Chapter Summary: There are a few little surprises waiting for Jack in Burgess when he returns the next winter.
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Return
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The North Wind begins to pull Jack back up to Burgess in early November of the following year. He wakes from where he has been dozing in an open field, and the dolphins swimming around his thoughts promptly vanish. Jack mentally thanks Sandy for the dream as he stretches his long arms and grabs his staff.
"About time!" he laughs to himself. Faint whispers from somewhere in his core urge him onward, and Jack nods as though Mother Earth is actually beside him. "Okay, here we go!"
With a whoop of joy, he darts into the chilled night air, skating just above the ground like a dragonfly as he lightly freezes the dew on the grass below. Turning southwest by the stars, he rockets higher and higher, skimming the trees below and rustling up a bit more wind and cloud to follow him on his journey.
He has been waiting ages to go back. The long stretch of months between Easter and now have been hard, and even the other Guardians have noticed how much more easily distracted he has become since fall has begun to fade in North America. Bunnymund chewed him out just the other day because he couldn't stop restlessly tapping his staff against the table during one of their meetings.
North pulled him aside later. "Jack," he rumbled, thumping his heavy arm on the frost spirit's shoulder, "You must settle down. They believe."
Jack knows this. He does. But now that he is on his way, he finds that an anxious weight has settled somewhere in the pit of his stomach, and he's less certain of what he will find.
The town appears on the horizon, nestled in between patches of forest. Jack circles it a few times, half to make sure that a faint layer of frost covers the plants, and half out of nerves. It is nearly sunrise by the time he arrives in the town itself, and it is every bit as quiet and deserted as he has expected. He jumps to work at once, freezing the puddles, peppering icicles across every raised surface, and sweeping fern frost across the windows.
The town is relatively small, and he finishes in no time and prepares for some fun. "Alright!" He whoops happily, drawing moisture from the clouds above him and swirling through the city in bursts of cold wind and wide snowflakes. He is so caught up in this part—his favorite part—that he almost misses the shouting.
"Jack Frost! Jack Frost!" He skitters to a stop in midair, a grin creeping across his face until he looks down. Two young dark-haired girls, obviously twins, are leaning out of the window of a second story apartment. They can only be six or seven, and Jack feels that the wide eyes and open mouths on their faces must be echoed on his own. He drifts back.
"Who…? Can you…you can see me?" He asks, stumbling over his words.
"You're Jack Frost! Just like Jamie said!" exclaims one of the girls.
"Wh—yeah! Yeah, I am! Wait. Jamie?"
"I told you he was telling the truth!" says one to the other, dimples showing as she grins eagerly. "He's real!" They bounce up and down excitedly, heads still poking out into the cold air.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Jack says suddenly, still catching up. "Jamie told you about me?"
The girls nod vigorously in unison. "He goes to our school," one says in a reverent whisper. "And before summer, he and all of his friends were telling about how you and Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy and Sandman beat…um…" Her brow furrows in thought
"It was a monster, right?" interjects the other girl.
"Yeah," Jack says faintly, still half-convinced that he is imagining things. "A really bad one."
"Wow…" the girls murmur. They are still staring with wide eyes, and in the early morning light, Jack can see that their fingers grip the windowsill so hard that they are nearly white. Maybe it would be a good idea to stop them from leaning out so far…
"Hey, whaddya say we go have some fun?"
"Yeah!"
"No, Cat, we have school!"
Jack grins suddenly. "No, you don't," he laughs. "I get the feeling today's gonna be a snow day."
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Somehow, on the way to Jamie's house, Jack makes a lot of new acquaintances. The twins, Cat and Lena, newly wrapped in thick winter coats, dance in the snow Jack makes and bellow high-pitched cries of "It's Jack Frost, Jack Frost, Jack Frost!" as they head for the park. Heads peer through doors and windows as they pass, and when Jack waves, they wave back.
A freckled boy rushes to catch up, still in his pajamas with only a pair of rain boots and a scarf to suggest that he paused at all in his rush out of the house. Another pair of siblings meet them at the next traffic light, one bubbly and excited and rattling of long lists of questions that she doesn't give Jack time to answer and the other barely old enough to really speak (but certainly old enough to know who Jack is and to watch him with raised eyebrows). The next little redheaded girl nearly trips over herself in her hurry down the front steps of her house, and Jack catches her before she hits the ground. "Jack Frost," she whispers.
"You bet," he laughs, and he grabs both of her hands and pulls her forward with him, freezing the ground below her feet and dragging her as though she is ice skating. She giggles in delight, and then Jack is surrounded by ten or more excited children who want a turn at the same thing.
"Nope, we'll have to get where we're going first. Come on!" he says, flying off with a grin as they run to catch up through the swirling snow.
Monty, Cupcake, and Pippa are next, all of them shouting his name exuberantly as they run. Jack lets out a whoop and stretches his hand out for high fives as he rushes past. "Come on, guys, let's go!" With the next group of kids come Caleb and Claude, whose grins nearly split their faces in half.
Jamie's house appears on the left, and Jack rockets forward almost unconsciously. He stops short at the second-story window to Jamie's bedroom and cups his hands around his face to peer through the glass panes.
Jamie is asleep on the bed, curled up under the blankets with his legs hanging over one side of the bed. Jack presses his palms to the glass, letting the frost crackle over its surface into swirling patterns. Even through the now-clouded surface, he can see Jamie sit up at the sound. Their eyes meet, and Jack knows that his own grin must be enormous. Jamie's face slackens comically, and he races to the window in a burst of speed that makes Jack think of Bunny's quick feet. He barely has time to draw back before the window flies open.
"Jack!" Jamie cries. "I knew you'd come!"
"Of course I came!" Jack says, slipping into the room. "Who else would bring you an awesome snow day like this one?" Jamie's arms wrap around his waist instantly. Jack is still not as comfortable with touch as he could have been—three hundred years alone will do that to a spirit—but this time, he hugs back instinctively.
"I missed you," Jamie says.
"I missed you," Jack replies. "But Jamie," he adds seriously, "we have to get outside, right now."
"Why?" Jamie asks, looking up.
"Because we have a lot of fun to catch up on. Hurry up!" Jack says with a grin.
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By the time Jamie dresses himself and Sophie and grabs his sled, there are nearly twenty children waiting for them outside. Jack sends flurries of snow down to dance in their hair, and he gives them all a quick, slippery ride down the street to the park. The snow has fallen quickly enough that it has covered the cars and road, and the trip is a loud one filled with excited cries and screams of delight.
The ensuing snowball fight will probably be talked about for years to come. Teams are created, snow fortifications are built and maintained, and equal doses of mischief and fun are had by all. Jack plays for no team, but he helps and hinders both equally, tapping branches to let gathered snow fall on unsuspecting kids and magically creating piles of extra snowballs when they're most needed.
Jack has a particularly mischievous eye set on Jamie, but after he stuffs snow down the back of the kid's coat for the fourth time, Jamie has had enough. "Jack, I'm gonna kill you!" he yelps, dancing about and shaking the bottom of the coat to let out the freezing snow. Jack is too busy laughing hysterically to hear, so Jamie throws a snowball at the Guardian.
"Get Jack!" he cries with a grin. His friends look at each other with rare, simultaneous smirks and begin pelting the Guardian with snow.
"Hey!" Jack laughs, covering his face with his arms. "You're asking for it!" The attack doesn't stop until Jack moves his staff. Snowballs form and hover in the air, each racing toward the kids. Jamie dodges one, but it turns in midair and rushes back at him.
"What—" he barely has time to cry out before the snowball hits him directly in the face. He flies backward into the soft snow, and Jack couldn't have orchestrated a more graceless, comical fall if he tried. Jamie blinks the flakes from his eyes and is met by Jack's laughing face.
"No fair!" Jamie says, but his own smile takes any bite out of the words.
"That's what you get for messing with Jack Frost," Jack says affectionately before floating down to give Jamie a hand up.
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Jack could get used to this. The other Guardians make time for him often, but they don't have the same spirit for fun and games as he does. It's only with kids that Jack can take part in games as carefree or long-lasting as this, and never before with kids who actively include him in the games, who believe.
They spend the rest of the morning sledding. Some of the kids run back to their houses to return with whatever they can find, from real sleds to garbage can lids, and although Jack has let it stop snowing, he still makes sure that the snow is fresh for each new try. He even manages to coax some of the more nervous kids into trying it for the first time with him, and their excitement is a reward of its own.
Kids drift in and out of the group, some running home for lunch or a late breakfast and returning as quickly as they can, and as the news of Jack's arrival spreads, he finds that the group grows larger than he could have dreamed possible a few hours ago. At some point, he looks up to find around forty of them laughing in the snow.
Later, he leads them down to the lake by request and with no small amount of trepidation. Jamie's voice at his side makes him jump. "You okay?" The boy still has snow in his hair from making snow angels (though Jamie declared his a snow yeti), and Jack chuckles as he ruffles it out.
"Fine," he says. "But let me take a look at the lake first, okay?"
Jamie stops the other kids from moving any closer as Jack inspects the ice. He thickens it as much as he can, building up centimeter after centimeter of ice and walking up and down for a few moments to feel its strength beneath his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack catches a glimpse of Sophie hopping excitedly next to Jamie, who waves and makes an indulgent face at his sister. Jack grins, skates around for one more check, the frost dancing as his bare feet make contact with the ice, and calls, "Ready! Let's go!"
As it turns out, Sophie is still a bit too young to get the hang of skating, but she insists on being carried piggyback for the day, and Jack can't find it in him to mind at all. A fair amount of time is spent dragging laughing kids around by his staff, and they hold onto each other like a conga line as he pulls them around the frozen lake. Once the children tire, he teaches Jamie and some of the others how to spin on their skates, and never gets tired of laughing when they fall.
It is nearly dark by the time they stop, though the days darken early this time of year. Kids wander home reluctantly, called back by parents or attracted by the promise of a warm fire after a long, cold day. They say goodbye as they go, and Jack has never had so many hugs in his life.
The little redheaded girl kisses him on the cheek before she scurries off into her mother's waiting arms.
Jamie stays, and Sophie is no longer a weight on Jack's back but a sleeping bundle in his arms. "Back home?" Jack asks.
"Home," Jamie agrees, a warm, tired look plastered on his face.
"Well, then," Jack says, smiling as Jamie begins to trudge forward, "let's get you two warmed up."
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Jamie's mother comes in to check on him that night after Jack puts Sophie in her bed. Jack is careful to stay near the window and out of her way. Adults never believe, and he avoids the sensation, cold even by his standards, of being passed through by a living human being. The dark-haired woman leans down affectionately as she fusses over Jamie, tucking him into the warm blankets and telling him to get enough sleep to go to school tomorrow after such a long day. Jamie absently agrees to all of her questions, but he can't keep his eyes off Jack, who grins and draws snowflakes in the frost that covers the glass.
When she turns the lights out on her way out of the room, Jack settles at the foot of Jamie's bed. "Is there really going to be school tomorrow?" Jamie asks at once, sitting up. They had both watched people shoveling and sprinkling salt across the snow on the walk back to the house.
"Looks like," Jack says with a wry shrug.
"Can't you make more snow?"
"It doesn't always work like that," he says with a sad laugh. "It's too early for a lot of snow to gather here. It'll mess things up." He doesn't go into too much detail, but he is well aware of the consequences of a winter that comes faster than autumn can leave, and the whispers of Mother Nature are already pulling him west toward Michigan. He should probably be there already.
"Are you leaving?" Jamie asks, troubled.
"It's not like last time," Jack says quickly. "It's winter here now. I'll be back as often as I can. With the weather…maybe even next week."
Jamie looks relieved, an excited smile spreading over his face. "Okay. Today was awesome," he adds happily. "We have to do it again."
"You bet!" Jack agrees.
"Especially the snow fight part! That was so cool!"
"Jamie," Jack remembers abruptly, "did you really tell all those kids about us?" About me? he wants to add.
Jamie is suddenly bashful. "Well, yeah," he says, fiddling with his stuffed bunny. "I mean, you gotta have people who believe in you, right? And, well…they didn't believe me right away, 'cause I always talked about crazy stuff like that. But since all of us were telling the same story, they realized it was all true. And…not everybody believes it, but there's a lot of us who've been watching out the windows for when you came back."
The frost spirit is more touched than he can say. This lonely Pennsylvania town now holds almost all of the believers he has in the world, and it's more than enough. He wraps Jamie in a crushing hug, and the boy returns it wholeheartedly after a startled laugh.
"Thanks, Jamie," Jack says warmly. "Anyway," he adds, "I gotta leave soon, but how 'bout a story before bed?"
Jamie curls up in his blankets as Jack spins tale after tale for him—some about the awesome pranks that he's pulled recently, or the time Bunny accidentally dyed half the fur on his leg pink, or when Tooth nearly fainted in excitement after finding the old baby tooth of some famous dentist—and Jamie drifts off to sleep with a smile on his face. Jack watches the slow rise and fall of the boy's chest for a few minutes, longer than he should, given that it's far past time for Lansing to be covered in a light snow, and then he drifts slowly from the bed and through the window, shutting it firmly behind him so that the cold doesn't disturb Jamie in his sleep.
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North has insisted that Jack come to visit at least once a week, and for this express purpose, the Guardian of Wonder has even made up a small room for him, light blue with silvery trimmings and soft bedding. Jack always follows this rule now, ever since he skipped a week and the other Guardians went frantic searching the globe for him. Today, though, he is too preoccupied with his lingering snowstorm in Montreal to stay for long, and North is too busy preparing for Christmas to insist on it.
But they always talk, at least, because North keeps a watchful eye on Jack. A parental one, if Jack lets himself admit that.
"Your winter is coming along well, Jack?" North asks, slowly reading paper that one of the yetis hold out to him. He nods in approval.
"Yeah," Jack says distractedly. "And your Christmas?"
"Is coming," North says, before bellowing, "Not plastic boats, model boats! For painting!" He turns back to Jack, nursing his cup of hot chocolate, which Jack knows has a heavy dose of vodka inside. The alcohol does nothing to dampen North's sharp eye, and he gazes carefully at Jack, probably noting the way the frost spirit leans more on his staff than usual. "You are tired?"
Jack doesn't know why, but he has to shake off a sudden feeling of shyness that washes over him. "I spent today in Burgess," he says.
North's face brightens in understanding. "Burgess! Jamie is good?"
"Yeah, he's great," Jack says, unable to prevent a smile from slipping onto his face. "And North," he adds suddenly, "Jamie told people about us, and about me! You'll never believe it, but there were kids waiting for me when I got there. Lots of them!"
North looks up, a warm look on his face. He knows how much this means to Jack, and he wraps the frost spirit in a wordless hug. Jack has been getting way more hugs than he is used to lately, and North's have always been particularly overbearing, but he can't help but hug back in kind.
"Is good for you," North notes, pulling away. "Belief spreads, you know."
Jack isn't willing to get his hopes up too high, but even as he waves goodbye to North and makes for Canada, a part of him is sure that this is just the beginning.
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A/N: Wow, this one was fun to write. I get the feeling that Jack would have quickly built up a reputation in Burgess, especially since he's got a group of kids who have been on a wild adventure with him!
Thanks for the reviews, and don't forget to leave a note if you'd like. Next chapter should be up next weekend, if I can get my paper written and out of the way this week. See you then!
~ket
