Thank you to penpaperparadise, mrspencil, Wolf Lover 06, Ariana Bransford, and Mariah Sarona for their kind reviews!

Also, I feel I ought to give you a warning. I'm going to be editing and generally giving the first chapter a good polishing. No significant plot changes, I'm just trying to make the setup for the story a bit more interesting than pure description.

"Jack?"

"Mmhmm?"

"You do realize we're still going to have to be secret lovers, right?"

He turned his skull towards where she was snuggled against him. They'd been in the graveyard for over an hour without a word between them. Jack thought they'd just been savoring each other's company, but apparently his ragdoll companion had something else on her mind. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, Dr. Finklestein isn't going to like the idea," she stated.

Jack grimaced. "Why not? I thought he liked me. He even let me borrow some…"

"No, Jack, he does like you," Sally interrupted, getting up into a kneeling position so she could look Jack in the face. She placed a hand on his. "This has nothing to do with whether he likes you or not."

Jack cocked his head to one side in confusion.

Sally sighed and looked away. "He just… He really doesn't like the idea of me getting out of the house. He thinks just going to town meetings is too much excitement for me. I can't imagine what he'd say about dating."

Jack placed a contemplative finger to his jaw and furrowed his brow. "Well," he said after a few moments. "What if I come see you at Dr. Finklestein's? That way you wouldn't be leaving the house?"

"It's not about just leaving the house, Jack, it's about me doing anything exciting." She looked down at the ground. "And… well… I don't think he wants me to draw any sort of attention to myself. He's… he's… sort of… ashamed of me."

"Sally!" Jack exclaimed, shocked. "I'm sure that's… What gave you that idea?"

Sally smiled, though he could see she was on the verge of tears. "You don't hear him talk, Jack. He doesn't like that his creation is so… misaligned."

"What are you…? Oh…" he replied. "You mean the balance thing."

She nodded.

He grimaced. "I thought he was working on that."

Sally wrinkled her nose. "He would but it would mean being locked up for months at a time while he tried out new parts. And… well… I don't like the idea, Jack. It'd be nice to be able to move more freely, but he'd want to make changes to my insides too. He's talked about it. Putting it more durable material than leaves and tightening my stitches."

"But Sally, that sounds like a great idea!" Jack exclaimed.

"No, Jack, it wouldn't. In order to do all that, he'd basically have to… Well… Do you remember what happened to Shelley?"

Jack thought back. It was a very long time ago, when Dr. Finklestein was just starting to work on Sally. There'd been another creation that Finklestein had made, even clumsier than Sally was.

"All I remember is not seeing her anymore," he replied after a few moments. "What happened?"

Sally picked nervously at her bright red nailpolish. "He took her apart to make some improvements and when he put her back together again… She… she wasn't the same. I don't remember much either, just that he'd vowed never to do that to one of his creations ever again."

"But now he's having second thoughts?"

She nodded. "The balance problem really annoys him," she said softly. "He thinks it reflects badly on his abilities as a scientist. And he's really curious about what gives me my visions."

"Yes, I suppose I would be too," Jack murmured to himself. He added, more loudly, "Well, what's the worst that could happen?"

Sally looked deep into his sockets. "I don't know, Jack, but I think… Yes… I'm fairly sure that, if he did make all those changes, he'd be taking out my heart in the process. And then, if he didn't replace it completely…" She looked down at the ground and picked at her hands. "That's the part I'm really worried about. If he replaced my heart, I don't know if I'd be the same. I might not remember you or Dante or Abby or anyone. I could come out of it an entirely different ghoul with an entirely different personality. Or no personality at all."

Jack shuddered. "I… I'm sure Dr. Finklestein wouldn't…"

"He might if I became a problem!" she exclaimed. "That's why he can't know about us. He'd take out my heart in a second!"

Jack's brow furrowed over his sockets. "Sally, don't you think that's a little unfair to the doctor?"

"No, I don't!" she cried, getting to her feet. She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration and began pacing back and forth. "You don't know what he's like behind closed doors. All he wants me to do is serve him and be by his side day in and day out. He doesn't want me to have any sort of life of my own."

"But… taking out your heart. That just seems…"

"Cruel?" Sally supplied, stopping in front of him.

Jack gave her a slight grin. "Well, I was going to say 'unreasonable', but that too."

The ragdoll crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I wouldn't put it past him."

"Well, then, maybe we should make it so that he doesn't see you as a problem," the skeleton said, getting to his feet. He offered Sally a hand. "Shall I escort you back to Dr. Finklestein's?"

Sally gave a little sigh. "I guess that does make sense," she said, ignoring his hand in favor of pecking him on the cheek. She linked her arm through his bony one. "It was nice to get away for awhile, though."

"I'm sure there will be other opportunities," he said, matter-of-factly as they began walking.

"Not for awhile if Dr. Finklestein has anything to do with it," Sally grumbled.

Jack looked down at his shoes, unsure what to say to her.

They were almost to Halloween Town when a thought occurred to Jack. "Sally," he said. "If Dr. Finklestein doesn't want you to leave the house, how is it that you've been able to serve as the test victim and help out the ghouls in Halloween Town?"

"By lying," she replied simply, not bothering to look up. "I keep telling him that I'm going to get more herbs from the pumpkin patch. Apparently, that's not strenuous enough to be banned. Or it's far enough away from town that he's not ashamed of me going there."

Jack furrowed his brow. He still didn't believe that Dr. Finklestein was actually ashamed of Sally. He'd seen his best friend literally fall apart at the seams enough times to know that she actually was fairly fragile, especially if she was careless with her stitching. However, he also knew that she would always manage to sew herself back together again and had managed to turn what would seem like a disability into an ability by learning to control her limbs even when they were not attached to her body. Whether Dr. Finklestein had seen that as an advantage was a different matter though. It was entirely possible that he actually believed Sally was too fragile to do anything other than collect herbs.

The whirr of an electric wheelchair interrupted his thoughts. Sally froze then quickly turned to Jack. "Tell him you found me in the woods and that you're returning me," she said. "I can survive being locked up for a bit, but I don't want him to get any ideas about you."

"Sally, I'm not sure that's a good…"

"Please, Jack, we don't have time to argue. I can't run. Just please, listen for once!"

Jack frowned at her then nodded. "Doctor!" he exclaimed as Finklestein whirred his way down the path. "I was just looking for you. I found Sally here in the woods and thought you might be looking for her."

Dr. Finklestein narrowed his eyes at the skeleton from beneath his goggles. "How thoughtful," he said, suspicion lacing his words. He turned his gaze to Sally. "Sally, you were supposed to be home three hours ago. How long does it take to find hemlock?"

"Oh, I was helping her and it's…"

Sally elbowed him in the ribs, but it was too late.

"You were helping her?" Finklestein echoed. He wheeled his chair right up to Jack. "Then surely you realize that she should've been home before now, Skellington."

"I assure you, I didn't know about her curfew," Jack responded, perfectly calmly.

Sally smiled to herself, realizing that was technically true.

"And if I had known, I would've gotten her home sooner," he added. "I apologize for any concern on your part."

Finklestein scrutinized the skeleton for a few moments. Then his beak formed a little grin. "All's forgiven, my dear boy," he said, taking Sally by the arm. "I know you're a good soul. You wouldn't make a father worry about his only creation."

Sally glanced nervously at Jack, but by now he seemed to have the situation under control.

"Yes, I know how much she means to you," he responded, giving Sally a pointed look.

The ragdoll glared at him.

"More than you can possibly know, Skellington. More than you can possibly know."

Jack grinned and gave Sally a knowing glance. "Well, I'd better get going. I still have to work out a strategy for Tet…"

"Oh? The young mummy is up this year? Such a shame," Dr. Finklestein interrupted, shaking his head. "But then, I suppose he's in capable hands if you've taken him on."

"Thank you, Doctor," Jack replied with a little inclination of his head. "I do my best."

"I know, my dear boy, I know. Such a nasty business too, but we have to go through it, don't we?"

Jack clenched his teeth. "Yes," he said, knowing if he said any differently he'd be practically inviting Dr. Finklestein to report on him. It seemed the older generation all thought that sackings were a necessary sacrifice. Even when one of the older ghouls got sacked, there wasn't any trouble from them. It was almost as if they were blind and deaf to the whole situation. However, that didn't mean that they wouldn't report a young upstart if it looked like he might be stirring up trouble. "We do have to go through it."

Dr. Finklestein nodded sagely before turning his wheelchair around. "Come on, Sally," he croaked, pulling at her arm. "We'll leave young Skellington alone. He has important work to do. And you have to get to work as well."

"Cooking dinner," she mouthed to Jack with a grimace.

Jack tried to suppress a smile. "See the two of you later!" he called before turning and heading towards his own house.

It was two days before Jack even caught a glimpse of Sally. In the meantime, he largely worked on devising a strategy for Tet. The young ghoul was considered a hopeless case by almost everyone in Halloween Town, so much so that some of the better ghouls were slacking off on their training. The mummy, in turn, was terrified and despondent in turns. Of course, no one could tell exactly what was going through his mind. He rarely spoke, and when he did it was generally muffled from the cloth over his mouth. Jack could barely get him to respond at all and had finally resorted to just talking at him for the most part.

"I mean, you're going to have to use your bindings, obviously," Jack stated as the young mummy stared at the black and white striped rug that furnished the skeleton's floor. In a last ditch effort to try to get the mummy to talk to him, Jack had decided to conduct lessons at his house, thinking maybe he was too nervous to talk in public. Now, he tapped his pencil against his desk and blinked at the monster. "You're not exactly tall enough to do anything involving bulk… Tet, are you sure you don't have any ideas about what you want to do?" He gestured at the empty room. "There's just the two of us here."

The mummy simply stared at the rug.

"Do you like rugs?" he asked, beginning to wonder if he just had a fascination with the floor. "Because that could be a strategy. I know of more than one ghoul who's used rugs and floorboards to their advantage. Of course, it's mostly sound work…"

He trailed off, hoping Tet might have something to say.

"But you seem like a fairly quiet guy," he finished after what seemed like an eternity. He scratched his skull for a moment, trying to think of anything that might save Tet from the sack. "Look," he said, after he couldn't think of anything. "Why don't you come back tomorrow? I'm sure I'll have something for you by then."

The young ghoul simply nodded and trudged his way out of Jack's house.

"Careful of the…" He watched as the mummy effortlessly pulled his bindings out of the way of the swinging door before trudging on down the street. "Well, that's something to note," he murmured to himself, scribbling that down on his notepad. He placed a hand to his cheek and stared at the door. "Losing a monster two consecutive years," he murmured to himself, feeling that tightening in his chest he always felt when he thought about losing someone to the sack. He turned back to his notepad and clenched his jaw. "I'll just have to work harder this time."

It was late into the night by the time Jack looked up from his notepads again. He felt like he'd written down every tactic a ghoul could use to scare a person that had ever been thought up since the beginning of time. He grimaced at his latest plan, involving letting light shine off his one eye. It was weak at best since it meant that Tet would have to stand in just the right light and then dart out of the way. He balled the sheet of paper up and threw it in the trashcan beside his desk, which now looked like a small snowy mountain of bad ideas.

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door. "Coming," he shouted, setting down his pencil in despair. At this rate, he would never have a strategy for Tet.

He opened the door to find Sally staring at him.

"Sally," he said, surprised. "What are you…?"

The ragdoll placed one velvety finger to his mouth. "I snuck out," she explained. She grabbed him by the wrist. "Come on," she said, half dragging him out the door. "I want to show you something."

"Show me what?" Jack asked, pulling her to a stop.

Sally turned around and smiled at him. "I'll tell you when we get there!" she whispered excitedly. She tugged on his wrist. "Now let's go!"

Uh-oh... Where's Sally taking him?

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