“You left Jack to the Kraken,” Will meant it as a statement, not a question. Jack’s revelation that it was Elizabeth who left him to the Kraken to die had surprised him; but it also put a few things into perspective. The kiss, Elizabeth’s despondency, and the fact she would not talk to him—it was not love for Jack that had spawned all this, but her guilt over her part in his fate. He was relieved that it was not love that had prompted the kiss, but it still hurt that she had kissed the other man… and that she had not trusted him with her secret burden.
“He’s rescued now, it’s done with,” she replied without looking at him. For some reason, this really got to him. She had said that everything would be fine once they had rescued Jack; well, Jack was back, but she still was not talking to him it seemed. He turned away, not knowing what to say next.
Behind him, he heard Elizabeth get up from the stair she was sitting on. “Will, I had no choice!”
He turned around. “You chose not to tell me.”
The anguished look in her eyes softened somewhat. “I couldn’t. It wasn’t your burden to bear.”
“But I did bear it, didn’t I?” he took a step towards her. “I just didn’t know what it was. I thought…”
Realisation dawned in her eyes. “You thought I loved him!”
She tried to move away, but he grabbed her to prevent it, more forcefully than intended, and backed her into the post behind her. Her incredulous tone had sent a thrill right through him, and he longed to kiss her thoroughly, to wipe the memory of Jack’s kiss from her mind. But somehow it seemed like the wrong time. Even knowing that she did not love Jack, he still felt like he was losing her; and he still felt the hurt of her secret.
It was perhaps this feeling that prompted the ill-fated question. “If you make your choices alone, how can I trust you?”
“You can’t.”
She pulled out of his arms then, and went up on deck; Will did nothing to stop her. Those two words were like a knife wound to his heart. Trust was one of the most important things in a relationship; could theirs survive the seeming lack of it? He regretted even asking the question now, the last thing he wanted to do was make her doubt his love for her. He knew now that she had not betrayed him, why was he doubting her? Was it because he had not told her of his planned betrayal? The choice that he had made alone, without burdening her? It seemed the right thing to do at the time, now it seemed rather hypocritical that he expected total honesty from her without full disclosure on his part.
It just seemed as though he was losing her. Each step he took to save his father was a step away from his love. Could he have both? Could he save his father and still have her?
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