"Hey, Jamie, watch this!" Jack shouted with a joyful laughter that he could feel deep in his heart as he felt his magic rush through his entire body while he made snowman versions of the guardians.

"Cool!" Jamie shouted as he jumped up and down when he noticed that they really did look like them. Even the pattern on their clothes that he first saw last year.

"Now, how about some target practice?" Jack suggested with a mischievous wink.

"You really want me to hit them?" Jamie asked with a worried expression.

"No! Of course not...however, if you wanted to throw a few at ol' cottontail..." He trailed off as he made snow targets for Jamie to throw snowballs at. "...I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I think these will do better."

"Oh, this should be easy!" Jamie said as he began rolling up a cool snowball in his hand that still glittered with freshly fallen snow as it started to cool his hand through his gloves.

"Oh really..." Jack smirked, and noticed a questioning look on his little friend's face. He pointed his staff at the very bottom of the targets and beneath them appeared small legs and feet like what was on Bunny's eggs when they were walking on their own. "How about now?" He asked him with a wide grin.

"That...might be a bit difficult. I don't think I can..." Jamie answered with a small smile.

"Well, you won't know until you try!" Jack said as he made ten more snowballs for his small friend.

"Yeah!" Jamie laughed out as he started throwing snowballs at the moving and jumping targets. By the last snowball, which missed quite a bit, he had successfully hit the targets five out of eleven times. "I think I did okay."

"Yeah you did!" Jack patted his back and he made the targets fall back into the snow normally. "Hey...I was just wondering, but where are your friends?"

"Oh...well it's a Wednesday so I imagine they're at school."

"And why aren't you?" His eyes narrowed as he began to notice how Jamie fidgeted. As he looked closer, he noticed that his friend's nose was getting red, and his cheeks were rivaling North's at the moment. "Jamie...are you sick?"

"No!" He shouted, but then he shrank slightly as his shoulders sagged in defeat when his answer earned him an impatient look from the magical guardian. "Yes..." He answered out with a heavy sigh. "But I just wanted to play with you and..."

"Jamie...you can't be out here if you're sick. You need to..." Jack started to explain but both of them suddenly heard a booming strict voice that somehow still carried a sense of caring and concern.

"Jamie Bennett!" Once they heard his mother's voice, Jack made the snow look-a-likes fall back into the blanket of snow and then they both turned to see Jamie's mother come out with her hands crossed and her hair in disarray. "You get in the house this minute! You are supposed to be sick."

"Mom..."

"If you stay out in the cold you'll get even more sick and you already had a fever of a hundred and one. Please, come inside." His mother waited at the door until she noticed her son had seemingly looked up at someone and her eyes went wide for a brief moment as she thought she saw someone there as well, but it quickly faded.

"You better go." Jack whispered. "I'll meet you inside, Jamie." Jack promised and made his way up to Jamie's window and carefully let himself in."

He watched carefully as Jamie shed his winter clothes and climbed back into bed with his red nose, rosy cheeks, and tired eyes. "Mom...I feel fine."

"I'm sure you do, but your face and fever would say otherwise." She chuckled out as she tucked her son back into bed, and then she quickly remembered her son looking up at seemingly nothing, but it definitely looked like he was actually looking at someone. Almost as if he were pouting to a friend to try and convince her that he was alright playing in the snow despite being sick. "Jamie, sweetie...what were you looking at when I asked you to come inside? It seemed like you were looking at something...or someone."

Both Jamie and Jack's eyes went wide as they stared at his mother, who seemed to genuinely want to know what her son was looking at. "I...You probably wouldn't believe me." Jamie answered without taking his eyes off his mother.

She smiled down at him and chuckled lightly. "Try me." She challenged.

"I...I was..." Jamie shifted his gaze to his desk in his room and Jack gave him an interested nod. He wanted to see what she would say to Jamie after he told her it was him that her son was playing with.

"Yes?"

"I was looking at Jack Frost. We were playing."

"Is that so?" Her eyes went wide, and for the life of him, Jack couldn't understand why she didn't just dismiss him like she had last year by calling him a mere expression. "What were the two of you doing?"

Suddenly eager, Jamie began explaining with a wide smile. "Well...we were playing in the snow he made and we were playing target practice after he made snowman versions of his friends the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy, Santa, and the Sandman."

"Did he know you were sick?" She mused.

"Well...no...actually, he was wondering where all of my friends are and I told him they were at school. Then, he asked me why I wasn't...and then he found out I was sick. He was about to tell me to go back inside when you opened the door."

"Hmm...well, I guess he can't be all that bad then...can he?" She smiled at her son and noticed the look of disbelief that he was wearing. "What's wrong, Jamie?"

"It's just...last year, you said that he was just an expression."

"I did. I remember that. So...?"

"Well...it kind of sounds like you almost...believe me."

She looked down to the floor as if to contemplate her son's words. She knew how strongly he believed in such things as Santa and the tooth fairy, and he believed them with such conviction. She also knew when her son was lying to her, because he was the only child that was as bad a liar as he was. So, she took it as her son truly believed he was playing with Jack Frost. She let out a short laugh and ran a hand through her messy hair, and turned to look at her boy. "Do remember the time you tried to tell me that it wasn't you who broke my coffee mug, or all those times you tried to tell me you did your homework when you really didn't?"

"Y-Yeah?" He tilted his head, not sure where his mother was trying to go with this, and frankly, Jack wanted to know the answer to that too.

"Well...if there's anything I've learned...it's how to ALWAYS spot a liar and you're a terrible liar." She smirked at him and her son let out a nervous laugh. "I could tell when you just told me that you were playing with Jack Frost that you truly believed you were playing with him. When you lie Jamie...your nose twitches and your eyes shift. You didn't do anything like that. So, for now...if you believe that you were playing with Jack Frost...then I suppose you were. Just because I can't see something and you can...doesn't mean it's not real. It just means that you're that much more special." She looked down to her hands with a smile on her face.

"No way..." Jack whispered out as he jumped down from Jamie's desk to get a closer look at Jamie's mother.

"Hmm?" She looked up at her son. "Did you say something Jamie?"

"N-No." He answered, knowing who did indeed say something at that moment, and his eyes went wide.

"Hmm...okay..." She started and still noticed the shocked look in her son's eyes. "So..." She began, in order to try and keep Jamie in bed a little longer as it was beginning to get dark out. "I know of Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and the sandman...but I don't know what they look like...and now you say that you've seen Jack Frost. So tell me, what do they all look like?" She questioned with genuine curiosity at what her son might say. She expected him to say the typical things that were usually described about the mythical creatures, what she hadn't expected was the look of pure delight on her son's face and the explanation he began to give.

"Well...Santa is kind of like what people think...he is a big man, but he's not fat. He has a lot of muscle and tattoos on his arms. On one arm it says naughty and the other says nice. He has a white beard and mustache, but he's dressed like someone from Russia, and he has two swords! Oh...and then there's the tooth fairy...she really is a fairy and she has lots of colorful feathers and pink eyes, and her wings are amazingly beautiful. The Easter bunny is really a bunny but he's almost seven feet tall and he has boomerangs and sounds like he's from Australia oh yeah...he can talk, and he has awesome looking markings that look like they could be tattoos. Then, there's the sandman but the others just call him Sandy. He is a little shorter than me, but he is completely made out of sand and he has bright golden eyes and a wide smile. He has spiky hair and it looks like he wears a robe of some kind and he can make awesome things with his sand like whips to fight bad guys and dinosaurs and...oh...before I forget...Jack Frost...He looks like a teenager and he has skin as pale as the moon, his hair is as white as the snow, his eyes are so blue they're like ice, and he wears brown pants, and a blue hoodie...oh and he has a staff...but it kind of looks like a Shepherd's staff. I think that's it."

"Wow..." Her eyes were wide and she felt her own heart beating faster. She wasn't prepared for that explanation from her son. She knew he was imaginative, but this went further than imagination. He truly believed those things. Once again, her son wasn't giving any of his tell tale signs of lying, and he was so happy as he was explaining it. She felt something in her heart. Something that was lost to her childhood years and it twisted slightly as if trying to tell her to believe again in such things. She decided to not dwell on that feeling for too long and went to ask her child another question when she heard something next to her.

"Strange..." Jack said. "She looks like she believes you Jamie."

"Who said that!?" His mother asked as she leapt up from her sons bed and went into mama bear mode.

"Mom...?" Jamie asked with wide eyes as he briefly looked back and forth between Jack and his mom. Jack seemed taken back and almost scared as well as concerned and curious. "W-What did you hear?" Jamie tested, because he didn't think adults could hear or see the guardians.

"Someone...Someone said it looked like I believed you..." She admitted, feeling a bit foolish as she continued to look around the room.

"She hears me!?" Jack shouted in shock as he bumped against Jamie's desk causing a few things to fall and paper to go flying.

"W-What was that!?" She wondered loudly as she noticed Jamie's papers falling for no reason.

"Mom...calm down..." Jamie jumped from his bed and gave his mother a tight hug. "You...might not believe me...but that was Jack...Jack Frost..."

"N-No...that can't be..." She started, and she felt that familiar thing creep into her heart again.

"Um...hello...my name is Jack Frost. I'm a guardian..." Jack announced, unsure if he was even allowed to, but he figured this whole situation was completely unprecedented, and if it's wrong to do it, he will apologize to the others later. The woman in front of him immediately turned to face him and his heart nearly stopped...again. 'She has my sister's eyes...' He shook his head as the thoughts tried to form further, and focused on the fact that she could still hear him. "You really can hear me, can't you?"

"Yeah...and I feel like I'm going crazy..." She admitted with a saddened expression.

"Jack...can you make it snow?" He looked to jack and received a nod.

"Jamie...don't ask that...that's...impossible..." Her words died off as it started to snow in Jamie's room. She looked at the window to see if perhaps it was left open, and it was closed shut. The latch was even locked. She felt a snowflake hit her nose and her eyes felt funny, but at the same time, they felt wonderfully cool. She blinked a few times before looking back at the desk where she heard the voice and her jaw dropped.

Jack noticed her jaw dropped in almost the same way Jamie's did last year aside from the missing tooth. "Wait a minute..." He crept closer and noticed that her mouth immediately closed and her eyes only widened. "You...can you see me?" He questioned cautiously holding his staff almost defensively. When she nodded her head, he almost dropped his staff, but caught it in time. "That's...That's not..."

"What's wrong Jack?" Jamie asked with concern in his brown eyes, and Jack looked at him with the same amount of concern, but there was also shock in his own eyes.

"I...I didn't think it was possible for adults to see me. I mean you and your friends can see me, but...I never thought..." Before he could finish he heard the familiar rumblings of Bunny approaching through a rabbit whole. He stepped to the side by Jamie and as he finally stood by Jamie, the Easter bunny popped through a whole and looked directly at Jack.

"Jack, we gotta go, Mate. North says there's somethin' going on with the globe..." The Easter bunny noticed Jack and Jamie's shocked and concerned looks and looked to where their looks were pointing. It was Jamie's mother. "What's wrong, Mate? It's not like she can see us."

"Actually, Bunny...she can." Jack stated, not taking his eyes off of her.

"The...He's..." She looked at Jamie as she pointed to the giant humanoid bunny in her son's bedroom. "That's the Easter bunny?"

"Yeah...like I told you mom..."

"Wait, wait..." The Easter bunny held his paws up as his mind began racing faster than he could for a moment. "She can see us!?" He raised his voice as he practically glared at Jack. "What did you do, Frost?"

"Hey, don't look at me, Cottontail. I'm as lost on this as you are."

Bunny carefully looked over Jack and his expressions and realized that he truly was lost on this. So, he let out a heavy sigh as he brought a paw up to his forehead and slid it down his nose. "Ya really don't know. Alright...well..." He turned his gaze to Jamie and raised his brow. "Would you happen to know how this happened, Jamie?"

"I...Jack and I were playing...I wasn't supposed to be outside because I'm sick and he figured it out and was about to send me inside when my mom beat him to it. She saw me looking up at Jack, but she didn't see him yet. She couldn't even hear him yet. Then I came to bed and she asked me who or what I was looking at and I told her she might not believe me...but she wanted me to tell her anyways, so I did. She said that I was the worst liar..."

"Well that's the truth. Yer nose twitches more than mine does when you try and fib, mate. Like when you tried to tell me that you had the most Easter eggs this year out of yer group of friends when I know for a fact it was cupcake."

"Anyway...she said I was the worst liar and that she could tell I really believed I was playing with Jack...I think that's around the time that she could hear him, but I'm not sure. Then she asked me to say what you all looked like...so I told her...and all she could say was wow...then Jack said it was strange and that it seemed like she believed me and she heard him."

"Strange indeed, mate. Usually only children can see us."

"Wait...so this isn't a dream...and I'm not going crazy?" She asked cautiously.

"No, mom...that's really them. Here..." Jamie walked towards his mom and pinched her hand hard.

"Ow!" She shouted and then looked back up and they were still there. "I'm not dreaming..."

"And you're not going crazy." Jamie added with a smile. "I told you they were real."

"Yes..." She laughed out with that familiar feeling clutching tight to her heart. "You did...but..." She looked at Jack with sad eyes, and the feeling in her heart at looking at the young boy in front of her turned into a saddened feeling. A feeling she has often felt when her children's smiling face drifted off into remorseful frowns, but Jack's eyes spoke more than mere remorseful frowns. They spoke of fun and laughter and joy, but they also spoke of sadness, fear, doubt, guilt, and a patience for something. Something Jack believes is inevitable but she had no clue what that may be. "Jack...you're so young...and yet your eyes look so sad." She said simply as her eyes looked at him saddened pity.

"Sad? Jack is the guardian of fun and mischief, he's not sad." Bunny laughed out in disbelief.

"Oh...well, please don't take this offensively Easter Bunny, but you're not a mother. Children can look as happy as can be and laughing plenty on the outside, but on the inside they're crying and sad. They can be as sure as they can be on the outside but doubtful on the inside. They can be as brave as any soldier, but be so scared on the inside. They can be as relaxed and carefree as possible but but ridden with guilt on the inside. It's a very real thing...and that's what I see in Jack's eyes."

"Well, Jack ain't yer ordinary little..." Bunny's words died out as he noticed a different look of shock cross the young guardian of fun and mischief's face. He couldn't name it, all he knew was that it didn't seem right on the boy's face. "Jack?"

"Right...um...you said that there was something wrong at the pole?" Jack shook out of his shocked daze and looked at Bunny who seemed to be looking at him with concern. "Careful with that friendly look, Bunny. I might think you care or something."

Bunny had heard the joke many times and it sounded the same every time, but this time he looked Jack in the eyes and quickly looked at Jamie's mother. 'She's right...He's happy on the outside, but there's something wrong on the inside.' He cleared his throat and nodded his head, intent on keeping this knowledge to himself for now and looked back to Jack. "Yeah. North wants us all there."

"Lead the way cottontail." Jack chuckled out as he turned his gaze to Jamie. "Now, Jamie...I want you to listen to your mother. If she says that you need rest and medicine, then you need rest and medicine. Don't make me bring Sandman over early."

"Alright..." Jamie pouted.

"And...I apologize, but I don't think I know your name." Jack stated as he looked at Jamie's mother.

"My name is Elizabeth Bennett." She smiled.

"Right..." He started as he looked at her eyes that were eerily similar to his sister's from so long ago. "...Well...I think for now it would be best for the both of you if nobody knows about us, and that you know. Jamie's friend's know about us, but they can't know that you know. Jamie...that also means you can't tell them or even hint at it."

"I understand." Jamie and Elizabeth agreed in unison.

"We'll probably talk about this later." Jack added.

"C'mon, mate."

"Right behind you bunny." Bunny opened up the ground beneath him and jumped through, and Jack followed.

As they raced once more through the tunnels and to the North Pole, Bunny couldn't help but have a sinking feeling in his chest as they raced closer and closer to the real reason Jack was needed at the pole. The feeling was only brought on when he noticed what Jamie's mother had said, and it just left more and more unanswered questions in his head that he didn't have the time for at the moment. 'Let's hope this goes well...'