Winter Jackets

Chapter 20 - The Forgiveness

'Lisa, do you have a flashlight on you?'

A/N: I say torch, but they're American sooo

'Yeah, one sec.'

We were currently entering the forest, and it was still night - maybe 10 o'clock?

I pulled it out of one of my multiple compartments and handed it to Jack.

'Thanks.'

I was ecstatic when Jack let me come with him. Not that he had a choice, seeing how far we were from home, but he could have...I don't know. But he accepted me coming along with him, and I was extremely grateful.

One day, one of my conversations will go like this:

'I am still grateful for that.'

'After all this time?'

'Always.'

Hehe...

Wait. Was my funny side coming out?

Oh. My. God.

It's been, like, 20,000 years!!! I thought it had died or been buried under grief!

Wait, that's a sad thought.

Anyway, I quickly realised that Jack was still slightly pissed off at me, but I understood that. And yeah, I did feel guilty, but I didn't regret what I did.

Well, not most of it...I could have taken another route, but this one worked!

Kinda.

I also realised that cracking jokes wouldn't work, although I could see his surprise when I tried to.

We were now setting up a tent on this relatively flat ground we found a while ago.

'Jack, hand me that peg, will you?'

Also, by the way, I had a headlamp, which was like a flashlight with a strap that goes around my head. Jack couldn't find his in his backpack, and so he borrowed my torch. So we both had light - just clarifying.

He handed me the tent peg, which I put through a loop and then into the ground. I then used the heel of my hiking boots to push it further into the ground.

'That was the last one, and...I think we're done!' I said this cheerily, but Jack just gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded slightly, causing my shoulders to sag and my gaze drop to the ground.

Jack

I was annoyed, mainly at Lisa. After all, she couldn't just ignore the one important request I made to her and risk her life, and still not expect me to be angry! And at first I was, but I cooled off a tiny bit.

A/N: Lilliputian bit hehe

We were currently sitting in the tent. I was trying not to think of what could have happened to Reid, which was quite hard, and Lisa was reading a book. She seemed a lot happier than at home, and I wondered if it was something about this forest, since it seemed to reverse our moods.

"Oh darlin', darlin', stand,

Stand by me

Oh stand, stand by me..."

Now Lisa was singing; that didn't help my mood.

Oh, no, she wasn't a bad singer or anything, I just wanted her to feel bad for what she did!

But she probably already did...

'And you weren't the best brother to her either...'

Curse my conscience for talking sense into me! I smiled slightly and joined in:

"Whenever you're in trouble you can stand! by me

Oh, stand by me

Oh-oh-oh-oh stand...woah stand, by me"

Lisa was surprised by my joining in, but then she smiled widely, so widely that I just had to smile back.

And get this, she actually stretched her smile even more, while continuing to sing!

"Stand by me"