"Where's Sandy?" Jack asked upon opening his eyes and finding the little guy wasn't there. As he stretched a panic washed over him. Sandy never wandered off at night and he most definitely wouldn't have after all of that nastiness. "Aster!" He whispered. The taller boy blinked his eyes blearily before realizing who had called him. He saw Jack looking a bit panicked and that didn't help his heartbeat stay slow and even. He sat up, tense and ready to pounce.

"What?" He whispered.

"Where's Sandy?" He asked.

"He's rig-oh god!" His voice started to raise and Jack lowered both hands repeatedly to silence him.

"I'm gonna check the living room." He whispered as he carefully de-tangled himself from the sleeping (thankfully/finally) Anna and the covers.

"Sandy?" He called quietly in the hall.

From the kitchen Pitch froze, baby Sandy clinging to his leg like he was a long-lost friend. He tried to pry him off his leg and he couldn't help the soft smile gracing his features. He had to admit, he was getting a soft-spot for the little nut.

"Sandy! There you are, you scared me buddy." Jack half-admonished in relief, scooping the boy up and passing through Pitch in the process. Sandy pointed at Pitch with a happy grin and Jack raised his eyebrow.

"What is it buddy?" He asked, confused as he could see nothing where Sandy was pointing. He made a sign. 'Friend'. Jack smiled obligingly, but without the condescension you might expect from an older brother when confronted with his baby sibling's 'imaginary' friend.

"Oh, you have a new friend?" He asked. Sandy nodded happily. Pitch missed the conversation because Jack had taken Sandy back to bed, as it was too early for them to be up, and stood there stunned.

The sand man had seen him. The Sand man had call him a friend.

"My life just can't get any stranger, can it?" He asked Mani with a smile, although this time it was a gentler one. "What are you getting me into now, old friend?" He asked as he watched the moon's light flicker over the room like a reluctant smile. Something in his gut told him to stay, and he figured that would be Mani, and as much as part of him wanted to fight that he found that he just couldn't. He decided he wanted to stick around.

He was lounging on the couch, waiting for something to make sense in the truest form of the expression. His mind was bubbling up with all sorts of unpleasant thoughts and contradicting feelings he just couldn't push back.

"Hey!" He heard Aster yell right after a very large thump. "Watch it!"

"Well you weren't paying attention." Jack chastised, sounding like he was trying desperately not to laugh.

Pitch didn't catch the rest of it for the laughter of Jack, (he assumed Sandy), Nick and Anna. Shaking his head he stood and made for the window, wondering what in the world had gotten into him.

"My son, do not fight this." He thought he had heard Mani say, which honestly wouldn't have surprised him in the slightest.

"Did I say I intended to?" He asked to himself and as he left to wander the world and...he didn't really know what he was doing...he could swear Mani chuckled.

Back in the apartment Jack was getting ready to make breakfast after getting everyone cleaned up. The window being closed caused them to have to keep the light on despite the bright morning sky and somehow everyone had recovered from the night before.

Pitch had wandered to the empty pole and found yeti running everywhere, scrambling to keep up with their now missing boss' toy production and hoping they wouldn't have to deliver the toys as well. Although he wouldn't have been pegged by anyone as the multilingual type Pitch actually spoke fluent yittish, so he caught the conversations below from the shadows. He gleaned quite a bit of useful information in those few hours, mostly that the dais (evidently a panel under the moonstone that directed the moon's magic) needed to open back up and only a guardian could do it.

"That's odd, they're children Mani, they can't-" He sighed heavily as the moon crystal that sat atop the dais began to glow with moonlight and his image showed up. "Of course." He rolled his eyes but for once there was no heat in it. Something had happened to him before that he couldn't really even remember that had made him the boogeyman, but right that second he couldn't figure out for the life of him why. He stepped up in front of the befuddled yeti and elves uncertainly.

"Well...why are you staring at me, you have jobs to do." He poured as much of his menacing side into it as possible but all he got was a slight head-tilt from the head yeti, Phil who began to question him about what was happening.

"Well, Mani has evidently chosen me, again." That sent them farther into a stunned state of utter confusion.

"Pitch Black is now the Guardian of Children, take care of your Jobs, all is well." Mani confirmed. They shot back into action leaving Pitch stunned.

"Mani? What in the world is going on? What possible reason could you have for this, and why wouldn't you have done it any sooner? I'm not a guardian. I haven't been for ages..." He trailed off, something in his soul screaming out in protest to that sentence. His stomach knotted up in defiance of his dismissal.

"That was my failing, my son. Let them un-do it."

"I am fear." He tried, he didn't even sound convincing to himself.

"No, my son. You are courage. You have forgotten what it is like to be loved. Remind yourself." He commanded softly as the light faded and the moon vanished from the sky.

He remembered why he had become fear. He had to remember now, Mani had left him with no choice. They had feared him, and that had empowered him, corrupted him for a time. When he had been chosen in the dark ages he hadn't been prepared for what the power of fear could, and would, do to people in order to give them courage. He had to be feared and he had hated it, but now he reveled in it...so he thought. He tried to be bitter but the memory of baby Sandy clinging to his leg happily forced its way back into his mind and caused a gentle smile to spread over his features. Sandy hadn't been afraid of him, and he missed that something terrible.

It was about now that Mrs. Bennett showed up with Jamie and Jack was tasked with letting her know about the whole stunt the night before.

"I just don't feel right asking you to be here, I don't know what that man wanted, and it's not as if he was a huge threat but there's nothing to lock that window with and-" She held her hands up to cut him off kindly.

"Jack, it's fine. Really it is. It was probably someone who thought this place was still uninhabited. I'll get something to lock the window with and it'll be fine." She assured. He looked across the counter and into the living room where the five kids were playing happily at the table. Chutes and Ladders, he mentally chuckled.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." She nodded, "now go on, you've got to get to work." She smiled, teasing gently. Something about the way she acted made him think of her as his own mother, and he was never more grateful for that than he was right then.

"Okay, okay." He chuckled as she shoved him playfully towards the door after a hug.

"Be careful."

"I will." He smiled and something odd happened. Her image faltered for a moment, making her look familiar, and she was dressed in colonial clothing, and the image of a much different home... It was gone before he could blink and he shook it out. Maybe it was his overactive imagination playing tricks. Yeah, that's what he'd call it.

For the first time in what felt like his whole life he didn't mind leaving them. He loved being with them, and he would miss them, but he wasn't worried. He wasn't terrified of what would happen to them while he was gone, if they'd get into the food and unwittingly cause themselves to not have lunch, if they would get hurt, if someone would get to them, if they'd be there at all when he got home. He could relax and it was an amazing feeling, being able to trust someone else with them.

Mrs. Bennett had actually gone a step farther than Jack had thought she would because she knew he would never ask for it, and he wouldn't tell her, but he really did need the help. She had brought food from upstairs to make them dinner and even taken them out for ice cream briefly (they really were mid-town now, right across the street from such things). She had warned them not to get use to that, that Jack worked really hard and that they wouldn't always be able to do these things, but she would try.

"We know, Jackie works super hard for us, and we don't mind when we don't get to order out all the time." Aster very adorably confirmed. She quizzed them about their family life and after a while she was determined to make sure this boy had what he needed. She made a mental Christmas/birthday list right there and set to making it happen, planning ahead in her mind while they played twister. She operated the spinner.

Okay, two things;

One-Thank you so much for following/favorite-ing! I know some people may not like being called out by name but you know who you are and you are wonderful people!

Two-Oh my gosh I'm so sorry I haven't updated in too long! The semester just got really crazy and I haven't had time. Thanks for sticking with it! Let me know what you think about this one, it's kind of taking off and I'm having trouble keeping up with my ambitions. :)

As always thanks for reading and let me know what you think!