My first POTC fic! YAY for me! Okay, so I obviously don't own POTC, *sighs* and I make no profit from this *Louder sigh* And this is purely for my (and your) enjoyment!

Pease, please, please, read and review. Reviews are love! 3

It was mid-June, and a party, of sorts, was being held in Port Royal. There was plenty of music, food and dancing, with young men and women all in lovely costumes. The men wore masks with their waistcoats and boots, while the women, also in masks, donned their loveliest dresses and shoes and all enjoyed themselves.

All, that is, except for the woman the party was being held for, it seemed.

She sat at a small table with her father, the Governor, and watched the other people dancing and laughing. The night air brought a chill to her only half-covered arms, and she shivered slightly in her dress. She smoothed down the deep cobalt fabric and absentmindedly traced the silver designs with her finger. Governor Swan looked at her worriedly.

"Elizabeth, dear, what's wrong?" He said, taking her hands in his.

"Nothing," She said crisply. Looking out once again at the dancers, she sighed. Seeing the beautiful lanterns strung up over the patio outdoors, and hearing the string quartet start into a waltz, she found herself wishing she was somewhere else, then immediately feeling guilty for it.

This was her father's idea, and it felt wrong to deny him his wishes, after being gone for so long, and then returning so different from the little girl he had raised. The least she felt she could do before she left forever was to indulge him by attending one masquerade ball in honor of her upcoming wedding.

The thought of her wedding made her stomach twist unusually. Her father didn't approve of her wedding either. Elizabeth had a sneaking suspicion that he had planned this ball with the intention of her finding another beau that she would prefer over her current fiancé.

The governor looked concernedly at her. "Elizabeth, it's the last night before your wedding, go enjoy yourself! Why waste tonight sitting here with me?" He said mildly. Yes. Still trying. Elizabeth sighed and stood up, taking her white and silver venetian-style mask off the small table and fastening it around her head, making sure it didn't get caught in her hair.

She left the small balcony overlooking the dancing women and men, and stepped onto the dance floor as the string quartet finished a waltz, and people clapped politely in appreciation. The musicians started into a more up-tempo dance, and one of the men in a green mask and admiral's clothes gave her a small bow and extended his hand to her.

She took it and let herself be led onto the dance floor. The man spun her around in time to the music, but stiffly, formally.

"Rather nice evening for a dance isn't it Admiral?" Elizabeth said politely from behind her mask. The Admiral nodded.

"It is a shame that such a dance is being held for one unlikely to enjoy it." He intoned.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "How so?" she asked curiously.

"It is likely Miss Swann's thoughts are occupied with her wedding, no matter how…unsavory the groom may be." The Admiral led her in a circle with the other dancing couples. Elizabeth frowned, both at the insult to her fiancé and the realization that the man did not recognize her.

"Unsavory? I have not heard much about this groom, how may it be that the Governor has allowed his only daughter to attach herself to someone not well-suited to her…"

The man twirled her around and explained. "Well, it is true that he is rather, insalubrious." He said, "But it seems that as of late, they have become very well-suited to each other indeed. As for the Governor," he said, ignoring the growing fury in his dance partner's eyes, "it seems his daughter has him bewitched by whatever charms she picked up from those savages that took her summers ago."

Elizabeth stopped suddenly on the dance floor. The Admiral looked at her, puzzled. "Miss?"

"You enjoy your position as Admiral, do you not?" Elizabeth asked coolly.

"Well, yes, I do." The befuddled man said.

"Then I advise you to leave the subject of my fiancé well alone, or I can guarantee you that the word 'employment' will be nothing but a fleeting dream." Miss Swann hissed.

The man took a step backwards, apologies falling from his lips, but he was cut off by another man, dressed in what was unmistakably one of the Commodore's uniforms, but was most certainly not the Commodore.

"You should have learnt long ago not to trifle in those affairs, mate, only leads to trouble." The second man said to the first. He winked at Elizabeth from behind a plain black mask.

The Admiral opened his mouth to say something, but the second man quickly bowed and offered his hand to Elizabeth. "Would you care to join me for the next dance?" Elizabeth nodded gratefully and took the proffered hand.

The Admiral stood dumbfounded as the stranger led Miss Swann to the edge of the dance floor, near the battlement.

"Miss Swann," The stranger said stiltedly, "How did it come to pass that you are spending your last night of maidenhood being pestered by sailors?"

Elizabeth sighed. "Jack, there is no need for formalities; they only sound odd coming from you." The other man was startled for a second, but his formal voice slipped easily into one much more familiar and accented.

"Well, no use trying to deceive you, love," Jack Sparrow grinned under the mask, revealing a few golden teeth. Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Shouldn't you be on the Pearl?" She asked.

"And miss out on your last night before the wedding? Not a chance."

Elizabeth sighed. Jack noticed.

"What's wrong, not happy about tying the knot? Or who you're tying it with?" He said the last part rather concernedly.

Elizabeth gave Jack a lop-sided look. "Oh, Jack, I just feel….like I shouldn't be doing this…it feels…" She grasped for the right word, finally settling on, "..wrong."

Jack gave her a troubled look. "Wrong?" He looked himself up and down quickly.

"Oh, not all of it," Elizabeth said hurriedly, "But the wedding…the arrangements…this ridiculous party…"

Jack gave her a sideways smile, "But, the groom, would he be terribly disappointed to miss out on proper nuptials?"

Elizabeth laughed derisively, "He hates it more than I do, and you know that."

"Then, what is all this for? Your father?"

Elizabeth looked mournfully at Jack. "I'm losing him, Jack. Everything I do is putting me farther away from him, but he won't…just… let go…"

Jack wrapped his arm around her waist. "Then we'll have to get him to loosen his grip a bit, won't we?" Elizabeth smiled warningly.

"Jack…"

The pirate lord pulled Elizabeth to the top of the battlement. A few people stared, but not enough for Jack. He pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the air.

A few ladies screamed, and a couple guards pointed their muskets at the man.

"Ladies, Gentlemen," Jack said loudly, "It has been a most lovely evening, but now I must tearfully inform you that the guest of honor, the lovely Miss Swann, would like you all to stuff it, so she may live as she pleases."

Elizabeth laughed, surprising many of the attendees. "I did not say that."

"You were thinking it." Jack admonished her, before addressing the crowd again. "And I regret to inform you; that after tonight, you shall never see 'Miss Swann' again."

Many people gasped at this, as Elizabeth rolled her eyes and let Jack snake an arm around her waist. "You make it sound as if you're planning on kidnapping me."

"I am." Jack smiled. He looked at Commodore Norrington and announced loudly, "Gents, you will always remember this as the time you almost caught the Captains Sparrow!"

People were still puzzling over this last remark when Elizabeth and Jack gave a grand bow, and pitched themselves into the ocean.

A few guards rushed over to the edge. "Miss Swann!" They called in alarm.

But Elizabeth couldn't hear them over the crash of the waves and the calls of the crew of the Pearl, as it sailed closer to extract their Captain and his lover from the waves.

The Governor sighed and rubbed his temple. A soldier looked at him worriedly.

"Sir? Shall we pursue them?"

"No, there's nothing to be done." The soldier looked at him confusedly.

"We're not to go after her? What about the groom?" he said, "Who's to tell the groom his fiancé has run off with Sparrow?"

"There is no need." The Governor said, defeated, as he poured himself a glass of champagne, and downed it all in a single swig, wincing. "Her fiancé not only knows; he's celebrating it."

The soldier peered over the edge of the battlement, to see Jack hoisting himself up onto the deck of the pearl, and pulling a soaked Miss Swann after him. The two of them stood on the deck of the Pearl, with the Captain's arms around the governor's daughter before the man pulled her into a long slow kiss among the cheers of the crew.

The man sighed and joined picked up his own glass, and raised it to the pair. "Then I wish them Godspeed." The governor nodded and lifted his glass.

"Aye."