gently and rolling up the sleeve of his shirt.
"It's nothing…"
"It certainly doesn't look like nothing." She leads him over to a chair by her desk. "Sit."
"I-I should go check on Emily, we need to get back to the Pearl."
"Will. Emily wasn't injured. You are. So sit."
He does as she asked this time. She opens a drawer in her desk and takes out a few pieces of cloth kept in there for just such a purpose, as well as a bottle of alcohol to clean the wound.
He cringes at the bottle, knowing it will make the wound all the more painful, but says nothing. She takes the cloth and wets it with the bottles contents, dabbing at the wound. He winces.
"It's deep. You're lucky you are not left handed. You'll have to avoid using this arm."
He knows that will hardly be possible, even if he takes Emily back home and starts working in his shop again, but doesn't bother saying this out loud.
"Wonder how the Pearl knew to give up the fight."
"Probably realized you wouldn't have started using your guns until Emily was safe. Jack actually knows you pretty well, too, you know."
She doesn't respond. All is silent as she takes the other strip of cloth and begins wrapping the wound.
"What's she like?" She aks suddenly, never looking up from her task.
His brows furrow.
"Beg pardon?"
"Your, uhm, whatever she is, Jade. What is she like?"
"Well, I… I mean, that's hardly…" He stumbles over his words, flustered.
"I'm only curious. I suppose she wears nice dresses."
"W-well, of course she does."
"Don't suppose she'd know how to defend herself at all."
"No. There aren't many women who need to learn things of that nature." He speaks slowly, choosing his words carefully.
"No. Of course not." Elizabeth replies with a sigh. She pauses again as she ties off the cloth, now bound tightly against the stab wound on Will's arm. She still doesn't look at him.
"Is she beautiful?"
"Elizabeth…"
"I said I'm only curious. Is she?"
"Y-yes. Yes, she's very pretty."
"And Emily… Is she good to Emily?"
"Yes, to spite what Emily would have you believe. I believe Jade cares for Emily very much."
"Do you love her?" Elizabeth's tone remains very serious.
"What?" Will replies, caught completely off guard.
"Do you love this woman?"
"Well, uhm, I don't… I mean, Jade is…"
"You don't love her." It is a statement, not a question, as if Elizabeth already knows.
"I don't know if I do."
She pauses yet again. He's stares at the floor and waits for her to go on.
"Does she know about me?"
"Well, yes…and no."
"Will. I'm not in the mood for games."
"I'm not playing any."
She scowls at him.
"That's not an answer. Does she know about me?"
"Yes, she knows about you. She thinks you're dead, lost to the sea."
She finally, really looks at him, and then she slowly breaks into a humourless laugh.
"I am the sea." She says, and he shivers at the cold tone she's taken on. "I know what to do now. You're going to tell her."
"What?"
"You're going to tell her about me."
"What makes you think I'll do that?"
"Because we're going to follow you back, and I'm sending your father with you to make sure you do." She takes his hand in hers and he looks down as she rubs her thumb over the palm of it. "And if you don't, he'll leave you with this still there, so if you come back out to sea, I will know."
He stares down at his hand, his eyes widening in disbelief. The Black Spot. She'd just cursed him with the Black Spot. He stands abruptly and turns to leave. He is half way out the door before she speaks again.
"And Will."
He freezes.
"I want it back."
He doesn't have to ask to know she's talking about the Chest with her heart in it. He closes her door and pauses a moment to rip off a piece of his bloodied sleeve, then wraps it over the mark on his hand. The last thing he wants is for anyone to see it and start asking questions.
He leaves and finds his father, who is preparing a long boat for them to take over to the Black Pearl, with Emily standing close by.
"Will." His father watches as Will walks brusquely over to his daughter. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, fine, great." He says, but it sounds strained. He kneels down in front of Emily. "Are you alright?"
She nods.
"I'm ok, Papa." She says quietly. "Can I see mother?"
"No." Will replies simply.
"Something's wrong." His father says, and he is eyeing Will's wrapped up hand.
"Ask Captain Swann." Will stands and picks Emily up, placing her into the boat before getting in himself. "I need to get us back home."
He expects Emily to protest this, but she stares down and says nothing. He stares down at the mark on his hand and tries not to think of just how frightened a man Elizabeth has just made him.
The journey back is long, very long. Will would be happy to be on land; after all, he's at least out of Elizabeth's reach now. But now he has some rather unpleasant business to take care of, and with his father shadowing him and Emily all the way back to his shop, he knows that wasting time won't be an option.
He has to find Jade and get it over with now.
"Elizabeth wanted me to go with you when you talk to her." His father tells him as they reach his shop. "But I don't think that's necessary." He pauses, eyeing Will with a peircing gaze. "If you don't actually do as she asked, at least try to be convincing if you lie. If I don't know, then the Captain won't have to know, and what she doesn't know..won't hurt any of us."
"Unfortunately, I've never been good at lying." Will sighs and nudges Emily towards Bill, who takes her hand and leads her inside the shop.
He then makes his way up to Jade's cottage.
"Will!" She says when she comes to the door to find him there. "Oh, I've missed you!" And there is no pretense; she looks genuinely happy as she throws her arms around him in an open display of affection. "I was worried when you left, I just knew you'd be going after that ship! Come in!" She pulls him inside her little cottage, and he stands in front of the door looking nervous and awkward. "Well, sit down, and say something! Is Emily ok? They didn't hurt her, did they?" She asks, now sounding worried.
He doesn't sit down.
"No, Emily's fine, although I think it'll be a while before she'll want to go anywhere near a ship again." He gives a small chuckle.
Jade smiles.
"Oh, I wouldn't count on that. I'd give it a few weeks at most and she'll be herself again." She pauses, and her smile fades. "Will, what is it? Did I do something wrong? I mean, you've been gone for a few months, I was hoping…I don't know, I suppose I was hoping you'd maybe missed me."
He bites his lip and just looks at her for a moment, and it suddenly occurs to him that he had. He had missed her. He'd missed the sound of her voice and her smile and looking into her pretty blue eyes.
Pretty blue eyes that will be full of hatred when he tells her.
He moves forward finally, taking her into his arms.
"Of course I missed you. Very much. I…" He starts, but trails off, unable to finish.
She pulls him down to kiss him gently on the lips.
"You what?" She asks, her voice quiet now.
He looks into her eyes, and suddenly knows the answer to the question Elizabeth had asked back in her cabin, right after sinking the Revenge.
"I love you." He finishes quietly, and leans down to kiss her again.
"And I love you." She whispers against his lips after a moment. Then she takes his hand and leads him back to her bedroom, where they spend the next hour or so making love, passionately disreguarding the fact that the rest of the world even exists.
It's dark by the time Will shuffles back into his cabin. Emily is in bed already, and he is thankful for this.
"Well?" Bill asks quietly. "You were gone for a long time. Did you tell her?"
Will nods.
"You can go ask her yourself if you don't believe me. I'm sure she'd be happy to go on shouting about it. You can tell Elizabeth that she should be happy now, because Jade never wants to even see me again."
Bill remains silent. Will slips quietly into his and Emily's bedroom, walking over to a chest at the foot of his bed. He slips a key out of his pocket, opens the chest, and takes out the Chest, with Elizabeth's heart beating audibly from within.
He walks back out, handing it over to his father.
"Here. She wanted this back. She can have it. Tell her to bury it in the sand somewhere like Jones did; give it another year and I bet she'll be no better off then him. I'll make sure Emily is there to greet her on her one day, if Elizabeth even wants to see her."
Bill nods, takes the chest in one hand and reaches for Will's hand with the other.
Will takes off the cloth and Bill rubs the palm of his hand, just as Elizabeth did. The Spot disappears. Will lets out a breath and watches as his father leaves without another word.
Another scene I've had in mind for a while now. The next chapter might be the last for this story, I haven't decided yet. If it is, there will be a sequel, don't worry.
Thanks for the reviews! :)