Author's Note: Perhaps one of my favorite chapters, and possibly the shortest.

Chapter 60

Visit

Moments ago...

Anna touched the scrying orb.

Jack let it rest in her hands. It was quiet.

"Annalise?"

Nothing happened.

Jack leaned back a bit and settled for waiting until she "came back." He always hated this part. The waiting.

"How strange."

Jack startled, the soft voice shattering the brief silence.

The teen blinked and looked around the study like she was seeing it for the first time. She stood up, still holding the ball, gently cupped in her hands. The light within was still gently swirling.

"Annalise plea—." He reached to guide her to sit back down. It never ended well when they stood during this. They usually weren't this conscious either.

Anna stared as his finger's gently grasped her sleeve. "Hello, Jack," Anna said quietly, her sockets shifting from the sleeve to the stacks of books to him. She looked down at her clothes then lifted her sockets to study Jack again. Then her gaze shifted to the object in her hands.

"Is this what happened then?" She sounded amused, not necessarily speaking to him.

Jack was quiet. Confused. Everyone reacted differently, yes. But he still wasn't sure what to call this.

Hesitantly, he took his granddaughter's shoulders and turned her to face him, careful of the scrying ball.

She met his eyes and he stilled, his fingers unconsciously digging into her cloth covering her arms.

She didn't seem to mind his reaction.

Her eyes were softer. Older. Ancient. Those were the socket of a skeleton who had seen more than a few lifetimes. He knew because he avoided mirrors just so he wouldn't see the same look in his eyes.

Silence.

"I'll admit," Anna said after a moment of his staring. "I'm surprised too. But I've missed you, Gramps." She smiled. It was a complicated smile. "It's been a very long time for me."

Jack didn't say a word. He was frozen, still holding her shoulders and searching the depths of her eye sockets.

"There's a lot I wish I could warn you about," Anna said, regret in her voice, which Jack suddenly realized had a slight accent; one he couldn't place, which should be impossible.

She shook her head and said a few strange words to herself. "-This isn't going to make sense for many years, but I think this is my only chance…" She sucked in a horrendously empty breath. "He'll be okay, Jack. I keep him safe."

Jack finally found the words. "Who? I take it that's something I'll need to remember for later?"

"Someone you care very much about. They don't really exist yet but you'll know what I mean when it happens."

"…Chakis is a terrible influence on you," Jack decided numbly. He stiffened and looked at her for reaction to the name. Did she know about the Reaper yet? Had they met?

"Heh. In way more ways than one."

Jack couldn't think of what to say, much less ask. "…How old are you?" he finally asked, quietly. His ribs ached, a ghostly simile of a chest tightening from a lack of breathing.

"I don't know anymore," Annalise said, horrific honesty dripping from her strange voice that seemed to float around the room just faint enough for his senses to notice. "Older than you are now." Her voice was so eerily calming.

"I'm sorry." Jack couldn't fathom the young girl in front of him lasting as long as he had. Over a thousand years? Maybe more.

She looked wistfully toward his large windows. Hesitantly, her feet moved and she slowly walked around his desk. She stared down at the town, careful not to lose her hold on the glass ball. She strained to catch a glimpse of someone. Anyone. She wished Nevermore flew by, but that was just that. Wishful thinking. "Everyone is here…" she murmured. She looked up sharply. "Sorry. I just…" she huffed. "I wish I could go down and see everyone again."

"I suppose you could," Jack said, but he wasn't sure how that would go over.

Annalise shook her skull. "No. It would be like…" she laughed. "Like looking at ghosts. In the most metaphoric sense of the word. Like mindless photos or an old hol— old videos." She looked at him apologetically. "It's like they aren't even real to me. Neither are you." She paused. "Is Sally downstairs?"

There was a bit of whiplash as the lady's tone dropped to one reminiscence of a hopeful child and Jack wondered if the present-day Anna was back. Then he checked her eyes again.

"Yes." A light laugh bubbled out of his mouth. "She's excited you're moving in with us. Apparently she's had a room set up for weeks."

"Actually, she set it up right after she learned that you were supposed to adopt me since we're the same species. You just didn't notice her moving things in and out of rooms. You were too busy agonizing over what to do about me to actually take action."

Jack sat down in his chair, looking uncomfortably ashamed. "You have a good memory."

"I have to. I changed a lot since…" she gestured at herself. "I was this."

Jack hummed. He folded his fingers together to watch her as she stared out the window.

"I can't stay," she whispered.

"…Why are you here?"

"Maybe I'm not. A moment ago I was reading with my apprentice..."

Jack blinked in shock.

"Then I was holding this." She lifted the scrying ball. "Instead of my…" She paused remembering that perhaps she should limit details about future technology. "Book." She snorted. "Maybe I'm not really here. Maybe this thing—," she shook the orb in the air and Jack nearly panicked at the idea she might throw it. "—just grabbed a thousand or so years of memory and shoved them into the skull of a sixteen-year-old. I can't believe I was sixteen at one point…It seems like a ridiculously tiny number."

She suddenly frowned and turned to him. "I want to stay, Jack. Terribly so. Things seem simpler here."

Jack stood up. He cleared his throat as he brushed his suit. "I can't know what trials or tribulations you've gone through. But I understand wishing for the past. Thank you for visiting, Annalise," he said diplomatically, urging his voice not to give him away with a waver or a crack.

Anna smiled and tilted her head. "This means much more to me than it does to you."

"I don't know about that," Jack said, cracking his own smile. "It is good to know you're safe. That you exist so long. That you grow into someone wise enough to have an apprentice of your own!"

She snickered, younger for a moment.

Abruptly she pulled him into a hug, holding the ball that anchored her in this time in one hand so she could wrap her arms around him. She ignored how he locked in place at the unfamiliar contact. "Thank you. For everything, Jack. You made an excellent father. No no don't you dare scoff. You never replaced my human father—which the present-day me is starting to forget by the way—but you were my father and my grandfather nonetheless. After a few hiccups. That's a weird thought, isn't it?" She hugged him tighter, burying her face in his chest.

The guilt made Jack want to protest. What in all the realms was she talking about? Her insistent statement cast the first bit of doubt that this visage was actually Annalise. Even in the future he couldn't imagine he did anything right enough for the affection in her voice.

Slowly, Jack's arms wrapped around her, reciprocating the tenderness that seemed so alien to him after the last few months. He hesitated a moment before letting her lean into him. He huffed into her hair, which still smelt burnt. He wondered if the scent was just part of her before he remembered this was still her younger body. Would it go away over the years?

"I almost think you're some trick," he muttered. "Some cursed illusion meant to be a dream of mine. Meant to tempt me with that which we can't have."

Anna chuckled."I do forgive you," she whispered. "I mean, I will forgive you." Maybe it was unfair to tell him.

It took Jack a moment to realize she was sobbing. He quietly cursed. Now he was going to cry. And he wasn't even sure why she was crying.

"I will forgive you, though it's going to take a long while. I forgive you and I love you. I love you and Sally and everyone else who was there…here for me."

"I love you too," Jack said. "I barely know you, but I do."

"I know. Ugh. This is so mushy," she said into his coat. "Shameful behavior for a couple of frightening Halloween Spirits."

"Oh shush," Jack snapped. He eyed the glass ball as she pulled back. "Give a hello to Sally. Before you go." Something told him this ancient soul needed the comfort of a moment passed.

Annalise who had looked so sure of herself as an elder, suddenly didn't. She looked confused but glanced at the spiral staircase. Faintly she could here the one-sided conversation Sally was having with Lily downstairs.

She leaned over the railing just a bit. "H-hello Sally!"

Sally paused, then stuck her own head over the railing and smiled up at the girl. "Hello Annalise! How's the weather up there? Did Jack clean up at least?"

"Yes ma'am. I'll be down in a bit. Do me a favor and ask me to help you with dinner when I come down. If I'm coherent, that is."

"Okay?" Sally agreed in confusion.

Anna smiled and waved as she forced herself to pull back. Her smile fell as she stepped back from the staircase.

Without a word she picked up the Signature Pen from Jack's desk, then sat back down in the chair. She stared at the crystal ball in her free hand for a long moment.

"I am sorry."

"For?" Jack asked, tensing.

"What a fucking brat I can be," she said dryly. She looked up and held the ball out to him.

"You still use that language in the…" he had do do a bit of math for the human years. "In the thirtieth century?" He took the ball but she didn't remove her hand yet.

"Pfft. No. But you still mutter in Celtic when you think no one can hear you so I don't think you can talk about my language."

"I'm talking about the profanity, not English," he said dryly.

"I know," she chirped, throwing one last wistful smile, knowing this was a precious moment for her. One that could never be repeated. "Good bye, Jack. Be careful with me." She paused and looked him in the eyes. For a moment it looked like she might say something else. But she just smiled again. That horrible knowing smile that made the short list of things that truly frightened him.

She dropped her hand from the scryer.