WARNING: There is physical and mental abuse in this chapter, as well as bullying. There is also slight mentions of self harm.

NOTE: This is a two part chapter. It will contain this chapter and the next, which will be titled: 'Scars and Secrets'.

Late-May

It was Sandy that alerted them that something was wrong. He burst into the workshop in a flurry of nervous energy and sand. He nearly rammed into North's beefy leg as he flew into the workroom. His hands were waving frantically and large drops of sand, like tears, fell down his face. North glanced down at his small friend with a cheery smile that melted away like frost on a window.

"Sandy? What is wrong? Why the sand tears?"

Signs flashed quickly above the dream weaver's head. Too quickly, North could only catch partial pieces of signs before they disappeared.

"Sandy, please slow down sighs. Can't understand them."

Sandy shook his head, frustration easily read on his face. Finally, the words that stopped North's heart flashed above his head.

It's Jack.

Not two minutes later, the aurora borealis lit up the northern sky like lights on a Christmas tree. Ten minutes later, Tooth zipped in through the window, her wings lined with frost and her cheeks bright pink from the cold. She was given a hot drink and a blanket while they waited for Bunny's arrival. She asked a few times about what was so important to send out the aurora, but North refused to speak about anything until Aster got here. When she asked Sandy, he shook his head and stared down at the ground.

Aster hopped out of the hole he created in North's floor. He looked confused. He also had no idea could have happened that called him here.

"Da, Bunny, is good that you are here," North greeted. Turning, he faced his fellow Guardians with a grim look on his face. With a small motion of his hand, Sandy floated over to him. His face was still a mask of sadness.

"Tell them what you told me, Sanderson." The sandman nodded.

Waving his hands out, tendrils of sand started to shape into words.

It's Jack. We ran into each other this morning, very early. He was scared, hurt, blood on his lip. I tried to talk to him, he closed off and left. He was scared of something, running from something. He created snow so I could not follow. I haven't been able to find since.

The room was silent for a split second before it was a bustling with noise. Everyone was talking at once, making it hard to understand any of them. Bunny ended up being the loudest.

He stormed toward Sandy, fury and fright bright in his eyes.

"Where is he, Sanderson? Where did you see him? Where did he go?!" He didn't realized he was yelling until a small hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Aster, calm down. Sandy didn't do anything wrong. He tried his hardest to find Jack, but you know how he is. If Jack doesn't want to be found, he won't be found."

Aster could feel himself shaking, the anger and fear coursing through his veins. He didn't care that Sandy had tried. He should have succeeded. He should have gotten Jack to come back.

His voice was low, deep and dark. "Where, Sandy? Where did you run into him?"

Sandy looked away from his friends. Slowly, the sand above his head shaped into an Earth with a thick line around its middle.

The equator.

Jack regretted running. He regretted not asking Sandy for help when he had the chance. He regretted not asking for help ever.

This wasn't the first time that Winter's messengers had gotten physical with him. Most of the time it happened when they run into each other while running errands for their respective bosses. This time was different. He'd been giving Texas a light dusting of cool dew, something that wasn't always his forte but that Mother asked him to try anyway. They had ambushed him.

To be honest, he was surprised that it hadn't happened sooner. The court had been abuzz with the news that he had become a Guardian. Some of the other court members hadn't taken the news very well. He had been expecting this for years now.

Jeremy, the smallest of the group, was the oldest and had been at Old Man Winter's side for the longest. The other two were younger, twin spirits that had been chosen nearly a century after Jeremy. No one knew their names, given that they rarely spoke. They were often just referred to as the twins among the court.

It had started with words. The three of them circled around him like cats of prey staring at a wounded antelope. Jack had kept a cool head for most of it, ignoring the jibes as he made his snow as warm as possible so that it came out and barely-above-freezing water.

When they realized they weren't going to get a rise out of him with words, they turned to something else. They would tug on his hood, pull his hair, trip him, and occasionally throw a punch or two. This was when Jack started to get angry. The dew turned to ice when his hand clutched tightly around his staff. They didn't miss the shift.

They pressed harder and harder against him, more hits, more words. Jack started to fire back.

"You're just angry that you're the court lap dogs and I have an actually position!" He finally snapped, turning to face them. Frost had gathered on his cheeks and his eyes shone with irritation.

That was enough to push them over the edge. They charged him so fast that he couldn't defend himself. One of them, the largest of the three, held his arms tightly behind his back, pinning them there at an awkward angle that didn't quite hurt, but ached sharply.

They took turns hitting him, first with his own staff and then with their fists. It didn't last long, the beating. Soon, they were bored that Jack had stopped responding. They let him fall to the ground. They stood over him, glaring. One of them spit on him. He didn't know which one of them it was.

"You should have just stayed out of our way. Stayed out of the court. Stay alone, like a trouble maker like you belongs. And now, we're going to make sure that you stay away."

One of them dragged him by his hood as they walked. They only walked for a few minutes before there was a whoosh of air and suddenly, it was so much hotter than Jack had ever imagined it could be.

"Leave him here. He'll melt by tomorrow."

They left. The fun bringer was laying on hot dirt, or maybe it was sand. It burned into his skin, scalding him and leaving him feeling itchy.

His body lost its shape, blurring around the edges and fading. It looked as if he was evaporating. His pale skin turned a strange shade of baby blue as the frost over his body melted away, dripping off him and rising to the clouds. He gasped, almost as if he was drowning. As if his frozen center was melting inside of him and he was drowning in the water that collected. His whole body wavered, like ripples on a lake.

His fine motor skills and comprehension go first. He's unable to speak and can't curl his fingers around his staff. By now, it's hard to even see his fingers. They're hazy and almost transparent.

When he coughed wetly, water rushed out of his mouth like a hose. He sputtered and tried to regain his breath, but he's crawling on the ground and even the soil is radiating heat and he can't breathe.

For a second time, Jack Frost is sure he's going to die.

As soon as they had a location, the Guardians left the Workshop. Tooth deployed several of her fairies to spread out along the equator to see if they would find the young boy. Bunny flitted in and out of his tunnels, tasting the air to find Jack. Tooth, North, and Sandy stayed in the air and looked down from the skies to find their youngest.

It was one of Tooth's girls that found Jack. She immediately zoomed off to find her mother, frantic to get help for the boy who had saved her and her sisters. When she found the Tooth Fairy, she immediately relayed her message. Tooth ordered her to go and find the others while she went to Jack.

The ground around his body was damp from the frost that melted from his clothes and hair. His arms were transparent, vaguely outlined; he looked like he was made of empty glass. His skin was no longer pale, or blue, but an unhealthy shade of peach and red, like that of a human with a fever. Red, bloody water was running from the corners of his mouth and his nose, steadily. He was unconscious and didn't react to any amount of stimulus.

Tooth fluttered over him frantically, touching his cheeks and shoulders, shaking him carefully.

"Jack? Jack! Please wake up, open your eyes, anything, Jack!" she spoke in a high, reedy voice that gave away how terrified she was.

A moment later, the remaining Guardians appeared around her.

Bunny looked on in horror, Sandy floated over the boy and prodded at his head with dream sand. No dreams appeared out of the golden sand, immediately throwing Tooth into overdrive. She rolled him over onto his back and shook his shoulders. From this position, she could see the scratches on Jack's face. The scrapes and bruising. Her tears fell onto his face.

Quickly, North scooped the boy into his arms and cradled him gently. His body was quivering; his brows were drawn tight in pain. He gave the others one look before withdrawing a globe.

"Santoff Clausen." The other guardians were already on their way there.

Jack woke up feeling strange. His muscles were sore and tight, as if he'd been tense when he fell asleep and never relaxed. A groan pulled from his lips as he attempted to roll over and go back to sleep. Only then did the winter sprite realize that he wasn't in the nest. He was lying in an oblong tub of slushy water; something he believed was once snow. It was ice cold and felt amazing on his aching body. With a sigh, he relaxed into the chill and savored the feeling.

Something nagged at his mind, though.

The last thing he remembered was hitting the ground, water pushing its way out of his mouth and drenching his chest. He remembered the other Jeremy and the twins attacking him. He could feel the places where he'd been hit throb when he attempted to move. A quick run of the tongue over his lip told him that he had a busted lip and if the ache in his nose told him anything, he might have a broken nose as well. Glancing up, he could tell that he was no longer outside. Rather, he was in his spare room at North's place.

Deciding that answers to questions were more important than sleeping, he dragged his overworked body out of the tub and rested shaking feet on the floor. He wobbled for a moment before balancing and looking around for his clothes. His hoodie and pants were folded up neatly on a chair in the corner, along with a pair of shorts and a maroon t-shirt he'd never seen before.

As warm as he still felt, he pulled his hoodie over his head anyway. He grabbed his staff from its place next to his clothes and ventured out of the room.

The workshop was its normal hustle and bustle, despite Christmas being a full half year away. Yetis, for the most part, parted as he walked down the hallway. The elves were a different story; they seemed to get under your feet on purpose. Avoiding as many of the pointed headed minions as possible, Jack made his way to the main living room, where he'd knew he'd undoubtedly find someone.

What he wasn't expecting was to find everyone. All four of the other Guardians were situated somewhere in the room, looking tired and tense. It was Tooth who caught sight of him, bewildered in the doorway, first. She rushed over to him with the force to knock over a tree. Having seen it coming, Jack braced himself and caught her.

"Whoa, Tooth, calm down? What's with the hysterics?" he asked, patting her back gently as he tears soaked his shoulder. He knew that he had been hurt and in a bit of trouble, but was it really worth all the tears? She pushed away from him hard and scowled through her tears.

"What were those Jack? What happened?" she asked him, causing him to look at her strangely. What was she talking about?

Upon seeing his confusion, Toothiana's eyes moved from his face down to his sleeve covered arms, which she held gently in her tiny hands.

The realization of what she was talking about his Jack like a ton of bricks. He stepped away from her as if she had slapped him. It hadn't occurred to him what waking up naked meant. It meant that someone had to undress him. It meant that someone had seen.

Bunny stared at Jack from across the room. His eyes were filled with something that Jack couldn't identify. Only then did Aster realized he'd never seen Jack without his hoodie on, not even when they shared a bed. He always had it on, sleeves pulled down to his hands. How had he never noticed?

"Jack," he started, taking a few steps toward his lover, "What happened to your arms?"

Jack looked around desperately, looking for an out. Looking for a way to escape this situation. Seeing none, he wilted like a flower in fall.

Clutching his staff tightly to his chest, Jack looked anywhere but at his family.

"I happened. I did this to myself."