Work Text:
Elizabeth stands with her hands on the cracked wooden railing, wistfully staring as the Flying Dutchman sinks below the sea, taking William Turner with its departure.
“Ye can’t always salvage what’s been lost to the sea,” comes Barbossa’s voice unexpectedly from behind the new bride, startling Elizabeth from her pensive state. “Lord knows sailors have tried to save ships, crew, cargo, all for naught if the sea has her way with ya, fickle as she is,” the once-cursed Captain continues, his boots thudding to a stop, standing shoulder to shoulder with the woman he had once kidnapped in hopes of breaking his curse. “But, you and the Turner boy have a fightin’ chance with how bonded the two of ya are.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth sighs, settling into a comfortable silence with Barbossa before speaking again. “It feels awful to be parted from him for a decade, but at least I can take some solace in the fact that he’ll return,” she admits, her chocolate eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“And I’d wager he’ll have more than just you to return home to,” Barbossa says with a knowing smile and a smirk on his lips.
“What are you…” Elizabeth starts to question before the man beside her cuts her train of thought off.
“You’ve grown into a fine young lass in the time since we met in Port Royal,” the grizzled Captain admits. “Even if I think the young master Turner is fishing out of his depths….”
“Barbossa,” Elizabeth warns, her voice not nearly as cutting as she’d believe as she stares, entranced by the waves.
“I’ll drop it,” he vows. “Ye got a good thing goin’ for ya is all I’m tryin’ to say. It’s been an honor sailin’ with ya, Pirate King,” Barbossa theatrically admits, holding one hand over his heart and bowing before Elizabeth, honesty present in every word.
“I shall never get used to that,” the young woman humorlessly laughs, knocking her shoulder against Barbossa’s and realizing, not for the first time, just how much her relationship has changed with the pirates she once possessed both untamed curiosity and striking fear of.
“Aye, but ya did a damn good job. Better than anyone else coulda done, that’s for certain.”
“I never did thank you,”
“For what?”
“For agreeing to marry us during the fight with Jones,” Elizabeth answers, twisting the small piece of metal Will had found and crudely shaped into a makeshift wedding ring for her until he could procure something more befitting of his bride during his ten upcoming years at sea.
“You were crazier than Jack when ya asked me that, just so you know,” Barbossa groans, theatrically rolling his eyes and earning a true laugh from Elizabeth, the sound welcome to the man’s ears after watching the heartache she’d experienced in the fight.
“You’d deprive a bride of her wedding day?”
A haunted look crosses Hector Barbossa’s face.
“Best we get you ready to make landfall, Mrs. Turner,” he gently says, striding away.