A/N Yay! New chapter! I actually really like this chapter! (I know, how rare is that?!) It would have been posted sooner but I have been so busy at work, and so stressed. Anyway I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much as enjoyed writing it! Please Read and Review. Oh and voting time, should I leave the title as Dora Sanchez (which was really just a work in progress title) or change it to something more catchy?

NB I don't have a Beta Reader, so please ignore any mistakes, or pass over them tolerably. Thanks for reading.

Chapter Thirty Two

"Don't I get a priest or something?" I ask the guard.

The tallest one walks over to the bars and smiles. "What for?"

"To give him my last confession." It was one of those customs back in England, something my mother had taught. Before I did I have to absolve myself, or I think that's the word she used. I have to admit to my sins and thus be forgiven. I scoffed as a child, as if forgiveness could really be gained so easy.

"You're gonna be hung in about twenty minutes, I don't think we have time for that." He sniggers.

"Oh, I have done only thing that I believe constitutes a sin." I reply, haughtily.

"The killin' of an innocent naval officer?" He demands, in his superior tone.

Thomas looks up as I shake my head with a laugh. "Like I said, only one sin."

The guard looks interested now, I suppose it's not every day he can interact with a prisoner as interesting as myself. After all, most prisoners claim they are innocent. But I admit it, what is the point in lying, it will not save my life now.

"I abandoned my son. It was the worst thing I ever did." I said, softly. "If I killed anyone they deserved it." I say, adamantly. And that is exactly what I said to Jack, a few months previously.

"You killed her?" He said softly, and at last, in utter disbelief he stared at me from across the room. For once in my life, I felt Jack was innocent to the ways of the world. He stood there, still trying to register the words in his mind, the alcohol had slowed down his reaction time, and the words were only just seeping into his mind. He stared at me through blurred eyes, thinking.

"She deserved to die, and you told me once, you told me, and as I stood there, I could hear your words resounding round my head!" I screeched at him.

He turned to me angrily, as I crawled across the bed, my arms reaching out for me. He paced the room in such a fashion as I had never seen him do before.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he silenced me with a look.

"Don't lay this at my door. If you shot 'er you ain't nothin' but a murderer." He yelled. At last it seemed the words had entered his mind. And his mood changed quickly from one of disbelief into anger. But I could not go back now, it was too late. And now I was left with the insurmountable task of having to justify her murder.

"If? If? There's no if about it, Jack. I killed her, and I'm bloody glad I did it. And like you can talk, you once told me it was you or them and you chose them, one of you had to die. Well, I chose Ana." I said, softly.

"You didn't have the right to make that choice." He spat.

"So one rule for you, and another for me, eh? And how dare you call me a murderer, all the people you have killed in your life?" I sobbed, angrily.

"Never anyone you cared for, ne'er anyone you'd miss!" He yelled, throwing his arms in the air in a terrifying manor.

I jumped off the bed, indignantly. "You have a very short memory." I told him.

"What?" He demanded, walking up to me.

"You killed my parents remember?" I smiled, sardonically. "Remember, Jack. The night you asked your men to torch my house and kill my parents, and maybe even me, to save your neck. And the ironic thing is, if I hadn't been worrying about you, I would have slept right through that fire. I would have burnt with them!"

"Shut up!" He yelled, striking me harshly across the face, as if to stop me talking, as if to stop me telling the truth. He didn't want to hear what I had to say, but he would. I should have the chance to justify myself. "This isn't about things I've done, this is about what you've done."

"Oh and what have I done Jack, deprived you of your night's entertainment?" I demanded, my hand eager to cradle my cheek, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he had hurt me.

"You killed her 'cause you were jealous…" He howled, as though trying to get his mind around the concept. The way he said it, made it feel as though it was the worse crime in the world. It was perfectly alright to kill someone to escape, or because you hated them, or because they simply knew too much. But not because they were jealous…

"Have you ever been second best, Jack?" I demanded, leaning on the dressing table. He stood by the window, and the bed lay ruffled in the middle of the room between us.

When he didn't reply, I took it as a cue to continue. "No, I suppose not. I was second best to my son, and second best to my husband, and my parents. You were the one person I wasn't second best with Jack. And Annamaria was taking all that away from. All that I'd gained from giving up my son, and she was stealing it away." I said, sobbing. "And it's not like you meant more to her, then you meant to me. I couldn't lose you, not like that." I told him, shaking my head.

He remained by the window starring out at the bobbing silhouette of the Pearl.

"Jack, Jack…say something…please…say something!" I begged, as the tears soaked my cheeks.

"You killed Annamaria because you were jealous." He repeated. His voice contained nothing but hatred, and was surprisingly steady considering how much he had had to drink.

I shook my head but couldn't voice a reply. Nothing I had said had registered with him, he wasn't really listening anyway.

"I killed her because I had no choice." I sighed. "If I hadn't, she would have killed me." I broke off, it was something I hadn't wished to tell him, that his precious Annamaria had threatened me with her cutlass. I closed my eyes and waited for the new revelations to take hold.

"Annamaria wouldn't 'ave killed yer!" Jack protested.

"Jack, she threatened me…"

"There's a world o' difference between sayin' an' doin'!" Jack reminded me, turning to face me.

"She would have done it, Jack, I swear it." I waited anxiously for his reply, but again, he left it to me to fill up the silence.

"She really loved you, Jack." I smiled at him. "But why should she have you, when I gave up so much to be with you."

"Change the record, Dora!" He cried.

"What?"

"All you're going on about is how much you gave up for me, if you loved me that much, there wouldn't bin a choice."

"And if you loved me, as much as I thought you did, then you wouldn't have been sleeping with the cabin girl!"

"Second mate, actually." He corrected me.

Silence fell between us, broken only by a muffled sob I could not contain, and the crashing waves as they struck the walls of the harbour beneath the window.

"Jack, the bottom line is, I did it because I love you."

"You did it because you were jealous." He shouted for the third time, striding across the room towards me. "You make this out to be bout you 'n' me, well it ain't. It's bout you 'n' 'er." He grabbed my shoulders and for the first time in ages our eyes met. His eyes were glazed with pain, and I could see the betrayal in them. He was disappointed with me, he hated me.

"I've never had anything to be jealous of before Jack. When Roberto made me his wife I lost every bit of pride I had, I couldn't care less when he slept the staff. But you, I was too proud of you Jack."

"Get away from me."

"Jack?" I said, desperately.

He turned and swaggered towards the door.

"Jack!" I screamed after him.

"I have to think." He said, as he disappeared from the room, banging the door shut after him.

"Jack! Shout at me! Scream at me, kick the living fucking day lights out o' me, just don't leave me…" I shrieked after him.

But he didn't look back, he left me standing by the dresser, sobbing my heart out. I fell slowly to the floor, my head in my hands and cried the sea. From my confession I had expected all the tears and the shouting, but I had never expected him to leave. I thought he would love me no matter what I did, no matter what I said, but he had gone. He had found out the worst about me, and he had walked away. I sat there all night, my head in my knees, watching and waiting through blurry eyes for Jack's return.

The morning sun poured in through the window, and woke me. I stretched my stiff muscles, and slowly clambered up, I had fallen asleep leaning against the old dresser. The room hadn't changed in the slightest, and it was immediately evident that no one else had been in. Jack hadn't returned to me.

I threw on some clothes, an old patched dress, and a shawl around my shoulders, I run a brush through my knotted hair and stood before the mirror, but looked away instantly. I couldn't face the person staring back at me. In my anger, I swept it across the room and it smashed on the wall. I gathered my things, and ran from the room, not even bothering to shut the door as I fled.

"Jack?" I cried, as I entered the main room of the bar. My hand was bleeding from the mirror, and the blood had already soaked through my dress. The bar man, a scrawny figure with squinting eyes looked up as I entered. He had been scrubbing one of the glasses rather vigorously with a grubby cloth. I grimaced as I imagined myself drinking out of it.

"Have you seen Jack?" I demanded, hitting the bar with my uninjured hand.

His eyes narrowed to two small slits in his face. His hands lay the dirty glass down on the counter.

"Jack le't last night, he ain't com back." Was the growlish reply.

I sniffed, and wiped the tears from my cheek, I winced as my hand ran over the bruise where Jack had struck me. "Where did he go?"

"I dinna follow 'im."

As I turned to leave, the bartender reached out and called me back. I turned round excitedly. He was going to tell me where Jack was.

"Tha's twenty shillings for the room."

"What?" I said, in surprise. "I haven't got any money."

He grinned at me sardonically. "Well, there be other ways you could pay for the room."

"What?" I repeated, shakily.

His eyes roved my body.

"If you touch me, Jack will kill you."

His smile turned to a frown, as he picked up the glass and continued scrubbing it. He knew I was right.

"Twenty shillings."

"Jack'll pay it when he gets back." I said, sharply, as I turned and marched from the pub. All I knew was that I had to find him.

As I walked the streets, searching desperately for Jack, or any recognisable site, my heart leaped when I saw Gibbs. He was standing in rather a large group, circled around a fight. As I got closer, I could see the argument had broken out over a whore. She had left long before, and the men were two busy trying to keep their pride to notice her absence. Gibbs was cheering the smaller of the men on, and flinging his money in the air, he probably had a bet on the outcome.

"Gibbs!" I cried, running up to him and grabbing his shoulder.

He turned round in surprise. "Dora? Where be Jack?"

"He left early this morning on…business. So you haven't seen him?"

He shook his head with concern, and I saw his eyes stray to my bleeding hand, and then my bruised face.

"Just an accident." I said, tentatively.

He nodded, with the annoying look of belief one would give a child.

"We have to find him!" I hissed.

He nodded, hopelessly, I could tell half his mind was still on the fight, and out of the corner of his eye he was watching the progress of his bet. I finally managed to drag him away and we headed towards the dockside.

"You two 'ad a fight or summert?" He asked.

I strode off in front of him, and tried to ignore his burning eyes on my back.

"Well?"

"No." I said, sharply.

I could imagine the grin on his face. He had disliked me ever since Annamaria had died, he had disliked me without even knowing I was her killer. But maybe he did? Where else would this unwarranted hate for me come from? I was sure we use to be friends when I first arrived back at the Pearl, but then again Annamaria had ripped away my entire life, so why not my allies as well?

As we approached I saw him standing by the quayside, directing one of the rowing boats as they prepared to take supplies to the Pearl.

"Jack?" I called.

He didn't glance round.

"Cap'n?" Gibbs asked.

Then he looked.

"Ah, glad you two are 'ere." He said, hailing us over. I felt relief pumping throughout my body, the words 'glad' and 'two' meant so much to me. We were going to put this whole sordid affair behind us and move on, get back to normal. Everything was going to be fine, I could feel it.

"I've just thought o' the ideal captain for the 'Fantasma'." He said, waving his arms through the air.

My dark mood lifted to see him back in his flamboyancy. "Who?" I asked, enthusiastically.

"You."