A/N: Okay, here's the final chapter. I'd like to say I have another Sparrabeth story in me, but writer's block is doing a number on me right now and I can't see it happening any time soon. Maybe some day - I do love the pairing ;-) Thanx for the feedback on the previous chapters.

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3 - Happy Endings

"Will, you're staring at me" said Elizabeth feeling just a little strange when he continued to look at her in such a manner without saying a word.

It was fine when she was telling her tales of her adventures aboard the Pearl, but she was now waiting for some response from him and none was forthcoming. It made her strangely nervous somehow.

"I apologise, Elizabeth" he said at last, shaking his head as if to clear some mist that had settled there, "Truly, I had no wish to make you so uncomfortable. I was just wondering at how beautiful you still are" he told her, at which she reached out to slap him playfully across the arm.

"Will!" Elizabeth complained, trying not to blush, "You really should not say such things, and all completely untrue" she told him, turning her face away.

"I shall always see beauty in you, Elizabeth, no matter what you say" her old lover insisted, as she peered at him from behind her long blonde hair, "You are so good and kind, beautiful inside and out" he promised her.

"Such a good person would have felt worse about going back on our wedding vows" she said with a pointed look, "Though we both had our reasons of course"

"Your goodness was proven to be far greater than my own" Will told her, "Your guilt appears to far outweigh mine, though it should not" he explained, "In that respect, you can never really be a pirate, Elizabeth, because your heart is too good" he chuckled then as he had a thought, "I can't imagine Jack was so concerned about my feelings, when the two of you... grew closer" said Will with a look, which only served to change Elizabeth's mood from bashfully shy to entirely cross in a mere moment.

"You're wrong" she said definitely, quite distressed by his thinking ill of her man.

Of course, there had been many an occasion before their new relationship began when Elizabeth herself might have questioned how loyal Jack Sparrow really could be to a friend, a lover, or anyone really. She knew better now, and yet she knew she ought not to be so very angry at Will for not understanding, after all, he had not been here to see the changes in Jack that she had borne witness to over the years.

"Perhaps I do my old friend a disservice then" the fellow Captain considered with a tilt of his head, "After all, Jack did save me over himself on that faithful day with Davy Jones" he considered.

"He did" nodded Elizabeth, feeling it best not to mention the fact that Jack had explained to her she was his only reason for acting as he had, "He does care, Will, and not only about me. He was concerned for your feelings too, I know he was" she told him, quite determined that he must understand, "We had a great many lengthy discussions on the topic of it..."

...Eight and a half years ago...

"But really, there is no getting out of the fact that I am a married woman" said Elizabeth with a heavy sigh, suffering another bout of guilt that so often followed a night spent in the arms of her lover.

"Course there is, luv" insisted Jack, as they lay together in his bed, his arms around her from behind holding her close to him.

"How?" she asked, turning over in his embrace so suddenly she almost cracked him in the nose with her head, "Even the great Jack Sparrow... Captain Jack Sparrow" she corrected herself with a smile the very next moment "Even you cannot talk your way out of such a thing" she insisted, fingers absently playing with the beads hanging in his hair.

"See, now, that's where you're wrong" he assured her, though it took a moments thinking before he had any further words to say.

Elizabeth didn't entirely believe he could come up with any possible excuse for her behaviour. She had tried often enough, and though she reasoned that her love for Jack or his for her could not be helped, it made her feel no less bad for cheating on poor Will. In effect he had died for her, and would come ashore specifically to her after ten years at sea. How she was supposed to justify her seeing another man for all that time, she hadn't a notion, and highly doubted even the highly-skilled wordsmith that was Captain Jack Sparrow would get them out of this without a sword fight taking place and more than just hearts getting broken.

"Ah, now, see" said Jack at last, moving to prop himself up on one elbow and waving his another arm about in his usual random gestures as he explained, "When yourself and dear William were wed, it was by Barbossa, as Captain of the ship" he reminded Elizabeth of what she already knew, "Only you was here, on the Pearl" he told her, "which then belonged and shall always belong to me, so he wasn't a Captain" he shook his head, "and therefore cannot 'ave legally married you" he said with a triumphant grin that lasted for all of five seconds until he realised Elizabeth still looked unconvinced.

"But you didn't have a ship when you first came to Port Royal" she told him sadly, "We were still supposed to think of you as Captain even then"

"Well..." Jack considered, "that was different" he excused the hole in his plan, but it was clear Elizabeth was too smart for him and would not be fobbed off with such an excuse, "Alright, new idea" he snapped his fingers as it came to him, "Now, technically speaking, you must've vowed til death do you part and all that, right?" he asked her at which his lover nodded her head.

"We did" she agreed, propping herself up in similar fashion to him now as she became intrigued by what tale he might spin out of this, what reasons he could possibly come up with to save her skin and make her feel less of a traitor. Pirate was something Elizabeth could bear to be known as, but somehow traitor to her husband was so much worse than any other kind of liar or thief.

"Well, death did you part" Jack pointed out, miming a sword through the chest as Will had suffered at the hands of Davy Jones, "and things, not the least of them me, sort of put you back together a bit, for the most part through my being a blind fool" he said with a look that made Elizabeth giggle despite the seriousness this conversation ought to warrant, "but the point of it is, in the eyes of the world, not counting you and I and the similar" he went on, in his usual rambley style, "dear old Will is dead as a dodo, therefore, marriage dissolved, savvy?"

It took a moment for Elizabeth to unravel so much information and make proper sense of what he was saying, but as with most of Jack's mad ideas there was a seed of realism at the base of them. He spun pretty lies and outlandish falsehoods, but often as not there was reality at the bottom of it all, something of the truth buried deep within.

"I suppose what you say is true" she considered, liking the fact that he was at least trying his best to ease the burden on her guilt, "but are you willing to explain that to Will?" she asked with a sigh, "To the Captain of the Flying Dutchman who shall have been waiting ten years to see me again?" she asked of him, wiping the proud and cocky look off his face in a second with the news he may have to be the one to tell such a desperate man he'd stolen away his pretty young bride.

"Can't say as it thrills me, luv, no" admitted Jack, "But for you Lizzie? I'll go the ends of the Earth if you ask" he promised, as sincere as she had ever known him to be, "After all, did the same for me once, didn't you?" he reminded her, his hand at her hair as he leaned in close to her and planted a kiss on her lips.

She looked too sad when he pulled back to see her face again. Given the sentiment of what he'd said, he had probably expected a smile at least, but Elizabeth could not find one. She loved that he cared for her that much, loved her so much as to make such a declaration, but the reminder of going to worlds end to bring him back from Davy Jones locker only served as a reminder of her own deceit. She was the one that had condemned Jack to the locker in the first place, she who had caused his suffering and pain. Though he had forgiven her time and time again, she wasn't sure she would ever completely forgive herself.

"I owed you that much, Jack" she said, eyes looking down and unable to meet his own right now, "For the longest time I actually believed it was only guilt that made me want to get you back" she sighed, "I was such a fool" she said as she glanced up and found him still watching her.

"Foolish is as foolish does, my dear" he told her easily, apparently completely unphased as they spoke of her past crime against him, "I don't hold it against you" he promise, lifting her chin and making her face him when she tried not to, "You did what you had to, luv. Anyway, could be that day I realised for sure what you was capable of, and how much I bloody loved you for it" he smiled, a grin full of gold that soon had her expression matching his, though she could not quite comprehend how such a terrible act had led to his loving her so much.

"That was really the moment you first suspected it?" she checked, not sure she quite believed him.

"Well, maybe not the very first" he confessed, though he left that particular point there as he flipped onto his back, pulling her easily on top of him, "but if Captain Jack Sparrow was ever going to settle for only one woman" he said, one finger raised to demonstrate his point, "stood to reason she had to be something special" he said, pulling her close enough to kiss, "stood to reason she had to be..."

...Present...

"...a pirate at heart"

Elizabeth was stunned to realise that she and Will were no longer alone, and that Jack must have been stood there some time to hear the tale she was telling, going so far as to speak the words from years go that she had been about to say herself. Will looked equally surprised and yet pleased by the presence of his old friend, looking hardly any different to the last time they had met.

"Well, if it isn't the Captain of the Flying Dutchman, turned up again like a bad penny" Jack faked disdain at the sight of Will, though a smirk came through that could not be helped.

"And the Captain of the Black Pearl" said Will as he got to his feet, "Unless of course there has been another unfortunate case of mutiny?" he smiled, unable to help teasing Jack over his terrible habit of having his precious ship taken out from under him.

"Not since we let Barbossa have command of Lizzie's Empress" he confirmed, with a random gesture of his hand, "How's life amongst the dead, lad?"

"Better than you might think" smiled his friend, the two of them unable to keep up such a facade any longer, as they offered each other a hand to shake and greeted one another as the friends they would always be.

"Well, young William" said Jack with a grin that flashed both white and gold, "Nice to see you greetin' me here without a blade in your hand" he noted, "After all, did sort of steal your wife out from under you... in a manner of speaking" he smirked, unable to help being cocky about it, in spite of the fact Elizabeth had been trying to suggest there was guilt on the part of her lover in all this.

Will was about to answer, and Elizabeth about to cut in at the same moment, though neither got a chance to speak as a fourth person was suddenly present, stepping in between the other three and gazing up at the one face he did not recognise.

"You must be Captain William Turner" said the young boy, squinting against the sun's bright light.

"I am" said Will, feeling a little self-conscious as he glanced from the face of a strangely familiar boy to first Elizabeth who seemed to be embarrassed or guilty, and then Jack who wouldn't quite meet his eye either, "And you are?" he asked the boy at length, almost certain he already knew and yet needing confirmation just in case.

"Master James William Weatherby Sparrow" said the boy, removing his tricorn hat and bowing with a flourish that ought to make his father proud, which it clearly did.

"Um, yes" said Elizabeth, shifting awkwardly as Will's eyes met her own, "There was one more tale I was meaning to tell you..."

...Eight years ago...

The haul of treasure was substantial, not exactly enough to live on forever, but worth a celebration. The crew of the Black Pearl had found port at Tortuga and were currently enjoying the delights that the place had to offer. Much merriment was taking place, a den full of rum soaked pirates, chasing women who loved to be chased, it was really quite the party.

Captain Jack himself had of course left the other women alone today, as he had been doing for some time. Though he and Elizabeth were not officially wed and such, he was capable of some fidelity, besides the girl was right there at the bar, able to see everything. Trouble of it was, she didn't seem to be paying that much attention to what she could see, and that wasn't like her at all. It bothered Jack that she was out of sorts and worse that she wasn't even drinking...

"Come along, dear Lizzie" he said as he dropped down onto the stool beside her, almost missing completely in his drunkenness, "Did a good job today, ought to be enjoying yourself!" he declared, waving his arm at the scenes of frivolity behind them.

Elizabeth barely glanced at him nevermind the crowd beyond. She wasn't in the mood for this, and she had her reasons why. She had hoped Jack might notice a difference in her, but she ought to have known better. As much as he had changed around her, as much as they were supposed to be in love, she couldn't really expect him to be anything but what he was. Honestly, she never wanted him to change, and she knew he loved her for being as she was too. Unfortunately, nobody could make promises and guarantees that things would never be different to the way they were now...

"Jack, can we talk?" she asked, twisting in her seat to face him, though she found him barely listening.

"Talk, luv?" he said with a grin, "Where's the fun in that? Let's dance instead?" he said, practically lifting her off the stool before she could argue and spinning her around in the limited space available in the tavern that was heaving with people they knew and those they didn't as well.

"Jack, stop it!" Elizabeth argued, pushing him away with some considerable force that he was not expecting and almost sending him sprawling, "Why can't you just listen to me?" she said angrily, turning to storm away but not actually moving as he called after her.

"I'm listening!" he told her, "What's so bloody important?" he said, getting angry himself now that she was putting somewhat of a dampener on his good mood.

"I'm pregnant!" Elizabeth announced perhaps a little too loudly as she whirled around to glare at him, several patrons of the tavern paying attention by now as well.

Jack's eyes went comically wide at the news, his head quirking to one side like an animal or a child trying to puzzle something out. His mouth opened and closed three times without any sound coming out and still Elizabeth stood and stared, waiting for any reaction beyond mute confusion.

"Right" Jack said at length, "Er... Is it mine?" he asked, knowing immediately it was exactly the three works he should not have said at all, not least because the next thing he felt was Lizzie's hand striking him hard as anything across the face, this time actually knocking him onto his backside upon the chair right behind him

By the time Jack had scrambled back onto his feet and lamented briefly on the bottle of rum in his hand that was now smashed to nothing, Elizabeth was all but gone from his sight. She was out of the door before he had much chance to move and was striding away from the tavern at a hell of a pace when he got outside. He called her name three times though she responded to none of this and only actually stopped when he managed to catch up to her and made a grab at her arm.

"Let go of me!" she said angrily, pulling away, "Was once not enough?" she said, bringing back her hand as if to strike him again.

"Now I know I deserved that" said Jack ducking away just in case the second hit came anyway, "but it was a shock, luv!" he tried to tell her.

Elizabeth looked not a bit sympathetic regarding his suprise, but then why should she? It was as much a shock to her as it had been to Jack to find she was carrying his child, quite the last thing she had been expecting in fact. To have him ask if it really was his child she was carrying hurt more than anything.

"Who did you think the father was?" she asked crossly, "Ragetti? Pintel? Mr Gibbs?" she laughed without any humour in it, "Cotton's Parrot perhaps?"

"Well, now you're just being silly" Jack pointed out, regretting it immediately as Elizabeth hit him with a glare that somehow felt like it struck harder than ever her hand had done, "Lizzie, please" he urged her as he ducked away from her a bit, "I'm drunk, I didn't know what I was saying..."

"You're always drunk, and you never know what you're saying!" said Elizabeth, putting her hands to her face and sighing tiredly, knowing she was just making Jack's point for him.

It wasn't his fault and she knew he didn't mean it. For a hundred and one other things he'd said without thinking she had always forgiven him. The look on his face as he'd come chasing after her proved he already knew he'd been a terrible fool. If she thought for a moment there was any cruelness to his words or genuine disbelief in his mind, she would be hurt beyond all reason, but she knew better.

Shock did strange things to people, it had certainly felt strange to Elizabeth to realise she was with child. Her life really had not tended the way she had ever imagined. As a little girl, she had seen a boring life laid out before her, with a simple marriage and a brood of children, and she had hated that idea. As a teen she had aspirations of adventure and fun with Will who would be her hero, and yet things had taken another turn, brought her another kind of hero, a completely different kind of adventure.

"Come on now, Lizzie" Jack urged her, a hand on her shoulder she felt she ought to shrug off out of principal, but she didn't really want to, "Tears and tantrums is no good and good for nothing now"

"Why couldn't you just be normal and happy about our news?" she sighed, looking frustrated still as she turned to look his way.

"Normal?" he smirked annoyingly, "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, luv. Normal isn't exactly what I do" he reminded her, almost managing to get a smile out of her, "And as for happy, well.." he said, spreading his arms wide with a flourish, "You seen this grin on my face, have you? Quite fancy the idea of being a father if I'm going to be an honest man"

"I don't know if I want to make an honest man of you, Jack" Elizabeth smiled playfully back at him, resisting the urge to fly into his arms to be held close, "Surely it is a dishonest man you can always trust more" she reminded him of words he so often spoke himself.

"For you, dearie" he said, moving closer to her when it seemed she would not come to him, "I think we can work something proper out" he smiled, as his arms slid around her body and pulled her close.

Somehow, when Jack looked at her that way, Elizabeth completely forgot how to argue with him.

...Present...

William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, was somewhat in awe of the sight that lay before him now. Elizabeth Swann, the woman he had once thought to spend the rest of his life with, loving her unconditionally and taking care of her forever, was now sat alongside the new man in her life, his arms around her illiciting a smile on her face the like of which Will had never seen before.

Captain Jack Sparrow was the most unlikely man to settle down to just one woman, and yet Elizabeth had been the one to tame him. Of course, that phrase was not entirely apt, for as much as she had snared the pirate and made him faithful only to her, Jack had brought out the adventurous side of Elizabeth to its full. Together they were the perfect match, and Will saw it better than anyone, being as close as he had been to them both for so long. Their son was the perfect combination of both his parents and a credit to them. One day he would be a great Captain just like his father, his grandfather, and the man he was already calling his Uncle Will, despite only having known him for a matter of hours.

As little James ran along the shoreline, faking sword fights with adversaries unknown, a wooden replica of a sword in his hand, the tide rushed in almost taking his feet out from under him. Jack was soon up and headed down the beach to move the lad away from the edge, and to better instruct him on the skills he must learn to be the great pirate he longed to be one day.

"He is a credit to you, Elizabeth" smiled Will as he looked her way and found her smiling still.

"They are quite the pair to live with" she rolled her eyes, laughing lightly as James got the better of his father in a moment and almost knocked him to the ground, purely by chance, "but I would not change things for the world" she swore, pulling the wrap she now wore tighter around her shoulders, the warm breeze turning cooler and the sun beginning to sink in the sky.

"No, neither would I" her old friend agreed as he looked out across the ocean, knowing it would not be long before he must leave here for another ten years at sea.

"Will, where will you go next time your day ashore comes around?" asked Elizabeth with genuine curiosity.

He looked thoughtful a moment before he looked back at her again and replied very seriously.

"I shall be here, if you wouldn't mind it" he told her, "You and Jack are the best friends I have ever known. I should like very much to meet with you again, find out what sort of man James has grown into, for he shall be that by the time I return"

"Yes, he shall" Elizabeth nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed by the realisation that her precious little boy would be all grown up by the time he saw his Uncle Will again, "and of course we shall meet you here, if that is what you wish" she smiled, her hand going to his shoulder, "Truly, Will, you mean as much to me as we might to you. I should be honoured to know that you would want to spend your one day on land with our family. You are part of it, in the best of ways" she said, pleased when his hand came up to cover hers and squeezed her fingers.

They understood each other, as they always had before. The romantic love they believed existed between them as teens was long gone, but left in its place was a friendship, a familial sort of bond that would never, could never die. Ten years hence, they would meet again like this and be as pleased to see each other as they were now, that was for certain.

...Several hours later...

As the sun sunk low in the sky, William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, knew it was time to leave the land and return to the sea that owned him. His goodbyes said to the friends who were as much family to him as anyone ever could be, he set about returning to his ship, as Elizabeth, Jack, and James waved him off from the shoreline. Back on the Dutchman, he would fall into the embrace of his beloved Isis, and sail with her at his side for ten happy years before returning to this place for a further reunion.

Little James ran by the waters edge as the ship departed, determined to watch the Dutchman just as long as he could until it disapeared completely from sight. His parents followed behind at a more sedate pace, their arms around each other.

"So, that's him gone for another ten years then" said Jack, "Can't say as I'll miss him" he shrugged.

"Jack!" Elizabeth reprimanded him immediately, "How can you say such a thing?"

"Easy as you please, luv" he told her, ensuring she stayed close to him beneath his arm as they continued walking, "Can't have him deciding to swoop in, holding hands with other fellas birds, can we?" he said at which Elizabeth gawped.

"Oh, so that is what this is about?" she laughed, hardly able to believe what she was hearing, "You were jealous?"

"Don't be so ridiculous, Lizzie" he said, though the expression on his face proved he was lying, "I am Captain Jack Sparrow" he told her, as if she didn't know, startling her to the core a moment later as he easily picked her up in his arms and laid a kiss on her lips that took her breath away, "Now, what say you, we get the men to watch the boy awhile?" he grinned in such a way that proved where his mind tended.

"I can't imagine what you're suggesting, Captain Sparrow" said Elizabeth, teasing him as she so often did, since his meaning had been abundantly clear and they both knew it.

"Thought p'haps we ought to give my boy here a playmate" he told her with an eyebrow raised, "Another nephew or a niece maybe, for old Uncle Will to fuss about on his big return?"

Terrible excuse not withstanding, Elizabeth really had no reason and no wish to argue with such a suggestion, and proved she would not as she kissed him with some passion.

The sun set in the distance, and the day was done, ending as happily if not more so than it had started. Elizabeth Swann allowed herself to be carried away to her home, the Black Pearl, to spend the night in her lovers arms, perhaps making a brother or sister for her beloved son. It was not a life she had planned for or ever expected to have, but it was all she ever wanted and more. As she had told Will, she would not change it for the whole world nor all the treasures it held. She and her family were happy, they were fulfilled; they were pirates, and proud.

- The End -