I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney does. I only own the characters who weren't in the movies, you know, the ones I made up. I also do not own Ambassador Alexander Swann, Isabella Swann, or Count Philip Rochester, who belong to Vilofied.

One's eyes really are the doorway to one's soul. I know this because when I gaze into my little Melody's eyes, eyes that are my very own in a smaller, softer form, I find nothing but calm, tender, sweetness, and love. She seemed to gain some of these traits from me, but mostly from her mother. She also seems very inquisitive, and very intelligent. Her little brows furrowed lightly as she held one of my fingers in all ten of her tiny ones, studying it quietly, before she became distracted by my thumb stroking said fingers.

I smiled softly before glancing over at my wife, laying asleep in our bed with the covers pulled to her waist, revealing part of the thin, light blue nightgown that adorned her pale figure. Still holding Melody in one arm, I reached out with my other and stroked one of Chrissy's pale cheeks with the backs of my fingers, and sighed lightly. "I never should have left." I whispered.

A soft knock brought my attention to the door, and after a soft command to come in the maid Jane timidly stuck her head in the doorway, and seemed to release a sigh of relief. "I apologize, Master Norrington, but when I went in the baby's nursury to get her and she wasn't there, it gave me a fright!"

I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips, and I quietly stood from the bed and joined her out in the hallway. "Why were you looking to get Melody, Jane?"

"For a bath, sir. She didn't get her usual bath last night because all of us were happy to welcome you back home! I've already drawn warm water, sir, and I was hoping to bathe her this morning."

"Let me do it." I offered.

The gentle smile fell slowly from her lips. "But, sir-"

I chuckled lightly at the young maid. "It is alright, Jane, I would like to spend some time with my daughter...if that is alright, of course?"

Jane seemed to take my light jesting seriously, before smiling once more and nodding. "Of course, sir. Understandable after your long journy, sir."

I nodded and proceeded down the hallway, Jane in tow, to the nicely-sized washroom that sat next to the nursery. It was there that I eased little Melody gently in Jane's arms and rolled my sleeves to my elbows, before unwrapping the soft blanket from around her and her thin little shift, leaving her completely and utterly exposed. I still couldn't help but smile when I finally eased her in the warm water, her expression a mixture of surprise and enjoyment. "Does she always seem surprised when she's put in the bath?" I asked curiously.

Jane chuckled lightly as she sprinkled a bit of water on the baby's hair. "She does, sir. She still isn't quite sure of what to think about being sat down in a tub larger than her that is full of water."

Glancing down at Melody, I found that she seemed to really not know what to think about it. It was rather...cute, really. With my own chuckle I began to pour small amounts of water on Melody's head until her hair was completely soaked, and then reached for the glass bottle of hair soap that rested just to the side of the bath. In a few moments I had her hair lightly lathered with the mixture, before nodding to Jane to pour water from a pitcher to rinse it off. Then, I waited until Jane was busied with lathering soap on a rag before asking more questions. "Jane, how long has Mrs. Norrington...been the way she is?"

Jane sighed as she began rubbing the soapy rag along Melody's back, and sent me a sympathetic look. "For quite some time now, sir. She began falling ill just a few weeks after you left Port Royal."

My brows furrowed. "And no one did anything?"

"We tried, sir." she said softly. "She began having little coughs here and there, and then she started to grow pale and weak, more so each day of the week. We had doctors come examine her, but they never could find anything that was wrong. Only when she fell awfully sick did the doctors become concerned. Mrs. Norrington wouldn't allow them in the manor, though, after one of them tried to bleed her."

I nodded. "She isn't familiar with that sort of treatment."

"No, sir. She kept talking about a plant of some sort, and...you. She was always talking about you, sir, wheather she had just woken, or she was sitting by herself in the gardens, she was talking about you." Jane's facial expression was one of sorrow, and sympathy. She realized this after a few moments of being lost in her own thoughts, and tried to quickly hide it by rinsing the remaining soap from Melody's little body. "There we go, sir! She's nice and clean now."

Quietly I took Melody into my arms, her little frame wrapped in a soft towel. She looked up at me curiously, as she usually did, as though she was memorizing my every feature. I offered her the most sincere smile I could while still thinking of her sick mother, before walking to the nursery, right next to the wash room. I dressed her simply in a plain shift, and then wrapped her in a little blanket before taking a seat in the rocking chair near her bassinet.

"Sir?"

I looked to the source of the soft voice, finding Jane standing not too far from me, a glass bottle in one hand, and a porcelain baby feeder in the other.

"Ah, just put them on the table, here beside me." I said softly.

"Yes, sir." she said as did so. She then curtsied to me, and began to leave the room.

"Ah, Jane?"

She turned quickly.

"Shouldn't we wait for Mrs. Norrington to wake, and allow her to nurse her?"

Jane's cheeks tinted a shade of red, and she bowed her head a bit, trying to hide her newly-acquired color. "The doctors told her not to, sir."

My brows furrowed. "They-...Why?"

Her face turned an even darker shade of red, and she hurried for the door. "I apologize, sir, but I believe I hear another maid calling for assistance." With that, she fled from the room.

Still confused, I looked down at Melody, who was still staring at me. "What do you suppose that was all about?" I murmured. Never the less, I reached out with one hand to the small table and unscrewed the lid to the glass bottle, before pouring a small amount of the milk in the baby feeder.

I had only just put the tip of the baby feeder in Melody's mouth when I heard slow, weak footsteps coming toward the room. I didn't have to guess who those weak steps belonged to, and waited rather...anxiously for my wife to enter the room. She did nearly a minute later, and when she did, my heart began to ache even more so than it already was. Her thin, pale form was covered with a thicker white nightgown; one that covered her shoulders but still revealed a bit of them, was low-cut to reveal a bit of cleavage, and the actual skirt part of it barely reached her ankles. Again, I found myself having to adjust to the new, pallid color of her skin, and the dullness of her hair and eyes, which only a few months ago had glowed like the moon.

Her paled golden hair was, for once, free of a ribbon, flowing freely around her face and on her shoulders and back. Her posture was slumped slightly, making her appear as though she had a stomach ache. Her feet didn't seem to want to coordinate with her body as she slowly made her way to me, shuffling this way and that, and sometimes it seemed they wanted to go in opposite directions. But her eyes were detirmined, and she walked to us in her own time. She sat herself down on the floor before I could do anything to stop her, and she smiled as she watched Melody drink the milk contently.

She rested her hands on my knee and propped her chin on them, and then looked up at me with a slight smile. "Good morning, Jamie."

Jamie? When had she begun calling me Jamie? "Good morning, darling. How do you feel?"

"I'm happy, Jamie, because you're here with me." her brows furrowed, and she cocked her head a bit to the side. "Where did you go, Jamie? Why were you away for so long?"

I sighed. She had asked me that so many times the day prior. She'd asked me as I'd carried her up the staircase, she'd asked me when we entered our bedroom, when I'd put her on the bed, and she'd even asked me a few times when and after we'd made love. My response? "Far away...I was forced to go far away, darling."

She seemed content with this answer, or she didn't really understand what I'd said, because she'd only nodded and looked back to Melody, who was on her seconed round of milk from the baby feeder.

"Darling," I started softly, "Why have the doctors told you not to nurse Melody?"

The happiness fell from her features, and she began to draw invisible circles on my other knee. "They said that they don't want me to nurse the baby because they are afraid that she may get some of the poison in my body from my breasts."

The aching in my chest only intensified. My wife couldn't breast feed our own baby because it could poison her. I stared at her sadly, the reality of the situation hitting me with full force. She had so much poison in her that it could contaminate her breast milk. If she had that much poison in her...she wouldn't live much longer. My lower lip quivered at that thought.

"Jamie, why are you so sad?" she asked suddenly, sounding just like a little child.

I wondered if this was how she felt when I had amnesia, when I had acted so child-like. She must have felt this way all the time...never knowing if I would be myself ever again.

"I'm fine, sweetheart. Why do you ask?"

Her own facial expression seemed to twist with saddness. "Your eyes...they always tell me how you feel. There are tears in them."

"Where is she?" I murmured to myself.

Chrissy had gone missing. To where, no one knew. My house maids and butlers told me she would run off frequently, but would never go far from the manor. But I'd been running around the house for the better part of an hour, and was getting worried. Where could she have run off to? Why did I have to run about the house looking for my wife like a worried parent?

"James?"

I turned quickly, hoping that the soft voice had belonged to my wife, only to find Isabella. "Have you seen my wife?" I asked hopefully.

Wordlessly, she lightly took a hold of my sleeve, a small smile playing on her lips, and led me to the balcony that overlooked the lush, open pasture that was my back yard. My eyes followed her pointing finger, and soon landed on the pale form of Chrissy. She was sitting in the gardens, her fingers stroking the petals of one of the more tropical flowers. A sigh of relief passed my lips, and I just stood there, gazing at her.

"She does this often?" I asked quietly.

Isabella nodded. "Quite, but she never leaves the manor grounds." she replied just as quietly.

"Why?" I wondered aloud.

"She thinks she's in the jungle."

It dawned on me then. "When she lived in the jungle, she never wandered far from the shelter. She only left it to get food and water, or to bathe." I turned to meet Isabella's eyes. "She thinks the manor is the shelter, and the gardens the jungle. She must think she's just going for a stroll..."

Her hand landed atop mine gently; she'd heard the pain in my voice. "She'll get better...she's already improved since you've gotten here."

Her words had offered me no comfort, for I'd heard the uncertainty in them. "She...She's been this way...since I've been gone?"

"The hallucinations just began not too long ago...but...she has been sick for some time."

I nodded, recalling what the others had told me about her. My eyes drifted to my wife again, and a lump actually began to form in my throat when I realized that my dear wife was talking to the flower. Somberly, I took my hand from Isabella's and made my way out to the gardens, down the winding dirt path through the lush grass, and finally came to a stop behind my wife.

"Such a pretty flower." she smiled, stroking its silky petals. "Such a pretty green flower. You remind me of my husband's eyes." she chose that moment to look up at me, then, having realized I was casting my shadow down on her. "Hello." she grinned.

I smiled, which I think turned out to be more of a wince, and sat down next to her in the grass. "Good afternoon."

She leaned over, sort of off balance, and placed a clumsy, lingering kiss on my lips. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked curiously.

My brows furrowed. "Why do you ask?"

"You look pained." she said slowly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world...and maybe it was. "What is it?" she asked, cupping my right cheek.

I only offered her another pained smile, and pressed my own kiss to her lips. "What are you doing?"

She stared at me for a few moments as though wondering why I had ignored her question, but quickly smiled, looking eager as she turned to the pretty little green flower. "I was just talking to this flower. We've been having a lovely conversation."

I swallowed hard, trying to keep the lump out of my voice. "Oh? What were you talking about?"

Her smile softened, and she leaned a bit closer to me. "We were talking about you, and how the color of his petals remind me of your eyes."

Ah. So this is what Jane must have meant when she'd mentioned that my wife would talk about me in the gardens. Reaching out with a trembling hand, I tucked a stray strand of golden hair behind her ear, allowing my fingers to linger near the soft, sensitive body part.

My wife giggled, the lightness of my touch on her ear having tickled her. "What are you doing, Jamie?"

That time my smile was real, just small. "Touching you."

Was that playfullness that had jumped into her eyes? "Why?"

I paused for a moment, thinking. "Because it has been far too long since I've been able to touch you when I've wanted to."

She seemed to think on my words for a moment, and leaned in closely yet again. Her lips touched mine, lightly at first, then grew stronger. One of her hands, seemingly timid, placed itself upon my chest, and she leaned into me. She then began placing multiple kisses on my cheeks, jaw, chin, and neck, before nipping at my lips again.

"Chrissy?" I managed to say bewteen kisses.

"Hmm?" she sighed, opting to nibble the place just beneath my right jaw joint.

"D-darling..." I stuttered, her other hand having slid from my knee to my inner thigh. "D-darling...p-please..."

"What?" she murmured against neck, tugging at my cravat to expose a bit more of it.

"N-not here, darling. Somewhere...more...se-...secluded."

"Why?" she asked, attacking my lips again.

I cupped her cheeks, gently pulling her face from my own so I could look her in the eyes. "We're out in the open...anyone in the manor can see us." her arms slowly snaked around my neck, sending shivers up my spine. Oh, how good a woman's touch felt! Not just any woman, either.

"So let's go somewhere else...No one ever goes to the thick part of the gardens...I know so, because I've hidden there a few times."

"Chrissy," I started, then immediately looked at her in confusion. "Hidden? You've hidden there? Why were you hiding?"

Chrissy lowered her head a bit, as though she were about to reveal that she'd done something wrong. "When the doctors would come. All they would do is try to cut me, Jamie, and no one would do anything to stop them...except Alexander."

"What would Alexander do?" I asked curiously.

My wife tilted her head a bit to the side. "Some doctors would come even when we didn't send for them, because they said that they thought I was an interesting patient. Some of them would even go as far as asking for me, and putting their feet in the door so they could get in! One of them even ran in as soon as the door was open, and took my hand and said, "Mrs. Norrington! Wouldn't you like to get well?" Alexander would tell them to leave me alone before he threw them out of the manor himself, and that he would have no regrets about it and didn't care what they said about him." she smiled, then. "He was the only one that would talk to me...really talk to me. He would actually listen, too."

I nodded, pulling her close. I would have to thank Alexander later.

Chrissy slowly struggled to her feet, and began tugging on my hands. "Get up, Jamie! Let's go to the thicker part of the gardens!"

"Darling..." I started.

Her tugging became a bit more prominant. "Please, Jamie? Please? I want to show you something!"

I sighed. How could I ignore those eyes?! That adorable smile, the way she was tugging on my hands like a child. I looked up at the manor, at the balcony where I'd been standing only moments before, to find Isabella still standing there. She had a serious look on her face...almost a glare, as she motioned for me to get up. I looked back to my wife again, who'd stopped tugging, and was wearing a look on her face that a child would when he or she was afraid of being denied a treat. Again, how could I ignore those eyes? I got to my feet, a bright smile instantly tugging at my wife's lips as I did, and looked back to the balcony again. Isabella was making 'shooing' motions with her hands.

I looked around to see if anyone else was watching, only to find Isabella was alone in this task, before lifting my wife up into my arms. I had only walked a few feet when questions began to plague me again. "Darling, why did you run off?"

Chrissy's happy expression didn't falter. "Because they were always keeping me locked up...and I wanted to feel the sunlight, because I rarely get to feel it anymore because they were always keeping me in the shelter."

Ah. She never was one for staying inside all day. "Where are we going, sweetheart? Tell me where."

She smiled again. "Just keep walking, and when we get to the fork in the path, go to the left. The plants lining that path are a bit more grown, and the path is a bit shadier than the other. No one goes down that path because they think it is too thick, but when you reach the end of it..." her smile widened. "That's what I want to show you."

I followed her instructions, and mentally agreed to myself that the path to the left did look a bit wild and overgrown. As I walked down the darker path, little bits of vines hung down that brushed the top of my head and shoulders, and vines had even grown over the path, but didn't hide the dirt from view. There were a few flowery plants that brushed my booted ankles as well, but it really wasn't so bad that one couldn't walk down the path.

"Now," Chrissy started, "There's an opening that's nearly too overgrown, but we can get through it very easily. Just walk through it."

There was an opening, and it did look overgrown...nearly too thick to walk through. However, when one actually got to the opening at the end of the path, one would see that it wasn't thickly covered at all, that it was merely a bunch of small ivy vines hanging down. I walked through them with much ease, and when I got into the clearing, my breath was taken from me. The path had opened up into what I could only describe as a dome. I could tell that the path had led us deep into the woods of my land, for there were quite a few grown trees scattered in the opening. All manner of ivy vines, normal vines, and flowers and grown wrapped around the surrounding trees, which gave it a sort of dome look. Only a few slivers of sun light could get through the thick plant growth, giving the place a dim sort of glow.

Chrissy struggled to get herself to her feet, and she took my hand. "Well?"

My eyes were still wide with shock. "This...this is part of our property? Th-this has been here the entire time we've lived here?"

"Mhm." she smiled. "It has, it's just that no one wanted to walk down the path because it looked dark and too wild, but it obviously isn't."

I ventured forward a few steps, walking between some of the scattered trees to get a better look at some of the greenery. "It...It's beautiful!" I whispered. Only until my wife walked slowly out in front of me did I realize that the top of the dome only reached a few feet above our heads, but had plenty of room for at least ten more people.

"This is where I would hide from the doctors. No one would think to come looking for me here." she pulled me forward a bit by my hands, smiling gently. "I would always imagine you here with me."

I did nothing to stop the genuin smile that caressed my lips, and I pulled her against me, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Would you?"

"Mhm." she nodded. She then giggled and kissed me, before pulling away with a giddy laugh. She un-buckled my sword belt and took my gun from my waist, and placed them on the ground before removing my jacket and waistcoat. I was in nothing but my tricorn, white cotton shirt, breeches, and boots when she began kissing me again.

My wife, however, was in nothing but her white cotton nightgown, her hair still loose, her feet bare. I couldn't help but chuckle as I tossed my tricorn to the side without a care, soon followed by my boots and stockings. "So," I murmured. "What you imagine me doing while you would hide here?"

A smirk pulled at her lips as both of us fell to the grass-padded earth.

Wow...I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated! Of course, school has been keeping me busy as well. Summer is just two weeks away for me, so I'll be able to update a lot more frequently very soon. Well, I felt bad about keeping you waiting for such a while, so I wrote this one extra long. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Please reaview, I appreciate it! Thank you for your patience!