Norrington's Darling

Catching Up

POV: Zuri Norrington

Leopold unlocked the door and held it open so that we could go inside. I went in first, but I hesitated when I saw the body covered in a sheet slowly turning pink. My breath caught in my throat, my fingers twitching. In a single moment, my chest was devoid of air and my heart was stuttering. 

"Mrs. Norrington?" Theodore asked. 

"Please, just Zuri," I said. "I consider you a friend, Theodore."

His hand found mine and gave a gentle squeeze. "I'm simply reminding you without saying it how much James loved you." He nodded to Andrew and he took my other hand. Then, with Jack guarding the door, we went to James.

I pulled back the sheet so that we might see him. I'd closed his eyes with Tia's help days before and her spell to preserve his body held. Had it not been for the bloody wound marring his chest, James could have been sleeping, so peaceful was his expression. I took his hand, shuddering from the lack of warmth and life.

"What happened to him?" Andrew asked softly. 

In faltering breaths and words, I told them. I explained as best I could without breaking down, holding James' hand the whole time. When I had at last finished, all the breath in me had fled. My chest felt tight and stiff. 

"And you had to watch this?" Theodore whispered. "You had to watch him die?"

"I'm glad I was there," I admitted quietly. "I'd rather be there with James in his final moments than be elsewhere while he died alone."

"I'm sure he appreciated your company," Andrew said. "James had always been a brave man, braver than I could be or anyone gave him credit for, but I think he would have liked your presence with him as he died."

I recalled the way James had kissed me before his death, the way he'd held my hand up until he couldn't because death had claimed him. I suspected Andrew was right. 

"I miss him," I whispered. 

"We all do, Zuri," Theodore assured me, voice trembling. "We all miss him." He studied me for a moment, then cleared his throat in a way that suggested he was going to make a grand story. "You know, he always used to talk about you. Even before we knew you, there was this...mysterious girl he would talk about." He smiled at me. "Her beauty was unparalleled, her eyes like the stars, her mind sharp as a sword, her smile like the sun, her soul like the sea. He was a poet when it came to you. We didn't know who he spoke of—a few times we suspected it was Elizabeth, but his descriptions of you didn't match up—but we knew he loved her more than life itself. Zuri, there was nothing he wouldn't do to make sure you knew what you meant to him."

"He used to sing," Andrew remembered. "It started out as humming, then he'd put words to it. He sang of a spirit. He often referred to you as a nereid."

"You two were his best friends," I said. "When he was in Tortuga and on the Pearl with me, he worried about you. He was afraid of what might happen to you because of how you'd agreed to give my brother a day before you chased after him. Once he learned Beckett wanted to hang him, he feared it would extend to you two."

Theodore smiled. "We all used to run around together as children. We spent our days with each other." He chanced a glance at James' body; his mouth immediately began to tremble and his eyes watered. "He was our best friend, too. We knew each other well, all of us. That was how we knew it was you he loved when we first saw you interacting together, that day you returned to Port Royal before Jack's escape. We could read it on his face the moment he brought you to us."

"Theodore kept pushing for him to propose to you all the time after that," Andrew recalled with a chuckle. "It was quite amusing to watch him turn red and become flustered with us until he ordered us back to work."

Mischief glittered in Theodore's gaze. "James would probably kill me if he knew I told you this, but that trip to Malta before your wedding—he was ecstatic. He was an excited puppy. The amount of times he wandered about mumbling about how you were about to take his last name, become his wife... The morning you were due to be married, when he was putting on that uniform—" Theodore shook his head, smiling. "He was a nervous wreck. He was absolutely terrified he was going to mess up his vows or step on your toes. And he was so proud of you. Making you his wife was his best decision, he said. That marrying you made him a better man. And even though they wouldn't have approved, he so wished his parents could see that wedding, that they could see you and him together and how you looked at each other."

"We tried asking him what your wedding night was like," Andrew put in, "mostly to tease him. But he refused to divulge very much, only saying he enjoyed every second. He did say that it was the most beautiful thing to come together with you in something so beautiful and precious. James seemed so much happier after marrying you. Those days when you were first married and all over each other were the best James had had in a long time."

"I'm glad to have given him that happiness," I said quietly, my heart warm. I looked at the body of my beloved. "I only regret not giving him more."

Andrew snorted. "Happiness or sex? He liked both."

"ANDREW!" Theodore admonished.

"What?! Just think of the drawing he asked you to do!"

"You did magnificently on that," I put in. "James showed it to me the night he died. Your work is exquisite."

Theodore blushed. "Thank you, Zuri. I had wanted to be an artist for years before I finally joined the marines. I spent my childhood mimicking my mother and learning how to draw."

"We are similar, you and I," I said. "I'm a cartographer—I can appreciate that kind of skill, the devotion to a piece. Even one so small as the one you made for James."

Theodore looked at James. "I wonder if he kept it or if it's lost..."

I dug into James' breast pocket. "It's right here, Theodore...and...and my poems." I smiled, pulling apart the squares of paper. Several of my old poems were there. "He must have visited the warehouse while I was away."

"The warehouse?"

"Yes. James and I found an abandoned warehouse not far from Port Royal. We made it ours. I had always wanted to build a loft to live in, but James liked his townhouse just fine. They were only about ten minutes apart."

A spark gleamed in Andrew's eye. "You know what, Zuri? I've got an idea."