I Will Find You | Pirates of the Caribbean

Eight

"Thank you, Mr. Gibbs," I exclaim as he shows William and I down to the hull, giving us some private time alone after all the previous events, including William's decision to leave Jack with Barbossa and the rest of the Black Pearl's crew. Supposedly, Jack stated to William at a previous point that if a pirate were to 'fall behind', the members of his crew should stick to the Code and continue on with their adventures without them. Whilst I would not have made that decision, William is the more authoritative one out of the both of us.

After making our way down the slightly steep set of stairs, William sets about lighting a considerable amount of candles around the room, which provides a deeper sense of warmth to help overwhelm the shivering cold I feel bubbling in my skin. As he finishes lighting candles, I attempt to tear away part of the white fabric of my undergarment dress, taking some away from the bottom of the skirt. I manage to succeed and come away with a long line of white linen fabric, which I proceed to start an attempt of wrapping around my wounded hand. 

"Hey, hey," William whispers, taking a seat directly in front of me, "let me." He takes my hand in his own, to which I thank him kindly and watch patiently as he starts to wrap the material around my bleeding wound. "What were they doing with you?" William asks, looking into my eyes as he continues to wrap, "how did you get into that situation?" Just as I go to answer him, I wince slightly when he pulls at a part of the material just too roughly, and I almost pull my hand away.

"Sorry," William immediately apologies, a short chuckle falling from his lips, "blacksmith's hands, I know they're rough." I shake my head as he carefully takes back my hand, and I acknowledge that his hands are perfectly fine as they are. "Two pirates invaded my household and upon discovering me, I did the only thing that came to my mind, which was to invoke 'Parlay' and I demanded to talk to Barbossa. Then to cover over my identity, I gave them your surname."

William looks up at me in slight shock, confusion evident in his eyes. "You gave Barbossa my name?" With a nod, I explain that in the moment, I believed that if I revealed that I was the daughter of the Lord and Lady of Port Royal, my situation could have turned into something quite worse. "It was also the first surname that came to my mind when Barbossa asked, as you were the last person that I saw before they took me away," I finish just as William finishes wrapping my hand, completing it with a quaint little bow and then he softly rubs my skin comfortingly.

"Thank you," I whisper just loud enough for him to hear me. He goes to move his hand away, but I take it back in both of mine and ask him not to stop, almost clutching at his skin so that he doesn't move away any further. As he looks up to my eyes, I feel my head start to slowly move closer to William's, who starts to move in also. But as I do, I remember the medallion now rehung around my neck as the cold presses against my chest; I reattached it in the midst of escaping from the caverns earlier. 

"Wait," I interrupt, pulling away slightly as my hand travels to the medallion, which I pull away, "I think you should have this back, William. It belongs truly with you." Once I've handed it back to him, I see a slight twinkle emerge in his eyes, his lips twisting up into a small smile. "I remember the day I gave this to you," he remarks, thumbing over the medallion, "on the seventh anniversary of the day that we met, right?" I nod, and then ask whatever prompted him to gift it to me in the first place, rather than attempt to pawn it off for more money.

"I wanted you to have something to always remember me by," he summarises simply, in turn making my heart thump slightly with adoration. But then, I watch as his face starts to fall, seemingly a realisation settling into his mind. "This was a gift from my father, he sent it to me," he starts again, his tone now much more serious and there's a hint of darkness there also, "it wasn't your blood they needed... it was my father's blood, my blood... the blood of a pirate." He curls his hand into a fist, clutching the medallion, and I watch helplessly as his eyebrows narrow with fury. 

I open my mouth to attempt to plead him not to let his anger get the better of him, but he abruptly slams his fist against the table in front of the both of us, a gesture that makes me flinch away slightly. William notices my flinching and he immediately apologises, but I insist that he has nothing to be apologetic about. "But listen to me William, please," I insist, once again taking his hands into mine and leaving the medallion on the wooden tabletop, "having the blood of a pirate does not make you, or your father, a bad man. That decision is down to the actions that you make alone, not the blood in your body."

His mouth slowly turns up into slightly more comforted smile, and he pulls me up to a standing position in front of him, before he wraps his arms around my back and draws me close to his chest. Despite being ever so slightly stunned by the sudden gesture, I respond by in turn wrapping my own arms around his waist, holding onto him rather tightly. "Thank you for finding me, you have no idea the terror I felt on board that ship," I find myself whispering into his shoulder, my fingers gripping onto the leather material of his dusty brown waistcoat. "Hey, I will always find you," he responds, his hand lightly combing through my hair, somehow not pulling harshly through the several knots that there are.

When we pull away from one another, the two of us smiling, William takes my hand graciously and starts to lead me back up the stairs back up onto the main deck, where we have begun to hear continued shouts and exclamations from the pirates above. William asks aloud why there is so much shouting up above here, but I lightly push his head in the direction behind the ship's helm, where the both of us see the Black Pearl steadily gaining speed behind us.