WARNING:This chapter may cause inordinate amounts of squeeing and/or vomiting (depending on your personal Sap Meter). If you or someone you love is experiencing either of these symptoms, smack them upside the head and give them something with chocolate in it. If symptoms persist, you might want to pull the plug out of the wall. LOL
Oh, and this involves a Colbie Caillat song that I love, but another good song for this chapter would be "Close Your Eyes" by Michael Buble. Woot! Or just listen to both!
"Alone I stare into the frost's white face." – Osip Mandelstam
Chapter 8: Winter's Embrace
You're stuck on me and my laughing eyes
I can't pretend, though I try to hide
I like you
Joanna smiled wryly; her ipod was against her yet again.
"I give up," she shrugged.
I like you
She bobbed on each foot in a sort of dance to the slow bounce of the song.
I think I felt my heart skip a beat
I'm standing here and I can hardly breathe
You got me, yeah
You got me
The funny thing about this song was that it was one of the few songs she knew that made her feel girliest. It put bubbles in her stomach that made her feet feel lighter than air.
The way you take my hand
is just so sweet
She danced her way through a quick pick-up of today's clothes and playfully tossed them in her hamper.
And that crooked smile of yours,
it knocks me off my feet!
She tried to imagine what Jack's smile would look like and it made her turn red and giggle like a fangirl! She threw the curtains open and smiled up at the moon in its full-rounded glory.
"Let's dance, Moon Man!" she chimed and twirled to the chorus.
Oh, I just can't get enough
How much do I need to fill me up?
Joanna was singing along and dancing with her eyes closed, so she didn't see the thin layer of frost spiraling closer to her feet with every turn.
"It feels so good, it must be LAAAH!" she shrieked as her foot slipped, flew, and swung her body almost completely upside down in a decidedly ungraceful and humorous manner. She landed in a small snowdrift with her foot still in the air and she swore she could hear the mischievous laughter of the Guardian of Fun.
"All right," she said flatly, "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough, my friend!" Jack laughed as he pushed the Save button on his Guardian edition iphone. "Oh, man, that was priceless!" He waved the snow away with his staff and picked her back up with a wind swirl.
"Thanks," she said, still embarrassed as she straightened her nightgown, "You might have warned me or something."
"And missed that golden opportunity?" he raised an amused eyebrow, "Not a chance!" He flicked his staff and made a dancing snow couple.
"You want to dance with me?" she guessed. A checkmark appeared and she beamed. "All right, then." She curtsied. "Lead on!"
This time she braced herself for the slippery ice and frost as their commander maneuvered them to make her dance like an Olympic skater. Once she got used to it, she was actually quite a graceful dancer. Jack remembered the way she used to hop around in the snow like a bird, how they would dance in the snowflakes together. Seeing her this happy again made his heart glow, but seeing the beautiful woman she'd become made his heart burn with an intensity that was alien to him in every way that mattered. Ever watchful, the moon touched him with its light and whispered to him that the time was now. His eyes lit up with joy and he turned for one moment to offer breathless gratitude before making his move.
Close your eyes, he wrote on the floor in beautiful curves and curls. Jo raised an eyebrow; she liked to think she would've Maced any other guy under normal circumstances. But since this wasn't the case, she complied. She wasn't quite sure what he was going to do, but she knew she could trust him more than anyone.
She stopped breathing for a second with the distinct feeling she was being kissed again, except this time the familiar cool spot was pressing against her lips. Her eyes nearly popped back open as she realized she was sharing a kiss with Jack Frost!
She happily kissed him back, feeling rather than seeing the snow swirling around her, dancing to the rest of the song as it combined with the moonlight to make him materialize like a winter pixie. Once he knew she could feel him physically, he finally and gently broke the kiss. Joanna opened her wide eyes and smiled a deep blush. Her hands trembled as she slowly and tentatively touched Jack's face.
It was even more beautiful now, with his hair burning in a silver blaze, his pale skin bordered with the soft light of the moon, and his eyes—those bright, breathtaking eyes—were shining with happiness. It was a drastic change from his sad and lonely expression from this afternoon and Joanna loved it so much she could've died.
"There you are," she said breathlessly, "Sorry I took so long."
"Forget about it," he shook his head, "You were worth the wait."
'Hot dang, he's got a sexy voice!' she thought. Her hands slipped to his neck.
"We've got a lot to talk about, you and I," she said.
"Yeah," he smiled charmingly, "but if you don't mind…" He tipped her chin to watch the silver creep into the honey in her eyes. "I don't feel much like talking just now."
"Me, neither," she said softly, letting his eyes draw her in as she snaked her arms around his neck. He held his left arm around her waist with his staff in his hand and his right one behind her back. He held her tight and kissed her good, and though his body was as cold as ice, Joanna virtually melted in his arms.
They stood there for a while after their make-out with Jo's head nestled comfortably in Jack's neck.
"So," he spoke first, "Any questions?" Jo chuckled shortly.
"Only a million," she said wryly, "starting with this."
She reached in her nightgown and pulled out a beautiful silver chain on which was hanging a perfect snowflake—his snowflake, crafted by his own hand 48 years ago for a little girl crying in the snow.
"I'll say it first," she said as Jack held it preciously in his hand, "Where did I get this?" Jack closed a gentle fist around the charm with what looked like a painful face, but when he looked at her again, he looked ready to cry with happiness.
"I knew it," he smiled emotionally and touched her face, "I knew it was you!"
"Then you do know me," she blinked, bewildered by this sudden overflow of sentiment. Jack gave a short burst of excited laughter, threw his arms around her, spun around and tossed her up as effortlessly as he had all those years ago.
"Um, Jack," she chuckled awkwardly, "I'm really happy that you're happy, but do you mind cluing me in?"
"You were just a kid," he told her, "A small, lonely, adorable little kid. You were being chased around by bullies and I—I saved you and then your dad came and—"
"My dad?!" she repeated and grabbed him, "I have a father? Do I have a mom, too?" It was interesting to Jack to find himself on the receiving end of an identity crisis.
"Yeah, you do," he nodded, "Or—or you did. I'm not sure which. I never spoke to her, though. I couldn't stand to be around her—physically, I mean."
"What do you mean?" she asked, "That makes no sense whatsoever."
"You're right, you're right," Jacked waved his hand, "I'm going too fast, I'm sorry." He grabbed her hand and swung her and himself to the window.
"See," he started, "the reason I said that is because your parents were…well, uh…they were wind spirits."
Something in Joanna's brain made a record scratch sound effect.
"Wind spirits," she repeated blankly.
"Look, I know what you're thinking," Jack said as he perched on the window sill, "and believe me, I know it sounds crazy…but it's the truth. Your mom was a warm southern wind that normally hangs around the Tex-Mex areas. She was hot, and I don't mean as in sexy mama hot. She was hot in a way that would've actually hurt me."
"No way," she breathed and leaned back to digest it, "What about my dad?" Jack chuckled with his crooked smile before answering, like there was some inside joke involved.
"Your dad," he said a bit ruefully, "was a Canadian cold front that always hung out on the Great Lakes on that side."
"I take it you didn't get along," Jo guessed.
"Well…" he squirmed a bit, not wanting to paint a bad picture of the father she couldn't remember, "You got to understand, we were two totally different kinds of cold. I'm the fun Christmas Vacation kind and he's more like the sub-zero, Mr. Freeze kind. I never stuck around too long before he'd show up and run me off. It's not all his fault, though; my presence there was a bit of a scale tipper. It would've messed up the work he and your mom always did on the Lakes."
"What work?" she asked.
"I don't know," he shrugged, "Like I said, I was never there long enough to find out. It was probably pretty important."
"Yeah," she nodded, "What about me? Where do I fit in all this?"
"To tell the truth," he sighed and slipped his feet to the floor, "I never did figure that out. I mean I know you're their kid…but that's all I know. I don't know if you had a job to do as a wind spirit, I don't know which one of them you stayed with the most, I don't even know where you lived. All I know for sure is that when I met you, you were all by yourself, trying to make friends. You were cute and you were lonely." He half-smiled thoughtfully at her. "That's pretty much where we started."
"So you knew me when I was just a little girl," she mused in awe, "When was that?"
"We met in the winter of '65, up in Minnesota," he answered, "You weren't much older than Jamie."
"Man, you really are old," she teased.
"Oh, thanks a lot, Nanny Jo!" he responded as they laughed, "You're no spring chicken yourself, you know!"
"I know," she said, "After the moon changed me, I didn't know anything, so I went to a doctor to get myself checked out. I told him I had amnesia, which was pretty much true, and he figured out my age. I was eighteen and it was '75, so in '65 I was eight, which means I must've been born in…" She counted off on her fingers. "Whoa. 1957."
"Which makes you exactly 56 years old," said Jack, "That's practically a baby on my scale."
"Which makes you a creepy old grandpa!" she teased again.
"What can I say?" he shrugged and hooked her with his staff, "I like the young people." He wrapped his arm around her.
"I don't suppose you know what my connection is to the Edmund Fitzgerald," she ventured.
"No," he shook his head against hers, "I used to visit you every winter up until '68. I don't know why, but that year your dad put his foot down and ran me off for the last time." He tightened his hold. "I never saw you again." Joanna hugged him back.
"I bet I cried," she said sadly.
"We both did," he confessed, "Pretty hard, too. You were the only friend I had back then. To have you taken away terrified me." He turned his face into her head. "And now you're back." She smiled.
"The fun part is," she said, "I'm not the only one you've got anymore. There's Jamie and Sophie and the Guardians."
"Yeah," he said, "Wait a minute. Guardians!" He jumped up. "That's it! Did Jamie tell you about the Tooth Fairy?"
"Not much," she blinked, "Why?"
"You know how she collects teeth?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued. "The reason she does that is because they contain a child's memories. She takes the teeth to protect them so they can remember what's important. She has everyone's teeth, including mine. I'll just bet she's got yours, too."
"But if she's a Guardian, doesn't she only do that for human children?" she said, "Would she have the teeth of a spirit child?"
"She told me all the children of the world," he shrugged, "It's worth looking into, at least."
"And if she does," she lit up, "then I'll remember my past, right?"
"I did." Joanna stared up at him for a minute, then jumped up into his arms.
"Thank you, Jack," she said gratefully, "I've waited so long for this. I know it's not even close to how long you waited, but I'm still so glad I finally found you!" Jack closed his eyes as he held her; it was different from the way he held Jamie or Sophie, but it was no less humbling.
Author's Review:
I had a couple of different scenarios for Jack's discovery of the snowflake necklace. One was where she still couldn't see him and he found it on her vanity desk, snatched it up and got emotional like he does and was all like "Where did you get this?" And of course, she doesn't answer because she doesn't know he's there. Another was the same, only she DOES see him and she gets all confused and is all like "I was going to ask you the same thing," or "I was hoping you could tell me," or something like that. None of them took, though; but I think this one worked just as well!
I'm willing to bet money most of you got out your calculators on the age part! LOL I promise I did my math right! That's the first time I've ever done math in a story! Woot!
Oh, I accidentally put in a line from a Mandy Moore song in one of Jack's lines! First one to guess it wins! (…) I don't know what, but you'll win! I don't really have any prizes to offer, other than an honorable mention in the chapter heading.
Next chapter is essentially a filler chapter, but it involves the Easter Bunny, so all you Bunny fans might want to stay tuned!
