Elizabeth and Will were taking a walk down a secluded area of the beach, it was one of their many hidden spots that most people didn't frequent. They had both just seen off their Captain, who had arrived back at Port Royal two days ago, to the Governors mansion. The two had just had a very serious discussion about their expectations after The Captain had announced that he would be talking to the Governor about their courting.

At sixteen years old Elizabeth knew this moment would come sooner or later and she wasn't totally opposed to Will courting her. God knows whatever they were doing now would be much improved with a definite label on it, but she had had some concerns that she eventually brought up to Will who assured her that he had those same concerns in regards to their Captain and he understood. So in the end it was a happier two who walked down the beach hand in hand, that is until they passed an embankment and heard a song being sung. A familiar song.

'... And really bad eggs

... Drink up me heartys yo ho!'

Elizabeth exchanged a surprised look with Will who's eyes had widened. "Pirate song?" he asked in concern and she rolled her eyes. She herself sung those songs on occasion so calling it strictly pirate songs was unkind.

Leaning over the embankment she spotted the singer. He was the most non Port Royal individual she had ever seen. The man sat on what appeared to be a long coat he had removed from his person, dressed in long dark pants, off white long sleeve shirt, though it was probably a white shirt that hadn't been cleaned in a while, and over it he wore a dark vest, he had long matted hair that had clumped together to form thick strands of rope like hair that came out of a red bandana that he had on to keep his hair out of his face, they spied a captain's hat, a pistol and a sword in a scabbard lying just next to him. He was sat cross legged on his coat holding a fishing pole with the line thrown out into the shallows as he sang his song.

"Definitely a pirate," said Will nodding to the hat, Will wasn't armed but that didn't stop him from trying to approach the man.

Elizabeth stopped him "Will he's not doing anything. Leave him alone."

"Aye, but your dear William is right to be concerned little missy," came the mans voice from afar. They had been whispering but maybe their voices carried over to him on the wind? The two stopped their squabbling as the 'Pirate' stood up, shoving the fishing pole in the sand to keep it upright he turned and walked out away from his weapons and looking up at the two he bowed deeply.

"Captain Jack Sparrow, at your service kind gent and gentle lady."

Will's eyes narrowed further in suspicion while Elizabeths widened in surprised awe.

"I've heard of you!" she declared excitedly while Will tried to shush her. "You're the man that escaped the East India Trading company more times than one can count. Didn't you escape being marooned on an island by your own crew in mere days without any help or supplies? And I've heard you also made a deal with the devil so that you could sail the seas for eternity?!"

Jack smiled. "Ah, my legend precedes me, I'm glad."

"I shall call for officers, pirate," Will warned and Elizabeth glared at him in reproach even as Jack stepped closer. "What business do you have in Port Royal, Captain Jack?"

Jack smirked. "Well, my business is two fold, and they both concern the both of you lovelies," he paused and corrected himself. All three of you, actually. I must admit she described the both of you down to a T." The last part was said a bit more quietly but they still heard.

Elizabeths excitement abated as something close to trepidation took over. "Three of us?" she asked hesitantly now taking a step back, maybe Wills caution wasn't entirely unwarranted. The only three of them were her, will and their Captain.

"Aye, the good Captain Norrington. Strapping lad. Quite capable and commanding. Also a fair man the last I heard. Legend has it that he is willing to be lenient on Pirates that keep to the code. I've not got personal experience with him, mind but the legends rarely lie."

"Captain Norrington is fair when he needs to be, but rest assured he can be formidable if the situation calls for it," Will said with conviction as Elizabeths heart beat faster the more they talked with this man. "Why is he of your concern, Pirate?"

"Oh not my concern," he said examining his filthy nails. "My employers, actually. Tia Dalma sends her regards, by the way."

They both frowned in confusion. "Who?"

"Tia Dalma, but that's not important, heres the by and by," continued Jack. "Your dear Captain Norrington is coming down with a serious case of the sleepys. And he will not awake until an antidote is administered. An antidote, mind that only my employer has possession of. And the only one who can lead you to said employer? Why yours truly, of course." He finished with ba flourish and another bow.

Will and Elizabeth exchanged alarmed looks of concern. "You're lying," said Will immediately.

"Oh am I?!" asked Jack laughing. "Well then you need not be concerned and be on your merry way then, am I right?"

Elizabeth tugged in Wills hand, "Will come on," she insisted. "Will we need to check on him." finally Will relented and they began running back up the beach with Jack Sparrows voice carrying down after them.

"Should you wish to see the good Captain well, meet me back here past midnight and come alone or your dear Captain might never wake up again!"

The two exchanged panicked glances but didn't say anything, still at a flat out run, Elizabeth blessing her maids for once not dressing her up in a too cumbersome attire, up the steps to the docks and then up the street taking the quickest way to the Captains house that they could.

They burst into his living space calling for him. It was past noon so the maid was probably gone. They received no response as they ran to his study and threw open the door to see the Captain passed out whiskey bottle on the floor, his entire study table drenched in the stuff, out of the corner of their eyes they also spied a storyboard of sketches pinned on a navigation board the James usually kept covered in this room whenever he had guests, they didn't pay much mind to that, Elizabeth immediately kneeling next to the fallen Captain.

"James?" she tried shaking him as Will gently lifted his head from the table, his hair and shirt was also drenched in Whiskey. "James!" Elizabeths voice was rising in panic the more he didn't respond.

"He doesn't drink," said Will uselessly. "Why was he drinking?"

Elizabeth looked around. "Most of its on the floor and table, he isn't passed out because he's drunk Will, this is Sparrow or Tia Dalma or whatever name he said!"

Elizabeth watched as panic set in Wills eyes and with his panic her own subsided, both of them couldn't afford to lose it at this point. "Will help me get him to the sofa in the living area." she ordered and was grateful when Will obeyed.

Slowly they hauled him out of the study. As they settled the surprisingly heavy Captain on the sofa, she continued to give instruction. "I need you to run up to my house will. Alert my Father tell him what's happened but don't say anything about Sparrow or the whiskey. Just tell him that we found the Captain passed out in his living room and he won't wake," she watched as Will nodded. "Go now."

As Will left Elizabeth shuddered silently, her fingers traced her Captain's brow ridges, his breathing was shallow and her heart was crying out in pain as she watched his lips tremble. She could not break down right now, James needed her. She could not let the fact that he had been drinking and passed out be the story that permeated the towns gossip column. She would not have that happen so without reservation she ripped off the whiskey drenched shirt took it to the study and used it to mop up the remaining whiskey that had spilled, running to the laundry room to toss the shirt in the baskets that she knew were there.

Taking a new shirt from James' bedroom she quickly put it on him, ignoring her heart quickening at touching him so intimately without his awareness. She wondered at all of the things he would have to say about propriety to her if he was awake for this and at that thought the first tears began to fall.

By the time the Will arrived back with her Father and Lieutenant Groves and a medic in tow Elizabeth was full on sobbing, clutching the Captains hand and almost in hysterics.

Her father immediately went to console her as the medic and Groves began checking over the Captain while Will looked on in concern and half panic.

Finally the medic spoke up. "There seems to be whiskey on his breath..."

Elizabeth looked up as her dad in panic who read her alarm correctly knowing exactly how bad it would be if word got around that the Captain has passed out after drinking.

"I do not think that's a contributing factor. My meeting with the Captain ended with a cause for celebration. I had to almost force the man to accept a drink with me before he departed. That's probably what that is."

The medic nodded in concern even as Will and Elizabeth's eyes met at the 'cause for celebration part'. God the courting discussion seemed to happen years ago to her. Right now her only concern was James and his wellbeing.

"Yes well, I will need to consult with the doctors down at the hospital but as it seems that there is some sort of an unknown sedative in his system that is keeping him asleep. From what I can see its not hurting him but he isn't being allowed to wake. I would have to do a lot of research and we would need a specialist who knows exactly what he was drugged with to know how to help him. I'm sorry but we don't have those sort of resources here at Port Royal."

Her Father chimed in. "I will immediately send envoys to the Admiralty and London. We will get a specialist down here fast enough. Will the Captain be okay until then?"

The medic nodded. "His bodily functions are slowed but he's not in any danger, just sedated."

"Thank you my man." her Father responded. "Go consult with the doctors," he turned to Groves. "Lieutenant, I assume you know what I need you to do?"

"Envoys to the Admiralty and London, sir?" he nodded. "At once sir." Groves spared a concerned glance at his commanding officer before speeding out of the room.

"Mr Turner?" he asked Will who looked to him eager for direction, to be able to do something, anything. "Please alert Captain Norringtons maid of the situation and request that her services are needed, tell her the Governor will provide double her usual fee for her troubles, then go up to my house and have Estrella come down here to help as well."

Her Father's firm control of the situation finally made Elizabeth get a handle on her own situation and she managed to dry her eyes enough to see Will leave and without saying much she pulled up a chair next to the Captains prone body and took his hand in hers to sit with him.

Her Father sat in the vacant arm chair to the side and he let out a little laugh at her interaction with her Captain. Elizabeth sent him a baleful glare for daring to laugh at a time like this.

He put his hands up. "My apologies, dear. I don't mean to laugh but seeing you like this, considering the Captains and my last discussion does make me laugh."

Elizabeth frowned. "What are you saying, Father?" she asked confused.

"I've no doubt you know why Captain Norrington arranged a meeting with me today?" he asked her and she nodded.

"He was talking to you about Will and my courtship?" she asked without much emotion.

"Indeed," he said with still a little mirth shining in his eyes. "well the man sat there extolling Mr Turner's virtue left and right about how he is this and that and what his future prospects were and I have to admit, he did paint quite the picture. Mr Turner would be a fine match for you Elizabeth, no doubt."

Elizabeth nodded once again not really feeling like this discussion was really that important in the wake of her Captain lying here sedated and with no hope of waking in sight.

"You know, he told me that I could scour the King's Empire and I wouldn't find a better match for you." He continued still laughing a little and Elizabeth wished she could agree with James on that. What she and Will had was easy, it was safe and it was fun. But in her heart...

"I wish you could have been there to see his face when I told him that I didn't have to go through so much effort because a better match was sitting right in front of me."

...

...

It took her a beat before she realised what exactly her Father had said. And she immediately blushed crimson. "What?!" she squeaked out staring from her Father's amused face to her sedated Captain's troubled visage. "Father why would you say something like that to him?!"

He shrugged. "Because it's the truth? Mr Turner is absolutely a fine match for you Elizabeth but if I am to choose the best possible candidate for my daughter to marry? I can think of no one better than the Captain, my dear. And also, unless I don't know my own daughter very well, that is also what your heart desires, is it not?"

She didn't think she could blush this much, she could actually feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks. She once again checked her Captain's face hoping that the sedative definitely knocked him out, she would die on the spot if he heard any part of this conversation.

"Father, I don't think the Captain thinks of me in that way. If he did then why would he himself be the one to bring up and suggest the courtship between Will and I?" she asked trying to maintain some form of composure.

"Oh?" her father uttered a bemused smile still on his face. "Is that why the good Captain has seen it fit to leave it up to you to decide whether or not you would wish to enter courtship with either Mr Turner or the good Captain himself?"

Elizabeths head snapped to look at her dad so fast she almost hurt herself. "What did you just say father?" she asked softly her breath almost leaving her body.

His smile turned a lot more sincere as he got up to walk over to his daughter. "Captain Norrington has told me in no uncertain terms that he has no qualms about entering into courtship with you provided that that is what your heart desires." He looked over at her hands still clasped over her Captain's. "And from where I'm standing and what I see between the two of you, I'm almost certain that that is indeed what your heart desires, is it not?" he asked her brushing some of her hair out of her face as she looked up at him in wonder.

Tears, this time of joy leaked out of her eyes. Even in her wildest, grown up dreams she had never allowed herself to dream of this being a reality. Her Captain, wanted her? Would want to enter courtship with her? It was an impossible dream that was becoming a reality with the only darkside being that the man who she loved without reservation and had wanted to court her for years now was lying unconscious and unable to ask to court her himself and in person.

"Oh father," she exclaimed in joy. "I didn't let myself dream, ever. But yes, more than anything I want that."

Her father smiled and hugged his daughter to his side. "Then that is what shall be, my dear," he decided. "let's get the good Captain all better soon so we can tell him the good news, yes?" he asked her only to receive an unrestrained and unabashed smile of pure joy. "Yes, let's do that."

Enter Jack, sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow! It's been a while, I had a lot of this story already written hence why I was posting so frequently, now I'm running out of already drafted chapters and unfortunately now that I have dipped back into the addicting, alluring, and distracting world of fanfiction, I find myself reading more than writing. I am determined to finish this fic though, despite the lack of reviews, so there's still hope of me not abandoning this story. Anyways, review if you can. Cheers!!