A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys.

And to blackkyu: He has regained his memory. Like it said, he fancied a girl from before he died. I'll also probably give a small nod to his past life in an upcoming chapter.

Enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 10

"So, you having a good time?"

His voice snaps her out of her thoughts. She quickly shakes her head and looks back at him, bringing her hands out of her pockets. "Yeah, I am."

"Well, you haven't said a word in a few minutes." He points out.

"Oh, sorry, I'm just…just…thinking 'bout stuff, I guess." She sheepishly scratches the back of her neck.

"What stuff?" he questions.

"Oh, just…stuff." She says.

"Okay." She lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

They walk in silence for another few minutes until they reach Lookout Point, the highest point that gave them a fantastic view of the snow-covered town. She leans against the railing, enjoying how the high altitude sent gentle chilling breezes their way. She then registers Jack coming and leaning as well, and when she looks at him, his eyes are fixed on the lights beneath them.

"I can see why you love this place." He tells her. "This is one beautiful place to be."

"I know." She says. "This town's always been beautiful, but it always looks better in the winter."

"Hmm." He hums in agreement, before turning to look at her.

"You're staring." She says, not taking her eyes off the horizon.

"Oh, am I?" he asks, backing up slightly. "Sorry."

She chuckles. "Don't be."

He re-adjusts himself, looking out onto the townscape as he takes a few deep breaths. The two of them stay that way for a while, just staring into space as they make small talk about things that don't really matter. But, whatever, it was fun, and she wasn't gonna deny it.

"This is nice." She says.

"It is, isn't it?" he agrees, a smile lighting up his whole face.

She turns to him to find that he had done the same, and now they were in a position where their faces were just inches apart. Hesitating for a while, she noticed that his eyes had been flitting between her eyes and lips for a few moments. Then, he did something that just chocked her to the core. He began to lean in.

"Um…" she says, just as his lips are extremely close to hers, and she can't deny how much her heart is pounding right now. "We…we can't. My brother…"

"…Isn't here." He completes. "Just relax. Let's have a little fun instead."

Surprisingly, that's the line that gets her over, and she closes her eyes, just waiting for it to happen. But then the most surprising thing happens: everything falls apart.

Seriously, the second that Jack was just a couple of centimeters away from her lips, he dissolves into vapor. When she scrambles back in fear, the entire environment also dissolves. In the midst of the confusion, she then hears a demonic voice come from somewhere.

"Interesting."

She whips around to see the vapor collecting to form a very humanoid shape, the shape of a tall, lean man. At first, she thinks that he scared her too much, but then she realizes that he was causing this reaction in her. He was probably controlling this to bring out the fear in her. She couldn't make out any features, because all he was made of was smoke, but something told her that this man was more dangerous than he seemed.

"Ah, yes," he says, "You're an interesting one, for certain. You will be the perfect candidate. But for now, wake up."

She almost sucks in a gasp when she wakes up to Dick shaking her by her shoulders.

"Here, this will help."

She looks up wearily as Dick places a glass of warm milk in front of her. "I'm not thirsty." She tells him.

"But still, drink up." He tells her. "That's Alfred's special mix. It used to help me a lot when I had insomnia for a few weeks."

"I do not have insomnia!" she protests.

"Well, you have something." He notes. "You have not been sleeping well for a while."

She stays silent, reluctantly picking up the glass and downing it in one gulp.

"So, wanna talk about it?"

She looks up as she regards her brother. "Talk about what?"

"You were flailing like crazy in your sleep." He tells her. "You must have had one heck of a nightmare."

She sheepishly rubs her arm. "Yeah, I had." She mutters.

Dick checks the time on the clock. "2 AM." He says. "I better get back to bed. I have a lot of work in the morning." He gets up and moves to the door to his room. "You're free to come sleep with me if you like." He turns back to look at her. "Would you?"

She nods, managing a weak smile. "I'd like that." She softly says.

He smiles at her, going inside. She waits for a few moments as her eyes begin to feel heavy. Then she gets up and follows him inside.

Staring at the mirror, he decides that he never will be one of them.

Being in two worlds, now he's at a crossroads to where he truly belongs. He asked Alex this the other day, and all Alex told him was to see what made him happy. See what made him happy? Well, playing with the kids never fails to put a smile on his face. But then, so does spending time with his two new friends. Both things made him happy and that was what was bothering him.

He knew the golden rule of being a Guardian, don't get too attached to someone you can't afford to lose. He used to think this meant Jamie, but now he's wondering whether it meant Skylar and Alex. Alex had shown him the ropes of being a "dude", and Skylar had been a very good friend to him.

He looks back in the mirror at himself. Rich brown hair with ice blue eyes. The weirdest combination that could exist. It was as if both worlds were inside him, willing him to choose. Those two did not go well. He could either have brown hair and brown eyes or he could have white hair and blue eyes. That was the natural thing.

But was it what he really wanted? Did he want to become human again? But could he sacrifice his Guardian duties for that?

"Hey, yo, Jack! You still in there?"

Taking a deep breath, he tears himself away from his image in the mirror and he walk out of the boys' bathroom.

"You okay, dude?" Alex asks him, handing him his backpack. "You were in there for quite a while."

"Oh, I'm fine." Jack informs him. He turns around, looking through the crowd of kids piling out of classrooms and through the corridors. "Hey, Alex, have you seen Skylar today?"

Alex looks at him in confusion. "Uh, yeah. We met this morning when I got back. You're telling me you didn't see her today?"

"Not really." Jack sheepishly says. "I was actually pretty late for school. Just got in time or I would've had detention."

"Ah, the old 'I overslept' excuse, huh?" Alex chuckled.

Just as the two guys were coming down from their laughter fit, the bell rang signaling the start of the next period.

"Okay, dude, I gotta bolt." Alex tells him. "Just search for her after this period. Or you can wait until lunch." He slung his bag over his shoulder. "She's bound to be around somewhere. But just go a bit easy on her, okay?"

"Why?" Jack asks, confused.

"She's a bit off for some reason today." Alex informs. "Probably just a really bad nightmare."

Jack's eyes widen as Alex jogs away to get a good seat in his class.

A really bad nightmare.

It was just as he feared. Pitch was targeting his friends now.

"SKYLAR!"

Her head snaps up as she comes out of whatever trance she was in at the moment. "Hm?"

"You were falling asleep." Alex tells her.

"Was I?" she groggily asks. "I didn't notice."

"I'll bet you didn't." Alex says, an edge to his voice. "Sky, how much sleep have you been getting?"

She looks at him. "What do you mean?" she asks, trying to keep her voice level.

"You have never been this exhausted before." He says. He lowers his voice as he leans in a bit. "Maybe you should take some time off from school."

"No way!" she protests. "Look, Dick's already stopped me from Team stuff. I'm not gonna bail on school too."

"I'm not asking you to bail." He says. "You're not made of steel, Skylar."

She grudgingly nods. "Alex, I appreciate your concern, but I'm not taking time off school."

He shrugs. "It's your decision." He says. "Hey, have you heard this song?"

"Which song?"

"This one." He leans forward and shows her the song's name and artist on his iPod. "It's pretty good."

"Victim of Love?" she reads out the title, an unsure tone to her voice.

"Just listen to it." He says, giving her one of his earphones and putting the other one in his ear. Before she can protest or say anything, he presses the play button and is immediately immersed in the music.

Alex was right; the song was pretty good.

The tune got stuck in her head and she found herself humming the tune all through the rest of the day. It wasn't the best remedy, but at least it kept her awake through the day. Even now, as she got her homework for the day out of her locker, she was softly singing to herself.

"I'm going outta my mind, I'm a victim of love, got me tied up in knots, someone please call the cops, said I can't walk away 'cause I can't get enough, I'm just a tied down, bruised up, victim of love…"

"You sing pretty well."

She almost screams but thankfully doesn't, as that would've been plenty embarrassing. However, she does jump and staggers, but luckily he catches her. What makes her furious is that he still has the nerve to laugh as she shoots him a pretty good imitation of the Bat Glare, if she does say so herself.

"Never do that again, Jack." She growls.

He chuckles slightly but simmers down after she throws him a death glare. "Sorry." He quickly says. "So, where have you been today?"

"Oh, just trying to concentrate on schoolwork." She tells him.

"Oh." He says, and she thinks that she sounds slightly disappointed. "But, about last night…"

"I had fun, Jack." She tells him. "It was nice, and a chance for us to get to know each other better."

"I enjoyed too." He agrees. "But I had a question."

"Shoot."

"Did you, by any chance, feel something…more…last night?" he cautiously asks.

She looks up at him, taken by surprise. "More? What do you mean?"

"I mean, like, something a little intimate?" he offers, the confidence in his voice dropping lower than usual.

Something intimate? Oh, she had definitely felt it last night. Despite the fact that they had agreed that they were just friends, there was an underlying emotion that neither of them were ready to access. But nevertheless, it couldn't be denied. It was there, so why deny it?

"Yeah, I felt it." She says, looking down.

"So, what does this mean?" he asks. "For us, I mean."

"I'm not sure." She admits. "But I do know one thing; thinking too much into it could leave us in a very awkward position. So, I suggest we don't think about it, and just simply take it as it comes."

"But what if it's something more?" he interjects.

She pauses, considering what she should say. He just practically told her that he had a crush on her, and she had told him the same. She had seen a lot of situations like this end badly, and she was determined to not be one of them. However, denying everything would just be hurting him, and he didn't deserve that. He was a nice guy with a golden heart that deserved more than her, for certain. So, why her? What did she have to offer to a guy like him?

Still, she couldn't also deny that he stirred up some feelings in her. He was handsome, no doubt about it, and he was an amazing person. She cherished the time she got to spend with him, and always wanted more. She also couldn't deny that she hadn't pondered a what if. What if it did become more than friends? What would that mean for them? Because, despite everything, she did not want to lose his friendship in either way.

"Do you think it's something more?" she asks him.

He seemed taken aback by her question. "Um…I…er…"

"Don't worry about it." She says. "But I do wanna know one thing."

"Yep?"

"Do you promise that whatever happens, we'll still stay friends?" she asks.

He looks at her for a couple of minutes. Then he nods and smiles that charmingly handsome smile of his. "I promise."

And somehow, that promise felt like it would a much deeper meaning later on.

He slowly closes the door behind him and steps into his house, looking around.

Empty. Of course it would be. With Christmas getting closer, his "grandfather" was off at the North Pole, preparing for the upcoming holiday.

Preparation for Christmas was different for each one of them. For North, it was making tons of gifts for the tiny tots who had all been very good this year. For Jack, it was making it snow and enjoying with your buddies. Of course it had been 300 years since he had actual fun during Christmas, what with no one believing in him and all, but this year he was fairly optimistic. He had two amazing friends with whom he could spend the day with.

Also, another thought crossed his mind; if possible, maybe he could snag a kiss with Skylar under the mistletoe.

Quickly shaking himself out of that thought, he goes to sit on the couch. "Bad Jack." He tells himself. "Skylar is your friend and not your love interest."

But that didn't mean he couldn't fantasize. Sure he had a real life now and all, but for how long? Sooner or later they would defeat pitch again and he would become a spirit again. Chasing after someone like Skylar wasn't fair, to her as well as him. She deserved someone who was real, who would treat her well.

He sighs. She would just be another one of those girls then. The one who would eventually forget about him, and he would go onto the next one, possibly in about 30 years, if he was lucky.

But something tugged at his heartstrings. Maybe she wouldn't forget about him. Even if he disappeared off the face of the Earth, maybe she would still remember him. And maybe, just maybe, she would believe in him. But for that to happen he would have to tell her the truth.

He seriously hated that voice inside his head.

Yup, the same one that was telling him that he was so screwed up.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this story^^

And I am also looking for someone who can design a cover page for this story, if it's possible. I cannot draw at all, and I would appreciate some help.

Thanks a lot.

Read and review.