After a long hour in the globe room, the other Guardians had already started coming up with ideas on how to deal with Pitch this time. While they talked, Jack and Jamie retreated to the guest room, with the younger teen struggling to stay awake as he sat on the edge of his bed. Jack leaned against the wall between the beds, letting his staff rest against his shoulder.

Jack noticed and felt guilty. I wasn't there to help them. "The nightmares can't get in here," he pointed out, "so you're safe here."

Jamie covered his mouth as he yawned, then said tiredly, "I'm okay, but I wanna make sure Sophie's alright."

The winter spirit shook his head. "She had more time to sleep than you. Trust me, she's fine."

Realizing that he wouldn't win with that argument, Jamie decided to change the subject. "So how did North react?" he asked curiously. "You never got to tell me."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that," Jack said, nodding. "I told you that he found out from the others, right?" Earning a nod, he went on, "Well, I ran away from them, but from what Tooth told me, I guess he was mostly confused. All I know is that he found me in Antarctica, and we talked about believing in what others say about us." He paused, staring out the window, his fingers dancing lightly on the staff. "I told him, and he hugged me."

Jamie smiled; he had figured North would have done something like that.

"Then he told me it would be okay." Jack shrugged. "It was actually his idea to start designing the snowflakes to keep me distracted."

"Really?" The younger teen hadn't expected that. "But didn't you design them before then?"

"Yeah, but..." Jack trailed off. "It was different. While before it was just a way to pass time, it became a way to distract myself and keep from cutting again."

Jamie thought about the markers in his pocket and realized that it was almost the same thing. How many people draw on their self for fun without knowing that somewhere else, there's someone who does it because they need to?

Later, Sophie woke up slowly to the sound of a teasing voice and another person's laughter. She smiled to herself when she heard Jamie laughing. It had been a while, and after a long night, she hoped it was a good sign. Reluctantly, she pushed herself into a sitting position.

Jamie was sitting on the edge of his bed with Jack standing between both of them.

"Look who finally woke up," Jack said, chuckling. "Hey there, Sleeping Beauty."

Sophie yawned, then blinked at them. "What time is it?"

"Seven," Jamie replied, then winced. "Did you sleep better than I did?"

She gave him an odd look. "What?"

"Your brother only slept a few hours," Jack explained calmly. "I told him to go back to sleep, but he was worried about you."

Sophie looked at Jamie curiously, but he didn't deny it, just looked away. Protective older brothers, she thought with a smile, then frowned when she thought about what would happen if she got a boyfriend. They're gonna kill him. And she didn't doubt that.

"I guess I did," she said after a moment, remembering Jamie's question. "Where are we?"

"The North Pole," Jack answered, grinning.

Sophie froze. "Mom and Dad are gonna be worried! Jamie!"

"We didn't stay the night, Soph," Jamie told her quickly.

She didn't relax yet. "But what if they come home to see us gone?"

"I already handled it," Jack reassured her. "Your dad was already gone, but he won't be home for a few weeks. Your mom's taking a day off."

Sophie glanced at Jamie, who shrugged. "He won't tell me," the older Bennet said, then added with a glare at the winter spirit, "which is unfair. She's our mom!"

"Hey, at least I got your phone back!" Jack reminded him, and Sophie noticed a strange look cross her brother's face. "And she's not hurt."

Jamie opened his mouth, then closed it and stood up. Sophie and Jack shared a confused look as he walked out of the room. After a tense silence, Sophie said nervously, "What did you do?"

"I used some dreamsand and knocked her out," Jack admitted, grinning sheepishly. "That way she couldn't catch Jamie out of the house. Besides, she looked like she was tired."

Sophie couldn't help laughing. "Jack! I can't believe you did that!" she giggled, but once she calmed down, she realized what else Jack had said. "Wait. What did Jamie do?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know. He said he was under house arrest and had his phone taken away."

Sophie smiled. "So you got it back for him?" That's sweet.

Jack leaned on his staff. "It's just so he can delete some messages. Then I'm gonna put it back."

She gave him a look. "What messages?"

Jack paused, then looked around, as if worried someone would catch his telling an important secret. "Everyone found out, and Jamie's dealing with their...concern." His tone was strangely harsh and almost resentful, which caught the younger Bennet off guard. He had never used that tone with any of the Burgess kids. But then she remembered that it wasn't just about Jamie - Jack could have easily been receiving whatever the others were saying.

Sophie definitely didn't want to know any more about it.

Jamie was walking around the workshop, ducking around yetis who grumbled at him, when he got a call from Pippa and answered it with a tentative, "Hello?"

Her voice was soft but careful. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but I just..." He heard her take a deep breath. "Why do you cut yourself?"

Jamie thought about all the reasons. Stress that was caused by his dad, work, school, taking care of Sophie, never seeing his best friend...and many other things. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall outside the guest bedroom.

Once he started talking, he couldn't stop himself. He brushed a few tears away, annoyed, but he couldn't keep his voice from shaking slightly. Pippa stayed quiet and didn't say anything until he'd finally ran out of words, Jamie started to rub at old scars; it was a habit he'd picked up that had irritated healing cuts enough to calm him down. Since he hadn't relapsed for a while, it wouldn't do anything to hurt him. He absently pulled a marker out of his pocket and started drawing as he waited quietly for his friend to say something.

After a long moment of silence, Pippa said softly, "I'm sorry."

Jamie sighed softly and shook his head. "It's fine."

"No, it isn't," she said quietly. "Look, I have to go - but can we talk later? Face to face?"

Jamie hesitated, biting his lip. "My dad grounded me. He said I can't see anyone outside of school until I learned some respect."

"But he didn't take your phone away?"

"He did," Jamie told her. "But Jack got it back so I could talk to you and everyone else. Can you tell them not to text or call me? Once I get my phone back..."

"Okay," she said, nodding even though Jamie couldn't see it. "But you have to call me if anything happens, okay?"

"Sure," Jamie said, though he doubted that he could, even if his mom was less...strict than his dad. "I guess we'll just have to see what happens, huh?"

"Yeah," she agreed, then added, "Bye, Jamie."

Jamie sighed. "Bye." Hanging up, he noticed an elf trying to drag some Christmas lights across the floor. "Hey, you need some help?"

The elf stopped, looking up at him with wide eyes, then looked around before turning back to Jamie. He pointed at himself with a shocked "Who, me?" expression. Jamie picked up one end of the lights, saying with a slight smile, "Yeah, you. Need help?"

The elf brightened up, nodding eagerly and nearly racing away with one end of the lights held tightly in his hands, and Jamie tried to wrap up his end a little before following him. As they walked, the eighteen year old looked around in wonder at the workshop. It was just something he never could get over seeing, no matter how many times he visited the place.

The elf was quickly joined by a few others, and soon they were playing tug-of-war with the lights, which slipped out of the teen's hands during their fight. "You guys are going to break those," he warned them, but he didn't think they heard over the ringing of the bells on their hats.

A passing yeti saw them and snatched the lights away from them, saying something sharply to them as Jamie snuck back to the guest room, where Jack was telling Sophie about a fox he used to play with and a hunter he'd played many pranks on. "One of his dogs hated me, but the other one seemed to like me."

"Have you ever been attacked by an animal?" Sophie asked curiously, barely glancing at Jamie when he entered the room.

Jack grinned at him, then looked back at Sophie. "A few times, but of course I got away!"

"So what happened with the fox?" Jamie asked, sitting beside Sophie.

Jack tilted his head back, trying to remember. "I don't know. I had gone back to Burgess for a few weeks, and when I got back to that town, he was gone. Guess he ran off." He shrugged. "I never saw him, and I doubt he would have recognized me. Once he grew up, he wouldn't have been able to see me again."

"Why not?"

The Guardian looked at the staff in his hands, suddenly uninterested in his own story. "You should probably ask North that. He knows more about it than I do. I was only seen by animals, but North was seen by people before. It might have something to do with belief, but I'm not sure."

"So animals believed in you?"

"More like they sensed me. If they knew I was there, then they didn't have much of a choice about believing in me. But usually only the baby animals saw me." He looked up at the Bennets. "After a while, they stopped noticing me too."

"Oh," Sophie said, frowning. That sounds kind of like how most kids stop believing in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny after a certain age, she thought, then shook her head sadly. It must be really lonely for them.

Jamie stood up with a yawn. "I think I'm gonna take a nap," he informed them, then went to lay down in the other bed.

Jack smiled and turned to Sophie. "Wanna help me prank the yetis?"

She grinned, but Jamie warned him from where he was, "If she ends up with no presents this year because of you - "

"Pfft, don't worry!" His older friend reassured him. "It'll be fine. Plus, Bunny wouldn't let that happen!" Sophie nodded in agreement, and Jamie decided to let it go. The other teens left him to go find some "materials".

Jack led Sophie to a room where many of the yetis were testing out the various toys and games they had created. Jack stole a camera and a bucket while Sophie grabbed some paint and some fireworks. She wondered why someone would get fireworks for Christmas but then almost lost sight of Jack. No more daydreaming for me, she thought, smiling.

"C'mon, Soph!" Jack called over his shoulder, and the twelve year old hurried to catch up.

~RotG~

Kind of boring chapter... But I threw in a reference to Stay Safe. I have to update that soon... Oh, hey, I'm alive! My mom told me that RotG was on earlier, and it occured to me that I hadn't updated in over a month. Bad Lin, I know. But school started, so things are gonna slow down a lot... Sorry! :)

I've missed you guys. Thanks to everyone who's favorited/following this story! :)

To pottercouples1216 - Oops. Sorry! :)

To royriza4ever - Thanks! :) I'll try to be faster next time.

To Guest - Thanks. :) I don't know, Pitch seems like the kind of person who can hold a grudge. And I agree, these poor kids.

To torihuffman9 - I'm sorry to hear that. If you ever wanna talk, I'm here. :) And I'm glad you like this story.

To Fleeing Dawn - I'm glad you like it and that it helps. :) I know what you mean, I read a lot of fanfics like this too. If you ever wanna talk, I'm always here to listen. :)

Y'all have a great week! :)