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-0-

Tooth arrived back at the pole, her eyes still slightly puffy. The rest of the guardians were sitting around the fire, sipping mugs of cocoa and eggnog.

A yeti handed the fairy a mug as soon as she arrived, the fairy giving a small thanks. Plopping down, she began "I talked to Johnny. Apparently, after a lot of drinking some spirits tried to get Jack to play seven minutes in heaven. But Jack refused, and when asked upon whether he was a virgin or not, he just laughed."

Nobody said a word.

Tooth let out another sigh. "I told John."

Bunny groaned "Tooth! You promised you-"

"I made him swear to the man in the moon on his spirit hood." Tooth interrupted.

Silence.

"Has Jack woken up yet?" Tooth asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, he's in the med room. We're holding off on doing a physical without his consent." North sighed, stirring the contents of his mug no so gently.

Bunny shook his head, "I say we just do it now. Wha' if Frostbite refuses, then we'll never know whether he was tellin' the truth."

North set down his empty mug. "Bunny, theres only three type of people who always tell the truth: young children, the angry, and the drunk. Jack may not be a toddler-"

"Debatable." Bunny muttered under his breath.

"-and he certainly wasn't very angry on the sleigh, but he was quite drunk. And after what Tooth found out, Jack definitely drank a lot, no?" North finished.

Sandy made out the symbols for "Jack should be waking up in a few hours."

Tooth set down her own full mug. "Sandy's right. What do we say to Jack when he wakes up?"

"Give the lad some water first of all." North said, a hint of a smile on his face.

Bunny half-heartily chuckled. "Poor Snowflake's gonna have a hell of a hangover."

The Guardians all laughed. It felt strange, none of them had laughed in hours, and just smiling felt foreign.

-0-

"Ow...Ow...and Ow."

Jack groaned, eyes slowly opening as if the lids weighed a hundred pounds each. He hissed at the bright room he was in, the sunlight, white walls, ceiling, floors and bed made him want to go back to sleep. But with a groan of protest he sat up. His skin felt dry, along with his mouth and throat. He ran a pale hand through his rumpled silvery hair.

With a weak shrug, he chugged a glass of water that had been sitting on his bedside. He got to his feet and despite how utterly crappy he felt, trudged through the halls of the North pole.

It was mid-fall, so not really any of the elves or yetis stopped working to talk with him. Or at least the yetis were pumping out toys like mad, and the elves...they were sorta helping.

"Where are the Guardians?" Jack yawned. The loud sounds and light hurt his head, and he felt like dying.

The winter spirit finally found his way to the globe room, where the huge blue and green globe was covered in golden lights. Tooth, North, Sandy and Bunny all seemed deep in conversation. Their faces all looked fairly serious, and that's what scared Jack. He never really saw the Guardians without a grin plastered to their faces, or talking about children or something like that. When he first became a Guardian it kind of annoyed the hell out of him, but with time he learned to sorta enjoy their company. 300 years alone...nobody to talk to. He had maybe only talked to three or four beings in 300 years, one of them being Bunnymund himself. The other few he would never forget. He had held onto those quick chats and meeting and thought about them over and over and over...and over...and over again until the small nods and fidgets he had picked up ran on replay. The other beings he had met were a dryad who told him not to frost over own tree and the rest of the forest in the morning. The next was a tooth-helper, as she raced by in the wind she caught sight of him gawking at her and she nodded slightly and waved. And well, everyone knows the story of the Easter of '68.

Jack simply brushed off the thought. Now was not the time or place to think about that.

The young spirit cleared his throat. "Sup guys?"

They glanced at each other, faces full of surprise and worry.

"Hello Jack." Tooth coughed, standing up. "How do you feel?"

"Kinda like death. Why the sulky faces?" Jack shrugged, plopping down on a empty chair.

Bunny spoke "Well, you went and got yerself' wasted. We lugged your sloppy arse into the sleigh."

"Bunny!" Tooth scolded with a frown.

"What?! He has a right to know what's going on." Bunny grumbled.

"And what is going on?" Jack yawned, rubbing at his eyes.

There was a thick moment of silence between the Guardians. When nobody answered him, Jack looked up.

"Guys? Is everything okay?" Jack asked.

North coughed, "Uh, well..."

Jack arched an eyebrow. "Am I in trouble?"

Tooth acted immediately. "No, no, no! Sweetie, you're not in trouble for anything."

"Okay, what's going on? You guys are acting...weird." Jack stated, sitting up straight.

Sandy looked to North, who looked to Tooth, who looked to Bunny who looked annoyed.

"For the love of-, Jack, you said something really important last night. We need to know whether or not what you said is true, because if it is, it's a big deal." Bunny finally sputtered out.

Jack looked puzzled. "What'd I say?"

Bunny's expression softened. "Jack...right before you lost consciousness, you said...you said that Pitch raped you."

There was dead silence.

The guardians stared at Jack. The youngest guardian's face was pale, or, paler than usual. His eyes had gone wide and his mouth hung open slightly. Jack's entire body was rigid, fist curled tightly around his staff.

Then he shook his head and a grin grew on his face. The boy began to laugh. At first it sounded like a nervous laugh, but then it was almost a psychotic laugh. His body remained tense, his body shaking.

"Jack...?" North called out, concerned laced in his voice.

Jack looked up. "W-What? No, i-it's not true."

Everyone looked pretty unconvinced.

"I-I must have had too much to drink, you know?" Jack coughed, running a hand through his messy hair.

Tooth slowly stood, wings fluttering nervously behind her. "Sweetie? It's okay...If you were, it's okay."

Jack stood up himself. His eyes were starting to water and his body was still shaking. "No! I'm. Fine."

Sandy made the symbols for 'No, you're not.'

North set down his mug and rose. "Jack-"

"No!" Jack yelled, interrupting the legend. He looked around the room the way a cornered wild animal would, uneasy and afraid. And angry. "Leave me alone!"

Jack pushed passed them and launched himself through the window behind them, taking off like a bullet into the sky.

Tooth immediately scrambled towards the opening, ready to fly. But just as her feet left the floor Bunny grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

Whipping around the fairy clawed at Bunny, trying to rip his paws from her arm.

"Bunny! Let me go! I need help him!" She screamed, pounding at his arm.

"No you don't! Sheila, let him have some space." Bunny yelled back while Sandy pull Tooth into a seat.

She sobbed into her hands. The Guardians were all remarkably gifted at reading people.

Sandy because he needed to know what people wanted to dream about.

North because he would have to know people well to tell what they wanted for Christmas.

Bunny because he was a warrior, and also what type of egg to give people.

Tooth...because, well, a mothers intuition. She could read anyone she wanted, but if there was anyones emotions she knew? It was Jack Frost.

They all knew the truth know.

Jack had been telling the truth last night.

-0-

Please review your words make me smile :)

- Shelby