Chapter 8

The coffee was cold and absolutely no help when it came to deciding what he should do. The man sitting before him wore a dirty apron over plain clothes, Mr. Brown was his name, and since Will Turner had disappeared with Elizabeth from Port Royal the town had been lacking in the area of a blacksmith. James glanced up from his porcelain cup to look into Mr. Brown's dirty eyes. They were tired and a bit glazed, the man was always in some state of intoxication, but in the matter of thievery James would be forced to take his slurred and incoherent words as truth over those of the young boy who stood some feet behind the set of chairs and coffee table that Emily had picked out to replace the old ones that had been left in the house after Governor Swann died. Even though a year had passed, the furniture still felt new and uncomfortable, all except the sloped chair that was placed in the far bay window overlooking the ocean- that chair was very broken in.

The Guard holding the arm of the young man cleared his throat noisily. James looked up from Mr. Brown to meet the sharp blue eyes of the boy standing beyond his shoulder. Blue showed youth and innocence, but a resolve to face whatever fate was dealt out to him.

"In these circumstances I must side with…" James began and stopped as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Turning, he met the brilliant blue eyes of his fiancée. She smiled softly and slipped quietly up behind his chair, her eyes coming to rest on the boy. "… I must side with Mr. Brown," James finished, his stomach tightening into a not all together unpleasant ball as Emily's hand worked it way down his back between the rungs of the chair.

James had expected the boy to protest as he had down earlier, but he held his tongue.

"Take him away," James said waving the officer out. "His punishment will be carried out this afternoon."

Emily did not move until the guard had led the boy out and Mr. Brown had left. "Another young man without a hand, and without a chance at a life." A breath rushed out of her mouth as she sat down in the chair Mr. Brown had vacated.

"There is nothing I can do, even if Mr. Brown is as drunk as Jack Sparrow on a good day."

"I'm not blaming you," Emily said as she laid a kiss on his lips. "Why the King decided to upgrade you to temporary governor until the next one arrives was rather odd, but there was no one else to fill in. it will be over soon. The new man, Governor… oh what is his name? I can never remember it."

"Sword," James replied before heaving himself out of his chair. Lightly he took Emily's hand in his own and smiled. "Now, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?"

Emily giggled as another voice laughed. Whirling around, James came face to face with Jack Sparrow and found a sword placed very close to his neck.

"'Ello," Jack said giving James a big smile. "Long time no see."

Emily was tired and frustrated. After being ignominiously tied up by Jack and Will, her and James had been hauled away to the Pearl, with no apparent reason or even excuse. She remembered well the life she had led in New York and her meeting with Jack and Will in Portia's apartment, and the confusion of her two lives was beginning to border on insanity, but at the moment she was more concerned about what Jack and Will were doing to James, and why she had been left alone in the dark.

Hours ago she had tried in vain to pull the ropes lose from around her wrists to no avail. Will's deft hands had made sure she would not escape. She had been left a plate of food but some member of the pirate crew, but she had not dared touch it, for fear of treachery, but also because she did not feel like putting her face in the plate in order to eat anything off it. The chicken had smelled good at first, making her stomach growl in protestation, but now the meat was long cold and no longer looked very appetizing.

Her head jerked up at the sound of the door opening. Twisting her neck around to see who had come in, Emily only caught a glimpse of Portia's bright hair before she was behind her undoing the knots in the rope that held her bound.

Once her hands were free Emily found herself wrapped tightly in Portia's embrace.

"I am so sorry you were left down here," Porita said into her hair. "Will told me you had gone to sleep in his cabin, but then when I went to find you I discovered that you were no where to be found. I swear I am going to kill Jack!"

"Oh don't worry about killing him," Emily replied. "It is Will you should be killing, he was the one who brought me down here and tied me up! Honestly, and I though he was the nice one…" the last part was muttered under her breath.

Portia smiled. "The Commodore is eating his dinner upstairs, he requested that his fiancée be allowed to join him." The smile turned mischievous. Emily dropped her heard to hide the red that rose in her cheeks. "I still don't understand how you end up engaged to a Commodore and I am a lowly bar maid who makes money by selling herself at night."

Emily's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "You're a what!" she demanded.

Portia smiled timidly. "Oh sorry, forgot you didn't know about that. And yes, that is what I am in this life."

Emily shook her head. "Well I'm sure you've been having more fun than me I suppose."

"I'm sure," Portia replied, sarcasm dripping on her voice. "James is here too… New York James," Portia added when she saw Emily's confused face. "He's even worse than me- he was caught robbing the house Elizabeth was staying in while Jack and Will were gone with us in NYC. They found him in a rather unfortunate position with Elizabeth. Will still looks like murder whenever he sees him."

"James? Nice James who was your beau for more than a year?" Emily shook her head again. "Anything else I should know before we go above?"

Portia wrinkled her brows in thought. "Well, its not entirely important, but I think I'm in love with…"

The door banged open. Both women turned their heads to see whom it was and met the smiling face of Captain Jack Sparrow.

He let the smile hang on his face for a moment while his eyes were focused on Emily, but as he turned through brown beauties on Portia the smile vanished before Emily could even notice that he had let his lips drop. Portia had not been able to voice who she thought she was in love with, but Emily was pretty sure from the look in Jack's eyes that there was something more than casual friendship in his heart.

"Your man needs you above," Jack said turning back to Emily, the smile curving at his lips again. "Apparently he can't live without you by his side…" He smirked.

"And what may I ask do you want us for?" Emily demanded, putting the force of her stubbornness behind her voice.

Jack smiled again and reached forward to run a brown finger along her pale chin. Emily pulled her head away from his touch, not out of revulsion, but because a part of her hated the thought of anyone but James touching her. "Just for some fun my dear. I am sure that your dear friend Portia will fill you in on the way up."

And at that he turned on his heel and left. Portia turned to follow in his wake, motioning Emily to stay close to her.

Despite Jack's words that Portia would fill her in, Emily received no communication at all from her friend in the trip to the upper deck of the ship, or while Emily ate. The shape and lavishness of the cabin they entered made Emily think it must be Jack's, but James informed her quietly under his breath that this cabin was reserved for Elizabeth when she was traveling on the Pearl, and therefore that was probably why it was so clean.

Upon entering the cabin and seeing James seated at the main table, which was located to the side of the room bellow a long row of windows, unharmed and obvious relieved to see that she had not been hurt, made Emily relax immensely, and once she was seated next to him and his hand held tightly in hers, she felt ready to face anything. But it the tension between the other persons in the room was like heavy humidity in the air before a thunderstorm.

Elizabeth was tactfully sitting at the back of the cabin facing out the window, her eyes averted from anyone else, but from their flicker to the side and back front, Emily knew that she was glancing at Portia's reflection in the window pane. Portia was leaning against the door post, her arms crossed over her chest, a position so common to the NYC Portia, that Emily had a hard time reconciling the image of the well-dressed, shy Portia with the rough and tumble woman wearing a very low neckline and a dirty dress. Will was seated only feet from where Portia stood, his eyes pointed at the ground, but focused on nothing- there was obviously something occupying his mind. The other James, the friend of Emily and Portia from NYC was seated on the floor as far from Elizabeth as he could be. Mr. Gibbs was watching over him with a close eye. Jack was pacing the room, eyes focused on the floor, mouth moving in silent words. Although his steps carried his around the whole room, he carefully avoided coming too close to Portia.

Once Emily showed no more signs of eating, James cleared his throat and addressed Jack. "So are we to know why we have been abducted, or are we going to be merely kept down bellow for some crazy notion of yours?"

Jack stopped his pacing abruptly and looked at James startled at the sound of his voice. "Well we could leave you downstairs, but I doubt Miss Emily, or is it Mrs. Norington?" he smirked, "would be pleased because what we have to say here concerns her."

James nodded in acknowledgement and settled back in his chair, his mouth carefully shut.

Jack frowned, at a loss for words, and turned to look at Will and then Portia for inspiration. His frown growing deeper, Jack turned back to face Emily, looking very grim.

"I'm not sure exactly how it works luv, but there are two of you now in one body," Jack began. "One is from your, other world, and the other from this world."
He motioned to the ground. "Because of something to do with myself," he pointed at his chest, "You and Portia were brought here, and unfortunately we do not know if you can go back, or, be separated, again."

"The point Jack is getting to," Will piped in, "is that there was a prophecy of sorts made to him, concerning his, life…" he paused. Neither him nor Jack seemed capable of voicing what needed to be said next.

"A woman came to Jack two weeks before he and Will turned up in my apartment and told him that if he did not redeem his soul from his sins of the past, and present, he would be dammed to hell. The way he was to do this was to find the girl he loved, his true love, and tell her that he loved her, and have her return that token." Portia paused and reached for Jack's hand to hold it up for Emily to see. "This ring was to bring him to that girl. But…"

Realization and understanding hit Emily at once. "But he didn't just find one girl, he found two, so which of us is it?" As soon as the question was out of her mouth Emily regretted it- she had just asked Jack to say whether he loved either of them, ad Emily knew deep down that if it was her, she would not be able to complete the prophecy and say that she loved him in return.

Jack kept his mouth shut, hoping that Will would say something for him, and to his luck he did.

"We don't know yet," Will said, coming to rest a hand on Jack's shoulder. "and the other problem we have it why your friend, James…" Will glared in his direction. "Came with us too. We were only supposed to return with a woman."

"So…" Jack took up after Will, the awkward moment passed. "We are going to return to Tortuga, and then the Isle of Muerta in hopes of finding this woman again, or the man who gave me the ring so this whole mess can be sorted out."

Squeezing Emily's hand, James looked up from the table where his gaze had been fixed to look at Jack and Will. "And since you need Emily to come with you, may I request to be allowed to come as well?"

Jack nodded. "We set sail this very moment, or once I get out on deck, and you will be accompanying us, because we had a feeling that if we left you behind you would probably follow us anyway." Smiling at James, Jack turned and swept out of the room to get the Pearl out into the open water.