A/N: Wow this is late. Sorry guys, been extremely sick (still am) and did not feel like writing one bit. But here you are. Now after this I'm just going to post some drabbles and stuff like that. Then in a bit I'll post the sequel. Leave me a review if you have a drabble idea (I'll be able to update faster if you do) and enjoy this chapter!
North glanced back at the young winter spirit. For the whole ride, Jack had refused to lay down and rest. Instead she crouched on the back of the sleigh, still looking back at where she had left Jamie.
"Come on, Frostbite. You're weak. Get off of there," Bunny insisted.
"I'm fine."
Tooth patted Bunny's arm. "We're almost at the Pole. She has to get off then."
The ride through the tunnels and into the Pole was bumpy, and Jack almost fell out of the sleigh. It took a lot of effort to keep herself upright. Even without all the bumps she was almost swooning, which did not go unnoticed by Bunny and Tooth. When the sleigh finally stopped, Bunny had had enough.
"Okay, now time for you to rest. I don't care if I have to drag you to a bed myself."
Everyone climbed out. "Look, I'm fine. I don't need anyone to baby me. Honestly, I can take care of myself," Jack complained. She took a step backwards and almost collapsed. Luckily Sandy cuaght her before she fell. She hissed from the pain that erupted in her chest.
"Fine, huh?" Bunny raised his eyebrows.
"Please Jack, just come in and rest for a while. You look like you took quite the beating," North said.
"Well, I was actually planning on, you know, leaving right now."
"Leaving? How come?" Tooth asked.
"You know, Pitch is gone. The fight's over. You guys don't need my help anymore, so I guess I just thought-"
"What, that we didn't want you to stay?" North asked. "Jack, you're a proper Guardian now. Of course we want you to stay."
"Now come on, ya gumby, let's get you inside and you can tell us all we missed eh?"
Jack followed the Guardians into a sitting room. there were couches and armchairs all around a cozy looking fireplace. They each flopped down on a couch. Sandy grabbed an armchair and pulled it away from the fire so Jack could sit in it. She flashed him a grateful smile then collapsed into the cushion.
"So what happened to you, Jack?" Tooth asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You randomly show up at Jamie's house looking even bloodier than before. Plus you seem to have found a lot of confidence, and I doubt that was from what we said," Tooth replied.
Sandy looked at them and a ? appeared over his head. The Guardians looked sheepish. "After Pitch got you, we tried to get the lights to flicker again by making Easter go well. When we got the the Warren, we found Sophie there. She helped us paint eggs. Then Jack took her home. She was supposed to come back and help us protect the eggs but she, ah, got held up with Pitch. All the eggs were destroyed and we kind of took it out on Jack," North told Sandy, looking ashamed.
"It's not your fault. You're right, I was supposed to be there and I wasn't."
"Enough about whose fault it is. What happened to ya after that?" Bunny looked at Jack expectantly.
She looked down, suddenly very interested in her feet. "I, uh, ran into Pitch again. Or rather, he ran into me."
"What?" the other Guadians yelled.
"After, you know, I flew to the Arctic to clear my head. I wanted to destroy the teeth, to get rid of them but I just couldn't. 300 years I had been waiting for an answer and they were it. Then Pitch appeared. We fought, but he talked to me. I was vulnerable at the time. Mentally weak. He took advantage of that. Told me he knew how it felt to be cast out, to not be believed in. I almost bought it. But I snapped out of it before he convinced me to join him."
Shr took a deep breath. "I told him to leave me alone. But he wouldn't. He had Baby Tooth trapped in his fist. He was going to squeeze her if I didn't give up my staff."
Tooth gasped and looked at Baby Tooth, who nodded, confirming Jack's story. Bunny had to bite back a curse. North went right ahead and swore in Russian.
"Did you do it? Give up your staff?" Tooth asked.
"I had to. He would have hurt Baby Tooth. Once I gave it up, he started taunting me. He said..."
"Sweet Tooth?"
"He said you guys wouldn't miss me. That the only reason you tolerated me was because you needed my help. He said that I had failed and you wouldn't care that I was gone. Baby Tooth tried to help me. She pecked him, but he threw her into a large crevise. Before I could do anything to help her, Pitch snapped my staff."
The Guardians were having a hard time hearing this story. Jack's staff...they knew how much it meant to her.
"I was surprised at how much that hurt. I guess the staff is a part of me, because when it snapped...I have never felt pain like that before.
"Anyway, he blasted me into the same crevise as Baby Tooth. Then he tossed the two halves of me staff down to taunt me. Not the smartest move, I must say. At first I blacked out. Then when I came to, I tried to help Baby Tooth warm up. Unfortunately, I can only really keep things cold. I was starting to despare when Baby Tooth reminded me that I still had the teeth. So I looked at them, and I realized who I was."
"You remember?" Tooth gasped.
"Yeah. My name was Jacklyn Overland. I had a little sister named Olivia, a mother and a father. Well, until my father died. When I was seventeen, I took Olivia ice skating. The ice was too thin though, and it started to break from under my sister. She was so scared. I convinced her that we were going to play a game. I pretended to play hopscotch as I jumped over to where my staff was. Then I told her to jump to me. I knew it was breaking too much for her to make it, so I lunged to her and threw her to safety."
"Was she alright?" North looked worried.
"She was fine. But I landed right onto the thin ice myself. As soon as I took a step, it broke and I fell into the water and drowned."
"You died?!" They all cried.
"Um, yeah? Didn't you guys die before you were chosen?"
Sandy shook his head.
"Oh." She suddenly felt very self-concious. "Well, after that I snapped out of the memories. I repaired my staff and then flew over to Pitch's lair to free the fairies. None of them could fly though, so I looked at Pitch's globe and saw that Jamie was the last light. So I went to him. You guys know the rest."
For a few long seconds, no one spoke. Then Tooth flew over and wrapped her arms around Jack, causing her to flinch slightly. Tooth pulled back. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I-I'm just not used to physical contact," she explained.
"That's our fault. We ignored you for 300 years. That's something I won't ever forgive myself for," North said.
"So, your memories. What else did you see?" Tooth asked, trying to keep the tone light.
Jack's eyes lit up. "I was the prankster of the village!"
"Why am I not surprised," Bunny muttered.
"And I was very protective of Ollie. Thats what I used to call her. I loved her. I would always tell her to hide when..." She willed herself to stop talking. They didn't need to know about that.
"When what?" Bunny asked.
"Jack?"
"When my father came home late. I would tell her to hide because when he came home late, usually he was drunk. If she was hidden and I was available, he would beat me and leave her alone."
"You're father hit you," Tooth whispered.
Bunny looked like her was about to commit murder, which was an odd look for the Easter Bunny. He stepped towards her. "Let me look."
Jack hesitated. "Frostbite, let me look at your back."
Finally, Jack tyrned around and pulled up her hoody so that just her back was showing. There were plenty of scars, some looking like strap marks, others like burns.
"Not all of those are from him. Some are recent," Jack said quickly, then realized that she wasn't helping them calm down.
"What else are these from?" North snapped.
"Well, some are from other spirits. Some I may have done." She looked down, ashamed. "It was a hard 300 years," she said quietly.
To her surprise, it was Bunny that hugged her this time. "Better get used to hugs, Frostbite, cause you're a Guardian now. And we'll do our best to make up for the last 300 years. You're not alone anymore. Ya hear?"
Jack felt tears threatening to spill. 'No. No crying. Not in front of them.' Butshe couldn't help it. She started to shake, as tears flew freely from her eyes. North and Tooth put hands on both her shoulders and Sandy held her hand. The sat like that for almost an hour, just allowing the young spirit to let out the tears she had been holding back for so long.
As she started to calm down, Bunny held her out at arms length. "Now, can we please get that arm and ribs and head looked at?"
Laughing, Jack nodded, and allowed herself to be guided towards the med room. She was still in pain, both mentally and physically, but for some reason, she couldn't manage to stop smiling.
