Author's Note: Testing was today, and it actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. X) There were four different sections (one for math, one for reading, one for writing, and two for math), and me and the other students were given around 20-40 minutes for each part (thank the moon we were given breaks in between X)). I feel pretty confident that I did well, but I'm not so sure about the math part. =') I think I got some of them right, but at the same time...ehhhhh...XD

Anyways, welcome back to "Delirious," guys! =D Thank you so much for your kind reviews last chapter. I'm glad you all are enjoying the story so far! =D Chapter two is right down below, so I hope you guys enjoy it. =)


Chapter Two: Jack the Boogeyman

"Why's the sky rainbow?"

"Is this Australia?"

"Why is there a kangaroo here? They can't survive in the cold."

Jack was asking questions about anything and everything, and Tooth answered each and every one of them kindly and patiently.

"The sky isn't rainbow, Jack," Tooth said. "What's up above you are rafters, and that's a ceiling."

"No, this isn't Australia. This is Santoff Claussen."

"Oh, and that's Bunny," the Tooth Fairy finished. "He's not a kangaroo, but you're right about kangaroos not being able to survive in the cold."

"Ohhhhh," said Jack, extending the word longer than he should've. Bunny grumbled in irritation and he rubbed a paw across his face.

"Can't ya be quiet for just a couple of minutes?" the Pooka said exasperatedly. Jack looked at Bunny and frowned petulantly.

"I don't like the mean old kangaroo," Jack stated bluntly. Bunny's ear twitched.

"Old? Old?!" Bunny exclaimed. "Why ya little—"

North placed a hand on Bunny's shoulder before he could do anything…intense. "Bunny, Jack isn't in right state of mind at moment. Remember that."

Bunny shook his head. "But the kid is still actin' as irritatin' as ever." Jack's frown deepened.

"I'm not…irritatating," he said.

Bunny crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "It's 'irritating.'" Jack crossed his own arms and stuck his tongue out at the Pooka. Tooth fluttered to Jack's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, Bunny. Jack's just a little confused, that's all," she said thoughtfully. Jack turned to Tooth and smiled at her, eyes sparkling like a child's.

"You're nice. I like you," Jack said. Tooth's cheeks brightened and she smiled.

"Oh! Thank you!" the Tooth Fairy said happily. Bunny grumbled and rolled his eyes. Jack was delirious, and he was already picking favorites, but that didn't mean helping him wasn't going to be difficult. Since the winter spirit had hit his head rather sharply against stone, Bunny knew that Jack was going to be (unfortunately) stuck in his delirium for quite some time, which was something that the Pooka definitely wasn't looking forward to deal with. Jack was annoying, but delirious Jack was annoying…times ten.

"Jack's gonna be stuck like this for a while," said Bunny. "Which means we're going ta have ta wait until he returns ta normal."

"Is there anything we can do to speed up the process?" asked North.

Bunny pulled out a brown elixir, which swished rather suspiciously in the see-through vial. Sandy pointed at it, a question mark coiling over his head. "What is that?"

Bunny shrugged. "I stopped by my Warren earlier after gettin' out of the shower ta grab this," he explained, gesturing to the vial. "It'll help Jack with his delirium. This'll knock him out for an hour or so, but he'll wake up again, so ya'll have ta give this ta him every time he wakes up."

Tooth fluttered up to Bunny and took the elixir out of his paw. She eyed it skeptically, knowing that Bunny's medicines weren't the best looking or tasting. She had had several doses of them when she had fallen ill herself, and she wondered what in the world Bunny put in them. Yet they still managed to do their job, so she picked up a spoon from the medical tray nearby and poured some of the brown blend onto the spoon. Tooth flew over to Jack, who was humming happily to himself when Tooth held up the spoon, offering the medicine to him. Jack stared at it and scrunched his nose.

"Ew, what's that?" the Guardian of Fun said in disgust. He turned his head away. "There's no way I'm drinking that."

"It's medicine, Jack. It'll help you," said Tooth convincingly. Jack shook his head and crossed his arms.

"I'm not drinking that, and you can't make me." With that, the winter spirit stuck his tongue out at Tooth and turned away. Toothiana turned to the other Guardians, unsure of what to do next when Bunny grabbed the spoon and medicine out of her hands. Bunny frowned at Jack.

"Now ya listen here, mate. Ya may be off yer rocker, but that doesn't mean we're gonna be soft on ya," Bunny said firmly. He shoved the spoon in Jack's direction. "Drink it."

Jack pursed his lips and shook his head.

Tooth rubbed her arm. "Maybe we should take a nicer approach?" she suggested.

Bunny shook his head. "We're gonna have ta be firm with him if we're going ta help him." The Pooka turned around to face Jack, who glared at him with his arms crossed (how he looked so much like a child right then). Bunny held the spoon up to Jack's mouth, but the winter spirit still didn't take it. So, instead of trying to force Jack to drink the medicine, Bunny decided to take the sneakier approach.

Bunny smirked. "If ya drink the medicine, mate, I'll give ya a surprise."

Jack immediately took the bait. "Really?" the winter spirit said in excitement. "What kind of surprise? A big one? A small one? A—"

Bunny took his chance and shoved the spoon into Jack's mouth. The Pooka pulled it out and Jack glared at him, refusing to swallow down the medicine. Bunny rolled his eyes and plugged Jack's nose.

"Ya better swallow if ya want ta breathe," he said. Jack went on without swallowing for a few seconds, but he eventually swallowed the medicine with a noise of disgust.

"What in the world was that?" Jack asked. "It tastes like dirt and a barrel of rotten carrots!"

"Like I said before, it's medicine," stated Bunny simply as he put down the spoon, a slight hint of satisfaction in his voice now that Jack had finally drank the medicine.

Jack, on the contrary, wasn't very happy at all that he had been practically forced to consume something that he didn't want to. Jack didn't have the energy to complain, though; a sudden and large wave of drowsiness washed over him before he even had the chance. The winter spirit shook his head, trying to fight off the sleepiness, but he was unsuccessful. Jack let out a yawn and his eyes felt heavier than boulders.

"You need to rest, Jack," North told Jack gently. "Let medicine do its job."

Jack shook his head, slowly lying down onto his pillow. "No…" he moaned. "Don't wanna sleep…"

Tooth fluttered up to Jack's bed and pulled the blue covers over him. "You'll feel better when you wake up," the Tooth Fairy said softly. Jack hummed, and allowed his cerulean blue eyes to slip closed. Tooth ruffled Jack's hair, and she turned to face the others.

"Since we all have work to do," said North. "We can each take turns checking on Jack every hour."

Tooth nodded. "We can all get our work done here in Santoff Claussen. I'm pretty sure most of our jobs can be done while sitting down."

"Okay, then," said Bunny. He gestured his head toward Jack, who was sleeping soundly. "Who's going ta check on Frostbite first?"

"I will," volunteered North. "But until then, we will let Jack rest for now."

The Guardians all nodded in agreement, and each of them left the room to let Jack sleep in peace.

The veteran Guardians all stayed in the library of Santoff Claussen so they could stay close to Jack. None of them knew how the winter spirit would act when he woke up, so the Guardians wanted to stay near him in case he did something crazy or drastic. There was no telling how one would act when they were delirious, and the Guardians didn't want Jack hurting himself.

"Jackie'll probably try ta get out of bed," said Bunny as he painted his egg. It was a bright yellow with teal patterns brushed across it.

Tooth turned away from her troupe of fairies. "Jack does that all the time when he gets sick," commented the Tooth Fairy. And it was true. Whenever Jack fell ill (which was extremely rare, but still occurred), he would always try to escape his bedroom…and in the most peculiar ways as well if needed. One time, Jack had hidden inside of a cart filled with toy robot parts, knowing that they would be put into the storage room for safe keeping. The storage room had a window inside of it, and Jack knew that he would be able to escape through there if his plan worked. Luckily, Phil had caught him squirming inside of the bottom of the cart before it had even reached the storage room. Jack only made his stay in bed longer since his fever had risen after his little escapade.

Bunny shrugged and set his egg down to the side. "Well, he'll probably try even harder now that he's delirious."

Sandy put up the image of Jack attempting to get out of bed with a large x crossed over it. "We can't let Jack get out of bed in the condition he's in. We'll all have to make sure he doesn't."

North was reading over a list of toys, but he silently agreed with each of his comrades. The Guardian of Wonder was trying to focus on his work, but mind kept on wandering to Jack, who was in the infirmary resting. North had to check on the winter spirit in a few minutes, but he wondered how long it would be until Jack returned to normal. North wasn't the only one who missed Jack's mischievous antics, his sparkling smile, and his mirthful laughter. Even though the Guardians knew that Jack was in the infirmary, which wasn't very far from the library that they were sitting in, they all still missed Jack.

Time continued to wear on, and the Guardians each spent their time working on their specific jobs. Tooth sent out her fairies to collect teeth, and she summoned more when she had to. Sandy had several streams of dreamsand bursting from his fingertips, and each of the multiple strands laced their way out the window and toward sleeping children who were due for good dreams. Bunnymund sat in a chair with a basket of white eggs sitting on one side and another basket with the finished eggs on the other. The Pooka was currently starting on a new egg, and he poked his brush into one of the small cans of paint that he had brought with him from the Warren, and proceeded to paint the egg.

Soon, North's turn arrived to check on Jack. It came a lot quicker than North had thought that it would, but that didn't hinder him from standing up from where he was sitting and heading toward the large, ornate doors to exit the library. North hoped that Jack had improved from when he had first woken up, but he knew that he should expect the winter spirit to act…off his rocker as Bunny had put it. Jack had taken quite a hit to the head, and it would probably take him a while to return to normal. Hopefully, that while wouldn't be long, as North and the other Guardians did miss Jack's company.

"I left the medicine on the medical tray near Frostbite's bed," said Bunny as North prepared to leave for the infirmary.

North nodded. "Okay then. I will be right back."

The Guardians bid North as he exited the library and began to walk to Jack's room in the infirmary. The Guardian of Wonder didn't know if Jack was awake even though Bunny said that he would wake up every hour, but it never hurt to check.

North took a shortcut through the Workshop not only to get to the infirmary faster, but to see how toy production was going too. Yetis were positioned at different tables, each manning their own tools and creating various different types of toys. Dolls. Stuffed animals. Toy robots and trains. Any toy that could come to one's mind. North stumbled when a group of elves scurried through his feet, giggling uncontrollably as they carried a tray of fresh cookies that had no doubt come from Santoff Claussen's well-known kitchen. North didn't scold the elves, even though they had left quite the mess of cookie crumbles throughout the Workshop; they weren't getting in the way of the yetis, so North was glad that they had found something other than messing with newly made toys to keep themselves occupied.

After some time, North arrived at the infirmary wing of the North Pole, and in less than a few minutes, he found himself standing in front of Jack's door. The ex-Cossack creaked it open quietly, just in case the Guardian of Fun was still asleep. North opened the door and he stepped inside to find Jack sleeping peacefully in bed. The winter spirit's breaths were soft and almost imperceptible; he looked as still as stone. Jack murmured quietly and he rolled over, and it was then that North noticed that the covers had been kicked off. He walked up to Jack's bedside and straightened them out, pulling them over Jack's sleeping form carefully so he wouldn't disturb the boy's slumber. Jack let out a small sigh once the covers were pulled over him, and North smiled softly, giving Jack a light pat on the head before making his way back toward the door to leave. North decided that he would check on Jack a few minutes later when he would probably awake; he would give the medicine to the winter teen then.

Suddenly, a soft groan came from Jack's bed, and North turned around to see the winter spirit stirring. North walked back over to Jack's bedside, and arrived right when he slowly opened his eyes. Jack sat up, glittering cerulean orbs landing on North soon afterward.

"N-North…?" said Jack. Oddly, his voice sounded different. More…accented and silky. North paid no attention to the peculiar change in Jack's voice; he was too excited to see the winter spirit awake.

"Jack! Is good to see you awake!" said North happily.

Jack's brow furrowed, and he stared at North. His blue eyes narrowed, which made North feel rather bemused.

"Jack? Who is this Jack you speak of?" the winter spirit asked in a tone that sounded anything but friendly.

North blinked. "Jack…Jack is you, Jack."

Jack ignored the ex-Cossack and he looked around, a disgusted look on his face. "And what am I doing in this room? I should be down in my lair with my nightmares not inside of the horrible world of Santoff Claussen!"

Now North was really confused. Jack wasn't acting like himself, and even before when he was acting like a child he still retained his usual, playful persona. But the Jack sitting in front of North was acting crueler and meaner, and, for some reason, he had a British accent?

Jack flung off his covers and he slipped out of bed. Pale feet touched the hard, wooden floor; the winter spirit nearly lost his balance due to his head injury. "Let me out of this terrible place or else I'll send my entire army of nightmares on you," threatened Jack. His eyes were narrowed dangerously, his pale hands were folded formally behind his back, and he wore a sneer that looked very similar to…

North's blue eyes widened when he realized who Jack was impersonating. The winter spirit thought that he was none other than Pitch Black, the Nightmare King that they had defeated a year ago. North stood in front of Jack, and the white-haired teen glared up at him. North let out a sigh.

"Jack, I know things are a little confusing for you right now, but I am here to help you, not to hurt you," said North reassuringly. Jack didn't sway, however, and he raised an eyebrow. North slowly began to make his way toward him. "Just lay back down in bed and—"

Jack swiftly inched away from North. "Do not touch me," he demanded.

"Jack—"

"I'm not Jack!" shouted the winter spirit. North winced. "I don't know anything about this Jack you are referring to, but you of all people should know who I am! I'm the Boogeyman! Pitch Black! And you shall address me as such!"

North pursed his lips. This was going to be a lot harder than he had originally thought.

Jack looked around, icy blue eyes taking in his surroundings. "And where is the rest of your team? The Guardians of Childhood." Jack said those words as if they were venom, and the winter spirit looked up at North with a raised eyebrow.

"They are in library waiting for me to tell them about you," replied North simply. Jack was distracted, so the ex-Cossack took this as his chance to subtly back toward the medical tray and pick up the medicine and spoon.

Jack chuckled diabolically. "And what are you going to tell them about me?" he asked. "That I'm at your will?"

North shook his head. "Nyet. I'm going to tell them that I have given you your medicine."

At that, Jack cocked his head. Then his eyes widened when he realized that North was about to make a move on him. The winter spirit leapt out of the way when North lunged toward him, trying to catch Jack so he could get him back into bed. Jack ran over to the closet, where a shadow of black was pooling beside it, and he stood on top of it, waiting to sink into the darkness as if he weighed nothing. But he stayed in the same position, unmoving and not sinking. Jack growled and he stomped his foot on the ground.

"Why aren't my shadows working?!" he exclaimed. North smirked and he pulled the winter spirit up by the hood and placed him over his shoulder. Jack pounded and kicked at the large man as he carried him over to his bedside.

"Unhand me this instant!" demanded Jack. "Or I'll plague your mind with nightmares!"

North ignored Jack and he plunked him into bed. Before the winter spirit had the chance to escape, North shoved the spoon of medicine into his mouth. North pulled the spoon out, and Jack made a noise of disgust as he had done when he first took the medication.

"What vile thing is that?" asked Jack with a glare. "Poison? Venom? Some kind of potion that's going to…to…"

Jack's eyes began to flutter closed, but he shook his head, trying to fight off the drowsiness. He scowled up at North.

"What have you done to me?" Jack asked forcefully.

North set the spoon and medicine aside. "I just gave you your medicine. Now rest, moy mal'chik. Hopefully you act more like yourself when you wake up."

Jack frowned, but he could no longer keep his eyes open or come up with a snappy response. Soon, the winter spirit fell asleep, and North tucked him into bed. Jack's features smoothened out, and North gave Jack a small pat on the head before leaving the bedroom to report to the others.

As soon as North returned to the library, he was peppered with questions from each of the Guardians—including Bunny. Was Jack okay? Did he take his medicine? And, the most frequently asked, was he still delirious?

North raised his hands. "Jack is fine." The Guardians sighed in relief. "And he did take medicine. He is still delirious; he was acting…off his rocking chair as Bunny put it."

Bunny crossed his arms. "It's 'off his rocker,' mate."

North waved his hand dismissively. "Is what I say."

"Did Jack act the same way he did earlier?" asked Tooth as she fluttered back into her seat. Her fairies fluttered close by.

North shook his head. "No. He acted even stranger," he responded.

"Stranger?" asked Bunny. One of his ears twitched. "What could possibly be stranger than the way Frostbite acted before?"

"Jack wasn't acting strange. He was just…acting like a child," cut in Tooth, coming to the winter spirit's defense. Sandy nodded in agreement, dreamsand swirling over his head.

Bunny shrugged. "Stranger, child…whatever." The Pooka turned to North. "How did he act, mate?"

North rubbed the back of his head, knowing that Jack would most definitely be embarrassed knowing how he had acted during his delirium. The ex-Cossack answered the question, though. "Jack…he acted like Pitch."

There was a short beat of silence. Then, Bunny started to snicker. Soon, he was laughing louder than North ever could. Tooth's wings fluttered, and a small, amused smile tugged at her lips while Sandy giggled silently from where he floated.

"F-Frostbite…was actin' like Pitch? Pitch Black?" asked Bunny in between laughs.

North nodded. "Da, he did. Was quite strange if I do say so myself."

Bunny snickered again. "Looks like we'll have a tale ta tell the kit when he returns ta normal."

Tooth fluttered from where she was sitting, Baby Tooth flying at her side. "We'll check on Jack the next hour," she said helpfully.

"Make sure to give Jack medicine before he does something drastic," reminded North.

Bunny sat back down in his chair and picked up a half painted egg and paintbrush. "I wonder how Frosty's gonna act when he wakes up this time."

"Hopefully not too strange," said Tooth. "I'll assign the rest of my fairies, and then I'll go check on Jack."

And the Guardians settled back in their positions again, each hoping that Jack would return to normal soon enough.


Author's Note: I honestly want to see Jack impersonate Pitch; I think I'd be pretty hilarious. XD *Bad imitation of Pitch's voice* You dare have fun in my presence? I am the Boogeyman! And you will-

Jack: For the love of Manny please STOP.

...Dang, what a buzzkill.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you guys in the next one! =D

Until the next chapter!

~BeyondTheMoon1203