A/N: As of this chapter, Rowan has been dead as many chapters as she was alive, which is wild to think about! It's also just been really heartwarming to see how many people have told me that they miss her. I miss her, too.

"And that's concerning, it is. But, I'm still not sure it has anything to do with Jack."

Chapter Five: One Step Forward

There was a child somewhere in Toronto who had lost her left upper canine. Jack was not sure what the name of this child was, nor how the tooth had been lost. All he knew was that her new puppy was teething and had a death-grip on his staff, tail wagging enthusiastically as he tried to shake it loose.

This was not the first time this had happened. There were still impressions in the wood from the instance when a sled dog had stolen the staff from him to play keep-away. La Llorona's pet chupacabra had tried to make a chew toy out of it at Calliope and Sandy's wedding the previous summer, thankfully not leaving marks.

This golden retriever puppy seemed insistent on being the next in line.

"I'm on a time crunch here," Jack whispered to the dog. He gently shook the staff again and the puppy growled playfully.

Jack sighed.

"Jack, you doing okay?" Tooth said, appearing at the window, still open from Jack's entrance. The puppy released Jack's staff and barked at the fairy, tail still wagging. Jack winced, the little girl beginning to stir, and darted out the window at once, Tooth carefully closing it behind him.

"Here," Jack said, handing over the small tooth. He and Tooth were now settling on the roof, dream sand stretching past them in waves.

"Excellent, and you left the money?" Tooth said.

"Yes. It was just that one night I forgot," Jack said with a slight sigh. "And to be fair, North, Bunny, and Sandy all forgot, too."

"Just making sure," Tooth smiled. It was a slow night for her, or so she had said when she invited Jack along to collect teeth again, this time at a more leisurely pace. Jack had a feeling this invitation was to keep him busy, keep him distracted, keep his mind off the impending deadline.

That was fine.

Jack was examining his staff to see if there were any new gnaw marks and paused, chuckling slightly before holding that end out to Tooth.

"Got another one for you," he said.

"Oh, it's so cute and tiny!" Tooth said, eying the small puppy tooth lodged into the staff. Gripping it carefully, she pried it out, examining it as well as she could with the light of the nearly-full moon and glow of the dream sand. "Aw, it's one of their little incisors!"

"Do dogs keep memories in their teeth, or is that just people?" Jack asked.

"They do, but dogs get their adult teeth and reach maturity much earlier. I don't get to handle baby teeth from animals much," Tooth said. She squeezed her fingers around the tooth, closing her eyes and concentrating. "Feels like this one has memories of walking on grass for the first time."

"Can you see anything or is it just a feeling?" Jack asked.

"It's mostly a feeling," Tooth said, opening her eyes and tucking the tooth away. "Or, I suppose you could say I'm seeing it with my mind's eye rather than literally seeing it. It's something like intuition. Your staff isn't too badly damaged, is it?"

"Nah, it'll be fine, not the first dog to chew on it," Jack said. "And I mean, I was able to put it back together after Pitch broke it in two, so."

"Where did you even get that?" Tooth asked. She gestured for him to hand it to her and he did so, the staff immediately dulling in color and brightness the moment he released it from his grasp. She ran her fingers along the grooves, examining it closely. "I assume Manny gave it to you?"

"That's what I thought, too, before I got my memories back," Jack said. "But now I remember that it's a stick I found it when I was mortal. I thought it looked interesting and picked it up. It was great for games and reaching high places, so I just kind of kept it."

"It's definitely a unique shape," Tooth said, handing it back to him. "How did you get it as Jack Frost, then?"

"I had it with me the day I fell through the ice, and I assume when Manny did whatever it was that made me Jack Frost, he did something to the staff," Jack said. "I was pulled from the lake and then I almost stepped on it. I picked it up again and that's when I learned I could use it to create frost and control the wind."

"That sounds like a lot all at once," Tooth said.

"It kinda was, huh?" Jack said, shrugging slightly. He remembered his first night as Jack Frost very well. The fear, the comfort, the excitement and curiosity. It had all come to a screeching halt the moment he found the village and he was walked through for the first time.

All that was left at that point was a terrified denial. Surely that had not just happened.

But then more people began to walk right through him, and in vain he tried to get them to hear him and failed.

By anyone's standards, that would be a lot to deal with in a week, much less a couple of minutes. Jack supposed he just liked focusing on the joy that came with learning what his staff could do. Perhaps that was why he hadn't considered that it was a particularly difficult day to kick off immortality with.

He wondered if anyone who had been born mortal and "gifted" immortality had a good first day as an immortal.

"It must be nice to still have something from your mortal life around, though," Tooth said.

"I guess so. I don't know if the stick I used to mess around with would have been my first choice, but I'm attached by now," Jack said.

"I heard you went and visited your family with Clio a few weeks back," Tooth said. "How did that go?"

"It was weird," Jack said. It felt like an understatement. Seeing his family moving on without him had left him feeling conflicted and guilty, had left him with nightmares of his sister expressing disappointed in what he had become. "I… don't know if I'll do it again."

Tooth nodded. "She takes me to visit my parents sometimes. I don't like to visit too much, it makes your heart ache a bit, but it refreshes my memory of them, at least. I like watching their wedding."

"When did your parents pass?" Jack asked. Tooth hadn't spoken of them with him before, but he remembered a couple being present on her mural back at the palace and had assumed that perhaps that was them.

"I was twelve," Tooth said. Jack winced.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said.

She smiled slightly. "They gave me a very good twelve years."

"For once, I'd like to meet an immortal that had a boring start to all of this," Jack sighed. "Someone who just led a boring life with no major tragedies and happened to not die."

"What is that part in Peter Pan? 'But then there would be no story?'" Tooth said.

Jack managed a smile. "'Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and we shall all breathe a sigh of relief… but there will be no story.' North left me a copy when they renovated the cabin, I've been reading it again."

"I'm glad you've found joy in it. I know it was a story that meant a lot to you and Rowan," Tooth said. She spoke gently, as though concerned that even mentioning the girl's name might be too much. After all, if the invitation for him to tag along collecting teeth was an attempt to distract him from complicated feelings, as he suspected it was, bringing up Rowan would do quite the opposite.

"Yeah, well. Depending on how the anniversary goes, I might not want to pick it up again for a while," Jack said, frowning slightly.

He had made progress since Rowan's death. Some days it sure didn't feel like it, but he had inched along the phases of grief and had managed to make it this point where he was sleeping somewhat regularly, actually talking to his friends, and no longer ready to have a complete breakdown at the slightest reminder of her absence.

Jack feared that in the event that Rowan did not return, he would end up right back at square one. A year's worth of progress, gone.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tooth asked. "It's okay if you don't."

Jack reached forward, running his fingers through the passing dream sand, watching small golden whales swim off from where he disturbed the stream.

"I don't know," he said. "I think both options scare me at this point."

"Yeah?" Tooth said, brow furrowed. "I imagine it will be overwhelming either way."

"How'd North do? After Yelena didn't come back?" Jack asked. North was one of the strongest people he knew, and the only person he knew who had been in this scenario before. North had not gone into great depth about his mourning process, only that it had taken a long time to process things.

Tooth sighed, and for a moment seemed to be mentally debating over what to say, picking her words carefully.

"Just say it," Jack said, wincing slightly.

"I mean, he had a hard time," Tooth said. "He threw himself into his work. He lost a lot of sleep and would end up short-tempered and on-edge. He would throw out perfectly good toys because he was being hyper-critical. Some of their kids were still around, Peter in particular actually got him to talk about her and talk through his grief a handful of times, that seemed to help."

"I forgot about their kids," Jack admitted, wincing again. "How long after Yelena before they went?"

"Alexander died young, before Yelena did," Tooth said. "Frederick died only about five years after Yelena, that was rough. Peter made it about thirty years after she died. Vlad made it ten years longer than Peter. Eva was the last one to go, two years after Vlad. For a while it just seemed like death after death after death."

Jack shook his head slightly, surprised that North managed to ever show any joy at all after going through so much loss in what was a very short amount of time for an immortal.

"He had a very hard time. But he got through it. Whatever happens, Jack, you'll get through it too," Tooth said, setting a gentle hand to his shoulder. "One day at a time."

"I hope you're right," Jack said.

Polyhymnia was on edge.

Rowan's anniversary was quickly approaching, but not quickly enough. Artemis was not the only one that had been looking forward to the Muses leaving Apollo on that day, specifically.

Polyhymnia dreaded the idea of rejecting Apollo and Artemis, the deceit involved made her feel physically ill, and now thanks to the extension that Calliope, Clio, and Erato had successfully bargained for, Polyhymnia would remain on-edge for an additional two weeks.

She understood why the extension was necessary. If Rowan returned, that extra time would be invaluable and she certainly did not want to rush a potential new Muse into anything she was uncomfortable with.

All the same, Polyhymnia wanted to get the whole thing over-with.

In an attempt to relax, to focus on something else, Polyhymnia had settled near one of the coffee tables in the common area of Mount Parnassus, a partially-constructed jigsaw puzzle before her. This one was to eventually be the image of multiple pink lotuses in a pond.

A kitchen timer was set nearby, ticking quietly, a means of making sure she did not spend the entire day completing this puzzle.

For a time, the only sound in the room was the soft ticking of the timer.

Soon, however, the sound of clicking heels drew Polyhymnia from her quest to locate the last edge-piece that was evading her. Melpomene approached, package in hand.

"This was at the temple," Melpomene said, holding it out for her.

Polyhymnia felt heat rush to her cheeks as she took the package from Melpomene. Another package?

This package was thinner than the last one, and when she opened it, she found a painting. With meticulous brush strokes, the sun setting at sea was represented.

It was not just any sea, however. It was a very specific beach she had visited in her mortal life. She recognized the rock formations, the way the water rippled around the stone.

"Daedalus, huh?" Melpomene said, still present, now examining the painting as well.

"Yes," Polyhymnia said, checking the back of the painting, finding some scrawl that simply said, I hope I found the right beach. -Daedalus

But, of course it would be from him. He had left her a gift at the temple before, and Polyhymnia had seen many of his paintings when she had passed through his workshop with a bundle of sage to keep Pitch at bay.

He had mentioned plans to paint the sea. She had spoken of this beach. She had not expected him to remember, much less gift her the painting when he was through.

"I thought you didn't date," Melpomene said causally, sitting on another side of the table.

"Date? We're not dating," Polyhymnia said at once, shaking her head.

Dating in general was an odd concept, as far as she was concerned. Mortals were so casual about it in recent years, the formal practice of courting falling out of style with many. Granted, a lot of immortals had always been this casual, doing whatever felt good in the moment and then moving along to something else when that moment ended.

She was still thrown off by the practice of referring to someone as a "boyfriend" or "girlfriend," and how quickly it had caught on. She did like the trend of calling someone "partner," though. It sounded lovely, collaborative, like the couple was truly made up of equals.

But Polyhymnia had not much entertained the concept of romance for herself since her resurrection. While she was pleased for her sisters when they found love, Polyhymnia was focused on her work.

Aside from that, she was unsure how to approach romance or courting or "dating" in the first place. Her marriage in her mortal life had been arranged by her parents. Her husband had been kind, gentle, and she grew to love him and his company over time.

Losing him and their sons all at once had left her with a sense of loneliness that she suspected would never go away entirely.

So, she had resigned herself to romantic love and marriage being something that she left behind in the mortal world.

"Does he know that?" Melpomene said.

"I would think so," Polyhymnia said, brow furrowed. "I—why would he think—"

"Men—well, heterosexual men—tend to think any woman showing empathy is in love," Melpomene said casually, reaching over to gently set one of the puzzle pieces into place.

"I strive to be kind to everyone," Polyhymnia said.

"A concept not well understood by many," Melpomene said, eyes still set to the puzzle. Polyhymnia's gaze fell from Melpomene to the painting and back. "He sent you jewelry before, didn't he?"

"He did," Polyhymnia said, scratching her nose in the hopes of obscuring any redness that might have come to her face.

"I don't mind if you want to date him if that's part of this," Melpomene said with a slight shrug. "You'd be a better match for him than I was, but that seems to be a pattern for me. Rowan was better for Jack than I was. Pitch… I was pretty compatible with Pitch, actually. Ah, well."

"I appreciate that, but I don't—I'm not—" Polyhymnia stammered.

Melpomene glanced up from the puzzle, eying Polyhymnia again, chin rested on her hand. "If you don't want to date him and are fine with him just showering you with gifts—"

"No, that's not it at all," Polyhymnia said. "And it's hardly been—he's not showering me with—it's not like that!"

"So you are attracted to him?"

"I am—I'm fond of Daedalus," Polyhymnia said, wincing slightly as she heard her voice falter.

Melpomene nodded, setting another puzzle piece in place. "Maybe you should talk to Erato or Cupid."

Polyhymnia sighed. There was no reason to get Erato or Cupid involved! It had nothing to do with romance! Nothing at all!

Not to mention, with everything else going on, with their plans regarding Apollo, anyone close to them was going to end up harassed by the Sun God at the very least. The Guardians already knew about and seemed to accept this risk. Arachne had plans to move into the base at least temporarily until things properly blew over.

It would be irresponsible to bring Daedalus into that. Especially when Polyhymnia was certain there was no romance to be found here.

But as she glanced back at the painting, her heart swelled.

There was something nice about knowing that he had remembered her remarks, that he had thought of her as he worked.

But was that romance?

Tooth flitted through the warren, eyes scanning the area for any sign of its primary resident. Sometimes the warren could feel like sensory overload with all the plants and pollen and fragrance.

But Tooth Palace wasn't exactly a calm and quiet environment either, so Tooth was not particularly fazed. Still, spotting a lone, quickly-moving rabbit in the foliage was sometimes a losing battle.

She passed the large globe, a Christmas gift from North only recently installed, and stopped only briefly to admire all the plants that formed the different continents. Her globe was due to be installed in Tooth Palace at the end of the month.

Finally, she found him, settled beneath a tree by the dye river, surrounded by piles of hand-bound journals, thoughtfully turning through the pages of the one in his paws.

"Bunny," she said, approaching him and settling down on the ground before him.

"What's up?" said Bunny.

"I got information on Jack's staff," Tooth said, frowning. "I feel so weird trying to get information out of him without saying why."

"It's for his own good, he's got too much on his plate," Bunny said, though Tooth wasn't sure that Jack would take it that way. Bunny was being sneaky with this whole Nightlight business, but she understood why he felt it was necessary. "What did you learn?"

"He found it when he was mortal and had it with him the day he died. He assumes Manny put some kind of magic in the staff the night he was revived," Tooth said, picking up one of the journals from the nearby pile and beginning to leaf through it. After pages and pages of Katherine's neat handwriting, Tooth reached a page of careful sketches of Nightlight, Katherine's favorite subject. "I'm wondering if Manny saw the staff, it reminded him of Nightlight, and he decided to make use of it."

"Mm," Bunny said thoughtfully. "Back to the 'he was paying tribute to Nightlight' theory?"

"I'm not sure," Tooth shrugged. "I still think the simplest explanation is that some people look the same. Are these all Katherine's?"

"Yeah, I told Mr. Qwerty I'd take half to look through," Bunny said.

"Anything more like the entries that said Nightlight fell all that way?" Tooth asked. Her stomach had turned when Bunny had discussed the entry in question with her. The idea of Manny allowing such a thing spit in the face of her idea of the man.

A lot of things had been doing that lately. But she wasn't sure what to do with this information.

Bunny marked the page he was on and pulled over another journal with a few post-it notes poking through the pages.

"There's a few passages around the time that Nightlight and Katherine formally began courting. She says Manny never says anything about the relationship to her directly, but she notices him subtly pulling away from her, not looking her in the eye," Bunny said.

"I know he got very angry with Cupid when it became clear that Nightlight had feelings for Katherine," Tooth said, frowning. "He was sure Cupid had gotten involved. But I—I thought he had moved past all of this."

"There are some vague references to Nightlight saying that Manny was upset, but reassuring Katherine not to worry about it, that he would come around. I'm starting to think that he never really did," Bunny said, brow furrowed.

"And that's concerning, it is," Tooth acknowledged. "But, I'm still not sure it has anything to do with Jack."

"There's gotta be some kind of connection, it's too much of a coincidence. It's just a matter of finding whatever it is that will undeniably connect the two," Bunny said, putting the journal back in the stack.

"And if you don't find anything?" Tooth asked. "You can't get obsessed with this, Bunny, Easter is—"

"In April this year," Bunny said. "I can't get started on the eggs yet anyway. And maybe I won't find anything but I need to exhaust all my options or I'll keep wondering if I missed something."

Tooth nodded. "Well. Let me know if you find anything else."

"I will."

January was one of the only times of the year that one could almost say that things at the pole were slow. Almost.

North had still churned out a number of preliminary ice sculptures, but for now the yetis were mostly working on prototypes that would be reviewed by North and tested by the elves when they were complete. Design adjustments would come from there.

One Yeti, Moe, was not working on prototypes, was not in his place at the painting station as expected, but rather had set up a small workspace on the platform near the globe. There were chairs, lights, photo references, and a large magnifying glass being held by a metal arm that he could adjust.

Jack hadn't expected to see Terpsichore seated there when he decided on an impromptu visit to the pole, arriving just as Moe pulled the stencil away from her shoulder, revealing a design of various flowers atop her existing tattoo: the astrological symbol for the sun.

"Getting it covered up already?" Jack asked, observing as Moe adjusted the gloves he was wearing and picked up the tattoo machine. It was large enough to be held comfortably in a yeti's hand, but it was still small needles that he set in one end.

"Yeah, I figure it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I can get away with wearing sleeves around Apollo for a bit while it heals," Terpsichore said.

The tattoo machine in Moe's hand let out that buzzing sound that was either exciting or terrifying to hear, or perhaps both, depending on who you were. He dipped the needle into some black ink. Observing Terpsichore's arm through the magnifying glass, for she was quite a small canvas for him, he set the needle to her skin.

Terpsichore winced, but remained still.

"How bad is it?" Jack said, cringing slightly as he watched.

"It's a pinch like getting stung by a bee, except when a bee stings you it's over right away, with this you feel it as long as the needle is there," Terpsichore said.

Moe wiped blood and ink from Terpsichore's arm and dipped the needle into more ink. One line down.

"Ever thought of getting one?" Terpsichore said.

"Nope, not for a second," Jack said with a slight smile. Even if he had wanted one at some point, it wasn't as though he could just walk into a tattoo shop and ask for one. "Rowan had a few, though."

"Oh, I remember seeing one on the back of her neck at the ball," Terpsichore said. "I forget what it was, though."

"The one on her neck said 'Once Upon A Time,'" Jack said. "Then she had stars on her wrist and a feather quill on her ribs."

Jack liked all of Rowan's tattoos, all present to express her love for stories and creating. But the one on her ribcage had probably been his favorite, with the twirling ink taking various shapes, one of which was a snowflake.

("I like the snowflake."

"Yeah, well, I got it before I met you, so don't go getting a big head about it."

"Still, it means you like my work.")

"Rib tattoos are supposed to hurt like a bitch," Terpsichore said.

"Don't they all?" Jack said. After all, a needle digging into your skin was a needle digging into your skin either way, wasn't it?

"Ah, no, some areas are like nothing," North said, approaching the group. "Some areas are much more painful. How are things going?"

"So far so good, thank you again for sparing Moe for this," Terpsichore said. She turned to the yeti, "You do lovely work."

Moe babbled in acknowledgement, gently wiping away more ink and blood.

"Of course, I am sure he is thrilled to tattoo someone other than me," North said. He turned to Jack. "Do you need something Jack? Are you here to train with Cupid again?"

"No, I was, uh, just dropping by," said Jack. After a few hours of collecting teeth and talking with Tooth, they had parted ways. Jack was reluctant to head back to the cabin quite yet, as it seemed like time went by slowest there, though he knew that didn't make much sense.

So, he had conjured up some winter storms and headed north, unable to get the image of a grieving North out of his head after Tooth's brief descriptions.

Jack wasn't sure what his goal really was in coming here. Perhaps he was hoping to confirm with his own eyes again that North was doing fine, that despite all his loss he was getting along and finding joy in life.

And here North was, smiling and discussing tattoos, no fog of mourning to be seen.

But of course, it had been centuries.

"I think you should join the club, Jack," Terpsichore said. "Get yourself one while Moe's got everything set up."

Moe nodded, babbling in agreement, as though saying he would gladly do another tattoo when this one was finished.

"I have no idea what I would get," Jack said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, Euterpe's wanted one for years but keeps changing her mind about what she'd get," Terpsichore said.

"My first one was the compass," North said, pointing to the tattoo in question, above the word "NICE" on his left arm. "And I kept adding from there. Can be… addicting."

"When are you getting Erato's name in a heart?" Terpsichore teased.

"Is bad luck to get a lover's name!" North said at once, chuckling. "I do not even have Yelena's name. I have a sun for her, my Solnishka, with five stars for our children."

Sometimes when North had spoken to Jack about Yelena, there was an unmistakable sadness, mourning in his voice. This was not true this time, however.

North spoke of her fondly, sentimentally.

It was something that Jack could do now with Rowan sometimes, more progress he was fearful of losing.

"Aw, that's cute," Terpsichore said. "Did you get it when she was still around or was it a memorial thing?"

"She was still around," North said. "It was her favorite of my tattoos. Is nice to still have it."

Moe babbled again, glancing North's way.

"Yes, yes, it does need to be touched up," North nodded. He glanced at his arm. "They all do. But it will take hours that I do not currently have."

Moe shrugged, returning his attention to Terpsichore.

"Having them all touched up and healing at the same time sounds terrible," Terpsichore winced.

"Do they take long to heal?" Jack asked. Rowan was his main point of reference when it came to tattoos, and all of hers were already healed by the time they properly met.

"Mine have taken less and less time to heal each time. I think it is because of the belief," North said.

"They're supposed to take a couple of weeks, but Urania and I always healed up within one, maybe due to inspiring people," Terpsichore said. "Cupid'stook months to heal. It's why he only has two."

"That slow aging really fucked him over, huh?" Jack said, wincing slightly at the idea of dealing with what was basically an open wound for months.

"You have no idea," Terpsichore said, shaking her head slightly. "But with all those ghost story believers you'd probably heal up in no time."

Ah, yes, the believers that came with being a ghost story.

Jack still found himself conflicted over the whole thing. He had wanted to be seen for centuries, and now that so many people could see him, they saw him as some kind of phantom.

Jack had never wanted to be feared.

"Are you trying to peer pressure me into getting a tattoo?" Jack said, cocking a brow and hoping to side-step talking any further about the ghost story.

"Yes," Terpsichore grinned. Jack rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what I would get," he said again. "And the fact that you're covering up what you got doesn't inspire confidence."

"Well, don't get a tattoo for Apollo," Terpsichore said. "Honestly, flowers are probably always going to be a safe bet."

Moe had fully outlined one of the flowers on Terpsichore's arm by now, a lotus.

Rowan's feather quill tattoo had included a few flowers in the designs branching away from the quill's trail of ink. None of them had been roses, which was odd, as they were her favorite, but perhaps they did not work well for this particular design.

She had doodled so many roses in her notebook. He had left her a bouquet, a snarky attempt to justify the breaking and entering into her apartment with a gift.

He had left a rose with her in her coffin at her wake.

Perhaps Rowan had plans for other tattoos with roses. More plans that had never panned out.

The thought briefly passed his mind that it might be nice to have one of her sketches of the flower somewhere with him at all times, but still was not entirely sold on the idea of dragging a needle across his skin to achieve this.

"I think I'm good for now," Jack said.