Chapter Ten- Meet the Real Me

"Where am I?" He groaned, sitting up and taking in the sights around him. He was at the Pole but something felt wrong.

"Jack?" A familiar voice called him.

"Pitch?!" He shot upright, staff clutched tightly as he glared at the nightmare king.

"Woah there!" He held up his hands in a placating fashion. "I'm not sure what's happening, but whatever it is the fact remains, I'm not your enemy anymore." He tried. Jack stood stunned, watching the yeti and elves going on about their business as if everything was normal.

"I'm calling bull on that." Jack spat. Pitch heaved a heavy sigh and sat down at the desk that was now in the globe room.

"I thought you'd say that, and you have every right, but I'm not your enemy. I wasn't always fear, you know." He offered quietly. Jack couldn't help a pang of sympathy. The Guardians hadn't even heard him out on Easter and he had a much better track record than Pitch did. Then he remembered Sandy…and his train of thought derailed violently.

"Wait…are…is this a dream or…did I dream that…" He suddenly had the most massive headache of his life.

"I believe we are in a shared dream." Pitch provided as simply as he could.

"But is that?" Jack shook his head.

"Stop thinking about them." Pitch offered. The moment his thoughts strained back to the dream they were in his headache subsided. He hadn't realized he had opened his eyes but when he did he was in a dream-version of the Warren.

"Alright, so what's going on?" He asked.

"I don't think I can explain in here." Pitch offered apologetically. "Aside from that this is a dream and the outer world is nothing like what you know, I can't say." He offered, trying to avoid giving him another migraine.

"Alright, so…" Jack started suspiciously. "What do you mean, you weren't always Fear?" He asked cautiously. Pitch sat, folding his legs and leaning up against a tree.

"When I was young, about your age, I had been doing my job as the spirit of courage through dreams, but not only that, I was what all the guardians are now, collectively, minus yourself of course." He took a breath and closed his eyes. "I was told, by Mani, that I had a new job, to be the first Guardian of Childhood. I would protect them and their innocence as best I could. I did this job, for a time, but as with everything good it hit a snag."

"Yeah?" Jack sat at another tree across from him, realizing that there was no need to worry about him harming him, it was a dream after all, and he seemed sincere. Over the years Jack had learned to tell, even at the South Pole on Easter he had been sincere, but now it was plain that Pitch had actually changed. He decided then and there to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Pitch couldn't help his small, sad smile. "Yeah. Other spirits were angry that I had been chosen, elevated, by Mani when they believed they were more worthy of such an honor." He explained.

"Sounds familiar." Jack pointed out. Pitch gave him a sympathetic nod.

"It does."

"What happened?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"They attacked. Father Time, Mother Nature, and a whole slew of more powerful spirits all the way up to Gaia herself. Between them they managed to…well let's say, relieve, me of most of my magic. I was left with only what made me Courage and they disbursed, leaving me to die." He shook his head, angry. "I should have picked myself up and went on with my life, knowing Mani would help, or at least send someone my way. Instead I was furious and I let that get the better of me just long enough for something to, well, snap. Granted I was incredibly drained and injured, but I should have handled it better. I thought that there was no better way than to accept the power of Fear. I remember thinking that I was doing it for the children, but I messed up, made a fool of myself and convinced myself that I could handle it." He trailed off bitterly. Jack suddenly felt bad for the guy.

At some point during this story the scenery had changed to being in Sandy's dream palace and he picked at the golden rug idly while thinking of what he could say.

"Sounds like you got the crap end of the stick." Jack commented lightly. Pitch couldn't help a chuckle.

"I'm not the first and I won't be the last." He offered.

"Yeah, but you say it like you purposely decided to become the living embodiment of Fear for laughs. You thought it would help the children." Jack pointed out.

"That doesn't make it a better decision, and it doesn't erase all the pain and fear that was caused because of it." He explained his bitterness and Jack made a decision right there.

"Alright Pitch, I believe you." He surprised the man so much he sat upright fast enough to fall over. Jack laughed a genuine, friendly laugh and offered him a hand-up which he eyed for a second.

"Just like that?" He asked.

"Just like that. The version of you I know, he'd already have lost patience with me or tried to kill me." He offered with a shrug. Pitch tried not to cringe at that comment and took the offered hand which helped him to his feet, still stunned. "Sorry, but you know it's true." Jack apologized for the obvious sting that held but nudged his arm playfully.

"I suppose you're right." He admitted. Then a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes and the dreamscape changed. "But nothing says I can't…" He reached down into the snow for something and launched it at him. "…attack!"

Jack was stunned for a second when he took a snowball to the face. He let out the craziest laugh he had in what felt like forever then created one in his hand.

"Alright, you're on!" He yelled.

That real-time shared dream left them caked in dream snow and panting in exhaustion.

"So that's real Fun…it's been a while." Pitch admitted, obviously winded.

"You mean getting your butt handed to you?" He asked cheekily.

"Oh really? Who's hoodie…is the wrong…color?" He asked.

"Oh this? You got lucky." He teased.

"Luck, sure." He grinned, loving the feeling of being social. He had missed it more that he realized. That part of him that remained himself for all that time had longed for this, and he could scarcely believe it was real.

"So, what happened in the real world to prompt this?" he asked.

"Jack you know if I tell you, your head might actually explode." He half-joked.

"I know, but…in vague terms?" he tried. Pitch sighed, he didn't know if he meant to give him puppy-dog eyes but he was. He caved.

"Alright…Mani did something to try to achieve exactly this, that involved…incapacitating, all of you. It's nothing bad, but in order for you to be healthy and return to normal I've had to become a Guardian again. I've been keeping the lights going while you're, well…and I need to…well, um…fix something and I think that's all I can tell you without hurting your brain." He chuckled. "Eloquent." He rolled his eyes at his own explanation.

Jack was chuckling off to his side. "Right? That was actually helpful. Do you think I'll remember this?" He asked.

"I doubt it." His face darkened a bit, "but I will, and you have no idea how much this means." He offered as he sat up.

"Maybe when we go back to normal, whatever that means, I will." He offered, trying to make him feel better. Both of them had the same thought about how weird that was but neither one mentioned it, and they were both wonderful actors. Pitch gave him a grateful smile.

"I hope so." He tilted his head to the side. "You're going to wake up soon."

"How…how can you tell?" he asked.

"I have Sandy's magic for the time being." He offered.

"Sandy can tell those things?!" He asked, eyes wide upon realizing how many times Sandy had obviously pretended that Jack had still been asleep when he must have KNOWN he wasn't.

"Why is that so shocking?" Pitch asked through a chuckle.

"Oh, it's not I'm just realizing how many times he must have covered for me." He shook his head, laughing at the memories.

"That doesn't surprise me at all." Pitch grinned, remembering the many times he had encountered the happy little man. (Encountered being a loose term, as any happy memories usually didn't include Sandy seeing HIM.)

At that point Jack closed his eyes and blinked awake in his empty apartment, confused and more than startled about where his little siblings were. It took him a full minute to remember that they were upstairs with the Bennetts. He ran his hands through his hair and got dressed. He wasn't sure why, he was on break, but he felt the need. As he made breakfast he realized how much of a parent he had become, because as much of a drain they could sometimes be he missed the little ones. He was worried, even though they were safe, and he had a strong, selfish urge to run upstairs and gather them back up.

"No Jack, you need to relax. If you can't be on you're a-game you can't take care of them." He chastised himself aloud. He couldn't remember when he had started that habit. He had always been quiet because of his parents, hadn't he?

He tried to shake the thought off and made himself be like every other college student in town, so he sat down and watched TV, read, played games and napped all day until Mrs. Bennett let herself in and a hyper quintet of energy rushed him. The smile on his face could light up entire continents.

"Hey! How were the little devils?" Jack asked purposely loudly.

"They were wonderful, and someone's feeling better." He was then handed a bundle of sleepy blonde grins and giggles.

"Really? Hey there Sandy, you feelin' better buddy?" He asked, Sandy nodded with a huge smile. He sneezed once but he looked so much less miserable than before.

"Tell him about the dreams!" Jamie urged. His mom giggled and shook her head while the loudening chorus of voices started to pick up steam. She hushed them and Sandy started to sign like lightning.

"Woah there buddy, slow down, what dream?" He asked. Sandy obliged him but being a sleepy toddler it was still hard to see.

"Want me to tell him?" Aster asked, peeking around Jack to see his baby brother. Sandy nodded and let his head fall back down on Jack's chest.

"We all talked about it and we think we had the same dream." He offered. "About you and someone we think use to be bad but he's not anymore. And you had a snowball fight with him and you made friends." He offered.

"Woah no way! I had that dream! I don't remember it that well, but I remember him saying something that won me over. Don't know what it was though." He strained to remember the dream but ended up with a throbbing headache. Sandy signed 'friend' and Jack's head exploded in on him, almost causing him to double over and lose his grip on the boy.

"Jack?!" Jamie and his mother both called in unison. They even harmonized a bit.

"I don't know where that came from. It…it happened this morning too, but that was early. It's just…just a headache." He tried to assure her, squeezing his eyes shut as tight as he could.

"Here sweetie, come here Sandy." She scooped the boy back up and led Jack to the couch to sit.

"It's fine, really." He insisted.

"It doesn't look fine." Aster insisted. Something about his voice seemed too old, gruff…and his accent…

"Ow…" Another shooting pain through his head made its way into his spine and made him want to vomit.

"Jack? Honey lay back down I'll get you something to take the edge off." She soothed quietly, rubbing circles into his back. He looked up and saw that Aster had Sandy, Jamie had scooped up Anna and Nick was under the boy's free arm as Anna was really small. All of them looked worried.

"Relax guys, it's no biggie." He offered, trying to soothe them. Aster gave him a…odd but familiar look. He doubled over.

"Shh, easy sweetie. Jamie, please go grab some medicine from upstairs." Jamie nodded and looked between Anna and Nick.

"Sure mom, hey guys wanna go on an adventure?" He asked, they nodded as the distraction took hold. Jack grinned through the pain, Jamie would be a great big brother. Wasn't he already? Wait how would he know that? His head exploded again.

"Jack? Come on sweetie." He finally let her lead him back to his bedroom and tuck him under a thousand blankets for some reason. He mentally chuckled at the thought of what she would do if he was actually cold. He wasn't really sure what to think about what was happening but she didn't really give him time to question it. She ruffled his hair, smoothed it out of his face and started to hum. Suddenly something occurred to him.

"You remind me of someone I knew." He offered sleepily, drowsiness hitting him like a brick for seemingly no reason.

"Who's that honey?" She asked sweetly.

"I…I don't…remember." He scrunched up his face trying to bring the memory out and that just caused a wave of nausea.

"Shh, easy sweetie, don't worry about it. Relax, deep breaths." She cooed. He didn't realize Jamie had come in until suddenly her hand was gone from his head and he heard a pill-bottle opening. "Here you go sweetie, this'll help." She helped him up and he took the medicine easily.

"I swear I have no idea where this came from." He muttered in utter confusion.

"I know, I know. Don't worry about it sweetie." She urged, humming until he fell asleep. When he finally closed his eyes and drifted off she made her way out to the others for supervision purposes.

If only he knew how much he was helping me and Jamie, being a part of this wonderful family of his. Her mind wandered as she watched Aster and Jamie playing with Anna and Nick, trading off the snuggling of their youngest. They may never replace her, but at least it helps fill the void. Even if it's just a little bit. She would have absolutely loved to meet them.

Happy end-of-the-semester/end-of-finals/Merry Christmas/break as it applies to you! I just want to say a great big ol' THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reviews and the follows/faves. That stuff keeps it going and it makes me so much more excited to write. You have no idea how much it means to know someone is actually reading this/cares if it's updated. Any review at all is a great one! Thank you so much! Here y'all are and I hope ya like it! You are wonderful people! :)