Hey, as ever thanks for the reviews I love the encouragement, especially first thing in the morning - it helps with the thought of lectures. Glad you seem to like Norrington helping, I kinda think he would, in those circumstances.

Cast of thousands: Well of course you do, that's why you wrote it that way.

Me: Oh, please piss off. Hey, by the way, me no own.

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It was the sunlight that woke him. It was shining full onto his face, hurting his eyes even though they were closed. He tried to move his head out of the way, but discovered that he had a terrible headache. He swore. And discovered that his throat hurt too.

"He's awake!" A voice called. A woman's voice. What the hell was she talking about, of course he was awake. And hung-over apparently.

"Jack! Can you hear me?" Another voice, a man's this time. Sounded excited. And familiar, somehow. So had the woman's. Oh yes, of course ...

"Course I can hear you, whelp." His own voice sounded hoarse. As a kind of experiment he opened his eyes. The light hurt and he quickly closed them again, but not before he caught a quick glimpse of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann standing next to his bed. They both looked tired and worried. He wondered why. Wait, he was on a bed? Whose bed? Where? Couldn't be on the Pearl he dimly remembered, although he couldn't remember why.

Suddenly the light seemed to dim.

"Is that better?" Elizabeth's voice said, gently.

He opened his eyes again, cautiously. "Yeah ... thanks." He looked round the room .. Cabin, he corrected himself as he saw that they were clearly on a ship. Wasn't very big, but it was very clean. His eye fell upon a cup.

"Any chance of a drink?" he asked, half expecting to be told to go and get it himself. To his surprise, both Elizabeth and Will immediately moved to get it for him, though it was Elizabeth who actually held it out for him to take. He struggled to sit up, but Will helped him, without saying a word. He took the proffered cup from Elizabeth, raised it to his lips and sipped. Water. Not as good as rum, but he was so thirsty he would have drunk anything. The two just stood and watched him drink in silence. That was a touch unnerving, as was the serious expression on their faces.

He finished the drink and Will took the cup away. Jack put the tips of his fingers together and bowed his head.

"So, I imagine, one of you is about to let me in on what's going on. Like why you're here and where here is and that sort of information. Last time I saw the pair of you, you were trying to figure out how to kiss without Will's hat getting in the way. And that was two years ago. I imagined that by now you would have figured it out and be trying out happily ever after."

Will smiled a little. Elizabeth looked like she was considering slapping Jack in the face.

"Well, we're here because we helped you break out of Port Royal prison before they hanged you. Again. And here is on a fairly small ship off a desert island." Will told him.

Jack thought for a while. He didn't really remember being in Port Royal. He could remember someone talking to him ... Norrington .. but that was it. Certainly he didn't remember escaping, or being rescued.

Seeing his confusion, Elizabeth said "You were hurt and you weren't really awake for the rescue."

Well, that explained that then. It also explained why he felt quite so bloody awful. And, thinking about it, he could remember how he had got hurt too. He remembered finding the Pearl gone. He remembered the bar fight. He remembered Stenson, standing over him, laughing. He closed his eyes tightly and lay back.

"Are you alright, Jack?" Will sounded concerned.

He felt light-headed, and so tired. "Why?" he managed to ask.

"Why what?"

"Why help me?" It hurt to speak again.

"We couldn't just leave you." He didn't know which one of them had spoken.

"Why not." The words were spoken in his voice, but they came from a long way away. "Everyone else does."

A cool hand was placed on his forehead. "He's still hot." A voice announced. He couldn't remember her name now. "Rest for a while longer, Jack." Gentle words. He fell asleep.

Elizabeth and Will watched the sleeping man for a few minutes, then quietly, left the cabin and went up on deck.

"At least he seemed coherent." Elizabeth said. Will nodded. "and a couple of times he even seemed like his usual, annoying self." Will smiled, very briefly. "He will get better, Will."

He looked directly at her. "I know. But it's odd, seeing Jack so vulnerable."

"Yes." They stood, in silence, for a while, hands entwined, gazing out over the sea.

Escaping from the fort had been easy after Norrington had called off the soldiers. Even carrying Jack had proved fairly simple, although they had dropped the pirate once, on the way down to the harbour. The Captain of the ship they'd bought passage on had been rather reluctant to let them on board with Jack, looking questioningly at the beads in his hair, not to mention his obvious injuries, but Elizabeth had offered the man more gold and he'd stepped aside. He had even sent one of his crew with medical knowledge to see them several times during the three day journey. The man - Dawson by name - had quietly and efficiently dressed Jack's injuries, set the leg, and had done his best to treat the fever. Jack didn't wake up at all during the journey. Dawson had told them not to worry, but had looked very worried himself while he said it. They had worried.

The first time Will had seen the full extent of the injuries, he had actually worried that he might be sick. He couldn't believe that someone had done that to Jack. There were bruises overlaying bruises, it seemed on every inch of the man's body. And his back..

"From a flogging, those are" Dawson had said knowledgably. The cuts were deep, and didn't seem to have healed at all. Some of them were infected. Dawson had produced a bottle of cream that he said would help. It had to be rubbed on before the bandages were changed. Will did it whenever Dawson was occupied with his regular duties. He didn't want Elizabeth to see that.

When the ship had landed, they had thanked Dawson and left him with some of the pirate gold, which, shocked, he had taken gratefully. They had taken his advice and carried Jack to a doctor straight away. Unfortunately, the doctor had not been impressed with having a pirate as a patient, and had immediately called for help.

Running through streets you don't know, carrying an unconscious man is very difficult indeed, but somehow Elizabeth and Will managed to evade their pursuers. Left with very no choice, they had commandeered a small ship and set off for the nearest uninhabited island to wait, and pray for Jack to recover.

For the next week, they had concentrated on keeping Jack's fever down and redressing his wounds. This was made difficult by the fact that he was delirious and didn't know who either of them were. It was hard for Will to listen to his friend's raving, reliving old memories that he knew nothing of. Sometimes Jack called his name, as if pleading for help. Sometimes he called for Will's father, William, or for Gibbs, or AnaMaria. Once or twice, incomprehensibly to Will, he called for Barbossa in that same tone of voice. He said Barbossa's name more often though, angrily demanding the return of his ship.

In a different voice, hurt and confused he asked why 'they' had taken the Black Pearl. Will had a feeling that this was a different memory, a more recent one. If he could figure out who 'they' were, he might have some clue as to what had happened to Jack. Another name that Will heard often and didn't understand, was Stenson. Jack said that name in a voice that sounded scared. Sometimes he yelled for Stenson to leave him alone. Other times he taunted his absent opponent and declared, time and time again that he'd see him dead first.

Try as they might, neither Will or Elizabeth could get Jack to calm down. They could only listen to nightmares that they didn't understand. After five days of this, Jack seemed to become a little more aware of where he was. He was still raving, but he knew that someone was with him. Unfortunately for the young couple, this recognition mainly seemed to consist of pleading with them not to leave him. And neither of them had had the heart to do so, despite telling each other sternly that they needed to sleep. So for the last two days they had stayed by Jack's side, telling him stories that he didn't hear and holding him down when his thrashing grew violent.

But today he had been awake and had known them. And now he lay in a natural sleep. And so they stood in the fresh air, for the first time in a long while, carefully listening for the slightest sound from their patient and friend. There was hope now. Captain Jack Sparrow would recover.

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That's all for now folks. Thought for once I'd end on a pretty positive note. Or possibly just a cheesy one.

This story welcomes careful drivers ... I mean reviewers.