Actually ended up with a couple more ideas that will extend this a little bit more than I originally expected. Thank you guys for all the comments on the last chapter, it's really encouraging! And extra thanks to my editor for complaining about cliff hangers and demanding more. 3 - Not The Milk

After taking a minute to recover from her shock, Annamore stood carefully on what seemed to be a cloud made of gold sand and looked around. "So, you control this?" She asked the Sandman as he attempted to make himself create streams of the sand that flew off into the night. He kept getting distracted by looking at her, she noticed. He nodded in affirmation, reaching over and tugging her arm to try to convince her to sit back down.

She smiled slightly. "Afraid I'll fall?"

Another nod, followed by sand images over his head of a winged girl, pointing at her, before letting the wings fade off. "Are you saying that's me?" She peered at the image as he nodded again. "What can you tell me about… Me? I don't remember anything." She sat down again, feeling a little less nervous about her location.

He tilted his head at her, as if he was thinking how to respond. After a moment, more images started flashing over his head and she couldn't make sense of them. Suddenly, it dawned on her that he hadn't said a word to her. Just my luck, I'm apparently dating a fairy tale and he can't even talk. "Ah, slow down. I can probably get Jack to tell me. Or… He said there were others? Who else do I have to believe in?"

A rabbit appeared over his head, surrounded by eggs. "Oh! I know that one! Well, that does explain the Easter eggs." Next a fairy holding a tooth. "Ah, the Tooth Fairy, right? I heard the girls joking about her after that floss avalanche in the bathroom." Finally, a large man next to a sleigh, Sandy pointed to her jacket along with that.

"So Santa really did give me this?" She started laughing, flopping back to lie on the cloud. "You guys really want me to believe I'm… Cupid?" A thumbs up was her reply. "If I'm cupid, what happened to me?" He responded with another confusing scene of sand. "Ah… never mind." She sighed, frustrated.

He looked slightly hurt, making her feel guilty. "I'm not upset at you. I just thought… Well, the only people who can tell me anything about myself are legends, or something. It's kind of disconcerting. I had this dream in my head of having a family looking for me, and a home, and that if someone found me maybe all my memories would suddenly come rushing back. And I don't. Have a family, I mean. Not if I'm one of you guys."

He sat down by her head and pulled her into a partial hug, half resting on his lap, with him looking down on her face. He pointed to himself, and then made the images of the other spirits appear. "What, you guys are my family?" She resisted the urge to pull away from his familiarity. He smiled broadly in answer. She fell silent, closing her eyes to think. A moment later, she felt his fingers lightly touch the shaved section of her head, tracing the scar from the rock. During the day, she pulled her hair up in a way that hid the spot, but the scar was visible when her hair was down, as it was now.

Her eyes flew back open to meet his, and she saw obvious concern on his face. "That's fine now. It doesn't even hurt anymore, unless I do something stupid. Were you there when it happened?"

He smirked, she assumed at the memory. "You better not be laughing at me." She grumbled, disconcerted by everything.

"That's not why he's laughing." A voice rang out unexpectedly. She jumped up in shock to see a large humanoid rabbit standing a few feet away. There was a hole in the cloud next to him. She peered down it with wide eyes. "How did you..?"

"You never get tired of asking that, do you?" The rabbit laughed, pulling her into a hug. "Nice of you to start being able to see us again. What were you thinking, tormenting your friends like that?"

She glanced back and forth between the two once she was freed from the hug. "OK, maybe I really am awake. I'll give you guys that. So why was he laughing?" She pointed to the golden man.

"Sandy? Probably because he was beating the crap out of Pitch after we rescued you. Pitch had been torturing you, along with the guy who left that pretty little scar on you." The rabbit shrugged.

"Wait, torture?" She raised an eyebrow at them. "Maybe I don't want to remember after all."

"Naw, you're a tough Sheila. You were making jokes about it before you turned human. So I guess you need fresh introductions." He glanced at Sandy and pointed towards the hole. "You want to carry her, or should I?"

She back away, knowing where this was going, but found herself lassoed by a silently chuckling Sandy. "Wait, is this really-" Before she could finish her protests, they jumped down into the hole with her.

She screamed, loudly, making the rabbit cover his ears and look at her disapprovingly. "You never shouted this badly before." She stopped screaming as they slipped through the tunnels, to glower at him. "I don't remember, so you can't blame me."

They popped out in the middle of a work shop. Jack was already there, along with two people she assumed were Santa and the Tooth fairy. Santa pulled her into a bone crushing hug making her struggle for breath before he realized what he was doing and released her. The fairy hugged her too, more gently, but was staring intently at her mouth. "Anny, smile for me! I want to make sure you've been taking care of your teeth while you've been gone. I just know Bunnymund has been sending you far too much candy, if you get a cavity from it I'm going to-"

Jack reached over and poked the fairy gently. "Tooth, worry later."

After a couple of crazy minutes with all of them babbling excitedly to her, she managed to calm them down enough to get proper names from them, since they kept momentarily forgetting she didn't remember who they were. North led her to a couch and handed her a cup of steaming liquid. "Hot chocolate, your usual." She accepted it with a smile, sitting down. She noted that the scent of this place was familiar and soothing to her, lending weight to everything they would say. "Story time now?"

They obliged, and over the course of a couple of hours got a decent, if disjointed, narration of her history with them. Some questions, like what her life was like before she became an immortal, they shied away from answering. "OK, can you guys tell me how I became human again, at least?"

"That one's easy enough." Bunnymund answered. "The guy who clocked you was the incarnation of hate and you of love. You guys got each other at the same time, cancelling out both your powers."

"I see." She yawned. "Ugh, I'm going to regret this in class tomorrow."

"Class? You're going back?" North looked scandalized. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I still don't remember, and I'm still human, at least at the moment. Even if all you guys have said is true, and I'm sure it is since there would be no reason to lie to me, I don't remember any of this. And there's always a chance I never will." She looked at them with regret she truly felt. "Having met you guys, I really do hope I remember. But I have to use my head – if I don't remember, or never get my powers back, do you guys really think I'd be happy being your pet human, aging while you guys don't?"

"Oh. She has a fair point, there." Jack nodded at her, resting against his staff. "Tell you what, Anny, we'll take you back, but we won't give up on you."

"I would hope not." She smirked. "I mean, you guys have gone through all this trouble stalking me, giving up now would be silly."

"Hmmm, I have an idea that might help." Tooth said mysteriously, flying over and whispering into her ear. "Friday night, sneak out to the garden. You'll stay with me this weekend, bring whatever you need."

The guys looked mildly concerned, as if each thought they were being whispered about. "Alright, time to get you back." Tooth said loud enough for everyone to hear. Bunny tapped his foot, creating a hole out of habit. Before he could say a word, Sandy pushed him in, and then dusted his hands off as the hole closed behind the rabbit. Jack snorted, trying to hide laughter. North and Tooth looked just as amused, grinning at their friend. Ignoring them, he handed Annamore a pair of sand goggles. "Wait one moment." North handed her a small glass orb. "You left this at home before you were captured. I thought you might want it back."

She stared at it blankly. "What is it?"

"It's a magical telephone." Jack answered, opting for the simple explanation. A couple minutes later and she was riding in the back of a sand plane. "Suddenly that toy plane I got from North makes perfect sense. I take it this is a normal thing with us?" She asked the pilot as she peered over the side of the plane, looking at lights of towns and cities below. She knew they were going way faster than physics should have allowed, and figured it was another magic ability she was seeing.

Before long she was climbing over the plane's wing to push open the dorm room's window, which had been left slightly cracked by Jack and Jamie. She climbed in, then turned around to say goodbye to Sandy, only to find herself at a loss for words. She met his eyes and he smiled knowingly. She smiled back and waved – maybe she didn't have to say anything after all. Closing the window, she crawled back into her bed with the knowledge that classes were going to suck tomorrow.

The next day she found herself yawning far too much for her tastes, barely able to focus on her classes. Her roommates teased her about it mercilessly, asking if she'd been on a midnight rendezvous. "Actually, yes." Another yawn. "Discovered the sources of the mysterious gifts."

"Oooh!" Came the collective response. "You've got to tell us."

"Fine, fine. All are from people I used to know. The wrapped presents are from this extremely big, older Russian guy with an amazing beard. Apparently he calls me Cupid, which is why I got a reindeer snow globe and wings on my coat. I guess it's a joke with him." She smiled tiredly. "Then we have the rather shaggy Australian dude, who's responsible for the candy and eggs. Spring is his favorite time of year, and I guess we once had an epic Easter party dying eggs, so he's been trying to remind me of that."

The girls looked like they couldn't figure out if she was joking or being serious. "What about the floss?" One asked doubtfully.

"Ah, yes. Also apparently a friend of mine, she's in dentist school, and when she found out about the amount of candy we ended up getting… She freaked out and snuck that stuff in. Apparently I've gone on double dates with her and her boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah, I met him last night, too. He's pretty dreamy, and he's a pilot. He's also incredibly bright, and a bit older than I am." She tried to keep from laughing at her own little jokes, while the girls oohed excitedly at her description. "On that note, while I still don't remember anything, I get to go hang out with these guys over the weekend. Maybe something will jog my memory."

Friday afternoon she packed her back pack with a few changes of clothes and what homework she hadn't made herself do earlier in the day, glad to be escaping college for a change. She sat down against the shed that stored the garden tools, pulled a book from her bag, and waited.

"Anny!" She glanced up to see Tooth flying towards her, a smile brightening her face. "I wasn't sure you'd show up, that maybe you'd have decided everything was a dream after all." The fairy admitted, fluttering next to her as she stuffed the book back in her bag.

"It snowed in my room again last night. Pretty sure I can rule out dreaming." She grinned at Tooth. "So what are we doing?"

"Tonight we are just going to my place, although North is the only one who knows. The others might freak out a bit about that, now that I think of it." She smoothed back her feathers, laughing a little. "Anyways, since I can't fly you all the way there, I borrowed a portal from North." She held up a glass orb, larger than the one Annamore had in her bag, and tossed it down in front of them. Glancing around to make sure no other humans were around, she grabbed her friend and jumped into the portal.

Seconds later they were standing in a lovely, oriental feeling castle, with Tooth's little fairy helpers buzzing around them. Annamore fell instantly in love with the place as Tooth gave her the tour, pausing every so often to direct a little fairy as it flew up chattering. Eventually Tooth led her into one of the towers and flew up without saying a word, obviously searching for something. After some time she fluttered back down, cradling a gold box lovingly in her hands.

"You're so old that they took me a while to find." Tooth smiled at her, almost shyly now, and handed the box over. "I can't give you back all of your memories, but I can at least give you some of the ones from your childhood. Your time as Cupid you'll have to remember on your own."

"Old? How old am I?" She asked the fairy as she ran her fingers over the box, intrigued. "Probably over a couple thousand years. Still a lot younger than I am, I'm the second oldest of the Guardian's, you know. Not counting Man in Moon." Toothiana grinned cheerfully. "Anyways, I thought it'd be easier to give you these without the guys around."

"Thanks, Tooth." Annamore leaned against a wall and slid down to the floor, opening the box cautiously. Flashes of her childhood ran through her head as she was flooded with memories. Most of them were very happy for her, but by the time she was done experiencing the memories, tears were in her eyes.

Tooth pulled her into a hug knowingly. "I'm sorry."

She hugged back, drying the remnants of her tears against her friend's feathers. "Don't be. Thank you for this. I've still got a couple thousand year gap I need to fill, I guess, but this is a good start."

Eventually, they wandered back to the higher sections of the palace, spending the whole time chatting cheerfully. "You know, I should have invited you over here a long time ago, before you lost your powers." Tooth stated ruefully.

"I guess we'll just have to do this again once I get my powers back." Annamore winked at the fairy. "So what's on the agenda tomorrow?"

"Something we've not done in a long time." She replied with a twinkle in her amethyst eyes.

"What's that?"

"Another double date, according to Jack."

"I feel awkward already."