I sat up quickly with my eyes wide. I looked around quickly to see where I was. My room was done in soft blues with furniture to match it and a white screen with beautiful embrodery. I had been dreaming from when my family and I had made the crossing from England 8 years ago. I grabbed my robe off my bed and wrapped myself up before going to the window and looking outside for a moment. I had the best view of the ocean in the entire house, per my request. Either watching or being close to the ocean had always made me calmer. Suddenly someone knocked on my door and I jumped, startled.

"Nicole? Are you decent?" I heard my father's voice from the otherside of the door.

"Yes." I called to him. I closed the curtain as he entered carrying a large box, a maid behind him.

"Still abed at this hour? It's a beautiful day!" he said as the maid pulled back the heavy curtains, revealing the ocean again. "I have a gift for you." he said opening the box and displaying a gorgeous velvet ocean blue dress. I gasped and smiled at the gift.

"It's - beautiful." I said taking the dress from the box and going to the screen. "You do realize that Commadore Norrington doesn't want to marry me, right?" I asked smiling at him.

"Why shouldn't a father dote upon his daughter with gifts?" he asked me and I disappeared behind the white screen and the maid followed me carrying the box. "Although...I did think you could wear it to the ceremony today. Captain Norrington's promotion ceremony." he told me and I peeked around the screen.

"I knew it." I said.

"Or, rather, Commodore Norrington...a fine gentleman, don't you think?" he asked me.

"He pays me little attention father, how should I know?" I asked him.

"You should get to know him better, he could be family soon." he told me.

"Yes, if Lizzy ever gets over her first love." I mumbled to myself before gasping at the tightness of the corset the maid was putting on me.

"Nicole? How's it coming?" he asked me. I looked behind me, my hair getting in my way, at the maid. I felt her foot in my back as she pulled it tighter.

"Difficult to say." I told him.

"I'm told that dress is the very latest fashion in London." he told me.

"Women in London must have learned to hold their breath or give up children." I told him. When she finished lacing me up I took a small breath and winced in slight pain.

"I must see to Elizabeth and give her her gift. I'll see you downstairs." he told me. The maid finished with me then left. I stepped out and looked at the dress on me. The dress brought out my brown eyes and tan skin and my dark hair curled down my my back to my waist. I sat down at my vanity and brushed my hair and fixed it up. When I was finished I grabbed my fan and went downstairs. When I got down to the foyer I saw Will Turner dressed in his rough clothing looking very out of place. He was holding a long presentation case in his arms and polished the toe of his boots on the back of his calves. He reached up and grabbed a candlr holder on the light fixture and pulled slightly pulling it off. He looked around for a while before deciding to put it in the umbrella holder.

''Nice save." I said walking up to him. He turned to me quickly and looked shocked.

"Ah, Mr. Turner! It's good to see you again!" My father said before Will could answer me.

"Good day, sir." Will said quickly recovering from me surprising him and holding out the case he was holding. "I have your order." my father hurried over to him and opened the case. Inside was a beautiful dress sword and scabbard. My father took it our reverently. "The blade is folded steel. That's gold filigree laid into the handle. If I may -" He held out his hand for the sword and my father gave him the guard and he pulled it out. He balanced the sword on his finger where the guard and blade met. "Perfectly balanced. The tang is nearly the full width of the blade."

"Impressive. .. very impressive. Commodore Norrington will be pleased, I'm sure. Do pass my compliments on to
your master." My father told him and his face fell. Everyone knew that Mr. Brown was a drunk and slept most the day away after he trained Will. Will, with practiced ease, flipped the sword around and caught it by the hilt and returned it to the case then bowed slightly to my father.

"I shall. A craftsman is always pleased to hear his work is appreciated -" he stopped speaking abruptly, staring past us and I followed his gaze. Elizabeth was standing on the stairs in a new dress, most likely with a corset.

"Elizabeth! You look stunning!" My father told her and I smiled at her and nodded in agreement.

"Will! It's so good to see you!" Lizzy said, her hand going to something around her neck and I have her a strange look. "I dreamt about you last night." Lizzy told him as she made her way down.

"Really?" Will asked her in surprise.

"Elizabeth, this is hardly appropriate -" my father started telling her but she ignored him.

"About the day we met. Do you remember?" she asked Will smiling.

"As did I." I told them and they both glanced at me before looking back to each other.

"I could never forget it, Miss Swann." Will told her and I rolled my eyes at him. A blind man could tell his loved her.

"Will, how many times must I ask you to call me 'Elizabeth'?" she asked him, her smile still strong.

"At least once more, Miss Swann. As always." Will told her, bowing his head slightly. Lizzy's face fell slightly and she backed up to me slightly. I held her hand and gave it a light squeeze for comfort and she smiled back at me.

"Well said! There's a boy who understands propriety. Now, we must be going." father said taking the case from Will and opening the door for us. Elizabeth straightened her back, gathered her skirts and strode past Will.

"Good day, Mr. Turner." she said before walking out the door. I gathered my skirts and followed her nodding to Will as I past him.

I followed Lizzy into the carriage with father behind us.

"Good day." I heard Will say behind us as we were helped aboard the carriage by the driver. "Elizabeth." She turned to him out the small window and watched him grow smaller in the distance as we rode further away from him.

"Dear, I do hope you demonstrate a bit more decorum in front of Commodore Norrington. After all, it is only through his efforts that Port Royal has become at all civilized." Father said to Lizzy, as though either of us needed reminding.

With choreographed precision, Father removed the sword and scabbard from the presentation case, held by a uniformed Navy man. He slid the sword into the scabbard, held it out vertically to Norrington, in full dress uniform. Norrington grasped the scabbard above Father's hand, and father let go. Norrington drew the sword, flourished the sword, and snapped the blade up in front of his face. Father stepped forward, pinned a medal to Norrington's jacket and stepped back. Norrington nodded, turned smartly and nodded to his fellow officers, turned again and nodded to the audience, which consisted of dignitaries, merchants, plantation owners, and their families. Another flourish, and he returned the sword to its scabbard. The silence was broken by loud applause and backslapping from the Navy men. Lizzy grabbed my hand and in it was an object. I took my hand from hers and looked down at it to see the medallion from my dream. I looked at her shocked and I quickly put it around my neck and hid it in the bodice of my dress before rejoining everyone in applauding.

The corset of the dress was stealing my breath each passing second. I knew I would be pale and perspiration was making its way down my back. I fanned myself, feeling slightly weaker, oblivious to the music and chatter around me. I walked toward the parapet and leaned against the stone wall slightly staring into the water.

"I can't breathe." I said to no one and fanned myself faster trying to catch my breath. I looked behind me to see Lizzy talking to Norrington. She looked up to me and I reached a hand out to the parapet to steady myself, but I slide off and fell back over the wall. Gone from her sight.

"NICOLE!"