AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed and gave me ideas, I now have a general idea for the next few chapters to keep me going. For anyone who is a fan of Doctor Who, I wrote this after the 50TH anniversary so all I could think is DOCTOR! It was soooo ASJKDLJ SJD DSK SD! First Thor and now Doctor Who and a NEW SHERLOCK TRAILER! I think I might just die from too much fangirling.
Disclaimer: None of this is mine. I don't own the characters or the places.
Tony:
Tony wasn't sure why he did it, blame it on the head ach that has only grown since the discovery of the supposed Santa, but he let Jack out. He wasn't sure why but he trusted Jack. Maybe it was the mutual daddy issues thing or the fact he shot him but he felt bad for the kid. Call him insensitive or self centered but there was just something about the boy that not even Tony could ignore, so he let the boy out of the cell. Besides it's not like Fury could be any more annoyed with him.
Luckily for him, Fury was preoccupied at the moment dealing with the new additions. As soon as the Jack brought aboard the group the agents were able to stabilize the Helicarrier and land it in the ocean. Even though they were fairly certain there was no major damage Fury had ordered an inspection before they would fly to DC.
The group sat waiting for Fury in a larger room than the one in which they interrogated Loki in. This one had a large conference like table in which they could all sit around. At the head of the table was a chair reserved for Fury. To the left sat the Avengers while the new people, if you could even call them people were on the right. The most normal looking one of their group was a heavy set man with a long white beard and rosy cheeks who went by North. That's where the classic Santa image ended though, on each arm was an array of tattoos, he carried two swords, and he spoke with a thick Russian accent.
The rest of his group also claimed to be the stuff of legends. There was an oversized rabbit that was as tall as a human and spoke with an Australian accent that was allegedly to be the Easter Bunny. There was a colorful bird like lady with the most beautiful and intricate wings that Tony had ever seen. Wherever see went swarms of miniature versions of her flew with her. Apparently she was the tooth fairy. Tony couldn't stop staring at her; he was fascinated by how such delicate wings could support such a large person. Finally there was a little glowing man that moved with lazy movements and communicated by what appeared to be golden sand. He was introduced as Sandy, aka the Sandman.
Tony was beginning to question his sanity at this point. He was hoping he hit his head when the Helicarrier hit turbulence and he was just having a horrible dream like Dorothy in the wizard of oz. Though he suspected even if it wasn't a dream things were going to get a whole lot weirder than an Australian Easter Bunny aboard a government ship.
Jack sat at the opposite end of the table, neither on the side of his father or the fairy tale friends. He kept glancing nervously between "North" and Loki who were on directly across from each other on either side of Fury. Both were staring intently at each other. It didn't take a man with a brain like Tony's to be able to see the tension between the two. There was an awkward silence as they waited for the Director that Tony desperately wanted to break with a snarky comment but for once his wit evaded him. He just was in too much shock from the enormity of the situation.
Thankfully the silence was broken for him when North spoke to Loki. "So you must be Jacks father." The accent was still surprising to Tony and seemed so out of place.
Loki's eyes narrowed as if searching for the challenge in his words. "That I am. I must say the Christmas tails don't do you justice; you are much less jolly than I imagined."
North's smile that he had held since he came aboard the Helicarrier dropped. "I wish I could say I had heard tails of you my friend but Jack never spoke of you. I did not know you were his father but it does explain much."
Loki's lips tightened into a bitter smile. He tried to play off the jab but Tony could see it upset him by the quick glance at his son before his next words. "And what would you mean by that?"
"There are very few that have been on the naughty list longer than Jack."
"Well then, lucky for me we don't celebrate Christmas on Asgard."
"Children on Asgard would love Christmas, Jack loves it. Don't you Jack." He turned expectantly to the boy who only nodded, his eyes bouncing back and forth between the two adults. "This Christmas he traveled with me in sleigh to bring joy and wonder to children of the world. Then we opened presents with other Guardians as family." Loki tensed and was just about to retort angrily when Fury stormed in.
"Now will someone please tell me what the hell is going on, because I highly doubt Washington will respond well to reports of Santa Clause and his band of Fairy Tales attacked and nearly knocked a highly armed top secret aircraft out of the sky!"
"Ah Nicholas it is good to see you. My sincerest apologies for any damage we have caused you. I hate to tell you but I fear you will be on the Naughty list this year. You have told very big lie I cannot forgive." This peaked Tony's interest. Any potential dirt he could get could come in handy when dealing with the master spy. Fury didn't seem to know how to respond to that statement.
"I lie, its part of my job and I really don't need you to tell me if I'm naughty or nice because at the moment I'm not feeling all that nice."
"Yes but this lie was not necessary. I am sure they would understand if you told truth." North gestured toward the Avengers and then Tony's interest all but went through the ceiling.
"We are not here to discuss the past, were here to decide what to do with all of you." Fury's glare seemed to be enough to end that line of discussion. But the look in North's eyes promised the argument would be back.
"I am sorry Nickolas but we came aboard to discuss you releasing Jack, he is Guardian and we will not let you hurt him."
"I'm sorry but you're a little late on that one, that is why I'm here. He is my son after all." Loki jumped into the conversation. Before Fury could respond North spoke up again.
"And yet he is still here!"
"No thanks to you all who had to come in here and make this an even bigger mess then it already is."
"We had to protect him, he is Guardian! He is one of us!"
"He is not one of you and he never will be!"
"How would you know, you are never here."
"Just because I'm not here doesn't mean I don't watch out for him. I am his father not you! I was here first!" Loki's voice had risen in volume and he was now standing. North had quickly stood too. All pretences had vanished. They were openly glaring at each other.
"Jack protects children of world, you tried to hurt them. You may be father by blood, but not by love." Tony couldn't help but find the irony in that statement. If what he understood about Guardians was true then the son of someone who tried to take over the world is in charge of protecting it. He felt like it was a Luke/Darth Vader moment.
"Do not talk to me about love. You don't know about the sacrifices I have made. You think I just happened to decide to try to destroy a planet my own son lived on? No when my family cast me out I did what I could to get back to earth. I made mistakes, yes but when the ruler of one of the most powerful armies in the universe tells you you're going to rule their army or they will kill your son it makes that decision quite easy for you. My only request was that they let me rule earth so I could make sure I could protect him. Don't you try to judge me!"
Thor tried to break in, "Brother you don't mean that-"
"Stop it! Stop it both of you! You act like I can't handle myself or I'm some possession to fight over! I lived on my own for hundreds of years without either of you and I can do it again!" Then he grabbed his staff and took off running out of the room. Both men standing went to chase after him but Tooth flew two the door and blocked their exit. She glared at North and then at Loki.
"I can't believe you two! Acting like children! You of all people should know better about how sensitive Jack is about his past and family North. Now you two need to give him time or he's just going to resent you even more. AH-no buts, Baby Tooth go after Jack and keep an eye on him." One of the little fairies gave a curt nod then took off flying out of the room.
Jack:
Jack quickly flew off the ship. It was much easier this time because with the ship landed many people were freely moving between the inside and outside decks. Once again no one paid him any attention as he flew away.
Jack didn't pay attention to where he flew; he just let the wind carry him as far and fast as it could. The salty air from the ocean below goaded him on faster and faster and soon he was flying over dry land and through some woods. He slowed as he flew between trees and stopped when he came to a small clearing.
He was beyond frustrated at his father and at North. What should have been a happy moment, having the two people he cared about most in the world together, only lead to disaster. He had spent years wanting nothing more than to have a family that was with him, and suddenly what little he had came crashing in his face. Jack wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and cry. Instead though he vented his pent up feelings through his staff and began blasting the nearby trees with snow and ice.
When he finished he collapsed exhaustedly to ground to catch his breath. "Daddy problems?" Came a smooth cold voice that Jack knew all too well from behind him. With a gasp he spun around only to be met a flash of pain then cool darkness.
AN: There it is. Once again thank you all to those who viewed and reviewed this story. This has been my sole focus these past few days which is really bad but I don't really care. I really want to know what you all think about it so please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE REVIEW! I can see how many of you guys have viewed this (over 9500) and where you're from which amazes me (special shout out to those in the Philippians I really hope your all ok and I hope my little story can be a nice distraction for you guys if you need it).
