A/N-- Here's the second chapter! I'm excited for this one, because like I said we get to see some old friends... . Read to find out who!

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Chapter Two
Discourse and Dinner
in which there are many awkward moments

The three adults in the house were a tableau for a moment, a moment that could've lasted for much longer if there hadn't been a child in their midst.

"I found them at the harbor, Momma. That one's a captain and that one's a doctor. Their ship abandoned them. Can they stay with us?"

"You've always had a knack for picking up strays." Cora murmured like one in a daze. She shook her head quickly and fixed an indulgent smile on her face as she knelt to see eye to eye with her son. "Dom, darling, I want you to do something for me. Run to Grandma and Grandpa Turner's house and tell them we'll be having dinner with them after all. Tell them we might be bringing guests along."

"Grandma and Grandpa Turner's house- we'll be having dinner and bringing guests to eat." ("To eat with us, Dom, I dare say we won't be eating them.") He nodded and then turned to face Jack and Stephen, smiling. "I'll be back soon."

Cora had time to only kiss his forehead before he darted away. They were all conscious of his footsteps on the stairs and the slam of the door when he left, but even once they knew for certain that he was gone none of them could speak.

Cora was the first to move. She turned and walked out of the room. Jack and Stephen followed her back into the first room of the second story, where Dominic had left his basket. A cabinet stood nearby and Cora fished a key out of the purse at her waist. She opened it and shuffled things around, ultimately producing an old bottle filled with amber liquid- rum. She tilted her head back and took a deep drink from its mouth.

Stephen sat at the table and found himself staring at her. Seven years had washed over her like waves on the shore but she didn't appear to have changed much. Her jaw was firmer, her cheeks less full, showing that the last vestige of childhood had bled away. Her eyes were still the same- that extraordinary soft grey-blue. She was wearing a dress, and it took Stephen back the moment he realized it. He had never seen her in a dress before.

"Cora-" He began, the word feeling strangely foreign on her tongue. It was seven years since he'd said that name and expected to hear an answer.

"Before you ask, he's yours. There's been no one else." She gave him a strangely bitter smile and held out the bottle. "Care for a drink? I have a feeling we'll need one."

Stephen shook his head, but Jack reached across the table.

"I catch your drift precisely, Miss Turner, a most noble sentiment indeed."

Jack took a drink from the bottle and then stood there with it in his hand, looking like he felt out of place. When Cora sat at the table across from Stephen and it became apparent that this wasn't about to get any easier with him there, he slipped away and mumbled something about leaving their sea chests by the harbor. The door beneath them slammed shut, and they were alone.

A son. My son. Stephen's mind stoutly refused to grasp the concept. He and Cora were lovers for a handful of days seven years before, and while every moment he spent with her in his arms had loomed in his mind since the day they parted it was terrifying to see such tangible evidence of it.

He reached for the bottle Jack left behind and took a drink, deciding he needed it after all. Wordlessly, he passed it back to Cora. She didn't drink from it, running one finger in an endless circle around the bottle's rim instead.

"His name is Dominic Jack Turner." She said. "I know it sounds awkward, but I thought the name Jack was special to both of us. We've both known rather extraordinary Captains bearing the name Jack."

Stephen didn't even nod in response. He searched her endlessly for some clue as to how she was feeling at the sight of him, but she kept her face down.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I had no idea where you were."

"Did you try to discover it? Ever?"

"...no."

"You thought the birth of my child would mean nothing to me?" He couldn't keep the venom out of his voice.

"Don't say it like that," She snapped back. "I was in England by the time I realized I was with child. I had no money and no relatives. The only thing I could do was barter a passage back here to Port Royal and beg my grandparents for help. I had no idea what else to do, I was so terrified. And..." She gave a helpless sigh. "You were there, Stephen. You saw what happened to me aboard the Surprise. I told you why we couldn't be together. I was afraid that if I told you I was carrying your child it would force us into something both of us weren't ready for."

"Marriage."

"...yes."

"Don't make the assumption that both of us weren't ready." Stephen said quietly.

For the first time since Jack left the room, Cora met his eyes. Hers were filled with disbelief and a quantity of confusion. She dropped them before he could speak again.

"I told you we'd meet again." Her voice was filled, oddly, with regret.

"I had no doubt that we would," Stephen replied. "The world has an endless capacity for cruelty."

Cora poured another drink down her throat, stopped the bottle and shoved it back into the cabinet.

Neither of them could think of what to say. The moment of silent recriminations and unspoken guilt would've gone on forever if Dominic hadn't burst back into the room.

"Grandma and Grandpa told me to tell you that we should come over for dinner as soon as we can and we can bring any guests we want as long as they're not," He paused to take a breath and to summon the most impressive word of his message properly. "Fugitives."

Cora laughed and drew him onto her lap. "A funny condition, that. They've been fugitives before. Do you even know what a fugitive is, Dom?"

"No. Do you want to see what I found today?" Dominic squirmed out of his mother's embrace to begin arranging his collection on the table.

"Dominic is quite the naturalist, Doctor Maturin. Like yourself." Cora said to Stephen, with a bright fake smile on her face. It said what the words didn't: do not tell him.

"You're a naturalist, Doctor?"

"Yes, I am." Stephen felt something bite at his heart. Dominic had dismissed him earlier when he tried to tell him, enamored of Jack in his exalted position as captain.

"That must be very interesting. Is it exciting to work on a ship?"

He has just enough of me in him to torment me.

"It provides me with many opportunities to further my study of the natural world, although it is somewhat loud and incommodious and I must spend many months at sea with hardly a bird to break the monotony."

Dominic's face was screwed up in concentration as he tried to decipher some of the more difficult words in the sentence, and before he accomplished this a red faced Jack came back up the stairs, lugging both sea chests along with him.

"I intend to do more heavy lifting about the ship from now on," He wheezed as he sat down, looking in vain for the bottle of rum. "For my performance here has been most humiliating."

"We'll wait for you to catch your breath. Would care for another drink? We are to dine at my grandparents' house this night." Cora stood and went back to the cabinet to retrieve the bottle of rum.

"They're my grandparents too," Dominic added. "But not really. I don't have real grandparents."

"No grandparents and no father," Stephen said. "I believe that is a trifle sad."

Cora slammed the bottle on the table and slid it over to Jack. She gave Stephen her coldest stare, one that turned her grey-blue eyes into chips of ice, and for a moment he saw the woman her mother had been staring at him. She shook it off, and turned with a fresh smile to her son.

"They're your great-grandparents, Dominic. Longevity runs in the family on the Turner side, so long as we don't meet an untimely end at sea. William and Elizabeth Turner are getting on in years, but they've kept themselves busy. I believe they continue to practice swordplay together every morning in their courtyard. They've always been the talk of Port Royal."

"My momma can use a sword. She taught me." Dominic boasted to Jack, who was beginning to breathe normally again.

"Then I am certain you are a most formidable opponent. You'll make a fine addition to the Navy one day."

"Don't you encourage him, Captain Aubrey. He's got four more years before you'll get your hands on him as a midshipman."

"You tell all the captains we meet that. And last year it was five more years." Dominic pouted, poking one of the spiny shells he'd left on the table.

"Yes, and next year it will be three. Have patience, please! Have you no love for your poor mother?"

"Of course I do!" He promptly stood on his chair and flung himself on her, unrestrained in his affection.

Cora held him close, laughing into his baby curls, and after a moment her eyes met Stephen's over his shoulder. They were filled with genuine sorrow. She wiped them clean again and set Dominic down.

"We should be leaving soon. Go and clean up a bit."

"I should like to wash up as well, before we leave. I'm quite shabby at the moment, a veritable scrub. By your leave, Miss Turner, I'd like to use the room you found us in to change."

"Be my guest, Captain. I have my own preparations to attend to in any case."

Jack exited. Stephen made to follow him with some mumbled inane excuse, but as he passed through the door into the hall Cora caught his arm and pulled him close against her.

His anger vanished into astonishment. The feel of her body so close to his after seven years of tortured dreams that even laudanum couldn't quell was intoxicating. She still smelled the same- of saltwater and sweat and feminine mystique -and every breath he took with her that close brought back memories of tangled limbs and whispered names.

"Please don't stay angry with me for too long, Stephen." Was all she said, in a very low voice, the same voice she used to use when they lay together in the dark. Then she released him and headed down the hall into the relative darkness.

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A few minutes later they were ready to go. Dominic had been coaxed into fresh clothes and consented to have his hair plaited and his shoes brushed off a bit. Jack had changed into his uniform and forced Stephen to search for some of his nicer clothes- although nice here is meant comparatively, since every article of clothing he owned was in some varying state of disrepair.

"Good God, man! Sophie knits you at least a dozen new sets of stockings a year and darns the rest. Haven't you kept at least one pair from holes?" Jack heaved a sigh. "I suppose there is nothing for it, you creature. Borrow mine."

Stephen was relieved to be able to smile at Jack's nagging; it had been a fixture in their friendship. At the mention of Jack's wife Sophie, he couldn't help but feel a jolt of jealousy. He had a son standing in just the next room, but no wife to show for it. He hoped fervently that Dominic hadn't been teased for a bastard or a natural child or whatever the hell it was 'polite society' called such people- children were sensitive to such things, even if they didn't quite smoke them. He knew it all too well himself.

Cora, as was her womanly right, was the last one to be ready. She'd changed her simple grey dress to a soft blue one and wore a black shawl around her shoulders. Her hair, as before, was done up in a bun against her head. Even though her trademark bandana was absent, Stephen felt as though it was trapped and ached to set it free to watch it tumble over her shoulders.

Almost to her breasts.

Stephen shut his eyes tight against the memory, and opened them to find Cora watching him with her eyebrows drawn.

"Shall we?" She asked when the moment ended, taking Dominic's hand and leading them out of the house. Their feet no sooner touched the pavement than Dominic broke away from her and ran ahead. Cora watched him go with a resigned shake of her head, and turned to the two men instead.

"So, what is this Dominic tells me about a ship abandoning you? You are still a captain, aren't you... Captain?" She laughed a bit at her own folly.

Jack laughed his booming laugh. "Yes, I am still a captain. I will be a captain until I am an admiral, and then I shall likely die. But, you see, we were traveling with a friend- I daresay you've never met old Tom Pullings, he'd just left us when we captured- well, that is to say-

"To come to the point, we docked here to take on provisions and Stephen here saw some manner of bird he simply had to pursue, and I followed because I promised him I'd take more interest in natural science if he'd at least try to understand nautical science, and while we were off chasing said bird Pullings received urgent orders to chase some damned privateer and he couldn't wait for us to come back. So he left us our sea chests and a note that he'd be back in no less than two weeks. Two weeks on this bloody rock! -begging your pardon of course, Miss Turner. I assume this is your home."

"This is where I happen to live." She wouldn't elaborate farther, since she had to chase Dominic away from an alley cat he was attempting to befriend with a piece of dead fish from the garbage. After that he rejoined their group and proceeded to chatter about the various other alley cats he'd seen before.

In this desultory way Dominic filled the awkward gaps in the adult conversation, bridging the seven years between them. They reached the bottom of the hill the mansion resided on, and were met there by a carriage.

"I was just about to collect you," The driver apologized. "At least you can arrive at the door in style."

"Amen to that," Jack murmured. He had been giving the hill an unfriendly eye for some time now.

"The exercise would've done you good, old friend." Stephen hinted, catching this glance.

"I informed you earlier-"

"If you grant yourself leave to criticize my stockings, Jack Aubrey, I grant myself leave to criticize your health."

At this, Cora burst out into laughter. Dominic was too occupied in examining Stephen's stockings to join in her gaiety. Jack joined her, but Stephen found that he could not.

Seven years she lied, and here she sits before me laughing as if none of it had happened. As if that little boy sitting beside her weren't really my son.

Mere moments later the carriage stopped and the still apologizing driver helped them out. The mansion was aging, but retained a classic beauty. The two people standing in the doorway followed along the same lines.

"Cora!" The woman called, holding out her arms.

"Grandmother, grandfather." She beamed, embracing the former and giving the latter a kiss on the cheek.

"And here's my favorite lad!" The man beamed. Despite his age, his shoulders were still broad and unbent. He lifted Dominic easily. "You haven't been playing at my forge again, have you?"

"No, Grandfather."

"Good. Then I'll slip you some of my cake tonight after dinner."

"Don't just stand there, Cora," The woman admonished. "Introduce your guests!"

"May I present Jack Aubrey, a distinguished captain of His Majesty's fleet, and his surgeon, Doctor Stephen Maturin." Each man made a leg.

"Oh," The woman said slowly, softly, as if she weren't conscious of saying it. Stephen knew instantly that she knew who they were. She covered her knowledge with a smile and extended her hand.

"My name is Elizabeth Turner."

She must've been a beauty when she was younger; her hair had a soft buttery color, as if it had once been dark and surrendered its shades slowly in a bitter battle with the Caribbean sun. Her face was a web of fine lines, but it still held a healthy glow. Her eyes were a warm amber shade of brown.

"And I have the fortune of being this lady's husband." The man said. He had a strong forthright face and silver hair, and very dark brown eyes. His smile was warm and welcoming. "William Turner, at your service."

"Please, Will and Elizabeth will do." She insisted as they moved inside. "We hate pretenses. And trust you to dress up for a family dinner, Cora! That corset could've been a little tighter."

"You're lucky I put one on, Grandmother," Cora muttered, flushing. "I inherited your dislike of them."

"Yes, but you didn't inherit my figure, which means you have the breasts to actually pull one off." Elizabeth was grinning at this, but no one else seemed to enjoy her humor, least of all Cora, whose shawl was now protectively covering the items in question.

"Honestly, Elizabeth, let her alone. The occasion was formal enough. After all, she and the lad are leaving tomorrow, and there's no way of knowing when we'll see them again-"

"Yes, William." She waved him away with a practiced air, allowing him to draw her chair for her when they reached the dining room.

"Leaving?" Jack asked, bewildered. Cora turned to him, an explanation on her lips, when another figure entered.

"Uncle Matthew! I had no idea you were home!"

The man standing in the doorway looked like a younger image of Will, although his face already bore deep lines and his dark eyes were less warm. More tired, more jaded. He looked older, somehow, than the man who must've been his father.

"My ship put in today, but when I went to the forge you weren't home, so I came here."

"Honestly, Uncle," Cora said as she embraced him. "It's your house. It would've been perfectly fine for you to stay there."

"You've been there more than I have." He mumbled in response. "It'll be a little sad coming home to it after tomorrow. It'll be so quiet there."

"Forgive me, but what's happening tomorrow?" Jack asked as a servant showed him to a seat.

"Cora is leaving us at last." Elizabeth said. "She's going back home, to the island of Alameade."

Stephen turned to look at Cora, who was seated opposite him and down a ways. Her earlier comment about Port Royal made sense now.

"I've wanted to go for some time but," She nodded to Jack, who was seated directly across from her. "Begging your pardon, Captain, but the Navy's presence was simply too strong. It would've been suicide. But old Gillette finally died-"

"God rot him!" Will murmured. Elizabeth and Matthew nodded.

"-and now no one cares about our family much anymore. I've decided the time is right to go back to my ancestral home."

"How will you get there?" Jack asked.

"There's a ship called the HMS Deliverance I've been using to earn money- all our wealth was in the Running or back on Alameade and I haven't been able to touch my inheritance. Norrington-"
"God rot him!" The cry was unanimous and more vehement. Jack looked more than a little uncomfortable.

"-had her commissioned to destroy my family. In the end we captured her, and while my mother wanted to burn her she was convinced otherwise. She was a ship of the line at the time, and no mean prize."

"What exactly is your meaning when you say you've been using this ship to earn money?" Jack asked suddenly, his eyes hard. Cora met his gaze head on, in the way Stephen had imagined so many times. They were more alike than either acknowledged.

"I do not mean piracy, if that is what you assume. I have remained true to the terms of my pardon, Captain Aubrey. In fact, I have been using her to capture French ships in the area and turn them over to the Navy, and protecting English merchants for a nominal fee."

The room was very still. Even Dominic recognized this topic as taboo and kept his eyes on his lap. Jack raised his glass and tilted his head to Cora.

"That was damned impolite of me, Miss Turner, and I apologize. Here we were with intentions of asking you if we might take advantage of your hospitality while we are here in Port Royal."

"Why are you here, Captain?" Will asked.

"For once my husband asks a valid question. And no one had to hit him on the back of the head to prompt it." Elizabeth said mildly, smiling at the glare he shot her.

As dinner was coming around Jack related the tale of their abandonment to the dinner guests. Will and Elizabeth offered the use of one of their rooms, but it was in Stephen's heart to say no.

"Why don't you come with me?" Cora asked when the talk quieted and Jack and Stephen seemed to be in thought.

"To Alameade?"

"It's no more than three days sailing, with fair winds. We're to have a midsummer party there when we arrive. You could come and stay with me a while, and I could have you back in Port Royal in time for you to meet your friend Captain Pullings. It would certainly be more interesting than this bloody rock, as you so charmingly put it."

Jack smiled and began to turn the idea over in his mind.

"Stephen?" He asked after a moment.

Stephen looked to Cora again, and he saw what she was offering. A meager way to make up for seven years of separation- but a way nonetheless.

"It seems a reasonable proposition." He said at last.

"Then it's settled. We'll wake to catch the morning tide and be on our way."

It was settled, and it brought a measure of peace to the table. The rest of the evening was spent in charming shallowness, relating amusing stories of life at sea and people in the room. Dominic nearly stood on his chair with the enthusiasm he showed recounting the story of his mother and the snake- and it was after Cora reprimanded him for likening her scream to that of a 'bloody banshee' that they decided to leave.

"Come and visit again soon," Elizabeth said as they stood in the entryway. "I should like to get to know the both of you better. There are rarely new people on this 'bloody rock' and rarer still are the interesting ones."

"But the company is always superb nonetheless." Will smiled, his arm around his wife's waist and kissing her temple. His arm circled her like it belonged there, showing the bond of years of marriage. It made Jack's heart ache for Sophie, and Stephen's ache for what he had never been granted.

"Fair winds!" He called as they were leaving.

Matthew had no need to take their leave, since he was climbing into the carriage with them. The ride back to Turner and Sons Blacksmith was quiet. Dominic was soon asleep on his mother's shoulder and she was staring out the window, her mind no doubt consumed with preparations for the next day's journey. Jack too was dozing, leaving Stephen with his thoughts.

He was partially terrified at the prospect of two weeks alone with Cora and partially exhilarated. The flame of resentment still flickered in his heart, but another flame he thought had burned to ashes was stirring again. It was the forbidden flame they had refused to name seven years before.

He roused Jack with a shake and ushered him inside when they reached the blacksmith's and sent him lumbering up the stairs, Cora close behind with Dominic in her arms. He and Matthew were left to climb the stairs together. To Stephen's great surprise, the silent man stopped him at the top.

"I don't know how much Cora told you about our family, but I was married to her mother's best friend. Liash. After what Norrington did to her, after we brought her back... she was convinced she couldn't love anymore. It tore us all apart. Cora grew up in the world her silence created. She grew up convinced she couldn't love either." He gave a ragged sigh and pushed his dark hair out of his face. "The point is, once upon a time I made Li feel something she didn't think she could feel anymore, but I had to fight for it. Think about that. Good bye."

With that, Matthew Turner disappeared back down the stairs into the darkness, leaving Stephen alone. After a minute or so he followed Jack's snores to his own bed where he lay for hours afterwards, steeling himself for the journey ahead.

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A/N-- That chapter was a bit wandering, but I was having fun. It's mostly set up and characterization anyway, so I promise later chapters will be a bit more interesting. But wasn't it fun to hang out with Will and Elizabeth a bit? I realize that Dead Man's Chest left some things in the air, as I've said before, but consider it as slightly AU for POTC.

And for anyone who doesn't remember (or didn't read my POTC quintet) Gillette was Norrington's faithful lieutenant. In our fifth and final POTC story, Cora's mother Arlen made one last desperate attempt to destroy him and he ended up annihilating them instead. Hence the animosity they showed his name at the dinner.