Disclaimer: PoTC characters, not mine. Everybody else, mine. So no taking.
A/N: My apologies to all of my readers that this chapter is arriving much later than I would have liked. Aunt Flo and Uncle Flu ganged up and decided to hit me at the same time. Then my Muse packed up and left for awhile as I recovered. sigh But we're feeling somewhat better now...
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A Rude Awakening
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Rum padded into the bedroom, leaping onto the foot of the bed. Quietly, carefully, he stalked the length of Andrea's sleeping body. He sat at her shoulder, solemnly staring at her closed eyes. There was so much his human didn't know, and that Rum couldn't tell her...or could he? If a cat's brow could furrow, Rum's would have. He remembered clearly being in the dream world with her. He just didn't know how he'd gotten there. Rum did a cat version of a shrug and curled up at Andrea's side, being careful not to wake her.
As he began to drift into sleep Rum let his instincts take over and guide him into a lucid dreaming state. He found himself in a white hallway with many wooden doors. Rum padded along the corridor, sniffing as he went. He knew the scent he was looking for and before long he found it behind an oak door with a tarnished silver handle. It was too high for him to reach in cat-form. With little effort Rum resumed the human-shape he'd used to fight the ghost pirate and opened the door.
"Hmmm...well, this is different." Rum stepped through the doorway into a lush green world of trees, trees and more trees. A well-beaten path lay beckoning before him. As he stepped onto it the door behind him disappeared, but Rum wasn't worried.
He was only dreaming, after all.
Rum found Andrea at the trail's end, a bush-lined cliff with an excellent view of the field below. Andrea was scribbling furiously in a leather-bound book as she watched two men on horseback fight. One rode a white horse and wore white armor while his opponent rode a black horse and wore black arms. A maiden on a chestnut mare watched faithfully on the sidelines, waiting to see which knight would prevail and win the right to her heart.
Rum yawned. "So, even when you dream you can't let your writing go?" Andrea whirled her head to face him even as he slid down to sit beside her on the cliff. Bewildered, she took in the slim lad who had plopped so rudely down next to her. His hair was short and spiky, a dusty brown tipped with black. His ears were slightly pointed and seemed to have much more hair than a normal teenager - for so he appeared to be - should have on his ears. His clothing echoed his hair in color. He was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, but Andrea couldn't decide if they were brown and black or just a black that had gotten very dirty. His hands also seemed odd - his fingers were short and stubby and the nails were thick and filed to a dull point. When he turned to face her, Andrea gasped. His eyes were bright yellow and his teeth! When he smiled his canines curved into delicate fangs.
"Who the hell are you?!" Rum laughed softly. "What, don't recognize your own cat? You could have let me out of that cage before you and lover-ghost went off to play last night, you know. I was stuck in there for hours!" Andrea looked at him in shock.
"Rumplestiltskin? But how did you...I mean, why did you...what the hell is going on?!"
Rum sighed. "Look, princess, we haven't got a lot of time here. That ghost wore himself out last night, making himself physical in the real world and then dragging you both into the dream world. If it weren't for that I wouldn't have been able to enter your dream just now, and I don't know when he'll be coming back. Do you have any idea of what he's done to you?" Andrea shook her head.
"I thought as much." Rum drew himself up, trying to look serious. "That ghost put a soul-bind on you. He can feel what you feel, hear what you hear, and occasionally, he'll even be able to think what you think. Has he said anything to you about what it is that he wants?" Andrea nodded slowly. "All he's said is that his soul is bound to the ship that the house was made out of, and that his soul won't be free until every last piece of the ship is destroyed, preferably by fire. He's also sworn that he's burned every piece of his ship that he could find, and he wants me to track down the last pieces and burn it for him."
Rum rubbed his chin. "A lot of what limits ghosts exists only in their own minds. For example, your ghost..."
"Jack" Andrea supplied. "His name is Jack."
Rum nodded, then continued. "Your Jack seems only able to come out at night, and resides in the walls in a semi-conscious state during the day. His ability to enter our world seems to be linked to the moon - for example, as the moon waxes he'll be able to appear more solid, and when the moon wanes he will begin to lose his ability to appear. Now, he believes that he has overcome this limitation by linking with you, which allows him to pull energy off of you. In case you haven't noticed, you've been trying to eat and sleep a bit more in the last few days than is normal for you." Andrea nodded, and narrowed her eyes. "You seem to know a lot for someone who says he's my tabby cat and looks like a punk kid. Who are you, really?"
Rum sighed. "In this life? Your cat and spirit guardian. In my last life, I was a monk who devoted my time to the study of the paranormal and supernatural. When I died, the Powers That Be told me that I was being sent back as a cat to guard someone who would be gravely endangered by a malicious spirit. Now, back to the subject. Your Jack thinks he is bound to this house, and that he cannot leave it." Rum reached out and delicately hooked Andrea's necklace on the end of a nail. "It is very unusual for someone to bind their soul to something, even more unusual for that person to bind twice in his or her lifetime, and unheard of for a person to be bound to two things simultaneously. Where, my dear Andrea, did your Jack get this necklace, I wonder?"
Before Andrea could reply, Rum resumed speaking. "Regardless, your Jack believes that it is the house that is keeping him on this plane of existence. It is possible that if the last remnants of his ship were burned he would be able to move on. So what have we seen that is from his ship? Think, princess, it is something you see every time you enter that house. It's practically staring you in the face." Andrea thought, then groaned. "The ship's wheel! I'd gotten so used to seeing it that it just became part of the wall to me."
"Exactly. And since it was part of the wall to you, it was part of the wall to Jack, and probably to every luckless female that he's possessed for his little look-sees. I suggest that when you wake up you have an honest, heart-to-heart chat with Daniel Norton. I don't suggest telling him that you did the horizontal mambo with his family ghost last night, but I do think you should tell him that you believe the haunting will stop if that wheel is burned."
Andrea stared quietly out at the valley as Rum ceased talking. "Why am I getting the impression that you don't think burning the wheel will work?" Rum laid his head on Andrea's shoulder, briefly rubbing against it. "Belief is a powerful thing, my dear. If Jack believes firmly enough that everything tying him to the real world has been severed, he may be able to move on. If not..." His voice trailed off as his eyes stared off into the distance.
Andrea nudged Rum so that he moved and looked her in the eye. "If not?" she prompted. Rum sighed. "Then it isn't the house keeping him there."
Andrea and Rum sat in a companionable silence, each overlooking the valley while mulling over their own thoughts. The combatants had paused when Andrea's attention was taken away, and now resumed their battle with full vigor as the maiden watched from the sidelines. After numerous blows and much maneuvering, the black knight unhorsed the white as the maiden cheered.
"Rum?" "Yes, Andrea?" "What if I don't want Jack to move on?" Rum had been expecting the question, but he still didn't know how to answer it. "Are you in love with him?" Andrea sat in silence as the black knight dismounted and plunged his sword through his enemy's heart. "Maybe. I don't know. All I do know is that I don't want to lose him, Rum. Not now. Not when I'm just getting to know him. And if I burn that wheel, it'll be like I'm killing him, like I'm erasing him from existence. I don't think I can do it."
The pair looked on as the black knight pulled his sword from his opponent's body and used it to behead the white knight. Head in hand, the black knight presented it to the maiden, kneeling and kissing her hand. The two remounted their horses, the maiden carrying the bloody head in one hand as a trophy, and rode off into the woods.
"And what do you intend to do, if you can't put the ghost out of his misery? You can't purchase the house, if that's what you're thinking. For one thing, you don't have the money, even if your book sells well and Norton cuts you a good deal. And then there's the problem of Norton himself. If you move into his ancestral home permanently he's not going to understand you suddenly turning down his advances, especially after that kiss he laid on you last night. And what kind of future would you have with Jack, anyway? Not to mention what would happen to me if that ghost knew he and I had to co-exist for the rest of my life." Rum added bitterly.
Rum looked deep into Andrea's eyes. "If this was meant to be, the two of you would have met under better circumstances, Andrea. In fact, it may be that you need to free him in this life so that you two will meet as humans in the next, I don't know. But what you and I both know that you need to do this. I'm sorry, Andrea."
Rum's ears twitched, and he shot up from his sitting position. As the world began to fade from around them, he said "Someone's knocking..."
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Andrea shot up in bed, dislodging Rum as he began to uncurl. She heard someone knocking at the front door, and hurriedly threw on a clean shirt and a pair of khakis. She ran a brush through her hair as she walked hurriedly towards the door. "Just a minute!" she yelled as she quickly checked her reflection in the mirror. Not bad for just having woken up, though she wished she'd had more time. She sniffed as she passed through the living room and was relieved to find that the room was reasonably aired out.
She cautiously opened the door, cringing back from the bright sunlight that poured in. Daniel Norton leaned nonchalantly against one of the porch's columns, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Don't tell me I woke you up at this time of day, Beautiful. And me without any coffee."
Andrea blinked, and tried to suppress a yawn. "Tell you what, there's a coffee maker in the kitchen and grounds in the freezer. Have at it."
Daniel laughed as she opened the door wider and gestured for him to enter. He began to follow her to the kitchen, but paused and grabbed a bottle from the coffee table. He held up the half-empty fifth of Captain Morgan questioningly. "Late night? And you didn't invite me?"
He pretended to be hurt as Andrea took the bottle from him and pointed a finger into his chest. "You were on duty last night, mister. As for a late night...you have no idea."
He followed her as she went to the fridge and put the Captain back on ice. When she pulled out the coffee grounds Daniel took them from her hand and expertly proceeded to concoct a fine brew. Andrea rarely drank coffee on an empty stomach, and poked around in the fridge.
"How do you feel about onion bagels?" she asked Daniel. "As long as they're toasted and smothered in butter..." Andrea laughed. That was exactly how she liked them herself.
Before too long the two were seated at the ancient kitchen table. Andrea wolfed down her bagel while Daniel ate his slowly between sips of coffee. As Andrea set her mug down from her first drink, Daniel asked her "So...what made last night a late one?" Andrea toyed with her mug, seeking enlightenment from the dark depths.
It wasn't working. She looked up at Daniel. "We need to talk. I met your ghost last night...and I think I know how we can get rid of him."
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Andrea spent the better part of the afternoon giving Daniel a very edited version of what had happened the night before. He knew why Jack was haunting the house, and he knew why Andrea thought burning the ship's wheel would make Jack go away. But what Daniel didn't know could fill a book. If he suspected that Andrea was holding back part of the truth, he chose discretion as the better part of valor. He helped her pry the wheel from the wall and it now lay near the back door. They had stocked a pile of wood to be its funeral pyre, and decided that they would touch it off the next morning. Daniel wanted to light the bonfire before sunset that evening, but Andrea refused. "I just feel that this is something that should be done during the day. Granted, the ghost has seen this house as a prison for the last few centuries. But it seems rude to just burn him out without giving him a decent warning first."
And so Daniel had reluctantly left just an hour before sunset, but not until extracting Andrea's solemn promise that she would call him if anything happened. Now she sat on the couch, forlornly petting Rum as she waited for the sun to set and Jack to reappear.
And the entire time she wondered: How do you tell your ghostly lover that you're about to exorcise him?
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A/N: Wow, I think that this is my longest chapter to date. I hope you all enjoyed this, and that at least some of you are expecting the twist that I have in store...I do have something rather unexpected up my sleeve, but I am trying to figure out how to work it in. Sadly, in order to have a happy ending for this story I have decided that a sequel will not be forthcoming. It would be possible, mind you, just incredibly unlikely and it would no longer be a POTC fanfic - and so I would be unable to post it here. M'eyari