"ck… ack… Jack." Jack snapped out his trance. He noticed the other guardians staring at him. Currently, they were having a meeting.

"Uh… Sorry… What is it?" He was dazed. When had he zoned out? If the guardians were asked that question, they would respond with, "When isn't he zoned out lately?"

"You're frosting over the room," Bunny said. He looked concerned, and when even Bunny outwardly showed his concern, something really was wrong.

Jack looked around the room. Bunny was right. Ice crawled from where he sat and it was slowly engulfing the room. The other four's breath could be seen each time they exhaled. From the ceiling, icicles began to form. "Ah, sorry." With a wave of his hand, the frost disappeared and the temperature began to rise back to where it was.

North eyed him for a moment longer, before continuing his speech. "Now, where was I?" He did not ask Jack what was wrong. Neither did the rest of the guardians. They knew what was wrong. They also knew if Jack hadn't talked about it by now, he wasn't going to. He was too independent and often did not want the help of the other guardians when he had problems. When they thought about that, the guilt of their abandonment toward him returned. Jack had been with the guardians for a few years now and despite the fact that they took every opportunity they had to remind Jack that they were there for him, there were some things that he still did on his own. They had to begrudgingly accept that.

Once more, Jack's eyes flickered to the globe. It was gone. It was still gone. In the back of his mind he wondered how long it was going to be gone for. Of course it had to back. Forever was a long time to be gone. A lot of things in his life are forever. He knew that was simply how it was. But this forever was something he couldn't accept. He didn't think it was real. He didn't… believe in it. Believe. Jamie believed in him. But then… without warning… he stopped. Jack didn't quite understand. He always made it a point to visit Jamie. And when the weather became too warm for him to stick around, he'd smile and promise he'd come back when it was cold again. Jamie waved him off sadly, and when Jack returned a few months later, Jamie was there with a grin and a "Let's have a snowball fight." But not this time. Come December, come one week ago, Jack found himself at Jamie's college. It was Jamie's first year and Jack was proud of him. Jack showed up at Jamie's window and knocked on it. Jamie was studying, Jack noticed. The break in the silence caught Jamie's attention and he made his way to the window, opening it and taking a look around. "Must have been a bird."

That night a snowstorm so bad hit, every school in the district was forced to shut down for a week. Now here sat Jack. Staring at a light that had disappeared for some reason or another. "I think the globe is broken."

Jack interrupted North as he was talking about Christmas that was coming up in three weeks. The Guardians looked upon Jack with pity. "Jack," Tooth began.

"You've noticed it too, Tooth? I think some of the lights might be broken."

North didn't have the heart to tell him the globe was magic and that the lights simply didn't "break."

Jack hopped off the couch and grabbed his staff. "I'll go talk to Phil about fixing it." With that, he left the room, leaving a trail of cold air behind him.

"North-"

"I know, Tooth. Just give him some more time."

"How much more time?" Bunny asked. "He's gotta learn that even the lights of his strongest believers eventually go out."

North nodded. "I know. But this one's different. He just needs more time."

Jack came back ten minutes later. "Phil said he'd take a look at it." It was after his first year of being a guardian that Jack had asked North to teach him yetish. It certainly proved useful.

"Thank you, Jack," North acknowledged. Jack gave a nod in return. The meeting continued.

When the meeting finally ended, Jack laughed as he made his way to Burgess. Jamie must have been playing a prank on him last week. A pretty good one if Jack might add. He really fell for it. Jack arrived at Jamie's college and flew in front of his dorm window. Again, Jamie sat at his desk, but this time he had way more papers next to him, and multiple textbooks opened around him. Jack knocked on the window. Jamie looked up, curious to what disturbed his silence. He made his way to his window and opened it. Jack smiled, "Hey, Jamie. What do you say you take a break from your homework and let's have a snowball fight?" Jamie didn't respond. Instead, he looked left and right. Jack chuckled nervously. "You're still on with that prank? I have to give you props, that's dedication right there." Jamie still didn't respond. Jack's smile faltered. The wind picked up ever so slightly. "But seriously, you should take a break. Too much work isn't fun, kiddo." Jamie shivered, the cold air biting his cheeks. He closed his window and went back to his desk after shrugging on a sweater.

Jack felt his breath pick up. Maybe when the lights on the globe break, it temporarily makes the kid stop believing too? That had to be it. He flew off, determination set in his heart.

North found Jack in the globe room, flying around the globe, particularly the spot around Burgess. "Jack," North questioned. "What are you doing?"

Jack turned his head at the sound of North and flew over to him. "North," Jack greeted, landing in front of him. He turned his head toward the globe. "The globe's still broken. Has Phil not looked at it yet?" Something akin to desperation adorned Jack's face, but he skillfully covered it up with casualty.

Bunny's words rang in North's ears. He's gotta learn that even the lights of his strongest believers eventually go out. "Jack," North sighed. He placed a large, calloused hand on Jack's shoulder. "The globe is not broken."

"What do you mean? Of course it is. Jamie's light isn't up there." North noticed the emptiness in Jack's eyes. Glazed over emptiness.

"Jack," North continued. He let out a long breath, if only to delay the inevitable. "Jamie doesn't believe in you anymore."

"You're lying." The abrupt sting to Jack's tone of voice caught North off guard. Jack scowled up at him. "Are you in on the prank too? Because honestly, North, it's not funny anymore."

North kept his voice calm and even. "It's not a prank, Jack."

Jack shrugged North's hand off his shoulder. "Of course it is. It has to be. Because if it's not, that means- that means…" Jack tsked and looked off to the side. North was fully aware of the decrease in temperature. He did not mention it.

"I'm sorry, Jack. But even your strongest believers have to grow up."

"Shut up!"

Jack had never used such a tone with North before, especially not one with so much intentional bite to it. Ice crawled under Jack's feet and North had to take a step back. But it didn't matter anyway, because Jack turned on his heal and flew off in a gust of freezing wind.

Jack found himself in a forest in some part of Russia, blowing off steam. How dare North say such a thing? He had no right. What if Jack said that about one of his believers? Jack scoffed. He probably wouldn't even care. He's got believers to spare and then some. Losing one wouldn't matter to him.

The scene. The scene replayed in Jack's mind. Jamie looked around, but he didn't see Jack right in front of him. "No," Jack said, and he felt his chest tighten. "No!"

By the time Jack was done with the place, it looked like a battle had happened. And perhaps, one did. Simply not in the physical sense. Jack stood in the eye of it. Teeth and fists clenched as he stared furiously at the ground. "How dare he? How dare he stop believing in me? I told him I'd come back as soon as I could." The wind whipped around him softly, as if to comfort him, but such an act only made Jack angrier because he yelled, "Stop!" And it did. And the air went still.

That Christmas, Burgess saw the worst winter since '68. As North delivered gifts in his sleigh, in the back of his mind, he really wished Rudolf was real.

Jack did not show up for Christmas with the rest of the Guardians that year. Instead, his presents sat untouched under the tree while everyone else did their best to be cheerful. And despite the fact that they all knew it was fake, they said nothing.

January third of the New Year, Tooth found herself going to Burgess. Another child lost their tooth, and she always made it a point to go to Burgess personally instead of sending one of her small fairies for her. A young boy with unruly blond hair slept soundly in his bed, mouth wide open to show the missing bottom tooth. He lost it by running into a wall. She shook her head fondly as she switched out the tooth with a coin.

When Tooth made it back outside, she couldn't help but notice that it was certainly colder than when she was out here five minutes ago. Coming to know Jack over the years, one place they realized that Jack often came back to, was the pond in Burgess. The drop in temperature indicated he must be there now. Tooth decided to make her way toward him.

Tooth found herself at the pond. It was quite an anomaly to her. It was frozen all the through, all winter, and when the weather started to warm up, instead of thawing slowly, it unfroze all at once. It was only this body of water that did it and Tooth often wondered what Jack's reasoning for that was.

Tooth looked around the clearing, hoping to spot Jack. It seemed the Moon was helping her out because a moment later moonlight shone onto a particular tree. Tooth's eyes instinctively followed the light and there, on a branch up high, sat Jack, he had his legs pulled up to his chest. She flew over to him and took a seat on the same branch he was currently occupied on, feet dangling below her. Tooth didn't expect Jack to speak, so she was surprised when he said, "Hi, Tooth." Despite talking, he still didn't raise his head from his knees.

"Hi, Jack. It's been a while since we saw you."

"Yeah…"

Despite knowing that she was at fault for nothing, Tooth couldn't help but feel guilty. Perhaps the guilt stemmed from the fact that there was nothing she could do to help. "You've been busy." She said, taking note of the abundance of snow that surrounded them, surrounded most the world, any place remotely chilly.

Jack was silent for a while and Tooth thought perhaps she had said the wrong thing. But as the thought of apologizing crossed Tooth's mind, Jack spoke up again. "I thought… maybe…" He paused, and Jack didn't need to look up for Tooth to know he felt embarrassed. "If I made it snow hard enough… Jamie would believe in me again."

"Jack,"

"I could have come back a little earlier. If I did, he'd probably still believe in me. Or there was more I could have done to contact him. Even if I couldn't come over here, doesn't mean there wasn't a way for me to talk to him. I could have asked Baby Tooth to send a letter or something for me." At this point he had finally looked up, and Tooth noticed how worse for wear he looked.

"Jack," Tooth placed a hand on his knee. Her voice remained gentle. "There was nothing you could have done. Things like this just happen, and there's nothing you can do about it. I know it hurts when a child grows up, especially this child in particular, but there's nothing that could have stopped it. I'm sorry it had to turn out this way."

Jack stared at her a bit incredulously. He finally bit his bottom lip and hid his face back in his lap. "Can you leave me alone now, please?" Tooth pretended not to hear the crack in his voice. Instead, she nodded.

"We're here for you, Jack. Don't forget that." With one last lingering look, Tooth took off into the night.

Sandy found that Jack was sleeping more and more, and as one who was an expert on sleep, knew that such a thing wasn't good. Because while getting a good night's sleep was always a good thing, when you sleep because you don't want to face the day, that's when it becomes a problem. To ease Jack's mind, one that had fallen so far into depression, Sandy had made it a point to give him good dreams.

Initially, Sandy thought about giving Jack dreams of good times with Jamie, but he soon realized that that would make Jack even more miserable when he woke up, with the realization that he could no longer have those times. So Sandy gave him simple dreams, that was something Jack always appreciated, simple things; Sitting at the North Pole, the bright atmosphere and smell of cookies baking no matter where you went. Flying through the sky, letting the wind blow through his hair and watching the tiny world below. The warm feeling anyone who entered Bunny's Warren received in their chests, the smell of flowers, and the gentle breeze it sometimes had. But despite Sandy's best efforts, when Jack awoke, he was back in his morose mood.

Once Sandy realized that dreams could only take him so far, he paid a visit to Bunny. Because if anyone could help Jack move on, it was the guardian of hope.

The day after Groundhog's day, Bunny made his way to Burgess. He didn't want to run into the Groundhog on accident, so he waited. Bunny popped his head out of the hole he'd created and looked around. He found Jack exactly where he thought he would be, sitting in a tree at the pond he was so fond of. Bunny made his way over to the tree and stood under it, looking above at Jack.

"Heya, Frostbite." Jack's head snapped up, apparently he hadn't noticed Bunny arrive. He looked around. "Down here." And so Jack looked down to see Bunny leaning against the tree he was sitting on, arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh," Jack said, looking away. "Hi, Bunny."

"Hi, Bunny? No insult today? Not even kangaroo?"

"Not today."

Silence fell. Bunny hadn't realized how bad Jack had gotten. Honestly, he was kicking himself for not trying to talk to the kid sooner. "Sandy came to me for help. Claimed you were sleeping too much. Must be true if it's coming from him."

"Must be."

Bunny sighed. Neither he nor the rest of the Guardians had seen him sink so low. But he knew that despite them not seeing it, it has happened before, but they didn't know what Jack did to pull himself out of it back then. "The Groundhog claimed that winter should be ending pretty quickly this year. I don't know how much longer he'll let you stick around before he comes complaining to us."

"Why does it matter to you? You hate him anyway."

Bunny shook his head. "I may dislike the guy but I don't hate him." Jack didn't respond. Bunny knew it was no good to beat around the bush any longer. "Jamie doesn't believe in you anymore." That caught Jack's attention. His head snapped right back to Bunny. "He stopped believing in you, and the rest of us, months ago." Bunny didn't need to look at Jack to know he was hitting a nerve. The weather around them noticeably decreased in temperature. "Jamie's never going to see you again."

"Shut up!" Bunny barely finished his sentence, the second the last syllable left his tongue, Jack yelled at him. "What do you know!? Jamie was, Jamie was-"

"Special?" Bunny supplied. "I know, kid. He was special." Bunny continued looking at the pond instead of Jack. He knew Jack was crying, yet desperately trying to hold it back. Bunny knew Jack didn't want anyone to see that side of him. "If the Jamie that believed in you knew this is what would happen on the day he stopped believing, how do you think he'd react?"

"What does that matter? Either way he'll stop believing."

"Yeah. But he'd want you to be happy, mate. Even if he doesn't believe in you, he'll know there are others who do. He'd want them to have what you gave him." Once again Jack didn't respond and Bunny idly wondered if it was because he refused to, or because he simply couldn't. "I know you've been to visit Jamie even after you found out he stopped believing. Tell me, does he look happy?"

A beat of silence, "Yes." Bunny stayed silent, urging Jack to continue. "He looks like he'll have a happy life. He's really good at the things he wants to do."

"How does that knowledge make you feel?"

Jack chewed his lip. "Proud."

"Exactly. That's how you should be feeling when you think about Jamie. It's tragic, when a child stops believing, but you're safe in the knowledge that they're gonna grow up with the gifts we gave them in their childhood. And even if they don't believe anymore, they can still look back on the memories you gave them. Jamie doesn't believe in you anymore. But that doesn't mean he'll ever forget you."

The temperature around them began to warm up. The cold bite of winter was still there, but at least it was now bearable. "I've said my piece. I'll leave you with that." Bunny didn't await a response as he tapped his foot on the ground and jumped into the hole, leaving nothing but a red poppy to contrast the dead and white of winter.

The snow had finally cleared up and despite the cold chill still in the air, Jamie decided to study outside today. He held his textbook on his lap and chewed on his mechanical pencil, focusing on the words he was reading, oblivious to the winter spirit who found a seat next to him.

"Hey, Jamie," Jack smiled. "Working hard?" Jamie continued to concentrate on his book. "Did you know the first time I talked to you, you were also invested in some book that time too? You couldn't see me then either." Jack leaned over to try and catch what Jamie was reading. It was some complicated science book that Jack didn't understand. He was sure Jamie understood it, though.

"You know, hanging out with you, even in over three centuries of living, are some of my best memories. They're something I'll cherish for as long as I keep existing." Jamie turned the page of his book. "There were still so many more things I wanted to do with you. So many more games I wanted to play. But you went and grew up, and now you're trying to do something with your life… Do you ever think about the times when you were a kid? Do you ever think what it would be like to go back to those days?" Jamie took his pencil out of his mouth to write something in the notebook sitting next to him.

"I'm proud of you. You're going to grow up to be an actual cool adult. Which makes you even more special because there's not a lot of those out there." Jamie went back to chewing on his pencil and directed his attention back to his textbook. "Do you think you'll ever have kids one day? Because if you do, you better tell them about me. I really want to meet them." Jack chuckled. "I'll tell them all about the kinds of mischief you got up to when you were young. Even the story about that time at the zoo. That was funny, wasn't it?" A cold breeze turned the pages of the book and Jamie had to hold the corners of the pages so they wouldn't turn.

Jack looked up at the sky, "That's probably my cue to leave now. It was good seeing you again. And it's good to see you're doing well." Jack looked back at Jamie, he let his lips fall into a smile. "Thank you for all the memories you gave me. And thank you… for believing in me."

Jamie felt another cold chill. He looked up at the cloudy sky. An odd sense of nostalgia washed over him.