Author's Note: Okay, so I was bored online the other day and I decided to go check out my story…and what I found was disappointing and irritating! Usually I separate different 'scenes' if you will, with little stars! But they weren't there! On ch. 9 or 8! So I was really irritated at that because I know that makes it difficult to follow and I am SOOO sorry. I'll try something different with this chapter…tell me if it works.
And I'm also sorry about getting this out awfully late…
Trevor was starting to get mad. They had been down here, wandering around, finding no way out and finding nothing more than empty cells, some dead, decomposed bodies and rats. He was sure that most of the day had passed and no one had come looking for them. They both were irritated, hungry and tired - all of these combined made each other's company…worse.
"Is that a scar?"
"You know, I would appreciate if you kept yer bloody hands t' yerself."
"I can't. I'm helping you walk."
She growled, "Well at least you can stop rubbin' yer fingers over my skin like it's silk."
"It's actually pretty soft…"
With her hand that was holding on to his shoulder, she hit him over the side of the head. He rolled his eyes, expecting such. He sighed as they came to a cross in their path. "Right or left?"
"Left."
He nodded and went left with her. After a few minutes of silence she said, "Did yer mother ever teach you the story of Peter Pan?"
"What?"
"Peter Pan! You know, Neverland and Cap'n Hook? Did yer mother ever tell you that story?"
"No, I think Elizabeth did though…" he said, looking down, "Why do you ask?"
She shrugged, "I was so scared of crocodiles after that story. And when I was little I always left my door open, just in case Peter Pan wanted to whisk me away to Neverland…" she shook her head, "I thought I was going to marry him and live there."
Trevor smiled to himself, "Well now you're in Spain and ready to marry the King."
She snorted, "I'd hardly call myself ready. I don't want to limp down the aisle."
He shrugged, "I don't think it was broken…or is. It's just…weak. By the time you two get married, it should be healed."
"I thought you were going to get me outta this."
He stopped, "I thought you could take care of yourself."
Brenda paused, and motioned to keep moving, "Oh yea…I can. I just haven't thought of a solid plan yet." She paused, "Have you?"
He laughed, "Yes, but since you don't need my help, then you don't need to hear it, do you?"
She sneered, cursing herself for being so independent. It's dad's fault. "Right. I don't need yer help…I was just seeing if you came prepared."
"I wouldn't have dressed up like a skirt if I wasn't prepared."
She frowned, seeing his point. "Well…then you can tell me yer plan - it wouldn't hurt anything…right?"
He smirked and shook his head slightly, "I give up. I'll tell you." He paused, and stopped walking and lowered his head next to her ear and whispered, "I was going to run away during the night."
She frowned as he went back to walking. "You lie. That wouldn't do anything! Ana would just come after me again!"
He grinned and Brenda could've sworn it was like her father's grin, "I know."
She shook her head, "Jerk."
He shrugged, "I told you my plan, now get off my back."
"Liar."
"Yes, but you never said you wanted the truth."
"No honey, put your leg in the stirrups."
Sounds familiar.
"There you go…now are you comfortable in the saddle?"
"Yes Mama."
"Good, now hold tightly to the reins."
You learned that lesson quickly.
"Pearl is trained to run when you click your tongue, walk fast when you pop your lips and then walk slow when you make kissy sounds."
Did you teach Pearl that?
Matthew giggled, "But always pull on the reins when you want him to slow down. He'll respond better to that."
Then you taught him well.
"You ready, honey?"
Matthew nodded, and she nodded back, making kissy sounds to Pearl. He quickly trotted around the open run. Gwyneth crossed her arms and sighed. She had been trying desperately to ignore the voice in her head, why was Nathan's voice plaguing her?
This had never happened before. Even after he died- sure, she had dreams about him, but voices? Never. This was out of the ordinary and it was freaking her out.
Not to mention what her husband would think if she told him. I can imagine it now, 'Jack, remember Nathan? Yea, well he's kinda haunting me'. Gwyneth rolled her eyes.
Ashamed of me Gwen?
Never.
Then tell Jack…he'll understand.
Gwyneth paused. She was going insane. That was the only logical answer. She had having conversations in her head with a man who had past away more than fourteen years ago. Either that or I have a demon on my tail.
As Matthew drew nearer on Pearl, Gwyneth tried to shake off the feeling she was having. But somehow she felt as if it was bigger than just a dead man coming back to haunt her.
"Sir, we've looked everywhere. They're no where to be found."
Phillip sighed. And hour of looking and no sign of Brenda and her friend. There's only one place they could be…But if they are down there, then they've seen everything. I had intended on keeping that buried. A secret forever.
Maybe this is where he needed to trust his future wife.
"Follow me." He told his five head soldiers. They went halfway across the palace, down three flights of stairs and then stood in front of two wooden, old, doors. They were bolted locked.
He sighed while the five men waited for an explanation. He took out a bunch of keys and took the largest one to open all of the locks on the two doors. When he was finished, he turned to his men and said, "What you see in here, stays in here. You tell no one and you mention this to no one, you got it?"
They nodded and opened the doors, ready to find the two missing women.
Brenda paused, "Hold on." She said, grabbing onto Trevor's shirt. Had she heard something? "Did you hear that?"
Trevor looked and around and waited, seeing if it would happen again. It did. An echo of Brenda's name from a deep voice. They looked at each other and started yelling and walking towards the sound. As they yelled, they heard voices coming towards them.
Trevor pulled on his hood just as they rounded a corner and bumped into Phillip and his five men. Literally. Phillip ran to Brenda and kissed her cheeks, asking immediately what had happened to her. "We fell." Trevor said, aggravated. He wanted to leave this hell, and all the King was doing was giving more affection to Brenda than she ever would've wanted.
Brenda somehow managed to push herself away from Phillip and back into Trevor's arms. She and he carried on a conversation in Spanish and Trevor even heard his name, his woman name that is, a couple times. He hoped she was explaining to him about how they got down here.
"Baths, Therese?"
Trevor's head went up. "Food." He said, distorting his voice. Phillip smiled and nodded. They quickly got out and up to their rooms. Brenda seemed extra quiet as the maids started running a bath for her. Trevor hoped there would also be a bath in his future, but the first thing on his mind was food and…relieving himself.
As soon as he was relieved and trays of food had been brought in and the maids had left, Trevor asked, "What's with you? Not a word since we got back."
Brenda sighed and sat on the bed, head in her hands.
Trevor raised a brow, "What's wrong?"
She looked up, her hands covering her mouth. She moved them slightly and said, "Phillip told me when he wants to get married…that this incident changed everything…"
"Oh really? Like what, a week? A fortnight? That'd be better…to get a plan and all."
Brenda shook her head, looking at him. A genuine look of worry crossing over her face, "Two days."
Jack remembered his reaction to Elizabeth when he first met her so many years ago on Port Royal. She was beautiful but feisty. Jack seemed to shrug it off, not like she was important in any way. Not to him at least. Though the fact that Will had an…obsession, almost, with her intrigued Jack.
Will was a blacksmith and she was a Governor's daughter. He was barely middle class, having no parents, and she was upper class. Why the two had a connection with each other was a mystery to Jack until he heard the story of Will's rescue. Still, why wouldn't they grow apart?
After the Barbossa fiasco, and Jack was in a cell the day before his hanging, he wondered what Will and Elizabeth were doing. They had just been on a grand adventure…rescuing each other, saving each other and giving up themselves to do so. Why? That was the question that plagued Jack. Why would they be so devoted to each other when they haven't been…intimate with each other? When they're from such different backgrounds? Why?
For Jack, trusting women wasn't exactly something he did regularly so he didn't understand why Will trusted Elizabeth with his heart. He had obviously given it to her and she had done the same…both not really realizing it. Jack hadn't fully comprehended the idea.
Until he met Gwyneth.
He had trusted her so much in the first month of knowing each other. He had given away more of his feelings than he had wished to, and after Beverly, Jack wasn't sure he could trust another woman with those kinds of feelings.
After Gwen left, he had written a letter to her. Completely out of his nature, when he thought about it now, but that had kept them together. When Jack had returned to Port Royal fourteen years after she left, he was sure she would be married. But she had held on to her feelings, and he quickly realized that he had too. That's when he knew that he could trust her with anything.
But now, now as he sat in bed, knees up, arms on his legs, looking at his wife- trust was not the first thing that entered his mind. She was sleeping peacefully as ever, but something about tonight was different. It had woken Jack up in fact, and he was sure he wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight.
She was moaning, as if she was in pain- but not too much. And one word escaped her lips, "Nathan."
Jack grunted as she said it again. Who the blast is Nathan? He thought to himself. He never would've expected Gwyneth of all people to be with another man when she was already married, so why was she saying another man's name?
Jealousy quickly crept upon Jack like a shadow. He began to look at his wife in a completely different way- without even knowing an explanation. But the way he saw it- he didn't need one. He had enough proof right here. He quickly got out bed and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Gwyneth was in pain. It was obvious to her- even in her sleep.
"What are you doing to me?"
"I'm not doing anything Gwyneth…you did it to yourself." A voice called from somewhere behind her. She was in a chair but she was strapped in. The voice was familiar and Gwyneth quickly picked it out as Nathan's.
"Where's Jack?"
"That's what got you into this mess in the first place, Gwen."
"Don't call me Gwen." Nathan appeared in front of her and looked sad. She also noticed his clothes were bloodstained. "What happened to your clothes?"
"I was murdered, what do you expect?"
She raised an eyebrow, "Nathan, let me go."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because you got yourself in this, you'll have to get yourself out."
"What are you talking about?! Into what?!"
"Into this chair…into this…mess."
"Nathan, you're not making any sense."
"And you married a pirate…what sense does that make? You could've had James Norrington after me…but you picked a pirate."
"I love Jack."
As soon as she said that, she started coughing. She stopped after a minute and looked at Nathan, "Please…" she said in a rough voice, "Just tell me why I'm here."
"I can't do that Gwen."
"Does Jack have anything to do with why I'm here?"
"Partly…"
"Why?"
"You should've stayed on Port Royal. You would've been safe there. But no…after seeing Jack change his life, you had to come here- but you're not safe here…you know that."
"I'm safe because I have Jack and Matthew and Brenda…"
"But you don't have Brenda. And soon you won't have Jack."
"What are you talking about?" Gwyneth said loudly, straining. She tried to get out of the ropes that were binding her to the chair, but nothing was happening. Pain surged throughout her body as she struggled and she moaned, relaxing.
"Just try to stay still Gwyneth…"
She shook her head, "No…I love Jack…tell me why he won't be around very long…tell me…" She coughed again and then noticed her throat was getting raw. It hurt. And her head was throbbing. What was happening?
Nathan merely shook his head, "This is your doing. Not Jacks, not mine. Yours. And you're the only one who will be able to save yourself. No pirate is going to come save you now Gwen. No one."
"What's this?"
Brenda sighed and flopped onto her bed, "It's a razor, what does it look like?"
Trevor sighed, drying off the rest of his face, "Where'd you get it?"
"I'm a pirate, where do you think I got it?"
He rolled his eyes, "I could've gotten one from the crew."
"Just use it, would you? Stealin' isn't that big of a deal."
Trevor sighed and got his face wet and soaped it up, using the razor carefully, being careful to not cut himself.
Brenda sighed as well, thinking about what Phillip had said. She cuddled up with her bundle of sheets and watched Trevor shave. Two days…forty-eight hours…I'm goin' t' be hitched.
Ask him for help.
I can do it by myself.
You can NOT do it without help. He's the only help you've got.
She sighed and kept watching him, hoping to get her mind off of the wedding, she asked, "When are you leavin'?"
"As soon as I finish shaving."
She paused, "Where are you meetin' the crew?"
"Some tavern…I wrote it down somewhere."
Brenda rolled her eyes and bit her lip, "Be careful."
Trevor stopped and looked at Brenda. She was avoiding eye contact with him. He nodded to himself and kept shaving, almost done. "I will."
"'Cause Phillip has spies everywhere."
Trevor nodded slightly, "I know."
She sighed again and looked at him, "When will you be back?"
He put down the razor, splashed some more water on his face and dried it off before looking at her. He walked into the room, strapped a sword to the outside of the cloak and said, "I won't be gone long. I'm going to tell them that I'll be leaving in two days."
Brenda almost blurted out, 'What about me' but held her tongue.
"…Because you don't need my help…right?"
He's giving you another chance. TAKE IT!
She nodded, "That's right."
He sighed, his shoulders sagging, almost depressed. "Fine." He walked towards the balcony, produced a rope and tied it to the ledge. He threw it down, watched it drop and was about to disappear when Brenda jumped up from her spot on the bed and ran to him, slightly grabbing onto his cloak.
"Trevor…" she started, looking up at him.
"Yes?"
She paused, not really sure why he all of the sudden jumped up and ran to him. She bit her lip and looked around nervously, "I-I-…get me a bottle of rum, would you?"
Trevor studied her eyes, sure that she meant to say something more meaningful and more…important than that. But dismissing it he nodded. "Sure thing," and then he disappeared down the rope.
As Brenda watched him lower himself down and then cut through the bushes and down the hill to the town below, she prayed to whoever was listening, Keep him safe. I need him. Please keep him safe.
Guilty wasn't exactly the word for it.
Not the word she would've used.
Not sleeping, not having an appetite and always wanting to stay in bed was a better way to describe the way she was feeling.
However Phillip described it as guilt.
And he wanted it to stop.
Ruining his wedding cheer, my foot. If he thinks Brenda's spreading cheer knowing that she'll be hitched in two days…then he's blind as a bat!
She sighed and pulled the covers tight around her as the ship swayed. The mood she was in wasn't leaving anytime soon, so she did. She took her crew and her ship and left, saying goodbye to Brenda and ignoring Phillip.
Ana knew he didn't want her to leave, but she couldn't just shake off this feeling…this mood she was in. Phillip didn't want her mood around- so she would have to leave.
Wait, why can't I shake off this mood?
She hadn't wanted to mention or even think about it before- but she didn't want to go get Brenda. And even though she would love to see her again, because they were friends, kidnapping was an entirely different story. King's orders are King's orders… she thought to herself. She sighed and rolled onto her back. Drugging Brenda was probably the worst thing Ana had ever done. She would hate if someone did that to her, so she didn't want to do that to her friend.
And when Brenda had disappeared, a little light of hope raced through Ana- maybe she escaped. But it was obvious she hadn't. Where would she go? Brenda wasn't that stupid.
I wanted to help her leave…I did. Ana told herself. And that's where the guilt came in- It didn't seem right leaving Brenda there. Then why did I leave?
And sighed again, getting up slowly. It wouldn't be easy - but she knew what she had to do…turn her ship around and offer Brenda a way out. Maybe then Phillip would realize her true feelings.
"Get away from me, Devil Boy!"
"I thought you said you needed help!"
"Not from you…you'll probably roll me down this hill.
Why was it so hard for Brenda to except help? Why did she have to be so bloody independent? These were the two main questions Trevor kept asking himself as he walked back to the palace, a bottle of sloshing rum in his hand- like Brenda had asked for.
Now, as he was alone and without anyone in the streets, Trevor thought about why he was even here. Because Jack sprained his ankle. And Katrina wanted me to. Trevor sighed, surprisingly enough - he didn't miss Katrina as much as he thought he would. I'm going to marry a woman I don't miss after a month and a half of not communicating with. He shook his head, he was crazy.
I was crazy to come. Thinking Brenda would want help from me. Why would she? She's the daughter of Captain Jack Sparrow - she's independent and a man hater… He paused, she wasn't a man hater. Trevor remembered when he was quite attached to her…and he would like to think she was attached to him. He was glad that it hadn't been awkward when they were around each other. At least he didn't feel awkward.
Maybe that's it…she's not comfortable around me!
Maybe she's not comfortable around Katrina.
Trevor paused. It wasn't usual for his conscience to pop out, but it did from time to time. He usually found his conscience when he had no idea what he was thinking.
"Katrina…" Trevor whispered into the darkness.
Never.
When nothing came, Trevor shook his mind free of all these thoughts, running back to the palace, hoping to find Brenda there, safe and sound.
Author Thanks:
Bitty-Buffy: OMG! I haven't seen or heard from you in AGES! I'm glad you're reading this! Omg, I don't ever remember the last story you read! Did you read 'Growing Older not up' ?
Emma436: I know I told you I would post yesterday…but I'm sorry! I was house sitting and couldn't get the computer to work, because I had saved this chapter on a disk…sigh it was horrible.
Okay…so yea, Jack isn't really mad per say, just…surprised. Nathan…yes well Nathan is more than he appears, and you will soon see what I mean. Katrina, dear little Katrina. I like her…everyone thinks she and Trevor are going to call off their wedding…but neither one of them know what the other one feels…do you think they'll tell each other?
Piper8188: I'm afraid Emma caught up with you…she was quite shocked you had a longer review than her, and went after those words like a pro. But I still enjoy long reviews from you! Yea, the matches…well he had to light the fire somehow! And I couldn't think of any other reason how to. I love how you're so enthusiastic about Brenda and Trevor. And I like how you point out all the things I wrote that you liked or laughed at. Brenda and Trevor, Katrina and James, the new baby…well kinda. It's kinda a…fetus. Oh the Norrington's, no…Gwen just refers to Beverly for some man help, which I will follow up on soon… okay, okay, is this long enough?
Dawnie-7: Rats…I know…freaky…I don't like them that much so yea. Nathan- GOOD! Be suspicious. You should be. I think you're the only one….maybe.