Norrington's Darling

"James Norrington. Do You Fear Death?"

POV: James Norrington

"JAMES!"

I should have seen it coming. I should have recognized the panic in Zuri's eyes. I should have known what was about to happen. But even though I should have known, I didn't. I didn't see it coming. I practically walked into the blade.

For a moment, I felt nothing. It was like my body had numbed with shock. Shock that I had been run through. Shock that I still had life, though I had been impaled.

Then I realized.

He didn't strike my heart. He had struck close enough for it to kill me, but not close enough to make it fast. He intended me great pain.

Someone was screaming. Someone female. Zuri or Elizabeth. Maybe both. 

A gurgle slipped out before I could stop it. Zuri was on the edge of my vision. I reached for her, desperate to feel her life and her warmth before I lost my own. I was going to lose my own. I could feel it. I could feel Death looming over me, laughing his terrible laugh.

He sounded an awful lot like Davy Jones.

My eyes dipped downward. Blood was spreading, staining the yellow of my uniform. My blood appeared orange. I felt sick and numb at the same time.

I was aware of Elizabeth screaming. I think she screamed my name. Maybe. 

My weight listed back. Zuri, who still sobbed, held me, cushioning my fall. She stopped me from hitting the ground too hard. I gurgled again, groaning in pain as the sword moved, pushing back out when I fell to the deck.

"James! James! James! Stay with me! Darling, stay with me!" Zuri's face was streaked with tears. She whipped around to Bootstrap, boots slamming on the deck. People were approaching to watch. I tried to speak, to get Zuri's attention it came out as a choked gurgle. I struggled to speak, trying to talk to my wife. "BOOTSTRAP! I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU!" She wailed, words and sobs turned into moans. Her head fell, heavy, on my stomach. A weak hand lifted to her head, stroked her hair. Zuri looked up at me, tears making her eyes shine beautifully.

It was a shame, really, how sorrow could make the eyes truly beautiful.

"Make sure," I gasped out, coughing so stickily I sounded like Jones, "that you and our...our child get away from here. Make sure you l-live. I don't care what you have to d-d-do, what lies you have to...have to tell. Save your...yourself and our baby."

"What do I name them? Tell me, James," Zuri gasped, squeezing my hand. She knew the names I liked. She just wanted to hear them again, to hear me talk about a future we could never have. "Tell me, James. Tell me again."

I held her by her cheek, brushing a thumb over the soft skin I had kissed only hours before when we'd bedded each other in my cabin. "Cedric. Cedric...if...if it's a son. If it's a girl, name her Briar. Exotic names, just like mama's. And bring them...bring them up pirate."

Zuri kissed my cheek. I savored the feel of her lips on my skin, even as I saw the first of the dead crewmen reaching us. "James, please. Please. We had a life together. A future. Don't leave me. Don't make me live it alone."

Knowing it would be one of the last kisses we would ever have, I kissed her hard. But as my strength failed me, I struggled to continue the kiss. My tongue slipped from her mouth. She gave a whine I didn't think she was aware of. "Be strong for me, Naut. Be strong. Make Jack raise our little one with you. Make Theodore do it. And keep them away from Beckett."

Her eyes blazed with venomous hate. "Beckett will be dead before they're born, I promise you. I'll kill myself if I have to."

I stroked her hair, the hair that was so soft and easy to bury my hands into when we slept together. "One last kiss," I pleaded softly. "One last kiss from my wife." And this time it would be our last. I could already feel my heart shuddering to a stop.

Zuri sobbed harder. "One last kiss for my husband." Then her mouth was on mine. We kissed in all sorts of ways—hurried and unhurried; tongue and no tongue; ravenous and chaste. Every way there was to kiss, we did it, all while the dead sailors gathered around us.

Finally I couldn't hold myself up anymore. I slumped, my head rolling back. Zuri whimpered, inching closer to me. My vision blurred. Tears perhaps. My breathing slowed and came in weak shudders of breath. Alarmingly, I could feel the blood seeping through my clothes, could feel it leaving my body.

Distantly, I heard voices. "Admiral's dead?" The statement spread. Confusion, perhaps, filled many voices.

"To the captain's cabin!" yelled one and a pounding of feet told me of the exodus of the crew. 

"Mercy," Zuri pleaded, voice wobbling. "Mercy. He his my husband. He is to be a father."

Jones had arrived. With the last of my strength, I squeezed Zuri's hand, eyes going to Jones. He crouched close to me. I swallowed hard. This was it. I could feel the fingers of Death wrapping around me.

"James Norrington. Do you fear death?"

No. I had never feared death. I had expected it. Now I only feared what my death would do to Zuri. To our child. But the fight had not flown from me yet. Though I could not gather the strength or will within me to speak, I thrust up my arm, shoving a sword into Jones' heart cavity. It would do nothing. But it felt good to finally stab him in the chest like I'd always wanted to.

Stength spent, I slumped, regretting not staying in bed with Zuri longer, making love to her more, or leaving faster, or convincing her not to go with the plan that had got us here in the first place.

No regrets, I told myself. Not now.

But I did regret.

I regretted not marrying Zuri sooner.

I regretted not meeting our child.

My senses faded. The last thing I retained was hearing. Before I slipped into the inky depths of death, the last sound I heard was Zuri screaming.