A/N:

Thank you all for the reviews of this story! I'm really enjoying reading them all and I'm so glad to hear that people are liking this!

Sorry if this chapter gets a bit too fluffy at the end. I thought it was really cute but idk.

This one is a bit smaller than the last two but to be fair, I managed to upload in one day again so believe me, that is an accomplishment!

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Enjoy :)

Chapter 6

Jack flew away from Rose's house in a state of delighted disbelief. He wasn't quite sure how he had expected his talk with her to go that day in the park but he certainly didn't expect her to accept what he told her right off the bat.

Seeing her face as she took in every word, Jack had noticed several different emotions play on her features.

He was somewhat prepared to see the question and shock on her face. He had even, as much as he could, prepared himself to see disgust, confusion, and contempt. He was, after all, almost 300 years older than her… not to mention he had died before.

Contemplating what he was going to tell her, he had thought this through and decided it was pretty creepy. He had purposefully never told any of the children before. Not that they ever really pressed the subject of his immortality.

Children were too innocent and trusting to wonder about the origins of a winter spirit that flew through the air and made snow fall from the sky. Jack had always loved the caring and loving nature of small children. It was what had driven him to keep using his powers even when no one believed.

It was what drove him to take his little sister's place on the thin ice that last day of his human life…

Now Jack had been driven to trust the judgment of this girl he had really only just met… and her reaction had stunned him.

Not only did she seem to believe what he told her, though it must have sounded as crazy as could be, but she looked at him with respect, admiration, sympathy, and a hint of something else that, he couldn't be sure, but he thought was some degree of liking.

He couldn't have been more relieved to see this response in her. He had that now too familiar feeling that there was something more to her. Something that gave him that lighter than air feeling he was experiencing now as he flew through the forest and back to his pond.

Not having much to do until nightfall, he stood on the frozen water and began to slide gracefully around in circles, adding layers to the ice to be sure it wasn't too thin. Never again would someone meet their death here. Jack had made sure of that since he had found his memories.

As strange as it may seem, Jack found a peace and solemnity at the pond. It was the first place he had ever met the Man in the Moon and heard his new name.

He loved who he had become and now, fully understanding his place in the world and his responsibilities to the children who he loved, everything had seemed to fall into place.

Now if he could just figure out what Rose meant to him…

Rose could hardly wait until night fell and Jack would return.

At this point she wasn't really sure if she had just finally given up all sanity and believed everything that Jack said, or if the honesty she had seen in his troubled eyes had just broken her.

She thought about the story he had told her of his death. Morbid a thought though it was, she was touched that he had given up his life to save his sister. The sadness she had seen in his eyes as he told her the story of that day…

She thought he might cry and wondered in a moment of insane clarity, whether or not he could cry and if his tears would maybe just freeze on his cheeks…

The way he had looked up at her next though, took her off her guard. He actually smiled up at her with a look that told her everything was alright. He was genuinely happy about what had happened and his lot in life.

That was when Rose had decided she needed him.

If Jack could recover from the horror of his own death, hundreds of years of not knowing who he was, and then realizing his identity only to come to terms with the fact that anyone he knew or loved that many years ago, has long since died, surely Rose could someday find peace in the tragedy of this past year.

She just needed him to show her how to move on.

Slowly, Rose had begun to think less and less of how badly it had hurt to lose her mother. She still thought of her often but it seemed that the pain in her chest was finally starting to leave.

She couldn't deny the almost girlish liking she had quickly developed for Jack.

Crazy that in a few short days, so much had been brought to light for her.

She scratched her arm mindlessly as she waited by the window. Her father had gone to bed already after giving her a strange look.

Rose could tell that her father was noticing this change in her. She felt a little guilty about not spending more time with him today.

Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. She would make it a point to spend the day with him… She still needed to wrap his gift.

Tonight however, she was eager to find out what it was Jack wanted to show her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the same tapping noise she had heard that morning. This time she was ready and opened the window quickly to let him in.

As soon as Jack was inside, she shut the window and smiled up at him.

"We have to be quiet if we stay here" she told him, "Dad is asleep down the hall."

She pointed past the stairs away from the kitchen to her father's room.

"That's alright" he half-whispered back to her, "We don't need to make any noise. I just wanted to show you the magic of dreams."

Curious, Rose lifted one eyebrow and gave Jack a look that said she clearly did not understand what he meant.

He smiled at her in return and sighed, "Do you remember what I told you? About there being others like me?"

She slowly nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"Well, Sandy should be coming by soon to send dreams to the children now that it's dark outside… The sandman that is."

It was somewhat amusing to watch the pieces fall into place in Rose's mind. It was as if a light bulb had just turned on inside her head and he could practically hear the click.

Her eyes lit up as she understood what he was talking about and she began to think about this prospect. It wasn't too difficult to trust his word and the idea of seeing the dreams was too amazing to pass up. She signaled to a couch and Jack helped her to turn it around to face the window.

"It might help if we turn out the lights" Jack said, with a hand to the switch on the wall.

"Oh! Just give me a second!" Rose said as she walked into the kitchen.

After a few moments, she returned with a lit candle. Holding it in one hand and covering it to protect it from the moving air as she walked to place it on the small table next to the window.

With that, Jack flipped the switch and they sat, side by side, with a front row seat of the nightly show.

As they sat on the couch, so close to one another, Rose could feel the coolness of Jack's skin radiating through his clothes. It wasn't very late but, not having gotten much sleep the night before, she began to nod off, leaning a bit on his shoulder.

Jack looked down at her and smiled, enjoying the warmth she provided, relaxing into the couch.

It only took a few minutes before Jack tensed up on the couch and grabbed her arm. With his other hand he pointed out the window.

"Here he comes" he whispered to her.

Rose looked out the window where he had pointed and let out a small gasp.

There, up in the sky, there seemed to be flowing golden strands of moving particles. She realized this must be the sand that created dreams.

It looked as if thousands of these were flowing in every direction, flowing like streams all coming from a single source that floated high up in the sky.

She couldn't quite make out the shape of whoever was controlling the sand but she wasn't too concerned about that.

To her further amazement, the streams of dream sand moved and changed shapes as they made their way to their intended sleepers. Images of butterflies, puppies, waves on a beach, or even kids having snowball fights burst into life in the night sky!

It was the most amazing thing Rose had seen! Her eyes filled with wonder and awe at the extravagance of the entire show.

"Does this really happen every night?" Rose asked as she wondered how on earth she could have missed this all her life.

"Every night like clockwork" Jack replied, "most people never see this only because they don't know it's there… they don't believe."

He looked at her then with that same crooked smile plastered on his face. It seemed like such a boyish look but his eyes were full of maturity and understanding. She settled herself back to her previous position on his shoulder as she continued to watch the incredible display.

"Thank you, Jack" she yawned, "This is wonderful."

Jack leaned his head back against hers. He couldn't help but to inhale her comforting scent. He couldn't quite place it exactly but it brought back memories of grass after the rain in spring and the tea leaves his mother used to use all those years ago…

Her steady heartbeat the only thing now holding him to this moment.

He would need to thank Sandy somehow for this later.