Wow, I'm surprised that last chapter went over as well as it did. Maybe it's a good thing for me to be tired when I write a chapter? *snickers* Well, then take heart, for this chapter was written while tired too, haha. I sometimes don't get a chance to write until I'm tired, so... *shrugs* Sorry about that. Or should I be? ;)

Disclaimer: Why do I still type these up when everyone knows I don't own Rise of the Guardians? And why do I insist on always writing something ridiculous when that's mostly a thing in the FMA fandom and the ROTG fans don't get it? *punches myself in the face, causing me to fall over and scream at my hand that that wasn't very nice*

The worst thing by far about waiting up for Tooth to show was the sheer boredom of it. Jamie had been really excited to have me there since it was the first time he could talk to me at night and not have to worry about whether his mom thought he was crazy, and he'd insisted I sit next to him on his bed until he talked himself to sleep.

Well, now he was sound asleep in one of Sandy's dreams. It looked like he was dreaming about playing in the snow with me. I smiled and just watched him sleep for a while. Even at twelve years of age, he was just as adorable as the day I'd first met him. He would probably continue to be adorable even into old age.

Having nothing better to do, I pulled out a few picture books I had swiped from Sophie's room to practice with. Would I be able to read like everyone else by the time my year was over, or was I just getting my hopes up?

After an undetermined amount of time of struggling with the evil books, a distinctive fluttering sound entered the room. I turned toward the window to see that one of Tooth's little helpers had entered the room and was now staring at me in utter confusion, clearly not used to being noticed while on duty.

I chuckled and pulled down my hood so she could see me better. "Hey, it's okay. It's just me. I'm interning, remember?"

The little baby tooth cheeped and flew over to me, buzzing around excitedly like she wanted to ask me about everything I'd been through, but didn't have the words to do so.

I let her flit around for a couple minutes before I finally put my hand up to stop her. "Actually, I'm in Jamie's room because I have a favor to ask of you." The baby tooth calmed down and stared at me with a serious expression on her face, letting me know that I had her attention.

"Something's come up with Pitch, and I have no way to contact the Guardians aside from you. Could you please tell Tooth that I need to speak with her right away?"

The little fairy looked shocked at my statement, but nodded her little head as hard as she could and chirped her agreement.

"Thanks," I said, and I smiled at her. "I knew I could count on you." I then reached under Jamie's pillow, grabbed his tooth, and handed it to the baby tooth fairy, and I took the coin out of her hands and carefully placed it under Jamie's pillow. The baby tooth chirped her thanks for my making her job a little easier, and made to leave.

I held up my hand. "Wait!" The baby tooth stopped and turned toward me with a question on her face. "Could you also ask Tooth to meet me downstairs in my room? I'll leave the window open so she knows which one it is, but I don't want our chatter to wake Jamie up."

The baby tooth seemed to understand this reasonably well and nodded her consent to this as well, then chirped and flew out the window. Well, that was that. There was nothing to do but wait for Tooth to show up.

I carefully crept out of Jamie's room so as not to wake him up, then snuck into Mrs. Bennett's room to grab my staff. Thankfully, it was right out in the open where I could easily find it. I didn't want to go back through the house and face Mrs. Bennett until I had my chance to talk to Tooth.

I grabbed my staff, flung open the window, then hopped out into the night, hovering in place just long enough for me to pull the window shut behind me. Jamie didn't care if I left his window open, but I'd made Mrs. Bennett yell at me enough as of late. I really didn't feel like giving her a reason to when I could avoid it.

I darted around the house and into my window that I had left open from when I had snuck into the house earlier in the day. It was now pleasantly cool in my room, and I sprawled out on my bed, just relaxing until Tooth showed up. Something told me that Mrs. Bennett wouldn't allow me to aerate my room like this all the time, but I wished she would. It felt good to be in my room for once.

I closed my eyes and pretended to doze off for a bit, just enjoying the silence. There was no way I was tired enough to actually fall asleep that night, but relaxing felt nice.

After what I guessed to be an hour or two, another flutter came to the window, this one bigger than the last. I opened my eyes and smiled to see Tooth hovering there, though she had a worried look on her face.

"What's going on, Jack? I got a message from one of my fairies that-"

"Pitch turned up." I knew that interrupting was kind of rude, but there was no point in making her recite her entire speech if I already knew what she was going to say. "He know where I am, and he threatened me by threatening the Bennetts."

Tooth placed her hands over her mouth in shock and nearly fell out of the air. "Pitch found you? Here? He's never managed to track any of us down during our year of training before."

A feeling of bitterness passed through me as a memory of that night's conversation with the Bennetts popped up. "You've also never had a winter sprite try to train like this before."

"But whatever do you mean?" said Tooth. I could tell she was already really confused, and I was sorry to see that, but I was only going to make her all the more confused.

"I can't always control my powers, Tooth. They're triggered by emotion, and I can't just stop feeling for a year." Her eyes widened, starting to get it, but I continued on. "You see all this snow outside? It wasn't here when I arrived on Halloween night. Most of that was from the blizzard I created today."

"Oh, Jack," said Tooth, shaking her head with increasing worry. "There's a reason you're not supposed to use your powers during your training."

I huffed and sat up on the bed, scooting so I would be facing away from her. I wasn't stupid. I knew why the rules were in place. Why was she patronizing me? "It's not like I don't understand the logic of the rule, it's that I can't control it. And believe me, I've tried. Pitch tracked me down because of that blizzard, and he knows that if I get too emotional, I could freeze the Bennetts to death. I'm a force of nature, Tooth. I'm not meant to do this, but I want to be a Guardian. What do I do?"

Tooth didn't answer right away, just hovering there, thinking silently to herself. I was worried that I may have offended her and that she wouldn't answer. If it weren't for her fluttering wings, I would have assumed she'd left.

Finally, she spoke. "I don't have the answers for you, Jack, but this is a pretty serious situation. I'll call a Guardian meeting, and we'll figure out what to do."

That made sense, but it wasn't the answer I was hoping for, since it involved more waiting. I sighed. "I guess that's the best thing to do then. Should I expect North or Bunny to come pick me up?"

Tooth blinked. "What?"

"Well, I can't fly without being seen, so I'll need someone to come and pick me up in order to get there for the meeting."

She seemed to get what I was saying this time, but she rolled her eyes and then shook her head, amused but disapproving. I didn't like the looks of that gesture. "Jack, no, you have to stay here and complete your training. That means no Guardian meetings, and no trying to spread winter."

"But I can't hel-"

She held her finger up to my mouth to silence me, then smiled in a gentle, pitying sort of way. "I know, Jack. This training is really hard for anyone, but it must be especially hard for you. You're right. We've never tried to put a force of nature through this kind of routine, and so we don't know what to expect. We'll discuss it and come up with some options for you. Just trust us."

"But I need to be there!" I smacked my staff on the floor for emphasis. "You don't know what I go through every day!"

She quirked an eyebrow at me. "And leave the Bennetts unguarded in case Pitch strikes?"

This time, it was my turn to say, "W-What?"

"Jack," she said, "you may still be in training, but you're already a very capable Guardian. And you're the only one of us that the entire family can see. They need you right now."

"B-B-B-But…" I waved my hands as I desperately searched for an excuse to cling to, but it seemed excuses were too intangible for fleshy hands to grip. "What if I lose control of my powers, Tooth? What kind of protector am I then?"

"Then find the warmest place you can, and your powers won't work. Make sure you're wearing your cooling suit though. We can't have our youngest Guardian melting, now can we?" She winked at me and smiled, and I couldn't help but smile in return. Her smile was just infectious that way.

"Now, make sure that you and the Bennetts all stay put in this house until you hear back from us. We'll contact you as quickly as possible, but you'll all be safer for now if you just stay put."

I desperately wanted to object to that plan even though I hadn't the foggiest idea what kind of rebuttal I could come up with, but when I opened my mouth, all that came out was a squeak.

Tooth seemed amused at this though she shook her finger reprimandingly, then leaned forward and gave me a quick peck on my forehead. Before I could figure out what I thought of her doing that, she'd already flown out the window and into the night.

I guessed that the only thing left to do was to face Mrs. Bennett.

I had fully expected to have Mrs. Bennett bombard me with question after question as soon as I exited the room, so imagine my surprise when I stepped out into the dining room and saw that she wasn't there. I could tell that she had recently been there, as her laptop was still on and her papers that she'd been consulting were still scattered across the surface. It was like she had left mid-thought.

I knew where she was though. The noise from the TV in the living room gave that away, though I was a little puzzled by the program I was hearing. Had the kids woken up while I was talking to Tooth?

I crept to the living room and peered in. There was Mrs. Bennett, leaning over some kind of project on her lap and periodically looking up and smiling at the TV. She was the only sign of life in the room. It seemed she had popped this movie in for her own benefit, and I wanted to know why.

I scratched my head as I stepped into the room. "Wow, I haven't seen The Year Without a Santa Claus in a while. This takes me back."

She jumped at the sudden intrusion, then upon realizing that it was me, blushed, and dropped her eyes to her project. "You probably think I'm childish, don't you?"

I snorted. "What's wrong with being childish? You forget who you're talking to." I then winked at her, which made her smile a little bit, and then I tried to move toward a chair to sit and talk with her.

"Watch where you step!" she shouted, and just in time I looked down to see that I had nearly stepped on a painting. That could have been tragic. I gently pulled my foot back and looked around the floor. It was covered with paintings in various stages of drying, and all of them depicted a different winter scene.

"Wha-What is this?" I said.

She blushed again, and I was afraid she wasn't going to answer me because I had violated some sacred artist's taboo by walking in on her in the midst of painting or something. Instead, she said, "I just got… inspired today."

My eyebrows first shot up, then my whole face settled into a look of understanding. My revealing myself as a winter sprite must have inspired her to paint, though whether that was from the feeling of awe or the feeling of stress, I wasn't quite sure. People seemed to create about equally for both reasons. I didn't know which feeling had inspired her more, but she had painted a lot during the day. I sure hoped it wasn't all from stress, but at least it was a healthy way of dealing with it. No wonder she was taking everything so well.

"Wow…" I said as I carefully turned around to see all the paintings strewn on the floor. "You made all these?"

"Heh, these are just me scribbling," she said. "It just helps me think."

"Don't sell yourself short," I said, "These are spectacular! How did you do all these in one day?"

"That's just the way I work. I rarely ever get the time to paint these days, so when inspiration hits, I get it all out at once."

I shook my head and clicked my tongue in amazement. My medium was ice rather than paint, but I considered myself an artist too. And I knew that doing this many projects in one day was impossible to most people. The fact that she could paint so quickly as to cover the floor with paintings in one day astounded me. Especially since the paintings were all really good, despite her calling them "scribbling".

"So my blizzard made you want to paint?" I tiptoed over to a chair and sat down, the movie still playing before me, but I focused my attention on Mrs. Bennett.

"Sort of," she said. "It more… reminded me of something. Ignited a spark, you might say. Or reignited it. I guess I'm trying to figure out what that feeling is."

"Have you felt it before?" I said.

She nodded, then looked up from her current painting to the movie playing on the TV, staring wistfully as the characters sang on the screen. "It feels like something I felt as a child a long, long time ago."

The pieces were starting to click together in my head, and I began to think I was understanding the situation better than Mrs. Bennett herself, since I actually remembered some of her childhood that she was so desperately reaching for. I pointed to the TV. "So that's why you're watching this then, right? To reconnect with your inner child?"

She chuckled embarrassedly, but nodded. Most kids had a fondness for this movie, so it wasn't too surprising to find that it was one of Mrs. Bennett's childhood favorites too. What was most surprising was that it seemed to still be getting her choked up even now. I wanted to know why.

"So why are you so attached to this particular movie?" I said.

She sighed and looked back down at her painting, looking almost like she was trying to blink back tears. That was such a curious reaction.

"You'll just think I'm crazy," she said.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "You just figured out today that I'm really a fairy in disguise, and you think I'd think you were the crazy one?"

She chuckled at this and then gave a gentle smile. "Okay, so maybe I am being a bit silly."

"Tell me about it." I folded my hands in my lap, preparing to listen. "I want to hear it."

"Well," she said, and then chuckled nervously. "You know about how Jamie has imaginary friends, right?"

"Of course!" I said with a laugh that couldn't be stifled. "I'm one of them!"

She looked at me with eyes so wide that if they got any wider, I was sure her eyes would pop out. "You're…" She pointed at me. "But you're real! How can you be Jamie's imaginary friend if you're real?"

I shrugged, highly amused at the way the topic had turned. "Who says imaginary friends aren't real? I've been around every winter. You just never saw me because you didn't know how to see."

She stared at me in shocked silence for several moments, several long moments where I wondered if she was now thinking I was too crazy to confide in. I really hoped I hadn't blown it. She really needed an adult to talk to about the weird things she'd seen, and I was as close as she was going to get for now.

"Jamie's a special child," she said at last. "I always knew he was. But I was just boring little Susan without any special talents or anything. I definitely don't think my imaginary friend was real."

Now she had my interest, and my amusement. I desperately wanted to know what she was going to say. "So who was your imaginary friend?"

She blushed again as she pointed to the TV screen. "Snow Miser."

I tried to hold back my feelings. I really did. I knew that if I laughed, it would come across wrong and she would think I wasn't accepting of her feelings from her childhood, but in the end, I couldn't help it. The laughter bubbled forth and rolled out of me like an avalanche.

When I finally caught and corralled my laughter and noticed the stricken look on Mrs. Bennett's face, I was quick to wave my hands and say, "No no, sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just find that whole idea to be… very relatable." At this, I chuckled again.

Her expression softened. "I suppose you would relate to the Snow Miser, wouldn't you?" I nodded, wiping amused tears from my eyes before they had a chance to freeze my eyes shut.

She sighed and then got that wistful look again as she looked back at the screen. "I used to imagine that he was always there, waiting for me as soon as I got home from school. I never actually saw him like Jamie claims with his friends, but I always knew he was there anyway." She paused to think, and I nodded that I was following thus far. She must have taken that as encouragement, because she started up again. "It sounds kind of crazy, but there were even a few times when I asked him for snow, like enough snow to shut down the schools and such, and it would show up the next day."

"Well, you always had good reasons for asking, so I…" I realized what I was saying, and I clamped my hand across my mouth. But I could tell by the look on her face that it was too late.

"How do you know I had good reasons for asking for a snow day?" When I tried my best to shrug and look innocent, she just shook her head and didn't buy it. "Even back then, I knew I didn't ask for things for the reasons other kids did. They all wanted snow so they could skip out of school. I often asked for snow so my father would be forced to stay home and get better."

I nodded, solemnly. "I know. He was a workaholic, but he was very sick too."

"How do you know that, Jack?" Her voice cracked with emotion. "I doubt Jamie ever told you anything about him. I don't talk about my father with him. It hurts too much."

I went silent for a long time, not being sure how to respond, though I nodded to her to confirm my understanding of what she had said. I had opened up my mouth and spoken without thinking again, just like I had done with Sam. It had turned out well with him, but I couldn't fathom it working out as well with Mrs. Bennett. She was much more fragile than he was. I couldn't push her as far.

I finally raised my eye to her and said, "I know because I was there. It's okay to talk to me about your dad. I already know what happened to him, so you don't have to explain everything all over again."

Mrs. Bennett just stared at me wide-eyed for several long minutes, and I was convinced I had gone too far and that she was going to scream any moment and go running up to her room or drive me out of her house with a blowtorch, depending on her level of maliciousness.

That's why I was surprised when instead of freaking out, tears started rolling down her face, and before long she was fully crying. I didn't know what to do. Had I broken her somehow? How could I fix her?

I decided that the best thing I could do right then was to give her a hug and see if that helped, so I moved over to the seat next to her on the couch and gently put my arms around her. She flinched initially from the contact, but then grabbed hold of my hoodie and cried into it. The hot salt water stung my skin whenever it made contact, but I knew I would live. It wouldn't cause any real damage, and she needed to get this out of her system.

Finally, she let go of me and sat up, looking at me kind of awkwardly. "Snow Miser used to hold me like that when I needed to cry. Are you-are you m-my Snow Miser, Jack?"

I took a deep breath and then let it out, then blinked a couple times, calming myself down before saying anything. "Yes," I said. "You never saw me, but you knew I was there. You could feel me, at least, but since I couldn't talk to you, you didn't know my name, so you just started calling me Snow Miser."

At this point, the floodgates burst on Mrs. Bennett again, and I panicked, wondering what I had done wrong this time. "I-I'm sorry. What did I do?"

After a couple minutes, she was finally able to speak through her sobs again, and she said, "You've done nothing wrong, Jack. Nothing at all. My heart hasn't felt so free since I was a child."

Now that wasn't what I'd been expecting. I'd done something right? But what had I done? I would at least like to know the good things I've done so I can keep doing them. 'H-How did… what?"

She half chuckled as she rubbed the tears out of her eyes, and I saw a faint hint of a smile returning to her face. "Jack, isn't it obvious? Snow Miser was there for me when no one else was. I didn't have any friends, and my family was all too busy dealing with my father's…" She shivered, clearly unable to speak of her father's illness directly. I understood that. I still had things that I couldn't face either.

She looked up at me again with bloodshot eyes and tears running down her face. I wanted to wipe her tears away, but I didn't want to freeze them to her face.

"I thought I had just made Snow Miser up so I could cope. That was what my mother told me, anyway. She didn't like having her daughter talking to invisible people, even though I had to do it to stay sane.

"But, Jack… you remember things that only Snow Miser would have known, which means that you were the one who was there for me all along." She gripped her arms and started shaking. 'You're real. You're really real."

I grabbed one of her arms and said, "Yes, I'm real, but please calm down. I don't want you to hurt yourself by working yourself up too much."

I had to guide her through some breathing exercises and hold her for a while to get her to calm down before she lost control of herself, but thankfully I had stopped her in time to intervene this time, though it meant that she ended up passing out in my lap.

I looked down at the grown woman whose head rested in my lap, feeling a combination of fondness for the child I once knew and awkwardness from having an adult so close to me. I wanted to go and do something else, anything else. Not babysit an adult who happened to fall asleep in the wrong spot.

Still, I couldn't help but smile at her childlike innocence right then. She now remembered me from her childhood, a feat I never thought possible until it had happened. Maybe little Susan still existed in her after all.

I lifted my hand and began to stroke her hair the way I used to when she was a child. I would probably be stuck in this position for the rest of the night, but it was worth it to rekindle the child in her. I could see now that this was what being a Guardian was all about. It wasn't just about protecting small humans, but about protecting that part of the soul that stays a child no matter what. I needed to learn as much about that as possible while I was here.

"Sleep well, Susan," I said, switching back to her first name again. Somehow, I didn't think she would mind anymore.

Hmmm... things are getting weird in this story all of a sudden. I no longer know where this is going. Maybe I should ask my muse. Jack, where is this story going?... And so of course he shrugs. Figures. Well, you'd better still deliver a good story even if you don't know where it's going. *sticks tongue out at Jack*

Thanks for reading this, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter written up soon. Reviews would be lovely if you're up to it. Especially if you can get Jack to know what he's doing with the story. *snickers*

Jack: Hey, I don't need to know where I'm going! So long as I'm still having fun writing it, it's going the right way!

Alright then. You heard the man. ;)

Jack: Why do I feel as though I'm being mocked?