Chapter Text
Pale hands gripped the steering wheel, as two thumbs drummed impatiently to the beat of the music blasting from the car’s speakers. Blue eyes flicked down to the clock in the dash and a curse slipped past slim lips. “Shit.....” A sneakered foot pressed down on the gas pedal and the car lurched forward, going just a bit faster. “At this rate I’m not going to make it back till 2 in the morning. How am I going to be coherent enough to help look for eggs with only a couple hours of sleep?” A pale hand slapped the wheel in anger, and the young man driving sighed softly.
25 year-old Jack Overland-Frost hated not keeping promises, especially promises he had made his sister and his two wards. It always made him feel like a liar, like his father; and that was something he never wanted to imitate. It didn’t matter that the reason he was running late was what put money in the bank. He had promised Emma, Jamie, and Sophie that they would always spend family holidays together, and he was going to try his hardest to be home in time to grab some sleep before he would have to wake up and help the kids find their eggs. Jack chuckled softly. Well, he wouldn’t really consider Emma or Jamie kids anymore, at least not to their faces. They were both 14 and still believed in the Easter Bunny. Which, Jack thought, was mostly his fault. He was nothing but a big kid trapped in a man’s body and he had always had an overactive imagination; always coming up with fantastical stories and then reading them to the younger neighborhood kids. That’s how Emma had met Jamie and Sophie, and through them, how Jack’s mother had met Ms. Bennett, another single parent trying to make ends meet. The two women had become fast friends and it wasn’t long before they all saw each other as one big family.
As Jack had grown so had his imagination, he was forever writing down ideas, outlines, and notes. Eventually, all of his hard work had paid off: at the tender age of 20, he published his first book. It was a children’s story about a man who lived in the moon (which wasn’t really a moon at all, but a large ship) and from that ship the man listened and granted the wishes of children down on earth. It had been more of a picture book then a chapter book really, but kids and their parents had gone nuts over it. Needless to say it had been a huge success, and with the success had came enough money that he was able to pay for his first two years of college on his own; and there was still enough money left over to help his mother with her rent and other expenses. Since his first book had been such a hit, his publisher begged him to write another book about ‘The Guardians of Childhood.’ In response Jack had laughed and patted the man on the shoulder, telling him he had already started on the next book: a story about a star who crash lands on earth and becomes the Sandman, spreading good dreams to children everywhere.
‘The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie’ was published not long after he turned 22, and his third book had been published two years later, but the excitement over having published his third book was short lived. While traveling to visit Jack at school to help celebrate the book’s release, his mother, Ms. Bennett, Emma, Jamie, and Sophie were in a car accident. Both women had died at the scene, and by the time Jack had been notified, the three children had been rushed to the hospital with severe, but non-life threatening injuries. Once he had made sure his sister and the two Bennett children were going to be alright; he returned to school and requested an emergency level of absence, which he was granted. It was during one of his hospital visits that Jack found out he was not only the legal guardian of his sister, but of Jamie and Sophie as well. It seemed that at some point over the years Ms. Bennett had changed her will and had listed Jack’s mother as Jamie and Sophie’s guardian, should anything happen to her. His name had been listed as second for guardianship, should his mother be unable to take the two children. He knew it was going to be tough, that the courts might fight him for custody of the three children, he was after all a 24 year-old single male. What would a single 24 year-old male know about raising three kids, the youngest of which was only six. He wasn’t about to let the courts take them, however. He made his first promise to the trio that day: that they were family, and that he would fight to keep them together, no matter what.
The next couple of months were hard on all of them. Not only did Jack have to arrange funerals for his mother and Ms. Bennett, he also had to deal with packing up and selling the Bennett’s house, making sure everything was put into storage. He knew Jamie at least would want to go through everything and keep a few things of his parent’s before the rest of their belongings were sold. Sophie was still too young to really care about things that had belonged to her parents, though Jack knew she might want something someday, so he set aside a few things he thought she might like. On top of that, Jack had stacks of legal paperwork to go over and sign, lawyers to see and a court hearing to prepare for. However, no matter how busy he was, or how tired he might be, he made time to visit the trio at least once a day while they were in the hospital.
Once his sister and the two Bennett children had been released from the hospital, Jack moved them all into his mother’s house, giving Jamie his old room, and having Emma and Sophie bunk together. This worked out for the best since Sophie was having a difficult time adjusting to her mother’s absence, and Emma was the best at calming her down. They had a couple of weeks to settle in before the court hearing. Jack piled the three children into his mother’s car, hating to do so because all three kids were extremely nervous about being in a car again; but the court had insisted that the kids be present at the hearing. The lawyer representing the state made exactly the argument that Jack thought he would: Jack was a 24 year-old single man, what did he really know about raising children? How was he going to take care of them and provide for them financially?
Jack’s reply was firm. “Sir, I’m 11 years older than my sister and practically raised her myself while our mom worked to support our family. I’ve known Jamie and Sophie since just after Sophie was born and used to babysit them along with Emma all the time. Taking care of them is old hat for me. It wouldn’t be any different than it was before I left for school. As for money, I was made executive of Ms. Bennett’s estate and she left quite a bit of money for Jamie and Sophie’s care. In addition, Emma and I inherited a pretty decent life insurance policy from our mother. I’m also a best-selling children's writer with three books under my belt, so I have my own income that I can contribute.”
His blue eyes had then glanced first to his lawyer, who had given him a small smile and nod of approval, before he met the judge’s thoughtful gray eyes. “Your honor, I’m all the family these kids have left. They’ve already lost their mothers, please don’t let them lose their brother too.”
The judge, who had been moved by Jack’s words, granted him full custody with the stipulation that he would consent to monthly visits from Child Services to make sure the children were being properly taken care of. If he was able to pass inspection for the first six months, the visits would be lessened to twice a year for three years. After hearing the verdict Jack was then promptly tackled by the trio of children, who had hugged him tightly while laughing happily. Once the children had settled down, the judge had then warned Jack that, if at any time the Child Services officer thought the children were being neglected or abused, they would be taken from him and placed into foster care and he wouldn’t get a second chance. Jack nodded in understanding as he wrapped his arms around the three children who still clung to him. That was how, at the ripe old age of 24, Jack essentially became the ‘father’ of three.
It hadn’t been easy, there had been some bumps in the road, including a certain persistent Child Services officer who had wanted to get into Jack’s pants; but they had been able to pull together as a family and push through.
Jack shook his head and sighed again, he had been able to keep the first promise he’d ever made to the kids by keeping them together. He didn’t want to break the second promise he had made them, one he’d made them when they had gotten home after the court hearing. The kids had been hospitalized over the Christmas holiday and even though Jack had gone to see them, they really hadn’t been able to spend it together. That night he had promised them that they would always be together on holidays no matter what, and he wasn’t about to break his promise after only three months. True, he had made the promise not knowing that his publisher would be sending him to a meet and greet for his third book two days before Easter; but his publisher had thought it was a great idea, seeing as his next book was going to be about the Easter Bunny.
Jack rolled his eyes. Oh yes, it made great sense to promote a book Jack hadn’t even started writing yet.
So caught up in his own thoughts about the past and his need to get home as soon as possible, (hey only a couple more miles before the turn off to Burgess!) Jack didn’t notice movement from the side of the road until something jumped in front of his car. With a loud curse, Jack slammed on his brakes and swerved, but not before he hit whatever it had been with the front passenger's side of his car. His tires squealed against the pavement as the vehicle finally stopped moving, Jack as rigid as stone, his fingers gripping the wheel so hard they hurt. He sat there for a moment, stunned, his quick harsh breaths the only sound. Huh, his iPod must have come loose at some point during the accident. When this was the only thought to flash across his mind, he shook his head and slowly pried his fingers from the wheel. He looked at them curiously, noticing they resembled claws before they slowly started to relax as the flow of adrenaline started to decrease. He reached forward to turn off the car, then slowly sat back and let his eyes slide closed as he tried to slow his breathing.
He shouldn’t have been going so fast, and he should have been paying more attention to the road, not letting his mind wander. The kids didn’t need him ending up like their mothers. He was no good to them dead. As he slowly got his breathing under control, he found his mind wandering to the thing he had hit. It had seemed to be fairly large, with what Jack thought might be antlers. Deer were pretty common around Burgess, especially in the spring so it was a good chance that’s what he hit. He slowly opened his eyes and looked in his rearview mirror and saw a noticeable lump on the side of the road. Jack’s first instinct was to get out and see if the animal was alright, but he didn’t really want to see the animal’s injuries if he had done any serious damage with his car. Other thought was to leave it. It didn’t appear to be moving and was probably dead. It was a sad thing to see while driving, but a common on as well around the area.
Jack was just leaning forward to restart his engine when he saw movement from his mirror. He looked back up just in time to see the lump twitch again. He sighed. The animal was obviously still alive, and Jack couldn’t just LEAVE it there. He put his hands against the wheel and hit his head against it in frustration. With a curse, he reached into the glove box for a flashlight, opened his door, and made his way over to the other side of the road where the lump lay, about 10 feet away from his car. As he got closer, he saw that whatever he’d hit didn’t have antlers.
“That only meant it wasn’t a buck, could still be a doe...” he slowly moved around to what he assumed was the front of the lump and shined his light on the animal. He had to blink a couple times before he could believe what his eyes were seeing, and even then, he still wasn’t sure what he was looking at.
As he moved the beam of the flashlight over the animal he kept thinking to himself that it all looked familiar, like he had seen something like it before, only, maybe not as big. The entire animal was covered in short greyish fur, though it’s stomach was mostly white. Long muscular back legs ended in large padded feet, each wrapped with what looked to be leather cord, led up to a trim muscular body with slightly shorter, but no less muscular front legs, which ended in hand like paws. Wait...were those leather bracers wrapped around what would be considered the things wrists? Weiiiiird, and both sets of legs seemed to have a pattern on them in fur slightly darker than the rest of the animals coat. He moved the beam to where he thought the animals head would be and it was then that he saw the ears. The ears made it all click. The ears made it all that more hard to believe. It was a rabbit. A 6 foot long rabbit, and Jack had hit it with his car.....
“Well fuck...”