Chapter forty-eight- Make it Work
Jamie yawned because telling yourself you weren't tired didn't make it so. Pippa and he had gone back to her home to talk things over and spend some time together. Bored games, cards, talking, television, video games, they really didn't care what they were doing, they just knew they didn't want to part ways yet.
They had talked into the early morning when something slamming into things downstairs had caused them both to jump out of their skins. Garbled cursing wafted up the stairs along with many other unsavory odors and sounds.
"Crap. Not this again." Pippa whispered frantically while somehow managing to look exasperated.
"What? This is normal?" Jamie asked while following Pippa around her room and taking the various things she was shoving into his arms without question.
"Kind of, I'll tell you in a second. Hurry, window." She shoved and he quickly took the hint. She went out first and he closed the pane behind him.
"Okay, now what was that, and what is this?" He asked once they were safely on the roof. She led him to the portion that fell over the attic and climbed a ladder she had evidently fastened to the roof behind her.
"He's just…he took his sister's death a little…harder than we thought he would." She explained quietly, pulling blankets out of a tub stashed in a little mini-shed looking structure. They were in an outdoor overhang/patio type structure hidden by the trees that didn't seem to have any entrance from inside.
"Wow, what is this place? How come we've never seen it?" Jamie asked, understandably distracted. Pippa chuckled dryly.
"Because there was no reason you needed to. This part of the house wasn't built on originally, but when it was a few bad winters tore the roof off." She paused to set out the blankets.
"So, you took over?" He observed.
"Sort of, not at first but…well…" She settled down against the wall and the bit of overhang from the demolished roof. "When Dad started going nuts I started coming up here because I'm not dumb enough to think he's harmless." She explained as she curled up in a blanket and riffled through the bags she had brought and motioned for Jamie to sit with her, taking the others he had.
"Why do I feel like that's not all?" He asked.
"Because you have a brain." She said simply, shrugging.
"I'm sorry, I know you probably don't wanna talk about it." He immediately backpedaled. It had to be a nasty story.
"Don't worry about it, anyway where was I? Right, he started to get more and more frequent with his rampages so I just started fixing this place up at night and managed to make it fairly cozy. I fixed the ladder to it and boarded up the door. Of course they never noticed." She shrugged again and Jamie saw what she had been doing.
"You sure have this planned out well." He complimented, genuinely impressed. "And you've done a really awesome job making it livable up here, I'm just sorry you had to." He offered. She sighed.
"Yeah, I wish it had turned out better, but let's not dwell on it." She smiled brightly and held up a scrabble board. "Care for a rematch?" She asked slyly.
"You're on!" He happily accepted the challenge knowing full well he was going to get his butt handed to him. He always loved playing anyway, because Pippa loved it, so he would lose a hundred times if he had to. It had always been that way, not that he was going to let her know that. He wasn't crazy.
He still couldn't get past the angry sounds below, even though Pippa wasn't really reacting. He knew she couldn't just be used to it, there was no way. Someone she loved was raging and breaking things below them loudly, and he could see the slight twitch in her eyes, the tiredness they housed, the tense posture. It was heartbreaking.
Four rounds later they were watching the sun come up.
"Shouldn't you be getting back?" Pippa asked sleepily from where she had fallen asleep on his shoulder briefly. He had draped an arm around her to pull the blanket closer to her and never moved it. Something about it felt right and judging from how quickly she had fallen asleep and how much she had snuggled closer he figured she at least partially agreed.
"I mean, probably, but they won't mind if I'm not back soon. I think everything is settled and given that no one's come looking for me I'm guessing Sandy and Jack are okay." He shrugged. "I will go back eventually though."
"Eventually?" She asked with a concerned frown.
"Well I'm not just gonna leave you on your roof early in the morning." He offered as nonchalantly as he could manage. She rolled her eyes.
"Well I'm not gonna argue." She offered sleepily, wrapping her arms around him and snuggling back down on his shoulder. He didn't know what to do so he just sat there.
"Are you gonna be okay? When I leave, I mean?" He asked quietly.
"Of course, he'll be sober and apologetic in a few hours." She offered casually. He couldn't wrap his mind around that.
"Are you sure?" He fussed. "I mean, if you want I-" She stopped him.
"Jamie, relax. I'm fine, I promise." She smiled sweetly. It was so adorable the way he worried over her. He always had which was a big part of why she had never mentioned this. She hadn't ever wanted him to worry so much. Too late now, she supposed. He nodded.
"Okay, I believe you." He said with all the sincerity in the world. If she said she would be okay, he believed her. If she wanted him, or his help, she would let him know and he'd be there.
They sat there until the sunrise had faded into blue skies and they both started stretching.
"So…are we…? Jamie asked before a familiar sound caught his attention and he groaned in frustration and worry. "Um…I think that's Bunny…" He peeked over the roof and there was the pooka, looking around obviously for him. "Oh no. Something must have happened…" He didn't want to think about it.
"Jamie? What's wrong?" She asked. "Did they come looking?"
"Yeah, Bunny's here. I hope that doesn't mean…"
"Hey." Pippa stepped up close and pulled him into a hug. "I'm sure it's fine, go to him. And yeah." She pulled back and quickly placed a small, sweet kiss on his chin, not really being able to reach all the way to his cheek without help from him…or a stepladder.
"Oh…" He couldn't breathe.
"Go on, you can come back sometime and I'll be here." She shooed him, trying not to chuckle. By this point they had been talking normally and Bunny's keen ears had picked up on it, popping up on the roof and making both of them jump.
"Oi, what the heck, kiddo?! Scared me and Tooth senseless." Bunny chastised.
"Sorry, I didn't think I'd be needed." Jamie apologized.
"Hey, it's okay kiddo, we just thought you'd be home and it took us off guard." Bunny assured, seeing the boy's logic. "We just needed some help with lookin' through the books again." He explained.
"Oh, sorry okay. Is everyone okay?" He asked, finally giving a little power to some of his worries. Bunny nodded.
"Yeah mate, we're just trying to break the bond so they'll be able to heal right." He explained. "This where you've been?" He asked. Jamie nodded.
"Oh, y-yeah. You remember Pippa?" He asked, Pippa stepped up, seeing her newfound relevance.
"Hi." She grinned awkwardly until Bunny's own expression softened.
"Oh right, hey there Pippa, ya givin' 'im hell?" He asked, she chuckled.
"You'd think so." She crossed her arms teasingly.
"Hey, what's that mean?" He asked.
"You know what it means. You keep forgetting how to make words." She teased and Bunny's ears pricked up.
"Oh? Little buggar's half-blind is he?" He asked knowingly. Pippa giggled and nodded.
"Oh yeah, had to spell it out. Still not sure he believes it." She guessed. Jamie opened his mouth to argue but ended up shrugging.
"When you're right…" Bunny chuckled and gave him a strong pat on the back.
"You're already learnin'." He teased.
"So, I guess you've gotta go?" Pippa asked.
"Yeah, we need to get that sorted out." He offered. She didn't do much to warn him before hugging him tight.
"Okay, be careful. I'll be around." She said sweetly and Jamie had to remind himself to move. Bunny rolled his eyes, teenagers.
"Come on, mate. Let's go." Bunny urged through a snicker. It didn't take him near as long as he thought it would to pry them apart and get him into one of his tunnels. He made a mental note to point out a few problems with his new mate, but that could wait. He didn't feel the need to ruin that natural high, or slow their progress toward helping Sandy and Jack.
Back at the Pole Sandy was signing away, his symbols flashing happily as he tried to fight Jessica off and get up.
"Sandy, you're still sick! Is it the worst thing in the world that you need to stay still for a little bit?" Jessica asked, sitting beside him. Jack squirmed but North's grip on the boy kept him in one place quite effectively. No matter how "okay" either of them were, they were still way weaker than usual.
"Can't we just move around a bit? It wouldn't kill us." Jack pointed out/plead.
"Jack, moving would mean that you would get colder, Sandy would warm up and that would, well…I guess yes. I guess moving might kill you." North admitted after realizing what he was saying. Them moving around could actually kill them. That put an unexpected dark cloud over the room.
"How about we just play cards or something?" Jack threw out, hoping maybe that would get them smiling. He wouldn't need to move…much.
"How?" Jessica asked, obviously referring to the great distance between everyone.
"We could all sit on the bed in a big circle. It's big enough." Jack ventured and he was right. The beds built for yetis…and North, were more than big enough to have everyone sitting along the edges. With North in the corner and Jack and Sandy up against the wall it might work.
"Not a bad idea, we could shove blankets up against the wall for these two, and play in the center." North agreed, never one to dampen Jack's fun when it was avoidable. "Play cards while we sort through books?" North asked them.
"Well…it would keep it from being mind-numbing." Jessica chuckled, obviously sold. "Lets leave room for the others." She supervised the moving of everything. Jack and Sandy grumbled in annoyance and wore almost identical expressions of irritation at being coddled like they were. North and Jessica moved everything and wouldn't even let Jack stand up, let alone allowing Sandy to float up and move things himself.
"What about James?" Jack asked, noting that the poor spirit was out cold from more of the medicine they'd been giving him.
"If he wakes up and wants to try to play, we can move his chair over." Jessica dismissed as it didn't seem like he was moving any time soon.
They made it through several rounds of teaching North to play go-fish and rummy before Tooth, Jamie and Bunny came in with armloads of books.
It was several hours later when Phil stuck his head in and found them all mostly passed out. He came back a few minutes later with dinner and woke most of them up with the aromas of various soups and salads. Phil said something which North translated, after a bit of yawning.
"Not yet, but I think we are close." He offered. Looking over at Jack who was currently curled up against him, not yet awakened by the smells of food and to Sandy sleeping just as peacefully beside him. We've got to be, we don't know how much longer they can keep this up. North mused as he juggled if he should wake them up.
He decided yes and did so by simply tightening the arm he had slung around the boy, giving his shoulder a few pats. He blinked awake and that, in turn, woke Sandy up.
We'll figure this out, somehow. He promised them silently as they all chowed down. Every second they spent not knowing was like a knife to the gut but North knew there was nothing he could do but be patient. Panic would get them nowhere, and that could be the end of them. He had scarcely ever felt this kind of pressure and he didn't have a fantastic track record of coming through.
He bit his tongue and chuckled at their jokes while eating the best cheddar broccoli soup ever made. (Phil was amazing and there was no denying it.)
We will make this better. We have to.
So...I don't tend to write a lot of romance so they tend to be as awkward as I am. Hopefully for a teenage boy that works out okay. I know it might be a bit slow, but I just have this problem with making every second important. Here's hoping it's not in a "three chapters of crossing the road" type way. Hope y'all enjoy this and don't worry, I'll have more Bunny/Jessica fluff eventually but, you know, a time/place for everything and all that. Welp, thanks for reading and as always, hope you enjoy! :)