After what seemed like an eternity, Elsa finally saw a doctor come from the emergency room. A short, stout man with a short gray beard. Her father rose from his seat, gesturing for her mother to remain seated.

"Is she O.K?" Her father asked. The doctor gave a small smile and said,

"She will be O.K. She's resting now. We've got her body temperature back up to where it should be. We saw from her file that she is iron deficient, is that true?"

"Yes, it's true." Mr. Arryn replied.

"Then, you're lucky you got her here when you did."

"Was there, any permanent damage?" Mr. Arryn asked. The doctor furrowed his brow.

"Well, it isn't likely she'll remember most of the incident." Elsa saw her father breathe a sigh of relief.

"When could we see her?"

"I would say when she wakes up, which could be as long as tomorrow." the doctor replied.

"How long will she have to stay?"

"I would say a couple of days, just so we can monitor how she's doing, how her temperature is, all that sort of stuff." Elsa looked up at the doctor.

"She's O.K though, right?" she asked. The doctor smiled down at her.

"Yes Elsa, your sister will be just fine." Elsa sighed in relief as she hugged her mother, who ran her fingers through Elsa's platinum blonde hair. Thank goodness Anna was going to be O.K. Elsa wouldn't have known what she would've done if something had happened to her baby sister. She decided then she must protect her at all costs. Even if it meant they could never go out in the snow again. She would not let anything hurt her baby sister again.


The Nurse's car pulled up at her house. Kristoff sat in the back seat, stroking his plush reindeer's fur for some sort of comfort. The Nurse, who had re-introduced herself as Bulda to Kristoff, stopped by his home so he could get a couple of things: his toothbrush, change of clothes, a pillow, the usual stuff.

"Here we are, sweetie," Bulda said, cutting off the engine, "My husband should be inside with all the kids. You've met him before, when you came over here with your dad. It must have been a while ago though, you may not quite remember him. A few of the kids are about your age, don't worry, they're sweet, they'll be nice to you. Or at least they'd better be!"

Bulda unlocked the door so Kristoff could get out with his bag. After he exited the vehicle, Bulda led him up to the front steps. It was a nice, rustic two story home. Looked roomy enough. He looked behind him as he heard another car approaching. The car stopped in the next driveway and a short, stout doctor got out and nodded to Bulda, who was digging her car keys out of her handbag.

"Evening Bulda!" the doctor called. Bulda finally pulled out her house keys and went over to the doctor. Kristoff stayed where he was.

"Hi Pabbie. How are you tonight?" she asked.

"I'm doing fine. I had a family come in last minute with a little girl who fell through some ice." Kristoff's eyes widened. That must have been the girl he saw going back into the emergency room.

"Oh my, was she all right?" Bulda asked, her voice genuinely worried.

"She will be O.K in a few days. Let her get warmed up again. I tried telling her family that they didn't have to stay at the hospital, but her older sister really wanted to stay with her." Pabbie said.

"Aw, that's sweet of her."Bulda replied. Pabbie looked behind Bulda to see Kristoff standing there.

"Who's your friend?" he inquired, gesturing to Kristoff.

"This is Kristoff. He's a friend of mine's son. He's going to be staying with us for a while." she said. She leaned in closer towards Pabbie so Kristoff wouldn't hear.

"His father passed away earlier tonight and wanted me to look after him." she whispered.

"Oh that's terrible. What happened to him?" he asked.

"Hypothermia."

"Oh I see. And the boy has no uncles or aunts? No grandparents?"

"His only live grandparents live in Norway and he does have an aunt, but she's always traveling around the world. And that's no life for an 8 year old boy." she told him. She gestured to Kristoff.

"Come on over here, dear. There's somebody I'd like you to meet." Kristoff wandered over to where Bulda stood.

"Kristoff, this is my friend Pabbie. He's been a good friend to me. And he's a doctor. If you ever need anything and me or my husband aren't around, you come straight over here to Pabbie. He'll help you out with anything you need." Kristoff nodded.

"It's nice to meet you Kristoff." Pabbie said, extending a stubby hand. Kristoff gave it a small shake.

"Well, all right Bulda, I'll let you guys get inside and get to sleep. Good night! And Good night Kristoff, wonderful to meet you." Pabbie said, unlocking the door to his home. Bulda then unlocked the door to her home and led Kristoff inside.

"Cliff! Cliff, where are you?" Bulda called. Right after she called for him, a man matching Bulda's stout body type & skin tone entered the room.

"Hi sweet pea!" the man Kristoff recognized as Bulda's husband Cliff said before he planted a smooch on Bulda's cheek. He looked down at Kristoff.

"Kristoff! Hey kiddo!" he said, stooping down to Kristoff's level, "You hungry?" Kristoff nodded. In fact, he was practically starving.

"We've got some leftover meat loaf in the fridge. How 'bout I warm some up for you?" Kristoff nodded again. Cliff started off towards the kitchen with Bulda trailing behind him. Kristoff followed quietly to hear what they were talking about.

"So, he's going to be staying with us?" Cliff asked quietly. Bulda nodded.

"It was either that or make him a ward of the state. I couldn't do that to the poor child. His father was a great friend to us. As was his mother." Cliff scooped out some meat loaf from the plastic container from the fridge.

"Yeah, they were great people. They sure loved their little Kristoff." he said as he put the food into the microwave.

"They sure did, and we need to make sure we treat him with the same love and respect his parents treated him with. We need to make him feel as at home as possible. I'll have to explain it to the kids tomorrow. They all in bed?" she asked.

"Yes," Cliff replied, "They all went to bed about 2 hours ago." The microwave went off and Cliff took out the food and poured a cup of milk to go with the food.

"Do you know what Kristoff wants with his meat loaf? Carrots O.K? I cooked 'em for all of us earlier." Cliff asked. Bulda pondered for a moment.

"Oh yes, carrots should do fine. I remember his father telling me he loved carrots." Cliff scooped out some carrots onto the plate.

"Has he said anything to you?" he inquired. Bulda shook her head.

"Poor baby hasn't said a single word. I feel so bad for him." she said. Cliff wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her head.

"Hey," he said, looking into her eyes, "It's all right. We're going to make him as happy as we possibly can." Bulda smiled and kissed her husband on the cheek.

"O.K, I'm going to go shower. Would you mind staying out here with Kristoff while he eats?"

"Oh no hon, not at all." Cliff said, letting his wife go. She ruffled Kristoff's hair as she went by.

"You're supper's ready, Kristoff. Eat up." she said before she walked away. Kristoff walked into the kitchen and saw Cliff inviting him to sit in the vacant bar stool beside him.

"Come on up here, little man." Kristoff obeyed and sat down next to Cliff and eagerly started to gobble down as much food as possible.

"Hey, hey, slow down there cowboy," Cliff warned, "You're gonna make yourself sick eating that fast." Kristoff slowed his eating a little bit. A few minutes later, he had finished the plate.

"Fill you up?" Cliff asked him. Kristoff nodded. Cliff got down from his stool and removed the plate and glass.

"You want anything else? Some chips? Granola bar?" Kristoff shook his head. Cliff placed the dishes in the sink after rinsing them off and returned to his stool next to Kristoff.

"Don't talk much, do you, Kristoff?" Kristoff shook his head. Cliff sighed.

"Hey kid, that's O.K. I'd rather talk to the strong, silent type than the loud, annoying type any day. The strong, silent ones are always the most interesting." Cliff said, "Because you know when they talk, they aren't talking just for the sake of listening to themselves speak. They're talking because they actually have something worth saying." he finished, before clapping Kristoff on the shoulder.

"Just remember that, kiddo." he said before getting up again, "I'm going to go in the living room and watch some T.V. You want to join me?" Kristoff looked at him, then looked away again.

"Maybe later, huh?" Cliff said, before turning to leave. He went into the living room and sat on the sofa, flipping through channels. A few minutes later, Kristoff appeared and crawled up on the couch beside him, sitting a good two feet away. Cliff shifted his eyes to Kristoff.

"It's O.K, Kristoff. I won't bite you." he said, "Hard." Kristoff looked at him, Cliff smiled warmly. Kristoff returned the smile and scooted over closer to him. Cliff ruffled his dark blond hair.

"You'll do all right, kid." A few minutes later, the silence broke.

"Thank you."

Cliff looked down at Kristoff, who looked up at him with big, brown puppy dog eyes. Cliff smiled at him and hugged him closer.

"You're welcome, kiddo."