...Yeah, you don't even want to know what's been keeping me from writing. You just don't want to know.

Captive Arch

Jack Frost was not a morning person. At all. Neither was he a indoors person. This created a lot of problems when it came down to him being trapped inside until his new family permitted him to leave. This was not going to end well, Jack could already tell. It just wasn't going to end well.

It had already been two months since Jack had been outside. Only with the leave of Mother Nature had he been able to get some sort of relaxation from the forced vacation. Beside's the strange Get Well messages from the other seasonal spirits, nothing interesting was happening. That was a bad thing to have happen around a bored Winter Spirit.

Jack glared at the door of his room. Yes, he rather liked having a room of his own, but at the moment, it was nothing more than a forced prison. Winter was still calling to him, and only the fact that it was the Southern Winter made the call less forceful. Well that, and Mother Nature's order to rest. He vaguely wondered how the fall spirit was dealing with the strange situation.

Jack, however, was still bored. He wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep, or ride the wind and deliver snow. He had almost managed to get away once, but had been caught by the yeti. Now all the windows were locked and only North could open them.

He'd tried to fly out of the sleigh ramp, and had made it over the Atlantic before Sandy had trapped him in a cage of sand and had dragged him back to the North Pole. The sleigh ramp had been shut down unless for emergencies and could only be opened by North, once again. Sandy also had access, so that he could land his plane of sand somewhere.

His third escape attempt wasn't a good memory, but Tooth had been the one to catch him. Baby Tooth was a firm believer that Jack was healed enough to leave and that had led to an argument that Jack didn't even want to remember.

His fourth escape attempt was thwarted by Bunny and Jack was rather annoyed that the rabbit new him so well that he had been waiting for him. It was more than annoying.

The third month consisted of nothing but sitting down and waiting for something to happen, or at least for someone to free him. The yeti were beginning to see his point of view (winter creature that they were) and had spoken on his behalf with North, Bunny, Sandy, and Tooth. Jack was sad to say that Bunny demanded another month before the Winter Child could go back to work.

Jack sighed, laid down, and drifted to sleep.

"Jack," a female voice whispered. "I'm scared Jack."

"You're fine," he replied. "You're going to be okay."

Sandy watched the dream silently. Jack had been having the same dream since he had come back from being corrupted by the nightmare sand, and no matter what he did, nothing seemed to change the course of the dream. It always ended with Jack dying. Finally, Sandy had been forced to call in the other's.

Bunny stared in horror at the scene. They knew that Jack Frost had once been their Jackson Overland, but watching his death was a slap in the face. Tooth sobbed, as did North, but Bunny, who had been closest to the human Jack, just watch in morbid fascination.

"It's part of the process," Tooth whispered, once she calmed down. "When a person needs their memories returned to them, they see the last memory recorded and the other's are slowly returned to them in dreams. This memory seems to be most important to Jack, though."

Sandy had left it alone after that. A few more nights, and the dreams were of meetings that Jack had had with them as a human, and a few family meetings. These were private, and Sandy never stayed once he realized that Jack was regaining his other memories.

The next few days were awkward and everyone avoided each other.

Bunny was always seen somewhere around Jack, eve if it was just watching over the Winter Child as he slept.

Tooth hovered about everywhere, while Sandy was off delivering dreams. North stayed put in his office and carved different toys out of ice for their newest member, already planning on teaching Jack how to do the exact same thing. It would be a useful skill for the Spirit of Winter to know.

The yeti just watched everything in amusement. They were having more fun than they had had in a very long time now that they Winter Child was with them for good. North hadn't even protested giving the Child a room.

Manny watched the proceedings with amusement, as did Mother Nature. The way Jack interacted with the Guardians and the Guardians began doting on their own Child, the two knew that despite their differences they had chosen well.

At the end of the month, with warnings to be careful and assigned check up times, Jack flew as far from Santoff Clausen as possible. That didn't mean that only two days later, he wasn't back in his room with a box filled with decorations to place around the bare space.

The rest of the day was spent with North and the other's in happiness. Jack did happily tell them what would happen if they ever kept him indoors for four months again.

Bunny, Tooth, North, and Sandy looked at each other in nervousness.

Jack just smirked.

This wasn't how I wanted to end the arch, but I had to get something out and life wasn't going to allow me to get out anything else. Ugh, so much work. Need sleep...and it's only eight thirty. Can anyone say 'I hate school?'

Review, as always. I promise that the next chapter will be better. You are all awesome!