CHAPTER ELEVEN: Moss's Secret.

The rest of the Brethren Court arrived over the next few days, some bringing entire fleets of ships with them and some just their flagship. Katie watched with fascination as the Queen Anne's Revenge unloaded, captained by the wooden-legged and fearsome Barbossa.

"Hector!" Jack greeted, his arm moving around Katie's shoulders in the old routine as his former colleague and enemy came towards them.

"Jack Sparrow, long time no see." Barbossa growled.

"It's not been that long!" Jack grinned, showing his gold teeth. "This is my wife, Katie." Barbossa surveyed the young woman before tipping his enormous hat.

"I owe me respec' to anyone willing ter put up with Jack." Barbossa told her, and Katie managed a smile, because she hadn't been tolerating Jack very well at all lately. Since their argument and their third kiss she hadn't spoken to him at all unless totally necessary and merely bore his false affectations with an equally false smile. Barbossa ran his hand over the hilt of his sword, the sword Katie knew Blackbeard had once wielded and gave control over the Revenge to whoever held it.

"Nice to see you to, Hector." Jack muttered and Barbossa stumped away in the direction of the tavern located near the Cove. As soon as he was out of earshot, Katie removed Jack's arm from around her and began heading inside the fortress. Jack watched her go, perturbed. Seconds later, he saw Moss fall into step beside her and he felt a twinge of annoyance. Jack didn't have much time to contemplate this anymore, however, because he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He didn't have to look around to know who that hand belonged to.

"You didn't sort it out, Jackie." Teague growled. Jack sighed, knowing he was in for a long night. They headed to the same tavern Barbossa had disappeared to and Teague fixed Jack with a dark, steely look. "That girl is worth 'er wait in gold, boy."

"I know." Jack mumbled.

"Well?"

"Well, she told me she's… uh…" Jack stammered.

"Falling in love with you." Teague finished. "She told me everythin'." It had not been easy for Katie to discuss kissing Jack with a man- she'd wished she could tell Elizabeth, but she would think it odd that a woman would react so unusually to being kissed by her own husband.

"Well, then. What do you want me to do, Dad?" Jack sighed. It was rare that Teague and Jack acknowledged their relationship out loud, and Teague recognised it then as a cry for help.

"You need to do whatever it takes to get 'er happy with you again. And more importantly, you 'ave to start puttin' somethin' into it."

"I'm the one who does most the work! All the flirtin' and the introductions…"

"An' then you turn around an' treat her the opposite way." Jack growled at this.

"I'm being respectful, because I respect her! Women are meant to like that!"

"Jackie," Teague shook his head, almost laughing at the disparaging look on his son's face, "She knows you respect 'er. She wants yer heart, boy, not yer honourable intentions." Jack thought about this; was this what Katie had been trying to tell him? A frown crossed his face.

"I can't give 'er that." He muttered.

"Yes, you can, if you stop believin' it belongs to that Spanish harlot."

"Well… doesn't it?" Jack wondered. He had always privately believed if he truly loved a woman, he would only ever love one. And that woman had been Angelica, a woman he had known for so long now that he couldn't really remember a time he hadn't known her, hadn't loved her. He would never admit to such romantic notions out loud of course, and his first and most important love would always be the sea.

"Only you know the answer, Jackie. I'm just puttin' the idea out there." Teague took a gulp of his rum and Jack glanced around the tavern. He recognised Scrum and a few other members of Barbossa's crew were playing some sort of drinking game a few tables away.

"I don't know how the answer would help anyone, anyway." Jack said stubbornly, looking back round at his father. But Teague had vanished. "I hate it when he does that." Jack grumbled to himself, getting to his feet and electing to join the drinking game. If he'd ever needed inebriation, it was then.

Moss and Katie walked around the Cove together, talking. Katie was glad to have someone to talk to about lighter topics of conversation. With Jack, things always seemed to have a serious undertone between them nowadays and the rest of the pirates only seemed to talk shop. Many of them, of course, had no idea how to have a conversation with a woman and Katie hadn't found a way to talk to Elizabeth that didn't involve her spilling the beans about her and Jack's fake marriage.

"So the Court meets tomorrow night, I hear." Moss commented. Katie nodded.

"They all wanted a night to settle in- or get drunk, as we would call it." She replied. Moss laughed.

"You didn't choose to join them this night, though." He noted. Katie shrugged. "Katie, there is something I wanted to tell you." At these words, Katie felt her insides fill with dread. Thus far, she had managed to cut Moss off in his attempts to declare his love, and besides the other day they had agreed to be friends and draw a line under the past. But Moss had stopped walking, and was stood looking at her in a dark patch of the Cove, out of sight of the fortress. Katie stopped too, steeling herself to find the words Jack had not been brave enough to speak; a consoling rejection.

"I've done something quite terrible, Katie. Please understand that I never meant to hurt you." Katie frowned at these words; it was not what she'd been expecting to hear.

"Moss, what are you talking about?" She asked quietly. She had a strange sense of foreboding, though a very different one than that which had gripped her when she'd believed he was going to confess his feelings to her.

"Please understand Katie that none of this ever factored in my meeting you… what I feel for you is genuine, but I must betray you and Jack's secret." Moss closed his eyes for a second and took a breath before opening them.

"Betray us to…whom?" Katie questioned, but she already knew the answer, just as surely as she felt the knife in her back- both metaphorical and literal, as a dagger was sunk into her body from behind her, just between her right shoulder blade and her spinal column, with a great deal of force behind it. She heard the screech of the voice belonging to her attacker, though her ears were ringing with the pain, and she saw Moss in front of her, shock on his face, and she felt herself with her pistol in her hand, the gift from Teague, and heard the bullet rip through Moss' body. The sound of the gun seemed to echo in her ears, there was a fourth person here now, the clang of a sword, a scream, and Katie was on her knees.

She was going to die. She knew she was going to die. Moss was already dead. Everything went black, and then…

"No! Wake up, you have to wake up! Please, Katie…" The voice in her ear was female, and rough with panic. A hand pushed her hair off of her face, which was pressed with one side against the sand and dirt beneath her. Although her vision was swimming, Katie recognised Elizabeth. "Katie, thank God, stay with me! HELP! QUICK!" Elizabeth bellowed, then looked back at Katie. "I followed you… I saw you walking this way and I knew… I knew nobody came to this part of the Cove, it's dangerous, you can't see who's coming in and out. And… oh Katie, I'm so sorry I didn't get there faster!" Katie's eyes closed. Her mind was too full of the pain in her back to think of anything else.

"I heard someone call for help?" Barbossa's voice interjected Elizabeth's fearful rambling. "Ain't that Sparrow's wife?"

"Yes, Barbossa, she was stabbed!" Elizabeth held up the silver dagger which she'd removed from her friend's back. It was saturated with blood.

"We'll move 'er. It's cold out here, too, can't be good fer 'er." Katie was vaguely aware of the fact she was being lifted off the ground, and being carried by Barbossa, whose uneven gait gave him away. It felt like an eternity before warmth was around her and she realised with a faraway part of her mind that they must be back inside the fortress, perhaps inside the Main Hall, given the amount of noise.

"Who did it?" Gibbs' voice asked.

"Angelica." Elizabeth said, "It must have been her." There was a pause, and then a scurry as every other pirate in the room left. They were going to find her, the woman who had successfully infiltrated Shipwreck Island and had probably done so to try and eavesdrop on the Brethren Court.

"She cannot die!" Gibbs called out to them.

"We'll take 'er as far out to sea as we can and dump her. It's night, she'll never find 'er way back!" There was a loud shout of general agreement, and then the door slammed behind them. Barbossa lay her on the table carefully, so that she was on her side and not her back. Elizabeth moved Katie's red hair away from the wound and winced when she saw the deep cut and the sheer amount of blood pouring from it.

"Katie?" Elizabeth spoke gently. Katie was fading.

"Plug the wound, she's losin' too much blood." Gibbs said firmly, managing to keep his head in the crisis. Elizabeth took off her coat and pressed it to the wound. Katie had become very white and had still not made a sound.

"Someone should get Jack." Elizabeth suggested.

"He'll already 'ave heard." Barbossa declared. "Damn Spanish wench, comin' 'ere! How did she get to the island?"

"Moss. He was spying for her." Elizabeth replied bleakly. Gibbs looked around, shocked. "Threatening to betray Katie and Jack's secret, whatever that means. He didn't get to say before it all happened- Angelica came out from nowhere behind her and Katie shot Moss. He's dead." She added.

"Good girl." Barbossa said coldly, and Gibbs nodded in agreement.

"This is gonna need stitching." The latter pointed to the wound. The bleeding did seem to have lessened.

"I can do it, if you can get me thread." Elizabeth offered. She had stitched many wounds before now, was no stranger to grave hurt and injury. Gibbs departed in search of what was needed and there was a long pause during which Barbossa removed the pistol Katie was still clutching from her deathly grip to examine it. Elizabeth put her hand on Katie's cheek to try and spread warmth to her. The girl was beginning to tremble slightly, though she was hardly conscious.

After what felt like an eternity, the door into the hall swung open again and Jack came in. It was clear by his eyes that he was as drunk as a Lord when he entered, but Elizabeth in particular saw sobriety rapidly returning when he laid eyes upon Katie. He rushed to her, barging Barbossa out of the way without a second glance.

"No." He said, "No, no, no, no, no." His voice was uncharacteristically hollow-sounding. "This can't be happening. Katie." Her eyes fluttered when she recognised Jack's voice, and she managed to focus on him. His hand gripped hers and she feebly squeezed it back. He didn't know what else to say, so he looked up at Elizabeth. She was watching him with a strange expression on her face.

"I'll stitch her up, and then I think it's best you take her to your room." She advised him quietly. Jack nodded dumbly, then bent closer to Katie. She was still looking at him, her lips moving silently. He had to get very close to hear her at all:

"I'm sorry." She barely whispered, "I'm so sorry…"

"Don't." He begged, so only she would hear, "This is my fault." Gibbs returned then with the needle and thread and left again with Barbossa, who placed the pistol into the crook of Katie's arm before leaving. Jack helped Elizabeth remove Katie's shirt. Why was it they only saw each other undressed when the other was injured? Jack didn't look closely at her body, didn't look at all as Elizabeth went to work on the wound. Gibbs had also gotten some clean bandages and they dressed the wound carefully. Jack blanched at the idea of putting the soiled, bloody shirt back onto Katie and so removed his coat, wrapping her in it before lifting her, much more gently than Barbossa had. Elizabeth followed him as he carried Katie up endless staircases to the room they were sharing whilst they were here. A fire was blazing in the hearth and Elizabeth succeeded in pouring a little water into Katie's mouth once she'd been laid softly on the bed.

Jack sat beside Katie, still holding her hand, just staring at her. Elizabeth made to duck out quietly, but Jack stopped her: "Lizzie," He croaked, and she turned back as she reached the door. His mouth formed soundless words which she understood to mean 'thanks'. She smiled sadly.

"Anything, Jack."

Jack tried to stay awake the whole night, keeping an eye on Katie, who soon fell into a very restless, painful sleep. But soon, sleep took him too, the alcohol mixing with exhaustion. When he awoke in the morning, he was not resting his head on the pillow but was bent awkwardly on the edge of Katie's side of the bed, his head resting on her stomach, his hand still clutching hers. She was awake and staring glassy-eyed down at him.

"This is my fault," He repeated the same words he'd spoken to her the night before. "I shouldn't have… treated you how I did. Then you would've been safe with me."

"Don't blame yourself." She said, her lips turning white from pain as she shifted. "Wasn't you. Was her."

"I 'eard you're a good shot." Jack said, and both of them almost managed a smile. "Just… don't scare me like that again, alright? When I 'eard you'd been… I thought you were…"

"Don't." She pronounced the single syllable again, apparently with difficulty. Her entire body seemed to ache, the place she'd been stabbed in particular. She realised she was naked on the top half of her body except for Jack's coat, which was hanging wide open to reveal one breast. She reached with her right arm to close it and groaned in pain. Jack realised what she was trying to do and pulled the coat to better cover her. He looked sombre. "I shouldn't… have… said anything… to you. The other night."

"That's another thing what's my fault." Jack said stoutly, playing with his hat.

"No. Could've let it go."

"Shut it. I handled this all terribly. Just… focus on feeling better, alright?" He didn't want to talk about any of that right now. Worry still had him in its grip as he gazed on Katie's pale, weak complexion.

"Focus on… the Court. S'important." She said, through lidded eyes.

"Yeah… and I'll find you a surgeon today. There's usually one among pirates. Necessity." He put his hat back on his head and stood up. "I'll be back soon."

"Alright." She sighed, almost peacefully until her breath caught in her throat as pain seared through her body once more. Jack hard it and stopped, looking back down at her. He knew, after this, that he could never leave her alone after this. This stank of Angelica's fury and jealousy. He should be glad Katie had shot Moss before he could reveal their marriage was a sham, and yet if he had then this never would have happened. It didn't seem worth it, now. Halfway down the stairs of the fortress, he ran into Elizabeth, her face white with anxiety.

"How is she?" She demanded, "Where are you going?"

"To find a doctor… something for the pain." Jack grunted, his mouth dry.

"I'll stay with her." Elizabeth said, seizing his forearm so tightly he thought it might bruise, but he looked into her eyes and nodded. He was more grateful to Elizabeth Swann right now than he'd been to anybody else in his life.

A/N: Hello everyone, thank you for reading! I appreciate this chapter was quite heavy on the violence, but I think you all know what the shock I warned you about was! Please let me know what you think! Thanks so much to Pattree77, I haven't forgotten you, your support means a lot !