[Wrote this all tonight, it's 2:16 AM. I miss writing for this movie! Glad I got back into the swing after hating Fanfic for so long. Still to this day though I love RP because everyone can play off of each other.]

The sun had just started to rise above New York City and had already taken the many skyscrapers and buildings into an ever growing sparkle. It was sunny, too sunny for her liking and would only mean one thing; breathing. Every single day Maureen Epps had begged whatever God was in the sky to just take her life already, be done with it. Her entire crew of the Arctic Warrior had been ripped from her grasp and out of her life. For someone who had never knew a father figure in her life she had surely found it in her Captain. Murphy, a kind soul that would never be forgotten no matter how much time had passed by.

Seasons would come and go but the thoughts would always be there, always be of him. She had grown up in New York with an older sister who was the basic princess of the Epps family. Her mother was vain, selfish and a business woman who always wanted Maureen to be perfect. Like her sister anyway, Elizabeth. She was spoiled by their mother and always had the best money could offer and then some. The younger daughter of the family however was a rough and tumble tomboy through and through.

Someone that Jennifer Epps could never pin down in terms of having a perfect and well brought up life. Maureen was a free spirit and never wanted to take no for an answer, she craved knowledge and wanted things to be done right. Never mind her father being the handyman, she was. If a sink needed fixing, the brunette was there. If the lawn needed to be mowed, then damn was she ever there. Her motto in life was to live it to the fullest and earn her keep. To never take hand outs was the key, it would always be the key.

By the time her family had successfully put up a facade of being happy, her father had lost his job. The family drowned in an endless sea of depression and he resorted to alcohol. Wasn't that always how it was? The father would become a dead-beat and forget everything he had accomplished in his life. He would forget his family, his wife and his two loving daughters. He'd forget everything and eventually lose his mind.

Now she too would understand what it was like to completely lose your shit, and then some. By the time Elizabeth had been hitched and had two kids, Maureen was already out working in the harbor to bring in the crates of seafood and fish on her tugboat. It was decent pay, but her mother wasn't happy with her and was never satisfied.

She would never be satisfied, ever. No matter how much Maureen tried it would never be enough, Elizabeth would have to be the perfect daughter because it sure as hell wouldn't be her.

There was a man who used to come out from the local pubs and sit out on the docks when her work hour ended. He'd just sit there for what seemed like a few hours as if lost in a complete haze. He had that look to him that told the story of a broken man without any real direction in life. Maybe he was happy once? Maybe he was smarter than he let on, but he had no will to use any of it.

After a few weeks of finally getting to know him, she started to realize that there was someone out there with just about as many problems as she had. Maybe the dark haired girl wasn't alone.

Maybe there was still hope.

From there, Maureen had helped him ween off of the bottle and eventually they spilled their hearts out to each other and made a pact; help each other. No matter what the cost, they'd have their own tugboat, he'd be a Captain again and they would set off to find a crew. What came of those promises however was more than they bargained for.

Murphy had been the Captain's name and he was the closest thing to a father that she could have ever known. Her family started to forget about her and her mother just stopped talking all together. It was all right though, there was a crew and there was a light at the end of the dark tunnel they had all been traveling through.

A corridor of endless crap in their lives that had now been cleared. Devoid of any lonely misery so they could all share it.

Dodge, Munder, Greer and Santos were the names of the crew. The Arctic Warrior was what they eventually named the tug and had taken on some of the dirtiest and most difficult salvaging jobs ever. But it paid and paid well, which would ultimately give them the reputation they needed. The best in the business, that's what they were. A team and the glue that would hold them all together.

But as so many fairy tales do...this one had a tragic ending.

Now it was back to the daily grind, her share of the company had given her a small profit but it didn't remove the weight from her shoulders. The guilt, the pain and the horror that they had all gone through. It'd never go away.

Then again what was the point of wishing that it wouldn't? She had turned up washed out in the middle of the ocean and picked up by a soon to be boarded cruise ship. One thing that the disoriented young woman hadn't planned; that he'd be back.

Jack Ferriman. The way his cold blue eyes stared back at her from the entrance plank was almost indescribable. Her cries had been too harsh even for her ears and all at once...nothing.

Black. Everything had been black and the sedative that the paramedics had given her had finally worked. Eventually her talks of ghosts and soul takers had landed her right in a small psych ward and back to the drawing board. How the hell could Maureen possibly explain to them what had happened? They couldn't even fathom just what happened out there.

Her therapists had thought she was crazy at first, prescribed her all sorts of medication to help the pain. But it just numbed it...and after a while, she felt nothing anymore. After a while she started to lie in order to get herself out and the medication would get less and less until finally they'd release her.

She stood at the sliding glass door with a warm cup of coffee in her hands, decaf of course. Caffeine was probably the last thing she needed at this point in her life. Probably never again to be honest.

The phone rang slightly and jolted her from her thoughts. Epps frowned at the realization that it had been the phone and not just her imagination. Quietly she set the mug down on the table and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" her voice feigned a facade of normalcy even if she felt like screaming at the top of her lungs. Go figure, fatigue still was kicking in since it had been early in the morning.

"Hello, is this a Miss Maureen Epps?" the voice on the other line had spoken in broken English. He had an accent that couldn't really be described. Perhaps a mix of both Swedish and Italian? It didn't make much sense really.

Her brow arched at his words and almost wanted to scoff. "You're calling me, aren't you?" she shot back with slightly tired sarcasm.

"I'll take that as a yes." the man exhaled.

"So?" her hand tapped onto the table and tried to keep herself from hanging up. Did this guy have no respect or something? Seriously, the girl had hoped that the newspapers would eventually leave her the fuck alone by now. But there was always one right?

"You are in danger." the voice said on the other end. This nearly made her eyes wide as saucers but Maureen just glared at the blank wall in front of her.

"And how am I in danger?" she did a good job at masking the shake in her voice or the fear in her tone. In fact? They should give her a medal for this stuff. And like clockwork the line went dead.

Well, that was extremely not cool. Her green eyes peered back at the wall and finally her hand hung up the phone with an irritated sigh. Danger? Was that the best they could do? Stupid pranks, always a prank or so. Always something stupid to make her seem even more insane than they thought she was.

But there it was, a tapping at her door. Then it came into two solid knocks with someone's bony knuckles. She had just about enough of this shit already. "Hold on!" her voice upped its pitch a bit from still being groggy and now pissed off.

Finally gathering her thoughts, Epps grabbed onto the door handle and pulled it open. What she saw however didn't exactly make any tender moments in the situation right about now.

"Hello, Maureen." Jack Ferriman purred nearly with a grin that could give the Cheshire cat a run for his money.

"Shit." the woman gasped and instantly slammed the door shut with her hands. She held it there with all her might in an attempt to keep him out. It was no use, he wasn't human and by the time the lock was flipped he had her instantly against a wall.

"Not happy to see old friends are we?" Ferriman's demeanor had shifted in less than ten seconds flat to show his immense anger as his nostrils flared. His icy pale hand had her in a death grip around her throat. The more she tried to get him off the tighter his hand got.

His lips turned into a sneer and he back kicked the door closed so there would be no disturbances. With his telepathic powers the door immediately locked by both the knob and the chain. That was pretty easy, too easy actually.

Maureen clawed at his hand with all her might as her short nails left dull and bloody scratches on his wrist. He hissed in pain angrily and finally dropped her. Epps fell to the ground with a dull thump and held her throat hesitantly. She coughed while still rubbing her throat and tried to speak but failed at words.

He got down at eye level with her into a squat and tipped her chin to look at him. "You didn't think you'd get away so easy, did you? I mean, come on, Epps. No one escapes me and if I recall right...you're a sinner." his lips nearly upturned into a smirk and he slid his hand away from her chin to lightly slap her playfully.

"Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me." the tomboy glared at him and slid herself against the wall. Her knees were up just in case she had to kick him and she had grabbed onto a small paperweight from the middle table.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Ferriman nearly laughed at her. "You blew up the ship, Epps. What happens when the ship goes boom?" he was toying with her and it was pissing her off tenfold. Jack stood and brushed off his dull green button up as if disgusted by any dirt on it. Such a prim and proper asshole.

Her eyes just glared daggers at him.

"Let me put it into words you'll understand, baby." he mocked her and loved every second of it. Hell, when was there not a point to degrade women? Especially how Francesca had it coming to her. But this one was different, she wasn't stupid and she had outsmarted him. That counted for something and management was already trying to chew his ass out for it.

"You blew me up too. You know what that means?" like he'd even give her a moment to guess. He loved to try to scare her even if she was just ready to clobber him in the skull with the paper weight.

"You killed me, you sinned." his anger started to flair again and he advanced on her once he was able to stand. "You cost me all my souls which was pretty much the fuck up of the year to Management. The balance doesn't take kindly to the tipping of its scales and let's just say you owe me." he held out his hand to her.

Some of her curls fell into her eyes but she couldn't help the chuckle that rolled off of the tip of her tongue. "Go to Hell." in retort to his offered hand.

"Been there, done that. You're coming along for the ride." new ship, new horrors... revenge was sweet.