December 22, 2014
Jack idly taps his foot at a dull pace as both his hands handle two different tasks. He casts another look to his record keeping book in one hand, and then turns to face the unassuming snowball in the other.
Ice breath coated its spell onto its surface, giving it the directions it needed for another area of winter coverage. Southern Michigan to northern Indiana, 13 inches in total with 21 mph winds and a high of 27°. He gently tosses the snowball up into the air to send it to do his job for him. And with his once a day winter duties fulfilled, he turns his attention back to the book in his off hand.
Jack had crossed out the 2013 and replaced it with the most current year a while ago; it was added below the six other years that had been written and scratched off with the passing of time, the dates slowly sliding down the margins of the pages. He figured when he first got the meaningless little book that switching out the years would be less of a hassle then some other forms of keeping up with how many days have passed. Write down all the days in a year one time and that would be that.
Better than the dreaded tally mark system that he had to keep using for the nightmare record. Sure he was into the dramatics, but doing all those tallies for an indefinite amount of time was a cliche he was not going to play out in this instance.
But just as he was about to summon the pen to properly highlight the 22 under December, the chime of the nearby door goes off in his ears.
'Right,' he reminded himself, 'Big plans for today. Hopefully.'
In an instant his attention pivoted, dematerializing the book away in his hand as Lucy stepped out of the door directly to his left.
"Morning Jack," she greeted upon arrival.
With her bound tome in one hand and her staff gently floating in the air beside her, following her in, she yet again lopped another fruit at the winter spirit while he wasn't looking. This time it was an orange.
It bounced once off the side of his head, giving him enough reaction time to tremendously fumble the thing in his hands before eventually catching it; akin to the dance of someone trying not to fall under slippery ice.
"Would you stop that!" he blurted, "why do you feel the need to pelt me with fruits?"
"You just look like you haven't had a lot of…vitamins in a while," she hinted, setting her staff to stay as she started thumbing through the makeshift handbook.
"Your concern is misplaced. I get by just fine," he says, throwing the orange back to her.
She only needs the second she's allotted to see its trajectory and puts one palm up, stopping the projectile in its tracks, inches away from her face. Her expression deceives the amount of pride at how easy such a feat has recently become.
"Hm," he observes, "maybe you are getting better at this."
"Maybe?" she grins, swishing her glowing palm to the side, "I don't know if you can tell but I am crushing it."
And right on cue the magic holding up the orange flickered in and out of existence until it accidentally dropped the fruit to the ground.
"Right," Jack remarked apathetically, "Well let's see how well confidence can undo that barrier," he gestured to the wall she left standing.
"Straight into this again huh?" she goes over to the icier looking wall and gives it a cursory knock. The wall was only slightly more visible than it was yesterday due to the irregular patches of frost on its surface here and there. She took note of the splotchiness of its surface and had a quiet revelation. Her posture relaxed as she looked at Jack over shoulder with a raised, yet unimpressed eyebrow.
"What? What's with the face?" he asked.
"How many times did you run into this thing face first since I put it up yesterday?"
Jack could only stare blankly with his mouth agape as his foremost reaction. He held his next blink a little too long, angling his head away.
"...And why would that be any of your concern?" he gritted.
"So it did happen!" she claimed, earning a hissed 'Damn it' from him. "Come on, give me a ballpark number here! Was it higher or lower than twenty five? Fifteen? Don't tell me it was over thirty!"
"Thin ice Miller!" he exclaimed in embarrassment; an accusatory finger pointed to her for good measure, "thinner than you think!"
He taps his foot onto the snow and a pathway of glassy ice springs from his command, weaving its way over to and under Lucy's feet. Extra slippery. And it didn't take long for the it to work its own magic, sending Lucy's arms spinning to the sides of her before she unceremoniously fell onto her back.
"Uncalled for!" she exclaims from the ground, trying to recuperate.
He turns his nose up at her, "Completely called for! For coming in here and making accusations about things that never happened. Now stop lying around, we have work to do."
"Rude!" she says, biting through the dull pain of standing back up, "So rude and for no reason…"
She grabs her staff from its spot and reflips to the appropriate page in an irritated huff; Pulling away from Jack as he tries looking over her shoulder at the source material.
"So, the thing about this," she gestures with her chin to the barrier, "is that there's actually plenty of information on it. And you were right, it can actually be really specified to keep in or out just about anything. But there's almost nothing about how to take it down. Look, the only thing written about it is here: 'One must pull back the curtain to deactivate.' The only problem is that I have no idea what that could mean."
Jack is handed the pages and skims over where Lucy's gloved finger is pointing, rereading the same thing she just explained.
He gives the page another cursory glance before chiming in, "I also haven't the faintest idea what it's talking about. But I think the tearing bit you were doing yesterday was doing something at least. Maybe just try doing more of that."
"Yeah… I don't think that was actually making any progress," she turned to him, "maybe you were on the right track with the direct contact, but I think a softer approach might work better here. Leading a horse to water or whatever."
He rolls his eyes, flipping the pages closed, "Impeccable usage of that phrase by the way. But are you sure? I'm telling you I think tearing it was doing something."
"And I'm telling you, that destroying the thing is not the way to go. We'll figure out something else if this doesn't do the trick."
"AKA doing it my way," Jack putters, "If nothing else, just remember to use the method we went over yesterday when you put up the circle. Reaching out and prodding the magic with your own should be all you need to reverse it."
With his advice in tow, Lucy faces the barrier and summons the magic glow to the staff's head, her cheeks lighting up in the same manner. The same cursor effect appears on the wall as she moves the head closer.
She closed her eyes as it bumped up against the surface, taking in a deep breath to ground herself as she concentrates. She channels the magic through the device and reaches out to the magic holding the wall up. Through the darkness of her closed eyelids, she reaches.
'Come on…just tell me what to do here.'
She pushes the staff further into the barrier, again stretching its surface around it as it caves but doesn't break. She makes a small noise of disapproval in the back of her throat.
'No no that's tearing. I need opening. I don't wanna break the window, I just wanna open it.'
She reaches a metaphysical hand out into the aether, traveling down the staff and onto the surface of the wall. Like the sensation of running her own hands over it, she feels the magic sustaining it almost as if it was breathing. Calm and alive. Like running one's fingers over a smooth roll of packing tape, looking for the edge. She gently eases the pressure off the barrier, returning it to solid form as she searches.
She calls from the depths of her own mind and finds the edge of the tape. A little snag that knicks her attention, a tiny tick that points her to the solution.
She opens her eyes again with new realization as the answer makes itself known. Clear as day and now so obvious. The hook of the moon shaped head catches delicately and gently onto the surface of the barrier, a needle caught on fabric.
"It's a curtain," she mumbled.
The velvet of the magic was heavier than expected, and shifting the staff in her grip she widened her stance and started pulling.
Jack looks on from afar with mounting anticipation as she works. Watching as she quite literally pulls back the curtain of the barrier. The glowing wall crinkling in the same manner as a normal piece of drapery would being pulled to the side.
With a jolt of confidence, Lucy put the whole thing to rest as she swung the staff outwards like she was up to bat, arcing in the air and taking the veil with it. The whole of the barrier lighting up in nearly white, and with the flourish of its fabric in the wind, the frost crumbing and dusting away as it fully disintegrates. Floating off into the air in a swarm of particles like smoke from a chimney.
They both stare in astonishment and surprise as the wall disappears. Jack overcompensates in trying to hide the expectancy by standing a little too still, his heart rate spiking into his throat. A little too frozen in place compared to Lucy, who immediately went to put her hand through the space where the wall had been. Her wrist swishes through the air uninhibited.
"It worked!" she said a touch out of breath, "Nothing there anymore. And you doubted me when I said I'm crushing it."
He swallows, stealing his resolve, "Not bad, but now I want you to try it again. Putting it up and taking it down, back to back."
"Why?" she looks over her shoulder to ask.
"Because it's control mastery. Repetition is key after all. Now again, let's see it. Why don't you really try and deliver on your promise of 'crushing it'."
He's entered full tunnel vision, watching with laser focus as Lucy does as she's instructed. He needs to make sure she can do this with some sense of consistency before doing anything too drastic. His unusually quiet, yet burning presence imposes itself on Lucy as she works.
Summoning the likes of a different barrier in the snow, she voices her ideas to try working in different shapes this time. But Jack outright ignores this; providing some halfhearted response and then continues to scrutinize. She etches the shape of an oblong, very terrible circle that was supposed to be a square this time, leaving the barrier up and active for only a moment before Jack insists she take it down.
And so she did. They do this a few more times. The same repeated actions of summoning the shape, erecting its walls, barely taking a breath before tearing them back down again. Lucy could feel the toll it was taking already, tiredness settling into her muscles after the third attempt.
Jack wouldn't allow her to look over to him and check in for more than a second. Stay focused he says, but she knows. She knows something is going on. Some kind of gears are turning in his head but she can't tell which ones. And she hasn't had the opportunity to get a look at his core for any hints thus far. He's just been too quiet.
So after round four of barrier work, she lets the latest wall disappear and sinks down to the floor, sitting on her knees to catch her breath.
"I'm not doing anymore!" she strains, "That's a lot of work! I think I got it now anyway so just give me a second."
"Fine," he coldly responds as he aimlessly walks back and forth with his hands behind his back. His gaze vaguely downward as he thinks, desperately trying to get from point A to point B as silently as possible.
The gun is fully loaded and his grip on the handle tightens.
Lucy can barely stand the annoyance of his anxious shuffling and finally pipes up about it, "You doing okay there, Jack?"
He takes a moment to answer, "Yes, yes perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"
"You just seem a little spaced out is all, a little distracted even. That is what pleasantries are for right? You make small talk, ask the normal questions, talk about the weather. You tell someone when you're not doing good. All that jazz."
This comment elicits something within him trying to float up to the surface. Small, bright and hastily stomped on. He promptly pushes it back down as quickly as it came, the ghost of the warmth from yesterday now expertly snuffed; Like second nature. He's not letting anything slip when he's this close. And that's when he gets an idea. The idea. Simple in of itself but hopefully just enough to cross the finish line.
"I know how to make small talk. But it's hardly of importance now that I've thought of something different to try. An experiment if you will," He casually positions himself in front of the exile doorway. "Come on! No better way to shake everything loose. Works every time, guaranteed."
His change in demeanor and his odd offer intrigues the teen, raising her from her spot on the ground. "I find it hard to believe that 'experimentation' has worked out every time for you. Or even at all," she skeptically retorted.
"Well, it has! Shifting the status quo is always a good thing, I assure you," he says motioning for her to take a spot directly in front of him, "Now I want you to stand right here."
"Okay," she says, oblivious to their positioning, "And what experiment are we doing here."
"Well, usually deconstructing a spell only works when you've already constructed something beforehand right? But sometimes if you try uncasting a spell when there's nothing there, it could have some very different effects on whatever is around you," he lies. "That's what I want to try and do now. I want you to try and take down a barrier when there is none."
Steady grip now, wait for it.
Lucy looks puzzled, "Does that actually happen?"
"Yep. There's a lot of variety in what could happen, but because you have such powerful magic at your disposal, I thought it would be worth trying out anyway. Just to see what happens."
His smile is wide and cheesy, fake and practiced. His expression chiseled into one of pleading trust that he's come to master over the many years he's used it.
Lucy readies her staff cautiously, "Hmm. Okay then. So I just do the same as I would if I was taking a barrier down?"
"Precisely," he answers a little too fast, "But you might want to take another step closer."
She does as he says and takes another step, his heartbeat skyrocketing with the action.
His finger hovers just above the trigger, shaking with the anticipated pause to fire.
Wait for it...
She takes her stance, cheeks and staff aglow with the proper magic.
Almost…
And as she angles her staff to pull the curtain that wasn't there, he lunges for it.
BANG!
She didn't have time to think before both of his hands clasped down on the staff, partially on top of her own. And with a strong yank forward the magically imbued staff parted the veil of the Antarctic barrier spell. He swipes the staff upward, dragging Lucy with him and not caring about how she gets yanked around the process.
Lucy's mouth went agape as he wielded her staff still in her own hands. She tripped over her own feet so as to not lose grip, nearly falling to the ground, held up by Jack's choke hold on the instrument.
Both of their hearts skipping a beat, perhaps even ceasing to pump entirely as time slowed down, a cold sweat washed over them both. He tricked her into disassembling the barrier spell that encased them. Lucy was then suddenly thrown the opposite direction, away from Jack as he tossed her aside. Sending her tumbling back and onto the ground and the staff flying out of her hands.
In utterly stunned silences, they watched from their respective vantage points as the massive barrier around the continent disappeared. In the same way as all the others did, but given its massive size the entire horizon line around them was engulfed in a suffocatingly bright glow.
The sky itself was bathed in magic as both parties watched the barrier disintegrate all around them. Taking far more time to fully do so as its destruction traveled further and further away from their sight. A bubble bursting in slow motion.
Both of them had a passing thought about how a huge magical display like that was going to be hard to miss for any humans lurking on the shorelines. Or even from space maybe. The whole border of Antarctica suddenly glowing and shedding a secret magical skin? That might be a problem.
But this was only fleeting as Jack kept his line of sight to the heavens, taking in every ounce of clear, magicless skies as his freedom grew with the shrinking of the walls.
Lucy was bathed in shock; her system almost physically couldn't handle what he had done. She sat on the icy ground, still propped up by her own arms from the fall. She looked as though she had been given a terrible and life-threatening diagnosis.
"Jack…?"
But Jack was not listening. He turned his attention to the doorway to the bypass. Slowly closing in on it, dissecting it as though it will harm him if he even tries thinking about it.
"JACK!" Lucy's adrenaline kicks in, seeing what he plans on doing. The panic in her veins saying she's not going fast enough as she hauls herself off the floor and tries to pursue him.
But he was faster this time. A swipe of his arm and a terrible and concentrated winter wind knocked her back down with cold indifference. She went tumbling back to the same spot, far enough away for him to maybe savor this a little longer.
He himself had the same affliction of adrenaline wreaking havoc on his nerves, staring down the barrel, the pathway to freedom. He almost didn't dare to get his hopes up. He took a shallow breath, his heart beating in his ears and very cautiously tested the doorway. Puting the tips of his fingers outside the veil. He was doing it. It is real, the world beyond that he's been deprived of is real! He swallows as he puts more of his hand out into the waiting bypass.
"JACK DON'T!"
Lucy shouts from somewhere behind him. And that was his cue to leave now before she could catch up to him. He goes for it, and he runs.
With the gunshot sounded and the glass ceiling broken, it was now off to the races.
He only got a few strides into the bypass before needing to stop again, a few feet into the main chamber. Lapping up the sight of somewhere different as if he had been dying of thirst.
Oh and it was warm. It was warm here! The artificial, stale kind of warmth that everyone ahead of him is taking for granted. The temperature shift enveloping him exacerbated his bad shoulder. The suggestion of thorn inflicted wounds trying to dance their way up to the surface. It was stale but full of smells and things to look at. And he can smell! Hardly anything to smell in the wasteland but here the air was full and alive. Now that he's free he can still be all those things. He was back, and he needed to get home.
And it was only now he was made aware of the kiosk's staple employee, Rusty, getting back to his post after lunch. The goblin froze in his tracks, hot coffee still in hand.
Jack didn't say anything.
Rusty didn't say anything.
They just looked at each other waiting to see who would make the first move.
And apparently it was going to be Jack, because once Lucy stumbled through the doorway, Jack on instinct swiped his magically imbued hand in the air; sending tendrils of ice to lock Rusty's feet in place, plastering him to the floor before taking off.
"Hey! What the fuck man!" Rusty yelled after him.
Lucy only barely managed to see what had happened before Jack started running off again. She put both her hands up to her mouth as she saw the state Rusty was in. She was in such a frantic hurry that she left her own staff behind and blurted out a half-baked apology before running after Jack.
And did he run. He ran like he had never run before. He ran as if there would be some great prize waiting for him at a finish line that didn't exist. He ran like he still had something to live for. He tore past bypass travelers, not a care in the world that some would be tripped or fell or their items knocked out of their hands. He didn't care. It didn't matter. This is what matters. It's what always mattered.
But as fast as he ran, Lucy gave chase, trying not to let him out of her sight. Her heart still left back in Antarctica, she didn't have the time to process any heartbreak or residual shock from the betrayal. And these feelings did try to climb up out of the pit, but she had to push them away for now. Even without a plan for what would happen after, she just needed to at least catch up to him.
She summoned her telekinesis in both of her hands as she flew, trying to sharp shoot him and maybe trap him in her magic. She hadn't moved anything people sized before, but if anything, now was the time to try.
But the force of her boots hitting the tile and speed she was trying to maintain was making this rather difficult. She caught random decoration pieces as she ran by and even set off a few small accidental explosions of magic sparks in the air in her haste. Her magic chose now of all times to go off on its own and to not help her in the slightest. Making just as much of a ruckus as Jack was.
She even caught the small decorative Christmas tree he turned the corner on, putting it askew and a few inches into the air, and she fumbled to set it up straight again without causing any damage.
And Jack only stopped running in the middle of the giant aisle to quickly wrack his brain, through grated breaths, on where his portal entrance was exactly.
It was here that Chimera, walking along the second floor noticed, along with the general masses, the commotion happening on the ground floor below her. Minding her own business when folklore down below either halted themselves or were stopped by force from the chase. Unapologetically staring at the longways struggle that was momentarily paused.
Chimera looked as if she saw a ghost, the fur on her haunches standing on end. Watching as none other than Jack Frost stood in the center of the bypass completely free, and his weird little tag along a good distance behind him trying to angle a Christmas tree in midair. Her hands hectically stumbled over themselves in retrieving her crystal ball from her leather bag strapped to her waist. She activates the contact she needs, keeping an eye on the pair of runaways.
The light goes red and she all but screams, "KILLS! Kills! Kills! Kills, I know I said I wouldn't bother you with this kinda thing anymore, but you need to get to the bypass RIGHT NOW! Shit is going down, and it's not the fun kind!" She strings the words together as quickly as possible.
"Mera Slow down. Can this wait at all?" Killian asks from the other end of the line, "I'm on the clock right now, you should know that."
"It's Jack! He's out! He's free, he's escaped and he's running through here like a madman!"
She didn't get any response from him, a moment of eerie silence then dull static before the line cut out. She knew that he was on his way.
Once he remembered it was on the third floor, Jack went sprinting again. He was in such a frenzy he didn't have the time to mess with the lifts. He disappeared into a blizzard wind and willed himself up to the third floor, up and over the railing in one fell swoop before he rematerialized and started running again.
Lucy followed his pathway with her eyes as she finally managed to set the tree down on the ground, putting it back in its original spot before taking off after him, gaining for himself a discouragingly great lead. With no other way to get up there, she was forced to use one of the lifts, commandeering an empty one and trying to will it as fast as it would go to the third floor.
Now he remembers! All of this is starting to look more and more familiar as he races by teleporter after teleporter; counting them one by one and reading their labeled signs as he blurs by, until he reaches a familiar end point at the very end of the hall. Skirting to halt in front of the entrance to Frost Residence.
He paused.
He stared.
And his heart sank. Plummeted down past the second and ground floors and into the earth's crust.
All the hurry and urgency he had in his body suddenly vanished. Suddenly it was quiet, the beat of his own racing heart the only sound he could hear.
Catching his breath, he saw that his realm entrance was all but condemned. The magical veil that's supposed to be hanging from the half circle archway (one that was completely made out of unmelting ice) was gone. Dismantled and replaced with nothing but open air and lines of caution tape strung back and forth in the semi-circle. The huge crystal that hangs in the sculpted icy base of the arch was dull and without its glow.
The alcove itself was barricaded off completely with a neat line of wooden walls that resembled traffic barriers, warding off the zero visitors that may try to trespass. It looked horrific. Empty and desolate. It looked like a ghost town. Only suiting to match its long-lost owner.
Stunned into abhorrent silence, he stood there. A moment, a minute, an hour. No one could say for certain. Something, deep deep within his core, twitched. A hollowness he hadn't yet known the likes of until now. One that he thought he knew, but he was wrong. He managed to keep his wits about him just enough to unceremoniously jump the barricade. Steps as light as a flurry, hesitant and in disbelief, he strolled up the ramp to the base of the teleporter.
Seeing the sight before him, the vestiges of denial slip through his fingers. Fear creeps in through the back of his throat, his very skin alight with nervous energy, not knowing what to do with it other than to stand. And stare. And realize. And feel his entire world crumble around him.
And it was only now did he truly know this wasn't just about the realm. It wasn't about his home; it wasn't even about freedom. Being free and still having nowhere to go, only made him realize all the things he didn't want to believe were true. The escape proved to be a catalyst for reality to finally set it.
Seven years overdue.
He casts an errant glance behind him to the very few bypass travelers that spared a look his way. Mocking the loss of one Jack Frost, if they thought of him at all. Most avoided that particular area like it was the plague. But even more still, went on with their lives. Unbothered and unchanged whether he was present or not.
Suddenly it was harder to breathe as he turned to gawk once again at his condemned front door. He knows what he's thinking is true, what he's seeing, what he knows to be true. Here and now it all finally clicks for him.
But it can't.
It can't. It can't! None of this can actually be true because if it was!
Then all of it really was for nothing…
He was petrified. Quite literally frozen in place by the unconscious layer of ice forming under his soles, gluing him in place. A place of true, unbridled fear. He thought he could handle fear, but he didn't think it would ever be as sharp and as crushing as this. After a lifetime of trying to avoid it, the nothingness before him, and inside him, finally broke him.
And that was when Lucy came crashing into the scene, smoothly gliding over the barricades and slamming herself into his back, violently sending him tumbling forwards and onto his knees. He grunts with the impact of the fall but said not a word and provided no resistance.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" she screamed, voice slightly raspy from the heavy breathing, "What are you doing!? Are you actually insane? Are you actually crazy?! Was this the plan the entire time? To trick me into letting you lose!? Was the promise you made at the beginning fake too? Was all of it fake? Was all that wasted time worth it to you!?"
The grip of the avoided heartbreak trying to take hold of the teen, her face red and hot as she tore into the pathetic man on the floor. He didn't move, didn't even look like he was thinking of it.
"It wasn't…" he whispered just above a breath, "it wasn't worth it…"
It was all he had to say for himself, and all that would be said for a long moment more. The betrayal now had the chance to fully cut into Lucy. Her initial anger fizzled out into bitter dejection. A bleeding wound from somewhere she couldn't bandage up. Tears threatened to escape from her eyes, her shoulders slumped in much the same way Jacks were. She placed her face into her palms, a warbled sigh leaking through her fingers, trying to compartmentalize the situation and think of what she should do now.
He's not putting up a fight. Barely even seems like he wants to be here anymore. All that gusto had suddenly died, and she didn't even know why. He only moved to be sitting on his knees on the floor. He seemed more like a ghost than usual.
They both sat and stood in silence for another minute longer. Lucy's brain going a million miles an hour and Jack's inner self in much the same unrest. They stewed in the silent tension for an indefinite amount of time. Neither of them could tell or cared enough to know. They stayed in their places waiting to see who would move first. Who couldn't take any more of the weighted atmosphere that threatened to crush them.
And that's when Lucy managed to pluck something cohesive from her thoughts. She almost backed out of the decision she made next. Almost reasoned that he didn't deserve it. But if anyone was going to give a hug to a criminal before being hauled off to prison, it would be her.
She eventually pulled herself together and walked over to Jack, offering an open palm next to him. She kept her gaze focused ahead of her, unusually stern and serious.
"Let's go back," she rigidly commanded.
Jack only barely lifted his head, maybe even contemplating if he should or not. But at this point?
What would be the difference?
He sadly got back up on his feet, his eyes fixated on a horizon that doesn't exist. Hollow and without cause.
Lucy grabbed his hand, and with more poignant silence surrounding them, hand in unlovable hand, made their way back to exile.
It was a rarity for anyone to see Lucy truly sad or angry, she had a habit of finding light spots in the dark. But today was apparently the day for breaking barriers. She looked miserable, only magnified by how out of place such an expression was on a face that mostly smiled.
Jack looked more like a shell of himself than usual. Heavy with the crushing realization thousands of years in the making. When you realize that most of your life has been a waste, how could he not be. His eyes almost seemed to gloss over, he was robotic and sterile in his presence.
They were as silent and as mournful as a funeral procession, slowly making their way back the path they came. Ogling folklore around their immediate vicinity watched as they quietly and calmly walked through the bypass. A nameless girl holding hands with an escaped prisoner will surely draw a whispering and gossiping audience as Lucy led Jack back down the lift and through the massive walkway.
Chimera included in the gaping crowd, as she tried to concoct some sort of reason for the scene she was witnessing.
'They're just going to…go back? Just like that? And he's gonna let it happen? What is going on here?' she pondered.
And that was when a mass of shadows made itself known beside her, quickly forming into Killian's usual appearance.
"What the hell is going on?" he asks.
"Down there," she points to Jack and Lucy approaching the banishment door. "You missed everything. Little red chased him all the way through here and then we lost sight of em. But then they come back and just…do that. Take a nice little stroll back to jail."
Killian furrows his eyebrows in confusion, looking down at the oddly calm display being relayed to him. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see what he could make of the situation, just as perplexed as everyone else.
Until he spots it. He spots the thing only he can see. Something only glaringly obvious to The Boogeyman only. His eyes widened with the realization, frustration building in his posture. Annoyance maybe, but anger was a better word.
He had been left out!
"Son of a bitch" he mutters, "Son. Of. A. Bitch! Are you kidding me? This is bullshit!"
"Kills I know that —,"
"—No no no no no! Not that! Look, Mare!" he says, throwing an accusatory finger to Jack, sullen and inhospitable. Chimera somehow looks even more puzzled at his reaction.
"That is the face of a man who has just realized that his greatest fear came true!" he uttered, "And I missed all of it! Wasn't even involved! That motherfucker managed to exclude me yet again! The one thing I could've even remotely looked forward to and he took that away too."
Chimera looks back to Jack for confirmation, just as the unlikely pair cross the teleportation barrier again. A fleeting moment of Jack's hollow stare makes it click for her. He was left out. She knows that there is a laundry list of people who deserve to see Jack Frost fall apart. A whole host of people that would've paid anything to be the one to watch this man's spirit get crushed.
But Killian was her friend. Terrifying in all his power but toted around a set of scars that he never asked to bare. A decision that Jack made for him all those hundreds of years ago. And now she herself was a little ticked off by the circumstances.
She was biased, but she wished Killian was the one to watch the hope leave his eyes. To be the one responsible for it.
Lucy and Jack travel beyond the threshold again, welcoming the cold slap of the Antarctic; And somehow even with them in it, it feels more barren than when they left. She shoves him into a random spot, stepping away like he has the plague and grabbing the abandoned staff on the ground. She straightens into a rigid position to reactivate another barrier spell. A very small circle of a container was made around Jack as he stood with his back to her. Caged into a plastic cup of sorts. And once the spider was captured she let loose.
"I ask you again: What is WRONG with you!?" she shouts, "I am trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here! I am reaching out to you despite everything that you've done, and you still can't even play nice for two weeks! Two weeks out of your life you couldn't even pretend to care! Couldn't stick it out long enough to maybe even betray me after the fact!"
Her chest and face feel hot as she rattles off the blame to him; angry more than anything but also more hurt than she thought she would be. Even angry at herself for feeling so distressed and out of place after such a betrayal.
"It doesn't matter," Jack mumbles.
"What?"
"It doesn't matter. In here, out there. It doesn't matter where I go does it? I can't believe all of it never even mattered…"
"What are you talking about? Are you even listening to me!? You use me to try and escape prison and you won't even hear what I'm trying to tell you?! Do you know what you just did? You don't even know what's going on here do you?!"
"No you dont know whats going on!" he abruptly turns to face the teen as he shouts back, temporarily silencing her.
"You're the one who's not getting it! I gave up everything I ever had! My home, my title, my status, anyone who tried to stop me, I got rid of it! Threw it all to hell to try and be something! I gave up everything for something I apparently didn't even want, and it still didn't matter! Nothing ever came of it! The only thing that's left is me! And it's only ever gotten me here! In the middle of nowhere with a stupid kid!"
"And you're only realizing this now?! You're only just realizing that being evil didn't get you what you want, and this is somehow a surprise?!"
"I was supposed to earn it all back! They were calculated risks! The things I could afford to live without, the people I could afford to lose. And—and when I ran out of those it was a game of what did I have left? W—what was left to throw onto the fire?"
Jack's anger died just as soon as it erupted at his sentiment trails. His expression falls into one of grieving as his hands shake.
"I gave away every good thing I ever had, and I'm still nobody..." he feels a pang in his chest as he continues to spout his desperate revelation, "I destroyed everything, and it didn't matter. I just wanted to be something. But all I have now is nothing."
Lucy's immediate anger was also dulled by his pathetic plight. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand in irritation. Trying to push away the softness that still lurks in her heart. He doesnt deserve it, that's what everyone has been saying to her about him. But she spares a glance at him in the turning of her own emotional tides.
He's not even looking at her anymore, his head turned away in what could only be described as shame or grief. She is fuming and hurt. He's hurt her, he's hurt a lot of people, but he's also hurt himself in the process.
"This isn't about you!" her eyes harden and her face once again scrunches with annoyance as she chastises, "Absolutely you screwed yourself over, of course you did! It was stupid to think you wouldn't end up in actual magical jail if everything you did was for your own benefit. But what's worse is that you've proved everyone right in the process!
Maybe everyone was right to say I shouldn't trust you! And maybe they were right to think that I'm out of my depth and that I can't do this. Maybe I actually was wrong.
And maybe you're right to say that all of this was for nothing."
Her emotions ebb and flow on the points of her rant, drifting from outrage to anguish to everything in between. Everything that's just occurred has thrown her for a loop, a curve ball that she swore she would be ready for. But it turns out she wasn't as ready as she thought. Before any of these thoughts could fully sway into tearful territory she tries to leave. Stomping her way to the exit to try and have the last word on the matter.
"I'm sorry," Jack utters at the last minute. Just barely audible. A poorly stitched together white flag flown by a decimated army. Sick and outnumbered with the war firmly lost.
It breaks Lucy further to hear and to know that it drips with honesty. She almost wishes he hadn't said it, but pushes it aside nonetheless, and pushes herself out of the door.
Jack's shoulders slump as he watches her leave. Watching maybe the last thing he had get sabotaged by himself once again. He presses his back to the new barrier wall, slowly sinking down to the floor. His stare is that of a wounded dog. He fears she may never be back. He wallows in the deafening silence of the bed he's made for himself.
Mother Nature and Father Time were doing damage control in the meanwhile. Not a lot left of it to do considering that most of the crowd of actual witnesses had mostly left by this point. Replaced with new incoming travelers who had only heard whispers of what had just happened. For the council heads there was only the clogging of traffic to clear out and a very underpaid goblin attendant's legs to thaw. Which Mother Nature specified he would be getting a generous bonus for such an inconvenience.
A million and one thoughts racing through Mother Nature's head based on the basic accounts Rusty had given them. Another escape through seemingly impenetrable walls? With a newly magical human caught in the fray? It was a lot and slow going to try and unpack. If anything, it only cements how slippery he can be.
But just as his last leg was being melted free by the sunbeams from the legend's hands, Lucy comes out of the door to exile.
"Lucy!" Mother Nature exclaims over her shoulder. She quickly finishes the thaw job and rushes over to the teen, "Lucy are you okay? Are you hurt? Me and Horace heard about everything from Rusty, it's just lucky he managed to press the panic button from where he was frozen."
Lucy's resolve wavers in the presence of the legend, warm and comforting in much the same way of her own mother. Boiling, angry tears threatening to leak from her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm hurt! I—I mean I'm fine physically, maybe a bit bruised or something I don't even know. But I'm not fine because he—and I—but—it—GAHH! Ugh!" The girl let her staff loose into the air as she irritably rubbed her face with both hands, groaning into her palms.
Mother Nature places two sympathetic hands on the girl's shoulders, "I know Lucy, I know. It's okay, everything is alright now."
It was all she was willing to say at the moment while Lucy continued to loudly sigh into her gloved hands, knowing that she needs more time before telling her anything else. Mother Nature rubs small circles onto Lucy's coat as her presence works its magic and invisibly soothes her nerves. Father Time watching on from over his shoulder, while trying to garner the last bits of information from the globin attendant.
Eventually Lucy heaves her head out of her hands, locking eyes with the legend like a sad puppy out in the rain. The last remaining crescent of anger in her eyes fades away.
"Lucy, what exactly did he do?" Mother Nature asks carefully.
The girl briefly looks over her shoulder to the door to exile, she's confused by how unsure she is of the answer she wants to give.
"I—I don't, I don't know, I uh…" she hesitates, letting the thought die before it actually manifested.
Mother Nature senses the uncertainty, she's been jostled quite hard by whatever transpired beyond the veil. And chasing down her mentor through the bypass? Unbelievable.
Mother Nature crouches down to Lucy's eye level to speak to her, "It's okay Lucy, really. You're not obligated to tell me anything if you don't want to. I just want to know your side of the story, but if you don't want to talk about it I won't pry."
Lucy sighs defeatedly looking at the monarch, "Really?"
"Of course," she gently smiles. "Look, how about we cut the session short today? Why don't you go home while Horace and I figure this out."
Lucy croaks, a little too fast on the response time, "I can't go back. Not back home anyway. I can't tell my parents that this happened, they already didn't want me doing this in the first place. What are they gonna say when they find out that he escaped? That he can escape? I can't tell my parents about any of this!"
Mother Nature was surprised by the sudden rashness, "Why not? Don't you think they deserve to know?"
"Yeah, I mean, they do. But," she pauses, "I was so sure going into this that I could handle it! I was so confident and they'd be so worried. I don't want this to somehow…prove them right."
Oh dear. This has some deeper implications than she first thought. The roots of this tree go further than she was expecting.
"Alright, alright, you don't have to go back home," Mother Nature reassured, "You don't have to go back home and you don't have to talk about it. I'm sure there's a lot on your plate right now. A lot on your mind, yeah?"
Lucy can only meekly nod back as a response.
Mother Nature deliberated on what to do next. With no more damage control left to do, the only other pressing matter at the moment was to…talk to Jack about this. Something that she was dreading to do. Of course they talked when Lucy's deal was struck, but it was still so…soon to her. Seven years of silence isn't long for an immortal being, but to this one it felt like seven hundred.
She sees Lucy's emotional state as a problem for sure, but also an out to avoid talking to Jack for the time being. She's dealt with many a troubled teen in her lifetime. And Lucy only means well, this will be a far less daunting task.
"Well, it's very lucky for you that I have a place that I like to go to when there's a lot on my plate as well," she invited, "Not too far from here. I still say that you should talk to your parents at some point, but we can stop there for a minute and come back to this with a clear head."
This catches the sliver of Lucy's enthusiasm that manages to shine through the overwhelming throngs of emotional shock.
"Is the place your realm with the big tree…?" she quietly asks.
"I'm afraid not," she softly chuckles, "but it is somewhere just as magical, I think. Very special to me."
Before she goes any further, Mother Nature told Lucy to give her one moment to talk with Father Time before they left. The redhead watches the legends from her spot as they whisper information to each other. Neithers expression changes much as they take in what the other has to say. The council head joins Lucy at her side once again, sending Father Time off into the entrance to exile. Assumingly, to take over the task of reprimanding Jack on his temporary escape.
The pair depart the scene of the crime, in search of solace.
Goa, India was such a lovely place this time of year. A far cry from the static winter where Lucy lives, this particular beach calls out to the legend in her times of need.
In terms of magical travel, it was just a hop, skip and a jump away to get to there. As Mother Nature explained; In the basement of the Continental Bypass was a series of doorways, the same teleporters that are used throughout the other five floors. But these ones kept in the basement, under lock and key, go straight to the human world and not other magical civilizations. Random, mostly unpopulated, points in the greater world where only designated personnel, with clear purposes are allowed to go. Only to best avoid the discovery of the magical world to human kind.
Mother Nature brought a despondent Lucy through the door, opening out onto a palm beachside at night. Rocky cliff faces box in the small alcove that they stand in, cradling but not suffocating. The palm leaves rustled as they were disturbed by the warm ocean breeze.
Lucy aimlessly wanders the beach with her head craned toward the star speckled sky above; a bright contrasting moon illuminates them. She shrugs off her winter coat and drives the end of the staff into the sand to hold it upright. Mother Nature silently walks ahead of her to where the waves breathe onto the shore, picking up her skirt of foliage and letting the water submerge her ankles.
The both of them already seem far more at peace then they were before.
"Lucy," Mother Nature calls.
Lucy follows her summons, and runs up to be as close to Mother Nature as possible without her boots getting wet.
"I want to show you something," she says.
She leans down to the water's surface and laces her fingers into the lapping waves. Magic flows from her palms, activating a flash of green light that soon turns blue and ripples out from her touch to the water on the shoreline. Little specks of blue light appear in the water as it slides up and down on the sand, glowing as it crashes onto nearby rocks.
Lucy lets out a small gasp, "Whoa."
"Bioluminescent water has always been one of my favorites," Mother Nature explains with a calm smile. "Take off your shoes, the waters warm."
Mother Nature's casual tone is persuasive enough for her. Even if she was just betrayed, she can't help but feel a twinge of zeal for the fact that she's in India right now. She follows her direction and carefully removes her snow boots and socks. Rolling up her leggings she takes a few steps into the shallows. The comfortably water on her skin elicited a feeling of peace she hadn't felt from the ocean before now. A magical sensation for sure but centering all the same.
"I want you to tell me something," she croons with her eyes calmly closed.
"Okay."
"Tell me about the tides, Lucy. What stage are they in right now? What do they say?"
The answer came to her faster than she expected. So fast it catches her off guard. Barely even having to reach for it, like it was knowledge she had all along.
"It's mid-tide right now. Almost creeping into low tide."
Mother Nature grins, "Good. Now look up at your counterpart."
Lucy's eyes follow the legend's outstretched palm to the sky where the moon sits. Another strange feeling whispers in the back of her head. The moon is now more familiar to her. Maybe even a little too familiar in a way she can't quite articulate.
"What phase is the moon in right now?"
The answer, again, comes to her with a surprising amount of ease, "Just coming out of a full moon. It's just barely a waning gibbous."
"Very good," Mother Nature says, "He must be teaching you well."
Lucy silently deflates and shrinks away from the mention. Not having the heart to tell her that Jack has not taught her anything of inherent magical knowledge.
"Bioluminescent waves were one of his favorites too," she continued, "from a long long time ago. He couldn't have been older than twenty at the time; Still hadn't mastered permafrost yet. I didn't tell him where I was going, but he followed me anyway, just to see where he wasn't allowed to go. He said he liked that the ocean could glow. Tried to see if he could do the same thing once, but he was obviously not blessed with a green thumb."
...
"What do you want to do, Lucy?"
The question was soft spoken yet blunt enough to give Lucy pause. The push and pull of the cross-roads tearing at her.
"I—I don't know," she says, "I still need to learn everything. But I know I can't trust him."
"Did you trust him before? Didn't you march through the council meeting, with nothing but a magical feeling that said it was the right decision?"
Of course, she didn't trust him in the first place, but was so sure that he's the key to settling a lot of civil unrest that's been going on behind the scenes.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I know what to do. The only reason I came to him for help is because I don't know what I'm doing."
Mother Nature pauses for a while more. Trying to find the words that will best help her situation.
"...You know Jack tried to freeze the little micro lights in the water once? He wanted to preserve them and save them for himself. But that's not exactly how these things work. They only glow with impact, and no matter how many times he tried he couldn't seem to keep them alive in the ice. He spent days trying, but they always faded away.
Except for this one."
With the flick of her wrist, a green shimmer produced a small, ragged chunk of ice in her hand. She handed it to Lucy who examined the one tiny light in the very center. The same as all the other bioluminescent beads floating around their ankles, but static and frozen in this little piece of permafrost.
"This one is different. This one managed to brave the harshest conditions and continues to shine after nearly 5,600 years. It's resilient. Unlike anything I've ever seen before," Mother Nature's knowing smile and heavy handed allegory. "You don't need to know what you're doing. You don't need to know anything at all. Your intuition is strong Lucy; Listen to it. Whatever you decide to do will be the right choice."
Lucy simmers on this thought for a moment, the breath of the ocean air washing over her. Yet again she had reached an impasse of indecision. So she instead takes the token of wisdom and switches directions, handing the chunk of ice back to the council head.
"What's going to happen to him now?"
"I don't know yet. At the very least the release of the barrier will stir quite a bit of human attention. I think he should be temporarily moved somewhere else, just to be extra safe," she said.
"I'm not gonna say I'm happy about it. But I don't like how alone it is there," Lucy voiced, "It's too quiet. Way too quiet. I don't think it's good for him to be in an echo chamber like that."
"Maybe so," Mother Nature admitted. Solemn in her pause when an idea struck her, "How about this then. Tomorrow we move him to temporary house arrest, and you can come around at the usual time to let him know what you've decided to do before he leaves."
Lucy sighs, "...Okay. I guess. I still don't know what I'm going to do, or what I should do."
"You know, I'm sure your parents might be of more help than you think here," she coaxes.
Lucy's posture becomes apprehensive at the suggestion, "Are you sure? I barely know about any of this magic stuff yet and they're gonna know less than me."
"Ah but this isn't about magic. This is about interpersonal conflict. You have a good head on your shoulders and your parents are the ones who made it that way. I wouldn't count them out so easily."
Lucy said nothing in return and swiveled her attention toward the ocean. The speckled blue light of the water capturing her affirmative silence.
"Are you sure you don't want to tell me what happened?" Mother Nature tentatively asks. She already has suspicions on what could have allowed him to escape, but needed confirmation from the key witness.
"If it's okay with you, I don't think I wanna talk about it. What matters is that he escaped, but I don't think he'll do it again."
Lucy herself didn't understand why she felt the need to cover for him. She wasn't talking out of emotional whiplash, but of the certainty of a posed question that she already subconsciously knew the answer to. Mother Nature took this non-answer in stride.
"Fair enough," she says, "I know you'll make the decision that's best for you Lucy."
Lucy gives a small smile in return, "Thank you, Mother Nature. I appreciate it."
In the midst of the song of the crashing waves filling the air around them, the legends eyes suddenly lit up with a dull exuberance.
"But do you want to know something else? Jack didn't know what he was doing at first either," she explained. "Jack couldn't get the hang of using permafrost until he was 25. He was so anxious to get that crossed off his list that when he finally did it, and learned how to use it, he went out into the woods and tried testing it.
On a moose."
This little story caught Lucy's attention and brought a bigger smile to her face, "A moose?"
"And not just any moose. A moose that he specifically provoked in order to get a moving target to try and freeze."
And this earned a tired laugh from the teen, "That can't be true."
"I guarantee it. He nearly got himself killed trying to prove a point that day. I'm a believer in survival of the fittest and I'm just very surprised sometimes that he's managed to live this long."
Lucy chuckles, "Ya know what? Me too."
"No, yeah she's doing just fine. I think she's already getting better at it," Laura discusses with her phone between her ear and shoulder, "Better than randomly lifting the dog's toys off the ground. Or throwing the odd decoration here and there."
Both of her hands are occupied as she sits at the dining room table, pieces of a plastic ornament in one hand and a small tube of super glue in the other.
"She doesn't mean to do it though, it's out of her control. I'm right now fixing an ornament she accidentally tossed this morning. The carousel one with all the molding on it. Picked it off the tree from across the room and it went flying into the wall. Had to clean the scuff off my paint too."
"Sounds like a handful. I don't remember my magic being so out of control," Scott responds from the other line.
Laura raises a sarcastic eyebrow, "You don't? Somehow, I find that hard to believe considering that your transition was a little less than graceful shall we say. You weren't the best at it Scott."
"Okay well that's only normal. I'm just saying that hers seems to be a lot more concrete than mine. I mean I can do the whole flying thing a little bit, mess with the chimneys and stuff. But her magic just seems like a lot to handle."
"Considering that they are different types, I would think that would be the case," she clarified as she held one of the bits of molding to the ornaments surface to seal it back on. "It's only been less than a week, and she's supposed to have these abilities for ten years. If you ask me, I think it'll take a lot longer than two weeks to learn how to handle them properly. You're going on nearly twenty years and you're still learning."
Before Scott could rebuke her comment, Laura could hear the closet door upstairs open and close; Right at her usual time when she gets home from her lessons.
"Oh, speak of the devil, that's actually her. Did you want me to put her on for you? I'm sure she can tell you all about her progress herself."
Lucy comes thumping down the stairs and into Laura's view, with Tulip trotting happily beside her. Leaving the staff in her room and tiredly tossing her boots to the direction of the entryway.
"Lucy, Scotts on the phone. Did you want me to patch you through? He's been asking about how your lessons have been going."
"Uh not right now, mom. Christmas is only a couple days away; I can just tell him then."
As she hangs her coat up near the front door, a red flag goes up in Laura's head. Turning down an opportunity to talk to Scott? One of her favorite people in the world? Something might be amiss here.
"Do you know where dad is?" she asks.
"He's out at the store getting a few things. A few Christmas things and popcorn since we're actually out right now and I've been craving popcorn all day."
"Alright, well uh, do you think I could talk to you for a sec?"
The call to duty has Laura's full attention, "Oh, yeah. Of course. We'll talk later Scott. Say hi to Carol for me. And tell her about the footbath! Don't let her skimp on a well-deserved girl's night."
Laura hangs up the phone and sets down the broken ornament pieces, gesturing for Lucy to take a seat before folding her hands on the table, "What's going on, sweetie? Everything going okay?"
Lucy nervously takes a chair next to her mom with Tulip laying down at her feet under the table, "…Well…actually it's about the magic lesions so far."
Before she heard anymore, Laura's imagination started wandering.
"What did he do?"
Lucy was quick on the defense, "He didn't—! Well, ah I guess he did do something. I don't know, he's just being difficult I guess you could say. Very difficult and completely out of nowhere."
"What did he do? Are you okay? Are you hurt at all? You don't look frostbitten," she frets as her hands find their natural places turning Lucy's face from side to side, sifting for anything out of the ordinary as a reflex.
"Mom, I'm fine, really! Zero frostbite," Lucy takes her mother's hands off of her face. "But I am hurt, I guess," she sighs, defeatedly slumping into her seat, "more than I thought I would be."
"Oh honey, what happened? I thought everything was going well so far. I've been noticing an improvement with your control and everything."
"It was. It actually was. He's a better teacher than he lets on. But he was just, being a real jerk today is all. And the worst part is that I kinda know why and it kinda makes sense. And it's all really stupid, he's being really stupid."
Lucy thought back to what he had to say before she left. Regrettably it does make more sense why his personal balance is all wrong. He's struggling and has been for a very long time. Being unfulfilled and unwanted for so long will definitely not get the best out of someone.
"He betrayed my trust today; I think I'll just put it like that. He tried messing with Antarctica's magic barrier, but it didn't work. But because he wanted to mess around with stuff, he's being moved to house arrest. And now I don't really know what to do, or how to feel."
"Alright. So, what does the barrier around Antarctica do?"
"It, uh, hides everything that's going on there. Magically speaking. Just so nobody can accidentally see something they aren't supposed to. Ya know, secrecy and all that," she skirts by the answer as painlessly as possible. Her skin starts to itch at the thought of telling another white lie about this arrangement she's agreed to. "You might hear about that on the news at some point by the way. A big ripple effect happened."
"And you said its still working right?" Laura proceeds cautiously.
"Yeah," she swallows, "Still— still works."
Laura hears all this out and tries to very quickly compartmentalize all of it. Ever since Neil came into her life, he's made her really think about how she parents her children. Because of him she wants to be better. And it's because of both of their efforts that Lucy feels comfortable enough to talk to her about something that really seems to be troubling her.
So, she takes a deep breath, and dives straight into it with her best effort.
"Alright. And you don't know what you should do?"
Lucy sighs, "I don't. I don't know if I should quit or stick with it or maybe some other third thing? I don't know what the right choice is here."
"Sounds like a real complex issue. But that's just the thing," Laura softly chuckles, "There is no 'right' choice. That's how these situations go as you get older. There's gonna be more and more gray areas for difficult problems like these. You can't control the actions of other people, but you can choose how you will handle it.
And because there's no right choice, there's also no wrong choice. This isn't a win or lose scenario. You just have to do the best you can and do what you think is right."
"…Really?"
"Yep. Me and your father voted in favor of this idea of yours. And even though we will worry about you and your safety, because that's our job, we will also stick by your decisions."
"So, you're not gonna say that I should quit?"
"I'm saying that you have options, and that this isn't my rodeo. You should know what your father says about bad experiences."
"That they're just as important as the good ones?"
"Exactly. Honey I can speak for both of us when I say that we'll support you no matter what. But this is about you here. I mean, you're the one who bulldozed your way here and vouched for him because you think it would work. Do you still think that?"
"I think I want it to work," Lucy pauses, "I think that deep down he is a good teacher."
"And that's all you need. If you think it can work, then so do we."
Luc stays silent for a moment, letting her mother's words sink in and take hold. Charlie says that she hasn't always been this intune with the emotional side of things, given his perspective from his own upbringing. But this was the mom she had all along. And even though she didn't give her personal recommendation on what to do, she supposed that's the point. She throws ideas back and forth to herself, slowly forming the consensus out of clay, until it becomes fully baked. And decided upon.
"Okay. Then, I choose to give it another try," she says, "Maybe just until after Christmas to see how house arrest goes."
"Good call," Laura affirms, "A few buffer days never hurt a thing. I'll have to relay all of this to your father when he gets back, but I'm sure he'll feel the same way."
Lucy lays the side of her head down on the surface of the table, finally fully relaxing from a weight being lifted. Letting out a breath she didn't know she had been holding for so long. Laura's fingers go to stroke the hair on the top of her head.
"Everything's going to be okay, hon. It'll all work out one way or another."
"Thanks, mom. It's been a long day."
"I can tell."
Suddenly a loud thumping and slight pressure on Lucy's legs makes itself known. Tulips tail is incessantly wagging and hitting the leg of the table, while she lays her head on top of Lucy's lap.
"Also, how is house arrest going to work exactly?" Laura asks.
"I have no idea," Lucy strokes the top of Tulips head, "I'm assuming the way that regular house arrest works? But I guess it might be cool to see where the actual winter season lives."
"...Pun intended?"
Lucy pauses before lifting her head off the table and narrowing her eyes at the joke, "Don't tell dad I said that because it was NOT intentional."
Laura chuckles, "It's not my fault that you are a regular clone of him ya know."
"I actually do know. Charlie said something like that the other day."
"Well just be glad that it's not a bad thing," she gives Lucy a firm pat on the back. "Now how about you go make yourself some food, kiddo, while I try and fix your little accident here."
"UGH," Lucy dramatically groans, standing up from her chair, "And I gotta make my own soup?! Why does this have to be so HARD momma? These powers are nothing but a curse, I'm telling you!"
Laura light heartedly rolls her eyes as her daughter's exclamations recede into the kitchen next to her, "Your powers have nothing to do with your ability to microwave a can of soup. You'll manage!"
The woman then turns her attention back to her repair project, Tulip now scooting under the table to lay down at Laura's feet as Lucy rustles through the kitchen cabinets.
Gentle afternoon snowfall grazes the surfaces of the home's windows around them.
Laura manages a concealed sigh of relief as she resumes the process of supergluing on molded carousel horses to the Christmas ornament. She knows she isn't always the best at these kinds of things, and she knows that her and Neil will have to have a talk when he gets back, but she also can't help but pat herself on the back for handling that whole ordeal. And maybe it wasn't the right way to handle it, but she does have a feeling that her husband might be just a bit proud of her when he hears about this.
All of a sudden Laura remembers the little bit of information that they scooted by earlier. She snaps her head up from her work and turned over her shoulder, "Wait! You said it's going to be on the news?"