"Well I'd say we're stuck." Jack replied.

"Great." Ray snarled.

"Jack, do us both a favor and don't mention his mask to him." Paddy whispered to the figure behind him.

"What do you mean my mask…?" Raymond asked wildly as he checked his face. His mask…was gone!

In the sudden silence, Paddy's unease rose. "Out of curiosity, where are you Jack m'lad?"

Jack hazarded a guess. "Considering I can't see you, I'd guess you were about fifteen feet away."

"How many meters is that?" Paddy asked. "I haven't used American measurements…ever."

Jack sighed. "Not really the time for math. Can you see Ray?"

"If I could d'ya think I would'a blabbed about his mask?" Paddy retorted. "Sorry, he dropped me sideways away from you two." Paddy sighed. "Don't suppose you could follow my voice? I have a killer itch on the end of my nose."

Using his staff like a blind person's cane, Jack tapped his way over to Paddy. "Ouch, don't freeze me!" Paddy complained as Jack's staff hit him in the side. Although he couldn't move, Paddy could still feel his entire body, including his now-freezing ribs.

"Sorry!" Jack said, finding Paddy's face after a bit of tactile searching. "Is this it?"

"No, that's my chin. You need to go up a bit." Paddy answered. Jack tried again. "Well, you've got me nose. Now out and just a bit to the left."

"Jack?" Raymond's voice was soft; Jack barely heard him.

"Raymond, are you feeling better? You went quiet on us. I figured you flew off on us." Jack turned toward Raymond's voice and was abruptly hauled off his feet as the immortal swept him up in his arms.

"Um, hey buddy. What's up?" Jack asked awkwardly.

Ray pulled away suddenly. "Uh, I'm sorry. Mother Nature wouldn't give me a straight answer about my mask. But now that it's gone, I don't feel out of control. I think you were right when you said the mask limited my powers until I could handle them."

"It's cool. I'd love to see the look on your face right now, though. I bet you look pretty sour having to admit that I was right." Jack joked.

Ray smacked his own head. "Sorry, forgot you were blind. I was just about to ask you how I look."

"Well, that can wait. We need to find somewhere safe for the night." Paddy interjected.

Ray hurried over to Paddy and lifted him onto his shoulders. "Paddy's right. Sorry about dropping you earlier by the way."

"I'll get you back for it eventually, fortune willing." Paddy said half-heartedly.

"That's the spirit!" Jack said cheerfully. "Now what?"

"With you blind and Paddy paralyzed, we're down to one fully capable immortal." Raymond stated simply.

"We're going to need a shelter." Paddy chipped in.

"Think you can manage it, Mr. Fully Capable?" Jack said in what he believed was Raymond's direction.

"I moved over here." Raymond called. Jack turned to face him. "I'm going to try putting some tree branches together for a shelter. Shouldn't be too hard."

After an hour of cursing, numerous collapses and having Jack hold one thing or another, Ray asked the inevitable question. "How does it look?"

"Looks like I'll have to worry about rainfall." Paddy said.

"You tried your best, Ray. If it's any consolation, it looks pretty good to me." Jack offered.

"Thanks, Jack. I really don't know what I'm doing, but I appre-…" Ray paused and turned to face Jack. The latter immortal had the biggest smirk on his face. "Why did you feel the need to do that?"

Paddy guffawed from his place on the ground. Jack burst into laughter a split second later. Shaking his head, Ray submitted to his own laughter. It had a nice ring to it.

"You have a nice laugh, sunshine." Jack said.

"I'm going to go look for a shelter. I'll hit the air and really get a feel for how big this place is."

"Don't go too high or too far, you don't want to have to face those power thieves alone." Jack cautioned.

"I'll be quick as lightning." Ray said smiling.

Jack felt his way over to Paddy. He sat down beside the leprechaun and sighed.

"You sound pretty pleased with yourself." Paddy said.

Jack nodded. "It's nice not having Ray mad at me. I hope it lasts."

Paddy nodded, got excited about the development, then remembered Jack couldn't see. "Aye lad. He handled his mask disappearing fairly well too."

"I think he overthought the whole mask problem. He took not knowing something about his own mask pretty personally. And…well. It might have been my fault too. I kept bringing up Jamie."

"Yeah, talking about your dead boyfriend with another prospective suitor is usually a bad idea."

Jack snorted. "A bit early to be calling Ray a potential suitor. I just…I mean who knows what happens when you die? I woke up as an immortal. Is it too far-fetched to think Jamie could've been picked too?"

"Jack, I…" They were interrupted by a rush of air.

"Well, you'll never guess who I found." Ray began.

Jack laughed. "I'm blind, so I guess you're right."

A facepalm later, Ray replied. "Jack, may I introduce you to Mother Nature, Queen of the Court of Seasons."

Standing up, Jack hazarded a guess and bowed. "Nice to meet you, at last."

"He's momentarily blind." Ray explained.

"I see." A feminine voice said.

Jack resisted another laugh. "I don't."

Mother Nature ended up laughing, her voice clear and crisp. "This is hardly the place for introductions. This island is inhabited, as you would have found out shortly. Luckily for you, they do believe in me. I was paying them a visit. If I had anticipated your arrival to be this quickly, I would have been awaiting you on my island. So, all things considered, this is a stroke of good luck."

Paddy laughed from his place on the ground. "I don't know if I'd go that far, milady."

"I suppose you're right. Shall we adjourn to the Court?" She asked, but didn't really expect an answer, as moments later Jack felt a tingle overtake him.

"Oh, that woman has a wicked sense of humor." Ray said.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"We've been teleported to the Court of Seasons. Trouble is, we're at the bottom of a very long set of stairs."

"Paddy?" Jack asked.

"Nope. Seems she took pity on him, at least. Try opening your eyes." Ray said.

Jack did and, while the world was much brighter than he remembered, he could see. "Ray, I can..." The words died in his throat.

"I, uh, would have told you earlier, but I wanted you to see for yourself."

Jack cleared his throat. The lump formed inside his throat made it hard to speak. "At least I didn't lock Jamie in his room for three months."

"That's it? You leave the Guardians on the off chance that your boyfriend is still alive and all you have to say to me is some lame line about Jacko?"

"What do I even call you?" Jack asked seriously.

"Whatever feels right to you. It's all the same to me really."

"As long as I don't call you James, right?" Jack asked wickedly.

Ray/Jamie laughed. "Anything but that." He agreed.

Then the dam burst and both immortals hugged each other close. Jack didn't know which of them started it, but suddenly Jamie's lips were on his again and the feeling was too incredible. Both had tears streaming down their faces when they separated.

"I thought you were dead." Jack began

"At some point, you were probably right." Jamie answered. Jack tried not to think about that too long.

It was him! Albeit, now he had literally flaming hair. Jack took stock of everything about him. His pale face, a few shades lighter than he'd been in Hawaii. That perfect face, with the same smile that Jack loved. It was Jamie!

It was too much. Jack sat on the steps in front of them. Jamie followed suit, putting an arm around Jack. "If it's any consolation, I don't think you killed me."

Jack turned to look at him, afraid for a moment that this was a dream. "What happened?"

"I did something stupidly heroic in a bad situation. Then I lost my memories. When we landed on that island, the tooth holder must've slipped out. I picked it up and regained just about everything. I've still got some gaps, but the old memories triggered a few of the new and well, here we are."

"Here we are." Jack echoed. "I love you."

Jamie smiled. "I love you, too."

They kissed again, slowly, passionately. When he pulled away, Jack looked around. "Well, we have just a few problems, don't we?"

"Um, yeah." Jamie said, eloquently. "There's this set of stairs, the Court of Seasons in general, Mother Nature specifically, my family, who killed me, the power-thieves and then there's the whole problem of our seasons being complete opposites."

Jack nodded solemnly.

Jamie sighed. "But screw all that and kiss me again."

Jack nodded, and obliged.