chapter word count: 417

noir heart: forty-one

The feminine voice that graces Jack's ears from somewhere to his right is far too distorted for him to make out - something like "all moo today" - but nevertheless it has the intended effect; his body surges into life as he is yanked from the past back to the ever-progressing present, like a drowning sailor pulled to the surface by a life-saving rope.

Blinking his eyes and mind awake he slowly turns his head to the right, and finds himself gazing at a curious and slightly suspicious-looking Anna.

"Huh?" he vacantly mumbles an all too inadequate sound.

Anna rolls her eyes as she repeats herself, "I said: are you okay?"

Jack blinks in fleeting incomprehension, before his brain exasperatedly gives him a swift kick up the metaphorical backside. "Oh," he says flatly, "yeah...I'm fine."

Anna gives him a look of mildly-unimpressed. "You sure? You've been up here for fifteen minutes."

"Has it been that long?" Jack whispers quietly to himself - however, Anna seems to have good hearing.

"Yep. Elsa was getting worried, plus I wanted to talk to you alone."

Jack cocks an eyebrow just as a slight fluttering of the mobile distracts his eyes. "Oh really? How'd she take that?"

Anna chuckles a little too sinisterly for his tastes, "As a pregnant woman, I have a severe craving for sandwiches, so she didn't have much of a choice. So, what's up?"

His attention drawn from the mobile, he casts her an awkward glance. "Nothing," he sighs, pausing briefly to close his eyes and tiredly scratch his brow, "just lost in thought."

"About my sister, and how you think she murdered Kozmotis?"

Jack's eyes instantly snap back to rest upon the annoyingly smug expression belonging to the younger sister, and he shoots her a deadpan look. "She told you, huh?" he drawls.

"Uh-huh, she mentioned it. Didn't seem bothered by it, which is lucky for you, 'cause you'd have me to answer to." she reprimands him.

"Is that a fact?" he sighs.

"Yep," she continues, ignoring his obvious indifference,"and here's another fact, free of charge: she didn't do it. Know how I know?"

"I'm sure you'll enlighten me."

"Elsa is kind, caring, selfless, protective and brave, but you know what else?"

Jack lightly frowns and shakes his head; now this is curious. Anna smirks in seeming victory, and leans closer to dramatically whisper:

"The whole marriage? Her idea."

Rearrange: ayphp wne eyra!

special thanks to: lunasnoir, durgess, ghost angel 14, hornedgoddess, oninoko, trapid and jpbake for reviewing!