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Jackie sat by the lake, practicing as usual. At this point, it was just snow sense she was doing, sitting with her eyes closed, legs crossed and hands clasped in her lap.

She was obviously older, with some wrinkles and a bit of grey hair, not that she'd admit it. However she was still fit and healthy, her power still growing even now, especially with the help of the Bergland books.

Taboo sat off to the side, dozing a bit, but lifted her head as snow started falling from the sky, flakes tossed around in the light early December breeze.

"Jackie..." she said as the first flakes landed on her icy body. Even she could sense when someone had made them.

Jackie blinked and left her meditative position, standing up and catching the snowflakes in her cupped hands. She could feel it too, these were distinctly Jack's, she even put one on her tongue to double check.

She closed her eyes to concentrate as the snowflake remained un melted on her outstretched tongue and fingertips. She wanted to be absolutely sure, it had been so long.

"No..." she breathed, spitting out the snowflake and dropping the others, letting them continue their journey to the ground. Her eyes went towards the nearest tree and she started to climb it as fast as she could, leaving Taboo at the bottom, rolling her eyes.

"I'll just stay down here then." she grumbled good naturedly, but Jackie paid her no mind as she climbed to the very top, often jumping branches on the way up and quickly breaking the canopy.

Above her fluffy grey clouds were depositing a heavy snowfall across the town, and if she squinted, she could see a blue figure flying across town, controlling the whole thing. Even from here she reckoned she could hear him laughing.

A grin split across her face and she cried out "Yes!" before she'd realised what she was doing.

Staying on top of the tree, she sent her own flurry of snowflakes towards Jack, hoping to attract his attention.

"Ten years." she muttered, shaking her head. "Ten years Snowman, where were you?" she was grinning as she said this, unable to hide her joy.

Jack stopped in his tracks as a familiar snow signature floated on the wind towards him. Grinning he turned in the direction it had come from, and saw someone in a pale blue hoodie waving madly at him from the trees.

He started flying towards the lake, and Jackie started climbing down the tree, taking long drops with confidence. He landed on the icy surface of the lake and before he could move he was tackled into a hug.

"Whoa Icicle, I didn't think you did hugs." Jack chuckled.

"This is a special occasion Snowman." Jackie said, her chin on his shoulder, which had a light dusting of snow. "I mean, it's been ten years."

"Tell me about it." Jack sighed, and Jackie decided to let him out, taking a step back as the two looked each other up and down. Jack barely looked any different. A little weakened perhaps, but it was clear Jackie had changed the most physically, she was almost forty by this point.

"So, where have you been?" she pushed up her glasses and folded her arms, trying to look annoyed, but she was smiling too much for it to be convincing.

"You've got something on your face." Jack looked closer, squinting at Jackie's mouth. "I do believe that's a smile Head Davies?" he withdrew, a mischievous smile on his face.

"You can talk." Jackie's grin only grew wider. "You still haven't answered my question, where were you? I was looking for you!"

Jack's grin faded and he tilted his head to one side. "You were?"

"Of course I was." Jackie said, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal. "I never really stopped."

Jack just stared at her. "Thanks."

"Oh just kiss you two!" Taboo cried from her position on the lake shore, feeling too lazy to get up.

"I think I'll pass. No offence." said Jack, backing away slightly and laughing a little nervously.

"None taken." Jackie glared in Taboo's direction for a second while the tiger cracked up laughing. "And no problem. You still haven't answered the question."

"I was, in, Pitch's lair."

Taboo growled uneasily and Jackie froze in place. Of course, the one place she wouldn't have looked, mainly out of her own fear, but that wasn't an excuse, she should have looked there!

"Jack, I'm sorry, I should have-"

"What, gone down after me?" Jack shook his head. "I know how much you hate that place."

"That's no excuse, I should have checked-"

"It's huge, there's little chance you would have actually found me before dying of thirst."

Jackie cringed. "Thanks for that image." she shook it away mentally. "So, what happened, how did you escape?"

"It's a long story." Jack sighed, running his hand through his snowy hair. "Do you know, Sophie's, kid?"

Jackie raised her eyebrows. "Jackie Bennett, about so high and looks more like you than I do?"

Jack blinked. "Yeah."

"I'm not stupid, I know you're the dad, but that doesn't matter. We'll sit down, and you can tell me what happened."

Blinking away surprise Jack obliged and they sat under a tree while he regaled Jackie the whole thing. About Pitch taking him by surprise, about MiM showing him glimpses of his daughter's life, and how one Sarah Jessup (a regular in the bookshop, even if Jackie Bennett wasn't allowed to step foot in there) had found and freed him.

"A little embarrassing for you, being outdone by a child." Jack smirked at her and Jackie rolled her eyes.

"Are you trying to make me jealous Snowman?"

"Maybe."

"Ten years and you still have the maturity of a three year old."

"Hey!"

The two started laughing.

"So, now you're back, are you and Sophie going to get back together or...?" Jackie left the question, cringing slightly at the normalness of it. That really shouldn't be a question to ask a 300 year plus immortal.

Jack shifted awkwardly. "I don't know, I mean, there's Jackie..."

Jackie nodded, sort of getting it. She didn't really know what to say to it.

"So." Jack said with forced brightness. "How're you and Jamie, your fiancé?"

It took a few seconds to understand what he meant. "I forgot how much you missed." Jackie said dryly.

"Those too haven't been together for about, nine years, ish." Taboo interjected and Jack looked confused.

"Why, and who's this new girl then? If it is a girl."

"He was upset after you left Sophie, saying you left her 'distraught'." Jackie put the word in air quotes. "When I started looking for you, he hadn't really gotten over it, I was barely around, so we broke it off, yes, his fiancé is female, he wasn't hiding anything from us. We still talk, and I'm happy for him."

She said that last part a bit too quickly and Taboo rolled her eyes.

"A lot of ice cream was consumed that night." she said, laughing at Jackie's glare. "It's true!"

Jack laughed. "How much?"

Still glaring at Taboo Jackie said. "Two tubs." a growl from Taboo made her amend that. "Three."

Jack laughed harder. "I didn't think you'd be like that after a break up."

Jackie was tempted to cuff him, but settled for chuckling as well. "Alright, you got me there."

They chuckled for a bit, then fell into companionable silence for a bit.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you something." Jack said.

"What is it?"

"You said you know Jackie, my, Jackie." he said with a somewhat melancholy expression on his face.

"Only by sight. Sophie doesn't let me near her." she occasionally saw her on the school route or looking curiously though the window of Bookmark, the book shop Jackie worked in, and was going to become the owner of. The two however had never said anything to each other.

Jack frowned. "Why?"

"She knows I do dangerous things, and I have powers, she's just protecting her kid." Jackie waved it off, ignoring the small stab of irritation at Sophie in her gut.

"Oh, well, I was still thinking. I'm not around all the time, so, would you...?"

"Would I what?" Jackie wasn't completely sure where this was going.

"Help her, teach her maybe?"

Jackie blinked. "Erm, why don't you do it while you're here? You're her dad."

"She doesn't trust me."

Jackie frowned. "You're her dad." she repeated more slowly.

Jack sighed. "Should have known you wouldn't get it."

"No, I don't. Family is family, you're part of it. Why wouldn't she trust you?"

Taboo was shaking her head and making slashing movements with her paw, trying to signal to Jackie to shut up. Too late.

"I was never there. She doesn't know me. She thought I walked out on them." Jack brought his knees up to his chest, hugging them along with his staff and resting his chin on them.

"She doesn't know me either. And if you two practice together then it's a good time to bond." Jackie still wasn't sure what the issue was. "She's more likely to trust you than me. You may not have been around, but she knows now that it wasn't your fault, and you're still her dad. I'm a stranger who knows about her powers, that's going to get her guard up almost immediately."

"And how do you know that?" Jack's question was leading to his point, but Jackie didn't immediately see it.

"Because I would have done the same thing at her age."

"And that's why she'll trust you." Jack said. "You know what it's like. You understand."

Jackie raised her eyebrows, but had to admit that Jack had a point. In fact the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. She had been in a similar point when she was that age, there were obvious, immortal based, differences, but basically...

"Sophie's never going to let me near her." never mind the fact that she has experience with difficult parents, it's just, this was Sophie. For moon's sake she used to babysit her!

Jack grinned. "Leave Sophie to me. You think of what to say to Jackie."

Jackie let out a long breath. "Fine. I'll think about it. We should leave it at least a week though. Make sure Jackie has enough time to settle back in." that iced classroom had been a mess and a half. No injuries thankfully and some Descendants of North were working on the students and faculty, there was apparently already a rumour going around about the furnace, so they were running with that. The Nightmare had disappeared before Jackie or anyone else could deal with it though, which was both a relief and an irritation.

"Got it." Jack stood up. "I'd better get back to this snowstorm. See you later!"

"See you."

Jack was off and Jackie looked at Taboo. "What did we just get ourselves into?"

"Potentially, teaching a new student. Might be a good idea to re-read files on half immortals though."

"Good idea. Never thought it was going to be an all nighter tonight."

A little bit of an explanation I think. What I probably should have said last time that unlike 'Friend or Foe' this isn't going to follow the events of the story, this actually takes place between the last chapter and the epilogue of 'My Little Winter Sprite'. So HOG won't be showing up, but as you saw they are mentioned in the background, but HOG events are not the main focus of this mini series.