Jackie walked down to the lake, like she had done nearly every night, although this was the first night in several days. In her jeans pocket was a baby monitor, with its partner sitting next to a sleeping Jack Davies-Bennett. Jamie was still away at his convention, but Taboo was watching him.

Jackie wasn't entirely happy on leaving him, but Taboo had all but shoved her out of the door to get some practice in.

She was hardly stealthy as she approached the lake, but stopped when she saw that someone had gotten there first.

E. Aster Bunnymund stood in the centre of the lake, clearly not caring about the frozen surface that was no doubt chilling his leather wrapped paws. His was staring out into the trees, his back to Jackie, so she couldn't see his expression, however his posture told Jackie that he wasn't waiting for anything, he was just standing there.

Jackie stopped for a second, before taking a cautious step forward. She felt the dry twig under her shoe and stopped herself from putting the pressure on it that would cause it to snap. She moved her foot over it and continued forward until she stood on the bank of the lake.

"...Bunnymund?"

The Pooka started and Jackie ducked as a boomerang was flung in her direction, seemingly on reflex. Jackie spun on her heel once it had passed, froze the boomerang and brought it back, dropping the frost covered weapon onto the ice covered lake.

"Okay, it's just me," Jackie took a step back, hands up and palms out to try and calm Bunnymund, who seemed to not be quite there.

Bunnymund breathed heavily for a few tense seconds before relaxing and crouching back on his haunches slightly.

"...Sorry 'bout that."

"It's okay," Jackie cautiously picked up the boomerang and gently tossed it back to Bunnymund, who caught it without even looking. "Are you waiting for Jack?"

"No,"

Jackie blinked, "then, why are you here?" she asked bluntly.

"Don't worry about it, I was just going," Bunnymund waved her off and did indeed start to leave, walking towards the thicker part of the woods.

Jackie watched his back for a second, getting a strange sense of déjà vu.

"Is everything alright?" she called after him.

"Fine."

That déjà vu was getting stronger, although it appeared that the roles were reversed this time.

"Bunnymund," Jackie started, but the Pooka showed no signs of hearing her. "Bunnymund."

Still nothing, and Jackie realised she probably had about another second before he disappeared into the Tunnels. So she made a drastic, and perhaps not well thought out, decision.

"Aster!"

It got his attention.

The six foot one (seven foot if you included the ears)tall Easter Bunny stopped in his tracks and turned around sharply, his face not seemingly to be able to decide between surprised and annoyed.

"How the hell do ya know that?!"

"It's my job," Jackie responded drily.

"Okay, you have my attention. What?" Bunnymund glared at Jackie, arms folded.

"What's wrong, and don't you dare say 'nothing'," Jackie added as Bunnymund opened his mouth. "We both know that's not the case."

"Why do you care?"

"We're, sort of, colleagues now, and this situation is very familiar, especially if you reverse the roles," Jackie smirked as realisation dawned on Bunnymund's face. "Don't think I'd forgotten."

Bunnymund sighed, "Fine, I'm still not talking."

Jackie also sighed. "Look, I know we tend to ram into each other than bounce off each other, but, I'm willing to listen."

"Haven't you got anything better to do?"

"Well," Jackie made a show of looking at her watch. "I was going to train now, but a troubled looking individual decided to stand in the middle of my training ground."

Bunnymund huffed, but decided to give up. He walked back towards Jackie, and sat underneath the same tree where Jackie had told him about her nightmare a few years ago. Jackie went over as well, and sat down beside him.

"So, ya know my name, I'm guessin' ya know my history?"

"Some of it."

"The calendar's different," Bunnymund commented, looking at the sky, "so it's hard to get the exact date, but if I were to estimate, this is about right."

Jackie didn't say anything, but could hazard a guess as to what he was talking about.

"...your people?" Jackie asked after a while, not sure if Bunnymund was going to continue.

He nodded. "Yeah."

Jackie nodded and leaned her head back, also looking at the sky. "I could say something like 'don't be sad because it's gone, smile because it happened', but you've probably heard that before."

Bunnymund shrugged, still gazing at the night sky. "It was a long time ago."

"Hmm," Jackie agreed. "...Still hurts?"

"...Yeah."

Jackie nodded, trying to think of something to say. Anything that had happened to her that even resembled what happened to him, Danny's death, thinking she was the only one with powers until she fourteen, paled in comparison to the genocide of your own race. The only being on this planet who would understand was Sandman, and he wasn't here.

She was saved from having to say anything as Taboo alerted her.

"He's waking up."

A second later a tinny, muffled cry came from the baby monitor in Jackie's pocket, and Bunnymund's ears turned to catch the sound. Jackie pulled it out of her pocket, and the sound was no longer muffled, but still tinny. Especially as it got louder.

"Ya got a kid?" Bunnymund asked, sounding mildly surprised.

"Yes," Jackie responded like it was obvious. "Samson did say I was on maternity leave, right? That's why I wasn't at the Summer Solstice meeting."

"And here I thought ya were getting fat."

Jackie looked from the still sounding baby monitor to Bunnymund, who was still looking at the sky. "I can't tell if you're joking or not."

Bunnymund allowed a small smirk to crawl across his face, but didn't expand on that.

"Hadn't ya better get back to the tyke?"

"Are you going to be okay? Taboo can handle the baby."

Bunnymund shook his head. "Get the living ice cube to look after the baby and you'll get louder screaming through that. I'll be fine."

Jackie stood up, not really able to come up with an argument for that. "Okay. In the unlikely event that you need me, you know where I am."

Bunnymund finally stopped looking at the sky and looked at Jackie, his expression unreadable. "Make sure you look after the little ankle biter."

"You really felt the need to tell me that?" Jackie asked, incredulous and a little defensive before she caught his new expression. It was, wistful?

Jackie blinked, taken slightly off guard by this. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Bunnymund shook his head and wiped a paw down his face. "I'm alright, but I think your kid is still crying for his ma."

"I'm going. See you at the Winter Solstice meeting!" Jackie was already moving away, picking up the pace as she went home in the mid evening.

Bunnymund didn't verbally respond, merely nodding his head at Jackie's retreating back, his mind drifting back to the past, many thousands of years ago.

Well, this is an odd Easter Special.
I had never actually intended to write a sequel to 'Therapy with the Easter Bunny', but I got inspired by an old two shot on DA, 'Never Alone' and 'Safe and Sound' which is a dark take on the massacre of the Pookas. There's also a fairly common thing that pops up in One shot ROTG fanfics, and that's Bunny mourning the Pookas, which is evidently what's happening here.

A talk about Bunny in this. First, he and Jackie do still have a bit of an odd relationship, at least compared to the more warm and welcoming natures of the other Guardians. This is after 'Clearing the Air', so that's not so much of an issue, but the two really are too similar and too different to really get along. They respect each other, might even call each other friends eventually, but I don't think the two will ever truly be at ease in each other's company.
Next, Jackie doesn't really comfort Bunnymund, and that's because I don't think he needs it. It happened so long ago that Bunny has long come to terms with it. It still hurts, but he accepted it a long time ago, so comfort is not necessarily what he needs. What Jackie gives him though, is a reminder that he's not alone, and perhaps reminded him of some good memories with J on the baby monitor. Since, we don't know how old Bunny was when the Pooka's were wiped out, he may have had kids of his own for all we know!
Also the calendar comment, since Pookas were from another planet in another solar system, their orbit was likely different to Earth's, and therefore their calender.

Finally, quick timeline, this is a few years after the first part, but only a few days after 'Promises for the Future'