Chapter Forty-four- A twist
The next morning North was the first one up out of habit and went to get breakfast for everyone, but something stopped him in his tracks. Several adorable things were happening.
In his sleep Jack had ended up curled up with Sandy, the two of them accidentally cuddling. If that wasn't enough to blow his heart out of his chest he noticed something that had slipped him yesterday, Bunny and Jessica doing some less accidental snuggling. The big bunny had the much smaller fary tucked under his chin and snuggled in his arms. James, Jamie, Tooth and himself seemed to be the only ones who had escaped the cuddle-epidemic.
At that thought he realized that he had never seen Tooth so still, or Bunny looking so happy.
Despite the circumstances he made his way down the hall with a huge happy grin on his face. It was almost too much to handle. Phil had stopped him and asked him about it, and after a quick explanation he had him helping to carry breakfast in. It was actually the smell that woke them up.
"Morning." He greeted cheerfully.
"Hey, North." Jack mumbled, not really moving much but opening his eyes and grinning.
"Sleep well?" He asked.
"Yeah, really good." He sniffed. "Hey, are those pancakes?" He asked sleepily.
"Blueberry, strawberry, or chocolate chip?" He asked teasingly. He couldn't help smiling like an idiot. He's so at home here. He mused, mind automatically flashing back to a time when he barely slept at all and when he did it was wherever he fell, iron grip on his staff and so lightly breathing would rouse him. He noted his staff still in his chair and the feeling grew. Sometimes he couldn't believe how far he had come.
"Do you even need to ask?" He teased, gently detangling himself from blankets and Sandy, who woke up in the process with a stunned look which morphed into a grin, then a chuckle which then provided a grimace. "Sorry." Sandy shook his head and Jack took that as a 'don't worry about it'.
So he moved in his sleep. That's precious. Sandy grinned at the gesture. That was his partner in crime alright. He watched the others wake up, and the looks on their faces when they caught sight of him didn't make him optimistic about his appearance. Soon everyone was up, shuffling and eating pancakes of some sort.
As soon as he thought everyone was awake enough Jack started to tell them about what had happened, looking to Sandy for confirmation. Sandy would nod and make faces, which Jack was actually able to interpret really well.
Bunny multitasked by getting Sandy more medicine and listening, which made the little golden man more nervous than it should have. Hey, isn't this something that requires a little more attention? Really, Jack is talking here. He griped. Granted getting injected by someone who wasn't paying full attention was scary, but having Jack feel blown off was much worse. It was a definite cause for concern.
Bunny caught the look Sandy was giving him and chuckled.
"I know what I'm doin', honest." He assured. Sandy rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Jack's explanation of their shared dream while Bunny chuckled.
"So, basically the priority isn't cleanup, it's distributing dreams." He summed up and Sandy nodded appreciatively. He shuddered to think what would have happened had he not been able to talk to Jack. He had always been mute, but he had never felt that way before, he had always been able to communicate just fine but now? Now he was stuck, and if it weren't for Jack he'd be in much bigger trouble than he was already.
"How're we gonna do both though? We need to get rid of Boogey's leftover magic so he can't cause more harm." Bunny insisted.
"And all those mortals you were talking about, poor things, we're going to need to get them sorted out too." Tooth pointed out. There was a lot of thoughtful nodding.
If nothing else just change the sand and leave it in them, bring them topside and they'll find their way home when they wake up. Sandy thought as if they could hear him. Jack froze and looked at him with a wide-eyed, awed kind of look. Sandy frowned in question.
"Did…did you just…? I mean I…" The ever-eloquent master of sarcasm and whit was seemingly at a loss here.
Did North spike your orange juice or something? You okay? Sandy mused, partly concerned but mostly amused and Jack looked like he was caught somewhere between indignant and amused.
"No, I think I'd notice something like that, Sandy." Jack pointed out which caused the whole room to fall absolutely silent and Sandy's eyes to bug out of his head.
You HEARD THAT?!
"I sure did." Jack grinned, finally realizing that he wasn't crazy.
Maybe that was more than a dream. He "said" thoughtfully.
"Had to be." He agreed. However all anyone else heard was him talking to himself so they were starting to look concerned.
"Jack? What is going on?" North asked quietly.
"I can hear Sandy's thoughts, or something to that effect." He offered. "I think whatever happened to cause that not-dream linked us."
"Sandy, can your magic do that?" Tooth asked, looking thrilled at the idea. Sandy shook his head.
I don't know how this happened, but it's waaaaaaay outside my purview. Sandy explained.
"Yeah he says that's not really in his bag of tricks." Jack simplified and Sandy rolled his eyes.
I try to be classy… He chuckled lightly, as he didn't really have the energy for much more.
"Hey, you're tryin' to use big words when you should be napping, it's a compromise." Jack retorted playfully.
"Hey now, mates. Jack, don't censor 'im, he's havin' a hard enough time as it is." Bunny teased. Sandy just stuck his tongue out at the boy.
Yeah, Jack. Don't be a little shit. Sandy teased, Bunny had said censor, hadn't he? Jack just looked at him with that dry look on his face that told him he was either a genius, or too much for him at the moment. Judging by the sigh that accompanied, he'd have to say it was probably the latter.
"Anyway, at least you've got a better way to communicate." Jack redirected. That was odd to say the least. Jack was almost never one to pull the conversation back on track. Sandy had to chuckle, on the inside of course.
"Well, while this is fantastic, we were still trying to figure out how to help the mortals that got…infected? Is that the word?" Tooth asked, not really sure what to call it.
"I'd say possessed, and that's actually what I heard from him that surprised me so much." Jack chuckled. "He said that if we could change the sand, leave it in them and bring them out to the lake that they'd find their own way home when they woke up."
"Well, that's a good fallback, but what if we can't do that?" Jamie asked. "Mortals, waking up in a cavern and seeing what looks like zombies? Yeah, that'll end well."
James, Jack, Jessica and Sandy all cringed, imagining a cop waking up around "zombies" and going trigger-happy without much thought. Tooth, Bunny and North just stood there looking at them in confusion.
"Humans with guns finding monster-looking humans running around in a dark cavern…" Jack offered and they could watch the thought click unpleasantly in their minds.
"Ah, yes is good point." North chuckled uncomfortably.
"Well, I'm going to go ahead and start spreading the dreams again, I'll be on the roof. Someone come get me when there's a plan. I'll just spread dreams until I'm needed." James offered, standing up and setting his food aside. "Is there somewhere I can get a to-go coffee cup? I really need some caffeine, using that magic wipes me out." He asked North as he passed.
"Of course, ask Phil he can get it for you." He assured.
"I'll go give Baby Tooth a break, too. The poor thing's been helping me and I can feel the magic getting weaker. Let me know the instant you're going to do something and I'll be right here." Tooth offered as she floated out. North gave her a globe on the way out.
"Alright, any more ideas?" Jessica asked as cheerfully as possible as Bunny sat back down beside her.
"Maybe we herd them outside then see if we can change them all at once?" Bunny offered.
"We can coral them somewhere until we can find a way to change them all? Or keep them far enough apart that even if one's trigger-happy he/she/it won't hurt anyone?" Jamie offered.
"We could take any weapons they have. It'll be a slight annoyance when they wake up, but much better than the alternative." Bunny offered.
"Yeah, dead versus 'hey my gun's missing!'. I think most people would take the missing weapon." Jessica chuckled.
"Okay, maybe we combine most of these, Jack can go get the Burgess believers and maybe they can help us with cleanup." Bunny suggested, leaning back and stretching. North, Bunny, Jamie and Jessica had been so into their conversation that the little moan that came from the vicinity of the chair closest to Sandy almost went unnoticed.
"Jack?" Jamie asked, standing up to see what was going on. Jack was curled up in that chair, staff lying off to the side with a very pained look on his face that was matched by Sandy's own expression.
Bunny ran straight over to the medicine cabinet while North and Jessica ran to Jack while Jamie stood back looking worried, not sure how he was going to help if he could at all.
"Jackie? Sweetie what's wrong? Jessica fussed, trying to get Jack calm and talking. North had a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder, kneeling by the chair while Bunny was checking Sandy's pulse and figuring out what medicine to give the poor guy who was currently half-unconscious.
"Hot." Jack mumbled and that broke Jamie out of his trance.
"Here." He slid up next to his mom and made a thin layer of snow over him which let him relax, but also had Sandy shivering.
"Crap." Bunny's eyes went wide. "Looks like we have to decide which one's comfy, try melting the snow, kiddo." He urged. As predicted, Jack started to sweat and Sandy relaxed a bit. The shared looks of horror on everyone's faces made Jack's heart drop when he finally pried his eyes open.
"W-what?" He asked. North heaved a sigh and knelt down in front of him.
"Jack, the connection that you have now with Sandy…it…is problem with it." He started to explain as Jessica shifted the poor thing into her lap and held him up.
"Hmm? I-is he-"
"Sandy is fine, but…you are going to feel what he does, and opposite…so…" It took a second but the effects of that clicked in Jack's mind and his face went a little whiter.
"I'm going to over-heat or…or he's…gonna…freeze?" He asked. North nodded sadly as Jessica wiped his hair out of his face.
"Maybe we can get them at a happy medium." Jamie suggested and everyone nodded.
"Good idea, mate." Bunny offered. "Hey, Sandy? Sandy can ya wake up, mate?" He asked, patting his shoulder and trying to get his attention. When those tired golden eyes pried themselves open he knelt to meet them. "Hey, there ya go. Now, there's a problem with your connection with Jack, and long story short we need to find a happy medium between you and him in terms of temperature. Can ya let me know if it gets too cold?" He asked. From the look on Sandy's face he wasn't liking the idea at all.
"S-sandy…don't…don't do that." Jack suddenly tensed up.
"Do what sweetie?" Jessica asked.
"H-he was gonna let…let himself get…too cold." He outed him and Sandy gave him a semi-playful 'trator' look.
"He's healthy, he can handle being a little warm, but you can't afford to get sick right now." Jessica reasoned sweetly. Jack nodded in lethargic agreement.
Jack? Please don't do this. You could die. Sandy urged, well aware of the extreme risk. I can deal with some shivers but we could kill you like this.
"N-no. Sandy, we can do it." Jack insisted.
"Come on you two, relax and let us try." Bunny urged quietly. Both of them deflated. When Jack tried to squirm his breath caught and he groaned. Bad idea.
Me too, buddy. Me too. Sandy thought sympathetically which caused Jack to give a ghost of his usual mischievous smirk.
"How are we gonna do this?" Jessica asked, more for the sake of asking than actually expecting an answer but Jamie spoke up.
"Would contact with someone who's temperature falls somewhere in between normal and winter-spirit help?" He asked, looking to North expectantly. It took him a second but when it clicked what Jamie meant North broke out in a hue grin.
"Is possible!" He agreed happily.
"Who?" Bunny and Jessica asked at once.
"North." Jamie said confidently. North chuckled uncomfortably at all the stunned looks he got.
"Hey, it's…not that surprising." Jack defended and the look of gratitude he got made him smile.
"Okay, so…um, how…?" Jessica shifted, wondering how to transfer the little bundle of overheating spirit. North chuckled and stood.
"Here." He gently scooped up the feather-light spirit and let Jessica move so that he could settle down with him in a big armchair. Even that amount of movement caused both of the effected guardians to make faces. "Sorry." He apologized quietly as he settled down.
"Jack, against his better judgment, ended up snuggling as close to North as was humanly (or spirit-ly) possible. Both of them relaxed, settling into sleep.
Alright, here y'all go! Let me know whatcha think. ^.^