Night terrors
Wolfe was walking through the downstairs hallway at Bess's when a knock came to the door, smiling she opened the door to welcome whoever was there.
"Welcome to Madame Bess's h………." Wolfe stopped in mid sentence.
"Did you really think I wouldn't find you, my dear?" Her father told her with an evil smile on his face. "Did you and your friend the pirate whore really think you could hide here in Nassau forever?"
"No, your not here. You can't be here"
Wolfe tried to back into the house but her Father grabbed her arm and pulled her outside. "Oh, but I am. Come I have something special to show you, daughter dearest."
"Let go….You bastard take your filthy hands off me."
"Now now, is that any way to greet your loving father, especially as I have come all this way just to see you?"
"Go back to the hell you came from."
"See what spending time with whores and pirates has done to you. Such language is not acceptable from a daughter of mine. I'd wash that month of yours out with soap, but I think what I have waiting for you will be a much better punishment"
Wolfe struggled in her fathers grasp but she could not break free, he was dragging her towards the stable at the back of the house. There were far too many bad memories connected to stables for her to believe that this was going to be anything but bad.
"Noooo"
"Yes, love I have a delightful surprise for you. Remember what fun we had with that mangy mutt you brought home from the docks."
"You killed him"
"Yes but it was such fun watching you beg me not to hurt it anymore. You were willing to promise me anything if I'd stop. Shame you didn't learn your lesson." Opening the stable door he pushed Wolfe inside. "We'll just have to teach you all over again not to defy me. And I think this bitch will do nicely."
Standing with her hand tried in the horse cross ties was Bess. Her face was already black and blue; one eye was swollen shut, a trickle of blood oozed from the cut on her lip.
"Oh God what have you done to her." Wolfe cried "I'll kill you, you bastard. I swear I'll kill you." Wolfe ran to Bess's side. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have stayed here. I knew he would find me here. I'm so sorry Bess"
"Shall we begin" Her father asked as he snapped the horse whip in the air about Wolfe and Bess.
A hand grabbed her shoulder, she tried to throw it off, but she couldn't.
"WOLFE" She heard someone say
"Don't touch me" she growled
Another hand grasp her other arm and shook her. "WOLFE WAKE UP IT'S JUST A DREAM, LUV. WAKE UP WOLFE…. IT'S JUST A DREAM." She knew that voice, she opened her eyes to find Jack sitting on the side of her bed shacking her awake.
Wolfe threw herself into his arms "Jack" she cried.
Jack had not been able to fall asleep, he kept playing the conversation he had with Wolfe over and over in his head. "Why the hell did she have to ask what he was afraid of?" He thought. He needed rum and was heading down to Bess's parlor to get him self a nice big bottle. Maybe then he could forget the whole thing. As he passed Wolfe's door he heard her cry out. Cautiously Jack opened the door and looked in; Wolfe was thrashing around in the bed, clearly fighting some demon in her sleep. As he moved closer to the bed he could hear her mutter. "Nooo…..You killed him……..Oh God what have ……I'll kill you, you bastard….. I swear I'll kill you…….. I'm so sorry Bess"
Sitting on the side of the bed Jack tried to wake her, first gently touching her arm, then with more force as she fought him. "Wolfe wake up it's just a dream, luv. Wake up Wolfe…. It's just a dream."
Suddenly Wolfe opened her eyes and looked at him. "Jack" she cried and threw herself into his arms.
"Easy darling, it was just a dream." Jack told her. He had never seen Wolfe so afraid; she was white as a sheet and trembling. "Its ok love, your safe here, nothing is going the hurt you." Jack sat rocking her in his arms till at last she feel back to sleep.
She was back in the stable again. She could hear the whip as it snapped forward from the back stroke. She felt it as it ripped open another gash on her back.
"You know you can stop it any time my dear." Her father told her "Just tell me what I want to hear"
"That you are a vile beast of hell" Wolfe spat back at him.
"It's that kind of defiance that almost got you killed the last time." He snapped "You will obey me" he promised as the whip tore another strip of flesh from her back.
"Never"
Suddenly she wasn't tied in the cross ties but chained against the wall. Someone else was in the cross ties, someone else's back was being laid open by her father's whip.
"Perhaps you'll fell differently now." He told her as the whip made contact. "You know what I want, you can stop this Samantha"
"WOLFE"
"Do you really think he can save you?"
"WOLFE, IT'S A DREAM"
Do you really think I can't get to him?"
"WOLFE, WAKE UP, IT'S A DREAM LOVE IT'S JUST A DREAM"
And then before she could see who it was in the cross ties she was in Jack's arms and he was telling her that everything would be ok. That nothing could hurt her. As he rocked her in his arms, his voice soothing her spirit; she could almost believe everything would be fine.
"Do you really think you can keep on defying me, child" Her father told her as he walked around the chair she was tied to. "I will be obeyed."
"I'm not a child anymore, you can not control me."
"Oh but I will control you. I will tell you what to do, what to say, where to go. I will be obeyed."
"No, you don't have the power any more. This isn't real, your not here, your just a bad dream"
"Is that what he's has been telling you dear? That all this isn't real." Her father asked with an evil sneer on his face, gesturing to the stable. "Do you really believe he can defeat me?"
"None of this is real" Wolfe told him.
"Are you sure, daughter on mine?" Stepping to the side so she can see a figure tried in the horse cross ties. "Are you sure this isn't real? "
There was something about the figure in the cross ties that was all too familiar to Wolfe. Something about the clothes, the hair, but she can't be sure as his head is hanging down and she can't see the face. Then her father walked over and pulled up the head to reveal a beaten and bleeding Jack.
"Did you really think I could not get to him? He can't protect you now." her father laughs. "I will not have my daughter consorting with a filthy pirate. You will not be some pirate whore. You will return to London and marry a man more of your station or you will watch me do to this mangy mutt what I did to the last one." He drops Jacks' head and reaches for his whip.
"Jack"
"You alone can stop this, my dear." The whip making a sickening sound as it connects with Jack's back. "Come back to London, marry a man worthy of your rank."
"You mean marry someone who will benefit your rank?"
"Yes dear that is a given, you have cost much by your actions. I will be obeyed, or your pirate lord will die a painful death in front of your eyes."
"He means nothing to me." She lied.
"Really then why did you take that shot that was meant for him, dearest daughter? Why are you so scared right now? I think he means a great deal to you"
"He is just my captain."
"We both know he is more than that. And I will not have you soil yourself with the likes of him. You have spent far to much time rolling in the sewers with the likes of him."
"He's worth ten of you"
"Ah yes now we are getting somewhere. He may prove useful yet" the whip laying open another bloody gash on Jack's back. "I told you, you can stop this."
"No… Please… No…" She struggles to free herself from her bond
Jack's eyes bore into her as the whip connects again and again. "WOLFE" Jack calls her name, but his voice is surprisingly without fear or pain. "WOLFE LOVE IT'S OK, IT'S ONLY A DREAM."
"Noooo." Her father roars "You will not free her" and hurls the whip at Jack's back again bearing bone this time.
"WOLFE, WAKE UP. YOU'RE DREAMING." Jack tells her seemingly unaffected by the whip. His voice calm and reassuring.
"It's not real?" Wolfe asks looking into Jack's eyes
"NO LOVE, IT'S NOT REAL. YOU'RE DREAMING, PLEASE WAKE UP"
"Don't listen to him. He is lying to you. He can't save you here. You can't save him. Your mine." Her father roars as he increases the power in each lash. "I will destroy him."
"No…No.." her cries becoming more desperate each time the whip lands on Jack's back.
"PLEASE WOLFE, WAKE UP" Jack tells her again "WE'RE AT BESS'S, YOUR SAFE HERE… PLEASE LOVE WAKE UP. IT'S A DREAM"
"A dream?" Wolfe asks as she begins to feel Jack's arms around her. She feels his hand in her hair, pressing her head into his shoulder. The image of the stable disappears and her fathers voice fads and is replaced by her room at Bess's, where she finds herself again in Jack's arms.
It had been over a week since Samantha had been shot, and Bess was getting worried. Samantha's arm was healing and she was looking better each day. Jack on the other hand was looking more and more haggard. She would swear he wasn't sleeping. But that wasn't what was worrying Bess. She was worried because Samantha seemed to be sleeping through the night.
Ever since they left London Samantha had been haunted by terrible nightmares. One of the few things Samantha was afraid of was that her father would find her, would force her to return to London, would use anyone she cared about to make her obey him. He was the demon that terrorized her sleep and the only place Samantha felt safe and was free of him was on board a ship. The longer she was no land the worse the dreams got, it was rare for her to last more than a night or two on land with out her demons forcing her to run for the nearest ship. Bess remember to well how after Barrett's death a terrorized Samantha had only found relief from her demons when Teague had taken her aboard his ship and out to sea. She had only been on shore for three days that time and Samantha had been here at Bess's for more than a week.
Bess was worried, so when she heard a sound coming from Samantha's room as she jumped out of her own bed and ran to Samantha's. There she found Jack seating in the big chair with Samantha wrapped in his arms. Jack was gently rocking a clearly terrified Samantha back and forth, whispering in her ear. Over the top of Samantha's head Bess and Jack looked at each other.
"Do you need anything" Bess whispered.
Jack shook his head no. Bess quietly went out and returned to her room. At least now she knew why Jack was looking so haggard and why she had not heard Samantha's nightmares. An hour or so latter Jack knocked on Bess's door.
"Come in love." She told him and handed him a large glass of rum. "Thought you could use this. So how long has she been having the dreams?"
"Almost every night since she was shot, and they have been getting worse" Jack told Bess. Then realizing that this wasn't new to Bess he asked "She's had them before? You know about them?"
"Yes, Samantha's had then since she was a child, since we first came to the Caribbean."
"But she never had them on the Pearl."
"No. From what Barrett and Stonewall have told me she never has them when she is on board a ship. Samantha's demons only come to visit her when she be ashore. On board a ship she is safe, on land; well she believes they can find her on land."
"They're getting worse Bess. It's harder and harder to wake her from them. And it takes longer to get her to settle and go back to sleep." Jack told her as he stood by the door so he could hear if Wolfe cried out again. "Who is he Bess?"
"Who?"
"The man she is trying to get away from? You know what the dreams are about don't you"
"What does she say?"
"She won't tell me anything. Just says that it's just a bad dream. Bess you have to tell me."
"I can't Jack; she needs to tell you herself."
"Bess how can I help her if I don't know what it is we're fighting"
"You can take her back to the Pearl. She'll be fine once she is back on the Pearl."
"But the doctor said she needs to rest the arm, and we both know once she's back on board she'll want to get back to work."
"You saying you can't control a sailor aboard your ship Jack?"
"What? Of course I can control my crew. Its just Wolfe isn't your usual sailor."
"True. But if you not be wanting her to be using that arm, give her something else to do that will keep her busy."
"Like what?"
"I don't know Jack you're the Captain." Bess threw back at him. "You and Gibbs keep complaining that you don't know what's what in the hole or what supplies you need. And you're always complaining that you hate coming up with watch assignments. And I know Samantha looked after all that and more on both the Contressa and Sea Witch."
"You want me to make her my first mate?"
"No dear, I know how you feel about first mates. But could you not keep her busy with some of those duties." Bess asked "I'm sure it would keep you out of your hair and not using her arm. And I know how you hate paper work"
"Just as long as it is clear she isn't first mate."
"I'm sure everyone will understand that Jack" Bess tells him "And you might just be able to get some sleep if your both back on the Pearl."
"True"
"So you'll both be returning to the Pearl in the morning?"
"And I thought you loved having my incredibly handsome self around here?" flashing Bess one of his winning smiles.
"Oh but your handsome self can be quite the distraction to my girls and then there is your charming personality."
"Charming, I like that, and what about my fascinating wit, my fearsome reputation, the legion of Captain Jack Sparrow " he asked her with a wink.
Clearly the old Jack was coming back. "Yes, Yes Jack you are the great and powerful, wonder of wonders, most amazing pirate Lord on the seven seas. Now go to your room so I can get some sleep." Laughing Bess shoved him out of her room and closed the door.
Turning she saw a figure standing at her window looking down on the harbor.
"You promised Barrett and I she would be free of the nightmares."
"She be free of what haunts her when she share it with him that loves she loves and loves her back" Tai Dalma replied from the window.
"And that is Jack"
"They's not ready to admit that , they's be still fighting it. But they's be joined by destiny. You knows it and I knows it." Turning to Bess Tai Dalma continued "It be good you send them back to the Pearl. They need to be following Adam's pendant. It will lead them to their destiny." And with that she was gone.
