"No, it's yours Elizabeth. It's always been yours." He smiled softly. That's what he had said when he had given her the chest the first time. He grabbed her hands and kissed them both softly. "This is going to be confusing but please Elizabeth, believe me." He took a deep breath. This was it.
"We didn't get married in Port Royal. A man named Cutler Beckett, arrived from England. He had warrants for our arrests. For helping Jack." He closed his eyes. "I was able to make a deal with him, if he let you go, I'd get him Jack's compass." There was so much more for the story. He shook his head. "As always with Jack, things didn't go so well. I ended up on the Flying Dutchmen, a prisoner of Davy Jones. But I found my father. He was there, on the ship. A prisoner, like so many others.
"Beckett wanted the compass to find the chest that is sitting in your room Elizabeth. What's inside the chest is one of the most important things. It would control the sea. If in the wrong hands, it could destroy everything we hold dear." He closed his eyes. "It once held Davy Jones's heart. It doesn't any more, but it did. Jones had a monster, a pet, that he could send out and attack people. Davy Jones was a feared man, Elizabeth. Pirates fled from him. We were a dying bred.
"Things got very bad. Jack ended up being sent to the Locker. We, went to find him. Traveled to World's End, brought Jack and the Pearl back from the depths. But it was only to face a fight. A war was brewing. A war to save every pirate who sailed the sea. Beckett had the Flying Dutchmen at first, but we had the Pearl. We had Jack and Barbossa.
"It looked like we were going to loose. I thought I had lost." He touched the scar on his chest. "I killed Davy Jones, stabbed his heart. But the Flying Dutchman needed a captain. The chest, Elizabeth, inside the chest is my heart. The captain of the Flying Dutchman's heart." He kissed Elizabeth's hands once more.
"Barbossa married us on the Black Pearl, you know. In the middle of the fighting. During one of the worst storms I've ever seen. Calypso's creation. It was one of the happiest I've ever been. Watching you fight, at my back. You were so beautiful. A captain yourself. A Pirate Lord. The King or the Pirates. I was so proud of you." He smiled softly up at her. He wasn't lying. He was proud. Elizabeth had been so beautiful, soaked to the bone with water and blood, done up like a captain.
"We won the war because I became the captain of the Dutchman. The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman chased away the whole Royal Navy. Afterwards, we were able to be together. For one day. Just one final day before I had to return to the Dutchman." He hung his head again. That day had been in his dreams for so long. "Ten years at sea for one day on land. But if the woman I love waited those ten years for me, I'd be free.
"I was on my way home to you, and our son Billy. You were waiting for me. I knew you would. I'd be free from the curse. But then, I fell and ended up here." He stood up. The story had been long. But he had gotten it out. If she had any questions, she knew she'd ask. She probably had hundreds of questions. He just hoped that she didn't despise him. He was a pirate after all.