Never Jack
All your life, people have been letting you down.
Manny's words echoed through Ann's mind. She didn't often like to think
about what he had said—after all, there were always extenuating circumstances
and excuses for people. Life had a peculiar way of intervening and rendering
the best intentions so many empty words.
Good things never lasted. Everything she touched was doomed. Everyone in her
life—everyone she had ever cared for—was gone. They'd all dropped out of her
life.
Her family. Her theater friends. Manny.
Her heart thudded painfully.
Jack.
And now, even Kong.
Ann stood at the top of the Empire State Building, oblivious to the chill
wind blowing about her, watching as her best friend's huge body fell to the New
York City street so very far below. She had seen the light leave those
intelligent brown eyes; she knew Kong was gone long before his body made a
crater in the pavement.
For a few seconds, Ann considered how easy it would be to simply take two
steps forward and follow Kong down. Just two little steps.
A small part of her mind, the part not numbed by grief, was able to appreciate
the irony of it being easier to jump off the Empire State
Building than to walk
into that burlesque theater so many weeks before.
Maybe she should just get it over with. After all, there was no one left in
her life who would care if she...
"Ann."
She froze at the sound of that voice calling her name—a voice she hadn't
heard since her last day on the Venture. A voice she had truly thought
she would never hear again. Her heart gave another painful thud.
Jack.
She turned slowly, blonde curls dancing in the brisk wind, half-afraid she
was imagining things. Just because Jack Driscoll had come for her once was no
guarantee he would do so again. Yet there he stood, dark hair windswept, his
hazel eyes reflecting a host of emotions she couldn't even begin to identify,
though fear and blazing longing stood out the most.
Ann took two steps.
Not towards the edge, the vast drop that would lead her inexorably to Kong's
broken body, but towards Jack. An instant later, her arms were around his neck
and he was holding her as tightly as she was holding him.
Jack was really there—warm and solid—and for the first time since everything
had unraveled on Skull
Island, Ann felt peace steal
over her. She didn't know how he'd done it—she didn't know how he had found
her, much less how he had managed to follow her all the way up to the top of
the Empire State Building—but
he had.
Despite the falling out they’d had before leaving Skull Island,
he had come to find her and she knew then it truly wasn't about the words. They
had a great deal of explaining and confessing to do to each other, but that
would come later. At the moment, all that mattered was that Jack’s actions
spoke volumes about how much he cared for her…how much he loved her.
And so she hugged him harder, feeling that perhaps her
self-realized curse was broken. Good things never lasted—but sometimes
they could be rebuilt from the ashes. Fairytale endings weren’t real—but that
didn’t mean people couldn’t find happiness.
Everybody I’ve ever cared for is gone—except Jack.
She smiled, tears now spilling down her cheeks to drench his black overcoat,
and closed her eyes. There was great comfort to be had from the feel of his
strong arms wrapped around her, and the husky sound of his voice murmuring in
her ear.
Never Jack.
