Cracking Mortality, Chapter 1.
Jack remembered a lot now having gotten his tooth box. There was one thing he couldn't remember.
A father.
Granted, he remembered a lot of discussions about his father. They were mostly by the fireplace soaking in the heat on lonely nights when he was little and alone, save his mother. They barely ever answered his questions though.
He recalled this specific one the most, because it was before his mother married a man and had Pippa. Though, he thought, every year has their down points as well, and this was one significant piece of sadness.
He flew to his lake, and sat under a tree. He began to recollect that time.
Jack Frost watched a young Jackson Overland look up into his mother's brown eyes.
They were lined with tears. Jack hadn't wanted his mother to cry, he really didn't. He just wanted answers. He had seen other children his age play with their fathers, and to put it lightly was slightly jealous. Not to mention he was sometimes insulted for being called a "bastard," whatever that was.
He had planned everything perfectly. He would prank her a little, so she would scold him, and then redirect the conversation gradually. He executed his plan perfectly. He thought his mother would spill the beans, saying that "Oh, your father's just in a place called heaven!" . He had heard about that place before a lot, and wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. But, it was better than nothing. So he popped the question.
Instead, he got this reaction.
She started to reach for her handkerchief in her apron pocket, dabbed her eyes and stared at the fire hypnotized. Jack knew better than to disturb his mother when she was like this. He waited. It seemed like forever before she began to speak, as if still stuck in the trance she had induced upon herself.
Her voice was the first thing he noticed before actually listening and understanding her words. It wasn't strong and brassy as it usually was, it was sad and something else Jack didn't know how to describe.
"Son…" her voice trailed. The silence tried to fill the gaps in her speech.
"Your father, he was a wonderful man. He was kind, strong, and everything a woman could ever want in a husband. Except one thing. He couldn't stay forever here with men, and he, well, he wasn't the most attractive man either."
She laughed humorlessly, bitterly as the fire crackled. She picked up a mirror and fixed her hair.
Well, that was good! Jack thought. That meant he did have a father! He shushed his thoughts as his mother began to speak again, as he wanted no distractions when he was finally getting his answer!
"Back then, I was very vain, and I thought that looks were very important. After all, I was one of the colony's few women, and I could actually choose who I wanted. But, I was willing to forgo those little obstacles, if he could promise that my son could be handsome and I could live a good life, with wealth, and with him."
She stood up and tended to the fire. Jack noticed how she seemed to do it with extra care, as if petting a beloved cat or dog.
"He was able to answer the first wish," she said, ruffling Jack's hair with only mild protest.
She continued, saying, "his wife was the Goddess of Beauty. She could guarantee it. There was a couple drawbacks for that to happen. Thus, the others were only partially fulfilled." She had her arms wrapped around him at this point.
Jack cut her off, too curious to notice her pain and how hard it was for her to keep going. He turned his head to look at hers.
"What do you mean, the Goddess of Beauty?"
She looked at her son. She wasn't his mother when she was like this. Jack could see who and what she used to be before… Before him. It frightened him slightly. It was like a ray of light from the fire had washed away the hard years in the English Colonies.
The light around her faded, and he saw his mother again, not that foreign young woman who became his mother.
She looked at him, shaking her head slightly. "I'll tell you more when you're eighteen right before you marry."
Her voice had lost her softness, and became as hard as stone again. Just like it always was.
Jack didn't know it, but she had lost her momentum, and it cut right through her soul when she was stopped. She had been able to ignore the hurt until now. Looking back, he could see this.
Jack looked up, eyes big.
"Pinky promise?"
She paused, then locked her pinky on his.
"Pinky promise."
Jack realized that he had fallen asleep under a tree when he jerked up and hurt himself the lower branches.
"Oww.." he said as he rubbed the back his head.
To cheer himself up, he decided to check on his favorite believers. After all, he was in Burgess, he might as well see them.
He lifted himself up, and with the Wind's help, he smiled a melancholy smile, pushing the pain down just like his mother all those years ago.
He looked at his lake, hovering, and stared at his reflection.
He still didn't know who he was as a human. Memories don't help too much if you never learned who you were when you were alive.
He continued, until he was numb and could actually convince himself he was happy.
He then took off.
He flew into Jaime and Sophie's house through the window (poor Mrs. Bennett, she probably had to pay a lot in heating bills because of him visiting the Bennett siblings). Then he realized something. They weren't there.
He searched around, and had the Wind helped him. Together, they lifted sheets and checked everywhere. Their cars were here.
Mrs. Bennett was here.
He wandered down into the living room, seeing a very stressed Mrs. Bennett (or Amy, could he call her that, since you know, he had seniority? Or was he still seventeen? What a paradox!). She was pulling her brown hair out by the roots. Sitting there, she picked up her cell phone nearby and pressed the redial button.
She pressed the phone to the side of her face and started to cry.
Jack got closer to the scene, forgetting she couldn't see him and wrapped his arm around her and tried to eavesdrop on her conversation.
She immediately dropped her phone in shock.
Jack began to panic, thinking something had happened to his favorite believers. He began to pester Mrs. Bennett, desperately hoping everything was okay.
Then she screamed bloody murder.
"Who are you, and why are you in my house!?"
Jack began to explain to her, saying that he knew Jaime and Sophie.
Her screams then became silence.
"Would you help me find them?'
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I think I know who you are. Jaime and Sophie always talked about you!" She was in hysterics at this point.
"Oh, Jack Frost this and Jack Frost that! He's immortal! Why don't you see him?" she mocked.
Her voice, which had been steadily building up to this point cracked.
"I don't know why I can see you now, but if you really are a guardian for my children, you'll help me find them."
That hit home.
"Mrs. Bennett?"
"Yes?"
"I'll help you."
Then she, like his own mother began to speak.
"Jack…" she stopped, then started up again abruptly.
"Jack, my children are, special. Not in the way a normal mother would or could say it. They don't know it but, their father, he was- " She corrected herself.
"He is very powerful. He's immortal like you, if anything my children said is true."
She stared at him, trying to see if he believed her.
"Go on," he said, making a big show of waving his arm in circles.
Then she seemed to go on a tangent.
"Do you believe in the Greek Gods?"
Jack was slightly taken aback.
"Sure, sure I do," he said hurriedly, "but I don't really view them as gods. More as just really powerful immortals."
"Well," she began again, "Jaime and Sophie are the offspring of the god Zeus. It's why Sophie's hair is so frizzy, why Jaime can pick up magnets like he is a magnet every once in a while."
She took a tense, terse breathe.
"And, he said that when they became older, they needed to be safe. And they would be, but only at a special camp. It's in New York," she said before Jack could interject.
"But I don't know where. Mortals like me can't see it, but I need you to guide them there."
With this, her children emerged from cupboards. Immediately, he ran and hugged Jaime and Sophie. They looked scared out of their wits.
"They've been in hiding. I've had to constantly move them. They need to get to that camp. I had to call the police so everything would look real, but it also means the cops will be looking for them. Will you promise that they will make it their safely?"
She looked at him, pleading. A grown woman wanting, no, needing his help.
He looked over at the kids. Jaime was trying to calm Sophie down. Just like he used to do.
He shouldn't have to go through that.
"I will… I promise."
Besides, maybe he could find out a couple answers about who he used to be along the way.
A/N:
How did you like it? I'm not quite sure what to do, but I have lots of ideas. Anyway, this is obviously a cross-over. Try to guess who the god who is Jack's father. I'm not giving it away just yet!