Jack noted, only distantly, that he was being carried over California. It was in the dwindling weeks of summer and was still way too hot for him to even dream of visiting his friends. He could only visit during the chillier winter and autumn months, and even then, he had to pick his moments with care.
Although, being able to influence the Wind to redirect atmospheric pressure and create rain and cloud cover really helped him continue on their friendships.
Today, however, was not one of those moments. Today, Jack was planning on causing a little out of season snow spell somewhere across the continent. He had been neglecting his favourite little town lately, the one with the lake that he was born on. He liked watching that little town grow up. He had watched families span generations and die and then be reborn when distant relatives moved back.
It was nice to see that, even when it seemed that everyone was gone, someone would always be there to continue on the family name, or legacy. That they wouldn't be forgotten.
Jack had been worried about that sort of thing more and more lately. Between Jess' bad dreams, Sam being attacked and James being the reckless criminal that he was, he worried about them. He worried that they would die young. He knew that it was inevitable.
Jack had watched the world long enough to know that only spirits escaped death, and not always then. But he worried about his friends. He worried that they would never grow old, that they would die young and that they would never know the chance to settle into a little town like Burgess and raise a family and create a new generation of believers.
Jack didn't want to lose his friends. He didn't want to be alone again. He didn't want to have to mourn his best friends alone. He had already been alone for far too long, he couldn't do it anymore.
The Wind around him swirled and tossed him higher, trying to raise his dwindling spirit. Jack chuckled weakly at the attempt, but he wasn't sure that there was anything that the Wind could do. There wasn't anything anyone could do.
No one could escape death.
Jack twirled in the air, twisting belly down and spreading out his arms like he was flying, or falling from such a great height. He didn't see whatever slammed into his back and sent him plummeting at such a speed that the Wind could only do her best to save her favourite spirit.
~An Unlikely Friendship~
Jack came to at the sound of screams and shouts and the roar of fire. His entire body burned. He would have screamed if he thought his chest could expand that much.
He groaned and tried to move, to push himself to his feet, to see what was wrong, to do anything, but the Wind brushed through his hair and pushed him, gently, into the ground, not letting him move.
"How dare you commit an act of such violence against a seasonal spirit! This is punishable by death. You could have killed him!"
"He is an ice creature, it would have been my right."
"He is the Spirit of Winter! He is a seasonal spirit, to attack him is to attack the very nature of the world. To attack one of the Four is to attack all of us! You have committed an act of war!"
"Oh? What are you going to do about it, little girl, huh? Little fire, can't beat me!"
Another scream. Summer. Summer Heat, the Spirit of Summer.
What was she doing here?
"See that I don't decide to punish you further in this moment. Go! Get out of my sight! Just hope that I never catch a whiff of you ever again on this Earth. And if you come anywhere near the Spirit of Winter there will be no embers left to revive you!"
Why was she so angry?
The Wind whirled and whooshed, sounding vicious and angry, very much unlike her usual temperament. It died down only slightly before two burning hot hands brushed against his face.
"Oh? Jack? Jack, are you awake?"
"Summer?" Jack croaked, peeling open his eyes.
"Jack," Summer gasped, her fingertips just skimming his cheeks where wisps of steam rose from her heat and his tears of pain.
"What happened?" Jack gasped through the pain of his torso.
Summer shook her head, her fiery hair crackling and rising like the flame that she created. "I am so sorry, Jack. I had no idea that she would do this. If I thought that anyone was capable of this…" she paused and flame whooshed out of her eyes, briefly giving her the image of a burning woman, rather than the more lifelike body that she had. "I would have destroyed them."
Summer died in a house fire during Jack's first few years as a spirit. He had watched her be reborn. Despite their opposing powers and lifestyles, he counted her as a friend. As much as they could be seeing each other so rarely. But he knew her well enough to know that he believed her. She wasn't lying. About any of that.
"She was an elemental. She never should have been made. I need to stop Mother Nature from doing this, or whoever it is. They're too dangerous to be alive. I can't claim them, and I can't tame them. And I won't tame that one. I'll destroy her, before she dares to hurt anyone else," Summer vowed, darkly.
Elementals were, like Summer, people who died in one of the four elements, and were reborn from that element. Except they were wild and unpredictable and, unless a seasonal spirit took them in and trained them, or they became one themselves, they ended up too dangerous and had to be killed.
Very few people became elementals from the cold.
"Sum, my staff?"
Summer pulled back. "Yes. Jack, you're hurt. Bad. I don't know what to do, I can't touch you. Is there anyone who can help? Anyone else I can find?" She babbled, snatching up the curved shepherd's crook and, miraculously, not turned into kindling by the elemental's attack.
The Wind whipped up around them, swirling and moaning.
Summer shut her mouth with a click and listened intently, even as the force put out her fire hair. She frowned. "Stanford? Really?"
The Wind howled.
"Alright! You know best! How can I help?"
Jack tuned out the howling of the Wind and Summer's responses even as he felt himself be lifted into the air and carried by the unusually gentle, and cool, Wind.
It was oddly relaxing, like a rocking chair and Jack drifted off, until he was somewhat abruptly lowered onto warmer ground. He groaned.
"Sorry, sorry," Summer babbled. "How do I find your friend? They won't know how to see me."
Jack peeled open his eyes and gazed around, disoriented to have ended up here in the middle of summer. "Staff?" He suggested.
Summer's face twisted up in confusion until she figured out what he was trying to say. "Oh!" She squealed. "Great idea. I'll be right back!" Without waiting for any acknowledgement, she snatched up Jack's staff once more and took off running, being blown over and out several times as the Wind hastily and roughly tried to correct her course. A candle in the wind.
Jack chuckled weakly at the sight, something that he instantly regretted as the pain from whatever that elemental hit him with amped up. He writhed on the ground, tearing open his burns and hurting himself even more, but he was past the point of caring. He just wanted someone to come save him. And soon.
~An Unlikely Friendship~
The running water sounded incredibly loud in the small, cramped space of Jess and Sam's bathroom. The little room was not built for three people.
Well, two people and an unconscious winter spirit.
"Are you sure this going to work?" James asked, dubiously, watching the rising water level in concern.
"Well, he's magic right? And he gets his power from the cold…" Jess trailed off anxiously. It made much more sense in her head. "It'll work, and Jack will be fine," she insisted, mostly to herself.
James shifted Jack in his arms to stare down at his red and pink skin. They had left his clothes on for modesty, but James suspected that Jack was past the point of caring.
The spirit had been wailing when they found him and had kept up some nonsensical muttering the entire journey back to the apartment. Now he was still and silent. And, even though he and the spirit weren't exactly friends, James was scared.
"Magic. Cool," James joked, weakly.
Jessica turned from the bath to glare. She was pale with worry; her eyes were red from holding back tears.
"Don't you think we should be using, like, science… or, you know, medicine, huh pre-med?" He argued.
"He's not human, James," Jess replied, irritated. Shouldn't the hunter know these sorts of things? "He doesn't work like us, biologically."
James, sensing it was not the time to crack a joke about 'Jack's biology', watched the non-existent rise and fall of Jack's chest. "So, can he die?" He said instead, instantly realising that that was not the right thing to say.
Jessica didn't answer but her hands, which were resting on her thighs, started shaking.
James swallowed, he had his answer. He clutched Jack closer to him.
The bathroom door eased open, surprising James. Sam squeezed into the room carrying four big bags of ice.
"I've got some more bags outside," Sam assured them.
Jess pounced on the bags, ripping them open with strength and speed James hadn't known she possessed. Like a mother bear protecting her cubs.
James almost felt like laughing at the metaphor, but Jack wasn't getting any colder in his arms.
Chilled water splashed out of the bath, onto the tiles, as Jess emptied out the ice bags. It spilled out onto her trousers, surely freezing her, but Jess didn't flinch or slow down. She yelled at Sam to get more ice.
James shuffled forward, and Jess paused just long enough for him to lay down the still winter spirit into what James was studiously not considering a watery grave.
Sam slipped back into the room clutching another bag of ice to his chest. He stared in horror at Jack's still body for a moment before dropping the back beside the bath and falling to his knees at Jess' side. He scooped out handful after handful of ice and poured it liberally over Jack.
James watched with worry flickering across his face. He reached back to the tub and shut off the taps. The water was up to Jack's shoulders already. His head lolled into the water.
"He can't drown, can he?" Jess asked suddenly. She dropped her ice handful, instead reaching out and steadied Jack's head.
"He wasn't breathing," James offered, quietly.
"He doesn't," Sam reminded them, still dropping ice into the water.
James watched Sam and Jess carefully. Jess' fingers were going blue and she had started to shiver. Sam's eyes were wide with fear, his movements frantic. "Sam, why don't you get some towels? You and Jess can go put on something dry?" He suggested. "I'll watch the ice-cube," he offered.
Sam turned to watch him warily.
James stared back at him, did Sam not trust him yet? He trusted him with his life, and to be around Jess but not around the sprite?
"He was a great help," Jess intoned quietly, presumably only for Sam's ears, but James heard it anyway.
Sam sighed. "Fine. Hold up his though," he instructed.
James nodded, switching places with Jess, allowing her to get up and leave. He hastily reached out to hold Jack's head.
Sam hovered in the doorway for a moment. "Thanks," he muttered. "For…" he trailed off.
James was quiet. He guessed Sam wasn't only talking about helping Jack. "It's what we do."
~An Unlikely Friendship~
Jack moaned.
"Welcome back, Titanic," James teased. "Or are you the iceberg?"
"Wasn't my fault," Jack argued weakly with his eyes still closed. "Ocean currents."
James laughed. "S'pose so," he agreed. "How are you feeling?" He asked.
Jack shrugged, opening his eyes. "I'm cool," he said with a weak smile.
James laughed. "Jess gave me the death stare when I made that joke."
"Where…?" Jack wondered, looking around the small bathroom, dazed.
"Sam and Jess are getting cleaned up, I hope," James explained. "We're in the bathroom and you're in their bathtub."
Jack opened his eyes fully. His eyes continued to lazily trek around the room. "Huh," he said when he realised that he was, in fact, sitting in an overflowing bathtub.
James frowned at the lacklustre response. He had many complaints about the spirit but never that Jack was quiet, in fact Jack matched him joke for joke most days. He reached out and felt Jack's forehead, ignoring the spirit's flinch. He didn't expect Jack to trust him.
"Well, you feel normal," James observed, "but I don't know what normal is for you."
Jack hummed. "I feel normal, is that good?"
"You were burning earlier so it's progress, I guess. You sure you feel alright?"
"Feel wet," Jack responded, petulantly, splashing in the water.
"You can get out soon," James assured him.
"Where's my staff?" Jack mumbled suddenly, weakly struggling to get up.
"Woah!" James hissed, pushing Jack back into the water. "We have it outside. It's fine." James lied.
In truth, the staff had been splintered. The decorative frost around it had been blackened. But despite what must have been a very good attempt at burning it, especially if Jack's condition was anything to go by, the staff was in its usual condition.
"Can I get out now?" Jack whined rolling his head against the curve of the bath.
James sighed. Winter spirit biology was not why he was in college. But the ice cubes had stopped melting and that was probably good. "I'll go grab you a towel." He looked down at Jack's sopping hoodie. "And, maybe a shirt."
"Thanks," Jack said, shifting around in the water and creating a larger puddle on the ground.
James just hoped that Mr Lyle downstairs didn't complain about any leaks. He slipped out of the bathroom, carefully keeping his eyes at the ceiling when he poked his head into Sam and Jess' bedroom. "Jack's awake," he announced. "He wants to get out of the tub."
"Is that such a good idea?" Sam wondered.
James shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, but he seems alright. He probably still needs to get colder though. And," he added, "he probably needs something else to wear while we wring out those old clothes."
"I'm sure that I have something," said Jess.
James could hear her rummaging around in her wardrobe, but he didn't dare look down yet.
"We're decent. It's fine," Sam said.
He chanced a quick glance, relieved to see that both parties were fully dressed, if not a little shabbily. "I hope you're not planning on going out in that," James said.
"Why not?" Sam asked.
James stared. "He's not my best friend, but I'm not going to let this go unpunished. We've got to kill whatever did that. Be ready to go as soon as Jack tell us what happened."
"We can't leave him," Sam protested.
"I'll watch him," Jess offered. "I'll keep the sawed-off with me. That'll keep us both safe."
"Are you sure?" Sam worried.
Jessica grinned, all teeth. "Positive. I'll be better if you don't let me near that thing. But, if it comes for me, I won't hold back."
James agreed. He worried more about whatever might try to kill Jess than about Jess herself. Between the four of them, they could and would take on anything that tried to hurt them.
~An Unlikely Friendship~
Sopping wet towels created a noisy carpet on the tiled bathroom floor. The water had been drained from the tub in favour of more ice, which Jack was perched on and wrapped up in Stanford jumper and a pair of her old tracksuit bottoms.
The ice had stopped melting and any colour that had been in Jack's cheeks had disappeared in favour of a very faint blue tint. Jess supposed that that was a good sign.
The spirit in question seemed to agree, drawing frost patterns on their tiled walls with his fingertips and trying to make Jess laugh.
"So, what happened with Summer?" Jack wondered. "She took my staff and ran to find you, how'd she managed that?"
Jess laughed. "It's actually kind of funny now. She – Summer? – tapped it against the windows until we looked and from there led us to you. But we couldn't see her really, just the floating staff and a little bit of smoke."
Jack nodded. "That's her hair," he explained. "It's like fire, but she didn't know where to go so the Wind just blew her around and sort of extinguished it," he laughed.
Jess almost laughed, but she cut herself off at a sound from outside the bathroom. Jack shot her a wide-eyed look. "Jess," he whispered, slowly. "Don't," he warned.
Jessica hefted the shot-gun in her hands. Sam and James had been teaching her to shoot, and she had gotten plenty of target practice keeping them safe over the year. She was confident. "I'll be right back," she promised. "Don't leave this room."
"Jess!" Jack hissed, but she ignored him, slipping out of the door and aiming the sawed-off, ready to shoot.
Her eyes darted around the room, searching for anything even slightly out of place. She saw nothing. Then, the staff twitched. She aimed. "Who's there!?" She demanded.
The staff twitched again before it was lifted off of the ground and into the air and twirled around once, as though someone was fiddling with it.
Jess's finger twitched on the trigger, but before she could consider firing, she noticed the dying vase of flowers beside the floating staff slowly blooming. She pursed her lips together. She didn't see any smoke, so this wasn't the summer spirit. "Spring?" She guessed.
The flowers reached full bloom in the same moment that a flowery dressed young woman appeared in the middle of the room, cradling Jack's staff protectively. "Flower," she corrected. "Lower your weapon. Unless you've hurt Jack Frost, I'm not going to hurt you."
Jess did as she was told. "You know Jack?" She guessed.
Flower nodded. "I'm the Spirit of Spring, we work together sometimes."
Jessica accepted that. "His staff?" She requested holding out a hand.
Flower frowned. "What happened to it?" She asked inside, twisting it around. "Who tried to burn it?"
Jessica shrugged. "An elemental, Jack said? My friends have gone off to find it."
Flower shook her head. "If it's still around I'm sure that Summer will have destroyed it by now. She doesn't like her friends being hurt." She brushed her fingertips over the staff. "It's not too badly damaged," she diagnosed. "Just a little charred. I don't think anything magical could destroy it. Only force. A lot of force."
Jessica stretched her hand out even further. "Can I have it back, please?" She requested, in a strained voice.
Flower ignored her. Instead, the Spring spirit wrapped two hands around the staff and closed her eyes. A bright pink and white light shot out of the staff, before twisting and turning and dancing around the staff, healing the damage. When the lights faded, it was as though nothing had ever happened.
"What?" Jess breathed, surprised.
Flower smiled sweetly and held out the staff. "It's still wood," she explained. "The magic isn't damaged, it's only a matter of bloom. Here, you can give this back to Jack," he's rather protective of his things."
Jessica took back the staff with a shocked laugh. "Thank you," she stuttered.
Flower continued smiling. "Just keep looking after him, that's all the thanks any of us ever need. We can't be there for him, but you can."
Jess nodded. "We will. I don't ever intend to let anything happen to anyone I love, Jack included," she promised.
"Good," Flower said. "Tell Jack that I said hi," she added, before disappearing in a puff of petals, leaving Jessica gaping and uncertain as to whether or not she should laugh.
She glanced down at the staff in her hands, peering at the newly flowery design on the wood. She might be getting more and more used to this monster thing, but she imagined that the spirits would always confuse her.