Neverland
Ch. 7
Apologies From Pirates
A/N Hi everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Pacing back and forth, to and fro.
A dog would be impressed by the trail he was implanting into the floor by his constant treading.
Nervous.
He had really never dwelled on nervous anxiety when it came to the simple matter of talking to someone.
Apologize.
This thought repeatedly ran through his head. To apologize, to him, would be a great adventure. He wondered if David felt this exact churning in his stomach before he faced Goliath. It certainly would seem logical. Then again, David was up against a colossal brute of a monster, where as, James was sweating bullets over an old gargoyle such as Mrs. du Maurier. Thinking of this, he realized with a slight smirk that his position was rather comical, if not hilarious.
Why should he be so rigid and fidgety over something as simple and as amusing as apologizing to Emma. He realized last night that, although she certain deserved what had been handed to her, she didn't deserve to have been embarrassed. He certainly wasn't, but then again he hadn't given one bit of a horse's ass for that party. But she had, and he knew exactly what it was like to feel elated and proud of one's own accomplishments and then have some incarnated devil puncture it with their very own horns. Believe him, she had done it to him a few fair times. But he wasn't going to diminish his character to her level.
So with his mind made up, he swiftly grabbed the door knocker and knocked sharply three times.
Once he saw her, however, he wanted to turn and run.
Her eyes, usually puffy and wrinkly with her own onslaught of coming age, were today, even more so, and taking on an unflattering ring of red, showing that she had been crying. Her usually tightly pulled back auburn bun, was surprisingly messy and untamable, as if she had used a pitchfork to comb her hair instead of her extremely expensive toilette kit, that she carried around everywhere in her black leather pocketbook that she had recently acquired in Paris, France.
"Yes Mr. Barrie? What can I do for you today?" her voice, haggard and harsh as if she had not used it in a long while and the sound felt awkward in her throat.
"Good Mornin' to ya Mrs. du Maurier. Did ye sleep well last night?" he asked politely, trying to make small conversation in light of his current situation.
"Better than expected." she retorted, and he noticed that her eyes slightly flared with a fire that he knew was his own doing.
"Well, that's good then."
The silence that followed was slightly unnerving and James' heart began thundering rather loudly and banged harshly against his chest. He worriedly wondered if her hearing was still keen and if she had heard it too.
But it seemed she hadn't, for she asked, clearly impatient, "What is the purpose for your knocking so soundly on my door, Mr. Barrie?"
He paused, clearly trying to form his words in a rationally articulate way, his eyebrows knitting in concentration.
"Well, Emma." he noticed her slightly shift her weight to her other foot and a small sigh escape her already impatient mouth .
"I just came to tell you I'm sorry." he said meekly, portraying a small child being scolded by his mother, staring idly at his shoes.
"What?" she said, not with anger, but with utter confusion.
He looked up quickly, causing a CRIK to sound in his neck, but he ignored the spasm as he stared at her, with that same puzzlement she mirrored.
She stared at him as if he had grown tree heads and begun speaking in Chinese.
"What d'ya mean 'what?'"
"Well why are you apologizing?'
"I would think it would be obvious."
"Oh..." realization hitting her square in the face, " You mean the party."
"What d'ya think I meant? Of course I meant the party."
"Well then please come in. It seems awfully ridiculous for you to be standing out in the hall like this.
So, obediently, he walked passed her, as she closed the door soundly behind her.
" Would you please take a seat Mr. Barrie, whilst I make us some tea?"
Not arguing he walked quietly toward the leather arm chair by the unlit fireplace and stared at the crone as she poured him some tea from the tray on her bedside table.
"Sugar or milk, Mr. Barrie?"
"Two lumps of sugar please."
She then procured two tasses of tea, and handed on to James, alongside a saucer.
"Here you go."
"Thanks very much." But before he put lips to it, he hesitantly pulled them away, for a fear that was unrecognizable had coursed through him. She wouldn't...would she. It was unthinkable.
But, then again...
"I haven't poisoned it, Mr. Barrie."
Pulling abruptly from his thoughts, he shook his head spastically and said, " I'm sorry."
"You hesitated. I haven't poisoned it. Watch." she switched cups with him and drinking pointedly from the cup.
"You can drink from that one, Mr. Barrie. It still has two lumps of sugar. You like it the same way I do."
He still hesitated. He wondered if she had anticipated that he would think that she would poison his cup and so instead, she poisoned her cup, so when she switched the two cups, he would really have the poisoned cup. And he also noticed that she hadn't drunken from her cup as soon as she had gotten it.
"Oh really, Mr. Barrie. I didn't poison any of them. Your being quite rude and silly."
He drank obediently, but still reluctantly, and he found that his predictions were proved false. Unless of course the poison was a slow one, then he was screwed anyway.
"See, nothing to be worried about."
He smiled slightly, but was still uneasy.
"First off Mr. Barrie, you should not be apologizing to me. It should be I, who should be apologizing to you."
Unbelieving what he was hearing, his attention suddenly became very loyal to Mrs. du Maurir.
"I was very...harsh, on my actions toward you and the boys. I should have listened to all of you and your opinions and thoughts. Instead I was selfish and only cared on what I wanted. I'm terribly sorry, for treating you this way."
James was so shocked that he had to press a hand to his chin to his mouth to close it.
"I've always been this way toward you. I guess it was because I was so jealous that you and Sylvia always got on so well together, and I was greatly jealous, of her attentions always focused on you. I believed that she should have been more focused on what was best for her and the children, when, in reality, you were what was best for them."
"When her husband died, I thought that Sylvia would never smile again. She would move through the house like she was an unwelcome spectral spirit more than that she actually lived there. Whenever I came over, I'd see the house in such chaos that I'd have the urge to just turn around and leave, but one day, I saw her clutching her husband's picture to heart and crying with her face looking so helpless and lost, that I felt that it was my duty to make sure my daughter and my grandsons were never hurt like that again, even if it meant pushing people away."
She stared at James, and he saw tears falling freely down her face, and noticed she was unashamed of them.
"And then you came. You and your silly notions and awfully tacky costumes. Everyday, I'd watch you as you got closer and closer to the hearts of my grandchildren and especially Sylvia.
" I was afraid that she would forget her husband entirely and that she had once loved him. It seemed she had moved on, and I wasn't ready for her too. Because I was coward, and thought that if she forgot about him...that she would...forget... about me too." he voice broke into hysterics as she buried her face in her hands and let go all the pain she had been holding deep inside her for a long time.
James got up, and unabashedly, pulled Emma into his arms as he sat on the floor, pulling her down with him.
She cried, for seemed like forever, on James' clean shirt, but he didn't mind.
He no longer felt anger for this woman. He no longer thought she would poison him. She was no longer Captain Hook to him, but perhaps he could still imagine her that way.
When he talked to her, and heard her tartly respond in that brass and haughty voice, that made him believe that she had been struck with a broomstick to 'straighten her out', as what could be appropriately said, he believed and envisioned her as a cutthroat captain, who had never known the meaning of mercy, and was brought up with the notion of making life miserable for anyone who encountered her. But, holding her in his arms, he realized that she was just a woman. A frail... compassionate... hurting, woman. She only acted that way, because she never knew any other way to handle what she was going through. She probably saw him, as someone who was also like a pirate. Someone who was taking everything she had worked so hard on, and taking it all away from her.
He didn't want that. He would never do that to anyone.
She was certainly a character he would never forget, and he believed, that neither the boys nor Sylvia would forget her either.
Feeling her pull away from him, he stared back into her swollen hazel eyes and told her.
" Apology accepted. But now that your finished, I have a few words to say."
"When I first met you, I thought, this woman must have had a terrible life to act this way. But, reflecting on what you just told me, I realized that your not a terrible person. Your just hurting. And I don't think I've been helping things by acting the way I have been.
"I just want to tell you, that I'm truly sorry for hurting you and further more embarrassing you for your own opinions on how the boys should be raised. Heavens knows your probably exactly what the boys need.
"But, I'm not leaving. And I'm not stopping in what I believe in for those boys. So trust me, there will be more times than I can count or imagine, that we will probably experience the thrilling urge to rip each other's 'eads off. But, I just want to let you know, that I respect you, and that I don't think Sylvia will ever forget a character such as you. I know I won't."
"Thank you Mr. Barrie."
"Your welcome Mrs. du Maurier."
He got up from the floor, grabbed her hand and gave it a pleasant kiss, and then turned and walked for the door.
" And James?"
He turned swiftly on his heal to face her as she was getting off the floor and rearranging the position of her skirts.
"I insist, that you call me Emma in private. After all, I do have my threatening position to hold whilst around the children.
"Indeed. But I also have a request."
He smiled ruefully at her showing his full potential of charm.
"You must call me James at all times. For I wouldn't want to give the children the thought that I might actually be rendering myself to your will."
"My, my, James, you certainly are despicable."
"Just think of it as a request from a pirate."
He placed his hand on the doorknob again, and pulled the door open, but turned around in the opening and said, "Oh Emma."
"Yes James."
"I believe ye lied to me. And pirates don't like being lied to." he said seriously, in a voice hardly like his own and adapting a dialect similar to that of a seaman.
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Well, m'lady," he said pressing his palms together in a apologetic prayer, "not meaning to be disrespectful of course, but I believe that you do not take your tea the same as me, seeing as when I drank out of your cup, there only happened to be one lump of sugar." And bowing in an exaggerated and almost as if replicating his sly smile, he closed the door.
And he left her there, muttering pleasantly , "Bloody pirate," as he sauntered idly toward his fellow crew members' lodging to pursue more satisfying antics.
A/N Did you like? I;m hoping to reach 50 this chapter so please RR savvy.
Thank you's to:
LaryChan: Glad you like it
Dawnie-7: Thank you, first off for being a very faithful reviewer. And I'm glad you agree with my notion on his hands. They are so B-E-A-T utiful.Thanks for the review
H.M Chandler: Thank you very much (takes a bow) and please update soon