Chapter Twelve

When Jamie's eyes met with Jack, he could feel a smile spreading across his face. Tooth was still throwing snowballs at Pitch and he was obviously getting irritated.

"Tooth! You're okay!" Santa cheered.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed. "All thanks to Jamie here."

Jamie beamed and he saw Jack's eyes wander to the staff that Jamie was holding.

"My staff!" Jack cheered. "You got it!"

Jamie nodded and started to run over to Jack. Before he could make it however, a large black horse charged into him from the side. Jamie coughed and was sent flying across the rough pavement, his skin getting scratched up. The staff flew out of Jamie's hands and he saw Pitch was running for it.

Pitch was about to grab it when Sandy's golden whip grabbed onto it and brought it forward. Jamie smiled at this and stood slowly, his body feeling all kinds of aches and pains.

Sandy threw the staff towards Jack but Pitch intervened once again, having his horses get in Sandy's way. Bunnymund caught it instead and he flung a boomerang at the direction of Pitch. While Pitch was distracted with that, Bunnymund randomly launched the staff in the air and Santa had caught it. It was great that Pitch wasn't getting ahold of it and all, but the person who needed it most wasn't even getting his hands on it.

Bunnymund caught his boomerang when it flew back to him and Jamie started running towards Jack.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" Jack yelled over all the commotion.

Jamie just nodded. He was going to hug Jack, kiss him too even, but he didn't think that now was the best time or place to do so.

Santa dodged off the horses of fear and was making his way towards Jack with the staff. Santa must have known that throwing it around was getting them nowhere and he should just give it to him.

But with all of the horses circling them, making his way to Jack was getting too difficult.

"Why are there so many?" Tooth called out, referring to the horses.

"They're based on fears," Pitch said with a cackle, circling around them through the shadows.

Jamie knew that most of these fears were probably his. He might of seemed confident when escaping the house, but now he wasn't too sure about himself. He gulped, wondering if this would ever end.

Pitch rose up his hand, like he was going to have the horses charge at them. But before he could do anything, the sun was rising. The bright rays shining over the horizon and the shadows disappearing. The horses were leaving as Jamie's anxiety was loosening up. Although, a few other horses remained.

"Damn sun," Pitch growled, staring at it with glaring eyes.

Jamie hadn't even realized that the time passed so quickly as they tried to get away from Pitch.

"I'll always return," Pitch growled, knowing it'd be harder to hide and move around quickly with the sun, and when people started to come outside. Pitch disappeared and his roses ran off with him.

One of the horses pushed Santa and the staff stumbled from his hands. Jack ran for it and finally made hand contact with the thing that was his little signature trademark.

But when Jack grabbed it, it didn't do anything. It was still fully black and Jack's personalities weren't coming together. Since the sun had risen, dark Jack had came back and while he could use his powers now, he needed the staff to make him all together once again.

Jamie walked over to Jack along with the other Guardians, all staring down at the staff, waiting for it to do something...anything.

"Now that we're all together...we should head back to the Pole to discuss this in private. People will be coming out soon..." Santa warned.

They all agreed to this plan, seeing that they needed to rest, and climbed into the sleigh. Once they were situated, Santa let the sleigh take off and they were heading, once again, back to the North Pole.

Once they arrived back at the workshop of Santa Claus, the six of them got out of the sleigh and trudged into the warmth of the indoors.

"Everyone can head back to their rooms to rest," Santa said. "Since Tooth is back, Sandy and Bunnymund will have to share one."

Sandy nodded and looked up at his giant companion.

"Come on mate," Bunnymund said to Sandy, the two of them walking away together.

Jamie figured that Sandy didn't care where he slept as long as it was somewhere. Tooth walked off to her own room now to rest, now that she could do so peacefully without fear of Pitch doing something horrible to her.

"Come on," Jack whispered to Jamie, slinking his hand into Jamie's cold fingers.

The two of them walked hand in hand to the bedroom they had slept in once before and Jack shut the door behind them. Jamie had no winter clothes to pull off now since Pitch had put his jacket somewhere and Jamie didn't know where. Hopefully Santa would have extras. Jamie took off his socks and shoes and crawled into bed next to the white haired man.

Even though Jack was cold, he felt warm to Jamie, and that was all Jamie needed right now. Jack wrapped his arms around Jamie and he sighed.

Jamie's eyes moved and he saw the staff perched up against the wall. Hopefully they could figure it out soon.

"I promise I'll do whatever I can to get you back to normal," Jamie whispered into Jack's ear.

Jack smirked his usual dark Jack smirk and nuzzled his face into Jamie's neck.

"Thanks babe," he whispered.

Jamie blushed at the fact he was just called babe, but it made him smile madly.

"You're welcome," Jamie whispered back. "Now go to sleep."

Jack nodded and soon the both of them were drifting off into dreamland.