Shouts suddenly erupted from the far end of the dock.
"Move aside!"
"Make way!"
"Commodore coming through!"
Soldiers surged in from the street, muskets raised, boots pounding against the planks. The crowd was forced back as Commodore Norrington pushed through, his expression tight with urgency.
Governor Swann followed close behind, breathless, eyes scanning the dock.
Elizabeth stiffened. "My father—"
Daniel's head snapped up. He took one look at the uniforms, the raised weapons.
Yeah… not doing this again, Daniel thought.
He could deal with them in a second—but dealing with the aftermath would be a pain he had no interest in enduring. Running was the smarter choice.
Jack leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Mate, I don't like the direction this is going."
Before Daniel could reply, a shout rang out from the soldiers.
"There!" one of them barked. "That's the man from this morning!"
Another voice followed immediately. "He's the one who broke into the Governor's house!"
Jack glanced sideways at Daniel. "Right. That would be you."
Daniel nodded. "Yeah."
Jack let out a slow breath. "Mate… I think we should leave."
He reached for Daniel—
—but Daniel was already sprinting away.
Jack blinked. "Of course you are."
"Stop him!" a soldier shouted.
The crowd screamed and scattered as Daniel tore through the dock, knocking over crates, vaulting barrels, and leaping across planks with effortless speed.
"HEY!" Jack yelled, breaking into a run after him. "You don't just start running without telling me!"
Bang!
A musket shot cracked against the wood near Jack's boots.
"Definitely leaving!" Jack shouted.
Elizabeth could only stare, caught between shock and disbelief, as the two men vanished down the dock—one moving with impossible speed, the other somehow keeping up through sheer stubbornness and panic.
Jack sprinted alongside Daniel, boots pounding against the dock as shouts and footsteps echoed behind them.
"Mate!" Jack barked between breaths. "Why did you leave me back there? Those blokes were clearly after you! What did you even do?!"
"Nothing," Daniel replied calmly, dodging around a startled dockworker. "I just said hello to the Governor's daughter."
Jack blinked. "That's not a crime."
Daniel vaulted a crate without breaking stride. "Well… she was in the middle of a bath."
Jack nearly tripped.
He stared at Daniel for half a second—then broke into a crooked grin.
"Well then," Jack said between breaths, eyes gleaming with approval, "it seems we're going to get along very well, mate."
Another version of himself, Jack decided.
Just with better timing and far less shame.
***
Elizabeth steadied herself as soldiers crowded the dock, her father already at her side.
"Elizabeth!" Governor Swann said sharply, gripping her shoulders. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," she replied, still trying to catch her breath.
Her gaze drifted—unbidden—toward the far end of the dock, where Daniel and Jack had vanished into the chaos.
Commodore Norrington stepped forward, expression cool and controlled. His eyes swept over the scene: the unsettled crowd… and finally, the conspicuous absence of two men.
"Where are they?" he asked.
"They ran that way!" a soldier shouted, pointing down the pier.
Elizabeth hesitated. "One of them… he saved me."
Norrington's jaw tightened—not in relief, but in restraint.
"That does not excuse his conduct."
He turned crisply to the soldiers.
"After them. Both men. I want them taken into custody immediately."
"Yes, Commodore!"
Elizabeth stepped forward. "Commodore, wait—"
Norrington raised a hand, cutting her off. His voice remained calm, but there was steel beneath it.
"Miss Swann, a man who invades a lady's chambers—your chambers—and brings disorder to His Majesty's port is not a man to be trusted."
She faltered. She knew he was right… and yet—
"He saved my life," she said quietly.
Governor Swann looked torn, but Norrington did not waver.
"Then he may explain his heroics in chains," Norrington replied coolly.
He turned to the remaining soldiers. "Seal the docks. No ship leaves Port Royal without inspection."
He was furious that another man had seen the woman he was courting—naked, no less, in her bath. The breach of decorum and the blow to his pride burned beneath his composed exterior. Whoever that man was, Norrington intended to see him caught.
"Yes, sir!"
As the soldiers dispersed, Elizabeth watched them vanish down the pier, her thoughts a knot of gratitude and indignation.
"…Scoundrel," she muttered under her breath.
On Daniel's side,
They ducked into the nearest building, slamming the door shut behind them. It wasn't a house, Daniel realized at a glance, but a weaponsmith's workshop—racks of blades lined the walls, pistols half-assembled on cluttered tables, the air thick with oil and iron.
Jack doubled over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
"Are you even human?" Jack panted.
Daniel, meanwhile, stood perfectly upright, breathing evenly, as if they hadn't just outrun half the port.
"Some people are built differently," Daniel said casually. "I could run all day and not feel it."
Jack looked up at him in disbelief.
"All day," he repeated weakly. "Right."
Daniel shrugged. The burning exhaustion most people felt after a chase was something he hadn't experienced in a very long time.
Jack straightened slowly, squinting at him.
"What exactly did you eat to become like that, eh?" he asked. "Because if it's rum, I drink that daily—and I've gotten absolutely nothing out of it."
Daniel smirked. "Yeah… it's not the rum."