A/N: Unfortunately, I don't own King Kong, nor did I write the original story or come up with the original characters we all know and love. In this story, Jane and Freddie are the only two (I can think of) that are mine! So, without further ado...
Chapter I: Freddie
It was a blustery, sunny afternoon in April 1937, and the clocks of New York had just struck two o'clock. A yellow cab pulled away from the kerb, and the woman who had just climbed out of it looked up at the tall apartment block she stood in front of. Ann Driscoll cast a glance over shoulder at her husband, and he slipped his hand into her own, before leading her inside.
"Which floor is it, again?" Jack asked as they approached an elevator.
"You ask that every time we visit," Ann said, smiling fondly, but she pressed the circular button marked '22' and the doors slid shut. "You could at least try to remember Jane's address."
"She's your cousin, and I see no reason why a valuable spot in my memory should be taken up by a piece of information you will never forget."
The twenty-second floor was bright and airy, with magnolia walls and large windows along one side of the corridor. Along the other, at wide intervals, was a row of doors; and it was outside the second of these, '222', that Ann stopped and knocked.
From inside they heard a child's voice and exchanged grins, before the door was opened by the young woman they both knew so well: Jane Bennet. She was about Ann's height, with a slender figure similar to the one her cousin usually maintained. Green eyes twinkled in merriment, and long, golden-brown hair framed similarly beautiful features.
"Ah!" she exclaimed. "Ann, Jack! It's good to see you!" She spoke with the refined accent of an upper class Englishwoman, hanging on to her roots despite having lived thousands of miles across the Atlantic from her homeland for years.
She embraced her American cousin warmly and kissed Jack's cheek, then led them into her home, saying, "Come in, come in!"
The guests found themselves straight away in the main living area of the apartment, a comfortable-looking space with walls painted pale yellow and an array of mismatched furniture assembled over time from countless different sources. The room was a clash of cultures, with an old English grandfather clock that was it's owner's pride and joy and bookcases full of literary classics, but scattered over the antique rugs on the floor were innumerable toys and picture books.
"I'm sorry about the mess," Jane began, "My little monkey has yet to learn to clean up after himself." Ann smiled. This little monkey, if a little untidy, was the very reason for his mother's existence, she knew. "Freddie!" Jane called, and a small boy of perhaps four years old came hurtling out of a door with a wide grin on his face.
"Uncle Jack!" he exclaimed, and threw himself into the playwright's open arms. Jack was the child's favourite playmate, a title that he took great enjoyment in.
"How are you, buddy?" he asked, ruffling Freddie's short blonde hair with a smile.
"Very sick, I should imagine," Jane answered for him. "My mother sent me a parcel of fudge that arrived this morning, and I never realised just how quickly it disappears down little boys' throats."
"It was yummy!" her son said excitedly. Now, he hugged Ann, though he eyed her nervously. "How is your little baby?" he asked.
The actress smiled and placed one hand on the growing bump of her first child. "I'm sure they're just fine," she told the little boy, but his attention was swiftly turned back to her husband.
"Uncle Jack!" he cried, "Come and see my trains! I've a new one, a red one, and you'll like it!"
Jack laughed, and let the youngster lead him away by the hand, leaving the cousins alone.
"He is the most adorable little thing I ever laid eyes on!" Ann told her companion as they embraced again.
"Though soon you'll have your own to challenge him for your affections," Jane replied with a smile, eyeing her cousin's bump. They sat down side-by-side on a low red sofa. "How far along are you?"
"Four months now, according to my doctor."
"And do you have any idea what you're going to call the child?"
"Jack and I can't agree. If it's a boy, I'd like to call him William, keeping playwright names in the family, but Jack prefers Peter, and for a girl I like Rebecca, after my favourite book, whereas my husband wants to call her Joanna, after his late grandmother."
Jane smiled. "I guess I'm lucky not to have had that problem when I had Freddie, his father having been long gone by then."
Ann smiled too, though with a hint of sadness and pity. She, along with her husband, was one of the few who had known Freddie's father, having been on the infamous voyage during which the little boy was conceived.
"Can I get you a drink?" Jane asked, swiftly changing the subject as if she knew her cousin's thoughts. "Coffee, or perhaps something a little stronger? Or, if you would like, my mother sent some proper English tea along with the fudge. It's good quality, and I've been dying to open it."
Ann wrinkled her nose at the prospect of the bittersweet drink her cousin was so fond of. "Just coffee, thanks."
"Do you know if Jack will want anything?"
"Nothing for me, Jane," the man himself said, coming out of Freddie's room with the boy in tow. "But would you mind terribly if I took Freddie out for a little while?"
"Not at all," the young mother replied quickly, "As long as you bring him back in time for dinner."
Freddie squealed in delight, and, after kissing his mother's cheek and Jack helping him on with his coat, pulled his uncle out of the door as quickly as he could.
Ann laughed as she watched them go. "Jack loves it," she told her cousin. "I think he'll love having a little one of his own."
"Indeed, I'm not sure who enjoys your visits more, him or Freddie!"
Both young women now passed into the small kitchen, and Ann looked out of the large window over the Manhattan skyline while Jane bustled about making the coffee.
"Freddie looks more like his father every time I see him," the actress said softly. She exchanged glances with her cousin; she knew Jane liked to avoid this topic whenever she could. "Blonde hair, the brightest blue eyes I've seen in a long time… even his facial features are starting to resemble those of the –"
"Ann, please don't."
Jane handed her cousin a mug of coffee with an awkward glance. Ann ignored her discomfort.
"Jane, we've never spoken about him before. Your son is five years old. Don't you think it's high time we did?"
"What is there to talk about?"
"Plenty, you know that. You never even told me how you fell in love with him in the first place."
They returned to their seats on the sofa, and Jane finally gave in to her cousin.
"It was on the infamous voyage of '33," she began, "This much you know. We both liked each other from the beginning, only neither of us wanted to confess it for months. I was always friends with Hayes, but the Captain always either criticised or ignored me, only speaking to me out of pure necessity." She sighed wistfully. "And yet I fell for him. Somehow, despite all of his teasing, Captain Englehorn stole my heart." She caught her cousin's eye with a sad smile. "I think it was the accent that did it eventually; I always liked his accent. And his eyes – he had a way of looking at me that would make any woman weak at the knees."
Ann watched her in disbelief. She'd never expected Jane to open up quite like this. "And he liked you too, I suppose."
"Enough so to father my child, yes. He coped very well with the idea, I thought. I half expected him to run as soon as I told him of my pregnancy, but instead he rented me an apartment."
Ann smiled. "Whenever I think of Englehorn, I picture him on Skull Island wielding a machine gun, or standing at the wheel of the Venture in his white cap with a cigarette in his mouth. I can't imagine him as a father."
"Neither could he, seemingly." Jane sighed sadly. "The bank balance started to run low, so he went to sea again to make some money. He promised to send the rent for the apartment, and that he'd be back in a couple of months, only…"
Ann finished for her. "…He never returned."
Jane's eyes glistened with tears, and her cousin put a comforting arm round her shoulders.
"Do you still miss him?" Ann asked.
"I never stopped loving him. That's why Freddie has his father's name." She smiled through her tears. "I taught him to introduce himself properly as 'Frederick Englehorn'. You should hear him, he's quite the little gentleman."
Ann had never told Jane, but both her and her husband had been watching for the Venture's return to dock in New York since the day he'd left. "I'm sure Englehorn will return one day," she said, and kissed her cousin's forehead softly. "Believe me, he will."
A/N: I hope you liked this! Kindly leave me a review, and I'll upload the next chapter in return. I know not much happened in this one, but it gets better, I promise!
the green lama