A/N: Back again :) First things first, huge thank you to TalaWhite14, MysteryGirl7Freak, darkryubaby and wouldbewriter23 for taking the time to review and to TenthDoctor21, tallia7 and AlexatheNerd for adding the story to their alerts and an extra thanks going to darkryubaby, wouldbewriter23 and TenthDoctor21 for favouriting! :D
This chapter is sort of like a filler, I needed to set some wheels in motion before going much further and I hope you enjoy. There won't be much Jack but we'll focus on him mainly in the next chapter to balance things up :)
Disclaimer: Not mine, carry on. . . Do enjoy!
Jack was left for what felt like quite a while before he was bothered by anyone again. He was sat casually with his back against the pole, trying to maintain a cool front despite his inner panic at his lack of an escape plan. He knew it was only a matter of time before the Guardians found him, and when they did, the five of them were going to tear this place apart.
Jack heard footsteps drawing close to the door of the room. He stilled immediately, senses all on high alert, his heart beginning to hammer wildly at his chest. He rose to his feet before hearing the creak of the door being opened and the two men from earlier walking in.
"Wow, you guys must be the only two in the place! I hope they're paying you well for babysitting duty." Jack said with a cocky smile.
The two men only glared. "You're coming with us." The taller one, who Jack now decided to call Douche no.1 growled, identical and equally terrifying smirks growing on the two mens faces.
Jack took an involuntary step back, not liking the sound of going anywhere with the two men before him. "Yeah, I don't think so, I'm just fine here." He replied coolly.
"Too bad," without further ado, the tall man had took a large step towards Jack and punched him just below his jaw, and with his hands still entrapped behind his back, he could do little to protect himself. The spirit was sent reeling backwards, stunned momentarily but still somehow managing to stay on his feet. The man grabbed the front of Jack's hoodie, forcing the boy closer to him until the demon was right in the spirit's face. "You're coming anyway." He continued, before all but dragging Jack from his room.
Castiel arrived back in the small motel room shortly after three in the afternoon. As soon as they saw their friend, both Winchester's rose to their feet, eager to hear what the angel had found from the children.
"Well?" Dean questioned.
"What did you find?" Continued Sam.
Cas looked at either of the brothers, a solemn look on his face. Truthfully he had heard quite a bit, he just didn't know how much to tell the brothers or if they'd believe any of it.
"The children were sad, and frightened for another rather than themselves." He began, "One child in particular, Jamie Bennett, seemed to be most involved, as the other children seemed to rally around him concerning the issue."
"What happened?" Dean pressed when the angel paused.
"A friend was meant to join them for a snowball fight on Sunday, but he never showed, and hasn't been seen since. This caused them to get more concerned about the black smoke three of them had witnessed the previous night, at which stage they told their parents."
"A child's missing? They never put that on the news," Sam stated, alarmed that such an important detail would be excluded.
"No, they wouldn't have." Cas said simply in response.
"What do you mean?" Dean questioned, a gruff tone to his voice, he didn't like to hear of defenceless children getting kidnapped by demons.
"The one they spoke of was Jack Frost." Replied Cas, not saying anymore and just letting that revelation sink into the minds of the two brothers, who, upon hearing his answer, had both froze and were currently staring at him blankly.
Dean was the first to recover, "Well, it has to be a nickname, I mean, it couldn't be the Jack Frost." He reasoned.
"I disagree, their descriptions of him sound accurate." Cas replied, causing Dean to take a step back and snort at his remark.
"Jack Frost is real?" Sam quietly questioned.
"Jack Frost is an old man." Dean argued. "He wouldn't be playing with children and they wouldn't want him playing with them."
"Why do you think he's old?" asked Cas, intrigued by the interpretation. He had never met the spirit of winter but the angels had kept a catalogue of the various Immortals, their origin and roles along with a small image to help with identification. Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter, though a nature immortal had been created by Tsar Lunar, which explained how he could be seen; the children must believe in him. The image supplied was of a young boy, about 17 or 18 years of age. He had blue eyes and white hair and carried a staff with which he used to shepherd winter. Definitely not an old man.
"Jack Frost is Old Man Winter," Dean replied, his voice rising in pitch, "Look, it doesn't even matter, he's not real."
"Jack Frost is a young man of about 17. Though he has white hair, I assure you he is not old. He exists Dean."
"Then how come no-one's ever seen him before, huh?" Dean retorted, convinced that anything he couldn't see, hear or touch himself was not real.
"Until a year ago no humans had seen me, yet here I am." Cas argued, he always had an issue with Dean's lack of belief in the unknown.
Dean responded with a glare and looked ready to retaliate in his defence when Sam, who had been unusually quiet, interrupted him. "Wait! Stop, the both of you." Dean looked ready to argue back with Sam but Sam stopped him again. "Dean, no. Listen. How about we go as planned and talk to the children. Forget about Jack Frost for a minute. If it is him then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Sam reasoned.
Dean nodded in agreement, appreciating that he had to stay focused on the bigger picture, "Alright Cas, who saw the black smoke?" He questioned.
"Jamie Bennett, Pippa Mattingly and Dominique Grund, however they referred to her as Cupcake." Cas responded.
"Ok, we'll go talk to them." Dean stated before sitting down and discussing what they were going to ask the children and their parents.
North finished off sculpting a model of a miniature Christmas tree carved from ice, humming the usual Russian tune as he worked. He watched as the light from the fire caught off the ice in such a way that it looked like the little ice-tree was alight with dozens of Christmas lights. He smiled to himself, enjoying the sight. It was 3 weeks since Christmas and North's time off was soon at an end, in a little under a week he would have to get back into production, and the ice blocks around him would not be used for his own personal sculptures, but for the first models of new toys and inventions.
Not that North minded. He loved what he done, and as much as he loved his time off, he always struggled to refrain from making something during this post-Christmas rest month, and it was for this reason he found himself sat here now.
Later that evening the Guardians were to have a celebration of their own. It was for no real reason, but it was Jack's idea, the boy thinking it would be fun to have a get together when things with each of their individual jobs were reasonably quiet.
The door to North's study was thrown open by Phil the Yeti, who informed North in his own garbled language that the other Guardians were arriving. North immediately stood up and left the study, heading down to the large room beside the globe where he found Bunny and Tooth already gathered and talking among themselves with Sandy currently floating down from an open window of the domed ceiling. Once they saw North enter the room they all smiled, even Bunny.
"G'day mate," Bunny greeted, Sandy formed a waving hand above his head and Tooth flitted over to his side.
"Toothy!" North said in his thick accent when she joined him with a smile, he turned to the other two, "How is everyone?"
"Oh y'know, same old, same old," Tooth replied happily, "When's Jack due to arrive?" She questioned. Her and Bunny had just been talking about their newest guardian and how he had brought them all closer together, the get together planned for that day being a typical example of how Jack had made the Guardians feel like a family again.
"'E should be here, eez he not?" North questioned turning to the yetis in the room. He had noticed Jack was not among them, but just assumed that he had took a detour through the workshop somewhere, the young spirit never missing a chance to explore North's home.
"We haven't seen him," Bunny replied, with Tooth and Sandy shaking their heads in confirmation and the yetis garbling their negative response as well as shrugging their hairy shoulders.
North just chuckled, "Ah give 'im time, 'e will come! 'E's probably off playing with children! Come!" He bellowed, patting Tooth and Bunny both enthusiastically on the back, "'E will be along soon, let us begin!"
"Morning Glory Circle, pfft-" Dean began, "Honestly Sam, I can literally feel Stepford starting to creep up on me." Dean complained as he and Sam walked up the street of the quiet suburban neighbourhood where the children in question lived. They had agreed to go to the Bennett's first as 'that Jamie kid' (as Dean called him), seemed to be involved in everything. Admittedly, Sam agreed with his brother; Jamie's name had cropped up a couple of times in their investigations already.
"Here, I think this is it," Sam said, gesturing to the house with the number '46' wrote with shiny letters nailed to the wall beside the front door of the house before them. They walked up the little lane, knocking on the door and waited for the Bennett's to answer. They were posing as counsellor's from the local school so they had no I.D.'s to get ready and it was not long before who they assumed to be Mrs Bennett answered the door.
"Good afternoon, Mrs Bennett I presume?" Sam began in a cheerful tone, speaking in his 'formal' voice while reaching out a hand to the woman to shake.
"That's me." Mrs Bennett replied, her gaze shifting between the two tall, and though she cringed at the thought of admitting it to herself, attractive men before her, "Can I help you?" She questioned as she shook their hands.
Dean gave the woman his most charming smile, the brother's sticking to usual protocol and Sam being the one to do the introductions. Once she caught sight of him, the young mother's face began to blush slightly but her attention was soon drawn back to Sam as he continued,
"It's nice to meet you ma'am. My name's Sam Wesson and this is Dean Smith, we're from the school's counselling service. Your son, Jamie, has been saying some odd things in school the past few days and we just wanted to ask him a few questions to make sure everything was ok."
Mrs Bennett did not look surprised to hear her son had been saying strange things, as he had always had a very active imagination, one that had increased in drama that weekend as he started to talk about a Bogeyman and nightmares. However, she did seem alarmed that the school was looking in to the matter so seriously.
"Yeah that's fine, come on ahead in." The brother's smiled at her as they entered the house and were shown to a cosy sitting room and offered tea, which they accepted.
"Jamie's over playing with a friend so I'm just going to give him a call and tell him to come over, ok?" Mrs Bennett said as she handed the two brothers their cups of tea after they had thanked her.
"Yes of course, that's fine." Sam replied as Mrs Bennett left the room returning to the kitchen where the sounds of a phone dialling could be heard.
"What do you think?" Dean asked Sam in a hushed tone as they waited for their host to join them.
Sam's mouth turned downwards in a thoughtful expression, "Well, she didn't seem too surprised to see us."
Dean nodded in agreement just as Mrs Bennett joined them in the living room.
"He's on his way." She stated to the two men.
"Mrs Bennett, has Jamie always had an active imagination?" Dean questioned, wanting to know a bit more about the boy before they met him.
"You could say that. I work four days a week and have been for a while, so Jamie has always kind of had to keep himself occupied." The brothers nodded in understanding, knowing what it was like to have a parent who was busy.
"Does he have any outlets for his creativity, like art or music?" Sam pressed.
"Well, it started off with the normal stuff like drawings and things and he always had an ear for mystery; loving the stories of aliens and Bigfoot. But a good while ago he started talking about being friends with Jack Frost and Santa and the Easter Bunny. Y'know the usual childhood heroes? The girls at work say he's a bit old for imaginary friends but it doesn't bother me, they make him happy." Always being fond of how her son's eyes would light up as he told her of the fun he had.
"Of course, that's what matters," Sam agreed as Dean nodded.
"What about just last weekend?" asked Dean.
"Last weekend was different. It had snowed during the week and a fresh layer was falling on Saturday morning. I was at work, my sister was here watching Jamie and Sophie. Jamie was hoping Jack Frost would arrive and have a snowball fight with him and the other children up the street." She paused, seemingly unsure of what to say next. "They had their snowball fight, and that was fine. Later that night, Jamie was up after bedtime watching for the Sandman when I heard him shout for me. I ran up the stairs to see Jamie at the window saying the black sand was going to get him. I looked out the window and saw a flash of lightning and then a really black cloud and that was it. Jamie was really upset over it, saying the lightning wasn't lightning it was ice and Jack Frost must be in trouble. That didn't change especially when Jack didn't show for a snowball fight they were meant to have on Sunday." Her gaze flickered between the two men before her, "Look I'm sure it's just his way of easing away from believing in Jack, I mean, it was never going to be easy-"
She was cut off by the sound of the front door closing. "That must be him now." She rose from her seat and went across the room to let the boy know where they were.
"Jamie, this is Sam and Dean, they're from the school. They want to know about what happened at the weekend to see if they can help."
Sam and Dean both smiled warmly at the small boy, he was around 11 years old, with brown messy hair and big brown eyes that reminded Dean slightly of Sam at that age.
"Hello Jamie," Sam began in his comforting-you-can-trust-me voice.
"Hi," Jamie responded quietly, slightly shy in the presence of the two strange men.
"Are you having fun at school?" Sam continued, starting with some small talk to help put the boy a bit more at ease in the presence of two strangers.
"Yeah, it's ok," He replied, still quite hesitant. Sam shot a glance at Dean, unsure of what to say. They needed to build up some kind of rapport with this boy or he'd never tell them anything.
Dean spotted what Jamie was wearing, it was a faded Iron Man t-shirt, "Iron Man huh? I always liked the Hulk best." Dean commented, and it was like the flick of a switch. The boy's eyes lit up instantly at the mention of the beloved characters.
"Yeah he's pretty cool, but Iron Man is the best! He's awesome!" Jamie responded enthusiastically, smiling as he tried to convince Dean that there was no one like Iron Man. The two started to debate back and forth about who was better, making reference to a range of factors including their powers, their appearance and the various films about them. Surprisingly, to an outsider it looked like a prepared debate with both sides seeming to have an answer for everything but Sam had to admit, it seemed that Jamie was beginning to tip the balance in favour of Iron Man.
Before the two could argue for too long, Mrs Bennett coughed politely and looked at her son, reminding him that the two men before him had not dropped by for a chat about superheroes.
He fell silent, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence like when they had first been introduced to Jamie, rather, it seemed like the young boy was taking a moment to gather his thoughts. "Well, what do you want to know?" Jamie asked with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
"We were wondering who Jack Frost was Jamie?" Sam responded.
"He's my friend." Jamie said simply and after a slight pause, his eyes shot over to Dean, speaking directly to him. "But he's also a Guardian; like a real life superhero!"
Dean and Sam both nodded, their faces showing their interest at what Jamie was saying whilst hiding the uneasiness they both felt at the conviction with which Jamie spoke of Jack. Whatever his mother may think, the previous incidents had not been a way for Jamie to come to terms with Jack being a myth.
"He sounds like one of the best ones." Dean said to placate the boy, "You had said at school, and to your mother, that he was in trouble? Why would you think that Jamie?"
"Because I saw it! I was keeping an eye out my bedroom window for Sandy and then I saw this big black cloud coming from the trees were Jack's lake is! They were nightmares, I know it!" Jamie answered, his voice taking on an animated tone, pleading with the two men to believe him. "Then there was a huge flash of ice in the sky and it blew them away - that must have been Jack! But more cloud came, and no more big flashes came, just small ones that were hard to see. And then Jack didn't show up for our snowball fight at all on Sunday so I know some thing's up!"
The brothers exchanged slightly bewildered looks once Jamie had finished; the boy talked very fast when he got excited and that had been a lot of information to take in.
"Erm, Jamie, your mother tells us you are quite the artist. D'you think you could draw us a picture of what happened? And a picture of Jack too?" Dean asked. Jamie nodded, running off to the table in the kitchen to complete the two drawings.
The two turned to Mrs Bennett, "They'll be a useful reference tool if we need to talk to Jamie in future."
"Of course, what's the next step?" She asked.
"Next step?" Dean replied in a confused tone, the brother's eyebrows rising.
Mrs Bennett looked at both men in turn, slightly taken aback with how they didn't know what she was talking about. "In helping Jamie? Isn't that why you're here?"
"Oh yes of course, sorry." Sam blurted out, while Dean nodded in agreement, trying to laugh off the situation.
"Brains not working today." He chuckled out, with Sam awkwardly laughing in response.
"Yes, Jamie. We need to reflect on what Jamie has told us, along with his pictures before taking any more action; we try and tailor each child's therapy to their individual needs." Sam stated in a professional voice, completely bluffing what he hoped was the right thing to say. "The school should be in touch."
Jamie then re-entered the room holding two sheets of paper and passing them to Dean.
"Finished already kid? Super!" Dean said in praise of the young boy.
Jamie just shrugged, "I had loads already done of Jack, and I was nearly finished with the other one anyway."
"That's perfect Jamie, thank you," Sam replied in a sincere voice. Both brothers simultaneously stood up, "That'll be all for now ma'am, thank you for your time."
"It's no problem, it was nice to meet you both." Mrs Bennett replied politely as she walked her two guests to the door.
The two brother's momentarily paused once outside, both reflecting briefly on the conversation they just had and what it meant.
Sam looked over at Dean, feeling a need to break the slightly awkward silence.
"So. . . Jack Frost."
A/N: D'you know what really makes my day? Reviews! Not that I'm hinting or anything ;) Let me know what you all thought and I'll be back soon! :)