Jack looked into Elsa's bright blue eyes, a love very different from the one that he felt for the children bubbling in his heart. She was okay. Everyone was okay. The enemies had been defeated. And to think he had been looking at certain death just a little while back. Kristoff arrived, and Anna giddily hopped to his side, grabbing his arm. Even Elsa turned towards him.

"So, that amulet protected you from Pitch's magic?" Elsa asked him, "You scared me so much, Kristoff." She frowned, angry.

"I'm sorry," he said, an apologetic grimace on his face, "I saw no other way out. If he found out the water hadn't worked on me, he would have killed me there and then or just taken the amulet." Elsa still looked a little upset, but said nothing. Jack remembered how much Kristoff's 'death' had pushed Elsa into the despair, and felt angry at him on her behalf. He itched to reprimand him, but two things stopped him - they weren't friends enough for him to have the right to do so, and, well, Kristoff did have a point.

"I knew there was a ledge under that cliff that I could jump off to, so when he told me to head for the it, I decided to do it quickly; before he came up with a method for killing me that I couldn't get out of," he rubbed at the back of his neck as he continued, "It took me a lot longer to climb back up than I'd hoped though."

"I think that was very brave!" Anna stated, and hopped up to hug him. Kristoff wrapped his arms around her to grab her, blushing as he looked at Jack and Elsa watching. Only when Elsa gave him a forgiving nod that the worry creases on his forehead cleared, and he turned to give his undivided attention to Anna. Jack turned to look at the Guardians, moving a little towards them. Tooth and Bunny had recovered and were standing, and the tooth fairies were returning with their boxes of teeth.

"Guardians," Santa addressed, "That was a great job. Let's head home." The Guardians smiled, and Jack looked around, feeling lost. Elsa came to stand beside him, and he felt slightly better, but still very empty. With a lot of difficulty, he raised his gaze to look into Santa's eyes, and realized that Santa had been watching him.

"I mean you too, Jack."

Santa's words filled Jack's heart with peace that had been missing for so long he had almost forgotten it had ever been there. Relief flooded him, wetting his eyes.

Sandman nudged Santa, and he nodded in response. Then, he folded his arms, rocked on the balls of his feet, and began in an apologetic tone, 'I'm sorry, Jack. It's just..." he unwrapped his arms and gestured vaguely, "We've been this way for so very long, it's hard to imagine any other way to do our jobs. With age, you become inflexible, and change is... difficult to accept. And we - I - couldn't accept such a big change. But you are right. When it's safe and necessary, I suppose there is no harm in helping out outside our territory once in a while. And there is nothing wrong in having a trusted human friend." Santa smiled, his expression inviting.

Jack reached for Elsa's hand and laced his fingers with hers. "Girlfriend," he corrected, hiding all the joy he felt at Santa's words behind a smirk. Elsa's eyes widened, and a blush rose in her cheeks. She looked at Jack but didn't disagree. Thank God, or he would have looked like a fool.

Santa stood still, and was having a hard time keeping his expression neutral.

"Way to go, genius," Bunny muttered, "Just when he was about to forgive you."

"This is outrageous," Santa finally burst, raising his arms to the sky and looking at the other guardians, "You see why I'm so strict? You let them free and they keep making ridiculous demands. Why do we have a child as a guardian of the children anyway? This is nonsense."

He shook his head and walked off in the direction of the sleigh, looked at the burning remains, then turned to go pick up the snow globe portal.

"He's right," Bunny stated, "You are childish and ridiculous." He looked at Jack and grinned, "Despite that, it will be nice to have you back. It gets too quite and peaceful otherwise."

"Aww," Jack cooed, grinning widely and controlling the impulse to hug the stupid rabbit again, "I didn't know you were such a softy."

"Watch it," Bunny warned. Then, he gave Elsa a nod and disappeared down a rabbit hole.

"They'll get over it," Tooth said reassuringly, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling kindly at Elsa, "We have a meeting tomorrow. Usual time. Be there."

Jack smiled, his heart brimming with so much love it felt it would burst, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Then, he watched as the last two guardians left, leaving him and his 'girlfriend' alone in the wide expanse of snow. They stood there for a while, their hands laced and their bodies touching. It felt good.

"This is a lot of snow getting wasted," Jack stated.

Elsa laughed, lifting her head, "I knew it. I just knew it. I was waiting to see how long it would take for you to say that. You can't look at snow and not play in it, can you?"

Jack heard someone clear his throat, and realized that they weren't completely alone. Kristoff and Anna were also there, of course. Jack turned around to smile at their exhausted, happy faces. Anna was clinging to Kristoff - afraid to lose him again. It was understandable.

"The soldiers are coming to," Kristoff said, "And the horses are getting restless. We need to get back to Arendelle."

"I'll drop Elsa?" Jack asked. Elsa opened her mouth to interrupt, no doubt freaking out over the flying, but Jack squeezed her hand reassuringly. She closed her mouth. Her face by now was as red as a tomato.

"Of course," Anna squealed excitedly, "You know, I knew about you two even before you did yourselves!"

"I don't doubt that," Elsa said. Then, Anna grabbed Kristoff's arm and pulled him back across the valley.

"I just got my sleigh varnished," Kristoff complained.

"Are you implying something?" Anna threatened, "You think I'm a messy passenger? You do remember I gifted you that sleigh, don't you?"

"In lieu of the one you dropped down an abyss!"

Jack smiled at their receding figures, then turned to look at Elsa. She wasn't there. He looked down at his hand, stuck in a huge lump of ice. As he looked up, a large snowball hit him in the face. Jack shrugged the snow off, grinning widely. He swapped his staff between hands, calling on his power.

"I'm your ride home!" he shouted, laughing, "Be nice!" Then, he waved his staff and brought in a swirl of snow and flew across the ice towards Elsa.

THE END

I can't believe it! Finally! :) The story concludes. This has been so much fun to write, and all your feedback has been so encouraging and is the real reason I completed this. Thank you so much guys! I hope you've enjoyed it as much as me.

Till next time! (I'm not sure when that's coming - will need a new story idea. I've exhausted my imagination for this particular crossover!)