This is what happens when you take an unlikely universe and squeeze your favourite characters in.
On a side note, expect that Anna's POV to the most common, so this isn't going to start like the movie.
On a side side note, I just noticed that there aren't a lot of fics that focus on Jack and Anna's relationship when they're not a pairing. This is the first ever definitely-Jelsa fic I've ever written. Don't expect fluff though. It's Inception.
She had always assumed that she'd be the first to settle down. Apparently not.
Her sister had met some cute guy in college, who wasn't actually from the college. From the little that Elsa revealed, he used to be some hush-hush military program, which was weird, because Anna felt he wasn't tall enough to be a soldier. She was puzzled at how attached Elsa was to this punk-ish, almost gangster-like young man, because Elsa had always warned her against trusting strangers, especially the good-looking ones.
But in one of the few, awkward 'family' dinners - 'family' because it's really just her and Elsa now - she deemed that he must indeed be worthy of her sister's love if he could make her laugh like that. Because Elsa barely even smiled, even before the time that their parents died.
For Elsa's sake, Anna bore with him, trying to laugh at his odd remarks and not bite at his swings in temper. Yet in the course of interaction with him, she couldn't help realizing how circumstance, or luck perhaps, barred them from having a closer relationship. Wherever their conversations started, it would be abruptly cut off by Elsa dragging him off, or a phone call, or his little sister interrupting. Some people would have thought that appropriate - after all, the last thing one should do is accidentally fall for one's sister's gorgeous boyfriend. But at the same time, she couldn't help feeling terribly uncomfortable with the invisible barrier erected between her and this enigmatic young man. Elsa never really elaborated details about his history, or anything about him actually, but Anna decided that Elsa trusted him, then it was enough.
Right after her sister graduated, she married the guy, and happily too. Though Anna flashed smiles and spoken warm wishes to the couples, she still wondered if he had taken her seriously when she had pulled him aside and sworn to gut him and yank out his entrails if he had ever hurt Elsa. It had occurred to her that she might have been overly harsh - she could detect no insincerity in his words towards his radiant bride. The uneasiness in her heart had been forcibly shoved away as she joined the other girls in attempting to catch the bride's bouquet, squealing in triumph when it fell into her grasp.
Married life took Elsa away to her husband's home in Burgess, some small town in west Pennsylvania, which wasn't actually that far from their old home. Anna felt the distance, yes, but it wasn't as if it wasn't already there. For starters, they had been drifting apart steadily apart over the years, especially after their parents' passing. Elsa had often shut herself up in her room, busying herself with studying, working and little else. Maybe this was Elsa really wanted – to get away from her. Besides, Elsa had found true love, and Anna wasn't going to ruin things.
On the day of her sister's first wedding anniversary, Anna was in the middle of icing a special chocolate cake she had haphazardly-baked with, unsurprisingly, more chocolate, when she received a call. When she heard the full news, the bag of icing was dropped on the surface of the cake, smearing the crudely scrawled words into a blur. She covered her mouth to prevent the operator on the line from hearing the curses mixed in her sobs. It hardly needs to be said that she took the very next train to Burgess.
She found Elsa, pale, cold, comatose in a bed in the emergency ward. Doctors had patched her up the best they could, but there had been only so much they could do for the survivor of a thirteen storey fall.
Thirteen. The only reason Elsa was still breathing still had been due to the huge lake that had happened to be right outside the window ledge where she had fallen from. However, it was winter, and the lake had been frozen. Impact with the ice surface had broken many of her bones, not excluding the skull, and the cold had put her in shock. The doctors had managed to fix most, letting the rest heal on their own, but Anna somehow knew that it had been merely the beginning of the arduous wait that would soon come.
Her husband was nowhere in sight. The last person who had seen him was Jamie Bennett, a neighbour to the Overlands. He was at their house - his and Elsa's - looking and shouting for his younger sister, before clambering anxiously into his car and driving away.
Investigation by the police had then been made of the scene of the crime - that had been the suite of the Hotel de Grande, one of the classier places in the quiet town. The room of the fall had been the very same booked by the young Overlands - presumably for some anniversary celebration. The suite had been discovered to contain strewn furniture, broken glass and a letter. A letter, scribbled in a hurry, had been by Elsa's hand, and it had sounded anxious, speaking fearfully, almost hatefully of her husband. It had not been explicitly stated, but there had been suggested that he had threatened her with murder before.
Anna had felt like ripping out some furniture and breaking windows herself. She had been so foolish! All these years, she had bought up the lies, the acts - and all this time, the cute guy that her sister had met in college had been a monster, just waiting to burst out of his skin and claw her eyes out.
Her entire life had been shaken. Her psycho, two-faced brother-in-law had left behind a kid sister of nine years, and the custody somehow fell to the eldest living relative, who was only nineteen herself. She had found herself traveling to Burgess almost every week to keep tabs on Elsa, Emma and progress on the case. She had demanded that the police bring the monster to justice, and the shocking headlines from the press helped to push the cause.
About two months into Elsa's coma and her husband's manhunt, Anna was visiting the Overland residence to check on Emma, when a call arrived. She picked it up, and recognized the voice instantly.
It was him.
He asked for his sister, which she, of course, denied. She wasn't going to let Emma get sucked into his lies. Though her brother was a psychopath, the kid was sweet, innocent. She was merely a victim. Like Elsa.
He tried to make excuses, though. "I didn't mean to-"
"Mean to what? Break her heart? Her spirit? Push her out of the window?"
"Damn it! I didn't do it, Anna! She jumped herself!"
She had laughed a humorless laugh, because that had been really weak excuse. "Do you think I'm stupid? Unless you're implying she had jumped to get away from you."
"No! The explanation's... complicated."
"Try me."
There was a pause, then - "This line is bugged, isn't it?"
He had hung immediately from then. The police had only managed to trace it to an empty all telephone box somewhere in Chicago. That was the last he had ever tried making contact, and since then, he had been reported to have left the States.
Emma resented her for not handing over the phone like Jack had requested, because she refused to believe that her elder brother would ever commit such a deed - such was the faith of children. Anna had shaken her head, before deciding to sign the guardianship paper's for once and for all, and move to Burgess, to the Overland residence. She was going to be here for a long, long time, after all.
Between Elsa's hospital bills, her own and Emma's school fees, Anna had expected to be overwhelmed, but somehow the money in their accounts never ran out, and she hardly needed to work at all. She had tried to track down the mysterious 'donor', whose identity she had suspicions on, but the money was always wired anonymously from strange locations. Her pride wanted to refuse the charity - 'blood money', she called in her head, but she needed to pay for groceries and rental. She never mentioned anything of it to Emma, though, and continued working at the nearby diner to keep up appearances. There was no need to clutter up the kid's mind.
About three years after 'the day', she received the letter congratulating her on earning a full scholarship to a college of architecture in France. She and Emma had been so excited, screaming and dancing around in the living room till the neighbors came banging on the door, hollering for quiet.
Emma, being the stubborn kid she was, refused for Anna to refuse it, so arrangements had to be made. It was agreed upon that Emma would stay with Mrs. Bennett and her children. The elder lady had been very sympathetic towards the family, though strangely bearing the same faith Emma had in the fugitive. Anna left appropriate bank numbers, phones number, and all necessary files with her, before putting the own house on rent.
Before leaving for Paris, she visited the hospital one last time to gaze upon the pale countenance of her fair sister. They had once giving her the option of shutting down the life support, but Anna didn't want to give up. Elsa was just in deep, deep sleep, and she needed to the proper motivation before she would wake up.
Like to witness Jack Overland before a firing squad.
Okay, that's a tad extreme. Jack Overland's arrest, then.
"I'll find him," Anna promised the unresponsive girl, squeezing the frail hand, as she often did in her visits. "And I might kick him, or shoot him, if I buy a gun, or something. Not apologizing about that."
There was always a vase of fresh flowers by Elsa's bedside. Anna had always arranged them herself, and now that duty would be passed to Emma. For sentiment's sake, though, Anna adjusted crocuses one last time.
Kissing her sister tenderly on the forehead, Anna hadn't any idea that she indeed would have a chance to shoot her estranged brother-in-law. Multiple times, in fact. Just not quite the way she expected.
After dismissing the class, her Russian lecturer asked her to meet him outside the cathedral near the college. He had a project offer by a certain 'businessman', and wondered if she would be interested in it. She was intrigued, naturally, because anyone who knew her would know that her level of curiosity would have killed throngs of cats, and maybe a couple of kittens - not that felicide is in anyway morally right, or anything.
When she found Prof. Klaussen, or as most people just called him, North, she found that he was accompanied by a stranger in a blue cardigan. The fellow in question looked young, almost 'hipster' enough to pass one of the college students. But Anna detected something dark, and somewhat moody, in the expression he bore, and instantly, he seemed to age a hundred years. Maybe it was the white hair - he must have dyed or something. His eyes also shone an unnatural shade of blue, gleaming and piercing.
And then she realized she knew who he was, and vice versa.
"Ah, Anna," her professor began in his thick accent, looking pleased at her arrival, "it is-"
Anna marched straight up and socked the man in the hoodie straight in the face, screaming profanities that would have made the pastoral staff within the chapel walls shudder. Her punch didn't knock him over, but it did knock his hoodie off. When she tried to lash at him again, he caught her wrist, and before she knew it, he had his fingers around both of her wrists, and she was screeching for him to release her.
The professor had merely sighed and commented that he should have chosen another location for the meet. The young white-haired man gave him a frown, before facing the struggling girl. For all his leanness, he was strong, and she couldn't even kick him in her state.
"Anna-"
"Let me go! You thrice accursed son of a bleepin'-"
"I-"
"You murdering, maniacal-"
"For the last time, I didn't kill her!"
She only calmed down because she was out of breath. Nothing to do with his words striking her heart, or the hurt in his eyes. Seeing that she stopped, he let go.
"Anna, this is the 'businessman' I was talking about," North decided to say to fill the tension.
She folded her arms, stepping away carefully, furrowing her brows. Jack didn't seem to notice, only turning to the professor, stating accusingly, "You set this up."
"No," North denied firmly, crossing his bulging arms. "You asked me for a good architect, and she's good. Better than you, actually."
"But you know who - how," the young man floundered, frustrated. He gestured at the brown-haired girl. "I can't work with her."
"Yep, I don't work for back-stabbing, window-shoving creeps," Anna piped in, scowling at him.
"Seriously, stop it," was all Jack told her, but she could tell by the grating sounds at the back of his throat that her words were getting him. "North - a word?"
The Russian professor and the white-haired man had such an extended 'discussion' that Anna found herself slumping down on the steps by the buttresses, bored out of her wits. They were arguing in some other language that she didn't know - probably so that she wouldn't overhear anything. It never quite occurred to her that he would be the multilingual type. And an architect graduate too, with honors and all that jazz. She occasionally cast cold glares his way, just to let him know that the only thing keeping her from tearing him to shreds. She began to wonder how difficult would it be to purchase an automatic in France. Not that she had ever used one before, or anything…
Eventually, the argument ended, and the two men approached. Judging by Jack's grim expression, the older man had won.
"Well?" she challenged as she got to her feet, sticking her chin up at the evil brother-in-law.
"I didn't kill her."
She narrowed her eyes. "I heard that bit already. You're gonna have to do better than that."
He was reluctant, but a look from the professor made him continued, "If you want an explanation, you're going to have to take the job."
She considered it over carefully. She had a hunch it was probably illegal, considering all the secrecy and weirdness. But she wanted - needed to know if there was really more to this crazy dude her sister tied the knot with, and the answers to the questions that an unconscious sister couldn't provide. So Anna answered, "Fine. But I don't kill people."
"Funnily, I don't do that either." That earned a disbelieving look from her. "What? I really don't."
"Alright. Then what do you do?"
"Test first, answers later."
She raised a brow. "Test?"
"Before I give you the job, I need to know you can do it."
Jack shoved a pencil and sketch pad into her hand, the cheap kind one could buy from the neighboring stationary shops. "Two minutes. Design a maze that takes a minute to solve."
She began at once, doing the using rectangular box kind that she used find in the little art books as a kid.
"Stop."
He solved in less than five seconds. Ripping away the sheet, the pad fell into her hands once more.
"Again."
She tried something more complicated, adding dead-ends and false routes.
"Stop."
The same thing happened, and the pad went back in her hands. He threw her words back at her - "You're gonna have to better than that."
A surge of irritation rose up her. North said that she was better than him, and the scumbag didn't believe it? Well, watch this then.
She took up the pencil, jabbing it into the page and dragging it along in circles, never lifting it off till a single, convoluted spiral appeared. She handed it back to him.
He pressed the pencil nib on the paper, biting his lip in thought.
Anna grinned.
North chuckled knowingly. "I did tell you, my friend."
A/N:
I should be studying. Urgh... Thank you plaguing my brain, stupid idea.
I already have two stories that I'm in for the long haul, so whether or not I continue this depends on feedback, inspiration and time management. The last time I actually watched this movie from front to end is actually 2010, so I won't really be able to finish writing this till I have a chance to watch it again.
Jack's Cobb (a.k.a protagonist). Anna's Ariadne (a.k.a Ellen Page). Shouldn't be hard to work out who Mal is.
Pairings: Not the focus for this story, but obviously Jelsa, some eventual Kristanna and possibly Flynzel.
Review. Ask Questions.