Scenes From the Life and Death of Jackson Overland Frost
Part 17: Keeping the Faith
by K. Stonham
first released 24th October, 2020

November, 1709

"Who...?" Jack asked, and he was clearly still dazed, his voice rough.

Jamie grabbed the nearby cup of salted honey water and brought it to Jack's mouth. "Drink," he urged, smiling, relief cutting through him like clean winter wind. Jack was going to be okay. He'd done it. "I'm a friend," he said, as Jack obeyed, slurping down a sip or two. "You've been sick, but you're going to be fine now."

"Okay," Jack said, settling back down onto his thin pillow. His eyelids blinked, heavy and slow, and suddenly he looked so much younger than sixteen.

"Rest and get better, Jack," Jamie said, setting the cup back down as Jack snuggled into his wool blanket. "You've got a big destiny in front of you."

And then, as Jack closed his eyes and went back to sleep, the funniest thing happened. A snowflake drifted down, and landed on Jamie's nose.

Jack landed outside a cabin that he knew down to his bones. Built of sturdy wood, it had housed him the entirety of his mortal life. Him and his family. And, now, Jamie.

He stepped up to a window and peeked in. There, in the dim light of the fire, a brown-haired boy lay back down on his bed. And next to him...

"Jamie," Jack breathed.

Jamie looked up and met his eyes.

Jamie got back into his coat and hat in a hurried hushed bustle. He grabbed his bag. Jack was here! It was time to go.

But he paused, looking at Jack's younger self, peacefully asleep before the fire.

Pulling the Tylenol bottle back out of his satchel, Jamie twisted it open and carefully dumped the pills out into a small pile in the center of the dining table. He couldn't leave the bottle here - talk about an out of place artifact! - but there was no saying he couldn't leave the medicine. Jack's mother had heard him mention the dosage and effects. It should be safe enough, and it might help someone who really needed it in the next year or two.

Then, jamming his fingers into his gloves, Jamie undid the latch and hurried outside into the cold.

"Jack! You're here!"

The two of them barreled into a hug. And if Jack's grip on his coat was a little tight, a little terrified, Jamie would never mention it. "What were you doing in there?" Jack asked when he finally let go.

"Saving your life," Jamie answered. "Apparently you almost died of the measles when you were sixteen?"

"Measles?" Jack thought about it a second. "Yeah, I remember that. But I don't remember you?"

Jamie snorted. "I got here after you'd already been unconscious for days. But I met your parents."

"Huh." Jack seemed to consider that. "Did you see my sister?"

Jamie shook his head. "She's staying with another family right now."

"Okay." Jack looked at the cabin for a minute longer, intense yearning on his face. But he didn't move any closer to it. He swallowed, then looked back at Jamie. "So. Father Time sent me here after you - something about you healing up a time bubble - but the jackass didn't give me a way to get us back home. You got anything?"

"Um. Wait, maybe?" Jamie opened his satchel and rummaged around for a minute before pulling out the hourglass that had brought him here. Just a few grains of sand were left.

Jack grabbed onto the hourglass as the last grain fell.

And the world fell away with it.

The feel of cold air and the sound of the door closing roused Anne Frost. Blinking, she sat up and looked around. The fire burned low, Jack slept in his bed...

The stranger, James, was gone.

Pushing from her bed, Anne hurried to her son's. Kneeling down beside him, she sucked in a breath of relief that he still lived, his chest moving up and down. For an instant, she had feared that Jack had died and that was why James had left. But no, her son lived. And as she touched his cheeks and forehead, she realized that his fever had broken.

"Thank God," she breathed. "Thank God."

She stood and stepped to the window, wanting to see where James had gone in the middle of the night.

He stood outside, in the trampled-down snow before the house. It was snowing again, she noticed, soft white flakes that caught the moonlight and enchanted the outside world. And James was hugging someone she couldn't quite see - another boy, she had the impression. Then he pulled back a bit, a bright smile on his face, pulled something from his bag, held it up, and-

-and they were gone. Completely vanished, like they'd never been.

Anne's hand flew to her mouth. Her mind whirled, trying to make sense of it. Old stories came to her, tales her grandmother, though a God-fearing woman, had delighted in telling on a long winter's night. And Anne had loved listening, loved the chills running down her spine at the tales of bogarts and kelpies and fairies stealing children away, beautiful appearances giving lie to the demons beneath-

But James hadn't done that, had instead saved her son...

Who stirred now, blinking awake. "Ma?" he asked, voice rumbly with sleep.

Anne blinked back tears and went to him, to her smiling, laughing boy. "I'm here, Jack."

"I thought... there was someone else..."

Anne breathed something that was half a laugh, half tears. Her gaze caught briefly on a small pile on the table. James' medicine, that he wouldn't tell her where it was from, just as he wouldn't say where he was from...

"An angel, my dear," she told him, suddenly sure. James had said he'd been sent, and there was only one who could have sent them such aid at this time of need. "There was an angel watching over you while you slept."

"Oh. Okay."

"Sleep, Jack," she told him, tears spilling down her face. Happy tears. "Sleep." And she sat down next to him, and thought of James' lullaby. "Time to close your eyes..." she sang softly, as her son rested, and got better.

May, 2018

Jamie was suddenly a thousand feet up in daylight and free-falling down into a snow-covered forest.

He couldn't even scream, just gave a terrified squeak.

"I gotcha!" Jack's arms were a sudden, comforting iron bar around his middle as they tumbled together, plummeting through the sky.

"Jack, I can't fly!"

"Lucky you, I can!" And Jamie would just have to trust that Jack was actually in control, because their freefall, buffeted by high winds, sure didn't feel safe or stable to him. He closed his eyes momentarily, but that just made the whirling nausea even worse. All he could do was hold on tight.

"And... down!" What seemed a lifetime later, they touched down light as a feather in the same clearing that Jamie had left a day before.

Jamie stumbled away from the flying maniac. "Is my hair white now?" he demanded, grabbing at it. "Because after that it feels like it should be white. Is that why your hair's white?" he asked Jack.

Jack just rolled his eyes, smirking. Then his eyes drifted past Jamie. "Oh, hey, Bunny!"

Jamie turned. The Easter Bunny was sitting on a snowy boulder, filing his claws with a boomerang. Or maybe filing the boomerang with his claws. "Hi, Bunny!" Jamie managed, still loopy and shaking from the unexpected flight. "Long time no see?"

"Hmm." The lagomorph stowed away his weapon and stood, walking over. "So how long were you there?"

"In the past? Um. Most of a day?" Jamie guessed.

Bunny nodded. "Not bad. I've heard of time bubbles that spanned years. Here and now, you two were gone about half an hour. Time left five minutes ago. Bloke seemed to be back to normal."

"Normal?" Jack demanded.

"He gets cranky when things like this happen," Bunny explained.

"Cranky?" Jamie demanded.

"Mostly he's a pretty quiet fella," Bunny continued, ignoring both of them. "Spends his time fixing clocks. We shouldn't be hearing from him again for a while. If ever."

"Well, that's good, I guess," Jamie said.

"Anyhow, now that you're both back, time, haha, for me to go. Ta," Bunny said, tapping his foot on the ground. A hole opened. He paused, though, before jumping in. "You all right?" he asked Jamie.

Jamie nodded. "I'm good. Thanks, Bunny."

"See ya around." And with that, the Easter Bunny left. A snowdrop curled up through the snow where his tunnel had been.

"Well." Jack's weight was suddenly against Jamie's shoulder as the Guardian leaned on him. "That was fun."

Jamie glared. "We need to talk about your definition of fun."

"Probably, yeah." Jack's face turned serious. "I'm sorry, Jamie. I shouldn't be dragging you into these kinds of things."

Jamie huffed and adjusted his bag. "You don't drag me into anything," he informed his best friend. "I drag myself."

"Yeah, and you shouldn't."

"Jack." Jamie waited until Jack was looking at him. "I saved your life. Nothing you can say, nothing, is going to convince me that not being involved is worth it. I can either help make the world a better place, or I can stand back and do nothing. I know which one I'm picking."

"Yeah, but there are safer ways to do that than getting involved in spirit battles and magic... hijinks."

Jamie shook his head. "You remember the first time I saw you?"

"Yeah." A little smile crept onto Jack's face. "Kind of hard to forget."

"Jack, why did I see you?"

"Because I was in your room-"

"Because I'm the Last Light, Jack. And you made me believe again." Jamie waited, watching that sink in. It was something he'd known, tangentially, for a long time now. But never before this moment had he let himself feel the weight of his belief, and all that it meant. "Yes, I know I'm just a mortal kid. But I've been like this since I was ten. It's never going to leave my life. I'm never going to forget you guys and move into being a normal, boring grownup."

"Jamie..."

"I'm part of this," Jamie said. "I've believed all my life, and I choose to keep believing. You can't take me out of the equation, Jack. I'll do my best to stay safe. I don't want to die! But I'm pretty sure I'm just going to end up involved sometimes. And that's not your fault, and you're an idiot if you blame yourself for it."

Jack's expression crumpled slightly. "I don't want you in danger."

Jamie shrugged. "It's just the way it is." He stepped forward, hugged Jack. "Besides, I think having a brother's pretty awesome, don't you?"

That did get him a smile. "Yeah." The hug was returned; a cool hand ruffled Jamie's hair. "You're a pretty awesome brother, kid. Now, let's get you home safe."

Author's Note: As before, edited by the incomparable N-chan! And this chapter, at last, after eight years' wait, closes out this arc of the story. I don't currently have any more of Scenes waiting, but you never know what may come. So I'm not going to mark this as complete, because who knows what adventures Jack and Jamie may get up to in the future. For now, if you do want more that's in this same universe, my other story "Shadowlands" fits in with Scenes...