Hi everyone! So this is just a one chapter thing I wrote about Tuck Everlasting and it's mostly AU and the movie. It's my first Tuck Everlasting fic so I hope it doesn't dissapoint! (Personally, I think I've written things much better, but oh well haha)
"Winnie!" I called out again, walking through the woods where neither of my parents would ever dare to go.
"Winnie! Where are you?" I called again, getting no response, which I expected. I should probably introduce myself. My name is Jane. Jane Foster. Older sister to Winifred, but in contrast to my sister's dark hair and dazzling blue eyes, I had dark red hair and forest green eyes that I actually really liked. But anyway, I was out in the woods looking for my little sister. Yesterday evening we got angry at our parents for wanting to send the both of us off to some school five hundred miles away so we both ran into the woods, but someone had dragged her off while I got away so I was retracing our steps from the previous day. I had been walking for quite a while before I came to a clearing with a little spring in it. I almost sighed in relief when I immediately recognized the clearing and walked over to the little spring, but when I was halfway there someone rushed out in front of me, blocking my path. The man before me was tall and broad, certainly well-built and very attractive.
"You can't drink from the spring." He said before I could open my mouth and I then recognized him as the one that had grabbed my sister the day before.
"What have you done with my sister?" I asked with a glare.
"Don't worry, she's safe." He said simply.
"Good. Now if you don't mind, I am quite thirsty." I said, going to walk past him.
"You can't." He said, blocking my way again.
"Oh but I think I can." I said, trying to get past him again.
"No. Just go on back home." He said, blocking me again.
"I saw the boy from yesterday drink from it so yes, I can." I said irritably and the man's eyes widened slightly at that news and he grabbed my arms instead of just blocking the way this time.
"You saw that too?" he said and I nodded. "You have to come with me." He said, his whole demeanor changing. He was obviously much stronger than I was, but I still struggled as he dragged me to his horse, lifting me up on it easily, but roughly, and getting behind me to take me hopefully where my sister was.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked when he pulled up to a small house.
"Jane?" I heard my sister say and looked up to see her in the doorway of the house.
"Winnie!" I said and scrambled off the horse in a very unladylike way before this mystery man got down. I ran over to my sister and embraced her in a tight hug. "Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!" I said to her.
"Of course I'm all right. Jane, these people won't hurt us. I promise." Winnie said, then the boy from yesterday emerged from the house, followed by two others that seemed to be the boys parents.
"Thank you for making sure my sister was okay. Now, we need to get back home." I said.
"Jane. We can't." Winnie said and I frowned at her.
"Everything will be explained at the right time." The older man said with an accent that was obviously not from around here.
"Come inside dear, you look awfully tired." The woman said and I instantly felt that I could trust her so I followed her and Winnie inside, all the men behind us, even though I was still very confused.
"Jane, trust me, these people won't hurt us. This is Mae Tuck, her husband Angus, and their two sons, Jesse and Miles." Winnie said and I wanted to shout at her that she was just a child and had no way of knowing if these people would hurt us or not, but for some reason I recognized that last name.
"Tuck? I've heard that name before." I said, looking at the small family.
"Do you know where you heard it?" Angus asked me, seeming suspicious.
"No, I can't remember, but I know I've heard it before." I said, trying to remember where I had heard that name before.
"Do you want to come out into the woods with me and Jesse today?" Winnie asked me.
"No. I'm exhausted. I couldn't sleep last night because I was so worried about you, then came searching for you as soon as the sun came up." I said and Winnie nodded, standing up and going outside with Jesse.
"You do look quite tired out, dear. Miles, why don't you show her up to the loft so she can get a few hours of rest peacefully?" Mae said and Miles nodded stiffly, motioning for me to follow him. I stood and followed him up a ladder to a loft.
"Here, you can use my bed instead of Jesse's. It's more comfortable." Miles said and I could tell that he was a much sweeter person than he led on to be.
"Thank you." I said as he began going back down the ladder and he nodded at me. At that moment, I was determined to get to the softer side of that man somehow. I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before I became restless and was very curious about this family, so I got down from the loft to see if there was anyone in the house. Once down, I looked around and saw Miles with his back to me, but I instantly looked away when I noticed that he was changing out of soaking wet clothes into some dry ones. I could feel my face instantly heat up even as I noticed he had already changed pants thankfully. I tried to quickly and quietly walk out of the house, but ended up tripping on a leg of one of the chairs and cursing quietly to myself for my clumsiness.
"Jane. I hadn't realized you'd come down." Miles said and I turned to face him, noticing that he was still shirtless and I couldn't help but stare with how toned all of his muscles were.
"Oh, um, yes. I feel much better now." I said snapping myself out of my trance-like state.
"I was just changing. Tripped on a root and fell in the lake…" he said, trailing off and looking about as awkward as I felt.
"Oh there's a lake nearby?" I asked, trying very hard to make the situation less awkward.
"Yeah. The sunset there in really nice if you want to go over there later." He said.
"I'd love to." I said with a smile.
"Good. I can show you around a bit if you'd like, just need to take these out to Mae first." He said, referring to his wet clothes.
"Here, let me take them. You need to finish drying off." I said, walking forward.
"No, you don't need to –" he started, but I cut him off.
"You finish drying off so you can show me some of the woods." I said, grabbing his wet clothes before he could and before he could say anything else I walked outside and spotted Mae with a pile of clothes and a big tin tub of water.
"Um, these are Miles'. He's just finishing up changing." I said to Mae.
"Oh, thank you dear." She said taking the clothes from me.
"I also was wondering if maybe you could help me with something. My mother forces me into a corset every morning and I don't find the idea of traipsing through the woods in in appealing." I said, a little embarrassed.
"Oh, of course. You can borrow a dress too if you like. I would hate to see that get ruined, it is so pretty." She said, leading me into the house.
"Oh, thank you, I appreciate that." I said and noticed Miles was still standing in the same place, fully clothed this time thankfully.
"Miles, would you mind waiting outside? I'm going to help Jane change, then you can show her around the woods some." Mae said to Miles and he nodded, walking outside. Mae helped me out of my complicated dress and corset and into one of hers, a much simpler dress that was light blue with a small floral print.
"I haven't pulled this old dress out in years and you look so pretty in that color." Mae said once she was done buttoning it up.
"Thank you." I said and we walked back outside. When I found Miles a little ways off from the house, I noticed how he stared at me and I could instantly tell that he much preferred a woman in a dress like this one rather than the frilly one I had on earlier.
"So, what can you show me in these woods?" I said as I walked up to him.
"The woods have many secrets, you know." He said, his rough demeanor back, as he started walking.
"Obviously." I said, following him. We walked in a rather awkward silence for a while until I noticed a little rock formation to the right of us.
"Oh, what's this over here?" I said, going towards it, and noticed it was much bigger than I originally though.
"Nothing spectacular." Miles said, clearly not wanting to go near it.
"Where's your sense of adventure? Let's climb it." I said and he obliged with a heavy sigh. The climb was harder than I thought it would be, but it was completely worth it once we reached the top.
"Wow." I breathed out, looking at the most spectacular view of the mountains I had ever seen. "I thought you said this was nothing spectacular." I said to Miles, thinking he directly behind me, but he had stayed back a ways, staring at the ground. "Miles?" I said and he looked up, a very hard expression on his face.
"We need to go. Wouldn't want to miss that sunset." He said emotionlessly and began the climb back down. He didn't see my hurt expression as I walked over to where he had been and began to climb down, refusing his help when he offered. Once I had both feet back on flat ground, Miles began to walk back the way we had come, but I stayed right where I was.
"What have I done to make you hate me?" I said loudly, making Miles stop.
"I don't hate you." He said, taking a few steps toward me.
"Well you sure as hell don't like me." I said angrily, taking a few steps towards him as well.
"You and your sister shouldn't even be here." He said lowly, getting in my face.
"Then let us go home." I said, taking his challenge.
"We can't!" he nearly shouted, scarin some birds out of a tree.
"Why not!?" I said, just as loud.
"Angus will explain everything when the time is right." He said a little more calmly.
"My father will have search teams out here looking for us. Whatever it is we need to know, we need to know now." I all but hissed at him.
"I can't tell you now." He said through gritted teeth and started walking away again.
"Why not?" I stormed out at him, following him, but he refused to speak to me all the way back to the small house the family shared.
"Is everything all right dear? I just saw Miles storm inside the house." Mae asked me as I walked up.
"Oh, uh, fine." I said, ducking inside, but I didn't see Miles and figured he went up to the loft so I just sat down and made myself at home. About an hour later, I could tell the sun was about ot set and decided to see if Miles would still take me over to the lake to see the sunset. I crept over to the ladder leading up to the loft and walked up as quietly as I could. When I got up there, Miles was sitting on his bed, facing me, and looking at something in his hand, but he didn't seem to notice me.
"Miles?" I said softly and he glanced up at me, immediately putting what he was looking at underneath his pillow.
"I promised you a sunset. Let's go." He said, his voice thick with some emotion, and walked past me and down the ladder. I sighed and followed him down and outside, the walk to the lake a silent one. We got there right as the sun began to set and I let out a breath of amazement at the sight before me, stepping up a little way in front of Miles.
"It's beautiful." I said.
"Yes, it is." Miles said stiffly and I felt him walk up behind me. "Um, Jane, I'm sorry about earlier." He said after a moment and I could tell that slowly but surely, I was getting to the softer side of this man.
"It's okay." I said quietly, looking up at Miles, and was shocked to see tears rolling down his face. "Miles, what is it?" I said, turning to face him completely.
He shook his head a breathed out a quiet "Nothing." Of course I wasn't convinced, but I wasn't going to press him any further and cautiously wrapped my arm around his, my head ending up on his shoulder, and we just watched the sunset silently. Once it was mostly dark, I let him lead me back to the house where everyone else was already asleep.
"Goodnight, Miles." I said quietly and kissed his cheek before he went up into the loft and before I fell asleep, I could have sworn I could hear him crying again, but I still hadn't figured out the reason for it.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Jesse waking Winnie up, asking if she wanted to go swimming again and I heard her mumble a no, but then heard her say she would go with him to the town on the other side of the woods and she got up, got dressed, and quietly walked out of the house. I sat up as the sun began to rise, not being able to go back to sleep, and could hear Miles walking about me. Since I knew I wouldn't be going back to sleep, I walked outside onto the porch, enjoying the crisp morning air.
"Jane?" I heard someone say inside and when I turned I saw Miles through the window, again shirtless.
"Out here." I said, turning back to face the woods again.
"Jesse and your sister are already gone I see." Miles said when he walked outside to join me and I nodded. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday." He said, coming up beside me and facing me.
"It's okay. You can make it up to me today." I said, turning to face him and he gave me a confused look so I elaborated, "I heard Jesse say something to Winnie about swimming. Take me to that spot today so we can do that." I couldn't believe it, but he actually smiled.
"Okay, that can be arranged. Just let me go put a shirt on." He said, going inside and I heard him say good morning to his mother so I decided to go inside, just realizing I was hungry.
"Oh good morning dear. I hope you slept well." Maie said when she saw me walk in.
"I did, thank you. Do you need help with anyting?" I asked, noticing she was starting some breakfast.
"Oh, no dear. You just sit down. Miles said he was going to show you his favorite spot today." She said with a smile.
"Yes, I'm excited to see it." I said.
"I'm so glad someone is finally able to break him out of that hard shell he's built up over the years." Mae said.
"I'm not so sure that I've been able to do that quite yet." I said.
"I can already tell a difference in him." Mae said, bringing food to the table.
"Well hopefully he won't go back to the way he was when me and Winnie go back home." I said.
"You can't leave." I heard Miles say stiffly behind me.
"I think if I wanted to leave, I could. You can't keep us here." I said, stopping and turning to face him, then starting to walk away from him again.
"Jane, just wait! Where are you going?" Miles said, grabbing my arm and turning me to face him.
"Home. Let me go." I said, but he had a very firm grip on my arm that I couldn't get out of.
"Here, just come with me." Miles said, leading me off to the right. I sighed, rolled my eyes, and followed him begrudgingly.
"Where in the world are we -?" I started, but cut myself off when I saw what was in front of me. There was a small, but beautiful, waterfall going into a small body of water. "Wow." I breathed out, then noticed Miles getting ready to jump in the water in nothing but his undergarments. I looked away, my face reddening, and heard him splash in the water.
"Are you coming or what?" He called up once he resurfaced.
"Well, I kind of forgot to mention one tiny detail. I don't know how to swim." I called down to him.
"Don't worry about that, it's easy. Plus, you've got me." He said, making me roll my eyes at him playfully, my arms crossed.
"Okay, okay." I said with a sigh and began to take my dress off. Once I was in just my shift, I looked down into the water nervously. Miles motioned for me to jump into the water encouragingly. I took a deep breath and before I could think about it, I jumped. I held my breath when I hit the water. When I found my way up, I was almost frantic.
"Miles!" I said, searching for him with my hands since my eyes were still closed.
"I'm right here." He said, his arms going around me from the front. I wiped my eyes and looked at Miles with a grin, then blushing when I finally noticed our close proximity.
"This place is fantastic." I said quietly, my hands resting on his upper arms, as I looked around.
"It's my favorite place to think. I usually just float here and forget the world." He said, inching closer to me with each word.
"I can see why." I said, finally looking back at him, my arms having found their way around his neck.
"I think Angus is going to explain everything tomorrow." Miles said quietly.
"In all honesty, I don't really care anymore. I just wanted to get to this softer side of you and now that I have, I'm not sure I want to leave." I said just as quietly.
"There's still one thing that needs to be explained to you before you make that kind of decision. There's a reason we don't know anyone in this area and that it's going to stay that way." Miles said slowly.
"You can't tell me?" I said.
"I would, but I think he should." Miles said.
"So, Miles, since you won't tell me that maybe you'll tell me this. How old are you?" I said, suddenly very curious.
"I'm twenty-three. Why?" he said.
"Just curious. That's only two more than myself so now I don't feel bad about dong this." I said quietly and with a surge of confidence I kissed him. I almost couldn't believe I had actually done it. The kiss wasn't anything that I really expected. Because of his general demeanor I had expected the kiss to be a little bit rough, but it wasn't. This was soft, meaningful, and much deeper on an emotional level than what I had expected and it left me wanting more. When we broke apart I was left completely breathless.
"I knew you were just rough around the edges." I said quietly, my eyes still closed, our foreheads against each other's. In response, he kissed me again, this time much deeper and much more passionately. Instinctively my legs wrapped around his waist under the water and I wasn't sure how far this was going to go.
"We should stop." I said before it could go any further since we both were just in our undergarments.
"You know, you're the first person that I've wanted to tell my family's secret to." Miles said a few hours later as we laid out in the sun to dry off.
"My sister thinks you're all a bunch of criminals." I said, earning a soft chuckle from Miles.
"No, I assure you we aren't criminals." He said. "We should start heading back, it'll be getting dark soon." He said after a moment and we dressed ourselves, opting to take the long way back to the house. It was dark before we got back, but then we noticed the light of a fire off to our right and we could hear the laughter of Winnie and Jesse, so we decided to see what they were doing and could hear them talking.
"The spring, the water, there's something wrong with it. We never age. Remember when I told you that I'm a hundred and four years old? I meant it." I hear Jesse say and I know I gave Miles the same look Winnie gave Jesse, but Miles wasn't looking at me and instead stepped into the area of the fire.
"Don't you wish he'd told you that before you kissed him?" Miles said and I wondered how he had noticed that. I walked out into the light of the fire and gave Miles and Jesse a very confused look when Miles started telling about how the Tuck family never grew old and about his wife and children and how they left him and how they all died and only then did I notice the ring on his left hand, the sight of which left the feeling of a hundred bricks in the pit of my stomach. When Miles was done talking, I turned and left with tears running down my face. After a few minutes I could hear someone behind me.
"Jane?" Miles said and I stopped walking.
"Why didn't you tell me all that when I asked?" I said without turning to face him, still crying.
"I didn't want you to find out this way." He said softly from right behind me and I slowly turned to face him.
"Well I did anyway. Right now I just want to sleep." I said, my tears finally stopping.
"They're going to be staying out here all night, let's just go on back." He said quietly and began to walk off. After a moment I followed him, slipping my hand into his when I caught up with him.
"Come up with me tonight." He pleaded with me as we started to say goodnight.
"Okay." I said quietly, earning a smile from him, and followed him up into the loft where he and Jesse slept. We just laid there for a while kissing until I finally fell asleep. The next morning, Mae and Angus were already outside by the time me and Miles woke up and I could hear them speaking to Winnie and Jesse.
"Morning." Miles said softly from over my shoulder, his arm around my waist tightening.
"Morning." I replied sleepily, then sat up suddenly, remembering why the Tuck's last name was familiar to me.
"What is it?" Miles asked, sitting up next to me.
"I remember." I said, getting up quickly.
"Remember what?" Miles asked me, following me as I rushed down the ladder and outside. Once out there, I noticed Winnie and Angus were gone.
"Ma, Jane knows too." Miles said quickly from behind me, putting a hand on my waist.
"Well, they both needed to know anyway." She said with a sigh.
"Mae, I remember why the name Tuck sounded familiar to me. Once day when I was in town alone, there was this man in a yellow suit that kept asking people about you all. And now I know what it is he wants. You have to get out of here, he's going to come after you. He may even be in the search team that I know my father will have sent out by now." I said frantically, not missing the look Miles and Jesse shared.
"We need to start packing everything up." Miles said and retreated back into the house.
"Where will you go?" I asked Mae, helping her take the now dry clothes down.
"There's no way to be sure. And I'm hoping that you will make the right decision with Miles. Yes, I see the way you look at each other, particularly the way Miles looks at you. I haven't seen him so happy in over fifty years." Mae said, surprising me a bit.
"Oh, um, I guess I've subconsciously been avoiding trying to make that decision." I said a little awkwardly.
"You're a grown woman, Jane. You are perfectly able to make that kind of decision on your own. You won't need the talk Angus is giving your sister right now and I know you will make the right decision." She said.
"You mean whether or not I should drink from the spring." I said in realization, following Mae inside and she just simply nodded. While the Tucks were beginning to plan their departure, I went up to the loft where Miles and Jesse slept to think, pacing the entire time. When I finally came to a decision, I went down from the loft to tell Miles, but noticed everyone was outside. I started to go out there but stopped short when I saw the man in the yellow suit, holding my sister hostage. I stared wide-eyed for only a short moment before the man fell and I saw that Mae had hit him in the back of the head with the butt of a gun. I just stood there in chock while Jesse got my sister up from the ground and Miles glanced inside and noticed me, rushing inside to me.
"Jane, something terrible just happened. I don't know if you saw –" Miles started, almost frantic, but I cut him off.
"I saw. He's dead?" I asked and Miles nodded. I took a deep breath before saying, "I've made a decision. I want to stay with you, Miles. I don't want to go back to a place that will just send me five hundred miles away."
"Jane! I can hear everyone that came after us, we need to go." Winnie said from the doorway.
"You go, Winnie. I've made my decision. I'm sure you can come up with a convincing story to tell everyone." I said, then turned back to Miles. "I'll go to your favorite spot, meet there tonight once all of this excitement has died down." I said to Miles and he nodded, understanding. Before I ran out the back door, he kissed me quickly but deeply and I knew that he and Jesse would be all right, but I wasn't so sure about Angus and Mae. I ran until I couldn't run anymore and eventually found my way to the spot where I had first kissed Miles and waited until nightfall.
"Jane!" I heard a whisper behind me as I sat on the rock I'd once jumped off of.
"Miles?" I whispered, looking behind me as he emerged from the woods. "Where's Jesse?" I asked, noticing he was alone.
"He's gone to get Winnie. We have to get Mae and Angus out of jail, Mae is going to hang tomorrow." Miles said.
"But she won't die." I said with wide eyes. "What do I need to do?" I asked.
"We're going back to the house and actually Jesse might still be there, we want to wait until later on. When we go I want you to take the horse and buggy to town, find a place not easily seen by passersby near the jail and come out once Angus and Mae are out." Miles said and I nodded my understanding.
"Um, Miles? There's one thing I need to do before we leave here for good." I said but he just gave me a confused look so I elaborated, "I told Winnie that I had made my decision. I didn't mean just the decision to stay with you, I also meant whether or not I should drink from the spring."
"I can't let you do that." He said automatically.
"If I don't do it, one day I'll die, you know that, I don't want to put you through that so just take me to the spring now." I said and I could tell Miles' brain was in overdrive. Eventually he ran a hand over his face with a sigh, nodding to let me know we would do this now. Our walk to the spring was a silent one and for some reason I was getting nervous. I took a deep breath before drinking from the spring and reveled in the wonderful and refreshing taste of the water, but we still walked in silence to the house. Jesse was gone by the time we got there so Miles got on his horse while I manned the buggy and we made our way to town to meet up with Jesse and Winnie. I couldn't see what was going on from where I was but was startled by two gunshots, but soon after Miles came to get me.
"Okay, it's clear. Let's go." He said, getting on his horse, and we went to meet up with everyone else. I got off of the buggy to say goodbye to my sister, tears welling up in my eyes.
"Did you do it?" was the first thing she said to me and all I could do was nod, not trusting myself to speak. "Be sure to visit." She said and hugged me tightly. I went to stand with Miles while my sister said goodbye to Jesse.
"If you'd like, we could come back every year so you can visit your sister." Miles said as he held me tightly, my face buried in his chest.
"No, people would start to get suspicious. We'll do every ten like you've been doing. Or maybe seven." I said, turning my head so he could understand what I was saying.
"We'll come back whenever you want to." He said. "We need to leave quickly." He added, pulling away from me to get on his horse, then helped me get on behind him, then addressed his brother, "Jesse, we need to go," and we all started off while Jesse finished saying goodbye to Winnie, but he ran and jumped on the back of the buggy before we had gotten too far.
"Winnie Foster, I will love you until the day I die!" he yelled and somehow I knew that would hold true.
I didn't talk to the rest of the Tucks about drinking from the spring until we were far away from Treegap, but none of them seemed to mind, saying I was a grown woman and was very capable of making that kind of decision and it be the right decision. Every few years, Miles would accompany me to visit my sister even though all of our meetings had to be in secret. I watched as she aged until she died at the age of one hundred. I had no way of telling Jesse it had happened because me and Miles had had no contact with Jesse, Angus, or Mae for a few years, seeing them about every ten years or so. It wasn't long after leaving Treegap for the first time that me and Miles went our own way, making a life for ourselves and travelling the world, seeing everything there was to see. All in all, I had what some would call happily ever after, but I knew it was much more than that because I would have it for all eternity.
Thank you so much for reading! I would love to hear what you all thought of it in a review! Thanks!