A cool, calm night in Burgess.

Jack Frost sat on the side of a building, one leg swinging as he surveyed the town.
There'd been no activity from Pitch or his Descendants for over a year, so Jack felt relaxed, sure that nothing was going to happen.

A large yawn took him by surprise, his jaw popping from the sheer size. Okay, he really was relaxed.

As a spirit he didn't need to sleep, but it didn't mean he couldn't. He usually did it regain energy or just to relax.

However, he couldn't sleep just yet, there was something he needed to check. He'd already visited Jamie, and he was asleep, and now that it was around midnight he could bet another friend of his was asleep.

He didn't do this often, just in case she did wake up and saw him, she'd probably kill him if she knew he checked up on her like this.

He stood up and jumped into the Wind, letting it carry him to a house near the top of the hill.

He landed on a windowsill that looked down the hill, towards the lake. The room the window led to was of average size and rectangular in shape, with the bed directly underneath the window.

Jack's toes curled on the sill as he looked at the sleeping face on Jackie, his Descendant.

The other Guardians didn't really approve of the friendship they had, and he had a feeling the HOG didn't approve either, but neither groups stopped them practicing together.

He knew he didn't have to be here, Jackie could handle herself easily. He was very impressed with how quickly she was progressing. However, he couldn't help but feel a bit protective, maybe because he saw a bit of himself in here.

They'd both lost family, they'd both been lonely until they'd been found by people willing to take them in. Jackie was more serious though, calmer and a little more bitter.
Slowly, very slowly he was getting her to lighten up, she wasn't the scared, lonely kid anymore.

He saw Jackie stir in her sleep and tensed, ready to fly off if she woke up.

Instead he leaned forward as she stopped moving, and got a better look at her face. It was twisted with fear and her mouth was moving, mumbling in her sleep. There was no Nightmare Sand, but it was obvious she was obvious Jackie was having a nightmare.

Jack crouched on the ledge, unsure what to do. Jackie would probably kill him if he woke her up. She was surprisingly proud, and the fact that he felt he needed to intervene would make her really, really angry.

Finally, his protective big brother instincts kicked in. Or uncle instincts perhaps, given that he was (probably) her many times Great uncle.

He shook the random thoughts from his head and gently pushed on the window, finding it unlocked.

He carefully jumped down onto the floor, and saw that the frost on the carpet was already spreading from the effects of the nightmare.

He approached carefully and shook her shoulder. "Jackie, Jackie wake up."

The teen didn't seem to register his presence, if anything the nightmare seemed to get worse.

"Jackie!"

"...I didn't mean..."

Jack stopped shaking her shoulder as Jackie mumbled in her sleep.

"...I didn't mean to. Leave me alone."

A tear slipped out her eye and promptly froze to her cheek.

"JACKIE WAKE UP!" Jack was starting to panic now. Why wouldn't she wake up?

"It's just a dream!"

Jack's hand drifted off Jackie's shoulder as he saw her face relax, maybe now she was
waking up.

Oh no she was waking up. She was going to kill him.

He started to move when he felt an iron grip on his wrist. He turned to see what was going on, and was met a slightly unfocused gaze.

"Uh, Jackie?"

To his surprise Jackie's eyes welled up. "Don't go, please." Her voice was calm and steady, almost completely different from the request she'd just made.

That was the last thing he expected.

He hooked the desk chair behind him with his staff and drew it closer, sitting down in it.

"Thanks." Jackie released Jack's wrist and relaxed slightly underneath her tiger duvet.

"You okay?"

"Been better." Jackie's eyes were now properly focused on him now, although he did wonder how well she could see him without her glasses.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"...No."

"Okay." Jack was still a little nervous, waiting for Jackie to snap and tell him to get out.

"What's up with you? You look nervous."

"Well, um." Jack shifted in the chair. "I'm in your room, and you've just had a nightmare."

Jackie raised an eyebrow. "I'm swallowing my pride." She admitted, "But I will kill you if you mention this to anyone."

"Gotcha."

Jack leaned back in the chair and just looked at Jackie. Now that she was going back to sleep she looked more at peace than she had been in a while. Even when she was kid.

Yeah, Jack had seen her as a kid, often tried to get the quiet girl to join in with the snowball fights, but failed every time. It had frustrated him more than he liked to admit, and just like any other kid at the time, she couldn't see him.

When he found out about Descendants he wondered if that was why his snowballs never worked. As his Descendant maybe she was resistant to it. Or was it because she had been mourning her brother?

Jack had never seen the incident, and had never asked since the night they met. He didn't want to drag up any memories.

"...Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." Jackie mumbled, sleep clearly overtaking her.

"What for?"

"Not leaving."

This was so sappy Jack thought that he might have been dreaming. There was no way Jackie would something like that in a normal state of mind.

"You're welcome." Jack said once he got over the shock, but he could see that Jackie was already asleep.

He tapped his staff on the floor, unsure what to do now. He should just let her sleep, but what if she had another nightmare? What if she woke up and found that he'd disappeared when she had asked him to stay there.

The odd request was enough to make him stay put.

He spun in the chair out of boredom, then sprung out of it to look around. He'd been in here once before and didn't get a proper look, having had Jackie's eagle eyes on him the whole time.

He floated up to see the shelves above her desk, seeing some droopy looking soft toys. He had to smile, Jackie had been a kid at one point after all! There were some teddy bears and a polar bear among them. Moving along the shelf was like looking at a timeline, first were the cuddly toys, then a few short books; Mr Majeika, Magic Key, those kind of books.

Next were clear plastic and later down the line glass animal figures.

Jack stifled a laugh; he never had Jackie down as a figurine collector!

Right at the end of the shelf was a small cardboard box, and Jack didn't have a look in there. He knew what was in there, and he didn't need to see it again. It had been the second time he'd seen Jackie so close to tears.

He landed and had a flick through Jackie's school books. This was something Jack could not understand, most people hated school and homework, while Jackie seemed to love it. According to Jamie Jackie often finished homework early and asked for more!

Jack wasn't sure whether that was true or not, but he wouldn't put it past her.

Jack frowned as at the bottom of the pile of work and text books, was a collection of sketchbooks. Along with a set of drawing pencils and colouring pencils. Just having a look at the length he could see that they were used often.

Finally he couldn't contain his curiosity and he opened up some of them and had a good look.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he was blown away by what he saw. Detailed drawings and sketches of landscapes, people and animals. Spiralling towers from imagined cities and great dragons also adorned the pages.

Having lived for three hundred years, he'd seen in some ways better artists, but for seventeen these were really good. She could go far with skill like this.

He kept on flicking through until he came across that took him by surprise.

It was far back in the book, so a fairly recent drawing, and it showed Jack and Jamie having a snowball fight.

It was simple sketch, and there was no title, but Jack felt an odd little feeling in his chest that he couldn't quite place. Jackie, someone who tended to be quite cold and apparently not all that sentimental, had a drawing of him and Jamie.

He doubted that this was drawn while it was happening, he'd never seen Jackie draw, so it must have been from memory.

He turned around to look at the now sleeping Jackie, and smiled. She was looked so innocent when she was asleep.

"Still full of surprises." He muttered, putting the sketchbooks back carefully where he'd found them.

He swung his staff over his shoulder and floated up to look at the photos on the pin board. It hadn't yet been taken over by the frost, but it was starting to lose the fight around the edges.

There was a family photo, probably on holiday somewhere cold in the summer. It was clearly when Jackie was still the bitter loner, but she did manage to put on a smile for the photo. The photo itself was a sign of her powers, there was snow everywhere and her parents were bundled up, meanwhile Jackie was in her usual jeans and raincoat, not even wearing a pair of gloves.

Jack shook his head and chuckled to himself, looking at the sleeping Jackie. "You were a wreck back then."

Shaking his head again he turned back to the pin board.

There was a photo of a gap toothed kid Jackie, probably not long before Daniel's death, sitting in front of a birthday cake. Jackie couldn't handle fire, or the heat of summer, and this photo showed how she managed to deal with it.

The smiling Jackie was wrapped in a blanket that was coated in frost, and the candles weren't real, they were made of icing.

"Tooth would kill you, but that's clever." Jack chuckled.

The third and final photo was of the entire Burgess Branch, standing in what looked like a snowy Central Park.

All of the members that weren't Jackie were well dressed for the weather; woolly hats, thick gloves, ear muffs, gloves, everything. Meanwhile Jackie was in a slightly too big pale blue hoodie and jeans.

The Australian one, Billy, was right in the middle, with the blonde woman and the dark haired woman on one side, and Nigel and Jackie on the other. The blonde woman and Jackie were on the outside and everyone was wearing smiles. Jackie's was probably the most unsure as her eyes had drifted over to Billy, probably wondering what he was doing.

Finally, out of sheer curiosity, he dropped down beside Jackie's bed and had a look through her glasses.

"What the-? How does she see through these? She must be practically blind!"

Now having looked at all the things he hadn't looked at before, he decided to go back to the series he'd been reading when he was last here.

Jack ran over to the bookcase and plucked out the fourth book in the series. He perched on top of his staff and began reading.

After a while Jack remembered how tired he'd been and even his eyes began to blur.

Jack found a bookmark in the back of the book and marked his place, yawning. He placed it on the desk and looked at the window, wondering whether or not he could be bothered to jump out of it. Then he remembered what Jackie asked him.

He scanned the room for somewhere vaguely comfy to sleep, excluding the bed. That would just be weird.

He ended up settling on the desk chair, and with his arms and legs curled around his staff like a teddy bear, he fell asleep.

Several hours later, well after dawn, Jackie drifted awake.

It was about ten minutes before her alarm was due to go off, so she didn't have to get out of bed just yet.

Her drowsy eyes wandered around the room, before landing on the blurry figure of a sleeping Jack Frost. Sleeping in her desk chair no less.

At first Jackie was confused, and a little annoyed. When did he get here? Why he was in her room without asking her first?

Then it came back to her. The nightmare, Jack waking her up, Jackie asking him to stay.

Jackie burrowed back under the covers in embarrassment. What had she been thinking? She'd been adamant that her nightmares weren't an issue, and there she had been, asking Jack Frost not to go because he had chased the nightmare away.

If he mentions this to anyone I will kill him.

Jackie: ... HOLLY!

Uh oh, gotta run guys. It seems I have an enraged ice moved on my tail. One more one shot to go- AAAAHHHHH!

Jackie: How did you even find out about that?! Get back here!

Me: Help! I don't think my sand's going to be enough for this!