Author's Note: Welcome back everybody. Let's find out if single men give good advice on parenthood. First off, The Nightmare Before Christmas never belonged to me. It doesn't now and I doubt I'll get my hands on the rights anytime soon. No, that honor belongs to Mastermind Tim Burton and Music Maestro Danny Elfman and their team of Disney distributors. The settings outside of Halloween Town are free to interpretation by anyone, so I'm using them too. Characters that weren't in the movies are molded by me, especially Billy; Billy's my own creation. Finally. Anyway, on with the tale.

Jacob wasn't too far into grading before he heard a loud rustling of feathers. He looked up to see if a bird had somehow gotten up onto the rafters of his home, but there was nothing there. Jacob was about to sit down again when he heard the noise again. He looked out his window to see a quick flash of white before a knock came at his door.

"Who on Earth can it be now?" Jacob asked himself before walking over to the door and opening it slowly. "What are you doing here?" he asked his visitor.

Now, this visitor was no ordinary man. For one thing, he had wings, large white wings sticking out of his back. He wore nothing more than sandals, a white loincloth, and a quiver filled with arrows. He tucked his wings in as he entered Jacob's house before turning to him with a cheery smile on his face.

"I must say, you have quite a nice place here," he said as he stretched out his wings.

"Cupid, our meeting isn't for a few more days with the rest of the Council."

"What? Old chums can't get together?"

"It's not like I'm packing up and visiting Jack Skellington."

"Alright, I will level with you. I need directions to Sarah Annison's abode. I have an appointment I simply cannot miss."

"What business have you with the baker's daughter?"

"First love. I am set to make her fancy a boy tonight."

"Can you do that?"

"I have been for thousands of years. Speaking of love, how is yours? You know, if I was not the one who fixed you up with Patience in the first place, I would never know you two were a couple."

"Not everyone needs to know about my private life."

"Come now, you will marry eventually. The Council would not like it if they were not invited."

"Patience and I are just fine," Jacob said quickly before clearing his throat. "Now that you mention the Council there is something I want to tell you."

"Is there? Are you and Jack having a double wedding? Do not, I beg you. My mother will never stop crying. She gets so emotional."

"I know. But this isn't about weddings or love."

"Well then why are you telling me?"

"I can trust you to keep this quiet until it needs to be said. There's something wrong at the Native village near our settlement. A couple has lost their child. Someone stole him in the night and they will not rest until he is found."

"You were wrong. This is about love. Parents' love for a child is one of the strongest in existence. Except for my mother, but she is a case altogether different."

"Cupid, pay attention."

"Sorry. Go on then."

"I want to bring this up to the Council. I have a feeling the Elders are behind this and I'll need help to prove so. Until our next meeting with them, I want us to be the only ones with this information. If anyone else finds out about this it will be a mess to deal with. Do you understand?"

"I understand. You have my word," Cupid said with a respectful bow before getting up and scratching his head in confusion. "Now, where did Sarah Annison live again?"

As Cupid was getting directions to his latest mission's home, Jack was finally returning to his. He sighed in relief as he saw the relatively deserted streets. It looked like the Mayor was really busying himself with that orange and black paper. The only people out besides Zero and himself were the street musicians, who nodded at his directions and played a song for their Bone Daddy.

"Thanks, guys," Jack said in a cheery tone as he and Zero made their way through the gates and to the house, but not without a black cat crossing their path.

"Well, looks like we have bad luck crossing our paths, Zero," Jack said in a nonchalant tone before noticing the basket that was once on Zero's head was now on the ground. "Zero?" he asked again before seeing his dog bark at the cat, which was now lazily perched on a wall.

Jack shook his head and picked up the basket before climbing up the stairs to the house. As he opened the door, the first thing he was saw Sally lying down on the couch. As he walked even closer, he saw they she had propped herself up on the arm so that she could carry the baby safely. Both of them were asleep and looking rather peaceful. Jack almost let them be, but he couldn't help himself.

"Have fun with the baby, Mama?" he asked Sally as he sat down on the other end of the couch.

"Oh, you're home." Sally said as she slowly opened her eyes and yawned. "I got him to sleep a little while after you left. How was your trip?"

"Enlightening. Look at all of these things." Jack said as he took things out of the bags. "They make diapers that can be thrown away now so you don't have to wash anything extra."

"That's good. I think Little Jack's adorable, but doing that was a little gross."

"I also got some food for him. He's supposed to drink formula."

"Formula? Like the kinds Doctor Finkelstein makes?"

"I don't think so. This one doesn't seem to make him grow an extra head or anything like that," Jack said as he looked at the instructions on the formula. "It's fortified with vitamins."

"What's this?" Sally asked as she took out a pacifier.

"That's something he can suck at to calm himself down. We wouldn't want anything like before happening again. You sure he wasn't trouble?"

"All he did was sleep, really. Cheer up, if you hadn't gone out, we wouldn't have any of these nice things for Little Jack."

"You really are a doll," Jack said with a wide grin as he noticed the baby begin to stir. "Mind if I take him out of your hands?"

"It's ok with me," Sally said as she offered Jack the baby.

"Come to your Dead Papa, little fellow."

"Dead Papa?"

"Just a name my contact mentioned to me. He's good at giving me names. Mr. Unlucky was his too," Jack mentioned as he cradled the baby.

"I remember that one," Sally said as she wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulder and looked down on the baby. "You know, for the Master of Fright, you look sweet with a baby in your arms."

"You don't look too bad yourself. Do you think maybe, if there aren't any good mortal homes for him-"

"Jack?" Sally asked. "Are you scheming?"

"A little."

"You know we can't keep him. You said so yourself."

"I know. He's just growing on me."

"He's growing on me too, but it wouldn't be right for a live baby to be raised here."

"I guess not."

"We have to be strong for him until we find his place. People are happier when they do that. I know I was."

"Were you? What is your place then?"

"Right here with you," Sally said.

"See, that's not fair. How can I argue with that?" Jack asked in a mock angry tone and unknowingly sticking his tongue out.

"Jack!"

The damage had already been done. The baby caught the skeleton making the face again and started screaming once more. Jack nearly slapped his forehead before realizing he was still holding the baby. Sally managed to get one of the pacifiers out of a wrapper and give it to the infant, who started sucking on it peacefully. Jack sighed heavily before catching Sally giggle at him.

"Thanks," he said embarrassedly.

"Just try not to stick your tongue out at him again."

"My contact gave me some kind of contraption for Little Jack to lie down and play in. Why don't I set that up and we can take a little break from all this carrying."

"You do that," Sally said before noticing something. "Jack, he's wet."

"Again?" Jack asked. "Well, I guess it's time to try the diapers out too."

"I'll take care of that this time." Sally said as she took the baby in her own arms. "Jack, I think your shirt needs to be washed."

"What?" Jack asked before seeing the damp area on his white shirt. "For crying out loud!"

"Hand it over."

"Ok," Jack said as he took off his jacket before removing the shirt.

"Just drape it on my shoulder."

"I didn't realize he'd be so wet all the time. Billy never told me about that."

"I guess he wanted to leave some of the joys of parenthood to be a surprise."

"Wetness is something I'd like to know about," Jack said as he put on his jacket and then took it back off. "It just doesn't work without the shirt."

"That's alright, Jack. I don't mind," Sally said before she started to walk off with Little Jack. "To be honest, you always look good to me."

Jack beamed at Sally's compliment before getting to work on the playpen. Parenthood was getting more complicated by the second. Still, it had some kind of charm to it that Jack couldn't put a name on. It would be nice taking care of Little Jack for a while, but he would have to go one day. Jack would probably never see him grow up, except for Halloween, and even that would be only once a year without the baby even knowing it. What Jack would have liked was a baby he and Sally could keep. Alas, he had no idea how to go about finding one. Besides, he had his hands full at the moment anyway.

There you go, Jack Fangirls, I managed to get him shirtless. While you ponder that thought, here are some others- Can Cupid really keep a secret? What will the Council do about the "missing" Takoda? And can it be that the Pumpkin King really doesn't know where babies come from? Oh my. We'll find out the answers to all of those as the story goes on. (Re-edit Comment: Poor Jack always seems to end up half-nekkid at some points in my stories. I just noticed that.)