Disclaimer: Hey, guess what? I am like every other person on this site because I am not the lucky person who owns this series! )= Oh, well. At least I own the character of Crys. That's it.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! I'm trying to juggle three different stories (two-including this one-I am trying to finish up). Thanks for the reviews and the encouragement to keep going! So, enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 11: Changed

It was barely snowing as Scott and Jack stepped onto a balcony. They could still hear Carol's soft cries and the lines on Scott's face deepened.

"That was quite a spectacle, wasn't it?" Jack said, hoping Scott would take the bait. Behind his back, he held a gift bag that only held one item. The image of Crys filled his head and the memory of their intimate moment together bobbed to the surface. It was too bad she was lying almost lifeless, thanks to him. Jack shook his head once. What was wrong with him? He couldn't be feeling sympathetic for Crys now, not when he was about to get what he wanted.

"Anyway, I'm not sure I can take much more of this," Scott was saying. Jack was so busy thinking about Crys that he failed to catch most of what Scott had said. Oh, well.

"Here's something to cheer you up." Jack pushed the bag into Scott's hands. Scott immediately tried to refuse it.

"I don't really feel like opening presents right now, Jack." Scott leaned forward on the railing of the balcony and looked down at a group of elves that were throwing snowballs at one another. "When Crys first came here, I thought she would be given the chance to change. I guess she really hasn't changed at all," Scott whispered as he became lost in his thoughts.

"Oh, come on. Forget all that bad stuff. Open it," Jack insisted, urging the bag forward again. Scott glanced from the bag to Jack and back again before nodding.

"Alright, I'll open it." Scott took the bag from Jack. Now, it was the difficult part. Scott had to say the right words for this to work.

"Are there ever any times when...you wish you had never become Santa?" Scott paused while picking out a piece of tissue paper from the bag. He seemed to be thinking long and hard about that question.

"No, there never are. I don't want to change anything." Scott returned to the bag and carefully took out a few more pieces of tissue paper. Jack was watching him, all the while feeling a bit irritated.

"Really? Never at all?" Jack knew Scott was hiding the truth. He was a good enough liar to know when someone else was trying to lie. He had told Crys as much not too long ago. Stop thinking about Crys! Get him to say the words!

"Maybe these past few days have been stressful. I guess this is one of those times where I wish I hadn't become Santa," Scott admitted in a low voice. Jack smiled as his hook set into Scott. Now it was time to snap the trap.

"At all?" Jack noticed that Scott was getting ready to dump out the contents of the bag.

"At all. I wish I had never become Santa at all. There, happy?" Scott stated as he unknowingly dropped his own snow globe into his hands. Jack stared at it both wondrously and victoriously. Scott looked down at the globe and then realized what had happened.

"I am now," Jack said, grabbing onto Scott as the two of them disappeared into the past.

Crys awoke from her uneasy sleep to find herself in her own bed at home instead of Carol's couch. The North Pole was gone along with the fallen Christmas tree and its equally broken crystal star. There was her desk with all its cluttered items and her guitar in the corner. It seemed so long ago that she played "Stairway to Heaven" on its strings. That was before she had been taken away...

Had it all been just a dream? Her frozen sister and mother, Carol's sadness, Jack...had any of it been real at all? Crys leaped from her bed and raced down the stairs, taking two of them at a time. She nearly slipped on the hallway rug as she made her way to the kitchen. There was her mother, unfrozen, standing by the stove and making dinner. What time is it, anyway? Crys saw the clock on the wall, its time reading 7:00 at night. I slept for such a long time!

"Well, don't just stand there! Lucy and your father will be home from the North Pole soon and the table isn't even set yet!" Crys gave her mother a strange look and went to retrieve some of the washed plates from the dishwasher. "Kids, I swear..." her mother muttered under her breath.

"Mom, are you okay?" Crys knew her mother didn't act like this unless she had done something. "What did I do?" Her mother whipped around with a look of pure annoyance on her face.

"How about we start by talking about what you're not doing? For one thing, you're not setting the table like I told you to," she snapped before returning to the food that was frying on the stove. Something's definitely wrong here. I don't know what it is yet, but there's something wrong, Crys thought as she laid out the plates with napkins, forks, and glasses. The doorbell rang loudly through the house, but her mother made no move to answer it. Crys sighed and went to see who it was. Please, let it be Lucy. Let me see her warm, smiling face again, Crys prayed as she opened the door.

"Uncle Scott!" Crys exclaimed before hugging him tightly. She recognized him even though he no longer looked like Santa Claus. He looked like a normal, business-working man with a suit and clean face and everything. What is going on?

"Crys, do you remember...anything?" Crys instantly knew what he was talking about. She could also tell that he was holding on to the last thread, hoping that she might have those same memories even though everything had changed. There was a desperation in his eyes that scared Crys.

"I remember everything. I remember the North Pole, the Hall of Snowglobes, Carol's falling Christmas tree with the crystal star, everything." Scott breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank God. Look, Jack Frost tricked me into making everything change like this. Remember the snow globe? He had it and he tricked me. Crys, where's Lucy?" Scott peered behind her to see an angry looking Laura. Crys allowed her to pass her in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Laura's tone was dripping with acid. Even Crys flinched. Scott held up his hands as if in surrender.

"All I want to do is find Lucy. Where is she?" Laura strode to a hallway table and grabbed a flyer to show Scott. It had the words "North Pole" on it in bright, flashing colors. It was advertising the place like an amusement park. Scott scoffed at it before handing it back. Crys caught a glimpse of it as her mother crumpled it into a ball. "Frost is ruining everything. I'm going to make this better," he promised, his eyes straying to Crys as he said this.

"I'm going with you," she said without asking. Scott started to shake his head but Crys held onto his arm. "Please. Lucy is my little sister and I need to find her! I need to see her," Crys begged. Scott stared hard at her and then nodded carefully. Crys' mother broke the contact between them like a knife cutting fiercely through skin.

"Absolutely not. Crystal isn't going anywhere. Crystal, this is my house and as long as you live under my roof, you'll follow my rules!" Crys' mother screeched, using the old cliché lines. Crys suddenly had the urge to say something that she once might have said in any normal fight with her mother.

"Screw your rules," Crys yelled back at her as she followed Scott out the door.

"What happened to Lucy?" Scott asked Crys about a half hour after they had been driving. Crys had her forehead against the cold surface of the window. She was becoming depressed as she thought about Lucy, her mother, and the immense trouble she had gotten herself into this time.

"What do you mean?" Scott looked at her in disbelief.

"Well, you seemed so desperate to come with me and see Lucy. Did anything happen to her before things changed?" Crys didn't want to talk about it, but she had to tell him sometime.

"Jack...he froze my mother and Lucy before everything changed. He froze my legs, but somehow I managed to get out of it," Crys explained in a quiet, sorrowful voice. "It was all my fault," she continued as tears welled up in her eyes. Scott reached out a hand to her.

"No, it's not your fault. If anything, it's my fault for letting things get so out of hand. We'll find Lucy, we'll change everything back to normal, and then we'll do something about Jack Frost. We'll find a way to strip him of his powers, if it comes to that." Scott removed his hand from Crys' shoulder and all there was was silence.

Crys didn't acknowledge that she had heard the words. Her mind was saying that it was the best thing to do. Her heart was telling her something entirely different. It was telling her that she didn't want to imagine anything severe happening to Jack or his powers. If it came to that, then there would be no beautiful snowflakes to heal her heart anymore.