Disclaimer: This be the end of our fateful journey, me faithful swabbies! I thank ye fer not suein' me, but fer readin' the whole way through an' leavin' a comment! (nudge nudge) Until then, I be off to shanghai me'self a muse. Maybe fer a sequel? Fair winds, mate!

Chapter 9

"Morgan!"

Jack dropped his sword and ran underneath the topsail yard, where Morgan was still perched. To his relief she glanced over her shoulder at him and waved, looking shaken but unharmed. As soon as he was below her, she rolled off and fell into his arms. The instant she landed in his arms he was holding her to him tightly. Burying his face in her shoulder, he ignored the chuckles from the crew around them and simply reveled in the fact that she was still with him.

"Jack, you're hurting me…"

Realizing just how tight he was holding her, Jack reluctantly released her. He was met with the sad sight of Morgan's pale face beset with cuts and bruises. Smiling grimly, he sighed, "Ye need so'more practice, luv…"

Morgan grinned sheepishly.

The remainder of Flint's crew—living crew, anyway—were dragged down to the brig, while the rest of Jack's crew was either piling bodies onto the Sylph and rigging the ship with gunpowder or prying the remaining ladder-planks from the port rail of the Black Pearl.

Dragging Morgan to the first available and intact bench, Jack acquired a bucket of fresh water and began cleaning her wounds with a damp rag, ignoring her stubborn protests that she was fine.

"Really—ow!—Jack, I don't think you—ow!—need to—ow!—do this," she whined.

"I beg teh differ, luv. Yer bleedin' all over the place." He touched the rag to a cut on her cheek only to have her hiss in pain and shy away. "Oh, hold still. Did'ja think it wouldn't 'urt?" Morgan stuck out her tongue at him, bringing an amused smile to his lips. His eyes drifted down to the white-gold ring hanging from the silver chain around her neck resting in the middle of her collarbone. "What's that?"

Morgan followed his gaze downward. "This?" she pointed to the white-gold band before picking it up between two lithe fingers. "I came across it back at the cave. I think it's probably the only item that made it out of there, although it's too plain to have much value. I kept it because…" she paused to think for a moment, "…actually, I'm not sure why I kept it."

Unhooking the chain around her neck, Jack thought he could see something scratched onto the ring, and squinted to get a better look. Engraved into both the inside and the outside of the band were what appeared to be elegant cursive scrawl in some other language he had never seen before. "That's interestin'…" he murmured.

"What's interesting?" the Indian crewmember suddenly said from behind him.

Jack almost leapt from his seat, whirling around to give the dark-skinned pirate a death glare that didn't seem to effect the man at all. "Somethin' writt'n on this ring 'ere."

The man reached forward and took it between his fingers. He studied the text for some time before he finally smiled. "This is good luck," he chuckled, "No wonder you're still alive!"

Jack coughed disapprovingly. It made sense, though. That was how Morgan had managed to catch herself on the topsail, and how Flint's shot had missed her by a hair. Now that he thought back to the cave, it also explained why Regina's shot had hit her in the side, and not in more vital areas.

The man shrunk away slightly, smiling sheepishly. Clearing his throat, he returned the ring to Jack. "You should keep that with you, m'lady." The Indian pirate smiled and returned to aiding the crew in moving Flint's dead crew onto the Sylph.

After a moment, Jack returned to dabbing Morgan's wounds with the moist cloth.

"Ow! Jack, careful! That hurts!" she complained in a rather high-pitched tone that brought his amused gold-toothed grin back onto his face.

"She's ready, cap'n," Gibbs shouted as the last breathing crewmember retuned to the Pearl.

Jack nodded an affirmative to the first mate. "Send 'er off."

The sails on the Black Pearl were unfurled, and the black ship sailed off a good distance away. They were about a quarter a mile away from the Sylph when the powder magazine exploded. The blast shook the very ocean, flames leaping up several feet as smoke quickly rose into the sky over the wreckage. As they continued to sail back towards Port Royal, the Sylph slowly sunk beneath the waves, only splinters and smoke left behind.

A fitting end fer her… Jack thought to himself as he watched the wreckage disappear beneath the horizon. That was fer the Cloud Treader…

Elizabeth emerged from the hold and rushed to Will's arms. While defending himself and keeping an eye on Morgan, Jack had noticed her fighting off a handful of Flint's men who had tried to steal any valuables they had stashed below. Will must have been worried sick. As he thought about it, a single thought repeated itself in his head.

God, if she makes it out alive, I'll never let her go…

Did I think that? Jack blinked. Suddenly having her in his arms, feeling as if she were made to be his other half, their old married couple quarrels, his driving compulsion to keep her safe, it all made sense. He loved her. And not just the type of "love" he had shared with the local whores back at Tortuga, which suddenly made him feel uncomfortable whenever he thought back, but the love he had seen shared between so many older married couples. The love he knew Will and Elizabeth felt for each other.

The type that often resulted with marriage.

But could he do that? Pirates didn't marry. They just didn't. Then again, he was Captain Jack Sparrow. He was different. If he could survive the dozens of attempted hangings he had undergone at Port Royal and hundreds of attempted raids by other pirate crews, he could marry. Sure he could.

Wait a minute! I can't speak straight around her when things get intimate. I don' even have a ring!

"Jack, is something wrong?"

Jack jumped, finding Morgan examining him quizzically.

"Aye! Fine!" he said quickly. "Say, Elizabeth!" he called to the woman at the stern of the ship, attempting to divert the subject. However, the woman paid him no attention, too busy talking to Will.

"Right…" Jack sighed. He turned back expecting to find Morgan still looking at him with one eyebrow up, only to find her gone. Looking about him with enough force to almost send him spinning from his seat, he finally found Morgan walking towards the door of his cabin. " 'Ey, where ye goin'?"

"It's late," the chestnut-haired woman explained simply, turning around to give him an amused smile. "I'd like to get some rest."

"Without sayin' good-night?" Jack walked up to her, trying to give her as best an abandoned puppy look as he could.

Morgan simply laughed.

Jack sighed heavily, knowing by her highly amused state that his attempt at the aforementioned face had failed miserably.

Recovering from her laughter, Morgan got onto her tiptoes and placed a kiss on the tip of his nose. She then stepped forward only to give a slight yelp as her ankle twisted and gave underneath her.

Leaping forward, Jack managed to catch her before she hit the deck, pulling her back to her feet, but refusing to release her for fear of her hurting herself again.

Morgan smiled and gave a slightly relieved sigh. "Thanks, Jack. You can let go now."

"I don' think so, luv," Jack said stubbornly. "Might 'urt yerself." Before she could argue, he swung her into his arms and walked through the door.

Morgan seemed to notice something and tried to warn him. "Watch out for the—"

Unfortunately, she didn't warn him in time. As he stepped through the door, his head hit the top of the doorframe with a loud thud. Wincing in pain, Jack struggled to keep from dropping her as he stumbled about his cabin.

Morgan, however, seemed to be attempting to keep from laughing, although a few choked sniggers managed to slip out. "Are you all right?"

Giving a smothered groan, shutting his eyes tightly against the pain in his forehead, he finally reached the bed and the both of them dropped onto the soft covers. When he opened his eyes, he found that he was almost lying on top of Morgan, their faces so close he could feel her breath against his lips. He opened his mouth to say something, but lost it all within the warm depths of her eyes.

Leaning forward, Morgan placed another light kiss on his lips, pulling back to give him that same intoxicating smile that made his insides turn to jelly. "Good-night."

He didn't know how he managed to do it, but he managed to stand and walk out of his cabin, shutting the door and leaning all his weight against it. Swooning slightly, Jack quickly straightened and brushed the dust from his jacket. "Whelp!" he said in a sudden squeaky, slightly high-pitched voice. He cleared his throat, ignoring the odd looks that he received from the crew about him. "Whelp! I need to talk with ye and yer wife! I need help!"

•••

Peeling off her sweaty gown, Morgan rinsed her skin with what little freshwater she found in the basin at the right side of the room before she loosened the laces of her corset and slipped into her unrestricting undergarments. As she studied her reflection in the mirror over the basin, she was surprised to see that her cuts were smaller than they gave her the impression of being. Give them a few days and they'd be gone.

There was some commotion coming from outside. Jack was probably drunk again, judging by the laughter of the crew and the loud thudding across the deck.

Finding that after all the excitement she wasn't in the least bit sleepy, she pulled out a book from her trunk and began reading.

She didn't know how long she sat there reading, but eventually the door opened and Jack stiffly stepped inside. However, contrary to what she had thought, he wasn't drunk. His expression seemed nervous and almost forced, but when he glanced her way, his face brightened substantially. "Ev'nin', luv."

Morgan smiled, well aware that she was in her undergarments, but still unflustered by Jack's entrance. "I thought I told you I 'good night'," she sighed with a smirk. "Well, what has got you so skittish?"

"Uh…" he looked to the floor as if trying to find the right words for what he was about to say. "W-well, I…" he took a deep breath, "I was wond'rin' if ye really wanted teh go back teh Port Royal."

Morgan opened her mouth to reply.

"Be-because," Jack interrupted, "…I-I don' know what ye 'ave planned. But, if it ain't too much tr'uble, I-I'd like ye teh…" his voice trailed off, eyes drifting to a bottle of rum on the table at the opposite end of the room. He slowly shuffled towards the table.

Morgan frowned. "Could you tell me sober?"

Jack stopped, sighed woefully, and sat down on the bed beside her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out her ring—she hadn't noticed that he had kept it. Taking the ring between two callused fingers, Jack drew the chain from the ring and tucked it into his pocket. Studying the white-gold band, he muttered to himself, "Don' have a ring I could give ye, so this'll have teh do."

"Oh!" Morgan suddenly remembered that she had one of his rings. Retrieving it from inside her boot on the floor, she held it out to him. "It slid off your hand when I was pulling you behind the crates in the hold."

Jack stared at the ring, his cheeks flushing for some unknown reason.

Rolling her eyes, Morgan grabbed the hand that the ring had come from and, muttering a soft, "Can't do it yourself…" she slid it onto his finger.

Suddenly flustered, Jack slid off the bed abruptly the moment the ring was on his finger, falling to the floor with a thud. Never once releasing her hands, he quickly recovered and was suddenly down on one knee in front of her. "Morgan… I-I'd like ye teh stay with me on the Pearl…"

Oh my god…

"Sorry, I'm not too good at speech-makin'," he smiled wryly. "I can't guar'ntee that I won't die some day and poss'bly leave ye alone, as it happens all too frequently to those of our… occupation…" He took a deep breath before he continued, "…but I will promise ye that if ye do… as long as I'm 'ere, I'll luv ye with all me heart; as long as we both shall live."

By this time, tears were spilling down Morgan's cheeks. She covered her mouth with both hands, trying to hold back the hysterical sobs that were threatening to explode from within her.

Jack reached forward, taking her small willowy hand into his larger, worn one. "I want ye…" he took to ring in his other hand and slowly began to slip it onto her slender ring-finger, "teh be me wife." As he finished, the ring reached her knuckle, sparkling a silvery-gold in the candlelight.

And with those last four words, Morgan let the sobs overtake her, both crying and laughing at the same time, as she looked at her own hand, where the white-gold ring gleamed against her pale skin, the engravings seeming to glow a faint gold. Taking a shuddery breath, she tried to calm herself down, only to begin sobbing all over again, throwing her arms around the man in front of her—the man she loved; the man she would spend the rest of her life with. She buried her face in his shoulder and simply sobbed hysterically.

After a few moments, there came a relieved, overjoyed chuckle from Jack, who wrapped his arms around her waist and clung to her tightly. That laugh slowly gained in strength until suddenly he lifted her up in his arms and spun about in place.

But this time, Morgan wasn't startled in the least—she simply continued sobbing and laughing as she clung to him trustingly.

Jack eventually began to teeter from side to side until he could no longer remain standing, and the two fell with a thud onto his bed, still laughing like two giddy children. Slowly, their laughter began to subside—Morgan's sides were beginning to ache—and the couple lay trying to catch their breath.

Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Morgan's head lolled to the side to see Jack cover his face with his hands for a moment, inhaling deeply, and then let them fall where they may with a heavy sigh. Upon noticing he was being stared at, he glanced over to her and smiled one of the warmest smiles she had ever seen.

"And you said you were bad at making speeches…" Morgan grinned.

Jack rolled onto his side. "How was it?"

"I've never heard more wonderful words in all my life…"

"Why don' I try some more…?" His hands brushed against her cheeks gently, framing her face. "I love you."

Morgan gave another small laugh, her cheeks flushing. "I love you too."

Even before she had said anything, Jack was already leaning forward. The moment she finished that simple phrase, he captured her lips in a passionate kiss. All the kisses they had shared before could never possibly amount to this one—they hadn't even been meant to express affection, but merely satisfy both a curiosity and a faint lust on Jack's part. This one, though… this one put them all to shame.

•••

Peering through the crack in the door one last time, Will slowly closed it so that he wouldn't disturb the couple inside. He turned around to find the entire crew staring at him anxiously.

"Well?" Gibbs leaned forward.

Will gave an elated smile that said it all.

Elizabeth silenced a squeal as she threw her arms around him, overjoyed.

The crew, however, couldn't contain themselves. They hollered and clapped each other on the back, bragging about how they knew it all along.

Grinning, Will glanced over to the door, feeling his grin widen slightly. Congratulations, Jack…

•••

Taking a deep breath, Jack continued to pace back and fourth at the front of the church. Clad in a dressy black suit—dressy for him, anyway—Will had bought for him the moment he had announced the wedding, the pirate had been pacing at the before the altar for about fifteen minutes now. Fiddling with the worn red ascot, he began to mumble incoherent words of worry to himself. Trying to make him as comfortable as they could, Will and Elizabeth had gotten him a worn black leather coat much like his old brown one and let him wear it over the "gently used" suit. They even let him wear his fold-over boots and tricorn. But nothing could ease the incredibly nervous feeling that was taking control of him as nearly twenty minutes passed.

The pirates Gibbs had positioned at every door were the only things that prevented the priest, who was clutching his bible in trembling hands, from running out of the pirate-filled church.

Gibbs gave the man a mischievous smirk from his seat before returning to watching Jack pace.

"Calm down, Jack." Will chuckled from his seat at the first pew, next to Gibbs. "She'll be here. Even if she did try to run—which she won't—Elizabeth is with her. She wouldn't let her take a single step away from the church. She'll be here."

"Yes, but what if she isn't?" Jack said so quickly even he could hardly understand it. "I don't even know why I'm 'ere! I mean—"

He was interrupted from his rant by the organ, which had begun to play a beautiful tune he had never heard before. Then again, if it wasn't a shanty, he probably hadn't heard it. Will stood and, moving Jack to the place he was apparently supposed to stand, he remained next to him, giving him a reassuring smile. Elizabeth came down the aisle in a beautiful blue dress, a small bouquet of white and blue flowers in her hands. She reflected her husband's reassuring smile as she passed him, and then the entire church stood and turned towards the church doors.

Jack felt his jaw drop.

On the arm of Walter stood Morgan, a bouquet of white orchids in her hands, glowing like an angel in the doorway. Clad in a delicate powder blue dress that hugged her slender form and then billowed about her legs like a waterfall, it had a high collar and long sleeves, lace peering out from underneath, effectively hiding every bit of skin possible. Even so, he had never seen her look so beautiful in all their time together. Save a few wavy strands framing her face, the rest of her hair was pulled back and allowed to fall down her back. All of this was safely tucked under a long veil, though it did not conceal the quick flick of her eyes upon him before her gaze returned to the floor with an attempt to contain an overjoyed smile, her cheeks flushing.

Jack slowly closed his mouth, taking another deep breath, feeling a renewed strength enter him. He had never felt so certain that this was the right thing to do before in all his life. Simply that realization melted every last bit of fear from his entire being.

Walter slowly led her down the aisle, the butler's eyes fixed on Jack. When he finally stood in front of him, Jack suddenly became nervous again, afraid the butler still didn't trust him. He could hear the older man in his head, saying in a firm, threatening voice, "If you hurt her, I will hunt you down."

However, much to his surprise, the butler smiled. Releasing Morgan for a moment, he stepped forward and embraced a now very stiff Jack, who nervously patted the older man on the shoulder.

"I trust you, Jack," Walter said upon releasing him. "You're a good man, and I know you'll love her as much as she deserves."

Suddenly Jack regretted not returning the butler's embrace. Before he could check himself, he threw his arms around the older man, drawing several soft chuckles from the congregation.

When Jack finally released him, Walter took Morgan by the hand and, leading her towards the pirate while similarly taking his hand, placed her small hand within his larger one. "Take care of her." And then he left them, joining the congregation with a smile and a nod.

For the first time she looked up at him, chewing her bottom lip as she fought to contain her excitement. The priest began the service, forcing the two to break their gaze and turn towards him. Just as Jack began to lament the loss of her eyes looking into his own, she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. Feeling her delicate hand in his own, the service flew by him in a blur. It wasn't until they were exchanging rings and vows that time slowed down again. After all the trouble they had gone through, two simple words to unite their souls together forever seemed so unbelievably easy he almost laughed aloud.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," said the priest with a smile—even he couldn't stay afraid when there was such a deserving couple before him. "You may kiss the bride."

With pleasure… Pulling the offending veil from over her face, they exchanged elated smiles before he slowly leaned forward and brushed her lips with his own.

The entire church burst into cheers and applause, a few men paying the bets they lost to fellow comrades, as the two newly-weds nearly skipped down the aisle.

Luckily for them, the church had been built near the docks, so the Black Pearl was only a short carriage ride away. After saying their good-byes to Will and Elizabeth, Jack and Morgan stepped aboard the ship and into their new lives together.

The anchor was weighed, the sails unfurled, and the ship pulled from the port and out towards the open ocean.

Standing at the bow of the ship with his arm around his wife, Jack pulled the lace away from her slender neck and placed a delicate kiss there. The small part of his mind that was not fixated on the quickest way to divest her of said dress came to a realization, causing him to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Morgan inquired with a smirk, turning her head to him.

" 'S just amusin'…" Jack replied with a grin. "…A noble woman goin' on the account… Ye sure ye can pull it off, Mrs. Sparrow? The pirate's life isn't an easy one."

"I'm sure I'll manage."

Gibbs cleared his throat from his place at the helm. "What be the course, cap'n?"

Jack took a deep breath, staring out towards the sea as he fabricated a course. "Let's chase the sun, shall we?" He tightened his right arm's grip on Morgan's shoulders while making a wide gesture towards the sea before them. "Sail on until I can reach out and touch that endless horizon…"

The End