Disclaimer: Nope, POTC still isn't mine. At least until December 2, 2003. Andrea, Rum and Norton, however, are all mine.

Let's keep them that way.

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End in Fire

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Andrea curled up in a corner of the couch, watching listlessly as the sun slowly dropped below the horizon. She couldn't stop petting Rum, though the cat had shifted numerous times to keep her from rubbing his fur clean off of him. She pondered what she knew and wondered about what she didn't. Would Jack want her to burn the wheel? Or would he he...want to stay here, with her? She had a feeling that "love" wasn't a word that entered often into a pirate's vocabulary. Yes, he was sexy. Yes, he was intriguing.

But who in their right mind would pursue a relationship with a ghost?

The sun gave one final flare of light before slipping away, and as the light died Rum struggled out of Andrea's lap. A cool breeze whipped through the room, rustling loose papers and threatening to knock over furniture, before settling on the couch at Andrea's feet.

Jack coalesced into existence, his transparent head nestled in Andrea's lap. She smiled half-heartedly. "Just had to make an entrance, didn't you?"

"Of course, luv. If I didn't, I wouldn't be Captain Jack Sparrow." He tilted his head backwards so that his eyes met hers over the brim of his hat. He frowned as he saw the expression on her face. "What's troubling you, luv? No regrets about last night, I hope?"

Andrea shook her head, but found that she was too choked up to speak. Jack's brow furrowed, and a dangerous light came into his eyes. "If that Norton has said or done anything to you..." his voice was dripping with menace. Andrea shook her head and forced her voice to emerge past the lump in her throat. "No...it's not anything Daniel has said or done. We need to talk, Jack."

Jack flipped over, his form seeming more solid as he took a sitting position opposite from Andrea. "Well, I'm here. And not leaving anytime soon, might I add. What is it that you need to talk to me about?" Andrea pulled her feet in towards her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "Do you still want to burn the Pearl out of this house? Do you still want to be cut away from this world?" If Jack had been expecting any topic, his freedom from the Pearl was the last one.

He seemed briefly stunned, considering his words carefully as he uttered them. "Aye, lass. Per'aps not any time soon, of course, but that was my eventual goal, luv."

Andrea sat in silence as Jack grew uneasy. He didn't know where she was going, but the link between them told him it wasn't going to be good. "What happened today, Andrea?" Her answer was so quiet Jack could hardly hear her. "Stuff." she muttered. Then, with more volume, "Why did you soul-bind me? How did you do it?"

Jack moved uneasily. "Why do you need to know?"

"Jack! I just need to know, okay?" The ghost clammed up, giving Andrea the sort of stubborn look that only a pirate could manage.

She sighed in frustration. "Rum entered my dreams today. To make a long story short, he thinks that the soul-bind you put on me will...interfere...with setting you free. Maybe. So would you please tell me what, exactly, it is that you did to me?"

The stubborn look wasn't going away. Andrea's forehead hit her knees, her shoulders slumping. "Jack...please. Don't do this."

The pirate sighed. "Luv, do you have any idea what it's like to be a ghost? To exist half-way between this world and the next? Sometimes it seems that you're the only real thing in the world, and sometimes you feel yourself slipping away. After a century or two time starts to lose all meaning, and you can't recall if the people around you are ones that you've known for years or just people who look like people that you've known for years. Sometimes there were people here who could see me, lass. Really see me! And just when it'd seem that I'd gotten to know them, I'd pop in to talk and some young 'un with their face would be there instead..." Jack shook his head. "It's no existence for anyone, luv."

Andrea rested her chin on her knees and spoke softly. "So...if I thought that there was a good chance that we could free you tonight, you'd jump to do it?" Jack stared at her and chose his words with care. "Per'aps not tonight, luv. I'd want to wait for a more...opportune moment. Savvy?" A wicked gleam came into the pirate's eye, and he began to move cat-like towards Andrea. "After all...we've only just begun to get to know each other..." Andrea tried not to laugh as Jack started nibbling her neck.

"Jack...really...this isn't the best of times, don't you think?" The pirate folded semi-solid arms around her and before Andrea knew it she was lying prone with Jack straddling her.

His face merely inches from hers, his cold breath sliding along her jawline, Andrea shivered as Jack whispered "Time is only as good as you make it, luv."

Andrea's shivers turned to ones of anticipation as Jack placed ghostly kisses on her sensitive neck. "Hey...now...wait a minute...Jack?! Are you trying to distract me?!" His low laugh reverberated around the room.

"That would be a 'yes'." Andrea snorted. "Let me up!"

She gasped as the pirate buried his mouth in the crook of her neck. "Don't wanna" he mumbled. "Jack!" Andrea growled, and the pirate let go with a sigh. "Woman...there's no pleasing you, honestly."

Andrea tried desperately to get her breathing back under control and attempted to take a firm stance. "I was pleased quite good and well last night, thank you very much. And you can 'please' me now by telling me what, exactly, you did to me. And why. Why would be good."

Jack stared hard at her. "I might have rather less answers than you'd like to hear, luv. And possibly a few more questions. Are you really sure you want to be getting yourself into that?" Andrea stared right back and held in a sigh of frustration. "It's not a 'want', Jack Sparrow. It's a 'need'. If I truly did not need to know, I wouldn't be asking you."

Jack continued to stare hard at her. It's very hard to win a staring contest with a ghost, but Andrea had practiced on Rum and she gave as good as she got. Jack finally settled back onto his half of the couch. "You know I'm a bit of a prankster, luv. Goes hand-in-hand with being a pirate, really. Occasionally I'd scare the family here so badly that they would actually drag in a priest to exorcise me. Oh, I laughed at most of them. No real belief in them and every 'sacred' word they spouted were just so many syllables. There was one, though, an elderly chap the Church had dragged out of a monastery. He came about ten years before your Norton was born, and he knew me for what I was. A true believer, that one. It's funny, though. All his chants, prayers, incantations? They were focused on removing evil from the house, demonic presences. Now, a ghost I am. Evil? Sometimes. But a demon? That, luv, I am not and so I am still here.

"Now, this soul-bind of ours is a result of that monk's work. For a few minutes while he chanted I felt disoriented, like I haven't felt since the day that I died. For a few moments I blacked out, and when I regained my awareness I was holding the necklace that I placed on you. It took me a long time to find out what it was. There was an older woman who lived here not so long ago, what we would have called a witch back in my day. She actually had the nerve to summon me! Me! Captain Jack Sparrow! 'You don't belong here.' she said to me. 'You possess an item of great power, spirit, one that can bind a mortal's soul to your very own merely by placing it upon them and speaking their name. One will come...yes, I see it now...one will come here. One who has never made the journey before, a soul unburdened by a past life. Her destiny, it is, to have her future bound with yours, yes...Use it, Jack Sparrow. Use it and destroy that which you believe holds you here. Use it wisely and you will gain all that your heart desires.

"Use it foolishly..."

Jack paused in his narrative. The silence stretched and grew until Andrea was ready to scream at him to continue. "Let's just say that using it foolishly would be a very bad thing, luv."

Andrea sat in silence, mulling over...everything. Jack began fidgeting on the couch, sidling closer to Andrea with every breath she took. "That's a very solemn look on your face, lass." She didn't answer, and after a few moments Jack tried again. "Lass? Hullo, anybody home?" "Hmmm?" Andrea broke out of her ruminations. "Oh...well, I guess that answers the how, and sort've answers the why...but it still doesn't tell me why you chose me. Out of all the people who've lived in this house, why did you bind me?"

Jack closed the gap between them and took Andrea into his almost-solid arms. His touch, though comforting, was like ice and Andrea was glad that she'd thought to put on a sweatshirt earlier. "Luv, what most people don't know about the after-life is how brief it is supposed to be. When Shakespeare said 'All the world's a stage and we are but players upon it', he didn't know how close he was to a spiritual truth. The characters change, but the players are almost always the same. They just don't know it."

"You mean reincarnation...that's what happens to us after death?" Jack sighed. "It happens to most of us, luv. When we're born we are destined to do certain things. It's like what that witch told me about destiny. 'Life's like a shopping list', she'd said. 'If you don't get everything on it you have to go back to the store. And you keep going back until you've gotten everything on that list.' I learned a lot from her but she had entirely too many cats roaming the house...but, luv, the point I was trying to make is that at this stage of things, new players are rare. There's still so many souls running around trying to finish their lists that it's unusual for a new soul to come into existence. And that's what you are, luv. A new soul. An Innocent, as the witch would have named you.

"When you entered the house, I knew you were the person the witch had spoken of, the soul that was destined to set me free. Once I knew that how could I resist?"

"So is that all I am to you, Jack?" Andrea whispered softly. "A means to an end?" Jack tightened his arms around her, nuzzling the hair by her ear. "No, luv. You're an end in and of yourself, and don't you dare impugn me honor by thinking otherwise." Andrea laughed. "I thought pirates didn't put much stock in personal honor?" Jack shrugged. "We have our Code...some call them rules, some call them guidelines, but we follow them. Most of us..."

"So, luv, if I've answered all of your burning questions, would you mind telling me what went on while I was out today?" Andrea stiffened in Jack's arms. "Well...that can't be good." Jack said, mildly sarcastic.

Andrea slowly exhaled. "Jack...had you ever noticed the ship's wheel that was in the wall over there?"

Jack frowned. "There was a wheel?"

"It was the same color as the surrounding wall...someone had converted the spokes of it into little knick-knack shelves. According to Daniel, that's the one part of the house that his family made a point not to mess with. So he and I think that it is the final piece of the Pearl holding you here.

"We've removed it and placed it by the back door. There's a pile of dry wood waiting to be touched off, and Daniel wanted to burn it before sunset today. I barely talked him into waiting until tomorrow." Andrea cleared her suddenly dry throat. "My point is, if you really want to be free I can let him burn it tomorrow. If you don't...I can probably hide the wheel and Daniel will assume that the family poltergeist is at work again."

Jack was stunned. For centuries he'd wanted nothing more than to be free of this accursed house, to set sail for the horizon of the next world, and now that he finally had a reason to want to stay that freedom was being dangled in front of him. "Jack? Are you okay?" The ghost blinked and pulled himself together. "I'm surprised, luv, that's all. Are you sure it's the last piece?" "What else could it be?" Andrea twisted in Jack's arms so that she was facing him. "Tick tock, Jack. Do you want to stay, just a little longer, or do you want to gamble that this is the last piece and go out tomorrow?"

Jack peered down his nose at Andrea. "I don't think this is a decision that needs to be rushed, luv."

"No...but we're not exactly long on time here, either."

The two were locked in a battle of gazes, their noses bare inches from each other. A grin spread quickly on Jack's face, barely warning Andrea before he locked his lips to hers. "I think..." he mumbled "that we've talked quite long enough, luv." His tongue slipped into her willing mouth, and before Andrea could blink they were once more on the deck of the Black Pearl. With Jack's arms still around her, she murmured "You keep bringing us here and you're not going to have the energy for anything else." Jack shrugged. "I'm solid on this plane, luv, as I can never be in your world. I considered it effort well-spent when I brought you here last night, I consider it effort well-spent right now, and I will continue to consider it well-spent if I have to drag you here every night for the rest of your life." Andrea laughed as Jack swung her up into his arms and carried her into his personal cabin.

And she continued to laugh joyfully as Jack enthusiastically began to seduce her. But before long, her laugh became a hacking cough, and Jack looked at her in alarm. "Luv? Are you alright?" She wheezed, she couldn't breathe, it was suddenly so very hot...with a scream the world around her fell apart, and Andrea fell into unconsciousness...

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A/N: Aye, I'm cruel. But don't let the title fool you, our tale's not quite over yet. Expect "Perish Twice" to be up within the next week.

Now, for mucho brownie points, can anyone put together the monk references from "A Rude Awakening" and "End in Fire"? I would like to know if I was too subtle or too obvious with it...

And for those who are wondering where the other characters from POTC are, the point of this fic is that it's a Jack-fic. The other characters aren't making appearances because they didn't get their souls bound to an object and so happily moved on when they died.

At least...that's the theory.