Possible Title: Annabelle
Summary: June takes in a new tenant, but who is she and how will she react to her new roommate and his visitors.
A/N The reason it says 'possible title' is because I haven't quite figured out if this is what I want to call it. Also this is a major work in progress and I have absolutely no idea where its going, that means chapters may be slow in coming-I'm also working on other stories too-so bare with me if you will please. Oh and hopefully enjoy it because that is the point!
Pairings: None
Genre: Drama/humor/family maybe a dash of hurt/comfort later on...
Chapter 1
Annabelle-Anna-Stone stopped to admire the building that would be her home for an unknown amount of time. It was a beautiful structure in the fading sunlight, and she took time absorbing every inch of it into her memory banks, noting that it would make a beautiful picture. She was glad she'd brought her art supplies along.
The front door opened then and out stepped June, she smiled as the elder women approached her.
"Hi June."
"Oh Annabelle its so good to see you, how long has it been?" The women said embracing her in a friendly hug.
"A long time, sorry to say I've lost count of the years, and please call me Anna."
June smiled at her."Come on inside, Kim will get your luggage." She said gesturing towards a maid that had come out to help.
"Thank you." Anna said to her as they approached the house.
"I'd forgotten how beautiful your place was." Anna muttered as they stepped inside looking around the foyer.
June chuckled."Thank you, but you were quite young the last time you were here, I was so sorry to hear about your parents, they were wonderful people."
Anna smiled."Yeah they were." Her mind suddenly filling with old memories of them.
"I managed to fix up an extra room, its small but-." June lead the way upstairs.
"It'll be fine, I'm not planning on staying for to long."Anna said adding a 'hopefully' in her thoughts, before frowning slightly."Who did you say was staying in Byron's study?" She asked. June had been so enthusiastic on the phone about her coming to stay that she'd just breezed over the subject of her fairly recently acquired tenant.
"Neal, quite the nice young man reminds me a lot of my Byron, you'll get along." They walked down a hallway past the master bed room and what used to be Byron's study-now this Neal person's room-and on to Anna's.
"He isn't here right now but you'll meet him soon enough." June opened the door to a room that Anna immediately fell in love with.
"You have nice taste." She commented softly admiring the queen sized bed and absolutely beautifully dresser. The room was filled with colors of brown and dark red, small but quaint, comfortable, big enough for her. There was a vanity to her right, the wood smooth and shinny and she wondered vaguely what kind it was made out of. Another door opened to a small bathroom.
June smiled."Well, I'll let you settle in, I need to run a quick errand, I'll be back in an hour."
"Ok, thank you." Anna said sincerely.
"Your life will work out Annabelle, trust me, I speak from experience." June said with a warm smile before leaving.
Anna approached the full-length mirror sitting by the dresser. She was currently dressed in old jeans and convers. A black long sleeved shirt completed the attire and on top of that her shoulder length dark hair was in a loose ponytail with strands hanging in her face. Dark circles hung under her unusual violet colored eyes.
She looked tired...she felt tired. Turning away she gently pulled the sleeve of her right arm up to examine the bruises. They still hurt, and the ones across her back made it so she couldn't lay in such a position in bed.
She pulled the sleeve back down refusing to focus on her troubles, it was why she had came here, to get away from them and that was exactly what she intended to do.
*WC*
Agent Peter Burke frowned at the sight of a new car parked out in front of June's place. It was a classic red '66 Mustang. He hadn't ever seen it before and Peter took pride in remembering the cars that parked frequently in the area, and this one just stood out. Neal Caffrey whistled at the sight of it.
"Nice." He commented as Peter parked his car just behind it.
"Who's is it?" Peter asked suspicion lining his words. Neal shrugged as he unbuckled his seat belt. He got out approaching the classic car, the head lights of Peter's shining on the back of it.
"Whose ever it is they've kept it in prime condition."
Peter looked at it with less admiration then turned his gaze on the house."Was June expecting visitors?" He asked.
"Not that I know of, but we haven't exactly been able to have a decent talk in a few days." They'd gotten two cases in the past two weeks one dragging on after the other."Relax Peter I'm sure it's just a neighbors or something." Neal added looking over at his partner.
The suspicion didn't leave the agents face but his phone rang before he could reply. Neal smirked as Peter answered it.
"Hey El...no, no I didn't forget." The look on the agents face said he had, as he quickly made his way back to his car.
Neal lifted a hand in farewell, smirk still in place. Peter gave him a look as he hung up."Don't think I won't run those plates." He said.
Neal returned the look as he drove off. He glanced at the car again really not sure who it belonged to. June's car wasn't there ether but he doubted it belonged to her. He started towards the house deciding it wasn't as important as Peter took it to be.
Nothing seemed out of place inside, in fact it all seemed quite. As he headed upstairs a maid called out to him.
"Mr. Caffrey." He paused looking over the railing down at her.
"Yeah?" He said, curious.
"June hoped I would be able to tell you before you were surprised, we have a new guest who will be staying in the spare room for a couple of months."
Neal was surprised at the news."Really, who?"
"The granddaughter of some close family friends."
"Oh, thank you."
She nodded and walked away.
Neal continued on up, this he had to see.
The door to the spare room was open and he slowed as he approached it.
"Hello?" He said peeking in. No one responded and their wasn't anyone in the room, but there was two suitcases sitting by the bed. They didn't appear to have been opened yet. Curiosity still peeked he started searching the house.
After moments of searching he was beginning to wonder if she was even home. Then he found her. She was standing in the kitchen back to him. Her black hair was in a pony tale; she wore jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. He couldn't settle on an age without seeing her face.
"Hello."
She about jumped out of her shoes, spinning around knocking a mug off the counter onto the floor where it shattered, its contents spilling out.
"Sorry, sorry." Neal apologized quickly, realizing that he probably could've gone about this differently without scaring the crap out of her.
"Jeez!" She breathed hand over her heart, and after a pause she looked up at him. "No I-I'm sorry it's just you-" An awkward pause then-
"I'm Anna."
Neal smiled. Anna, looked to be in her thirty's.
"Neal Caffrey." He said stepping forward offering his hand to shake. She took it tentatively looking uncertain. Neal tried not do a double take when he saw her eyes, they were violet. Had to be contacts.
"Yeah uh June mentioned you." She looked tired, under those violet eyes were dark circles, there was an odd tenseness about her as well. She let go and looked down at the broken cup with a grimace. "Here barely a day and I've already broken something."
"Technically my fault, I do tend to have that effect on people."
She gave him a look but an amused smirk graced her lips.
"So you're a friend of June's." He stated.
Anna shrugged."Yeah." Turning she retrieved some paper towels and knelt down to clean up the mess.
He watched her for a moment."You know, theres people here who can take care of that." He said.
She looked up at him with a smirk."Are you offering?"
Neal slowly smiled back expecting her to look away and maybe blush-he liked having that effect on women-but she held his gaze smirking still before looking back down at her task.
"I was talking about the maids." He said.
"It's my mess." She said giving him a funny look as she stood.
He watched her with even more curiosity. What had June told her about him? She didn't seem at all spooked.
"She didn't mention anything else about me?" He asked.
"Who? June? Should she have?" Anna asked throwing away the soaked towels.
"Uh-well, I guess not." Neal grimaced inwardly.
"Ok." She said giving him another look.
"Oh my, Miss Stone please let me clean that up." Anna looked past him to the maid.
"It's all right I can-"
"Please I insist, would you like me to make you another cup?"
Anna put a stray strand of hair behind her ear."Uh, no, no thank you I think I'm just going to go to bed." She said."It was nice to meet you Neal." She said with a friendly smile before leaving the kitchen.
Well it was a short yet, interesting exchange.
"Did you need anything Mr. Caffrey?" The maid asked him and he realized he'd been staring after Anna.
"Uh no thanks think I'm gonna go to bed to." It had been a long day and he was starting to feel it.
"Vary well, good night." She said and Neal nodded before leaving.
*WC*
Anna entered her room and closed the door behind her. She leaned against it pulling her hair out of its ponytail running a hand through it.
Neal Caffrey seemed like an interesting person, considering how much she knew about him, which was nothing. Sighing softly she pushed away from the door and headed towards her suit cases.
She really wanted to shower but was so tired she figured it could wait until the morning. Retrieving some of her toiletries she scrubbed her face clean in the bathroom, slipped into her pajamas and sat on the bed contemplating on whether or not to take her pain pills.
Her back often bothered her in the middle of the night, the bruised mussels tightening and causing sharp pains to flare up. Problem was the pills more often then not gave her nightmares.
Sighing, she set the bottle on the nightstand and crawled under the covers switching off the light. Lying on her stomach, she wondered why Neal had asked if June had said anything else about him. June had mentioned he reminded her of Byron, and Anna had heard story's...
Had he done something wrong? Maybe...The way he'd smiled at her as she'd moped up her spilled tea had nearly sent her heart into her throat. How she'd been able to hold his gaze was beyond her, luckily when she blushed her ears were the only things that turned pink and he didn't seem to have noticed.
And what was with the suit? Sure it had been nice, and she had to admit he did make it look good, but...
It was to late to be thinking about a guy, it was to early to be thinking about a guy, she hadn't come all the way out here for another relationship.
Anna sighed again softly, closing her eyes willing sleep to come, she didn't have to wait long...
A/N Do tell me what you think, remember work in progress people and plus its my first WC fanfic so go easy on me...
