"Are we preparing for attack?" Elizabeth nearly gapes at Jack.

"We can't attack my brother," I tell him, following him as he rushes off towards the helm of the Black Pearl. "We don't even know if Anson is following him."

Jack's rubbing the helm as though he is nervous. I would never suggest them to him, however. "We're not going to attack yet. I'm bein' cautious."

"Yet?" I demand. "Jack, we're not firing at Loyal!"

"We're just going to get him off our track," he explains to me, and begins barking out orders to his crew. I can almost hear him saying, 'Full speed ahead!'

"So we're running away?" Elizabeth suggests. Well, I wasn't going to see it out loud, but…

"Of course we're runnin' away," Jack tells her. "We don't know what could be following him."

My body is quickly beginning to ache. The tingling begins at my fingertips and flows like water to my head. I sit down on the step next to his feet, glaring at my hands. At least Maxwell's remedy did the trick. I can already feel it; my wounds are burning, my vision is blurring. I feel slightly drunk. My fingertips are beginning to fade to a tint of a dull jade green…

"Andie?" Elizabeth kneels down beside me.

"Love?" Jack says, looking down.

"They're healing," I tell him. "I'm all right, just… need to sit down."

"Rodney!" Jack roars. I cringe because he almost yells in my ear.

A moment later comes the response, followed by footsteps as Rodney runs up the stairs to the helm. "Captain?"

"Take the wheel, boy," he instructs as he kneels down, picking me up with strong hands. Easily, but gently, he drapes me over his shoulder. "I want this ship far enough away from that one as possible."

I can't see Rodney, but I hear him. I can't see anything because I feel too drowsy and sore to open my eyes. "Aye, captain. Is she all right?" the first mate asks.

"I think so," Jack explains. "But then again, what do I know about what's goin' on with her right now."

I can't remember the walk back to the captain's quarters, but I feel Jack lie me down upon his bed. "Here's a glass of water," he informs as he pulls the quilts over my legs. "I want you to rest, darling. Too much excitement for ye. Rodney has the helm for now, don't ye worry yerself."

"What if he's following?" I mumble. I can't even find the strength to make myself comfortable on the mattress.

"Why would he be following is a more suiting question, I think. And all I can rationalize is he's a mad man. Only confirming my earlier beliefs, of course," the pirate says with a lift of his brow.

I just want him to hold me. To sleep in the safe, comfort of his arms. Saying this aloud, however, is a different story. I don't want him to know how much I want to depend of him; especially after all that as happened. "He's obsessed," I tell him, able to move my hand enough just to touch my fingertips to his, before closing my eyes again.

"I won't allow him within fifty feet of ye," Jack says, playing with the fingertips I inched closer to his. He takes them within his palm, kissing them sweetly. "Ye think ye could catch his ship on fire or somethin'?"

I'm not sure where it came from, but I laugh. "No. I don't even know how I did it the first time. Tara…"

He moves the hair away from my face, "Good idea, love. Tara. Stay here," he tells me sternly, kissing my forehead, "And I mean it this time. I'm going to go speak with the imp."

"Too tired to move," I say, already half asleep.

Jack whispers something in my ear, but I'm already asleep. I'm asleep, and once more I dream. I dream and I ache and I see Stanley standing before me in a long, dark hallway once more.

"Why are you afraid to tell Jack about us?" Stanley asks me. The wound on his head has dripped down his neck and stained the color of his solid white shirt. Stanley always hated wrinkles; he hated looking unclean. He keeps moving his shoulder and adjusting his collar, so I know it's really bothering him now.

I shake my head at him. "I'm not afraid of anything."

"They're coming, princess," he says. "Stop acting invincible. We both know your not."

"No one is invincible," I explain, repeating the words I told Jack a day earlier.

He laughs, pointing to his head. "I know."

On the table down the hall, I see a glass of lilies. I take a few steps forward, approaching them. I take one into my hand, snap off the stem, and close my eyes. I think, I breathe, and I concentrate, just as Tara told me. When I open my eyes, I turn to glance at Stanley. He's looking at me strangely, the crimson stain still on his white shirt.

"Why aren't you working?" I say to the lily.

Stanley laughs at me. "What are you doing, Andie?"

I hold the flower tighter, close my eyes, and think about Stanley's head being smooth, being as it was. I think of his shirt, with no wrinkles as always, and a solid crisp white. When I open my eyes again, both the stain and the wound are gone. I smile bigger than I think I've smiled in a long time.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" he asks.

I turn up the collar of his shirt. "Look."

He raises an eyebrow, his jaw going slack. "You did that? Just now? With that?" he points to the palm of my hand.

When I open my fingers, the lily has turned into ash. I let it fall to the floor like forgotten dust. "Yes, I did. Tara taught me. I found her."

He smiles. "I know. She made it rather easy this time, I suppose. Be gentle with her, princess. She has some issues."

I nod. "I've realized this. When did you work with Tara?"

"I haven't," he says. "But I've spoken to her. She does what you're doing now."

"What am I doing now?" I ask with a raised brow.

"Dream walking," he explains. "We have a connection. Therefore, when you fall asleep, I can take you here. Show you things. Tara, however, is a messenger. She can do it with whomever and whenever she needs to."

This girl has a lot of power, I know. Apparently there is a lot I can learn from her. "What about the nightmares I've been having?"

"You can get lost," my friend explains. "You can fall into a pleasant place, such as this one, or you can fall into an incubus. Be careful when you arrive there; they are tricky. Dangerous, they are."

I nod, understanding. "Tell me about Maxwell."

He raises his brow. "Who?"

"Maxwell. Took Chester's place. He's supposed to watch over Tara and I?" he does not look phased by this, however. "He has this… I don't know, Stan, he just makes my stomach…"

"You're blushing, princess," he says with a laugh, his eyes wide. He takes a step forward and cups my cheek with his cool palm. His skin is so white, so pale. Almost blue, almost translucent.

I smack his hand away. "I am not blushing," I deny.

Stanley just laughs, however. "Perhaps the two of you have a connection."

I shake my head at him, my long, black hair falling down my shoulders, straight as a board. "No. He's infuriating. And Jack…"

He smiles. "You love Jack, any fool can see that, Andie. A connection with another man doesn't have to mean anything, you know. You are your own woman and you obviously know who and what you want. You have free will, that's more than just chemistry. Just be careful about the wanting part."

"But he gives me this look, and it's like…"

"You can't control yourself?"

I swallow thickly, nodding. When he gave me that look earlier, and even the day before, when Rodney pulled me away from him, I wasn't thinking straight. It was like he was pulling me to him, like I was doing what felt right and I didn't have to question myself one bit. And this worries me; it's not as though I can speak to Jack about it. "Now you know have every male feels around you," Stanley says with a laugh. "The pull of the curse."

"Maxwell isn't cursed."

He shrugs. "Doesn't mean something else there isn't going on."

I'm sleeping, I know. But I can hear something. Something with a melody. I look to Stanley with strange eyes, and my body is beginning to feel fuzzy. I'm slowly being roused from sleep, I realize. "Is Loyal still looking for me?" I ask quickly.

"No, he's going an opposite direction. He's not going to lead them to you. He's straying them away now that he knows they're following."

"Who?"

Ahoros.

I awaken to find myself lying in Jack's bed, my hair down and a clean, mild scent in my nose. The melody has not stopped, and as I look about the room, I realize what it has been all along. Tara, standing on the other side of the bed, is placing flowers on all the tables, singing gently to herself. Or to the both of us, I cannot tell.

"Some men have died, and some are alive, and others sail on the sea…" she sings.

I try and sit up in the bed. My head no longer hurts, and my body feels regenerated. I bring my fingers up from the covers so I can get a good look at them. They're normal color. I flex them as I look to Tara. "What are you doing with those?" I point to the flowers.

She smiles the sweetest smile. "They're pretty. I thought you would enjoy them."

"I do," I say. "They're beautiful. But Jack, however…"

And then, as though I had been calling him, the captain of the Black Pearl, swings open to door to his cabin. His nose scrunches up instantly. "It smells like a bloody garden party in here," he says.

I laugh. "I saw that coming."

Tara continues to sing, and Jack stares at her strangely for a moment before shaking his head and waltzing over to the bed. "We're out of their sight," Jack says to me, lifting my chin with one hand. "Ye have got the color back to yer cheeks. Good, love."

Tara sings, smiling this big smile at me before closing the door behind her.

"How long have I been asleep?" I ask him.

He takes a seat beside me. "Two days."

I nearly choke on the glass of water he hands me from the small table beside the bed. "Two days!"

Jack laughs, touching the ends of my hair with his fingertips. "Maxwell and Tara told me it was normal. Yer body was trying to recuperate and get back to it's normal state. So I let ye sleep. Nearly killed me though," he explains with a grin and leans in for a kiss.

"What did Tara say?"

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you tell me you we're going to talk with Tara? She has a lot of power, and she…"

Jack touches my hair. "She got in touch with Loyal," he explains. "Don't ask me how. It was an unmoral sense of weirdness and I do not wish to speak of it."

I'll ask her myself, later on. "All right," I say with a laugh as he shivers with the memory. I take his face between my hands. "Out of their sight?" I say between kisses. "So that means…"

He grins at me. "We have some free time."

"Oh," I say happily, helping him remove his shirt. I touch his flat stomach with my fingers. "You're the captain, captain. Whatever you say goes."

I kisses me again. "And don't ye forget it, love." He wraps me up in his arms, pressing his palms against the small of my back. I can't stop kissing him; it feels like I've gone weeks without seeing him again. After a moment he pulls away, attempting to remove the quilts from between us, but there is this huge grin on his handsome pirate face. "Ye seem excited for being asleep for forty-eight hours, love. I'd expect ye to be… still sleepy?"

"I've had enough sleep," I tell him, pulling him down to the bed with me. "I feel so energized."

"Hmm," Jack says with a lift of his eyebrow. "That sounds promising."

And then, as Jack's palms slide up my stomach, rough palms against soft, pale skin, there's a loud knock on the cabin door. We ignore it at first, too busy caressing and laughing and enjoying our time together while we can, but the knocking continues to persist, before the person on the other side just annoyed and swings the door open.

It's Maxwell. "Oh, that's disgusting," he says to us, covering his eyes even though I'm still clothed and covered by the sheet, and Jack is still wearing his breeches. "I don't want to know what the two of you do between behind this door."

"How about behind other doors on the ship?" I ask him with an interested, cocked eyebrow.

He flinches and removes his hand from the doorframe. "Feeling better?"

I nod, still feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Jack, however, seems very comfortable as he lies back on the back, folding his arms back behind his head. He's not ashamed one bit. "Much better," I reply.

"Good," Maxwell replies with this big, evil smile on his face. "It's time to begin your training, then."

"I'm not so sure if I'm sure of anything anymore
Well this is the last night that you'll be keeping secrets from me
Just hit the lights before you leave
You know, the million things you had to say
Sorry just, just might have found its way in there
Somehow, someway
But don't worry, sweetie, cause I already know."
The Blue Channel- Taking Back Sunday

Lots of things to think about.

Happy Independence Day!

501 reviews, guys, that's amazing! I can't thank you enough, however, thanks to the reviewers from the last chapter, anyway: