Chapter Forty-seven- Guardian Book Club
Sandy squirmed a bit, he felt like his whole body was asleep with that tingly, pins-and-needles feeling. It had been a peaceful night, but now he was sore. He wasn't particularly surprised by this, but he was concerned. On the one hand he wanted to work out some kinks and see if things were any better, but on the other he didn't want to hurt Jack. This was a predicament.
He resolved to try until it felt off and stop.
A deep breath. Pause, look at Jack who was still sleeping peacefully. Another deep breath, his lungs felt much better, free and light. Stupid wrapping needs to come off. He grumbled to himself.
Jack chuckled.
Whoops…did I wake you? He asked timidly. Jack shook his head. That hurt? He fretted. A big confused grin filled his face as he shook his head again. North shifted and they both looked to him with wide, concerned eyes. They looked like little kids caught sneaking around the kitchen at night and hoping they were invisible.
North couldn't contain himself. He actually snorted which woke up the confused rabbit.
"What is it, mates?" He garbled out semi-intelligibly, unconsciously nuzzling Sandy's head.
"Nothin'." Jack mumbled.
"Doesn't sound like nothin'." James pointed out from where he was curled up, one eye peeking over the pillow he had curled himself around. He also sounded like he needed some tissues and a decent humidifier. Sandy and Jack actually started when they saw him. North chuckled, the poor things had been out like a light when Jessica had brought him back.
"Oh lord, not you too." Bunny grumped. "What's with this anyway? Are we all gonna catch fevers? We shouldn't be able to, anyway!" Bunny argued as if the whole situation would vanish if he could just convince it of how impossible it was. North huffed, Jack was beginning to wonder if he was rubbing off on the toymaker.
"Hey, I don't have a-" He sneezed rather violently and had to take a breath. "-cold. Well…that's an interesting feeling." He mused while the rest of them snickered. He rolled his eyes and squirmed back into a somewhat cozy position. He was sure he was coming apart at the seams and he felt like the room was made of ice, but he wasn't about to say it. Jack needed to be cold anyway, so even if he wasn't just imagining it, he wouldn't bring it up.
"How'd you manage?" Jack asked in a voice that was much louder in his head. With North's shoulder obscuring the already mumbled words, North had to repeat them.
"I still deal in mostly night-chh!-nightmares, and tha…that m-chh!-means I can't use dr-CHH, chh, chh!-ugh, dream sand for too long." He decided to quit while he was ahead and continue sneezing into his pillow without the added floundering and faces. His sneeze was actually pretty silly, sounding like he was holding them back or something and they made Bunny cringe
"That sounds like it hurts, mate." He commented without much thought. James opened his mouth to talk, taking a mostly unsteady breath to refill his lungs from all that sneezing he was doing and promptly began hacking out his organs. At least, that's what it sounded like.
It didn't look much different either.
When he could finally breathe and looked up he was met with four very concerned expressions and another sneeze, just to cap all that off.
"Dream-sand did that?" Jack asked in utter disbelief.
"My fault really, didn't…pace myself." He paused, trying not to cough. Bunny sighed and ever so gently detangled himself from Sandy.
"Here mate, let me have a look. You good, Sandy?" He asked, making sure he wasn't causing any discomfort. Sandy blinked sleepily and gave the pooka a double thumbs-up and a half-grin. Everyone froze.
What? Somethin' wrong? What'd I do? Sandy wondered and Jack chuckled.
"You moved." He supplied. Sandy seemed to process that for a second before chuckling and carefully stretching out his arms. Nothing seemed to be sore there until he stretched just far enough for his breath to catch. He and Jack stopped breathing in unison.
Sorry! Sorry! He immediately spat out, cringing more at Jack's pain than his own. Jack chuckled.
"That's new. You get hurt and apologize non-stop for it." Jack teased. Sandy sat up, which took some doing, and glared playfully at the spirit.
Yeah? Well I'm connected to you, so excuse me for not… He mentally trailed off, wicked grin appearing on his face. He would be expecting it but Jack wouldn't, and Sandy himself had never been particularly vulnerable to it…
He very quickly pinched his own side.
Jack yelped and jumped about a foot.
North and Bunny's combined laughter filled up the small room and had Phil sticking his head in to see what was happening within seconds and earning a confused and slightly concerned look from James. North waved them off, letting him know everything was fine and Sandy was giving Jack a challenging smirk. When they all cooled down Jack returned the stare.
"You wouldn't." He challenged.
You wanna test that theory? He asked, smirk growing.
"You'll hurt yourself again." He warned.
Only if you flail about like an idiot. Jack just blinked up at him.
"Did…did you just think in a British accent?" He derailed the thought process. Sandy blinked at him in a similar manner, and the sight of the two with their twin expressions of confused awe had the rest snickering again.
I didn't know I could change the way you heard it. Sandy mused. Anyway, you're changing the subject. He teased and heard North and Bunny take an audible breath at the same time Jack's eyes bugged out.
James hadn't been paying attention, he was coughing too hard.
"Sandy, your magic is working again!" Jack offered excitedly. Sandy looked up quickly to see that ever familiar question mark glowing above his head to accompany his confused faces. He went to get up and Bunny hopped up.
"What do ya think you're doin' mate?" He asked, warning clear in his tone. Sandy locked eyes with the bunny of Easter, challenging him. He made a symbol of a man standing up. Bunny shook his head. "No ya don't. Sit your butt back down, you're still sick." He insisted.
Sandy crossed his arms and managed to not cringe even a little, but Jack blew his cover.
"Ow, Sandy you aren't helping disprove his point here." Jack gasped. Sandy's look of determination softened into concern.
Sorry, Jack. He thought to the boy as he settled down with an expression to match.
"'S okay, Sandy. So worth it." Jack smirked breathlessly at the rabbit who had sat down to massage his eyes with one paw while clearly wondering what he was going to do with the pair.
"Bunny, you are going to hurt yourself." North chuckled, settling Jack back down from where he had squirmed upright to talk. He gave the boy a look laden with concern which he knew would plant him firmly where he needed to be.
"It's not my fault they're both bonkers." He muttered as he padded back to his comfy perch beside Sandy. The golden man and North locked eyes with a knowing grin.
"You do care." Jack smirked right before he heaved a huge yawn and knocked out on the larger Spirit's shoulder.
"I thought he would fall asleep much slower than this." North whispered, trying not to laugh out loud. James was now out cold from the medicine James had given him, so he wasn't about to wake up, but Jack was another story.
"Yeah, but he's a light sleeper." Bunny offered. "I think he's finally getting comfy with us though, if we don't make too much noise, he shouldn't-"
"I brought breakfast!" Jessica chirped happily as she came in carrying a tray of food. "Who wants pancakes?" She enticed.
"Pancakes?" James and Jack asked together, and sounding equally asleep.
"Yeah, Frostbite. There are pancakes. They'll be here when ya wake up, take a nap." Bunny insisted. Jack made a displeased face, somewhere along the lines of indignation and disbelief.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, did I wake you?" Jessica asked of the room in general.
"It had only been a second or two, no worries." Bunny assured her, sounding much nicer than he had through most of the last few hours, not that he had been mean before. He hopped up to take some of the heavy breakfast platter from her and got a quick hug in the process. North smirked knowingly at the two and Sandy chuckled.
"You sure?" She asked. "We can always-"
"Come on, relax. They need to eat somethin'." Bunny assured, stopping her fretting by pointing out the obvious. Sick spirits needed to eat.
"Alright, think we can brainstorm this out with full bellies?" She chuckled.
"Absolutely." North assured as they started to sort out plates. When Jessica got to Sandy and Jack she paused. They looked a lot better what with Sandy's magic being back but they were still the wrong temperatures.
"Any luck sorting out what we need to do here?" She asked, trying to decide if Sandy could have warm food being connected to Jack, and if Jack could have cold food…or would it be better if they both had warmer food? Or…
She looked between them, obviously stumped.
"Not really, we need to cut the connection between 'em, but we don't know how." Bunny explained. "Until then we're just trying to keep them from getting hurt."
"Wait…where are Jamie and Tooth?" James asked, finally lucid enough to join the conversation. Unsurprisingly he sounded, and looked, like he was swimming in molasses. I could swear she wasn't here earlier. He mused.
"Oh, I came back before him but evidently he came back when he was done catching up, he's still out like a light down the hall. As far as Tooth I have no clue." Jessica explained as she settled back down to eat her own breakfast. "Go back to sleep." She chuckled, noting that he had pretty much demolished the pancakes he had been given, not even using syrup and was already mostly asleep anyway.
While they waited for Sandy and Jack to get some well-needed rest and for James to stop sounding like he was scuba diving they worked out possibilities and the whole thing left them with more questions than answers. Jack and Sandy slept through to lunchtime while they whispered back and forth.
Somewhere in there Bunny had settled in beside Jessica and draped an arm around the smaller spirit who ended up leaning into him and almost drifting off several times.
"So, I must ask, when did this happen?" North asked, grinning at the two.
"What? This?" He asked, nodding to the sleepy purple/blue fary under his arm. He seemed a bit flustered too. North couldn't help his chuckle. He had called it, they all had.
"Oh, well um…" Jessica yawned and chuckled at him.
"Not long ago, just before all this happened." She provided easily. Something about the situation was getting to Bunny but whatever that was it didn't seem to faze her. In fact she snuggled closer to the Easter Bunny contentedly. North was almost certain his face was turning red under that fur of his.
"Is everything alright?" Tooth asked, matching their whispers with her own. Evidently seeing the concerned look on Bunny's face and James looking near dead had piqued her worry.
"We think so, for now." Jessica offered, slightly muffled for the fur she was talking through, smiling up at the other fary who relaxed and settled in the chair beside her.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Well we're trying to figure out how to disconect Sandy and Jack so they can be their usual temperatures, and James made himself sick trying to direct too much dream-sand, but other than that we're getting on much better." Bunny offered, happy for the subject change.
"I'm sure there's something about it in one of your books, North. Maybe there's a way to reverse a connection like that?" Tooth suggested and North looked like he couldn't believe his own denseness.
"Of course! Many books in library would cover such a thing!" North borderline whooped at no more than a whisper. Everyone who was awake perked up.
"Another book-club night?" Jessica suggested. There was a collective chuckle.
"Sounds good, I'll go with ya and we'll bring back a few that might work." Bunny hopped up, leaving Jessica to stretch herself awake.
"Go get Jamie to help, he should be awake now." She offered. Bunny nodded.
"Can I scare 'im?" He asked.
"Go for it." She shrugged. North and Tooth just looked skeptical but Jessica waved off their worry.
"Eh, they'll be fine." She grinned.
Sorry if this one's a little slow, but I'm working up to something I swear. Also if there's anything in here that doesn't follow I'll go back and fix it. I promise I edited though. ^.^ For my last reviewer who had a request…I agree, but it'll be a little bit. As always thanks for reading!