Disclaimer: Nope...except for Andrea, Rum and this Plot, nothing from PoTC is mine...

A/N: This chapter came along a little slower than I would have liked, but I was facing a fork in the story's road.


I had one ending in mind, and Andrea came along and began whispering in my ear. I have to admit, I liked what she had to say. Rum also threatened to eat all of my tuna if I didn't listen to her. sigh Cats.

Ah well. But here's…

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Chapter Four: Back to Reality

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In the waking world...

The mist recoiled from Andrea's body as the sun sent its first questing rays into the darkness. It spread across the floor, stretching ever thinner until it settled, sighing, into the very grain of the floorboards. It would remain there, hidden in the very walls, until the sun slumbered once more.

Andrea woke as those first rays caressed her face. She was so tired, had she really slept? She glanced at her clock and groaned at its affirmative answer. She began to roll over and pull a pillow over her head when she felt something heavy begin to slide from her chest. She caught Rum and wondered that he did not stir at her movement. His breathing was shallow but regular, so Andrea carefully laid him on her pillow and tried to go back to sleep.

Only to curse five minutes later, slide out of bed, and prepare to strangle the maniac who was beating the door down.

"Of all the stupid, idiotic....agggghhhhrrrr!!" She normally slept in just an oversized T-shirt, and now struggled with a pair of uncooperative sweat pants. She stalked to the front door like a killer zombie, and flung it open ready to do battle. Her tormentor was in uniform but not without intelligence - she was met with a lovely aroma and a styrofoam cup held out as a peace offering.

Andrea blinked. She blinked again. Then she grabbed the very solid cup of coffee, inhaled its aroma for a heavenly second, and proceeded to carefully sip the hot liquid. Officer Norton looked at her in amusement, and barely concealed a smile. She broke away from her caffeine bliss to give him a dirty look. "Do you know what time it is?!" He couldn't keep the corners of his mouth down. "Yes...time for coffee." The dirty look became a full-out glare, and Norton held up his hands in a 'peace' gesture. "I actually came because I do need to talk to you about the house, and I didn't have time before I went on duty last night. Mind if I come in?"

Well, she couldn't deny him entry into what was, legally, his house. So with a regal gesture Andrea stepped away from the door and showed him in. She felt a quick guilty pang as they moved through the box littered living room, then scowled when she remembered that it was, after all, the butt-crack of dawn. At least he'd had the common sense to bring coffee. If he hadn't, his jail would have been graced with a cop-killer.

They made themselves comfortable on the living room's only remaining piece of seating furniture - an ancient sofa that had seen its glory days when the Great War had been fought. Norton fidgeted once he was seated, turning his hat over and over in his hands. Andrea curled up on the opposite end, cradling the cup of liquid life and wondering what on Earth Norton needed to talk to her about.

"So...how did you sleep last night, Miss Talliver?" Andrea frowned. "I thought you were here because of the house, Mr. Norton. Or is it 'Officer' right now?" He gave her a nervous smile. "No, I'm off-duty now, so it's 'Mister'..."

An awkward silence began to seep into the air, while Andrea sipped at her coffee and Norton struggled to regain his equilibrium. "I slept..." "I wanted..." "Oh." they both said. "Sorry, you first." They stared at each other, then Andrea snickered just as Norton smiled in relief. "Honestly, Miss Talliver, I would like to know how you slept last night. I thought that I might be interrupting you..." "You did. Hence the grumpiness." Andrea nodded and held her cup aloft. "The coffee is, however, very much appreciated."

Norton smiled a genuine smile. "I may be a bit rude at times, Miss Talliver, but there is one thing that I am not, and that is suicidal." Andrea tried desperately not to snort coffee through her nose, and Norton arched an eyebrow. "My mother was not a morning person, either, so learning to have coffee ready at dawn was a survival technique in this house."

Andrea looked at him in surprise. "You grew up here?" Norton's face turned serious. "That's why I need to talk to you.

I wasn't entirely honest with you about the house's history, and the history of my family here. There's something about nightfall that makes me nervous talking about it, and when I tell you about it I think you'll understand. Yes, I grew up here. At the time, this was my father's house, and he had inherited it from his father, and so on and so forth back to the ancestor I was telling you about yesterday. It was just my folks, my sis and me living here back then...or so we thought."

Norton shifted uncomfortably on the couch under Andrea's scrutinizing gaze. "Now, I don't want to make you nervous, Miss Talliver, but some very odd things happened in this house while I was growing up. Bad things. My sister...she had a sleep-walking problem. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, and find her standing in the hallway, muttering to herself...her eyes would be open, but she wouldn't be 'seeing' anything, you know what I mean? The first time I caught her, I was only six and she was fourteen. And I will never forget, Miss Talliver, trying to shake my sister awake only to have her look at me, with dark brown eyes, and tell me 'Go back to bed, there's a good little lad." Norton paused. "Now, what bothers me about this isn't that she told me to go back to bed. It's not that she called me 'little lad', when her nickname for me was 'Runt'. My sister had blue eyes, Miss Talliver. Not green, not hazel, and certainly not brown. Forget-me-not blue."

Norton paused while Andrea took his revelation in, then renewed his tale. "It gets better from there. What started as mere sleep-walking turned into unconscious pyromancy. We caught the first fire, and my mom tried to explain it away, saying that Sue must have been trying to light a candle in her sleep. Now, the fire was in the living room here, and if you look closely at the doorway over there you can tell where we had to replace a section of the wall. We found a few burnt matches near there, but we never found anything that could have been a candle. My dad insisted on taking Sue to a shrink, and the doc told my folks that Sue was sleepwalking because she felt insecure. His recommendation was for her to get a pet. So then nothing would do for my parents except that Sue got a pet, and being her she immediately decided on a cat.

Oh, it was an evil thing. Tuck had lost one ear in a cat fight before we took him in, and I swear that when that tabby looked at me I could see him thinking evil kitty thoughts. But, while she had Tuck, Sue's sleepwalking stopped. She still complained that she wasn't sleeping well at night, but she wasn't roaming around burning stuff, you know? So things continued like that for a couple of years, and then Tuck died in his sleep one morning. The vet said he must have eaten a poisoned rat, or something, because there wasn't any other reason for him to die.

I may not have liked Tuck, but he was smart. He wouldn't have eaten a rat he hadn't personally killed, unless it had been chopped up into itty-bitty pieces for him. The very next night, Sue started sleepwalking again, and it was worse than it had ever been before." Norton paused, grief warring with composure on his face. "There used to be another room, a study, by the bedroom here on the first floor. Sue went in there one night and lit all of Dad's books on fire. Somehow, the door got locked, and no one could get Sue out...before..." Norton's voice failed him, and Andrea hurriedly put down the coffee and grabbed a Kleenex. Wordlessly handing it to Norton, the man nodded in thanks and blew his nose. "Anyhow, my parents redid the wall so that it's part of the outside wall now, and decided not to rebuild the study. Can't say as I blame them. When I was able to move out into town, I did, and I've been there ever since. My mom died a few years ago, from cancer, and when she passed away my dad decided to move in with my uncle up town. Said that this house had given him too much bad with the good over the years, and that I was welcome to it.

I like my place, so I decided to start renting this out. The first year it was rented by an older lady with five cats. Never any trouble from her, other than convincing her that five cats was enough even for this house. Then, she suddenly decided that she needed to find somewhere else to live. 'It's no offense on you, dear, but me kitties and I feel like someone's been watching us. Someone who's not happy we're there. Someone who's not a cat person, if you know what I mean?' Well, I didn't know what she meant until I got a young couple living in the house for a few months, and, I'm sure you can guess, the little misses started to sleepwalk. When supposedly she'd never done so before in her life. I'm sure, by now, that you wouldn't be surprised to hear that they didn't have a cat. They decided to find somewhere else to spend their summers, and I decided to do some research. I may not be the Chief, yet, but I can get access to all the records that the Police and Fire stations have up town. And quickly. Guess what I found out?"

Andrea sat mesmerized as Norton's face grew even more serious. "No less than twenty fires have been started in this home since the Civil War. They all happened at night, and whenever a cause was listed, it was 'accidental'. If anyone felt like explaining, it was usually something like 'Disturbed girl knocked over candle in her sleep.' What do you want to bet me that those girls didn't have cats, either?"

Andrea chewed over what Norton had told her. "So...I take it you think there's some sort of ghost? One who doesn't like cats and does like possessing girls between the ages of fourteen and, oh, let's say, thirty-five?" Norton nodded, and Andrea burst out laughing.

"Oh, I'm sorry...it's just...it seems a bit ridiculous." Norton grabbed Andrea's hands in his own, startling her. He stared deep into her green eyes until he was sure he had her undivided attention. "Ridiculous...perhaps. But you still haven't told me how you slept last night, Miss Talliver. And I haven't seen your cat since I got here. So pardon me, ma'am, if I am concerned for your safety while you are in my house."

Andrea fidgeted, but Norton didn't take the hint to let go of her hands. "Rum's still asleep. Cats are lazy like that, you know. I slept" and she hesitated for a second "fairly well last night." Norton seized on her wording as quickly as he had seized her hands.

"Only fairly well?" She arched an eyebrow. "Considering that my computer crashed several times last night and that not being able to get any work done made me extremely frustrated, yes, only fairly well. Now if you don't mind, Mister Norton, I would like to either get some more sleep or get a shower. And I'm not comfortable doing either with you here. I appreciate your warning, and I will let you know if anything...odd...happens."

Andrea suddenly remembered a flash of golden brown eyes, and black waves...then shook off the memory and continued talking. "So if you wouldn't mind..."

Norton dropped her hands and stood up, offering Andrea a hand as he did so. She might have been a little aggravated, but not enough to refuse the gesture. That would have been just plain rude. She escorted Norton to the door, then hesitated as he strode through it with every indication of bruised male pride. "Mister Norton?" He half-turned towards her. "If you're so worried about me being here, why did you rent the house to me in the first place?" Norton smiled a sad little smile. "Because you're a writer, Miss Talliver, and writers tend to know about these things. Besides," he paused, "you have a cat." He strode to his truck with Andrea gazing thoughtfully at his back.

She was still gazing at him as his truck pulled out of the drive, and it was only when the dust began to settle that she went back inside.

"Da da da dum...and really bad eggs..." Andrea blinked. Why was she singing? She glanced at the clock and groaned. There was no way she was going to be getting back to bed any time soon. That left a shower. She popped back into the bedroom to lay out a change of clothes, and to check on Rum. Despite what she'd told Norton, it wasn't like Rum to be asleep this long after she'd gotten up. He was still curled up on her bed, so still and quiet that only the steady rise and fall of his ribs betrayed the fact that he was only practicing for death. Andrea shrugged, spared him a quick pat, and went into the bathroom.

She turned the shower on as high and as hot as it would go. Her muscles ached and cried out for hot, soothing water. And an itching in the back of her head made her want concealing steam. Andrea looked into the mirror. "Silly girl," she said to her reflection, "Did Norton spook you with his ghost story?" Her reflection looked back at her, still looking spooked, when it suddenly winked. Andrea blinked. "I did not just see that...lack of sleep...that's what's wrong, lack of sleep." Her reflection, while still her own, didn't look convinced. Andrea checked the water, adjusted it to be a little cooler, and then quickly stripped. She spared a quick glance at the mirror, then did a double-take. Fine purple lines were etched into the skin around her collarbone, like fresh bruises painted onto her skin. Andrea brushed a fingertip across the lines, and glanced down at herself.

No lines.

She looked back in the mirror, and they were plainly visible..."It almost looks like...a necklace..." she mused. The mirror fogged over, and she shuddered. "Oh get a hold of yourself, Andy! Next thing you know, you're going to be looking for axe murderers in the hall and creepy music to be playing out of nowhere. You need a nap, and if Rum is still asleep when we're done, we are, by God, taking one."

That settled in her own head, Andrea jumped in the shower and proceeded with getting clean. The hot water soothed her aches, and the soap suds washed away some of her stress as well as the grime from the day before. "How silly...ghosts my ass...probably found someone who will pay more rent on the place and now he's trying to scare me out. Jerk." She turned off the shower and reached out to grab the towel she'd left on the rack, then frowned when she couldn't feel it. She poked her head out, and scowled. It was lying in a sodden heap on the bathroom floor. "Great...just great." The linen closet was just a few feet away, so she jumped out and grabbed a towel. She dried herself off, and was toweling her hair dry when she glanced in the mirror.

Her shriek woke up Rum.

The exhausted cat came running and hissing weakly into the bathroom, even as his human stood on trembling legs, trying quickly to wrap the towel around her nude body. Quickly fading in the fogged mirror were three simple words...

"Nice show, luv."

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A/N: Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed this. It is way past my bedtime, so I apologize for any errors I may have missed. A lot more backstory than I really wanted snuck into this, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Norton is getting a crush on Andrea. I have an even worse suspicion that Andrea may be getting a crush back.

Silly girl. Jack's going to have to deal with this...

Unfortunately, I will not be able to update this story again until Sunday night. I will, however, be busily writing the next installment, so hopefully by Monday morning I will
be able to upload a few more chapters.