Title: Lesson Forgotten?
Category: TV Shows » Tomorrow People, 2013
Author: anonyreaderfan
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K
Genre: General
Published: 04-14-15, Updated: 04-14-15
Chapters: 1, Words: 1,687

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Tomorrow People is the property of the CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

~ X ~

John pressed his face against the car window making breath smudges and then drawing pictures with a rather grimy finger.

"You are gonna clean those windows when we get back, and they better be spotless!" Jedikiah interrupted his discussion with Roger when he spotted the boy in the rearview mirror.

John, startled by the stern reprimand, gave a guilty start. Looking sheepish, he wiped the window with his jacket sleeve.

"Ain't gonna cut it!" Jedikiah, catching John's eyes in the mirror, warned.

Roger, chuckling, half turned in his seat. "Give the kid a break. It's a long ride."

John smiled gratefully at Roger. He crouched forward, leaning into the space between the driver and the front passenger seat and asked as he had several times already, "Are we almost there?"

Jedikiah, lifting one hand off the steering wheel, angled it to place his hand on the boy's forehead and push him backwards. "Like I already told you, we'll be there when we get there."

The young teen sighed, but didn't let it ruin his good mood. He was just so happy to be away from Ultra and on a road trip with his mentor and his teacher. He bounced up and down in the seat to relieve some of his excitement.

Jed frowned, but as he opened his mouth to issue a reproof Roger nudged him hard with an elbow. The brothers' eyes met for a moment, and Jed relented with a rueful smile.

An hour passed before they pulled up on the side of the road. "This is it. This is where the Price family always cut their Christmas trees," Jedikiah announced with satisfaction.

Roger, eying a bright orange sign stapled to a tree, felt obligated to point that fact out. "Ah, in case you haven't noticed, there's now a 'No Trespassing Sign' posted."

"That's not for us," Jedikiah blithely pronounced. He looked around and pointed towards an obvious area of crunched down snow with tire tracks. "Besides, we're not the first." He quickly shifted the vehicle into four wheel drive and aimed for the rather narrow opening.

Roger shrugged in resignation and muttered, "Of course, that makes it okay for us to break the law too."

His brother over heard him but just smirked and gently nudged him. "Don't be such a worry wart."

"Won't we get stuck?" John, face pressed against the window to look down at the ground, darted anxious glances at the occupants of the front seats while listening to the squealing of branches raking the sides of the rather large black SUV.

"Well, with the way you've been progressing with your telekinesis we'll expect you to push us out." Roger, half turned in the seat to face the boy, keeping his expression and tone serious.

John at first reddened at the praise from his teacher and ducked his head. When he looked up, his eyes were shining, and he puffed his thin chest out. Roger had to bite his lip not to smile at the boy's innocent pride and quickly turned to face front. Jedikiah rolled his eyes but refrained from commenting. He expertly guided the vehicle into a clearing far enough in from the road that he judged they weren't visible. He shut the engine off with a flourish.

"Okay, let's—" He cut off his words as the door burst open, and John torpedoed out. He turned to Roger. "That kid is nothing but nerves and energy."

"It's a good sign, Jed." Roger wore the smile that charmed everyone around him and won him his wife. He reached over and gently punched his brother's shoulder. "He's coming out of his shell. Starting to trust us." The smile faded as soon as the words were out of his mouth and the implication of what he said hit him.

Jedikiah grimaced. "Yeah. Trust us." He snorted. "That is the plan, isn't it?"

The brothers carefully avoided each other's eyes, neither one comfortable with their long term goal or wanting to ruin the occasion by dwelling on it.

Finally Jed unhooked his seat belt and broke the awkward silence. "Let's go find the kid before he's gets lost." They leisurely got out of the car. Roger retrieved a saw from the back of the vehicle. His eyebrows rose as his brother locked the car, and he gently teased him. "Paranoid much? This isn't New York. It's the country."

"Never let your guard down!" Jedikiah shook a finger at the other man. "Listen to your older brother."

Roger chuckled, and the two men tramped through the snow following the smaller footprints. The air was refreshingly crisp without being damp. The sun was shining, and the smells were the country smells of their youth; broken pine needles and fresh air laced with a woody smoke from a far off chimney. No bus fumes or garbage smells. Despite all the troubles and doubts weighing them down their spirits lifted. They simultaneously turned to each other and grins broke out.

Roger holding his arms out at full length clapped his hands together bracingly. "This is the goo—"

Splat! A soft snowball exploded over the lower half of his face cutting off his words. His lightly gray streaked beard was now mostly white.

Jedikiah, laughing uproariously, slapped his knee. That stopped when he got smacked in the back of the head.

Both heard familiar laughter quickly suppressed. The brothers looked at each other and a gleam came into their eyes. "This kid needs a lesson in snowball tactics," Jedikiah said seriously.

"This is war," Roger solemnly decreed as he combed small clumps of snow out of his short beard.

The brothers dived behind trees and began building up snowball arsenals. "Every man for himself," Roger shouted.

"No telepathy or telekinesis," Jedikiah insisted as he knelt to make snowballs. No sooner had the words left his mouth then he felt a breeze as John teleported behind him and smacked him with a snowball on the neck. The next instant the kid turned and was gone. The snow was soft and quickly melted sending tiny rivulets of cold water running down the man's back.

Jedikiah closed his eyes briefly and sighed as he shivered and futilely tried to brush the snow out of his collar. "I guess I should have added no teleportation."

Roger, who had seen what the boy did, was snickering. Jedikiah, in one smooth motion, scooped up snow shaping it into a ball, and fast balled it to his brother's head. Roger's snickers abruptly stopped.

Jedikiah, admiring his own prowess bragged, "Who's still got it? Who's still King?"

He quickly whipped around as he heard John's footsteps behind him. He almost managed to dodge a snowball as he dove for more ammunition. It glanced off the side of his torso, but he was able to catch the boy smack in the middle of his chest.

"Oomph!" The kid was more surprised than anything else and scrambled to get away.

Roger retaliated with a snowball to the dead center of Jedikiah's back. Jedikiah returned the favor with a barrage of the little white missiles. The brothers were soon intent on each other leaving a laughing wide eyed John on the sidelines.

"Let's settle this the traditional Price way," Jedikiah challenged.

"You got it," Roger yelled back.

John, peeking out from behind a fallen tree trunk, watched fascinated as the two came out in the open, a snowball in each hand, and stood back to back. He continued to build up his supply of snowballs as he yelled out, "Whatcha doing?"

"This is the way we always settled snow ball fights," Roger informed him.

Jedikiah nodded. "It's a family tradition. Shootout at the OK corral cowboy style."

"Awesome!" John quickly slung his legs over the downed tree and sat, keeping his eyes glued on the two men.

They spoke at the same time, taking a long stride as they called out numbers. "One. Two. Three."

At five they stopped and whipped around throwing their snowballs while at the same time attempting to dodge their opponent's missile. Jedikiah managed to wing Roger with one while successfully dodging the snowballs aimed at him.

"I win!" He held up two arms in a victory clench.

Roger, shaking his head, mock bowed as if saluting a dignitary. "You are still the best."

John was laughing so hard he was holding his stomach. The brother's exchanged a quick look. They quickly reached down and grabbed snow and bombarded John. The boy, ducking behind the log, furiously lobbed his stash at the men, but there was no way he could stand the combined assault of two such experienced snowball fighters. He was quickly overwhelmed and snow shoved down his back. He screamed with laughter as he struggled to get away.

It quickly deteriorated into a three way fight, and everyone ended up on the ground soaking wet.

"I give up!" John finally cried out.

"Did you learn your lesson?" Jedikiah demanded. "Who always wins?"

"You do." John was quick to respond, chuckling.

Jedikiah reached over to brush his hand through the kid's snow covered head. "That's right."

Roger lay flat on his back in the snow, laughing. "You never change, Jed."

Roger stood up and reached out a hand to pull John to his feet while Jedikiah jumped up. They helped each other brush off the snow before starting back towards the saw Roger had dumped when they started the fight.

"We have a tree to find." Roger hefted the saw up.

John, walking between the two tall men, looked up at Jedikiah. "I guess I better stay on your good side, Jed."

Roger laid an arm over his shoulder and gave him a quick hug. "You learned an important lesson today, John. Never forget it. Jedikiah always wins."

~ FIN ~