Chancing Fate - Jack Sparrow x OC

Part 3 - Chapter 5

A/N: Updated

Each step across the deck felt heavier than the last as Lena searched for words she no longer believed existed. Ever since learning the truth the day before, every version of this conversation had ended the same way. She wanted Elizabeth's explanation to matter; she simply couldn't imagine how it ever could.

Elizabeth had drifted toward one of the quieter stretches of the starboard rail, away from most of the crew working the rigging and lines, though not so far that the rest of the deck disappeared entirely. Sailors still crossed the deck from time to time, their conversations carrying faintly on the breeze, while farther aft Jack and Barbossa remained near the helm, their occasional gestures visible even from where she stood.

Elizabeth rested her hands lightly against the weathered wood as she stared out across the endless water. Lena's footsteps finally drew her attention, and she glanced over one shoulder, her expression tightening almost immediately before turning back toward the sea again.

Lena stopped beside her, leaving several feet between them. Close enough to talk, but far enough that neither of them had to pretend things were the same. Resting both hands against the rail, she fixed her gaze on the rolling water instead of Elizabeth while the silence stretched between them.

"I've spent most of today trying to decide whether I even wanted to have this conversation," Lena admitted at last, her fingers tracing absentmindedly along the worn grain beneath them before stilling completely. A quiet breath escaped through her nose. "I still haven't decided."

Beside her, Elizabeth's hands tightened around the railing before slowly relaxing again as she quietly answered, "I wondered if you would."

Lena gave a small nod, though her eyes never left the horizon. "I only know pieces," she continued. "Jack didn't tell me much." She finally turned toward Elizabeth, swallowing once before quietly admitting, "I didn't ask."

Yesterday hadn't been the time. After everything they'd survived just to find each other again, she couldn't bring herself to spend those first hours dragging him back through the worst day either of them had ever lived.

Elizabeth lowered her gaze, whatever answer she'd considered offering disappearing before it ever reached her lips.

"When I climbed into the longboat..." Lena began quietly, the words catching far more than she'd expected. She paused only briefly, forcing herself onward before she lost the nerve to continue. "I thought he'd made that choice himself." Her jaw tightened as she held Elizabeth's gaze. "Yesterday I found out that wasn't entirely true."

Elizabeth's shoulders sank almost imperceptibly as she looked away. "No," she admitted quietly.

Lena watched her for another moment, searching her face for something she couldn't even name anymore. Regret. Doubt. Some sign that this conversation might somehow end differently than every version she'd imagined. She found only guilt.

"I want to hear it from you."

Elizabeth nodded once, drawing in a slow breath she didn't seem to realize she'd been holding. "...All right."

Lena's composure held, though only just. Beneath it, the hurt she'd spent the entire day trying to contain finally showed through as she met Elizabeth's eyes. "So tell me what happened."

Elizabeth didn't answer immediately. Her gaze drifted back toward the sea until it seemed the deck beneath them had quietly become another one entirely.

"When you climbed into the longboat," she began at last, each word chosen with obvious care, "everyone believed Jack was coming with you. He'd ordered the ship abandoned, and everyone was already making for the boat."