Disclaimer- Nope. I STILL have no money. Ergo, I do not own these characters.

Five shows, she thought idly. Five shows, one for each of her pudgy fingers, five shows, and she knew this would be the worst. She wiggled her fingers and sighed. This would be their sixth show, and while Ann never had any problems with the number six, it was never her favorite. And she could feel the badness of this show in her bones, just as if the powers of the realms had given her the gift of prophecy.

The Merry Maidens, courtesy of Mr. Charlie Smalls, had been doing very well. On the first night, true, Ann had come in a little late, but no one had noticed. And the rest of the nights, and their shows, were absolutely fine. There were no losing of the props or costumes, there was no undeniably and quite horribly off key note, and the show was drawing in rather large crowds.

And Ann had no problems with the other Merry Maidens, for whom the show was named: there was Phoebe Barnes, who had a rather low voice for a girl, and was almost as tall as Gemma. Phoebe was outgoing, had an awful temper, and flirted outrageously with the men in the company—it made Ann blush when she was near enough. After Phoebe, Rebecca came to mind. At first, Ann just thought Rebecca shy. Now, she knows that Rebecca doesn't get along too well with people: she frowns and when holding a conversation with her, it's almost always one-sided. The last of the Merry Maidens was Henrietta Rowatt, and she was the prettiest of the four. She almost reminded Ann of Pippa, she was so beautiful, and they had similar hair and skin, but Ettie's eyes were very, very blue, and larger than Pip's. Ettie was by far one of the sweetest girls that Ann had ever met, but she wasn't very smart. Ann envied her, because she knew that even if Ettie didn't have a pretty voice (and she certainly did) the men would still fawn all over her. The only one who didn't pay very much attention to Ettie was Charlie: he nonchalantly mentioned to Ann that he didn't think that she was any more special than the next girl. Ann flushed at his bluntness, but was considerably cheered at this knowledge. Every other Tom, Dick and Harry was at her doorstep offering her flowers. Ann couldn't hate Ettie for this—she was too kind and too much a child to hate her for anything, but she certainly did envy her.

"Ann. Ann?" It was Ettie's voice, lilting prettily over the words. Even when she spoke it sounded like music. Ann turned away from the mirror, which she had been staring at as she zoned out the past few moments.

"I'm sorry, Ettie, what were you saying?"

"We're to go on in about a half an hour. Do you need help getting dressed?" Ettie smiled at Ann, and she glanced over at Rebecca, who was glowering at the girls, and Phoebe, who was turning her face from side to side and preening her hair.

"Of course, please." Ann did her best to smile, and she stood, preparing herself for the torture that was called dressing, and the show that would come after. The bad feeling was still there, and did not seem to want to pass.

The next fifteen minutes was spent dressing—Ettie threw up her hands at tying Ann's corset, saying how she simply couldn't bear to hurt their Annie. Part of Ann's mind was annoyed at how silly this was, but Rebecca tied it instead. The dress that Ann wore was very simple, and it matched the other girls' dresses but for the color: Ann's was a lovely light pink, Ettie's was a pale blue, Rebecca's was green, and Phoebe's was a bold red. Five minutes to the introduction, Charlie Smalls knocked on their door and stuck his head in to ask if they were ready. When he saw all four girls dressed and ready, a big, lopsided smile split his face. "My Merry Maidens, don't you all look the picture of beauty." He stole off his bowler hat and bowed deeply, peering up at them through his dirty-blond hair. Charlie laughed, and Ann could feel her smile nearly break her face in two. Ettie giggled girlishly, and Charlie raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. Ann felt something a little like jealousy. Phoebe, Ettie, Rebecca and Ann followed Charlie a few minutes after he left. They spoke amongst themselves, and even Rebecca seemed unusually chipper. Ann felt like a giant weight was bearing down on her; the foreboding feeling about tonight's show and Charlie's little flirt with Ettie seemed to weight ten pounds each, and obviously enjoyed sitting on her shoulders.

The first very bad mistake was in the first act, in the second scene, and it wasn't even made by Ann. Phoebe (who, surprisingly, was the least graceful) tripped over her dance partner's feet. It sent the audience to tittering, and the actors and actresses to nervousness. When Rebecca stopped singing, and it was time for Ann's solo, the pianist didn't come in, and in her panic, she forgot the words. Then, when Ettie had her part to sing, her voice had suddenly vanished. Nothing seemed to be going right. Nothing.

After the show, Phoebe glared vehemently at both Ann and Ettie. Ettie seemed to shrink beneath the stronger girl's gaze, pathetically, and still managed to keep her wide-eyed innocent look. With an annoyed sigh, Phoebe turned away from Ettie, and focused her annoyance on Ann.

"Ann! What were you thinking! How long do we have to practice before you can get something right?" Her voice was a snap, and each word was clipped.

"I-I…"

"You what?!? I would dearly like to know, Ann! We've been practicing since the end of May! It's July already! And you don't know your lines! The only one who didn't mess up was Rebecca, and your mistake was surely the worst! You simply ruined the show! Oh, the critics will have a ball with this one! And now no one will want to hire us! Splendid job, Miss Bradshaw." With that, Phoebe stormed away and Ann was left with doe-eyed Ettie, who looked as if she was about to cry, and an unsympathetic Rebecca. Biting the inside of her mouth, she turned to head up the stairs. Standing in the corner, watching the situation play out (who could blame him: this little outburst had more drama than the actual play) was Charlie. He was frowning around his cigarette, and staring at Ann. She walked past him, her teeth biting harder and harder into her mouth at every step. When she reached the stairs, it took all of the self-restraint (and practice) she had not to run up them to the safety of her room.

Fifteen minutes later, when Ann's face was blotchy from holding in the tears that clawed at her eyes, and her scissors were resting indecisively in her hands, there was a knock at her door. She closed the scissors with shaking fingers, and set them, unused, on her desk. She ran her hands over her face absentmindedly, as if to make sure there were no tearstains or other types of scars. Ann called for whomever it was to come in. Charlie Smalls, much to her surprise, was the one that opened it.

"Hello." Charlie's voice did not have his usual life—he seemed to be annoyed with something, and slightly disappointed.

"Hello." Ann's voice was quiet, and she watched as his eyes flicked to the scissors on her desk, to her face, and then back again. "Why are you not with the others? With Ettie and the others?" She could barely keep the jealousy out of her voice, but thinking back on it, she thought she managed it well enough.

"I need to talk to you."

"Oh. What about?" The disguise that she had worn so many years, to protect her from snide remarks, and condescending comments was in place, was back. And while this could be considered a type of acting, it didn't feel anything like what she felt on stage.

"Why do you belittle yourself so much?" Charlie's voice was removed, and sounded extremely matter-of-fact.

"What?"

"You act like you aren't worth anything, and you let anyone and everyone walk all over you. It's depressing to watch." A small bit of irritation was creeping into his voice.

"No, I don't." Her answer wasn't really fighting for herself: it was more of a sentence to use to pacify him. She was telling him what she thought he wanted to hear.

"Yes, you do Ann! You don't have any idea how much talent you have, what a good person you are!" The odd tone of distance was gone, and he sounded more like the normal Charlie, despite his obvious anger at her.

There was a pause, while she thought of what to say.

Her voice was quiet when she answered. "You wouldn't say that if you knew everything that I have done."

"Ann." He sighed, and for a moment, she felt a little glow at hearing him use her first name. She had given him permission to a few weeks ago, but he never had. "Don't tell me you aren't. You are a wonderful person—kind, smart, beautiful, talented! And you let everyone tell you your not and then you believe them!"

It felt like she couldn't breathe. The small room felt much smaller, and their distance seemed to shrink. His green eyes, much lighter than Gemma's, stared at her, and his intense look seemed to minimize the distance even more.

"What do you want me to do?"

"What do I want you to do? I want you to stand up for yourself, and don't let people put you down! Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't special." There were inches between them now, and Ann realized that it was because Charlie had been taking a step for every sentence. He took her face in his hands, and repeated himself. "Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't special." He kissed her forehead and seemed ready to pull away, but didn't. Charlie still held her face, and he glanced towards the door quickly, before pressing his lips to her own. It wasn't anything like the kiss that Kartik and Gemma shared in the chapel—it was completely innocent, and didn't hold all of the love that those two felt for each other. But the kiss that Charlie gave her seemed to tell her everything, and it was enough.

He turned away from her, and started to walk out of the door, stopping only to dip his hat, say goodnight, and watch her blush for a moment longer. Ann watched him leave, and if she could move at all, her mouth would be wide open in shock. But the only thing she could do was think, idly, was how surprised she was that his lips didn't taste of cigarettes.

A/N- Squee! That's the longest chapter I've ever written! It made me happy. But I'm not too sure of what I think of it. So you should tell me what YOU think!
I have soooo many ideas for this series-of-sorts that I don't even know where to start. However, if any of you have ideas, PM me, and I'll use them. I'm falling in love with this pairing-- I mean, its pratically canon!

Much Love,
Scales.

P.S. Is 'her's' a word? My Word program does not seem to think it is, but I think I have used it before...