[Vanessa's POV]
There's one thing you should know about the North Pole, Vanessa thought, it really is cold. There is a reason it is so far up North. Only crazy people would venture that far up North, Vanessa thought, pulling Jack's sweatshirt closer to her body as they flew on.
"How far do we have to go?" Vanessa asked for what felt like the fifteenth time.
"Not much further," Jack responded patiently. Vanessa took a moment to study him. His brows were furrowed in concentration of flying. His hand still held hers loosely, in order to keep them together. Or so he said. But Vanessa wasn't complaining. She could hardly contain a grin as she stared at their intertwined hands.
Jack suddenly pulled her into a deep dive, headed for what looked like a snow covered mountain. As they neared it, Vanessa could see what looked like a small house at first and then turned into a large workshop. Vanessa's face split into a wide grin as she recognized it as their destination.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Jack said, catching Vanessa's expression.
"Yeah it is," Vanessa responded, "But I just can't wait to take a rest!" She admitted.
Jack laughed lightly, speeding up and pulling her after her.
[Jack's POV]
On the outside, Jack seemed like a calm man. But on the inside, there was an internal war brewing. One side was thinking that bringing Vanessa here was a good idea, helping out someone in need. Another side thought this was a very, very, very, bad idea. How would the guardians react when they saw her? Jack was hoping to whoever was listening that they would at least give her a chance to explain. She had already been through a hard enough time as it was.
Phil the Yeti waved them in and was patting Jack up and down for smoke bombs. Vanessa raised her eyebrows at Jack and he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. It had seemed like a good prank at the time…
Phil finally let them through, grumbling after not finding anything on Jack. Jack led Vanessa through the workshop part first, letting her really look around. Even though Jack was now free to come and go as he pleased, the workshop still left him in awe. They laughed together when Jack stole two candy canes from one of the elves passing by, handing one secretly to Vanessa. They unwrapped them and sucked on the sweet minty candy as the made their way up some stairs to the globe room.
They reached the giant wooden double doors and Jack paused for a moment, gathering up his thoughts and trying to figure out what he was going to say when he found them in there. Jack took a deep breath and, after getting a small reassuring smile from Vanessa, pushed the doors open to find…emptiness. Jack couldn't help but feel a small sense of relief; he could now control when the others would find out.
Jack walked over to the giant globe, pushing a small button on the control panel to call the other guardians and instantly four different lights appeared in the room. Before the lights could fully form into their beings, he already heard complaints.
"I was in the middle of collecting a child's tooth and almost woke them up!" said the blue-green light.
"I was out training some new reindeer; you're lucky the sleigh didn't crash!" exclaimed the red light.
"If this is another prank, I will personally whip your butt," the light blue light said menacingly.
The golden light stayed silent but Jack could see many symbols of anger and profanity bursting from it.
Jack couldn't help but laugh quietly to himself; these four cranky old spirits were the guardians of children's hopes and dreams and all they could do was complain. "Guys!" Jack said, trying to restore order to the room but failing miserably, his voice drowned out over the arguments currently erupting inside the cavernous room.
North and Bunny were screaming in each other's faces about which was better; Christmas or Easter; while Tooth yelled over their petty argument orders to some faries that had appeared with her. Sandy was not adding any noise to the room, but trying to help Jack in getting order over the area. He was floating around making ridiculous shapes to try and get their attention, but North and Bunnymund thought that he was just adding to the argument, which made them get even louder, causing Tooth to start screaming orders out at the top of her lungs. All in all, it was not a place you would have liked to be in.
A sudden loud whistle brought everyone under control. All five guardians' turned, stunned, to face the sixth person in the room. Jack saw Vanessa standing on top of the large table with two fingers in her mouth, obviously what she had used to whistle so loudly. Jack mentally face-palmed himself; this was not how he wanted the guardians to first meet Vanessa.
"Hi," Vanessa said quietly and self-consciously. She still hadn't been in the company of more than one person at a time, Jack remembered, so this must have been overwhelming.
"Who are you?" Bunnymund asked so bluntly that he received a harsh elbow in the ribs by Tooth. Bunny rubbed his side, grumbling.
"My name is Vanessa," she said quietly, studying her feet. She looked so shy all Jack wanted to do was protect her from the gazes of these four people, strangers to her.
North let out a big belly laugh, "That is such a coincidence! Jack was sent to watch a girl named Vanessa but he would never bring her here…" North trailed off as everything fell into place, "WHAT?" He exploded, taking one of his swords out of its sheath and swinging it around in frustration. Everyone backed away, fearing they would get hit by the sword. "You….you…you…you…YOU!" He finally shouted, pointing a quivering sword right in front of Jack's face, "You would dare betray us by bringing her here!? I thought went over this! You and her, you have no contact. She is EVIL! And to think you had so much potential as a guardian…" North said, trailing off again before he turned away from the entire group, muttering to his self.
"Jack, why don't you show Vanessa to the lobby so we can discuss the matter?" Tooth said calmly, smiling kindly at Vanessa. Vanessa smiled tentatively back before taking Jack's outstretched hand as he helped her down from the table. As the two of them left the room, they could hear yells explode through the closing doors.
"Sorry you have to deal with all that," Vanessa said quietly, nodding towards the double doors as they made their way down a hallway, "If it's easier for everyone, I can just leave," Vanessa sighed, looking sad and slightly lonely.
"NO!" Jack yelled suddenly, making Vanessa jump away from him, startled. "Sorry," he said, grinning slightly, "It's just you're my best friend and I….I couldn't bear to lose you".
Vanessa grinned widely when he said that, embracing him in a large hug, "You're my best friend too," she whispered.
The two made the rest of the way to the lobby in silence with large smiles on their faces. "Dolores, this is Vanessa. She's going to be sitting here for a while, ok? Don't let her leave unless I come back to get her," Jack added that last part in a whisper to a Yeti sitting behind the receptionist's desk. Vanessa watched Jack leave, waving at him sadly as he left the room.
Jack took a deep breath as he stood in front of the double doors again. He could do this.
[Vanessa's POV]
Vanessa stood there, looking curiously around the lobby. It was white and there was faint Muzak playing in the background. Vanessa hoped Jack would be back soon.
[Jack's POV]
Jack reentered the room to shouts and yells. "We cannot simply vaporize the poor dear, North!" Tooth was yelling. "We could cage her up," Bunny suggested indifferently to which Sandy responded with a giant no sign over his head.
"GUYS!" Jack yelled as loud as he could, which was pretty loud. Four pairs of eyes turned to his own icy blue ones as he saw anger, confusion, concern, and a lot of anger.
"You had orders!" North exclaimed, clearly outraged.
"Only you would mess up this simple of a mission," Bunnymund threw in.
Sandy looked at Jack in confusion while Tooth said as calmly as she could, "Jack, why did you bring her here?"
"If you guys promise to shut up for five minutes, I'll explain everything," Jack said, trying to keep calm so he wouldn't add more flames to the fire. Bunny made a big show of extracting a large watch out of who knows where and checking the time, "And go," he said dramatically.
Jack rolled his eyes before beginning.
[Vanessa's POV]
When Vanessa ran out of ceiling tiles to count (43), she turned her attention to the rest of the room. In the corner she saw a water jug in the corner, like the ones that you see in offices. Vanessa stood and walked over to it, mostly out of boredom, but also because she was a little thirsty. She could feel Dolores the Yeti's eyes on her the entire time. When she saw Vanessa was only getting water she continued her typing.
When Vanessa reached the water jug she grabbed a cup and pushed on the little tap to get some water. As the water spilled out, large air bubbles burst out of the bottom and floated to the top making weird glugging sounds. Vanessa couldn't help but laugh, greatly entertained by these bubbles. She drank ten or more cups of water just to see the bubbles, until Dolores cleared her throat. Vanessa sheepishly threw the cup away and walked back over to her seat. She couldn't help but feel a little bloated after drinking so much water.
After sitting there for another ten minutes Vanessa realized something very important. She really had to pee.
[Jack's POV]
"…and her father wasn't bad this whole time, it's like he's another person. So when he changed into the Pitch Black we know, Vanessa had nowhere else to go and so I offered her a place here because it's really not her fault who her father is and she's not evil. And that's how we ended up here." Jack said, finally finishing his story. Telling the whole story must have taken about ten or more minutes but the rest of the Guardians were so entranced by Jack's journey that they sat there in rapt attention.
"You're sure she's not a spy?" North asked, trying to figure this strange girl out. "No!" Jack repeated for what felt like the billionth time, "She isn't evil. I promise!"
"We all know how special your promises are," Bunnymund said quietly, but just loud enough so Jack could hear. Any other day, Jack would have jumped at the chance to argue with the rabbit but Vanessa was more important than that.
"Well, I guess that leaves us with one question," Tooth said, breaking the awkward silence, "Where should the girl stay?"
[Vanessa's POV]
Today was defiantly the end of the world, Vanessa thought bitterly to herself, you find out your father has finally become a man he can't control; you get kicked out of your own home; figure out you can fly (ok, that was pretty cool); get dragged to the North Pole; yelled at by four mythological people; and finally get stuck in this white walled prison. Oh, and to top it all off, your bladder feels like it's going to explode. Yup, welcome to the lovely world of Vanessa.
Most people would just ask to go to the bathroom but Vanessa didn't really know how to ask people for things. Finally after what felt like twenty minutes, she mustered up the courage to ask.
"Is there a restroom around here?" she asked in a quiet voice to the receptionist. Dolores nodded before pointing and grunting to a door around the corner. "Thank you!" Vanessa exclaimed before sprinting into the bathroom. Ahhhh, sweet relief.
[Jack's POV]
"She can't stay in the Tooth Palace, we work 24/7," Tooth said, sounding guilty.
"There's no way she's staying in the Warden!" Bunny exclaimed. They skipped Sandy seeing as he didn't have a secret lair and turned to North.
"No, no, no, no!" North exclaimed waving his hands back and forth. Jack turned his light blue eyes onto North, pulling out his full on puppy face. Tooth and Sandy joined in and after a few seconds, so did Bunny. "Agh!" North groaned his face in his hands, "Fine, fine! Just put those faces away! Jack, she can stay in the room next to yours".
"Thanks North, you're the best!" Jack exclaimed, fist pumping the air before zooming down the hallway.
[Vanessa's POV]
Vanessa was so bored she was reading about some woman called Kim Kardashian and her family and wondering why people cared. And what was that girl Miley Cyrus wearing? Vanessa questioned, wondering why people read about these things. Don't they have their own lives to live?
Jack suddenly burst into the room with a large smile on his face, "Vanessa! You get to stay here!"
"Oh my gosh, yeah!" Vanessa exclaimed, twirling around and throwing her magazine to the side.
"C'mon, I'll show you your room," Jack said, dragging her out of the lobby, "Thanks Dolores!" he yelled over his shoulder.
***A/N: Hi guys! If anyone would like a visual on how Vanessa and Jack are dealing with this fight between the guardians please look up on YouTube "Teen Titans Go! Legendary Sandwich". Basically Vanessa would be Robin in the super market and Jack would be Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fighting the sandwich guardians. :) Excuse my nerdiness***
A/N (part 2): I am so so so sorry that it took me so long to update. I had such bad writers block and this seriously was like one of the worst chapters I have ever written please forgive me guys! You guys write the sweetest comments, I love you all! Please let me know what you thought of the chapters and if you have any suggestions on what I could do better on my writing, where you want the story to go, or just want to say hello, please leave reviews! I can't promise that I'll update within this next week, I have a lot going on, but I will try to update ASAP! Alright darlings I must part but please FOLLOW and FAVORITE and REVIEW! I love you guys, you're the greatest! Frositutes for life, right?" ;)
xoxo bellebeliever
