Chapter 18

"Well that was interesting." I leaned against the door of Nikolai's room, watching him set her down in her crib. I had to hold my breath to keep from panicking about the touch of frost spreading from below the basinet. Luckily Nikolai paid it no attention and smiled at Alyssa as she nodded off to sleep.

"Do you feel suffocated yet?" I managed a half-hearted smile. I felt like I was being smothered, but not all of it was because of Desmond. I eyed the frost below the basinet and willed it to frost, wanting to scream at it when nothing happened. A knock tapped the wood at my back. I turned and opened the door.

"Majesty!" Regina stepped back, startled.

"Sorry Regina. I was right by the door." I waited for her to catch her heartbeat.

"My lord Prince Albert requests his brother, Prince Nikolai, to see him in his offices immediately." She stuttered. I smiled and Nikolai came to the door, overhearing the girl's message.

"I'll be along in a moment." She curtseyed and hurried down the hall. Nikolai turned to me and pressed his lips to my forehead. He flinched back the second he made contact. "Are you okay? You're freezing." I fought the urge to curse Jack's name out loud.

"I'm fine. Just the dinner left me cold." I smiled, hoping it was genuine, and he seemed to take it. He rubbed my shoulder with his gloved hand and brushed a strand of hair from my face.

"I'll be back soon." I nodded and closed the door behind him. I put my forehead against the wood and let it freeze over with my agitation. I breathed in, drawing the frost back to me. I sent out a mental scream of frustration and, within seconds, Jack appeared in front of me.

"What are you doing?" He leaned on his staff nonchalantly and it irritated me to a point beyond my limits.

"I have passed insane and entered insanely calm. What's going on here?" He smiled and, as much as I loved his smile when he was still Jackson, it only made my anger worse.

"Your frost patches are cropping up like dust bunnies." He smiled again.

"Manny told me he spoke to you." I huffed.

"Manny?" He stopped reclining on his staff and moved over to Alyssa.

"The Man in the Moon. He created me." I watched him cautiously, ready to freeze him to the wall if he made any form of threatening action while standing over my – our – daughter.

"You've had a moment of clarity since we last spoke." He breathed a soft laugh, but seemed far too engrossed in watching his daughter sleeping.

"I got a few more memories back. Not enough to piece my whole life back together, but enough to understand how she's lying here right now." He gestured to the sleeping baby girl in front of him. "The other Guardians figured I might be more cooperative this way."

"Guardians?" I asked, still eying Jack like a hawk.

"The Guardians of Childhood. No other spirits per se, but humans chosen to manifest as a certain being. To fulfil a role. The only Guardians around at the moment are Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and The Sandman." He tilted his head and stretched out a hand. I tensed myself to strike if need be, but he simply brushed away some residual mess from dinner that was hiding on Alyssa's cheek. I didn't relax but I didn't look like I was about to throw ice daggers at him either.

"Guardians of Childhood." I muttered to myself. I watched Jack watch his daughter.

You need to help him move on. You need to show him that he is also a Guardian

Hey there Manny.

The only reason he knows about you is because a memory was too strong to remove. He needs to join the Guardians and help them before it's too late.

You're crazy if you think I am going to tell the borderline crazy guy he has to leave his daughter behind to go join a group of fairy tales.

If he doesn't, your daughter could die.

What?

Your daughter, as I have told you, will be powerful. She is the daughter of a very powerful sorceress and a talented and important Guardian of the Moon. There are legions of entities and beings who would do anything to get their hands on your baby. I have told you this. This is why you need to forfeit your crown to Anna. You need to protect your child, not your kingdom.

I will not forfeit to my sister, she couldn't handle it. If I holdThey'll have two kingdom's armies, Jack and myself to get through before anyone dares even think of laying a finger on my child.

Human armies cannot contain this force. At first, it was just one opponent, but he has since called on all of the adversaries of my Guardians. The very beings they were created to defeat and defend against.

Why don't you tell Jack?

I cannot interfere more than I already have. What I have done is more than I should have in the first place. You are his motivation, Elsa. Motivate him.

I sighed. I felt the presence leave my mind and I focussed my attention on Jack again. He was holding Alyssa now, cradling her still sleeping body gently in his arms. How she didn't wake up from the cold of his touch I'll never know. I stepped towards the pair tentatively.

"Jack?" He mumbled a 'what' in my general direction. I didn't continue. I could see by the look in his eyes as he studied his daughter's face that he needed this.

"I barely remember what I looked like before I died, but I can see myself in her." I smiled this moment, sans the part where Jack is not Jackson and Jackson is dead, is one I had been wishing could happen for the better part of the last year. "Has she developed any abilities yet?" He didn't take his eyes off Alyssa, tracing frost patterns across her cheeks, but I could see they weren't actually touching her, otherwise she would have frozen to death by now.

"Not yet, but she will. With parents like us how could she not?" He managed to half-hearted chuckle, but his focus was still on Lyssa. He put her back down, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand.

"I know you have something to tell me." He looked away from her and stepped away from the crib. I pressed my lips into a hard line, not knowing how to phrase anything I was told. How do I tell him to leave, willingly, and wait for me to denounce my throne, angering the Isles and leaving my sister to face the same problems Jackson and I had with her and Kristoff, so that we can protect our daughter, who I just met.

"Manny spoke to me." He nodded, like he knew that already. "He gave me some… instructions." Jackson pulled his feet up like he was sitting on a lounge rather than hovering in the air, his staff across his lap.

"He wants me to go to the Guardians. Be one of them." I gaped for a moment before closing my mouth. His tone was angry, unsure, scared.

"Yes." I answered, gauging his reaction. His jaw set and he looked away a moment.

"I'm not one of them. I am not a Guardian; how could I fit in with the four?" I racked my brain trying to find some way to convince him how he could fit in. As much as I hate the idea of letting him go, letting him be responsible for something so enormous, it's the only way to keep my daughter safe.

"You're already a Guardian of Childhood in your own right. You've been watching over Alyssa; she's happy when you're here. You make her smile." He glanced over his shoulder quickly, looking away before he had the change to linger.

"Sure, I can be her Guardian. But I can't be a Guardian. It's not who I am. Winter Spirit or not." I sighed, trying not to get frustrated.

"Why not?" I sat down on the end of my bed, watching Jack float in the middle of the room in the darkening night.

"I don't know. Everything in me is screaming I can't look after them the way the Guardians do; that there's nothing I can do for them besides give them frostbite. None of them can even see me. I tried talking to people, adults and children, no one sees me. Not until you." I looked over at Alyssa. I held my tongue from telling him he can look after children; he saved his sister, which caused his death, and he held his daughter without hurting her. He's seen me make frost animals a thousand times, and he's made one before; the butterfly. If that's not at least an indication the Winter Spirit can be harmless and fun, nothing is. He obviously doesn't remember snowball fights and sledding down snowy hills and throwing powder in the air to make our own non-magical snow. I smiled at the memory, which gave me an idea to convince him. I put my hands in my lap, noting he wasn't watching me, and a small flurry hovered just over my hands, dropping fresh, loose powder into my cupped hands. Once I had all I could hold, I stood up and held the pile under his nose. "What are you doing?" He eyed the snow curiously, as if something was breaking through.

"Snow storm!" I called, not too loud that someone would hear, but loud enough to make it startling. I threw the powder in the air and it fluttered down around us, sticking in Jack's hair. He laughed and whipped the snow around with his own magic, summoning more to make a whirlpool of snow. Still laughing, he threw the snow from his tornado and it blew across the room, covering everything, aside from Alyssa's crib, in a light scattering of snow. I joined in his laugher and picked up the snow, making a small snowball. I threw it and, right before it could smash into his nose, Jack caught it.

"Okay," He laughed, "you can stop. I get your point." I smiled; maybe he wasn't so different after all. "I'll go see them." With a kiss to my forehead, a lingering kiss that told me he was still hurting and confused and didn't want to do any of this, but understood it must be important for me to press, he caught hold of the winds and let them carry him out into the dark night.