Norrington's Darling

Saying Goodbye

POV: Zuri Norrington

Four days passed far too quickly to have been four days. It felt more like two. We returned to Malta after traipsing Gozo's temple ruins and wonderful beaches, myself earning a tan and James hiding from the burning rays of the sun but still managing to get a red tinge to him on his shoulders and arms.

Our lips brushed as we said goodbye, and before I knew it James had dragged me into the back room, earned Fleming's promise we would be undisturbed, and made love to me again. This was nothing new—we'd hardly been able to keep our hands off each other in the past few days. We found ourselves doing this quite often.

Saying goodbye...I didn't want to. I wanted to stay in his arms and stay at his side...but we'd agreed yesterday that I had to go. The guilt of getting married without Jack present was enough of a weight on my chest—staying with James would only make my pain worse.

So we said goodbye through tears and kisses and strangled breath and gasps, sweat dripping down from his body onto my own. We cleaned each other up, said our public goodbyes, and watched each other as James's ship grew smaller on the horizon. When he was gone, along with Theodore and Anamaria, I clung to Elizabeth, sobbing silently. She held me. Arms—Orsel's, Angele's, and Tia's—joined hers around me. Orsel and Angele's siblings joined our embrace. At long last, we parted, steeled our nerves, and continued on our journey. We returned to the ship stolen from Sao Feng and made our way out of the Mediterranean. I kept track of our journey for some time, but when we continued to go north for miles on end, I gave up trying to chart our journey.

We were soon well and truly lost. I cursed myself for giving up on trying to chart our course, but Barbossa told me not to be too hard on myself. But when I woke bitterly cold, my blankets covered in silver frost that clung to everything, I moaned in frustration and cursed Barbossa out soundly, wishing for my James to warm me with a hug—or perhaps something much more intimate.