Disclaimer: I do not own this series nor these characters. This is strictly free fun.

Read & Review so I know I'm not talking to myself.

Saccharine

Chapter One- Big City, Small Girl

Anne hurried behind the woman in the long plaid skirt. She was trying to take notes, pay attention to the woman's instructions and memorize landmarks in the building all at once.

She was failing at every task.

She gave in and stopped in her tracks, the woman realized she was talking to herself and looked back at the flustered Anne.

"Are you quite alright?" she asked.

Anne shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit confused."

"Don't make a fuss about it, I'll go slower. Tell me what part you're confused about."

Anne bit her inner cheek, "Umm, all of it." She cringed, feeling like she was making a bad first impression.

The woman's face softened and she took a steady breath before saying, "From the top then. My name is Marilla Cuthbert, I'm the founder of the Avonlea Charity along with my brother Mathew."

Anne nodded, scribbling the info in shorthand in her worn notepad. She knew that much, she had purposely chosen a charity that dealt with orphanages.

"This is the charity's headquarters," Marilla gestured to the expanse of the building. They were on the second floor of the large four-story, warehouse like building.

Marilla continued, "All donated supplies and materials for functions are stored here before they are distributed to the orphanages."

Anne scribbled again, she finally released the breath she had been holding. The woman was not as intimidating as the rumors had made her out to seem. She had been in New York for exactly two months, when she had began asking about the charity, she had gotten responses like 'be careful of', 'look out for' concerning Marilla Cuthbert.

Standing in front of the woman now, Anne only saw a woman meticulous about her work.

"We have over a hundred volunteers like yourself, however, we're spread thin right now so we have divided everyone and they deal with a designated orphanage as opposed to the usual chaos."

Anne nodded eagerly.

"Now, I barely have time for this tour much less to train you so I've paired you with another volunteer ,Gilbert Blythe. He's been with us for years so I've instructed him to show you how things are done here."

Anne looked around for the man but he was nowhere in sight. She only saw busy bodies moving around the space with clip boards and boxes of supplies.

"He's on assignment right now, you'll meet him tomorrow." Marilla said.

Anne's face fell, she was excited and thought she would get put straight to work.

"Remind me of your name," Marilla said.

"It's Anne, with an e."

"Well Anne, that was your orientation. I am needed elsewhere. But I do thank you for signing up to be a volunteer."

Before Anne could respond, Marilla was pulled away by a woman with a headset in her ear and a clipboard cradled in her arms.

Anne was left in the middle of the room, this was not how she expected charity work to feel. She thought she would feel important, needed. She thought there would be more gratifying work. Instead, she felt unimportant one of a hundred, she could hardly make an impact.

With nothing else to do, she left the building and took the subway to Mary's Diner. She worked as a waitress at the diner but her shift wasn't for another three hours.

When she walked into the diner, the lunch rush was filing out. Mary caught wind of her from behind the counter.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be making a difference somewhere?" Mary said, she was placing freshly baked pies into glass dishes on the counter.

"My orientation was shorter than I expected." she said.

"Only Anne pouts when there's no work to be done," Prissy joked from the corner. She was wiping down tables and collecting dishes.

Tillie was also supposed to be on shift but Anne didn't see her. She shrugged and settled on a booth to the back of the diner. It was hardly used because the light bulb flickered in that corner. It was often darker than the rest of the diner but it was Anne's favorite spot. Right by the window, she would watch people with better lives walk around. She would sometimes try to figure out what the strangers were thinking.

She allowed herself ten minutes of people watching before she pulled her laptop out of her messenger bag. She delved into her assignments for school. On top of trying 'to make a difference' and working full time at the diner, Anne was also a university student.

How she managed it all? Well, she didn't.

And adding charity work was not the smartest thing to do but she preferred to have little to no time to herself. When she was alone, she would get into her head and remember.

Her fingers were aggressively typing away on her laptop when a cup of tea slid onto her table. When she looked up, Tillie stood with a soft smile.

"There's my Brainiac." Tillie said, 'Thought you could use some. I know you don't like coffee."

"Thank you," Anne picked up the cup and smelled the chai tea, "It's perfect."

"Think of it as my going away present." Tillie said, making Anne grimace.

"Don't remind me," Anne said. "And that's not how it works, we're supposed to be the ones giving you presents."

Tillie shrugged, "Your friendship was gift enough." She left Anne to tend to her tables. Anne's day was not looking good. Every night she would go to sleep and wake up thinking Tillie had changed her mind and wasn't moving to New Jersey. Though they wouldn't be terribly far from one another, Tillie would no longer work at the diner.

She was the first friend Anne made in New York. The short time they had known each other did not do their friendship justice. Anne buried her sadness with school assignments and chai tea.

When her shift rolled around, she went to the backroom to change into her burgundy uniform and black apron. She piled her red hair into a high ponytail and wrapped the hanging hair in a black hair net.

Her shift started at three and finished at ten. It was mostly a quiet shift, she busted tables, and served Mary's famous pies and cakes. Around nine, they would usually start cleaning up while technically still being open but they rarely got late night customers. Still, the bell chimed alerting a customer. The young man with dark hair glanced around the diner, his gaze stopped on Anne at the counter for a moment before his gaze continued scanning.

Anne found him to be a strange sight, she had not seen him around. Not that she knew every customer but over time, faces became familiar. The dark-haired stranger made a beeline for her corner, not hers but her favorite corner. She almost felt like he was violating her favorite seat.

Mary nudged her head in his direction, Anne sighed and picked up her notepad from the counter.

Plastering on her fakest smile she went up to the table and said, "What can I get you sir?"

Anne heard him chuckle before he looked up, peeling off his brown hat. His kind eyes stared deeply in her grey ones. She cleared her throat when the staring bordered on creepy. "Sir, what will it be?" she reiterated.

He chuckled again, "Sir? How old do I look?"

Now that Anne studied him, he didn't look to be much older than her eighteen years but his style of dress made him look more mature.

When she didn't answer he relented and said, "Just a slice of cheery pie and a coffee, black."

Anne wrote the order down on her notepad and turned on her heels when he said, "Thank you Anne."

She spun around to ask him how he knew her name when she forgot she was wearing a name tag.

"With an e," he said, "I like it."

Anne was flustered at his candor. Why was he so comfortable talking to her and why did his eyes do that thing….

She spun on her heels and all but ran to the counter to pass the order along to Mary. While Mary put the last piece of pie on a plate, Anne poured his coffee into a mug.

Living in New York, she had been heckled at and cat called but it felt different with the stranger. He wasn't being overtly inappropriate, but he was also not trying to hide the attraction in his eyes. It rattled Anne, she didn't know what to do. She had come to New York to get away from romantic entanglements and she had stuck to it but the stranger was making her sway. He seemed…genuine.

She took over the pie and coffee to him with grace. The stranger looked at her coming, from her white tennis shoes to her calves, to the knee length hem of her uniform and finally to her eyes. He thanked her and she was going to be on her way but she was curious about one thing.

"Why this booth? Most people hate it." she said.

He shrugged, "I like it. It's cozy." He said with a soft smile, Anne returned it before taking her leave. She helped Mary and Donnie clean up.

She went to change out of her uniform, by the time she had returned the chime above the door had sounded and the stranger was gone. Mary had cleaned up his table and was doing a final check.

"I'll see you tomorrow Mary," Anne called as she took her leave. She pulled jacket closer to her body as she began the walk home. She lived three blocks from the diner and while she could easily take the bus, walking saved her a lot of money.

"Okay sweetie, see you tomorrow."

It took her a month to get comfortable enough with the neighborhood to begin walking at night but she was comfortable now, especially with the pepper spray Mary had gotten for her.

She had gotten about a halfway home when she realized there was footsteps behind her. It wasn't that uncommon but there wasn't anyone around that particular night. Of all the nights, no dog walkers, nobody getting air on their steps, nothing.

She got increasingly alarmed when the foot steps closed in on her. Was this it? Had her past finally caught up to her.

She broke into a fast walk but the long legs of her jay walker wouldn't let up. Panic fled through her veins, she whipped around her messenger bag and slammed it at the man following her before breaking off into a run.

Her lungs burned all the way home but she wouldn't let up until she was in her apartment, safe and sound. That was the scariest thing she faced since she moved. She couldn't bear to move from behind the door, she slid straight down to the floor. Her heart was hammering in her chest, she felt the throbbing in her ears. She pipped her head between her knees and breathed deeply but her heart would not steady itself.

A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Please, not again."

Sleep deprived Anne walked into the Avonlea headquarters Wednesday morning. She hoped a day of giving back would lift her spirits. She was still pretty shaken after last night.

She spotted Marilla on the ground floor and went over to greet her new boss.

"Hi Miss Cuthbert, reporting for duty." Anne said.

"Punctual, that's good. Gilbert is back, you can meet him upstairs. Poor thing was attacked by a mad woman last night."

"Oh no, that's terrible." Anne said, were the crazies out last night? She had evidently not been the only one to experience a harrowing event last night.

Anne took the elevator to the second floor. There were tons of boxes against the walls, Anne assumed there were donated supplies in them. She looked around the room for a Gilbert looking like man but only found a group of girls huddled around something, there was so much chatter no one heard her enter the room.

"I'm looking for Gilbert Blythe," Anne said loudly. The hum of chatter stopped and the huddle dispersed revealing the only guy in the room. A guy she knew from last night, now with a gash on his cheek.

It dawned on her that she had not attacked some crazy stalker last night, but the man from the diner.

He grinned cheekily at her and said, "Come to finish off the job?"