A/N: I've decided to take some authors up on the challenge of writing a "Liberty's Kids" fic. This takes place during the end of Tuesday's episode where Sarah says good-bye, leaving for England.
(A colonial man appears on a soap box in the middle of blackness)
CM: Hear-ye, hear-ye. Ye olde disclaimer! Mackenzie W does not, NOT, own the following characters: James, Henri, Sarah, Sarah's parents or Moses. They are copyrighted to whoever makes Liberty's Kids. Any famous people belong to no body but themselves! Thank you! Back to ye olde story!
(Colonial man hops down off the soap box and walks out of the black nothingness.)
Chapter 1: Sarah
Sarah hugged Henri, who was crying hysterically, though the little French boy wouldn't show it. He had begged the British teenager not to return home to England, and to stay in Philadelphia. But Sarah had had enough of the war in the colonies and wanted desperately to return home to England, to her mother. "I'll miss you," she whispered.
She turned to Moses, the free black man offered her a hug as well. "Good luck to you," the man said. Sarah turned then to her last friend, James. The boy turned away from the young girl. Sarah should've known he wouldn't have said anything, not the way he reacted when she first told her friends and American family she was returning to England.
"But you can't go!" Henri cried.
"I must go. I can't stand this war anymore!" Sarah explained.
"You can't! Imagine us!" James said, angrily. "You just want to leave because the British are losing!"
Sarah grew indignant at this remark. "That is not true! I just can't stand to see anymore innocent lives lost due to silliness."
"Oh, so now are cause is 'silliness' is it?"
"James that's not what she meant," Moses stepped in.
"Iz it? Iz it wvhat you meant?" Henri asked.
"No. I didn't call the cause silly, I admire the cause and you know that James Hiller!" Sarah explained. "I find this war silly. I find all war silly!" James made no reply. "I'm going to start packing."
"Fine, go! I'm going to report on this 'silliness' if you don't mind!" James said as he slammed the door to the Pennsylvania Gazette behind him.
"Sarah, if you go, who will make sure James doesn't do something stupid?"
"I guess you will, Henri," Sarah said, fighting back the tears in her eyes. "
Moi?"
"Somebody has to, Henri. James would probably get himself killed."
Sarah walked up to James herself. Both were still seething from that day and neither would overcome their pride and apologize. "Well, I wish you luck," Sarah started, not sure what to say.
"I wish you luck too. Enjoy, nice safe England," James said, sarcastically.
"Can't you just say good-bye and not be rude to me?" Sarah pleaded. "Say good-bye and not be rude? You think I'm being rude?" "You're acting so cold," Sarah said.
"Me? I'm cold. I'm not leaving the people who have come to care and depend on me, am I?" James said. That froze Sarah to the dock. Care and depend on me? Did James just admit ALOUD that he not only cares for me, but needs me? Sarah's heart was doing a dance of joy, though she didn't know why.
"I'm sorry, but I can't stay here anymore. I just can't," Sarah was near tears.
James appeared like he was going to turn around and place his arms around her, but he stayed, facing away from the red-haired girl. "Well, then go."
Sarah started to walk towards the ship, which was loading her luggage as she was saying good-bye to her friends. This is it, she thought. She turned back to see Philadelphia again. Her only regret was that Benjamin Franklin was still in Paris, trying to get the French to support the American cause, so she wouldn't be able to say good-bye to him as well.
She had so many adventures from the time she got to America to find her father, a British officer on the Ohio Frontier. In fact, the day she met James and Henri was an adventure in and of itself. Who would've thought she would meet James and Henri in time to witness the Boston Tea Party? Then she was able to ride along with William Dawes, warning the people about the upcoming British invasion. Or delivering the mail when the British were going through the colonists' mail? How about all the famous people she had met throughout her years in America? George Washington, John Adams and his wife Abigail, John Hancock, Lafayette, Benedict Arnold, Patrick Henry, William Dawes, Cornstalk, Benjamin Franklin, and the list goes on. Then there was also Henri, Moses, and James. Her new family. What will become of them?
Sarah watched as the American east coast shrank into the horizon. She kept her eyes locked on one person, long after all others had faded away. She saw his face, even as the green of the land relinquished to the sea. She saw the hurt in his eyes as she said good-bye, as they had argued. His words stayed with her, she hearing them each time the wind blew past her ears. As she turned around, she realized there was something in her carry on valise that wasn't there before. She lifted up the little blue book that was in there. She opened the book and a note fell out of the book.
"Dear Sarah, Even though you are leaving the Pennsylvania Gazette it doesn't mean you have to stop writing. Keep covering the stories around you. Maybe one day you will return to America, and I want to know what happened. I know I can get an accurate description from you, for all the time you've chastised me for lying. I wish you luck and godspeed. Your friend, James Hiller. "
Sarah felt the tears rushing back to her eyes. This time, though, she didn't fight them. They freely fell to the paper below, blotting some of the words. She was just realizing what she had been fighting the entire time: the fact she was in love with James, and she knew he felt the same way. She ran to the farthest side of the ship, the one closest to America. She no longer could see the country her beloved so loved, but she knew the wind was blowing in that way. She whispered her declaration of love to the wind, hoping it would reach James' ear.
A/N: Ain't that sweet? This was just screaming to be written. Next chapter deals with James and his feelings as Sarah leaves. Does he hear Sarah's declaration? Find out!