Author's Note: Do-do-do!  Chapter eight.  Semi-painful (or less), but satisfying to write nonetheless.  Finally I'm moving on in my plot.  I thought I could squeeze these last six chapters into three when I was planning.  Yeah, forgot how well my ideas of what needs to be written meshes with what my character demand to be written.  Enjoy, and be looking for chapter nine around Thursday.

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Last Time:

Winn 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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Winn reveled in the cool ocean breeze blowing in her face.  The Pearl was riding at sea anchor, her sails furled, her deck empty yet haunted by the music and revelry of her crew.  It was almost like being on a ghost ship, knowing that she was alone on the deck, yet feeling the presence of an unseen crew.  It was an eerie feeling that sent shivers of some kind of unknown awareness down her spine.

   She approached the rail, seeing the glint of the night lanterns on the water below.  It reminded her of gilded obsidian, or her ring – fire caught within dark stone.  Lost in thought, she felt Jack slip an arm around her waist.  In an unconscious movement, she leaned against his shoulder.  It was natural by now to find herself desiring his presence; instinctive, second nature.  The tides were pulled by the moon; she was pulled by the knowledge of returned love.  Speaking of the moon, here it comes.

   Man and woman stood side by side, watching the moon rise.  As the last slice of the crescent moon rose above the dark line of the horizon, Winn asked, "Have I ever told you what my favorite part of being at sea is?"

   Jack closed his eyes, cherishing this moment and the twinge in his heart as his wife willingly shared what was on her mind.  He had made a hard decision that afternoon as he had watched Winn sleep.  A decision that was going to make Winn as elusive as the horizon he had been chasing for so much of his life.  Her sharing things with him without him having to ask just made things all the harder to do and say.  "No.  I don't believe you have, Winnie."

   "It's being able to look out at the sea at night and not being able to tell where the sea stops and the stars start.  The stars are so much brighter out here, closer.  Now, when I'm visiting my family, I look up at night and hate how my surroundings box the sky in.  How limited my view is."  Her husband said nothing.  Tilting her head she looked up at him.  He was staring out at sea as if he hoped to find something there, something that was currently eluding him.  "Trying to find the horizon, Jack?"

   He sighed.  "No, love.  I'm trying to figure out how to delay its coming."

   "I don't understand."  And she wasn't sure she wanted to.  There was some measure of disquiet in his voice, an undertone of despondency to his words.  Whatever he had to say next, she doubted she was going to like it.  Please let this have nothing to do with those letters.  I knew I should have stayed awake.

   "Do you remember our wedding, Winnie?"

   "Of course I do."  What kind of question was that?  If there was one thing she remembered better than that nerve-wracking day, she wasn't sure what it was.  Perhaps the day he had come after her.

   "Then you remember our vows?"

   ". . . Yes."

   "And do you remember what the three vows are that a man keeps on the sea?"

   "Those made to his crew, those of revenge, and those made to a wife."  Winn turned so she was no longer leaning against Jack but against the rail instead.  Trying to search eyes that wouldn't meet hers in the dark, she asked, "What are you trying to tell me, Jack?"

   "I swore to protect your life, Winn."  He reached out to smooth a hand across her scraped neck.  He looked so world-weary that Winn's heart cried out.

   "And I swore to protect yours.  We've done a pretty good job so far, seeing as how neither of us are dead."  Winn tried to quell the rising sense of hysteria rising up in her at his use of her name instead of a pet name.  "What was in those letters, Jack?  If they've managed to upset you this much, then I think I deserve to know.  We're partners in this.  Don't leave me in the dark now."

   Jack sighed, as if in defeat.  Reaching inside one of his many coat pockets, he pulled out a folded and wrinkled piece of paper.  Silently he handed it to her.  With mixed feelings of curiosity and misgiving, she unfolded the paper.  Angling it towards the night lanterns so that some of their light fell across the page, she had to muffle a gasp.  Quickly looking back up to her husband, she saw his face was unreadable.  No.  Tell me he's not planning what I think he is.

Jack watched Winn as she examined the paper.  He already knew what she would find.  There was a rough portrait of her in her 'disguise' and three simple lines.  The pirate Morgan, wanted alive for the wrongful death of Tristan Gandolfi.  Contact Marco Stephanopoulos in Nassau in case of capture.  Reward offered.  If there was nothing else they knew about this situation it was that someone was out to get Winn, and Jack would gouge the eyes from his head before he let Winn come into the hands of this man.

   "My dream. . . ."  Winn sounded lost.  It was too much for her to currently take in.  She looked up from the paper.  "Jack, the man that I accidentally shot, the one I keep dreaming about.  He was on an Italian ship, and the man mentioned in this has an Italian name."  He knew her hands had started to tremble when he saw the paper trembling in her grasp.  Reaching out he took her hands in his, starting to chafe them when he felt how cold they were.  "I didn't mean to kill him.  I didn't want to, and I wouldn't have if he hadn't shot first.  It was an accident."  Why is this happening?  Why now?

   Because you didn't start wearing your 'pirate getup' until you talked Jack into letting you run about on deck.  Someone obviously recognized you.

   Trying to reign in her rampant emotions, Winn asked, "What are we going to do now?"

   And here was the part that Jack knew she wasn't going to like.  "I'm taking you back to your Grandfather's.  You'll be safe there until I can solve this."

   "No!"  Jack was unsurprised by her vehement objection.  "No, you can't, Jack."  All the old fears of being abandoned were struggling to resurrect themselves.

   "What I can't do is let you stay on this ship when we don't know how many people are looking for you."  Winn was shaking her head.  Reaching out he grabbed her chin to make her look at him.  "What else did I swear to you on our wedding day, Winn?  What else?"  He could still feel her trembling.

   "You promised not to abandon me when I need you."  The words were whispered.  "But what you're planning sounds an awful lot like that to me."  She turned her hands so that they were grasping his.  "Don't do that."

   He let go of her chin so he could stroke her hair in a calming manner.  "I'm not forsaking you, love.  I'm keeping us both safe.  What do you think I would do to myself if I failed to keep you safe here?  We have no idea what this man even wants with you.  I won't gamble with your life."

   "But you'll gamble with your own?"  They're one and the same.  Our lives are tied to each other.  Without you, what do I have?

   "It's not like that, Winnie."

   "From where I'm standing, it's looking remarkably like that."

   "How am I gambling?  I take the Pearl to New Providence, manage to get to Nassau and find this Stephanopoulos, and then I persuade him to tell me what I want to know.  We find out who's after you and where he is.  I go and get him, eliminate the danger one way or another, and then I come and get you.  And we live the rest of out itinerant lives together.  Where's the gamble?"

   "We don't know if that man we caught earlier today was placed here just so we could catch wind of this.  We don't know how much this mystery man knows.  What if it's a trap?  What makes you think that I can afford to lose you any more than you can afford to lose me?"

   "I don't want to argue with you about this, Winnie."

   "Then be reasonable," she pleaded with him.  "I don't want you out there risking your life because you're angry.  And don't try telling me you're not.  I think I know you a little better than that."

Okay, so he was angry.  No.  He was furious that anyone would dare try to ruin the life a woman who was so scrupulous when it came to harming people.  He had seen her take almost outlandish risks just to avoid killing an opponent.  She always tried first to defend, and then to nonfatally injure, and then only in extreme cases, to kill.  He was furious with this unknown person who tried to find revenge without first declaring himself – without making intent known.  He would readily kill this person who was threatening his own life by threatening his wife.  Jack wasn't overly romantic or given to spouting passionate ideals, but he did know one thing: his wife meant more to him than he cared to realize, because it was enough to know that he would risk his life to save her neck.  He didn't need to know what would happen to him if she died.  He already had a pretty good idea, and ruminating on it any longer would cause him to lose sight of the now and be able to see only the what-if's.  Life wasn't made for what-if's.  That was what regret was for, and if he could help it, he would never have anything to regret.

   As he stood stoking his wife's hair, Jack realized just how hard she had started to shiver.  "You're cold."  She's in shock.  She nodded.  "Let's go to the cabin."  He led her compliant body to their cabin.  Letting go of her hand, he went to light the lantern that hung from the ceiling.  As he was engaged in this, Jack heard Winn walk over to the table and drag a chair out to sit on.  Once he had the lamp lit, he came to kneel before her.  Her hands were in her lap and her eyes were downcast, not wanting to look at him.

   Winn was silent as he took her hands in his.  She was scared and she was hurt.  She was scared that no matter how Jack tried to reassure her, he was either going to leave her for good because she was too much trouble or he was going to get himself killed in an effort to clean up her mess, which amounted to the same thing.  She was angry with herself for doubting him and angry with him for putting her in a situation that allowed her to doubt him.  And her arm hurt.  And she was cold.  And she didn't want him to leave her.  So she gave him the silent treatment.  Ignored her one source of comfort and security because she was afraid that he was going to wittingly or unwittingly deny her of those two things.

   "You know I'm right, Winnie.  You know that unless I know you're safe I'll be more focused on caring for you than I will be on eliminating the threat to you.  I can't let myself be distracted like that."

   "So you'll leave me behind to worry for you?"  The anguish in her voice was clear to them both.

   "Why should you worry, love?  It's not as if I take things easy when you're not on the ship.  We both know I get into more risky situations when you're not here than when you are.  And every time things have come out all right.  Just think of this as another visit with your relatives.  It's about time for one anyway."

   "Yes, but normally I know what kind of trouble you're likely getting yourself into.  I don't have to worry about what kind of trouble that I'm getting you into, I don't have to face unknowns."  She paused, and then abruptly asked, "Do you know how many ships there are in the Bahamas?  Not just merchant, pirate, and privateers, but navy?  Half will be out to capture you for hanging, and the rest evenly split between the desire to loot you and the desire to keep you from looting them.  And our friend must know what the Pearl looks like.  What if he's watching out for you?  What if he has a trap ready for just this circumstance?  What you're suggesting is too risky!"  She looked at him in sudden anger.

   "No, don't get mad at me, Winn.  You knew who I was before you married me.  You knew who I was before consummating the marriage.  You know that I would do almost anything to see you happy, but don't ask me to turn coward for you.  That's the one thing I can't do for you, Winn.  It's the one thing I refuse to do for you."

   "I'm not mad at you and I don't want you to act like a coward.  It's just . . . ."  She stopped, aware that what she had been about to say was ground they had covered a thousand times before.

   "It's just what?"

   Closing her eyes she said, "What if things get too hard and you decide it's not worth it?  That I'm not worth it?  What if you decide to just leave me to wait for you at Swallows Rest until you decide to never come back?  That I'm too much of a headache?"

   It all comes back to this, doesn't it?  The same fears.  What is it going to take to lay them to rest?  Jack was getting fed up with having to deal with this same stumbling block over and over again.  He knew that they had both done everything they could to overcome this one fear, knew that Winn hated admitting that she still feared being left alone.  He laid the pain it was causing on the steadily climbing account of the man who had started this mess.

   "Winnie."  She didn't open her eyes.  "Look at me, Winnie."  Nothing.  "Winnie, I am not going to leave you, and you know that.  Deep inside you know that.  I've had plenty of chances to do so before, most notably when you drugged me and ran away.  But I didn't leave you then, and I'm not going to leave you now."  She slowly raised her head to look at him.  "Trust me, Winnie."

   "I do."  The admission was whispered so quietly that he nearly missed it.  "I love you."

   "I know.  I love you too."  It was the first time in nearly four years that the two had said the words out loud, but somehow this situation demanded it be said.  "You'll wait for me?  You'll wait for me to do what I need to do to keep you safe?"

   "Yes. . . . But I still don't like it."  Sliding off the chair, she made herself at home in his arms.  "Hold me?"  And he did, all night long.

"I still don't like this idea, Jack.  It seems too much like I'm sending you out to fight my battles for me.  If this is all caused by what we think it is, then shouldn't I be the one to try to fix things?"  Winn was taking her last chance to debate this topic with her husband.  The two stood at the wheel and as the sun set, she could see the lights of Swallows Rest growing closer.  "You asked me not to ask you to be a coward for me, but I don't want to be the kind of woman who cowers behind her man.  I've never done that before.  And I don't want to now."  Her thinking was that if she went with Jack, then she could try to keep him out of trouble.

   "Winnie.  We've been over this.  We've been over nothing but this since Tuesday, which was five days ago.  I don't think we really need to go over it again.  Besides, they say that routine can kill a marriage."

   "Not if I kill you first.  Or if this plan of yours kills you off before I do."  Despite the fact that they were both making light of his death, she found that to be a very real concern.  There was no coming back from death.  If he died, she really would be stranded.  "Jack, please ­–"

   Enough.  Reaching out an arm, Jack pulled his wife to him and kissed her to stop the words coming out of her mouth.  A few members of his crew whistled, but most looked the other way.  Probably to hide their amusement.  Keeping his eyes open so he could still steer his ship, Jack kissed Winn until she stopped struggling against him.  He then let her go and motioned to Cotton who was standing nearby.  He let the older man take the helm, then pulled Winn into their cabin.

   Shutting the door behind him, he turned to his wife.  Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, "I appreciate the effort, love, but if your arguments didn't convince me the first thirty-seven times, what makes you think that they're going to convince me now?"

   "I thought I might be able to change you mind.  I feel as if you're not taking any of my concerns seriously, Jack.  Like you're brushing them off like they don't matter and you think I'm a brainless woman for even bringing them up."

   "Love, I know how serious you are when you ask to come with me.  I know because I'm just as serious when I say that I need you to stay here where it's safe.  No one really knows about Osprey Point, and those that do have family or friends here – they're not likely to give away information that would lead to a bloody raid.  I know you'll be safe here, so I can focus all my attention on keepin' myself safe."

   "You keep saying that, but –"

   "Winnie.  I'm going to be cautious, and I'll be coming back for you.  Just trust me in this and let me take care of it.  I know you feel as if I'm forcing you to hide behind me, but I'd rather you think of it as me forcin' you to rely on me."

   Winn didn't like the sound of that.  She hated to be forced to do anything, even if it was for her own good and she knew it.  She also knew that no matter how stubborn she was, Jack was equally stubborn.  Making a quick decision, she imitated his pose and threw out the challenge.  "Yes, well, as long as you're forcing me, you're going to have to force me from this ship, Jack.  I'm not leaving so you can go do something stupid.  I'm not going to cooperate."

   He studied her rebellious stance for several minutes before saying, "Fine.  Have it your way."  While his words sounded placating, even defeated, he was thinking, If you want to do this the hard way, then we will.  He opened the doors behind him.  "Parker!  Go down to the galley and bring the wife and I some dinner.  We'll be dining alone tonight."

Winn was surprised that Jack had acquiesced so suddenly.  While she wanted to be able to deal with this threat against her with her husband, and she would be thrilled if he let her come instead without making her life a misery, she was suspicious.  He just gave in too easily.  And too suddenly.   He must be planning something.  But what?  Jack hadn't spoken to her since he had conceded the argument, which was some five minutes ago.  "Jack?  Are you mad at me?"

   He turned from his study of the aft windows and the vista they held.  She saw him smile wistfully, something she had never really seen him do before.  "No, love.  Just thinking.  You keep insisting upon complicating things and it's not making my life any easier."

   Winn felt an incomprehensible urge to apologize and say that she would stay with her grandfather, but she ignored it.  She needed to be with her husband through this.  She had spent so many years running from things in her past that it would be so easy to fall back into the habit.  That was possibly the one thing he had yet to fully understand about her – she liked to run.

   "I'm sorry, Jack.  I just need to be with you."

   "I know, love."  He came over and held her.  "I know."

   There was a knock on the door.  Jack left her to go let the burdened Parker in.  She stood by as the men set plates of food and a pitcher of cold tea on the table.  The tea was for her.  She had been wanting to drink tea lately.  When they were done and the crewman had left, she came over and sat down.  "What are we going to tell Grandfather?"

   Jack shrugged.  "Tell him whatever you want.  But I don't want to stay any longer than a few days."  He poured some tea into a glass for her.  "We'll go ashore tomorrow morning."

   Winn nodded and sipped her drink.  Her plate of food was suddenly unappetizing, but she ate anyway.  There was no need to worry Jack with strange eating habits.  She had been eating a lot lately – maybe her body was just trying to tell her to take a break for awhile.

   The couple sat and talked for several minutes.  Then Winn yawned.  She apologized and picked up the conversation again, only to be interrupted a few moments later by another yawn.  Thinking it would help her wake up, she took another sip of tea, but she only got sleepier.  Through another yawn she said, "I'm sorry.  I don't know what's come over me.  I'm just suddenly so tired."  Raising heavy lids, she saw an apologetic look on her husband's face.  "What?"  She tried to stand, but her legs didn't want to cooperate.  Realization hit, and it hit low and hard.  "A little late for payback, isn't it, Sparrow?"

   He shrugged.  "Don't blame me for taking a page from your book, Winnie."  He got up from the table and scooped her into his arms.  Carrying her over to the bed, he said, "You're the one who wanted to do this the hard way, love."  He brushed some hair out of her face.  "I'd love to have you come with me, but it would be too much of a distraction, and that's something that neither of us can afford right now."  He sat with Winn in his arms as she struggled against him and against sleep.

   "Ungh . . . I hate you."

   "No you don't, love.  You hate that I won this time."

   "I'll . . . I'll come after . . . you . . . ."

   "No.  You won't."  He felt her struggles slow, then cease.  Felt her breathing even out into the deep and regular breaths of the deeply asleep. 

   I'm sorry, Winnie, but you didn't leave me any other choices.  It's a pity we're both so stubborn.  But one of us had to win, and I had to make sure it was me, because I can't lose you.  And that's why I'll be okay, because if I died, I would most certainly lose you.  I worked too hard to leave you now.  He sat on their bunk and held her until a knock came at the door and Gibbs stuck his head in to say, "Yer lifeboat is ready, Jack."

Jack had made sure that his wife was bundled up warmly before they had left the ship.  He only took two men with him to carry a trunk of her belongings, and Pige who he didn't want to separate from her mistress.  He would carry his wife himself.

   He let the men row them to the cove before Morgan's house, let them beach the boat.  Lifting Winn in his arms, he led the way up to the house, Pige bouncing around the path in front of him.  A servant had seen them coming and had alerted the master of the house.  Morgan was at his front door, Ry at his side. 

   "What's this?"  While the last few years had been hard on the man, he still had the bright eyes of someone with all their wits about them.  "Why are you carrying my granddaughter like a bag of meal?"

   "Because I had to drug her to get her here."

   Morgan lifted his eyebrows at this.  "I trust you have an explanation for this.  One that you will share posthaste."

   "Right after I see my wife to her room."  So saying, he stepped past Ry, who had still said nothing, and made his way upstairs, nodding to a speechless Cat as he went.  Pige had left to go reexamine the house with her nose.

   Walking to her room, he pushed the door open.  A lamp was lit, spilling light into the dusky room.  Gently he set Winn on the bed, taking care with her injured arm.  She murmured as he let her go, not enough under the influence of the drug to not miss his presence.  He held her hand until she quieted, then gently kissed her on the lips.  "I'm going to miss you, Winnie.  But hopefully I won't be gone long.  Try to stay out of trouble."

   He left the room quickly and quietly, shutting the door behind him.  Descending the stairs, he found Morgan, Ry, and Cat all standing waiting for him.  "I'll be brief.  I don't have much time to waste."

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Author's Thanks: mooney, Ginny-star, unicorn87, captainsparrowsfeistylass, Honor, Clover the Sea-Beast, KawiiRyu, Bright Eyes (aka completeopposites), Eledhwen, bobo3, SuzzieQue, saiya-gurl, BeBe