James walked along the dock to where the 'Engel Lied' was docked. The ship towered proudly above all others that shared the same dock. There was no doubt in James' mind that the ship before him was easily larger than either the 'Dauntless' or the 'Black Pearl', but it was nowhere near the size of the few Chinese ships he had seen in his life. This ship looked as if it could easily carry more than one hundred people, but he hoped that would not be the case. Close quarters with complete strangers was not how he wished to spend the next three months or more. He had been summoned down to the docks by one of Captain Gibbons' men, his lip had curled into a snarl when he had been summoned, he may no longer be an Admiral or the scourge of piracy, but he deserved more respect than what he was being shown. Despite his distaste for the way Gibbons seemed to run things he had made his way to the ship at his earliest convenience, he could ill afford to turn the Captain against him before the journey was even underway. He was not to make the final payment until the night of departure, but that was not until another week from now, so he determined that this could not be the reason for the summons. Captain Gibbons struck James as an oddly eccentric man during the few meetings he had held with the man. Perhaps this meeting, like the others was just another strange flight of fancy which James had to endure. The Captain was certainly not the usual kind of person he was accustomed to sailing with, but at least he had not been reduced to sailing with pirates once again. As James walked up the gangplank to the ship his thoughts were interrupted by a deep German accent calling out to him from behind.

"Ah Herr Norrington, I see you found your way here unharmed."

"Yes Captain Gibbons, what is it that you wanted to discuss with me?"

"Straight to business as always I see Herr Norrington," he raised the bottle of rum he had clutched tightly in his hand, "can I offer you some?"

"No thank you Captain."

Stefan grunted from behind the Captain, making his presence known and Captain Gibbons chuckled under his breath, "ever the working man aye Herr Norrington?"

"That could be said, yes,"

"Ever the diplomat it would appear as well," Captain Gibbons set the bottle down on the handrail of his ship and crossed his arms over his chest, "I will cut straight to it then. Tomorrow night, we shall be having a banquet in the ship's dining hall. It will allow our guests time to acquaint themselves with one another before we set sail. I will expect you to inform your travelling companions of this arrangement."

"Alright," James said, this was certainly not what he had been expecting, but then again, James did not know what to expect when he had been called to this ship, "if that is all then, I shall be returning home now."

"Yes Herr Norrington, that is all." Captain Gibbons waved his hand in the air, making a dismissing motion, "you may go."

"Goodnight Captain Gibbons, Stefan," James nodded to both men and made his way down the gangplank, hastening back to the Inn. He knew he had been right when he first thought that the Captain was a strange one, but now was certainly not the time to be having doubts about sailing with the man.

When James finally made it back to the Inn he noticed it was oddly quiet. As he pushed through the door he noticed that the all but a few candles had been blown out, the tables were cleared and the floor was completely clean. He frowned; it was obviously much later than he originally had thought it was. Shaking his head at the strange loss of time he continued walking amongst the tables, making his way to the staircase.

"Good to see you finally made it home Norrington," Malvina's voice said behind him, the sound came as a shock, but he didn't allow any visible sign of being startled be seen, "everyone else is already. I sent Synnove up to bed a few moments ago, seems she didn't want to go to sleep without knowing you were safe. Knock on her door and let her know you're alright before you go to bed. Nearly wore a whole in the floor she did, pacing back and forth."

"Yes of course, I will let her know I'm back. Goodnight Malvina."

"Goodnight Norrington," Malvina said blowing out all but one of the remaining candles before pushing past James and leading the way up the stairs. She nodded towards Synnove's door before continuing on to her own. James waited until Malvina had closed her door before knocking upon Synnove's.

"Miss Synnove," he whispered, "are you still awake?"

"James? Yes, yes, I am awake. Hold on a moment please," she said, clambering out of bed. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for something to throw over her nightclothes. Her eyes landed upon James' admiral coat, which she still had not returned to him and in all fairness, he had not asked for it to be returned so she could hardly be held accountable. Whenever she put it on, it reminded her of the few times he had held her body close to his, in his embrace was the one place she felt truly safe and so she had decided to keep the coat until he expressly asked for it back. A day she hoped would never come, but knew it eventually would. Synnove threw the coat on and hastily did some of the buttons up, enough to allow her to retain her modesty, but not enough so that removing the coat would take forever after he had left.

James stood on the other side of the door, his hands clasped together behind his back in the darkness of the hallway. As Synnove's door was thrown open, he was thrown into the light and was left blinking for a few moments before everything came back in to focus. James allowed his eyes to quickly roam Synnove's body and found himself conflicted over her appearance. He was strangely proud to find her small body enveloped in his coat, her arms lost in the sleeves and her hair slightly dishevelled. Yet he was also somewhat displeased to see that so much of her body was hidden by the overly large coat, he had enjoyed seeing her in a dress and now the dress was gone. But her bright blue eyes looked straight up at him and her smile lit up her face and he knew she could be wearing anything and he would not care, as long as that smile stayed in place. Synnove stood in the doorway awkwardly grasping at the bottoms of her sleeves and rolling them about in her fingers.

Suddenly James had no idea what to say to her, the best he could do was state the obvious, "uh, Malvina suggested that I inform you that I am back now."

"I see," Synnove let out a small giggle at James' behaviour.

James frowned, not at Synnove, but at his own actions, he was behaving like a child, no, it was worse than behaving like a child. He was behaving like a nervous teenager talking to a girl for the first time. He was disgusted at the lack of professionalism, but also slightly amused at the fact that one look at those wide blue eyes could crumble years of strict military training. When he eventually left her with her family in Sweden, he would have to be careful not to look back at those eyes or he would never be able to leave.

"The Captain of the ship we will be sailing on called me to his ship, why he did not call Gillette and Groves as well I do not know."

"Nothing is wrong is it?" Synnove titled her head to the side as she asked the question.

"No, of course not Miss Synnove. Quite the opposite in fact, Captain Gibbons has invited us all to a banquet on the ship tomorrow night."

"Is that so?" Synnove asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, it strikes me too as a little odd, but attendance is mandatory, so we had best make an appearance, at least for a while. The Captain claims it will give the other passengers and the crew time to become acquainted before we set sail."

"I suppose that is a good idea, we will be sharing close quarters for a long time after all," Synnove paused, "am I correct in guessing that this event is troubling you James?"

"It is not part of protocol which I am familiar with, however, it should not be a problem."

"I know I don't need to worry at all James."

"And why would that be Miss Synnove?"

"Because I have you to protect me of course, I know you will not let any harm befall me," Synnove's hands darted forward and clasped James' in her own. Her small pale hands holding on to his large tanned and calloused ones providing yet another contrast between the pair. James smiled at her gesture of faith and comfort.

"I am glad you have such trust in me Miss Synnove, I will not let you down.

"I know you will not James."

James cleared his throat after a moment of awkward silence, "I shall let you return to bed now Miss Synnove," on a impulse James raised her hands up to his face and placed a quick kiss upon her knuckles. "Goodnight and pleasant dreams Miss Synnove," he turned sharply and walked off down the hallway to rooms before her reply of "Goodnight," reached his ears.

That night before Synnove fell asleep she rubbed her knuckles back and forth over her lips, feeling the ghost of James' touch still upon them. She smiled and continued to do this until she fell into a dreamless sleep, where no nightmares of nets and drowning haunted her.

She was tempting, far too tempting for a man who was only supposed to be her protector. If only she weren't so utterly, so, well James could not quite place the right words to describe her, as eloquent as he was. She was certainly no temptress as he saw no hint of maliciousness within her eyes, but she was certainly hard to resist. He was sure the other men on the voyage would feel the same way once they saw her. If she met one of her own countrymen, then she would surely choose conversation with him in her own language over conversing with him. Regardless of this he would protect her from any advances until she was safely home. Tomorrow he would find a gunsmith and purchase their finest weapon, with extra ammunition to be safe. He was more than sufficient when it came to swordsmanship, but sometimes the need for a small and easily concealed pistol could not be ignored. It was a long journey and he would not risk anything. James harassed himself for his questionable actions with Miss Synnove, but had he seen the smile and the blush upon her face he would not have done berated himself so harshly. He would also have to deal with Benford before he left, the man had told the Captain about James' companion being a woman and that slip of information could not go unpunished. Regardless of the fact that nothing had come of it, Benford still had to be put back into his place, James just had to figure out how best to do that first. No matter what, his thoughts kept circling back to her, thoughts that one such as himself should not be thinking and certainly should not be thinking about her. He began making a mental list of things to pack in order to escape her invasion of his thoughts, but that only lasted for so long.

Before finally drifting off to sleep James could not help but think that even though her body was completely hidden when she donned his admiral's coat, he enjoyed seeing in on her nonetheless. He wondered if he should ask for her to return it, but immediately dismissed the idea, it would do her more good than it had ever done him. He could have tossed and turned for hours longer, but he managed to silence his thoughts for long enough to finally fall into the sleep he had been waiting all day long for.

Sorry this part is a little late, it has been one of those weeks where everything seems to go wrong and it was the end of trimester so I had assignments and an exam to sit so my attention was elsewhere. I still have a few more exams, but it should interrupt my updating (I hope).
I so glad everyone seems to be enjoying this story so far :D Thank you for the reviews and for adding Serendipity to your alerts.
Just out of curiosity – does anyone know any good Barbossa stories? I seemed to have developed a strange sort of crush on him after this newest movie …