A/N: Chapter 29: Cursed Part 1

Since I finished the 'Doctors' arc, I might as well start a new one. More North/Jack father/son! :D Yeah...everybody ships Bunny/Jack, Tooth/Jack and even Sandy/Jack as a couple, but North/Jack is purely a father/son ship. That's weird...not as weird as...well, never mind, I suppose nobody can get weirder than me...

*coughs* Tooth/Jack *coughs* Bunny/Genevieve *coughs* *coughs* Heck, I ship Bunny with everyone! EXCEPT TOOTH. In my opinion, they'd be a train wreck! No offense to anybody who ships them, I just personally feel they'd have their sweet moments, but it'd be mostly fights...

Also, there's a scene in here...it's part of the...thing...


"You're looking too pale, Jack," Tooth said worriedly at the end of the Guardian meeting.

Little did she know my stomach was doing flip-flops. "I…uh…well, yeah, I am the spirit of winter," I said confidently, or at least that's the tone I was going for. "The only other color my skin could be is blue…I mean, I could be African-American but once I'd become Jack Frost I'd probably still have turned paler…"

I was rambling now and I knew it as all the Guardians just looked at me.

"Yes…I guess," North mumbled and said, "Jack, would you stay behind so I could talk to you for a second?"

Anything to prolong it. I nodded and as the others flew out the door, Tooth called, "I hope you feel better soon!"

"Um, so what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked nervously.

"You look so restless and scared all the time, Jack. Like you except to come face to face with your worst fear."

The analogy made the lump in my throat hard to swallow. "Oh. Well, I'm fine."

"Jack, be honest with me."

I sighed, studying his wooden floor angrily. "It's nothing. I'll get better. I'll make sure I will."

North just kept looking at me as I went to the window.

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, I was thinking one more snowfall before I let spring take over," I told him.

North's eyebrows were drawn down. "Jack, I don't like the look of you. You look so scared and restless all the time and I want to help you." He walked over and rested a hand on my shoulder. "I really do just want to help you. Please talk to me."

I avoided his sapphire blue gaze. "North, I—

"Jack."

"I can't tell you." I shook him off and flew out the window, ignoring his cry of 'Jack!' as I left.

I flew down to Pitch's lair, landing on a frozen lake and readying myself for the battle. Suddenly, the ice cracked from one side to the other and the cool surface slid out from underneath my feet, abandoning me to the icy water below.

Oh, God it was happening again. I was drowning.

Terrified, I thrashed around in the water, forgetting I could easily freeze the water around me.

Oh, please get me out of this. I don't want to die this way.

Please.

Fear coursed through me, but I couldn't find the power to drag my sodden limbs out of the water and onto the nearby iceberg…

And then my head hit something hard and cold and everything started going black.


I woke up a few hours later at the North Pole with a heavy head and an iced-over hoodie.

Oh, sure, I could freeze the water on me but I couldn't freeze the water around me? Typical.

Suddenly, the door opened and North walked in, carrying medical tape, gauze pads and bandages.

He sighed, then seemed to spot me. "Jack! You're awake!" He smiled, then called for a yeti.

The yeti grunted something to him and North said, "Fix me a bowl of cold water. Quickly."

When the yeti arrived with the bowl of water, North set it down on the table beside my bed and whispered, "Why were you trying to drown yourself in the lake right outside Pitch's lair?"

"I wasn't attempting to drown myself!" I say defensively. "I was trying to get into Pitch's lair, because of his stupid curse, everything went to hell in a hand basket! Oh and feel like telling me how I got here?"

North paused for a second. "Jack, you don't have to lie to me."

I sat up, causing the gumball red walls to tilt. "I'm not lying! Why are you assuming I was trying to—?"

"Shh. Lay down." He gently shoved me back down, dipped a cloth in the ice water and gently began cleaning my head.

When he pulled the rag away, I saw it was dark red from dried blood.

My pale fingers flew to my head, feeling for the injury.

"Relax," he said. "I'm taking care of you."

Those words – I'm taking care of you – they hadn't been said to me for such a long time.

I sighed as he kept cleaning the wound and finally he let the cloth drop back into the bowl and took out the gauze pads and medical tape.

"I don't need those," I said dismissively. "I heal fast."

"Obviously not." He replied and began dressing the wound anyway.

I sighed.

"Now do you feel like telling me why you were trying to—

"I wasn't trying to drown myself!" I said angrily.

He nodded. "Jack—

"No, North, just—

"Jack. Listen to me." He rested a hand on my shoulder. The touch felt warm and comforting. "I believe you. Just…why were you outside Pitch's lair?"

"Because I was trying to get to him."

"Why?"

"I wanted him to lift the curse."

"Curse?"

"He did something to me right before the battle on Easter or maybe during it because it's like I'm cursed! Every time at around three o' clock in the afternoon, I see something I'm scared of." I swallowed. "I want to be un-cursed. So I'm trying to find him."

North nodded understandingly. "Are you sure it was Pitch?"

"North, something I fear? Of course it's Pitch!" I glanced out the window at the setting sun. "His lair…"

"What?"

"That day, the day of Easter a few weeks ago, when it was destroyed? Pitch could have done it then! I was right there the entire time, right in his lair!"

"What were you doing in his lair?"

It was like Easter all over again. "Oh, no, North, you see – I'd heard my sister calling out to me. I didn't know it was her, but I knew the voice. I followed it and came to Pitch's lair. I went inside it and Pitch was…just saying…things…" I decided not to say all that had been said, but he caught my hesitation. "What things?"

"Just stuff." I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat up. "I feel better, now. Thanks, North." Unfortunately, I spoke too soon, eager to change the subject, because those dark red walls once again began moving.

I put a hand on my head. "Whoa…"

"Easy there, Jack," North warned me, slowly pushing me back in bed. "We don't want you to go out there again."

"But I'm fine!" I protested. "I want to go—

"Shh." He put a finger on my lips. "If anyone's going after Pitch, it's gonna be me." His bright blue eyes turned dark.