Author's Note: Ok, I admit it! I couldn't wait to post the next chapter so I didn't wait very long for punishment ideas.. Ahem! But anyway, while the idea of forcing Jack to crossdress (and match Lillian's outfit) would be very funny, I can't see Pitch doing that. And while having Pitch go all drill sergeant on them would be funny too, it didn't quite seem to fit the crime here. So I acknowledged that punishment, but decided not to go with it at this time. However, I will remember it for a future punishment (since really, with Jack around, it's inevitable). As for Jack dressing up, while I won't have Pitch force him to crossdress, I can see Pitch forcing Jack into a ridiculous outfit (hideously ugly, yet formal sweater that Jack hates) just for the heck of it. So expect that in the near future! :)

Now without further ado, the next chapter!

Edit: I posted this chapter super fast! So if you haven't read Chapter Twenty-Eight yet, go do it! Otherwise Jack and Lillian's doom won't make any sense!

Chapter Twenty Nine: Home Sweet Home & Dear Santa, You're Mean

Pitch glared at the two spirits menacingly as they shared looks of doom with each other.

They were so doomed.

"Hm? What was that? I can't hear you," Pitch continued as he wiped the slush from the snowball off his face.

"Uh.." Jack began nervously, as obviously ninety-nine percent of this was his fault.

"We didn't mean to," Lillian began nervously. It wasn't so long ago that Pitch was being very strange, and she wasn't quite sure how this new non-gray Pitch would react. Sure, he had been great last night when he was comforting her, but this was a totally different situation.

Nothing like testing the boundaries right off the bat.

"I believe I know what you meant to say," Pitch continued, his voice still soft and dangerous. "You were going to tell me that you wanted to clean up all this mess immediately - "

"Oh yes!" Lillian cut in. "I can do it super fast - "

" -With no magic," Pitch continued as if Lillian hadn't interrupted him.

Jack's jaw dropped.

No magic?

"That'll take forever!" he blurted out suddenly.

"That would be the point," Pitch said, sounding irritated. "Perhaps it will teach you little hooligans not to turn this room into your own personal snow globe."

"I'm not a hooligan!" Lillian exclaimed, looking very offended.

Pitch raised a non-existent eyebrow at her.

"Really? Because from what I understand, well behaved children don't have snowball fights in their home. Well behaved children keep their rooms clean as well. Now, that certainly wouldn't include you, would it?"

Lillian's face fell at that and she looked down at her shoes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling horrible. She knew better, she really did. It's just that Jack woke her up with a snowball and she felt the urge to retaliate.. When they had rushed into the globe room, Jack had accidentally (maybe on purpose) made it snow and they hadn't thought about how their noise would wake Pitch...

"I'll accept your apology after this snow is cleared out. After that, I want you both to mop this floor, and then Lillian, clean your room after breakfast. If you both do this without complaint, I'll consider not grounding you and not making you do something more.. physical, such as pushups."

"Pushups?!" Jack exclaimed.

Pitch gave Jack a look, and Jack blushed.

"Uh.. I mean.. thanks.. for reconsidering..?" he floundered. "But you know," Jack said as he recovered with a smirk, "you can't ground me since I don't live here."

Pitch's eyes narrowed as he stalked toward Jack.

Jack gulped and tried to move away, but Pitch grabbed him by his hood.

"Then maybe we should rectify that, hm?" Pitch said with a glare at Jack as he shook Jack's hood a little.

"Wh-what?" Jack said, looking a little scared and stunned.

"You have gone long enough without any sort of guidance," Pitch continued to glare at Jack sternly. "Hundreds of years of you left to your own devices with no one to punish you for your wrongdoings or praise you for your good deeds. I can see now from this little display of yours," Pitch gestured at all the snow, "that this needs to change."

Jack glanced over at Lillian for help, but as she had no clue what Pitch was talking about, she shrugged helplessly back at him.

"So..?" Jack asked.

Pitch rolled his eyes.

"I did say that both you and Lillian are family, did I not?"

"Yeah..?" Jack said, looking bewildered.

"Usually families live together, don't they?" Pitch said, sounding a little exasperated. Honestly, was the boy that dense?

Jack froze, staring at Pitch in disbelief.

"Wh.. what?" he asked, sounding stunned. "You want me..?"

Pitch finally released Jack's hood and looked away, suddenly looking a little vulnerable.

"I understand if you don't feel the same.."

Jack suddenly grinned and wrapped Pitch in a spontaneous hug.

"That's great!" he exclaimed.

"Yay!" Lillian jumped up and down happily. "We'll be a real family!"

Pitch looked at Jack fondly, with a little relief in his eyes. He wasn't sure what suddenly made him doubt that Jack would want to stay with them, but something kept telling him that this was all too good to be true - that the other shoe would drop.

Jack pulled away from Pitch and grinned cheekily at him.

"So, should I call you 'Dad' now?"

Pitch rolled his eyes again, but there was a smile tugging at his lips.

"If you want, son," he said sarcastically, "but first I believe you have some cleaning to do."

With that, he turned and walked out of the room, not noticing the grins that were fading on two child spirits.

"How are we supposed to clean this?" Lillian called out after Pitch, but he didn't answer.

Over an hour and one shopping trip later, both Jack and Lillian had shovels and had successfully moved all the snow into a heaping pile beneath Pitch's entrance. Lillian looked up at the daunting pile that seemed to be mocking them.

"Now what do we do with it?" she asked as she looked up at it.

"Well.." Jack tilted his head at the pile. The idea that this would make an excellent little sledding hill occurred to him, but the thought of what sort of punishment that would entail stopped that thought in its tracks. It wouldn't be worth it, and he still had a play date later that day with Jamie. "Pitch said we couldn't use magic, but I think he meant to melt the snow or magic it away. I think he'd understand if I asked the wind to help us out. Wind can lift us up so we can sort of shovel the snow out of here."

Lillian let out an exasperated sigh.

"That'll take forever too!" she said. "AND I still have to clean my room, and we haven't even had breakfast yet! And my arms are tired!"

"What do you want to do then?" he asked her, sounding a little exasperated himself.

"Here," Lillian said as she walked over to the snow pile. She placed her palm flat on the snow and her bracelet began to glow.

In a matter of minutes, the snow pile melted down into nothing and the floor was covered with water.

Jack glanced at Lillian a little nervously.

"Didn't.. didn't Pitch say..?"

"We've been at this long enough," Lillian said with an eye roll worthy of Pitch. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Now all we have to do is get some warm water so he won't be suspicious and then mop the floor and then all we have to do is clean my room."

Jack scratched the back of his head, looking apologetic.

"I think you mean that you will clean your room." he said.

Lillian pouted, giving Jack her best puppy dog eyes.

"You won't help me?"

Jack shook his head.

"You're on your own for this one, kiddo. I promised Jamie that I'd visit with him today."

"..Oh.." Lillian said, looking hurt. Of course Jack would want to hang out with believers more than her.

"Hey, don't worry," Jack said ruffling her curls. "We can play later on when I get home."

Lillian nodded and wandered off to get the mop.


"Well," Bunny said. "I still don't like 'em with Pitch, but I can offer them a tour of the Warren? They saw it last Easter, but.. eh.."

Sandy shook his head, and Tooth agreed.

"It's a nice thought Bunny, but I think it might be too soon for that. It'll probably remind Jack of Easter, and.." she winced at the thought.

Bunny nodded solemnly.

"Yeah, I thoughtta that too. Maybe we could invite 'em to the Pole?"

Everyone looked at North, who stroked his beard and nodded, thinking of all the possibilities. He wanted to see the wonder on their faces as they looked at his workshop. Since they were spirits, giving them a peek wouldn't be too much of a problem.

"Ah, but how do we know they will accept invitation? Is sad to say, but they might not trust us to return them safely." he said with a sigh.

"We could go to them," Tooth volunteered, then deflated. "..But we don't know where they live."

"Da, all we know is that they sometimes hang around that lake near Burgess. Is not much to go on." North confirmed.

As the day wore on, the Guardians continued to plot, each new idea sounding more hopeless than the last.


Finally, at around noon, Jack and Lillian had finished cleaning and drying off the floor in the globe room. It gleamed as much as rock could, and Jack had departed to go have fun with Jamie.

Meanwhile, a gloomy Lillian had trudged off to her room, dragging her feet as if prolonging the trip would delay the inevitable hours of cleaning she was about to do.

She vowed that she would never let her room get that messy again.

Jack flew out of Pitch's lair and headed towards his lake first. He wasn't surprised to see Jamie there by himself, sliding around on the lake in his shoes.

Grinning, Jack knew there was one snowball fight that wouldn't get him into trouble. He swooped down and gathered up a handful of snow, while holding his staff in the crook of his arm. Once he he had his ammo ready, he flew over to Jamie and nailed him right in the face with the snowball.

Jack burst out laughing at the look on Jamie's face as he landed on the lake nearby him.

"No fair!" Jamie said, laughing too.

"Everything's fair in a snowball fight," Jack grinned at him.

Jamie's smile faded a bit as he looked at Jack more seriously.

"..I thought.. I thought this all might've been a dream."

Jack shook his head and ruffled Jamie's hair a bit.

"It feels like one to me, but I'm pretty sure whatever you saw was real." Jack answered.

"You don't remember?" Jamie tilted his head in confusion at Jack.

Jack shrugged.

"Not really," he said. "I remember waking up on the lake and you and the kids were all around me. Before that, it's.. sort of blurry."

"..Oh," Jamie said, sounding a little disappointed. But then he thought about what had happened before the lake and thought that maybe it was a good thing that Jack didn't remember. It had sounded like Jack and Lillian were in a lot of pain, so maybe it was good that they had forgotten that part.

"Now no more sad faces!" Jack exclaimed. "You didn't come out here just to talk with me, did you?"

"W-wait!" Jamie said, in a rush. "You and uh.. Lillian.. you two know Pitch, right? The boogeyman?"

"Yeah," Jack said cautiously. "Why?"

"Oh!" Jamie blushed a little, looking embarrassed. "I was just wondering why you guys care about him so much. He's supposed to be bad, right? He's the one that gives all the kids nightmares. And he tried to take over the world."

Take over the world?

Jack definitely didn't remember..

Then he remembered Pitch's offer in Antarctica, and the very gray and black Lillian..

Jack's expression grew somber at that, and Jamie was definitely starting to regret bringing up what was obviously such a delicate subject for him.

Before Jamie could say anything however, Jack shook his head and a smirk fixed itself on his face.

"I told you before," he explained, "Pitch helped us out when no other spirit would. He's taken care of Lillian from the moment she became a spirit. It might seem weird to anyone else, but he's sort of like our dad. He might've.. gotten a bit.. uh.. more evil, but the Man in the Moon fixed all that. He's back to being just Pitch now. And Pitch doesn't want to rule the world. He uses his fear to balance things out."

Jamie realized his jaw had dropped and he snapped it shut.

"Pitch.. The Boogeyman is your dad?" Jamie asked, sounding awed.

"Not literally," Jack explained. "But in an adoptive sense.. yes."

"Wow," Jamie said, wide-eyed. He couldn't wait to tell all his friends!

"Now," Jack said as his smirk widened. "About that snowball fight.."


A few days later, Lillian had had enough. Sure, Jack was being silly and playful as he usually was, but it was in those moments that they weren't playing, was when she noticed that he had this sad look in his eyes.

One time, she had playfully mentioned one of the Guardians as a joke, and Jack had instantly clammed up. He had put his hood up and said that he had to go clean his room. Since Jack only owned a few pairs of clothes besides the original hoodie and pants he owned, Lillian knew this was just an excuse.

She was pleased that Jack had gotten a more permanent room (other than the guest room) right next to hers, and his was nearly identical, except for the fact that his room was made more for an adult or teenager, as his bed was higher off the ground.

But the fact remained was that something was wrong with her Jack, and she knew it had something to do with the Guardians. Without any way to contact them however (and with Pitch expressly forbidding them to go out at night as who knows what they would get up to), that left their means of communication very limited.

Lillian however, was determined, and at last she remembered something she could do.

Kids wrote letters to Santa.

Even though it was not long after Easter, and was still firmly Spring, she had settled herself at her rock table one afternoon and hastily wrote out her letter:

Dear Santa,

Stop being mean to Jack! I know you and the other Guardians did something to make him sad and I want you to stop. He hasn't been himself since that day at the lake when he and I woke up with the moon shining brightly. He tries to pretend that everything is fine, but I can tell it's not. I know normally kids write you letters to ask you for stuff for Christmas, so I'll tell you what I want for Christmas.

I want you and the Guardians to make Jack happy again. I don't need anything else, as Jack and I already got the best present this year. We got our Pitch back to normal and we have a dad.

I know Jack likes Sandy the best, so maybe you could have him come visit Jack. We aren't allowed outside at night anymore (I can go sometimes, since I have to deliver Spring all over), so it would be best if Sandy can come visit before nightfall. I know he's really busy spreading dreams, so why doesn't he come this weekend? I'll make sure Jack's at his lake, since I don't think Pitch would want Sandy visiting his lair.

I hope you make this right and fix Jack.

Love,

Lillian, the Child of Spring

P.S. Tell the Tooth Fairy I said hi! And tell the Easter Bunny not to be so grumpy all the time. It makes him look mean.

Lillian looked over her letter with satisfaction and neatly folded it, placing it into an envelope. She very quietly left her room and went to go mail her letter.


A few days later, a very surprised North had Phil barging into his office, brandishing a letter.

"Phil!" North exclaimed as yet another ice creation was smashed by the sudden barging in. "How many times must I - "

But Phil wasn't having any of it. He shoved the letter under North's nose and jabbed a claw at the return address.

North blinked and looked down at the letter.

In ink, clearly written was Lillian, Child of Spring; Pitch's Lair, Burgess.

North blinked again.

"Pitch's..!" he exclaimed in surprise.

Phil gave North a very disgruntled look and only left once he was certain that North was reading the letter.

"Hmm.." North said as he set the letter down after reading it. "Perhaps invitation will not go amiss after all..? If Sandy were deliver.."

With a sudden grin, North went to get some paper and a calligraphy pen. He was going to make these invitations in style.


Author's Note: I know I might be rushing things a bit (or not, seeing as how long Pitch, Jack and Lillian have been friendly), but I just couldn't resist Pitch having Jack live with them. I thought that in a few chapters I might have this nice mushy scene with Jack and Pitch, being all serious, but then I realized that Pitch most likely wouldn't ask Jack all nicely to come live with him. I have to admit, it was very amusing to think of Pitch threatening Jack to live with him or else, but having that really just be an excuse for Pitch to have Jack live with them. Sadly, Jack didn't have anything to move into Pitch's lair other than himself or his staff.

I also managed to sneak a little Phil in there and Lillian's letter to Santa! I'm not entirely sure what to do about this invitation to the Pole though. It sorta came out of nowhere. The more optimistic part of me wants Pitch to tag along and be super awkward, but then I don't know if Pitch would even want them going, and would Jack want to go? If Sandy was do the asking, maybe..? If you guys have any ideas to help me along, that would be nice. Otherwise, I'm sure I'll come up with something. I'm SUPER excited to post Chapter 30, so I will make that one a super extra long chapter just because it is 30! :) I might even post it up on Friday, but don't hold me to that.