I sat next to my window, listening to the wind. We were home again. I was back in my room, wondering how to send a letter to the North Pole. Forgetting we were leaving wasn't one of my brightest moments, and that's saying something when we're discussing my worst moments.
"You're really hard to find, you know," said a voice by my ear. Jack Frost had positioned himself next to the window, suspended in thin air.
"North has a lists of all the kids who've ever existed in the world since the Dark Ages. I had to get Phil to go through some back records, but you're definitely there, you and your brother. North remembered you in particular. He said he hadn't seen any siblings like you two in a while. Something about Ryan seeming to be the type who would consistently make the nice list, and you the naughty list, yet you both consistently did the opposite."
I hadn't moved or made a sound since he's spoken. "Yeah, it is kind of weird, isn't it?"
"So… you said you'd tell me why you believed in me?"
"Yeah." I took a deep breath and explained about my… ability. That stories in our world are actually real in alternate universes. Like Dr. Who. I had recently, in fact, returned from a nice long vacation with the Doctor. Saw some pretty cool stuff, saved reality... I'll have to fill you all in on how that went sometime. And the Marvel movies are real too. I have the ability to travel between them due to exposure to a rift in time when I was little. I had, of course, only found out about my powers a few years ago. Which you'd know if you'd been keeping up with my stories. We make recordings of them as therapy of sorts for me. I'm still fairly sane, so it seems to be working.
"Wow," said Jack Frost when I finished. "Most people wouldn't be in as good shape as you are."
"I knew that Pitch couldn't hurt me unless I was afraid of him, so I wasn't afraid of him. He hated that."
"Yes, he did," agreed Jack. He glanced around my room.
It's not exactly a huge room. The dark blue walls were bare. Some trophies from karate tournaments lined my dresser. CD cases all over the floor – Skillet, Icon for Hire, Fireflight, soundtracks from various musicals. Books lined the bookshelf – not the stuff that I know a lot of girls like, the stuff with "good girls changing the bad boys" and "average girls falling in love with supernatural creatures" – but some mysteries and suspense, a few science fiction novels, and a couple classics like To Kill a Mockingbird. Those were mostly gifts from people.
His gaze returned to me.
"If you ever need help with anything, let me know."
"Thank you." That offer could very possibly come in handy soon. You never know when a freak snow storm will be useful.
I didn't expect to see Jack Frost again for a while. However, a week later, I found him sitting on my windowsill when I came home after a long night of training.
"Jack," I said. "Good to see you again. What brings you here?"
"I was passing by and thought I'd stop in."
That became what he said every Saturday night. Unfailingly, he came to see me Saturday nights at nine. He'd tell me what was going on with the Guardians, and we'd just talk. No one ever heard him, because nobody in my house believed in Jack Frost, though my mom did knock and asked why I was talking to myself once. Sometimes, Jack took me to see the other guardians. They all seemed to like me – or, at least, tolerate me.
There wasn't anything romantic between us, not ever – just to stop anything that must have popped up in anyone's shippery minds.
Miranda's telling me that "shippery" isn't a word. Of course it is – I just invented it.
One evening, I came home to find Jack on the windowsill and the Doctor sitting at my desk, going through my homework. The Doctor had somehow found out about our meetings and wanted to talk to Jack. While the Doctor was there, I asked him about some of the "magical" stuff that came along with Jack.
"The Man in the Moon has been putting people in alternate dimensions," the Doctor told me. "You can see the people still, because the wall between this dimension and that one is quite thin, but only if you believe they're there."
That explained a lot. As for various powers and abilities, I didn't really understand his explanation – I'm not a scientist, okay? – but the best I can understand it, it comes from alien technology and things like that.
The nightmares didn't stop entirely. I don't think they will for a long time, if they ever do. But they did lessen. I suspect I have Sandman to thank for that. Although my dream about riding on a unicorn through a meadow was a little weird, it was better than a nightmare about dying in some horrible way at the hands of one of the many people who I've managed to tick off over the last few years.
And I guess now we're at the end of the story. The story of how I met Jack Frost. I suppose I could say all sorts of things about learning to conquer fear to tie off all that stuff, but I don't see a point, frankly. You probably picked up the point already. Fear's a healthy thing sometimes, don't get me wrong. Fear of getting hit by a bus helps you to be more cautious when crossing the street and helps prevent you from being hit by a bus. But fear in the wrong things will do nobody any good.
I guess that's it. The end of the story. Not of my story, though, just of this one. I suspect that I'll have another story for you all very soon.
And that's the end of this story. I have an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. story in the same series coming up soon, for those who are interested.
