Chancing Fate - Jack Sparrow x OC

Part 3 - Chapter 5

Each step was weighted down by her thoughts as Lena made her way across the ship. She had already gone through countless versions of the conversation in her head, but none of them made her dread the real thing any less.

Elizabeth sat in front of her as she stopped, looking at her for a moment before she dropped down beside her without a word. Rather than looking at her, Lena kept her eyes on the same direction as Elizabeth, looking over everything on the other side of the ship. Unsure how to begin, she stayed there in silence, letting it settle unfortunately into an awkward tension, though unintentional.

The air between them had never felt so suffocating, a sad comparison to all the times that had come before it.

"I don't know if I can forgive you for what you did to Jack," Lena started softly, running her fingers over the wood beneath her absentmindedly, "but I want to try."

Elizabeth finally moved then, turning to sit cross-legged, facing Lena. "Hurting you was never my intention, but we would have been killed by the kraken otherwise," she defended. "I am sorry you had to go through that, though."

Lena shook her head, not caring for her words. "You don't know that for certain. Yet, it was after Jack, but once we made it to land-"

Elizabeth cut her off, "If we made it. You know how long it took to get there. With no where to run?" she let her question hang, knowing well what would have happened.

"I know, Lizzy," she snapped, though she didn't know if she was angry at Elizabeth for the question or herself for knowing she was right. Her voice quieted again when she continued. "That doesn't change how hard it was."

"And I am sorry. I guess I had hoped it wouldn't be so bad for you. I didn't realize just how close you had gotten to Jack. It's surprising."

"Could you imagine part from Will forever?" Lena asked suddenly, knowing she needed to let her know just how she felt about Jack, otherwise Elizabeth would stubbornly keep up her side of the argument forever.

"No, it was hard enough when I knew he was on the Dutchman. I couldn't imagine such a thing," Elizabeth confessed, and as she sat there, the look of confusion at the question turned into understanding. "You love him that much?"

Even though she could hear the slight disbelief from Elizabeth, there was that look of acceptance as well as Lena nodded, laughing to herself as she considered the words she was about to say. "I know he's certainly not the type of gentleman we spoke about growing up, the kind society would have picked out for us, but he's better than that." While it wasn't a conversation that had often in recent years, they had spent enough time as teenagers speaking about some of the men in town and what life would be like in the future. And Jack Sparrow would certainly not fit into any of those previous images in her mind.

The skeptical look on Elizabeth's face gave Lena a good idea of what she was thinking, something very different to her own. "I understand your feelings," she said tentatively, "but he's betrayed us numerous times. You are still willing to trust him? For each time he helped us, he's gone behind our backs the next."

"He hasn't betrayed me," Lena snapped quickly in his defense, fists clenched as she glared at Elizabeth. Regardless of what he had done to her and Will or anyone else for that matter, it was never the came with her. "I've always been safe with him, so yes, I can trust him. I always have and that hasn't changed."

"I know that," Elizabeth said as she grabbed Lena's hands, pleading with her, "but I worry about you. I'm happy he's back, but is staying here the best option after all this is done?"

"What would you have me do?" Lena retorted, knowing well that she had few options. "What even can you do? After all this, after the Brethren Court, after dealing with Beckett, will any of us be able to go back to a normal life and not have to worry about an arrest showing up at any given moment?"