Just a short update today, but when I heard Captain Jack Sparrow was going to die, I thought I'd better put something up. I know what the climax is going to be, and how it's going to end, but I'm having trouble building up to that. I don't want to rush it, but at the same time, I don't want the next few chapters to drag. I'm figuring it out though. At the moment, Jack will go to Kate's old house in chapter 16, and chapter 17 will feature the return of James, and the first appearance by Ana. After that, I'm not sure. I don't know if Jack will be ready to carry out his plan for helping her move on yet, or if she'll be able to give him an answer about moving to L.A. (I'm having deja vu – didn't that happen in my last story?) Let me know if there's anything you think I'm missing, anything you want to see, keeping in mind how complicated their relationship is. I'm glad you're all still enjoying it.

Oh, the other reason I didn't update yesterday is that I finally got my Lost figures, and Jack and Charlie's voice chips didn't work. So that was a huge hassle. I had to keep going back to the comic shop to swap them over. They're awesome though.

Anyway, read and please review.

Chapter 15. Co-Dependence

As their relationship deepened, shifting from friendship, to the murky, ill-defined territory of something more ambiguous, Jack found himself slipping back into his old routine of waiting for Kate. It had been a long time since he'd felt compelled to spend every waking moment with another person, but he felt that familiar sense of co-dependence creeping up on him now, waking up early each morning so that he could walk her to work.

Her job placed restrictions on their time together, so sometimes he'd wander around town alone, but he'd always end up back at the diner, helping her bus tables, or deliver orders when it got really busy, or just sitting at the counter, until she finished her shift. Then they'd eat dinner together, at the diner, or the motel, whiling away the rest of the evening in each other's company.

There wasn't much more to do in town than there was when they were growing up, so when they got sick of being cooped up at the motel, if Kate wasn't too tired, they'd go for a walk, like they had that first day. During these walks, they went all over town: to the road, to the creek, down the main street, which housed they tiny two-screen cinema, a few shops, and one or two restaurants, even Christian's house, when Kate said she wanted to see it.

Jack had been too preoccupied to notice the day he arrived, but she pointed out to him then that their tree was gone, the one she'd used to climb in through his window when he was grounded, or it was too late for visitors. If Wayne was really drunk, and she didn't want to go home, or they just didn't want the party to end yet, she'd stay the night, and sneak out again the next morning. Neither of their parents ever knew; Jack's parents didn't care much about what he did so long as he stayed out of trouble, and Kate's parents didn't care so long as she stayed out of their way. In those days, there were each other's family, as well as best friends. Jack didn't know what they were to each other now.

The one place they never went on these walks was Kate's old house. It was on one of the back roads, about a quarter of a mile out of town, where land was cheap, so there was no way to happen upon it by accident. Jack was curious to see it again, how innocuous it looked, but even after fifteen years, he still wasn't sure she was ready, so when she avoided that road, her expression darkening at the intersection, he stayed silent, vowing to go there himself one day, while she was at work.

It might give him some idea as to how to help her move on. She'd moved out because she couldn't stand the memories, but she'd never sold it, letting it stand there for fifteen years like a ghost house, unoccupied, and untended, depreciating in value. As painful as the idea of ever setting foot there again was to her, and Jack could see it in her eyes every time they passed that road, she refused to let go of it, or the past associated with it. That house was central to that part of her life. There had to be a way to use it to set her free from it, to break the ties that bound her to this town, so that she could finally come with him to L.A.