Gale of Memories

Chapter 15: The Blizzard of '68

Chapter 15: The Blizzard of '68

It'd been four days since the last memory. The Guardians had been unable to talk about what they'd seen. They couldn't understand how Jack could be so happy and carefree after living through something so traumatic. And even after all that...

Jack had shut himself away in his bedroom for the first day, and he only let Sandy inside. Even Baby Tooth was exiled, much to her displeasure. The day after that, however, things returned to normal. He acted like nothing had happened at all, which bothered the Guardians more than they were willing to admit.

Jack, on the other hand, was completely fine. Sure, those memories were extremely private and he loathed having the Guardians watch them, and yeah... he was sort of re-traumatized by it, but he'd spent that whole first day with Sandy... He knew that Sandy wouldn't pity him or baby him like the other Guardians would. Even Baby Tooth would pity him. He hated pity.

Though some tiny part of him was secretly happy that the Guardians felt so guilty. Because it was partially their fault. Because they'd left him alone.

Jack violently shook his head. Go. Away. He growled mentally. He swore he heard a dark chuckle at the edge of his mind, but that was all. After a moment, he relaxed.

"Jack? Sweetie? Are you doing okay?" Tooth asked, popping her head into the kitchen. He mentally sighed. I suppose they couldn't keep their mouths shut forever.

"I'm fine." He gave her a grin.

"I mean... I think we all need to talk about..." She trailed off, unsure how to put it into words.

"No. I really don't think we do." Jack's expression became somewhat cold.

"Mate, listen, I know it wasn't something you wanted us to see, but—"

"No. It wasn't something I wanted anyone to see." Jack cut off the Pooka, irritated. "I'm fine, now. And if it makes you feel better, I talked about it with Sandy. I'm. Fine."

"Jack..." North started, but Jack had had enough.

"Could you maybe just listen to me for a second?! That happened a while ago, okay?! Yeah, it was traumatic, and sure, I've got some kind of PTSD from it. But I was fine before you butted in, and I'm fine now. Just because you suddenly know about it, doesn't change the fact that it's already happened." He stressed. "And guess what?! You can't actually fix the damage that's already been dealt." He glared at the three Guardians. "You wanna help me?! You wanna make it right?! You want me to just up and suddenly trust you?! Maybe you can start by trusting me first. Oh, wait. You've already proven that you can't."

The three looked between one another, a sinking feeling in their stomachs as Sandy tilted his head, confused.

"Don't know what I'm talking about?" Jack scoffed, shaking his head. "How about this one hit. You. Were. Wrong." With that, he spun around and went to leave the room. "I'll give you an hour before we continue these memories. We're nearly caught up. Just the Blizzard and Pitch, now. I don't want to hear you bring this up again. This is your only warning."

The Guardians looked at one another. Tooth was the first to realize what Jack had meant, and tears started pouring down her face before she knew what was happening.

"Oh, no... You don't think...?" She looked at Bunny. "Easter..."

"You mean it wasn't...?" Bunny's heart sank. "No... I mean, surely we didn't get it that wrong..."