-Present-

Jack awoke to a strong grip on his shoulders and the feeling of being shaken. His eyes fluttered open to the sight of his neighbor's face which looked frantic. He gasped for a breath he didn't realize he had been holding out on. He grabbed his neighbor's arms and held them still. Jack felt like coughing when he tried to exhale so he tore away from his neighbor and turn onto his side. His coughing fit lasted several moments as his lungs expelled blood from within. He looked down disgusted at the red phlegm that was now on the grass. He wiped his lips of red and looked back up at his now standing neighbor.

He gave a short mocking laugh, "What happened here?"

The neighbor looked around, "An earthquake I suppose."

"Not a bad way to start the day 'ey, Rick?" Jack had a smile of complete disbelief.

"Could've been worse I suppose." Right shrugged his shoulders.

Jack looked around at the near demolished suburbia, "What do you think, a five point five to six point five?"

"No, I'd say more around six to seven on the R scale." Rick stated as he looked around again.

Jack stood up and turned to look at his house, "Well, our houses are still standing."

Rick snorted, "Lucky us. Now we don't get to collect insurance and have to pay for an inspection before we can stay in them." Rick gestured his arms openly to both houses.

Jack looked down and noticed he was in a towel, "Did you pull me out of my house?" He looked to Rick who was staring at the two houses.

Rick turned his attention to Jack, "Yeah, I saw your truck in the drive and got worried. So I ran in, found you and, quickly wrapped you up."

Jack's cheeks turned a bright red, "Oh. Well thank you."

Rick waved him off, "Not a problem," Rick pointed near Jack's feet, "I did grab your clothes that were next to you in case your house did collapse."

Jack's blush began to darken, "Thank you." Jack said quietly.

Rick waved him off once again, "Not a problem." Rick smirked at Jack's blushing face, "Don't be embarrassed Jack, With four grown kids I've seen enough to not even care."

Jack visibly relaxed, "Oh." Desperate to change the subject, "How are your kids?"

Rick shook his head with smile, "Well, my oldest Jean is doing fairly well being a lawyer. Spencer just graduated from Karolinska Institute to become a doctor. And my youngest Emily just started college. She wanted to go to Chicago for it. I forget what's called but it has the program she wanted." Rick shrugged.

Jack thought for a moment, "What about your second youngest?"

Rick gave Jack a sad smile, "I don't know where he is. I get a letter every couple of months from a random address asking for money."

Jack mouthed the word 'Oh' before speaking, "Sorry to hear that." Jack looked away and around at the rubble, "Should we check on our other neighbors?"

Rick nodded his head, "Sure, but you might wanna put those clothes on before we do."

Jack's face turned red, "Oh right. Hold on a second while I go do that." As Jack ran inside with clothes in hand, "Then we can start!"


Eathan brought his brush away from the canvas quickly as soon as he heard the floor outside his door creak. As if on cue his door burst open, easel and evidently the canvas that rested on it.

"Eathan!" Vivian yelled as she held onto the door knob for stability.

Eathan sighed dramatically, "Yes Vivian?"

She smiled, "How's art going?"

Eathan rolled his eyes, "Fine. Is dinner ready?"

Vivian nodded her head and left the room. Eathan following shortly behind her down to the kitchen. Something lurked in Eathan's room as he sat around the dinner table. It stared at the canvas Eathan had been drawing on moments ago. An angry expression showed on its face the longer it stared at it. It wanted to destroy the canvas. It wondered how Eathan knew such things. It questioned how Eathan knew that there was an earthquake where Jack lived, how had he known it had happened. The fact it didn't know infuriated the creature. Just before it was about to smash the canvas into pieces Eathan walked into the room with a bowl of spaghetti. As its large clenched hands swung down Eathan stepped in front of the canvas. Its hands flew down through Eathan and the canvas. It stepped back and growled at Eathan.

Eathan heard a creak of the floor where he was not stepping. He eyed it suspiciously for a second before shrugging his shoulders and setting the bowl down on his desk. He had a purple colored pencil in hand. Before he began to add the color, he stepped back into the foreboding creature. He rubbed his chin as he took in his almost unfinished picture.

A house resembling Jack's was at the center of canvas, it was gray and cracked in the center, the roof collapsed. A large crack ran through the ground splitting the house and sidewalk in front. An ominous, light absorbing, black cloud surrounded the house and loomed in the sky, small white circles in pairs hidden within the cloud looked angry. Standing on one side of the crack was a man, holding the hands of his four children as they looked on at the destroyed structure.

Eathan smiled at the picture he had created. He put the colored pencil back and turned towards his closet. He fumbled through it looking for a frame to put the picture into.


Jack and Rick were crawling through the wreckage of a devastated house, a woman slung between them. She limped with a broken leg and bleeding head. Jack and Rick maneuvered through the debris carefully as they moved with the injured woman.

As they found their way out, they all heard a groan from the house. Rick shouted to for them to move faster. Each of them motivated by the threat of death picked up their pace. When they stepped out onto the lawn the house collapsed in on itself. They all noticeably exhaled in relief in their successful escape.

"Whoa," Jack said wide eyed, "That was close."

"I'll say." Rick responded.

Rick and Jack both felt the woman's arms tighten around their shoulders, "Thank you both, so much."

They both smiled down at her, but Jack spoke first, "No problem Ms. Krueger."

She smiled at Jack before looking down each way of the road, "Has anybody called the paramedics?"

Rick rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, apparently they're swamped with injuries in the city. They said they'll get one out here as soon as they could."

Ms. Krueger scoffed, "Tomorrow then. Great." She looked around her front yard, "You boys can set me down on the curb over there. Go see if anyone else needs help you two." She smiled at them.

Jack and Rick walked her over to the curb and gently set her down. They looked around the at the other houses and decided to go to Ms. Krueger's neighbor.


The nurse checked the patient's charts as she stood by his bed. She had been ordered to unplug their support by the end of the day. She put the chart back in the file holder at the foot of the bed. She looked down at the patient and saw his foot twitch. She walked over to his side and leaned down near his face.

She started to talk to him, "You really need to wake up today. You're healthy in physically and mentally speaking. Please sir, I don't want to pull the plug on you."

"Nurse, What are you doing?" A doctor walked in and had his arms crossed.

"Nothing doctor. I just want him to wake up. Before I have to pull the plug." She stated dishearten by the situation.

The doctor nodded his head, "I understand. Come on, we have other cases to work on." The nurse nodded her head and followed the doctor to the next case.


Eathan hung the menacing picture on the wall above his bed. He smiled, proud of how well he had done. The extreme amount of detail that had gone into each brush stroke or line of a pencil. He had started the picture the day he got home from visiting Jack. He didn't know why he had the urge to color such a picture, but he did and he was very glad he did. He wondered what Jack had been up to the past few days. He thought about calling, but had postponed the thought for later date. Feeling elated from finally finishing his picture, he decided that he would call Jack.

As he went to dial Jack's number he remembered he didn't have it. Fuck. He left his room and walked through the house looking for his mother. Maybe she'll know it. He found her sitting on the couch watching a soap opera.

"Hey Mom, do you have Jack's phone number?" Eathan asked her.

She jumped slightly startled by the abrupt sound of her son, "Oh, yes. Its in that CD he sent home with us."

Eathan sighed at his mother's vague answer, "And where is it?"

"Oh…uh…" She thought distractedly for a moment, "In my room on the nightstand."

Eathan nodded, "Thanks Mom."

Eathan nodded and went to his mother's room to grab it. As he went to open it his mother's voice stopped him.

"Eathan wait!" she shouted as she hurried through the hallway.

"Why?" He shouted back as he opened it.

His mouth fell open at the sight inside on the opposite side of the CD. There was money and by the looks of it a few hundred dollars. Sitting on top of the money was Jack's number with a note.

Dear Mom,
I hope this helps
On your way back home
Or anything you might find it useful for.
If you need anything call me.
Love,
Jack

Eathan turned towards his mother, "What's all this?"

She shrugged apologetically, "Jack gave it to us."

"But why?" Hurt was obvious in Eathan's voice.

"He knows we're tight on money." She stated flatly.

"No, why didn't tell us? Tell me?" Eathan was hurt that his own mother didn't tell him about it.

"I thought it would be best if you didn't know how much we were struggling." She said sadly.

Anger flared up in Eathan, "I'm not a kid anymore! I need to know things like this! I could've been out searching for a second job! Or anything!"

She walked over to Eathan, "I know, I know. I don't like to worry you kids though."

Eathan took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, "Maybe we should worry. So we know."

"Okay." Is all she said. She left the room ashamed of herself for not trusting her children enough to tell them of a matter so insignificant.


Jack and Rick split up to better cover the surrounding houses. After several hours of getting injured out of their razed houses, Jack and Rick met up in their front yards. Halfway through their search for people the paramedics finally arrived. Jack yelled at them who to treat first starting from the worst injured.

Jack and Rick conversed as they watched the EMTs do work and shuttle people off to the hospital. Jack looked back towards his house.

"I think I'm going to go grab my phone." Jack said as he started walking towards his house.

Rick looked uneasily at Jack, "Are you sure? Your house might not be stable."

Jack waved him off, "I changed in there earlier, I should be alright."

Rick looked warily towards the house, "Okay, but if it does, don't expect me to come in saving your life." his last words joking.

Jack laughed with Rick, "I don't expect you to!" Jack jogged into his house.

He tried to remember where he had his phone last. He looked through the living room and kitchen first. Then he walked to his room. Wait. The first room I went to was the bathroom. Jack walked down the hall to the bathroom. He glanced inside finding his phone next to the sink. He stepped on the glass littered floor and blew the small pieces of glass off the screen of his phone before picking it up. He put his phone is his back pocket and started to walk back out of his.

When he made his way towards the living room the ground started to shake. He heard Rick yelling from outside. He took a step to sprint of the house. His foot slipped down as a crack started to appear beneath him.


Aster's eyes slowly opened, thankful the light in the room was dim. He blinked his eyes several times before his eyes adjusted completely. He looked down at his arms, an IV sticking out of one of them. He felt small hoses wrapped around his head. He took it off his face and looked around the bed. Finding what he wanted, he grabbed it and pressed the button.

Within a few seconds a nurse came rushing in. She looked so relieved to him. Aster gave her a confusing look as she called out for a doctor.

"S'cuse me Miss, what's goin' on?" Aster asked worriedly.

She must have caught the worry on his tone, "Don't be worried. I'm glad you're finally awake." Aster went to pull the IV out of his arm, "Oh, sir, Please don't do that. We have to check your vitals."

Aster removed his hand, "What happened. The last thing I remember is fallin'."

She sighed, "You were in a coma for three weeks. The man who tried to kill you was tried earlier today. Not guilty. Ridiculous I say."

Aster thought for a moment, "Jack? Jack Frost?"

The nurse nodded her head, "Not enough evidence I heard. Although I think what happened to you is evidence enough."

Aster shook his head, "Jack tried ta kill me?"

She smiled at him, "Keyword is tried. You're still with us thankfully."

Aster rubbed his forehead as he started to get a headache, "I can't believe he would try ta do that. We were just about ta go ta breakfast when he did."

"Oh?" the nurse talked while she looked over his vitals, "Well, it's a good thing you didn't. He might've poisoned you. Although surviving a fall like you did is quite lucky. Who knows, maybe the poison wouldn't have worked on you."

Aster hummed as he thought, "I'm sorry, I'm just so shocked he would try ta kill me."

"Well, apparently the justice system doesn't think so. He got off the hook." She put a new IV up, "Not very justly of our system in my opinion."

"How'd ya hear about it?" Aster questioned her.

She smirked as she started for the door, "It was all over the news. 'Jack Frost Killer' or one of my favorites 'Frostbitten Killer'. It I think it was name that gave it so much attention." She smiled at Aster before she left the threshold of the room, "The doctor will be in shortly."

Aster nodded his head. In the quiet room he was left to his own thoughts of what had happened.


Jack gripped desperately onto the edge as he hung helplessly above the abyss that had opened up between his house. His hands started to sweat as his weight was trying to drag him down. Tears began to well in his eyes as he realized his grip was slipping. He tried franticly to get his feet to grip the rocky wall that had become slick with the spraying water of the pipes. He cried out for help as his hands started to slide away from their secure positions.

He yelped as one hand lost its hold, the momentum of his lost hand caused his other sweaty hand to lose its already weak grasp. He shouted as he suddenly fell. His hands ran along the rocky wall. They hastily searched for a new hold.

To Jack relief his hands found a pipe. They latched on instinctively stopping Jack's fall. The unanticipated stop lead to one of Jack's arm to become dislocated. His dislocated arm lost grip.
Jack now hung above the seemingly endless chasm by one sweaty hand on a wet slick pipe.


Eathan sat on his mother's bed, holding Jack's number. He stared at the numbers as he questioned what he would say to Jack when he called. He was still angry at his mother for not telling him about the money. Eathan wanted to yell at Jack, but knew that he should wait before he called. He didn't want to call Jack angrily. That would cause for more years of silence.
Eathan took several deep breaths to clear is head. After he had calmed down enough to the point that he felt it would be okay to call Jack he pulled out his phone and dialed the number.


"Well, Mr." The doctor paused, "…Bunnymund…Your vitals look good. I think we'll keep you over night just to be sure."

Aster snorted, "Of course. Just so ya can get more money from mah pocket."

The doctor shook his head, "Sir, that's not our goal here."

"Sure. I'm gonna be leavin' taday." Aster said frustrated.

"Okay. Fill out these forms then." The doctor handed him a clipboard with several pages.

"Fine." Aster grabbed the clipboard roughly from the doctor and asked for a pen so he could hurry up and leave.

The doctor left the room and left Aster to fill out the extensive paper work.


Hello! I've updated again! I figured I should I write today because I have an interview tomorrow and I won't know when I'll be updating again. Okay, I really hope you like this Chapter. And! Aster is out of his coma! Yay! Is this story headed in the right direction? Anything need to be added? Removed? Let me know guys! Read and Review! Have a wonderful Day/Night/Dawn/Dusk or Twilight!