WARNING: NIGHTMARES ARE PROHIBITED FROM READING THIS FANFICTION

Plastic bags crinkled against the bitter wind that blew through the park. I had unlatched the necklace from around my neck and rolled it around, back and forth, hand to hand. Through my gloves I could feel it strange chill, though it was warm when I touched it bare-handed. It was a beautiful sort of magic – yes, magic. I loved it. It was made for me.

For the past fifteen minutes I had been debating whether or not to call Jack. My mind called for answers, but my heart parried with its own questions. What if you don't want to know the answers? What if it changes your life drastically?

Well, I told myself, I don't see how my life could change any more than it already has.

So, I pulled my fingers out of the gloves and wove the beads around my fingers. That stall that filled you when your weren't so sure anymore rushed through me. It was quickly overcome with curiosity, and I grasped a single bead between my thumb and forefinger. Closing my eyes (after having a paranoid look around for Tobias) I squeezed the bead, expecting it to be difficult to break. The ice cracked and turned to a powdery snow before disappearing completely.

Jack! I shouted in my mind, mentally projecting my voice through the city. I could feel it, pounding against the buildings that stood in its way. The clouds parted in my mind, and I snapped my eyes open.

He fell into the clearing in front of me, if falling was the word for it. Jack paused a foot above the ground unsteadily and rushed towards me.

"What?" He looked around wildly, holding his staff in a defensive position under his arm. I sat patiently on the park bench, and felt a little guilty when he narrowed his eyes at me. He floated towards the ground, his bare feet sending curls of frost through the dirt. "You're not in trouble."

Slowly, like a scolded child, I shook my head. He sighed, leaning against his staff, and looked at me.

"You can't waste the beads like that," he explained with a sigh. My heart leapt. Had he been worried that something had happened to me?

Stop it, my brain told my heart, and it went back to a steady beat. You're here for answers. I stood, making sure not to step on my groceries. As sternly as I could, I said, "I need answers."

He didn't smile. He didn't frown. His face was indifferent, like he knew I would say that and frankly didn't care.

"I'm not allowed to give you any answers." Jack turned, meaning to lift off again in that Peter Pan fashion of his.

My hand gripped his sleeve before I could think to do any different. Jack turned to look at me, his narrowed blue eyes revealing his annoyance.

"Please," I said, because I suddenly felt that the demanding wouldn't work with him. "Please, give me something."

The sadness that filled his eyes was scary. It sent a river of ice down my spine. My hand was numb, the one that held onto his hoodie, and I let go when he brushed my hand away. When he blinked, the sadness was gone.

He sighed, relieving my thoughts of defeat. Jack walked over to the park bench and sat down. Respectively, I sat almost a foot away.

"You won't believe me if I tell you," he said. I noticed how his words didn't carry the cloud of white when he talked, whereas I was puffing clouds into the air like an addicted smoker.

"Well, you got me to believe in you," I mumbled, nervous. Jack gave me a sly kind of grin that set my stomach into summersaults.

"True," he relaxed against the bench, his natural swagger coming on overload. Then, more serious, he started to explain: "I'm a Guardian, and Guardians… we,"

"Guard things?"

Jack looked at me funny. I made the motion of zipping my lips shut, and he continued. "In a manner of speaking, yea. We guard the hope, peace, and whatever care there is left in the world. We… we guard people from the darkness that resides in everything. But most important of all, we guard the hope that springs only in children. Without them," he shrugged with one shoulder, "there wouldn't be us. The Guardians."

I nodded slowly, my gaze wandering to the ground. "So… the Guardians… who," maybe I didn't want my questions answered… but I went on. "Who are the Guardians?"

Jack grinned mischievously. He raised his hand and twirled it around, causing a mini snow storm in the middle of his palm. A Christmas tree sprung up, decorated with little teeth. One tooth began to grow before the tree disappeared. It slowly opened, revealing a happily painted Easter egg. The egg began to shrink before it hovered about the sleeping figure of a child, like a dream-bubble. Then the ice faded away, and he set his hand on his leg.

I closed my dropped jaw, slowly piecing the pictures together. "Santa?"

"North," Jack corrected. "And not nearly as rosy as everyone makes him out to be. Russian, too."

The mere thought of a Russian Santa Clause made me want to question humanity. "And…the Tooth Fairy?"

"Toothiana; you're doing well."

"The Easter Bunny, and…and…" I tried to put it all together with the sleeping child. Then I snapped, proud of myself for suddenly remembering. "The Sand Man!"

Jack laughed, throwing his head back as if I just told a hilarious joke. "Yea, Bunnymund and Sandy. Good job."

I grabbed my hair in muted disbelief. "Holy crap! They – they exist? All of them?"

The smile he gave me lit me up inside. He nodded. "Yes, we do."

"But…" I thought back to when he rescued me. At that time, it was like I was flying all by myself. "How come I couldn't see you in the beginning?"

Jack frowned and turned away from me. Not in anger, but in the sadness that I could feel wave off of him. "We have to be believed in to be seen. You didn't believe in me at first, do you couldn't see me. And now…" he nodded, the rest obvious. I felt sad for him, a hole in my heart for the loneliness he must feel, day to day. Then it occurred to me how old he was. Before me was a vision of a carefree, go-lucky teenager, but thinking back on all the old movies and stories, and then guessing at the myths before them…

It opened up a new realm of emptiness in my mind, one that hurt me to imagine for him.

He looked at me, and then stood up. "If that's it," he said, a pale, indifferent look coming across his face, "then I'll get going."

I jumped up when he took off, almost tripping over my groceries. "Wait!" Jack swung around to look down at me. His eyes made my heart jump, but I forced out my next question, the one I really needed answered.

"What are you doing protecting me? Who sent you?" Okay, technically two questions, but both were equally important.

"I told you, I can't answer them!"

"Then take me to the person who can!"

We faced off; he in the air, I standing stiffly against the ground. Now he looked annoyed, but didn't fly off into the clouds like I expected him to. Instead, he jettisoned towards me, stopping inches away from my face. I held my breath because I knew that it would smell like bacon.

"I'll come and get you tonight," he said reluctantly. Backing away, slowing rising higher, he said, "Wear something warm," before flying away, leaving me to try and calm my racing heart.