Jack finally explains Easter blizzard of 68. Warning, bring tissues. Lots of tissues...
My own, terribly angsty and tear-fuelled attempt... The only thing that came to mind that wasn't clichéd or that had not already been used far too many times... This time, it wasn't Jack being angry, it wasn't Jack being upset about Bunny or a spirit or his family or some kind of child abuse flashback...
What if he'd once had another believer?(Yeah, I bet that caught your attention... :D )
And to Lliri and NailPolishPoison for the follow and/or fave :D
Enjoy...
Bunny rolled his eyes, sitting up from the tree he was leaning against, as Jack leapt out of a tunnel and grinned at him.
"What do ya want, Frostbite? It's me off season..."
"I... err... I was just wondering if you were busy?"
Bunny rolled his eyes, realising something was up.
"Just being not busy. I can take a break. What's up?"
"I... Well... You know the blizzard in 68?"
"How could I forget... What about it?"
"I-I just wanted to tell you what actually happened. It wasn't what you think."
Bunny raised his eyebrows.
"You weren't just causing trouble?"
"Actually... No."
Bunny blinked, then sighed, shuffling over to make room for Jack to sit on the edge of the grass bank next to him.
The spirit did so, then sighed. Bunny spoke first, however.
"Why bring this up now Frostbite?"
"I-It's a long story."
Bunny sensed the inner turmoil the younger guardian seemed to be in, and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Then fire away."
Jack sighed, then spoke up.
"Well, it started when I was flying past a window..."
_
The day before Easter, 45 years ago...
Jack Frost flew past the window of an orphanage, wondering why the wind was insisting that he fly this way, and froze as something caught his eye.
He flew back a bit, staring in, and smiled as he saw a young girl, who couldn't have been older than eight, drawing snowflakes.
Then he frowned as he saw a small tube leading out of her nose to an oxygen tank.
She was ill... Badly.
He slowly shifted the window open and dropped inside, closing it behind him, quietly, so as not to disturb her.
Pacing over, he looked over her shoulder and gasped as she turned around and looked right at him. Shocked at first, then she smiled.
"Are you Jack Frost?"
He nodded, mouth agape, and stuttered.
"Y-you can... you can see me...?"
She nodded, then pointed to her book.
"Nurse reads me stories about you. I've always thought you were more better than the other magic people. Like Santa and the Easter Bunny."
"Y-you do...?"
She nodded.
"I like snow. Hey, can you make it snow?" She started coughing, and Jack instinctively held a hand out to help her, not immediately registering that he could touch her.
He blinked, about to pull away, before he realised that... he was touching someone. He could touch someone... And she could see him.
Without the slightest hesitation, he wrapped her in a hug, and the coughing subsided.
He smiled at her, some kind of brotherly instinct coming over him.
"What's your name?"
"Faith."
"That's a beautiful name. You like snow huh?"
She nodded, and Jack smiled, twirling his staff.
A few delicate, perfectly formed snowflakes fell from the air and landed on her palms, staying there for a few seconds before melting.
She gasped in delight, and Jack smiled at her.
"There... What do you think."
She giggled.
"Pretty... Make more?"
He nodded, and more of the flakes fell.
He stayed there for a couple of hours, simply making snowflakes, then making them disappear.
Then he heard footsteps and blinked.
"I have to go."
She looked at him, wide eyed, and looked as if she was about to cry.
"C-can't you stay...?"
He started to shake his head, then he stopped and smiled.
"Sure. But you can't tell anyone I'm here, okay? It has to be a secret..."
She smiled, as he put a finger to her lips, smiling, and she nodded.
"Okay."
He lifted her into the bed, and she snuggled down as he tucked her in, surprising even himself as he kissed her lightly on the forehead.
"There. Comfy?"
She nodded, and Jack stepped away as a friendly looking nurse, looking to be about twenty years old, swept into the room.
"Hello sweetie, how are you feeling?"
"Fine. Much better! Can I go out and play?"
The nurse was hiding something in her smile, and Jack realised he wanted to know what.
"Not today, sweetie. Maybe when you get a bit better, okay?"
She sighed.
"Okay."
The nurse tucked her in a little more, and kissed her cheek.
"Get some sleep, okay sweetie?"
She nodded, and the nurse smiled, walking out.
Jack hopped over to Faith, and balanced on his stick.
"Hey, you tired?"
She nodded, and Jack felt something flooding his chest with warmth, some kind of familiarity he couldn't place, and he started singing a small lullaby.
"Hush, hush, time to be sleeping
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping
Dreams of peace and of freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonny baby..."
Whilst he was singing, he made more snowflakes fall, and she sighed, happily.
"Thank you Jackie..."
"No Problem, you get some sleep, eh?"
She nodded, and mumbled something.
"Can... make it... snow tomorrow... please?"
He smiled.
"Sure thing Snowflake."
He started singing again, and she eventually drifted off. He kissed her lightly on the forehead again, and waited for a few moments before he left the room, trying to find the nurse. He didn't have to go far.
"She was smiling and laughing Doctor. She looked happy."
That was the nurse. A male voice answered, weary, and filled with sadness.
"I'm sorry, Ruth, but her condition is terminal... I'm surprised she managed to keep going this long..."
Jack blinked. They couldn't mean...
"But Faith is such a happy girl... It's not fair, Marcus."
"I know... but we can just make her comfortable Ruth. Believe me, I wish there was some way but..."
Jack froze again, then backed away, missing the rest of what the doctor said.
No... Not...?
He raced back to Faith's room, and her fingers clutched his as she slept.
Jack didn't let go, even as the night passed into Easter morning, and he smiled as he watched her open her eyes. Smiled as they lit up at the sight of him.
"You stayed...?"
"Sure did, Snowflake. I'm gonna stay right here. Hey, watch this..."
He hopped over to the window, and with a whirl of his staff, snow began falling across the city.
She gasped in delight, and laughed, then she sighed, trying to get up, and the sigh devolved into a coughing fit.
Jack hurried over to her, rubbing her back and letting him grasp her hand as tears streamed down her cheeks with the coughing.
Suddenly, the door opened and the nurse, Ruth, came rushing in.
"Oh, sweetie, come here..."
She sat next to him, and everything passed in a blur as the coughing continued, the doctor came rushing in and they all started crowding her.
Her eyes were frantic as they searched for him.
"Jackie!"
Ignoring the icy feeling that came with being walked through, he flew to her bed again, letting her grab his hands, and her eyes met his.
"Shh, I right here Snowflake, I'm not leaving. I won't leave you..."
Her eyes kept locked onto his, even as her grip got weaker, and they ignored the frantic cries from the surrounding adults.
Jack, still holding her gaze, pushed away the pain, not wanting to make her feel afraid, and filled his eyes with their usual mischief and sparkle.
"Hey, remember those snowflakes? They were pretty huh? And now it's snowing over the whole city... Just for you. Your own little snowy Easter Sunday..."
She smiled, and Jack gripped her hand tighter, dropping his staff to the floor as he used his other hand to stroke her hair, and he began singing...
"Hush, hush, time to be sleeping
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping
Dreams of peace and of freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonny baby..."
She smiled at the sound of his voice, the adults all but forgotten, as he repeated the soothing verse of the lullaby over and over again, his eyes never leaving hers.
He continued to sing as her eyes closed, stroking her hair and she had a smile on her face as her breathing slowed.
Slower and slower, just as the speed of Jack's singing slowed, and her breathing finally started becoming laboured.
Jack crouched over her, kissing her on the forehead, and whispering.
"Shh, it's okay snowflake, I'm right here... I'm still right here, I'm not leaving... I'm not gonna leave you..."
Her breathing became more shallow, and she started crying with the pain and odd coughing.
Jack's cool fingers wiped the tears away, as he sang to her, one hand wiping away the tears and brushing through her hair, and the other still enclosed in both of hers.
"Hush, hush, time to be sleeping..."
The tears stopped, the coughing stopped, the gasps of pain stopped, and she smiled softly.
Eventually, to the sound of Jack's voice, she smiled lightly and the steady thrum of her heart finally ceased.
Jack felt as though someone had torn a hole in his chest, as his first believer, and the first human he had ever truly cared for in over three hundred years, even having known her for less than a day, passed on.
Ice cold tears broke out across his cheeks, and he found himself hugging Faith, his little snowflake, closer, careful not to move her too much.
The cries of the adults in the room were finally beginning to become audible and he let his tears fall as he kissed her forehead, wiping away a tear that hadn't fallen from her pale lashes, and stroked a loose strand of hair behind her ear one last time, before getting to his feet, gently easing his hand out from between hers.
"Sweet dreams, Snowflake..." he whispered, and fled.
He stopped a few blocks away, right near to the park, and finally let his sobs out. His heart felt like it was tearing in two, and the snowfall picked up, even as he tried to stop it.
It took hours for the tears to stop, and for Jack to be able to pull some control over the snow, but by then, the city was already covered in a huge blanket.
A single snowflake fell in front of him, blown by the wind, and he let it land on his palm, recognising it as one of those he had created in the room.
"How did..." He stopped himself. The wind couldn't answer.
With a breath, he encased the snowflake in an ice so clear it could have been crystal and tucked it into his pocket as he got to his feet, tear tracks still visible on his cheeks.
_
"You found me about half an hour after that..." Jack said, finishing his tale, and feeling tears falling down his cheeks.
He ran a hand along his staff, or, more specifically, to a small iced part, and it melted revealing a small crystal that Jack plucked from it, before looking to Bunny, who, to Jack's astonishment, had tears of his own in his eyes.
"I-I'm so sorry Jack..."
He nodded, and took a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears, before holding out the crystal.
Inside was a tiny, delicate snowflake.
"I still have it... It never left me, not once over the last few decades... How can you forget the first person who ever believed in you...? I only brought it up now because I was kinda thinking back to it and... well, yeah..."
The tears made their way free again, and he froze it back into the staff, getting to his feet.
"I... I need to go somewhere..."
Bunny nodded, realising that he would want to be alone for a bit, before surprising him again and pulling him into a hug.
"I'm really, so sorry Jack... You wanna talk, ya can come right back 'ere, ya understand?"
"Yeah... Thanks Bunny."
Bunny watched him tap a tunnel and leap through, and sat back down, staring at nothing and thinking about nothing. Just nothing...
Especially not about how he'd shouted and nearly hit the young spirit when he had pretty much just had his heart broken...
_
Jack flew to halt outside the window of the orphanage. He hadn't been there since that Easter in 68...
It looked empty now.
He quietly opened the window and let himself in.
He ran a hand along the edge of the bed, before sighing and walking down the corridor.
It was quiet. Of course it was, it was the middle of the night.
He blinked as he felt a hand tugging on his hoody and looked down to see a small girl looking at him with wide, tired eyes.
"Are you him?"
He smiled at her.
"Who's that?"
"The boy nursey Ruth speaks about. She said he was friends with a little girl who died here... She said he was special and we should believe in him."
"What was his name?"
"Jackie Frost..."
He blinked, then smiled, a warm feeling flooding through his chest.
"Yeah, that's me... What's your name?"
"Laura. Hey, are you magic?"
He smiled, and waved his staff, letting snowflakes fall.
"Is that magic?"
She laughed, and Jack blinked as a shadow fell over him. He looked up to see an old-ish woman, looking to be about sixty five, smiling at him.
"They said she was delusional, you know. The doctors. But I saw her eyes. Saw the way she smiled. Saw the way her hands grasped something I could not truly see. Saw her tears freeze slightly before vanishing... And heard a faint lullaby. Then caught sight of a flash of blue vanishing from the window into the snow, out of the corner of my eye." She smiled again.
"You made her happy. You gave her something to believe in..."
Jack blinked, then smiled, sadly.
"Faith was the first to believe in me."
"But not the last."
"Not the last. Thank you..."
He ruffled Laura's hair, before nodding to the nurse, who smiled at him.
"No, Thank you, Jack Frost."
He gave her a grin.
"Keep an eye out for snow this Easter...?"
"You can be sure of it."
A few minutes later, and he was flying again, heart much lighter than it had been before.
To have the belief of an adult? To have the belief of children around the world?
It felt good.
But he knew that the belief of his little snowflake would always be something he cherished.
No matter how many years may pass...
So... ?
What do you think...? *tentatively grins...*
Reviews? Please?
I know some of it wasn't all that... realistic and shizzle. But hope you found it a good read all the same...?