Author's Note: ok, here we go.  A good old-fashioned feel-good chapter.  I decided to let Winn and Jack play a bit before making their lives resemble a Shakespearian tragedy.  Enjoy this.  I know I did.

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How We Ended the Last Chapter:

She listened as he began to read the letters out loud, leaned against him as her eyes demanded to be allowed to rest, wrapped an arm around his as her mind started to drift from the attention she was giving his words.

   Jack smiled as he felt Winn sag against him, as he heard her breathing level out into the deep and steady inhalations of sleep.  His wife was stubborn, but not even she could hold off sleep.  But behind the smile was a hint of worry.  Normally she would put up a bit more of a fight.  She would have paced around the cabin, asked for something to drink.  Telling himself that it was nothing more than the pleasant and unpleasant exertions of the day catching up to her, he kept reading the letters, albeit silently as to avoid waking his slumbering wife.

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"Wake up, love.  If you still want to go to dinner, now's the time to start getting ready."  Jack, while wanting to wake his wife in a way that wouldn't alarm her, was keeping a sharp eye for any body parts or heavy objects that might come his way.  Even after near four years of being awoken under all sorts of pleasurable circumstances, Winn still didn't like having to wake up.  Luckily for Jack he had a hard head and a nearly unstoppable will.

   However, this time it seemed as if he had been a little too gentle; Winn continued to sleep the sleep of the exhausted.  For a moment he wondered if it wouldn't be better to simply let her sleep through the evening meal while he made a short appearance down in the galley.  He could stay for ten or twenty minutes then come back and spend some more time deciding what he was going to do with the information he had gained from the two letters that had been scavenged from the dead man's body.  And once she wakes up, Winn makes you very sorry for doing such a thing.  He sighed.  I suppose I have no other choice then . . . .  With the air of a man making an extreme sacrifice, Jack leaned down and kissed his sleeping bride.

Winn was sleeping.  Or at least she thought she was.  If she was asleep, then she really ought to complain to someone about the quality of her dreams lately.  This one wasn't a nightmare, and she knew that if it started to head in that direction, then she could wake herself up.  No, this dream was merely strange.  Fragmented and utterly bewildering.  Even in her sleep she couldn't remember much past what was currently happening.  Her memory was nothing but a kaleidoscope of images, colors, and sounds.

   Right about the time she was getting really frustrated, she felt something that actually had substance, something she could definitely say she was actually feeling and not imagining.  It was a kiss.  Nothing extremely passionate or overly demanding.  No, this kiss had just enough heat and pressure behind it to be a reminder that she wasn't alone.  That there was someone with her who wanted her attention.

   Slowly drifting up from her dream, she murmured something to the person kissing her.  She wasn't sure if it was meant to praise or criticize.  Set against her passionate dislike of being awoken was the pleasant sensation of being cherished.  Yes.  That's what this kiss feels like.  Like being cherished.  Slowly she felt herself waking up.  "Jack?  What are you doing?"

   "If you truly can't figure out what it is that I'm doing, then I have failed miserably as a husband."

   "No, not that.  I meant, why are you waking me up?"

   Jack raised his eyebrows in mock surprise.  "Are you telling me that you no longer want to force the two of us to go to dinner?  That we can stay right here in out cozy little cabin –" he stopped as Winn started laughing.  "What?"

   Propping herself up on her elbows, Winn kissed his cheek.  "You, my oh-so verbose husband, should never use the word 'cozy.'  Or at least never let anyone hear you use it – it might irrevocably damage your image as a fearsome pirate captain."

   "Is that right?"

   "Umm-hmm."

   "Well, I guess I'll just have to show you that a man can use the word 'cozy' and still be fearsome."  He started to kiss her, but she held him off by placing her hands on his chest.

   "We don't have time for that before dinner."  He gazed at her with soulful eyes, the same look she got from Pige when the dog was sure that Winn was feeding her table scraps that even a starving pirate would decline to touch.  "Where's Pige?"

   Rolling his eyes, Jack got up off the bed.  Ok, there's no way I'm going to get her to stay here.  She brought up the dog – it's hopeless.  "She's outside terrorizing the crew.  I didn't want her disturbing you, so I locked her out."

   "Jack . . . ."  Oh, not the disappointed tone.  I can handle anything but that.  "You know I can sleep through just about anything.  Will you please let my dog in?"

   Grumbling about demanding women and oversized dogs, Jack walked to the doors of the room and opened them.  There on the threshold lay a truly miserable Pige.  When she saw who it was at the door, she sat up and let out a dejected whine.  Blasted animal.  I can take it from one, but not from both.  Truth be told, Jack had a soft spot for his wife's pet.  A very, very, very small soft spot, but a spot nonetheless.  "Well fine.  Go in to your mistress then."  He stepped aside and bowed as if to a great lady, swinging one arm out in an exaggerated swoop.  The dog bounded past him in a flurry of silver-grey hair, blue eyes, and wagging tail.  He flinched at its excited barks.  There was no way he was going to stay in here with the overly agitated animal.  "Winnie, I'll be back in twenty minutes to take you to dinner."  She looked up and nodded, her hands busy petting her dog.

   Thinking unpleasant thoughts about animals who took their owner's attention away from the husbands who deserved it, Jack left to go get a status report from Gibbs.

 "Jack.  I'm ready."  Jack turned from the crewman he had idly been talking to while waiting for his wife to get ready.  She was wearing a long copper colored tunic-dress over a long-sleeved white shirt.  She had tied her hair back with a bit of black velvet ribbon, perhaps the one vanity she was willing to give in to.  Pige sat at her side, tail wagging slowly.

   It had taken months for the couple to teach the dog to heel, mainly because every time someone talked to her, she'd leap across the cabin to assault their faces with her tongue.  But now, she finally had the order down, and it did more to increase her own appearance of a fierce guard dog than it did to make Winn appear any more threatening.  Perhaps it was because Pigeon had grown to be three feet tall at the shoulder and that when she sat at Winn's side, her head came up Winn's ribcage, thus making Winn appear even more delicate than she already did.

   "I don't know what your brother was thinking when he got such a monster dog for you, or what I was thinking when I let you bring her onboard."  Jack came over to stand in front of Winn.  He would have taken her hand were it not for his crew standing about – neither he nor Winn were comfortable showing large amounts of affection in front others.

   "You were thinking you were so happy to have me back that you'd take me back under any conditions – even a monster dog."  Setting her hand on Pige's head, a silent signal for the dog to stand, she said, "Let's go down to dinner.  I'm hungry."

Some of the boisterousness in the galley quieted when the Captain and his lady came down the stairs.  Because he treated his crews well (and because his ship was the legendary Black Pearl), Captain Sparrow was well respected, even if he did act the sunbaked fool at times.  He and his woman made a rather stately pair coming down the stairs into the long room – he every inch the eccentric pirate from the hat on his head and the beads in his hair to the boots in which he walked so blithely, and the small woman at his side who appeared to be completely helpless but was really a fury in a fight, verbal or physical.  He was the effusive comic, she an icy shadow at his side, preferring to let others talk.  The only hint of danger about her was the oversized hound that was never far from her side.

   As they walked in, the Captain frowned.  "Just a moment ago they could hear your revels in Port Royal.  Why is it so quiet?  Don't tell me this outsized dog has intimidated you!  Where's the crew that won an unfair battle this morning!"  He glanced around, embellishment in each of his movements.  "Leech!  Tell me why things are so quiet."

   "It seems to me that the lads could use a drink, Capt'n.  Perhaps their voices are painfully parched."

   "Well, give 'em somethin' to drink then.  Open a barrel of rum!"  There was a loud cheer at this order.

   Winn watched as her husband put on the show his crew was expecting, hiding the schoolgirlish smile that was trying to come to her lips.  The crew didn't need to see her acting like a moonstruck idiot.  She walked over to a table, seating herself next to Anamaria who was aboard for the last time.  The woman had finally gotten more than enough money to replace the ship that Jack had pilfered from her years ago, and she had finally decided to do something about it.  Winn would miss her – it was nice having another female aboard.  She wouldn't go so far as to say that she and Anamaria were best friends, both woman liking to guard their privacy, but they had enjoyed several talks over the past years and she was an expert when it came to knife throwing.  Winn had learned a lot from her.

   "So, you're not as soft as I thought, landlubber.  Up and around after being shot?"  Winn was greeted by the familiar show of sociable hostility.  Anamaria had no respect for those who ever wanted to feel the solid ground beneath them for extended amounts of time.

   "It's just a scratch, although I must admit that perhaps my definition of scratch may be different than Jack's.  Every time I get one he hustles me onto the ship to get it looked at."

   "Plays by his own rules that one does."  Winn nodded absently as she watched her ebullient husband work his way around the room.

   "Hmm . . . the rules of life as written by Jack Sparrow.  I think he'd write such a book to add to his own consequence if he didn't think that people would start following it."

   "One of a kind, that's certain."

   "Yes, well, madness hardly ever displays itself the same way twice."  The two women shared a look, one of understanding.

   "Sitting around having a gossip, love?"  Jack came over and sat down next to the two women, setting a mug of rum before Winn.  She picked it up and took a sip.  It wasn't the best she had ever had, and she doubted she would finish the portion she'd been given.  Being drunk had its advantages at times, but those times were few and far between.  She listened as Jack and Anamaria talked of her plans.

   What was in those letters? she wondered idly.  Jack hasn't said anything, which is making me nervous.  It makes me think that he's learned something that he knows I'm not going to like.  Carefully observing him over the rim of her tankard, she tried to guess what it could be, but he wasn't giving anything away.  The captain is out in full force.  I need my husband, not the showman.

   "Here y'are, lass."  She looked up as a bowl of stew was set in front of her.  She smiled at Leech.  The man had taken her under his wing since she had come back on board.  She still remembered the first time she had met the man. 

   "The Capt'n sent me down to see to ye, and to tend to yer wound." 

   "Please tell Captain Sparrow that I thank him for his concern, but his worries are unfounded.  I would be ever so grateful if he could drop me by the nearest port."  The ice of her words just slid off the elderly Scotsman.  He just smiled at her as if he knew something that she didn't.

   "Well, if that isn't the way of it then . . ." he trailed off.  Collecting himself with a shake, Leech said with good humor, "You should eat something if you plan on doin' battle with the Capt'n."

   How the man had known what was going to happen between the two, Winn still didn't know.  She had asked once, and he had simply said that it was because he was so old he had seen this same thing happen to numerous amounts of people, and could recognize when two people were made to match each other.  Not when two people would fall in love, but when they would find the other person who complemented them in every way.

   "Ye alright, lassie?"  Winn looked up from her memories to find Jack, Anamaria, and Leech looking at her curiously.  "I thought ye looked a bit peaked.  I s'pose ye should be back in bed."

   "No, I'm fine.  Just remembering something."  Trying to get everyone's attention off her, she automatically reached for her spoon.  The din in the galley had surpassed its earlier levels, the men enjoying the opportunity to let off some steam.  Looking around she was thinking that Jack would soon want to stop by Tortuga to let his men run loose.  Once again lost in thought, she had the spoon halfway to her mouth before she realized that the smell of the food before her was turning her stomach in a decidedly unpleasant way.  Quickly setting the spoon back down, she turned a warm smile on Leech and asked, "I don't suppose we have any fruit on board, do we?"  It was a foolish question.  Of course they did, even if it was nothing more varied than limes.  But Jack liked having fruit on board, so she knew that there was most likely a large variety open to her.

   "Aye, lass.  Crates of the stuff.  Why?"  Leech was watching her carefully, as if he were gathering evidence for something.

   "I just realized that I'm not all that hungry – stew seems to be a bit much to force upon my digestion right now.  But fruit sounds nice.  Especially if we have any papaya or guava."  And that was the truth.  For some reason she really wanted to eat guava right now.  "Guava in particular would be nice.  Do we have any?"

   "Let me check."  Leech got up and entered the kitchen part of the galley.  Winn turned her attention to her other two tablemates.  Anamaria was talking to a man next to her, but Jack was eyeing her suspiciously.  She swallowed as he leaned over.

   "Are you sure you're feeling alright?" he asked in her ear.  "You can leave at any time and no one will think any less of you."

   "I'm fine Jack.  Stop acting like an overly concerned mother."  Further conversation was cut short by several men pulling out harmonicas and wood flutes and even an accordion.  Stomping feet provided a percussion line as the men started dancing jigs and singing dirty sea shanties at the top of their lungs.

   Jack watched as a member of his crew approached them and asked his wife to dance.  She quickly agreed, more from wanting to get away from his watching eyes he suspected than out of any desire to dance.  He watched as she twirled around laughing, her hair coming lose of her ribbon and flying in her face, her eyes sparkling.  She danced with man after man, occasionally coming back to the table to eat a bite of tropical fruit or to take a sip of rum.

   After one such stop, she took one of Jack's hands in both of hers.  "Come dance with me, Jack."  She pulled on his hand.  "We never danced at our wedding."

   "That's because one of us wasn't too keen on being married in the first place."

   "Please come dance with me?  Who knows when the chance will come up again?  Besides, I'm having so much fun."  She smiled as Jack let her pull him up from the bench he was sitting at.  Laughing she said, "Keep up with me Jack!" then she took off, jigging and darting between the men, daring Jack to catch her.

   He followed, having drunk a little more rum than might otherwise be prudent, matching her step for step, slowing gaining on her.  Eventually he caught her with am arm around her waist.  Picking her up, he spun her around, then set her back on her feet.  The men playing the instruments picked up their pace as their captain and his lover danced.  Finally Winn could take the pace no more.  She stopped, nearly collapsing where she stood, letting Jack catch her.  She heard Pige barking, trying to make her way through the crowd.

   "I think we had better stop."  She nodded, in perfect agreement with Jack.  Now that she was no longer moving, she could feel her legs trembling with exhaustion and her body radiating heat.  In fact, the entire room was heat, beating around her, making it seem too enclosed.

   "Let's go up on the deck.  I need some air."

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Author's Thanks go to: ao_hoshi, KawaiiRyu, Savvy-Z, bobo 3, TaraRose, savvy sparrowhawk, jackfan2, captainsparrowsfeistylass, lilitaliandragon, PeleAmelika, BeBe, Eledhwen, Talabar, SuzzieQue, Sassy Q, eva, LaDyKaGoMe409, and to all those that I might have missed.  I really do love you all, and appreciate every review, it's just that I don't have the paper to print them out anymore, so I don't know if I'm doing as good a job keeping track.  Much apologies if I missed you.