A/N: I'm back! Yes, a new chapter. Oh man... two chapters over the course of a year. Okay, honestly I was very scared to post this chapter. I hope you guys forgive me. I posed a new story and realized I really should treat you guys because you are my first fans and you deserve to have this story continued. So does James! We have to make sure he lives!!
School has been insane for me, and this semester I have to study a great deal, while as LAST semester I was constantly drawing and getting exausted fast. Standing for 4-5 hours and having to draw just about continuously is a physical and artistic drain. Then, around this winter break my mental muse had new life breathed into it. I wrote a short story and loved it! I spent more time adjusting the chapter I was weary about, and even started a new story in a different genre. But I knew you guys deserved this alot and have been waiting in fear I abandoned this story. And here it is, the longest chapter yet, over 4000 words (5 pages worth)!!!! WHOO! Enjoy my dear readers, and I'm going to try and work on this when I have spare time. Talk to my professors about giving me some slack.
Disclaimer: Man, do I have to say it again? I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean and I don't own James Norrington (although he might be on sale because of the third movie.) There's a whole lot more I don't own in this chapter, such as Snapple and Victoria's Secret and other various companies mentioned.
Natania: Is there anything you do own? Heyyy... where is this? It's dusty in here...
Yes, I in fact own you, character formed from my imagination. Now go dust yourself off while I clean up in here. We have a chapter to do!
The world outside was still very cold which caused them to put back on their heavy coats. Now they could take in the world once again. Some of James nervousness had ebbed away with the fact that he was in better attire, and he watched the people more carefully now. In fact, he had completely missed the plain fact that between the rows of stores and their pathways was a stretch of grass with odd decorations. His brow furrowed a bit as he tried to examine what looked like wiry white deer and a very odd snowman, but Natania seemed to be walking away from all that and back to the car.
James hurried after her with a few bags in hand and whispered with some urgency to his companion. "Erm… Natania… what was that I saw as we left? The strange deer and all?"
At the moment Natania was sighing at the paper receipt in her hand and trying to figure a way to explain how she went on a clothes shopping spree out of the blue to her folks. She looked up to James and responded with an "Hmmm?" She shook her head as her brain caught up. "Oh yeah. Well, it's December 20th… getting close to Christmas now so they have decorations up. I think there was some in the store too… I mostly try to ignore it all."
James felt dreadful now, having glazed over her last comment. "Christmas?? Really? Oh dear… I didn't realize I would be imposing on you so close to the holidays. I would never-"
"James it's okay. Really. It's not my holiday."
"-have asked you to look after me when- … wait… not your holiday? What do you mean?"
Natania struggled to raise a brow. Struggled in the sense she never could really do it despite all the practice, which made her feel more foolish to the fact she couldn't. In the end it was a strange look of disbelief towards James with a slight twitch from her lips that leaned towards a grin. "Not everyone in the world is Christian, James. Neither are those who do not practice it heathens."
James stopped for a moment in thought. "So… what are you- I mean…"
'Egads that sounded awful. Nice way to get a taste of your new shoes James, just stick your foot right into your mouth.' he bitterly thought with a mental slap on his forehead.
"…what religion do you practice?" he supplemented quickly, praying his words didn't sound too rushed.
"I'm Jewish." She motioned with her head for him to follow and she kept walking towards her car. James followed and listened carefully. "Look, I hoped we wouldn't get into a religious debate or anything. I follow a certain faith and you follow yours. I respect what you believe and hold dear, and I would expect no less from you. Anyone can believe what they want, as long as it doesn't include hate or hurting others of course, but in the end it doesn't matter and shouldn't. What is important is the fact that you believe."
They finally reached Natania's car. She unlocked the trunk with a bit of difficulty, opened it and placed her plastic shopping bags inside. James still had an unreadable look on his face, even as their hands made contact and Natania took the shopping bags he carried and put them away. She closed her trunk with a slight slam and took his hand. James looked up to her with a surprised look, which she ignored as she fanned out his fingers with his palm towards her.
"It's like this. The center of your hand is god and religion is your fingers." Natania explained as James looked from her to his hand, intently now. "See? Different paths that stand alone but lead to the same source." Her fingertips grazed down the length of his fingers to his palm as she spoke. "No path is better or worse, no right or wrong. There is just what is right for you and what is wrong for you. But in the end, we're all going to same place… we are the same people." This she punctuated by pressing her open palm to his.
James flexed his fingers in thought. What she said was surprisingly… clear. It didn't matter, and it was a road for a person to choose, and to choose only for themselves. Maybe this century changed his thinking, or the jump to this world altered his mind, but it felt so right. His mind turned these words over and over again. He remembered looking at people with slight distain for following other faiths, even going as far to call them heathens for not embracing the same faith. As if a veil lifted from his mind, he realized how horribly vain it was to feel that way. That wasn't what faith was about… it wasn't about chastising others and saying "I'm right and you're wrong." It was a connection with God, and for each person that connection was personal and unique. He looked past his fingers down at Natania's face, which at the moment was currently beaming up to him with slight encouragement. He could feel tears stabbing at his eyes and wanting to escape, but still just smiled contently and nodded.
Natania didn't need to say anything else. There were no words for his eyes spoke volumes. She mentally wiped her forehead, thankful that this clash of cultural thinking was so easily handled. Her words as true in her heart as they were on her lips, and she wished more than anything for James to see the importance of acceptance. Her eyes shifted slightly from James to their joined hands, which she was currently enjoying the sensation it invoked. Slowly letting her fingers slide down and her hand dropping from his, she enjoyed every last tingle it drew into her.
James slowly let his hand drop as well to his side. It took a while before he gained enough courage to speak again, and when he did it was rather soft. "Thank you."
Natania tilted her head a bit, and smiled in a funny way that was purely her own. She shrugged faintly and said, "Not a problem. C'mon."
With that she walked back towards the mall with James following. He stuffed his hands into his pockets for extra warmth. He had left his hat and sunglasses in the car, feeling comfortable enough with Natania not to want to hide himself from this new world. They walked slowly around the outdoor mall, James examining every ornament carefully for the coming holiday with the wide, bright eyes of a young child. He even paused when he noticed a man talking loudly into small box held close to his ear. Nudging Natania gently with his elbow, he motioned with a questioning face towards that particular man.
"Cell phone" she whispered softly. "I have one too. A lot of people do, in fact. It lets you talk to people far away, from just about anywhere. That is… as long as it has power and a signal of course."
"Anywhere?" he raised his eyebrows at this, whispering back as to not draw attention.
"Mmmhmm. Here." She fished her cell phone out of her pocket, slid it open and handed it to James. As he took it in hand she whispered gently. "Please… try not to push any buttons."
He just nodded and stared at the small contraption. He slid it shut and reopened it, just like she had a few times. Each time it slid open to reveal numbers and two strange symbols which all lit up. Even the cover lit up with a tiny window that had the time and date, along with a picture of a furry animal that looked a bit like a bear only it was black and white. James silently raised an eyebrow at the image before returning it to her.
"That would have been great use back at Port Royal. Certainly is far simpler having such a device than sending messages back and forth from England, having to wait months on end for a response."
Natania shrugged a bit, sliding the cell phone back into her pocket. "Technology is strange. First it was steam power, which brought around an entire new age to humanity. After that was electricity, lighting up the world quickly. Cars and airplanes brought new methods of travel. Things really picked up once computers were invented. After that… well. With new methods of harnessing technology, it advances and speeds up the process of invention. You missed a few impressive hundred years worth of human creation."
James frowned slightly, kicking a small pebble in front of him as though it had caused some offense. "Change is supposed to happen slowly… not abruptly."
"Not true. Change can happen in any way in any form. Adaptation is the key to survival… and in a world that changes faster and faster you have to try and keep up." She frowned realizing how depressing that sounded. "It's not all bad. The world still has its problems but we try our best. As for me, I'm going to try my best to get you home."
James nodded slowly and sighed, letting his breath leave a faint cloud of vapor hanging in the air. In all honesty, he wasn't sure if he could tell Natania that he wasn't convinced he wanted to leave. Certainly the world had changed, but somewhere in the vast opportunity this time brought could be a place for him. Could he leave such a bizarre and wondrous place behind so easily? Even if he did go back, everything he learned here would change his perspective permanently. Port Royal would never be the same in his eyes.
He looked up as he felt Natania tugging at his sleeve. She grinned with excitement and even a bit of childish innocence. She had been talking a bit more before his mind had wandered. "C'mon! I know the perfect place for us to eat lunch."
He nodded and gave a small smile. She was as playful as Elizabeth sometimes, and had even less care for social standards for a woman of her age. Or maybe another strange acceptable behavior of the times? Whatever the case, James tried to match her steps with her tugging as she led him to a small building sandwiched between two others. The sign had fancy green script proclaiming it 'Gianni's Pizzeria' with large windows a few green, white, and red flags that he didn't recognize.
She opened the door and breathed in deeply. The eatery radiated wonderful warmth, and strange music played from some unseen source. As Natania approached the man standing behind the counter James caught the scent of… he wasn't quite sure. It smelt like warm bread and something else that didn't smell terrible at all. He saw various flatbreads covered with something behind glass at the counter.
"Can I help you?" the man behind the counter asked. James titled his head slightly. Was that man wearing an apron?
"Yes, I'd like two plain slices annnnd…" Natania looked around, and then let out a small 'aha!' at the sight of a box in the corner of the room with a clear glass door. She opened it and quickly pulled out two bottles that looked like cloudy rum. "…two Snapples. To stay."
The man nodded and turned away, taking two sections of the flatbread and setting it down on a metal plate with a handle. He then opened an oven, that was easy to tell from the heat, and slid the two pieces in.
Natania smiled up to James as he watched. "Well I figured since it's your first visit to America you should have some authentic American pizza."
He looked back, then back to the oven. "Uh, yes." James got very nervous that his speech might gain unwanted attention. He wracked his brain trying to think of how to not sound like an oddity. "Not a problem." James repeated what Natania had said earlier.
She grinned almost in pride at his quick uptake to the lingo of the new world. She pointed over to a glossy gray surface, a table he guessed, with two red round protruding seats that stemmed from the underside of the table. "Go ahead and sit down, I'll bring the food over when it's done."
He nodded and was unable to hold back making a brief bow, though it was mostly just a slight inclination of his body. James got closer to the table and strange seats, carefully sitting down. When the red seat swiveled underneath him he reflexively grabbed onto the counter, causing a lone man sitting near the entrance to pause taking a sip from his cup. James's lips twitched slightly in an uncomfortable smile and he waited for the man to look away before testing the rotating motion of the seat more to assure himself it was stable.
Soon Natania sat down across from him, thankfully blocking the other man's view of James incase he did something to draw unwanted attention to himself. She shook the bottles of 'Snapple' individually, placed the bottles on the table and took a white napkin from a tray she carried. Whisking away crumbs that must have been left behind by the previous occupant, her nose scrunched with distaste as she muttered something about "messy people". When the surface met her satisfaction she placed down the red tray revealing what James only surmised to be pizza. It was triangular bread with what looked like tomatoes and melted cheese on a round thick paper plate with glossy paper stained with grease under it.
She sat down and placed one plate in front of James and the other before herself, and even setting down a few napkins for both of them. While James studied the pizza and what made it so wonderful, Natania scrapped off a shiny clear coating on the Snapple bottles and opened them with a satisfying 'pop'. She held out a thin, wrapped tube to him.
"Wanna try a straw?"
He looked up to her slightly confused. Natania glanced past him briefly then around herself. She unwrapped the tube and slipped it an open bottle of Snapple. James shifted a bit uncomfortably as her pink lips wrapped around the tube and pursed, but he couldn't draw his eyes away. The contents of the liquid traveled up the tube into her mouth, and when she looked up to him she stopped suddenly and blushed.
"Just uh…" Natania spoke softly and held out another wrapped tube to him. "Suck it up."
He looked away politely and concentrated very hard on the pizza. "I think I'll try another time."
She nodded and reached over to the tray, picking up a white plastic fork and knife. Setting it down on James' napkin she explained. "You can eat this by holding it, but it might be too hot. You can cut it into pieces if you want, but the knife isn't very good. Oh!" She picked up the last two remaining items on the tray, two small glass shakers. "This one's garlic powder," she held up the one with small yellowish white grains, "and this is oregano," she held the other which had dried green shreds of leaf. "Both are a definite must for pizza, but don't add too much. Especially the garlic."
James quietly absorbed this, looking more at the shakers than Natania. He still couldn't quite make eye contact again just yet. She shook out some of the garlic and oregano onto her pizza, lifted it with both hands unceremoniously and started eating from the pointed end. It looked rather barbaric to eat with one's hands to James, but he never was squeamish over eating a piece of bread or an apple with his hands. He sprinkled a light dusting of oregano over the pizza and chose to pass on the garlic. Testing the knife and fork on his own pizza, he found that Natania was correct. The knife was horribly dull and even bent under force.
Glad that she had taken many napkins, James gave up and mimicked her actions in picking up and holding the piece of pizza. He found it was a bit easier if he folded it slightly and the bread was willing to comply. Finally, without too much hesitation, he took a small bite out from the end.
And it wasn't half bad. In fact it was quite tasty, but the faint trace of grease on it was not terribly desirable. Still, overall it was appetizing and didn't take much time to eat. James set it down to wipe his hands on the paper napkins and opened his bottle of Snapple. The coating was a bit tricky, and he politely refused Natania's help when she tried to assist him. Finally successful, he twisted the cap off and took a sip.
The brown liquid tasted like tea mixed with mint, but it wasn't a very good tea. James was used to having finely brewed tea back in Port Royal, and this was cold like someone left it out unattended. He must have given it a look of disgust because Natania was laughing and covering her mouth.
"What IS this?" James demanded in a hushed tone.
"It's tea!" she was still chuckling and had to put her pizza down.
"It's icy cold!"
"That's why it says 'iced tea' on it."
"This is the worst brew I've ever tasted…" James muttered and stared down at the bottle.
Natania was now having a hard time controlling her laughing, having to bend over the table to stifle the sound. He felt a bit insulted, but guessed that getting good tea outside of one's home was difficult now at days.
"Is it really that bad?" she wiped away a few tears that gathered in the corners of her eyes.
James sighed. Maybe he was overreacting. "No… it's just strange having cold tea. I've had much better brews but it's not disdainful."
"Not disdainful. I'll be sure to write that to the company." James looked up quickly and started to protest but Natania held out her hand and stopped him. "No no, I'm kidding. If you think this is bad, I can't imagine how horrible Lipton tea would taste to you."
His jaw dropped a bit. "It's worse?"
"To me anyway. Snapple is actually one of the better bottled teas out there… and I like mint flavored."
James took another sip, not wincing so much at the flavor. It didn't taste as bad this time around. He set down the bottle and muttered to himself. "Bottled tea, huh? That would have been handy those long months at sea."
The two ate quietly, eating pizza and sipping their tea. In fact, Natania ate her pizza quite quickly and when James questioned her about this she just shrugged and said "habit". She cleaned her space and sat back down, slowly sipping her iced tea and waiting for James to finish. When they were done, they left the warm pizzeria for the cold outdoors once more.
The air stung his face harshly, and when he drew in his breath the cold seeped into his chest briefly. It definitely would take a while for James to accustom himself to the frigid weather once more. Natania didn't seem terribly fazed, but did dig herself further into her jacket.
"Ahhh… want to leave now?"
James looked down to her, pulling his zipper higher to cover his exposed neck from the biting wind. "If you wish. Staying would be acceptable as well, if there is anything you wish to see."
"Maybe to the bookstore?" Natania pointed down the branch of path they hadn't traveled down, since the mall was rather L shaped and they now stood close to the intersection of the L. "It's not terribly crowded small compared to others. Maybe we can pick up a book on history so you can catch up, but there isn't a vast selection."
"I think that would be more than adequate." James nodded.
She started walking, then paused and looked back to him. "Uh, just so you know, you can say something like "Sure", "Okay" or "That sounds good". It's not rude or anything, just that most people now don't use extravagant words for a yes or no."
James scratched the back of his head that was a little cold without his hat. "Uh, sure."
"Let's hurry, it's freezing out and the bookstore will be nice and warm."
That was enough motivation for James, and he walked in long strides after Natania. They passed a quite a few people carrying packages, and had to carefully maneuver around them. The variety of stores was impressive; there was a place of shoemakers called "Foot Action", a tailor called Aeropostale, a jeweler for some reason named "Infinity", and something called a "Radio Shack". He wasn't sure what a radio was or why it needed to be in a shack. The worst was when he passed a store displaying female figurines dressed in very exposing lingerie, causing his face to burn. Natania seemed more interested on avoiding from colliding in the other shoppers, unaware of his distress over Victoria's secret being uncovered.
Finally she tapped his arm and pointed to a sign proclaiming "Waldenbooks". James was glad it wasn't next to the provocative lingerie store. He sighed from the warmth the bookstore brought, opening his coat slightly and following Natania in further. It was rather packed, both with people and books, with shelves on the walls running floor to ceiling in height. Most people were on line waiting to pay for their goods, while others stood and flipped through various books. The two of them carefully passed by with many 'excuse me's and 'pardon's until they found the history section.
It gave James a strange thrill of excitement standing with hundreds of years worth of history before him. All that time, packed into thick texts to stand the test of time. Then James felt strangely dejected, realizing his life back in Port Royal probably amounted to barely a footnote in history. While that wasn't his purpose for being in the Royal Navy, it certainly made him feel small in scope of things. Would anyone back at Port Royal remember him? Maybe his officers and some of the marines, but once they got a replacement for James there wouldn't be much need to mention his name.
Natania had a hard time finding anything useful though, her eyes quickly moving over the covers of books and intense with concentration. There was a large amount of books dealing with history all over the world, and James was tempted to read through all of them. The ones about ancient Rome and Egypt seemed most tempting but Natania ignored these and brushed the tip of her finger over various European history books.
When her finger paused on a title about the thirty year's war, she looked up to James with an inquiring look. He frowned a bit and whispered as quietly as he could, "I'm not that old."
Natania blushed and apologized quietly and resumed looking through the books. She grabbed one about "The Age of Reason", and after a bit more searching extracted a book on early American history. He raised his eyebrow at the last title while she finished looking through the selection and not finding anything new.
"Sorry, there doesn't seem to be much here." Natania apologized. "I'll look around and see what I can find at home."
James skimmed through the books while they waited patiently on line. It seemed that Natania was intent on getting books closer around the time when he was from than anything too modern. 'One step at a time, I guess.' he reasoned. 'I have centuries of thinking to cross before I can get to anything along this age.'
After purchasing the books, James absorbed himself in the book on early American history. A few times Natania had to stop him from colliding straight into another pedestrian, and after the third time she took the book from him and replaced it in the plastic bag. Once they returned to the car and she made certain that James was properly buckled in the car did she allow him to read the book once again. The ride vastly improved from his previous ride, as he was too absorbed in his readings to panic over the terror of noisy cars and closely passing vehicles.
A/N: I hope that ending didn't seem to rushed. I just pictured James totally absorbed in the book and finding about the "future". Well that wraps up this chapter, you have all that I've written so far which means... I have alot of writing to do! I hope you're happy with the size of the content because I kept pushing myself more and more for you guys. You deserve it! Review my lovelies, I'm going to go collapse now.
Oh! And the other two stories I have written is a one-shot for Mass Effect and just started a CSI fanfiction with Nick, Greg, and an OC. You'll have to read them to find out more, bwahaha! I already have another story underway that I'm debating over releasing at all (only about 10 pages so far), and one boiling around in my brain that's another Mass Effect story. I love that game. My boyfriend recently picked on my fanfiction writing a little and compared it to being forced to listen to Vogan poetry for him. He's not a big fan of romance stories anyway, and playfully teases me over it. I promise he's not a meanie. Oh well, more for us I say!