Elizabeth had thought pretending to be ill was dull. But after waking to pains in her back and stomach and panicking the whole household, James and her father being on actual bed rest was much worse.

The pains had mostly faded by the time the midwife had arrived - false pains were not uncommon apparently in the last weeks of pregnancy but no chances could be taken - early babies did not often do well. Elizabeth knew that well enough.

For two days James did not leave her side. He waited on her hand and foot - as if they did not have staff and spent the days reading to her so she was not so bored. But she knew he had work at the fort and she had reassured him repeatedly he could go. She would be fine. In the end he only went if she gave her word she would send for him if she had the slightest twinge.

.

She was dozing when a noise startled her awake and she sat up as much as she could hopeful James was home. But instead she was horrified by the sight of William Turner clambering in her bedroom window.

"What are you doing?" she said appalled. "Get out." She was starting to feel like he had come back to Port Royal just to ruin her reputation and this was certainly a good start.

.

Will stared at the sight of her - she knew she was enormous - even James had said so and he never had a bad word to say about her at all. She pulled the blankets around herself, pressing herself against the headboard and trying to suppress a frisson of fear. The last thing she wanted was for him to start wondering just how pregnant she was. "Well the Commodore certainly didn't waste anytime," he said to her utter relief. He crossed over to her wardrobe without reservation. "I need your help," he said. "Get up."

"No," she said - she had no interest in helping him even if she could. "I can't. Will I am confined and on bedrest." Will ignored her and flung a dress at her bed, one hand resting on his sword which was a clear threat.

"That is just nonsense," he said aggrieved. "Only rich women think they can just lay about until the child comes - it will do you no harm to get up and come to the smithy."

"I am not going anywhere with you," Elizabeth said hotly - she would not be seen dead in his company. "And it is not nonsense - I have been ill. What do you even want?"

.

Elizabeth knew Will very well and he knew her and she could see him contemplating just how stubborn she was going to be even as she knew he might draw the line at dragging a pregnant lady through the streets of Port Royal.

"My father is ill," Will said eventually. "And I am not important enough to merit a doctor even though I am more than able to pay."

Or more likely both doctors in Port Royal thought very little of Will and what they considered his social climbing ways, Elizabeth knew. "I will write a note," she said - anything to be rid of him. "Pass me that box." She waved at the mother of pearl box on the dresser hopefully.

"No," Will said, making a face. "This is serious. I know you do not care a whit for my father but I do."

.

As if Elizabeth should care who he cared for. "I am more than aware of how much you care for your father," she said tightly.

Will had abandoned her twice to Jack's care in his attempts to rescue his father and then decided to be jealous that she and Jack had become close. She could not believe she was having another argument about bloody Bootstrap Bill.

She did not think Will owed anything to a man who had abandoned him and his mother when he had been no more than seven and done little more than send him a cursed coin since.

If the Dauntless had not rescued Will when they were twelve he would have drowned and if the Black Pearl had not attacked the merchant ship Will had been on. Will would have been an indentured servant having sold himself in Edinburgh to pay his passage out here. Jack had told her he had not even known Bootstrap had a son until he had met Will in Port Royal. And she made no bones about it either before their engagement had been ended.

.

"And you can go on caring," she said hotly. "But I care about my unborn child and I would not risk their health for you let alone your fucking father. So unless you plan to drag me through the streets - and somehow avoid every naval officer in Port Royal who will come to my defence. You will pass me that box and you can take your chances with a note."

Of course the box that Will passes her is not a pen box though it there is a superficial resemblance. Elizabeth does have a mother of pearl pen set somewhere. But this was her present off James which she had regretted leaving on the dresser since she had laid eyes on Will and both pistols are already loaded when she points one at Will.

.

Will's hand goes to his sword as she cocked the pistol aiming at him. "Get out," she said. "Get out and go away and never come back Will."

Will was furious but she was used to his temper but it was different now and she can feel the child shifting inside of her which it has not done since the scare yesterday and it only makes her more determined.

"Lying whore," he told her, advancing on the bed. "You were never much use with a gun."

"I have had nearly a year to practice," she said. "These were a wedding present. And if you hurt me - James will hang you and your father and leave you to rot as a warning on the cove. If I shoot you - well you broke into my room and threatened me and my child. I am sure the Governor will see that as extenuating circumstances." Of course she could shoot Will dead in the street and her father would have a reason why that would never get to trial.

.

Will did not seem to take her seriously at all and he took a step closer to the bed and Elizabeth realised she might have to shoot him and then the child kicked hard causing her to inhale sharply, her aim shaken and it was all the opening he needed to grab her. She tried to wrench away from him and hit her head hard on the bedpost.

In her panic she pulled the trigger and Will reared back hard and she cursed. The bullet had barely grazed him - he had a bloody scratch on his forehead and she was stuck by the image of what had happened if she had hit him and sprayed his brains over her bedroom and she leaned over the side of the bed to vomit. This made Will draw back disgusted and she managed in between retches to close her hand around the second pistol.

"You shot me," he spat.

"I did," she said her head aching where he had forced her against the bed post. "And if you do not get out now I will shoot you again." She took a shaky breath. "I am going to count to ten. If you drop your sword and get out before I get to ten I will send a note for a doctor to attend your father on pain of my father's displeasure." She took a shaky breath. "Or if you don't I will shoot you in the leg and send James to arrest your father and we will see which one of you succumbs to jail fever first."

.

Will went out of the window before she got to three. Elizabeth does not have it in her to write a note - she sends a footman to the doctor - she will keep her word at least and the maid for the midwife. She is not having pains but the child seemed as panicked as she was and will not keep still which she does not think can be a good sign.

The midwife does not think so either and gives her a dose of laudanum which knocks her out.

She wakes to find James in a chair by the bed, his face drawn. He does not notice she is awake at first and she does not think she has ever seen him so furious. And his eyes are wet. She sits up and winces - she had a headache still and she can only hope the bruise she knows she has does not extend past her hairline.

.

The baby was not shifting so manically now- just a slow steady stretch that reassured her. She reached for James' hand and pressed it to her stomach. "We are both fine," she said reassuringly and James seemed to let go of a breath and he brushed a curl away from his face.

"Turner will pay for this," he said steadily. "I will call him out."

"I know," she said. She had known really it was coming to this since she had heard Will was back - perhaps if Will had left her alone entirely it could have been avoided. "But not right now please," she held tightly to his hand and after a long moment he slipped on the bed beside her and settled her in his arms his hand settled on the swell of the child.

.

Elizabeth distracted James like that for several days. She does not want to take more laudanum and she feels safer when he was near which made her feel pathetic. But she was in no position to pick a fight and all her sword training came from Will who had made sure not to teach her anyway to beat him though she had picked up some tricks on her own.

James has his paperwork from the fort sent to the house and Mr. Turner was watched by a parade of marines. Ten days later he puts his father on a ship to Nassau - he must have recovered. But Will does not go anywhere. But it was a close enough call for James and his dawn appointment with Will was made for the next day.

He comes back bruised and his shirt is bloody. "It is not my blood," he reassured. Elizabeth does not ask after Will. She wonders but she would not dent what confidence James' has in her by asking. He clearly won. But did he kill Will?

.

Her maid finds out for her of course - it was a close fight but James had not let Turner goad him - Elizabeth could die a little inside at the thought of what Will might have goaded him with. But when he had won he had spared Will's life only in exchange for his word that he would leave and never come back. Elizabeth wondered if he had done that for her. If James still thought she still cared for Will. But one night in bed he apologised to her if she had wanted him dead.

"I wanted him gone," she said. "And you have done that." She does wonder why James had spared him though.

.

One week later Elizabeth wakes with a headache that never really shifts, her back hurts and she cannot bear to eat a thing. Her maid fusses round excited and James does not leave her side.

She waited and waited for the pains everyone seemed to expect and by the end of the day was just annoyed. It was past mid November now and she wanted to meet the baby. At least Will had been a good distraction from how miserable pregnancy was.

.

It was of course the middle of the night that she woke to the ache in the back and when gets out of bed to wake some she ruins her night rail with a flood of fluid. Well then. This must be the real thing.

She was unbelievably restless and in the interest of not being fussed over she abandons James to his sleep and goes back to her barely used room to pace. Moving was the only thing that helped the pains at all and she can only imagine James would want her to sit and rest.

Of course he noticed she was gone almost right away. That or the fact that when the pain does hit she cannot keep quiet. He looked slightly betrayed that she had abandoned him and she bursts into tears at the sight of him. "Do not make me lie down," she begged. "I cannot bear it." So instead he offered his arm and led her round the room while she cursed and complained and reacted quite badly to any comfort he offered. But then she realised she still had not told him. "James," she said. "I do love you you know." But he takes this the wrong way entirely - that it was some kind of sop in case she died in childbirth and he doesn't even look pleased.

"You will be fine," he told her and kissed her hair and then a pain hits and distracted her from telling him off.

.

Then the midwife arrived and she knew James would be sent away. She clung to him most relentlessly until the midwife said he could stay as long as he stayed away from the business end. Elizabeth tried to laugh at the horror on his face until another pain hit.

It took the whole night and the best part of the next day for her labour to be productive and Claire Elizabeth Norrington came screaming into the world just as the sun went down.

.

It feels like everyone in the world gets a look at her before Elizabeth. The midwife hands the baby off to James so she can deal with the rest of what comes with child birth with Elizabeth. And then she was off with her new nurse to be washed and her father and Lady Bellamy and even Lt. Groves apparently are all downstairs all clamouring for a look.

James comes back to check on her and it was only his smile that let he know something had not gone awfully wrong. "Are you alright darling," he said stroking her cheek. "You did so well."

"James," she said. "If you do not bring me my baby right now. I am going to shoot someone." Possibly him, her tone implies and he waved in the nurse at once. The girl was only a teenager and now she looked nervous as she settled the baby in Elizabeth's arms.

The baby squirms and then yawns and wriggles slightly. "Oh," Elizabeth said. "She's quite pretty isn't she." Not all squashed like some babies were.

"Indeed," James said his voice full of pride. "She is almost as pretty as her mother. But she has had a rather trying day."