This chapter is now edited and should be much improved!
Since Jack and Elizabeth should have been together like, ages ago, and it didn't exactly happen in AWE, I decided to make it happen myself... I don't like Will much, as you'll probably be able to tell. I just like his hotness in the movie, but since that's not distracting me in text, he's going down, haha... Read and review?
You'll never hear this in any nursery story or old sailor's song, but there are different kinds of love. There's brotherly love, which you feel towards someone you love without lust, and there's parental love, of course, the kind you feel towards the little children running in the marketplace when you long to have your own. And then there's expected love, the kind of love everyone always demands you to develop for someone you wouldn't normally choose. The truth is, however, that forbidden love is the most powerful love of all, and it is this love that devours you when you least expect it. In short, it is this love that is unforgettable.
Elizabeth could never remember a sky so blue, a day so clear, a feeling so happy. She glanced to her left on the Black Pearl, where her hand was entwined with Will's, and she marveled at her good fortune. How many young women found a man who loved them so completely?
In spite of the fact that she was lucky, however, she sometimes felt a vague disappointment that she could not explain. She generally pushed these feelings aside, brushing them off the way she brushed dirt off of her skirt after helping with the sails. Why worry about something she didn't understand?
"So, luv, how about some gambling?" Jack came up to the couple, brandishing a deck of cards.
Elizabeth laughed, tossing back her hair. "And lose to you again? I think not, Captain." She wondered how his words could seem so enticing.
"Aye, but surely a lass like you should like to try yer luck-"
"Sparrow, she said NO." snapped Will, jerking Elizabeth closer to him.
"Will! He was just teasing me..." She dropped his hand and pulled away. She didn't like the way Jack was eying their separate hands with a look she couldn't identify. Was that amusement? Or worse, was it satisfaction?
The ship shuddered suddenly, hitting a sharp rock in the middle of the ocean. The rock groaned as it pushed its way through the railing, leaving a jagged gap straight into the sea.
Jack sauntered up to Elizabeth, his voice soft enough for her alone. "Isn't it odd how sometimes you have to push your way through something to get to your destination? That rock wanted in between the railing and the ship, so it-" he paused delicately, stepping between Will and Elizabeth, "-came between them, and now look."
"Captain Sparrow, you should see to your ship," cut in Will.
Jack bowed and walked off, where he could be heard yelling at Gibbs for poor observation skills.
Elizabeth watched him go, wondering.
"Elizabeth, we need to talk." Will had a sour look on his face. It reminded Elizabeth of the time when they were little, when they had eaten plums before they were ripe, and their faces had puckered up.
"About what?" she asked, idly tracing her finger over the broken rail.
"You must never question me in front of other people!"
"Refresh my memory, Will. When did I 'correct you'?"
"When you told me that the captain was just teasing you. You should not have corrected me in front of him! A woman's duty is to respect her husband at all times, and you seem to have forgotten that as of late!"
Elizabeth's voice gained a steely quality. "First of all, Mr. Turner, I am not yet your wife. And secondly, you seem to have forgotten that there is no dominance in this relationship. I believe that I proven time and time again that there is no dominance in this relationship!"
"Elizabeth, if you are going to act like that, then-"
"Will! You're the one who-"
"Me?! I'm not the one flirting with a pirate!"
"JACK?! You are insinuating that Jack and I are- Will! How dare you!"
"I saw you kiss him, I see you look at him!"
"I'm not in love with him, I'm not!" Elizabeth backed up slowly as Will advanced towards her.
"You can't deny that there is something there!"
"There is nothing between Captain Jack Sparrow and me." She furiously hoped that Will did not notice how her words seemed to lack conviction, even to herself.
Will took several steps towards her, and Elizabeth, still backing up, plunged over the rail.
I grew up by the ocean, swimming like a fish when I was hardly more than a babe, my body slick with shining water. The ocean represents transportation, trade, a way of life for me and for my town. We all know the widows who lost their husbands to the sea, but this phrase has always seemed odd to me. I cannot understand losing someone to the sea when the sea has always been my place to find myself. It is for this reason that instead of panicking as I feel myself falling into the bright blue waves, I succumb to them.
Jack was glaring as he reprimanded Gibbs when he heard Elizabeth raise her voice at Will, which startled him. He had never known her to raise her voice at her fiance, and until today had never even seen her pull away from him. Curious in spite of himself, he quickly left Gibbs (He'd apologize later) and crept over to where they appeared to be having an argument.
He arrived to see Will seeming to advance towards Elizabeth. Oh, Lizzie, he heard himself thinking. With her temper, she's not going to think about the rail. She's just going to-
With a splash much too large for her thin frame, she fell through the rail. Swearing, he kicked off his boots and dove in after her, getting a strong sense of deja vu.
But last time, there had not been a sharp rock under the waves. Last time, Elizabeth did not hit her head, and last time, she was not bleeding profusely.
For no reason at all, he thought of a dream he had had a few nights ago, where he and Lizzie were swimming naked through rum under the Caribbean sun.
In awe that their could possibly be such a poor substitute, he dove straight under, opening his eyes in the salty water. Ignoring the burning sensation, he looked around frantically, where he finally spotted her about ten feet to the left of him. Jack pulled her up from under water, trying not to notice the blood dripping from her beautiful face, silently promising her that he would kill Will if he had caused her serious injury. (To hell with it only indirectly being his fault!)
With Elizabeth cradled under one arm, he used his other arm to swim back to the ship, propelling himself through the water. He had seen enough head wounds in his years as a pirate to know how many of them were fatal, and his fear for Elizabeth's life kept the water churning as he kicked.
Finally reaching the ship again, he offered a hand to Gibbs (the crew members had arrived on the scene), and he pulled himself up, snapping at Pintel to start repairing the railing. If only he had repaired the railing before yelling at the crew...
Will moved as if to take Elizabeth from Jack, but Jack put his other hand on his pistol, and Will recoiled though burned. Realizing that Elizabeth was unconscious, he carried her to his personal cabin rather than the one she had shared with Will.
He laid her gently down on his bed, trying not to notice that the bleeding hadn't slowed, trying not to notice her stillness. He felt quickly for her pulse. When he found it beating, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.
His next priority, Jack reasoned, was to stop the bleeding. Fashioning a bandage out of cloth from the bottom of her dress, he tied it tightly around the long gash on her forehead, letting a hand trail down her cheek. Gently wiping off the blood on her face, he brushed her hair back on the pillow.
If she dies, he vowed, he will kill Will. (A/N: will kill Will. hahahahahaha) He will rip him up into little pieces, he will send a blade through his heart, he will-
Elizabeth moaned, fluttering her eyelashes as she struggled to wake. "Shhh," he soothed, pressing a cool hand to her cheek.
She opened her eyes, blinking. "Jack?" she said in confusion.
"Right here, luv."
"What happened?" she brushed a hand across her forehead, "And why is my head pounding like a bloody drum?"
"Your head took a beating as you fell overboard. Go back to sleep, Elizabeth."
It was a sign of her injury that Elizabeth did not argue with him, and instead rolled over and closed her eyes. Jack watched her for several minutes until he heard pounding on his door. Furious that someone would dare to wake her, he tugged open the door.
It was Will, the last person on earth that Jack wanted to see.
"Let me in," he said tightly, trying to push his way in the cabin.
"I think not," replied Jack, unable to keep the chill out of his voice.
"Whether or not you saved her, and whether or not this is my fault, she is still my fiance. I'll thank you not to forget that."
Realizing that the arguing might wake Elizabeth, Jack reluctantly allowed Will to pass, where he immediately rushed over to Elizabeth, shaking her awake.
"Elizabeth!" She quickly awoke, looking generally annoyed that she was no longer sleeping peacefully.
"I was sleeping," she moaned, and shook his hand off of her.
"But Elizabeth, it's Will!"
"It's who?" she frowned in confusion.
"Will, your finance!" He muttered impatiently to Jack, "You didn't mention that something was wrong with her memory!"
"Aye, didn't know that there was..."
"Jack?" Elizabeth suddenly asked.
"Right here, luv."
"How does she remember you?" spat out Will.
"Let's just say that I'm... unforgettable." said Jack, taking his proper place by Elizabeth's bedside.
There now, wasn't that so much better after the improvements? haha