Nothing comes easily
Fill this empty space
Nothing is like it was
Turn my grief to grace

I just want to feel your embrace...

Even now as she stood on the deserted beach, waiting for her husband, as the Black Pearl sailed off into the distance, Elizabeth Turner wondered how things had become so complicated, so convoluted, so….wrong. As the light breeze swept through her hair on this now gloriously sunny day, it was agonizingly bittersweet to know that at last they were married….but with such suffering ahead of them.

She glanced back at the longboat and the small but adequate provisions inside – a canteen, fruit and bread, and a blanket – and grew impatient for Will's presence, yearning to touch him, to wrap her arms around him, to know that he was really and truly alive – though now immortal, her mind tauntingly amended.

Her eyes returned to the sea, to the Flying Dutchman, Will's charge – his prison – for the next decade. Her heart ached realizing that his was now locked in a chest, and she summoned all of her strength to will away the sadness; there would be no tears on this, their one day together.

As Elizabeth looked out at the ocean, Will suddenly appeared behind her, the Dead Man's Chest in his hands, a soft throbbing emanating from within. He gazed at his love, his wife, her slender form appearing so tiny against the vastness of the sea, and knew that now was not the time for such a presentation. He gently laid the chest upon a rock then, thinking better of it, took off his jacket and draped it over top; they needed no reminders of the harsh future that awaited them after the bliss of today.

He was about to call out her name when, seeming to sense his presence, Elizabeth turned around and their eyes met. For a moment, they simply looked at one another, overcome with emotion at seeing the other there before them. Then merely looking was no longer enough.

"Will," Elizabeth said, running to him and throwing her arms about his neck as he held her closely in a loving embrace. "I thought I'd lost you."

"And I you," he breathed into her hair, cherishing the chance he thought he would never have to touch her, to hold her, once again.

Will pulled back to look upon Elizabeth, to memorize the contours of her beautiful face. As they gazed at each other, the sense of relief and euphoria at their reunion – which only minutes before had seemed impossible – began to melt away as the harsh reality of their situation begged notice; it would not be ignored. They could see it in one another's eyes, but neither wished to speak it, as if voicing the words aloud would make them more real.

At length, Will was the first to say it. "Ten years."

"It's so long…..so very long," Elizabeth whispered, her voice wavering as wayward tears filled her eyes.

Will reached out to her in silent comfort, for what could he say? There was nothing that could change the bitter truth. His hand tenderly cupped her cheek, her hair cascading across his fingers.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, savoring his touch as her heart cursed the errant tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. Not now, her heart screamed. Not yet. There will be time enough for sadness, but not now while he is yet in your arms.

She smiled lovingly, speaking the other truth, the happy one that kept them going now. "But you're here," she murmured, "my husband, and I love you so."

Her smile was mirrored on Will's face as he realized his lifelong dream: Elizabeth calling him her husband. Bending, he brought his lips to hers, their kiss saying what words could not. The kiss quickly intensified, escalating in passion as Will held Elizabeth tightly to him, her fingers clutching at his hair as his tongue twined with hers.

Slowly breaking the kiss, she stepped back from his arm. Reaching down into her belt and pulling out her sword, she stabbed it into the sand; there would be no more fighting today, only love. Elizabeth looked up to Will as he withdrew his own sword, expecting him to place it besides her sabre. Instead, he smiled softly at her as he crossed his sword with hers.

After they had become one for the first time, wishing to spare her modesty, Will had attempted to retrieve the blanket to cover Elizabeth, but she would have none of it. She had just given him her innocence and she was never going back to the restricted woman she once was. She was going to lie naked in the sunshine wrapped in nothing but his arms, swim with him bare in the surf, and cling to him upon the sand, making love countless times…..until he must leave her.

At the moment, husband and wife lie entangled together, surrounded by each other, her head resting on his broad chest as he lovingly caressed the soft, silky skin of her back, murmuring endearments into her ear between gentle kisses.

Will's eyes followed the length of Elizabeth's nude form, already finding himself wanting her again. Reaching down, he lightly brushed away the stray granules of sand that had alighted on her thigh.

His expression turned rueful. All those days and nights at the smithy and on their beach when they wanted each other desperately, when they could have easily fulfilled their desires then and there, he had held back, wishing to give her perfection – and still they ended up consummating their union upon an open beach not all that different from their own.

Will sighed as his hand took the place of the now removed sand, whispering scarcely loud enough for her to hear, "It's not as I promised."

As she lie nestled against his chest, his words came flooding back to her...

"Everything will be utterly perfect for us, I promise you that. And when we are finally man and wife, when we are finally one - in all ways - it will be borne of purity and love, and wholly beyond reproach."

Looking up at him, Elizabeth smiled, her heart in her eyes. "It is exactly as you promised." He tenderly kissed her lips, calling to mind his heated kisses on other parts of her body. She shivered softly. "It's better than I dreamed. Different, but better…." Her mind searched for a word to embody all that they had just experienced. "…..More," she settled on, "more than I ever imagined….Beautiful."

Gently rolling over, deftly switching their positions so he now lie atop her, Will kissed Elizabeth once more, this kiss longer, deeper, more insistent. He wished to make love to her again, to relive the sensations that had sent them both on a dizzying ascent to the heavens.

Yet, breaking the kiss, he looked into her eyes. Having already delved into how their present reality deviated from their previous hopes for the future, he found he must ask the question that lingered at the corner of his mind.

"Are you happy, Elizabeth?"

Knowing what he truly meant, but not wishing to have such a painful discussion just yet, she answered him truthfully, hoping her words would be enough for the moment. "Deliriously. How could I be anything but? I'm finally lying here in your arms – as your wife."

Will brushed his lips across her collarbone, grateful for the confirmation of her present happiness, but knowing she had avoided the underlying question – and he still needed to know. "Yes, my love, but are you completely happy….with your choice? Knowing what you do now, how things must go for us, what we must suffer to be together, would you still have married me this morning?"

Elizabeth sighed softly, sadness creeping into her eyes at the contemplation of things she did not yet wish to fill her mind. Nevertheless, she understood his need to hear her answer. "Will, if you hadn't asked me on the Pearl, I would've asked you now, even after all that's happened. Even with you now the Captain and bound from my arms for a decade's time, I still want nothing more than to be your wife, to share your name, to lie in your arms, to worship your body as you worship mine. What we must face will be difficult – painful beyond our current comprehensions – but it has not, could not, alter my love and devotion toward you or ever change my mind, nothing could."

She smiled as his eyes fell closed in blissful relief at her words, his forehead resting upon her chest. Elizabeth lovingly stroked Will's curls, thinking over all they had been through since their initial attempt at matrimony more than a year ago.

At length, she confided, "The only thing I would have done differently is to relive those months with you on our way to Singapore.….When I think of the chances we squandered, all those moments we could have been together…..Had I only known what little time we had left….."

Will lifted his head from the comfort of her breast to regard her face, hoping to impart to her a portion of the comfort she had bestowed upon him.

However, looking into his eyes, the sadness vanished from hers. "I don't want to waste the time we have now mourning the loss of things that can't be changed," Elizabeth softly continued. "I have you now….It's not enough. It could never be enough….But it will be; it must be. Somehow, we shall make it be."

"Oh, Elizabeth," he breathed her name as if it were his very salvation, "I will give you all the things I promised. The life we wished to have will still be ours…..It is not lost, only delayed. One day, we will be together."

Her hands slid from his hair, one resting upon his back as the other clutched at his hip, pulling him against her. "Make love to me, Will," Elizabeth passionately implored. "Let me lose myself in you."

His heart leapt, eager to comply, as he fervently pressed his lips to hers.

As Elizabeth had wished, neither spoke again of the painful truth, saving the necessities of planning their future reunion and discussing how and where she would live until later in the day. They made love again and again, exploring one another's bodies, enacting long harbored fantasies beneath the canopy of a crystal blue sky.

At Will's suggestion, they frolicked in the salty waters in the midafternoon sunlight, laughing and splashing one another until the heat between them reignited and their bodies found their way together in the warm waters.

They had been kissing madly in the sea for neither one knew how long when, just as Will was prepared to drift back to shore and have his way with Elizabeth in the pounding surf, she pulled back away from him, an impish look in her eyes.

He was so swept away by raging desires, the telling gleam that normally would have alerted him to her impending mischief escaped Will's notice. He bent to reclaim her lips, but Elizabeth darted away from his kiss, abruptly swimming to shore. Dazed, it took Will a moment to realize what had happened but, grinning, he was soon in hot pursuit.

They raced up the beach, the currents carrying them to shore at points slightly askew, and stopped on either side of their crossed swords. Their gazes intertwined, focusing intently in a visual standoff, each attempting to discern the other's next move. Losing – or perhaps winning – Will was the first to look away, his eyes leaving hers to flit down and back up her naked body.

Meeting her eyes again, his own were darkened with lust, adding a new heat to their playfulness, as Elizabeth's breath began to quicken, already aware of what was to come. Will suddenly lunged for her, sweeping her up into his arms and kissing her wildly as he stumbled up the beach to lay her softly upon the sand, their kiss never breaking as he swiftly covered her body with his.

Will's lips found their way down her neck and chest in a nibbling descent that left Elizabeth gasping as she arched into his body. Placing one last kiss between her breasts, he brought his mouth back to hers, stopping with his lips a mere hairbreadth from hers as he whispered, "All I want to touch, taste, and breathe is you, until it's time for me to go."

They hungrily devoured one another's lips as if they were starving – for they very soon would be – each savoring the taste, for the next was many years away.

AN: For my take on what happens next, check out my post-AWE (really more of a "Ten Years") fic, The Key To Immortality – especially as my very next story will be its sequel, The Healing Touch. Thank you so much to everyone who read this story (and a special thanks to those who faithfully reviewed each chapter). It's always a lovely surprise to find that there's someone who's simply reading, let alone enjoying, my stories. I love the characters of Will and Elizabeth so very much that I think I would continue writing if only for myself, but it's very nice to know that there's someone else who appreciates the Willabeth world I've tried to extend from the films. So thank you all very much!

And in case you're wondering, the lyrics at the beginning of the chapter are from a beautiful song by Kate Havnevik called "Grace".

I'm probably going to take a short break now that Courtship is finished to focus exclusively on the outline for The Healing Touch, but I hope to have the first installment published in no more than 1 ½ to 2 weeks.

Thank you all for reading!