Barbossa's Daughter

Chapter 35

The fog grew thicker, and the wind grew harsher as the sky darkened and Cora knew that it was by no ordinary doing as rain began to pour down on them.

"Have you noticed, that on top of everything, it's raining!" Pintel exclaimed as he walked about.

"That's a bad sign!" Ragetti agreed before Cora appeared in front of them.

"Hopelessness has no place on my ship. Now keep that ruddy power dry. We're gonna be needing every last grain of it," she ordered.

"Aye, Captain."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had hastily pulled Will below deck. "Will there's something you need to know. It's about –"

"I don't care what it's about. I don't have time for this. I need to –"

"You love her, don't you?" Elizabeth cut off.

"What?" Will asked in surprise, his urgency being doused like a flame in water.

"Cora. You love her," she repeated, but there was no question about it this time as Will hesitated to answer.

"Elizabeth, I –"

"You don't have to say anything," she interrupted. "I already know it's true. I knew it was true from the day I saw you leaving her room on the ship to Singapore. Even when we spoke aboard Sao Feng's ship before entering the Locker...I could tell."

"But I did not –"

"But you did! Can you not see it as everyone else can? Your eyes go straight to her when you enter a room. You are constantly at her side even now when she wants nothing to do with you. And every night on that journey to Singapore you never actually stayed in your room because you were so desperate to be with her and you were blind to the fact that I was desperate to be with you, that I was jealous you were with her and not me."

"I was well aware of the fact, Elizabeth," Will said, his blood beginning to boil. "But it is a fact that I have known not to be true for a long time now. I once thought I loved you, but I do not. The kiss we shared proved it. And you do not love me."

"Do not tell me how I feel!"

"The truth hurts. Believe me, I know. But you never loved me, Elizabeth. You simply wanted to escape the marriage your father was trying to force you into. I was your friend; you were familiar with me. I was the easy escape. I was the easier option. You have never loved me, Elizabeth," Will said, each word being enunciated with power, with meaning, with a point that pierced Elizabeth's heart in the most tormenting way as she was forced to consider his words.

"Are we not friends now?" she whispered, her voice small, hurt.

"Can we be after everything?" Will shrugged. "If we cannot overcome what has happened between us, can we be friends?"

"We can try."

"I broke your trust, and you broke mine. How are we to trust one another again? The circumstances aren't right and they never will be," he bellowed in frustration and Elizabeth furrowed her brows at the strange wording. What circumstances was he talking about? Nevertheless, whether or not Will was right about her affections for him, he was still a person that she wanted in her life.

"How about I go first?" Elizabeth said as she gathered what little courage, she had for this conversation would need scores more than the battle they were about to fight.

"How could you possibly –"

"We saw your father," Elizabeth interjected, and Will was stunned into silence as his jaw floundered. "Cora and I. Aboard the Dutchman."

"Did he speak to you?" Will asked fervently, his sense of urgency returned.

"Not to me. He spoke to Cora though. They spoke about you."

Will couldn't meet Elizabeth's eyes as they darted around the room, trying to figure out what they could have possibly said about him, what this could possibly mean.

"Will, as far as I know, your father has seen you and Cora together once. One singular time. And from that one time, he said that you wouldn't save him because to do that you have to kill Jones and he who does that takes his place. And you won't take his place because you don't want to leave Cora. He said you loved her. That he saw it."

Will was overwhelmed. He knew how he felt. He knew that everything he'd been telling himself was an utter lie. He did love her. He had stopped denying it from the very moment he saw the betrayal shining in her eyes and he knew that he'd royally messed up. What he didn't know was how she'd react. How she'd take that information. How she would ever forgive him.

"Your father was becoming part of the ship," Elizabeth continued after Will had been silent for a time. "He was forgetting who he was over and over. And after he told Cora that you love her, she still assured him that you were coming to save him. I heard how much pain she was in, Will, when she said that. No one feels that much pain over the betrayal of someone they claim to have no feelings for. She feels for you, Will. She loves you. And you need to tell her."

Will's eyes were drawn to the grate above them where a very familiar someone was visible as she barked out orders to her crew, her voice as powerful as the crashing of waves during a storm at sea. Her hair was matted to her face and she was soaked in both rainwater and seawater, but she had never looked more beautiful.

She believed that he betrayed her, which he had, but he had just been trying to deny the feelings he felt for her. And they were there. Those feelings burned with a fiery passion, and they would go ignored no longer. They burned and they screamed to be heard and acknowledged. He burned for her. He wanted her in more than just a physical way. He wanted to know the cause behind every scar on her body. He wanted to know about every tear she ever shed, every person she ever loved. He wanted to know the way the sea coursed through her veins. He wanted to know her heart, every part of it, good or bad, light or dark. He wanted all of it. He wanted her.

And Will didn't even respond to Elizabeth as he went running back above deck. Back to her.