Sometime later, Guybrush and Elaine were sitting in the rec room, both changed back into their normal clothes after their shower. Wally was taking his at the moment; they could hear the faint hiss of the water jetting out.
"We'll have to retrieve those portal stones, you know," said Elaine. "I'm willing to help you, if you need it."
"Are you sure?" said Guybrush. "You've got Chora Luna and Upchuck to worry about."
"Maybe I do, but this is more important," said Elaine. "I couldn't stand the thought of those creatures running amok on Earth."
"Well, we could certainly use your help," said Guybrush. "Thanks."
Elaine looked at him, a little sly. "Guybrush Threepwood, I can't help noticing that you've been a lot less hostile to me these last few hours. What brought this on?"
Guybrush hesitated. "Uh... I read your journal."
Elaine's gaze hardened. "You read my journal," she said harshly. "Okay. Fine. What's so great about my journal?"
"I don't know," said Guybrush. "I just read it and it seemed to speak to me a little, like there was someone inside the pages who could communicate with me. And then Wally came in and said you'd been kidnapped, and I knew I had to go rescue you. And it's hard to go on hating someone in a situation like that."
Elaine's gaze had softened again. "Okay," she said. "I'll forgive you. Just this once."
Guybrush mumbled something in return - he was still very uncomfortable - then, just to get onto a safer topic, he asked: "So what got you into space, then?"
"My father," said Elaine. "He was very rich. More importantly, he was powerful. Getting into space was my own idea, but it was his backing that made it happen. I'm sort of - his protege. You don't know the kind of pressure that puts on me. I've spent the last years working so hard, not just to turn a profit, but to finally be independent of him. I might have made it, too, if Pael were still around. But it isn't." She sighed. "Let's not talk about all that. I want to know something. Why are you still a pirate?"
Guybrush started to speak, but stopped. The words were clamming up inside his throat. There was so much he wanted to say! He looked at Elaine, and suddenly it seemed entirely natural to get off his chair and sit beside her on the couch.
"I've read your file," continued Elaine idly, looking at one of his ears. "A loner even by pirate standards. Only attacks other pirates. Can cause enormous strategic advantage. You know, Wally told me everything about you and Upchuck that first night. Why continue in his footsteps?"
"To erase them," said Guybrush. "That's all I've been doing these past few years - trying to erase his memory. I can't go back home because being with my parents is like having him in the room. I couldn't join up with any other independent pirates because they all thought of me as Upchuck's right hand man. The remnants of Upchuck's fleet would have shot me on sight; a few tried to. But I still had the skills, and there didn't seem to be any alternative way to live my life, so I went into business on my own.
"And I learned to like solitude, valued the freedom I enjoyed, the reputation I'd made. But just recently, I've learned how wrong I was. My freedom was nothing more than a prison without bars, solitude merely a corruption of my soul, reputation something ephemeral and worthless.
"That's why I took on Wally. The years of solitude had healed me of Upchuck's scars, and I was ready to rejoin humanity. And it's why-" oh yes he was just realising this now "-why I want you to stay around."
His hand, moving with a mind of its own, reached up and stroked Elaine's hair.
He saw her smile, as she half-closed her eyes and leaned her head against his hand. And with no more thought than if he were climbing a set of stairs, Guybrush leaned toward her.
His lips were moistening as he leaned closer and this was right this was very very right and she was responding, her head leaning forward and her lips tilting toward his and he could feel her warm breath blowing over his face her hair was in his hair and their lips were touching and connecting and they kissed.