Chapter 7: The Temporary Solution

"Well that certainly was an interesting turn of events," Father Time said. He had arrived unexpectedly at the Garden as Mother Nature sat with her afternoon tea, making sure she had taken care of all of Jack's little stunts—just in case there was one they had missed.

"I hadn't counted on the family being as off as they were. The twins were nearly exploding with the effort it was taking them to not bring him up with their parents. Jacqueline had a lot of anger going on, and fear; which did tone down decidedly once she talked to Blaise and Winter as well."

"Winter thawing was perhaps the most unexpected of the events, I should think."

Mother Nature sipped her tea. "Incredibly so. But I'm glad it happened. She's been like that for fourteen hundred years, Father Time."

"Indeed."

"Now then, what is it that brings you down here? Not just my visit with Winter, I hope."

"Partially, to be frank. I was curious to see how they were holding up."

"And the other portion?"

"I suspect a big shift is coming. I've been looking to see how Jack being up North for such a long time is and in most of the timelines there's this brief blackout, and I'm not quite sure what it is. I know you expressed concern at his being there as well."

"Good heavens, the man has it out for Santa. Concern is putting it lightly. I have high hopes that this will help straighten him up but—"

"Considering his track record, you're concerned and rightfully so. I unfortunately can't help you much there, Mother Nature; I have not yet been able to tell if this is a good thing…or not."

Allow me to be of assistance…

Both Mother Nature and Father Time groaned as a cold wind blew. The light grew dim as the trees seemed to block it out completely. A cloaked figure appeared perched on Mother Nature's desk. His hood was already down as he full appeared with a smirk, his usual cloud of smoke making him look semi incorporeal.

"Fate," Mother Nature said, waving her hand. A tree branch flew at Fate, knocking him off of her desk.

"Thank you for that kind welcome, Mother Nature. Father Time," he said, getting up and floating on the other side of the desk.

Father Time made a low sound in his throat, almost resembling a growl. He shut the time window he had been peering through, leaning heavily on his staff and serving Fate with a glare. "What do you want, Fate?"

"Same as you, old man. A follow up with the lovely Earth Lady here."

Now it was Mother Nature's turn to growl. "You know everything, Fate. Surely you know how my visit went."

He chuckled. "Sweet of you to assume I know everything, Tara."

"She is right," Father Time said through gritted teeth. "You know how things are fated. Surely you knew how the visit with the Frosts would go."

"Not quite. It was all very unpredictable; there were several different ways it could have gone. I'm here to confirm it went the right way."

"If by that you mean they fixed what Jack had done and then had a very good heart to heart ending in Winter's third thaw, then yes, it went very well," Mother Nature said, sipping her tea.

"Excellent. Now! Father Time." Fate turned to him, hands pressed together, grin on his face.

"Well, go on. You know what I don't know."

"I know," Fate smirked. "You're going to hate my answer."

"Good heavens," Mother Nature said, getting annoyed. Father Time shot her a reassuring look.

"It is a good thing…but only because it is a bad thing. The bad thing leads to the good thing."

"The thing in question being the shift I'm sensing?"

"Correct. With Mother Nature's visit ending the best possible way, everything is set in stone now for Jack's whole "evil" shtick to correct itself. Like I said, Tara, I made a mistake; now I'm fixing it."

"Good. Now is that all you wanted?"

"More or less, yes. I do so love seeing the both of you," he smirked, knowingly. "I however have other matters to attend to. Ta for now," he said, and with that, the smoke covered him, and he was gone. The forest brightened, the birds chirped again, and Mother Nature and Father Time both gave a heavy sigh of relief.

"I can't stand him, honestly."

"He is quite the bother," Father Time agreed. "But he did give us an answer. Not straightforward, of course, but when is he ever?"

"Mmm," Mother Nature agreed, mouth full of tea.

"Now then," Father Time said, picking up his own cup. "Onto our next order of business. What do we do about Jack's job? He cannot do what he is supposed to do while he's up North."

"No, not really, and Spring is already itching for a green Christmas in the majority of North America."

"Do we enact the Legate Law?"

"No, we don't need to take those formalities. Winter will be more than happy to pick her usual duties up. After all, she's the one who takes care of the diplomatic parts of manning a season, not Jack. Jacqueline can pick up the slack and offer Winter a hand, but I think enacting the Legate Law is a little too much, don't you?"

Father Time smiled over his cup, his eyes twinkling. "Indeed. Well then, that about finishes things up here, doesn't it?"

"I believe so." Mother Nature got up, smoothing her simple skirt. She didn't have any official business today; there was no need for her extravagant gown to be on. "Thank you for dropping by, Father Time. I appreciate it."

He waved his hand. "Not to worry, my dear. It was my pleasure. Thank you for hosting me, and for the lovely tea."

"You're most welcome," she said, with a small bow.

Father Time returned it in kind. "I must get going. Time waits for no man, not even Time himself." And with a wink, Father Time disappeared silently, leaving Mother Nature in silence.

"Time waits for no woman either," she mussed, as she pictured Frost Manor and disappeared on the spot herself.

The family sat at the kitchen table, chatting up a storm and having their own tea time—that is, four o'clock coffee and cocoa. The twins giggled as Fino threw bite sized cookies at Fiera, who tried her best to catch them with her mouth. Blaise laughed at her efforts, encouraging the twins to one up it with the regular sized cookies.

"Those are too big!"

"No they're not, just watch. Winter! Cookie me, please!"

Winter smiled, grabbing the biggest cookie on the platter. "Ready?"

"For you? Always," he winked, opening his mouth. Winter grinned, tossing the cookie.

"Ta-da!" Blaise said around the cookie now securely clamped between his teeth.

"Nice," Fiera said.

Winter smiled, turning back to Jacqueline. "You were saying, dear?"

"It was wild! I couldn't believe how much snow had already fallen! I'm not even sure what the point of putting a snowstorm in the Amazon was. Poor thing, it was so confused."

"I can imagine. That's definitely not a place for a snowstorm and I'm sure Summer will be on my back about it the moment she finds out."

"If she finds out," Mother Nature said, catching a cookie that flew her way.

"Mother Nature!" Blaise shouted, hiding the hand that had thrown the cookie. "What a surprise! I didn't even hear you knock!"

"The door opened up of its own accord," she said, taking a seat. "Please, no need to stand. I'm not here on business."

Looking relieved, Jacqueline and Winter sat back down. Blaise followed, picking up another cookie for himself. "What can we do for you, Mother Nature?"

"Cocoa?" Winter asked.

"No thank you, I'm just here for a brief moment," she said. "Though the cookies are delicious!"

"We made them ourselves!" Fiera shouted.

"Dad helped us with the batter," Fino added.

"But we cooked them! Ourselves! With our hands!"

"Lovely job," Mother Nature said. "How are things going?"

"Well, thank you," Winter replied, smiling. "You were a great help yesterday, I've learnt. The kids were telling Blaise and I earlier how you had listened to them, and urged them to tell us what was bothering them."

"We had a good conversation," Blaise recalled, briefly warming his coffee again before having a sip.

"Mom and Dad told us not to be afraid to come to them anymore, even if it has to do with our dearest brother," Jacqueline said, frowning into her cocoa.

"Speaking of," Mother Nature began, "That's why I'm here. No! No, he didn't do anything to Santa, don't worry."

"I thought we were gonna have to fix another volcano, phew, that gave me a scare," Fino said, holding his chest. A cookie hit his eyebrow and fell onto his lap, Fiera laughing.

Mother Nature smiled. "No. He's limited to the Pole, which is what I needed to talk to you two about, specifically," Mother Nature said, Turing to Jacqueline and Winter. "Seeing as how he's staying up North, there's a bit of slack to pick up everywhere else, winter wise. If the two of you wouldn't mind lending a hand, I would greatly appreciate it."

"Of course, Mother! It's just a little more work than usual. Not a problem. Jacqueline will be a big help as well."

"You're enacting he Legate Law?" she asked.

"Not quite, that's a little too extreme. I'm just getting you and your Mother to take care of the areas he can't, seeing as how he's essentially stuck in the North Pole."

"Oh! Alright! Sounds fun," she grinned, nearly polishing off her cocoa.

"That's the spirit," Mother Nature smiled. "Now then, I think I've intruded quite enough."

"An intrusion? You? Why, never! Are you sure you don't want to stay?"

"Thank you for the offer, Blaise. But I do have a few things to take care of today. You five enjoy, and if you need anything, just shout," she winked.

"Shall we start tonight?" Winter asked.

"Ideally, yes. Your sister is already itching for a green Christmas, so the sooner the better."

Winter scoffed. "Of course she is. I'll show her a green Christmas alright," she said, eyes narrowed.

Mother Nature laughed. "I trust you will. Both of you. I'll be off now." And with a wave, Mother Nature made her way to the front door.

"Grandmother, wait!" Jacqueline called, chasing her into the hall. Mother Nature stopped by the door, catching Jacqueline as she slid on the tiles.

"Thanks. Fuzzy socks are cozy but don't have much traction."

"Marble floors don't help either."

"Exactly."

"What did you need, dear?"

"I just wanted to say thank you again, Mother Nature. I'm really happy that you helped us so much yesterday," she said, hugging the matriarch tightly.

"Awh, Jacqueline, no need to thank me," she said, hugging her back. "Really."

"Well, I appreciate it either way," she said, smiling.

Once again Mother Nature was struck by how unlike her brother Jacqueline really was. She smiled. "Well, I'm glad I could help you. Take care, okay? What I said is still true—if this doesn't go well, we'll be having a new Jack Frost shortly."

"Let's hope it goes well, then," Jacqueline said. "I don't know if I'm totally ready to attend Council meetings and deal with the "diplomatic" bits."

Mother Nature laughed, thinking of the bickering that came with most Council meetings. "Here's hoping. I'll see you later Jacqueline, okay? I'm very happy I could help."

"We all are," Jacqueline replied, watching as Mother Nature headed down the path and out the gate.

She turned around, waving to Jacqueline one last time before popping back to her garden.

All was well.

If there was one thing the great and powerful Jack Frost would never tell anyone, it was about the odd moments of clarity he got.

They happened much more frequently than he would have liked. He was a busy man, trying to make himself known all over again thanks to Santa. He didn't have time for his conscience to suddenly kick in and say "hey, maybe you should not do that thing you're doing".

Usually they only lasted a second or two before that thought would suddenly freeze and he would go back on his merry way, plotting and what have you. Sometimes they lasted longer, and he would hesitate. Remember certain things that he would rather not remember.

On a very rare occasion, they were way too long for his liking. Long enough that he would think a lot about those things he'd rather not think about. Long enough that he would make a snowball and think about seeing his family—and be able to see them, whatever they were doing, wherever they were—a handy trick he had picked up.

Usually before he could really reflect on how upset they looked, or what was going on, his conscience would suddenly freeze and Jack would drop the snowball and carry on, moment of clarity gone.

But this time? This time, it was lasting very long. It didn't help that Curtis had already made a snowball and passed it to him: Jack was already halfway there, thanks to the elf.

He stopped tossing the snowball up and down, staring into it. The snowball showed him right away what he wanted to see—but it wasn't what he expected.

There was his sister, rushing back into the house and almost crashing into his Mother. She was smiling—smiling? And gave Jacqueline a very big hug. His father joined them, grabbing them both and lifting them off their feet. Jack could tell it was quite the hug. They laughed together, and Jack had seen enough.

Look at them, something whispered in his head. They're so happy without you…you don't need them! We have more important things to do, now that we have the information we need.

Just like that, the moment of clarity was gone. He brought the snowball down and headed towards the Workshop. They didn't need him. And-and he didn't need them either! His conscience frozen once more, Jack dropped the snowball into the snow as he climbed the stairs, heading into the building.

Time to find that Hall of Snow Globes, he thought, determined now more than ever to finally reclaim what should be his.

A/N-Not to sound dramatic (I say, totally intending to sound dramatic), but writing this chapter and finishing it has healed the awful hurt the original version of the chapter had caused in the first place, w o w. What a difference!

Anyway I'm super happy with it and here you all go! New content! For the most part! It now properly lays out the groundwork and background necessary for Crystal Springs which this is a prequel to, to be honest. That's been updated to Chapter 17, with a good amount of all new content too!

So please R&R, or message me on tumblr, or whatever makes you most comfortable and tell me how you liked this fic! I love love love reading the lovely things you all have to say. I hope everyone's having a good day and a very happy Halloween to you all ;)