Age plot (jack)

[echolls_cursed]

Camping was the most exciting thing ever, and Logan bounced a little on his heals as he watched Jack put up their tent.

"Can we roast something on the fire?" he asked. "Will you tell me ghost stories? That would be cool," Logan babbled, still small and youthful.

He wandered over and tried to help. Dragging the blanket around and making their bed.At some point he'd acquired a teddy bear, and he placed it carefully on the make-shift sleeping bag before wandering back over to Jack's side.

"I like the fire," he said, pointing at it. "When it gets darker it'll be really cool."

Comments

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Ow! Son of a-" Jack said, rubbing his leg. "Logan! Logan, stop. You can't...it's getting dark...Logan! Get back here!"

He left the fire and food and everything and raced after the little boy into the thick jungle that had already practically swallowed Logan up.

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

Logan kept running, but he only had little legs, and he could only get so far so fast.

He stumbled a little and then fell, landing on hands and knees .He felt tiny and lost, and he didn't like it. He missed being grown. He missed being able to ignore how bad things felt sometimes. He missed being able to forget the past.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He caught up to the boy and bent over him, taking hold of him and helping him to his feet.

"Come on," he said gently. "You can't go running off like this every time you get mad. Come on, there's snakes and things out here. Let's go back to the fire."

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

"No!" Logan shouted, smacking Jack's arm and then turning away.

"I hope the snakes eat me," he said.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"They will eat you," Jack said just before he picked Logan up and threw him over his shoulder to carry him back.

"And boars. And spiders. And giant jungle rats. And...tapirs. And, um,"

He had to think for a moment.

"...Vermicious knids."

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

"You're making things up," Logan protested quietly, dangling lifelessly over the other man's shoulder.

As soon as Jack put him back down, he looked up at the other man.

"I don't want to be little anymore," he said quietly. "I miss my mom."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It can't last much longer, baby. It never does. Until then...you've got me and I love you and nothing bad will happen," he said, then caught sight of the ugly bruise on Logan's arm. "Okay, nothing really bad will happen."

He stroked Logan's hair gently.

"We should talk about your mom," Jack said. "Why don't you tell me what you miss most?"

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

Logan shook his head a little and looked down at his feet. "I don't want to," he said quietly. "I want teddy."

He looked embarrassed as he said it, and quickly made his over to the tent to retrieve the bear.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack decided he'd better not make a big deal out of it and he returned to the fire. He added a little more wood and then dug in the bag for the sausages to he could put them on sticks and cook them for them both.

"Logan?" he asked after a minute. "Do you really hate me?"

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

When Logan returned, he was holding the bear. He wasn't embracing it like some children would though. Instead he simply had its plush arm held tightly in his little hand.

Shaking his head, Logan looked at his feet again.

"No. Not really. I don't hate you," he admitted.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Good. I was worried," Jack replied softly. He turned and looked at Logan and smiled a little.

"I love you. I love you when you're my husband and I love you now, like this. I don't think I could hate you if I tried," he said. Jack pulled the sausage out of the fire, touched it, then put it back in.

"Dinner will be ready in a minute."

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

"I'm still your husband," Logan said, sitting down beside Jack and leaning against him.

"I love you too though," he whispered, as if he was telling Jack a secret.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

That made Jack smile and he leaned against Logan in return.

"I love you three," he said and his smile grew. "We used to say that when I was a boy. We'd just...count. Count how much we loved each other. I mean, it was my parents. Not anyone I was married to."

He shrugged and then took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. It was funny what memories crept up at the strangest times.

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

"Do you look like them?" Logan asked, watching Jack cook as he sat teddy carefully away from the fire.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"More like my mom than my dad...I think. I hardly remember. But, then, when I was a boy my hair was lighter and I was smaller and...I don't know. I grew up," Jack said slowly, thinking it through. One of the sausage popped and the juice sizzled in the flames so Jack pulled it back for it to cool so they could eat.

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

Logan reached for it, suddenly starving.

"That smells good!" he said happily, grinning at Jack and forgetting all about what they'd been talking about.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It's hot!" he warned, but it really wasn't. Once it wasn't above the flames it had cooled enough to handle.

Jack thought for a moment about how strange it was to feel compelled to warn Logan from things like that. As an adult he was a perfectly capable man. He didn't need to be told things like be careful and all that. But right now Jack just couldn't help it.

"I bet you'll finish yours first," he said as he got his own ready. Never once did it occur to him to eat first and make Logan wait.

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

"Gimmie!" Logan chirped, giggling a little as he took the food and leaned against him.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You don't even say please," Jack chided, totally teasing. He loved the way Logan leaned against him. The way he snuggled close when they slept. Logan was always affectionate, but not like this. Jack was eating it up.

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

Logan took a big bite, chewing happily and watching Jack. He looked happy and content in a way he usually didn't, his cares easily chased away as he enjoyed the comfort of Jack's company.

"You should tell a ghost story," he said after a moment.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack took a bite of his own and chewed, visibly thinking of the tales they'd told around fires when he was a boy. Nothing too frightening- not after last night and Logan being so sure there was a monster under the bed. No, something just a little bit scary.

"Okay," he said with the bite still in his mouth. "But this isn't a story. It really happened.

A young family bought an old-fashioned house in the original part of the city, where all the oldest houses were. They moved into their dream home in the winter, bringing their six year old daughter with them.

There was a lot of refurbishing to do, so the little girl tended to go up to the attic to play while her parents were occupied with the house. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, because the previous owners had converted the attic into a playroom. It even had a fireplace at one point, but it was currently boarded up.

After a couple of weeks of hard work, the downstairs rooms were finished. The mother, realizing that she had been neglecting their daughter, attempted to try and spend more time with her now, but the little girl seemed distracted. She kept stealing back up to the attic alone to play.

Exasperated, and perhaps a little hurt the the child was not being responsive to her attentions, the mother finally asked, 'What's so interesting up there in that stuffy room?'

'It's the little boy with the shiny buttons,' the child replied. 'He's so much fun to play with!'

'What little boy?' the mother demanded, wondering if a servant child had stowed away in the room. She went to investigate, but found the room empty.

Certain that her daughter was just being contrary, she urged her husband to discipline the child. At her father's stern voice the little girl became hysterical. She kept repeating that there was a little boy and he wore a blue jacket with lots of shiny buttons on it.

As her father listened, he became more and more curious. Formerly a sailor himself, he realized his daughter was describing a child's sailor suit, complete with the brass buttons.

The girl's father made some inquires about the Smiths, the family that lived in the house before them. He learned that they had come from England, bringing their children with them, two boys and a girl. The youngest child, a boy, was described as a sweet idiot child, and added that Mr. Smith was ashamed of him and tried to prevent him from being seen outdoors.

According to the boy's parents, the neighbors continued, the young boy would often sneak out to go down to the river. The story goes on to say that one day he fell in and drowned. His body was never recovered, but his cap had been found floating in the river. Shortly after the disappearance, the Smiths put the house up for sale and, leaving town, dropped out of sight.

The former sailor's suspicions were now thoroughly aroused. He accompanied his little daughter to the attic and asked her to show him where the little boy came from. She pointed to the boarded up fireplace. Her father called in workers to open it and then to remove the mortar that cemented up a cavity beside the chimney."

Jack paused to let the tension build, and to see what Logan's reactions were before he continued with the rest of the story.

"As the mortar was chipped away, the corpse of a small boy was revealed. He was clothed in a little blue sailor jacket with four rows of brass buttons down the front. The little boy didn't drown. He was murdered and hidden and it had been his ghost the little girl had been playing with the whole time," Jack said, quiet and gravely serious.

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

Logan's eyes went very wide, and he sat in silence at first, taking the whole story in and mulling it over.

The problem with children though, was you could never tell what might upset them. You could never guess what might trigger a memory or pray on their deepest fears.

Logan's face became very grave, and he sniffed softly. "But it wasn't his fault he was stupid! He didn't deserve to be locked in the dark! He probably cried a lot. He probably was really scared! And sometimes you don't mean to be bad, and you get punished anyway, and it's not fair, and he- he didn't deserve to die like that," he babbled, starting to get upset.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Logan, Logan, it's just a story," Jack said, tossing his stick and the last bite of his sausage into the fire.

"It's just a story I heard when I was young. It didn't really happen. I promise," he continued. "Nobody should be treated like that. Not ever. Not you or anyone. And we won't be those kinds of parents, right? We'll be good parents."

[echolls-cursed.livejournal.com]

Logan swallowed hard and nodded.

"Okay," he said softly, copying Jack and tossing his own stick into the fire.

He was quiet for a moment, and then glanced over.

"Can we have marshmallows now?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Wrapping his arm around Logan, Jack pulled him close and kissed his head.

"No," he said.

Then he lifted Logan's chin so he could look into his eyes.

"...Because we threw our sticks in the fire. We need sticks to toast marshmallows. Unless you want to just eat them..."