I was having a really hard time coming up with ideas for the remaining requests so this one is actually from my own ideas list... about halfway through I realised I had no idea what to do for this, either. So hey, if you can come up with anything for the second part I'm all ears! XD

Also! There is currently a poll up on my profile page regarding the future of this series, so if you have the time/are interested/whatever I'd be grateful if you'd check it out. Don't feel obligated, though :)

Disclaimed.

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Guarding Belief Part I

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"And this is Great Aunt Maggie," Jamie, large photo album spread across his lap, pointed at a photo of an elderly woman with a stern face but kind eyes. "She was grandma's oldest sister."

Jack leaned in for a closer look. Great Aunt Maggie looked a lot like Sophie (or the other way around), and Jack imagined that the resemblance would have been even stronger had Maggie not been as old as she was when the photo had been taken.

"Great Aunt June–" Jamie's finger trailed over to the next photo, which depicted another older woman, though she must have been younger than Maggie "–is the youngest. She's in a nursing home now."

On Jamie's other side, Sophie scrunched up her face in distaste. "Whenever we visit her she calls me by mom's name," she said.

"She calls mom grandma's name, too. It's not her fault; she gets confused," Jamie countered.

Jack smiled to himself at the exchange. His eyes drifted to the next photo. Maggie, June, and another woman who looked even more like Sophie than Maggie did smiled up at him from where they were sitting around a table. "I take it this is grandma?" Jack guessed.

Jamie followed his gaze. "Yep! That's grandma. She and grandpa live about an hour from here."

It was a weird feeling, looking at all these photos of people he'd never met and seeing features he recognised, however distantly. More than once Jack had to remind himself that these weren't just Jamie and Sophie's relatives; they were his, too. His sister's descendents. It was almost enough to make him want to cry, though out of sadness or joy he wasn't sure.

Jamie turned the page. The next spread was a series of faded wedding photos. The bride, Jack quickly realised, must have been Jamie's grandmother.

"Grandpa used to tell us that his family didn't approve of grandma," Jamie said, sounding far more amused than the statement probably warranted. "He said she wasn't very 'ladylike' when she was younger. Grandma used to hit him with the dishcloth when he started telling us stuff like that."

Jack chuckled at the thought. He could definitely picture her doing that. There was a twinkle in her eyes that he was well accustomed to. "I like her already," he said.

Jamie grinned up at him. "You should come with us next time we go see them!" His smile fell fractionally. "…She probably won't be able to see you, but at least you'll get to meet her… kinda…"

Some of the old loneliness that used to cling to him welled up in his chest, but even though it was painful, Jack knew he would never pass up the opportunity to meet the family – his family – even if it would be one-sided. He opened his mouth to say as much to Jamie, but was cut off before he could begin.

"Jamie?"

Jack, Jamie, and Sophie all started at the new voice, heads shooting over to the doorway of the lounge room. Mrs Bennett was watching them – or, rather, Jamie – with a strange expression on her face. There was no way to tell how long she'd been standing there.

"Yeah, mom?"

"Who are you talking to?"

Jamie hesitated, glancing first at Jack and then down at Sophie. If Mrs Bennett had heard even a fragment of their conversation, it would be obvious that he hadn't been talking to Sophie.

"Um," he said at length with none of his usual confidence, "Jack Frost."

Mrs Bennett said nothing for a long moment, expression unreadable. Finally, she heaved a sigh and crossed the room to them. Jack jumped up and out of the way before she could sit on (or through) him.

"Jamie," she started, then stopped and turned to Sophie. "Soph, would you mind giving us a moment?"

Sophie's expression clearly said she did very much mind but she got up anyway. She looked back at Jack over her shoulder as she headed for the stairs. Jack fidgeted, not sure if he should follow her or stay.

"Jamie, we've talked about this," Mrs Bennett said as soon as Sophie was out of sight. There was no anger in her voice, only concern. "Did you have that talk with the school counsellor?"

"Yeah," Jamie picked at the edge of the photo album, still open on his lap.

"And did it help?"

Jamie raised his gaze to meet Jack's. Jack suddenly felt like he was intruding on something he shouldn't be.

"Do you want me to go?" he asked, careful to phrase it in a way that would allow Jamie to answer nonverbally.

But from the looks of things, Jamie didn't have an answer to give.

"Jamie?" Mrs Bennett tried again when the silence stretched on.

It was possible Jack's presence was making this harder than it needed to be. Jamie was fourteen now – a lot of kids his age had already stopped believing or were starting to do so. Jamie and his friends were outliers in that respect. And as much as Jack was grateful for their belief, and as much as he never wanted them to stop believing, he started to wonder if he was being selfish. Jamie was a popular kid, but the older he got the more he would be teased for still believing, and the more concerned people would become that he was seeing and talking to someone who didn't seem to be there. And wasn't losing belief a part of growing up? Who was he to stand in the way of that, no matter how much it hurt?

Some of his inner turmoil must have shown on his face because Jamie was frowning at him.

"Jamie, talk to me," Mrs Bennett pressed.

"Um," Jack gestured weekly. "I'll give you two some space."

And, not knowing if this was possibly the last time Jamie would ever see him, Jack slipped out of the room.

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"Princess Barbie or Pop Star Barbie?" Sophie asked, punctuating her question by holding up the dolls in question.

Jack forced his distracted mind away from the lounge room and looked both dolls over critically. "Princess Barbie," he decided. He held out his hand and Sophie happily passed him the doll.

From downstairs came a muffled shout. Jack tensed. This was his fault.

"Oh! I got the dreamhouse for my birthday!" Sophie suddenly exclaimed, louder than necessary. She shuffled across the room on her knees to where the absurdly pink dollhouse sat in the corner. "Did I show you yet?"

She has shown it to him exactly eight times. He'd counted. "You know, I can't remember. Why don't you show me again?"

It was another fifteen minutes before they heard anything else from downstairs, in which time Jack had been given an in-depth tour of the dreamhouse, and Pop Star Barbie and her plush toy minions had almost completed their mission of overthrowing Princess Barbie from the dreamhouse kingdom. Sophie's bedroom door clicked open and Jamie, eyes downcast, slipped inside, closing it behind him. Jack and Sophie lowered the dolls and watched silently as he crossed the room to sit with them. For a long moment, no one spoke.

"Mom and some of my teachers are worried that my belief in you and the others is more than just an 'overactive imagination'," Jamie started, finally lifting his head to look Jack in the eye.

"I know," Jack said.

"I guess I can understand where they're coming from, but you're real! Just because they don't believe doesn't mean I should just stop!"

Sophie twirled Pop Star Barbie between her hands. "Well why not just make them believe?"

It sounded so easy when she put it like that, as if Jack could just freeze a window and write 'Hi, I'm Jack Frost' on it and it would work. Chances were if he did that poor Mrs Bennett would have a heart attack. Or think her house was haunted or something. Adults didn't react the way kids did, and adults had the capability to retaliate in a way kids couldn't. No matter how he thought about it, it wouldn't end well.

"It's not that easy, Soph," Jack sighed, hating himself for the way their faces fell. "Adults don't see the world the same way kids do."

"But what if you made it really obvious?" Jamie pressed. "Like what you did for me?"

"That was different. You asked for that. Imagine if I'd just started freezing windows when you weren't expecting anything. You'd freak out, right?" When Jamie hesitated, he continued, "That's what it's like for adults, except they'll either try to rationalise it or they'll jump to the worst possible conclusion and that can get dangerous for everybody. And I'd really rather not give your mom a heart attack."

Jamie fiddled with the hem of his pants. He didn't say anything, but the look on his face was answer enough.

"Hey, don't make that face," Jack nudged him. "No one said you had to stop believing! You just have to be more careful about letting adults know you still believe."

Jamie nodded, but he was more disheartened than Jack had ever seen him. And, even if it was indirectly, Jack couldn't shake the thought that this was his fault.

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It was too early to justify a snow day, so Jack settled for the next best thing. He flew down to land on the fence just as Jamie and Sophie were heading out the door on their way to school. Both their faces lit up at the sight of him, but Jamie's quickly reverted to something neutral as he no doubt remembered what had happened the previous day. Jack resisted the urge to sigh. It was painful for both of them, but what could he do?

"Bye, mom!" the kids called over their shoulders, and Jack quickly fell into step beside them as they headed down the road. It wasn't until they were out of sight of the house that Jamie let his façade slip away and properly acknowledged him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I thought I'd come walk you to school," Jack shrugged. He was aiming for 'this is totally a coincidence and has nothing to do with any conversations that might have been had yesterday', but judging from Jamie's knowing but grateful smile he hadn't quite achieved it.

Sophie, always surprisingly good at reading the mood, was quick to change the subject, and the rest of the walk was happily filled with idle chatter about an upcoming test she was 'absolutely not prepared for'. The melancholy that had settled over Jamie like a blanket was still there, though, and Jack was sure he wasn't the only one to notice.

The car was still in the driveway when Jack arrived back at the Bennett household; Mrs Bennett had yet to leave for work. She probably had a late shift that day, as she sometimes did. Jack stood by the mailbox and stared without really seeing. Jamie's troubled face had etched itself into his mind, and he had a feeling the knot of guilt that had tied itself around his heart wasn't about to undo itself any time soon. But what could he do about it? It had taken him three hundred years just to get a child to believe! Adults weren't supposed to believe; that was just the way it was, and he hadn't needed the Guardians to tell him that for him to know. It was an impossible task. There was no point in trying to convince himself otherwise.

Scowling at himself, Jack flew up to Jamie's window and experimentally pushed against it. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. Jack huffed, positioning himself to lean against it.

"What were you even going to do if it wasn't?" he asked himself. His mind offered no answers. It didn't have one to give.

His eyes settled on one of Jamie's homemade Rainbow Quest posters. He'd become quite the artist over the years, and these were a vast improvement on the ones that had been there the first time Jack had entered the room. And yet, he found himself oddly missing the old ones. How long would it be before there would be no traces of childhood in this room? How long until even these new posters were taken down and replaced?

And what if Jamie did one day stop believing, whether on his own or because of pressure from social expectations? How far away was that day? What would Jack do if it ever came?

The sound of the front door opening jolted Jack from his spiralling thoughts, and he glanced down to see Mrs Bennett crossing the yard to the mailbox. She was a good woman, and an even better mother. The thought that she, like him, was unintentionally causing Jamie pain was horrible.

On a whim, Jack dropped back down to the ground as Mrs Bennett headed back into the house. Without really thinking about what he was doing, he hurried after her. She left no opening for him to slip in through as she shut the door, but there were benefits to not being believed in. Jack sucked in a breath and, before he could talk himself out of it, closed his eyes and stepped through her and into the house. Mrs Bennett didn't even notice, continuing through to the kitchen, ignorant. Jack placed a hand on his chest to reassure himself that he was still as solid as ever. Not a ghost. Not dead.

…Okay, technically he was but that wasn't the point.

When he finally caught up with her, she was putting away the last of the dishes. Jack loitered in the kitchen doorway and tried not to feel like a stalker.

"Hey," he tried before he could even think to stop himself.

Mrs Bennett hung the dishcloth back on the oven handle. She didn't turn.

"Great, now I feel stupid."

What was he even doing? He knew trying to make adults believe was a bad idea. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said he'd tried everything. Freezing things or writing messages for people didn't make people believe in Jack Frost, it made them think their houses were haunted or they were being attacked by demons. One attempt had failed so spectacularly that the person he'd been trying to make believe had ended up calling an exorcist. And he decidedly did not want a repeat of that.

He quickly stepped out of the way as Mrs Bennett left the room before following her through the house to the laundry. Jack watched her silently as she started putting clothes into the washing machine. After a moment of contemplation, he turned to the shelf and pulled down the detergent.

"Here," he said, holding it out to her.

Mrs Bennett didn't turn.

Rolling his eyes, because really what had he expected, he put it on the floor and slid it over to her. The detergent and Mrs Bennett both stopped when the former collided with her foot. Slowly, her gaze drifted down to it, then over to the shelf where it had been. With a wariness bordering on fear, she reached down to pick it up, scanning the room for any indication as to how it had gotten there.

Jack sighed. Scaring her had not been the intention. But, again, he should have expected that.

Eventually, Mrs Bennett returned to her chores, but it was obvious from the slight furrowing of her brow and the way she would glance around the room every so often that the incident was still fresh on her mind. Jack had the decency to feel guilty.

He left her then, when the voice in the back of his mind that kept telling him he was being creepy got too loud to ignore, and went up to Jamie's room, intending to escape through the window. But as he crossed the threshold, his eyes once again landed on the posters on the walls, and the stuffed rabbit on the bed, and he remembered Jamie's expression when he'd left that morning.

"Damn it, Jamie," he cursed, spinning on his heel and stomping back downstairs. "If this goes horribly wrong I'm blaming you."

He was going to do it. Somehow, impossibly, he was going to make an adult believe.

Guest Review Responses:

789: Aw thank you X3 In an earlier chapter, when Death was first introduced, I think I used masculine pronouns, but when I set out to write that chapter I really considered that this spirit is literally the embodiment of a phenomenon and probably wouldn't have a binary gender ^^; The worse a pun is the better it is ;) I think rather than 'spooking' Death away, it was intended more to be a spur of the moment sort of decision that was interrupted? If that makes sense? I don't think I got that across very well; you're not the only one who was a little confused by it... Hahaha I love that sudoku suggestion XD

Guest: It's a very primal sort of fear, too, rather than a properly conscious one. That's just my interpretation though :)

Bijuu lord: I am a terrible person to inflict such things on him haha sorrynotsorry. I think probably an intervention would be needed for that XD As for sugar, please refer to Chapter 38: The Problem with Sugar :) Thank you!

A fan: Aaaaa thank you X33

Painapple: I will have you know Death turned up right near the beginning XP Not my fault you're forgetful, sone. I'll go find which chapter later and send it to you if you want