A/N: New chapter, yay! Thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and especially to those of you who reviewed. Chilly air kisses from Jack and bear hugs from North for you! And, look how long this is! I really tried to make the conversation believable, so, if I didn't, let me know. It's difficult to write an awkward conversation that flows well… Anyway, I'm also working on a sculpture for class and I smashed my pinky finger with the mallet so this chapter and next will come straight from love; I'm suffering for you all. ;-) As always, all mistakes and typos are mine.

Shout outs to antiheroine and orangevbnin! :-D

Bunny shrugged at North's question. "Not rightly sure, mate, but you might not want to hazard a guess."

North's eye's narrowed. He was an intimidating sight to anyone who didn't know him. "Where is she?"

"She may or may not have gone to give South Wind a talking to." He offered. Nothing anyone could do now, though he was old enough to know that crossing such an ancient was a bad idea.

Nicholas North's voice was nothing short of a bellow, "She what?"

Just then Mrs. Claus came tripping in around her husband, looking a little wind tossed but not much worse for the wear.

The two guardians blanched at her while she smiled innocently and caught her breath. "So glad to see you here Nick. Pasch, how is he doing?"

"Same as before," Bunny answered. North's mouth simply hung open.

"Dear," she said to North while she pulled the tie from her hair and began to neatly rebraid it, "you're going to catch fairies if you keep your mouth like that."

North's mouth snapped shut.

"There we go!" She smiled, patting his large chest fondly. "Now off to the yetis, they need the inventory signed by you. Off you go." And she bustled a sputtering North from the room.

When the door was closed and her coat was off she turned back to Bunny. "Oh, don't look at me like that," she said. "It was hardly anything."

Bunnymund raised an eyebrow. "You know, he would have held me responsible if anything had happened to you."

Faith snorted and rolled up the sleeves on her winter dress. "Well, nothing did. Now, I'm going to wake Jack and see if we can get some of that water from his lungs. I don't like the sound of his breathing." Indeed, Jack's unconscious wheezing was both watery and somewhat garbling. Bunny stood but Faith waved him off and motioned for him to sit in a chair at the far end of the room.

She took the seat near the bed and after rousing him gently rested a hand against Jack's curled back. Promptly her hand began to glow.

Bunnymund's eyes grew wide to see Faith working her healing on Jack. As the creature responsible for a number of miracles she had great healing power but she didn't do this kind of thing often, especially not lately. Bunny watched in rapt attention. It only took a few seconds and Jack began to cough. Faith spoke soothing words, ever the epitome of motherly Mrs. Claus, as Jack coughed and gagged and finally vomited the last of the fishy water from his body. "That's it," she encouraged, rubbing circles in his back, as Jack hung his head over the floor and took in deep gasping breaths, "you did wonderful."

Jack looked up at her with confusion. "Who are you?"

Faith continued her ministrations with a wry look on her face. "I'm Faith, dear, you met me at the celebration party after Pitch's defeat. I'm North's wife… Mrs. Claus." Understanding dawned in Jack's eyes.

Faith took his hands in hers as he sat up. "Can you tell me what happened? How'd you end up on a beach?"

Jack's eyes fell but he nodded. "I-I was flying and making snow, you know, the usual, and then the wind just started tumbling and thrashing. I thought it was fun at first, but it never ended and then I couldn't" he swallowed "get out of it. And then I was in the water." His lip trembled but he went on. "The waves kept coming over my head."

When Faith asked him what he saw while he was under the water there was a haunted look in Jack's eyes that Bunny knew wasn't from this latest misadventure. No, he was remembering. Bunnymund's mind drifted to the tragedies he himself had experienced. Reliving something like that would be horrible. he was pulled from his reverie as Jack flung his arms around Mrs. Claus and cried. Faith just patted his wild white hair and rubbed his back. "It's okay to be frightened," she soothed. "It's okay to mourn your death. You haven't gotten to. It's okay." Jack continued for some time and Bunny was ashamed. Faith was right, the boy had never mourned his own passing, he hadn't even known about it for a very long time, and it probably didn't help that he was now a guardian of joy. He was still so young in so many ways. Affection for the young man blossomed unexpectedly in Bunny's chest. Still, it wasn't right to see another man so vulnerable. He looked away and tried to think of new patterns he could put on eggs.

He was again pulled from his musings by Mrs. Claus standing from her chair and walking over to him. She rested a hand on Bunny's shoulder. "I have to go. South shouldn't try to drown him again, but…I wouldn't call his bluff."

Bunny nodded as Faith stepped from the room. Afterwards he stood and quietly made his way to sit in the chair beside where Jack was wiping the last of his tears.

"How long have you been here?" Jack choked out, trying to recompose himself as best he could.

"Not long," he lied. Really, it was a necessary lie. No one wanted to know they'd been watched.

For a moment Bunnymund glanced down at the floor where Jack had vomited. Then he shrugged. The elves would… Bunny stopped that thought in its gag-worthy tracks. He shuddered. Elves; disgusting little buggers. They'd eat anything.

He sighed and glanced at Jack. He felt the unsettling need to talk to him, to make him feel better.

"Hey, frostbite, how ya going?"

Jack looked at him warily from his one good eye and a furrowed brow. "Okay?"

"That was quite a tumble you had, pretty assy." Jack just stared at him and blinked. Sighing, Bunnymund tried again. "You should try riding a bronco next time. You'd be ace!"

Jack smiled but it didn't quite reach his eye. Or perhaps it did, his face was almost too swollen to tell.

Now Bunny rolled his eyes. Why was he being so difficult? Eggs weren't difficult. He liked eggs.

He took a deep breath and tried again. "Bad day, huh?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, you could say that."

"You gonna be okay?"

Jack glanced at him and away. "Yeah, I guess."

Bunny squinted at Jack and surmised that he was lying. He didn't like that. He wondered for a moment at how to reach the young Guardian when he himself wasn't particularly talkative. Then his face almost lit up as a thought occurred to him.

"You know you… can't die, right?"

For several moments Jack watched Bunny with an unreadable look on his face. Then he coughed a little and then nodded slowly.

"Yeah."

"So no worries," Bunny offered, chucking him lightly on the chin, "just a few bumps and bruises."

Several minutes passed in silence. Normally this would have chuffed Bunny something fine, but now it felt strained. Where was North? North was good at things like this, good at talking to people.

"Riding the South wind is dangerous."

Jack looked up at him from where he'd begun to pick at his shepherd's staff.

"Well," added Bunny, "riding any wind is dangerous. It's amazing that you just hop on the back of North like he's your faithful horse or something. He kills so many, but doesn't he love you. Though he's not the last of the four winds; East and West are the least deadly, though they have their fair share in tragedy as well. But South, South is nasty. He's mean, and angry and he hates North and he hates North's friends." He motioned to Jack's beaten body. "You're lucky that's all he did to you. How about you stay off South's back, yeah?"

Jack's eyes watched Bunny, one of them wide, and he nodded. "Yeah, stay off the wind for a while."

Then something else occurred to Bunny. He caught Jack's eye. "Back on the beach, squirt…it sounded like you thought we wouldn't come for you."

"…I." Jack swallowed noisily and Bunny narrowed his eyes.

"You did know that we'd come for you, right?"

Jack's head hung and his entire body began to tremble. His bruised fists clenched tightly at his sides.

Seeing the boy start to dissolve again, Bunnymund let out a groan and, grabbing him by the back of the head, pulled Jack in for a hug. He gave the young man's hair an irritated snuff before resting his chin atop Jack's head.

"We will always, always come for you, Jack. Doesn't matter where you are or what you did. No matter how much of a pain in my arse you are. We'll protect you. We'll find you. You're family now. No take backs."

From under his chin Bunnymund heard a soft sob. He pretended he didn't hear anything. When he hear the juicy sniffle of someone who was done crying and felt Jack fidget he pulled back. He smiled and ruffled Jack's hair.

"Kid, you look terrible."

Jack chuckled at that, the first truly happy gesture he'd given since they got him back, and Bunny felt something that had been tight an uncomfortable inside him uncoil and relax. He smiled broadly at the younger Guardian.

"I know you're going to do what you want but try to be safe," Bunny concluded. "I don't want to have to run half way across the world to pick your broken body up out of some desert. It's no fun."

"Yeah, yeah. No fun for me either," replied Jack in the first touch of snark he'd given in hours.

But then Jack's one good eye began to droop and Bunny, knowing the conversation was over, patted the young man on the head and helped him lay back before getting up and walking out to where North and Faith stood in the hallway. He could see Tooth approaching from a distance but ignored her. It wasn't that he didn't like her, in fact he did, but she could be…smothering and he was sure Jack wasn't interested in that right now.

"He's grouse," he told the couple. "He's just gone back to sleep. I bet he'll be back to his annoyingly frosty puckish self in no time."

Faith both raised her eyebrow and narrowed her eyes at Bunny. He chose to ignore that, too.

"Who?" Asked Tooth from behind him.

"Oh, nothing," answered North pleasantly, "problem is fixed."

"So, did you ever get that new peppermint flavor worked out?" asked Bunny.

"What? The pomegranate-peppermint? No, only elves eat it. No good."

Curious, Tooth fluttered over the heads of the others while they chatted, peaking inside the room that had occupied everyone's attention just moments earlier. That is, until she saw the condition Jack was in. Then she screamed and rushed in.

A/N: Have I mentioned that with a crushed finger it hurts to type? Yes? Okay, I'll stop whining. I do have a question; does Bunnymund ever actually call Jack "frostbite" in the movie? It's over an hour and unfortunately I'm loathe to recall all the dialogue in its entirety and I'm not sure if that's a clever fandom thing or a movie thing. If anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful.

Also, please review, it's a kind thing to do and it lets others know this story is worth taking a look at. Also, you'll get even more happy Christmas bonus points from me and I will personally reply to every review (within reason, if you're not signed in I can't, but otherwise I will!). Thank you!