Chapter 19
Horizon

Kate had a difficult time sleeping that night. She would only manage an hours rest before she’d open her eyes to the dark room, only to turn to a more comfortable position and close her weary eyes yet again. Four times she awoke, and three she tried to sleep, but on her last turn she finally sat up. As far as she was concerned at this point, the last night was done, the agreement between Jones and herself over with.
Kate stood from the bed and quietly went to Davy’s still sleeping form across the room. With a grin she wrapped her arms around him from behind, waking him.
“Good morning, Captain.” she whispered with a slight toss of her head to shoo a curl away from her face.
Jones only turned enough to see her out of the corner of his eye and smiled, “It’s too early in the morning for that,” he said softly with a chuckle.
Kate stepped back and threw her hands on her hips. She skewed her head and stated with a semi-playful tone, “We don’t all think like you, Jones.”
The Captain stood, with a boyish grin across his face, and moved away from the organ bench. There he faced her and posed in a very captain-like manner.
Kate laughed and shook her head as he extended his hand to her. She raised her eyebrows and smirked, “It’s too early.”
Davy Jones said nothing. He knew he had her, and so he only raised his chin with that look of confidence. Kate stood before him slightly shaking her head until finally letting a sigh of defeat escape as she accepted his hand. He pulled her in and looked down at her with an un explainable love. She reached up and placed a hand on the side of his face, “I missed you…” she whispered, “so much.”
Jones leaned in, pulled her close, and kissed her. Kate wrapped her arms around him, savoring the feeling of his touch. She twirled a tentacle around her finger and smiled, “It’s the third and final day then?”
Jones nodded, “Aye, all’s left to do is find Sparrow and collect what is owed-uh.”
Kate made a face, “I don’t think that is all that is left,” she teased as her hands made their way south.
Jones grinned mischievously before pressing his lips to hers.

***

They lay together on their bed, wrapped up in each other. Kate clung to him, contented, at last, to be with him. She sat up slightly and smiled at him, her fingertips tracing the length of the scar across his chest. Like everything that reminded him of his past mistakes, his eyes turned down in shame for a moment. Kate touched his face and when he looked into her eyes, she only smiled - without a single word spoken she had relieved his pain again.
Kate slid her hand under his beard for the key, suddenly she felt that something was wrong as her fingers brushed against fabric instead of metal. She pulled her hand out quickly, as if she refused to believe the idea that it was gone. Jones paused a moment and slowly pulled the folded fabric out from under his living beard.
Kate felt the blood instantly drain from her face. “No.” she whispered.

Davy Jones looked up from the fabric suddenly  “Turner knows of you!”
Kate shook her head, half in a daze “I left the cabin last night… I needed air… he must have come and gone while I was in the galley.”
There was a brief wave of relief in Jones’ eyes with the fact that Kate had not yet been discovered, but it was soon replaced with a fury as he stood from the bed. Kate couldn’t move, she clung to the sheets as Jones dressed. She suddenly felt queasy and eyes as she fought the urge to be sick. Davy Jones turned back towards her, torn between tracking down the thief and the obvious unnerving of his wife.
“What are you going to do?” she whispered and swallowed.
“Find him.” the answer was sharp and deliberate, Kate nodded and with one small, lingering glance between them, Davy Jones left the room.

She could hear the sound of his voice booming over the deck as he gave orders for William to be hunted down, and slowly the unsettling feeling of her stomach churning subsided. She stood slowly, not wanting to provoke the nauseous-ness again, and opened the door. The crewmen were scuttling around the deck barking the captains commands to every hand.  Kate moved slowly through them, towards the bow.
Something inside her told her that William, and the key, were no longer aboard the ship. She stopped her advance as she reached the protective railing that ran along all sides of the ship, her eyes unfocused on the horizon. Her mind was running through all other possibilities, and it seemed to avoid the one she knew to be true as if it were a disease. She closed her eyes in refusal to believe, the image of the shadows passing her on the stairs swam through her head and she imagined what must have happened while she was out of the cabin.
She saw the figure of the young man slowly crossing their room towards Davy’s sleeping form at his organ - the place she had chosen as his resting place in her anger. She saw Williams intent face illuminated by the dim candles as he cautiously approached her love- completely unaware of the woman only a deck below. Kate wasn’t sure how he would have obtained the key without disturbing Davy Jones in his slumber, but all the same, she imagined William holding the key in the faint light, a triumphant gleam to his eyes.
Kate felt something touch her arm and she came out of her daze. Jones stood next to her, his face wore the look of authority and power over his ship and crew, but his eyes held concern - not for himself - but for her.

“He’s not here.” Kate whispered, mostly a speculation to herself.
Jones waited a moment, “No,” he confirmed before skewing his head to the side at a group of crewmen behind her, “He’s left the Ship, hasn’t he, now, Bootstrap?”
Kate whirled around to see Bill, tight in the clutches of two other crewmembers, a solemn and dead look to him. Without warning Kate advanced on him, a newly discovered rage erupting that had lain dormant since discovering that her love was in danger, “Where is he?!” she hissed.
Even Jones looked surprised at her sudden change. The crewmen holding Bootstrap Bills arms shrunk back at the sight of the fury behind her eyes.
When she received no answer and started again, this time a little more under control, “You were there last night, Bootstrap Bill, now tell me! Where is your son?!”
Bill looked into her eyes, “He’s gone,” he began softly, his voice gravely and low, “left this ship.”
As Kate stared into his eyes she felt a sort of hidden message though she could not clearly decipher what it was. It felt remorseful, as if Bill had forgotten the anguish his acts would now cause her, and Kate froze. The anger falling from her face as Jones ordered for full sail.
Bootstrap Bill was pulled back, towards the helm, leaving Kate and Jones alone at the bow, Kate with a stunned expression.
She felt Jones’ touch again and turned her eyes to his.
“We will find him,” He said softly to her, “and we will get it back.”
Kate nodded and Jones closed his eyes for a moment. Then all at once they shot open and he bellowed, “Hard to starboard! He’s West of us.”

Kate did not return to the cabin as they sailed. She stayed at the bow, her eyes pointed and searching on the horizon for a rowboat or any sign of the thief. An hour passed under full canvas and she saw nothing.
Again she felt Jones beside her, “are we gaining at all?” she asked without turning her gaze.
“Aye,” came his reply, “we are almost on him.”
Then, as if his words had somehow summoned the ship, a small black dot rose out of the horizon. Kate felt her spirits lift and she tore her eyes from it to look at Davy Jones. His expression was not joyful, she could see the dull anger that lay behind his blue eyes. It was her turn now to lay her hand on his, “Find him,” she said, “get it back.”
Jones drew in a breath and lingered only for a moment before leaving her side and returning to the helm, where a very cheerless Bootstrap stood like a man condemned - still held by two of the crew.