Chapter 10-

One of Jack's hands was slowly, but steadily working its way inside her bodice as they walked along the deck when a lantern suddenly appeared from the hold bellow. His hand paused and he pulled her to a stop next to him, just out of reach of the rays of the lantern. The other hand came up to her mouth and covered it softly to mask the sound of her heavy breathing. Portia turned her head slightly to look at him and saw that he was scowling in the direction of the unwanted light.

Then a voice came out of the silence. "Portia? Portia are you up here?" James called tentatively. Portia could see jealousy lacing Jack's eyes as he realized who it was that had disturbed them. She would have replied but for his hand over her mouth.

Nuzzling his face in her neck, he whispered. "Just pretend we're not here. He'll leave in a few seconds."

She would have loved to do just that, but from the tone of James' voice something was wrong, and no matter how much her body wanted to follow Jack to his cabin, she knew she owed it to her best friend to go to him after all he had been through for her sake. Softly removing Jack's hands from her waist and lips, Portia pushed away from him, smiling at the pout he put on. Leaning back she kissed him and then pressed a hand softly to the front of his bulging pants before stepping into the circle of light.

"I'm here James," she said.

Startled, he whirled to face her, a smile breaking lighting up his eyes when he saw her standing at the edge of the light, her hair tousled and her dress half un-laced. Glancing around, looking for a reason for her disheveled appearance, James barely missed shinning the light on Jack's form.

Portia took a few more steps into the light and as James turned, caught a glance of his face. She gasped in fright- there was a dark bruise forming on the left side of his face, covering most of his eye and cheek. Rushing to his side she carefully placed a finger on the tender skin.

"James, what happened?" she demanded. He flinched away from her touch and smiled ruefully.

"I was going to bed and passed Elizabeth in the hall." Portia groaned; she knew what was coming next. "I said good night, and she smiled at me, and then Will came around the corner… and well, he took a good swing at me, and unfortunately I didn't move soon enough."

Portia sighed and shook her head. "Come on, let's go down to the galley and see if we can find anything cold to put on it." Gently taking his hand, she led him down the stairs and away from jack's unmoving form.

Moonlight streamed in through the porthole in their room. Emily sighed in contentment as James let his head come to rest on her bosom. She had no idea where James had found the silk sheets, but they were a nice comfort in all the strangeness of the pirate ship. No sooner than James had laid his head down he began to snore softly and Emily laughed quietly to herself at the noises he made. Kissing the top of his head, she lay back on the pillows and stared out the small opening to the outside world.

The water was calm and black, the moon hanging silently in the sky, unobstructed by any clouds. A smile crossed her lips as she thought about all the times that she and Portia had gone to the top of Portia's apartment building to set up her telescope and look at the stars.

Stars were the one thing Portia loved more than anything else in the world, aside from Emily and James. She had originally gone to school to study to be an astronomer, but things had gone downhill after she and James broke up. Portia's heart had been ripped in two when James told her that he liked another girl- even though they had never officially been dating, the blow had still been hard to her that he held another girl higher in his esteem than her. The only reason Portia had even graduated from NYU was because Emily insisted on making her getup every day and continue living life, even though Portia would have rather that it ended as soon as possible.

After school the three became very good friends, the wound that Portia had been nursing finally healing. She allowed James back into her life as a friend, but Emily knew that deep down in Portia's heart she still loved James, and always would. Which brought her back to Jack and the prophecy. If Portia was meant to be Jack's love, then why had James also been brought from NYC? Emily very much doubted that Portia would let herself truly fall in love with Jack while James was around.

So was it a test then, for Jack. To devote himself so much to a woman that he would make her forget her love to another man in favor of him? If that was so, she wished him good luck as she drifted off to sleep.

After searching for several minutes Portia gave up on finding anything cold to put on James' face and flopped down on the bench next to him. The bruise was now almost black.

"Oh, that looks terrible, I wish there was something on this stupid ship that was cold!" Portia said looking in pain at his face.

"Its all right," he replied. "I guess I deserve it for what I did."

Portia shook her head. 'You don't deserve anything. If anyone's to blame for what happened, it's me."

"What?" James asked, incredulous. "Why would it be your fault?"

Portia sighed heavily and shook her head again. "Never mind," she said.

James was about to press her for an explanation and then decided against it. If she didn't want to tell him something, not even an act of God would make her change her mind. The bruise throbbed again and he winced involuntarily.

An idea coming to her, Portia leaned forward and blew cold air on James' face. It wasn't much, but the cool of her breath felt good in his face. As she continued to blow gently on his face Portia began to giggle, and was soon joined by James in a fit of laughter.

"You're going to have to breathe on me all night to make it feel any better," he gasped out between bouts of laughter.

Halting her giggles for a moment, Portia leaned forward and kissed the bruise gently. "All better now?" she asked.

They both suddenly became serious again with the closeness of their faces. Part of James' mind was screaming for him to pull away, but it was soon shut up by the part of him that was still in love with Portia. Leaning forward, he captured her lips.

Portia was caught off guard by the kiss, but let she briefly sink into its warmth before pulling away. "Let's get you to bed," she said.