Disclaimer: like before, I still own nothing. Darn it!
A/N fast update! Yay me! Please review! Thanks.
Jack stood at Anamaria's door, fingers lightly tapping his lips as he waited for her to answer. When she opened the door a look of astonishment fell across her face, masking any other emotion she may have been feeling. A bright smile fell onto Jacks face as he saw his best friend from childhood, for the first time in what felt like forever.
"Jack?" Ana squinted as though she didn't quite believe that he was there at her doorway.
"Hello Anamaria. How are you?"
"Erm… yeah. Why are you at my door in the middle of the night?"
"I came to see you of course. I haven't seen you in 6 years. Are you not pleased to see me?" Anamaria scratched her head, still dazed from being woken up.
"Erm yeah of course I am, but it's the middle of the night sir, I mean Jack. Not to sound ungrateful but, couldn't you have waited until morning? I'm sure your father would have let me have 5 minuets to talk to you." Jack frowned. Sir? Ungrateful? What on earth was going on?
"Anamaria why did you just, call me sir? And ungrateful? What's that all about? I don't blame you for being slightly annoyed I would too if someone had just woken me up, but I couldn't wait till morning to see you! Wait- why wouldn't my father let me talk to you. I don't…"
"Jack I work for your father now. I'm no longer a child; I have done so for the past 2 years since my 14th birthday. Well the day after actually, since my birthday fell on a Sunday. You're my master now, that's why I called you sir. Look I should get back to sleep, I have an early start in something like 3 hours time and I'm so tired! Please, i'll talk to you soon ok." Jack opened his mouth to protest but she had already turned around and shut the door. Jack frowned and shook his head as he started to walk away.
Working? Working for my father of all people. Why would he make her work for him? I bet it's that stupid new wife of his that made him do it. She's changed since I left. Well of course she's changed. She's grown up, she lost her mother, and she had to start working! I just, would never have thought… I must have pictured her as that 10 year old still, waiting on the cliff face, watching the ships come and go, hoping that each one that came in bought me back to her. That's what she had told me in that last letter she had written me. And after that, I got no more. No more after she was 11. She's changed a lot. She's taller, her hairs still long by the looks of things. She's beautiful… whoa where did that thought come from? Anamaria? Sure she was pretty, but she's like a sister to me. I shouldn't be thinking of her like that. It's just the shock I think. The shock of seeing her again. Yes we'll put it down to that. Now, sleep is always a good thing at 3 in the morning…
Xxxxxxxxxxx
A knock on his door woke Jack out of his slumber. He looked up at the curtains. It was barley even dawn. Who the hell would be banging on his door at this time? He grumbled for the to come in, before shoving his head back into the pillow.
"Oi! Jack! You woke me up, now its time for a bit of pay back!" Anamaria began tugging on his arm. She tried to ignore the jolt that passed through her when he moved his head to look at her.
"Payback? You're a mean women Anamaria. Okay you've had your payback you can go now." Ana smiled and put her head to one side.
"Naw I can't. My shift doesn't start for another half hour. You're the one that said you wanted to talk, so talk!"
Jack sighed heavily, making moving seem like a much bigger effort then it actually was. Truth being he'd been fully awake since hearing her voice, but had attempted to make her feel guilty for waking him up as she had him. The pair chatted excitedly away, sharing stories from the past 6 years. They hadn't even begun to scratch the surface when Anamaria had to go away to her work. Jack reluctantly watched her leave the room.
From then on, everyday before her shift started Anamaria went to Jacks room to talk. They began to feel comfortable in each others company again. Yet still they hadn't got past the general chit chat, none of the stories briefly spoken of gone into. The important stuff. Jack was desperate to talk to her about her mother's death. Tell her how sorry he was he hadn't been there for her. But he couldn't do that in the half an hour before her work began. Just as she began to leave once again Jack pulled on her arm to stop her.
"When's your day off?" Ana frowned. She had been coming into his room to catch up for 2 weeks and he hadn't noticed the one day on which she arrived later then usual and stayed longer then normal?
"Sunday" Ana paused. "Why?"
"Come up to the cliff with me" Ana nodded before prising her hand away from Jacks and heading out of the room…
"Jack! I'm stuck!" Jack peered down just as he had done all those years before. Now both of them were older- and taller, he would have thought shed be able to get up to their special place on her own. But it didn't seem so. Smiling he stretched his hand down and pulled her up. They sat beside each other, taking in the view again, as if for the first time in their life. It hadn't changed much. But they had. The pain sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, an unspoken conversation going on between the two. Then suddenly Jack let out a mighty laugh that causes Anamaria to jump.
"What's so funny?" Jack shook his head, a broad smile clear on his face.
"You kept your promise!" Anamaria frowned. "I made you promise that when I came back we'd come up here again. You kept your promise, jest like I kept mine. I didn't forget you did me?"
"Maybe not, but it sure felt like it! You never wrote back to me! I gave up after a couple of years!" Jack frowned, remembering the last letter he got from her, knowing that he had written back to it. And written about a dozen more afterwards. Shaking his head he decided to let it pass.
They spent the day talking about old times. About their childhood dreams. Then they went onto the 6 years that had passed so quickly, how so much had changed and how much hadn't. Then they began talking about the future. Anamaria realizing a long time before Jack did, that they were going in two very different directions. It saddened her to know for sure that she wasn't going to know Jack for very much longer, that he was going to go away and have a fantastic life while she stayed in the same place. She was probably going to die in the house she had been born in. If she was lucky she may find a man to marry and have children, but she found this unlikely. However, Jack seemed oblivious to that fact.
Jacks dreams hadn't changed much since he was a child. He still dreamed of being a captain of his very own ship, maybe even a commodore of his own fleet. All he wanted was to be at sea, to have the freedom he said it held. He talked about how he had learnt so much on his voyage from England, what it had felt like to feel the spray of the sea on his face. How he couldn't imagine anything better. His talk reminded Anamaria of her own childhood daydreams. Of course the only dream she now held, was that to keep her job.
As the day began to draw to an end, silence made itself present between to two once again. Anamaria's eyes were firmly glued to the sea and beyond, lost in her own little world, her thoughts taken over reality. Jack who had also been staring at the horizon had turned his gaze towards Anamaria. Before he knew what he was doing her lent over and kissed her. Snapping out of her world, the kiss to Anamaria by surprise. And what surprised her more, was the fact she began to kiss him back. That was before she realized what she was doing and reluctantly broke the kiss. Neither of them said anything for a moment, then Anamaria made her excuses and hurriedly left, leaving Jack alone on the cliff top. Wondering what had happened…
After the kiss on top of the cliff Anamaria stopped going to see Jack every morning, and did her best to avoid him altogether. Both of them missed their morning chats, but neither would do anything to make it right again. Anamaria was promoted by Jack's father from chamber maid to helping cook in the kitchen. She was pleased about this as not only did she get a pay rise, she was good friends with the cook whom she had known all her life. However Jack set about getting his dreams started. He wasn't interested in becoming a Navy sailor but instead, with his fathers help, set up his own merchant business. His father took him to buy his own ship. As soon as his eyes fell on her, he was in love.
He named her, watched as she began to become his own. He would stand at the helm, hands stroking the wheel, trying to imagine what it would be like to be out on the open sea, captain of his own ship, his very own crew. There was just one thing missing.
He didn't even bother to knock on the door before barging into her room. If she knew it was him, she wouldn't open up and he knew this from past experience. She jumped as he made his way into her box-sized room.
"wha' the? JACK! Wha' the hell are you doin'?" Jack put his finger to her mouth, trying to shut her up.
"Anamaria darlin'. I have a proposition for you." Ana raised her eyebrows, not really knowing what to expect. "I'm leavin' in 2 days time, an' I have no intention of ever returning. I've nothing here to return to… except for you. So, I want you to come with me." Ana frowned, ignoring to question he had just asked her.
"What do you mean you have nothing left here? What about your father, and that… that… that girl that's forever hanging around you now?" there was only a slight hint of jealousy in her voice, having masked most of it. Jack waved his hand in a gesture to show none of that mattered.
"They don't matter darlin'. Only you do to me. My father, he wants to marry me off with some floozy so he can get me out of the way to play happy families with his new wife. And the girl; Bryony I think her name was; she's nothing but the floozy that he's trying to pair me off with. Her family's very wealthy with good connections apparently. I have to get away, I have to get back to the ocean, and it's the one place where I'm truly happy. But I can't go without you." Ana looked at him blankly.
"Why?"
"BECAUSE… because I'm not leaving you to die in some god forsaken house, working as a maid. That's why. You deserve better, you deserve a life. And that my dear is what you're going to get! Now start packing your things. My father doesn't know I'm leaving so early, and he doesn't need to know your coming with me. Ok. We leave at dawn, in 2 days time. And if your not there, I'm coming to get you and dragging you on board. Savvy?" Ana began to nod her head, and then suddenly burst into giggles.
"Savvy? What are you a pirate now? Captain Ashford?" Jack broke into a grin, glad that she had agreed.
"Maybe. Haven't decided yet. Always wanted to be a pirate. 'Ats why I couldn't join the navy. Far too boring for me! Anyway, dawn, 2days time! Got it?" Ana nodded her head as she watched him leave the room.
A/N ooooh so does Ana go? Will Jack leave without her if she doesn't turn up? What happens next? Well… review and I'll tell ya! Hehe thanks! Captainme
