Chapter Three - Delve Deeper
The first thing they saw in the next memory was Catherine and Jack playing tag. Catherine was racing up the side of the hill as fast as she could with the heavy dress she was wearing, and Jack was quickly catching up. She looked over her shoulder and slowed down, knowing Jack would catch her anyways. Jack did not slow down, and instead accidentally propelled both of them down the other side of the hill.
Tooth cooed, while in the meantime both Bunny and North were feeling quite concerned about Jack's ominous comment earlier.
Jack took a few steps closer to his younger self and Catherine, they appeared to only be 12 in this memory.
Then a small figure appeared on the top of the hill, it was Jack's little sister, Emma, she was five years old now. She too rolled down the hill and they all were in a heap at the bottom of the hill all laughing and being happy.
Then they could faintly hear a woman's voice in the distance yelling, "Jack and Emma! Supper's ready"
"Coming!" young Jack shouted, he and Catherine got up and Jack carried Emma back up the hill where they could see the small village.
"See you tomorrow Jack!" Catherine called over her shoulder.
"Bye Kitty!" Emma called.
"Why'd the ankle bitter call 'er kitty?" Bunny asked.
"Sometimes I called her Cat and Emma got confused." Jack responded, smiling fondly.
They entered another memory, they were all older.
"How old are ya 'ere Jack?" Bunny asked.
"We were 14 I think." Jack said distantly, he was never taking his eyes off of Catherine.
Catherine was leaning against a tree reading a book and Jack was playing with his friends a little bit away.
Jack came running over to Catherine and said, "Hey Cat, want to come play?"
Catherine looked up from her book and smiled at Jack, she looked past him and saw the other boys sneering in their direction, her smiled slightly faltered and she replied, "No, I'm just gonna finish my book, but thanks for asking." Catherine said.
"Are you sure, it'll be fun." Jack said.
"Yeah I'm sure. Go have fun." Catherine replied.
"Alright..." Jack said, looking at her strangely.
He walked back to the group of boys, one of them asked Jack "Why'd yous ask 'er ta play?"
"Because I thought it would be fun." Jack replied.
"My mom told me to stay away from her." Another one said, "Ma said that she has the eyes of a demon and the hair of an angel."
"Um, well I-" Jack stuttered, unsure what to do.
"My Ma says she's a freak." yet another boy said to Jack.
"No she's not!" Jack shouted finally. This made Catherine look up from her book again, only to see Jack walking quickly over to her. "Do you want to go for a walk?" he asked her.
"Umm..." She started, looking behind him to see the boys glaring at them, "Okay."
The memory began to fade as the two walked into the woods chatting.
"Vhy did zese boys dislike her so much?" North asked.
"I really don't know, she was just..." Jack paused looking for the right word, "She was different I guess, people in this town never liked the unknown."
Bunny hummed in agreement and so did Tooth.
The next memory that came forward was during the winter time, Catherine and Jack were walking through the snow covered forest around sunset. "We're 15 here I think." Jack told them.
"I'm excited for Christmas." young Jack said.
"Me too, but I don't see why you are, all you're gonna get is a big sack of coal." she said smiling.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, confused.
"You've pranked everyone in this town, they literally call you a little devil." Catherine told him laughing, "Although that might also have something to do with me."
"What?" Jack said, immediately stopping, the smile falling off his face.
"Oh come on! You think I don't know what the people in his town think of me?" Catherine said.
"But that's -" Jack started but was cut off by Catherine.
"Not true. I know, I don't care. Their words flow over me like a river over rocks." Catherine said.
Young Jack was silent for a moment before saying, "Yeah but the river eventually wears down the rocks until they're small enough to whisk away."
Catherine smiled, "Bad example."
Jack replied, "I don't think so."
They simply looked at each other for a few moments before Catherine broke the eye contact by looking down, Jack looked at her worriedly and grabbed her hand, she looked back to him with questioning eyes, "I don't think care either." he told her.
"I know." Catherine said smiling again, she looked up to the quickly darkening sky, "We should head back before it gets too dark."
"Yeah." Jack replied.
They began to walk back towards the village, and they could see the smoke rising from the many chimneys when Catherine started to cough and momentarily stopped walking.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked her.
"Yeah, I'm-" she cut herself off with coughing, much more violent this time, she clutched her chest as she fell to her knees in the snow and as she coughed, splatters of red began to speckle the white snow.
"Katherine you're sick, we need to get you to your father right now." Jack said.
Now-Jack explained, "Her father was a doctor," he paused, "More or less."
"Oh no! Is she going to be alright?" Tooth asked, and all the Guardians looked to Jack with concern, but he remained silent.
"Can you walk?" Jack asked her.
"Yeah." she said nodding, but when she went to stand up her knee's buckled and she fell.
"So that's a no." Jack said, it made Catherine chuckle slightly, which caused her to cough even more.
He quickly scooped Catherine up and the memory faded.
