The more and more I write, the more my heart soars. I'm so happy that I didn't stop writing for you guys because this story just continues to excite me every time I check another chapter off my list. So thanx to all you guys for reading and being patient, understanding, and invested – I know summer is seriously cray and we're all jetting off to do things but it's very kind of you all (: And to my reviewers PMers, haha as I always say, thanx forever and always. All your thoughts and reactions make me smile, laugh, and cry constantly. It's so cool that by some strange, unknown magic we connect on that level :3 Now enjoy, this is the end of the Trust (white) Arc.
"But if I could shed my armor, lay in your arms, sink in your death, pass through to you...I could dare to love again."
Burgess hidden lake, 6:59 a.m.
Toothiana's mouth fell open.
"That's...That's Emma?"
All this time it hadn't been a girlfriend, or another spy.
She imagined (and was mentally preparing to see) some beautiful blonde or redhead sweetheart – not a girl with straight brown, hair and bright, brown eyes.
Wait.
Straight, brown hair.
Bright, brown eyes!
And she had a face...almost similar to the brunette lying next to her.
"Ja...Jack!"
Her body started to shake.
"Is she your–"
In a flash, Jack backed away a little on his arms and feet.
Tooth looked at him for a split second before she turned back to the scene unfolding ahead of her.
She thought he was panicking in happy shock.
"I c-can't believe, it! Jack, you...you have a sister?!" she whispered. "A-And a brother?! Or are they cousins?"
She didn't want their voices to echo down but the other two were so far down they wouldn't have heard her shouting if she wanted.
She sat up a little to spy on them again.
"Wh-What are you gonna say?" she mumbled happily. "What are you gonna do?! How-How're–"
But a second later, Jack kicked snow into Tooth's face by accident. He didn't apologize.
Tooth spun around.
"Wait, w-what are you doing?!"
Jack's mouth was open and he was panting heavily as he kept moving away. The sky above them was growing more blue with the coming sunrise but the shadows from the trees darkened Jack's features so Tooth couldn't see.
The princess huffed. What was his deal?
Jack angrily tried to wipe his face with his sleeve and she didn't understand why – until he pulled away his arm and turned back to the sky.
His jacket wasn't water-absorbent.
And his cheeks were shining.
'He's...H-HE'S CRYING!'
"Jack?! What's wrong?!" But he started backing away again.
"Jack!" she hissed. "J...Jackson!"
"D-D...Don't call me Jackson!"
Suddenly, Tooth felt afraid.
She scrambled after him, crawling through the snow so Emma and the other boy wouldn't see her. But Jack was faster than her – his muscles weren't stiff from the cold – and he was drifting farther away. She left their bags in the snow.
"Jack, you're...J-Jack! Get back here!"
"...n't see me...Sh-Sh'cnt...s'm–"
Tooth leaped forward and tried to tug his hand back.
"Is that your...Is that your sister?!" she gasped. "O-Oh my god! Y-You have to go to them! You have to see her!"
But he yanked his fingers out of her grip and kept backing away.
"N-No!"
Her grin instantly slipped off her face.
"Wh-What's wrong with you?!"
Jack gasped.
His entire chest cavity felt like a black hole and he couldn't see straight.
His bullet wound was suddenly burning – he guessed it was secondary contamination but he–
"Jack! St...Stop!"
"She can't see me! She can't! Sh-She can't see me!"
"What are you talking about?!" Tooth coughed in the frigid snow. "Y-You have to!"
"INNOCENCE pr–It...and I–"
He choked and stopped moving.
"INNO–e...everything's gone! Ev'rything...b-because of...H-Haah!"
Immediately, it was like a Pandora's Box had opened in his heart.
Jack felt his body drain with exhaustion and something heavy, heavier than any weight he felt he'd ever carried, was crushing his ribs.
Tooth rushed forward. Her hands were trembling.
"I-I don't–What's wrong with you?!" Tooth reached for his arms again. "Are you–"
He slapped her hands away. "Stop!"
"Jack, what the hell?!"
He looked up at her and in one moment, she moved up to wipe his cheeks hurriedly.
"Wh-Why are you acting like this?!" she panicked but he didn't say.
He looked all around the forest for his answer.
Then, it tumbled off his lips.
"The INNOCENCE program, and E-Emma she–"
Tooth's fingers froze for a fraction on his cheeks.
"What?"
"Emma! She...She was..and I...I became a GUARDIAN f-for...and they wa...and they wiped my memory and brought me ba...but I'm–a-and she–"
"Slow down!"
Jack's breathing grew rapid.
"J-Just calm down!" she tried to comfort him. But it was hard to when this apparent fear was plaguing the one man she thought she'd never see slip.
"Just calm down and expl–explain it ca-carefully, Jack! What about Emma, h-huh?"
She messily tried to dry his eyes because she knew any second he would–
His face split with anguish.
"Get away from me!"
"But I–"
–and Jack roughly pushed her hands from his face and got up.
He sprung up from the ground with snow caking around his boots and in his hair but he could care less. He then walked away from the rock and the line of the forest, and moved back onto the lake in a daze.
"Wait!" Tooth cried. Her whispers went back to normal and she didn't give a crap. "Don't go back on it! Th-The ice, I-I...you need to think about her. You need to go to Emma!"
But Jack didn't listen – he never listened.
But how could he? He felt like all his wounds – every cut, every burn – had reopened, reawakened.
"Y-You said the INNO...the INNOCENCE program?" she asked. "...Y-You mean the one I...th-the one I..."
Something like a spike drove itself into her heart as she got up on shaky knees.
"The program..." he kept mumbling. "The program, i-it–"
"No, that way! You need to go THAT way!" and she pointed through the trees. "Before she disappears, please! A-And get off the ice!"
"They wanted to use her, Tooth!" he finally bit out and in his rage, he threw out a hand to swing the winds down at the snow.
They sent the snowflakes all around him, making his lungs inhale ice like water. "The company I devoted myself to...they were gonna take her because she was my sister! They were gonna take other children, and I–Argh!"
She heaved a heavy breath, hypothermia threatening to creep in.
"J-Jack!"
Tooth neared the edge of the lake, her boot afraid as she touched the ice.
"I-I know, I know it's my fault that the INNOCENCE program was built...a-and I'm sorry!"
"No, Tooth! Get away, y...you need to get away!"
When she finally looked at him properly, she realised he wasn't even looking at her – his words weren't even meant for her.
Jack was clutching a fistful of his hair...he was attacking himself.
She gulped furiously and bravely stepped back on the frozen lake.
"Don't tell me what to do!" she spat painfully. "And don't make me drag your ass down to see your s–"
Jack heard the gunshots of tens of GUARDIANs go off in some distant memory. He moved his eyes through the trees and shook his head a little.
"JACK!"
He spun to Tooth. The darker moments of his past kept coming up like vomit. He looked at her, one hand still in his hair, and backed away again.
"D...Do you remember the video, Toothiana?!"
His hand then slipped from his hair, wild and a mess like his heart, and he shouted again.
"DO YOU?!"
Tooth stopped running, boots stiff just as they made it almost three meters to him. She felt herself skid a little but she didn't felt it. As she did, her lips quivered and ice seeped into her bones, closed in around her heart.
Suddenly, the air got colder and crisper.
The wind picked up violently even though Jack didn't will it – his bangs flew up like sheets in a hurricane and his body felt like it was on fire. But it wasn't the same kind energy he felt when he needed to fight – it didn't want to make him go faster, didn't make him feel stronger. It made him feel heavy, like he was going to drown unless he found some way out of it. And for every frigid breath he took in, his pain grew, his quiet guilt rising like molten lava into his heart, into his skin. Like hot brands – like the jewelry Toothiana wore the night in Wales. But unlike her, he couldn't rip them off, tear them away.
"Aster was right!" Jack bit through his teeth. "I am a walking number. I was!"
"Don't talk that!" Tooth gasped. "Don't you dare!"
"And forget what the founder of Project GUARDIAN confessed?! What I remembered?!"
Tooth shook her head shakily. "But–"
"They erased me, Tooth!" Jack yelled and gulped down a heavy lump in her throat, refusing to back down. In that one moment, she wished, she wished, she had a center gene gift she could unleash for all her pent up emotions. But she didn't and in her waking fear (much like Jack's) she could only grit her teeth.
Jack and Tooth were standing in the middle of the lake and neither wouldn't move.
"They erased me, Toothiana! But not successfully and they still sent me home! And do you know what that would've meant?!"
The ex-operative felt like the princess might as well have been a thousand feet away and she would never understand.
"It...It would've meant that was I supposed to come home mindless, empty, and broken! Like a zombie, Tooth! A f...fucking zombie! They were sending me back home like that..to a little girl? To my grandmother!? I..."
It almost felt to Tooth like her heart had dropped through her stomach and onto the ice. Instantly, all these bitter memories of broken families touched her, like fingers belonging to some invisible demon.
She gasped for air bitterly.
"I wouldn't have been me anymore, I would've...been a shell!" He ran through his hair. "And my sister she was...How could do they that to me, to...to all of us?!"
And as silence filled the air, Jack started to move away again.
Tooth panicked and edged out faster onto the frozen surface of Jack's sanctuary. She tried to move around so she was standing in front of him but he kept walking around in a small circle, hoping that the princess wouldn't get close. It was like some cruel joke of tango, just the two of them circling each other.
"Just get off this ice!" Tooth cried. "Go home!"
"Go home?" Jack argued. "I can't go home, not like this, not anymore!"
"But why do you believe that? Why are you so hard on yourself?!"
He gripped his hair and whirled on her.
"Because you don't know realise how many people I've killed!"
She froze as it started to snow again. Light and snowfall cascaded down on their heated gazes and flaring nostrils. But Jack didn't feel it, didn't see it.
He heaved a breath.
"Tooth, count for me!"
"...Why?!"
Jack's face darkened and his eyes narrowed to slits. His heart was raging under his chest for all the wrong reasons.
"How many men have you seen me kill since you've met me?!"
"Wh...I don't–I DON'T KNOW!"
Why was he torturing himself?!
"TOOTH!"
"WHY?!"
"JUST TELL ME!"
She wanted to grab onto him. She wanted to shove him away. But he wasn't letting her near him.
No matter how hard she tried to push herself across the ice, Jack had more fluidity and walked around her twice. She shook her head and looked at him almost horrifically. Why did he want her to answer so badly!?
"I...I-I..." she stopped trying to chase him and stood wobbly on the ice.
"See?! You don't even know!"
"No! Sh-Shut up and just let me–"
"What? Guess?" Jack sneered and he instantly regretted his rage as Tooth's eyes grew wide and her mouth fell slightly open. His paling complexion got brighter from the orange in the sky.
"Tooth!" he tried again. "You don't know how many, okay?! You don't! So just–"
"Twenty!"
He paused, eyebrows high and forehead creased.
"How much?"
"Tw-Twenty!?" she scratched her head stressfully. "B-But most of them you just outran so I don't see–"
"Toothiana, I've killed hundreds...Hundreds!"
And she froze, fingers shaking and emotions retching under her turtleneck.
"But you were a spy, you saved–"
"I saw it okay?! I remember it now, I remember it all!" And Jack threw his hand out like it was right there in the open. "You don't even know who, you don't even know how! But I've seen it Tooth, and I...I can't I–"
"But that's all in the past!" she argued hotly. "You need to move on and start over!"
"Exactly! So why are you trying to send me back there? I need to move on, I need to leave!"
"No! What you want is liberation from guilt, but you need to face it, head on! And knowing that you're alive will make her happy! She needs to and she'll be happy to see you, so shut it!"
And for some unknown reason, the image of Mr. Sanderson came to her mind. And she swallowed her lump in her throat.
"YOU NEED TO CH-CHOOSE LOVE OVER FEAR AND YOU'LL ALW–"
"I'M NOT THE SAME JACK!"
And his words came out so guttural that Tooth's eyes grew wide with shock – Jack thought it was fear.
"I didn't m...Y-You see?! You see what I'm doing to you?! To myself, I-I..."
He backed away until he was sure she couldn't touch him unless he got to her first.
"I'm not the same Jack who...who only chose missions to protect and save people even though he was more than capable servicing take down units. A-And I'm not the same Jack who wanted to prove that there were more ways of stopping violence than making it...and I am not...I-I am NOT the Jack who sacrificed himself to the GUARDIANs and let all the bad consume him at his core! Because he's gone!"
"What do you mean g-gone!? Jack, you're right here!"
"Heh, yeah I'm a survivor," he growled darkly and thought of Damon. "I'm a fucking survivor and look what happened to me! Look at what I'm capable of!"
"Because you were trying to do good by your sister!"
"Because I shut it off!"
Tooth's eyes were wide, her pink lips a deep set frown. She didn't have to ask to know what he meant – the cold eyes, the monosyllabic responses, his detachment from everything around him.
"B-But..." and the lump in Toothiana's throat threatened more tears up to her eyes. "But-But not anymore! Y-You can be with her and that'll go away. S-So stop being so damn ridiculous, Jack!...She's your sister."
"That's right, she's my sister, Toothiana," he argued. "And I'm the dead brother whose never coming back!"
And when he crossed his arms defensively she felt a surge of anger swell inside her.
"Jack...I swear to God!" she heaved. "This is about having everything you ever wanted again–"
"She's safe now, Tooth, and that's all that matters–"
"–and if I knew for one second that one of my sisters was at the bottom of that hill, my legs would never stopping running–"
"–and whatever sorrow she still has over me, it'll eventually heal–"
"So you need to fight! Fight for her!" Tooth pleaded. "Fight it! Like you always say to me–"
"–and then she'll move on–"
"BUT SHE NEEDS YOU!"
"SHE DOESN'T NEED ME, DON'T YOU GET IT?!" And Jack advanced on her while she found it difficult to back away on the ice. "NOT ANYMORE!"
Tooth's eyes grew wide with slight fear but it snuffed out just as quick. She tightened her fists and glared back with wet eyes and a rage in her chest.
"You don't KNOW THAT!" she shouted back as he towered over her. "Family is family! You ALWAYS need each other!"
And for every scream, Tooth imagined hers and the families left behind. She also imagined the families they'd run into and the ones she and Jack had made amongst total strangers.
"She still needs you, Jack! Y-You don't think she'd cry over you and worry about her future without you in it?!"
"With the money I left her, she'll be fine when she grows up!
"That's not the same! It never is!"
"I can't go and see her! Why aren't you understanding this? I CAN'T GO, NOT LIKE THIS!"
"Not like what?! Her saviour?!"
"Like a killer!"
And he finally said it.
"And don't you dare think for one second that that means I stopped caring about her!"
"NO, I know you do!" Tooth shouted back, feeling that one dollop of sorrow drop into her stomach. It spread through her like wildfire but she swallowed it down. "You cared too much that's why you're doing this to yourself! But you don't have to anymore!"
Jack wasn't getting it but she wasn't letting him go – she had too many times to look back on that she knew she never could.
She shook her head and glared up at him defiantly.
"Th—Thinking you're a killer doesn't trump that! Y-Your love for Emma can over arch everything, everything you feel. She's always mattered more, hasn't she?"
"..."
"HASN'T SHE?!"
"SO YOU'D RATHER I WALK DOWN THERE RIGHT NOW, THE WAY I AM, AND DESTROY THE IMAGE SHE'S CARRIED WITH HER ALL THESE YEARS? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING I SHOULD PREPARE FOR INSTEAD?!"
"WH...BUT YOU–"
"TOOTH!" Jack finally shouted in anguish. "Look at her! Listen!"
Tooth stopped to catch her breath, her heavy heart rolling like thunder under her chest, and her breath rapid and trying. She didn't turn her head away but a second later–
"...Haaa!...Hahahaha!"
A girl's laugh far off in the distance was heard again.
And when Emma's laugh faded away, Jack's face physically twisted with pain before he swallowed it down.
He turned back to Tooth.
How the entire town of Burgess wasn't waking up to their screams was beyond her – maybe there was something sacred about the frozen lake.
"You see?! She's happy again and anything I do now will backfire...on me!"
Jack fisted his knuckles until his veins were visible underneath.
"This isn't like some damn kid's movie where ghosts come back to life and everyone's happy. This is a nightmare...I'm the nightmare!"
W-Why d-d'you have that, Toothie? Why do you have a gun?!
And Tooth's breath shuddered.
This isn't like you, Phi (older sister)! What happened to you?!
She kept looking up at Jack and he was staring down at her with the same level of bitterness, thinking about all the nights he sat awake with his head in his hands.
...I-I don't know you anymore...
Tooth had wanted to run away and curl up in the dark when she remembered the utter look of fear and shame on her little sister's face.
Jack rubbed his tired eyes.
"Do you get it now?!"
She didn't answer his question – but her short gasp for air was a response as any.
So Jack looked down to avoid seeing her eyes. His own blue orbs glared shamefully as he unclenched his shaking fist.
"All this blood is on my hands for Project GUARDIAN...I broke my promise to her. I promised I would always protect people for her...B-But I caused more violence than I wanted to stop!"
Suddenly, Jack's eyes grew wide.
A second later, he was looking at the growing sunrise in high above the pine trees. His breath left his lips as the orange continued to grow but his heart, his head, were in two entirely different places.
He felt stuck.
Just like he always seemed to be.
His boot took a cautionary step back.
"That's why I don't want you with me."
Tooth snapped her head up at him.
"...Wh-What?"
She tried to tell herself that her heart wasn't beating painfully.
"I don't want you!" Jack bit out. "You or anyone else near me, I..."
The light only seemed to scare him – like he didn't deserve it.
"Pitch was right. I make of mess of everything, I-I...I can't stay around anyone."
"But you're with me!" Tooth looked up at him. "You need to trust me!"
"And then what? Watch you get a bullet through the back for me?!"
Pitch's words from the night they fought came bubbling to the front of Jack's mind and he panicked.
And that's not what you'd want...is it, Jack?
He shut his eyes.
"Tooth, I twisted your arm...and Aster, I...grabbed him by the throat when I first woke up."
Tooth's wide grew wide.
Just as quick, Jack's eyes opened darkly.
"And don't forget about that guy at Hue's bar! The one you watched me snap like a rag doll just because he touched me...I'm a freak just because you all touched me!"
Tooth kept shaking her head but he wouldn't stop – it was like oil, just slipping off his tongue.
"But you, w–we...He was only...Are you se–"
"And I can't guarantee it won't happen again so if...if you think for one second that going back to her like this, because it's the right thing to do then, tell me, princess, what happens if I don't recognise someone, or someone surprises me and I–"
"Because you won't!" she gasped. "You have to hear what I'm saying! This wasn't your fault! It was the company who chose your sister, a-and then they made you give her up for a life that you didn't want!"
And she wouldn't dare tell Jack that the second he switched back to calling her 'princess', her heart twisted in her chest.
"I...I don't know how else to make you realise that this," she gestured around the forest and down to where the teens were far in the distance, "this is the place that will make up for it again! It'll bring you back, it's...it's already started!"
But Pitch's words came floating back to him again.
All this to atone for past guilt you feel because you have nothing left to lose, how marvelous...
"Tooth! I can't ask for redemption for all those past people I've killed?! Because I..."
"Because what?"
"I..."
"Because what, Jack?!"
"Because I wanted them dead, I wanted them all dead and I didn't care! And for a lot of new criminals I keep running into...I still want that!"
Tooth made a sound in the back of her throat and closed her mouth immediately.
But if Jack had turned back around, he wouldn't have assumed that her silence meant she was ashamed – she was actually frowning for him, not at him.
His eyes were dark and stormy, and his throat was raw.
In the midst of it all, his gene was crackling across his skin, erupting his core.
"If someone so much as looks at me funny I feel like I need to stalk them, if they get on my bad side, I can't guarantee a fight won't start, and if someone threatens even the slightest thing I have near me–"
"AAAHHHHHHH!" Jack spun instantly and rushed forward. A murderous expression erupted on his face and he was already reaching for a newly-bought knife in his police belt.
"–I react like my life depends on it. Because that's what been ingrained into me, severely and permanently!"
He turned back to her finally and threw his hands out. His eyes drank in everything around him like they were driving knives into his chest.
"So I don't deserve THIS, or HER, or–"
Jack stopped when he caught eyes with two jewel-pink irises.
And his breathing grew rapid.
Tooth's mouth opened to say something but he quickly glared at the ice again and gritted his teeth.
"I don't want a restart, I don't! I can't!"
Pitch came back again and he couldn't stop the spew of words that constantly came back.
Your duty keeps you bound to such terrible, terrible things and when they're over, you start to wonder if there's even a piece of you left to save. Any piece left even worth saving.
"All I have left of me that I can give, is to do good by the people I'm protecting now...All I can do is do what I can for you, princess. But I swear to god, don't you trust me. Not anymore!"
And when he looked at her again with a hard gaze, she shook her head violently.
Tooth gripped both sides of her head.
"Stop calling me princess!"
"Pr–"
"Don't! And you can't tell me who I can and can't trust! Because I trust you, Jack! I do!"
"But you shouldn't!"
"And whose fault is that?!" she screeched. "You made me!"
When his breath caught in his throat, she took the opportunity to keep going.
"Y-You asked me twice, Jack, and I did, for a window jump and a road trip! And y...you can't just take that back!"
"Yes, I can, Toothiana!"
"No," she argued, a hot sting started to build in her tear duct. "You just want to continue keeping me at a distance, that's what you're saying! Because you're stupid!"
"No, I'm not!" he growled.
"YES, YOU ARE!"
"Because I've stopped caring about anyone for a long time! I'm only doing my job!"
"And that's why you're stupid!"
When Jack glared back hotly, her nostrils flared.
"That's crap, TOTAL CRAP! And I know I shouldn't say that word up here because I'm pretty sure this place is holy but you're wrong! Otherwise, y...you wouldn't have cared about me, Jack!"
And when he tried to stalk past her, she reached out and grabbed his arm.
"LOOK AT ME! WHY DID YOU STICK AROUND?!"
"Toothiana, lay off!"
"At any point when we met North, the ELFs, and Edmund, you could've left me with them and never come back, but you didn't! And do you know why?! I'll tell you w–"
He ripped himself away from her, hating that their argument was destroying the peace in the one place he always found comfort in.
Jack then turned back to face her.
"This was all a mistake...I shouldn't have...I-It would've been better if we'd never met then I wouldn't have remembered–"
"And then what?! All my sisters and I would've been kidnapped? Edmund would've never found the list of GUARDIANs still being assassinated? And you'd suffer from flashbacks for the rest of your life?!"
"You know what? Yes, maybe that would've been better for all of us," he sneered.
Tooth froze, eyes growing glassy, but he kept dropping words on her like an avalanche.
"Because then, you wouldn't have found out your sisters were clones! North and Aster wouldn't have had to deal with both of us and continued focusing on their real priorities with protecting the rest of world, not chasing after mutants with amnesia! And I would've never been reminded of all the bullshit I went through if I hadn't come back here!"
"That's not bullshit! THAT'S YOUR LIFE!"
But he roughly nudged her aside and tried his best to walk around her.
Tooth whirled on him, her eyes were sharp. Her heart was going into overdrive, fearing every second the time ticked away and the sun got higher.
"Jack, shut up! Or did you forget the night you saved me?!" she heaved. "You lunged at me, with a knife, but you stopped! You stopped and then y-you untied me! A-And you cut my skirt so I could run faster–"
"Only because I just saw you as a way to find Pitch and recover my memories! But look how well that turned out!"
But Tooth shook her head.
"No, I don't believe that...I don't believe it for one second!"
"Well then you're a fool, princess! Because I never cared, okay?! I NEVER CARED!"
"Y-YOU'RE LYING!"
Jack abruptly turned away.
"I know you're lying! I KNOW IT! Maybe...M-Maybe back on the plane when we first left Vietnam I would've believed that was true but not now! Not anymore! You've done so much and–"
He started walking off the ice.
"Stop trying to push me away! Stop it!"
He wasn't listening.
"JACK!"
He was almost at the edge, ready to leave her standing on the ice – and her breath rattled in her lungs and a deep sorrow erupted from her lips.
"JACK!...Just...J-Just stop! STOP!"
But he kept walking and something deep inside Tooth realised that if she didn't get through to him now, she'd lose him.
"You need to let me in! PLEASE! Because you're lying! YOU'RE LYING, AND I..."
She sobbed.
"A-AND I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE ALONE ANYMORE!"
A heartbeat.
A sob.
And a boot hanging just over the snow.
Jack froze.
He stopped his body, letting the silence hang over them. It was so surreal, so loud and quiet all at once...but Jack was giving her, despite himself, that one tick of time to change his mind – even though he didn't realise it.
But she did, and Tooth drove it forward like her life depended on it.
Like his life depended on it.
"I DO GET IT, JACK...I-I do!" she cried. "I know you ha-haven't trusted anyone since you woke up to a bunch of strangers who supposedly left you to die and...a-and I know that you're trying to good by Emma and the rest of us by keep yourself at a distance but..."
She balled her hands into tight fists so he wouldn't see how much they were shaking. And she refused to throw up.
'If that happens, I'm digging a hole and I'm never coming out!'
"But this isn't right! And this isn't you, I know it's not! You don't scare me anymore!"
"Oh yeah?!"
Then Jack turned sharply.
A second later, his gun appeared.
Her eyebrows flew up, heart racing.
"Jack!"
It hung at his side, his grip loose and his pointer finger resting against the barrel, but his cold gaze was on her.
Tooth couldn't breathe.
"Wh-What is this?" she demanded shakily. "You're gonna shoot up the only place left that matters to you?!"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he gritted his teeth and a second later, Jack threw the gun on the lake between them.
The smooth steel slid across the surface and almost immediately, his black titanium staff (elongated to its full six feet and crook at the end) carelessly joined it.
Tooth said nothing as they stared at the weapons – Jack's eyes were murderous and he was grinding his teeth.
"That, right there, is my life, Tooth!" he snarled and pointed down at them before ripping off his glove.
"And this," he spat lifting up his left palm so she could see the scar in the middle, "is a reminder that I can never leave it!"
She shook her head though and rushed forward to collect the weapons, but Jack wouldn't stop.
"And my hair's not brown and my eyes are blue!" he shouted and clutched his head. "So WHO am I, then?! I'm not Jackson anymore, Tooth! I'M NOT!"
Suddenly, he couldn't breathe.
"H...He died a long time ago," his breaths grew labored and shallow, "but I'm...I-I'm still drowning...in the lake of memories he left behind."
And Jack fell on his knees on the ice.
Tooth watched a flourish of powerful ice spread around him as the wind threw up everything around him like a crater.
Jack's heart beat wildly.
"Suicide was never an option," he breathed shakily. "B-But I...that night, I swear to God, the Purge...I should've been–I-I should've...I can't go on like this..."
And a silence fell on them, like lead and a shower of knives. Tooth couldn't handle it, couldn't handle the words that left his lips.
"Bu...But *sob*..."
She was on the ice still trying to pick up his things but it was hard because her eyes were blurry.
"B-But it was never you...it was them, okay?! I-It was them! A-And they hurt all of us!"
Jack's fist tightened.
"So I want to help you carry that burden! I've been here every step of the way to helping you remember who you were be-because I know I'm to blame...I know it a-and I'm sorry! The INNOCENCE program was because of me a-and my sisters and..."
Jack's heart started to race.
But even though it's loud pounding and hot sting above his heart nearly consumed him, he heard Tooth's sobs like a hammer to a glass wall – hard, clear, and upsetting.
"I want to help you, Jack! Please...please!"
Toothiana hated to plea, she wanted to reason. She was nowhere as good as reasoning with someone as he was, but she felt the only way to get him to listen was to say what was from the bottom of her heart.
So she did.
A second later–
Clatter!
Jack opened his eyes.
Tooth dropped his staff back on the ice. Then his gun. And a moment later, she pulled out her own guns and threw them down too.
Then she gulped and stepped over them.
"I-I care about you, Jack. A lot of people have, a lot of people do, e-even if you don't care about yourself," she said shakily and squeezed then ends of her scarf tightly. "So don't you ever call me a fool again!"
And Jack kept watching...but his eyes were unreadable – hard and blank.
And Tooth hated it. She shook her head a little.
"I d-don't get a lot of things. I'm not fast, and I'm n-not strong...b-but I-I've always cared!" she mumbled. "And you've known that but you're just too...too ch-chicken shit to accept that!"
Jack's eyes widened slightly.
Was she calling him out?
She kept slipping as she inched toward him. But each step was sure and long, and she'd be damned if she let her short strides make him disappear.
"I worry about you all the time! And when you run off I...I don't when you'll come back or if you'll be okay!"
Jack kept looking at her wobbly feet, pretending he wasn't listening to her talk, trying to block it out.
But he didn't realise when he started to sit up on the ice and stretch his arms out slightly as she came closer.
"But I've believed in you early on!" Tooth huffed not really seeing the gesture, just desperate to make him stay. "I knew you w-were a good person, even when you di-didn't think you were! And isn't that why you said we were...w-we were friends?"
Jack's hands fell down slightly. His mouth fell open just a bit.
His gaze flew up.
"W-Wh...To–"
Tooth was so cold by that point that every twitch she had she barely felt. She might as well have cut off a limb but she ignored it – all except for the beating in her heart and the quiver in her lips.
She remembered Aster's words before he left the two of them.
"You're my friend now, r-remember? So I'm...I-I'm obligated to trust you, and I want to...and I've been cheering for you b-because I have faith. This world, it's a scary place a-and...I know you were trying to prove to everyone and to yourself that there are other ways to deal with it, to handle it..."
Jack still kept his blue eyes on her rosy face.
"But I have faith in you...even if you don't in yourself!"
His eyes grew wide.
"Tooth...T-Toothiana, what're you..."
"You're her hero. You're their hero..."
And when she stopped right in front of him, she looked down at him when a tired breath and an open frown.
"...and you're my hero."
Jack's eyes grew wide.
And the beating in his chest nearly stopped.
He tried shaking his head a little.
"T...Tooth...d–"
Toothiana tried to kneel down on the ice. She bit her lip and carefully lowered herself. And when her left boot slipped a little, Jack shot out his hands instinctively and steadied her.
Once her knees touched the ground, he pulled his fingers away and brushed them against the frozen lake. As his fingertips touched the ice, they sent the frigid air to sweep around them, hardening whatever moist water was sitting on the surface.
Then Tooth knelt in front of him, afraid and cold, as the wind blew her hair around and she shivered like a there was no tomorrow – but Jack didn't see it.
"You...b-but I'm not..."
"Yes, you are," she nodded slowly and her eyes grew glassy.
She turned and pointed at the weapons they'd left behind.
"Those don't define you," she argued. "Nothing defines you but what's in there." And she looked nervously at where his heart was. "Th-Think about everything you've done for the sake of g...getting it done. Was it really f-for you?"
...A drop of silence.
Then, something panged in Jack's chest. Something he kept trying to suppress.
Tooth's question.
It was so simple. But it resonated from deep inside him that his mouth opened and his chest hurt.
And when he answered the question, he shook his head.
"No."
Without even having to think about it.
He looked down on the ice, inhaling like he couldn't breathe.
"It w...wasn't for me. I-It was never for me."
"Then what did you do?" Tooth asked shakily. "A-And for who?"
"I...I worked two jobs...f-for my family," he finally confessed. "I went to university...for my parents...A-And I took that job...because I wanted to protect other families..."
Tooth's eyes grew wide. Jack's shut tightly.
"I ga...I gave myself up... to be a GUARDIAN for her. I saved her...a-and I rescued you..."
And when he opened his eyes, he looked down at Tooth, heart still pounding. "...because I knew I couldn't leave you behind."
For a moment, the two of them just sat there, feeling their pent up emotions rising like the sun behind Jack.
Then Tooth smiled a little. She was so tired of frowning.
"I told you," she murmured. "So d-don't be afraid. Don't be afraid anymore."
But he was afraid.
In fact, Jack was terrified!
And he was terrified...because he saw the thing that North and his dreams kept trying to tell him all along.
Suddenly–
Beep beep! Beep beep!
Aster left Jack a digital watch in his backpack and it was set to go off at sunrise. An old hiker's trick. So at exactly 7:21 a.m, the lake around them lit up.
As the sun finally hit the horizon and the orange engulfed everything, Tooth radiated like a warm (but chattering) sparkle of light.
And she lit up all the dark spots in his heart.
"You're s-serious...but I..."
And she nodded her head again and wiped a corner of her eye.
"You're my hero, Jack."
Jack's eyes grew wide.
He suddenly couldn't breathe.
Tooth looked up at the brunette.
"So you have to believe in yourself," she said gently. "Like I do, o-okay? Like Emma would, l-like your parents, like–"
But she froze when she peeked up at him through her mess of tears.
Jack had a look on his face. She lowered her hands slightly with her mouth slightly open.
"J-Jack?"
His head was still spinning. He couldn't see her straight, and something about the Burgess lake around him made him suddenly want to cry. But he couldn't again, he wouldn't he–
Tooth bit her lip and moved forward. She pulled him up and when they were both standing, she wrapped her arms nervously around his middle.
Her touch made him tense up but Tooth gripped tighter.
"Count to ten, Jack," she whispered. "Count to ten."
He choked slightly.
But he nodded his head and slowly lifted his arms.
"O...One..."
"...Two..."
Emma's smile and his parents' pictures shined on him.
"Three..."
"...F...F-Four..."
His laughter and racing with his friends made him weak in the knees. The university textbooks he once carried made his arms feel like jelly.
"F-F...'ive..."
The cries of hundreds of rescued people and tearful reunions echoed through his ears.
"S...Six..."
Jack's biceps gripped Tooth tighter around the waist than he'd ever thought he hold her. His head dropped on her shoulder and he tried to hide himself in her thick hair.
"Sev...S'vn..."
"...Ei-Eight..."
North and Aster and ELFs brought a fire to his heart, the right kind of fire that drove him with legitimate reason and duty.
"Ni...Nine..."
He shut his eyes tightly.
"...Ten."
And a heart-shaped face and jewel-pink eyes in some faraway, unknown memory made his lips tingle and his heart explode.
He felt his body freeze for just a millisecond.
Then Jack bent forward, bending Tooth back slightly in his aching grip. She moved her hands behind him to grip his shoulder and his hair as he turned his face into her neck.
He exhaled, and when he breathed in, he felt it.
He felt his entire body tingle with something old and forgotten – that feeling of receiving love and warmth in his life.
And he exhaled again...and for the first time, he didn't feel like it weighed him down.
Tooth tried to pat his back awkwardly (mood-killer as she always was) but her intentions were sincere.
"Choose love over fear, Jack," she mumbled, repeating Mr. Sanderson's words, "...and you'll always win."
And he nodded as he peeked through his lashes.
Jack then pulled away until they were at arm's length.
She looked up and he looked down between them with a sad look.
"Y-You know...that whole time, I..." he lamented. "I thought I was just some tool in a war."
He then looked at her.
"But y-you're right...I always had a reason for fighting...It was never just about me."
Tooth said nothing as Jack shook his head.
"The board may have screwed me over, but being a GUARDIAN never did, I...they had the same principles I always wanted to carry. We just...(he furrowed his eyebrows) tackled it differently."
"It was designed to help you save the world," she agreed and moved out of his arm-hold to wipe the remainder of her face. And she chuckled weakly.
"A-And I'm glad I was able to do it. I want you remember that, to always remember that, okay?"
Jack nodded again.
"...Okay."
She started to squeeze her scarf again.
"You're not a freak. Y...You're not me. And I'd save you a hundred times before someone saved me, got it?"
Even though he paused, she moved to grab his weapons off the ice again.
But Jack kept staring at her.
He bitterly remembered Pitch.
As Tooth tossed him his staff, she accidentally kicked his rifle a little bit away.
"Oh sorry," she mumbled tiredly and walked after it to a part of the lake they hadn't touched. Jack watched her closely.
She grabbed the gun. But then–
CRUNCH!
"OH!"
Tooth's boot sent stress cracks erupting under the pressure of her sole. And in a scream, half her foot went through.
Tooth prepared to brace herself on the weak ice around her horrifically – then something ensnared her waist.
Jack pulled his staff back and yanked Tooth to him with the Sheppard's crook.
In an instant, her back slammed into his. But as she turned to grab onto him, he lost his balance on the ice.
Dropping the staff, Jack threw his arms up to catch her. Then he fell, dragging her down with him.
She fell on top of him as his head hit the ice. His gun was tight in her hand.
"You okay!?" she gasped.
He nodded and stared at her through the sun and falling snow.
"You sure?"
"Y..." He stopped.
A hot blush came on her cheeks when she realised she was an inch away from his jaw. And in the close proximity, rather than smack him (like she always seemed to default to), Tooth's accidentally exhaled a nervous breath over his face.
Jack didn't say anything for a moment. His lips tingled with the invisible touch and some unknown memory stroked the back of his mind again, elating his senses.
He exhaled nervously back.
She felt it blow all the cold away from her jaw for a moment, sending shivers down her neck, down her body.
"S-Sorry!" she hastily got up and tried to give Jack space. Jack got up quickly too, fixing his jacket and putting away his weapons again. When he was done, he looked at her.
She was trying to push her thick hair behind her ears but it kept flopping in her face. When she gave up, she tried to move around him to get off the lake.
'Better get off before the rest of it melts and w–'
"You're not a freak."
Tooth stopped just behind him but didn't turn around.
She kept her eyes straight ahead through the forest with the sunrise overhead. Jack was still looking down at the frozen lake beneath his feet.
"Don't worry, Tooth," he said seriously then blindly grabbed her hand from behind. He rubbed her knuckle gently.
"I'm not giving up on you."
"And I'm not giving up on you," she said back firmly. But then she nudged her chin at the trees in front of her. "...And you shouldn't give up on her either."
And Jack sighed.
He turned around and walked around Tooth back to the edge of the forest, almost nervously.
When he poked his head over the rock and stared off in the distance, he saw the outline of Emma skipping in the snow so far away. But his heart didn't ache as much.
Tooth appeared beside him (still shaky with a foot soaking) as he began to speak again.
"It's...It's been almost four years since I've her," he mumbled gently. "She had all her baby teeth falling out. Now look at her... She's almost a teenager."
Tooth looked back at Emma and the boy jumping through the snow. She bit her lip.
"Jack–"
"No, Tooth."
She looked back up at him nervous that he had an upset look again. But his gaze was wistful and, though almost heartbroken, there was something there that she couldn't describe.
"I can't. I'm...I'm still a different man from the one she knew. And we've both changed. Me coming back now as I am, it...it won't help anyone."
"Not yet, at least," Tooth offered and Jack looked down at his pale hand.
"Maybe, Tooth. But...But we still need to leave today."
Tooth touched his arm.
"Promise me," she said sternly. "You have to promise me that you'll...you'll see her again. One day. And I'm saying this on behalf of every little sister wh-who needs their b-big brothers."
Then he turned to her.
"And what about big sisters?" he said softly.
Tooth shot him another smile. "Big sisters too."
And before either of them was prepared for it, a tiny smile appeared on Jack's face. He then lifted his hand slightly and rolled his wrist – before he hesitated.
Being more perceptive of him now, Tooth looked at up.
"What's wrong?"
He blinked.
He felt the wind a hundred times more acutely than he'd ever felt – and he remembered.
At his full potential, the wind surged around them like it was in the beginning of a storm.
And Jack breathed it in.
In a distant memory, back in a facility in Alaska, Jack remembered walking into a giant dome used for training GUARDIANs who had control over natural elements. It was steel throughout and the simplest sounds echoed off from one side to the other. The scientists and trainers watched Jack walk to the centre with a nervous heart. When he was standing on the platform it rose twenty feet high and he stared up at them from their outside bunker.
"You ready, agent?"
And Jack tightened his fists and nodded. Then they pressed a button and when a loud buzzer went off, fifty vents opened at once, blowing the frigid North wind from outside all around the dome.
Jack shut his eyes and bent in the high winds. He was afraid at first that he'd be blown off and die – but then his skin prickled and his heart started to pump wildly.
He gasped. A shot of adrenaline ran through him, building his confidence, lowering his fear – until he wanted to stand perfectly straight. He then lifted his hands, and felt the air currents dance through them for the first time. His fingers twitched and he pushed the air away.
The Beaufort scale then calculated his wind speeds.
They rustled his hair at more than 12 mph...then he picked the speed to 35 mph: enough to make his shirt billow wildly.
Then he raised his hands and grabbed what air he could and yanked it, bringing it to 63 mph: enough to knock someone over.
And in a confident but fluid motion, he bent his knees and clutched the torrent and swirled it around him. It hit a tornado speed of 106 mph but he was perfectly fine in an air bubble he'd made all his own.
And he impressed the scientists, himself, and GUARDIANs for weeks after that day.
Tooth looked at him expectantly. And even though she could barely see through her hair, she smiled a little wider.
Jack looked at his sister one last time and sighed heavily.
Her hair was still long and straight but it was in a side ponytail and she still had her choppy bangs on her right side. But he smiled anyway.
Then he looked at the boy, and his smile grew bigger, finally putting a name to the teen standing next to her.
A name he'd used for his alias all along.
Six years ago...
"Your shirt, you big dummy! Haha, you got it all over your shirt!"
"Hey!"
"Do you two want this or not?!" Jack laughed. He looked at Emma and her best friend. Jamie Bennett was a kid two years older than his sister but they lived two blocks from their house.
As he walked to the table balancing pancakes in one hand and orange juice in the other, Jamie's little sister, Sophie, suddenly latched onto his leg and pretended to gnaw on it.
"Hey!"
"Soooophie!" Jamie groaned. "We're not playing Beaver Man anymore, you crazy–Go be a fairy!"
"Nomnomnomnom!"
Jamie laughed and yanked her from Jack's leg and pulled her up in her seat. The two-year-old started clapping.
Jamie sighed.
"Good thing my mom's coming by any minute to pick her up!" he scratched his head like a monkey as Jack put all their breakfast on the table. The sleepover had been awesome as usual but now they had all of Saturday to be stupid. Jack smirked.
"Why so you can spend more time with my little sister?" he teased. Jamie's face turned immediately beet red and he dropped his hands from his head. He hated when Jack gave him that waggling eyebrows thing he did.
"N-No! Not like that!" the ten-year-old yelled. Emma was too busy shoving everything in her mouth.
"Hfphms Mfmm!"
Jack poked her in the forehead.
"Hey, little lady! Chew, swallow, then talk!"
She rolled her eyes and waved her fork at him. Jack laughed.
"Jamie, help! Maybe it's better you're here after all! Since she's trying to attack me! Aren't you gonna protect me?!"
"Nope!"
And when the little brunette shook his head and crossed his arms smugly, Emma stopped and gave him a high-five.
Jack started eating and laughed.
"But you are gonna protect her while I'm away, right?"
And Jamie paused before he started eating. The two girls on either side of them weren't really paying attention as they were gobbling everything up like Hoover fish.
Jamie knitted his eyebrows slightly but smiled anyway.
"Of course, Jack!"
Jack swallowed a mouthful of food and smiled warmly.
"But I mean it," he said gently. "If I didn't come back from one of my 'missions' you would look after Em for me, right?"
Jamie laughed. He loved when Jack used the word 'missions' when he was talking about his trips – it made it seem cool and mysterious. He nodded and grinned.
"I promise, Jack! If something happens, you can count on me! Right, Emma?"
And Emma looked up from her plate, round cheeks filled with pancakes.
"Mfm! (Right!)"
And the two boys laughed. But then something went off in Jamie's head and he frowned a little.
"You're...gonna come back, r-right Jack?"
Jack sensed the wave of worry instantly. A brief flash of doubt crossed his eyes before he looked his gaze to his plate to hide it with his bangs. Then he got up and moved around the table to kneel beside Jamie.
He looked up worriedly.
"That's not the point Jamie. I'll still be around, but you'll be a guardian while I'm gone."
"How? I'm not strong! O-Or tall! I can't even open a bottle of ketchup without," he pulled his shirt to show, "getting it all over me! So why do you always believe in me for something like huge like that?"
Jack gave a crooked smile. And the voice of an old spy buddy whispered in his ear.
"Porque lo que más importa," he said in what minimal Spanish he was learning then gently hit Jamie's heart, "es lo que esta aquí. Esta es la verdadera fuerza."
And Jamie chuckled. "And what does that mean?"
Jack smirked warmly. "Because what is more important...is what is in here." And he pointed at Jamie's heart again. "This is the real strength."
When the ten-year-old grinned proudly, Jack returned it.
"So yeah, kiddo, I believe in you...you just gotta believe in yourself. And that'll make you a guardian too."
Sophie then instigated a food fight by accidentally flicking her pancake on Jamie's face and soon the whole kitchen was a war zone.
Mrs. Bennett was not impressed when she came to pick up Sophie and hour later. But at least Jamie and Emma got leave the house early to meet their other friends.
All these memories he was having, all this love and light he'd forgotten...it had always been with Jack. It had just been hiding this entire time.
Jack shut his eyes.
He then swept his hand out to Jamie and his sister.
The strong force of the wind carried the snow and frost down the hill, and in a gentle float, it tossed itself down to the two brunettes like a ribbon in the air.
...
Emma was too busy chatting about Christmas presents and Pippa and Caleb's war on 'who-had-the-better-hat-collection' before a strong gust of wind kissed her cheek and tossed her ponytail up. She squealed and cringed down slightly. Jamie's deep voice laughed as he started teasing his best friend.
"What? Can't handle the cold, little missy?"
"Keep cracking jokes, bunny boy, I swear! And one day, you'll wake up without eyebrows!"
"Hey!"
Emma laughed with her eyes still shut and her breath still husky from the air. She embodied every drop of joy her big brother left behind.
But then...
When she froze slightly, the sixteen-year-old eyed her funny.
"What's up?"
Emma stood in the snow for a second, just letting the wind tickle her jaw, her scarf and her hair. She stared ahead at all the houses but...something made warm and nostalgic made her insides uncoil slightly. She sighed softly letting a puff of air escape her lips.
Jamie tried again.
"Ems?"
After another moment, Emma shut her glassy eyes and a smile came over her face.
She shrugged and tightened her toque on her head.
"Mm, nothing," she said honestly and started walking again. But not before she threw her head up and smiled into the gentle snowfall. "I think the family just wanted to say Merry Christmas."
And when she kissed her fist and opened it up to the sky, Jamie smiled. Maybe her parents, her Grams, and Jack were all passing through by for one last visit.
...
"Bye Em..." Jack mumbled to himself. Then he flicked his eyes sideways. "Tooth?"
Tooth stopped watching the two and looked up at him.
"What?"
When he dropped his hand, he looked down at Tooth again.
"You are really a royal pain in my ass, but you did it again."
She threw him a teasing look, not really getting it– but it was lovely nonetheless.
"Did what?"
"You know," he said softly. "You always do."
And she grinned back, cheeks turning pink.
"C-Come on, you know me by now," Tooth smiled warmly. "Actions speak louder than words."
Then Tooth raised her arms slightly and he understood instantly.
"Merry Christmas, Jack," she mumbled.
Moving forward, they hugged each other gently.
He dropped his head on his shoulder, looking sideways into her hair. How they'd gotten from the point of crying to this was beyond him, but he didn't care. All he cared about was the heart pounding so hard in his chest that he dropped into a gentle silence just to feel it.
Lub-dub...Lub-dub.
There it was. strong and enduring.
And then–
Lub-dub...Lub-dub.
Lub-dub...Lub-dub.
(Lub-dub...Lub-dub.)
Through his clothes, he felt hers. Everything slowed down suddenly for Jack, and his eyes grew impossibly wide, his heart starting to race.
But he knew why and he wasn't stupid.
It wasn't the gunshot wound.
It wasn't the stress he was still surfing through.
It wasn't finally seeing his sister at safe (although a comfortable amount still sat for her).
No.
It was Tooth.
His ears turned slightly red and his fingers twitched.
Just holding her the way he was, hearing her voice, feeling her heart beat against him...he knew he had to stop lying.
He had to stop lying, despite what every Spy Manual Book, every TV show, book, and movie would bludgeon him over the head with.
Jack was ready to accept that, with every beat of his reborn heart, what he felt for the Hypunjam princess went beyond just wanting to protect and keep her happy.
He didn't just want to save Tooth and get out of her life.
No, he didn't want Tooth getting out of...getting out of his life.
After today, after this sunrise, he couldn't see his life without her in it.
He... He needed her now.
It took everything, this life, his sister, and her, to remind him that he was still him...deep down buried somewhere under all his armor and switched-off emotions.
And when he switched it back on, it overwhelmed him because it was stupid, and horribly ironic, and it finally smacked him in the face!
So Jack chuckled weakly. Tooth raised a nervous eyebrow.
"What's so–OH!"
And the next thing she knew, she was being lifted off the ground and Jack spun her around in a circle like a crazy person. Her eyes bugged out, pathetic and strange as it was, but it filled his soul.
"J-Jack!?" she worriedly. Jack immediately stopped and dropped her on her boots.
She quickly tried to push her hair out of her face when she thought she saw beautiful, straight teeth.
Did...Did he smile again?!
Suddenly, Jack grabbed her hands and words left his mouth before he could contain himself.
"Let's go eat."
Tooth blinked twice.
"Wh...Huh?"
Jack's tongue stopped for second, trying to retract the outburst. But then her eyes drew him in again and he started to tug her anyway.
"I just...feel like I...I-I haven't eaten anything in years and I'm suddenly starving."
Tooth looked up at him like he was insane.
"You...You...wanna go and eat? Right now?"
And Jack nodded. Her cheeks started to grow warm.
"Any restaurant you like, or a...or I'm sure there's a diner open somewhere where we can–Or I can take you shopping."
Her eyebrows flew up.
"What?!"
"I have more than enough now than I ever did a-and we need a lot of things. You need a lot of–"
She punched him in the arm.
"I don't need a lot of things! I'm not some pr–Haha everything's closed, you idiot. It's Christmas!"
"Then we'll break in."
"Jack!"
And he grinned softly. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest.
"Okay, okay...How about I could take you to a wafflehouse or buffet or a Dunkin' Donuts and just buy you everything!"
"D...D-Do you hear yourself?" she laughed lightly. "A Dunkin' Donuts?"
"Well then, where do you want to go?" he finally urged, mouth dry and eyes searching hers. "What do you want to do?"
After a moment, Tooth looked up at him, basking in the cold light.
"How 'bout we find you food and then we...just," she shrugged innocently, "...sleep?"
Jack blinked.
"W...Seriously? You just want to sleep?"
He thought on it as the wind blew her hair into her eyes.
And when she threw him a tired smile, he didn't know what to do.
And for once, he didn't care.
So he pushed her hair out of her face for her instead.
"Sure...Anything you want."
...
7:54 a.m.
The two then stole a motorcycle and two helmets from the auto shop he used to work in (feeling really bad about it especially since it was freaking Christmas morning) but it had to be done. They couldn't risk anyone in Burgess seeing them and decided to leave and find a place to crash in another city faraway.
They wore their helmets so no one would recognise them as they wheeled it out silently, pushing its dead engine through the empty streets. Neither said anything. Jack needed to soak it all in one last time.
Once they reached the cover of the forest road, he mounted the black Honda Shadow 750 and turned on the V-twin engine. Tooth hopped on after without fear and made sure her bag was snug on her shoulder. When Jack made sure she said enough space to squeeze in, she wrapped her arms around his waist.
Then he shifted out of neutral, and they were off – out of the town's treeline, passed the welcome sign, and back on the main interstate – and away from Burgess; the town surrounded by large, ominous trees that scared everything around it from the outside and hid such a beauty from the inside that the world didn't know.
Just like Jack.
Chapter's soundtrack: "Dare" – Krister Linder (thanx to buddy Peter from Feb)
Big hugs to Rosary-Stefanys-Strigidae'31 for the beautiful Spanish line! Also check out "Laura Palmer" – Bastille (thanx to oldborrowedblue) since I loved the lyrics (: And yes! Jack finally admits to himself that he's infatuated with Tooth. But what does that mean? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!