Page 45

Jesse

On early Sunday morning, Jesse awoke to hear slight sniffling.

At first, in the fog of sleep, he wasn’t sure of the source—but when he rolled over to find that Jamie wasn’t in bed anymore, and strained his eyes in the dark room to see Jamie rubbing his eyes over by the window (shirtless, since he’d kept that habit), Jesse realized what was going on.

Jamie must have had another nightmare.

He hadn’t thrashed or cried out though; Jesse would have noticed it if he had.

That was proof of the great progress Jamie had been making with Dr. Alevera.

He still had the nightmares, even now several weeks later, but they didn’t seem to affect him nearly as badly as they’d used to.

Still, Jesse caught a glimpse of a few tears as Jamie wiped his face, before absently reaching to rub at the scar hidden behind his dark brown hair.

It was still so strange to see him with dark hair again, after all this time. It even stayed brown in his sleep now, unlike before, when it had faded to white during the night. Like Jamie had enough control that not even his subconscious let the powers leak out anymore.

“You okay?” Jesse asked, sitting up in the bed.

Jamie looked over to him in mild surprise. “I didn’t… mean to wake you up, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, there’s no need to be sorry,” Jesse told him seriously. “I’m glad I woke up. I want to be there for you, and I can’t do that if I sleep through it when you need help.”

“That’s… very nice of you,” Jamie said, offering a slight smile. “But I don’t need any help, really.”

Jesse wished he could believe that.

He still couldn’t shake the feeling that Jamie wasn’t as well-adjusted as he claimed to be, and might be putting on an act to try and make Jesse worry less.

A metaphorical ‘safe form’ to go along with the real one.

He didn’t want to hurt Jesse, and he just couldn’t seem to understand that hiding his troubles was just as stressful—maybe even more stressful—than accepting help to face them.

“Well, if you change your mind, I’m happy to be a listening ear,” Jesse tried at least. “Or, if you really don’t want to talk about it, then I’m also just happy being a comforting presence, if you need a hug or something.”

Jamie’s smile grew a little, and he came back over to the bed. “I would like that, yes.”

The bed jostled a bit as Jamie climbed back in next to Jesse and nestled up beside him.

Draping an arm over Jesse’s chest, Jamie let out a deep sigh as he settled, and Jesse could feel the tension melt away in Jamie’s shoulders.

It was as if just lying here next to Jesse was helping him calm down and relax, and that was great.

Shifting onto his side, Jesse put an arm around Jamie himself and placed a tender kiss to Jamie’s forehead.

He really loved moments like this. The kind of intimacy that came from sharing a bed, even when they weren’t ‘using it’ in that sense, made Jesse feel…

at peace. Safe. Loved. The warmth emanating from Jamie’s body as they laid together, skin to skin, was a comfort to Jesse—though he wasn’t the one who needed it, and he could only hope Jamie felt the same way.

It didn’t take long at all for Jesse to fall back asleep.

The next time he awoke, it was to the sound of a closing door.

He blearily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up again, glancing to the side to see that Jamie was, once more, not in bed.

He’d had another nightmare already? If he had, that would be concerning; he hadn’t been getting his nightmares more than once a night anymore, if they even happened every night.

More importantly, however, Jesse caught sight of the bathroom door, which was wide open—meaning that it had been the door to the room itself that had just closed.

Why had Jamie gone outside ?

Jesse glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was three in the morning right now. There was no reason for Jamie to be wandering around outside at three in the morning.

Maybe he did need help after all.

Jesse hurriedly got up and threw on his clothes, searching for his jacket.

And when he couldn’t find it, assumed that maybe Jamie had taken it.

He barely remembered to grab the motel room key before rushing outside and looking around for any sign of Jamie.

He’d had a head start on Jesse, after all; he might’ve got pretty far by now, and Jesse had no idea where he’d gone.

But then, as Jesse hurried down the parking lot towards the street, he caught a glimpse of white in the moonlight out of the corner of his eye.

White hair.

It took a few seconds before Jesse realized that Jamie had left his safe form; his hair standing out from where he walked a couple blocks down the road.

Jesse didn’t know what to make of this change, as he hurried down the street to follow his partner. Just a little over 24 hours ago, Jamie had been so excited about locking his powers away, and as soon as he’d left Jesse behind, he’d unleashed them again.

And Jesse still had no idea what Jamie was up to.

At three in the morning.

When he got a little bit closer and noticed that Jamie was wearing the missing jacket, plus his own hoodie underneath, he grew even more suspicious.

It was the middle of summertime in Nevada, after all.

The night breeze off the lake made things a little cooler, sure, but not nearly cold enough to warrant so many layers.

Maybe Jamie was about to try something again, just like he had with that fountain?

But again… where was he even going?

Jesse almost called out to him to wait, intending to catch up and just ask him outright.

But… if he did that, maybe Jamie wouldn’t tell him at all, and Jesse would never know what he’d planned to do out here.

So he decided to stay quiet, and followed Jamie from a distance.

It was easy, given how dark it was. Jesse’s black hair didn’t stand out like Jamie’s white locks, so if Jamie happened to look behind him as he walked, it would be easy for Jesse to just step off the path and into the shade of the many trees that lined the street to hide his presence.

He managed to avoid discovery completely, following Jamie until they reached one of the many large ponds that they’d been marveling over on their walk the day before yesterday. It was the largest they’d spotted aside from the massive Lake Tahoe itself.

For a while, it almost seemed as if Jamie had just come here to keep gazing at it, standing transfixed on the edge of the bank as the moonbeams rippled in the dark waters.

Jesse watched him from behind a large pine tree about thirty feet away, and for a good five minutes or so, nothing happened.

Jesse had almost made up his mind to stop hiding and go try to talk to him, when Jamie began to move.

He walked into the water.

In his jeans, and his shoes, and the hoodie and jacket.

Why would he dress so warmly if he was just going to walk into the water and get himself wet in the middle of the night?!

After only a few steps, Jamie stopped. Then he knelt down in the shallows. He placed his hands against the surface of the water, and then… he just waited there.

At first, Jesse couldn’t see what Jamie was doing. It was too dark, and he was too far away and at a bad angle. So he braved getting just a little bit closer, moving silently out from behind his tree and making his way over to a different one about ten feet closer to the tiny lake.

Which began to freeze over.

Starting where Jamie rested his hands and spreading slowly out from there, something like a path made of ice was creeping across the water—turning white, the way that Jamie’s hair always turned white.

Drifts of cold air wafted ahead of the ice like a breath released in winter, and it wasn’t long before the sound of the softly rippling laps was replaced by the creaking of the ice hardening over it .

This was way more impressive than the fountain.

And likewise, way more frightening. Jesse drew in a concerned breath as he actually registered what he was now seeing; Jamie stepped onto the ice he’d created, and began walking on it towards the center of the lake.

Alright, this was too much.

Jamie had very nearly collapsed from trying to freeze over that small fountain, and now he was not only repeating the trick, but he was doing it to an even larger body of water.

Even worse, he was intentionally endangering himself by walking out upon his ice—in the middle of the night, with no one around.

If Jesse weren’t here, and if Jamie fell unconscious and broke through that ice, he would drown and there would be no one around to rescue him.

Jesse left his spot and started to hurry down to the edge of the lake. But before he came anywhere close enough, the path of ice began to melt behind Jamie.

Damn it, how was Jesse supposed to follow him without a path to walk on?

He moved a bit faster, trying to hurry and reach the bank in time, but it was no use.

Jamie was already a good fifteen feet out and getting farther away, and Jesse was now stuck on the shore.

The remaining ice continued to melt and certainly didn’t look like it would carry him.

For a brief second, Jesse considered just jumping in and swimming over.

But, if the path was being magically frozen under Jamie’s feet, who knew what might happen to Jesse?

Especially if Jamie was so fixed on his task that he didn’t even notice Jesse was there at all, just like he hadn’t when he was freezing the fountain.

And if Jesse yelled out for him to stop and come back, and startled him unexpectedly, Jamie could accidentally unleash too much of his power at once, and fall in anyway.

At least, that’s what Jesse feared, after the business with the fountain.