Author's Note: Time travel is confusing. I was even confusing myself a bit when I was writing this, so I hope that later on in the story things aren't too confusing. If they are, just let me know what questions you have and I'll try to explain my reasoning. Anyway, I'm having so much fun writing this! If I had more time during the week I'd totally get more chapters out. But sadly, I don't, so I think I'll stick with my weekend postings for now. I won't be so busy on Friday of next week, so I should be able to work more on the next chapter Friday night and hopefully get it out to you at some time on Saturday.

Now.. onto the review! (Yes, singular. Hint hint.)

Crossover Junkie: Thanks for pointing that out to me. I admit I had briefly entertained the thought that Pitch had turned more evil without Lillian in his life, but I realized that wouldn't make much sense for his character. He had chosen to take Lillian in all on his own after all. I just imagine that this Pitch is much more lonely. Maybe the black sand had a faster effect on him without Lillian around? After all, he didn't have her to tiptoe around, etc.

I hope you guys like where the story is going! I do have major events planned out already, but I can always use some suggestions for little things that could happen in Jamie's Adventures.

Chapter Sixty-Six: Jamie's Adventure: Pitch & Lillian

Current time: Still 1974

Pitch rolled his eyes and gave Death a look.

"Is this necessary?" he snapped.

Death, in as much as an unchanging skeletal face can, gave Pitch an appraising look.

"Yes," his deep voice said simply, the tone reminding Pitch of a crypt.

Pitch snorted.

"I wasn't aware that Death came to claim ordinary children."

Jamie by now had stopped shrieking, but there definitely wasn't enough air as he stared at Pitch and the really creepy guy with a scythe. Did Pitch call him Death?!

"That is no ordinary child," Death said cryptically, causing Jamie to shift uncomfortably.

"Y-Yes I am!" Jamie contradicted, his voice a little higher than normal.

Death turned to look at Jamie, his empty eye sockets seeming to look amused somehow, which caused Jamie to shudder. Death was creepy.

"If you had gone much further," he said to Jamie, his every syllable weighing heavily, "you would have died. That in itself is a demise worthy of Death."

As he finished speaking, Death shot the Boogeman a look.

Pitch wasn't quite sure how Death accomplished this, since his face was a skull, but Death had eons of practice and quite the repertoire of expressions.

"..I.. I.. almost died?! " Jamie squeaked as he turned pale.

Death pulled out an ancient pocket watch from his robes and sighed.

"Unfortunately, it seems it is not your time.. Yet."

Death scowled at the pocket watch and put it away. He stalked off abruptly as he grumbled there was yet another person who didn't know how to keep an appointment. He cheered himself up with the thought that perhaps he could pay that wizard another visit. Even Death had to have his hobbies after all, and trying to kill that miserable wizard was one of them.*

After Death left, Jamie stared at Pitch, his eyes still wide. Pitch looked back at Jamie with a frown.

"Why do you think I'm going to kill you?" Pitch asked the boy.

There wasn't concern in his tone, oh no. No, Pitch certainly didn't care about children at all. All he cared about was scaring them.

But there were certain fears even Pitch didn't like, and having a child frightened of him practically to the point of hyperventilation was one of them.

True, he was an imposing figure, but it somehow felt wrong that the boy was that frightened of him. His frown deepened when he thought of what that overgrown Halloween decoration had said. What did he mean when he said if that if the boy had gone much further he'd have died?

"Wh-what are you going to d-do with me?" Jamie stuttered, as he looked at Pitch. The Pitch he had met before had been willing to kill him. Would this Pitch be the same?! Maybe Lillian is what kept Pitch from being really evil!

Pitch pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt the boy's fear increase.

"Where do you live?" he finally asked in exasperation.

"N-nowhere!" Jamie said hastily, but then thought about it. His expression fell when he realized he had no clue what year it was and that his mom probably didn't even own their house yet. "I don't.. have anywhere to go."

Pitch took in the boy's crestfallen expression and his own turned inscrutable. Where were those blasted Guardians? This was their department.

Pitch silently studied the boy and sighed. He was definitely going soft.

"You aren't staying," Pitch snapped, but paused when Jamie flinched as if Pitch had struck him. His tone softened a little. "But you can come have some tea, until we figure out what to do with you."

Jamie gaped at Pitch. Lillian had always said how nice Pitch was, but Jamie hadn't really seen that side of him too much. Jamie hadn't really interacted with Pitch much at all, unless you counted that time by the lake when Pitch yelled at them, or when Jamie and his friends had helped save Pitch from being super evil.

"Come on," Pitch said a touch impatiently as he grabbed a hold of Jamie's arm.

The sky was turning pink with the approaching dawn and Pitch knew that he had to go. Before Jamie could say anything, PItch had pulled him into the nearby shadow of a tree.


Pitch walked out of a shadow in his lair with Jamie in tow. It was very dark, with the only light coming from the dim light of the dawn that came from the hole that was under the bed frame. Being able to see quite well in the dark, Pitch didn't really need much light.

As he heard Jamie practically hyperventilating behind him, Pitch had to admit that perhaps shadow travel wasn't the best idea to use for a human boy.

Jamie couldn't stop shivering as he tried very much to forget that horrible trip. The darkness inbetween the shadows had been absolute, and everything had gone cold, dark and silent. It was awful.

Pitch glanced back a little guiltily as he led Jamie through his globe room.

"This way," he said to Jamie as he took Jamie off to his kitchen. He sat Jamie down at the rock table and went about heating the water for tea.

Soon the kettle had been whistling and he and Jamie were seated at the table with a steaming mug of tea each. Jamie's hand trembled as he put a couple lumps of sugar in his tea and stirred it. He gripped his mug tightly and took a deep, steadying breath.

He had barely even begun his journey and he was already lost in time and would probably have nightmares the rest of his life if he even lived that long!

Pitch avoided Jamie's frightened gaze as he stirred his own tea. He took a sip as he considered what in the world he was going to do with the boy.

"Do you have any family in the area?" Pitch asked as he looked over at Jamie.

Jamie quickly averted his gaze down to his tea, and thought of his grandma and grandpa, but he realized he couldn't stay with them. He didn't know where they were currently living for one, and two, his own mother would be much younger and three, he wasn't even born yet so nobody would know who he was.

Jamie silently shook his head as his eyes turned sad. What was he going to do?

Pitch sighed and looked down at his own tea.

Great.

Pitch continued his silent contemplation as he looked at his tea. After a few very long moments, he finally took a sip and came to a conclusion. He could not keep the boy, children were trouble anyway. He would have to take the boy to a police station once it wasn't so bright outside. The boy could stay at Pitch's for the day, but that was all.

Nodding to himself, Pitch set his mug back down and went to tell Jamie his game plan, only to pause and stare at Jamie's sleeping form. Apparently when Pitch had been thinking, a sleepy Jamie had rested his head on his arms on the table and fell asleep.

Pitch internally grumbled to himself, but remembered that Jamie was staying only a day at his place anyway. He didn't know what had happened, but perhaps the boy had been through a lot. He had been so frightened after all.

Pitch sighed again and went to stand, when Jamie shifted slightly in his sleep. There was a soft clinking sound and Pitch stared as a pendant fell out of Jamie's shirt. Jamie had thought the necklace was just a small, circular pendant when he had seen it from the back, but it was much more than that. Pitch could see that while it was circular, it actually consisted of two snakes twining around each other, biting eachother's tails. The symbol that their bodies formed in the middle was that of eternity.

The Amulet of Protection.**

Nobody had seen that in hundreds of years! And certainly never on a human boy. Pitch continued to stare as his thoughts whirled around. Everyone in the spirit world knew what that was. The bearer of the amulet was always said to be on a very important quest. The amulet granted them amnesty from any past or future actions, and as such, anyone who came across an amulet bearer was to cause them no harm and to help them in any way that they could. To go against this was to face dire consequences. Pitch shivered a little as he stared. What quest could this mere child be on?

As Pitch continued to stare at the amulet, he noticed there were other chains around the boy's neck. Feeling almost guilty for prying, Pitch reached out and gently tugged at the chains. There was more soft clinking as the two hourglasses fell from Jamie's shirt onto the table. Thankfully they were made of strong stuff and didn't break. Nor did they turn over either forward or backward, much to Pitch's relief, once he got a good look at them.

But then Pitch froze as he stared.

Where those from Father Time?!

Pitch stared for a long moment before his mind started working again. That would explain why the boy was so hesitant about where he was from, and his family. He was most likely from another time and would either not have any family in this time, or perhaps his family would not know who he was in this time.

Pitch nodded to himself, it all made sense. He looked at the hourglasses in consternation as he knew it was incredibly dangerous to play with time. He supposed the boy was not even supposed to be speaking to him, and that could be one of the causes of the boy's large amount of fear. Perhaps he was also afraid of Pitch discovering his secret?

Pitch rolled his eyes at this. If he could change any moment in time, he knew precisely what it would be - unfortunately, it was much too far back in time for him to safely go to and who knew what sort of dire consequences it could have? No.. Pitch had no interest in changing other moments in time at the moment. He frowned as he continued to look at Jamie. This meant that the boy obviously had to stay, at least for now.

Abandoning his tea that was mostly gone, Pitch stood and walked around the table to the boy. He gently scooped Jamie up into his arms and strode off with Jamie, carrying him. He walked easily in the dark halls, taking no notice of the absence of light and walked into a spare room that he had. He had been saving it for someone special, but..

With a sigh, he carried Jamie over to the rock bed. It was low to the ground and had no dark and scary space underneath. The bed lay at the bottom of a half circle that was carved out of the wall, and consisted of a child's mattress that had sheets and a hand-stiched quilt on it. The pillow looked very fluffy and comfortable. Pitch lay Jamie down on the bed and removed the boy's shoes, leaving them on the floor near the bed.

Quickly and efficiently, Pitch had Jamie changed into a spare set of pajamas that were kept in this room. If they were meant for a little girl, Pitch made no comment. After all, once upon a time boys wore nightdresses, didn't they? Pitch's thoughts didn't stray much to the nightdress he had changed Jamie into though, and soon he had the boy tucked in.

Pitch looked around the room sadly, it had been empty for so long. Across from the bed were shelves that had been carved into the wall. In the corner there was a bookcase of sorts, consisting of more shelves carved into the wall. There was even a small boulder with a flat top to be a rock table of sorts that a child could sit at and either read or draw.

Pitch would never know, of course, but he had just given Jamie the Child of Spring's bedroom. Pitch walked over to the door and looked back at Jamie. The boy looked so small in that bed. So very young. He frowned at the burden that the boy had to bear. Tonight, he decided. Before he had to leave to spread his nightmares, he would find out what the boy's quest was and help him in any way that he could. Not because it was an obligation, but because.. it would be wrong to leave the boy on his own, looking as lost as he did.

Pitch snorted to himself as he left the room.

He was definitely going soft.


A few hours later, a very sleepy Pitch was roused from sleep by a cry of fear. He sat up as he tiredly rubbed his eyes wondering what was going on, when he felt a large surge of fear coming from a certain room. It took Pitch a moment to think of why that would be, but then he remembered.

Right.. the boy.

Pitch walked down the hall to the nearby room, after putting on a dressing gown over his pajamas. As mostly everything he owned was black, he blended in perfectly with the darkness.

"M-mom?" Jamie's scared voice hesitantly called out.

It was pitch dark in the room and Pitch suddenly realized why the boy was so afraid. Grumbling to himself, Pitch marched off and soon returned holding a lit candle in a candle holder. The candlelight caused eerie shadows to loom in Jamie's room and Jamie looked over at Pitch with wide eyes.

Pitch ignored this as he went over to an oil lamp that was on a high shelf. He used the candle to light the wick and soon a much warmer glow lit up the room, causing it to feel more homey.

"I forgot that you wouldn't like the dark," Pitch said somewhat apologetically to Jamie. "And it wasn't me that caused your nightmare. Nightmares are sometimes naturally occurring, especially in a place where the Sandman's dreamsand cannot penetrate."

Jamie was sitting up in bed, clutching the covers to himself as he tried really hard to calm down. But his mind kept racing with his nightmare. Since Jamie was such a strong believer, he had been under the Guardian's protection, and thus had been spared all the horrible nightmares that had been going on when Pitch was more evil. In fact, Jamie hadn't had a really bad nightmare in years.

Pitch pretended he didn't hear the sniffle as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"It helps if you talk about it," he said to Jamie.

Jamie's look of fear turned into an uncomfortable look as he looked down at the quilt. He shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly.

Secretly, he just really wanted his stuffed bunny and his mom, but he would never tell Pitch that.

"Does it have anything to do with those hourglasses around your neck?" Pitch asked, causing Jamie to gasp and look up at him sharply. This was followed by a mad scramble to double check that he had said hourglasses.

Jamie was stunned to see that they were safe around his neck like always, as well as that one pendant that let Jamie retain his original memories. He looked at Pitch with wide eyes.

"H-how...? Why...?" Jamie asked, his voice sounding more frightened.

What if it was all a trick?! What if Pitch was pretending to be nice so he could steal the hourglasses?!

This fear clearly rang out to Pitch and he barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes again.

"If I had wanted them, I would have taken them long before now you foolish boy," Pitch said to Jamie with a touch of exasperation.

"..You.. you aren't going to steal them?" Jamie asked Pitch in confusion.

That had been a part of Jamie's nightmare. Pitch had stolen the hourglasses and used them to do terrible things. Nightmares had reigned over everything, and when Jamie touched them, absolutely nothing had happened. Jamie had woken up when a Nightmare was millimeters away from biting him.

"No," Pitch said to Jamie. "I have no use for them."

This made Jamie pause, since the Pitch of Last Easter had been quite eager to steal them. His brow furrowed as he looked at the Pitch seated on his bed. What had happened to Pitch between then and now? How could he be so radically different?

Jamie bit his lip as he thought. He looked back down at the quilt.

"What year is it?" he asked softly, dreading the answer.

Pitch almost said something sarcastic, when he remembered that the boy was likely not from this time.

"1974," he answered which immediately caused Jamie to gasp loudly.

"1974?!" Jamie said a touch hysterically. "I'm.. I'm not supposed to be here!"

Oh man.. Was he changing the past more?! He was going to mess everything up, he knew it!

"Especially at Pitch's..!" Jamie cried out, then caught the somewhat offended look on Pitch's face. "..No offense."

Pitch had looked a little offended but was also intrigued. He had not introduced himself, and most human children knew him by his other name, the Boogeyman. Only spirits knew his actual name, Pitch Black. Well.. it wasn't his actual name, but Kozmotis Pitchiner had long ceased to exist.

"What do you know about me?" Pitch asked Jamie, causing the boy to squirm uncomfortably.

"Uh.." Jamie said, a look of panic crossing his face. "I d-don't think I should tell you. It'll like.. mess up the past and change the future even more!"

"So the future has already been changed?" Pitch said conversationally. "Interesting."

Jamie wanted to smack himself. He wasn't supposed to be telling Pitch things like that!

"In broad terms, it might help if you tell me what your mission is," Pitch said seriously to Jamie. "I might be able to help you."

Jamie gaped at Pitch Black. He couldn't believe that the Boogeyman was offering to help him!

"You are obviously from the future," Pitch said, causing Jamie to gape even more. Pitch hid a smirk, as Jamie obviously hadn't caught the slip he had made about referring to this time as 'the past.' Only someone from the future would say something like that. "I'm guessing that your mission is to go to the past and.. alter something? Hm?"

Jamie sighed as he thought about the consequences of telling Pitch about his mission. This Pitch didn't know anything at all about Lillian, so.. it couldn't hurt, right? Hoping he was making the right decision, Jamie began to speak.

"Where I'm from, there's a kid who's the Spirit of Spring. She's called the Child of Spring and her name's Lillian."

Pitch looked bewildered at this since he knew for certain that there was no Child of Spring. In fact, the Spirit of Spring wasn't even female! Leif had disappeared for several years, but not long ago had resurfaced and begun to take control of Spring again. Pitch wasn't certain what had happened, but he didn't concern himself with the affairs of the Seasonals. The fact that pretty much no spirit wanted a thing to do with himself had something to do with it too.

"She, uh.." Jamie faltered, as he wondered if he should tell Pitch about their relationship. No.. better not. He didn't want Pitch to get upset or anything. "Uh.. something happened in 1968, that stopped her from being chosen as the Spring Spirit. I'm supposed to stop whatever that is and then my time in the future.. present..? Will go back to normal. Right now it's sort of a mess. Nothing's the way it should be."

Pitch raised a non-existent eyebrow at all this information. One measly Spring Spirit could cause all this to happen? It seemed like a bit of overkill to bring out the Amulet of Protection for this.

"Is that why you have the amulet?" Pitch asked, wondering if Jamie even knew what it was.

"Amulet?" Jamie scrunched up his face in confusion and then brightened as he realized what Pitch was talking about. "Ohh! You mean the pendant?"

He brought it out from under his nightdress with the hourglasses, as they clinked together.

"Father Time said it would protect my memories. I was starting to forget what had happened in my time and other memories were replacing them. He managed to save me just in time. That's why I have to be the one to do it.. I'm the only one who remembers her." Jamie confided.

Pitch nodded as he studied the amulet, unsurprised by this. It was rumored to have special powers after all. Pitch shook his head as he realized that this was all Father Time's doing. Meddling old coot. Of course, he would send a small boy off in time without explaining what the Amulet of Protection does. If Jamie had known, he would have had it out on display and not hidden it away.

"You don't need to hide that," PItch said to Jamie. "Only the hourglasses. It might seem odd to see the chains and not see what you are wearing. I recommend that you at least keep the.. pendant.. out."

Jamie nodded thoughtfully at this.

"And you needn't worry about changing this time," Pitch chuckled. "If you are successful, then it wouldn't matter what you've said to me anyway. Time will have changed so that you wouldn't have been here in the first place."

Jamie clearly looked confused about this, but it made sense. If Lillian became the Child of Spring, then there would be no reason for Jamie to go on his quest, so anything he may have done in the past wouldn't matter anyway.

"So.. how am I supposed to find out what I'm going to change? It'd probably be better to figure it out now before I show up in 1968."

"What time specifically are you supposed to go to in 1968?" Pitch asked suspiciously.

"Easter Sunday," Jamie said.

Pitch looked unsurprised, yet perplexed at this.

"You might not be aware, but that is when there was an unexpected blizzard."

Jamie's jaw dropped at that.

"Jack wouldn't do that!" Jamie protested. "Not on the Easter Bunny's holiday!"

Pitch shook his head at this.

"You know Frost, then?"

Jamie was confused for a moment, but then reminded himself that without Lillian, Pitch probably didn't have any reason to get to know Jack better or to be nice to him.

"Yeah," Jamie nodded. "I'm his first believer.. Even with everything different!"

He added on proudly.

"How on Earth could you - " Pitch started, then stopped.

Time travel.

Right.

He tried very hard to quell the headache that all this was causing. He was starting to detest time travel.

"Clearly something important must have taken place during that day," Pitch stated as he tried to get the conversation back on track. "So why don't you go and ask this Lillian what happened? It won't matter what you say to her since you're going to change things anyway."

Jamie's eyes widened at this.

Ask her?

Why hadn't he thought of that?


Later on in the day, after a longer nap that had taken much convincing from Pitch to get Jamie to even take, Jamie found himself stumbling out of a shadow, courtesy of Pitch. Jamie had been informed that it was now Monday, but that the children had the day off from school because of the holiday.

Jamie looked around, trying to be nonchalant as he walked to the park that was near Jack's forest, where he had come out of a shadow. His first thought had been to look around the park, and then see where he could go from there. He didn't even know where Lillian used to live! He frowned a bit as he realized he didn't know anything about Lillian. Jack had happily proclaimed that he had a sister he had saved, but Lillian.. She never said anything at all about her past.

As Jamie wandered around the park, he almost didn't recognize the older girl sitting on a bench. She was much older than Jamie had ever seen her, but there was no mistaking that curly, brown hair. Her hair was down to the middle of her back, but Jamie couldn't see if her eyes were that amazing green or not because the girl had her feet up on the bench and was resting her head on her arms on her knees.

She was ignored by everyone else and Jamie thought that was so sad. Jamie quietly approached the bench and thought about how he could get his information without freaking her out too much. Jamie had almost reached the bench when a familiar accent made him freeze in his tracks.

"Hey, sheila," Bunny said as he sat down on the bench nearby her. Bunny had been double-checking some places after Easter, to make sure that belief was up and Burgess was always high on his list, especially since that terrible Easter of '68. Blasted Frost.

Lillian lifted her head and discreetly wiped her eyes. Jamie was behind them, so he couldn't see her face.

"Hey," she said softly, her voice very subdued.

"Bad day?" Bunny asked.

"I guess," Lillian replied to him, her gray eyes downcast. Even if it was the Easter Bunny, she still couldn't confide in him about her father. Her father had once again kicked her out of the house for the day, and she barely had time to grab her backpack before she found herself outside. At least today it hadn't been raining.

Jamie stared at the unlikely pair. Lillian knew the Easter Bunny?! Were they friends? How had she gotten to know him? What was he even doing here! It was after Easter!

Bunny reached out and gave her knee a pat and then pulled an Easter egg out of who-knows-where and handed it to her.

A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she accepted it. It had a basket of eggs painted on it and she hugged it to herself reverently.

"I didn't see ya out with the others gettin' any eggs," Bunny said, half question, half statement. "Gettin' too old fer it?"

It was very odd, but Bunny usually didn't have any believers as old as Lillian. He was dreading the day when she would stop believing and would no longer see him.

Lillian shook her head as she tucked the egg away into the pocket of the long skirt she was wearing. She put her feet down to the ground and sat up more properly like a girl should.

"I wasn't allowed to go out," Lillian said sadly. "My dad says that's only for little kids anyway."

Bunny tsked at that.

"Tell ya what," he said as he thought of something. "How 'bout next year I give ya yer own special eggs? Everyone should get eggs on Easter."

"Really?" Lillian breathed as she looked at Bunny with wide eyes. "My own special eggs?"

Bunny chuckled and reached out to ruffle her curls affectionately.

"Really."

Jamie continued to stare and it made him wonder just how old Lillian was right now anyway. Lillian had looked really young as a spirit, and now she looked even older than Jamie! If Jamie had to guess, he figured she'd probably be around eleven or twelve or something.

Lillian was about to say something else to Bunny when the snap of a twig behind them made her pause. They both turned around to see Jamie standing there sheepishly.

"Hi?" he said hesitantly.

Bunny's eyes widened when he saw the Amulet of Protection clearly visible around Jamie's neck.

What.

The.

Before Bunny could finish that astonished thought, Jamie was speaking quickly to them.

"So like, I have this.. um.. thing I'm supposed to do, and I kinda need your guys' help." Jamie said in a rush.

Lillian paused and then recognition lit up her face.

"I know you!" she said suddenly as all sadness was instantly forgotten in her excitement. "You're Jamie! You're that kid that told me all about the Guardians and Jack Frost!"

Now it was Jamie's turn to stare in astonishment at her.

"What?!"


*Remember, Death is actually Death from the Discworld books. I merely borrowed him. In my story, there is one Death that covers all the multiverse, so he would see what is going on in other dimensions and wouldn't be surprised with modern things. It would make sense, since, in one of the books, reality shifted to the modern world, indicating that the modern world does exist alongside Rincewind's world in another dimension.

**You get bonus points if you figure out where I borrowed the amulet from! Hint: It is an awesome movie and also a book. The movie covers the first half of the book.

Author's Note: I was originally going to end the chapter right after Pitch told Jamie to just ask Lillian what had happened, but I thought that would be too mean. The chapter was getting to be long enough at the point I did stop it at though, so sorry for the cliffhanger again. I make no promises to stop. :) If you'll notice, Jamie kinda wormed his way into Lillian's place at Pitch's. I imagine that Pitch still secretly longs for a family again, and so he would be more inclined to take Jamie in and help him, especially when he realized that Jamie was on a quest that might be a little too big for him.

I hope you don't mind that Jamie is getting all this help with his quest. Don't worry, even if he is getting all this help there are still parts that he has to do all by himself. I also hope the end of this chapter isn't too confusing, but don't worry if it is. Lillian will explain in the next chapter. Since Jamie is now six years after 1968, Lillian is twelve currently.