Aaaaaaaaand here's the chapter that fixes the cliffhanger from last chapter. Sorry about that, guys. Jack made me do it.

Disclaimer: I still don't know why we write these when the very nature of fanfiction indicates that we don't own anything. Whatevs. I don't own Rise of the Guardians.

Strange Lady had said not to use my magic in front of humans, but now I was beginning to question precisely how I was to do that.

The hairs on the back of my neck and my arms stood up, and I thrust my staff out protectively in front of our little troupe. Whatever sinister presence was here that was setting off my internal alarm bells was sure to know that it wasn't going to get easy prey this time.

It felt like the space ripped around me, and I heard a sound as though my ears were turning inside out. I was pretty sure I knew what that was. Something had just come through the veil. Something I didn't like very much.

As soon as the weird sound stopped, a shriek from Susan alerted me to where whatever it was had come through, as she was now able to see it. I spun around and swung my staff at it, blasting the creature with a wave of ice. It went flying backward, and the impact knocked it into a tree.

I hadn't gotten a very good look at what kind of creature it was, but I had a fair idea of what I was dealing with. It was some kind of bottom feeder that loved to feast on human souls on the rare occasion it got the chance. Most of those types aren't really that big of a threat if you have enough magic to send them off, unless they become wise to you and cluster.

"Come on!" I grabbed Susan's arm and started running back toward their house, trying to put as much distance between us and the creature as possible. Jamie had grabbed Sophie's hand, and they were following close behind. This was good. If we could get home before the creature came to its senses, we would all be fine.

A piercing roar split through the air, and I knew in that instant that this was not going to be an easy fight. I looked overhead, and saw several large bat-like shadows flying overhead, and they were circling around the area where we were running. There was no way we were going to get home safely so long as they clustered overhead like that. There had to be another way.

"Susan," I said, "Remind me what you used to do as a child when you sensed a demonic presence."

"I-I don't-"

"Think!" I yelled. "This is important. Didn't you used to do anything to protect yourself back when you believed in these things?"

"I-I used to recite the 23rd Psalm."

That could work. There was more than enough magical power in a passage like that to protect people from harm. "Recite it."

"Right now?" she asked.

I nodded. "Right now."

"B-but I'm not even religious anymore. What if it doesn't-"

"If God doesn't help those who call on Him in their time of need, then He's not worth serving."

Susan apparently couldn't argue with this, and so after a moment of hesitation, she took a deep breath and said, "The Lord is my shepherd."

I had to admit that I wasn't particularly religious anymore either, even though I'd been raised by a zealously Christian family. But I couldn't deny the existence of angels, as I'd seen them on a number of occasions. And if they existed, maybe God did too. I wasn't sure if I'd ever find out for sure, considering that I was immortal, but if there was a God, hopefully He'd forgive me for asking so many questions if I ever did show up at the pearly gates.

"I shall not want."

I turned and ran the Bennetts down a back alley that was mostly clear of the bottom feeders. The last thing I wanted was for them to swarm the family home. But we needed shelter. And we needed it now.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures."

I saw an open window on the second story of a building. It was risky to just barge into someone else's home, but something had to be done or the Bennetts could get killed.

"He leadeth me beside the still waters."

I turned to face Susan. Her demeanor still said she was terrified, but a strange sense of calm had passed over her from the recitation of the verse. This was good. She was feeling the magic.

"Keep reciting that Psalm while I fly Jamie and Sophie up to that window, okay?" I pointed to the window above us. "And whatever you do, don't freak out, okay? Those things feed on fear."

Before she had a chance to react, I grabbed Jamie, wedged my staff into my armpit, and then grabbed Sophie with my other hand. I had never carried this much weight in one go before, but I was really afraid of leaving either child alone, which I would have to do if I took them one at a time.

I grunted as I strained against the weight of the children and a couple joints popped and we had liftoff. I carried them up to the window and then I heaved Sophie through. Jamie had noticed my struggle and helped me out by crawling through the window on his own strength rather than waiting for me to lift him in. I appreciated that. It gave me that much more strength to get their mother.

"Stay here," I said, "and don't let anything strange in the building. Those things are fae, and they're bound by fae rules. If they're not invited in, they can't get inside a building." Jamie nodded and said okay, so I was off in a flash to get their mother.

When I found her on the ground, she was staring at me, speechless. I rolled my eyes. I understood her reaction, but we didn't have time for this right now. "I thought I'd told you to keep reciting that Psalm."

"I-I..." She sounded like she was trying to concoct an excuse, but I didn't really need to hear what it was. I knew it had been fear that had frozen her in her tracks. I looked overhead to ascertain how bad the bottom feeders had gotten. Not as bad as I'd expected considering she'd stopped reciting. She must have only stopped when I touched down, which meant she was afraid of me.

"I also recall telling you not to freak out. That includes freaking out over me."

"I-uh..."

"Don't worry about it. Let's just get out of here." I wrapped my arm around Susan's waist and told her to hold on, and up we went. Since I only had one burden this time, I levitated straight through the window and landed gently on the carpet inside. We were safe. But just to make sure, I pulled the window closed. One never knew what the fae could count as an invitation. Heck, I'd managed to get in, though that may have been because I was in the same realm as the humans.

Once inside, I realized that we'd just crashed a Halloween party of some sort. Well, I couldn't complain. It meant the people wouldn't freak out as much about some random people showing up out of nowhere.

Susan was still looking at me with a horrified expression on her face, and my heart sank. The last thing I wanted to do was make her terrified of me just because I had used my powers in front of her. I had only wanted to save her life, not scare her. Strange Lady was right. One really did have to be careful not to use magic in front of humans. It didn't end well.

"Jack," said Susan, "what are you?"

Now that was an interesting question, but it wasn't one I knew how to answer, even though I knew the answer to her question. For one thing, there was the whole problem of rushing things and possibly making her go mad, and it would take long enough to make her recover from this experience as it was. For another thing, I wasn't about to divulge such information in a place full of other people.

"Well," I said, "we're kind of surrounded by strangers at the moment. Think we could talk about this on the way home?"

The fear on her face heightened momentarily before reason once again took over. "But how do we get home with..." she waved her hand toward the window, "those things flying around out there?"

"They'll be gone by midnight," I said. "They have to go back through before then or they'll get stuck here for a whole year, and I know they won't want that."

Neither of us knew what to say after that, but it was clear to both of us that we would have to wait until midnight for it to be safe to leave. Hopefully the party guests didn't mind us crashing until then. At least it was safe in here, so long as we kept an eye out for drunk adults.

I needn't have worried. Jamie and Sophie were having the time of their lives, and the people attending were just too amused that two children had shown up out of nowhere. I suspected that Jamie and Sophie were going to have sugar-induced hangovers come morning.

"I suppose those creatures came through the veil too?" I turned to Susan and raised an eyebrow at her. I didn't like her tone. It sounded accusatory somehow, like she was somehow pinning the blame for all of this on me.

"Well, yes." I stammered a bit in my speech, unsure of why she was suddenly so angry.

"So if anything from the veil goes back by midnight, they won't be stuck here?"

"Yes?" My eyebrow was still raised, and I was still trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"Then you lied to me. You said you were stuck here. But you still have..." she glanced at her watch. "Two hours before you're supposedly stuck. So why don't you just go back?"

It felt like she had just stabbed me in the heart, and I was bleeding on the inside. "A-Are you asking me to go back?"

"Yes, I'm asking you to go back!" She waved her hands over her head, like she was turning into a madwoman. "If you hadn't come here, none of this would have happened!"

I gripped my chest. My heart hurt now. And I wasn't sure whether Susan, no, Mrs. Bennett, was wrong. I didn't have a right to be on a first name basis with her. What if she was right? What if my showing up really was putting everyone in jeopardy?

I started to shiver, which only ever happens to me from stress, since I never feel the cold. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have troubled you. I-I'll go." I wiped a pesky tear out of my eye before it could freeze my eye shut, and I walked away, looking for the exit. I wasn't going to open the window back up and expose everyone here.

A random stranger grabbed my sleeve. "Hey, buddy, where you going? The party's just getting started."

I sighed. "The party will be better off without me."

"Nonsense!" said the guy, and he yanked me into the heart of the festivities with a force I couldn't overpower. I caught a worried glace from Jamie as I passed him by, but I couldn't stop to say anything. I was dragged over to a table full of refreshments, and had a cup of punch shoved into my hand. "Relax. Take your mind off things. Heaven knows we've got enough stress on the other 364 days of the year."

I sniffed the punch, then shook my head. This wouldn't do. "Do you have anything that isn't alcoholic?"

"Why, you driving?" said the guy.

I stole a quick glance over to Mrs. Bennett. I still wasn't sure whether they needed me to escort them home or not, but I supposed it was a good enough excuse. "Yes."

"Aw, poor you," said the guy, and he took the punch out of my hand and replaced it with an alcohol-free version. At least that would ensure my mental faculties stayed in check. I needed them tonight. I could get drunk on another night when it didn't matter so much. I took a sip of the punch. It wasn't bad.

"So," said the guy, nodding toward Mrs. Bennett. "Got into a bit of a fight with your girl, I take it?"

"My girl?!" I laughed. I couldn't help it. "No, we're not-we're not-" I cleared my throat. "I'm more of a friend of the family."

"Aw, stuck in the friendzone, huh?" He slapped my back. "That's tough, man, tough!"

I rolled my eyes. I wasn't sure if I could explain my exact relationship to Mrs. Bennett with this guy, or even if I wanted to try. But he was friendly, which took the edge off the stinging of my heart, at least.

"Look," I said, "I've really got to get out of here before midnight."

"Or what, you'll turn into a pumpkin?" I didn't even have to respond to that joke for the guy to start laughing so hard that his sides seemed they were about to split open. Something told me this guy had indulged himself with too much spiked punch.

"I think you're gonna need to stick around here for a while, son. Have a lookie over there." He pointed back in the direction I came, and my eyes widened at the sight. Jamie was handing some of the spiked punch to his mother. Surely he knew better than that.

"Jamie! Don't make your mother dr-"

A hand fell on my shoulder and pulled me back to face the stranger. "I wouldn't bother, son. She's been drinking for the past few minutes. I guess she needed to unwind a bit."

It was like the floor had cracked open and dropped me through it right then. Mrs. Bennett had been drinking? Was she already inebriated? If that was the case, she would need me to take her home. But if I took her home, I would have to wait until after midnight, which would mean I would be stuck here for the rest of the year. What to do? She had told me to leave. I didn't want to upset her by staying, but I couldn't leave her in this condition.

The guy wouldn't have me stewing for the next two hours though, and promptly started introductions. "I'm Sam, by the way." He extended his hand for a handshake. "And you are?"

I took his hand and shook it. "Jack."

He pulled his hand away from mine and shook it. "Phew, Jack, you are freezing! Are you okay?"

I waved off his concern. "I'm fine. My blood naturally runs a bit cold."

The two of us entered an awkward silence as he stared at me for a few minutes as though trying to figure something out. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "I get it! Jack Frost, right?" I nodded hesitantly, trying to figure out how he'd pieced all that together from just a few tiny clues. Then he started laughing and said, "Best fucking costume I've ever seen."

Well, that explained that. Sam thought I was wearing a costume. I supposed it was for the best, though it would have been nice to have been officially recognized as Jack Frost without people freaking out for once. I could still have some fun with this situation though, I supposed.

In no time, Sam was dragging me around and introducing me to all the other party guests. As soon as he introduced me to anyone as Jack Frost, they would always have a witty comeback.

One person made sure to tell me in no uncertain terms just how much he didn't like it whenever I trapped his car in the driveway with my snow. While I should have been slightly offended at this, I just laughed. I couldn't stop thinking about how he'd react if he knew he really was complaining to the right person. I figured I might have to seek him out and prank him later.

Another person asked me to give her more ice for her punch. I knew she just expected me to play along and go and grab some ice, but that's not the kind of guy I am. Instead, I waved my hand over her drink, freezing it solid. The look on her face as she realized what happened was priceless.

She turned the glass upside down and shook it, but the ice punch stayed put. "You!" She pointed to me and squealed in a high-pitched voice. "You, youyou... how did you do that?"

I never know how to answer that question whenever it's asked. Freezing things is just something I can do. I shrugged. "I'm Jack Frost," I said.

"I know!" She continued shaking her drink until the ice chunk slid out and splattered all over the floor. The commotion attracted the attention of a few other people.

"What's going on over here?" said one of the newcomers.

"Jack Frost froze my drink!" She pointed an accusatory finger in my direction and snorted at me, which only caused the whole group to laugh, myself included. Sam was right, this party really was helping to take the stress off of me. I just hoped it was doing the same for Mrs. Bennett. Then again, with that much punch, how would she not feel better? Maybe I was safe for now.

The next couple hours had me shuffling around from person to person, showing off in every way I knew how. My reputation had spread like wildfire through the party, and now everyone was wanting me to do Jack Frost tricks, which I couldn't resist. It wasn't going to hurt anybody, I'd reasoned. Everyone thought that I was just doing simple magic tricks. It didn't cross anyone's mind that I was doing real magic or that I was the real Jack Frost.

I had gotten so caught up in the fun and games of the party, that I hadn't even realized that time was passing until I spotted the clock on the microwave that said it was 1:30 AM. Oh boy. I guessed it was time to get everyone home.

Mrs. Bennett was easy enough to find. She was flirting flamboyantly with several of the men at the party, and it took a fair amount of my strength to extract her from them and get her to tell me where her kids were. We found Jamie and Sophie cuddled up together in a corner, both exhausted from all the events of the night, so they'd passed out. I wished I had a camera to snap a picture of them all cute and angelic like that, but I suspected Jamie might kill me in the morning if I did.

Mrs. Bennett was too drunk to think straight, but not too drunk to take care of basic needs, so I picked up a sleepy Sophie and handed the child to her. Sophie settled down on her mom's shoulder with a sleepy sigh. I then picked up Jamie and held him bridal style in my arms. The kid slept like a rock and didn't stir. I even wondered for a split second if he was dead, but then reassured myself that he was breathing, so he was okay.

We said goodbye to everyone, and everyone seemed sad to see us go and told us to come back again. As we stepped outside the door, someone finally caught on and asked, "Who were those people?" I chuckled and continued walking without answering.

The air was crisp and clean, and the night sky was peaceful. Not a demonic fairy thing in sight. I was now stuck here for a whole year for sure. I hoped Mrs. Bennett could deal with that.

We walked for several minutes, just enjoying the blissful silence and thanking our lucky stars that we were all okay. It had been a difficult night for all involved, but now it was over. I hoped. I still wasn't sure if Mrs. Bennett's assertion that this had all happened because of me held any truth or not.

Finally, Mrs. Bennett broke the silence. "Jack, weren't we supposed to talk about something after the party?"

I stiffened. I'd been hoping we wouldn't have to discuss this yet, but I knew it had been too much to hope that Mrs. Bennett would forget about it, even in her drunk state. "Well," I said, "we were planning to talk now." I took a deep breath. Might as well face it. I cleared my throat. "What did you want to know?"

Mrs. Bennett laughed like she was possessed. She was enjoying her punch a little too much, though it was good to see her happy after everything that had happened. "Are you an angel, Jack?"

At this, I had to laugh. "What?!"

"You saved all of our lives from a bunch of demon thingies. Are you an angel?"

I smirked at the conclusion she'd reached. It was nice to see that she wasn't blaming me anymore, though I didn't know how she'd feel in the morning. I hoped she'd still be okay with me once she was sober. "I'm not an angel, Mrs. Bennett. I'm a Guardian of Childhood. It's my job to protect the children of the world." I glanced at her as she walked silently beside me carrying her sleeping child in her arms. "And sometimes their mothers too."

She smiled at this and looked down at Sophie, then back at me. "Thank you, Jack. I'm sorry for being all crazy on you. I'm glad you stuck around."

I smiled. "Me too."

We walked in silence the rest of the way home, and I helped tuck everyone into bed. I didn't know what was going to happen in the morning, but at least for now, Mrs. Bennett had forgiven me. Hopefully it would stay that way.


The rest of the night was boring to me, as everyone was asleep and I had no idea how to entertain myself. I'd never lived in a modern day human house before, and therefore barely knew what these people did to entertain themselves. I settled on grabbing a few of Sophie's picture books to try and teach myself to read a bit better, since that was likely to become quite a problem soon if I spent a year in this society. I hoped this old geezer could still learn a few tricks.

When I got bored of that, I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about all I was in for during the course of the next year. There was so much potential it seemed overwhelming. I missed the other Guardians already, and it hadn't even been a full 24 hours yet. This training was hard. Really hard.

The sun finally came up, and with it came a bounding Sophie into my room. The little thing was always up with the birds, but I welcomed the distraction.

She saw that I had swiped some of her picture books and demanded I read to her, so I picked one up, turned it upside down, and read her the Tale of the Upside Down People. She said that wasn't what the story was about. I said that was what it was when you turned it upside down. She seemed to like that, and just sat and listened while I made up stories for her.

By and by, a groggy Jamie dragged himself to my door. "Hey, Jack," he said, rubbing his eye. "Hey, Soph. You bugging Jack?"

"Yep!" she said as she threw her arms triumphantly in the air. I ended up laughing so hard I had to hug her. She was just too cute.

"You're not bugging me, Sophie. Old Uncle Jack was bored and needed something to do. You bug me anytime you want, okay?"

"'Kay!" She bounced up and down in her seat. I chuckled and ruffled her hair.

Jamie wrinkled his nose and chortled at the scene. "Uncle Jack?! I wish!"

I smiled in amusement at Jamie's reaction. Leave him to take me literally. "It's just cute, Jamie. Lots of people go by Uncle or Auntie even if they're not part of the family, so why not me too?"

Jamie snorted again, though I could tell he was amused. "Whatever you say, Uncle Jack. You want to help me make some pancakes? I don't think Mom will be up for a while."

"As long as I don't have to go near a hot stove, sure." I jumped up and raced Jamie to the kitchen, all three of us laughing and playing around. I didn't know how things were going to turn out later, but this day had started out better than the last one had. I hoped that was a good sign.

I hope you all liked that. I'm still looking for suggestions on scenes to come, so if you have any, please suggest. Even if it's far in the future of the story. Sometimes that can give me a good point to work toward that spawns a lot of other ideas. Questions are great too. Helps me know what my readers are thinking so I can angle the story at them better.

Anyway, whether you review or not, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you here next time!