Are you guys ready for the beginnings of conflict? This is the start of only a couple of things I have planned! (Much more grief is promised for you guys)

Also elise-hale913 strikes again! No guys, I'm cereal, she's been amazing at finding my errors. Please please please, it's totally okay to come and say to me that there was something I wrote that was confusing or it's grammatical phrasing made no sense or whatever TELL ME. I WANT TO KNOW. Also, apparently fanfiction doesn't like posting links so I don't think you guys saw a couple things I have been TRYING to post. So I made an ROTG fan video. Just go on my page on Youtube, and it's the only ROTG one because I never make videos. Username is RoseOfPhantom. Also, feel free to follow me on Tumblr! Once again, RoseOfPhantom. If you ever want to find me somewhere, just type that name in. I use that for everything.

OCTOBER

Once again, hues of scarlet and gold and clementine took over the usual greenery. The air blew in with a chill in its way and spooky decorations were seen once more. When Easter had rolled in several months before, Jack was reluctant to head off. He was only beginning to know his family well and he was beginning to see Tristan as a good friend, but he had found he had felt alright with leaving them. The Bennetts were really starting to heal from the divorce and Morgan seemed really happy – which had taken several years. Tristan had fun with her and he always thought of her first. Truthfully, Jack could not think of a better time for him to leave. The Bennetts would survive without him and he could get out of the way of Morgan's budding relationship so it could grow. But when the winds told him October was settling, he had jetting away from the penguins and made his rounds around the globe to deliver the autumn colors, and then settled right into his home. Not just Burgess, but the home his family lived in.

Which each year he was met with the conflicting feelings of the fear of being forgotten about and no longer believed in, but also confidence that it would never happen with the Bennetts. Once again, his confidence won out when he showed up at the door and it was opened by Mrs. Bennett and her charming smile.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, and spun the boy into a hug. "It is so good to see you! Jamie and Sophie were starting to get anxious about your return!"

"I had to travel the world," he teased and Mrs. Bennett pulled him into a big hug.

"Jack!" shouted a blonde girl at the top of the stairs. She hopped down them and threw herself to the Guardian. He chuckled fondly as she gripped his legs and he rummaged through her hair. She tilted her head and smiled brightly at him.

"You grew!" he observed excitedly. "Quite a bit!" Her head was now level with his waist. "And your hair! It's shorter and, so much more... even. And I can see those beautiful gems in your eyes!" She grinned sheepishly with a pink rising to her face. He laughed as he bent to pick her up and prop her on his waist. Her giggles were contagious and he could definitely see the baby phased out of her face. She was becoming a girl now.

"Jack!" He felt Jamie collide into him before he heard him. The boy gripped his best friend tightly and Jack wheezed for breath.

"Well, hey, kiddo," he greeted when he got his breath back. "I didn't realize I would be so missed."

"You provide a real warmth to this house," Mrs. Bennett responded.

"Wow, you guys really need to see a doctor if I am the one providing warmth," Jack told them with a laugh.

"Are you staying for dinner?"

"No, I'm not. I want to stop by the Kenters and see Morgan, and maybe Brad."

"Are you sure about that?" Jack just sent her a look to remind her that he actually didn't need to eat. He only ever ate with them because it was an enjoyable experience. Plus, food still taste good, even if everything just passed right through him. "Right. Okay."

"Save me dessert I guess, though, all right? I will come back later tonight. But it might be really late."

"You know where the key is," said Mrs. Bennett. "Just... don't freeze the key in the lock this time." Jack winced at the memory of the incident from last winter.

"How are you guys? I mean..."

"We went to 'Cheekago'!" Sophie declared. "And we saw Daddy!"

"Oh, did you?"

"They visited him this summer," stated Mrs. Bennett and she began to set a couple of pots on the stove. "He seems to be doing all right."

"How's the custody on that?"

"Well, we don't want the kids growing up in Chicago. Plus, we can't afford to fly them back and forth all the time, so they are going to stay here, but he gets them the weekend after Thanksgiving, a few days during Christmas break, an a month in the summer. It greatly limits their time with him but..." She faltered off and Jack was certain he was thinking the same as she: It was his own damn fault.

"At least they get time with him," Jack said, attempting to stick to the positive. Sophie clung to Jack's arm and kept moving her head back and forth to watch them talk. "And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"How are you holding up?" She shrugged.

"I think I'm basically over him."

"But your feelings?"

"I don't know, Jack. I don't think I loved him like I used to. I don't think I did for a very long time. I do care about him."

"He's their father, of course you do." He playfully snarled a Sophie and made her laugh as he pretended to bite her. "I just mean... Mrs. Bennett, I mean this in a very not weird way, but you are a great woman, very beautiful, and you deserve some happiness again." A tiny smile was stretched by his kind words.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for the dating scene again. Jamie says he's fine with it, but I don't know about Sophie..."

"Mommy, can I help cook?" she asked while Jack bounced her in his arms. He passed her over to Mrs. Bennetts reaching arms. She tried her hardest not to show her grimace at how cold Sophie looked. Jack gave her an apologetic look.

"Well, the kids are the most important right now," he told her. "I'm going to head for Harrisburg. I'll be back later though." He winked to Jamie who was looking a little saddened, but he was quickly cheered by knowing Jack wouldn't be long.

But coming back to Harrisburg had a much different impact than he expected. The city was just the same, as well as the neighborhoods and the people. Nothing had changed until he reached the Kenter household and took a look into Morgan's bedroom. It was much more organized than it had ever been, but it wasn't just that. It was changed almost completely. The walls were a light lilac and no longer wallpaper with hundreds of her drawings. Instead, it was replaced by various wall décor. She had photos of her family, and a couple with Jack (No one else could see Jack in the photo so she always made sure to take the photos with a cool background – but Jack could be seen with belief in the heart), and there were a dozen or so with Tristan. Posters and memorabilia from history exhibitions and museums now hung in place of her drawings and on the shelves were souvenirs and replicas of history. She had a map with pins in it as well, which served as a double usage – marking historical places as well as places she wanted to go to. Her desk was still covered with a mess of artist's tools, and he was glad to see that still the same. Her bedspread had changed too, but he was okay with the pattern; snowflakes falling onto a blue-black backdrops, and little fox faces embroidered around the edging. It reminded him of Morgan as a child.

The biggest change and the one that made Jack nearly fall off the windowsill was Morgan herself. She waltzed into view, a phone pressed against her cheek. She was not aware Jack's presence lingering at the window yet. She had grown a good six inches since he last saw her and it was hard to tell because it had been drawn up into a tie, but her hazelnut toned hair seemed longer and wavier from the way it was cut. There was hardly any of her childhood still in her physical build. Her weight had evened out so, even though she probably wasn't as skinny as many of the girls her age, she had lost a lot of the pounds. She now had curves that were very clearly there and Jack wondered how she could have developed that much in just a few months, before he then mentally lectured himself on focusing on that aspect of her. Watching her walk around the room, Jack told himself he was at the wrong house. But he knew this was the right house, it was just so hard to grasp how she had shot up into an almost womanly appearance and how her room had been conquered by organized maturity. The weirdest change of all was how he was feeling as he watched her.

Something new was rising inside him, pushing to get out. It was terrifying and it hung heavy inside him, but he also liked the feel of its weight. There was something comforting to it and along with the dread it was giving him, he also fed off the awakening of joy it was giving him. It seemed both exciting and scary. Once before, he seemed to remember having feelings similar to what he was experiencing and it plastered him against the siding of the house. When he recalled where this feelings were coming from, and where he had once experienced them, he felt a sickness churning in his gut.

During the summer, something not only changed in Morgan's bedroom but also in Morgan. He wasn't talking physically, that couldn't be avoided. He knew eventually she would grow into herself, but it was the way she carried herself, the way she walked, the expressions on her face. There was a confidence in her step, a bubbliness to her voice, laughter on the edges of her eyes. And that smile of hers... he never understood the expression " a smile to light up the room," but he became a huge believer in it when a laughter broke her lips. The sun itself seemed to beam in through her window and there was a dance of light against her walls.

The area below her neck caught his attention and distracted him from the conflicting feelings he was having, but it wasn't because she was a developed girl and he was a boy with a newly found discovery for Morgan. It was the necklace she was wearing. Last Christmas, he had given some money to a small boy in a museum to buy something for him since he couldn't. The boy did as he asked, and that was how he was able to retrieve Morgan's gift. It was a simple pearl necklace with a gold charm of a B, and three pearl drops hanging from the B. Morgan's name, obviously, did not start with a B, but it was a replica of the necklace Anne Boleyn was often seen wearing in her portrait. He was glad to see it on her, for more reasons than one. It told him she was still a believer and she held him close to her heart.

He watched her click off the phone and then make for her desk covered in a mess of color. Jack decided now was a good time to interrupt and flung the window up. The noise of the unexpected action sent Morgan to the window before he had the opportunity to pull himself into her room.

"OHMYGODJACKYOUHAVEFINALLYCOMEBACK!" she screamed into his sensitive ears. He groaned at the sharp stab at his eardrums, but an enthusiastic hug from her cured the pain quickly. "I was wondering when you were going to get back! You have no idea what it's like without you!"

"I take it I was missed?" he teased, but her words truly did make him feel proud.

"Of course you were!" she laughed and spun him in a circle once more so he was finding it hard to stay upright.

"Things have changed... so much..." he stammered, his eyes of electric ice looking to her. Thankfully, she misunderstood what he meant.

"Oh, I know," she said, commenting on the bedroom décor change. "I ran out of room for my drawings, so mom bought folders and scrapbooks and albums to put them in. And I keep them in a tote under my bed now. We took the opportunity to paint my room, since it really needed it, and then all of the stuff I collected, we put up. My dad gave me that map since there are so many historical places I want to see."

"And the bed?" The chocolate of Morgan's eyes shifted with irritation.

"'If you're going to change the color, you need to change the bedspread too!'" she squawked.

"Your mother's impression is spot on," he teased.

"Ugh," she said.

"And Tristan is...?" The name triggered a glow from her and a dreamy glaze to coat her brown eyes. She fought against making her smile too wide.

"We, uh... we both aren't allowed to date until we're in middle school, which is really only a year away, but we are kind of a thing. We just can't be because our parents think we're not mature enough." Being kind of a thing was enough to push discomfort into Jack's stomach, but it also filled him with rabid hope and desire. Every feeling that surged made him curse himself internally. This was not right. She was twelve, still not really an adult. He was fifteen. She was Morgan, little Morgan, who loved history and drawing and fun. She was a sister to him, and he did not see her any other way. But that was a lie. She was almost completely different and had grown in every direction so he couldn't help but see her completely differently. He didn't like that he saw her this way, because they were childhood friends. Besides, he was a Guardian, she was mortal. He was never going to get married, have kids, grow old, or die. He was doomed to remain frozen, literally, at fifteen, and she would go one with her life, growing older, getting prettier, get married, maybe have kids, though Morgan had never really been keen on them, get old and... die. A prospect that cut at Jack with the thought. Thinking of her in this new way was far more dangerous than it was good.

"Morgan!" The voice was through the door and then Mrs. Kenter opened it.

"Hey," she muttered glumly.

"I'm supposed to tell you that Tristan and his mother had to double back because they forgot your movie." Jack's muscles ached at the idea of him suddenly coming to the house. Right when he had just got back in town? "So they'll be a little late."

"That's okay, Jack's here, so I can visit with him by myself before he gets here."

"Jack?"

"Yes, he's back for the fall. And winter, of course."

"As in Jack Frost," Mrs. Kenter scoffed and shook her head. "Morgan..."

"What?"

"I thought you had finally learned the truth of these child stories."

"No, you told me they didn't exist," Morgan said calmly. "I told you that they did, I saw them and I talked with them. You just never believed me."

"But this Jack, he... I thought he went away. I thought you stopped seeing him."

"He leaves in the summer to go to Antarctica. He can't make the world cold in the summer, you know." The wrinkles in Mrs. Kenter's brow told Jack that this was not the first time this was discussed, and that this was worry that had constantly badgered at her.

"And now he's back."

"Yeah, he's seated right next to me."

"Morgan, honey, you're scaring me..."

"Mom?" She looked at her daughter with a worried twist of the mouth before closing the door most of the way.

"Oliver..." her voice could be heard saying down the hall. "She's hallucinating again..." Morgan's fuming anger pulled in her bottom lip and she slammed herself against the body by falling backwards. She laughed wildly and then turned to Jack to share her sarcastically displeased smile.

"Oh, and another change... my parents think I'm insane!"

I didn't expect this plot to come up as quickly as it did, but that's good. I am aiming for a realistic pace, but you don't want things to be sluggish, so I'm happy to be getting into the exciting stuff. Too late for me to type anymore so I am just going off to bed early. Night, lovelies. Rosie out.