Changed the title and summary, sorry for any confusion it might have caused!

Editing this yet again! Actually, I rewrote this chapter entirely, since I felt the previous version was too much trouble to edit than it was worth. Still the same premise, same events, just different language. I changed Jack's sister's name from Pippa to Emma, though.

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognisable.

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year, all I want is my brother back. He drowned last year; he fell in the lake while we were ice skating. You see, it's my fault Jack's gone. I asked you for a pair of ice skates last Christmas, and worked very hard all year to be good so you'd get them for me. Jack said I must have been an angel all year, because the first gift I opened last year was the ice skates. I begged Jack to take me skating on the little pond in the forest straight away, but he wanted to wait; he said it wouldn't be safe. I kept asking, though, and he was such a good big brother he took me, and said he'd teach me how to skate.

While I was skating, the ice started to crack under my feet. Jack saved me, but fell in the lake, where I should have. He threw me to safety, and ended up standing where I had been. I waited for him to come back up for hours, but he never did. This is the first Christmas I've ever had without him, and Ma and Pa are always sad now, especially with Christmas.

If I hadn't made Jack take me skating, he'd be here now, writing a letter with me. I know I don't deserve anything for Christmas, because I've been such a horrid sister, but Jack didn't deserve to drown, either. Please, Santa bring him back. I promise to be extra good forever, a proper angel like Jack said, if you'll bring him back. Please, I miss him, my brother. He used to always play pranks and cause trouble, all to make me laugh, and tell me stories and make up games. I miss his hugs when I wake up from a nightmare, and I miss playing with him in the snow. Most of all, I miss his laughter. I miss Jack. Please, please, Santa, bring him back home. That's all I want for Christmas, and I'll never ask for anything else.

Sincerely,

Emma Overland

Reading the letter, North sighed heavily, gingerly placing the tear-stained page back on his desk. It was always hard, getting letters with impossible requests; it was his job to grant the wishes of children all over the world, and having to fail a number of them out of necessity always tore at him. Emma's situation, where another child's life had been lost, was not a unique one; North had gotten letters before asking for the return of loved ones, and it always hurt to read them.

Emma's letter was crumpled and ripped, torn at the edges, treated none too kindly. Knowing his Yeti would never abuse a letter so, North could tell Emma herself had inflicted this damage, perhaps out of frustration and grief at having to admit her perceived sins against her brother. His heart twisted painfully at the reminder Emma had innocently given, that North himself had been the one to give her the ice skates. Guilt ate at him.

He had not known his gifts would bring about the death of young Jackson Overland, he had merely granted the girl's wish that she had worked so hard to earn, and at the time he could never have expected such tragedy to be born from his present. The fact remained, however, that his gift had put a child's life in danger, and it had been up to a young boy to sacrifice his life in order to save his sister's, all thanks to something North had done. Heavy guilt blanketed his shoulders.

North felt awful that he couldn't grant Emma's wish for another year, to right his previous wrong, but he couldn't return the dead, and of course the girl knew that. The letter was a desperate plea made by a hopeless and grieving girl, written only for the faintest sliver of hope kept alive by the guileless naivety of youth – youthful innocence that was already fading in Emma. It was obvious she blamed herself for her brother's death, and that hurt North more than anything. That this little girl would lose her childhood because of something so terrible, and to blame herself for it, broke North's old Guardian heart.

He brushed his fingers against the bottom of the letter, where a few discoloured circles stained the paper, as if Emma had been crying whilst she wrote it. There was no gift that could relieve Emma of her grief, North knew, but he hoped that with time, and help from the other Guardians, she might be able to rest without nightmares, and indeed with sweet dreams, remember the fun she had with her brother without pain, and keep alive the hope of having him in her heart always, aware of the love he had had for her. With luck, Emma would begin to see the wonder in the world again, even without her brother by her side.

For a reason that couldn't be voiced in words, North felt obligated to help this girl recover, and become the happy child she had been before. There was always deep regret and sorrow when a child's life was lost, felt by all the Guardians, but it was sharper, somehow, when he thought of the boy, Jack. He was sure he had never met him, was sure that Jack Overland was not one of the children that made a habit of staying up on Christmas Eve, but he recalled seeing Jack's name on the Naughty List once or twice, though never for anything more than a few ill-conceived pranks. Even so, he felt protective over this poor dead boy, a sort of fragile connection between them that couldn't be explained.

Knowing that there was nothing to be done that could save the poor boy, North vowed to do anything and everything in his power to help his sister recover from her loss. Starting by visiting the other Guardians.