If it makes you feel any better, I was bawling at the last chapter, too. I honestly completely forgot I'd written that part and it took me by surprise when I was rereading it and MY FEELINGS.

I apologize, again, for leaving you hanging for so long. School, and life, and then school again, got very real these past several weeks. Four weeks of classes left to go and then finals and then winterbreak! EEE!

Hello to my new followers, fave-ers, reviewers, etc. And hello again to those of you who've been here a while. It does my heart good to know y'all like my stuff. :)

Jack tested the thickness of the ice while Mom helped Violet into her ice skates. Violet had grown in the past year and her skates were almost too small.

Though Jack had given his green light on the frozen lake with confidence, he felt restless about leading Violet onto the ice without taking extra precautions. Something about this lake grounded him, yes; but an implacable anxiety overtook him whenever children trod upon it. If he could stay in just one place for so long, he might take up permanent residence on the shore, guarding all the future Kristi Yamaguchi's and hockey stars of Burgess. All he could do was add layers upon frozen layers, just as well freezing the lake solid. This was all easy enough to hide from Violet's mother; the cold leeched out from the soles of his feet, traveling down through the tightly-packed ice to the first trickles of liquid water, freezing on impact. Only he knew he was doing this out of intense fear. He knew better than anyone what exposure did to a human body; when he could prevent an incident, he did try.

Violet's squeals brought his attentions over; she was trying to stand upright and steady on her skates, and not doing such a great job of it. Her skates were cheap and did not properly brace her ankles – given that she indeed outgrew them quickly, no one could fault her mother for not splurging. A pair of thick woolen socks was balled up in Mom's hands (which were also currently busy keeping younger brother Dash firmly in her lap), and Jack realized that was how they'd managed to get the skates on comfortably enough for one outing.

"Are your feet cold?" Jack asked her; his, of course, were fine, but he was still well aware of the frigid temperature.

"No!" Arms windmilling as she sought her balance, Violet stepped one skated foot, then both onto the snow-dusted ice. Jack held a hand out to her and she steadied herself with it.

"How long has it been since you last went skating?"

"I think I was four," Violet said after some effort remembering. "Do you go skating a lot?" They were closer now and she hung off his arm, feet sliding out from under her. Jack managed to keep her up.

"Yeah. Barefoot." He held up a foot, toes wiggling, for emphasis. She giggled, and then she did slip, and she fell onto her knees.

"Are you alright?" Jack and Mom asked her at the same time.

"Yeah. Jack's going to help me skate; right, Jack?" And even if she hadn't turned those round blue eyes up to him right then, he still couldn't have said "no."

"No problem. Just watch what I do for a sec, okay?" So Violet stayed on her knees, hands in her lap. Jack laid his staff down for her to guard, and spread his arms out like an airplane's wings to show her how to balance. His knees bent slightly to lower his center of gravity and he leaned forward to conserve momentum; then he pushed off the ice with one foot and slid forward. He repeated this motion on the other foot, and alternated again, a slight kick behind him at a small angle. And then he stayed both feet parallel to glide. "So, did you see how I did that?" he asked her after turning and coming back. Violet nodded and pushed to her feet, excited to try. "Go slowly; I'll stay right next to you so you won't fall, okay?"

"Okay..." She spread her arms out like Jack had, though uncertainly; Jack hovered just within her reach. The first attempt to move her foot led to a violent wobble and she flailed for his hand. "Jack...!"

"It's okay!" He caught her and stayed until she found her balance again. "Don't look down." Still holding her hand to reassure her, Jack moved in front of her. "Just look at me." Her eyes fixed obediently on his, and she took several quick breaths, scared and embarrassed. "It's okay. Steady..." Another staggering step and Violet pitched forward. Jack caught her shoulders and pushed her back to standing. "Whoa! Okay; wait and watch me again." This time Violet remained standing.

"This is so hard," she almost wailed.

"Just keep practicing, Vi," Mom called from the shore over Dash's fussing in her lap; he did not have his own pair of skates, but he still wanted to go onto the ice. Mom wouldn't even dream of it. Unseen by her mother, Violet rolled her eyes.

"It's like learning to ride a bike," Jack agreed. So I hear. "You'll get it in no time. See? It's as easy as one," he took a step forward, "two," and another step, "three!" and he coasted forward a few feet. "Now it's your turn."

Gulping in an effort to steel herself, Violet glanced down at her pigeon-toeing feet. Just look at me. She liked looking at Jack's eyes; they were so pretty. "One," he said, and she kept her gaze on him and dared a shuffling step forward. "That's it! Two..." another unsteady shuffle and she nearly fell again...! "Three!" Jack summoned the Wind to push her forward and her arms circled wildly as it threw her off-kilter. But then she bent her knees and leaned just like Jack had, and she was not falling anymore. She was sliding forward – she was skating! Her laughter broke out over the pond, echoing strangely off the ice yet muted in the cushion of snowfall. Jack's laughter joined it. After she stopped moving, Violet turned and faced him with her biggest grin yet. "I did it! Jack, did you see me? I did it!"

"That was great, Violet!" Mom called, applauding. Violet bounced a little on her skates, until they flew out from under her and she landed on her tailbone. Her cry of pain almost killed the fun, but then she resolved into giggling harder. There had been enough snow padding to prevent any damage.

"Careful, there, Miss Olympics," Jack quipped, rushing over to help her up. Her face was flushed and her eyes glittered brightly, expression the most open he had ever seen her. He pushed a disturbed piece of black hair behind her ear. "Wanna try that again? I'll teach you how to jump another time," he added with a wink. Responding with a less-practiced wink of her own, Violet took his offered hand and they set off together, moving toward the other end of the lake.

Recalling Violet's dream, Jack had to laugh again.

It was almost like flying.

–

Violet wanted to take a break because her toes felt cold. Mom took off the skates and quickly shunted the small feet into the wool socks and snow boots. Then they all had hot chocolate from a thermos. Jack stayed on the lake, swaying a lazy path across the surface. Now and then he'd call a frost pattern onto a rock jutting out along the shallow edges, or onto a nearby tree. He felt Violet's eyes on him the whole time; it made him want to show off. So he made the sheets of frost even more intricate and beautiful, putting more than just his natural touch into it but actually giving it thoughts to shape it. It worked so well to entertain her that he had to stop and marvel at it himself. 250 years did a lot to desensitize him to his own work; it turned out sometimes he needed the wonder of a child right in front of him to remember the absolute magic of what he did.

Pausing in the center of the lake, Jack craned his neck up, searching out the ferns of ice sprawling across the tree trunks and icicled limbs. The glaring sunlight sparkled orange and yellow and pink off the thickest layers, and despite having to squint his eyes against it, he could only think about how surreal and dreamlike it was to stand in a forest of frost that he made. He consciously inhaled the sharp, cold air, scented with pine needles, and the clarity took him aback. In a way he felt he was seeing this lake in the woods of Burgess, Pennsylvania for the first time, even though he'd stood in this same spot for centuries. For a glorious moment he saw the world as he believed a child saw it – all new and wonderful and anything could happen because there is such a thing as magic – just look around!

A snowflake formed over his fingers and Jack stared at it. In a crazy moment he felt like he was on the edge of discovering something vital, an answer that he'd been searching for all this time, that lay right in front of him. His eyes narrowed, focusing on the flake, willing its rotating form to shift and revel the big secret. It pulled right there, at the borders of his mind.

Sounds like children laughing poured into the glen and the secret fell from Jack's thoughts. He looked toward the far hill, nearest the Parr's, to see the pompommed hats of a group of kids rising above its crest. Soon enough the faces of those chattering kids appeared: Brad and Tony and Pam, and also Kate and Greg. At their appearance Violet shrank nervously against her mother, who laid a comforting hand on her hair.

"Don't be afraid, Violet," Jack said after he came over. "I know all these kids. They're all good friends."

That made her look toward the approaching group with some hope. Brad recognized Mom from yesterday and waved. Tony grinned his winning grin and rushed over.

"Hi! Your name's Violet, right?" he asked once he was only a short distance away. "Did you know that's a flower?" She nodded, looking like she had to bite down a smart remark; she must have heard that one a million times already. "Are you ice skating, too?" She couldn't deny the pair of small skates next to her.

"Want to skate with us?" Pam piped up, now also remembering the shy girl who would be in her class. "It's a lot of fun!"

Biting her lip, Violet looked up at Jack for advice. The other kids followed her gaze, but of course they saw only the empty air. Still, Jack felt his chest grow painfully hollow.

"Go ahead," he encouraged her, gesturing toward the children with his staff. "You're gonna be fine." Still nervous, Violet rose from her safe perch by her mother, gathering her skates as she went. Tony's grin returned – really, that boy could charm anyone over with that face – and he led her to the shore where his brother, Kate, and Greg were already at work lacing up their own skates. A pile of snow boots sat nearby, and Violet's and Tony's quickly added to it. Brad took Mom's place helping the too-tight skates back onto Violet's feet, and then all the kids held hands in a chain for the first steps onto the ice. Jack (and Mom) looked on apprehensively; with her "ice-legs" already found, so to speak, Violet did not wobble nearly so much as the other youngsters. Jack smiled to himself, hopeful that this would give her some more confidence. He leaned on his staff as he watched, waving and cheering Violet on whenever she dared a glance back.

Eventually the chain broke up and everyone skated freely. Tony kept in proximity to Violet, and Pam came with him. Brad mostly kept on the sidelines, acting as a supervisor more than anything. Greg, only slightly younger than him, tended to stop and chat before shooting off again. Jack knew Kate to be the wallflower – she flitted amongst the other members of the group, but mainly skated around and between them. After a few minutes, Mom stood with a dozy Dash in her arms and trudged through the snow to converse with Brad. The Wind bore snatches of their conversation to Jack, and it soon became clear that Mom was asking about the school, the town, and most importantly the other kids. She seemed overall pleased with whatever the boy told her. And for that, Jack was glad. He really hoped that the Parr's would stay in Burgess. He knew that he shouldn't hold onto that hope so tightly – they were Supers, after all, and the relocation protocol existed for a reason. But the Parr's really seemed to fit in, here. More importantly, Jack liked them. And Burgess was a pretty quiet place, anyway; there was no way they could run into any trouble here.

–

"Tony and Pam seem like very nice kids, don't they?" Mom said leadingly once they'd left earshot of the lake. Violet hefted her skates over shoulder by the laces. She supposed so. "I think they might be in your new kindergarten class. It'll be nice to know someone already, don't you think?" Violet nodded because she thought maybe she ought to agree. Mom let out a sigh of relief that Jack closely echoed. The Wind picked teasingly at their hair.

"When will I have school again?" Violet asked. Jack frowned, averting his gaze so Violet wouldn't see it as she looked up at her mother. Mom pursed her lips, scanning the snow-blighted landscape.

"Probably tomorrow, if the streets stay cleared."

"Tomorrow?" Violet repeated in shock, "But there's still so much!" And she turned those begging eyes at Jack and he had no clue what to say. Moon, he didn't even know what to do. Of course he would love to give her another snow day; he could block out school for a whole week or a month if he wanted to. But it was the end of March already; soon it would be too warm to sustain a snowfall. As much power as he had over winter weather, Jack still had to obey the seasons on the macroscopic level. How could he explain that to a six-year-old girl and not splinter her faith in him by doing so?

"It hasn't snowed since this morning, and the snow on the roads is all slush. Schools are only closed if it's not safe to drive, Violet, not based on the amount of snow alone."

"Jack...!" But his troubled expression halted her pleading cold. Her face fell and she looked so angry with him he flinched.

"Violet—"

"Go away!"

"Violet, what's wrong?"

"Jack won't make it snow more."

"I can't always make it snow, Violet." Why did he always have to go ahead and explain things he told himself he shouldn't? "Spring is almost here." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Besides, I'm already pushing it. The Groundhog said six more weeks of winter, right? I'm already on eight." Never mind that the Easter Kangaroo would get especially cranky at him if he kept winter going into April. But she didn't need to know that.

"The Groundhog's real, too?"

Mom didn't seem to know what to make of the half-conversation anymore, but at least her daughter was distracted out of her sour mood for now. "What about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and-"

It took all of his effort not to emit the most aggravated of sighs. He really should have just stayed quiet, and now here he was getting overshadowed by the holiday heroes again. Thrusting his fingers into his hair again, Jack nodded curtly. "Yep, they're all real. But they're all busy. I can't introduce you. Sorry." The rest of them could have all the other children in the world to believe in them; Violet Parr was his.

And she looked about to insist on meeting Santa and the Easter Bunny, but they all arrived at their front door, and Dash kicked up a fuss about wanting more hot chocolate.

"I have to go, now," Jack began awkwardly, feeling wrong-footed for speaking so casually after an exchange like that. "I'll be back again tonight. Same time?" The hand on his staff tightened and he refused to admit it was because of the fear that she would say "no." But rather she shrugged and quietly told him "okay." Which still was not good, but it at least meant she still liked him. That had to be something, right? So Jack straightened and backed up from the door, and Violet lingered to watch him shoot up into the open sky, before her mother called her into the house.