IMPORTANT POLL: I'm thinking about doing saga for this fic, the count is up to four potentials. One story would focus on Pitch, Sera and Bunny's past and I'm wondering: would my lovely readers be interested in that? Leave a review or PM me with your answer, I'd really like to know.

Sera walked through the woods surrounding Burgess with a purposeful and confident stride. She kept her face set in neutrality and her body in a regal pose. A Queen setting out to manage her domain. The only sign of her nerves was the way she bounced the small pack of dream sand she'd requested from Sanderson before taking her leave of the Pole in her hand as she moved.

It had been a long while since she'd been out to see him: Two hundred and twenty years, if she remembered correctly, right after he attacked Jack. That had been an ugly confrontation, and even before that, their rare meetings didn't usually end well. Sera was too powerful for him to hurt her, physically, but he could do plenty of damage with their shared history. He could, and had done so.

So yes, she had good reason to be nervous.

That being said, Sera made her way to the edge of the forest and the secretive entrance to the Boogeyman's lair. It wasn't the one that was destroyed in the battle with the Guardians – nowhere near as flashy as that. It wasn't even a main entrance. This one was little more than a crack in the ground, just barely large enough for a full-grown woman to fit through. She doubted anyone else, even Pitch himself, knew of it; only one who knew the ins and outs of all the earth would have.

Just one of the perks of being the embodiment of Nature, Sera thought to herself as she stared down at the crack. Then, she took a steadying breath and descended into the darkness.

The shadows whispered around her as she walked, curious with just the smallest innate hint of malicious intent. But they made no move to hinder her as they would any other intruder. They knew better. They did, however, rush ahead of her to inform their master of her uninvited presence.

She arrived in the main cavern just in time to see the shadows wrap around Pitch's form as he stalked – well stumbled, lumbered, really – around the brightly lit iron globe in the center of the room.

He wasn't doing well, she noted when he whirled around to face her. His minions did quite a number on him, from the looks of his ragged appearance. His robes were shredded, his face was bruised with the uncomfortable impression of hoof prints. The wounds were minor, just those bruises and a few cuts for the most part from what she could see, but nasty nonetheless. He gaped at her, and Sera had to smother a laugh, even if guilt was still weighing on her gut. It was a rather hilarious look.

"Seraphina," he muttered.

Sera made no reply and did her best to repress a wince at the sound of his voice. It was rough and pained, showing evidence of long bouts of screaming. They stared at each other in awkward silence for a time, and then Sera broke it with an easy smile.

"Plotting the next attempt at world domination?"

Pitch continued to stare until the sarcasm in her voice reached him. Then he scowled.

"You could at least wait until you recover from this beat-down before you go charging into the next one," she continued as she leaned to recline against the wall.

"I will be successful. I will never stop until I am."

Sera snorted and rolled at her eyes at the sulking – and extremely over-dramatic – vow. It was nice to know that his personality was still intact, at least.

"You know, the very definition of insanity is pursuing the same course of action and expecting a different result. Doesn't shine an overly flattering light on your mind set, does it?"

"It wasn't the same."

"Oh, yeah: the sand-horses. Nice touch, it really worked out for you."

Pitch huffed and gave the woman a glare. Then he turned on his heels in clear dismissal.

"I don't have to take this from you."

His point in skulking off would have been considerably better made if he hadn't tripped over his own two feet and fallen flat onto his face. As it was, Sera only laughed and glided over to his crumpled form.

"The hell you don't. But we'll wait until you're not on your deathbed for a proper talking to. Come on."

She hauled the shadow spirit to his feet and then supported his weight as she guided him through the realm. Navigating with the infinite knowledge of the earth and everything in it, Sera got them to the closest thing Pitch had to a bedroom. Meaning that it was a room and had a bed, which Sera proceeded to dump her father onto.

When Pitch landed with an undignified 'oof', Sera turned away to let him sort himself out. She fused a decent sized goblet from the various twigs and roots that tended to hang on her person and filled the cup with a glistening milky fluid. Sera glanced over her shoulder to make sure Pitch was still occupied, and sprinkled in a handful of white powder. She stirred the powder until it was indistinguishable from the liquid, and started to turn back. She paused midway through the motion, and took another handful of the powder from her pocket, dusting it into the drink. Then dropped another handful, and another for good measure before she finally turned back to her father just in time to see Pitch attempt to sit up. The fact that he was failing miserably to do so spoke louder than any words about how injured the man really was.

"Stop that, you'll hurt yourself, you idiot. Lie down, drink this," she ordered as she shoved the make-shift goblet into his hands.

Pitch managed to prop himself up on his elbows as he stared down at the liquid dubiously, but one glance at his daughter's determinedly set face had him hesitantly sipping the drink. He winced at the chalky taste that stuck in the back of his throat but kept drinking. Sera nodded, pleased, and sat down next to him.

"Isn't this supposed to be my job? To have you lie down and force medicine down your throat when you're sick," he asked in between sips.

"Yes. And when you stop acting like a stubborn, irresponsible child, we can go back to the natural order of things."

Pitch tried to scowl again, but his face suddenly felt far too numb to do so. He blinked rapidly in attempts to encourage feeling back into his face and rid his brain of the heavy fuzz that had settled over it. When that didn't help – in fact the fuzz only seemed to increase – he forced his heavy eyes down to the mug. The liquid inside was nearly gone, with just a splash at the very bottom remaining. Apparently, he'd unconsciously drank nearly all of it.

"Sera, what….what did you, did you give me?" He slurred as he swayed while his eyelids drooped even further.

"Liquid Passionflower nectar with a hint of crushed Valerian." Sera kept her voice low and monotonous as she explained to keep him calm. While he gaped at her, she untangled Pitch's fingers from the cup and gently set it aside.

"What, what? What did you do?"

"I drugged you," she admitted easily, "mildly…. bordering on heavily."

Sera pushed him onto his back and tucked him in before Pitch could even sputter in shock. The man blinked at the change in position. His head was even heavier now that he was lying down, and it was even harder to stay awake. But he shook his head to stay up.

No, no sleeping, he reminded him. Sleeping was when they would come. He couldn't handle anymore bites out of his mind and soul. Despite his attempts to follow his own advice, Pitch found his body shutting down in sleep. He forced his head to the side and focused on keeping his heavy eyes open to give Sera a betrayed look.

"Why would you…?"

"Because you're hurt, and you need rest. And otherwise you'll put up too much of a fuss when I do this." With that she threw a handful of dream sand into Pitch's face. The Boogeyman slumped into unconsciousness with no more resistance, other than a small whine of panic.

"It's all right," she promised when the man stayed tense in preparation for an attack even in his deep sleep. "I'll keep the monsters away."

Sera ran a comforting hand through his hair, much like he used to do when she was a young girl. Bit by bit he relaxed under the soothing touch until finally a circle of dream sand formed around his head. Sera smiled fondly at the trail of golden butterflies, one of her signature creations, that circled his head.

The smile dropped off her face and into a scowl as Nightmare entered the room in a swirl of sand and eyed her sleeping father hungrily. Speak of the devil and it'll appear, she mused.

She stared the snarling beast down and summoned a ball of fire. "I'm a lot meaner than him," was all she said as she bounced the fire in the palm of her hand. The sand creature seemed to understand the imminent danger and quickly dissolved with a frightened look.

Sera gave a curt nod of satisfaction and let the fire faded. Then she went back to watching over her father's dreams.

X

Pitch let out a waking groan as he stretched and arched his back with a satisfying pop. He sat up slowly and blinked the sleep out of his bleary eyes. He ran a hand through his sleep messed hair and swung his legs off of the bed with a sigh. That was by far the best night's sleep he'd had in a long while.

At the thought of sleep everything of Sera's visit came rushing forward from the back of his mind. And he scowled in utter fury.

He stormed out his room, gritting his teeth as his shadows guided him to Sera's location. They whipped around him in excitement at his anger, but he paid them little mind as his daughter's form came into view.

"Seraphina Leonora Pitchiner!" The name fell like water from his fuming lips and he had the tremendous pleasure of seeing the woman jump at its use. It was more from shock than fear, which he would have preferred, but it was a jump nonetheless.

She recovered quickly with a smooth smile. "Ah, you're up and about. That's a good sign. And don't use my full name like that," she added, "it's weird."

"You drugged me," he accused, stalking up to her.

"I remember admitting as much. I take it you're feeling better?"

"How dare you—"

"The strength of your gratitude is overwhelming. You needed help, and you're too fussy to let me help when you're conscious. Hence the drugs."

"I would have been fine." Pitch crossed his arms and sulked. Sera just snorted.

"Uh-huh, sure. Here you go, round two." She held out the goblet with a flourish and Pitch scowled at it like it was a particularly nasty kind of bug that had skittered across his path. "No sedatives this time. Just something to help with the pain. It should keep you on your feet for the next few hours."

"I don't need any pain killers."

"You'll either drink this or I'll pour it down your throat. And we can't have that blow to your masculine pride, now can we?" Sera spoke with a wide smirk.

Pitch snarled again but something in her face told him Sera would happily follow through on that threat. He vaguely remembered doing similar when the woman was younger. The girl had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and it only got worse when she was sick. Shaking those thoughts away he took the goblet and downed the contents in one gulp.

"Good boy," she remarked, and with a wave of her hand the goblet fell back into twigs and roots. "So, now that you're not about to die on me."

Sera's hand met his cheek in an open-handed smack before he even saw her move. Pitch reeled, then slowly brought a hand up to his stinging cheek.

"Ow," he remarked, more in shock than actual pain, though it hurt plenty. Anything he may have said further on the subject was pushed aside as Sera stood nose to nose with him and jabbed a finger into his chest.

"How dare you," she growled, "how dare you put your hands on my baby!"

"Now wait a minute—"Another harsh slap cut him off and he responded with his own growl. "You hit me one more time—"

"I have a good deal of pent up aggression that I haven't been able to take out on the responsible parties, so I would choose my words very carefully if I were you."

Pitch took a deep breath and blew it out through his nose, "I never touched him."

"You hurt him."

"All's fair in war, dear."

He caught the descending hand before it could hit him again, however he had no defense against the blast of power that hit him high on his chest and sent him flying across the cavern. He knocked his head against the stone and blinked the light that exploded behind his eyes out his vision as Sera stalked back over to him.

"Don't give me that crap. It wasn't an attack on a Guardian; you singled him out. You targeted him specifically when I told you in no uncertain terms to stay away from him."

"Lunar made that difficult when he brought the boy into his club."

"That's beside the point—"

"I wanted a talk with my grandchild! Is that so impossible to believe?!" Sera fell quiet and Pitch took a moment to collect himself before he went on. "I just wanted to….I wanted things in my family squared away. Things were supposed to be turning up for me after this battle, and I wanted my family to be one of those things. I wanted the three of us to," he trailed off. Sera didn't do anything other than continue to watch him, and Pitch felt a bite of anger creep up his throat.

"But your boy is hard-headed, and stubborn. And I lost my temper and I snapped. So yes, I hurt him. He rejected me, so I hurt him. I regret it. But there's nothing to be done for it now. Not now. So, there."

Suddenly exhausted, Pitch slumped against the wall with a sigh. He felt Sera settle down next to him and cracked an eye open to peek at her.

"I'm not going to apologize for hitting you," she informed.

"I don't expect you to." They lapsed into momentary silence. "So, what happens now, Sera? What happens in the next battle? Will you stand with them against me?"

Sera heaved out a loud breath, "That's one of the reasons I came here."

"So it wasn't just to assault me."

"I gave you the pain killer first." She smirked lightly and then sighed again. "I…. You need to know that I love you. You're my father, and I love you no matter what you do, or what happens," she paused and Pitch watched her with a half amused, half inquiring look. "But don't make the mistake of asking me to choose you over my son."

Pitch was quiet for a moment after that. Pain and the slightest hint of betrayal throbbed in his chest. But he couldn't bring himself to find true anger; not when he would have made the same decision.

"It's a war, Sera," he reminded anyway, "and your boy is on the enemy's side. There's a chance he'll be hurt."

"Then I guess you'll have to rethink your philosophy on the Guardians."

Pitch only grunted a closed his eyes again with a sigh. Sera watched him in silence for a moment and then climbed to her feet.

"I have to go; I've got a dinner party I need to get to. Just think about what I said. And remember: your family's just waiting for you when you get your shit together."

Pitch snorted and made to retort but Sera was already gone. Alone now, he stared at the space where his daughter had once been and sagged against the wall. He fisted a hand into the pocket of his robe as he sighed heavily. He would have a good bit of time to himself now. Sera's lingering presence was more than enough to keep the Nightmares away – and wasn't that a massive blow to his masculine pride? – so he would have some peace for a while.

With that in mind, he fished out the small golden locket that he kept hidden away in the darkness. Pitch cushioned it in the palm of his hand and ran his thumb along the cold metal of the little pendant, but he didn't open it. Instead he closed his fingers around the locket and brought it to his chest as he rested his head against the rock.

He let his mind wander to a life that was his and yet not. And the he thought of the family that was waiting for him. As soon as he found a way to it, he thought and tightened his grip around the locket as he closed his eyes. And just drifted through his immortal memories.

END