Chapter 4.

A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

-Maya Angelou

"Cath," Jamie asked the next day when they were building a snow man, rolling up the middle part. The older girl hummed, a sign for him to continue, "Do you believe in Santa Clause?"

Without even hesitating the girl shook her head. "Nope. Not really. It's a nice idea, but it doesn't seem real."

"What if I told you he was real?" Jamie asked, only a little suddenly.

Catherine paused in her work, looking over at her little cousin. Her lips pursed and behind her sunglasses she squinted.

"Are you telling me as a kid who still believes in Santa or a boy who knows something for a fact?" she asked at last.

Hope and trepidation warred across his face. "Fact," he said, "I know he's real, I've seen him! I'm not trying to trick you and I'm not crazy or stupid," he added.

Catherine smiled indulgently. "I never said you were, kid. I guess, if you think he's that real…" thousands of children believes, Clark Kent believed, Kara even would swear up and down and now her cousin? "It's possible."

Jamie's face lit up. "You think so!"

"Well yeah," Catherine nodded, "I mean, it doesn't take that long to circumnavigate the planet, and if you take into account the earth's rotation and the amount of children that believe versus the amount that don't and factor in the possibility of a whole year to prepare… It's not likely, but it's entirely possible."

Jamie's grin rivalled the sun. Catherine smiled at him.

"You said you'd met Santa? Tell me about that," she requested several minutes later when they were pounding the carrot in as a nose. Jamie's face lit up.

"Okay, so two years ago he came to my room with the tooth fairy-"

"Why was he with the Tooth fairy?" Catherine interrupted.

"Because Pitch Black stole all her little fairies that get the teeth."

"Pitch Black?" Catherine almost laughed. She'd heard some cliché names in her time but that was up on the list.

"The Boogeyman," Jamie explained, exasperated.

Catherine arched a thin brow. "Haven't heard of him since Nightmare Before Christmas came out. Nightmare Lord, yeah? Shadow on the moon, monster under the bed, thing in the closet?"

Jamie nodded. "Yeah, that's him. Anyway, the Guardians-"

"Guardian?" the first thought she had was arrogant blue smurfs.

"Santa Clause, Toothfairy, Sandman and Jack Frost. Stop interrupting!"

Catherine held up her hands in quiet apology.

"Like I was saying, two years ago they showed up in my room 'cause I lost a tooth and they were helping to collect them because Pitch took away the little fairies as part of his master plot."

"Which was what?"

"To make everyone stop believing in the Guardians and believe in him instead. No one had taken him seriously since, like, the dark ages."

Catherine hummed. "Makes sense then."

"Cath!" Jamie cried, looking horrified.

She cocked her head. "What? I'm only saying, his actions make sense. That doesn't make them good, or right."

"He was evil," Jamie insisted.

Catherine cut in, levelling her cousin with a hard look. "Evil is just a word that humans use to make distinctions between right and wrong, what's easy and hard. Evil doesn't exist anymore than good does and to think otherwise is ignorant and close minded."

Jamie floundered. "But, he made nightmares! And tried to kill Sandman!"

"And I kill fish to feed myself. It's the same principal kid."

"No it's not," he insisted stubbornly.

Catherine sighed deeply. Sometimes she really hated kids. She could scarcely remember when she'd been as naïve as they were.

"Okay, fine, he was evil. How dare he want to do what he was made to? What happened when the Guardians tried to stop him?"

Jamie settled once more, still giving her funny looks. "Yeah, they did too. And I got to help! I mean, at first I wasn't even sure if they were real for a while, Pitch crushed all of the Easter eggs and even though I saw them I almost gave up that's when I met Jack!"

Apparently her earlier transgressions had been forgotten. The girl listened intently, leaning forwards from where she had taken to kneeling on the ground. Cold wind blew against the back of her neck and the girl felt her hair stand on end. Someone was watching them. She didn't say anything about it, just smiled and listened to her little cousin.

"And then we stood up to him and then Jack became Guardian!" Jamie finished, his eyes darting over her shoulder before finding Catherine's face again. His expression brightened further, if that was possible.

"Huh," Catherine said at last, "That is pretty cool. You kids kicked some serious Boogeyman butt."

"Yeah! So you believe me?" Jamie asked hopefully.

The girl sat back on her heels, humming softly. "I believe you believe in yourself. I don't know if I believe in Jack Frost or the Easter Bunny though. I don't think they don't exist, I've seen too much crazy stuff in Coast to say that, but I don't like putting faith in what I can't see."

Jamie tilted his head, a frown on his face. "You used to believe in them though didn't you? When you were a kid?"

Catherine's smile turned somewhere between bitter and sad. "The last time I believed in any of your Guardians I was Sophie's age."

Jamie's eyes went wide with shock. "Four?" he repeated.

"Yeah," the older shrugged. "That was the first time a star come down to earth. And the first time I knew what death was," The girl brought her knees to her stomach. "It's kinda hard to believe in Guardians of children when you've had your childhood ripped away."

"They're real!" Jamie blurted. Horror was clouding his face. "I know that they are, and if they knew what happened-"

"Kid," she cut him off gently, "Calm down. It's okay, really. Kids go missing all the time. What's one more?"

Even as she assured her cousin that she didn't blame his Guardians she knew she was lying.

Never thought I'd resent the Easter Bunny.