Disclainer: The mouse has it all. Except for Anna, who popped up in my head one day and refuses to leave.
Author's Note: Thank you, reviewers. Dala1, Anna came out of nowhere for me too, so we're in that together. Redlady, thanks for the support. Just wait and see. I think this chapter will answer a lot of questions, and hopefully make some new ones.
Summary: to refresh your memories, Anna was captured springing Jack from jail, and somehow knows Commodore Norrington.
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Without turning, the pirate murmured, "Nice to see you remember, James. Here I thought you'd forgotten all about me."
Norrington barked a short laugh. "Lord knows I tried. You're not the easiest person to put out of mind." Approaching the bars, he looked down at Anna as she stood to face him and saw how the years had changed her. Her long brown hair had been cropped short, and bleached by the sun. Her milky skin had been toughened and tanned by years at sea, and her lithe body was wiry with muscle. Covered in dirt and grime, and clothed like a buccaneer, she still managed to look exactly as he remembered.
Smiling faintly, she answered, "Nor are you, James." Reaching one hand through the bars, she touched his arm, only to have him recoil indignantly.
"I am still an officer of the Royal Navy, Anna." The pirate smiled.
"And I hang in the morning. What? Afraid the dog's going to tell?" She asked, nodding towards the scruffy mutt curled up in the corner.
"And if you should escape?" Now it was Anna's turn to laugh.
"I'm not Jack Sparrow, James. I doubt anyone will notice the removal of another pirate from this world, even if she happens to be as pretty as me." Settling once more on the floor of her cell, she peered through the gloom at Norrington. "How long has it been, anyway?"
"Nearly fifteen years, Miss Cutter," the commodore said, shifting a little.
Anna glared at him. "Back to formalities, are we? You didn't call me that in the past."
Norrington snorted. "You weren't a pirate in the past."
"And you didn't have a stick up your arse, either, but you don't hear me complaining," she grinned. Norrington sighed and crouched down to look Anna in the eye.
"This is neither the time, nor the place-" he started.
"I'd have to disagree with you there, James. This is all the time I'll ever have. And the place really can't be helped." She grinned at him again. "Unless, of course, you want to let me out?" Norrington glared. "Didn't think so, but you can't blame a girl for trying."
"You weren't always this insufferable," he replied.
"Yes I was. Or don't you remember?" Anna's eyes narrowed as she leaned close to the bars. She smelt faintly of alcohol, salt, and gunpowder.
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"Come on, James!" urged the girl tugging at his arm. They were standing in the streets of London, and Anna was trying vainly to drag him to the docks.
"What if we get caught?" he asked, still not budging.
"We won't," she insisted. "And besides, even if we do, you can just claim it was all my idea."
"It is your idea," he pointed out. Anna had been trying to drag him down to the docks since midmorning to sneak aboard the HMS Lancaster and see the pirate being held there.
"Yes, but they won't believe it if you act noble and say that it was your idea. I'm the ruffian, remember?" James chuckled and pulled Anna off the street into an alley.
Kissing her gently, he asked, "And what does that make me?" Anna smiled.
"Why, the poor hapless rich boy drawn in by my criminal ways, of course." He laughed and kissed her again.
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"Of course I remember," Norrington whispered, drawing closer to the bars. As he did, he caught sight of Anna's left wrist, branded with a "P", and stiffened. "But that doesn't change what you are." Anna followed the direction of his gaze and sighed.
Pulling up her sleeve, she said quietly, "Look. I got that one two years ago boarding a merchant ship," indicating a scar that looked like the muscle had nearly been severed. Pulling up the tail of her shirt, she tapped a bullet scar just below her ribs. "Escaping from the Spanish." Rolling up the left leg of her breeches, Anna traced a scar on her calf. "A botched attempt to hamstring me." Finally, she pulled down the scarf wrapped around her throat and Norrington bit back a gasp. A ragged white scar encircled her neck; the mark of a noose. "The British Royal Navy. We're not so different, James. It's just that the law says that what you do is right."
Norrington reached gingerly through the bars and touched the scar the noose had left. The feel of the unnaturally slick skin under his fingers made him shiver. Anna put one calloused hand on his and scooted closer to the bars. Turning his hand palm up, Anna kissed the inside of his wrist, a gesture from their past.
Norrington sighed and cupped her face. "Anna-," he began.
The pirate pulled away, out of reach. "I know," she murmured. "And you're right. Our past doesn't change what I am. Or your duty." With a resigned sigh, she stood and paced to far end of her cell. "You should probably go now, Commodore Norrington."
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Muahahahaha! I feel really evil ending this chapter here, but everyone loves a cliffhanger, right? (frantically hopes that everyone loves a cliffhanger). What will Norrington do in the next chapter? To be honest, I have no idea.
In any case, I shall send a frolicky piggy the way of anyone who can guess what fictional character I got Anna's last name from. Please review! I get all warm 'n' fuzzy inside whenever I see a new one.
