Author's Note: Readers, if I could make it snow heavily like this more often, I would. It's really giving me some free time. Alas, I do have things to do tomorrow that will certainly keep me from hyper updating, but I can't just leave you all hanging after that last part. Ok, ok, we all know I'm not one of the brilliant minds behind The Nightmare Before Christmas so I'll just cut to the chase this time.

It seemed to be ages since Sally had seen Venus' Temple. The last time she had visited Valentine Town, all of the worlds had been thrown into an all-out battle. Even so, the Temple looked better then than it did now. For one thing, Sally saw some things being thrown out on the steps, including statues of the goddess herself. The guards seemed to have abandoned the place, perhaps to keep their lives free from Venus' wrath. She was most certainly in a bad mood. Well, it was too late to turn back now.

"Hello? Venus?" Sally asked as she stepped around broken mirrors.

"Go away! I am taking no visitors!" exclaimed Venus from the depths of the temple.

"I'm sorry to bother you, I need help."

"Who DARES to interrupt me in my divine moping?"

"Please? I came all the way from Halloween Town."

As soon as Sally mentioned Halloween Town, she heard footsteps head towards her. She looked ahead to see curtains being drawn and Venus stepping through them. From afar, she seemed to look relatively well. Up close was a different story. Venus has a disheveled look about her; she appeared as if she had been crying for days and made no attempt to fix her hair or tunic. When she wasn't crying into a handkerchief, she was waving her hand at any mirrors that were left and forcing them to fall on the ground.

"Sally?" Venus asked before rushing her pace and stopping in front of the rag doll. "Sally! Love, it's been ages. How have you been? Is that a ring on your finger?"

"Venus, are you well?"

"Dear, you do not want to know what troubles me."

"I sort of already do."

"That wretched son of mine! He still has to learn to keep his mouth shut. How dare he make me, ME, the Goddess of Love and Beauty into a grandmother! It's a sin!"

"It is?"

"Of course! I cannot show signs of aging, I must be forever youthful. What grandmother do you know is youthful? I will tell you right now: None!"

"You are."

"I am? You are not just saying that, are you?"

"No. You look the same as you did when I met you, albeit a little messier."

"Divine moping takes a lot out of me, I do it so much."

"Maybe you should take a break. I have something you can help me with if you'd like."

"That is a smashing idea. Follow me. We can talk in the gardens."

Venus led Sally to a table and two chairs set up in a part of the gardens close to the Valentine Lake. As they sat down, they watched as ducks and their little ducklings took to swimming around in the water. Venus threw some bread to them and smiled before sitting down. She was going to be useful to someone. As a Goddess in a major age crisis, that was very reassuring.

"Before we begin, would you like some iced tea? Hot tea is not suited for this gorgeous weather."

"That would be nice. Thank you."

Venus clapped her hands at once. A cherub flew to her side and took the order for two iced teas. In a split-second, the cherub had returned with two glasses of tea and ice and then left the women to their conversation. Venus drank some before getting back to business.

"Now, what is it that you need?"

"I'm sorry, but this does concern babies."

"Babies are a part of love, Sally. Even my current situation cannot change that. Do not fear any ill reaction on my part," Venus said.

"Where do they come from?" Sally asked, noticing Venus begin to stifle laughter.

"Oh, my dear, I appreciate the joke. Now, what is your real question?"

"That was it."

"You are serious?"

"Very. Jack has been talking about starting a family a while after we marry. We have no clue how to go about finding a baby of our own."

"Finding a baby? Love, one does not find a baby of his or her own. Babies have to be made."

"How?"

"Oh my. Tell me, do you and Jack, um... you know."

"Know what?"

"Oh, how am I going to put this?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I know! Do you and Jack share a bed?" Venus asked as she lifted the glass of iced tea to her mouth.

"Yes. Every night," Sally said as she watched Venus spit out the tea she was just drinking. "Is something wrong?"

"Every night! To be honest, I never took you for that kind of a girl. Before marriage too. Well, I am all for love at any time, you just go on."

"I don't understand," Sally said as she took a sip of tea. "All we do is sleep."

"Not sleep, Sally. The other thing couples do in bed."

"The other thing? Jack reads, but that's about it."

"Lords, gods, and major deities! Love, do I have to spell it out for you? I am strictly referring to, erm, lean in a bit."

Sally did so and let Venus whisper something to her. Sally leaned away again to process the new word Venus had told her. Nope. She had no idea what that was and was sure Jack didn't know what it was either. Venus noticed the rag doll's blank look and began to put two and two together.

"You've never heard of that word before today, have you?"

"Never," Sally said as she shook her head.

"You never have any urges for Jack, any yearnings for his body?"

"Of course, all we do is kiss and cuddle."

"You poor innocent creature," Venus said as she looked down at her teas before looking back at Sally once more, "Jack is a skeleton, correct?"

"That's right."

"Nothing abnormally un-skeleton about him?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"That could be a problem."

"Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Sally, I am afraid I will need to see both you and Jack to continue this discussion."

"Do you promise to give me an answer then?"

"I swear it. I say you have given me quite a task."

"I'm sorry," Sally apologized.

"No need to fret about it. It will take my mind off other things. I appreciate the work. Perhaps I can get myself together as well," Venus said.

"I should be on my way back home. Thank you, Venus."

"Tell Jack I said hello."

Sally nodded to the goddess before leaving the temple. It was a shame that the forbidden baby question still had no clear answer. It just lead to more questions. Like that word Venus whispered to her. Sally was both intrigued and frightened by it. It sounded like a hiss, and yet it somehow had a connection with babies. Things started to make less and less sense for Sally. It didn't get much better when she entered Skellington Manor and saw an array of boxes and bags strewn about the floor.

"Jack? What's going on?" Sally asked cautiously as she looked around. "Where are you?"

"Did you come alone?" Jack asked as he snuck up behind her.

"AH! Don't do that. Of course I did. What's the matter?"

"Sally, you and the baby need to get out of here as soon as possible."

"What's going on, Jack?"

"You're going to need to sit down for this."

"Alright," Sally said as she took a seat on the couch next to the sleeping infant.

"There's good news and bad news," Jack started before clearing his throat, "The good news is I found out where Little Jack's real parents are."

"You did? Jack, that's wonderful. Is that why you're packing? That's so sweet of you, getting ready so quickly to take him home."

"The bad news is that we can't return him. Not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because if we return him now, we'll be in serious danger. Everyone in town too."

"That's ridiculous, Jack."

"No it isn't. Listen, you were right about Cupid not being himself. Something horrible happened in Thanksgiving Town and the baby is right in the middle of it."

"How can he be? All he does is eat, sleep, and wet himself," Sally said, growing tense at Jack's jittery behavior.

"A baby was stolen from that world. Then, I find a baby in the woods. It fits! I'm an accomplice to kidnappers."

"Jack, calm down."

"This is horrible. The abductors must have left the baby out in the woods to die and I rescued it. If the Council finds me with him they'll exorcize me to the Great Beyond!" Jack exclaimed as he started to hyperventilate.

"Jack, you're the one who should sit down," Sally said as she got up and placed Jack where she had been sitting, "Now calmly tell me all you know."

Jack started from the top. He had found the baby in the woods and thought he was abandoned. The nice thing to do would have been to take him in and find him a suitable home. What Jack had found out was that the baby was taken away from his Native parents in the middle of the night. His name was Takoda and he was a resident of the Thanksgiving World, so the Council of Celebrations was called in to investigate the crime. While they were in town, they were informed that the Elders of Thanksgiving Town had told the Native tribe that a demon had stolen the child to feed to other demons. That meant that someone had seen Jack take the baby and was framing him for the crime.

"That's not even the worst part. The Natives have a spirit man who specializes in hunting demons and undead spirits. If they think our "town of demons" wanted to eat the baby, they plan to send him to get rid of us. They want to send us to the Great Beyond, wherever that is. I'm scared, I really am."

"That would explain the bags," Sally said with a deep sigh, "It's a shame I won't be using them."

"Sally, you can't stay this time. I mean it."

"Jack, I'm not going to run away and let you handle this on your own. We're in this together. If you're going to the Great Beyond, then I'm going with you."

"What about Takoda? If he's found here then Halloween Town's condemned to the Great Beyond altogether."

"Jack, I'm only going to ask this once and you had better be honest with me. Did you kidnap the baby yourself? Is that why you're so scared?"

"No. I swear, I only wanted to help him. If he had stayed out in the woods he would have died, just as his kidnappers would have wished."

"Jack, sometimes you're too caring for your own good," Sally said as she sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Do you have any other plans besides sending me away, because that one isn't going to work."

"I'm going to hunt down the kidnappers myself. My guess is they're from the same world, but who could have done something so horrible from there? Who?"

As Jack pondered that question and Sally comforted him, the four perpetrators were celebrating in the home of the Grand Elder. They had to make a trip to the Native village and actually talk to those people, but the deed was done. The Natives were convinced demons had taken Takoda and they were all ready to exorcize the diabolical abductors. All of the blame and suspicion was off of them, and they were happy. Well, three of them were.

"Come now, Daniel, we're doing a good thing," Robert said as he poured more mead into his fellow Elder's cup.

"Thou should not drink so much, it invites the devil," Grand Elder Joseph said.

"It is always 'thou should not' with you, live a little."

"I am not a hedonist such as thou, Robert."

"Daniel, we did the best for the village. We will all have more land when this affair is over and that is important for the villagers to grow crops," John said before pausing for a drink, "We would not want another winter like our first one here."

"The Natives were the ones who helped us that winter," Daniel said in a depressed tone.

"We would have been better without the savages if thou wouldst ask me."

"When our people were dying of starvation, the Natives took us in and gave us their own food. Is this the proper way to thank them?"

"Bah! Thou art too soft on those pagans. They are all going to Hell in the end. We are just helping them get there faster."

"I feel ill," Daniel said, "Excuse me, fellow Elders."

Daniel left without listening to any protest from the others. This situation was heavy on his heart. Everything he had ever believed in about honesty and lying was flipped upside down. His people deserved a better leader than him. He would have to come clean about the Native child's disappearance, that was clear to him. The problem was how, and to whom. Daniel almost gave up entirely when he managed to come across a woman traveling alone and decided to speak to her.

"You know, it isn't safe for women to walk the woods alone."

"If you must know, I was taking a friend home," the woman said. "Oh, my apologies, Elder."

"Come now, Patience, you knew me before I was an Elder."

"Barely, from the way you behave, Daniel."

"Please, Patience? We're family, cousins."

"Yes, and I'm sure Aunt Grace would have loved to see her son now. How could you join those men, those old fools?"

"I wanted to be a leader more than anything else. I'm afraid I'm not suited for it."

"Your poor mother raised you to be a good man, Daniel. You used to be so gentle and kind back in England."

"I didn't stop you to get a lecture."

"Now you know how I feel every time your associates decide to bother me for the smallest things."

"Patience, I have something to tell you," Daniel started before he heard another voice.

"There you are!" exclaimed Robert, who ran up to Daniel and smacked him on the shoulder lightly. "We were getting worried about you back at the meeting."

"I was just speaking to my cousin. Remember, Patience, I have some, er, chores for you to help me with. Meet me at my house later on and I'll tell you all about them."

"Right," Patience said as she watched her cousin reluctantly return to his meeting.

Patience smiled to herself. Deep down she knew Daniel could not be all bad. He wanted power and found out the problems that came with it. Still, he was acting rather secretive. Patience was already agitated at knowing she'd have to wait to find out the information. She did know at least one thing. If what Daniel had to say was dumb, she would give him quite a good slap across the face and call it a day.

Come on, Danny Boy, show us your good side. Can Daniel make a confession without being watched by the fellow Elders? Will Jack and Sally return the baby before it's too late? Will our favorite couple make their appointment with Venus? Well, there's only one way to find out, read on next time. (Re-edit Comment: Nothing like innuendo and drinking all in one chapter. All that and the Great Beyond!)