Author's Note: I couldn't think of a better way to end the year than to post a chapter. ;) Might as well let the year go out as I intend to go on in the new year, right?

Disclaimer: all I own is a sweet sense of satisfaction that the four year old boy I babysit came up to me today and said, "Sarah! Guess what? I watched Pirates of the Caribbean last night!" He was so excited to tell me and I was so proud. And proud of his mom who informed me with a wink that every time the "ghost pirates" came on the screen she skipped ahead to the next scene. Considering we're talking about a four year old not to mention his attention span, I think she's a smart lady.

Jack sat in his cabin, listening to the noises coming from next door. It was a tiny room, barely large enough to hold the bunk on which he sat. Still, it was better than being interred in the brig, unable to get loose, unable to roam freely. If he felt somewhat claustrophobic, then that was balanced by the ability to come and go as he pleased.

His musings were interrupted by a series of muffled bangs. It sounded as if the person… Who was he kidding? It was Winn next door and Jack was well aware of it. A little too aware of it if the considering looks he'd been getting from the lady's adult family meant anything.

Anyway, it sounded as if Winn were opening and then slamming shut her trunks, though the sounds were coming from the wall rather than through the wall.

He moved to lay down on his bunk as he listened, the assorted accouterments stung and woven into his hair clicking and jingling with the movement. Crossing his arms behind his head and toeing off his boots, Jack stared at the small patch of stars and dark grey sky that indicated where the porthole was.

The thumping continued next door. Every once in awhile it was accompanied by a excited yip. Winn's vexed murmurs reached his ears, the tone distinct but not the words. Jack listened to those murmurings, soaking in the cadence of Winn's voice. Though he'd listened to her speak all day long, it'd been to children. Even the things she'd addressed to him before that evening had been spoken lightly. It'd been frustrating, being treated as if he were no older than Winn's nieces, but hardly unexpected. After that revelation about her heritage, Jack didn't trust Winn not to present him with more unpleasant surprises and she'd reacted to the distance he'd created accordingly.

Not that she still hadn't knocked him off balance despite his vigilance. When she had come down to the brig that morning, he had expected to hear that she'd been granted his head on a silver platter. The manifestation of Winn that had stood before him uncertainly had been barely recognizable. Where had his Fury been? He enjoyed their verbal skirmishes, and while he had to admit that he occasionally stepped over the line in provoking her, didn't it all equal out when she overreacted in her response?

The real question, I suppose, he thought, listening to more ominous noises from across the wall, is why does that woman fascinate me so? His interest in both Winn and her treasure map were becoming more perilous to his health with every passing mile, yet he remained undaunted in his desire to secure them for his profit. And even that didn't make since considering the lass in question was argumentative, combative, pigheaded… Jack rolled his eyes. And so chock full of thwarted life that only a dead man wouldn't dream of seeing her freed of all constraints. By this point Jack was so involved that the eventual outpouring didn't even necessarily have to include a seduction – though he'd count himself a fool not to try. To put it plainly, Winn was his newest form of diversion.

A thump, considerably louder than the rest, sounded against the wall near his head. He started, caught unaware. "This is ridiculous," he muttered. "She'll bring the entire ship down on our heads." Raising his voice, Jack told the woman across the wall, "Winnie, if you don't settle down and stop makin' so much noise, I'm going to come over there and quiet you myself, and I highly doubt that you will appreciate the methods I use to do so. At first."

Winn automatically reached out to catch the ragball she'd been bouncing off the wall in an attempt to work off some of her nervous energy. In her agitation she hadn't cared that the wall between the two cabins was thin. Still, she was a bit startled to find that Jack's voice carried so clearly through the planking.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you," she replied automatically though her rebellious mind thought, Well, that's a lie. You deserve to sample your own methods. " Though I wouldn't come over uninvited if I were you, Captain. Even if there weren't a guard posted all night, Ry lets me carry my knives aboard ship."

Jack smiled at Winn's words. While they were apologetic in wording, they were also a blatant challenge. It wasn't so different from the way she'd behaved aboard the Kestrel. She still feels threatened. A slow smile spread his lips. Winn may have noticed one distance I'm keeping, but she's also conscious of the one I'm closing. Uncomfortably so if her attitude was any indication of her mindset.

Winn began to relax when her warning was met with silence. She hoped that she'd shocked him with her reminder that she was armed. In her society, women rarely carried anything more dangerous than a lap dog or a well-constructed fan. She closed her eyes as she thought about what it would be like to have Sparrow at the end of one of her daggers. She wouldn't hurt the man – at least, she didn't think she would but he did have a way of making her forget herself – but it would be sweet revenge indeed to see the man sweat a little.

"Do you realize that we're sleeping next to each other, luv? Practically in the same bed, we are." Winn was half asleep by the time her peace was again disrupted. In that dreamy state, Jack's voice seemed bodiless, unthreatening. Almost without being aware of herself, she replied without hostility or caution.

"That's fascinating, Captain. Unfortunately, that's as close as you'll ever come to sharing a bed with me."

Jack laughed. It was a low, rough laugh, one that had charmed more than one woman into dangerous waters. What's gotten into Winnie? he wondered. One moment confident and defiant, the next suggestive. He found himself tempted to test her boundaries, and because he was used to surrendering to temptation he asked, "Luv, are you even awake?"

"I'm not sure. Do I sound annoyed to you? This seems like a conversation that would annoy me if I were awake."

Jack grinned as he acknowledged the truth of that. "No, you don't sound annoyed at the moment."

"Then I must be dreaming."

"You talk in your sleep?"

"I'm told I used to as a child. As I was always asleep at the time I wouldn't be able to claim otherwise. I suppose you could tell me whether I still do or not."

Jack swallowed. Whatever state Winnie was in, he was enjoying it immensely – even more than he enjoyed an irritated Winn, which was a great deal. Just think of the possibilities, mate... "Was that an invitation, lass?"

"No, I was simply saying…" Winn yawned, "that if you heard me mumbling in my sleep you could inform me of it in the morning." She was barely aware of what she was saying – the last few days of little sleep and much activity were starting to tell on her mental state.

"You leave me disappointed, luv. Here I was thinking that I had finally won you over…"

"Keep working on it, Captain. You might live to see your goal realized…just as you might one day clear your name of all charges against you."

Jack smiled at the point she had scored. "Why don't you call me Jack, lass?" He idly wondered how much of this conversation Winn was actually going to remember in the morning. There were benefits to both her remembering and forgetting it.

Why don't you call me…? Winn sighed and frowned. She was already wrapped tightly in her blankets, but now she also turned towards the wall. Her posture was that of a young woman about to share deep secrets with a confidant. Not even in her dreams would Winn consider Jack a trustworthy secret-keeper, but she was tired and troubled and he was the one listening to her.

"Why have you stopped calling me Winnie?" she asked a bit plaintively.

Jack's mood shifted like a ship fleeing pursuers. He was much less amused as he replied, "Have I? I hadn't noticed."

Winn was silent for a long time before she laid down a soft challenge. "You're lying."

"Why should it matter? I thought you didn't like the nickname."

"I don't." You do. She didn't. Then why press the issue? Perhaps because, try as she might, she couldn't seem to scare Sparrow off? Because some long ignored part of her was secretly enjoying his transparent attempts to seduce her? After all, as long as she could keep in mind that he only wanted to use her for what she could provide then he presented no threat and she could use him as practice. Practice for what? Not even Winn was daring enough to answer that question. Matters of honesty aside, she truly wasn't yet ready to hear that truth. I don't want to be the center of this discussion anymore.

"You act like a man betrayed when we both know it was in my best interests to keep my secrets. A woman without connections might be more vulnerable to the advances of men but one with wealth is never safe from those who seek to profit from her."

How is it that she can be both cynical and naïve at the same time? "Both women are profited from, luv. One of them simply has different goods to part with than the other. It's the nature of men that leads them to desire both."

"And which did you desire from me? My money or my maidenhood?"

One doesn't follow the other? Jack knew enough to keep from voicing that thought. There was no way to answer her question without alienating her. The query "And what am I worth?" was as clear in her voice as her hurt. She was bewildered, and he could only guess why.

And there was less he could do comfort her aside from lowering his own defenses.

"Winnie… Why do you ask for answers you won't like?"

So you'll hurt me enough to keep me from giving in to you. "Because it's not outside the realm of possibility that I may, at some point in time, find you attractive, and…and should that become the case, I need to have some kind of barrier between us to remind me why that's a bad idea." Yet the thrill of triumph she felt at his use of the name she refused to like battled with her wariness.

Jack was stunned by what Winn was voluntarily telling him. "Why would your being attracted to me be a bad idea?"

"Because not only do you already have…an inflated opinion of yourself, but there's no future in it. A man's love of the sea is not easily displaced by anything else, and that leads him to hurt – however unintentionally – those who would love him." I've watched it happen. Winn's train of thought was slowly and surely deteriorating.

"Now Grandfather on the other hand is going to love you, Sparrow. You're going to fit right in. He may try to keep you in…his aviary. Or make you one of the family." Winn came awake enough to realize that she was talking when she'd rather be sleeping. With an indignant glare at the wall she waspishly complained, "Captain Sparrow, if you don't stop asking me questions, I'm never going to fall asleep and I'm…tired."

Amused at the bewildered outrage in her voice, Jack grinned, and said, "Just another moment of your time, luv. Then I'll leave you to your rather unneeded beauty sleep."

"Mmm…" She couldn't quite bring herself to tell him to stop calling her "luv." If he knew it bothered her, it would always be his first weapon against her and she was foolish enough to look past it.

"What changed between last night and this?"

"Ohh…" Winn paused for so long that Jack wondered if he would have to prod her for an answer. "I didn't like the way my brothers acted as if I scared them. Even if they were just pretending. I don't think I'm the woman they all see me as sometimes, but I've never done anything to disabuse them of the notion. It's easier to hide at times than it is to live. I did, you know. Hide. I thought that it was perhaps time to stop. Cat and Grace thought it was a good idea. Don't you think it's a good idea?"

"Yes, luv."

She felt defeated by his distance, so her next words were weary rather than a warning. "That means you won't give me trouble about it…correct?"

"If that's what you want."

"Thank you…" Winn's voice trailed off. When Jack heard no other sounds coming from across the wall, he decided that she had fallen asleep mid-reply. Content at the moment, even though he had no real reason to be, Jack set his hat over his eyes, and followed her example.

Winn awoke the next morning to find someone in her bed. As her consciousness rose up from the tranquil depths slumber, the sensation of another warm body pressed against hers became more and more apparent. What…? she wondered groggily. Opening her eyes, she found she was facing the wall, unable to see who was behind her. The steady inhalations and exhalations of her bed partner continued in an unbroken tattoo against her spine. Winn sent up a brief prayer, hoping that she had not done something foolish last night, for she remembered being remarkably foolish in her dreams.

Carefully shelevered herself up, not wanting to wake her slumbering guest. Cautiously she placed her hands on the mattress and turned…there was Meggie in nightgown and slippers, a raggedy blanket clutched underneath her chin, just managing to stay on the narrow bunk with her aunt.

Winn smiled, unwarranted relief filling her. She should have known. Her brothers' children had long ago made a game out of slipping into bed at night. On any given night she could wake to find as many as five or six children in her bed. For that reason, Winn had learned to be a still sleeper, rarely changing positions in the night – oftimes that could result in crushing a niece or nephew.

Refusing to question why she thought it could have been someone else in bed with her (a rather larger and more dangerous someone else), Winn climbed over her niece. Pige scampered around her ankles, pent up energy making her more enthusiastic than ever. Resolving to find time to locate a good length of leather with which to make a collar and leash for her dog, Winn started getting ready for the day.

As she stood in the middle of her cramped cabin, a half-caught memory of speaking to her wall flashed through her head. And were that not ridiculous enough, she had an unsettling feeling that the wall had answered back in Jack Sparrow's voice. We couldn't have possibly had a conversation through a plank wall…could we? She tried to recall what had been said by both parties, but most of it was too hazy. Dismissing it as a figment of an overset mind, Winn focused on preparing herself for the day ahead.

She was dressed and in the midst of brushing her hair when a knock sounded quietly on her door. Opening it, she found Grace outside. "Good morning Winn. Are Meg and Elsa here?"

Allowing the woman to enter, Winn stepped back and said, "Meggie is, but I haven't seen Elsa yet this morning. I suppose she might be asleep in the chest, but I doubt it."

Grace sighed. "I was hoping you weren't going to say that." She moved over to the bunk to pick up the still-sleeping Meg. "I hope that little urchin didn't go and manage to fall overboard."

"I doubt that the night crew would allow that to happen. Ry keeps them sharp. Those with a fondness for sleep find themselves out of work when they indulge at inconvenient times," Winn assured her sister-in-law. "Besides, Elsa may be small, but she'd make a loud enough splash, not to mention the squalling that would commence when she woke to find herself drenched. I'm sure she's around here somewhere."

Grace smiled. "You're right. I'll take this one off your hands before I go to track down Elsa."

Watching the delicate maneuvers required to pick up a sleeping child without waking them, Winn offered, "Why don't you stay with Meggie and Zoë. I'll find Elsa and bring her to you. That way we won't risk the other two wandering off." Grace accepted this offer with thanks. Then muttering something about children who wandered about in the middle of the night without informing their parents, she left.

Leaving her hair loose, Winn left her cabin. Standing outside the door, she surveyed the deck, thinking, If I were a three-year-old girl, where would I be at this time in the morning if I weren't with me? She shot a glance at the door to her right. I suppose it's possible she overshot her intended destination. But could she do such a thing without waking the Captain? There was only one way to find out.

Knocking on the door to the Captain's quarters, Winn entered in search of her truant niece.

Jack Sparrow awoke sometime after dawn to the sensation of someone's head lying on his chest. Smirking, his hat still covering his eyes, Jack thought, Looks like Winnie changed her views on the likelihood of us sharing a bed.

Raising his hat with one hand, Jack discovered what many other people have about he word "assume." What the– What is going on?

There, lying peacefully asleep was Elsa. Believing herself in her aunt's room, she'd had climbed right up and gone back to sleep.

As he was staring down at the child in consternation, he heard a knock on his door. Before he could give permission for the person to enter, the door swung open a few inches. He could see Winn peeking in. The faint look of apprehension in her eyes disappeared when she saw the picture child and pirate made.

Jack watched her eyes soften, found himself distracted by the soft smile that women seemed to naturally display when they saw a sleeping child. Her hair hung loose and was shining richly in the morning light, falling in a sleek waterfall to hang around her waist. Strange that such a tiny woman would have so much hair. He wanted to gather that dark mass in his hands and…

Gathering his composure – both from the shock of finding a child asleep in his bed and from the feeling Winn caused that he refused to identify – Jack said quietly, "I must admit that this wasn't what I had in mind when I decided I wanted a Morgan in my bed. I don't suppose you've come to switch spots with the lass?"

"No, I haven't." For once Winn didn't bristle at his proposition. "I'll take Elsa off your hands though." Her voice held more peace and serenity than Jack had yet heard from her. "I'm sorry if she surprised you, Captain."

"This happens often?"

"The women in my family are not known for sharing berths with strange men, no," Winn said dryly as she gently scooped her niece up. "However, if you wished to know if the young ones often seek out their adults in the middle of the night, the answer would be yes. I can only guess that Elsa mistook your cabin for mine in the dark and then didn't realize that you weren't one of her uncles." The girl in question shifted in Winn's arms, a sleeping protest against being moved from a spot she'd apparently found comfortable. Winn stroked the back of the child's head, soothing her. When she looked up she found Jack's eyes fixed on her with an expression she couldn't quite decipher.

His gaze unnerved her. Shuffling her feet she said, "I should return this one to her mother."

Backing towards the door, Winn stopped and bit her lip. She wanted to ask if they had indeed conversed through the wall the night before, but doing so would mean she would have to face up to what she had said. From what she thought she remembered, it would be best for both parties to ignore what had…what might have happened. Still, it would be nice to know…

She opened her mouth to ask, but decided against it at the last moment. No, it's better to just leave. Shutting her mouth without saying a word, Winn left Jack lying on his bed, hands behind his head, grin firmly in place.

Winn worked to avoid Jack for the rest of the day for a number of reasons. She feared what might have happened the night before. She worried about what he might do because of it, was embarrassment that she could be mistaking a dream for fact, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to talk to him today without remembering the things she'd confessed…whether he'd heard them or not. But though she managed to avoid talking to the man, she couldn't avoid his gaze, and many times during the course of the day she'd looked up from a task only to find him staring at her in the fashion of a man faced with a problem that confounded him.

She was greatly relieved when supper time came around. Jack's gaze was so focused that she'd felt as if someone's hand had been on the back of her neck all day. Even when she bustled from one end of the ship to another she'd felt his gaze on her.

Funny how there'd been times on the Black Pearl when she would have given anything to escape his presence, to avoid the way he took pleasure in being a general nuisance. But after spending so many hours under his scrutiny, her skin was fairly alive to the point where her own clothing felt out of place on her body and her mind wandered away from even the most mundane tasks.

The bell rang again, calling all off-duty hands to the evening meal. I can eat later, but this may be the only time I get to be alone today. There was no question in her mind that she would skip the meal. Quite aside from wanting to be out of Sparrow's line of sight, she didn't want to be trapped in a place where it'd be hard for her to avoid seeing him.

"You think me a liar? Then let me accompany you until I grow bored." If the way he'd kept his distance from her meant anything, then she'd won their little bet.

Oh yes, he never once took his eyes off you because he's bored.

Winn rubbed at the back of her neck as she considered the irritating commentary her mind couldn't help but supply. I'm going barmy. It's the only explanation for all this. Somehow Sparrow's insanity is spreading like a bad case of cabin fever.

Desperate for distraction, she retrieved her sketch pad and a piece of charcoal from one of the trunks in her cabin before making way for the prow. Reaching it, she looked guiltily about for her brother before climbing out onto the figurehead itself, making sure to settle herself securely between the carved figure's wings. Ry would skin her alive for daring the climb but it was a spot that few people would think to check for inhabitants. Solitude was more important to her at the moment than her brother's peace of mind.

Winn looked down at her blank page with pleasure. She had wanted to do this all day, but Jack's eyes on her had made her hesitate. She had drawn him once; she didn't want him to know that she was about to do it again. The scene from that morning called to her though. The contradiction between man and child, the vision of the big bad pirate staring down in dismay at the child who was snuggled up to him was too striking to ignore. I'm only doing this because it's such a sweet depiction of Elsa.

The work was finished quickly; Winn had a good memory for shapes and colors, one that rarely failed her. With nothing left to do, Winn stared out at the setting sun, listening to the conversation and quips traded among the men on duty. Her eyes slipped to half mast as she listened and her thoughts started to drift.

Intent on drawing, Winn hadn'tnoticed the man who had come up along the railing to watch her. When he saw that Winn was going nowhere anytime soon, Jack decided that this was as good a time as any to speak to her. After all, her family was below taking their evening meal, leaving her unguarded for the first time all day.

He gracefully dropped down beside her on the figurehead.

Unfortunately he wasn't quiet enough to escape her notice. Winn heard him land and quickly stood and assumed a defensive posture. Enough is enough. With her arms folded across her chest, she said, "Why Captain! Fancy running into you here. If I didn't know better, I would have said you'd been keeping an eye on me all day only so you could be sure to stay out of my path."

"Luv, you wound me–"

"We've been over this before, Captain. You aren't in near enough pain to have been wounded."

"You still can't find it in yourself to call me Jack? You did once, on the Black Pearl. And last night of course. You said it quite prettily then."

Winn had stopped listening at "after last night." Jack had confirmed her fears about what had happened last night after she had gone into her cabin. Her words from the night before came back to her in a rush.

"Because it's not outside the realm of possibility that I may, at some point in time, find you attractive…there's no future in it. A man's love of the sea is not easily displaced by anything else, and that leads him to hurt – however unintentionally – those who would love him."

Interrupting Jack, who had not yet noticed her sudden bout of immobility and speechlessness, Winn asked in a quiet voice, "I don't suppose you're willing to admit that you took advantage of me last night, are you Sparrow?" As she was talking, the first mate ordered that the sea anchor be dropped for the night. This order and the ensuing splash the obedience to it made could have very well drowned out the warning in Winn's voice.

But Jack had seen the warning in Winn's eyes even if he hadn't heard it in her voice. He knew that she was upset over the knowledge that she had spoken to him without being in control of herself. Her temper had been fraying slowly but surely all day long, and here he was trying to snap it. Briefly he wondered if he was indeed insane before he replied.

"How do you take advantage of someone who's not trying to hide anything?" He knew that she was most likely going to slap him for his impertinent answer, and he was prepared for it.

Sure enough, Winn's right hand came flying up to plant him one across the face. He grabbed her hand before it could make contact. What he wasn't prepared for was the foot that swept his out from under him and the other hand that gave him a helpful shove over the rim of the figurehead. Winn jerked herself out of his hold at the last moment. To her pleasure she watched as Jack landed in the water some feet below her as she herself hung over the edge of one carved wing.

"Man overboard!" Apparently their little scuffle had attracted an audience. Winn looked up to see several deckhands and the second mate gathered around. One of them looked down at her and commented, "You got him right proper, miss, right proper."

Winn sighed as Jack's head popped above water. When am I going to learn to ignore that man and his incendiary comments?

She climbed back on deck, her bare feet finding purchase in the hull as she climbed. Several hands reached out to help her. Accepting their help and thanking the givers, Winn walked to the main stairwell that would lead her down to ship's stores.

On her way down, she met Ry and the rest of her family coming up. "Off to get yourself some food? You missed dinner entirely." Ry looked at his sister with concern – she was getting too thin to satisfy him. If she wasn't careful she was going to make herself sick.

"No, I'm going down to stores to fetch some dry clothes."

"But you're not wet, Auntie."

His sister's smile was furtive as she replied to Meg's comment. "You're right. I'm not." Without offering further explanation, she continued down the stairs. Shaking his head at the mood his sister was in, Ry continued climbing with his family.

When they reached the deck, he saw why further explanations had not been offered. A dripping wet Captain Sparrow was being pulled over the railing back onto the deck. From his appearance, Ry would have to guess that he had taken a brief swim, and he didn't have to ask who had "encouraged" him to do so.

A sodden Jack Sparrow stood in the middle of his cabin, dripping on the wooden planking beneath his feet. Now what? He supposed he could borrow some from young Captain Morgan, but was leery of doing so. It was a bad idea to collect debts on the sea; they were always called in eventually, and Jack was already entangled enough in this family.

The first thing to do is get undressed. A plan made, Jack removed his boots and vest. Before he had the chance to remove anything else, a knock came at the door. Opening it, he found Winn on the other side, a bundle of clothes under one arm.

"I brought you something to wear until your own clothes are dry."

Jack made a sweeping gesture with his arms. "By all means, luv, come in." Winn eyed him suspiciously, but came in anyway. He shut the door behind her and leaned against it, effectively blocking her way out. If she thought he was going to let her off easy after what she had just done, then she had another thing coming.

She tensed as he effectively closed them into a space that was possibly even smaller than her own cabin. Turning with the intension of demanding he open the door again, Winn found herself distracted by what Jack was and wasn't wearing. His drenched state wasn't an unfamiliar sight, but she'd been so tired after that storm that she hadn't really taken notice of him aside from his need to change into something warm and dry. Today she wasn't tired, and her mind catalogued his appearance in a way that was unfamiliar to her. Things like how he was barefoot and only about six inches taller than she was without his boots sparked new ideas. She realized that should she ever want to, she would fit snugly underneath his chin. The thought was more tempting than it should have been.

That wasn't all she noticed. His shirt looked much more threadbare when wet, and she could see the outline of several tattoos though it. There was one on each of his arms near the shoulder, and one on his chest near where his heart would be. The artistry of tattoos fascinated Winn. She forgot who she was dealing with as she stepped forward to see them more clearly.

"Like anything you see?"

Called back to her surroundings and her audience, Winn halted. Her face flamed. "No, I was just trying to decide if you had tattoos or merely concentrated areas of dirt. Knowing you, it's probably dirt."

Jack crossed his arms over his chest as he watched her struggle to compose her face into a mask of indifference. "You're off to a rough start if you've come to offer an apology. I think things would go ever so much better if you started talking about what I deserve again. I'm thinking a kiss for each hurt I've sustained at your hands would be an excellent way to begin." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Winn raised her chin in a haughty manner. "What you got was exactly what you deserved." She held out the clothes she'd brought, temper making her words short. "However we can't have you falling sick while you're here as it would be a slight against Grandfather's hospitality. So if you would be so kind as to take these and then let me exit?"

Jack took the offered clothing and moved aside, but before Winn could leave he said, "I'm sorry if I've upset you, Winnie."

She felt his use of that nickname like a small blow to the chest. How dare he try to use it to calm her after she'd made a fool of herself by asking him why he'd stopped. "Sorry? You're sorry?" Anger and disbelief were writ upon her face. "You've done nothing but test my patience since you brought me aboard the Pearl, Sparrow, and you've delighted in doing so. If there's been anything you've actually regretted it was most likely underestimating me enough to allow me a hit."

"That's not true, lass."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you, Captain." She turned her back to him, once more preparing to leave.

Bugger. The day was quickly stripping away any intimacy that might have been between them. Before she could storm away he quickly said, "I may not regret what I did last night, but I do have regrets."

He surely knew where to aim to get her attention. Winn leaned her forehead against the closed door. "Fancy that: a pirate with a conscience. Pity you don't listen to it more often." Her voice was a whisper, albeit fierce enough to conceal the agony she felt.

Jack whispered back to her, "I regret whatever's made you doubt my intentions."

"Which intentions would those be? The one where you use me for my family's money or the one where you use me for my body?" Winn didn't know why she was still here. This man could unsettle her unlike any other. Her common sense was screaming at her to leave, yet something kept her in place. That same something rushed over her anger in a wave, leaving only confusion and a desire to stay in its wake.

"Did you emasculate him?" Jack asked suddenly.

"Pardon me?" Winn turned to face Jack, bewildered by his question. It was a mistake, for the darkness of Jack's eyes caught her own and held them.

"The man who convinced you your worth lay only in your money and body." She was softening towards him and Jack pressed his advantage almost ruthlessly.

"You only value me for those reasons," Winn protested.

Jack gave her a look that informed her he thought her silly for thinking that. "I can tell you now that I haven't been watching you all day in an effort to gain either. You fascinate me. I'm not sure why."

This was a dangerous conversation. Winn felt the urge to save herself. She swallowed hard before replying, "All you're suffering from is a lack of occupation."

"Don't turn coward now, luv. You know the reason I haunt your steps is the same reason you're still here. We both want something. I know what it is that I want."

It was so very hard to leave. Winn watched as Jack came over to her, moving slowly as if he was afraid to startle her. Stopping a mere arm's length from her, he spoke in a voice that she almost felt rather than heard. "What is it ye'd be wantin', Winnie?"

I don't know how to answer that. Winn reached out to touch him. She barely hesitated before resting one hand on Jack's shoulder. The other hand, her right hand, skimmed across the bruise it had caused. "I'm sorry," she breathed.

Jack rested his own hands on her considerably more delicate shoulders. He could feel how tense she was. Slowly he slid one hand around the back of her neck, the thumb grazing the skin of her jaw.

Winn's insides were in a knot of indecision. She wanted this, whatever it turned out to be, but was terrified of that same need. If she gave in to it, where would it lead? If she sought fulfillment yet was denied it, how would that leave her? Would she be free or devastated?

She wasn't ready to find out.

She didn't want to find out. Not yet.

Jack leaned in to kiss her as he had wanted to for some time, but Winn turned her head away; his kiss landed on her cheek. "I can't."

It was difficult to refrain from grinding his teeth in frustration. "Why not?" Jack knew the answer but he wanted to hear her say it aloud.

"I'm scared." Shrugging out of his light grasp, she whispered, "I should go."

Jack almost let her. Before she could open the door, he swooped down and gently captured her lips. Neither of them moved, though for Jack that was a simple matter of retaining control. He needed to prove to Winn that while he wanted her, it wasn't for his pleasure solely. He wanted her to have a reason to consider giving in to him.

Difficult though it was, he raised his head after only a few brief seconds and murmured, "What is it that you want, Winnie?" All of this can be your choice…

…to a point.

He had to get her out while he still could. Opening the door for her, he watched her leave. In a voice that was nearly too soft for her to hear, he asked, "Who are you, Winnie?"

She paused, just over the threshold. Then, without turning, she closed the door after her. Safely on the other side of the door, Winn whispered, "I wish I could tell you."