Mixing the Family-4-Gifts and Angels

"-you think?" Hmm? Am I under water? Why is everything so blurry?

"I don't know, but we need to do something!" Don't we usually? Doing nothing is never productive. Clara was commentating in her mind on what was going on, but she really didn't have a clue what that was. She felt really comfortably warm, something was rubbing her back and she felt a slight movement up and down behind her head. Her groggy brain tried to riddle that out, eyes still shut and ears tuning out the people.

Warm…and soft. This must…am I in bed? But what's that on my…hmm…someone's holding me? Why? Is that what I'm feeling rubbing my back? Yeah that's a hand. That movement must be breathing. It's so…comfy.

She melted happily under the touch and the warmth around her was soothing beyond anything she could imagine when an Australian accent cut through the fog.

"Come on, mate. I see ya twitchin' there, wake up. Come on there eyes open." He urged. She groaned quietly and her eyes squinted open. She opened them up to see big green eyes watching her own. "That a girl." He smiled. She squirmed a little and realized he was holding her in his lap all wrapped up in blankets and Sandy was providing a little extra cushion, waiting patiently in a chair by the bed for her to wake up.

"Is everyone okay?" She asked so quietly he had to strain to hear her. Of course her face being buried in his fur didn't help either. He chuckled softly.

"Yeah mate, you did a great job. Everyone's all better now." He assured her as he nuzzled her temple with his nose. She shook her head, rubbed her face and tried to sit up but fell right back down where she was.

"Why am I so dizzy?" She asked, sounding much younger than she was.

"Because you're on more pain medicine than should be possible." He teased. Sandy just shook his head at them and Clara grinned at him.

"Why?" She asked through a yawn.

"Because ya went and got an arrow in your back, mate." He informed calmly, with a little grin. "Gave us a right scare too."

"Oh…that nasty business. My bad entirely, serves me bloody right, turnin' my back on a room fulla-" She yawned widely "-armed mercs. and a man who probably wanted me dead." Bunny chuckled and encouraged her to snuggle into him a little further.

"I'm gonna put the blame on the bloke who shot you. North, Tooth and Jack are having a…chat with 'em, right now. Actually they should be back soon, right Sandy?" He asked, Sandy nodded with a huge smile on his face.

"Well whatever you gave me, it's-" another yawn "-doin' it's job…really, really well." She kinda trailed off a little bit at the end as her eyes drooped closed a bit.

Sandy flashed a couple symbols and Bunny nodded to him before speaking to Clara again.

"Mate?" He waited until she looked up at him again. "I'm gonna give you to Sandy. It might hurt a bit 'cause this is wearin' off a bit, but you'll feel better again when it settles down, alright. He's gonna stay with you while I find the others, just in case, and bring us all some dinner." She smiled up at him, completely trusting the large rabbit she had come quite fond of in the very short time she'd know him. The thought brought a smile to his face as he gently and carefully traded spots with Sandy.

Upon moving that little bit she realized how serious Bunny had been. A burning pain blossomed once more where the arrow had struck causing her breath to catch and her eyes to squeeze shut tightly. She refused to make a sound though, gritting her teeth instead.

When she finally relaxed she saw Sandy looking down at her with such a sad look of concern that she couldn't help her urge to make it better. She was the one bleeding, and she couldn't stand the fact that he was worried over her, so she grinned at him widely, gathering her energy for speaking so her voice was quiet and steady when she spoke.

"He wasn't kidding, was he?" She asked. Sandy's frown faltered, twitching a bit into a smile but it was evident she was still in pain and very clear that he wasn't really taking her bait. She had a thought.

"How long was I out?" She asked.

A sun and moon switched places five times.

"Woah…no wonder." She shuffled uncomfortably, feeling every bruise and scrape where she had fallen and her chin/throat area where Time had picked her up. Sandy's face lit up in realization when he finally understood her thought. He actually face-palmed.

A symbol of medicine and a plus sign appeared and he smiled, giving her a squeeze before guiding a sand-tendril to grab the supplies. He held up a liquid in a bottle and a syringe/vial combo, raising one above the other with a question mark over his head. She guessed that meant which she would prefer. She thought about it, a hand went to her throat and she looked down at her arm. Sighing she held out her wrist and closed her eyes, peaking at him with one partially open and a resigned half-smile on her face.

He chuckled and quickly gave her the needed shot, she almost didn't feel it and within moments she was relaxing into him again. About the time he put the vial and needle down he heard footsteps. He decided to try their parlor trick again, maybe she could handle it.

"That sounds like the others, ready to say hi?" He half-teased. She grinned and nodded. If it had been Jack in that bed, he would likely have asked him if he wanted knocked out so he wouldn't have to deal with it quite so soon, but Clara was up to it, which put a huge smile on Sandy's face. She was a real fighter and he loved that.

When the others came in Bunny switched with Sandy again in case he had to leave for his job and he was happy to see that she wasn't hurting anymore. As promised he brought with him a few containers that smelled a whole lot like garlic bread and spaghetti. Bunny was the only one who heard her stomach growl in anticipation and his answer was a chuckle and a nudge to the top of her head.

"Clara!" Jack bounced happily, eager to talk to her.

"Hi Jack!" She grinned.

"So, perfect timing with the whole moonstone thing, if you'd have been any less brilliant Sandy would have fallen off that cloud you made." He chuckled at the wide-eyed look of mock-horror she gave him.

"Well it's a good thing it got back before my magic blanked then! That's why we gave ya a globe, isn't it?" Clara giggled. Sandy nodded, glaring daggers at Jack for bringing up the close call but Clara just snorted with laughter. "Jack, you should be happy Sandy can't kill with looks." She pointed out. Jack held up his hands to the dream maker in compliance.

"What did I do?" He asked.

"I think the whole timing conversation." Bunny ventured and Sandy nodded.

"What? So I goofed, no biggie. Everything important got done, I consider that a success." She tried.

"But you almost died!" Tooth called out almost involuntarily. Clara, already going loopy from the medicine, shrugged in Bunny's arms.

"What's the worst that happens? I'd be dead, so?" She asked. The five sat shocked.

"Mate, we'd like to keep ya breathin', ya know." Bunny teased, recognizing the light tone in her voice and snapping out of his stunned state. Tooth and North still looked uncomfortable though, and Sandy was doing his best to decide if she was serious so Jack cut in.

"So, new topic, you did it!" Jack congratulated. She grinned at him.

"I think that was more of a 'we' did it." She corrected but he shrugged.

"Yeah, but mostly you." He smiled, laughing as she rolled her eyes but still shot him a thankful smile.

"So, you are feeling better, no?" North asked with a smile, sitting down beside the bed in one of the chairs placed there by the yeti to be more eye-level with her. She nodded happily. "Good, because I have a question I would like to ask you." He grinned. She noted the mischief in his blue eyes that reminded her an awful lot of a certain winter spirit.

"Yeeeeeeeah?" She asked suspiciously. The guardian of wonder chuckled at her well-placed reaction.

"Do you have a home?" He asked bluntly, making sure. "Somewhere you want to go back to?"

She shook her head.

"Then question is this; would you like to live here? At the pole?" He asked. It took a second but her mind finally registered the question and her eyes shot open wide.

(You're serious?) She asked, abruptly switching to Russian in shock.

(Yes, very much so.) He confirmed. (While you were out we started a room for you here, in case you wanted to stay, or even just visit. You can see when it's finished and you're feeling a little better.) He explained. The pure look of awe on her face, mingled with gratitude, sent his heart pumping in his chest. "Also, Mani told us he wanted to ask you something so when you feel better we'll head to the globe room to talk with him." He informed, switching to English again because while translation magic would make it understandable, it wouldn't make it less awkward.

"Okay." She agreed with a sleepy smile. "Thanks." She grinned as the combination of the medicine she was on and the warmth coming from Bunny almost put her out. "But…why can't he say whatever with…with me here, with us…oh I give up." She shrugged, drugs making her mind too sluggish to understand both what was being said and what she wanted to ask so she just quit trying and snuggled up to Bunny again.

"Alright, get some sleep sweetie." Tooth practically oozed the 'mother' persona and Clara could almost imagine the look on her face. She felt someone pull the blanket up over her which was obviously not Bunny. Evidently it was North.

"Goodnight." He gave her a little pat on the shoulder which was much more careful than usual before filing out with the rest of them. She had a little smile on her face until she thought of something she hadn't before.

I wonder why they insist on snuggling with me constantly. Am I really that hurt? She pondered, especially given the way Bunny had her arranged which kept her lower back, a bit to her right, from touching more than a little dream sand and some blankets. No pressure was applied there and she had to wonder how he had sat there with her for five whole days. She didn't realize it, but she began to squirm to see what the big deal was, how bad that wound actually felt.

"Mate? What's gotcha squirmin'?" He asked softly.

"Is it really that bad?" She asked simply, unintentionally mumbling.

"What do you mean, that bad?" He asked.

"Sandy said I was asleep for five days. You're…you're still here…and the place where it hit…is it really, I mean…" She was having trouble forming the question but Bunny understood.

"Hey, easy sheila, hush. It was fairly nasty, they gotcha real good. Even with all that medicine if you put pressure on it, you'll be hurtin'. We don't wantcha ta hurt yourself, do we?" He asked lightly, chuckling at the face she was making which fell somewhere between 'oh' and 'what?'. He really was getting attached to the little ankle biter somethin' awful.

"So…you guys…you just sat here?" She asked.

"Well, not Tooth, she had to stay in the living room with her faries so the kids would believe, she came in though, just to check and Jack'd freeze ya with all your magic knocked out. The others would rotate for an hour or two so I could make sure my warren was in one piece, but mostly I'd stay." He informed in the most calming tone he could manage so that maybe, just maybe she'd drift off during the explanation. Of course it worked and she slept off most of her injury.

After another few days she was up and walking, perfectly able to function and North showed her the room he had made for her. It was across the hall from one that had a snowflake carved into it, she was guessing Jack's, and between one with a big 'N' on the door and one that had intricate carvings of various animals with a half-moon at the top. She guessed North and Sandy's rooms. Jack's room was between one with various patterned eggs, guess who, and one with teeth all over it, again a no-brainer.

She was floored by how well the man knew her the moment she walked in. It looked like he had a direct line to her brain. It was almost scary, how perfect it was. Bright green carpet and baseboards, a field painted in alternating winter and spring scenes that seemed to melt into one another seamlessly with bright blue curtains on a huge picture window with a squishy-looking window seat. Bonus points, the covers on her bed and the padding on the window seat were both white and patterned to look like snow.

Then she saw the towering bookshelf painted and carved to look like a tree, but painted gold. It looked like a dream sand sculpture and held everything from mechanical and medical informational texts and history books all the way down to pleasure-reading novels. History, language, weapons and carving manuals, it was all there. The ceiling was covered in intricately painted snowflakes, some gold some white and they continued another foot down the wall, getting tiny until they were almost specks, going farther over the winter scenes.

Her desk was an earthy brown, the area of carpet around the base of it looking like dry packed earth where there was no more grass, and the desk was painted to look like it had been made of that earth, packed tightly. As an added bonus the top of the desk was painted like grass. With a little prompting she looked through the desk. Sitting in the similarly fashioned, and very comfy, chair in front of it she found that there were all kinds of tools like North himself used to tinker with all kinds of things. Sculpting, painting, mechanics, every kind of art you can think of. Then North pointed out that the desk would slope forward and there was a light that would come out of the wall to light up that space. She even had a closet full of every kind of clothing you could imagine, summer wear to ball gowns.

She was beyond stunned.

"Wow…thank you. I…don't really know what I can say except that I really need to know how you got into my head like that because I know I haven't said enough to you for you to know half of what you had to when you made this." She said trying to keep herself from passing out. This was more than she had ever HOPED to have.

"You are welcome." He gave her a little pat on the shoulder. He had been really careful around her since the arrow thing, not wanting to hurt her. Evidently falling on her face was a bad idea at the moment. She chuckled internally at the thought of his first impression on her. He ended up nearly having a heart attack when she jumped up to hug him excitedly. He had nearly dropped her and she was still a bit…she would kill them if they called her fragile, but it was true! "Woah, easy!" He laughed whole-heartedly and set her down, gently, before nodding to the door. "Come on, we have people to meet." He grinned.

"Oh right, you said Mani wanted to talk to me." She remembered, following him down the hall.

"Yes! He will not tell me what he wishes to say, but I cannot imagine it is anything but good." She couldn't help the little leap her stomach did. She hadn't thought about it being bad…

When they made it to the globe room the silver light of the moon was already focused on the dais that held the moonstone.

"Nicholas, may we have a moment?" They both heard the voice of the moon ringing in their heads.

"Of course! I will be in living room." North offered with a reassuring smile before he headed out. She shuffled uncomfortably, unsure how to continue. Luckily Mani had the conversation starting covered.

"Clara? They've told you about me, and who I am to them?" He asked kindly. She nodded.

"Yeah."

"Well, I want to thank you for what you did for them, for me. You went out on a limb for them, and you were wonderful. You really saved everyone here from a very horrible death, and I'd like to thank you, so I have an offer for you. Essentially I would like to offer you immortality as a spirit. A spirit of good dreams, like Sand Man. Make no mistake, I won't be offended by hesitance, and please take your time." He explained. The look on her face must have been priceless, because she could hear the laughter in his 'voice' when he finished. "Go talk to them, let me know what you decide. It is an open offer, even when you get older."

With that the silver light receded leaving her standing in the globe-room stunned. Immortality. She had just been offered immortality. She couldn't imagine what that would be like, she had so many questions buzzing around in her head it was making her dizzy. The most pressing one was what would she do if North didn't want another immortal child living with him? Could she really do this alone?

She poked her head out into the living room cautiously and she had to admit the huge smile North sent her way upon seeing her was incredibly reassuring.

"So? What did Mani want to talk about?" North asked with a hushed curiosity she could never have imagined him using.

"Um…he basically just said thanks and…well…he offered to turn me into a spirit." She told him quietly. Carefully gaging his reaction. His eyes went comically wide and she couldn't help smiling.

"This is wonderful! What would you be?" He asked. She had to think about that for a second before remembering what he had told her.

"Spirit of, well basically another dream spirit. Yeah that's what he said." She nodded. "He told me to take my time deciding and to talk to you guys before I decide."

"Is good idea. What do you think?" he asked, patting the sofa beside him. She went over and plopped down lightly, pulling her legs up under her as she considered the question.

"Well…forever's a long time." She ran a hand through her hair. "I was shocked I made it this long. I don't know what I'd do. Plus I doubt you need another immortal child here indefinitely and I'm not sure how I would even fit into the spirit world, because let's face it my life being mortal didn't really go well. I- " She stopped her breathless, panicked yet quiet prattling when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Clara?" He waited until she looked up to continue. "You are in no way a hindrance. I would love to have you here with me. Don't worry about that." He smiled broadly when her eyes lit up a little. "As for forever being a long time, I wouldn't think about it like that."

"How else is there to think?" She asked sweetly, tilting her head to the side. It was adorable.

"Well, there is no worries about what you can do with life, skills to learn and places you can see. There is no real time constraint. You would have all the time in the world. But most important I think is he is giving you a home, a family." He offered. She looked at him like he had grown a tail for a moment before realizing he was absolutely right. She grinned at him wordlessly in realization and the family resemblance to Sandy made him outright laugh. It wasn't small either, it was his whole-body shaking laugh that left her ears ringing a bit.

He told the others as they came in for their monthly meeting and as she talked to them the more she realized she wanted to be a permanent part of the family they were inviting her into. She told North later that evening that she had decided to let Mani make her a spirit. No sooner than North had put her down out of the huge hug he had semi-crushed her in Mani's silver light washed over her.

A bright flash of light almost blinded North and the surrounding yeti and elves. When it receded the Guardian of Wonder almost fell over. Her skin had changed to be the same gold as Sandy, her clothes became more a part of her than separate, and her newly changed form came with more permanent golden feathered wings, but that wasn't the most striking thing. The most striking thing was her eyes. They were still emerald, like Bunny's, but they had little slivers of blue, and gold running through the irises. Not to say that her wings weren't stunning. They were masterpieces of golden, shining feathers that cascaded from just above shoulder-height being relaxed as they were, down to nearly touching the ground. She looks like an angel.

"Wow. Is…amazing." He managed as he shook his head. Once she got her bearings she giggled in slight embarrassment at the compliment.

"What happened? What do I look like?" She asked. He chuckled.

"Come." He led her down a short hall to a bathroom with a full-length mirror. She just stood there with her mouth open in shock.

"What? Woah…I'm gold." She giggled again.

"Should we tell others?" He asked without even attempting to hide his mirth at the idea of their reactions. She nodded.

"Yeah! Let's go tell Sandy he has a helper!" She grinned.

He helped her find Sandy's home and he was so excited it was comical. Jack nearly fell over, Tooth fawned over the 'new look' and Bunny picked on his newest kid sis as was expected. North ended up having a little celebration dinner/party at the pole and she discovered that her familial magic had in fact increased with her change as North suspected it would, rather than vanishing. She could now make a small snowstorm and disperse one if needed. Her medical knowledge tripled, her carving got more elaborate and she now had full easy access to the tunnels as well as being able to sense hope in anyone she met.

They started spending time together, she would help Bunny paint or North with his carvings. Jack liked to pull her into snowball fights and she spent a lot of time with Sandy molding her skills with her new dominant magic and making good dreams. One day, sitting on his cloud playing with what dream to give who, she stumbled upon a realization.

She lost her human family, all of them, but she wasn't sad. She had found a new family to thrive in, found a place in the world and had never taken time to mourn that loss for trying to survive. She wasn't sad. She should have been, but she wasn't. She realized that as much as she missed them she had found her place, where she could belong in the world and a family she could be part of forever. Her uncle had always told her that she should never feel bad about being happy, no matter what she had lost or gained, who was gone or why because being gone wasn't bad. It was release from all the trouble of life and that when family moved on they were never forgotten. She hadn't realized how much of her thoughts were etched on her face until Sandy caught her eye with a question mark.

"Just thinkin' Sandy." She supplied.

He nudged her and the question mark blinked a few times.

"Oh, just somethin' my uncle told me." She offered.

He sat beside her with a questioning look on his face.

"Just some cheesy family quotes and a one-line-er about death and such." She shrugged.

A tombstone, a question mark and a set of quotation marks with another question mark appeared.

"Oh, he liked to quote that movie, Lilo and Stitch, and say 'Ohana means family, family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.' He would always tell me that I didn't need to worry about being happy when someone I care about dies because they're probably happy, and likely wouldn't be offended if I was too, if they knew." She shrugged again.

He nodded his agreement. Your uncle is right. He then proceeded to question her life. She didn't talk about it much but he figured it couldn't hurt to ask. She didn't disappoint. She let him ask and she answered as best she could. She ended up telling him how her Father had been killed when she was young and how her mom had followed. How her younger brother and herself had been raised by her uncle who had moved to Russia for them. Her brother had acted so much like Jack Sandy wondered how she managed to call him Jack and not Jake. As it turned out recently their uncle had died and Jake and herself had been homeless. As hard as she tried he was still killed by a mugger who nearly killed her in the process too.

"I always felt bad for, you know, not being able to save him." She borderline mumbled. The night ended with Sandy hugging her until she fell asleep, finally having taken time to mourn her baby brother properly. As much as it hurt the older spirit knew it was needed. She would never get past it if she didn't.

She ended up in the warren for the night, snuggled up to her new big brother.

"Bunny?" She asked, her British accent almost flooring him in combination with her little sleepy confused look.

"Yeah, mate. It's me, go back ta sleep ya little ankle biter." He grinned fondly.

"Who you callin' an-" she yawned "-ankle biter?" Her accent taking a left turn at the equator and matching his own almost made him stop breathing from all that cute.

"Well you are pint-sized." He gave her a squeeze and she snorted in false indignation.

"You're a tall bloke, can ya really make that comparison?"

"You bet I can, Sheila." He nudged her head with his nose and she actually relaxed under the touch. "Now hush, you need some sleep." He urged. Rather than argue she snuggled back into his arms and quickly began to snore.

So I suck at endings because in my mind there's no end of the story, it's a look into their lives, so it always seems like it should keep going. Let me know what could be better, what could be worse, all that stuff. As per usual y'all are wonderful people and I appreciate you! This is the end of this arc, although I may write in this universe again, just to check up on her. If there's an inconsistency I've missed please let me know, I've been sick so I might miss something!