Disclaimer: The characters and relationships between the characters from the Tarzan books and the movies are copyright of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Disney. I only own any fanfiction characters.

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Category: Disney (Tarzan)
Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Summary: More strangers encounter the African jungle, but what do they want? One of the humans finds herself rather attracted to Tarzan, but how can she remove Jane from the picture so she can be with him?

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Part Six

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It was a while before either woman said anything. Jane's fingers played with the frayed edges of her dress patiently, whilst Olivia was left sitting there in a black void, so many thoughts and wonders and fascinations swimming around inside of her, building up inside to a serial point of confusion.

"Gorillas?" she finally managed to squeak.

Jane nodded slowly, now her tinted gaze travelling behind her shoulder and boring into the opposite room, watching Tarzan as he lay beneath his covers, talking to the professor. "Yes," she replied quietly. "That's right. Everything is true."

"Good Lord," the girl breathed, staring straight into Jane's face with a look of both amazement and understanding. "I had no idea. However, it's a relief to say that it finally all makes sense."

Jane chuckled. "Tarzan's history is nothing short of amazing," she agreed, but now her eyebrows narrowed thinly as she looked at Olivia – almost questioningly – with her curious eyes. "Although...I'm also rather suspicious as to where you came from. You've told us so much already, but...still, I feel as if I must know more about you."

Olivia swallowed. "Um?"

"Did you arrive on the boat this morning?" asked the Englishwoman slowly, remembering. "Tarzan and I noticed one docking earlier than usual. Where you one of the passengers, miss?"

Olivia thought quickly. I can't tell her the truth, she would know who I am straight away – Heaven knows what they'll think of me!

"I have been here for a fortnight now," she lied, her voice rather unsure as she wobbled around her words. "I came here with my...father and our guide, on...an expedition to, erm...study, err..." Her brain fought to think desperately and she remembered the chase in the forest. It slipped out a little too fast.

"Rhinos!" she blurted out. "I came to study rhinoceroses with my father."

Jane's eyebrows rose and a small grin formed across her attractive face. "How fascinating!" she included, showing a tinge of interest. "And that explains why that you were caught in that rampage with the female. Were you trying to study her – ?"

Olivia nodded, shaking her head up and down with a small, quaky giggle. "Yes, that's right! And she must have gotten the wrong idea..." she uttered. "I...I had wandered away from my father, he told me not to – but knowing me..." She chuckled a little too richly. "Silly Olivia!"

It wasn't a complete lie.

Jane smiled uncomfortably. "Umhum," she chuckled.

Olivia stared at the floor. "And then Tarzan rescued me," she continued, in rather a flat, muffled voice, as if this was her own little secret and she didn't wish to share it with anyone. "He offered to take me back here."

This time Jane frowned in confusion at the girl's words. "Wouldn't it make more sense if he returned you back to your father?" she asked, turning her head a little as if she were studying the woman at all angles, just to make sure. "He could be worried about you – "

"I don't want to go back!" suddenly blurted out Olivia, her fists clenching mindlessly at her sides without her realising. It was only when she saw the astonishment in Jane's face that she relaxed, mentally kicking herself.

"I'm sorry," she apologised, her cheeks burning. "But...I don't want to go back to them. It is truly awful, Jane...I doubt that they would have spotted my disappearance. They never care much for me since...well, since my mother died. I'm almost invisible to them." There was a tone in her words that caused a strike of pity to weal in Jane's heart. After all, the way that she was speaking made it sound as if her folks didn't love her at all.

Jane shook her head in sympathy. "No, I'm sorry," she continued, staring into the green eyes. "I had no idea it was so terrible for you."

"I don't want it to be," Olivia muttered.

"No, I'm sure you don't," Jane whispered kindly, taking hold of the girl's hand again and squeezing it. "If it is that degrading for you, you may stay with us for a while. Would you like that?"

Olivia's face beamed almost instantly. She could stay here? Away from her uncaring father and closer to Tarzan? "Of course I would!" she replied eagerly, her eyes sparkling with delight. "Oh, thank you so much, Mrs Jane!"

Jane smiled, her rosy cheeks highlighting her pretty features. "Oh, come now, you may call me Jane," she informed her with some amusement. "You're making me feel quite superior!"

"Well then, Jane," added Olivia, extending her hand towards Jane's. "You may call me Olivia," her hand clasped Jane's; "And it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Jane nodded enthusiastically as she shook the girl's hand with proper English pride. "The pleasure is all mine, Olivia."

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Bump! Olivia felt herself tripping over her own feet and falling downwards, a rush of panic sweeping through her head. "Oh - !" she gasped out, but didn't have enough time to face oncoming bruises, as she felt strong arms support her waist and bring her settling back onto her feet.

Swallowing her breath in shock, she turned to stare into Tarzan's patient blue-green eyes.

"Erm..." she giggled, hoping that she wasn't blushing despite the fact that her face was on fire. "Thank you, Tarzan." She played with the edges of her dress, attempting to look elsewhere.

However, Tarzan, full of usual curiosity, directed his attention to the wooden floorboards of the treehouse, his keen sight fixed on a wooden book that had found itself skidding along the ground after the girl's fall. He gently scooped it up and opened it, holding it open with his fingers grasping one cover and letting the other dangle in the air. He frowned.

"This book has no words in it," he pointed out, squinting at the colourful plants behind gleaming glass.

Olivia chuckled, stepping up behind him. "It's not a storybook," she told him kindly. "It's a flower – pressing book. I collect flowers from all over the place and press them in here, to keep them preserved."

Tarzan gazed at her. "Why?"

"Well...it's a hobby of mine."

"Hobby...? Like Jane's drawings!" Tarzan announced triumphantly.

Olivia couldn't help a humoured laugh ripple through the air at his declaration, so innocent but yet so admirable. "Yes, that's right," she replied, a lock of auburn hair falling down by her face. "but I didn't know that Jane could draw."

Tarzan nodded. "Jane draws many things."

"Really?" Olivia suddenly looked very embarrassed, and she tried to hide it by biting her lip. "What does she draw? D-does she draw...you?" The question sounded almost hopeful.

A broad smile crossed Tarzan's face as he smiled eagerly. "Yes, she does," he answered, standing upright and holding the book out to her, ready to return it. "She finds lots of things to draw. She loves the jungle."

"Oh, so do I!" Olivia added, hugging the pressing folds to her chest with enthusiasm, clenching her fingers around it. "Goodness – the jungle is marvellous, Tarzan! There are so many things to discover! Why, I wish I could – !"

But at this, she quickly stopped herself just in time before the rest of her sentence could escape. She covered her mouth feebly and turned away, her cheeks flushing deep crimson.

"Yes?"

"It...it doesn't matter," she finished awkwardly, staring down at the floor, copying the movement of her heart as it sank beneath her happiness.

How could I stay here? she thought to herself bitterly. How would I have the nerve? I would not be able to stay here, and watch Tarzan all day with Jane. It would make me incredibly jealous...and besides, mummy said...

"I...I don't know if I can stay here for very long, Tarzan," she brought up miserably, squeezing the book to her front as he felt her hands shaking. She really didn't want to tell him this.

Tarzan frowned. "Why not?"

The girl sighed. "I must take care of my father, you see. I promised...someone a while ago...that I would. It was a promise – and you must always keep a promise! No matter...who it was made for." She whirled around to face him; to stare into his innocent eyes and see clear sparks of acknowledgment.

"Do you understand?" she asked kindly.

"Yes," he told her, walking over to her and gently taking her hand in his, squeezing it supportively as a way of encouragement. "I've had my own promises to keep."

Olivia chewed on her lower lip as she felt the man's strong fingers close around hers. They were so dangerous – but yet they could be so caring! They could protect her own from anything without bringing harm. She felt her own fingers becoming safer, as well as her heart...

"Err...um..." she mumbled, her heart pounding faster as she once again felt those same sparks of electricity that flooded into her skin and shot through her veins. Her throat became dry and she had to clear it.

"I'm sorry," she apologised through a cough, feeling her face burning more furiously than it had ever done in a long time. She awkwardly brushed back a few strands of fallen hair that were hanging in her eyes, and in her movement, caused the pressing book to slip from her clutches.

"Oh – !" she cried out as it hit the floor with a soft thud. Me and my clumsy self! she thought angrily, scolding herself for her foolishness at this present moment.

Tarzan helpfully scooped the wooden book from the floorboards and held it out to her once again without a word.

"I'm sorry...thank you," the girl giggled, receiving it with red cheeks. "I'm sorry, I can be so clumsy sometimes – I've never been very graceful."

Tarzan didn't make any judgements on how she thought of herself. Instead, a puzzled expression plastered onto his features. "Who?" he asked.

Olivia blinked, staring into his face as if expecting the answers to be written on him somewhere. She gazed at him, bewildered. "What do you mean?" she questioned politely.

"Who did you make a promise to?"

The girl sighed. She really hadn't wanted to bring up her mother in any conversation again, as it still hurt her a great deal. Everything about her had been special, from the time they had both spent together until the day she had died. Olivia had hoped that their bond would have continued after death, but instead she had felt it slipping further and further away, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Her childhood friend, Isabel Waters, had often spoken of the supernatural, and how when one person died, sometimes they would return to earth now and again, to greet the loved ones they had left behind, as a lot of their heart lived in them.

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"My grandmamma is a ghost," she whispered across to Olivia as they quietly painted their still life perspectives. She added a few more lines of pure white into her roses.

Olivia groaned. She stopped daydreaming (mixing different colours together on her palette) and looked up at her friend as if she was mad. "Don't be so silly."

"It's true!" Isabel proclaimed, dabbing at her drawing. "I swear she comes to see me sometimes...oddly when I miss her the most."

Olivia rolled her green eyes. "I don't believe in ghosts," she said.

"Perhaps you should," her friend teased, stealing a few blobs of Olivia's pink paint. "How can you be so sure that you don't believe in something when you don't even know that it exists?"

The girl shrugged. "I just...don't."

"Do you...I mean," Isabel started, glancing over at Olivia, but being very careful in her words as she knew how it affected her friend at times. "What about your mother? Do you think she is a ghost?"

"Of course not," she replied simply.

"Oh?"

Olivia smiled a secret smile to herself, as she playfully mixed a blob of yellow paint with a smudge of blue, swirling them together to create a sea of green splattered onto her palette.

"My mother is an angel."