"You didn't know?"

Snorting, she smiles, slowly combing his hair.

"Well, he certainly made sure not to tell me, but I knew he hadn't given up. He never could have."

Her fingers still on the side of his face, and her eyes soften. "He loved his father far too much for that."

He's still getting used to it again, after so many years, but Will distinctively feels his heart ache at that. At that boy - his boy.

"Plus, he's incredibly headstrong and he's a very bad liar, so it wasn't that hard to figure out, really," she adds, making him chuckle.

"Stubborn: wonder where he gets that from," he teases, and she snorts again.

"Like you can talk. He also has the reading thing that you have, by the way. The one where you run your thumb on your jaw when you're concentrating," she adds at his questionning look, amused. He frowns.

"I don't do that."

"Oh, you do, Mr Turner – and so does he. He also has the same hand through the hair habit, your laugh, and I swear when he smiles, it's you. And, of course, there's the calling of the sea."

She means to amuse him, he knows, rolling her eyes for show, but, as he gives her a small smile, his chest tigthens. The same way it did every time Henry would appear on the Flying Dutchman, his eyes and words reflecting his steel determination, every time in between when he thought about him, knowing that despites his hopes, that determination would never go away.

"I didn't want that for him," he admits quietly. "I didn't want him to spend - waste his whole life like that." He swallows, but it doesn't do anything for the bitter guilt he tastes. "Because of me."

He feels her legs tangle with his under the sheets at his words, her body shifting even closer as she kisses him, her touch warm against his neck.

God, how he missed her.

"You didn't ruin his life, Will," she whispers, lips inches away from his as she meets his eyes. "He's fine. He's smart, he's in love - and with you here, he's got everything he's ever wanted," she smiles reassuringly.

Still -

"All those years - "

"He's still young," she cuts before he can argue. "So young - he's got his whole life in front of him."

And she's right, of course: he does.

He does, and he's happy now, and he's got all the time in the world, but a part of him still can't bare the thought that his son might have lost a lot of it, had he not succeeded like he did, can't bare the thought of a little boy desperately looking for a miracle among the tales of the seas to save his father when he should have been enjoying a normal and carefree childhood.

She grazes his cheek, looks back at him again.

"What's done is done, Will. I worried, too, I tried to talk to him: but there's nothing anybody could have done to stop him. He wanted you home - he needed you."

Her hold tightens. "You're here now - he didn't waste anything. And I don't know if you've noticed by the way he looks at you, but that's his biggest dream come true."

She's laughing now, eyes sparkling, just like Henry's always are, and despite the regrets, despite the 'what if' that will probably always be present in a part of his mind, Will starts to believe that maybe, it was worth it.

Maybe they needed him as much as he needed them, will always need them.

"I don't think I can ever thank him enough for that," she continues as her lips briefly find his. Her face lightens as she smirks at him again. "Believe it or not, I kind of missed you."

He doesn't even fight the urge to close the distance and kiss her.

Eagerly responding, Elizabeth brings her hands under his shirt again, making her way on his chest and back as he rolls over her, heartbeat rising as his lips start to make their own way down her chin, her neck.

"Is that so?" he all but growls, voice caught in his throat. The sounds she makes at that drive him mad.

Soon, they're half-naked again, nothing existing outside this bed except her, her, her. As she straddles him, fingers digging into his sides, she kisses him, passionnate, warm, addicting. She breaks away for a second, eyes right into his, and not for the first time, Will wonders how he managed to survive without her for so long.

His calloused hands frame her face, and he breathes her in, still struggling to believe that this is all real.

"I would have understand," he manages in a low voice, waking a slight confusion behind her eyes. "If you hadn't waited, if you'd find someone else – I would have understand." Would have been relieved, in a way, even if he knows it would also have killed him.

Shortly pecking him once more, Elizabeth smirks again.

"Now, now," she purrs against his lips. "You know there's only one pirate I'm interested in. But let's stop talking for a while."

Chuckling, Will happily obliges.