Hearth and Home

"Now I have my answer to why the rum is gone."

Those were the last words she remembered hearing from the strange pirate named Sparrow. You know how dream can be.

Again she awoke but this time the air surrounding her was different. The sound of the surf had vanished completely to be replaced by the distant whisper of a breeze tickling the tops of the trees.

She was home, but how?

"Bad dream," she uttered in a throat dry voice.

"Siren, are you well?"

"Jack?"

"Tis I," he replied softly. "You were quite boisterous in your slumber, Bridgid. Are you alright?"

"Why did you leave me, Jack?"

"Leave you?"

She could feel the bed give to his weight as he sat up beside her. He reached to remove a tendril of hair from her forehead and she opened her eyes.

"Where am I?"

"You’re here, with me at our cottage, the Glen."

"You put me off the yawl. You left me alone on that island with him! How could you?"

"Siren, I have done no such thing."

Jack laid the back of his hand across her forehead. "No fever. Siren, you have just suffered a bad dream." he comforted, and then he asked "Who is this ‘him’ you refer to."

Bridgid sat up to lean on her elbows. She looked around the room just to make sure she was where she appeared to be. As her eyes met Jacks she admitted. "Jack Sparrow, the pirate."

Jack’s brow knitted. "He is the man of your dreams, that rum running cur of a pirate?"

"It’s not like I had any control over it and you did leave me on an island with him in my dream. You just let me overboard and you sailed away. I was genuinely afraid, Jack and I didn’t want to be alone but you left me."

"..and you replaced me with him?"

"Like I said, I had no control over it. He was just there and he had rum and …"

"You dreamed of imbibing with him?"

Bridgid cocked her head to look at the Captain again. She shrugged "Yeah I guess. I was angry with you for leaving me, Jack."

"Did he ..." Jack closed his eyes with the discomfort of asking this question "...Lay his hands on you in this dream?"

"No!" she shot back. "He tried to kiss me but I beat his ass, though he claimed it was because he thought I was not breathing."

The corner of Jack Aubrey’s mouth twitched. Bridgid was not sure if it was in amusement or satisfaction.

"He called you names for deserting me, Jack, and I went to your defense but I was angry with you."

Grabbing at the flesh of his arm she pinched him. His tolerance to pain being as high as it is he just looked at his arm and then back at her.

"Am I vindicated now?"

"I’m just trying to make sure that you are real, Jack."

If he wasn’t, this dream came in more vivid than the last. She could smell the familiar scent of his hair that hung loose on his shoulders and she could feel the heat of his body where it bumped against her hip. When he leaned forward and placed a hand at either side of her she could feel a spark of passion in her belly.

"I have a more definitive way to prove you are not dreaming, Bridgid."

Lowering himself, he joined his mouth to hers. It was more than a kiss; it was a token of love, encompassing her in so many ways. Tendrils of his hair tickled her cheeks, the feel of his broad chest crushing her breasts and the low purring sound he made that buried itself in her soul were so very real.

"Believe in me now?" he spoke close to her mouth. "Or should I give you more proof."

"More." she rasped

Jack grinned, knowing exactly what she was asking for. "Obliged, was all he said as he slid down her body. Placing his hands on the outside of her thighs, he held them in place as he painted them with the tips of his hair.

"Say something, Siren."

She let out the breath she was holding and spoke "You want me to talk while you are doing that to me?"

"Aye," he replied.

Raising his head, his eyes darkened with passion before he spread her legs and claimed possession, his tongue a tender marauder as he plundered her sweetness.

It did make her vocal but there were no words, just the sounds of a woman in the hands of a man who knew how to love her proper. He knew how to make her wave the white flag of surrender and surrender she did, trapping him soundly between her legs until the pulsing subsided.

He didn’t ask for her permission to come aboard. He didn’t need to. When he rose up above her she saw herself in his eyes and she knew even if she was his captive, she’d be safe with him.

Their mouths touched and he rumbled the words "I love you," before he buried himself with a strong thrust. Her knees rose and she slapped her hands on his backside, feeling forever amazed at the depth he found. It was a slow rhythm that started much the same way they did when they first met but the passion grew to a crescendo that scattered both of their thoughts to the four winds. He was dimly aware of the woman beneath him when the tide came in. When he stiffed and arched his back she let out a groan to welcome her sailor home.

They stayed joined until her body released him. Hovering over her, he smiled then laughed a little.

"Jesus." she said, blinking against the drop of sweat that fell from his brow into her eye. "I’m not dreaming, that’s for sure."

"If it was a dream, Siren, I would choose not to wake."

Jack fell to her side and she turned to face him. Touching his face, tracing the scar on his brow with her finger she slid her hand down to cup his cheek before kissing him. She withdrew slowly then nuzzled into the crook of his neck.

"I have no idea what caused that strange dream. Maybe it was something I ate. I did watch the DVD yesterday, the Pirates of the Caribbean one."

He didn’t say anything about it. He just wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her close. Of course if anyone were watching him the next morning, they’d have caught him doing it. He’d removed the blasted disc from the shelf by that bloody contraption of a thing she called a television and he placed it in the fireplace. When Bridgid asked him why he’d built a fire on such a warm day he stood and brushed his hands together. Smiling at her he simply replied "The fire of hearth and home is for you, love. Do not forget your compass next time you decide to sail."