A/N: Okay, chapter six! Hope you like it! This is just a filler chapter on Jess's thoughts as Nerida prepares the spelled drink for him. YellowShirt37 mentioned that I didn't explain Jess's thoughts that well, and I have been obsessively listening to this song (Far Away by Nickelback) and it made me think of what Jess was supposed to be thinking of so deeply, and I decided to make it a chapter! This is a little Jess/Leslie, but just because of the nature of his thoughts.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing!

Chapter Six: Thoughts of You

Jess's PoV

Jess stared up at the canopy of tangled branches above his head. He was consumed by thoughts of his best friend. He was fast sinking into his own world, and he barely noted that May Belle was watching from under the treehouse, or that Nerida was slowly coming towards him.

He was pondering over Leslie, and why he had such a hard time getting over Leslie's death. Sure, she was his best only friend, but a person would think that after five years the pain of losing them would at least be bearable. But it wasn't—to the point that Jess sometimes felt like he couldn't breathe because of it. At night, he dreamed of her: Of how they used to be, how they could be now.

Why? He asked himself. The part of his brain that was still in the real world registered that Nerida now held a golden cup resembling a wine glass and was speaking over it.

Why, why, why? He yelled furiously at himself. His sister's worries about him getting hurt, and the fact that she had given him her locket, had made him jittery and nervous. A part of him wanted to back out of going through with this, but that part was overruled by his overwhelming hunger to see Leslie again. But he wanted, no, needed, to know why her death was like a fresh wound that was ripped open every single day, and why he endangered himself just for the chance to have a glimpse of her pale blonde hair.

You're going to save her from dying, numbskull. Not look at her hair. He told himself. The chance to save her is why I have to do this.

No, it's not, a part of himself whispered back. At least, that's not the only reason.

Jess's eyes narrowed into slits and he glared up at the trees. And what is the 'other reason'?

You love her.

The expression dropped from his face as quickly as someone would drop a hot pan after touching it without mitts. His heart started thumping, beating through his shirt, and he sucked in a breath, but didn't let it out again. He closed his pansy brown eyes, only to flash them back open when a voice spoke.

Nerida was holding out a vial on a string. It was blue, like her hair, and had a feather hanging off the top. It was closed with a cork. She had the cup in her other hand, and was staring at him intensely.

"Lord King, take this. It is the potion to bring you back to this time after your mission is complete," she said, thrusting it into his hands. "You must drink the entire vial before you get back, and you must do so before twenty-four hours is up." Jess took it, and slipped it over his head like a robot. He was only half there. The other half was coming to a stunning, but inevitable, realization: He was in love with Leslie Burke.

He heard himself ask, "What is this stuff?" But it sounded far away, as if through a tunnel.

"It is nectar, a common faery drink. However, when nectar is spelled, it will increase faery magic tenfold. Now, drink of this."

Nerida was now offering him the cup—Leslie would call it a goblet—and telling him to drink six sips from it. She proffered the goblet, and he took it from her, still robot-like.

Jess Aarons was in love with Leslie Burke.

Jess closed the distance between the drink and his lips. He swallowed six times. Nerida took the goblet back.

Jesse Oliver Aarons, Jr. was in love with Leslie Burke.

He chanted in his head, I love you, Leslie. I love you. I love you. I love you, as the spell began to take hold of his body.

The drink seemed to spread from his throat to his fingertips, searing its way down to his toes. The fire in his veins intensified, but not to the point where he couldn't handle it. The wind picked up, circling around him whipping his clothes. The faery stepped back as the wind lifted him off his feet. He felt a tug in his navel, and suddenly the buffeting gusts stopped. Jess's eyes were closed once more, and he dropped to the ground, limp.

Groaning, he sat up, and looked around.

Nerida and May Belle were gone, and the treehouse looked like it had in its early days, right after he and Leslie had fixed it up. He stood, but frowned when everything seemed… shorter, somehow. He glanced down. Oh. Nerida had said that he would be ten again when he came back. Wow, he hadn't realized how much he'd grown.

His musings about how young he looked were stopped, however, when a girl's voice called from the treehouse, "Jess! Jess, where are you?"

His heart swelled.

Leslie.

A/N: Enter Leslie. Ha, I had not planned for her to come in yet, just for him to realize he was in love with her and then end the chapter the same place chapter five did, but I like how this turned out. And the next chapter should go back to Nerida and May Belle and explain what the spell looked like to them and what happened after Jess disappeared, so don't worry. All will be explained!