Okay, so I told you I'm not dead... sorry this took so long to get up, but I went back to school and am dealing with 19 credits that I have to keep straight. So I'll be working on these slowly but surely, and I will do my best to start getting into a good schedule. I apologize that Bunny wasn't in the last chapter nor is he in this chapter, but hopefully he will be in a couple afterwards. Everyone else will slowly start making appearances too.

But now, on with the chapter, and I don't own Rise of the Guardians...

Jack's return trip to Burgess was a much happier one than earlier and the North Winds couldn't help but notice this. As she carried him closer to his destination, the curiosity that she had got the better of her and she found herself asking why he was in such a sudden good mood.

"I have a family!"

"You have always had a family, what is so different now?"

He shook his head. "No, I mean, I have living relatives! I had a baby brother! I found my sister! She's living with North!" His joy could be felt to the stars above, as he tumbled around, shouting in pure happiness. "That's why I'm going back to Burgess tonight. I have to tell Jamie and Sophie, and the two of them and E.B. are gonna come and live at the Pole! And we're gonna be a big happy family! Isn't it great?"

The wind whipped faster and tighter around her travel companion, in part to give him a hug and partly to make sure that his antics didn't cause him to get hurt. She truly was happy for him and that he had this next part of his life open up to him. "That is wonderful, dearest." She continued to carry him towards his best friend and shared in his joy.

In Burgess, there were few lights on, but there was only one that was on because its owner couldn't sleep. Sophie Bennett-Merlini was wide awake and sitting on a small window seat in her bedroom watching the moon rise in the sky. "Good evening, Manny. Can you tell me what the Guardians are up to tonight?"

She was met with silence as always, but it never stopped her from asking anyway. Absently, she walked around her room as she rubbed her swollen stomach and thought about her daughter growing inside her. "Ivy Lynne, when will I get to see you?"

"You picked out a name already?" a voice asked from the window seat behind her.

Sophie whipped around, her long blonde hair swinging, as she faced the newcomer. "Jack!"

He stood up to give her a gentle hug and kiss on the forehead. "Hey, Sophie, I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too, Jack! Why are you here so late? Is everything alright?" She looked worried, thinking that something had happened to one of the Guardians that looked out for her so well.

"No, Sophie, everything is great!" his signature smile, which really hadn't been seen in several years, firmly in place on his lips. "I just have some really important things to tell you and Jamie. So when did you pick out a name?"

"Last night. I was thinking about when she'll be born and what kinds of springy summery names I could think of."

"When will she be here?"

"The end of May. May 27 is her due date. I decided to name her Ivy. What do you think?"

He hugged the young woman close. "I think that's perfect. But now, I really have some important things to say about a lot of things. Ready?" She nodded. "Okay, I'm gonna go make sure that Jamie is up and I'll meet you downstairs in a couple minutes."

She did as requested and went down the stairs and into the kitchen to wait for two of the most important men in her life to hurry up. As she waited, she began to make herself some hot chocolate and talk to the little girl that everyone was waiting on.

At the same time as all of that, a very stealthy Jack Frost snuck into his best friend's bedroom and crept up on the sleeping form of Jamie Bennett. Snowball in hand, Jack inched closer, remembering to avoid all the boards that creaked from old age and held his hand up over the man's sleeping face. Ever so gently, the teen spirit opened his hand and let the frozen treat smack Jamie in the face and began cackling with laughter.

Spluttering awake, Jamie turned to glare at his oldest friend. "What was that for?"

Still choking on his giggles, Jack began to tell him why he was coldly woken up in the middle of the night. "I— I have to tell—" He stopped to try and get his breathing under control, but it was difficult, so the spirit chose to take as deep a breath as he could and get it all out in one breath. "Ihavesomereallyimportantthin gstotellyouandSophiesoyounee dtogetupsoIcantellyou!"

"Okay, okay, you could've just told me that to wake me up, instead of the snowball, you know. But I'm up. Where's Sophie?"

"Downstairs in the kitchen, I believe. It's really important, so you gotta come and listen."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Jack. Let's go."

The two boys made their way down to where Sophie was waiting with her hot chocolate and talking to her daughter at the table and sat down to join her. When they were both comfortable, she decided to see what had their friend so excited tonight. "Alright, Jack, tell us, what is so important that you had me come down stairs?"

"Yeah, man, and why you woke me up with a snowball to the face?!"

Sophie glanced back and forth between her grinning friend and her damp, tired, older brother before giggling. "How long will you keep using the snowball to wake him up?"

Jack shrugged, "Until it stops working, I guess, but seeing as I don't think that will happen, probably never." He grinned mischievously at the two of them. "Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is that I found my sister! She's alive!"

The Bennett siblings' mouths dropped open. Both knew the story of how he had died and that it was nearly three and a half centuries ago, but nobody was ever able to find out what had happened to the rest of Jack's family.

"Wait, what do you mean 'alive'?" Jamie asked.

"Just what I said. Well, I suppose 'alive' really isn't the right word, but she is a spirit. She wouldn't tell me of what though. But she's alive, and I got to see her, and she told me that we had a brother named Aaron and that he had four kids of his own, and that his second son was named Lucas. And he went on to have a family and then one of Lucas' sons married a lady and they had a daughter and she married a man with the last name Bennett…" Jack let that little bit sink in with his friends… no, his family… before continuing. "And I found out that I have living relatives!"

Jamie and Sophie looked at each other as realization sunk in and they looked back at the young Guardian. "Did you say Bennett?" Sophie asked, her voice shaking with emotion.

Jack nodded. "Sure did!"

"Where do these Bennetts live?" Jamie questioned. Surely there must be hundreds, if not thousands of Bennetts in the world, and that's if the family name stayed Bennett.

"This house…" Jack's smile grew bigger until Jamie and Sophie thought that it would break his face in two.

"You mean…?"

"We're related to you?"

"You sure are…!" Jack's happiness was so addicting that the siblings couldn't help but be caught up in it. They weren't alone after all. Not only did they have each other, and their children, but now they had Jack and his sister, who were a distant uncle and aunt. "Oh, but that's not all… North and his wife want the three of you to move to the North Pole with us."

Sophie paused for a moment at these words. "What about everything here?"

"Are you saying that you don't want to go?" Jack asked, a little sad that they might turn down the offer.

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all! I just want to know if we'll still have things like the house and if we'd be able to come and visit friends and such. What about Ivy and Ethyn's schooling?"

Jack nodded, "Yeah, they said that you could keep the house for as long as you want for vacations and visits and things like that. As for the kids going to school, I'm sure that we can figure something out, okay?" He looked back and forth between them as he waited for his answer.

"I'm in. There's nothing left here for us, so sure," Jamie said softly.

"What do you mean there's nothing left here? What about your job?"

Jamie sighed. He knew this would come up sooner or later. "I lost my job two weeks ago. I wasn't going to tell you because I didn't want you to worry. I've been going to interviews for other jobs every day and I've been doing little odd jobs when I can get them, but so far, nothing permanent has come up." This wasn't the right time or way to tell her that they are walking a fine line, but it was the first simple opportunity and he took it.

Sophie wrapped her arms around her brother's shoulders. "It's okay, Jamie. You're right that there isn't anything left here for us. So I'm in." Lifting her green eyes up to meet Jack's bright blue ones, "When do we move in?"

Jack jumped up and spun around with his fist in the air. "Whoohoo! North said that you guys could move in after Easter, that way you'd have time to get everything packed up and say goodbyes and everything."

"Sounds good," Sophie said.

Jamie opened his mouth to say something when the sound of breaking glass distracted everyone from the happy conversation that they were just having. "What was that?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out." As he moved closer to the door, he found himself getting very weak and very warm. Quickly, his brain and his body sorted through the clues and realized that the house was burning. "Fire!"

Wow, I really didn't mean to end it there, but I wanted to get this up. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up by the weekend, but don't hold me to that one. I'm going to start writing the Valentine's Day story for my Holiday Series sometime on the 13th and get that posted. I will eventually get "New Year's Surprise" and "Groundhog's Trouble" done, I just need the motivation to actually write them.

But anyway, because I left this on a cliffy, I'm gonna go hide in cave until Chapter 5 is finished... hehehe... Anyway!

I love you all for sticking with me on this...

Always,

~Nox!