Chapter 4
Perfect Scene
Thirty minutes and many Russian curse words later, Bunny stood stiffly, shaking a hand roughly at the elves when they ventured towards him, still holding the bandages. He turned and asked a yeti to fetch the wheelchair they had made for North years ago and gave some instructions to another yeti who nodded and hurried away. He then made his way over to Tooth and Jack. North was glaring at Bunny as he passed, but was otherwise relieved that the rabbit was stalking away to terrorize someone else. Sandy had mopped up the blood and broken dishes from the floor, and helped with fascination as Bunny had stitched and cleaned the wound, but was now asleep and floating near North.
Tooth looked up from giving orders to her fairies next to Jack when she saw Bunny walk slowly over. He looked tired, but gave a slight smile when Jack looked up at him.
"You´re not good with blood either, eh Frosty?" asked Bunny.
Jack shrugged, and rolled his eyes. "Can I get up now? You didn´t have to order me to lie down just to keep me out of the way, you know. You could´ve just asked," said Jack.
Bunny crouched next to the couch and touched Jack´s neck with the back of one of his ears, and his forehead with the other.
That´s strange thought Jack.
"You were going into shock, and I had to get that Dill squared away while he was still cooperating," answered Bunny a minute later. He straightened up, shivered, and crossed his arms. "Do you feel shaky, or weak?" he asked.
Jack shook his head. "Not anymore."
Bunny nodded and allowed Jack to sit up. A yeti walked in pushing a dusty cobwebbed wheelchair and Bunny motioned for Jack to rise and follow him back over to North.
"Like I said before, I need to examine you while you´re well before I can know how to help you when something like this happens," said Bunny as they walked slowly.
After being assured by Jack that he was able to stand "like a normal person," Bunny turned his attention to the wheelchair. It had a carved plank installed, designed to prop up an injured right leg.
Doctor Bunnymund glanced at his patient.
"Well, it´s pretty old, but it looks fine to me. I want you to use it, do you understand? Cheat like you did before, and I will snap your other leg to make you obey." he said pointedly as he dusted off the chair.
North rolled his eyes.
Bunny noticed, patting the broken limb and making Santa cringe and whimper.
"Luckily you´ve busted the same leg as last time, so no alterations need to be made" he said lightly, examining the temporary splint he had tied to the leg as if his patient hadn't made a sound.
North growled and murmured something Russian in response, making Jack chuckle.
"Alright," said Bunny, "I need to make a cast for you, and then I´ll be out of your hair."
The yeti Bunny had talked to before came up with a fresh bucket of plaster and fabric strips, and Bunny began to make the cast.
"Can I help?" asked Jack.
Bunny raised his eyebrows and nodded, motioning towards the supplies with a furry hand. He crouched to the side and gave Jack instructions, pausing to carefully push the near-violent elves away from himself repeatedly as Jack did most of the work.
Eventually, the elves backed off and the cast was finally finished.
"Good," said Bunny, stretching his neck and arms, closing his eyes, and taking a few slow breaths.
The elves scowled at him.
"Thank you, Jack. . . Alright North. . . you´re apples. Now stay off it, spend today and all of tomorrow in bed, and I want to meet with both of you at noon the day after. Got it?"
Jack nodded solemnly and North grumbled something in agreement. Bunny and Jack helped him to sit the chair, and Jack apologized to both of them again.
"I told you not to worry about it, Frostbite. . . Alright. I´ll see you in a day. If you need anything or it starts to hurt, send a yeti to get me," said Bunny as he gathered up the medical kit and handed it to a yeti.
North murmured something about Bunny making the pain worse instead of making things better. The doctor ignored him, and instead waved at Tooth and Sandy as Jack moved away to chat with one of the yeti.
Tooth glanced over to make sure Jack was busy, then zoomed up to Bunny with determined, wide eyes. "Are you sure you have to leave now?" she whispered. "After everything that Pitch put us through, I think you should stay for a little longer" she added, motioning to where Jack was, winking, and raising her eyebrows.
North saw, and snapped out of his sulking.
"Yes, remember? I mention this to you in sleigh!" he added, also whispering and motioning toward Jack with his head as he looked pointedly at Bunny.
Bunny turned his attention to his patient and sighed. "Call it off, then go to your room and rest, Nickolas. Your body needs to recover before you exert yourself" he said flatly.
North narrowed his eyes and looked over at Jack, who was now talking to Sandy a few meters away.
Turning back to Tooth, Bunny smiled slightly, but shook his head, giving no explanation. He then reached habitually for her hand, kissed it quickly, and released it. Then he nodded to the others before thumping his foot against the ground to summon a tunnel and step casually in.
The elves made one last desperate struggle to throw the bandages down the tunnel before it disappeared, but only one of them succeeded; but really failed, since the bandage shot back out and landed on the floor as quickly as it had gone in. Regardless, the victor raised her arms in triumph, to the chagrin of the others.
The tunnel closed, leaving a bright yellow pansy in its place.
. . . . . : : : : : . . . . . : : : : : . . . . . : : : : : . . . . . : : : : : . . . . . : : : : : . . . . .
"I´m really sorry about the ice," said Jack to North, as he helped him settle more comfortably into the chair.
North´s attitude changed from a punished child to a tired, yet jolly uncle.
"Do not blame yourself, Jack! T´vas not your fault," he said, with a smile. Jack smiled back and shrugged in resignation.
"Well, if no one´s going to get mad at me, I guess there´s not much I can do," he said with a small smile.
North laughed, and his eyes twinkled. "You could always help me come up with some new designs for this old chair, or help decorate for party with Tooth. . ."
Jack smiled wider, and moved his hand to rub the back of his neck.
"Uh, yeah, heh, she´s sweet. . ." he said as pink spread up his neck and cheeks.
Sandy floated over, a new mug of eggnog in his hand, a smile on his face and an eyebrow raised at Jack.
Suddenly, confusion trickled onto Jack's features. "Wait. Decorate for a party? What party?"
North flashed a wide grin.
"Well, before accident, I tell Phil to bake a large cake to celebrate our new guardian! He should be finish soon, but we must prepare room for big guardian party!"
Sandy nodded enthusiastically and Tooth zoomed up with her fairies, a smile on her face. The elves took that as their cue to start prepping and scattered to who knows where to get who knows what.
"Wow! Seriously? You guys don't have to do that," laughed a thrilled Jack. The baby teeth chattered and nodded their heads emphatically and North laughed loudly.
"We do not have many parties, but now that we have a guardian of fun hopefully it will be common pleasure, right Sandy?"
Sandy nodded but soon noticed that Jack was frowning and had his eyebrows furrowed.
"Shouldn´t we tell Bunny to come back?" asked the young man, looking up at Tooth.
"Aw, you're so kind and thoughtful!" gushed Tooth as some of her fairies fainted. She looked over at the older two guardians and hesitated before turning back to Jack with her answer.
"But here's the thing Jack, Bunny is -"
"Is party pooper," interjected North as he stared into Jack's eyes with an honest expression.
Before Jack could react, Sandy jumped in and made a picture of the original four guardians, balloons appearing, and Bunny leaving the group.
"Yes! That´s exactly it. Bunny has avoided any party invitations or even party plans ever since he became a guardian," said Tooth gently. Sandy nodded and North looked put out and had his arms crossed.
"Even this one," muttered the Russian.
"Man, everyone says he keeps to himself, but I thought for sure he would be more outgoing with the rest of you guys," said Jack.
Sandy shook his head sadly and North replied.
"He used to be always as strict and stony as he is when in doctor-mode, but I think he has loosen up very much since he became guardian, no?" asked North as he looked to Sandy and Tooth for confirmation. They both nodded, and he continued his explanation. "This is why we were so surprise when he invite us to help with Easter. Is first time all of us have been to the Warren at same time."
Sandy gestured to himself and looked at North, offended.
"Ah, yes. Most of us to Warren at same time."
Jack cringed as they mentioned Easter.
"Yeah, and Easter didn't end so well, hehe. I hope Bunny forgives me for that someday. . ."
Tooth and North got quiet.
"I owe you an apology, Jack. I was so caught up with being angry with Pitch that I didn't bother to take the time to even consider your side of the story. I shouldn't have assumed you were helping Pitch," confessed Tooth softly.
"I owe apology as well. I am so very sorry, Jack," added North.
Jack smiled and shook his head. "I would have thought the same thing. It's in the past, let's forget about it, ok? Besides," he said, with a hesitant smile, "I kind of got you back with the whole falling logs thing, right?"
North guffawed and smacked the thin guardian on the back. "Forgive and forget, no? Ahahaha!"
Just then the lights dimmed and the four guardians looked over to where a crowd of yeti were marching in, wearing party hats. Phil was in the center, holding an enormous blue and white frosted cake with five layers. The room was now decorated sloppily, thanks to the ever enthusiastic elves, and the lights from the candles on the cake reflected in the smiling eyes of everyone present.
"We have not yet compose 'Happy Becoming Guardian' song, so we will sing Happy Birthday instead!" said North cheerfully.
Jack blushed and tried to stop himself from laughing as the voices of Tooth and North were soon drowned out by the grunts and warbles of the fairies and yeti as they sang what Jack could only assume to be the tune to Happy Birthday. Sandy couldn't stop smiling either as he looked at all of the joy around him. Jack blew out the candles and the crowd erupted in a cheer.
This new chapter is going to be a good one, thought the Sandman as he took in what he considered to be the perfect scene before him.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thanks for reading!
Here's a little note to those marvelous individuals who have recently left reviews:
Iloveanimals, Thanks for leaving the first review! I'm a huge fan of big brother Bunny stories too, and I think this fits that category. I hope you enjoy the coming chapters!
Go Outside, Thank you for your comments! I'm so glad you are enjoying Dr. Bunnymund so far. I'm still in the set-up part of the story, but it's going to be a fun ride for the observant readers pretty soon, so please keep reading and reviewing! I love hearing your thoughts and inferrences.
To the Guest who I suspect wrote two comments, but I'm mostly writing this in response to the long one. Thank you for your review! Your story of how your niece broke her arm when you were young sounds extremely intense, and was very exciting for me to read about, so thank you for sharing! I'm impressed that you had the sense to take care of her neck first, even though you were only 12 years old. Good for you! Also, I think you and I share the same opinion with regards to North's attitude and Bunny's. I'll show a little more of Tooth and Jack in this story coming up, but I have planned for them to be in a more romantic (though hesitant) relationship. With that said, I'm not going to show too much of it, as this is Bunnymund's story, not theirs. If you want, you could probably read it as them just being very close friends, if that's how you prefer to see them. Thanks so much for taking the time to write out such a substantial review. It made me smile for days!
Here are some questions that I would love you readers to answer:
Why do you think Bunnymund avoids parties?
How do you think Tooth feels about his avoidance verses how North feels?
Do you enjoy going to parties, or do you avoid them?
I would love to know your thoughts about this and even some criticism if you have it. I've got a thick skin and lots to improve, so don't be afraid to be savage in your reviews!
I'll be back next week with another chapter!