Story Synopsis

Ten years is a long time to wait for something. Hector Barbossa knows this experience all too well and so when Elizabeth Turner returns to the island where she promised to wait for her husband, Will Turner, the captain of The Flying Dutchman is about to learn just how hard it really is to wait.

Ten Years Later

Thump, thump.

"Are yeh certain this will work, lass?"

"It has to. I promised him I would be there for him in ten years."

Ten years had passed since she had last seen her childhood friend and husband. Ever since Davy Jones had fatally wounded him and Jack Sparrow had given up his chance at immortality to take pity on the boy and his bonny lass by letting him stab the heart instead, Elizabeth Turner had waited to set free the man whose heart she held in her arms within an iron chest. But now with the question asked and the doubt placed, she knew she was not entirely certain that this would work.

Thump, thump.

"Just askin', don't need to get all testy about it."

Elizabeth cast her dark gaze toward the man who gave her the doubts as to why just being there for Will Turner might not be enough to free him of his duty, his curse. She watched as Hector Barbossa effortlessly pulled back on the oars of the longboat and deeply wished he had not doubted that they could… no, she could free Will. Her gaze shifted past his shoulder to the island ahead of them and then to the young boy who sat at the bow and looked over its edge. He looked so much like his father. Surely he would be testament as to why this should work?

William certainly thought it would at least. "It will work," he said at last with a confidence that his mother felt she was lacking at this moment. Oh how she would love to have again the innocent naivety that her son currently had!

Thump, thump.

Elizabeth Turner pulled the small iron chest closer to her as if trying to reassure herself that by having Will's heart it would be all they needed to free him. And yet within her own heart she felt the doubt that it wouldn't be enough. Not after what had happened in the last ten years.

"T'wouldn't put too much hope in it, boy," Barbossa said with a grunt as he pulled back on the oars again. The sound of them rhythmically splashing into the salty water and dripping as they rose up and out again somewhat helped calm her nerves a little. "Eldritch bargains are a tricky sort. We don't even know if he was ever meant to be free from this duty."

William turned away from watching the approaching island to look at the captain with a determined and defiant stare that seemed to bore into the back of Barbossa's head. "It will work."

"He's givin' me that look again, ain't he?"

"He does take after you," she answered him, and Hector snorted derisively.

"More like he takes after yeh an' the whelp." He glanced over his shoulder for a brief moment to see how close they were to the island and as well to give the younger whelp a stern look. "Reminds me of when you two were reckless fools."

"And like you weren't a reckless fool yourself at times, Hector?" Elizabeth shifted on her bench and put the chest at her feet again. She could still hear the tell-tale thump of the heart inside even though she no longer held on to it. Surely that was a sign that this would work, right?

"Unlike yeh, lass, I have the skill an' experience to not get myself killed." He fell quiet just then to concentrate on the final leg of their journey from The Black Pearl to the island. As he rowed the longboat through the strong waves, doing his best to not allow them to capsize and spill them into the salty sea, Elizabeth took that moment of silence to think about the million reasons as to why she might not be able to free Will Turner. Even as she came up with different reasons, she knew she was only kidding herself with all of them and circling around the one reason as to why it wouldn't work. Her eyes trailed away from the intricately designed chest to stare at that reason currently rowing them to shore.

It had to work. She would not be able to forgive herself if it didn't. She also didn't know what Will would do if he found out as to why it hadn't worked. Elizabeth certainly did not want to be responsible for another Davy Jones. Perhaps you should have considered that first before you went ahead with what you've done, she chastised herself and did her best to not regret her choices.

"Yer not havin' second thoughts, are yeh?" Barbossa's voice sliced through and silenced the guilty voice that was trying to creep up and make her feel miserable and guilty about her decisions.

Elizabeth shook her head and saw the doubt in Barbossa's cerulean eyes as he watched her for a moment, waiting for her answer before he would go back to rowing again. "No. I'm just worried about Will."

"Yeh'll not to be blamed for it, 'Lizbeth," he tried to reassure her. "T'was Calypso who made the rules, an' tis she who should take the blame for what may happen today."

"Yes, but it is I who had to follow them to make sure that all goes well today." She gave a heavy sigh and braced herself when the longboat finally hit bottom at the shore. Her son jumped into the knee-deep water and tried to give a helping hand to the older pirate as Barbossa pulled the boat to shore but was shooed away by him instead.

William let him do it by himself and stared off at the eastern horizon and smiled excitedly at what he saw before darting for the cliffs. "Hurry, the sun is almost up!"

Elizabeth and Barbossa both glanced off at the horizon to see for themselves, and sure enough the sky was turning pink and it would not be long before the edges of the golden orb peeked over the horizon. The Caspian Lord soon had the longboat secured so it wouldn't drift off without them unexpectedly before sitting down on its hull and pulling his hat off to scratch at an itch on his scalp. Elizabeth frowned when it became apparent he wasn't going to follow. "Are you certain about staying here?" she asked him, and he nodded in reply.

"T'would be best that this reunion be just between yeh Turners. No point in addin' uninvited company on a very important moment an' day." He replaced his feathered hat on his head and turned it just right so it settled perfectly on him again. "Besides, should things not go as yeh hope, my presence would only make matters worse."

"You're not Jack, Hector. He wouldn't suspect anything of the sort with you involved." Elizabeth shifted the chest onto her hip to better hold it as she glanced over at the horizon again and the changing of colors in the sky as the morning slowly ascended. "You are the last person he would suspect."

"Nevertheless, I'd rather keep me distance in case this does fail an' he starts suspectin' the truth as to why it has failed." Barbossa stretched his back to work out from his muscles the aches of rowing before he continued with his reasoning. "T'would be an unfair fight should he get it in his head to duel me. For him, that is." He gave her an arrogant smile, and Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him. They both knew who would really win a duel in a fight with the captain of the Flying Dutchman, and Elizabeth understood his reasons for wanting to stay away. And no doubt let Jack take the blame instead. Pirate.

"He'll ask you know."

Hector Barbossa sighed heavily from where he sat and rubbed the back of his neck. He knew what the lass would do if the whelp did indeed ask the question. "Yeh'd tell him."

"He deserves to know and why," she simply replied.

"Muuum!" Both adults seemed grateful for the interruption, and Elizabeth glanced over in the direction of her son and saw him standing impatiently on the path leading to the top of the cliff. She gestured to her son to let him know she had heard him before returning her gaze to her fellow captain.

"Besides, with his abilities you know you can't hide or escape him, Hector. Come with me and lend me your support. I can then at least be there to save your scrawny hide from him," Elizabeth teased but then watched him quietly as he considered her reasoning.

With a disgruntled grunt, Barbossa pushed himself off of the longboat.

"Alright, though if it comes down to it, I say we sacrifice the boy to appease the ferryman." He ducked a half-hearted swat and chuckled as he followed Elizabeth at her side.

"You are incorrigible," she accused.

He laughed.

By the time they reached the top of the cliff, the sun's first rays were beginning to creep beyond the edge of the horizon. Barbossa had chosen to stand off to the side and sit on a large rock to watch as Elizabeth and her son patiently waited for the flash of green that would signify Will Turner's return from the underworld. As they waited, young William broke out into a quiet rendition of Elizabeth's childhood song and stared at the glowing horizon with the eagerness and excitement of a child that could barely wait to see what he had gotten for Christmas. In a way, this day was Christmas to the boy, for it would be his first time in seeing his father.

Elizabeth only hoped that it would not be his last time.

When the flash of green had finally come in a spectacular explosion of color, both Turners immediately fell silent and paid little heed to their companion behind them as they watched the horizon for signs of the ghostly ship. It was the boy who saw it first and looked up at his mother excitedly, looking and hoping to see if she had seen it too. She had and nodded to let him know, tears filling her eyes that would not spill. Whether it was because she was too overjoyed to see the ship and her husband again or because she was far too saddened at what may come to pass, she could not tell.

"It doesn't look very much like a ghost ship or anything like how Uncle Rags described her." William sounded disappointed for a brief moment. He still wore the face of an excited child.

"That's because a good man captains her now, William," Elizabeth informed her son proudly. A good man whose heart I may break if this doesn't work.

A good man whose heart I will break regardless, she amended a moment later as she realized that no matter whether this worked or not, she was going to end up hurting Will in the end. She didn't want to hurt him but now had little choice in doing so. If she didn't, she would end up hurting another man she deeply cared about instead. She hated being stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've made my bed and now I must lie in it.

"Can we go back down to the shore and meet him there instead, mum?" her son asked, and Elizabeth looked down at him, nodding that they could. He quickly ran ahead, leaving behind both his guardians as he hurried to meet his father for the first time. Elizabeth paused before Barbossa and he regarded her quietly. He could see that she was nervous and gave her one of his reassuring smiles before standing up to walk with her. She had every right to be nervous. The excitement and giddiness she had felt upon seeing the ghostly ship again had quickly faded to dread as the thought of the approaching reunion turning disastrous returned to her mind.

"I wish someone else could do this, Hector." She stopped walking and took a shuddering breath to try and calm herself.

Barbossa turned her to face him and he placed his gloved hand on her chin to have her look at him.

"There be only you that can do this, lass. If yeh don't, yeh doom him regardless of whether our relationship dooms him or not." Elizabeth met his gaze and was grateful that Will and William could not see them right now. She stepped closer and rested a moment against the pirate, and Barbossa quietly held on to her, sensing that she needed his comforting presence right now. "Yeh can at least walk away from this knowin' that you kept yer promise to be here in ten years, 'Lizabeth."

"And broke my promise as a wife."

"Shhh," he whispered to her. "Now we'll be havin' none of that, lass. No one could expect yeh, much less a pirate, to remain faithful to a man whom yeh never see save for once every ten years."

Elizabeth lifted her head from his chest and looked at the unkempt pirate and shook her head lightly as if he did not understand. "No. I should have stayed faithful. I had an obligation to remain so for him. By not doing so I probably have doomed him to an eternity at sea. What is ten years then, Hector, next to an eternity of loneliness? You of all people should know what that might feel like. You faced that very same possibility with the coins."

She could see a minute frown crease his lips, and he pulled away from her to walk a few feet and stand alone. Suddenly, she felt like she had said something careless and hurt him. Elizabeth followed him and tried to place a hand on his back, but he shrugged her touch away. "Hector, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

He interrupted her with his sharp voice and shook his head. "No. Yeh didn't mean to, but you had." The Caspian Lord turned around to face her and stared hard at her. "Yer regretting what we've shared over these last few years. Does my love for yeh mean so little next to the whelp?"

"Of course not!" She knew where he was going and quickly stepped up to him to place a silencing finger on his lips before he could say anything more that might make him regret ever saying. "I do not regret what we have shared, Hector. My only regret is that I could not be the wife that Will so deserves. I should have never chosen to marry him that day, love. Knowing now what I know, I would have spared him of this fate. But I do not regret you."

Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest once more, and Barbossa couldn't help but return her embrace. She listened to the steady beat of his heart and wondered if perhaps this was the reason why she loved him so much. He had a living heart that was inside a chest of flesh and bone and not of iron and wood. He was here and in the now, he always had been here for her even when she needed the affection and compassion of a man the most. Will had not. But it was no fault of his; he had little choice in the matter of becoming the captain of The Flying Dutchman.

But because he had not been there for her, her heart had slowly let go of the young man she'd grown up with and fell for the man whom had kidnapped her all those years ago. His infectious laughter had been a soothing medicine to her aching heart. Even his touch had been like a magical cure for her curse of not knowing the warm flesh of men as if he had known all along what it was like to not know and knew she needed it. Ten years was a cruelty that no person should expect another to wait and remain true to.

Hector Barbossa, pirate lord and captain, scourge of the seven seas and all around murderous, mutinous, scoundrel that he was, had become her one anchor in a storm of ten years too long. And now when she needed his support the most, he was there strong and supporting as ever even when he believed that it could mean the end of him should Will decide to take out his grief and anger on the man. Elizabeth hoped that would not come to pass and that she could convince Will to accept that her heart happily lies with another man.

Barbossa pulled back from her when they had tarried for too long on top of the cliff, and he reached up with a hand to wipe away the tears that wanted to spill from her eyes. "Tis time for yeh to face him, lass. We've tarried long enough as it is, an' he'll begin to wonder what is keepin' yeh."

She reached up and wiped at her eyes when he had taken his hand away and nodded in agreement with him. "You're right," she said to him as her gaze turned toward the ghostly ship as it moved alongside The Black Pearl, no doubt upsetting some of the newer crewmen who didn't know the tale of the new ferryman. Elizabeth walked over and bent down to pick up the intricate chest she had brought with her from the gig. "Its time I went through with it and got it over with."

Together they started down the path back to the shore in silence side by side, and as they reached the sandy beach, Elizabeth had taken notice a few feet later that Barbossa had stopped walking with her. She paused and turned to look back at him and watched as he lingered along the edge of the beach, watching her and the sight at the waterline. He nodded for her to continue on without him.

"Yeh don't need me crowdin' the reunion, lass," he told her when she hadn't moved right away. "I'll be here when you three are done gettin' reacquainted."

Any further argument on her part about Barbossa keeping his distance from the Turners or Will in particular had been cut short before it could even begin as she heard her name being called by her husband. "Elizabeth!" She turned her head around and looked over her shoulder at the young man who hadn't aged a day since they had last parted and smiled at the sight of him dressed in a white shirt and dark breeches with a sea-green bandanna around his head. She momentarily forgot about Barbossa as she ran to greet her childhood friend and husband, kicking up sand as she hurried down the beach to him.

Captain Barbossa did his best to not watch but found it far more difficult to do when he had his heart at stake as well. Eventually, he chose to sit under a palm tree and watch the reunion from there. He pulled his hat off and held it between his bent knees and sighed softly while he witnessed Will Turner pick up Elizabeth in his arms and spin her around in joyful happiness, ignorant of what had happened to her in the last few years. The whelp's son was adamantly talking away to one of Turner's crewmen whom he recognized as his old shipmate, Bootstrap, whom he had sent to the depths nearly twenty years earlier. Barbossa hoped that the old man wouldn't confront him about the fate he had been given. The pirate had been asking for it in his opinion.

Will set Elizabeth down on her feet again next to the chest where she had laid it before embracing him and gave her a passionate kiss but soon broke it and gave her a questioning, but worried look. Although Barbossa could not hear what was being said, he could imagine what the conversation was like based on the couple's reactions to each other's words. He could see Turner questioning her about what was wrong with the way he gently held her by the arms and softly spoke to her and Elizabeth unsure how to explain it to the boy as she looked away a bit in shame at her infidelity. She finally found the courage to tell him, and the boy reeled back slightly in shock before it faded to hurt and finally to quiet anger as he asked her whom it was who she had betrayed his heart to. She hesitated in telling him, but Barbossa guessed that her eyes had betrayed her, for the next thing he knew, Will Turner was marching straight for him.

"Knew I should have stayed on the Pearl," he muttered under his breath as he slowly got to his feet to face the heartbroken ferryman. Barbossa stood tall and with a firm hand resting on the hilt of his sword in case the whelp wanted to go straight to the fight rather than try and talk things over with him.

"I would never have expected Elizabeth to fall for your lecherous charm, Barbossa," Will said calmly, but the bitterness of a broken heart just lay beneath the surface. His own hand rested on the hilt of his sword, the same sword that had been Norrington's and later Davy Jones' before it finally had found its way back into its maker's hands. Will stopped several feet from the pirate captain as Elizabeth came running up behind him and tried to keep him from doing anything he would later regret.

"Will!" She placed her hands on her husband's arm, and he pulled it out of her grip before he faced her again with a hurtful stare.

"Why? Why him? I could understand Jack Sparrow and forgive you for such infidelity, but why this lecherous, double-crossing bastard?" Will raged even though he did not raise his voice against her.

"Why, you ask?" Elizabeth was upset that he was not taking this too well and feared that he might engage her lover in an unfair swordfight. "Because he has been there when I needed a husband, Will. He was there when William was born and took a lot more grief from me that night than he rightly deserved. He was there after five years of being alone had finally taken its toll on me. He was there as a father figure to William when he had none at all. If it is any consolation, Will, we were not lovers until recent years. He's been a good friend for most of the decade and only showed this other side of himself to me when I asked him to."

Barbossa watched and listened as Elizabeth tried to explain what had happened to her over the last ten years. He tightened his grip on the sword hilt, his body tense and waiting for what he believed would be inevitable. "You may find it difficult to picture me as anythin' but a heartless scoundrel lookin' for any angles to have what I want, but I assure yeh that everythin' that has happened between us happened because she wanted it to. I was reluctant to acquiesce to her request that night because of yeh, boy."

"So you hesitated only a moment in bedding my wife to consider how much your life was in danger, how very thoughtful of you, Captain." Will sneered sarcastically at the pirate, and his hand drew the sword only an inch. The gesture had not gone unnoticed, and Barbossa was prepared to defend himself from the ferryman.

"Don't be such a callous fool, Turner. I hesitated because I knew how much it would hurt her seeing yeh actin' like this. I tried convincin' her to wait until this day to determine whether yeh be cursed forever or a free man."

"Oh, yes, you really tried to convince her, didn't you?" Will drew his sword quickly and pointed it at Barbossa before the man could even get his own blade halfway out of the baldric's sheath.

Elizabeth protested and tried to pull his arm down. "Stop it! Please! I love you both too much to see you fight each other and knowing that only one of you will come out of it alive. Please, Will, don't do this."

Will Turner glared at her for a moment but softened it at the pleading look she was giving him. "All you had to do was wait for ten years, Elizabeth. Ten years and I would have been free. Now… now I understand how Davy Jones might have felt on his one day."

"So I had to be faithful as well?" Elizabeth was saddened when the young captain nodded to her question. She had failed him after all. It did not matter that she had the heart or that she had been here. None of it mattered when the woman who was supposed to love him had stopped loving him. Elizabeth looked away from him shamefully, and Will seemed to let his heart soften for her again, despite what she had just done to him.

"I had hoped you would be strong enough to resist the temptations of other men, Elizabeth." He reached over to take her chin in hand and turn her face toward him again. She could see an understanding and sorrow in his eyes as he spoke to her. "But perhaps Calypso has asked too much of you in this bargain. Ten years is too long for any person to go unloved and without sensation."

"I'm so sorry, Will."

"So am I." Will let his hand drop from her and watched her shed a few quiet tears now that she knew he was condemned to an eternity at sea and only one day on land every ten years.

Hector Barbossa took advantage of the distraction that Elizabeth inadvertently provided and drew his sword and snapping it up to swat Turner's own blade away from his throat.

Will snapped his gaze back to the pirate captain and pushed Elizabeth out of the way. "But I will not be sorry for you, Barbossa. If it had not been for you seducing her, she would not have strayed. And don't go saying that you haven't been either! You are a pirate, not a gentleman! A gentleman would have never laid a finger on her and saw to it she stayed faithful to me!"

Barbossa sighed wearily and stepped back to give himself room to defend himself from the angry boy. "That be the second time yeh've impugned me honor, boy! I'll give yeh the chance to walk away now an' accept yer fate with dignity before I hand it to you on a silver platter."

"You don't stand a chance, Barbossa."

Will swung his sword at the older pirate, and instead of two blades connecting like both men had expected, a third connected and locked them all in battle. Both Will and Barbossa turned to stare incredulously at Elizabeth as she kept them from fighting each other for the moment.

"Elizabeth…" Will started to say but she interrupted him.

"No! Do not Elizabeth me, Will Turner!" She was angry. They both could see that as her sword arm trembled both from her emotions and from trying to hold them both locked together with her sword. "I am deeply sorry that I have hurt you, but if you cannot accept what has happened for my sake, Will, then please do so for your son. He has waited ten years for his father, and he admires Captain Barbossa as a mentor. Do you want your own son to fear and hate you for what you may do here in heartbroken anger?"

Will blinked at her. and all eyes turned toward the shore where Bootstrap was with the young boy. William was staring at them wide eyed and worried as he watched the three adults fight and argue. His father seemed to lose the will to fight Barbossa anymore and unlocked his sword from the others before lowering it. "No, I do not want him to."

"Then please, let me go, Will." She lowered her own sword and stepped back up to him. Elizabeth placed her hand on his cheek, and her husband turned into her touch fully. "I still love you enough that I do not want to see you become another Davy Jones. Please. Let me go."

"I cannot help feel the same way he did, Elizabeth."

"Then be the better man an' not follow the same path as he, lad. Grieve for yer loss an' take pride in the fact that yeh have left a legacy behind." Barbossa suggested and nodded toward William. "He wants a father, an' although he'll only see yeh for one day every ten years, I believe the ferryman can write letters to the mortal world an' that can make up the other days durin' those ten years. Do yer duty, lad, an' let bein' a father to yer son motivate yeh to remain true to that duty."

Will glanced back at the boy standing beside his father and watched him watch them with the innocence and curiosity of a child who wanted to know more about the men who shared his last name. "Do you really believe that, Barbossa?"

"The boy has longed to know yeh for as long as he first became aware that he had a father. He wants to know yeh."

"If you do not believe us, Will, go ask him yourself," Elizabeth added as she stepped away and stood beside Barbossa once more. "I may not be able to free you from the curse, but he can free you of your burden in sailing alone. I only ask that you forgive me in time for my fickle heart."

"Speaking of hearts," Will walked over to where they had left the chest and picked it up off the ground. Barbossa and Elizabeth had followed him, though Barbossa a bit more reluctantly until she had pulled on his sleeve to beckon him. "I'd rather not leave this in the care of someone who is going to be around a bunch of pirates that wouldn't think twice about using it, but I have no one else to entrust it with."

Elizabeth walked up to him and placed her hands on the chest he held before she took it from him. "It's the least I can do for you. The heart will be safe with us."

The pirate captain nodded behind her. "I've no intentions of controllin' yeh nor takin' yer place, lad."

Will nodded. "Good. Since I have this day to myself still, I… would like to spend it with my son instead."

Barbossa saved them from an awkward departure by simply taking his lover by the arm and gently guiding her away from the three William Turners. "Leave the chest here with them, an' let's go for a walk, lass."

As they walked away, Elizabeth could not help but look back and watch as the father of her son knelt down and began talking to the boy while the elder Turner stood nearby and watched with great pride. She may have wronged her husband by choosing Barbossa for a lover, but she was grateful that things turned out better than she had hoped. Will would continue to serve as ferryman of souls, but he would do so with pride and as a father instead of a husband while she and Barbossa moved on with their lives content in knowing that their forbidden relationship had not given birth to another Devil of the Seven Seas.

The End