Disclaimer: Yep, everybody in here is mine. Except for Jack, o'course.

888888888888888888888888888888

Future's Past

888888888888888888888888888888

"You must choose, my dear. You alone. And you must choose now."

Jack gazed imploringly into Andrea's eyes as she thought. Part of her yearned to just give up and go with him, and a part of her knew that she would never forgive herself for being so irresponsible. "I love you, Jack Sparrow." As the pirate's mouth dropped, Andrea turned her head to face Rum. "We are bound, he and I. Doesn't that mean that nothing can separate us, not even death?"

Rum nodded slowly. Andrea whipped back to face Jack, agony etched into her young face. "I can't follow you back to the world of the living, luv. Not as I am." Sorrow colored Jack's voice in a way that made Andrea's heart break.

"I won't ask you to wait for me, Jack. Not here in limbo. But someday..." she leaned so that her fingertips brushed his. "Someday, I will find you, Jack Sparrow. And I will never leave you again."

Rum gently took a hold of Andrea, and pulled her back from the water. "Is that your decision, child?"

Tears streaming down her face, Andrea nodded. As they began to fade from the dream world, her voice echoed.

I will find you...

"Not if I find you first, my love." Jack whispered. "Not if I find you first."

8888888888

Daniel wheezed gently as he strolled through the cemetery. Twenty years at a desk job had been relatively kind to the fifty year old man, but he still regretted all those donuts when it came time to walk these days.

He paused beside the fresh grave. Donuts weren't his only regret, and he had never forgiven himself for screwing up the one chance he had had with Andrea Talliver all those years ago. She had come out of that coma a changed woman, sad where before she had been so merry. Oh, she'd still laughed from time to time, but never with the care-free manner that she'd had before.

"You should have told me, Andy." Daniel whispered softly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She'd lived a full-life, albeit a lonely one. Her books had changed the views of medieval scholars world-wide, and her translations of ancient epics into modern prose had prompted a veritable renaissance of medieval literature. It was a point of pride with Norton that she'd done most of the work in his house, renting it every summer until she finally asked to buy it a few years ago.

Her death from cancer, while unexpected, had been mercifully swift.

"Why, Andy?" Daniel allowed tears to roll down his cheeks for the first time since learning of her death. "We could have gotten you treatment. We could have stopped it. Why?!"

The black cat watched him cry, knowing that grief is a part of life. Why he grieved when it was so clear that the woman's spirit had already moved on was a mystery to the cat. The cat continued to clean himself, ready to keep his vigil in the cemetery long after the man had completed his grieving and left.

8888888888

Marie looked up from her writing as someone tapped the table in front of her. She looked up with a frown. The Buzz wasn't exactly an exclusive coffeehouse, but most people refrained from interrupting her while she worked.

The young man in front of her was absolutely stunning. Hair like dark chocolate swept past his shoulders, his body was lithe and tanned, his face sported the beginnings of a black goatee, and his eyes...Marie tried not to suck in her breath as she stared into those gorgeous, green-masquerading-as-brown, orbs. "I'm sorry, but it's rather full in here...is this seat taken?"

She shook her head, then found her voice. "Help yourself, no one else is using it."

The youth didn't sit in the chair so much as he molded himself to it. "Hey, I've noticed you in here before. Mind if I ask you a question?"

Marie shrugged. "You can ask, doesn't mean I'll answer."

The youth laughed. "What is it you're always writing in here?"

Marie tensed. She never liked discussing her work, especially now that she was trying to get it published and she had more rejection letters than she cared to count. "It's a ghost story."

The youth propped himself on his elbows. "I'm all ears, honest."

Marie sighed. "Well, there's this woman, and she rents a beach house, only to find out that the original house was made using the timbers from a pirate ship. Then she finds out that the ghost of the ship's captain is haunting the house."

"Sounds interesting. Can I read it?"

Marie pulled the notebook in reflexively to her chest. "It's not finished yet."

The youth raised an eyebrow. Marie reluctantly passed the notebook over. "It's all rather silly, anyway, it's based on a stupid dream I keep having."

"You shouldn't be so self-conscious. Inspiration has to come from somewhere, where better than dreams? Besides," and the youth wiggled his eyebrows at her, "maybe you're dreaming of a past-life, haha."

Marie snorted. "Past life? Schyeah, right."

The youth definitely had expressive eyebrows. One was currently squatting low over an eye while the other was reaching for his hairline.

"I dream almost every night of the open sea, and yet I've never been sailing in my life. The first time my dad threw me into a pool, I took to swimming like a fish. 'There's more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, my dear Horatio.' I'm sure I was a sailor in a past life." He paused, then struck what he considered a dashing pose. "Maybe even...a pirate."

She laughed. "The name's Marie, not Horatio, Mr. Pirate, though it is nice to meet someone who can quote the Bard."

The youth grinned. "Well then, Marie, I'm Lauren. Though most people who call me that don't call me it long - I prefer 'Jack'."

Marie raised an eyebrow of her own. "Jack?"

He grinned. "I'm a regular 'Jack of All Trades', luv."

The two bent their heads in conversation the rest of the night, both feeling an almost eerie connection, a sense that they were meant to meet that night and never part.

Neither would ever fully realize the past history that they shared, or the future that had already been mapped out for them.

A little grey cat watched from the shadows outside the coffeehouse, staring through the window as snow gently fell from the sky. His work here was finally done; the damage had been repaired and the couple had several lifetimes together ahead of them. Their world would continue to run smoothly now that he had secured their future's past.

THE END