The first time the Winter Spirit saw her, she was barely older than a baby. There wasn't really much that set her apart from any of the other young children he saw every day. She was just another tiny little girl, living in snowy Colorado. He played with her like he did with the other children, swirling snowflakes around her until one would land on her nose and she would giggle. She could see him, as most children of that young age could. Jack had learned with the young Sophie Bennett that the younger children who were too young to even know the name Jack Frost, could still see him just fine. It was something about the way belief worked – that being so young, they had no concept of what it was to not believe in something. The world they lived in was what they saw, and because there was no little voice in their head telling them that they shouldn't believe in some things, they had no problem seeing him because they believed in everything. So for this little, brown-haired girl, whose brown eyes were full of wonder, playing with the white-haired boy was one of her favorite things. Her parents always said she had many imaginary friends, so when she would mumble out words and short phrases about the boy in blue, they knew she was only a child with a good imagination.
Before she'd grown to even four years old, her family moved away. Eventually Jack found her again, this time in the woods of Pennsylvania. As per the typical weather patterns, Jack didn't usually bring nearly as much snow to the east coast as he brought to Colorado, but he still saw the girl out playing every winter, building snowmen and waging snowball fights with her neighbors. Even though she wasn't much different than the other children, Jack found himself going out of his way to do special things for her: surprise snow days when she was particularly dreading school, icicles clear as glass that sparkled like stars along the roof of her house, the comfort of the quietness of gently falling snow as she fell asleep at night. As much as he loved to have fun, Jack loved to make people happy, and to see her smile when she woke to find her yard covered in a blanket of white, well, it always made him smile, too.
Jack wondered what it was that drew him to the girl. For the longest time, she seemed just like any other child of her age. Full of hopes and dreams and smiles, ready to have fun at a moment's notice. But as she grew older and older, things began to change. Eventually, he realized he couldn't tell if she saw him anymore or not – at least not when she was with her friends. But sometimes, when she would go outside all alone in the snow, her eyes would sweep around like she was looking for something, or someone. But her eyes didn't hold the same wonder they had held before. She didn't smile like she had when she was younger and as though overnight, her small shoulders sagged with the weight of the world, the troubles of someone much older. Jack watched as she faked laughs for her friends and then dropped the charade the moment they left, and he was reminded vaguely of all the time he had spent having fun with kids during the day, and then spending the long, dark nights lonely and miserable because no one else could really understand how he was feeling. He began to wonder if it was those kind of thoughts that weighed on the girl's mind too.
Though to everyone else she seemed ok, Jack could see the difference. By the time she was 13, she stopped hanging out with her friends and they grew apart. She would still come outside in the snow, but not for snowball fights. She would fall back into snow drifts but instead of making angels, she would just stare up at the sky, like she was wishing she could fly away. And she would still build snow forts, but instead of defending them against invading snow armies, she would curl up within them and cry because she believed that no one was looking. Though he wouldn't ever admit it, Jack did know what it was like to cry alone in the snow, but he didn't understand why the girl could possibly be so sad. Sometimes he wanted to reach out and wipe away her tears, but he knew his cold touch would probably only make her more uncomfortable. Instead, he tried to cheer her up with gentle snow fall, and snowflakes landing on her nose. Sometimes she almost smiled, but Jack wished he could do more.
A few times, Jack tried to talk to the other Guardians about the girl, but it was different for them. They were always so busy, and this girl was barely a child anymore anyway. They didn't know her as well as Jack did – even though he didn't know her that well at all, really – but they didn't see her. They didn't see the transformation from bright-eyed little girl to teary-eyed teenager. They were all tucked away in the Workshop or the Tooth Palace or the Warren, except for Sandy of course, but Jack still had a hard time communicating with Sandy. Jack did know that the girl was often awake late into the night, sitting by her window and looking out, and what he was able to gather from Sandy was that no matter how much Dreamsand the Sandman used on the girl, her dreams were more often nightmares than the pleasant fantasies they should've been. Sandy was able to show Jack some vague images from the nightmares the girl was haunted with and Jack shuddered. If her waking hours were enough to make her so sad and enough to make her crying, her sleeping hours were no better.
And then, one winter, suddenly different people were living in the house where the girl had been. They'd moved again, and this time, Jack didn't wait to just happen across her. He tried to find her. It took him a while, but eventually he did find her back in Colorado – only to see that she'd grown much more sad. She was sleeping less, had even fewer friends, still sometimes went out into the snow just to be alone and cry. Though Jack hadn't talked to the Moon since he became a Guardian, he eventually sought the Moon's advice, asking what he should do to help this girl. But the Moon didn't answer, and as more time passed, Jack could only watch as she became more and more sad. She would go for walks in the snow and he would walk alongside her, wishing he could tell her that everything was going to be ok. Usually, she didn't talk, as for all she knew, there was no one there to talk to, but more than once he caught her mumbling things that made him worry even more about her. She would talk about just running away from her parent's home, and that winter would be perfect. She was hoping she would freeze to death.
Jack was at a complete loss now, and the situation was getting worse. The girl had had her childhood ruined by nightmares and emotions she couldn't control, and now she was miserable as a teenager. All he knew was that no one should ever have to feel that way, so sad, like she was, so alone and so miserable. Jack knew the pain of loneliness, and truth be told, he wasn't a stranger to the dark thoughts her mumbling hinted at, but he didn't know how to help. He asked the Moon again, but the Moon only told him to wait and give it time.
And one January night, when she was sixteen, the sadness was too much for her to handle anymore. Jack watched her as she wrote a note to her friends and family. Though he hadn't tried talking to her for years, he was now begging her to stop, crying out for her to just listen to him, telling her over and over that she wasn't alone. But if she heard him while she opened the bottle of pills, she gave no sign. Jack screamed up at the Moon to tell him what to do, but the Moon told him, again, to wait. If I wait any longer, she'll die! the Winter Spirit screamed. You can't save her, Jack, was the Moon's reply, you can only be there for her when she wakes up.
It didn't stop Jack from trying, but there was nothing he could do. He still had no idea what the Moon had meant by the time the silent ambulance was taking the girl away the next morning. He stood outside her house, leaning on his staff, sagging under the weight of sadness. For all of his powers and abilities, he hadn't been able to help this little girl who never should've suffered like she did. But then her heard a voice from behind him.
"Excuse me?" and though he had only really heard that voice in mumbles, muffled by falling snow, he knew who it was. The ambulance was just disappearing from view, but there with him stood the girl. She didn't look sad anymore, just maybe a little lost, and a bit scared.
"You're ok," Jack said, wiping at his eyes and trying not to sound like he'd been about to cry.
"I guess I am," she said. "I remember you."
"What?" Jack asked, surprised.
"From when I was little. You used to play in the snow with me."
"Yeah," Jack said with a little smile, "yeah, that was me."
"You disappeared though, after a while. I haven't seen you in years. Why are you here?"
"I never left," Jack said. "Not really. I wanted to make sure you'd be ok. But in the end I guess I couldn't help."
"But you're here now," she said quietly. "That helps. Why am I here though? Is this some kind of afterlife?"
Jack could only shrug. The only spirits he'd known were those chosen to become immortal, and that didn't happen to just anyone. But then the Moon, still visible in the early morning sky, spoke to her. "You were chosen, child, to be a Guardian."
Jack's eyes widened. That was why the Moon hadn't helped him, why he'd just been told to wait.
"What does that mean?" the girl asked. She still looked a little bit lost.
"I'm a Guardian, too," Jack said, "and there are others. The Guardians of hopes, dreams, memories, and wonder. They protect the children of the world. I'm the Guardian of fun, and I was trying to protect you, too." Jack wanted to apologize, but he didn't know what to say, so instead he reached out and took the girl's hand. She smiled a little at him, and he smiled back. He'd missed her smile and he hoped she'd be able to smile more often now.
She looked back up at the Moon. "But I'm supposed to be a Guardian too? What would I even be the Guardian of? I can't protect anyone."
"Oh, sweet girl, for so long you have had to shoulder the weight of burdens much heavier than anyone could've expected a child to carry. You've known sadness far beyond your years, and you've cried under the strain of painful emotions more powerful than you ever should've had to bear. No child should ever have to experience what you have experienced, and that is why you are to be the Guardian of Innocence. To help protect children everywhere from the pain of having to grow up too fast, that is why you were chosen."
Jack smiled and squeezed the girl's hand. She looked hopeful, more hopeful than he'd seen her look in years. "I could really do that?" The Moon didn't speak anymore, but the girl, for the first time in many years, felt a sense of peace wash over her. She turned to Jack with a true, sincere smile.
"There's that smile," Jack said, remembering her when she'd been just barely older than a baby. "Come on, I'll take you to the others," he said. "I promise, everything's going to be ok now."