I'M BACK!

Did you miss me? I missed you soooooooo much it hurt me! How have you all been? Good I hope :)

Okay, so on with the story and sorry about the gap.

LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU KNOW!

LV

XX

"Should I... should I go and get someone?" I asked, still reeling from it all. Why did things with Jack always have to be teetering on the brink of complete insanity? "Teague, or Barbossa... well, maybe not Barbossa seeing as he tried to kill me, but if you're dad doesn't..."

"Belle," he laughed softly, putting a finger on my lips to stop my babbling. "Shut up," he said, so I shut up and waited for him to speak and watching that twinkle of love dance in his eyes, telling me that no matter how stupid I was being, he loved me. "I can do it, love. I am a Captain in case you'd forgotten."

"You can do it?" I echoed once he'd removed his finger.

"I can do anything, love," he winked. I laughed at his predictable response. He must have expected me to say something, but I didn't. I didn't think there was anything else left for me to say but 'I do'. In my brief moment of silence the light in his eyes faded and he pulled away from me. "If it's a problem, I understand."

"If what's a problem?" He was confusing me, had I said something without meaning to? If I had, how had I forgotten? What...?

He sighed. "I can't give you what you want," he said, which confused me even more. He already was. Was he having second thoughts already? That was faster than I had imagined, even for him..."I can't give you the wedding George could."

That's what this was about? I almost laughed at him, but restricted myself to smiling at his stupidity, the feeling inside my chest telling me that no matter how stupid he was being, I loved him. "I don't need any of that you idiot! That's what I ran away from, remember?"

"But-"

It was my turn to silence him. "When I was younger, I dreamed of the perfect wedding, like most people," he looked sceptically at me, "-alright, most girls then-" I amended. "I thought I wanted a big, lavish wedding to a respectable husband. That's exactly what I had in Port Royal and all it did was show me that it means absolutely nothing if you are marrying the wrong man. Even if the man in question is the most respectable man in all the world."

"George is sickeningly respectable," Jack grumbled.

"Sickeningly so," I agreed and he smiled. "It made me quite ill."

"Well, you shall have to find a nice un-respectable man to make you better," he bowed his head close to mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Now, where could I find myself one of those, I wonder?" I grinned. He laughed before he kissed me. When he pulled away he was still smiling.

"Better?" he asked.

"A little..."

"Hmm..." he tilted my face up and pretended to examine it. "You're still looking a bit sickened; we'll have to work on that."

He kissed me quickly and then stood up. He walked over to his desk and started rummaging around. I watched him and wondered if what the hell was going on. Had I imagined the whole conversation? I stood up, the mattress springs creaked as I did so, and crossed over to him. "What are you doing?" I asked, tense as to what the answer would be. He slammed a drawer shut.

"Looking..." He yanked another one open. "For...the... AHA!" He triumphantly held up his prize- two crumpled bits of paper. He grinned at me like I should be able to tell what they were. I don't know about you, but I find that one crumpled up bit of paper looks a lot like any other crumpled up bit of paper.

"What...?"

He waved them under my nose as if the smell would help me work out what they were. "Wedding papers," he clarified, turning his back to me as he flattened them out with his hand against the desk. "It makes the whole thing more legal. Not that I am in any way encouraging legality, you understand, but this case may be a bit of a special one, eh?"

He winked at me over his shoulders. I realised my mouth was hanging open and I hadn't blinked, or breathed of moved or... thought during his whole legality speech. "When did you get wedding papers?"

"It's one of the many things we Captain's can do; I've told you this already!"

"So, all Captains have them?"

"Nope, just the good ones!"

"Oh," I said, "Barbossa must have left them behind then..." He stopped what he was doing and I smiled. He turned slowly to look at me and narrowed his eyes, the echo of a smile tugging simultaneously at the corners of his mouth.

"You're funny," he said dryly.

"Glad you agree," I smiled, sticking my tongue out. He pulled the same face back at me and we both grinned like idiots. There was a silence as he stared to smooth out the other bit of paper. "So..." I said and he sighed because I'm sure he knew what I was going to ask. I hated not knowing things like this, it was so frustrating! "Where did they come from?"

"In truth?" he sighed.

"Well we've tried in lies and that didn't work..."

"I don't know, they've been here for ages. They were probably kept over from some loot or another." I nodded, forgetting he had his back to me and couldn't see me. He glanced over his shoulder. "Happy now?"

I took a step towards him and wrapped my arms around his middle. I stretched up to put my chin on his shoulder and hugged him closer. "Ecstatic," I mumbled with a deliberate lack of enthusiasm and he snorted with a mixture of laughter and annoyance. I kissed him on the cheek. His hands moved to cover where mine met round his waist.

"You ready?" he asked, taking one of my hands and popping a quill in it.

"If you are," I still felt the need to test him on this. He just smiled and picked up his own quill, deciding to answer me in a gesture rather than words. I moved to stand beside him and he slid the piece of paper towards me. I didn't really bother to read it in any detail; I knew it was what I wanted. I skimmed it and got the general idea. It was basically to be sure that the marriage was going ahead with full consent from both parties. It made me wonder, briefly what would have happened in Port Royal if they had tried to make me sign anything. I would have refused, but maybe James had already signed me off, taking away my freedom to choose. Signed me away with very little thought. Not that I had to think about it that much as I signed it myself. Jack didn't look like he did either, which I didn't know whether to take as a positive thing or if I should worry about it.

There wasn't really all that much time to do any worrying, once the papers were signed that was kind of it. Jack slipped his arm around my waist and turned me towards him. I opened my mouth to ask what was going to happen next but then I saw the look in his eyes, felt his breath on my face and forgot every word that had ever been invented. He smiled. "Do you, Isabel Norrington," his arms pulled my hips closer to his. My hands ran up his arms to join around his neck. He kissed my forehead and then when I looked up at him he smiled again and kissed my lips once, very quickly.

I tilted my head to one side in mock disapproval. "I'm pretty sure the kissing me bit comes later on..."

"Ah, well, I've never been one for order," he said and kissed me again to prove his point. "You've interrupted me now... where was I?"

"You were marrying us," I reminded him, reaching out a hand to brush my fingertips down the side of his face.

"Oh yeah, so I was," he smiled. "Do you, Isabel Norrington, take me to be you're lawfully wedded husband..." He kissed my forehead, my cheek, and my lips.

'Yes,' a voice inside my head seemed to whisper, but he wasn't done with me yet.

"...to live together in the covenant of marriage." My lips brushed against his skin, catching the edges of his lips. I longed to kiss him, but didn't want him to stop talking. I pressed myself to him, feeling the need to be closer start to burn in my mind and my soul. The cool metal clasp of the baldric* he wore over one shoulder seemed freezing against my hot skin. I ran my fingers round the rim and then slipped them underneath to help lift it off him- it was only getting in the way... And as for his pistol holster... well that would definitely have to go. I reached down to unfasten it. He smiled and his eyes fixed on mine. "To have and to hold from this day forward..."

Yes.

His hands slid across my hips and round the back to join at the small of my back where they stayed for a moment of two before one hand began to move slowly up my spine. "For better," he kissed my forehead, "for worse," he kissed the very tip of my nose, "for richer," his lips pressed against my left cheek before moving to my right, "for poorer... in sickness and in heath," his lips brushed lightly against my own, toying with me and pulling back just enough when I tried to kiss him properly that I couldn't quite manage, but so I could still feel his lips lightly on mine. It was like they were not quite there, like he was a ghost. I could feel every word he whispered to me from his lips grazing against mine as he spoke, "to be faithful to me forever, forsaking all others." His lips finally met mine properly. It was a strange kind of relief to have them there, at last, after all that waiting and longing. His kiss was light at first, still teasing me, but as I slipped off his waist coat and he slid a thumb under the first tie of my dress it deepened. I felt him tug at it, loosening the knot. He pulled himself away with great difficulty, his lips leaving mine with slow reluctance. "To love until death we do part?" The silence, more than anything else told me that he was finished and I smiled.

"No."

He stared at me and I felt my smile widen at his utter confusion. He had frozen up around me, the muscles in his arms tense and rigid. I reached up on my toes, meeting his eyes and mine. I leaned in to kiss him but before our lips touched I whispered, "Death couldn't part us."

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