I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON!

I've neglected my fanfiction account for months, but every now and then I get an email saying I have a new review on one story or other and I smile a little and think 'omg, they're still reading them!'

Then I think, 'crap, I didn't f*ucking finish that story, I'm leaving them hanging...'

So I'm back on the ball, but here's my excuse to justify my absence.
I've been working a lot, like 30+ hours a week in a call center the last few months, which left me little to no time to myself. Then I quit my job to help look after my brother and sister whilst my dad works and I also have a shit ton of house work to do and this, that and the other...

In short, I'm sorry, but I wrote this chapter out as an apology, and I'm now working on the next few chapters. This is Family, coming up next are Fantasy, Fiction and Fun :)

Cheers all!

Family, n
- group of related objects or beings

"Jack?"

The voice came like an echo, drawing him back to reality. He gazed longingly one last time at the girl in front of him, hoping to etch her smile into his mind until next time, and the glitter in her brown eyes when she laughed.

"Jack?"

The voice came again, and he brought himself out of the haze, blinking as the real world swam back into sight. Tooth was sat in front of him, her mauve eyes filled with concern for the Guardian of fun who had hidden himself away in one corner of the Pole with the small golden memory box clutched to his chest.

"Tooth..." he murmured, looking about himself. The others were there too, looking equally as concerned for the boy, but Tooth had been the only one to approach. "How long this time?"

"A few hours," she said slowly, reaching forward and taking hold of his hand. They all had reason to worry, he had to admit. Since defeating the Nightmare King and finding his memories, Jack had spent hours upon hours lost in them, trying to piece together his past and accept how everything had come to this. Slowly at first, he'd begun to remember who he was, who he had been, and little bits came back to him. He was Jackson Overland, lived in the small village of Burgess when it had only just been founded with his mother and sister... and at first that was all he could recall.

Then the floodgates opened, he could remember to the exact detail how he and his sister – he knew now she was called Emma – spent the Summer playing by the creek, how he would build bonfires to keep them warm when dusk chilled the air, and how he would use the light to create shadow puppets to make her and her friends laughing.

He remembered his mothers' hugs, her warm smile, her protective nature. He remembered the vegetable stew she made for them each Sunday because they couldn't afford a chicken for Sunday lunch.

He remembered everything about his family more vividly when he held the box, and so he'd began to seclude himself to do that.

"For three hundred years, I couldn't even remember them... now I miss them, and I'll never have a chance of having a family again," he confessed, and Tooth looked at him with sadness, pity and shock.

"Jack, you do have a family," she said sadly, gripping his hand a bit tighter.

"Yeah mate, we're your family now," Bunny chipped in, his Australian twang cutting through the air, and when Jack's blue eyes found the green of the Pooka's, he couldn't help but smile.

"We are all left on our own at some point Jack," North said, walking over and sitting down next to Jack on the floor, still towering above anyone like the giant he was. "But we have found our family in each other."

"We're not saying it's bad to miss your family, we miss ours too. My parents died when I was a child, North lost his wife, and Bunny lost his whole tribe when Pitch attacked years and years ago. We all know it's hard sweetheart..."

He looked around at them all, saw that same glimpse of sadness in their eyes, and then he looked down at the box in his hand. He couldn't spend forever mourning the loss of his family, a family he hadn't been able to remember until last month. He had the Guardians now, not to mention Jamie, Sophie and the rest of the kids in Burgess.

He held his memory box out to Tooth and pressed it into her hands, smiling at her as he began to pick himself up of the floor.

"Take care of that for me please, I think I have other people to focus on now."