Prologue -- Where We Left Off
After Tia Dalma sent Will, Elizabeth, and Jack into the future, as high-schoolers, they were forced to each complete a task if they wished to return home. Jack had to defeat a 17- year- old Barbossa and his evil cronies. Will needed to fend off any unwanted girls (as in Scarlett, an obsessed freshman). Elizabeth, however, was forced to choose between the two men she loved: Will- who represented warmth, comfort, security, and safety, or Jack- who stood for broken rules, danger, spontaneity, and everything she could ever want but could never have. She let her heart decide for her and it chose Jack. Back in to the 17th century, Will has become heartbroken and has turned to drinking, convinced that no one loves him. Elizabeth wants to settle down and have a family, but Jack isn't ready and occupies himself with an upcoming battle with the Spanish Fleets and the English Navy.
Will was passed out in the middle of a small room, surrounded by empty rum bottles. A half- full one was still clutched in his right hand, tipped over so that it contents spilled out onto the wooden floor. Will had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past week, getting up just long enough when he was awake to down some more alcohol. He was fine with being completely senseless for hours and even days at a time; it prevented him from thinking about his messed up life.
If was hard to believe that barely a week ago he was engaged to Elizabeth and his world was perfect. Then Elizabeth had wanted Tia Dalma to show them the future- and they had ended up in the 21st century. His ex-fiancé had given him back her engagement ring after a silly fight they had had, but had never taken it back.
When Will thought about it, in the few precious moments when he was sober, he came to the conclusion that if he had been a better boyfriend to her then she would not have gotten mad, called off her wedding, and fallen for a pirate. It was these thoughts that always sent him back to the stacks of rum down below the decks.
When he wasn't brooding over what he could have done to fix things, he was wondering if the "love" between Jack and his new girlfriend was real; Jack had never seemed like the type of person to stay with a girl longer than to satisfy his wants. Will didn't see why Jack would start to actually fancy a girl now.
Will, still lying on the floor, began to stir. He rolled over onto his side and groaned as he massaged his aching temples. He had grown accustomed to these awful hangovers but they still troubled him greatly. He moaned as he forced himself into a seating position, then onto his feet.
He swayed unsteadily for a few moments before stumbling to the door of the tiny room he was in. He entered the deck of the ship to see groups of pirates huddled in clumps, playing cards and drinking. Will's irritation grew as he saw them laughing and having a good time, andcursed them for being so cheerful when he was so depressed.
He muttered something darkly under his breath as he grabbed a bottle of rum from a cabinet. He opened the bottle and was getting ready to head back to his room when he paused outside the Captain's Quarters. He tried the door, knowing that it would be locked. He shuddered at the thought of what Jack and Elizabeth might be doing in there. He took a swig of his rum and slumped off into his room to pass out in peace.
Jack, in fact, was not doing what Will thought he was doing, unless Will thought that he was thinking up a battle plan (which Will didn't think, but we won't go into what Will actually thought). Jack was concocting a plan in order to elude the Royal English Navy to get into International waters and capture some ships from the Spanish fleets, in hopes that they would surrender and give him back the Black Pearl, which they had stolen during Jack's two-day journey to the 21st century. In other words, Elizabeth was the last thing on his mind.
Captain Jack Sparrow had been having trouble with his new boat, the Flipper, which he had stolen from Port Royal recently. The officials over in England were not happy with him, needless to say. Jack had outrun their ships a dozen times in the last seven days, but didn't know if he could hold out much longer; the last run in had forced the officers to send a cannonball through he ship. The crew had fixed it up as best as they could but it was still letting on a little water.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, was standing at the front of the ship, staring out at the water. It was windy and it made waves in the ocean, rocking the boat back and forth. Elizabeth was deep in thought.
Who would have thought that I would have fallen in love with Jack, she wondered. But am I really in love with him? My heart says "yes" but I am torn. Does he even love me back? Jack is not the kind of person to have a lasting relationship. I want to get married, but he probably won't be up to that. Maybe I should ask him…
She trailed off inside her head and decided that maybe she should let him know how she really felt. They hadn't had any romantic encounters since that single kiss in the auditorium at the high school. She touched her left hand, expecting to feel her engagement ring. She realized, with a sinking feeling, that she had so rudely given it back to Will.
Will…she wondered how he was doing; she hadn't seen him for almost a week, apart from the glances she caught of him rushing to the privy to throw up or going to get more rum. Since that night, they had distanced themselves. Or rather, Will had broken off all contact with the world and had resorted to drinking more in a week than Jack had done in a month.
Elizabeth stepped away from the edge of the boat and went to Will's room. She entered and held her breath against the nauseating smell of old rum, vomit, and urine (from when Will's bladder released itself when a bathroom was unavailable). Will was draped over the bed with an empty bottle of rum in his hand. Stubble darkened the lower half of his face and his hair was matted, giving him the appearance of a somewhat younger Captain Jack Sparrow.
Will walked over and brushed the hair out of his face. She removed the bottle of rum from his hand and tossed it to the floor. She stretched out his fingers and entangled her own in them. Seeing that Will didn't move, she slowly slid the engagement ring off his finger and stuffed it between the layers of the pirate garb she now donned. She quickly sifted through the rest of his things and found the ring that she had forced in his hand.
Kissing him quickly on the cheek (out of sheer sympathy), she turned and hurried from the room and to her own quarters (being a woman, she had to have her own space away from the rest of the crew). She wrapped the rings in a piece of cloth and hid it under her pillow.
From the upper deck, a call rang out; they were coming into port! Elizabeth grabbed a nearby cap and stuffed her hair into it as she went to join the crew members, excited at the prospect of reaching dry land.
Realizing that Captain Jack was not among the group, Elizabeth doubled back to get him. He was muttering darkly under his breath and mapping out a course of action. Elizabeth reached over and tapped him on his shoulder. Jack ignored her and kept pointing to different places, his head in his hands.
"What's wrong, baby?" Elizabeth asked in a low voice, very close to his ear.
"Hmmm?" the captain asked, distractedly. "I'm busy. Go away, Ana Maria."
Elizabeth, offended, stepped back. "I'm Elizabeth! How could you possibly forget my name!"
Jack, still caught up in his plans, waved her off. "Sorry, Scarlett. Anyone who calls me baby is all the same to old Sparrow here. Savvy?"
Tears in her eyes, Elizabeth fled from the room and into her own. She reached under her pillow and found the rings. Returning to the deck, she went to very edge, intending to fling the rings into the ocean, but stopped and collapsed on the ground, tears running freely down her face. She loved Jack; she thought he loved her back. Now she realized that what they'd had - what she'd thought they'd had- was nothing to him. She couldn't deal with it; her shoulders shook as she sobbed.
After a moment, she felt strong arms wrap around her and the distinctive smell of rum in the air. Her first thought was that it was Jack, but realized that it was actually Will, awake and with a hangover, but still comforting his ex-fiancé. She leaned into his shoulder and cried. Will, having held in his emotions for a week, let the tears fall down his cheeks and into her hair as he stroked it.