Prettyinpinkgal: I already got a review! Thank you very much to Leena Lionheart. Oh, and just in case some of you forgot, James's previous appearance was in Chapter Two. =) Also, it has been YEARS since I've read/watched "Tuck Everlasting", and I'm relying on Wikipedia and what I previously wrote to guide me through this, so I beg forgiveness if I make mistakes. I would also like to say that "Foster" will most likely have one ending that I think will make the story flow better, but I will also post the alternative ending after that, so that way everyone's happy. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own "Tuck Everlasting".

FOSTER EVERLASTING

CHAPTER EIGHT: AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE

"I'm flattered you remember me," James went on to say, "considering we only met briefly thirty years ago."

"I could say the same," replied Winnie, although her expression did not change from its stony appearance. "Although I think neither of us have changed enough to warrant being unrecognizable."

James's smile became just a bit tighter. "Indeed. Although I think you're not quite as outspoken as you used to be."

Winnie's dark expression faded as she quirked a brow. "Really? I think I told you and that Romeo earlier off pretty well."

He chuckled at that. "True. But you were a little subtler than you used to be. Not quite as brash, I think one could say."

"That was when I was young and seventeen." She paused. "Really seventeen. It seems that the water kept us forever young physically, but we can mature mentally." Winnie surveyed him. "You've changed as well, a little. You were more cheerful back then."

"Perhaps we ought to talk in a quieter location. Shall we go into the woods?"

Her sharp look returned. He's not like the man all those years ago, the one who tried selling the Tucks out. He's been given immortality as well. But I still can't fully trust him.

"No, let's find somewhere else," she said after a moment. Winnie expected some evidence of his surprise or curiosity that no doubt would have resulted from this reply, but he simply nodded and replied, "As ironic as it is, in more than one way, the graveyard is the only place nearby that's quiet, and it's almost never visited by anyone."

"Fine. Let's go."

He offered out his arm, and she reached out to take it-

"Winnie!"

She whirled around and saw...Miles standing there, slightly out of breath. Hiding her disappointment, she smiled and said, "I wrote that I'd be back soon."

Miles said, perhaps a little sheepishly, "Oh, no, I actually just came into town for some supplies."

Winnie's heart slid down a little more. Why did I expect he'd be concerned for me? Jesse certainly hasn't been for the past thirty years, and he was the one I felt closest with. Oh, well; I did write a note, so I can hardly blame him. What a selfish creature I am.

Miles continued. "But I spotted you over here and you looked like you were having a bit of trouble with someone." His eyes flicked up to James's, and they were filled with warning.

I suppose I probably shouldn't have looked so serious. She had to admit, though, it was so nice to know someone cared enough. Once again, she thought about how Miles was like the brother she never had.

"Hey!" James protested, and Winnie quickly cut in:

"Oh, no. Thank you so much, Miles. It really does mean a lot to me that you care. Honest. But I just was having a little reunion with a friend of mine. We were actually just about to go off and have a little chat. I'll see you..." Oops. She almost said "at home." "...I'll see you later then?"

"Don't stay out too long," he cautioned.

Winnie grinned. "I won't."

He left, possibly a little reluctantly, and Winnie's heart swarmed with warmth. The truth was, she wasn't too selfish. It was simply that the fact that after thirty years of loneliness, someone was there to "watch her back" as they say. Perhaps it wasn't Jesse as she'd been hoping, but it was a pleasant feeling nonetheless.

"I assume he's a friend of yours?" James inquired, looking a bit flustered. Winnie didn't blame him; Miles was rather intimidating.

"Yes. A good one. Now, shall we go?"

James did not offer his arm this time, and they walked side-by-side to the cemetary. "As to what you were saying," James began, "I think it's impossible for anyone to remain as cheerful as they once were before gaining immortality. Especially you. Although," he added with a little laugh, "you weren't exactly cheerful then either. You looked like you could hide in a hole. You surprised me when you spoke against your parents though. I assumed you'd meekly go through with it."

"Never!" Winnie cried, and then flushed. "I'm sorry, it's nothing against you. I just always hated being told what to do. That sounds awfully bratish, I know, but it's true.

"All my life, I was never allowed to venture any further than the gate, even when I was ten years old. I was always alone, forced to be my family's pet project, always being groomed and forced to learn the pettiest things. As I grew a little older, I was allowed to go off to parties, but they were the worst affairs. Treegap has always been a small town, especially in those days, as I'm sure you remember. Society in bigger cities might have brought girls closer together if only to boost each other up the social scale, but there were no such goals here. It was all genuine friendship, although of course that got a little catty at times too. But since everyone else got to know each other naturally instead of being thrown together forcibly at obnoxious parties when they were younger, they reasonably flocked together and often left me out of it. Of course, that was probably not intentional, and they were nice to me, if only because I was one of the renowned Fosters, but...

"Oh!" Winnie clamped her mouth shut for a second. "I'm sorry. I'm rambling awfully."

"Am I the first person you told this to?" James asked. Winnie looked up, and saw that he was compassionate.

She smiled in appreciation. "The whole story? Yes. But I told another person when I was still a child."

"Was that the person who won your heart so fully?"

Winnie's eyes whipped to his, her face heating up rapidly. "H-how did you know about...?"

"My second sight is working well today, I see," he said, tapping his temple. "No, in all earnestness, it was just a guess. An arranged marriage, which has been medieval sounding even back when we were...normal, is more than enough cause for you to be so angry with your family, but I heard the rumors of your befriending a family and they had a teenage boy...Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, it's fine," Winnie sighed. "You're right. He's the other person I told."

"Things...aren't going well between you two?"

Winnie picked up her pace, knowing well that James was tall enough to need no more than a slightly larger stride to keep up with her. She did not even pause when she bowed her head politely to passersby on the street.

It seemed an eternity before they reached the church, darting behind it and doing a quick survey of the land. No one was present. Winnie's eyes flashed as she demanded, "Why did you say 'aren't?'"

"Sorry if I insulted you-"

"You know very well what I'm talking about!" Winnie cried. "You used present tense! You heard about the family I stayed with. You know them, don't you?"

He was silent.

"Don't you?"

"Not personally," he finally said. "I'd heard stories of them from my uncle when I was a boy. He told me of a family who never grew old. I later heard that he was killed by one of the Tucks, the family that supposedly abducted you."

Winnie's blood ran cold. She knew very well who this uncle of his was: The man in the yellow suit. "You...you must be joking. You've come here for revenge, haven't you?"

James's eyes widened. "Revenge? Oh, Lord, no. To be honest, I hadn't seen my uncle since long before I even reached adolescence. My parents cast him out, you see. Told him he was a good-for-nothing and putting the family to shame with his obsession, tainting my innocent mind with such notions as magic springs and all. I later realized he wasn't completely right in the head. My family severed all relations with him. And when I heard he'd come back to Treegap that time, I was sure he was following this mythical family of his. But when I heard of the murder, well, I knew he probably did something that made him deserve it."

"It never occurred to you that Mae was a bad person?" This was a delight to hear. In the years after her supposed "abduction", everyone, whenever someone brought it up (which was rare), they called the Tucks "wicked people" and "unforgivable". It was good to hear that someone didn't think so.

"No. And from what I heard, you were desparate to stay with them. Weren't you the one who broke Mae Tuck out of jail, too?"

She grinned. "Guilty as charged. It wasn't just me, though."

"You must have made your parents proud," he smirked, causing Winnie to laugh.

"Oh, yes. I was kept under good lock and key for a while there."

"I can imagine!"

For the next several minutes, they walked aimlessly around the cemetary, commenting on people they knew. They avoided looking at their own families; they took only a quick glance out of respect and desire, and then turned around quickly and stalked off somewhere else. The sun was now approaching the center of the sky; it was noon.

"Mind if I be nosy again?" James finally said.

Winnie groaned, then smiled a little playfully. "Might as well. You seem to have everything figured out, anyway."

"Was that Miles person a member of the Tuck family?"

Winnie hesitated. She believed James when he said he had no desire for revenge. He might have seemed a little aloof and guarded at times, but he had an expressive face, and it was because of this that she could easily tell when he wanted to drop a subject or dodge something, even if she didn't know what he was hiding exactly. When he said that, though, he was completely open and up-front. His uncle seemed to bring little emotion to his face save for a little remorse and, more predominantly, shame.

And besides, it'd be silly for her to be concerned now. What could he do to the Tucks? He was someone who beat time as well. The spring was gone. Even if he did have a vendetta against the Tucks, he obviously knew enough about them that even if she said nothing, he'd still find them. She might as well be honest.

"Yes, he is."

"I see. But he's not the one you fell for, though, right?"

"Oh, disgusting! Miles is old!"

This comment made them both laugh, amiably but with a very slight trace of bitterness, too small to perhaps be detected but enough to do damage to whoever absorbed it, not unlike arsenic.

"No, Jesse is his younger brother. He's...my age?" That seemed a little funny to think.

"What's gone wrong between you two, then?"

Winnie frowned. "Well...they only came back yesterday."

"For the first time since you turned?"

"For the first time since I was ten," Winnie answered dryly. "And Jesse'd managed to forget all about me. He told me...to drink the water when I was his age, so we could travel together, and maybe get married." As she spoke, her indignation, hurt, and painful love surfaced. "Do you realize how much that impacted such a young, naive girl who barely interacted with anyone before? Jesse was my dearest friend, and I thought I could love him. And over the years, I did fall in love with him. Those days with the Tucks were my most precious memories.

"And he's going to marry someone else."

All of a sudden, the grief she had been surpressing rumbled up within her again, and tears began to slip down. "S-sorry," she stuttered, trying to regain her composure. "I didn't...I thought I could talk about it without...It is helping...talking about it...I mean, the sooner I use up all my tears, the sooner I can...I can move on, right?

"Dear Lord, why did I waste my life on him?"

Like a little child, she burst into full-out tears, uncontrollable sobs wracking her ageless body. She felt James's arms wrap around her in a friendly, comforting hug, telling her, "Sorry, Winnie. I hope it gets easier for you. I'm sorry I brought it up."

And they stood there in the graveyard, the deceaseless surrounded by the deceased, misery engulfing them as they dealt with an unheavenly immortality.

Prettyinpinkgal: I decided to make a comment here to break up the angst-fest. Guess what I realized while typing up this chapter? The boys in a possible love triangle: Jesse and James. Team Rocket anyone?

(Setting: Showdown in the Wild West, in a battle to win Winnie's heart)

Jesse: (whips out gun) Prepare for trouble.

James: (whips out two guns) Make it double.

Maybe it's the staying-up-till-ungodly-hours-in-the-morning syndrome talking, but I find that highly amusing. And somehow rather epic. XD