“Jack!”  Gibbs waved at him from down the island and Jack nodded in silent acknowledgement of the other man’s presence.  There had been no sign of Elizabeth in the cove of trees he had spent his time in, nor had there been any evidence of her further into the island, save for the occasional broken and drained coconut.  “Find anything we can use?”

 Jack held up the two coconuts he had procured from one of the trees.  “And plenty more where these came from!”

 “Coconuts?”

 “Yes Mr. Gibbs.  I know you would prefer something a bit more substantial, but it appears that Barbossa wouldn’t maroon us with even hard tack.”  A slight grin appeared on his face.  “So coconuts it is for now.  We’ll explore more in the morning.”

 Gibbs nodded, slightly distracted.  He would deal with the issue of food later.  At least he wouldn’t starve.  But there were more pressing matters to attend to, one he knew Jack wasn’t going to like.  A worried frown appeared on his face as he watched the captain carefully setting down their hastily acquired meal. 

 “I don’t like that look on your face, Mr. Gibbs.”  Jack’s voice had dropped dangerously low.  His eyes narrowed on his first mate as the man continued to avoid looking into his eyes.

 “Just walk with me, Jack.” The words were tired, coming out in pained, clipped syllables.

 “Why?”  He was suspicious and rightly so.  What Gibbs needed to show him wasn’t something Jack wanted to see, not something Jack wanted to face, maybe even something Jack wasn’t quite ready to face.

 “Just do it Jack.  It’s one of the only things I’ve ever asked of you.”  He was desperate, clearly more desperate than Jack had ever recalled seeing him.

 Jack acquiesced with a nod.  “I know I’m not going to like this much.”  The words were muttered under his breath, but Gibbs heard them nonetheless and winced.

 Turning to walk along the beach, Gibbs didn’t wait for Jack.  He knew he would follow him.  They had been through so much together over the years.  After Jack had rescued him from himself, well, he had found he was wholly devoted to the pirate.  He’ll consider this a betrayal.  Would he though?  He had heard the words Jack spoke about Elizabeth, had heard the anger and shocking bitterness he had never though the jovial captain was capable of.  But all of that was caused by something deep inside the man, buried so deep that perhaps the captain didn’t really understand where it all came from.

 Jack fell into step alongside Gibbs, their footsteps in the warm sand the only sound for the first few minutes of their walk.  It wasn’t exactly a companionable silence, not this time at least.  But it was quiet, peaceful..and slightly anxious.

 Jack suddenly stopped walking.  “She’s here, isn’t she?”

 Gibbs stopped walking to turn and face Jack and found he couldn’t quite get any words out.

 The silence was all Jack needed to confirm his suspicions.  Gibbs was nothing, if not completely obvious.  The man ultimately made a lousy pirate.  Oh sure, he had a great interest in treasure and riches, and an uncanny ability to know exactly when Jack needed a bit of rescuing, but his ability to lie and his believing in all sorts of crazy myths, especially about the great Captain Jack Sparrow, made him less than successful in his chosen “career.”

 “You spoke to her?”  The words were out of Jack’s mouth before he could stop them, a curse nearly following, choked down before he allowed it out of his mouth.  He should turn around, walk back to their pile of wood, light a fire, and ignore that fact.  She was here.  He had abandoned here her over three years ago.

 And he would have to face her. Curse you Barbossa and your infernal mutinies.

 “No Cap’n.  I saw her from a distance.  I…well, I felt it best that perhaps you be there when we first approach her.  I never was good with the ladies.”

 A smile flitted across Jack’s countenance.  “You do have your moments.”  The smile turned into an outright grin, even a leer. “You remember that time…”

 Gibbs laughed out loud, feeling the tension drain from him momentarily.  “Oh aye I do.”  The two shared a knowing smile.  “That woman was…well, she weren’t like no woman I’ve ever known before.  Ah the things she could do…”  That took him back many years, back to when he and Jack had been fairly young, completely certain of themselves, and not marked by all that had happened since.  Those had been calm, perfect days, before the mutinies, before the Kraken and the Locker, before the war with the East India Trading Company, before Elizabeth.  Gibbs was often loathe to admit it, even to himself, but the captain had changed since they met the woman.

 “I need to continue on alone, Joshamee.”  It wasn’t often Jack called him by his given name.  It meant something, meant this was important to Jack in ways he wouldn’t even attempt to guess at.  “Go back to where we started from, start a fire, enjoy a coconut.  I’ll join you later.”

So this was it then.  Three years and two months of not thinking about the girl who had banished him to the netherworld, three years and two months of not thinking about the too-large teeth of the Kraken, or his stay in the Locker, or the subsequent rescue, or anything that had led up to their parting.  And now he was here, just a short distance away from the woman.  Bugger suddenly seemed like such a mild word.

 “Alright Jack ol’ boy.  It’s time to rescue her again.”  He took a deep breath, then another, and then one more before continuing on his way, trudging over the rise and fall of the small sand hills.  He followed the island around a slight curve, wondering how far Gibbs had walked before coming across her, when he spied a figure down the beach further.

 Affecting a swagger, he walked the last bit of distance toward her.  “Why Miss Swann, fancy meeting you here!” he shouted when he was still a good twenty feet from her.  She didn’t turn around, didn’t even acknowledge his presence.  In fact, she didn’t move at all, not a flinch, not a jerking of the wrist, nothing.  Jack paused for a moment, surprised.  “Miss Swann?”  He shouted her name again, even venturing on to call her by her married name.  Nothing. 

 He took another step toward her and, for the first time, noticed her companion.  The small, scruffy dog stood and moved out from under the arm Elizabeth had draped over him.  He turned and walked partway toward Jack, stopping to growl and bare his teeth at the man who dared intrude on his little world. 

 It was finally then that Elizabeth moved.  He heard her voice, tentative and surprised.  “Sammy?”  She turned to look at the dog and he watched as her eyes first lit on the dog and then followed along the path of his gaze to finally come to rest on him.  She cocked her head to the side, a deep furrow appearing between her eyes.  “Jack?”

 “Aye.”  She was thinner than he remembered.  Much thinner.  Even from a distance of twenty or so feet, he could tell that her cheekbones stuck out much further than he remembered, the skin around them having sunken in to dramatically accent them.

 “Jack!”  She stood suddenly, perhaps too quickly for she swayed dramatically, causing Sammy to bark again and causing Jack to suddenly spring into motion.  He caught her before she was able to fall, arms coming around her skeletal frame, sinking to the ground with her to cushion the fall.  He landed hard on his knees with Elizabeth thrown carelessly into the crooks of his arms.  He set her down, letting her come to rest on the warm, comfortable sand.

 She wouldn’t be down for long, though, as she quickly bounced back to her knees.  “Jack!  You came back for me.  I knew you would.  You left me here so long ago, told me to wait for William, told me you were sailing off for parts unknown.  I’ve been waiting.  Too long Jack.  Too long!  I need to leave this place.”  Her voice was fervent, desperate. She touched first his face, then his hair, feeling each bead that was in view, and touching his bandanna lightly, then reached down to grasp his hands in as tight a grip as he could imagine she was capable of.

 The light in her eyes was bright, almost too bright.  She looked feverish, strange, a little crazed.  Daft like Jack.  “Elizabeth?”

 She continued on, not even hearing the soft entreaty.  Jack wasn’t even entirely sure what she rambled of, he just simply held her hands as she continued the barrage of words.  God, was this what he had done to her?  Leaving her here for so long with no one but herself to talk to?

 She deserved it, didn’t she?  Yes.  That she did.  This had obviously been her own personal hell, much like the Locker had been his.  By leaving her on this island, by not returning to retrieve her, he had effectively taken away her freedom, deprived her of the sea and the beauty of sailing on the likes of the Black Pearl.  He had tortured her…a fine bit of retribution for what she had once done to him.  She rescued you, Jack.  It somehow seemed appropriate that he be here to rescue her from a similar kind of hell. 

 “Miss Swann!”  The words were sharper and they alone seemed to finally pull her out of whatever world she had gone into upon his appearance.

 “You’re really here, aren’t you Jack?  Tell me this isn’t a hallucination.”  Her voice was soft, amazed, a little bit rougher than he remembered.

 “No.  It’s not a hallucination, love.  I’m here.”

 “So you came back for me?”  A small smile, the first he had seen on her face in a long time, appeared.  She looked so hopeful, so excited.

 “No, love.  No I did not. My being here is an…accident, at best.”  The words came out flatter than he had intended.  No emotion.  The bitterness was just under the surface, threatening to overwhelm him at any moment.  He refused to feel any sort of emotion about this girl.  She was nothing…a slip of a girl, a murderess, a pirate deprived of her freedom and a ship.

 “No?”  Her face fell, the smile turning quickly into a frown.  “So you won’t take me with you when you leave?”  She let go of his hands and turned from him, retreating to her original place on the beach, facing the ocean. “So I am to spend the rest of my days staring out to sea, always longing for that which I cannot have.”  This time it was not a question, rather a statement of fact as she saw it.

 “Well, you see…”  An embarrassed laugh crossed his lips.  “Remember the last time we were on an island very much like this one?”

 Elizabeth turned to look at him, one eyebrow rising, a slightly incredulous look coming into her eyes.  “You lost the Pearl again, Jack?”