"Captain Sparrow?"

"Aye!" Jack shot up out of his seat, standing to attention but something wasn't right. First of all he was surrounded by four cream walls completely bare of furnishing much different to the black cabin of the Pearl or the dark rooms of most Tortuga cabins. Second of all there was a man, much too professional for anyone he should have been hanging around with stood in the doorway, a bag in his hands and small spectacles balanced on the end of his nose. He was confused until she remembered the night before, the girl, the dark house, the locked room and Nicolette.

He turned his head, face falling as he saw it was not a dream and she was still laid there, out cold, in exactly the same position she had been the night before.

"Ah…Doctor I presume." Jack stated, much more somber, looking back to the older man who had disrupted him. He hadn't found sleep until it was practically daylight outside and even then it was haunted by the visions of how his…Nic got into this state.

"Yes that's right." The Doctor as he now identified himself as, nodded. "Although Thomas will do. Not a Doctor anymore but I do what I can to help folk. My daughter advised me you came during the evening. I wasn't expecting you to still be here."

Jack narrowed his eyes, watching the man closely as he approached the other side of Nic's bed, placed his bad upon the small bed side chest and popped it open. "I think I'll be staying until you can tell me if she's leaving here or not mate." The man met Jack's eyes, if only for a moment before nodding. "And I want to know her injuries. The girl said she had a few but didn't go into details, I want to know everything."

"Oh it was quite a mix." Thomas paused, taking a moment to carefully lift Nicolette's arm and peel back the sheet covering her. Jack wanted to stop him, to do it himself and tell him to be careful but he knew better than to tell a doctor what to do. Casting his eyes down, he found Nic to be wearing a thick, rough white cotton gown which clung to her figure in places where the fever had caused her to sweat. "A couple of broken ribs which will take a while to heal, a possible sprained wrist, there was a stab wound to her thigh and a nasty deep cut along her right hip bone. The rest of her body is covered with bruises but the most dangerous thing right now is her temperature, there is just no stopping it so far." Thomas sighed and pulled a stethoscope from his bag. "From the looks of it I'd say it had to have been at least three people who did this." He carried on making his daily checks and once he was done, he stepped away from the bed, packed his bag and looked at Jack one final time. "There is no saying how long she will be here Captain, it could be days…weeks even."

Without warning, Jack stood and retrieved his coat from the back of the chair, slipping it on. If it were to be days then he had a crew to find and inform. As he went to leave, he met Thomas at the end of the bed and pulled a small pouch from his coat pocket, handing it to the man.

"Thank you, for your trouble."

"It was no trouble at all Captain." He pushed the small sack of gold away and looked down at the girl who he had taken into his care. "That women helped by daughter escape a life in a brothel, if anything I owed her."

She had indeed got up to a lot in the past month while left on her own hadn't she? Taking up gambling and touring the local taverns, saving harlots from a lifetime of depravity. There were already a long list of questions for him to ask her once she awoke.

Jack stilled, eyes turning to Nicolette and then back to Thomas. "Then to make sure her help does not go to waste on your daughter." He forced the pouch into the good doctors hand, patting his closed fist with a nod. "I'll return this evening, if that is right with you."

"Of course." Thomas nodded and just as Jack was about to disappear from view, he finally took into account the amount of gold which Jack had handed over and gasped. "Thank you, Captain Sparrow!"

…

Her head felt like it had been trod on by a dozen horses pulling a coal cart, and her mouth felt as if she had been sucking on a piece of coal for the past three weeks. Where the bloody hell was she? Every time she had woke up, be it only for a few minutes each time, she had been in this bleak awful bright room with nothing in it but the bed she lay on and a couple of old rotten bits of furniture.

Had she been kidnapped? It that was this was? Had her luck taken an absolute turn for the worst because she didn't really put it past herself to get into such a situation. And if it were the case, she didn't even know by who. No one had been there when she woke up, she would just find a glass of water by the bed, take a sip, scowl, wonder where she was and before she could decipher an answer she was back into the land of nod.

How long had it been since she'd first got here? How long could she possibly sleep for? Surely it was no more than a day…no one could have a headache this bad for more than a day…Although come to think of it she was awfully hungry and each time she did come around day had turned to night and vice versa.

Oh she couldn't even bare to open her eyes and Nicolette groaned as a wave of pain shot through her chest as she squirmed to try and rid the stiffness from her limbs. Nic soon stiffened however as she suddenly felt something touch her face, stoking her cheek and the bed beneath her moved with a foreign weight.

With a held breath, Nicolette cautiously opened one eye first to peak at who in gods name had captured her but upon seeing the sight what greeted her. She wished she had been kidnapped.

"Jack?" Her voice was frail and corse but full of surprise as she opened both eyes fully and studied the familiar figure looming over her. Was this a dream?

"Hello Love." Well it was definitely Jack, but…

"Am I dead?" Nic' eyes left his face to dart around the room suspiciously. It was very…godly…

His deep chuckle vibrated in his chest as he leant back in the chair he sat in.

"No, but you are in Tortuga." He tried to smile but seeing Nicolette wince as her eyes fluttered closed again, Jack frowned and returned to where he had been watching over her. "How are you feeling?" As Nicolette heard him she also felt him brushing the hair out of her face again.

It was nice, his hands were cool. They felt safe.

"Hmm." She hummed, leaning into his touch and opening her eyes to see him smiling at her gently.

The trinkets in his hair caught the light coming in through the small window to her right and, although it wasn't too bright, she could see how exhausted Jack was. "What are you...doing here?" She asked between heavy strained breaths.

Jack bit at his lip, his pupils darting from Nicolette's own to her hair which he absentmindedly began to play with. "Docked last week. Bonny lass called Evelyn found me, brought me here. Said you'd been hurt pretty bad."

She caught the look he threw her and instantly recognised it, she had seen him give her the exact same one a thousand time before. He was curious, of course he was curious, God she was curious as to how she ended up here. It wasn't everyday one became bedridden in a strange room being kept alive by an ever missing figure.

But, no matter how hard Jack stared at her with those piercing brown eyes begging to be told the truth, she couldn't and not just because she didn't fully know herself. Because even the parts she could recall would have him scolding her for being so stupid.

She sighed, rolling her eyes as best she could without wanting to shoot herself in the head from the pain and said as casually as she could muster; "I got caught in the rain, fell asleep... must have caught a chill." He didn't buy it. She could tell as he fixed her with a blank and unimpressed expression. But it had been worth a shot. "What?"

"You were attacked." Nicolette scoffed, at least she tried to before the pain in her ribs made her groan.

"Please…" She winced as she tried her best to sit up in the bed. "You should see them." A silence fell as Jack helped her sit up and get comfortable although it seemed whatever position she was in pain radiated throughout her entire body, it was like something had infected her bones.

"What happened?" Nicolette frowned as she fidgeted, avoiding his gaze. But there was only so long she could ignore him for, she wasn't exactly in the state to run away. "Vi?" Her eyes flashed to him then, hearing the nickname only he ever called her. She hated it really, everything about it apart from the fact it was unique to him and that's why she never said anything.

She could see how desperate he was to know, it was written over every inch of his face and not to mention how he had barely made a joke since she had woke up. Nicolette sighed again and it wasn't until she went to reach out for him that she realised he was already holding her hand. It was that little gesture which finally made her smile genuinely and give in.

"I'd been gambling at the Ol' Sailor…one of the lads I won from must have not liked it so him and a couple of his mates followed me out." She saw a darkness come over Jack and she was quick to reassure him. "They didn't do anything like that, just took the winnings and left me with a few bruises."

"A few bruises?" Jack held back a mocking laugh. "Have you seen yourself Nic, they broke your ribs. When I first got here the doctor said you might not be leaving here alive for gods sake." He stood, removing himself from her to pace the floor by her bed.

"Well, you can't blame me for not knowing that." She mumbled and it caused him to stop. When she looked up at him through her lashes, Jack was watching her with more intensity than she believed he ever had. "What are you doing here Jack?" She sounded so weak, whispering into the silence like she did but this just felt so odd.

Jack retook his seat and leant his elbows on the bed beside her shoulder, looking down at her hands, avoiding her eyes.

"I just told you lass."

"You told me how you came to be here. Not why."

"Can I not…" He could try, but the tables had turned and now she fixed him with the same expression he had done to her moments ago. "Oh alright, I was worried." Nicolette would swear on her parents grave that she tried not to let the smile out but it was no use. It slipped through the cracks of her mouth until she was biting her lips trying to hide it and when it finally broke out it was a full grin.

"I knew it." She was almost giggling, her cheeks growing sore as Jack himself smirked and flicked her on the cheek gently. "How long are you docked for?"

"Until you're out of here." He answered easily, glancing about the room. "And you're safe."

"Jack, you-" She tried to tell him not to be stupid, to get back out there and be where he was meant to be, doing what he was born to do. He was Captain of the Black Pearl, not her babysitter. But he spoke over her, catching her off guard.

"Come back to the Pearl." As the words sunk in, Nicolette felt as though she was sinking through the mattress of the bed, drowning. "I shouldn't have left you here Vi." Jack still wasn't looking at her, he was still focusing all of his attention on her hand he held in his, toying with the ring on her middle finger. The ring he had given her, many many moons ago back when she was still naive and believed…well she hadn't known what she believed in, but it had been more than what she did now.

"You didn't, I stayed." Any other day it would have killed her to admit it, but it didn't seem the right time to wind him up. And as much as she wanted to scream out yes to him, she couldn't.

Nicolette had come to realise a lot over the past month and one of those things was that she never should have stayed on the Pearl after Port Royal. There was nothing wrong with the time she had spent with Jack but after how she had lived the past ten years it was stupid to think that everything could have fallen back into how it once was. She needed a little time to find her mortality, to relearn who she was outside of cursed wife and First Mate.

"I'm not coming back Jack…it…" She tried to read him but it was impossible. "Not yet. But one day, when it's right."

"When it's right?" He repeated, testing the words on his tongue. "Why is it wrong?" He let go of her again, sitting back in the chair and dropping his hands to his knee.

"A lot has happened Jack, for the both of us…" She had missed the warmth of his touch, the feel of his lips and his incessant irritating gobalty gook. But she had to find out whether that was because it was all she had known or because she really wanted it. "I'm not…Coming back here I realised how far I had drifted from who I was. That's not all necessarily bad but, I missed laughing Jack." Nicolette shook her head, not believing how diluted she had become when she was under the curse. "Staying on the Pearl, apart from you it was like nothing had changed. I just need a rest, I don't want every moment I spend on her to feel like I'm still searching for something which isn't there or being scared to eat in case it turns to ash. Every morning I woke up in that cabin I didn't want to turn around in case it wasn't you lying next to me and I don't want it to be that way. I want to enjoy those moments not dread them."

Ten years ago she would have been laughing at herself. Being asked aboard a ship, and by Jack of all men was…pathetically it had been all she had wanted. But she couldn't just be a lackey for the rest of her life, she would be of more use behind the bar at the Ol' Sailor.

"I…I have to see what's out there for me Jack. See if I can build my own adventure instead of falling into someone else's."

"What's an adventure without being able to share it?" They were bitter words from Jack, a repetition of ones once spoken by her to him. "But if that's what you wish then…there'll always be a place for you on the Pearl Nic."

"I know." She nodded, her lips trembling nervously. "I'm not saying never Jack. I do care for you." Nicolette was relieved when he gave a hint of a smirk and approached her to take a seat at the edge of her bed.

"Aye." He took her cheek in his hand, his thumb grazing the lasting mark of a bruise. Slowly, he lowered his head down until their foreheads rested together but he was careful not to apply too much pressure as he let his eyes drift shut and dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose. "And I you, always have, always will." He lowered his lips, placing a chaste kiss on her lips.

They could each count on one hand how many times they had spoke such words to one another combined. They weren't serious or binding but it was enough. They didn't need to shower each other with pleasantries or fall over themselves trying to get noticed or impress one another, just Jack being there when he had no duty to be was enough for her.

"You should get back to the Pearl Jack, you don't belong on land any more than Davy Jones." Had she not have closed her eyes to appreciate the feel of his calloused hands against her skin, Nicolette may have saw the fear which plagued his eyes for only a moment and she would not have mistaken his tightening grip on her chin for passion.

"Apologies love but I think the crew would be a little disappointed if I suddenly told them to pack up after alerting them we were staying for the week." Jack grinned when she raised her eyebrows at him.

"A week?"

"Aye, though that was two days ago when I first found you here. So you only have to deal with me for another five." Nicolette grimaced dramatically and ran her eyes from his bandana to his filthy clothes.

"I don't know if I can handle another hour, never mind days." Jack narrowed his eyes at her teasingly, running his eyes down the sweat stained night gown she'd been festering in for days.

"You want to take a look at yourself love." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before he stood. "I'll go see if I can find the Doctor darling, then maybe we can at least get you moved to somewhere more comfortable."

Nicolette was quite sure he was probably referring to the Pearl and shook her head as she watched him leave. He was going to try his very best to get her to agree wasn't he? A part of her was excited to see what he was going to pull, perhaps she would see old ways of wooing come back, or maybe the tang of warning saying it was going to be a testing few days is what she should have listened to…