Chapter Eighteen

Kiss, Interrupted

If people asked Kate if she was having a good day, she would say yes. If they defined a good day as fighting over a box of cereal with someone who held a grudge over all members of the navy, breaking up a fight between her love interest and a stranger, and listening to said love interest fume about how life was unfair, then yes, she was having a wonderful day.

"I just don't see why he has to be here, Miss Sims!" Will said quietly. They were both downstairs in the living room, while Jack was upstairs watching television. "I apologize, I don't mean to complain, but must he be here?"

"I owe this to Melissa. I've been a selfish brat to her and I need to make it up to her."

"And watching Jack...that's going to make it a non-selfish act?"

She shrugged. "I'm helping her out when I could have declined and said that I was too busy doing something else."

"Wait...so you agreed to watch him when you knew that I was going to hate him?"

Kate felt her face turning red. "Well..."

All Kate could do was feel like an idiot. What was she supposed to say? That yes, she knew what kind of a grudge that Will held against Jack and that she thought that they could get through a day together?

"I'm sorry, Will," she said. "You have every right to feel the way you do. Someone's hurt you and you feel angry. That's normal."

"Are you talking about you or Jack?"

"Well, I started to apologize for me, but then I sort of apologized for Jack, seeing as he's not going to. But I'm sorry for having him here when I knew you two wouldn't get along."

He nodded. The room was quiet.

"Does your back hurt?" she asked.

"Why?" he asked.

"Your face...you look like you're in a little bit of pain. And you're not sitting all the way back, like even the sofa hurts."

"A...A little," he admitted. "It's been hurting ever since I got here."

"Why didn't you tell me? I can put some medicine on it. Hang on." She went upstairs, not making conversation with Jack, got some aloe vera and disinfectant, then went back downstairs.

"Face that way," she instructed, pointing towards the fireplace. He turned towards the fireplace, then Kate sat behind him.

"You'll probably be a little uncomfortable with this, but it's really hard for you to get your back by yourself. So...I'm going to have to have you, um..."

"I don't feel comfortable taking my shirt off," he said.

I knew you'd say that, she thought.

"I'm only doing this for the medicine, Will," she laughed. "I promise. If you want to face the other way so that you think I won't catch a glance in the fireplace glass, we can."

Reluctantly, he took off his shirt. He winced slightly while doing so. Kate could see why: the wounds still seemed pretty fresh. They were starting to heal, but they were obviously deep. Kate was pretty tough with blood and gore, but to see that they were on Will...it made even her gasp.

"Your father did this to you?" she breathed, putting on some disinfectant on one of the gashes.

"Yes." He winced.

She wondered how someone could do that to their own son. She wanted to ask how bad at hurt, but that would make her seem stupid and unsympathetic.

She handed him a teddy bear that had seen it's better days that had always been sitting on the window ledge. She remembered naming it Brownie. "Use this. It's the same bear I used when I got my ears pierced."

"When did you get them pierced?"

"When I was five. My mom always wanted a girl to have pierced ears. One day she told me I was getting my ears pierced." She laughed. "And of course, I had no idea what pierced ears were. My mom said I could wear her earrings one day if I got them pierced. And you know how little girls are...they always want their mom's jewelry. So of course I said yes. What my mom didn't tell me is that it hurts when they do it. Well, sort of. So then I started crying when they were done." She laughed again. "I know about pain."

She applied some more disinfectant to another gash. "I'm sorry if this hurts," she said.

"It's not your fault. I decided to go to Davy Jones's crew. I have no one but me to blame for this, Miss Sims. I have to deal with the consequences."

"That was out of your control. Jack probably knew that your father was on The Dutchman. You shouldn't blame everything on yourself, Will. And by the way, it's Kate, I've told you."

Silence between them. Kate started on another gash.

"Do you want to go to Fort Snelling tomorrow?" she asked. "I really think you'll like it there. I know you're going crazy without a job or at least something to do."

"I've been rather tired lately," he said. "But I need to get back to work."

"Don't feel like you have to do everything at once, though," she said. "If you're tired–"

"I'll be fine," he said. "I've worked on only a few hours of sleep many a night. I'll be fine."

She put the cap on the disinfectant and set it on the ground. She squeezed some aloe vera and put it on his back. "Field trip tomorrow," she smiled. "You're going to really like it there. You'll fit in perfectly."

"Field trip?" Will questioned.

"Basically a group of people going somewhere. I say that whenever me and my friends are going somewhere. Sorry, it's a dorky habit of mine."

"It's a cute habit," he said. "Keep it."

She smiled and gently rubbed the aloe vera in. "Better?"

"Yes," he said, turning around. "Thank you, Miss Sims."

"Yeah," she whispered. "I wouldn't put your shirt on yet, otherwise it's going to stick to your back..."

Kate thought that they were going to kiss. Will had that look in his eye. Kate's heart was even beating fast like it was right before a kiss.

Just do it! she thought. Just kiss me!

Kate slowly leaned closer to him while Will leaned to her. Their lips were only inches apart. Oh, God, she thought. We're finally going to kiss!

She put her hand on his neck. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought it was going to pop out of her chest and land on the floor.

"And this is where I leave," Jack said.

Kate gasped and sat up straight. Jack was leaning against the wall, his arms across his chest. She could feel her face turning red. Jack had interrupted what was about to be their first kiss together!

"What?" she snapped, trying to not look embarrassed. "What do you want?"

"Don't you become a banshee, too...I was wonderin' when we were goin' to have lunch. Seein' as you were too busy undressing the eunich – probably to see if he really is one–"

"I dare you to continue that," Kate said, standing up and walking towards Jack. "Go ahead."

"Will your hand meet my cheek in a not so lovin' way, quite unlike the way you were puttin' your hand on the eunich's neck?"

"It might," Kate said.

She had never slapped a man, but wasn't entirely against it, especially if he was making lewd comments like she suspected he would.

"Then I'll not take that chance," he smiled.

Before going up the stairs to make macaroni and cheese, she turned around and sent Will an apologetic look.

Once upstairs, Kate pulled out a pot and filled it with some water and dumped the macaroni in. Now it was her turn to make Jack uncomfortable, even though she knew that would be difficult. This was Jack, after all.

"So, Jack, how long did it take you to bed Melissa?" she asked. "A day? Or was it," she mock-gasped, "two?"

"Who wants t' know?" he asked.

"Cap'n Crunch," she said sarcastically.

"Tell Cap'n Crunch your li'l friend's goin' to be a nun," Jack said. "She's as chaste as they get."

"Not everyone gives it up the first forty-eight of knowing a person, you know." She sat on the counter, her long legs dangling. "Some will wait a few months. Or no, some abstain!"

"What's abstinence? I'm not familiar with that word."

She rolled her eyes. "It's going to be cold day in hell before Melissa takes her clothes off for you."

"Right, 'cause then she's goin' to need to be cuddlin' with me to stay warm."

"Do you even like her?"

The question must have caught Jack a little off-guard. "Define 'like', love."

"Do you feel happy when you're around her? Does your heart do a little flip whenever you see her? Would you do anything to make her smile?"

He opened his mouth and made it look like he was going to say yes, but instead he said, "Not exactly."

"Then why are you stringing her along?"

"Why do you care about this?"

"Because she's my best friend!" she yelled.

"Oooh, Jack likes his girls feisty," he grinned.

"Jack...I want to make one thing perfectly clear. Melissa likes you, okay? She likes you a lot. She's been a lot happier than she's been in a while. If you don't like her, break up with her now, she won't be as hurt. But if you string her along, for a month even, just to see how far you're going to go with her, I will hunt you down like the Kraken. If you're going to think you can have me on the side, you're wrong."

"I never said anything about havin' you 'on th' side.'"

"You implied it."

"You talk too much."

"I think you like her."

"I think you fancy Will."

"At least I'm not afraid to admit it."

There was a silence between them. Jack's eyes were like two brown orbs boring into her. It made her feel a little uneasy at first, almost like he was mad, but the more she looked into them, she felt like Jack didn't always claim to be who he was. Did he really like Melissa? And what was that whole feisty remark?

Kate's Blog Entry

Okay...my almost-first kiss with Will was interrupted...And he even had his shirt off! I mean, that's not why I told him to take it off! Get your head out of the gutter! No, it's because I was cleaning his gashes. Those were...they looked like they hurt. I can't believe that someone could do that to their own son! But I told him a story of how I got my ears pierced...Do you think that took off his mind off the pain? I know how bad disinfectant hurts. And if those looked as bad as they felt, even if those were a few days old...he needed the story. But now I'm not sure if Jack really likes Melissa. He better not be only in it for the trick-or-treating, if you know what I mean. And then he made some comment about how he liked his girls feisty, and I'm pretty sure that was directed towards me. God, what do people see in him? What does Melissa see in him?

XOXO,

Kate