AN: To the reviewer WEast I agree with you and I have already factored Jamie into this bonding process. He will be arriving in a couple chapters. Don't worry guys, Jack is improving and will continue to do so. I want to thank you all for your continued support, it makes me want to keep writing. To those of you who review every chapter or almost every chapter, I want you to know that I have noticed and I love you guys for it. As always, I do not own Rise of the Guardians. I'm still taking guesses on who you think attacked Jack.

No such luck. The Guardians would not leave him alone. The next day, he was stopped by North before he could leave.

"Come, spend the day with me Jack," North boomed.

The spirit resisted the urge to first flinch, than roll his eyes. Instead, he just gritted his teeth and followed the boisterous Russian through the workshop. They hurried through the bustling central room with toys flying everywhere, yetis running around, shouting and elves generally causing a ruckus.

North grabbed Jack by the elbow, steering him gently into the jolly man's office. "So, you ready for some toy testing?" North asked, blue eyes sparkling slightly and a goofy grin was plastered across his face.

Jack nodded slightly, trying his best to smile. He just hoped that it was convincing. However, the older man barely noticed the winter spirit's reaction, already reaching into the chest beside his desk and pulling out their first test subject.

It was a flawless ice train track with sharp curves, loop-d-loops, traps, tricks and barriers. All in all, an extreme course. The only thing missing were the trains. Jack gave North a questioning look.

A boisterous laugh echoed throughout the room and North grinned mischievously. "I thought ve could have little competition. We each make our own train and whichever train vins, maker will get prize. I don't know what it is yet."

The winter spirit stroked an imaginary beard as a show of deep consideration. His gaze was fixated thoughtfully on the ceiling. Suddenly, he broke out of this pose, a frost light bulb being formed. He showed a ribbon, a hand choosing a random box, a sun moving in an arc and a schedule.

"Um…," North began, staring at the symbols, "Winner … chooses … days …. schedule?" He looked towards the winter spirit, questioning, when he got a returning nod, the Russian agreed to the plan. "Now, ve get to vork."

The two got out their respective tools, concentration complete. On Jack's half of the room was a lot of gesturing and waving of the staff, then complete silence as he tinkered with the finer pieces. The amorphous shape was quickly resolved into one that was more and more defined. Details were painstakingly added, being carefully joined by flexible frost. The wheels were detailed and attached, body carved, axle and pistons joined until Voila! There stood a finished train with just one more element needed.

Meanwhile, on North's side of the competition, there was a riot of noise and activity. First came the almighty thump of a block of ice being heaved onto the desk. Afterwards came the roaring action of the chainsaw, hewing massive pieces from the larger cube. Chisels shaped and refined with echoing clinks until smaller and smaller tools were used. The stacattoed tick of the chisels slowly faded as the tools decreased in size. A final inspection under a magnifier ended the cacophony of sound. Finally glancing over at Jack, the Guardian of Wonder was amazed at the delicate creation, but even more so by the multitude of other sculptures surrounding the winter spirit.

"Jack!" North yelled, startling the spirit out of his concentration on his latest masterpiece. "Sorry," the Russian whispered as he winced at the shattering of the sculpture. Jack waved a hand through the air, dismissing the apology. "I guess you are ready."

The Guardian of Fun nodded, quickly snatching up his train and moving towards the track. North was quick to follow suit, prepping his streamlined craft for battle. He noticed that Jack was twirling something at the bottom of his creation, but he couldn't tell what it was.

They both lowered their trains onto the tracks, holding them back from the races, like racehorses penned at the starting line. "On your marks, get set, go!" North announced, giving Jack time to get ready. Then, the trains were off, speeding through the tracks like twin bullets. One was ahead, then the other, the jolly man narrating the event like a sport's announcer. "Now its mine, now yours, now they are nose to nose and oh, oh, here comes loop de loop, and pulling to finish line." North's train gave a burst of blue from its smoke stack as it came out of the loop, power propelling the little engine forward. It nudged ahead of Jack's and came through the finish line a hair ahead. "Wooooooooooo, I win," North screamed, racing in circles around the room like a child.

Jack rolled his eyes and laughed with his hoarse chuckle. You cheated, he spelled out when the older man had calmed down.

"No, I played fair and square."

Then what was that extra burst at the end?

"There was no rule against boost speeders," the Russian grinned slyly.

'Speed boosters', Jack mentally corrected, then pouted, with a playfully angry glare. Unknown to him, it came out rather childish and cute.

"You vill vin next time," North laughed, ruffling the winter spirit's snowy hair. The boy backed away, eyes slightly wide. However, he played it off, flattening his hair. The older Guardian had caught it however and his smile almost faltered. "Vhy don't we go get cocoa?" he suggested. He scooped up Jack's train in a single swipe, examining the toy as they left the room.

The jolly man interrupted the sudden silence as they got to the kitchen. "Your train was powered vith an elastic band," he exclaimed, incredulous. Jack grinned, showing off his perfect teeth. "Well Shoshtikovitch, that is good."

North turned to make the cocoa, adding powder to the preheated water. After some stirring, he handed one mug to Jack, keeping the other in his hands. "Ah, that's good," he announced, smacking his lips together loudly.

The winter spirit had migrated over towards the table, plopping down with his drink. He waved a hand over it, cooling it ever so slightly before taking a sip himself. He gave North a thumbs up and a smile.

"So, Jack, what you been up to?" North asked, gazing down at the boy, expression politely curious.

The frost child signed back a snowflake and a Tooth.

"Tooth?" the jolly man questioned, even though he knew that the fairy had spent time with the boy the previous day.

Jack nodded, showing Baby Tooth dragging a small frost winter spirit towards a Tooth Fairy, then the bigger fairy and Jack going off together and grabbing teeth.

"You went with her to collect teeth?" North half asked. At the spirit's confirming nod, he grinned. "Sounds like fun, but not nearly as much as racing trains." His blue eyes twinkled with mischief, just like the younger Guardian's used to. They lapsed into silence, each slowly sipping on their cocoa.

"You know you can trust us, right Jack?" the Guardian of Wonder burst out.

The winter spirit's eyes widened slightly and he nodded, before ducking his head to look down at the table. He did trust them, it was just … uch, he didn't know. It was all so confusing. He didn't want the guardians to get hurt. His momentary feelings of happiness from the work on the trains and then the race had effectively disappeared.

"It helps to talk about things, da?"

Jack shrugged, blue eyes briefly glancing up. What's there to talk about?

"How about what happened to you? How you are feeling?"

I feel fine, Jack lied, eyes averted. The spelling out words in frost was time consuming and annoying, but he knew that was the only way North would fully understand him.

The older man sighed slightly, "Jack, I think we both know that not truth. Just tell me what happened, you don't even have to say who it was."

Jack closed his eyes for a moment, collecting himself, this was a lot harder to brush off when being asked one on one. When he opened his eyes, blue orbs were peering down at him with concern. His mind wandered to the torture he had experienced, he didn't want to talk about it.

"Please," North pleaded, "If anything, for yourself."

The spirit let out a shaky breath. They didn't like me to begin with, he began hesitantly. His averted gaze didn't allow him to see North's spark of happiness when Jack started talking to him. So, they teamed up and captured me. And they decided to take out their anger on me.

When no more frost symbols appeared, North placed a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. "What did they do," he asked softly (which is quite an accomplishment for the usually boisterous Russian).

Why does it matter? Jack spelled out, turning his face slightly away.

North, however, wasn't having any of that, he removed his hand from the teen's shoulder and instead put it on his chin, pulling it lightly up. The winter spirit was forced to look at him. There was a barely perceptible ring of moisture in Jack's eyes as he gently tried to pull away. "It matters because you matter."

Then hint of doubt in the sky blue eyes made North's heart clench. How could this boy think he didn't matter? They had failed him, so many times.

I don't want to talk about it, Jack signed, pushing up from the table.

"Wait," the jolly man called out, "Jack please. I'm sorry."

For what?

"Everything," North declared, pulling the small boy into a hug, feeling the spirit go rigid in his arms. "I'm sorry," he murmured, gently stroking the cloud of white hair. When Jack was released, he pulled his hood up, walking the few steps to the window and before North could react, the spirit had already shot out into the sky.