2. Delirium

Jack's hearing was the first of his senses to come back. He could hear voices even before his consciousness decided its overly long coffee break was over and went back to translating the sounds into words.

"Antipodean sun, mate! What part of it can't ya understand?"

The first part? Hey, that was a good one! Jack wanted to say it out loud, but his throat was too dry to make any sound save for a weak cough. It was enough to turn the attention of the voices to him, though.

"Jack?"

This voice was feminine. Motherly. Tooth?

"Jack? Can you hear me?"

Worried. Russian. Okay, that was definitely North. So Bunny had got Jack to the Pole like he had promised. Good. At least he wasn't at the Pacific any more. He was still feeling uncomfortably hot, though. Everything hurt. He almost didn't want to climb out of the pit of unconsciousness that kept the worst of the pain away. But the voices were calling for him, coaxing him to wake up. They were worried, that much was clear. Okay, maybe he should wake up just to get them to stop worrying. He had to allow his body to go on with its agonizingly slow reboot. Air seemed to be reluctant to enter his lungs. He was feeling nauseous. The Christmas cookies were burning at the back of his throat. They definitely didn't taste good the second time around. Well, at least his sense of taste had returned. That was two out of five... No, wait, three out of five. He could smell the cinnamon and ginger and other Christmas-y scents that were ever present at North's workshop.

"Jack? Are you awake?"

Then came the touch. He felt a small, delicate hand brushing sweaty hair from his face. His skin was overly sensitive, and the touch burned just a little, but it was a small price to pay for a comforting touch. He struggled his eyes open, and blackness gave way to a kaleidoscope image of bright colours and heart-shaped faces.

"T... Tooth?" he rasped, "And mini-Tooths?"

The faces looked worried.
"No, it's just me."

"Oh..." Jack squinted his eyes, and the four or five Toothianas slowly merged into one, "I'm seeing double... like, double-double. That can't be good."

It was a long sentence to be spoken with a parched throat. Also, it didn't sound very intelligent even to his own ears. Maybe he was suffering from some sort of sunstroke. That would also explain the ringing in his ears and the ghostly pink monkeys that seemed to be floating in the ceiling. Jack coughed again. Tooth's big, purple eyes darkened and she sighed sadly. Her hand was still in Jack's hair, her fingers gently combing through it in an attempt to make him feel better. And it did, even though it didn't chase away the pain or the hallucinations. Or make his breathing easier.

Other faces invaded his field of vision. North's bearded one with worried blue eyes. Sandy's wide-eyed concern and Bunny's... well, Bunny-like face. Jack wasn't coherent enough to form many adjectives in his mind. The faces threatened to waver, mix together. Jack had to close his eyes when the room started spinning. He clenched his hands into fists, finally awake enough to miss his staff. His hands curled around bedsheets. He took a deep breath and forced himself to worry about one thing at a time. His mind formed a slightly incoherent status report. He was in pain and it was too hot. There were pink monkeys in the ceiling. But he was lying on an admittedly comfy bed with all the rest of the Guardians of Childhood surrounding him. It was probably the best place to be at the moment. Or second best, right after a snowdrift in the middle of a glacier.

"Try to stay awake for just a while," Tooth's gentle voice broke through his muddled thoughts, "How are you feeling?"

Stay awake? That wasn't going to be a problem. Jack wasn't really sleepy any longer. He was just very uncomfortable. And for some reason it all seemed funny to him, even though there was a small voice in his head that stated there was nothing funny about a heatstroke. Jack opened his eyes and tried to smile. His lips cracked.
"Thirsty," he wheezed out.


When Bunnymund had barged in with an overheated Jack in his arms, everyone had sprung to action almost immediately. And in this case "action" meant "fussing". They had taken the ailing spirit to the nearest room with a bed and laid him down, all while making theories and guesses on the topic of proper treatment of a winter spirit with a heatstroke. They had settled for opening the room's large window, letting in the Arctic winds. They hadn't had time for more than that before Jack had stirred. Now he was awake, clearly a little delirious and understandably very thirsty.

North sent for the nearest yeti to fetch a lot of ice cold water. It happened to be the same yeti who had been in charge of the kitchens during the whole Guardians catching a cold -episode a few months earlier. The poor yeti had suffered some major stress and had had to spend hours sitting in his favourite armchair while soaking his feet in warm water and listening to whale songs from a jukebox. Jack had found this image far too hilarious to pass up and had taken a picture of it with a lime green digital camera he had snatched from North's camera manufacturing line. Apparently said picture had stood in Jamie Bennett's favourite Christmas card for the year. Now the blue-grey yeti was back to normal and hurried out to fulfil North's request. As the hairy form of the yeti disappeared into the corridors, North turned back to Jack. The boy was definitely not looking so good. First of all, he looked like the sun had sucked out all of his energy. He lay limply on his back, barely moving a muscle. He was sweating, and he wasn't covered in frost like he normally was. His eyes were half-lidded, the usually vibrant glacier blue dulled to almost dark grey. Toothiana was hovering over the boy – literally – stroking his hair and still asking a lot of questions in a soft voice.

"Does it hurt? Do you need anything else? Your breathing seems off; can you get enough air? Are your teeth still sparkly? Is..."

"'M fine..." Jack whispered. Then he giggled – wait, giggled? "You're pretty."

Tooth froze, figuratively of course, and then smiled awkwardly.
"Um... Thank you?"

"You're all preeetty-yyyy-y."

"Great," Bunnymund rolled his eyes, "The ankle biter's lost it."

North sighed and knelt to Jack's bedside.
"No. Just delirious. Will be back to normal once we get him cooled down."

He gave Jack's head a fatherly pat. Jack leaned into the cool touch instinctively, a weary smile spreading across his face.

"You rest now, Jack," North said, "This time we help you get better."

Jack tried to lift his head, but North kept it down with a firm hand.

"Rest," he repeated.

"Can't," Jack mumbled and closed his eyes, "Have to annoy Groundy some more. And I wanna make ice. Lots of it. Spring is depressing..."

He broke off into a hacking cough. Luckily the yeti returned at that moment with a pitcher full of ice water and a glass at its side. North impatiently took both from the silver tray they were on and poured a glass for the coughing boy. Tooth gently pulled Jack into a sitting position, arranging the red and green pillows on the bed better so they could be leaned on. With shaking hands, Jack took the glass North offered and for a moment didn't seem to know what to do with it. Then his coughing subsided enough for him to actually drink the water.

"T-thanks..." he whispered after the first sip. He looked very miserable. So miserable that North could almost think of him as just a sick kid instead of a temporarily incapacitated centuries old harbinger of winter. Jack downed the glass and then slumped back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling as if he was seeing something very bizarre in there. His face brightened, but it wasn't the good kind of brightening. It was more like disoriented giddiness that wasn't normal by any means.

"Monkeys," he stated.

"Where?!" Toothiana's head snapped up, her hands clenching into fists. Hate so strong it was almost tangible radiated from the usually gentle fairy, and everyone backed away just in case.

Sandy, who had so far been quietly standing in the corner, hastily tried to gesture Tooth to calm down. Tooth took a few deep breaths and visibly relaxed, the hate gone as quickly as it had come. She flashed an apologetic smile.
"Sorry. Bad memories... you know..."

"Yeah," Bunny said quickly, discreetly putting away the boomerang he had a second ago clutched like a safety blanket against the rather frightening wrath of the Tooth Fairy, "Don't worry 'bout it."

Jack seemed to be oblivious to the childhood traumas he had just accidentally dug out. In fact, he didn't seem to have been listening at all for the last few minutes.

"It's funny," he said with a goofy smile on his face, "I'm seeing stuff. Jack Frost is seeing things. Jackson You-Have-To-Believe-in-Me-to-See-Me Frost is seeing things."

Sandy lightly hopped to the edge of Jack's bed. The little golden man created some sand images over his head and ended with a question mark. Jack seemed to find this funny. Just like everything else at the moment.

"Sure, Sandy. I'm feeling much better now... You're really sparkly, you know?"

Sandy nodded slowly. He then glanced meaningfully at the others and lightly tapped his temple.

"Tell me 'bout it," Bunny said, "Maybe ya should put him to sleep, Sandy."

"No!" Jack waved his arms lethargically, "I don't wanna sleep now! I think I'm cooling down... feels nicer. Hey, Bunny? What does the 'E' stand for?"

Bunny stared blankly.
"In what?" he finally dared to ask.

"In your name," Jack said, "E. Aster Bunnymund. Is it something embarrassing? Like... Primrose?"

"Primrose starts with a 'P'. And no. Nothin' like that."

"What is it, then?"

"I think sleep really would do wonders for him now," Tooth said. She was fluttering a bit farther away from the open window now, hugging herself to keep warm in the steadily dropping temperature, "Sandy?"

Sandy nodded and snapped his stubby fingers over Jack's nose. The boy was asleep in a puff of golden dreamsand.


Since Jack seemed to be quite content in his sleep, they decided to give him some space. And they also wanted to make sure they didn't catch a cold again. The last time had been inconvenient enough. North did assign a couple of idle yetis to check on the boy occasionally, but the Guardians themselves gathered into North's library. Toothiana fidgeted in the air, glancing behind her as they entered. She was clearly worried. Well, when one had millions of tiny fairies to take care of, one easily developed strong maternal instincts. And despite not really being a kid, Jack looked and acted like one. Put two and two together.

"We shouldn't have let him go out there," Tooth blurted out and wrung her hands so nervously that North feared she would rip her own feathers off, "Antipodean sun, and a volcano!"

"We didn't know Bunny wasn't in Warren. And Jack is not made of ice," North pointed out, even though he couldn't really escape the sting of guilt over the whole mess either, "He should be fine in a while."

"But he was so... out of it," Tooth sighed, "I'm worried."

Sandy waved his hands to indicate that they all were. He also pointed out it was no use blaming anyone for it. At least not too much. Things happened. Life went on. It took even North a while to understand all that. Sandy's pictures were not always the best way to get a more abstract message across.

"You are right, Sandy," North said after Sandy had repeated himself for the third time with increasing frustration, "Now we just focus on getting Jack better."

"This'd better not become a habit," Bunny grumbled, "It's the second time in six months when our meeting devolves into playing nurse."

"It's definitely not nice," Toothiana admitted, "None of us is that used to any of this... being sick, I mean."

Yes, there were some things that one could easily start taking for granted while one was immortal. Such as the ability to shrug off almost any normal injury in a few moments. But then there were those moments of weakness that reminded them that even they had once been made of less sturdy stuff. A long time ago.

The situation could have turned into sombre philosophising about immortality, but they didn't get far down that road until a bunch of elves line-danced through the room, giving North a reason to yell and to forget about other things for a while.


Author's Note: Mi-täh? I woke up this morning with over 50 messages in my inbox. I'm amazed! Thank you all!

I personally think Primrose is quite a pretty name. I think this chapter is quite good at illustrating my tendency to bounce between weird humour and more serious stuff. It can be a bit jarring, maybe? I don't know. It's something I personally enjoy, seeing how I have quite a dark sense of humour.

Tooth's bad memories involving monkeys, especially one specific Monkey King, can be found from the third novel of the Guardians of Childhood.