AN: A huge part of this was originally one of my Tumblr drabbles, but I tracked it down and re-worked it into a new chapter so it didn't take me as long as usual. Then again though, procrastination is usually what keeps me from finishing this story in a week.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians and Alice: Madness Returns.

Christmas Eve, 1863

In all the years that Bunny has been alive, he never thought he would be spending his Christmas Eve in the Burn Ward of a mortal hospital.

He was supposed to be at the North Pole, attending the grand Christmas party that North threw every year. The Russian's parties were always legendary and all the spirits of the world were invited, and when he said all the spirits, he really meant everyone, even that rotten scoundrel Pitch Black, which Bunny never understood why North would even want him there (though, thankfully, the Boogeyman never attended. To uppity to accept the offer, probably). More to the point though, as one of the Guardians, Bunnymund should be there, spending time with his friends and helping North prepare for his long trip around the world.

But he couldn't bring himself to leave the tiny figure laying in the small hospital bed across the room.

At the sight of the little girl covered in white bandages, Bunny pulled his stiff body out of the uncomfortable lounge chair he was curled up on and gingerly walked over to her bed. His joints ached from sitting in one place for so long, but Bunny pushed away the discomfort and sat down on the edge of the bed. He watched her chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm as she continued to sleep. Her singed, dark hair spilled from underneath the bandages wrapped around the top of her head, causing a sharp contrast against the stark white. He wanted to reach out and grab her tiny hand, but he didn't think his heart could take it if he had to watch his paw phase through her skin again. So he just sat there and watched her.

He didn't turn around when his sensitive rabbit ears picked up a familiar humming noise coming from outside the window. There was a light tap on the glass before it opened and a colorful figure climbed in. From the corner of his eye, Bunny could see the dim candlelight reflecting of Toothiana's beautiful feathers and wings as she hovered into the room.

"Bunny?" Tooth whispered. His ears twitched in response to her voice, but he didn't turn around. "I brought you some carrot cake and a bouquet of flowers for Alice. Don't ask me how I managed to carry both of them all the way from the Pole. It definitely wasn't the smoothest flying I've ever done, that's for sure!"

Tooth's poor attempt at lightening the mood and forced laughter filled the quiet room until it eventually dropped off when Bunny didn't move an inch. She cleared her throat awkwardly before hovering over to a small table and placing the box of carrot cake on top of it. The large bouquet of flowers was placed next to the other bouquets on Alice's bedside table. Some of them were gifts from families that Alice's parents were friends with, and others were from a few of Elizabeth's friends, and there were even a couple from Dean Liddell's students at Oxford University. All sending their deepest regards to the last, surviving member of the well-respected Liddell family.

Bunny stole a glance at the bouquet that Tooth brought and nearly laughed (if he wasn't feeling so emotionally stagnant, he would've). The beauty of it made the other bouquets look like sticks and twigs. It was a large cluster of colorful and rare flowers, not doubt picked from several different, exotic places around the world, including a few from Tooth's palace. They stuck out in all directions in an eye-catching display with a few unique touches from his friends. Even from where Bunny was sitting, he could see the golden dreamsand that sparkled across the soft petals, and the red, intricately designed bow tied around the middle of the crystal vase. North and the Sandman just couldn't resist adding their own special touch to Alice's gift.

Bunny found he didn't have the heart to make a bitter comment about how pointless it was giving Alice flowers. Even if she was awake to see them, all the bouquets would just go unnoticed by their owner.

Tooth hovered over and sat on the side of the bed, next to Alice. Her fuchsia eyes stinging as she took in the sight of the little girl.

"Has she woken up yet?" Tooth asked, reaching out to brush back a strand of dark hair, but pulled away immediately as if burned when her hand phased through the girl's head.

"No, not yet," Bunny replied quietly, his voice cracking slightly from under-use. "The doctors say she's in some self-induced coma or somethin'. They can't get her to wake up."

"What about her burns?"

"The burns on her face and arms won't leave any scarrin', and there's no longer any worry of infection. She should make a full recovery physically, but they're not so sure 'bout her mental state. I think she's havin' nightmares. She makes noises and struggles in her sleep sometimes."

Tooth looked over at her friend and listened as he talked. She was happy to hear that Alice wouldn't have any physical scarring from the fire. She had only ever seen Alice once before that night, and although it was very brief, Tooth thought she was a very cute little girl. The girl was going to be absolutely gorgeous when she grew up, the fairy could tell. She could only hope that the mental scarring would heal too. Although, she sadly doubted it. No child loses their entire family in one night and grows up completely normal.

It seemed like a hopeless situation, which only served as yet another blow to the Easter Bunny. And a blow to the Easter Bunny was a blow to all the guardians. The news of Alice's accident hit them all hard, not more so than Bunny, but still crippling all the same.

Tooth listened somberly to the miscellaneous hospital noises around them as she replayed the moment she arrived at Santoff Claussen, just after she had learned about what happened to Alice from the Sandman.

~O~

"Tooth, Sandy, you know I am always glad to see you, my friends," North chided good naturally as he walked into the main fireplace area while wiping his paint-covered hands on a worn-out, red handkerchief. "But I am very, very busy right..."

The Russian's welcoming smile slowly dipped when he saw the Sandman's deathly blank face and Tooth's bloodshot, fuchsia eyes as her body violently shook with the effort of holding back her sobs. She had her arms wrapped tightly around herself as her frazzled feathers rattled with barely contained emotion.

"What has happened?"

She remembered choking out the words of what happened, relaying the events of the horrible night as it was told to her by Sandy before she practically tackled North and buryed her face into the red fabric of his shirt, sobbing out her heartbreak and pain for her pooka friend.

"Oh God Nicholas, that poor baby! That poor, poor baby girl! Why did this have to happen! Why out of all the people in the world, why did such a horrible thing have to happen to this child, to this family!? Oh God Aster! I'm so, so, so sorry!"

The Guardian of Wonder looked down at his distraught friend, torn between different reactions and conflicted. He wanted to freely let his body react to the tragedy that just dropped itself on his doorstep, completely without warning, but as leader of the guardians, there were certain expectations of him to react certain ways in certain situations. Absolutely he wanted to drive his fist through a way right about now, conveying the pain he knew Bunny was most likely feeling. He couldn't, though, and he opted to comforting the Tooth Fairy instead.

"I know, Toothie, I know," North murmured softly to her as he brought up a hand to gently pat her feathered back. Her wings were tucked down against her spine and her feathers puffed up in rhythm with her cries. "Everything is going to be alright. There's reason why Bunny connected with Alice. She's strong. She will make it. She will come out on top."

North. Ever the optimist.

Tooth only continued to sob into his shoulder as her small hands twisted themselves into the material of his tunic. North's sad blue eyes trailed slowly over the very tip of Tooth's crest and listlessly took notice of the yeti crowd that had gradually begun to gather, drawn in by the cries of the Tooth Fairy.

He caught gazes with the Sandman, but when the Russian searched for comfort and wisdom deep within the small man's golden irises, he found only sadness and remorse. Leaving North to wonder what exactly has happened to Bunny, and where his pooka friend was now.

~O~

North's Christmas party had been in full swing when Tooth had left. Only a few close allies of the guardians, such as Cupid and Mother Nature, were aware of Bunnymund's absence and the reason behind it. Even then though, they weren't nearly invested in the lives of any of the guardians, least of all reclusive Bunny, to understand the full effect one child's tragedy was having on them.

North kept up his jolly persona for appearance's sake, but his dazzling smile didn't quite reach his eyes and there was a noticeable hunch to his usually proud, upright posture. The partygoers didn't take much notice. The only thing that really grabbed their attention was the fact that North was spending more time in the ballroom than he usually did. Most of the time, he let the party run itself while he prepped for his trip delivering presents to the children, either in his office or out in the stables with his reindeer, only sticking around the ballroom long enough to greet his guests. Tooth suspected the extra burst in socialism was probably just a ploy for a distraction. If North was too busy actually engaging himself in his own party for once, then there wouldn't be much time to think and reflect on what happened to Bunny and Alice.

Tooth couldn't say she blamed him for trying to block it out. In fact, she would admit she was just a tad bit jealous of him, and of Sandy too. The golden spirit seemed to be dozing off more than usual lately. She wasn't sure whether that was because he wanted to forget about what happened to Alice and get lost in his own dreamsand for a little while, or if he truly was just more tired than usual, but she envied how easily sleep still came to him, even in the wake of such a tragedy. Tooth herself hadn't been doing much sleeping since the night of the fire (not that she got much sleep to begin with because of her hectic job). When she wasn't worrying about cavities and coins, she was worrying about Bunny and Alice.

"The other night, I nodded off for only couple minutes," Bunny began, his forest green eyes darkening as Tooth was pulled from her thoughts. "When I woke up, I caught Pitch lurking around Alice's bedside. I nearly took his head off with my boomerang before he managed to disappear under the bed."

Tooth let out an indignant huff as her feathers ruffled in irritation. Out of all the children in the world, Pitch just had to come bother Alice, didn't he? The girl was going to have enough nightmares on her own. She didn't need any help from the Nightmare King. And it also didn't help to know that the Boogeyman was doing it solely to torture Bunny.

"I'll let Sandy know," The fairy reassured her friend. "He'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

Bunny only made a noise of gratitude as he continued to watch Alice.

Everything about this situation just broke Tooth's heart into a million pieces. She reached out a small hand and grasped one of Bunny's paws. He didn't look up but his grip tightened around hers. Bunny wasn't much for the touchy-feely stuff like Tooth was when she was upset about something, but he reveled in the noticeable warmth her presence brought into the depressing hospital room. It didn't take much for Tooth to convince herself to stay with Bunny and not return to Santoff Claussen for the evening. It was never really a matter of discussion even. When Tooth left the party, she already had an inkling she wasn't going to come back.

It was just as well though. Tooth would rather spend Christmas Eve in a burn ward comforting her close friend, than at party watching spirits get drunk and make fools of themselves. The party hadn't been that much fun this time around anyways.

The only highlight of the evening she had witnessed before leaving, was that brief moment where she thought she saw a flash of white and brown, hiding among the high rafters near the ceiling. She had already been on her way out with Bunny's carrot cake and Alice's flowers, so she didn't take the time to investigate further, but thinking back on it, Tooth realized that flash of white might've been a certain elusive spirit of Winter that she had been hearing so much about, who might've finally decided to use his party invitation.

She didn't think much more on it, though, deciding to just enjoy her time with Bunny in the present. They spent the rest of the night talking quietly about anything and everything that came to mind while Alice continued to sleep.

It was all really depressing still. With the exception of Bunny, none of the guardians knew Alice very well. They had the same relationship with her as they did with all the children of the world. If it wasn't for Bunny, they probably would have never noticed when her light went out on the Globe of Belief. It was sad to think about and it brought a lot of things into perspective for them, but that's just how things were. There were millions of children in the world and only four of them. They couldn't keep close tabs on all of them. It was impossible.

But for whatever reason, Alice became special to Bunny, and if she was special to Bunny, then she was special to all the Guardians.

Toothiana could only hope and pray to the Man in the Moon that the worst was over for Alice Liddell.

Her prayers would go unheard.

AN: God, why am I such a bitch all the time to these characters? Why can't I give them a break every once in a while? Beats the hell out of me. I still can't resist sneaking in small Jack Frost cameos though. If y'all been missing the little white-haired shyster like I have, then next chapter should be great, if not just a tad bit depressing. Hopefully the mere presence of our favorite trickster can help disparage some of the gloom that has become my fluffy story.

Hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter!

~Scorpiofreak~