Chapter Eight: Family Traits
Godric's POV
"Godric," my Bonded moans beneath me. "Why did you stop?"
"Something is wrong with Jason," I reply, leaving her embrace to start dressing. Camilla pulls the bedding around her naked body and watches as I dress. She grabs my phone from the nightstand and tosses it to me, but before I can make the call, my phone rings. "Jason, what happened?"
"So, my truck blew up," he replies nonchalantly. "And apparently I can fly? Or I guess float? I'm about two hundred feet in the air right now. I can't get down. I can't go higher. I can't go north, south, east or west. I'm just suspended like a puppet."
"I am coming to you now. I will try to use my command to pull you toward me," I tell him. "Once you start moving we will not be able to hear each other over the phone."
"What happened?" Camilla asks as I end the call.
"Jason can fly now, but he is stuck."
"Pam's gonna be pissed," Camilla laughs even as I head to the balcony and jump into the night sky. I send for Jason, and feel his body drifting toward my call. The speed is minuscule, probably because he is subconsciously fighting the draw.
As I fly toward Columbus, I feel Eric gaining on me and I slow to let him catch up. When he does, he calls, "What happened?"
"Apparently Jason can fly and he is stuck. Also, his truck blew up."
"Literally? Or did it break down?" Eric asks for clarification since the Stackhouses are prone to hyperbole.
"Since he found himself trapped in the air unexpectedly, I am willing to guess it literally blew up," I call back. We both speed up until we arrive just outside of Columbus where Jason is listing lazily toward us.
"I'm stuck!" Jason shouts.
"We will take you somewhere to practice next weekend," Eric assures him. "For now, try to concentrate on coming to me. Imagine someone has grabbed you by your shirt and is pulling you toward me."
Jason's body picks up a little speed and closes the remaining distance between the three of us.
"Oh, that was cool," Jason says as he arrives before myself and Eric. I grab Jason by his shirt and begin dragging him speedily back to our subdivision.
When the three of us arrive in Jason's backyard, I pull the youngest vampire of our bloodline to the ground and finally ask what happened.
As Jason tells me the tale of his intent to go to the city for blood and sex, only to come up with a drainer and a totaled truck. Most likely the drainers intended to sully the evidence of their attempted crime by blowing the vehicle up. I feel a turmoil in my link to him unrelated to the insurance nightmare ahead of him.
"You will want to file a stolen vehicle report in the morning. Perhaps leave your garage door open tonight," I suggest. "Now, tell me how you managed to fuck up so badly."
Jason puts his hands in his pockets and glances at my eldest Child in frustration.
"Eric, go home. Let Sookie know Jason has returned home safe and sound," I instruct. I feel Eric is irritated to be sent away with so little information, but he heeds my command and starts walking home. Once he is certainly out of earshot, I look to Jason expectantly.
"I just felt left behind, you know?" Jason confesses after another brief hesitation. "Back when we found out about Leif and Diedre, I didn't think much of it. I figured Pam and Alexis would still be doing the free and wild stuff. Now Alexis is looking like she'll be attached to Quigley in no time, and Pam is totally wrapped around Jenny. I may not be able to feel her, but I know Pam. This isn't her usual interest in a pretty girl."
"I agree."
"Feeling everyone pairing up and being the only single guy in the whole family just feels real lonesome," Jason admits.
"I see." I gesture at the patio sitting area and watch as Jason takes a seat. "I understand how it feels to feel forgotten. When Eric found Sookie, I felt so envious. I even felt a little spite. But, Jason, do not forget that the people you spent a majority of your time with have been Bonded."
"Yeah, and at the end of the school year, we won't have the thing that's had us revolving around each other. And it's not like I have anything I can do to help prep for Elfyria like Cammie intends to do." Jason has steepled his hands thoughtfully as he confesses all of these things going through his mind since our meeting.
"That is a lot." I sit beside him on the glider seat, the pair of us sway a moment from my weight settling onto the bench. "I am going to give you some advice that all of the family has had to hear several times over the past twenty-seven years." Jason looks at me expectantly and I smile. "Do not fret so much over the future. It will arrive in its own time, so there is no sense worrying over it."
"I know," Jason sighs, leaning his head back over the backrest. "Still it feels awful lonely right now."
"I am sure that it does, but you are never truly alone, now are you?" I point out.
"Nah," he agrees. "I felt you were already coming for me even before I made the call."
"That is right."
"Pam's gonna be pissed that I can fly." Jason suddenly laughs. "She kept holding out hope that she'd get that power. Now that I have it. It looks like Pam missed the train."
"So it would seem," I chortle as well. "Next weekend Eric and I will take you somewhere to practice. Having another flier in the family is a relief with how much this family has grown."
"Can Diedre or Quigley fly?" Jason asks.
"They cannot," I reply.
"Don't know why that surprises me so much," Jason frowns as he rises from his seat. "I'm gonna grab a blood. Want one?"
"No, thank you, Jason," I choose to decline. "If you are feeling better, then I will be returning home for the evening."
"Yeah, I'm good," Jason assures. "Thanks for your help tonight. I'll see you later."
I nod and begin my own walk home. As I am approaching the house I share with my Bonded, Camilla is already coming to the front door. "Is Jason okay?" she asks as I walk through the threshold.
"He is fine," I assure before explaining what happened without betraying Jason's later confessions.
"It's not like Jason to pull a drainer," Camilla frowns. "He's usually much more careful than that."
"It was surprising to me as well."
"Sookie is gonna give him an earful once Eric tells her what happened," Camilla laughs. "Man, I hope I'm there for that… Ooh, I'll probably be driving us all to school in the morning! Yes!"
I laugh at my Bonded's excitement. I love her nosey, mischievous side.
"I am certain he has had a lot on his mind. It is only natural to be distracted," I try to defend Jason's mistakes.
Camilla frowns as she takes my hand and leads me to the study where I see a stack of math homework awaiting grading. "You're probably right. A ton of changes have been going down just this month. The kids turned eighteen, they are both very likely to be Bonding sometime in the near future, and PAM of all people brought home a girlfriend? Jason must be feeling so left behind right now."
"Left behind?" I ask innocently, hoping my connection with my Bonded does not betray Jason's inner turmoil.
My Bonded shrugs, "It's gotta be hard being the," she pauses thoughtfully, "eleventh wheel."
"Maybe we will luck out and Baby Girl will revive and give him some babysitting distractions," I tell her. Camilla's expression becomes wistful at my indelicate remark. Mentioning Baby Girl is a monumental unkindness, as it raises my Milla's hope that she can help this youngling that is cast in cursed stone.
Ever since our return from Elfyria, Camilla has turned the large bottom drawer of her desk into a bassinet. She has treated the stone child in preserving oils and even began working on a stasis charm for the drawer in an attempt to keep the mineral from degrading as she tries to unlock the mystery of reanimating the infant.
"I know the sure fire way of reviving Baby Girl is for Sookie to take the throne in Elfyria," Camilla admits to me, "but if I can find a way to bring her back myself, or just give her a better chance at remaining whole until Sookie's ready-"
"You are doing a fine job, Milla," I assure her.
"Seeing her family already crumbled to dust after only four years in Elfyria broke my heart," Camilla confesses as she takes the baby from the drawer and begins applying the preservation oils. "It was like I was meant to find her. In all that forest, in just about two hours, I found this precious creature."
"You are already a fine mother to her," I assure. "And I am certain once it is alert and yowling, we will miss days like these."
Camilla shakes her head, "I'd take the most colic-ey baby if it means she's awake and alive once again."
I lean my forehead against Camilla's, offering her my love and devotion. I offer her my deepest strength in an attempt to help her remain fortified during her greatest trial.
Camilla's POV
"What were ya thinkin'!? Or were ya even thinkin' at all!" Sookie demands as she thwacks Jason repeatedly, her accent reverting into its deep, southern roots. Over the last decades, both Sookie and Jason's accents have really mellowed out, but when either of them get upset, the accent comes through like it never left.
I remember when we first moved here, students used to gossip about what a cute couple Jason and Sookie would make, both being from the south and all. Some of the students regularly thought they were having an affair. It took several rounds of siblings coming through our classrooms before middle schoolers upgrading to high school started with the knowledge that Mr. Stackhouse and Mrs. Northman were brother and sister. Eventually the rumors stopped all together after four or five years. Of course, that was probably helped along when Eric was voluntold to chaperone a school dance. Once the student body saw Sookie's husband, no one could envision her with anyone else.
"I was thinkin' I needed to let off steam," Jason yowls back, feigning injury as his sister gives him a shove.
"That is the dumbest excuse for takin' a drainer t'bed I've ever heard!" she hollers.
"It wasn't a bed," he mumbles.
"Not the point, Jason." Sookie has finally stopped smacking her brother. "We got an example to set for the kids. You think Leif didn't see his dad take flight last night outta the blue and not have questions when he got back?"
"Aw, don't tell me you told them what happened," Jason moans in embarrassment.
"Of course not," Sookie sighs. "I'm angry with ya, that don't mean I'm about to go bad mouthing about ya to Alexis and Leif."
Jason let's out a small, relieved sigh. "Listen, Sook. Imma level with ya, okay?"
Sookie stares at her brother patiently, and it's all I can do to focus on the road and not give Jason an encouraging thumbs up.
"Everything that's going on lately just got me feelin' awful lonely. I didn't want to think about it anymore, so I went out last night for a blood and a bang to distract myself," he confesses.
"Lonely," Sookie doesn't question his use of the word, and I can feel her absorbing his words.
"I wasn't ready to be the only single guy in the family, and I definitely wasn't ready for this to be the last year we all taught together," Jason tells us. "I know none of it's enough to sever us, but I feel like I'm just dangling on the threads of your life, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about that."
"Then why don't you study about Elfyria with me and Cammie?" Sookie asks like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I need to learn the government and culture, which your love of history is just opening a whole new world for you to learn about, right? Cammie plans on studying the magic of the fae realm so help buffer my total lack of active power. Instead of being teachers together, why don't we be students together instead?" Sookie leans her head against Jason's shoulder and pats his hand in a manner that's a far cry from the slaps he was getting just moments ago. "I know it's not a consolation for being the only single one in the family right now, but you weren't really hankerin' to settle down yet, right?"
"No," he confesses with a laugh.
"You still got us, Jason. Leaving teaching doesn't have to be the wedge you think it is," I offer. "Although, I'm gonna miss it too."
"Me too," Sookie adds. "I know it sounded like I came to this decision lightly, but I really didn't. And if there's any chance what Godric said was true and we can make this into an arrangement where I just have to return to Elfyria for a couple days out of the year, or maybe a month, I'd love to return to teaching."
"Me too," Jason agrees. "But I'll be by your side in the fae realm or the human realm. Who knows, maybe we can start a school in Elfyria."
Ooooh, that sounds like a really cool idea if it turns out we're gonna be hogtied to the fae realm. I mean, math matters no matter what world you live in, and it could be important for magical creatures to understand human history and customs. I wonder if Fairies read and write in English?
Sookie laughs and nods, "That could be real cool, but if four years there are eighty years here, you're going to be missing a lot of history lessons."
"I guess that's true," Jason agrees with a smile as I pull into the parking space we usually use.
We all head our separate ways for class, and I am unsurprised to see one of my students already asleep at their desk. It seems like any other day until my classroom is about half full and we're only ten minutes away from homeroom beginning.
Suddenly, Sookie bursts through my door and there's a slight shimmer of laughter from a few of my students. I glance at the ones that giggle, but Sookie glares at them.
Oh no, I think sadly. It must have to do with Alexis and what happened in the locker room only a couple weeks ago.
"I already made a call," Sookie tells me quietly and I know she's called Eric. I'm betting the school's internet is going to be having difficulties any second and somehow the local cell tower is going to be having trouble giving any signal at all. "Jason is making rounds right now and I'm on my way to the principal's office."
"Okay," I nod in understanding. I'm surprised we seemed to have missed someone when we made our rounds the day the video of Alexis was taken. I thought we'd been rather thorough, and the realization we failed makes my heart break for Alexis.
As I watch Sookie leave my classroom, and another flurry of giggles escapes some of my students, I cross my arms over my chest and stare each of them down. "As all of you are aware," I start angrily, " a couple weeks ago, several students attacked a classmate in the locker room and uploaded images of her into the local network. Despite the best efforts of the faculty, it seems some of the images were recovered and are now making rounds through the school once more."
My eyes pick up several smug expressions on several girls' faces, and it's pissing me off. "Since those pictures were taken when the student was still underage I am certain their reappearance will result in legal actions this time around as it was only contained previously with the understanding all of the video and images had been erased. Since that does not seem to be the case any longer, I would not be surprised if scholarship offers are withdrawn, college admissions rescinded, and in some cases, charges are filed. I sincerely hope that all involved are prepared for the consequences."
Admittedly, I take great pleasure in watching those smug faces turn gray with fear. As an immortal and teacher, I feel a twinge of guilt at ruining young lives, but we already gave these kids one do-over and this is how they responded. Our family will not show such generosity again.
TBC
A/N: Please, remember to review!
-Andi