Chapter XVII

                                    

                                          
Hook
She's been gone for 5 weeks now. I've been waiting for her in Gibraltar. I've let the crew go, paid for their travel expenses, and just sit on the deck and wait for her to come back all day.
There isn't enough wine in this place to make me forget about her. It doesn't help that I hate wine either. I've lost weight, and I am pretty sure I look like shit. I really need to shave!
I've been trying to get some food into my stomach for an hour now, but I get sick every time I remember that she might be with Peter. And I think about that all the bloody time! It clouds my mind like a thick fog. it makes me unable to function.
I've spent 20 years charming my way through every mermaid's bed in Neverland. And yet, I fell for a Pixie! The irony of this world. So yeah, there's a party on the beach tonight. I can see women dancing, hear the music playing, and it does nothing to my soul. I just sit around and mop about her.
I decide to call it a night and just go to sleep, but I soon realize that I am not drunk enough to sleep with all this noise. So I go and open the drinks cabinet and take out a bottle of rum. I figure a couple of sips should work well with the wine but I soon find myself drinking the whole bottle.
"James?" I hear her voice like so many times before. Every time I get smashed, I see her, I hear her.
"Guess I'm drunk enough now!" I tell to myself as I take the final sip.
"James!" She says again, but this time I feel her hand on my shoulder. I turn around, scared, and see her standing in front of me with a white dress that falls off her shoulders. She looks tired and unwell. I pull her in my arms as I rest my cheek against her abdomen, taking a deep breath.
"If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up!" I tell her, tightening my embrace.
"It's not a dream, my love!" She tells me as she caresses my hair. "Come on, let's go to sleep!" She tells me and takes my hands in hers, guiding me to our bed. She takes off my shoes and pushes me back on the bed, and I soon fall into a deep slumber. 
I wake up the next day with a banging headache and find her sleeping next to me. Her hair is spread across the pillow while her hands rest against her lower abdomen. She has dark circles underneath her eyes, and her lips look dried out. I want to kiss her and scream at her for leaving me. She can't always disappear from my life every time things get difficult.
I decide to just get up and take a bath to calm myself down. The headache is not helping at all. By the time I finish my shower, I hear noise from the kitchen area. She's awake! I dry myself, put on some pants, and decide to finally face her.
"I was trying to make you some coffee!" She says as she sees me in the doorway. She's holding her finger in a cup of water. She must have burned it while trying to light up the gas mini-stove.
"Let me see that!" I tell her and take her finger out of the water. I turn it around, to look at it, place a kiss on it and then put it back into the water.
"I'm sorry!" She says while looking at the finger.
"It's just a minor burn. No harm done!" I tell her as I look at the broken pieces of porcelain on the floor. She dropped a coffee cup.
"I'm sorry that I ran away!" She tells me, and I feel all my anger risingto the surface instantly. However, I try to stop myself because I want to hear what she has to say to me this time.
"Why did you leave me again?" I ask her, feeling myself on the edge of losing my temper.
"I was angry! I felt like I was always a second choice. I got to my soulmate 200 years too late. I got to you when your heart was already occupied by another woman. So I left." She tells me while she leans against the table. Her skin looks even paler than this morning.
"I didn't think I could get you to fall in love with me! We were together for 6 months and you didn't tell me all those things. While I understand you are hurting, I can't stop wondering whether you would have told me anything if Peter hadn't mentioned it that night."
"Of course I would have told you!" My words come out a bit too harsh and this scares her a little. She jumps a little with fear and pulls a chair from behind her, slowly sitting down.
"Are you alright?" I ask her, confused by her state.
"I'm fine! Just exhausted. Haven't really gotten too much sleep... or food into my body." She tells me with a feeble smile on her lips.
"Where were you?" I ask her in a more calmy manner and offer her some fruits for her to eat.
"On the beach, with Peri! She helped me understand what's happening." She tells me and I feel even more confused now.
"And what is happening?" I ask her.
"I don't know how to say this!... It's still weird in my mind!" She tells me and looks down, her hands placed on her lower abdomen.
"Use your own words..." I tell her a bit ironically.
"I'm pregnant!"