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Turn to me with frozen lips
Your hands are icy cold
Your eyes burn bright against the frost-bit sky
You never seemed more lovely than you do right tonight
"We have to split up for awhile."
Jonah Gant frowned as he sat up from his reclining position on the bed and dropped his feet to the floor. The words had been spoken in a completely even voice, but the voice didn’t match the speaker’s pallor. He got up from the bed and went to the woman in the doorway, carefully guiding her to a seat so he could crouch down in front of her.
“Elizabeth, what did you see? What happened?”
“Death,” she whispered. “Death and blood. The end of everything that we’ve been fighting so hard for. White beds in white rooms hooked up to machines that make us scream for death.”
He clasped her hands between his, not liking how cold they were against his own skin. Elizabeth Holmes was the strongest Watcher that anyone had ever known, but right now she appeared to be so fragile -- an all-seeing mind within a body that appeared on the verge of collapse. Her visions always took a great deal of strength out of her, but in all of the years he had known her, he’d never seen her look so shell shocked over something she had seen in the multitude of futures her power tapped into.
“Come on, Lizzie, talk to me. Give me a little bit more to work with here, love.” He rubbed her hands gently, trying to infuse them with some of his own warmth.
“Nick.” The words were a quiet whisper of grief. “I saw Nick, Jonah.”
Now it was his own body that seemed to go cold all over -- starting with his blood. It wasn’t like they didn’t talk about his son, hidden away somewhere safe while his father travelled around the world and fought against the tyrants and murderers known as Division. However, their conversations had never included such painful words for either of them.
Jonah hadn’t seen his nine year old son in six or seven months; not since his best friend and the love of his life had called him in desperate need of his help. Newly pregnant, Elizabeth’s boyfriend had caved to fear and had abandoned her to Division. She had barely eluded capture, but she was in trouble as Division hunted not only for her but for the child she carried, as well. He had never been one to deny her anything and when she’d revealed what was going on and how much danger she was in, he hadn’t hesitated to go to her.
A Watcher and a Mover had a better chance of survival than a Watcher on her own.
He had thought that Nick would be safer where he was, without him, and unaware of what was going on in the world. There was no reason for his young son to find out that he was someone that Division would hunt down to use his given power for their own ends. However, hearing the tortured whisper of words from Elizabeth’s pale lips, he wondered if they had all been betrayed somehow.
Was his son even now in the hands of Division and being experimented on like some lab animal?
“Elizabeth, what about Nick?” His voice was far more calm than he was feeling, but he knew that she wasn’t responsible for what she saw. She wouldn’t want harm to come to his son any more than he would and railing at her over her uncontrollable glimpses of sight wouldn’t benefit anyone. “Sweetheart, tell me what you saw.”
She swallowed and then swallowed again before she looked into his face. Her pupils were so wide that he almost couldn’t make out the usual blue that her eyes were.
“I saw Nick, many years from now.”
“Ok, you’ve seen that before. He’s with your girl and they find us.”
She shook her head and she managed to go even paler than she had been before. “Not this time. This time he was taken, killed and he wasn’t there to protect my daughter and Division took her.”
Jonah shook his head. “No. No, Nick can’t die. They can’t kill my son.”
“You weren’t with him,” she said reluctantly, her voice pained. “Because you were with me, you weren’t there to guide him and he fell into a trap.” She shook her head. “He can’t, Jonah. You have to go back to him and protect him.”
“And what about the two of you?” The words were hard to get out because he didn’t want to lose her, but he also didn’t want anything to happen to Nick. He put his hand gently on her large stomach. “You’re due anytime now, Lizzie. Who is going to help take care of you if I leave you?”
She tried to give him a smile, but it was tired and fell flat. She reached out her hand to lay against his face. “I’ll be alright for as long as it takes you to go retrieve Nick and then find us again. Little Cassie and I will be fine until then.” She ran her hand through his hair. “He’ll grow up and be there for Cassie to go to.”
“And if I don’t find you?” It was something he had to ask even though he hated the idea of not seeing her again. They had been best friends all of their lives and it had turned to a deeper kind of love when they had gotten older. His wife had died and her boyfriend … “What if I don’t find you in time?”
“You will, Jonah. I know you will.” She smiled sadly. “Just remember about the flower.”
He nodded, closing his eyes and leaning forward to rest his head against hers. “I love you, Lizzie.”
“I know, Jonah. I love you, too.”
Pale on the horizon
Like leaves frozen in the snow
Our two shadows merge inseparably
Will time stand still if it's pierced with cold
A year later and Jonah was running with his son through a hotel to get to the temporary safety of their room. Once they were in the room, he locked the door and looked around the room, trying to find some kind of escape route for Nick. He definitely couldn't go out the same door they had come in with Carver and his goons so close on their trail. Using his power, he ripped off the vent that covered the air shaft connecting their room to the empty one next to theirs. It wasn't the best escape, but it could help and he would be able to buy Nick some more time to get away.
It was imperative that Nick get away and not fall into Division's hands.
"Nick," he said, grabbing his son. "I need you to listen to me. One day, a girl is going to give you a flower and you have to help her, Nick. You have to protect her."
"Dad --"
"No, Nick, there's no time. Remember. A girl is going to give you a flower and you have to take care of her. You’re the only one that can protect her and help her with what she needs to do. She won’t have anybody else but you. Do you understand?”
Nick nodded. “Dad, let me help you. My power is getting better.”
“I know it is, son, but that girl is going to need you and you can’t help her if you get taken by Division. Promise me you’ll be careful so that she can find you one day. Promise me, Nick.”
Nick nodded, frightened by the desperation he heard in his father’s voice. “I promise, dad. I promise I’ll be careful.”
Jonah let out a quiet sound of relief and hugged Nick to him. He couldn’t take much time as he heard Carver’s men outside the door. Flinging his hand out, he used his power to shove Nick into the safety of the air vent as his other hand channeled power towards the door, blowing it out into Carver and his men. Once he knew Nick was safely out of sight, he brought both of his hands in front of him to direct his power into fighting the Division team in order to give Nick time to hide and then escape.
As the men charged in from the hall, he flung them back out and against walls as quickly as he could, trying to deflect the bullets from their guns as well. There was no way out of this for him and he knew it.
“I’m sorry, Lizzie,” he whispered as the ceiling of his room collapsed on him and several members of the Division team that had been tasked with taking him in.
There's a warmth in my heart
It haunts me when you're gone
Mend me to your side and never let go
Say "Time knows nothing, we'll never grow cold"
Nick felt like he had been ran over by a caravan of trucks after the Stitch got done repairing the damage the Bleeders had caused him. With all of the wounds he had received from them, he knew he should be dead and he wasn't exactly sure why he wasn't. Stronger than his surprise at being alive was the fact that when he opened his eyes, Cassie was there.
So she had been able to get away from the Bleeders in the Fish Market.
He sat up to ask her why she was there and why the gang of Bleeders was trying to kill her when he noticed the flower she was holding in her hand. He looked from the flower to her face and saw eyes that were far too full of sorrow for one her age. He looked back at the flower and his lips twitched in a hint of a smile when she said it was for him. All at once his father’s voice from so many years ago washed over him.
“You’re going to meet a girl and she’s going to give you a flower. You have to help her.”
This was the girl that his father had been talking about ten years ago when Division killed him. This was the girl that his father had made him promise to take care of and keep safe. He hadn’t realized at the time that he had been talking about someone so young.
As he took the flower, he looked down at it wondering how in the hell he was supposed to keep this girl alive when he was having a hard time taking care of himself in this world. However, when he looked up and saw Cassie watching him, he knew that he couldn’t walk away from her now. Even if he hadn’t made that promise all of those years ago, there was no way that he would leave Cassie to the hazards of trying to dodge Division. He didn’t know how she had managed to keep out of their clutches for so long, but he knew that she couldn’t do it forever.
She couldn’t do it alone, and maybe now, neither could he.
In those few moments as they sat there, he could feel some kind of connection forging between himself and this waif of a Watcher that was still trying to perfect her powers so they didn’t control her. She was barely more than a child... and what was he?
He was the one that had promised his father that he would protect and keep this girl safe. She was convinced that somehow they could take Division down and free her mother. He didn’t know if that was possible, just the two of them, but he knew that he couldn’t walk away from her.
For better or worse, he was going to start taking an active part in this war. For better or worse, he was going to do the unexpected. He was going to go after Carver and kill him -- not just for killing his father, but so he couldn’t keep hunting Cassie.
Nick had spent the last ten years of his life running from Division and growing up hunted and scared. He didn’t want that for Cassie.
Twilight descends on our silhouette
How soon spring comes
How soon spring forgets
I wanna hold time, say it'll never begin
Nick looked down at the head that was resting on his shoulder and smiled slightly as he shifted her in his arms so her sleeping form could rest a little more comfortably. Fifteen years had passed and while some things changed, one thing had remained the same.
Cassie was still with him.
Her pink streaks had been traded in for a new color, but she was still the same Cassie.
That sibling type of relationship that had started so long ago in Hong Kong had expanded and turned into something deeper as time wore on. Oh, he had fought parts of it at first, worried about the age difference between them. However, he had learned several years ago that Cassie could be quite stubborn about something that she wanted.
Miracle of miracles, even when she grew into a woman, it was him that she wanted.
Those intervening years hadn’t always been easy, and in fact, Nick had almost lost her more than once. It was this last time that had scared him so badly.
He tightened his arm around her and lowered his face to her hair as he tried to fight the memories that were crashing into his head.
During their last strike on a Division team he had watched as Cassie had been shot -- going down in a spray of blood before he could get to her. The world was on fire and there were explosions all around him and their friends. When the smoke had cleared, Cassie and the Division men were gone.
Those two years where she was in their hands had been the longest and most bleakest of his life.
He took a steadying breath as he tried to fight back the sheer terror that he had lived through while not knowing where she was or what was happening to her. The fear that by the time he found her it would be too late always haunted him, but in the end, it had been defeated.
Though bruised and and battered from the tortures and experiments she had undergone, she was still alive when he and their friends broke into that building. She was still breathing when they boarded the plane that would take them to another continent so that they could be safe for awhile and he could work on helping her to recover. She had smiled tiredly at him when the plane finally took off and then held him while he cried in relief that she was safe and alive.
It wasn’t until he had done that and pulled himself together that Cassie had curled up in his arms and had fallen asleep. One of the stewardesses had tried to make him put Cassie back in her seat, but the glare he and Emily had given her had made her decide that maybe it was alright if Cassie sat on his lap for part of the flight.
In seats nearby, Emily, Hook and Pinky were relaxing and falling into a light sleep because it had been awhile since any of them had gotten much rest. The flight would be a long one and it was the safest any of them had been in a very long time.
Nick didn’t sleep. Instead, he held Cassie close to him and watched over her while she was sleeping.
He watched over her just like the ten year old boy had promised his father he would do a lifetime ago.
The more I live
The more I know
What's simple is true
I love you