Chapter Twenty-Five

Sober

Well, this is it: the final chapter! I hope that you all enjoy it!

September 15 was supposed to be a wonderful day for Katherine Turner. Today marked her one year wedding anniversary. With a glance at the clock – 2:30 – Kate remembered that she and Melissa were in their hotel room about now. Kate had been nothing but a nervous wreck at the time, and couldn't help but wonder then what she had done. She had been a thousand miles away from home with her best friend and about to get married, and she had no idea what she was walking into.

Melissa had done something to ease Kate's nerves. She wasn't sure what Melissa had done to do so. Then again, it was Melissa – she was her best friend. Best friends just needed to be in the presence of the other to feel better. No words were needed to be exchanged, no eyes needed to be met, they just needed each other.

That was exactly how Kate felt at the moment. She felt utterly lost. Kate was two and a half months pregnant with twins (and showing quite quickly) and had no idea what to do next. Kate needed Melissa to send her some sort of manual. The twenty-five dollar parenting books were not the right type of manuals! She was moody, she would want to cry over nothing, and she was tired of morning sickness, along with day-long nausea and fatigue. Kate longed to talk to Melissa about every high and low she was feeling. Kate still wasn't sure whether it was from mourning the loss of Melissa, or if it was a combination of the mood swings brought on when one was with child, or a combination of the two, that made her feel like she was losing some sort of invisible, yet hellish battle.

September 15 had turned into a bittersweet day for Katherine Turner. It was three months ago that Lord Cutler Beckett had killed Melissa Lewes. Kate thought about the few days before and after the death every day. It was always something different – some days it was the day that she was reunited with Melissa (just days before she died), others it was the closed coffin at the funeral. If she closed her eyes, it almost felt like she was back in that stony, haunting church in the first row, looking at the closed casket. Kate had thought that Melissa was playing some cruel joke, that she would pop out of the casket at any moment and say that she had fooled them all.

In a way, Kate was still waiting for Melissa to walk through the door. Kate knew that Melissa was gone at the same time, though.

While Amy was down for her nap that day and Will was out getting a few things at the store (she had suspected that was a lie and he felt they needed time alone), she and Jack were sitting in the living room. Kate was flipping through a tabloid while Jack was watching a baseball game.

Kate saw something she hadn't thought about in months: three blue-green stars tattooed on an actress's shoulder.

She remembered how badly she wanted that tattoo before. It's true meaning had always been love, honor, and trust, not knowing that she could do better, like she had once said to Jack. She remembered that Jack had agreed (whether it was jokingly, she wasn't sure) to get a tattoo with her all those months ago. He said he would get a skull-and-crossbones mark.

Something inside of Kate told her that today was the day to tell Jack. Even Melissa would never have waited three months to tell him what she had intended to.

Her mouth began to get dry and her heartbeat quickened. How would Jack take it? Would he just stare at her blankly and perhaps pop out a "that's interesting"?

She almost felt like she was Melissa delivering the news.

Jack was fully aware of today being September 15. He knew the day's significance all too well – it had been three months since anyone saw Melissa. He knew this was no longer an awful nightmare, but a harsh, stinging reality: he was a single father with his motherless, six-month-old daughter.

How would he explain to Amy one day that her mother had been killed by a jealous man? What would Jack say to her when she asked why the Turner children had a mother, but she didn't?

He knew that raising a child by himself would be difficult – a gross understatement. Melissa was the one meant to raise Amy. Bugger, if one of them moved out of the rental they had together, Melissa would bring the child with her. Of course, he would visit, but she was the one meant to play the main parental role.

The final time he saw her was a memory that constantly haunted him. Would he have said something different if he knew that was the last time he would ever be seeing her? He wasn't sure.

One thing he would have done differently, though, was not have her go on that run and keep her in the house, regardless of what he had to do to keep her there.

That was the past, though. One could do nothing to change it. All one could do was reflect on it, spot the fatal mistake, and try to move on with their life.

Like most things, that was much easier said than done.

He had tried to follow a baseball game, but failed. His mind was fixated on Melissa today. He knew that it was the three-month mark of her death – perhaps that was why. Part of him felt especially incomplete today.

He felt like such a whelp for admitting it to himself. Why was he feeling so incomplete now? It had been three months. He hadn't felt this way since the first days after her death.

Bloody emotions.

"Remember this?" Kate asked.

He was thankful for the interruption.

Kate was looking at a magazine. In it, it had an actress with long, blond hair in a strapless dress. On her right shoulder were three small stars in blue-green ink. Those looked familiar to him. Seeing the stars made him remember the warm Caribbean nights on the ocean on the decks of the Black Pearl.

He doubted that this had anything to do with the simpler, freer life he yearned for, though.

"No, I do not, love," Jack replied.

"I wanted this tattoo," she said.

Now he remembered – she had shown him the same design a year ago. It had symbolized knowing that she could do better – or love, honor, and trust.

"I still do, actually," Kate continued. "You promised you'd come with me when I get it."

Jack remembered the promise he had made all those months ago. He doubted that she would actually gather the courage to have something on her for the rest of her life, though.

"'N' 'oldin' yer 'and while the needle pricks ya is in order still, eh?" Jack joked.

"Yeah," Kate said, a ghost of a chuckle in her voice. "You promised that you would get something with me, though. A skull-and-crossbones mark."

He would be labeled what he was (again). It didn't bother him in the slightest to do so. He could take a needle.

The tattoo would secretly remind him of Melissa, unbeknownst to Kate. She had called him "pirate" countless times.

"That I did," Jack said. "I'll get one if you get one."

She smirked. "I'll get one if you get one."

"Then we're getting one," Jack said, returning the smirk.

Kate's gaze remained on the picture for a few moments before their eyes met.

"The tattoo reminds me of Melissa," she said. "Love, honor, and trust. I loved her, I trusted her, and now I'm going to do everything I can to honor her."

It actually was a rather sweet thing to do, Kate's devotion to Melissa.

"'N' getting a permanent mark o' three stars constitutes all three o' those things to Mel?" he teased.

"It does," Kate said, a small smile on her lips.

He wondered if just he could get his tattoo today. Or would Kate want to get her first with him? She was the sort of person that would impulsively get it the one year mark of Melissa's death.

On the plus side, he had nine months to figure out his tattoo, he figured.

"She loved you, you know," Kate said, looking him in the eye.

"I'm well aware of that, love," Jack said, annoyed at her nostalgia. He preferred to think of Melissa on his own time, not talk about her with others.

"No," Kate said. "I mean... she loved you."

Yes, Jack knew that Melissa had loved him. She had stopped saying it after a while. Perhaps she had given up on him or had just fallen out of whatever womanly love she was in with him. Either way, it didn't matter – he had never loved her in the first place. He felt a very strong attraction to her that children could have perceived as love. Neither of them were children, though, and he was sure Melissa knew that he had never loved her.

That wasn't to say he had never cared for her. He did. Jack looked out for her and considered her a close friend, which was most likely why he was still trying to sort out her death.

The room had been quiet for several long, long moments. He was puzzled as to why Kate was making such a fuss over saying that Melissa loved him.

"That's what she meant to say to you after the run," Kate said.

Jack Sparrow was genuinely shocked. Melissa Lewes had still loved him after all this time? Everything made perfect sense now – why Amy had his last name, why she had hardly spoken to him her last week (most likely festering how to tell him), and why she refused to see Beckett.

He was speechless, but somehow managed to find his voice.

"Love as in the way a woman loves a man, or love as in the way you 'n' Mel loved each other?" he asked.

"Love as in the way she's always loved you."

He was still speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.

"How did you find out?" he asked.

"She told me three days before she died." She paused briefly. "Everyone had a burden to bear in her death. Mine happened to be that."

His burdens? Jack would be parenting Amy by himself and knowing how her mother died. He would have to decide when to tell Amy about Melissa.

The most sudden and blatant one at the moment was finding out Melissa's secret too late.

"That we do," Jack agreed.

Kate rested her head on his shoulder. He could feel her heart beating like a drum within her chest. Jack was surprised she was that nervous (or was her heart beating that fast out of adrenaline?).

Jack wondered if Kate and Will were considering naming their child after Melissa. It wouldn't surprise him if Melissa or Melrose Turner was an addition to the family in a few months. He hoped that would be the case. That was more of an honor than any tattoo.

He felt a few small teardrops fall onto his shoulder. Kate was silent, her body still. All he could feel was the beating of her heart and her tears landing on him.

Nothing needed to be said. They were slowly, over the past three months, becoming sober from the death of Melissa.

That was when Jack realized something. Kate needed him, and Jack needed her.

More than anyone, though, Jack Sparrow would always need Melissa Rose Lewes.

Thank you all so much for reading! It means so much to be. I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed the series!

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I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone that reviewed, and a very special thank you to my beta, Sabsz!