Jack Sparrow lay on the well-thatched roof with a king's eye for Port Royal. The town spread in a sparkling tableau before him; he could see faint candlelight in the upper windows of distant dwellings and swinging lanterns in the streets, and hear muted conversation rising from scores of homes.

Including the one on which he lay.

The conversation, though, was becoming louder by the moment, and even the thick straw and planks of wood couldn't totally muffle those heated words. The polite thing to do would be to find another roof and let the lovers argue in peace.

Jack edged closer to the glow of a window, feeling his way carefully on the shifting thatch.

"—should at least ask someone where he was last sighted!" A look of surprise crossed Jack's face. That raised voice belonged to young Will Turner.

"That part of our lives is over, Will. We've had our adventure and he has his ship—there is no reason to throw away the life I'm trying to build for us!" And Miss Elizabeth Swann as well? Idle curiosity was quickly turning to personal interest.

Jack could picture Will's firm, purposeful stride as footfalls resounded below him. The boy was pacing. "He saved both of our lives—"

"—For his own ends—"

"—saved both of our lives, and you want us to just settle down and forget that he exists?" There came the sound of a body hitting a feather matress. Jack was on excellent terms with that sound. "You were always the one who wanted adventure. What of adventure now, Elizabeth?"

Were they talking about him?

The woman made a strangled sound. "Adventure and romance are fine for a girl, but Will... I want to have children. I want to have a husband who comes home every night. I want you to be my husband." Her voice was full of hurt.

When Will spoke again, it was conciliatory. "Just let me find him. Just let me track him down, and then—"

"And then what? Then you'll just have a jolly time catching up over rum?" Elizabeth screamed. She fought for control of her voice. "If you find that man, you'll be pulled away, and there will be no stopping it. I will not let you go."

"Elizabeth, I swear to you, I won't leave forever. Only long enough to... to make sure that he's all right."

Her laughter was bitter. "To make sure that he's all right—Captain Sparrow can care for himself." So they were talking about him! "Why do you worry about him, love?"

Jack could faintly hear the tick of a clock in the room, and leaned over as far as he dared. Even so, he almost didn't catch Will's quiet reply.

"Because I have to know. I have to see him with my own eyes."

There was steel in Elizabeth's voice. "You sound as if you love him." Something heavy and porcelain hit wood. "You sound as if you care more about a pirate than the woman you intend to marry!" She breathed in quick gasps, like little sobs, but Will didn't answer her.

Eventually, Elizabeth took a deep breath. Jack imagined the way her chest swelled as she drew herself to her full height. "I can't stay with you tonight, Will. I love you, but I can't stay with you."

The sound of the door shutting was loud in the silence, and Jack crawled to the other side of the roof to watch Elizabeth depart.

As he lowered himself from the roof, a voice called, "Who's there?"

Well, there was nothing for it. He paused in his descent and slid in through the window.

"Now ye see me with your own eyes. Satisfied?"

Will only gaped at the pirate. He sank onto the bed, head in his hands.

"What's this about love, then?" Jack asked, sitting at the desk and examining Elizabeth's thick china cup. So that had been the porcelain sound.

"It's not about love," Will muttered. "I spent the first months after you disappeared wondering where you'd gone, and the next months trying to figure out how to find you. Elizabeth doesn't understand."

Jack wasn't a philosophical man. He kept his thoughts to himself and his feelings purely business, but he had lived in this funny old world long enough to know what he saw. Elizabeth understood better than Will wanted to admit.

"Was she right?"

Will looked up with anguish in his eyes. "Yes, she was right! I never meant to... I can never apologize enough to her. But I do love you."

The pirate stood. He looked across the small room with a fondness that men only show for things that do not last. "Would ye be pulled away, Will Turner?"

The look in Will's eyes said that he wanted to be the kind of man who would stay faithfully in the house he'd bought for himself and his wife-to-be—he wanted to tie himself to the land and the woman. But also that he wasn't that kind of man.

He was the kind of man who loved a pirate, and would be pulled away like the waves at low tide.

Jack put out a hand, and Will took it mutely, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.

In the dim candlelight, beside a bed that Will would never share with a woman, they shared a kiss.