A/N: Got another long chapter for you guys! Reminder that I have been updating my RotG tumblr again so there are visual aids there.

Some days it was nice to see.

Some days it was terrible to see.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Healing

Considering that Jack's time with the Guardians had begun with a series of battles, the current situation really should not be all that surprising.

Still, Tooth and North were shocked all the same to see Jack and Bunny covered in someone else's blood and helping Terpsichore and Euterpe (also covered with a fair amount of red) clean the limestone floors of the main room.

Urania and Sandy had gone to help Calliope to her bed.

Polyhymnia was doing the same for Clio.

Cupid had only reluctantly accepted Arachne's help in moving Erato.

Jack looked the worst, being the only one who had laid on the bloodied floor in an attempt to assist with the wounded.

Bunny was the least haggard-looking after the whole thing, perhaps because he had come prepared with gloves.

Bunny was filling Tooth and North in, which was fine. Jack didn't quite feel like describing the whole thing and had a feeling that Terpsichore and Euterpe weren't in the mood either.

None of them had spoken much when passing around mops and filling a bucket, but there was an unspoken gratitude for a simple task to complete and focus on.

"But they'll be okay, they'll recover?" Tooth said.

"Clio said they'd been running around like mad trying to inspire anyone they could before talking to Artemis. They knew something like this would happen," said Bunny. "That should help, they'll recover fine. It looked a lot worse than it was."

"And Erato's flashback has passed?" North said.

"Seems like it," Bunny nodded. "Lucky that Jack was with me in the warren, he really came through."

"Why was Jack at the warren? Did something happen?" Tooth asked.

Jack cringed as he re-mopped an area he had already mopped, hoping to look busy. He had been doing very well not thinking about his conversation with Bunny at the warren thanks to all of this.

Mid-cringe, he had sent frost spiraling down the mop handle and across part of the floor.

He quickly mopped the area again, hoping the friction would melt the light layer of ice.

"Remember that coupon book he gave me for Christmas? I redeemed one, had him weeding the garden when Thalia showed up," Bunny said.

"I thought you were too particular about your garden to ever cash that one in," Jack said, hoping he sounded appropriately snarky and not the least bit relieved that Bunny had covered for him.

"You made him a coupon book?" Terpsichore said, laughing slightly. The energy in the room seemed to shift with the lighter topic. "What are you, eight?"

"It's been a great value and I want another one this year," Bunny said.

"I can't believe you guys exchange gifts every year," Euterpe said, scrubbing her mop against one particularly stubborn spot, most of the cleanup already done. "Don't you run out of ideas?"

"Is fun challenge," North said.

"Fun challenge? You gave me coal last year," Jack said.

"Naughty list," North said with a shrug. The large man had casually walked to the archway leading to the hall, glancing down toward the bedrooms.

"It's the thought that counts," Tooth added.

"Again, coal," said Jack.

"Again, naughty list," North said.

"Sandy and I give them the same thing every year, call it 'tradition,' that's the trick," Bunny said, tapping a claw to one of his temples.

"We only really celebrate holidays and birthdays as a group once every century," Terpsichore said, beginning to collect everyone's mops to put away.

Bunny snorted. "Haven't celebrated my birthday in about five hundred years."

"I didn't remember what day my birthday actually was until I got my memories back last year," Jack said. The others gazed his way, sympathetically. "Shit, is this one of those things you think is a funny anecdote until you see how everyone reacts to it?"

"Oh, Jack," Euterpe said, taking the bucket of water. "That's a lot of your anecdotes."

Before Jack had even half an instant to wonder if he was constantly depressing everyone around him (it was one thing to depress himself, depressing others felt rude, and not even a fun kind of rude), Arachne was walking back in the room, holding a laundry bag, already speaking.

"Okay, everyone with bloody clothes give them to me and I'll try to get the stains out. Bunny, I can clean your wristbands, too, if you want."

"I'm fine, this should wipe right off," Bunny said, holding up his wrists to show the damage, which was not too excessive.

"I'll get you something to change into, Jack," Euterpe offered.

"We are not the same size," Jack said, illustrating this by putting his hand to the top of his head and then swiping it through the air above Euterpe's.

"I have some sweaters and jeans that are too big for me you can try," she said.

Arachne looked appalled. "Where did you get jeans that are too big? All my measurements are triple-checked!"

"Ooh, Arachne found out you cheated on her with a mortal thrift store," Terpsichore said, mock-scandalized as she walked around North and left the room to change.

"Sometimes I like to try what the Mortals are wearing, sue me!" Euterpe said, rushing after her. "Be right back, Jack!"

"Hmph," Arachne said, setting her bag of clothes down on the carved, round table in the center of the room. "Thrift stores. I have old clothes if she wants something secondhand."

"Nice work today, by the way," Bunny said.

"Thank you. I haven't sewn up a person in a while, but it's nowhere near the hell of trying to sew chiffon at least," Arachne said, matter-of-factly. "And thank you for assisting. Honestly, all three of them? If this is Artemis acting, I hate to see what happens when she's sincerely lost. Course, back in my day, upsetting a deity meant you'd be turned into a monstrous spider-person."

Jack only briefly realized that Arachne hadn't always looked this way before Tooth addressed the more pressing matter, "So, they told you the plan, too."

Arachne nodded. "Guess I've been officially upgraded to 'need to know.' My understanding is that Cupid and I are the only ones that are neither Muse, nor Guardian, who are in on it. And for Gods' sake, North, Erato's door is the third on the right, with the roses carved into it."

North, who had been glancing down the hallway again, jumped slightly in surprise. "What?"

"Stop lurking and go check on her," Arachne said, gesturing for him to shoo away with all six of her hands.

"I am not lurking," North said, turning red beneath his beard. "And I am concerned for each of them."

"Mm, but I only saw you dancing with one of them multiple times at the reception," Arachne said. "But, that's just an observation."

North and Erato?

Jack hadn't been paying enough attention to the two of them to really consider it. He remembered Erato kissing North at the New Year's Eve Ball, but Erato was a bit of a flirt, wasn't she?

But, come to think of it, had Jack only assumed that? She was the Muse of Love Poetry, it seemed to fit the bill. When he thought back to instances of Erato flirting, it was always with North.

Jack suddenly remembered every time he would visit the pole and find Erato in North's office with him. The fact that she hadn't moved out of the pole yet, especially after her frustration with Apollo for "grounding her" there, was also odd.

Bunny cocked a brow at North, Jack still lost in thought as he tried to figure out why he hadn't noticed anything sooner.

Tooth was the one who rescued North.

"Come on, North, we'll check on everyone," Tooth said, wings fluttering as she took North by the arm and headed down the hall.

"Well. Not getting involved in that," Bunny said decisively, taking his green bag from the table. "I think I should be going. I have a lot of disinfecting to do."

"Thank you for your help, again," Arachne said.

Bunny nodded in acknowledgement before turning to Jack, speaking in hushed tones. "Let me know if you need anything, okay? It's been a rough day."

"Thanks," Jack said, knowing that he had no idea what he could need or ask for that would make anything make any more sense. "I'll keep that in mind."

Bunny clapped him on the shoulder before tapping the floor and disappearing down a tunnel.

Erato's room was bare compared to the others, with many of her belongings that weren't at the North Pole still in boxes. The furniture was scattered and bare. Her bed only barely had sheets on it.

Cupid had propped Erato upright with a few pillows, listing things that he could go retrieve for her. Water. Tea. Something to eat. More blankets. A book.

"Th… Thank you. I think I… I just need to rest," Erato said as Cupid took a seat at the foot of her bed.

"And you've been inspiring people?" he asked.

She nodded. "Ni… Nicky let me have… snow globes… went… went around all week… lots of poets."

A knock came at the door.

"Who is it?" Cupid asked.

"Tooth and North, we just wanted to check in!" came Tooth's voice from the other side. Cupid glanced his mother's way, and before he could ask if she was up for visitors, she nodded.

"Door's open," Cupid said.

The knob turned easily for the welcome guests, Tooth fluttering inside first and North joining close behind.

"I suppose it might be silly to ask how you are," Tooth said, approaching the bedside.

"Better… than I w… was," Erato smiled. "Jack and… and Bunnym… Bunnymund. Very helpful."

"She's having a bit of a hard time speaking, still," Cupid said. Erato waved away his comment.

"I'm f… fine," she insisted.

"Yeah, sure. You know what? I'm getting you some tea and something to help clean the blood from your hair," Cupid said, standing upright. "No arguments."

"I'm… the parent," Erato protested, but Cupid was already walking off.

"You know what, I'll help you with that," Tooth said, following Cupid to the door.

Before North or Erato could object, the door had clicked shut behind them, the room falling silent.

North turned back to Erato, who offered him a soft smile, her usual red lipstick having been wiped away with blood.

He cleared his throat, an attempt to buy time.

"Wish I could have helped," North said finally.

Erato shook her head. "You've… done… so much."

"Still," said North, sitting as gently as he could on the foot of the bed where Cupid had been moments ago. His weight displaced the very nice mattress only slightly, Erato rising a centimeter or so. "Hate to see you like this."

"I've… been worse," she said. "W… worried about me… Nicky?"

North smiled, the heat still rushing to his cheeks at the nickname. "A bit."

Erato reached her hand, gloveless for a change, his way. He gently reached out and allowed her trembling hand to fall into his. It went without saying that his calloused hands were much larger than her perfectly manicured ones.

Still, there was something nice about the way they fit together.

"Th… thank you… f… for check… checking on me," she said.

Euterpe had handed Jack a hoodie and a pair of jeans and directed him to the bathroom to change. She also told him some far-too-complicated instructions when it came to operating the shower inside. Jack wasn't actually sure why she had mentioned the shower until he saw his reflection in the bathroom mirror, and winced.

Somehow, he had managed to get some now-dried blood in his hair, and traces of it clung to the corner of his jawline, and part of his throat. He wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed before.

He turned away from the mirror and back to the rest of the large bathroom.

Before this moment, the fanciest bathrooms he had visited were the ones at the North Pole, with the large clawfoot tubs, plush red towels, and ample counter space.

The Muses, it seemed, were not to be outdone.

Two steps led to a platform with the focal point of the whole room: a tub, wide and deep and set into the platform. The wall past the tub was made up of the same floor-to-ceiling windows as the main room. It was dark now, which meant the mountain wasn't much to look at, but the starry skies above were. Jack was sure that these, much like the windows in the main room, appeared to only be more mountain from the outside.

There were alcoves on either side of the platform. One contained a shower, set behind a glass door and with a completely unnecessary number of knobs. The other contained a toilet and a bidet, hidden behind an elegant curtain.

Against the wall on either side of the door were spacious counters, and a sink on each side, surrounded with white towels and washcloths, ready for guests.

There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Who needed a chandelier for the bathroom?

As Jack had helped Terpsichore and Euterpe move some things to their rooms, he knew each Muse had their own bathroom attached to their room as well and could only imagine that they were even more outlandish if this was simply the one set aside for guests.

If there was ever a group that cared about aesthetics, though, it was the Muses.

This was all much too fancy for Jack Frost and his bloodied clothes. But it was what he had to work with.

He set the clothes Euterpe had lent him on the counter and assessed the sink. It wasn't small, but it would be awkward trying to hunch over it to properly clean out his hair. He eyed the glass shower door, the complicated knobs.

For the most part, if water was warm enough, Jack could handle it without accidentally causing it to freeze solid. The temperature would drop, certainly. If it was still enough, some frost might form on the surface. But if he was quick, nothing should turn entirely into ice.

Still, it was not exactly preferable.

"I'm just sticking my head in," Jack mumbled, pulling his hoodie off and approaching the shower, trying to remember Euterpe's complicated instructions.

Why did any shower need this number of knobs? Surely water pressure and temperature were the most important variables, who needed to adjust anything beyond that?

Jack realized that he didn't remember which knob Euterpe had indicated would actually turn anything on.

He leaned in and fiddled with knob after knob, the shower head taunting him silently. How long could he fight with the shower before someone decided to check in on him?

He was over three centuries old. He was not about to be defeated by the Muses' fancy shower.

Just as he was ready to give up, he tried the first knob again, and rolled his eyes as the water began to flow, cursing it softly beneath his breath. From here, at least, he was able to adjust the temperature with less effort.

His cold skin did not take kindly to the hot water, which felt sharp and strange when it first hit, but Jack clenched his teeth and attempted to ignore the sensation as he used the soap he found to scrub at his neck and hair. The water circling the drain had turned a slight pink with blood.

Leaning awkwardly, partly in and partly out of the shower, left the pendant around his neck swinging in his line of vision. The silver snowflake caught a few drops of water every now and again.

The water was running clear now, and turning it off proved to be easier than turning it on had been. He took a towel and attempted to dry off, rather than have his hair freeze solid, relieved when he didn't see any blood left behind.

The reflection in the mirror was less jarring now, though the pendant now had a few small icicles clinging to the edges. He carefully chipped them away with his thumbnail, frowning slightly as he examined it.

Jack hadn't known what else to do with the necklace when Calliope gave it back to him. He had put a lot of work into it, that was for sure, but it wasn't meant for him. It still felt off that he was the one wearing it now.

At the same time, putting it away felt a little too final. Was he supposed to put it in a box, in a drawer somewhere? Some days it was nice to see.

Some days it was terrible to see.

Today, looking at it, there was just a vague sense of sadness, which at least was better than utter heartache.

The day had been an upsetting experience overall, but it was nice to be able to use the memories of helping Rowan calm down with someone else that needed it. It was nice that the thought of her hadn't completely shut him down, emotionally.

It was nice to be thrust into a situation where he seemed to do things right.

Still, Jack wished he could tell her about this bizarre day.

He let go of the pendant and it landed softly against his chest. As he unfolded the hoodie that Euterpe had lent him, Jack considered putting the necklace somewhere else after Rowan's anniversary had passed, if she didn't return.

Maybe he could hang it on the wall with the pictures of her. Another keepsake.

Perhaps after that day, putting the necklace away could be his first step in really letting her go.

Four more months.

The black hoodie was only really half black, with the bottom half being dipped and splattered with bleach, a bit unevenly. Euterpe had explained that it was a project of hers, one she had put aside and forgotten about for about thirty years and never picked up again.

It didn't look bad, but it was definitely less precise than something Arachne might make. When he put it on, it seemed to fit fine, just a little longer than his blue hoodie. Frost coated the neckline, hemlines and cuffs, as it did with anything he wore.

The jeans were cuffed, and while slightly snug, they were nothing he couldn't handle until he got home. He frowned slightly, remembering that the only other pants he actually had at his cabin were formal slacks.

He had a feeling these were women's jeans. The pockets being a bit shallow seemed to confirm this.

He removed his belt from his ragged brown pants and slid it through the loops of the jeans, more for safe keeping than for practical reasons.

Jack eyed his clothes, now in a pile by the sink and frowned. It felt odd to be wearing anything else, whether it fit or not. He had never had a lot to wear, and only discarded something when he managed to actually find an alternative.

Still feeling sentimental, he hadn't even properly gotten rid of his old cloak and vest, hiding them away where he could still find them if needed. Now they were tucked away in a drawer in his cabin, the threads loose and fragile.

Any "new" clothing he had ever obtained (excluding the suits that Arachne had made) usually had been blown away from a clothesline and declared "lost forever" by the original owner.

He had obtained the hoodie, specifically, when he spied a young couple having a rough breakup, one winter in the 80s.

The woman was screaming obscenities and accusations from a third-floor apartment, throwing possessions over the edge of the balcony and to the snow-covered lawns below. The man, standing on said lawn, was screaming back a bizarre combination of attempted apologies and blame shifting.

The wind caught the armful of clothes she threw, one being a (fairly new, at the time) blue hoodie that landed on a tree branch. It was not one of the items the man collected before leaving, so Jack had quietly taken it instead.

Compared to his other clothing, particularly his ratty pants, he hadn't had the hoodie for very long. But still, he found himself attached. It was comfortable, and it was mostly sturdy. He had mended a number of tears himself, and actually managed a small, if sad, smile at the memory of Rowan stealing and wearing it, insisting he would not be getting it back.

He had the bloodied clothes in his hands now, walking back to the main room to hand them over to Arachne. It felt odd, and part of him wanted to take them home and try to remove the stains himself.

But Arachne had more resources than he did. She had likely forgotten more about fabric than he had ever learned in the first place. So, he forced himself to tell her, "thank you," as she took the clothes from his hands.

"Good, looks like everything fits," Euterpe said, pulling him from his reminiscing over his wardrobe. "You can just have those."

"You're sure?" Jack said.

Euterpe nodded. "I haven't worn it in decades."

"You can all expect a package with your clothes some time tomorrow," Arachne said, tying closed her bag of clothes.

"That quick? You don't want to rest tonight?" Terpsichore said. "After everything, I'm going to pass out as soon as I lie down."

"No, being busy calms me," said Arachne. "I'm going to check on Thalia again, then I'll be on my way. Goodnight."

Jack, Terpsichore, and Euterpe each bid Arachne goodnight in return before she disappeared down the hall.

"Do you want a portal, or are you flying home?" Terpsichore asked Jack.

"I think I'll fly, but uh… I've always gotten here by tunnel and don't actually know my way in or out," Jack said, realizing this only as he said it aloud.

"I'll show you, there's a trick door," Euterpe said. She led the way out of the room, with Jack and Terpsichore following. She turned the opposite way from all the bedrooms and reached an arch carved into the far end of a hallway.

The arch was made up of different flowers and decorative elements carved into the stone, all surrounding a blank, flat, stone surface.

"Let's see… it's chrysanthemums for farewells, right?" Euterpe said, scanning each of the flowers on the arch.

"Should be… there," Terpsichore said, pressing her hand to a carved chrysanthemum.

The flat surface within the arch emitted a dim light before disappearing entirely, the outside of the mountain, rock and trees and shrubs, now visible.

"You guys sure have a lot of nice features for how quickly this came together," Jack said, recalling that it had taken him nearly a year to bother to get a proper bed in his cabin.

"Yeah, well, we might have implied that Bunny was getting old and that we completely understood if he took extra time to help carve everything out," Terpsichore said.

"Even said that we might ask North for extra help if he needed it," Euterpe added.

Jack couldn't help but laugh slightly, knowing very well that Bunny would see that as a personal challenge. "A bit conniving, don't you think?"

"He literally looked us in the eye and said, 'I know what you're doing, I'm not falling for it,' and then finished half the bedrooms the next day," Terpsichore said with a shrug, having imitated Bunny's accent and all.

"All we did was inspire him, it's what we do," Euterpe said innocently.

"Wait," Jack said. "You guys brought Bunny up when you asked me to help you move. You said if I wasn't available, you were sure he was, and could carry just as much, if not more."

Terpsichore and Euterpe each offered him a winning smile in response.

"Well-played," Jack said, "But now I'm on to you."

"We had a good run," Terpsichore said, unfazed.

"We hope you can forgive this betrayal," said Euterpe with a slight laugh.

"Yeah, well, I needed the distraction," Jack said. He gestured to the still-open arch. "I should be going."

"Thank you, again, for helping today," Terpsichore said.

"It's nothing," Jack said.

"No, it's not," said Euterpe. Before Jack knew what was happening, Euterpe had pulled him into her arms. "Thank you, really."

"Oh, uh," Jack said sheepishly, supposing he should hug her back and did so only briefly, gently. "It's n—You're, uh, welcome."

If someone had told him a year ago that one of the Muses would be hugging him, sincerely, he would have been skeptical, to say the least.

Euterpe let go and stepped back, offering another smile.

"Be seeing you," Jack said, stepping through the arch at last. It seemed the second he did, the mountain around him was only mountain. There was no sign of the arch he had stepped through, no sign of Terpsichore or Euterpe.

"Huh," he said. This was the first time he was on the other side of the illusion. Granted, it was dark, but it seemed convincing. "Hey, wind. Let's head home."

Cupid set a kettle to the top of a wood-burning stove, Tooth arranging a tea set from a nearby cupboard on a tray. The kitchen was not very well stocked yet, but there were tea leaves and coffee beans, with sugars, honey, and creams for flavoring: the essentials.

"Are you okay?" Tooth asked Cupid. They hadn't spoken much, one-on-one, since the full moon back in January. So much had been going on.

Tooth's attempts to reconcile after being suspicious of him had failed when Cupid's guilty conscious had gotten in the way and he became distant… only to reveal that perhaps there had been reason to be suspicious of him.

Tooth and Jack had both remarked at the wedding rehearsal that they had wanted to talk to Cupid but were unsure how to approach it. Everything was so complicated with Cupid technically betraying the alliance but not exactly meaning to, and having already been punished thoroughly by Apollo.

But Jack and Cupid had somehow cleared the air at the rehearsal dinner, after Tooth had already left. That left just Tooth casting Cupid nervous glances whenever they were in the same place, unsure what to do or say. She was curious about how that conversation with Jack had went, wondering if it could perhaps serve as a guide for her now.

But Jack was so distant lately, even more so after revealing the full extent of what had happened with Melpomene. There was never a good time to bring it up.

So here she was, asking the winged boy if he was okay after what had happened with his mother.

Cupid glanced her way with his good eye, frowning slightly.

"I've been worse," he said at last. "Thank you for coming to check in."

"Of course, I love all of you," Tooth said, now searching the cupboards for a cloth that would help clean Erato up. She felt Cupid's gaze on her but dared not glance back, fearful it might make things more awkward.

"All of us," Cupid repeated, seeming skeptical that he would be included in her statement. Tooth was close with his mother and aunts, everyone knew that.

But did he still count? After everything?

"All of you," she said again, with a nod.

"I wonder," Cupid said, "How often you've been told that you're too kind, Toothiana."

"There are worse things to be," Tooth said, setting a few rags she had found on the tray.

"I've, um," Cupid said, frowning. "I haven't actually apologized to you directly, yet. I'm sorry for bringing you into everything that happened that night in Paris. I'm sorry for acting like it was ridiculous that you were suspicious of me. I'm sorry for being distant and vague when I realized you were completely correct to be suspicious."

Tooth gently set a hand to his shoulder, half expecting him to shrug away as Jack had been lately. He didn't.

"So many things this past year have gone so wrong based on good intentions," Tooth said. "It would be petty to hold it against you, specifically. Especially after what Apollo did."

"You deserve to be petty and angry, if that's how I made you feel," Cupid said.

"You have made me feel… confused," Tooth admitted. Cupid nodded.

"I'm sorry for that."

"I know you are." Tooth paused, the only sound in the room the crackling of the fire in the stove. "I, well, I miss being your friend, Cupid."

"I miss you, too," he said.

The kettle whistled, pulling their gaze, Tooth's hand falling from Cupid's shoulder.

"We should get my mother her tea," Cupid said, stepping away from Tooth to retrieve the kettle.

Tooth only nodded, returning her attention to the tray.

"What's, uh, your end goal here?" Terpsichore asked Euterpe as soon as the arch went back to being filled with stone, Jack gone from their sight.

"What do you mean?" Euterpe said.

"You're being real nice to Jack," Terpsichore said. "Real nice."

"I like him, he's my friend," said Euterpe, knowing very well that Erato had already, knowingly, pointed out the amount of time Euterpe had been spending with Jack.

"Mmhm," Terpsichore said, brows raised. "How much do you like him?"

"Does it matter?" Euterpe said, starting down the hall toward their rooms.

"Well, since you answered that way, yes," Terpsichore said, catching up with her quickly. "You know nothing's going to happen, right? Rowan might be back in a few months. And he's got that whole thing with Mel."

"I think that's why I can be comfortable with him," Euterpe said, her tones hushed as they began passing the bedrooms. "Men who are already taken feel… safer, I guess."

"I guess I can see that, as long as you ignore all the unfaithful taken men," Terpsichore whispered in return.

"Jack's not like that," said Euterpe. "At least, not from what I've seen. Sometimes I think I like him in a romantic way and sometimes I think I just like knowing that men like him can exist. And since he has no interest in me, I can have those feelings and be safe."

"Do you think you'll ever feel safe enough to try spending time with someone who is available?" Terpsichore asked.

"I don't know. And honestly, it was scary today, knowing that even Erato is still affected by her death. How am I supposed to get over mine?"

Terpsichore put an arm around Euterpe's shoulders. "You don't get over something like that. You process it as well as you can, and with kindness and time, it won't cut you as deep."

"We have nothing but time and it feels like I've made no progress," Euterpe said.

"But you have. You don't have night terrors anymore. You used to flinch any time a man came close to touching you. I know it might not feel like a lot, but you've done really, really well, and I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Euterpe said. They stopped at her bedroom door and Terpsichore gave her a proper hug.

"Get some rest, okay? We have Apollo to deal with tomorrow."

"Okay," Euterpe said. "Goodnight."