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When the Rum Runs Out	By : Ladykohl Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (All) > Het - Male/Female > Jack/Elizabeth Views: 8482 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Part I
- 2-Part II
- 3-Part III
- 4-Part IV
- 5-Part V
- 1
- 2
Title: When the Rums Runs Out

Author: Kohl Lined Eyes

Rating: NC-17

Chapter Rating: PG

Warnings: M/F, angst, dark themes

Disclaimer: Indeed.

Summary: Post AWE, Captain Jack Sparrow returns to Port Royal, and not even rum can numb the pain. Nothing can help him forget...

Author�s Note:Originally this story was meant to be a one shot... but it expanded beyond that on it�s own. It�ll be about five chapters long at most. I would like to say that I am not a fan of �Sparrabeth� or �Willabeth� or whatever that ship is called... I am just a fan of good story telling. This story happens to be Jack/Elizabeth, but I�m not going to paint Will in a bad light, so I wont be giving the readers an easy out - which is to say I�m not going to make the reader hate Will just so they don�t have to feel bad for rooting for Jack ;-)
This story is going to be dark and very sad... but I am working on another PotC fic that is much more light hearted, so that Will remedy this one a bit. Actually, I have about three PotC fics in the works (one of them will be very dark which will include a verydark!Jack... though the essence of his character will remain intact), so if you enjoy my writing... you will have something to look forward to. Anyway, without further self indulgent rambling, I give you:
***
When the Rum Runs Out

Part I
�Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?�

Elias Canetti
There was something to be said about pain so bad it could make a pirate wish he were dead.
The worst kind of pain was not flesh meeting with a hot branding iron... not even when the iron was in the shape of a P which would mold a young man�s life in to something quite different than it might have been. The worst kind of pain was not the chafing of rough and unforgiving rope as it clung to a person�s neck as it prepared to snuff out that life forever. The worst kind of pain was not even being swallowed whole and alive knowing that it was all your own doing. The burning, the aching, the dying... it was nothing compared to what real pain was...
No. The worst kind of pain, Jack Sparrow realized, was waking up from a rum induced coma only to realize that the things that haunted him in his nightmares were real.
And the rum was gone.
�Why is the rum always gone?� Jack muttered as he threw his feet heavily over the side of his bed in the middle of his cabin aboard the Pearl, and sat up. Flashes of her ran through his mind, and he buried his face in his hands.
Oh, yes,he thought. That�s why.
He imagined her smile... sometimes irritated, sometimes mocking, sometimes sincere, but always - always - beautiful. The first thing he had seen once having been brought back from his sandy hell... was her face. She smiled at him hesitantly - fear in her honey colored eyes. He knew she was afraid that he would be angry with her. She�d chained him to the mainmast of his own ship and had condemned him to death, after all. Not to mention the fact that she had only managed to do so by way of fantastic trickery.
A kiss.
Captain Jack Sparrow - the scourge of the seven seas, fiercest pirate ever to sail the Caribbean, the man who sacked Nassau without firing a single shot... In the end, had been done in by a kiss.
So, yes. He had been a bit... unhappy with her. He had gone so far as to trade her soul for his ship and freedom when the opportunity had presented itself. It was only fair, really. She�d sacrificed him to save herself, no one could have expected that he wouldn�t do the same - only in reverse, as it were. A good man, maybe... but a pirate first. He had no qualms with doing the right thing when it suited him, but doing the right thing when it decidedly did not suit him was much harder. So, when he made up his mind to un trade Elizabeth for the thing he loved most in this world - namely himself - he knew that his feelings toward the girl had become dangerous...
After all the fighting, after so many of his crew were lost, after he�d won back his freedom and his ship the right way but at such great cost... he left Elizabeth and her whelp fianc� at Port Royal and sailed away. He never looked back.
Literally anyway. Figuratively speaking, he never really looked away to begin with... because Jack had realized something over the months he spent in Elizabeth�s company. She was the only woman he had ever met whom had ever really been able to do what needed to be done regardless of how it hurt her to do it. She was the only woman who had ever bested him - who had ever equaled him... who had ever killed him. She had pirate in her... true pirate. And it wasn�t just because circumstances drove her to it. She had been born unto a life of privilege, and so piracy would have been quite unnecessary. No... she was a true pirate because she yearned for the sea, for adventure, and for freedom. That was all a pirate really was. Someone who could not be tied down to something as unchanging as the land and as restricting as a life within the boundaries society had set for them.
He recognized these things in her, and he loved her for it. Loved her with all his heart because she represented everything about life that made it worth living. Everything about being a pirate that made it worth being an outcast for.
She�d been the only person he had ever loved. There was no use in denying that now. Not even to himself...
Jack stood and staggered post drunkenly over to the window that overlooked the moon bathed sea - Port Royal just a ways off in the distance. He could not remember much of the past few days as he had kept himself drunk for most of it, but he did remember one thing. One thing he could never forget even if he drank himself in to oblivion... The reason that he was returning to this place that he had come to only four months before...
FOUR MONTHS EARLIER

�It�s awful bad luck coming back here.� Gibbs had said from the deck of the Pearl as he squinted over the last half mile of ocean, which reflected the sun quite fiercely, that separated them from the stone wall of Port Royal. Jack said nothing for a long moment as he regarded the wall that he had fallen from nearly two years before. The wall Elizabeth had fallen from. That was where it had all started. That fall had set in motion the series of events that had led him here to do what he was about to do. Suddenly it occurred to him that he could turn away now before he did anything stupid. He could sail away and continue on the way he had been for the better half of his life. Nothing had to change.
But looking down in to his compass - the needle pointing fixedly toward the bustling town... Jack knew it would be impossible to turn back now.
�Ready the long boat.� He barked as he snapped his compass shut. �I make this trip alone.�
***
�What is your business--� And that was all the old gray haired man whom had answered the door had been able to get out before Jack knocked him unconscious with his pistol.
�Sorry, mate.� Jack grunted as he caught the man before he hit the ground. �No hard feelings.� He dragged the man�s limp form back in to the mansion, and slumped him down on the first chair he saw in the foyer. He took a quick glance around to make sure no one saw what he had done - resisting the urge to steel something expensive - and headed quickly toward the stairs. He ascended them nervously as each step brought him closer and closer to his reason for being here in the first place.
Elizabeth.
He had asked around the shadier parts of the town and he had been led in the direction of the Governor's mansion. It hadn�t been hard to find... and now that he was here, he was beginning to question his plan. Was she even going to be home? What was she going to say when she saw him? Would she be awfully upset that he had just incapacitated one of her servants? And, another question he realized he hadn�t considered once he reached the hallway at the top of the stairs. Which bloody room was hers?
After several rounds of trial and error, at least two of those having been closets, Jack gently pushed open door number seven...
And there she was.
God, she was beautiful. Her back was turned to him as she gazed out from her window at the view of her town. She leaned slightly on the door frame and played a little with the curling hair that fell over her shoulder. The sun bathed her golden brown locks making them a halo fit for the angel that she appeared to be. Last time he had seen her she had been wearing men�s breeches and a tricorne hat... and now she was dressed in an elegant pale blue gown that accentuated her feminine curves. He had once told her that it should be a dress or nothing, and he had never felt that way more than at that moment.

This... was insane. Even for him.
�Elizabeth.� Jack said in the softest tone he could manage. The woman before him spun around quite suddenly, her hand to her heart, as she let out a startled yelp. Jack backed away a bit and then threw his hands out. �Surprise...?�
Elizabeth�s eyes widened to twice their original size and her hand remained over her heart.
�Jack?� She asked unbelievingly. �What are you doing here?�
�Well, funny story there, love. I�m here for you.� Jack responded with a smile as he took an unsteady step toward her. Elizabeth looked immediately confused.
�Me? What do you want with me?�
�I want nothing to do with you. I have, in fact, come for the you that refers to your person.�
�You are even more mad than the last time I saw you.� She said with a stunned look on her face as she shook her head slightly. �Are you drunk?�
�As per usual.�
Elizabeth�s hand went from her heart to her temple as she clenched her eyes shut to the frustration that invariably accompanied a conversation with the inebriated pirate who stood in front of her. When she took her hand down and opened her eyes, she was a little surprised to see that Jack was quite a bit closer to her now - staring at her very intently. The grin had gone from his face, just as the amusement had gone from his features.
�I�ve come,� He started in one of the most serious tones she had ever heard him take. �For you.�
And that�s when it occurred to her. Jack was taking a very substantial risk by being in Port Royal at all - let alone in her bedroom. Whatever reason had brought him here, he was serious about it... and it appeared as though he truly was here for her. She took a step back from him and shook her head.
�No.� Was all she could think to say.
�Come with me.� Jack said - his blank face unchanging, leaving no room for discussion as to what he meant. He wanted her to join him on the Pearl and on the sea. She had never seen him this way and it was frightening.
�I can�t just go with you.� She said firmly as she walked past him to the other side of the room. She didn�t understand where this was coming from. Why would he want her to go with him anywhere? She turned back to face him and nearly laughed at the utter ridiculousness of the situation. �I have a life here. My father is here. Will--�
�You don�t love him.�
Elizabeth clenched her jaw.
�How dare you come here to my home and say these things to me? I love him more than I�ve ever loved anything.� She responded definitively.
�But you don�t love what he means for you.� Jack said mysteriously with a slow shake of his head. �You are just as aware as I am that marriage to him means the end of Elizabeth Swann. You�ll be a bored little house wife, a life proper as you please. Comfortable, too, I�d wager... but you�ll be trading away your soul for that comfort. And trust me - soul trading�s an unpleasant business.�
Elizabeth swallowed.
�I love Will, and I�ll do whatever I have to. I�m willing to give up my...� She trailed off as tears began in her eyes which were suddenly cast downwards at the floor. Jack felt an unpleasant lurch of sympathy in the pit of his stomach. This wasn�t what he had meant to do. He didn�t want to cause her pain... but if pain was what it took to make her see that she didn�t belong here, then so be it.
�Your what, love?� Jack asked as he took a step toward her. �Your independence?� He took another step forward and reached out boldly to run his finger down her cheek. �Your... freedom?�
Elizabeth bit her lip and could only nod her head.
�Yes.� She whispered.
�You�ll wither away in this life.� Jack said as he took her chin in his fingers and raised her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. �I saw you looking out from your balcony... you long for something beyond this place. I saw it in your eyes.�
Elizabeth swallowed and let out a nearly amused sigh as she rolled her teary eyes a bit and tugged his hand away from her face.
�I had my back to you, Jack.�
Jack faltered for only a moment, and then shrugged.
�Er... well, what do eyes tell you, anyway?�
Elizabeth turned away from him.
�Tell me what you want from me, Jack.�
Jack sighed, and knew that the time for teasing and misdirection had passed. If he was going to convince her to leave her life of luxury and comfort behind, he was going to have to be honest with her.
�I can�t get you out of my head...� He started, hating himself even as he admitted it. Elizabeth made no move to face him. �I tried... rum usually does a superb job aiding in the forgetting of things that need forgetting, but when the rum ran out - there you�d be. At first I thought maybe it was a side effect of the having been dead. Some... strange and unlikely side effect. Then I thought it could be a curse, but quickly realized that not even I�m that lucky.� A sound emitted from Elizabeth that could have been a laugh, but Jack couldn�t tell. He continued.
�I don�t know what this all means for me, and contrary to rumor and speculation, I�m not a mind reader so I don�t know what this means to you. All I know, well... not all I know, as I happen to know quite a lot, really... but all I know as it pertains to what I want with you - person or otherwise - is that I came here to rescue you, and to offer that which the pirate in you will always strive to achieve.�
Finally, Elizabeth turned around - her face contorted in an effort not to cry.
�And what it that?� She asked, a tear finally slipping soundlessly down her cheek.
Jack smiled that smile that said he knew everything and nothing at once. The smile that usually succeeded the words, �You forgot one thing...� and preceded the ones, �I�m Captain Jack Sparrow...�
�Haven�t you been listening, pet?� He asked, then spread his fingers in front of her face. �Freedom.�
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When the Rum Runs Out