“Thank you,” Jack said, striding out of the room quickly passed him. He picked up pace, still wondering why she had come. To congratulate you? To hate you? To give you something else from Will? Speaking of which, what about his key? She still had it from last night at the gravesite…

He opened the cabin door with a creak, and Elizabeth looked over from the porthole window expressionless. He stepped inside and shut the door with care and without so much as a click. He pulled himself tall against his spine, casually walking over to her. His heart beat faster ever so slightly, but he refused to acknowledge the fact as he stood beside her.

“And what brings you here, Miss Swann? Can’t go a night without me, can you?” he asked with a grin at her. Elizabeth looked over at him, trying to remain firm, but a traitorous smile emerged, causing Jack’s to grow. “I knew it.”

She sighed, walking away from him. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything for you today, Jack,” she immediately said, trying to skip over all the awkwardness she felt. “I was not permitted to.”

“The law hasn’t really been an obstacle for you recently,” Jack said, picking something off his vest and dismissing it to the floor. He walked up to her. “You’ve just hopped from ship to ship running from what you used to be...”

Her eyes narrowed; he suddenly annoyed her immensely. “I guess I didn’t like who I used to be then, did I?” she asked.

“Then why are you back here sleeping in a feather down bed, wearing extravagant dresses, and bathing daily again?” Jack asked.

“Because I still have an inkling of civility in me,” she countered. Where was all this coming from?

“Yes, you and your society… I forgot…” he mused sarcastically. “The same one Lord Beckett resides in…”

Elizabeth suddenly lost her temper, lashing out at him in a low, angry voice. “Do you have any idea what I went through after you left me standing there last night?!” she asked, eyes barging into his.

“No,” he said, unfeeling. “What?”

The savage hate beneath her suddenly vanished, tightening her throat again. She inhaled sharply while looked at his chest. Her eyes rested there in a stupor. “Beckett proposed to me.”

Jack had a similar reaction to that of Norrington’s the night before – a number of mixed anxieties aside from hope that she did not do what he feared she did. “Another fine, lasting engagement to one of Port Royal’s magnificent heroes then?”

“Yes,” she whispered tearfully, “but not to him.”

Jack’s eyes clouded with confusion as she looked up at him. “Not to the Lord High Admiral?”

“No,” she said. “To the Commodore.” Her eyes drifted away from his shamefully. “Again.”

“And how did you manage that?” Jack asked blatantly, walking over to his deck to drink a swig of rum.

“How do you think?” she asked stingingly. “I told Lord Beckett that James asked my hand in marriage earlier that evening, although… he really didn’t.”

Jack couldn’t help it – he smiled through his drink.

“Does the brave Commodore know he’s all set to marry you again?”

“Oh yes,” Elizabeth said immediately. “Though we don’t plan to go through with it at all. It was only my excuse to save myself from Beckett, and he knows that. It was my only option at the time to get out of a horrid marriage. There was no other way; I know he would not have accepted ‘no’ for an answer..." Her murmurings turned dark. "He was up to something…”

“You do realize that in attempting to get out of a marriage you only created one, aye?” Jack asked her, holding out the bottle for her to take a drink.

“Yes, I’m well aware,” Elizabeth said, grabbing the bottle from him moodily, “but we aren’t going through with it.” She took a deep gulp from the bottle, handing it back to him. “Right now we’re only a show. My father doesn’t even know, though we know Lord Beckett intends to spread the word, no doubt.”

Jack was utterly shocked. “The Commodore’s actually making a mockery of all this with you?” He tilted the bottle back quickly, feeling the rum go down with a burn. “And what if you do end up having to exchange vows?” he asked hoarsely.

She gave him a level glare in return. “We won’t. And if so… He’s better than Beckett… Well, he’s more tolerable now. I think being drunk for months on end did something good to him.”

“Fair argument,” Jack concluded with a nod. “So you’re again engaged to the strapping Commodore, though neither of you have intent of getting married… instead you’re laughing because you’ve made a fool of Beckett…”

“Yes,” she said, wiping her eyes. “It has a satisfaction about it. I know I still have a predicament, but it’s not as difficult to handle, Beckett compared to James.”

“I sense a fondness,” Jack said from out of nowhere. Elizabeth mouthed wordlessly a moment, a hint of red in her cheeks.

“W-well yes, I’m rather fond of him now. Now that he’s a new man who can recognize the wrongdoing of Beckett and the pleasure of slouching every now and then… But I don’t love him. If that’s what you are in fact implying.”

“No,” Jack said. “You’re just a little less stubborn toward him now, is all.”

“You know, I came here to be comforted, not more unsettled than I already am.”

Jack lifted an eyebrow curiously, regarding her differently. “Comforted?”

She didn’t meet his gaze, eyes darting about on the splintered floor. Her eyes watered more, and her voice softened multiple levels. “I thought you had left me last night,” she admitted quietly. “I thought… you had run because…”

Since she couldn’t bring herself to say it, Jack did, with realization. “Because I killed him.” He commended her for not losing her composure entirely at the words (though she had come close) as she fought to find her voice again. She looked over at him.

“Why did you stay?”

Jack didn’t want to tell her what a blighter move he had made at the jail, arriving just as Beckett had come to check on him. He didn’t want to tell her how much she weighed in on his decision either. But he did give her what he considered enough of the truth.

“Not enough time to find the necessary means out.”

She nodded as she looked away, hoping he would have said something else. Then again, he was a pirate. A selfish, self-centered pirate worried about only himself. She couldn’t blame him, though; perhaps given the positions reversed, she would run at an open opportunity. Jack’s voice brought her out of her reverie.

“I might have escaped later after Beckett’s visit, however,” he said, “but I didn’t. Have. My. Key.” Elizabeth felt the comment wrap around her under his eyes, and she looked up. He came very close to her with a deep expectant gaze, sending her thoughts askew for a moment. “Where is it?” he inquired.

“In my vanity drawer,” she said, a challenge in the present tone. “Top one on the left.”

“I want it back,” he told her with a serious eye.

“Why?” she asked. “You’re not imprisoned at the current.”

“It’s my key,” he said. “It was left to me. And I want it back tomorrow night when you return.”

Elizabeth looked at him skeptically. “And what makes you think I’ll be coming here tomorrow night?” Jack’s golden grin took no time to appear.

“Three nights I’ve been here, and three nights I’ve seen you,” he said. “Call me dithered, but I have irksome conjecture I can’t seem to throw.”

Elizabeth looked away from him guilty and angry – angry that he could read her like that and be right. She wished that he had murdered Will just so she could kill him at that point in time, but she knew it would be useless. As much as he loathed him sometimes, she found comfort in him that she could find nowhere else (even though Norrington, admittingly, was close). In the end, her anger melted into silent tears as she looked up at him.

“I know your innocent,” she said at length. Jack narrowed his eyes on her.

“Really?”

“Yes,” she replied without hesitation. She kept eye contact. “I know you didn’t do it. You wouldn’t have... I know you.”

Jack scoffed at her, as unfeeling of a gesture as it was. “You know me?” he asked, a bitterness lingering in his voice. He pressed his eyes into her. “Just how well do you think you ‘know me,’ Elizabeth? What if it turned out I was the one holding that bloody sword what killed you precious William? I’d say you wouldn’t know me very well if that were the case.”

“But that isn’t the case.” It was more of a plea than anything. She kept intense concentration on not looking away from him, shaking her head slightly in denial. “You didn’t do it.”

“You seem very certain,” Jack chided. “Is there any evidence to prove your claim you have to share?”

“You wouldn’t have done it,” she repeated defiantly. Annoyed, Jack said, “And why not?”

Elizabeth’s cunning ceased, her heart retaliating something fierce against her rib cage. She met his stone eyes with a weak hold on herself, wishing he would not look at her so coldly, for it reminded her of Beckett. She also saw the same humor in his eyes that Beckett could conjure, and her mentality hardened, along with her face.

“Because you and I both know how you feel about me, Jack,” she forced out in a shot of winded breath. She took a step closer, all intent on playing by his rules if need be. “I know you haven’t forgiven me, and honestly, I don’t blame you. But you still can’t seem to resist… can you?”

She looked down at her waist, seeing his arm already wrapped around it. She looked back up at him expectantly while Jack cursed himself for giving in. Her hypnotic voice did it again. Damn it. He tried to pull away, but his arm was suddenly a dead weight. He cursed inwardly before releasing his charm upon her.

“I’m still curious as to what being a good man tastes like,” he whispered lowly, taking a pin out her hair and allowing it to fall haphazardly around her shoulders.

“Your last taste wasn’t enough?” Elizabeth asked quietly.

A reflexive quiver ran up Jack’s spine. He found it completely unfair that she could do that. His eyes darkened as he caressed the skin under her jaw. “I don’t count that one,” he said. “It was quite tainted with betrayal…”

She just looked at him evenly, knowing she deserved the blow, and she took it without a hint of frustration or anger surfacing.

“Pirate,” she mused as a cruel irony. Jack saw a weak smile in her eyes, but it suddenly vanished as she lifted her head and touched his lips with hers. At the glorious sensation, Jack took over, pouring into her steadily more and more.

Elizabeth felt the lust in his kiss, but she didn’t fight him. She simply had a feeling moving through her that she had longed to feel since laying eyes on Will that cold morning – reassurance. She needed it, drawing him closer, desperate to flood out the anguish sunken in her chest these long days.

Jack hands began to wander as their kissing became moderate, however, his sinful self not seeming to care about all the principles he was violating, not to mention the personal space, and-

“JACK!!”

The two guilty parties leapt apart, standing awkwardly before each other as Gibbs appeared in the doorway panting, too preoccupied to notice their disheveled attire (much to the relief of Elizabeth). Jack cleared his throat and exhaled soundly, turning to his first mate.

“Erm, what? What is it?”

“There’s men here looking for her,” Gibbs said, nodding to Elizabeth urgently. “She best get out of here and fast.” She and Jack exchanged looks, his somewhat disappointed that they could not continue their… this evening.

“Get them down in the cargo or something,” he said to Gibbs before turning to Elizabeth. “Once they go down these stairs out here, leave.”

She nodded wordlessly, exiting the room with Jack and Gibbs. She hid under the stairs as Jack directed the soldiers farther down into the ship. Her heart pulsated faster than it should have been, but she knew one thing for certain if it were anything:

He was a good man.

Her flashing eyes met Jack for an instant, and he motioned for her to get up the stairs quickly. As he retreated into the hull after the soldiers speaking loudly and avidly, Elizabeth dashed up to the deck as swiftly as she could without being seen.

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