DISCLAIMER: Jack and anything from the movie isn't mine. Tanya is, so please ask if you're going to borrow her and/or her experiences. Don't bother suing, I just finished college and have absolutely NO money. :) Now, on with the story.
"My mother and I lived with my father in a little sea town outside of London." Tanya began, her soft voice growing stronger as she spoke of the less painful parts of her past. "Father was a merchant sailor and was frequently at sea for months on end. Two years ago, Mother took ill while he was on a voyage to the East Indies. Our physician could not determine her illness in time and she died two days before Father returned. We had no one left in our family but the two of us. Not wanting to give up the freedoms of trade, Father and I made the decision to sell everything owned on land in England, and live at sea. We decided to make a living continuing to work Fathers trade routes. For the last two years I've learned the ways of a ship and the sea has become my home. Father and I never had any real confrontations at sea until two weeks ago."
Here, Tanya paused, looking up briefly at Jack; trying to gauge how much she could trust to say to him, trying to anticipate his reaction. Searching his face she saw a flat, almost impassive expression. However, his eyes tempered his features. There was softness in those deep, brown eyes. Even as there were darkened by the rings of Kohl, the intense concern and tenderness that Tanya saw in Jack's face shone through and strengthened her resolve. For now, she reasoned to herself, she would keep talking. She couldn't explain the feeling deep inside her, pushing out from behind her fear and distrust and her belief that no one would really want to hear what had happened, that feeling drove her to continue for as long as she could stand.
"Early one morning, as we were anchored off the coast of Santo Domingo, we were boarded by a pirate crew. Most of Father's crew was off of the ship, on shore leave for the evening. Only about ten men excluding us had remained on board for the night. Papa and I didn't like to leave the ship unless it was absolutely necessary. We had come to view it as our home. It was a short battle since we were vastly outnumbered. Papa tried to keep me safe from them, to hide me, and for his efforts I watched him get cut down by their first mate. They looted and burned the ship; killed what little of the crew was on board and too me as a… prisoner." Here, Tanya's voice faltered and she paused in her storytelling, causing Jack's suspicions that her experiences had been much more terrible to become stronger. Tanya had disentangled herself from Jack's supportive, friendly embrace while she had been speaking and had sat upright, her eyes focused on her hands while she had clasped tightly together in her lap. As she described the fate of the ship and it's crew, she rose and started pacing back and forth alongside the bed. Jack remained sitting up in the bed, patiently eying Tanya as she spoke, carefully gauging her response. Her move to begin pacing had caught him by surprise. This woman, he determined as she watched her hands clench and unclench at her sides, had a strength he hadn't seen before in such a seemingly refined woman.
Jack blinked and snapped out of his reverie as Tanya began to speak once again. She had stopped her pacing momentarily and was standing in the middle of the cabin. Her body was illuminated by moonlight coming through the cabin window, but her head and shoulders remained hidden in the shadows, creating an ethereal feeling in the room, as her voice broke into the night once again, soft and emotionless, yet still hesitant.
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I'm soooo sorry to leave ya'll hanging again.. :-P, I just got my internet and computer back after moving into my first apartment and finishing college (kinda - its a long story). please grace me with your patience for just a few more days and I will have more of the story up, I promise. My muse is itching to get free and wreak havoc amonst the fanfic world. :) ty- A.H.Smith