Q-A: I did say I would do an epilogue for this story and I never go back on my promises… for the most part. X) Well, I try. That's more than enough for me. I still can't believe it's been over 3 years since I first wrote this story. I'm so glad many of you stuck around this long and the new faces joined in. If any of you who started reading this after I completed the story, thank you. I know it's very messy at the beginning and there is still a lot of questions left unanswered but trust me when I say that the future stories centering around Bridget, Jack and the Guardians will explain it all. This chapter is dedicated to everyone who fell in love with RotG as much as I have and the people who still are filled with, joy, dreams and wonder. Don't ever stop imagining and believe as hard as you can in your friends, family, and most importantly yourself. I wouldn't have gotten this far without you lovely readers.

Disclaimer: I'm nowhere near as clever as Bill Joyce or Peter Ramsey and his team of animators and scriptwriters so don't ask if I own the source material this story is based on.

~Epilogue: A Date With Bridget~

July 4th, 2037

If there was one thing Jamie Bennett loved about July was the summer fun that could be had. Even when he was a boy, Jamie always looked forward to Summer break from school to have no homework, barbeques, go swimming, no homework, have sleepovers at friends' homes, no homework, ride bikes, camp under the stars, no homework, chasing the ice cream truck, and best of all, his best friend visiting on the sly.

The friend was the sort of person who liked to have fun so naturally summer would be his favorite season. In truth, he claimed to love winter, though if you asked Jamie and any of his close intimate relations they would agree spring (read: February 2nd) was the friend's secret love. Summer was in close third even if he couldn't stand the heat. But why was this all-important you may ask?

"We're going to see our friends tonight, Henry," Jamie called out to a young boy identical to him when he was the boy's age.

"How much further," Henry whined.

Jamie smiled. "We just left Grandma's house five minutes ago."

"It's too warm out."

"A certain someone I know will fix that," Jamie promised sharing a knowing look with his wife.

Henry had held a confused look before his hazel eyes widened. "Are we meeting… they're coming here?"

"So much for the surprise," Pippa sighed.

Jamie smiled apologetically.

In a couple of minutes, four other groups joined the family of three. With flashlights in hand, they addressed each other warmly.

"Hey, Jamie!" A young blonde waved at her older brother while her arm held a boy no older than three.

"Hi, Aunt Sophie!" Henry's dour appearance faded once he noticed his aunt and cousin.

"Are you guys excited," Sophie exclaimed.

"Shh," Jamie placed his index finger over his lips. "Not so loud. We don't want to alert the neighbors."

Sophie rolled her eyes at her over worrying brother. "It's not like they aren't used to this by now. We do this kind of thing every year without fail. This is just the first time any of the kids are old enough to remember this."

"Still."

"Hey, Jamie, Sophie, Pippa!" Jamie turned to the right to see Caleb walking over with his children.

"Why do I even bother," Jamie sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose while Pippa rubbed his back benevolently.

"I see you brought the boys," Sophie addressed Caleb.

The African-American nodded to his sons, Conner and Caden, who quickly walked over to Henry and conversed.

"No, Aisha?" Pippa frowned, referring to his wife.

"She couldn't make it," Caleb answered. "Got a cold."

Sophie almost tripped in surprise. "In Summer?"

"That can happen to people," Jamie said sagely.

"Only if they have white hair and blue eyes-" Sophie hummed until another voice turned up.

"What's up everyone?" Claude arrived, waving his flashlight around. He sported a new exotic buzz cut in contrast to his younger twin's short hair.

"Uncle Claude," Conner and Caden cheered before rushing to go greet him.

"So much for getting those two to not be energetic tonight," Caleb sighed. "Aisha won't be too happy about that."

"Keep in mind that none of our kids are going to behave quietly after we meet up with everyone else," Jamie said.

"I'm pretty excited," Sophie said loudly into her brother's ear.

"Owph," Jamie winced. "Are you 27 or twelve years old, I can hardly tell?"

Henry laughed, and Pippa shook her head, more than used to her sister-in-law's antics. Even though Sophie was married and had a boy, she still acted like a kid at heart. Most of the group did actually. People around them would say that none of them entirely left childhood while growing up. They never meant it in a good way however, but their parents-Jamie's especially-always came to their defense when word got out of hand. It didn't matter to any of the group though, they all led happy, and dare say; thrilling lives in their sleepy little town and grew up to be well-managed adults with families of their own now. Well, except for Claude. He claimed that he would settle down once his career in the music industry calmed down.

(He became a well-received rap artist for his famous rendition of Mr. Sandman. Claimed he was inspired by a dream he had as a boy.)

The next person to turn up was Cupcake with her husband and their son, Andrew Jr. Guess who he was named after. She was still taller than everyone else but had grown into a good-looking woman once puberty came and went.

All the old friends chattered amongst themselves until they arrived at the clearing. Three figures were already there, waiting for them. A man in his early thirties, a pretty woman roughly his same age and a girl with blond hair with blue eyes. The two adults were talking to each other until the girl tugged at his arm and pointed toward the group.

"Figures Monty would be here earlier than us," Claude stated while his nephews swung on his arms.

Monty waved at them happily. He barely changed in appearance with the obvious exception of not wearing his glasses. They always kept getting in the way during his fencing tournaments in high school and opted for laser eye surgery.

"Hi, Conner. Hi, Cayden. Hi, Andrew," Monty's daughter raced over to greet her friends. She glanced over at Henry and waved shyly at him. "Hi, Henry."

Henry was put off slightly by her behavior but guessed it was a girl-thing and nonchalantly waved back. Jamie and Pippa shared a smile.

"So are they here yet?" Sophie looked up to the sky as if that would answer for her.

"No," Monty replied. "We all agreed it would be 9 o'clock."

"Benny won't stay awake that long," Sophie objected while shaking her son to keep his eyes open.

"They'll come," Jamie spoke unwaveringly, "It just takes a while for them to group."

"Didn't they just get back from a mission," Cupcake questioned.

"Somewhere in Australia," Caleb furrowed his brow, unsuccessfully remembering the exact location.

"No, it was in New Zealand," his brother corrected. "Something about local spirits getting angry at developers for bulldozing on sacred land."

"Where did they go when they had to seal those demons in a vase," Rachel asked her dad.

"Greece," he answered promptly. "But it was an urn, not a vase."

"Is there a difference?"

"Andrew," Cupcake groaned at her spouse's disrespectful tone.

Jamie quickly stepped in to use his artist terminology to differentiate correctly between the two when Henry pointed to the sky.

"Look!" He jumped up and down with exhilaration and the rest of the children, and Sophie followed suit.

Above the people, small flakes of snow fell in spite of the summer heat, and soon the clouds broke away to reveal the moon was shinning bright against the pond's reflective surface. A large vortex appeared and a sleigh pulled by reindeer came through with a large bird following the vehicle. The earth next to Sophie grumbled and a hole big enough for a small car appeared as a pair of ears poked through the surface. Fluttering wings belonging to a feathered woman allowed her to dance gracefully in the air while a small swarm of little fairies were close behind. Laughter clear as the evening broke through as a glowing young man flew around, brighter than a shooting star. Wisps of golden tendrils stretched overhead, controlled by a minuscule man who carried a golden shimmer around himself. The golden sand floated around everyone's heads as they took shape of their deepest fancies.

The Guardians of Childhood had arrived.

"Whoa, pretty," Ben smiled as widely as his mother.

"G'day mates," the Pooka jumping out of the hole greeted Sophie and her son. "Oi, that little bloke is growin' faster than a Brumby," he added while looking closely at Ben. "Sure his father must be proud."

"Fluffy bunny, fluffy bunny," Ben chimed, pushing his still pudgy hands to try and grab the rabbit's whiskers. He jumped back in alarm.

Sophie giggled at the sight and nodded. "Yes, Charlie had to visit his parents so he couldn't' come this year." She adjusted her arms so that Ben was sitting more vertical.

"Benny, this is your honorary uncle, Bunny."

"Hello, there Ben Edmund Ross," the feathery woman, Tooth greeted with a wide smile. "You haven't lost any teeth yet, but I'll be looking forward to your first lost tooth."

Bunny inwardly rolled his eyes but patted the new ankle-biter's head. He still didn't understand what was going in Sophie's head to influence her to give his middle name to her son.

Caleb presented his boys toward the Sandman. "You guys remember Sandy?"

The little golden man smiled kindly and Caleb and his sons, Nightlight soon joining them with even happier expressions. Cupcake hugged Katherine before re-introducing the storyteller to the Andrews. North chuckled when Rachel tried to hide behind her parents, and he heartily shook hands with Monty. All the humans greeted the Guardians warmly as old friends.

Jamie frowned once the snow stopped falling.

"Something wrong?" Pippa glanced at her husband.

The man sighed, raking a hand through his graying hair. "I guess it was too warm for him to stick around."

"Who says that?" Jamie's eyes widened when he recognized that voice. He turned around fast to where the voice came from and was pleased to see his best friend floating down from the treetops.

"Jack Frost!" Henry grinned, and his friends charged wildly to meet the Guardian of Fun. "Hey kids," Jack, acknowledged them before turning his attention back to Jamie.

"How are you doing? Did that publishing company reply yet?"

"They did," Jamie answered happily. "They were really impressed with the illustrations and liked the concept."

"Yeah, Pranks and Recreation – A Jack Frost Tale might just be your best story yet."

Jamie raised an eyebrow, smirking at the ego inflated Immortal. "Oh? Better than the Guardians' first adventure in Ireland?"

Jack formed at far off look for a moment, smiling softly. "I might have to agree with you on that?"

"I especially thought the chapter where you taught a certain someone how to ice skate was well-expressed."

"What was well-expressed," a new voice chimed in. Everyone jerked their heads to see someone walking through the trees.

A young woman with bright red hair and silver eyes stepped over rocks and grass with the use of her brown leather Pouline shoes. Long legs were covered with forest green pants, stitched with a four-armed cross design on the right leg. Around the waist was a red, yellow and green plaid kilt-like sheath that partially covered the left leg but kept the right one exposed. Above that was a leather corset woven with golden embroidery to resemble vines and leaves. The upper area of the body sported a white shirt with a blue stripe on each shortened sleeve. An emerald brooch was pinned to the shirt's center. A leather band with a metal badge was tied over her left arm.

Jack was momentarily smitten before recomposing himself. "Uh, nothing."

Jamie rolled his eyes at how ridiculous the winter spirit was being.

"Hi everyone." Bridget grinned ecstatically when she saw them all acknowledge her. It pleased her to know her dear friends still believed.

"Are you ready?"

"Do the magic!" Ben shook his arms around, nearly falling out of his mother's arms. The rest of the mortals and Guardians cheered as encouragement. Bridget interlaced her hands together to conjure a furious ring of fire that shot into the air and turned into bright, colorful displays.

The sight left everyone in awe and genuinely surprised to see the fire continuing to combust after each burst of light.

Jack stepped lightly to stand next to Bridget and saw her carry a satisfied expression. "I learned that from a certain dragon."

"I know Bridget I was there with you," Jack sighed, familiar with the tale, "and then you got overexcited and burned down half of the fishery on Ber-" (1)

"Great fireworks display, Bridget," Henry all but bounced over to the Immortal teenagers, inadvertently ending the conversation between the two.

"It's not over yet," the redhead grinned as she opened her left palm. The fire tattoo on her arm glowed right when an open flame appeared. "Want to help me spread the magic around?"

Henry smiled widely and extended his hands to collect the fire. The moment the fire went over to Henry the fireworks above started moving similarly to fireflies and reached out to the humans below. The children eagerly moved their balls of fire as if they were endlessly burning sparklers.

Bridget sat on a low branch on an oak tree to get a good angle of the sight. Jack joined her not too long after; their shoulders were brushing together, and their hands intertwined.

"Not bad," he congratulated in his understated manner.

Bridget knew he was teasing her and joked, "The snowflakes you did were okay too, I guess."

Jack pouted, blowing out a puff of cold air that froze a leaf on contact. Bridget jokingly warned him that it wasn't winter yet for him to do that. They soon fell into a comfortable silence.

"Still wearing the goggles," Jack pointed out after faintly glancing at her. He remembered that they broke for the umpteenth time while Bridget tried to unsuccessfully calm an angry land spirit down back in Tasmania… or was it New Zealand?

"It took me a while to replace the green glass, but I fixed it. Much easier to move around than a crown on it 24/7." Bridget explained while smiling. She always loved talking about her time at her forge. "I see Carol's gift for you is doing all right."

While the Big Four in the group remained wearing the same attire from twenty-five years ago, Katherine chose a new wardrobe and Nightlight no longer wore his armor. It took a few tries until Bridget settled with her current outfit, and Jack had no choice but to give up his blue hoodie. It ripped after an unlucky encounter with a nine-hundred clawed Oni a week before July and Carol kindly bought Jack a blue coat with layered wool on the inside and dark blue jeans to match. How she was able to find one out of season was a mystery onto its self.

"She asked me how you were doing," Jack said casually.

"How I was doing?" Bridget wrinkled her eyebrows together.

"She was hoping you were doing okay after the Summer Solstice. She said you came to her and didn't look well."

Bridget frowned. "I, was having an argument with my father. He's still stubborn about accepting the regime I'm using on the Fey, complains that I'm being too democratic and giving them free-range."

Jack carried a mien akin to Bridget's. "Is he still unaware of what century he is in."

"It could be the 23rd century and he'd think it was the fourth."

"I'm amazed Carol took learning about your past life well."

Bridget regained part of her smile back. "She did start to become open-minded about things after we told her the story about us all those years ago."

"Yeah I remember," Jack grinned fondly. "I think I remember that you skipped out the part where North and Bunny gave you the glasses to see us." He chuckled when he saw Ben making a dog-shaped fire creature that chased after Bunny.

"Eh, I don't think that was too important for Carol to know every little detail," Bridget moved her hand to wave the thought away. Her eyes trained on Andrew creating a fiery Peryton. "I got my eyesight back in the end anyway."

"I still liked that part though," Jack cracked a grin.

"Really? Even the part where I was sputtering like an idiot when I…. s.. aw… erm-huh-heh-um, well." She turned her head away, blushing madly.

"You saw me for the first time," Jack finished, smiling rather shamelessly.

Bridget pursed her lips and eyed Jack squarely. "You're flattered that I found you flattering, yep, totally not conceited at all."

Jack chuckled with a shake of his head. "That did sound kind of shallow, but you did say I was attractive later."

Bridget was still not letting her eyes meet his. "Only because you forced it out of me with your …. Coolness."

After seeing Jack's face morph into a confused expression, Bridget added, "I can only call you cool because saying that you're hot is inconsistent with your body temperature and occupation."

Jack could not help himself, but he was laughing at how ridiculous that sounded and threw his head back. His laughter was so infectious that Bridget could not stop herself from chortling either.

After another half hour, or so of the children playing with fire Sandy created new throngs of dreamsand over the children's heads. Without fail, they began rubbing their eyes and yawn while their devoted parents gathered their kids before they started calling it a night.

The moon and stars twinkled over the sky, and a comet flew across.

"Happy Independence Day, Jack," Bridget said. She lifted an imaginary glass to toast, "Here's to an even better one next year."

Jack smiled softly, his eyes slowly going half lidded and starting to lean over toward her pink lips when- "Oh, but I'll need to prepare for next year's fourth to make it better," Bridget snapped her head erect, her body straightening along.

"I better not put too much attention on it however because there's still Imbolc to worry about. In fact there still the other festivals that are about to go on that I'll need to make prep-time for. Oh, and then there's the drinking contest Sandy and I'll be doing against Goch and Eamon, which I might have to push back a week or two in order finish that commission for Kali. Did you know she needs a double-ended spear for each of her four…" she halted when Jack turned her chin toward him.

It took five seconds after that for Jack to initiate the kiss and Bridget far more time to break it off. Jack hummed contently when he felt her fingers moving effortlessly through his hair, and he pulled her forward until she was sitting on his lap.

Some movement happened in Bridget's pocket (not that she noticed) and Sal the Fire Salamander poked his head out. When he titled his head to see what the two Immortals were doing, he was quick to note they were doing that sucky-mouth thing that prevented Bridget from doing anything else. He silently crawled back from whence he came, not wishing to see more of the bizarre two-legged ritual.

Eventually, they did break apart to catch their breath but neither of them had any intentions to discontinue.

"I love you," Jack uttered breathlessly.

"I know," Bridget smiled, pushing his white bangs back. "I love me too."

Jack poked her, enticing her to giggle. "You're ruining the moment here, Firecracker."

Bridget pursed her lips; still not used to the new nickname Jack gave her some odd year back. "Well, Frosty you've made me this way. I hope you're happy."

He could tell she was pretending to be annoyed with him seeing that the sides of her mouth were threatening to distend. Forgetting all about the kiss, Jack enveloped her in a small embrace. She relaxed instantly and rested her head on his chest.

"I am."

They remained on the branch long after the other Guardians left, giving them more time alone together in their impromptu date. Jack couldn't help but gave Bridget another glance. They had been together for a long time, and yet it never felt like it was getting old. Even through the trials and tribulations they had endured everything still turned out all right in the end. And that started on the night he gave her that snowflake charm. His eyes trailed over to Bridget's torc and saw that not only did she polish the gold, but the ice shimmed to sparkle brighter than the last time he noticed. As well as none of the pieces appeared to have broken off.

"She took care of it after all this time." Just as the moments he shared with Bridget before, he felt a warmth in his heart.

"Hey." Bridget turned her head, appeared to be listening. He shifted his body to carefully detach himself from her. Then he jumped from the branch and landed on the pond where it instantly turned to solid. He smirked and offered a hand for her.

"You wanna go ice-skating?"

Bridget smiled, and that was all he needed to know.

Q-A: … Is this it? Was that really the end? :O I had to say there were times when I was afraid this story would never be completed (and you all must have shared this pain too) but I'm glad to have made it this far. I am glad to have finally finished one of my stories since I have ten and counting with half of them not done yet. I wish I could say that I'll be updating again with a new story buuut, that would mean I would be a liar. On this Friday my family is going to go on a two-week cabin/camping trip and won't be back until the middle of the last week in July. And if that wasn't the worst news the cabin where we're staying at won't have Wi-Fi. DX The horror! But on the plus side this means I can spend some much needed time with my folks and actually write some stories without the 'net to distract me…. um I mean inspire me. Yeah, that's what I do all day instead of writing. .

Anyway, I'm happy that this labor of love is over and done and if any of you are asking if I will revise it some day? No, no that won't be happening since my last chapter was over 30 pages long and I have over 40 freakin' chapters. X( That's both amazing and painful.

But as I said last time THIS WON'T BE THE END OF BRIDGET'S ADVENTURES WITH THE GUARDIANS. While this epilogue takes place long after Jamie and his friends have grown up, this means I have 25 years of material to work on (not really XD) and all the references and hints you read here might possibly be seen again in future stories, like how Jack and Bridget become comfortable enough to cuddle and kiss? When did she accept the title as the new Queen of the Irish Fey? Is North addicted to cookies? Did Sandy loose the mantle as the Most Awesome (male) Guardian ever? (Nope XDDD) How did the non-Burgess spouses ended up believing in the Guardians and is Pitch ever going to show up in a story of mine? All these and many more will be answered in oncoming chronicles, which I would very much like for you all to read and review and possibly favorite. And tell your friends about my work please.

Could this possibly be a reference to a future story? X3 You'll all learn eventually but there are a few more stories ahead that need to be written.

Keep on Writin' and Rockin'