A/N Updating at last!! Thanks for all the reviews, I really appreciate it. Now a note about the time period. Jack arrives at the coast a little boy, he leaves and meets up with Dora again in the Caribbean. Once she is married, Jack loses the Pearl to Barbossa. Ten years pass, Dora has had Bobbie, and the events of POTC have occurred. After getting the Pearl back Jack returns for Dora. Hope that's clear! ^_^

I quite like this chapter, the first meeting of Jack and Dora once more. Bit of jealously from Annamaria, and some rum, what more could you ask for?

Chapter Twenty Six.

Angels fall first. Who said that to me? Ah, now I remember, it was one of Jack's favourite lines. Whenever I protested against some cruelty he showed, like destroying another ship, or killing a man, he would quote that line with a shrug. When first on the Pearl I had never really understood it, at the time it seemed to be an excuse, a way to stop guilt perhaps. But no, for two reasons. The first; Jack does not feel guilt of any sort, and the second; he put me in the angels category.

I suppose what he was really saying was that good people (the angels) fall first because they are so eager to help, they are blind to evil, they think of others opposed to just themselves. People take advantage of angels, you cannot take advantage of the devil.

And so I awoke in a familiar cabin, my eyes blinking to get use to vision again, it was nice to escape from the endless black that had been my dreams. Nice to be back to where my home truly was. The first thing I noticed was the motion of the sea. The room was being rocked about on the waves, and the familiar sensation returned to my stomach.

I tried to push myself up, but couldn't use my arm at all, it was bandaged, but the white cloth was starting to glean red.

There was a shuffling noise, and I looked up. I saw a woman, she had dark olive skin, and black hair, caught up in a hat. A few strands had escaped and hung down her face.

"So you're Dora." She said, almost coldly.

"Where am I?" I asked, matching her cold tones.

"The Pearl. Where else?" She said, passing me a drink. "We've only just got it back, and Jack insists on bringing a stranger on board." She muttered to herself fiercely.

"Who are you?" I demanded. I did not like the way she mumbled to herself. It was clear she did not like my presence.

"Annamaria." She said, snatching the empty glass, and walking from the cabin.

I sighed, and looked round. It was the same cabin I had had all those years ago, and despite the pain in my arm, a smile played on my face.

Again, I tried to push myself up, but couldn't. The bed was harder then I was use it, but all the better for it. At least I was not sharing it with Roberto.

So I stayed half lying, half sitting, with only my thoughts to occupy me. The last few moments of life before the darkness had taken me consumed my mind. I had saved Jack. But why? It had been years since we had properly talked, and we had only been together for a matter of weeks. He had kidnapped me, brutishly killed my parents to save his own skin, taken me aboard his Pearl with little regard for my own safety against his barbaric crew. He had not cared for anything but getting revenge, getting his gold back. I was used.

But then there was Roberto. He had married me to forward his position in society, because it was the easiest option, because he wanted a son. He had used me too. Together the two of them were killing me inside. I wasn't sure whether my hate for Jack was larger then my love for him.

He had taken my son, giving me a day of restless worry, something no parent should ever have to suffer. He had ran away and left me when I needed him most, and yet that night I had still been willing to die for him.

The door began to open, and half expected that hateful woman to reappear. The sunlight poured in, causing me to shut my eyes, all I could see was a silhouette in the doorway. But that was enough.

"Jack!" I shouted.

He swaggered to my side, with a playful grin on his face.

I flung my working arm around his neck, and he retaliated with a hard, passionate kiss. So many questions swarmed my mind, what had happened to Roberto? How was Bobbie? What happened after I had black out? But questions could wait. And I was happy to sit there, not-knowing, in Jack's arms.

And as is leaned against him, my eyes closed, peacefully, I had never felt so happy, or free. Questions would have ruined the mood.

And so the day passed, Jack didn't leave the cabin. Instead he paced up and round, making me laugh with his ridiculous account of the past fifteen years. The mutiny made me gasp in surprise, and then giggle like a child, I knew Barbossa could not be trusted. To learn he was dead, startled me, he did not seem the type of man to die.

"Everyone dies Dora, it's how that matters." Came the most serious words ever uttered by Jack in my presence.

"Then what an honour to die by your gun."

And then came the descriptions of Jack's new 'friends'.

"Well, Will was a bit of plonker really. You know he hit me o'er the head with an oar?"

I burst out laughing, and cocked my head to one side. "Really? Where is this Will? I must congratulate him."

"Probably gettin' hitched, fool!"

"Why is he a fool for following his heart?" I asked.

"Nobody wants to get married, Dora. Not really, they jus' feel they 'ave too."

I thought of Roberto, and nodded. I'd never met two people who truly loved each other. Not just a passive kind of attraction, but real passion. I'd never met two people who loved everything about the other. Never. My parents seemed so stiff together, like two pieces of jigsaw that were not meant to be together. Roberto's parents hardly spoke, and Roberto and I were not a shining example. Perhaps marriage was just a shackling prison with no real meaning.

"What happened to Roberto?" I asked, I could not contain my question any longer. "Is he de. . ."

"Dead?" Jack shook his head. "Nah, I din't think it would right on that son o' yours. Let 'im 'ave a father."

"What really happened Jack?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"When he saw yer lyin' on the pier, he started shoutin', he thought he'd killed yer Dora."

"And it bothered him that much? He hated me?"

"I doubt that."

"You let him go?" I said, surprised. I was expecting to be waking up a widow. But I was glad Roberto was still alive, Jack was right, Bobbie needed a father, as now I had deprived him of a mother. But surely it wouldn't take Roberto long to find someone to fill my shoes.

He shook his head. "He lost, Dora. Being a loser is a hard thing to live with." He refused to say any more, and I began to doubt his word. He was not a man to be trusted. What if he had murdered Roberto in cold blood?

He took my injured arm, and I yelped in pain. "You'll be fine."

And a silence fell on the cabin. It wasn't an awkward silence, more a content, tranquil silence. Words couldn't express what I was feeling as I sat beside Jack on the bed. There was one problem, a small storm cloud in our otherwise sunny sky. And that was my son. We had left the port in the night, and were far to sea by the time I had awoken. I had never got the chance to say goodbye to Bobbie, I had left with his hatred behind me. I had never got a chance to explain to him.

"He's my son, Jack." I said, trying desperately to make him understand.

Jack had no children, or none that he knew of, he added with a wink.

"Grow up!" I said, shaking my head with a laugh. The mood went gloomy again. "He'll think I have abandoned him, and Roberto will tell wicked stories of me. Oh, I could bear anything Jack, but my own son hating me."

"How bout some rum?"

The moment for being serious had gone, and for the rest of the afternoon I managed to forget Bobbie and the family I had left behind, surely it didn't matter any more. You only live once in this life, therefore if you don't live for yourself, no one else will.

I took the bottle gladly. My night out had provided an acquired taste for the liquid, and Jack's company seemed to increase it's appeal. The night would have been perfect, if it hadn't been for one little thing.

"I took a bullet for you Jack." I said, softly.

He smiled at me in a roguish kind of way. "They say that angels always fall first." It was almost sarcastic, taunting me for being so foolish. He said it in such a way that suggested had our places been reversed, he would not have been so rash to protect me. Had our places been reversed, he wouldn't have taken that bullet. Either that, or I was being paranoid. I'd given up so much for Jack.

I lifted the bottle to my mouth and drank.

A/N I nervously await your opinion. Good? Bad? Rewrite?