Chapter 21: Bodyguard Duty

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.

Arriving at her home, Lauren called out "Father? Are you home?" as Jack looked around. Ever since Lauren had been born, Pitch and Nat had lived in a mansion so that they lived amongst humans. Pitch insisted that if they were, they might as well be classy about it so Nat agreed.

"Lauren? What on Earth are you doing here, especially at this time of night?" Pitch asked, descending the stairs. His eyes searched for Lauren and when they found her, he smiled. But upon noticing Jack, he froze and frowned all at once. Then he unfroze and quickly descended the rest of the stairs. Deciding to ignore Jack for the moment, he instead directed his attention towards Lauren and asked, "Lauren what brings you by, especially at this hour?"

Lauren chuckled, rolling her weight onto a single hip, and replied, "Well, you're not going to like it but I have some troubling news."

"Do go on," Pitch said, eyeing Jack suspiciously.

"It has nothing to do with Jack if that's what you're thinking. It's something to do with someone else, someone I'm sure you took for dead. It's the Grim Reaper. And he wants to kidnap me."

When Lauren finished, Pitch grabbed her wrist and began yanking her up the stairs, Jack had to run in order to keep up with the two of them. Pitch dragged her through nearly the entire house before arriving in his office. Once there, he made Lauren sit down and told her "Tell me exactly what happened." Lauren recalled the details for him perfectly, seeing as it had happened only a little over an hour ago. When she finished, Pitch frowned deeply. He didn't like the sound of this, not one bit. "So, let me get this straight. Grim was at your school, and more specifically in your bedroom. And he wants revenge on you."

"Yes, that's right," Lauren replied.

"And so your Guardian's best idea of protection is to leave you in the hands of Jack bloody Frost?"

Before Lauren could respond, Jack said "Yeah she's in my hands! You gotta problem with that?" Jack rested his staff against Pitch's chest.

Pitch looked from the tip of the staff to Jack and simply raised an eyebrow. "Actually I do. I was hoping one of the more competent members of your sorority would have been selected to watch over the person who arguably is the most powerful being in the universe, but seeing as you were selected they must have all been extremely busy."

"What are you implying by that, exactly, Pitch, because, if I recall correctly, during our first, and only battle, I kicked your butt. And I kicked it good." Pitch simply extended a hand and shoved Jack's staff aside. "And you also wanted me to join your side, begged really. So what's this about me being useless?"

Pitch sighed exaggeratedly before saying "Yes, all right. But if anything happens to my little girl, I will find you, and make you wish the Man in the Moon had let you drown in that pond. Do I make myself clear?"

Jack gulped before grinning and replying "Crystal."

Pitch let go of his sweatshirt and shoved him back a foot. Then he hugged Lauren tightly and whispered, "If the imbecile tries anything, let me know."

Lauren laughed before saying "He has my utmost confidence. I trust him. And I love you, father."

"I love you more, Lauren."

And with that, the two broke apart and Lauren teleported with Jack back to her room at Miss Grimwood's. Pitch sent Onyx along with them, just on the off chance something slipped by Jack.

Arriving in her room, Lauren had forgotten what an utter mess it was in. Jack looked around before saying "What happened in here?"

"Nothing much. Just the Grim Reaper attempting to kidnap me is all."

"Right. You go ahead and get some sleep while I clean up."

"Not a problem." Lauren had already found the spell she was looking for. With a wave of her hand, everything flew back to its proper location.

Jack stared at her in awe. "Wow! You've got some seriously cool powers."

Lauren shoved the book back in her drawer, waving off his compliment. "That was merely a parlor trick. I can show you some really impressive things tomorrow, that is after I've slept." and with that, she crawled into bed without even changing clothes.

Jack watched as Lauren drifted off to sleep before he let his staff rest on his shoulder and he walked around the room, idly examining Lauren's possessions. He rifled through the bookshelf, but quickly put away anything that caught his eye because they were so thick. "Ugh. How could anyone sit still for that long?" he muttered under his breath. Apart from the books, there were little trinkets laid around the books that he looked at one by one.

Once he'd looked at every angle of them, Jack moved on to the pictures. There weren't many, but he stared at them for the longest time. He'd forgotten long ago what it was like to have a bonafide family because he'd always felt like he had one with the Guardians but Lauren's relationship with Pitch was something he wasn't familiar with. He picked one of the older ones, with Lauren and Nat, and looked at it, his heartbreaking. Nat had been the first person in his life as a Guardian that Jack had ever truly loved. Her leaving him to marry Pitch and then later dying was the hardest things Jack had ever gone through.

Suddenly there was a vibrating noise. Caught off guard, Jack dropped the picture. Before he could regain his wits, the photo crashed into the floor. Quickly, he picked up the photo but it was shattered. Jack laid it on the desk and promised he'd tell Lauren in the morning. Then he went to investigate the buzzing noise. He found Lauren's cell phone and picked it up just as it vibrated again. Jack threw it up in the air in surprise but quickly caught it again. Looking at it, there was a list of notifications.

Tilting his head to the side, he touched the screen. A ripple effect panned out from where his finger touched. Intrigued, Jack began dragging his finger across the screen, watching the ripples, when suddenly the screen shifted. There was a picture of Lauren and some other people in the background with several colorful buttons over it.

One of them, a little tan camera, had the number 758 on its upper right corner. Tapping the box to see what happened, the screen changed again. This time it was a picture with 352 beside a heart. Moving his finger along the screen, pictures began flying by. Jack touched the screen again and it stopped moving. There was a small, silver button at the bottom of the phone. Curious to see what it did, Jack hit it. It brought him back to the main screen he'd been on before clicking on the tan camera.

After about twenty minutes of mashing buttons, Jack had finally gotten the gist of it. He'd even taken a picture and posted it on what he discovered to be Instagram with the comment '#HACKED' for good measure. Within the next hour, it had gained over two hundred likes and comments like 'Lauren, who's the hottie-tottie?' and 'Are you single because I am!;)' Jack had no idea what a 'hottie-tottie' was but he assumed it was a good thing.

Eventually, Jack's eyes began to burn and he set the phone back where he'd gotten it from. Then grabbing his staff and holding it against his chest, Jack leaned against the nook in the room and looked out the window. The moon was full and cast an unusually bright light on the school grounds. Jack had to cover his eyes with his hand, it was so bright out. Turning back to face Lauren, he saw that she was still sleeping peacefully. Granted, it hadn't even been two hours. But he was extremely bored. He'd already rifled through all of her possessions and messed with her phone. There was only one area of her room that Jack had not explored thoroughly and that was the bookshelf.

Getting up, Jack ghosted over to the shelf and looked at each book individually before grabbing one that looked pretty interesting. It was titled 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' and featured a dude on a broomstick and was flying. Going back over to the cushioned area by the window, Jack plunked down and began reading by the moonlight, no idea how sucked into the series he was about to become.

By the time Lauren woke up, sunlight was pouring in through the open window. She picked her phone up from the pillow it rested on and checked her notifications. After a moment, she became overwhelmingly puzzled. "Jack, how do you know anything about Instagram? Or how to work my phone?" This was met with silence. Turning around, Lauren saw Jack's head was bent behind a book. Rolling her eyes, she walked over and plucked the book out of his grasp.

"Hey!" he called indignantly, moving to grab the book back. "I was about to figure out why Sirius is so obsessed with Scabbers!"

"What?" Lauren asked, not fully understanding him.

"I began reading those books last night and I'm almost done with the third! Let me have it back!"

Jack made a grab for it but Lauren held it out of his reach. "Not until you tell me what you were doing on my phone last night."

"I got bored. Sorry."

"No, it's ok. I'm just curious as to how you figured out how to work my phone is all."

"Well, I did mess around with it for about two hours." Lauren nodded, satisfied with this answer. "That'll do it."

"Speaking of which, there's something I need to tell you." Jack sounded anxious, which made Lauren incredibly nervous.

"What? What did you post?"

"No, it has nothing to do with your phone."

Lauren's heartbeat slowed down a little, then. "Well then what is it?"

"I broke a photo," Jack explained, pointing at where the shattered picture lay.

Lauren walked over to it and gently picked it up. Then she began tracing her finger over the cracks, muttering under her breath as she did so. After a minute the cracks disappeared and the picture looked brand new.

"How did you do that?" Jack asked, intrigued.

"My father gave me a spell book a month ago and that was one of them. If you really want to see something impressive, come back in here in twenty minutes. I have to get dressed. You can guard the door while I do so." and without further ado, Lauren handed Jack back the book and shoved him out the door. Once he was out of sight, Lauren stripped over her clothes before pulling on a simple sweater, jeans, and boots. She pocketed her spellbook and phone before opening the door back for Jack.

He walked in and looked her up and down before leaning on his staff and sighing. "You look beautiful," he told her, giving her his most dashing smile.

Lauren raised an eyebrow before saying "I'm glad you think so. It means my boyfriend will think the same." And she shoved off of the doorway before exiting the hallway. "Follow me. And shut the door on your way out." Lauren commanded before walking down the hall.

Jack used his staff to shut the door before jogging off after Lauren. She was already descending the stairs when Jack reached the top. Hoping on the banister, he easily slid down, passing her as he went. Lauren laughed as Jack leaped off, did a flip, and landed squarely on his feet. She clapped dramatically before saying "I'm impressed. I thought your head was so full of hot air you'd stop mid flip and continue to float."

"Haha. You're so funny." Jack replied sarcastically.

Lauren placed a hand on her heart and smiled before saying "You think so? Aw, that's so sweet."

Jack rolled his eyes as she laughed and poked him in the ribs.

"C'mon. Let's get going." Lauren instructed, walking towards the door.

"Race you there!" Jack replied, running past her. He threw open the door, bent his knees, and pushed off of the ground.

Lauren ran out the door, closed it shut, and shouted, "You don't even know where I was taking us!"

"I'll figure it out!" Jack shouted back from the air, flying in lazy circles.

Lauren teleported from the ground to the air beside him and replied "We'll see about that." and she shot off, Jack closely tailing her. Looking back to see Jack on her heels, Lauren dove for the ground, and disappeared into the trees. Jack dove down after her, but she'd lost him amongst the trees. Stopping for a minute, Jack looked around, straining his hearing. "Slowpoke," Lauren whispered in his ear, appearing out of nowhere. Jack flew ten feet forward in surprise. Lauren laughed and shot upward, breaking the treeline.

Jack grinned, enjoying the challenge, before following her. He checked the skies before saw her flying about a hundred feet in the distance. Whistling, Jack called up the strongest wind he could muster and used it to catch up to Lauren. He was five feet behind her when suddenly Lauren disappeared. Confused, Jack spun in a circle. Obviously, she'd teleported again.

"Down here!" a voice called up to him.

Peering at the ground, Jack finally saw Lauren, who was throwing a ball of fire. When Jack was just a couple dozen yards away, Lauren threw the ball of fire into the lake and it fizzled out. Jack landed on the ground beside her and said, "You know, for someone who just discovered all of the powers she has, you're a really good flyer."

"That means an awful lot coming from you, Jack," Lauren replied genuinely.

"You best believe it does. I love a challenge."

"Please. I had the race won before it even started. That's not a challenge, that's out of your league."

"That was beginner's luck, princess."

"Mmhmm. You wish."

Jack rolled his eyes before saying "So what were those awesome powers you dragged me out here to see?"

"Because conjuring a ball of fire isn't cool enough for you? Tough crowd." Lauren replied.

Jack flew over to a large rock by the edge of the lake and laid down on it, tucking his arms behind his head. "Impress me," he commanded.

Lauren flicked her index finger up and the rock Jack was lying on was suddenly airborne, Jack along with it. He rolled over so that he could hug the rock tightly. Smiling, Lauren spun her finger in a tight circle, the rock following the path. Slowly, Lauren panned the circle out and eventually brought it to a stop.

Jack looked a little green. "Please... stop." he groaned.

In approval of that response, Lauren gently set the rock back on the ground. "That was just a small demonstration of the powers I learned."

"That was admittedly extremely cool, even though I felt like I was going to puke."

"I can bend other elements apart from earth and fire. I can bend air." And for demonstration, Lauren made a small tornado chase after some ants on the ground before she called it off. "And water." to elaborate on this, she raised both of her hands, causing a large wave of lake water to rise. Spinning her hands in different directions, she caused the wave to spin up into the air before allowing it to crash in on itself. She turned back to look at Jack, who was nodding his head in approval.

"That was impressive, very impressive. What else ya got?"

Lauren smiled before replying "I'm glad you asked." She waved both of her hands like that of a conductor.

Jack jumped to the ground and covered his face with his arms. "Please don't spin me around, again," he begged.

"I wasn't going to. Why don't you get up and look around?"

Jack uncovered his face and began looking around as he stood up. What he saw took his breath away. In a single second, Lauren had managed to grow hundreds of thousands of flowers around the lake, each color vibrant and more beautiful than the next. There were bushes covered in heliotrope orchids, mauve lilies, and golden gazanias. There were pink plumeria and chrysanthemums, an array of dahlias, and birds of paradise. From the trees sprouted magnolias, golden sassafras, pink redbuds, flowering dogwoods, flowering crabapples, fringe trees, chaste trees, crape myrtles, Japanese maples, and weeping willows. On the water, water lilies floated.

"Wow," Jack whispered quietly under his breath. His eyes hungrily ate the scene, savoring every little plant. He slowly made his way over to Lauren, spinning in circles as he went in order to see everything. Once by Lauren's side, he smiled and flipped his hair out of his eyes. "Your mom used to do stuff like this all the time. She'd sneak into orphanages and other depressing looking places and grow the most amazing plants for the people to make their lives a little better. She always went out of her way to put other people before herself."

Suddenly Lauren flung her arms around Jack and gave him a tight hug. "I'm sorry that I've been such a jerk to you, Jack. You don't deserve me to be treating you the way I have been."

"Don't sweat it, Lauren. I did kiss you, knowing you did had a boyfriend. And I've been a bit of a pain myself so it's all good."

"Thanks." The two pulled apart when suddenly Onyx jumped out of the bushes. Jack leaped back while Lauren ran forward. "Onyx? What are you doing here? Especially in the daylight?" Onyx, not being able to speak English, made some distressed noises in the back of his throat. Jack watched the exchange between Lauren and the Nightmare, and as Lauren's face quickly paled. "Jack, we have to get back to the school now!"