So, I know it's been longer than usual, but here's the deal. I have my prelim exams at the moment, so I CAN NOT update for a while. You will all just have to wait until my exams are over. I'll do what I can when I can, but don't hold your hopes too high. And sorry if I don't have time to reply to reviews. I'm not being rude I just can't do it.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

LV
XX

My throat closed up and the lump that had formed stopped any more words from coming out. Everything was slowly falling away. It felt as if they were trying to fall into place, but they couldn't quite make it. I could see the tiny details that I had missed in my memory. It was enough to prove that this wasn't a dream. I had known it was him from the second he had spoken. The voice was so unmistakably his and so very, very real.

It hadn't been that long since Jack had abandoned me in Tortuga, but it felt like it had been a lifetime ago. It was as if he had just been part of a very vivid dream, the kind that stays with you in detail long afterwards purely because it is so far removed from what you've been used to and what you've been looking for, or wanting that it surprises you in the best way. It makes your ordinary life seem much duller by comparison. But a dream is just a dream and at some point it has to end and sooner or later you have to return to reality. But here Jack was, in my reality. The two worlds had joined, overlapped at the edges and merged into each other, but why?

"What are you doing here?" I managed to breathe quietly so as not to raise any suspicions among the rest of the house. Had he come to mess up my life even more?

I raised my eyes to meet his. Big mistake. How could I have forgotten his eyes and the power they held over me? They dissolved my mask and, despite it being the last thing I wanted I knew he could see everything I was feeling. How could anyone miss it? I was so exposed. I might as well have run around him in circles screaming everything I was thinking and feeling at the top of my voice and scribbling it over everything I could touch. But that may have been a bit loud.

"Don't worry," his voice was cold, but still managed to make my heart pound so loudly in my ears I thought that the whole of Port Royale must be able to hear it. Maybe the neighbours would come round and complain. "I won't be here long. I just want answers."

"Answers?" I echoed, even my tones matched his. "I don't know anything that could possibly be of any use to you, so please leave me alone." His eyes were missing the sparkle, but they weren't as lifeless as they had been in my memory. The sparkle had been replaced by anger. He took a small step forward. I took a tiny one back.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" he asked accusingly, choosing to answer my question with one of his own. "You didn't go back to the Pearl like you promised. Or were you part of their plan too?"

"There was no Pearl for me to go back to," I said, raising my chin to meet his gaze and even though I felt like the world was about to disappear from under me I stood tall. I didn't want him to know that even now he was still hurting me. "You left me."

He started shaking. He was visibly trembling all over. "So you were part of it? You helped them? What were you meant to be? A distraction? Or was the mutiny your idea, just so you could get away and come back here and marry him? I should have known! That's all you ever wanted!"

"Jack…" I tired to interrupt, but he wasn't finished. Couldn't he of all people see that this wasn't what I wanted?

"Well it worked, you'll be pleased to hear. I've lost the Pearl and I have no hope of getting her back. I can't follow the compass, and do you want to know why?" he asked, it was clear he was going to tell me anyway. He took another step forward. "Because of you. It took me back here. You broke it! I don't want to be here! It took me to what I want least in this world… I don't want you. I hate you."

He glared at me as I tried to regain the breath that seemed to have been punched out of me. "They… they mutinied… again?"

He looked away from me. "As if you didn't know!"

I took a step towards him and he took two back. "I didn't," I said softly.

He sighed disbelievingly and rolled his eyes, "I don't know why I bothered coming here."

He turned away. I could feel him slipping away from me, like I was waking up. I didn't want to I really didn't. The reality started seeping in again. There was one thing I could do to grip onto everything that was falling away from me. "I love you!" I said, perhaps louder than I meant to.

It made him stop, but when he turned to face me it forced nothing but a harsh laugh and bitter words from his mouth. "If that were true, why would you be wearing that?"

I looked down. I was still wearing my wedding dress. I had forgotten. Now I knew how bad this looked. No wonder he was looking at me with such disgust and contempt. I shook my head at him, trying to formulate the right words. "I don't want to be here. I didn't know about the mutiny… I thought you… I thought you'd left…"

"I don't have to listen to this!" he fumed, turning away again.

"How could you think I want this?!?! How could you think I would chose living like this over freedom?!?" my voice started to tremble, I lowered it. "How could you think I'd choose George over you?"

Sobs threatened to overload my senses and I fought to get anything out. I gulped them back, choking as they tried to escape. My hands were shaking as much as my bottom lip. I squeezed my eyes shut as a barrier against the unstoppable wave of tears that somehow managed to sneak out from under my lids. I felt Jack take my hands and steady them in his. I looked up at his blurred outline, "…I love you!" I said again. My voice rose a pitch or two on account of the large lump in my throat which they had to squeeze around.

He didn't reply. He didn't need to. I felt his lips brush against mine and I closed my eyes. His familiar arms and smell wrapped around me like a warm, safe blanket and I was calm. His lips pressed against mine and I knew his answer.