3. Captain Jack

"Where the bloody 'ell am I?" Jack asks out loud to himself as he staggers around in complete darkness. Suddenly there is a loud bang and a crash and a bloody-murder scream. The lights flash on and Matt is sitting up in bed screaming.

"LINDSEY!" Matt screams at the top of his lungs.

"Ah! Ye know 'er?!" Jack asks Matt with a shimmering smile of hope, "I thought fer sure I 'ad the wrong place!"

My eyes fly open as I hear the massacre in the room next to mine and I bolt out of bed, fly open the door and barge into Matt's room. Jack is standing in the middle of the room amongst some fallen books and shattered candle holders, while Matt is pointing his two sais at Jack.

"Jack!" I exclaim, almost breathless at his presence.

"Dahling!" he turns to me and we embrace briefly.

"Matt! It's okay1 This is Jack—Jack Sparrow!" I ramble quickly with excitement.

"Captain, luv, Captain Jack Sparrow," Jack corrects me as he turns back to Matt and holds out his hand for Matt to shake. Matt cautiously lies down his weapons and laughs at the situation nervously, shaking Jack's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, Captain Sparrow," he says through a shaken voice.

"So sorry t' disturb ye like this mate, but I was on a quest t' find me damsel 'ere," Jack explains with charm.

"No it's okay—really! I just thought someone was breaking in and was going to kill me—or it was a ghost or something," Matt says quickly, his heart still racing from the scare.

"We'll let you get back to sleep," I say calmly, leading Jack out of Matt's room.

"Good night, you two!" Matt calls to us as he gets into bed and turns out his light, his heart still pounding. I shut his door and walk into my room and shut the door behind Jack once he is inside.

"So this is where ye live, dahling?" he asks, looking around my bedroom.

"Yeah, Matt and I moved in here about a month and a half ago and then he left for Europe and just got back today actually," I reply, adjusting a book on one of my shelves.

"What 'ave ye been up to?" Jack asks, turning to face me and flashing a charming smile at me. I smile back and take a seat on my bed.

"Well, when I got back I saw that my alternate universe twin had finished college—graduated with a BS in Human Services. Naturally, I grew fearful that I wouldn't be able to enroll in college since "I" had already spent four years in college here. Then the strangest thing happened, Jack. As I flipped through the school work, papers and senior thesis 'I' had completed, I knew everything. I sat there and could almost remember learning everything my twin had learned in classes. So, I'm thinking that whatever an alternate universe twin does and learns is transferred over to the original, or in their case, the other alternate universe twin, which is me," I pause and look at Jack, who seems lost in what I am saying to him.

"Uh huh," he says finally.

"Basically, I found out that I don't have to go through four years of college to educate myself because everything my twin learned was somehow learned by me as well," I say quickly. The light bulb goes off in Jack's head and he smiles and nods. "So, further more, I find out that my alternate universe self was almost finished with a shortened two-year nursing program, so when I got back, I picked up where my alternate self left off and recently graduated with my nursing degree. Luckily, a hospital here called Dana-Farber was looking for recently graduated nurses and they hired me right away—a stroke of luck I suppose," I chuckle.

"So ye got the education ye wanted so badly," Jack states, glancing around my room for some time.

"In a sense, yes, yes I did," I reply, also glancing off into areas of my bedroom.

"How about yer father?" Jack asks, as he picks up the photograph of my dad and me at the Red Sox game a few weeks ago.

"Problems solved," I say, as I take the picture from Jack and look at it.

"What 'appened between ye two?" he asks thoughtfully.

"Well, my mom, dad and me were always close. It was the three of us my entire life and we were such a tight-knit family. Then, when I was entering my sophomore year of high school, my parents told me they were getting a divorce. I was devastated and though I was angry at both my parents, I focused on being angry at my father more because he was the one who moved out of the house—not my mom. I lost contact with him because I was too hurt and upset and it took me a long while to realize that all I needed to do was talk to him about it, which is what I did when I got back here. Things are pretty much back to normal—I just wish I didn't loose all those years without him," I say nostalgically as I gaze at the picture.

"Well at least all yer business 'ere is over and done with," Jack responds with a widening grin, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah—that's the most important thing. What about you? What have you been doing?" I ask, putting the photograph back on the nightstand.

"The usual—pillaging, plundering, looting—all the pirate sorts," he replies nonchalantly. We sit there in silence for a moment, neither of us knowing how to react with one another. Should we embrace? Kiss? Tell each other we missed each other? Did he miss me? I missed him. Should I tell him? Do I tell him I love him?

"I/Did you," we both begin suddenly and then pause.

"You go/after ye" we both say overlapping one another again. We laugh and then pause.

"After ye," Jack says finally.

"I missed you, Jack. A lot," I say finally, my heart beginning to race.

"I miss ye too, luv," he replies with a smile spreading across his face. I begin to smile too, glad he clearly feels the same. "Sailin' the Pearl just isn't the same without ye,"

"Really?" I ask, my smile widening.

"Aye. The Caribbean is much emptier with ye gone," he states, lowering his gaze and then glancing back up at me.

"Jack, I…" I turn and move closer to him. Sensing what I am going to say, he moves closer to me and we lean in to kiss, but we stop. Our lips are inches apart.

"Jack, so much happened on that island and on the Pearl before I left," I say, my voice softer as I speak directly to him with our faces remaining close.

"I know," he replies, moving in closer.

"Jack," I whisper.

"What?" he asks, his voice whispering back, our lips just barely grazing to touch.

"I need…" I breathe out a sigh that warms his lips. I don't know how to tell him I love him.

"What do ye need?" he asks, his voice low and husky as he lets his lips touch mine. We kiss lightly.

"I…I'm in love with you, Jack. I love you," I say finally.

"I love ye too, dahling," he replies flawlessly. There is no hesitation in his voice.

"You do?" I ask, pulling back from him in shock.

"Aye! Did ye not hear me tell ye before we left?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"No! You told me before I left…as I faded away?" I ask.

"Aye!"

"I never thought you would," I say finally.

"Luv, believe me, I never thought I would love anyone but the sea either," he says with a grin, "but ye proved me wrong," he says pulling out the poem he wrote on the Pearl.

"What's that?" I ask as he hands me the paper. I unfold it and read it.

As I get to the stanza about that night I left, I read it aloud, "I can still hear your voice on the trade winds, I can still taste your tears on the foam," I look up at him as a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Jack, this is beautiful. You wrote this for me?" I ask. He wipes away my tear and nods. He leaves his hand by my face, his arm resting on my shoulder.

"Aye, I wrote it for ye," he says in a low voice.

"I didn't know you could write poetry," I say through tearful laughter.

"There's a lot ye don't know 'bout me, dahling," he replies with that Jack Sparrow grin.

"Well I look forward to finding out more then," I respond with a smile.

"And I the same for ye," he says. We smile at each other and then he leans in and kisses me.