Yep, not as long today, but now we're getting places...like the end soon. Only six more chapters after today. I suppose the count-down begins...
Thank you to all the people who reviewed (there were sure a lot of you): Guest, Breezy2319, AtrianRose98, LilMate, guestguest, queenlionesses, lovinglovexx, Lord Edric, Hoytti, emilyparrish, freezon98, Lilyuri-primadonna, Cassy, Darksideofthesun, Alex, watchmockavis, and The Jeweled Notes.
Guest: Wow only last morning? A lot of people seem to be reading this all in one go lol that's pretty great and sort of scary at the same time XD
guestguest: Since you only need a little affirmation, I'll give it you...Yes.
Cassy: Usually for other fanfictions they are lol
Darksideofthesun: Merida and Rapunzel did sort of appear. Wynter married Rapunzel's daughter and Rin married Merida's ancestor. And Jack will be happy. Don't worry.
Alex: Continue reading and you still won't find out ;) That's a secret I'm keeping until nearly the very end.
TheJewelledNotes: Wow! That's a lot of chapters to read! And don't you worry, this story will have a happy ending.
Jack was not done in Norway yet, though. He had one last place to visit before he returned back to America, and then to set things up to move to the ice castle on a more permanent scale.
The place he was going was still where it had begun, but it too was now in a thing called a 'National Park'. Where he was going was roped off from any public, and Jack scaled over the fence. When he entered the clearing, it was like nothing at all had ever changed.
When he entered, the rocks shuddered and moved. He just sat on a rock, patiently waiting. The last time he had been here, he had been irate and dangerous. He was a man with nothing to lose, but he had been wrong. He really had lost it all. He half expected himself be angry, or vengeful, but he was not.
He was just detached from those emotions.
"Jack? I thought...what are you...?"
"Hello, Pabbie." Jack said, jumping down from his perch, "I've regained my memories."
"I see that." Pabbie said cautiously, as if waiting for something awful to happen.
"I'm not going to hurt you, if that's what you're waiting for...I've forgiven you." he realized, and Pabbie's eyebrows shot up.
"What?"
"Forgiveness." Jack repeated, "I just...well, I thought I should come here."
"Jack, I wronged you. It has haunted me for a hundred years. I should have disobeyed, I should have done what you wanted in the first place...your family..." He begun.
"I know, already."
"I explained what you really wanted. Most forgave you." Pabbie said, "I told them it was me to blame."
"I'm a guardian now." Jack shrugged, "It had to happen this way."
"You've fulfilled his destiny, but you can't get out of it, Jack. You can never have what you wanted."
"I don't want to abandon my family again, the little I have left." Jack shook his head.
"Ah..." Pabbie sighed, "Then you are in quite the predicament, eh?" He asked, and Jack shrugged.
"I don't see why I can't do both." He answered honestly.
Pabbie frowned. "Because you couldn't do that with Elsa, so why do you think now is different?" He asked.
"Because now I know!" Jack threw up his hands, "I know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. You lot are horrible with directions, let me tell you. It's like telling me to drive a car to a certain place that I've never heard of, and you just leave me with a full tank and expect me to magically find it."
"What's a car?"
"Never mind." Jack said in frustration, combing his fingers through his hair, "New, shiny technology."
There was silence. "Is forgiveness the only reason you are here, Jack?"
"The Man in the Moon...does he have anything to say now?" Jack sounded like a small child, trapped and just wanting to please his parents. He had to thank the Man in the Moon. Without him, there would be no Jack and Elsa. None of his children. None of the legacy that lay half an hour behind him. Pabbie paused.
"No."
Jack seemed disturbed slightly, but he just bit his lip. "I see."
"He's a very busy man, Jack." Pabbie said.
"He's a deceitful man. I may have forgiven you...but I don't know if I can...forgive him." He looked up, the moon hardly a sliver in the sky, "Does he even know what love is?" His voice cracked.
"He loves you. He loves the children." Pabbie argued. Jack grasped with his hands.
"Yes, but that's...a certain kind of love. But in that love, you can't kiss it on the lips. You can't fall asleep next to it, running you hands over smooth skin. You can't sing and rejoice when it laughs or stare at it and forget how long you've been staring and feel a blush rise to your cheeks because she's everything you could ever want, ever need. I know a child's love; I loved all my children nearly as much as I loved Elsa."
"I cannot say. No one knows who or what he really is, other than he is there, and he knows all."
"That's quite a predicament." Jack quoted Pabbie's previous words, and swung his staff, "Well, I suppose I just wanted to let you know I'm in town, and will be staying at the ice palace from now on, so we don't awkwardly meet again. I'll...keep in touch." He glanced at the moon, and Pabbie understood why.
"Ah, yes. Jack, please believe me when I say it has been a pleasure to see you again." Jack tipped his head to the little stone, and rocketed off the boulder into a nearly moonless night. It was the light of new hope that guided him back to America, a feeling he had not felt in quite some time.
Jack is beginning to forgive. That's a start, at least, right? But not the Man in the Moon...that one, well, I think I understand Jack. But it's a bit unhealthy, his hate. Jack will have to resolve that himself.
