Chapter 4- "Puck, I need to land, I'm slipping!" Sabrina shouted as the sweat around her wrist began to make her lose her grip. He sneered irritably down at her.

"You'll fall anyways before we have time to land, I'm too high up!" He yelled back.

"Puck! Will you please set us down!"

"Sure, if you insist!" He let go of her wrist and she plummeted

"Puck!" She screamed as she fell ten, twenty, thirty, forty feet down before she felt his arms under her legs, and behind her back.

"Oh!" She gasped, leaning her head back, and letting her heart restart from the near-death experience.

"You can't do that! It's not funny at all!" She scolded angrily as he continued to soar.

"What you thought I did it for fun? No. I did it cause I'm mad at you!" He snapped

"What did I do! I was trying to save you!" She retorted bitterly

"and yet, look who's saving who?" He said sarcastically, shaking his arms for emphasis.

"Stop it. I just wanted to help." She bit her lip and turned away so he wouldn't see if she started to cry. Why was he acting this way? She thought to herself, she refused to look at him.

"Now I'm stuck carrying you, for who knows how long, because you can't fly, and you know, if you were stuck holding onto a bridge, you'd make it" He snapped, "but because you're so accustomed to having a flying person around who can save you anytime you can't hold your own weight, in the literal meaning of that sentence." He added "I'm stuck making sure that you don't fall, not to mention I'm stuck babysitting again! I'd really hoped we'd grown out of that phase you know!" He bellowed

"I never asked you to!"

"no, but you expect it!" He retaliated.

"Put me down. I'll walk." Sabrina said calmly, Puck rolled his eyes, but other than that didn't acknowledge her request.

"Put me down!" She shouted, shoving against him, and swinging her legs, so he wobbled slightly in the air.

"Stop being so childish, shut up, and just contemplate what I told you." He snarled

"You don't even know what that word means!" She grinned thinking she'd scored a point when he responded, "if you must know, I have a doctorates degree!" He replied coolly. Her mouth dropped,

"nuh uh, you've only been gone for five years!" She said astounded.

"and I'm over four-thousand years old!" He acknowledged, "You need to find something to do in that time."

"Why did you always let us believe you were an imbecile then?" She asked, now beginning to become genuinely curious.

"Everyone knows it's a wasted effort to fight with the famous Grimm Sisters." He said borrowing her signature move and rolling his eyes at her. "Although, I guess you're not a Grimm; now right?" He asked casually "so what do I call you now?" He continued, she stared confused at him,

"what are you talking about?" She demanded, "Bradley, what's his last name?"

"Puck, I didn't marry him…" She said blushing again and staring down.

"Sure, lie, if you're embarrassed, what did he turn fat, ugly, and bald in his old age? I was at the wedding you know." He said staring straight ahead, as well refusing to look at her.

"You left early Puck. You never saw the end of the ceremony. I never said those two little words. I went after you…" She said barely more than a whisper, his mouth dropped in an audible pop! There was silence after that, as they both tried to digest what Sabrina had just said. She was so mortified she could have crawled in a hole and died at that moment. She seriously contemplated leaping from his arms so she could fall to her death, but she didn't think her chances of success were very high as he'd never failed to catch her yet, not once after all these years.

"If I jumped could you do me a favor, and not catch me for once?" She asked sheepishly, he shook his head but said nothing for a while longer.

"We need to land. We've been flying all night, and I need to rest." He said quietly, he landed in a Park, mostly deserted, and those who saw thought that they'd jumped from the tree. His wings were already tucked, and he was strolling away casually with his hands in his pockets. Sabrina tripped and fell when he landed. Puck frowned at her.

"You weren't even the one flying! Why are you so tired!" He demanded, pulling her to her feet and putting his arm around her waist to stabilize her.

"I was up for three days looking for you, stinkpot." She snapped annoyed at the condescending tone he used.

"There's a hotel not far." He said, slowly they trudged up to the hotel and got a room, they went up and sat on the beds opposite one another.

"I'm going to contact the family," Sabrina said, reaching into her boot, and then freezing.

"It's gone. The mirror and the wand both fell, probably when I fell" she said in horror.

"Relax, breathe Sabrina, it's not the end of the world, for now, we're not going back to the house, because we don't know where the shadow man is, so we're going to keep low and stay out of sight, if we could stay here for a bit, that would be great. Now calm down and get some sleep."

"You need sleep more than I do." She replied testily

"No offense, but you Grimm girls, really need your beauty sleep, or you get ornery. Same is said for the old lady, Veronica, Daphne, Red, and you, and half of you aren't even Grimm's by blood!" He cried, astounded. Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Maybe it's just a women thing…" He continued grumbling to himself, Sabrina looked ready to hit him, but then she thought about it and realized there might be some truth to his words.

"You were right though, you've been doing all of the hard work. You flew us all the way here."

"How about we make a trade? You answer three questions and then you can go to sleep." He smiled angelically, waiting for her response,

"What kind of questions am I supposed to answer?" She demanded

"Why were you going to marry Bradley, if you left him." He asked.

"Not these questions! Ugh, fine I'll be an adult for once and not beat around the bush."

"I didn't think that you'd ever come back. I waited for five years, hoping you'd come back, but you never did, I assumed you didn't care and it was all in my imagination." Sabrina said feeling the heat rise to her face again.

"Why did you come to the wedding?"

"I wanted to see you one last time, to see what I was giving up." He frowned, "I was too late, I didn't think that anything would ever work out between us after all that I did."

"Were you so angry with me earlier because you thought that I was married?" She asked grinning now as she teased him.

"Partly." He responded shortly

"Why else?"

"I said why I was angry. You're so freaking accident prone, I don't know how you've survived these last five years without me."

"The only time I fall off of anything tall it's usually you!" She snapped "You drop me." That stopped his grin short, and he scowled.

"But I've always caught you!"

"Well, the reason I fall is that you dropped me in the first place!"

"Liar. Shut up and go to sleep snot bucket." He snapped, lying down on his bed and turning off the lamp and plunging them into darkness. Sabrina stood up and stalked over to the bathroom slamming the door behind her.

"EEEKK!" She squealed as a face appeared in the mirror that wasn't hers. She shrieked again as Puck kicked the door in, started by her outburst,

"Old Lady." He said nodding to the woman in the mirror.

"Are you both safe?" Granny Relda asked staring at the grandchildren.

"We are, we lost the mirror and weren't able to communicate with you guys. The wand is missing as well." Puck said as Sabrina will still recovering from the shock.

"Stop being such a softy! Yeesh, ever since you've been here, everything is scaring you today!" He snapped annoyed. She scowled and sat on the edge of the tub while they spoke.

"Why didn't you both return to the house?" Granny asked anxiously

"I did a fly-by; the shadow was watching the house. It's the first place he went for us, and he's staking it out." Puck responded.

"We did a fly-by? I didn't notice." Sabrina said,

"It was after you fell, so you weren't able to look down that far after I caught you." He said without looking at her and continuing his conversation with the Old Lady. Sabrina scowled as they continued the conversation without her, and she marched back into the hallway, and then turned towards the door, and decided to go for a walk to clear her head a bit. She went down to the swimming pool, slid her shoes off and dipped them in the water, kicking the water angrily. Calmed somewhat, she sat on the stairs with a towel and put her face to her knees. 'stupid boys, I thought things change when you grew up.' She grumbled to herself, suddenly she felt herself leave the ground and was thrust into the pool, and being held under. Startled, she struggled and tried to resurface to no avail. The Shadow! She thought, she finally lost consciousness and sank to the bottom of the pool and the creature released her and left the pool room. Sabrina waited another minute struggling as hard as she could to fight the urge to swim up for the glorious air, she knew was only a few strokes away, but he could be waiting for this. It was a good thing she was a swimmer in high school and could hold her breath for three and a half minutes. Which most people couldn't do, now she was going to have to extend that by as long as she could. When she felt like the coast was clear she swam up gasping for breath and sprinted back up to the hotel room. Swiping her card, she burst into the bedroom scanning for any sign of the creature.

"P-p-puck!" She screamed slamming the door shut and locking the deadbolt.

"What?' He demanded walking out of the bathroom, she ran and threw her arms around him hugging him tightly.

"He's here. I thought he got you! He tried to drown me, he might have followed me here!" She said angrily now realizing that he'd probably let her go so that he could find Puck.

"Well, that's what you get for wandering off without me." Puck snapped, "Sorry Old Lady. Gots to go. I'll make sure I get her home safe. Can't guarantee when." He slammed the door shut to the bathroom and turned the light off so they were thrust into complete and utter darkness, then he sat down on the floor, dragging Sabrina down with me.

"This is your escape plan?" She demanded incredulously

"It's a theory. Since he's a shadow, I wonder if he can find other peoples shadows. So, if we are in complete darkness, maybe there won't be a shadow for him to find." Puck replied shrugging. "It might explain how he found us all so easily."

"when did you become so smart?" she asked in amazement. He didn't answer.

"Sorry, you can't see my face. I rolled my eyes at you." He said letting her know what was going on. She laughed.

"Why are you soaked?" He asked

"I told you he tried to drown me!" She snapped now annoyed that he hadn't even noticed her plight.

"Let's get to sleep piggy, we've got a long day tomorrow I have a feeling.

"Can I sneak into the main room at least to turn up the heat?"

"I'm sorry, but no. You can't, but I'll buy you a big hot chocolate tomorrow! Now shut up again and go to sleep!"

….

"Granny!" Daphne bellowed through the house at the top of her lungs.

"What is it, Liebling!" Granny Relda demanded, brandishing her samurai sword at any intruders.

"I just wanted to tell you that Sabrina called my cellphone, they are fine, and on the way back to the house. Puck has a theory, that seems to be working so he might have an idea for how to avoid the shadow man. He'll share more when they get here, should be about a half hour. And they demanded that food be ready for when they get here." Daphne relayed the message.

"Why did you yell?" Granny asked, "Couldn't you have said that without causing me distress?" Daphne shrugged.

"I didn't think of it I guess." She then meandered down to the kitchen to scrounge up some food for herself. Sometime later, the door opened and Puck slouched into the house, slamming the door shut behind them. They sauntered to the couch, collapsed on top of it, and within moments both of them were sound asleep, Sabrina's clothes were completely wrinkled and still semi-damp, from her late-night swim. Granny Relda frowned.

"All of my cooking was in vain." She grumbled annoyed

"Chances are Sabrina wouldn't eat it anyways, you know how she is about your strange concoctions, she's not like Puck and I, nor Red for that matter. She's the black sheep of this family Granny, don't take it personally." Daphne, patted her arm consolingly, "Don't worry, I'll help you out with that." Red and Daphne sprinted towards the kitchen shoving each other into the walls so that could get first dibs on the breakfast.

….

While the two sleepy heads continued their slumber, the others debated on what to do about the shadow, obviously, at the moment, Puck was out of danger due to the elaborate protection spells on the house. However, the problem was only resolved so long as Puck remained in the house, which there was absolutely no chance that, that was going to happen. He was a very high strung, active person, so that was just out of the question, too bad he wasn't a homebody.

"Anyone have any suggestions?" Veronica asked the crowd at large. Again, options were thrown out.

"I don't know what we're supposed to do," Sabrina said, waking up and walking into the kitchen.

"We can't leave him here, Puck tried to grab the shadow and went straight through him. He has powers, and wasn't fooled at all by my disguise." Daphne frowned, an odd expression on her face.

"Well, we know that he needs a shadow, but remember when he said he eventually could control his master? Maybe his original person wasn't strong enough to control a shadow as powerful as he was. But what if we could find someone who was strong enough to control the shadow, and maybe subdue him enough that he becomes what he was made to be. Just a shadow." There were many curious faces around the table as they all considered this.

"It's dangerous. Very dangerous. We'd need a very powerful Everafter in order to do something like that, and there's no guarantee that it would work at all. If it doesn't work, then the shadow gains the Everafters powers in addition to his own, and then the other Everafter would be lost. He'd probably become the most powerful person in the world." Basil, the voice of reason said. Many heads nodded in agreement, acknowledging the wisdom in his words. When suddenly the voice everyone dreaded to hear at this moment spoke up.

"I have to try." Puck said

"He'll find me at one point or another, I can't hide in this house for the rest of my life, and I definitely don't plan on it. He kidnapped every single male Everafter like, overnight. I'm not the strongest Everafter there is, but from some reason he decided to give me a shot, I should do it. I'm not going to let anyone else do it to try to save me either." He said glaring at the entire room. Sabrina slammed her hand on the table.

"You're not going through with it and that's final." She said to the startled observers. She stood from the table and walked up the stairs to her old bedroom. She laid on the bed, attempting to figure out what Puck would do. Would he listen? Or would he defy her wishes and go after him anyway.