Chapter 14

Strike Two

SLAP!

Bunny´s eyes shot open and he sat up like lightening.

"—I won´t do it!" he sputtered, looking around wildly.

The other three guardians took this as their chance to back up and feign innocence, turning their backs to him as quick as a wink, and staring into the fire nearby.

"Which was funny, because I had just seen him a few hours earlier- hey, Bunny´s awake!" improvised Jack.

They turned slowly, in sync, to see Bunny composing himself as he looked for his book.

"Ah, Bunny, how was your snooze?" asked North, hiding his disappointment with a casual tone.

Bunny´s eyes darted back forth between his friends, the blanket, and the space in between. He cleared his throat a few times and blinked rapidly as if to wake himself up.

"Um, I, uh. . . I´m, um. . . I´m so sorry, I did not mean to, um, to fall asleep," he blurbled.

"Is nothing to apologize for, you may take as many naps as you need here! You are always welcome to make yourself at home," hinted North with a now smug grin.

Bunnymund cleared his throat and removed the blanket with one hand. He rubbed his eyes with other before making eye-contact with Sandy and furrowing his brows.

Sandy raised his hands as if in surrender and shook his head.

Bunny blinked a few more times, noticed the bandage tower next to his feet and shifted his focus to the elves who were looking far too pleased with themselves and pointing excitedly from the 24 bandages, to him, and back.

Jack watched Bunny huff through his nose as he looked down at them. Then he smiled slightly and shook his head at their rainbow-clad leader, earning many small scowls and silent threats in return.

Meanwhile, Sandy and North entered a deep habitual conversation about the most important qualities of mince pies.

"You know," said Jack as he walked up to the doctor, "if you´re tired, we can re-schedule this again."

Bunny turned to him quickly, looking at Jack with a blank expression for a full two seconds before seeming to register what he had said.

"Oh! Um, no. No, thank you Jack." He said as he broke eye-contact to rub his face. "No. I´d like to finish this all today." He yawned, and looked around for his satchel. Upon finding it, he checked the contents and stretched his neck quickly before turning back to the young man.

"I´ve, um, asked North to set aside another room to allow you more privacy and less interruptions. Are you ready?" he asked, holding back another yawn. Jack nodded.

Bunny turned to North, who was now describing the best slice of pecan pie that he´d ever tasted to a very engaged Sandy.

"North, would you mind telling me which room you had prepared?" interrupted Bunny after checking his pocket watch.

North paused his conversation. "Of course, I will take you there!" he smiled as he straightened his crutches and set off. Sandy, Jack and Bunny followed. North continued his detailed description on the way as he ignored the few elves who were running in pursuit, the bandage strips flying like tails behind them.

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"Bunny, I really don´t mind if they stay. We´re all guys here, right?" said Jack as he pulled off his hoodie.

Bunny shooed the elves out of the room and closed the door before they could come back in. He looked back at the others as he straightened out his coat collar. "Fine. Just don´t distract me, got it? If you do, you´re out," said the doctor as he looked pointedly at the two others.

North and Sandy nodded obediently and sat down on the padded chairs North had had placed in the map room. The walls were lined with shelves of scrolls and books, but the room itself was just large enough for the four guardians to fit comfortably. The curtains on the large window were pulled back, letting in plenty of light. Bunny turned to a certain page in his book, scanned it, and began setting out his medical tools. Jack was sitting on a chair, twisting his hands around his staff.

"You´re not going to make this painful on purpose, right?" he asked with a forced smirk. Bunny glanced at him before shaking his head.

"Probably not. Most of this will just be me poking and prodding and asking you questions. Would you say you´ve been feeling healthy and normal this last week?"

Jack nodded and relaxed. "Yeah, I´m feeling fine."

"Good. Just after Easter, before Sandy came back, Pitch threw you hard into a dumpster, but you didn´t seem phased. Are you usually so resistant to hits like that?"

Jack considered this, then shrugged. "I´ve fallen out of some pretty tall trees and the wind drops me sometimes, but I´ve always been fine afterwards for the most part. If something hurts, I usually just sleep it off in a snowbank for a few days."

Bunny nodded, wrote something in his book, then hopped over and pressed his ear to Jack´s forehead.

"What are you doing?" asked Jack suspiciously.

"Taking your temperature. Hold still."

"Why don´t you do it with your hand? Most doctors do it with their hands."

Bunny didn´t answer for another minute before turning to write something in the book. He turned back and extended his hand towards Jack, displaying his thick, velvety palm.

"My hands aren´t like those of most doctors," he said as he lowered his arm and hopped forward.

"Turn your head toward the others."

Jack obeyed, and Bunny pressed his ear to his neck.

"So, I get that you´ve got fur, but I still don´t get why you use your ears. It´s kind of weird."

Bunny straightened up and looked at the teen.

"Keep quiet. I need to concentrate." He leaned forward again, pressing his ear against Jack´s neck and looking at his pocket watch.

North smiled, shaking his head and shrugging all while gesturing to Bunny, making the young guardian grin as he remembered the "bad bedside manner, Bunny. Very bad!" conversation from a week earlier.

All was still for a minute, until the doctor stood up and scribbled something in the book.

"Hey North, we should have milkshakes after the meeting," whispered Jack.

Bunny´s ear twitched, but he soon turned back, this time with his rock in hand.

"Lean forward, just a bit," he said as he looked at Jack´s spine, his eye against the stone.

Jack was quiet for ten seconds before speaking again.

"What are you doing now?"

". . . Looking at your spine," said Bunny flatly. "Stand up so I can see your posture." Jack complied.

"How do you see through a rock?"

The doctor didn´t answer, instead he looked at Jack´s neck through the stone. Soon the Pooka turned away to write something else in the book.

"Breathe deep, I´m gonna look at your chest now."

Jack obeyed, but insisted.

"Is it a magic rock?"

Bunny's ear twitched again, making Sandy chuckle. Seeing this, Jack pushed further.

"Can all Bunnies see through rocks, or are you special?"

Bunny stopped, raised an eyebrow and straightened up to his full height.

"Look Frostbite, I know you have the attention span of a three-year old, but this isn´t going to take long, and I´m sure North will more than happy to oblige you with a cookie if you behave yourself. Now belt up, and let me do my job."

Bunny began crouching again, but stopped with a roll of his green eyes as soon as Jack pressed on.

"But I really want to know what you´re doing! You´re the only immortal doctor that I´ve ever heard of! It won´t hurt you to answer some questions."

Bunny sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "That may be true, but I still need to focus, and your constant questions are making it difficult-" he glowered at the teenager "-not that you didn´t know that."

North and Sandy were now smiling and chuckling softly. But not softly enough, since Bunny turned to glare at them.

"Strike two," he said pointedly.

"Baseball, 1, ?" signed Sandy with an indignant expression.

The Doctor merely ramped up his glare instead of answering, so, North and Sandy chose to cover their mouths and quiet down.

"But last week you were talking with North the whole time!" pushed Jack.

"Well that´s because I have to freeze my tail off an average of six times per century to help that Gumby recover from some careless injury!" he growled with a stiff point at North.

Said Gumby frowned and began counting something on his fingers as his brow furrowed in thought.

The doctor continued.

"I know his physiology very well, but yours is very different and I´ve never had to treat a winter spirit before. Now, as I said, be quiet and let me concentrate." Bunnymund hissed, looking at Jack as if daring him to speak again.

The teen narrowed his eyes and obliged.

"I´ll be quiet, if you agree to answer all my questions after this. Deal?"

Bunny breathed out slowly through his nose and narrowed his own eyes before replying.

"If it´ll make you shut up, then fine. Now take a deep breath, and exhale slowly."

He went back to looking through his stone, completely missing the mischievous smile on his patients face.

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To my supercalifragialisticexpialidocious reviewers:

Shellycat: Once again, your suspicions are very methodical and rational; thank you for sharing! I like your guess, and it makes a lot of sense. We shall see. . . Also, your thought that North is the one who found him is very interesting. Personally, I love fics that show Bunny meeting the others for the first time, which is why we will see my version of that event in later chapters. I hope you share what you think about it when we get there!

Go Outside: I´m glad that you're still alive, that things are getting better, that you´re still reading this fic and leaving excellent reviews. They really do give me warm butterflies! I agree with you when you say that it´s nice to see people letting their guard down around you. I think some people do it quicker than others, like Jack asking to stay in the guest room versus Bunny falling asleep in the chair for the first time in centuries. I hope to hear your thoughts again on this chapter!

Guest!: I loved your review, as always! I know I keep asking about your thoughts regarding Bunny and North´s relationship, but it has so much to it that I can´t help myself. You´ve mentioned how it´s terse; relaxed or dominating, violent or helpful, etc. I love knowing your thoughts about it, seeing as they´ll be the most prominent characters in this story, so I hope that you don´t mind the redundant quieries. We´ll be tilting toward the AU side of this story pretty soon and I´m excited to hear what your thoughts are. Thanks for your feedback!

What do you think?

1. How do you think the conversation between Jack and Bunny would have been if North hadn´t told Jack about Bunny´s weakness of answering annoying questions?

2. What differences do you note between Bunnymund´s reactions to Jack and North´s questioning techniques, and why do you think that is so?

3. Based on this chapter, how do you think they´re all getting along as a team and with each other individually (except Tooth, for now).

4. How do you feel about visits to the doctor? Any traumatic experiences you´d like to share?

See y'all next weekend!