Chapter Thirty-Four- How?
After several minutes of snow-slinging and showing off everyone that wasn't an elemental was shivering and shaking snow off their heads. The sting was taken out of it though, by the renewed laughter Jessica's presence brought to the Pole. They would all admit that her death had left a void that hadn't quite healed in any of them in all the time she had been gone.
"How did you do that?!" Jamie asked, still panting as his mom giggled like a child at the faces Jack and Sandy were making at each other simply because it was making her laugh. Both of them had missed the sound more than they could have anticipated.
"Do what, sweetie?" She asked, did I do something odd?
"The snowball thing." Jamie supplied.
"Well how did you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, I mean…Jack taught me how, but…" He offered.
"Is it supposed to be hard to do?" She asked with half sass, half legitimate concern.
"Um…Jamie learned really fast, actually." Jack provided. The origional big four had stopped chuckling and were fully invested in the conversation, watching it like a tennis match.
"How fast?" She asked, tapering off at the end. She was almost afraid to hear the answer.
"Took me about three years to get the hang of it." He admitted with a shrug.
"Well…how did we get it so fast?" She asked.
"Well…maybe is in your blood. You know you have elemental family, maybe you are also descended from original Mother herself?" He offered.
"That kinda makes sense." Jack nodded thoughtfully.
"Well we also had a good teacher, you had to figure it out on your own sweetie." Jessica pointed out, giving Jack's shoulder a pat.
"So…what now?" Jamie asked, looking around. Everyone was a little shocked by that question.
"What do ya mean, kiddo?" Jack asked, swinging his staff over his shoulder.
"I mean, what do we do now? People can't see us and you're the only immortals we know…" He pointed out.
"Well, um…" Jack looked back at the "big four" for help. North chuckled and quoted himself from the day Jack became a Guardian.
"Walk with me." Jack snickered.
"That sounds familiar." He muttered as he walked by. He led the boy to his workshop and sat him down for a good talk. Grandpa North was about to set him straight and make sure he was ready to face the world.
"Jamie, spirits aren't like mortals in a lot of ways. One of those ways is that we don't need a direction for our lives to go. You are going to find very quickly that we will do same thing for years, no goal, no real end. The thing that will make this entertaining will be family, friends, and doing what you love." Jamie made a sour face, leaning down on the huge work-desk in frustration.
"So basically being a spirit is more pointless and repetitive than being human." He summed up.
"Of course not, Jamie." He rested a huge hand on the slim boy's shoulder without weighing him down even an ounce. Jamie still didn't know how he did that. "We have long lives, which is why things will seem to be at standstill." He tried.
"But, if there's no goal, nothing you're working for, then…what's the point?" He asked. North's hand found his chin in thought.
"Well…do you know my tales? What my job is?" He asked thoughtfully.
"Of course, you're Santa." Jamie chuckled. "Everyone knows you."
"Yes, and you know why I do that job, yes?" He asked.
Jamie nodded, North watched him struggle to follow him, recent changes in his physiology and magic additions made him groggy. He chuckled.
"Do not hurt self." He teased fondly.
"Hey." Jamie tried to glare at the man teasingly but got nowhere.
"Jamie, you were chosen to help Jack, and your mother, keep balance in the world. You will do good for it, and everyone you come in contact with. You have Jack's magic over fun, and you are a wonderfully optimistic soul. You will do great things." He assured.
"How? How will I do that? How do I know what to do? How do you know?" He asked, clearly confused as to how this was supposed to work.
"Between all of us, we will find way." North assured the boy currently looking at North like only one child had ever done before. It was a pleading look, one of blind faith. In a teenager that was more than remarkable. In that look was housed the idea that North could somehow make everything better with a word, a look, some unknown actions that would give him all the answers and put his world back together. Not because he was a magical immortal, but because of something else entirely and that was enough to make the old spirit's heart both soar, and sink. He wasn't that kind of magic, there was no easy fix to what he was trying to figure out, and there was no proverbial light at the end of that tunnel. Jamie would be around, he would live a very, very, very long life and it was up to him to give it meaning.
Of course that didn't mean that North and the others wouldn't move mountains to help him.
"Really?" He asked in astonishment, something clicking for the first time.
"Of course, we will all help you. Jamie, you are not alone. You will never be alone. You are family." He assured with a relieved chuckle and huge smile he just couldn't hold back.
"So, am I gonna follow Jack around and just sort of live with him, or…?" He trailed off, not really wanting to assume anything. North laughed a friendly, booming laugh.
"The pole is open to you and your mother, and of course I am certain the others will say same. Your room from before is still pristine as well." He offered, leaning forward on his knees. "You will always have home as long as we are here, as long as I am here." North grinned and there was a moment, however brief, when Jamie wasn't afraid and there was a calm, comfortable silence in the room. They had bonded in a way North hadn't been expecting over the last several years, and "papaw North" had become what he had thought he would never be again.
He was a parent.
Not directly, not even in the technical sense, but it was there. He was another father for the boy and that solid realization had him smiling, then lamenting a past he couldn't change. When Jamie ran back out to the others to have a little fun, North walked heavily over to his window and little porch.
He never did mention it, never seeing any reason, but he had been born of powerful wizards. In his blood was the blood of a winter elemental. The arctic chill felt amazing on his arms and face, which made him think of Jack and the way he had brought his life back to where it needed to be. Jack, with all his fun and mischeif had given him something he had been sorely lacking for all those years being "santa".
He had always blamed himself, never forgiven that error. He had messed up. His little one, his wife, they were going to be spirits, like him. He wasn't fast enough.
(Carol, Joy, I've said it before, and as before I am not sure that you can hear me, but I am sorry. I failed you…like I failed James, like I failed Jessica.) North mumbled to the sky in his native Russian. The language stung like a hot knife, the only thing he had left of his family. He sighed. (I miss you still, but I have found a way. Jack, Jamie, Jessica…they have given me my life back.) He smiled. (Maybe one day, I'll be able to tell you of them.) He stood there for a great while, leaning on the railing and staring at the arctic sunset until a knock resounded at the door.
"He remembered to knock, that is good sign." He grinned before heading out to meet whoever was on the other side.
Alright, this has a life of its own but I do have more plans for it over the next few days. Let me know what you think. I may be getting rusty from a complete lack of brainpower the last few weeks. I ended up breaking my leg, but I'm back into things. Y'all are wonderful and expect some updates soon!