Disclaimer: Not mine, darn it.

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Perish Twice

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Daniel Norton was the biggest ass in the world.

Well, that's how he felt, anyway. He huddled in on himself as he sat in a chair by Andrea's bedside. Her breathing was slow and even, in perfect time with the beeps of the hospital's monitoring machines. Her cat curled by her shoulder, giving Norton disdainful glares every time he so much as glanced the cat's way. Every time Norton reached to touch Andrea's hand, or stroke her hair, the cat would begin to growl and hiss. Norton had had several offers from the nurses to remove the cat, but he'd turned them all down.

After all, the scratches on his own hand had required some minor stitching.

He hadn't known what to think when he'd stopped by earlier to check on Andrea. Peering in through the windows like a common criminal, his blood had boiled when he saw the ghost's head in her lap. At first he'd thought it was another man, and then the ghost had sat up - and Norton had literally seen right through him.

It was unnerving, to say the least. To see the phantom that had made his childhood a living hell not only talking with his woman, but laughing with her, teasing her, doing all the things Norton had wanted to do since he'd first laid eyes on her. It was all Norton could do to keep from bursting into the house as the ghost wrestled Andrea down for a kiss. Only Andrea's quick pushing away of the ghost had kept Norton outside.

Then the ghost had disappeared and Andrea had collapsed lifelessly on the couch. Norton had burst into the house then, rushing to her side. Her breathing had been rapid, her body terrifyingly still. "Andrea!" he'd shouted, shaking her, but she'd refused to wake up. In a panic, Norton had decided that the ghost must have been doing something to her. Without a second thought he'd dragged the ship's wheel to the woodpile outside, kicking Andrea's cat into a wall when it tried to get in his way. It was a matter of seconds before he'd been frantically able to set the dry wood aflame, and he'd tossed the wheel into the center of the pile. It wasn't until the wheel was mere ashes and embers that Norton had re-entered the house.

Andrea had lain still on the couch, pale as moonlight and covered by a cold sweat. Norton dropped to his knees by her side, taking her cold hand in his as her eyelids fluttered open.

"Daniel," she'd whispered in a voice hoarse from coughing, "what have you done?"

She'd slipped into the coma so easily after that. One minute she was gazing at him with horror in her eyes, and the next she had slipped into unconsciousness as an otter did into a familiar pool. When Norton had taken her to the hospital the doctors had been mystified. "Physically there is nothing wrong with her. You were only having a bonfire, you say?" Norton felt miserable about his tailoring of the facts, but somehow he didn't think telling the truth would win him any sanity awards.

He still didn't know how her cat had gotten into the hospital. He'd left it unconscious on the kitchen floor, and after a quick bathroom break he'd found it on Andrea's bed, stubbornly resisting any attempts to dislodge it.

Now the nurses were stubbornly attempting to dislodge him. "You've been here all night, Officer. If she wakes up, we'll make sure you're the first to know. Now, shoo. Go home. Get some rest. She's not sleeping for the both of you, and your staying awake isn't going to help her." After a litany of such talk, Norton reluctantly conceded, vowing to be back within a few hours, to get some sleep if only to get the nurses off his back. He was completely unaware of two ogling his backside as he left, one's comment of "Ooo, if I had a man like that to watch over me as I slept I'd be in a coma, too!" utterly escaping his attention.

'Finally.' Rum thought. 'I was beginning to think he'd never leave.' He tucked his paws firmly under his body, and settled down for a catnap.

Dream-walking was coming back to him the more that he practiced it. He tumbled immediately into Andrea's forest, his nose having no trouble detecting her scent on the trail. He followed his nose, and veered sharply off the path as the scent did. Rum found himself not in a clearing this time, but on a beach with silver sand. The sea was a blue so dark it could be mistaken for black and the sky faded from a normal azure to a violent purple as it arched over the primordial waters.

Rum trotted directly towards a body that sat on the edge of the beach, its legs pulled up to its chest as the incoming waves reached for its toes. His form began to shift as he came closer, so that his four-footed trot became a fast walk on his two legs. He stopped behind the human, fiercely reminding himself that he didn't need to pant because it wasn't really air that his body was trying to breathe.

"I can't find him, Rum." Tears had left moist trails down Andrea's cheeks. "I looked all night." Rum sank to the sand, wrapping Andrea in a fierce hug as her sobbing began anew. "Shh...shh. It's alright...it's okay..." he murmured as he rocked her in his arms.

After a time she lay quietly in Rum's arms, and he began to speak softly. "It's all my fault, you know. I tried to exorcise Jack from that house nearly thirty-three years ago, and I bungled it. I didn't take into account that he wasn't evil, in and of himself, nor was the soul-bind. It was the way the soul-bind had been used that was evil. So my exorcism didn't get rid of him, or it; it just detached them from each other until he found something it was worthy to be used on."

Rum gazed out at the sea, his voice gaining a far-away quality. " 'Tisn't a thing in this world or the next that can separate the two of you now, which means that I failed in what I was sent to do. My job was to keep you safe while freeing him, and you're far from safe, m'dear Andrea."

Andrea lay listlessly in Rum's arms, hardly listening to him. He placed a hand on her chin, gently turning her head to face the far-away horizon. As they watched, a form slowly became visible, slowly became identifiable as a magnificent galleon. Andrea perked up as it became ever more apparent that the ship was the Black Pearl, and that the form racing about her deck could only be one man.

Her man.

Her Jack.

As the Pearl entered shallow waters, the anchor dropped, the ship pulling sharply to one side even as a dinghy was lowered to the seething water below. It raced across the waves until it was within a mere foot of the shoreline. Andrea struggled out of Rum's arms, holding a hand up to Jack even as he held out a hand to her.

"Stop!" Rum screamed. "Set so much as one toe in that water, Andrea, and you'll be deader than refried beans. The rivers of the Underworld empty into this ocean!"

Andrea and Jack gazed longingly at each other, their palms so close and yet so far apart. If Andrea was bound to the shore, Jack was just as surely bound to the sea.

With one yet living, and one very dead, they faced each other in hope and in despair.

"So what do we do now, Jack Sparrow?" Andrea murmured. His laugh came low, still sending shivers down Andrea's spine. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me, Andrea Talliver."

"You two have a choice ahead of you." Rum's voice rumbled, his youth fading as his voice deepened. His hair whitened, a beard grew upon his face, until the cat-man was utterly replaced by the form of the monk Rum had once been. "Andrea Talliver, you have been bound. Your body lies in a state between life and death, and it is up to you to choose which way your soul will now walk. You may return to Life, and finish all there that you have left to do. You may choose Death, and while you will be with Jack you will also be burdened with the knowledge of every harmful thing that will occur because of the good deeds you left undone.

"You must choose, my dear child. You alone.

"And you must choose now."

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A/N: I know, I know, horrible of me to have even a hint of a cliff-hanger. Obviously our tale is at its end, but as Andrea must choose, so must my readers. If you would prefer to see Andrea live, then continue on to "Future's Past". This is the ending that I feel would offer an opportunity for a non-fanfic sequel, though one is not currently in the works. If you are impatient to see Andrea with Jack now, then continue on to "Horizon".

Of course, you could be greedy and R&R both. I won't complain. I promise.

Brownie points go to: Shanelover1, Precarious Personata, Captain "Phoenyx" Aquamarine and Laura. Give yourselves a pat on the back, you deserve it!