Disclaimer: I don't own rise of the Guardians

Rule Bending

Jane stared at Amelia in shock, really? How? How was she supposed to uphold the "Don't communicate with family' rule if her brother was RIGHT THERE! This was hard enough but adding taking him into her home, the place she could go to when being unable to communicate was too hard was just plain cruel.

"Uh…" Jane stared "Are you sure?" Jane whispered in Amelia's ears. She could see her niece and brother staring at her confused, but Jane was resolutely not going to risk angering the council further when they hadn't dealt with Sarah being there.

"I am," Amelia whispered back to her. "How about it, Jack? If the council members that are here give the go-ahead, you want to see if your daughter's best friend is ok?"

Jack looked almost offended that they would ask. "Obviously, I'll go. I owe that girl a lot."

"You do," Jackie said with a pointed stare. "You really do."

"Jackie…" Jack said. "Go free your mother from the igloo."

By the way Jackie was widening her eyes, Jane could tell that that was something she'd completely forgotten about. "She, better be ok," Jackie said with a glare at them. "Or forget the igloo, I'll freeze you in a block of ice."

Jane decided not to reveal that given Reapers needed to be everywhere and anywhere, nothing could really keep them trapped for a long period of time. Oh, there were ways to stall them of course (ergo why the invisibility cloaks had come into fashion) but stopping them permanently required more power than a 13-year-old half winter spirit had. Besides Sarah was fine, Amelia had assured her that she'd left her three trainees in charge.

Speaking of trainees, she needed to check in on Dylan and Travis, and make sure they weren't goofing off.

"She's safe," Amelia said, Jackie nodded once before she hurried off to deal with her mother.

"She's not going to be happy about Will," Jane said rubbing her neck once Jackie was out of earshot. "You fought him before, does Krampus keep his word? Can we trust him not to hurt Will until we figure something out?"

"Last time he didn't have a single target in mind," Amelia said.

Jane closed her eyes and cursed. "Ok… ok. Shit…" Jane said. She turned her head to see

William and Selene, speaking to someone she couldn't see. They both looked at the end of their leash. "Should I apologize to William and Selene?"

"Why?" Amelia said.

"If I hadn't interrupted…"

"It's not your fault," Jack said, Jane turned and stared at Jack wide-eyed. "The interruption came at a good time, I was starting to feel tired, and I know that Jackie was too. Will's capture is… it's bad. I won't lie, but it's not your fault either. You didn't know he would keep trying to creep up on Krampus."

Jane turned to look at William and Selene, Selene who was looking into the ether, and by William Senior's stance he'd escalated from just talking to arguing was arguing with…

Jane's eyes widened, the person William Senior was speaking to had shifted and she could suddenly see him more clearly… or one of them anyway. "Dylan's here." She said. "I thought I told those two…" She cursed.

Amelia looked about ready to laugh. "Now you know how it feels." She said, she stared off where Dylan and Travis were and frowned, before nudging Jane. "Go make sure Dylan and Travis don't make things worse."

Jane groaned and hurried away.

Jack stared at the retreating woman, "Why doesn't she speak to me? She outright ignored my daughter."

Amelia looked at Jack and then looked back down. "It's not my place to say," Amelia said. "She means no harm,"

Jack doubted that very much but he decided not to argue. "So, who are the council members that we have to speak to so I can reassure Nick and Jess that their daughter is alive and well?"

Amelia stared at Jane, who was being chewed out by William, if she strained her hearing hard enough, she could just make out the words "We were all doing fine until you showed up and got my son kidnapped." William hissed at her former charge.

Amelia wanted to go rescue Jane, but Jane wasn't a newbie fledge anymore, she'd been handling her own threats for over 300 years. She could handle a few irate humans yelling at her.

Still, as tragic as it was, it was hard for Amelia to sit by and let Jane get reamed out by someone who didn't understand.

"Come on," Amelia said pulling Jack away before she could change her mind.

Talking to the council was surprisingly easier than it usually was, Amelia had to admit, given that Jane hadn't yet been able to speak to them about Sarah staying in the Reaper's home.

They hadn't been surprised by the fact that Sarah was there and had seemingly decided to forgive Jane. They'd come to the conclusion that Jane had just been following orders the best way she could, and as such did not deserve punishment

Getting permission for Jack to join them was slightly harder. Yet easier than Amelia had believed it would be. It likely had to do with the fact that Jack was already dead, and a spirit, and not acting openly hostile. They only asked that Jack not stay too long, as they didn't know what would happen to a spirit who was formerly dead if they stayed too long in the Grim house, which Jack quickly agreed to

So, after a quick talk with Sophie, Jackie, Katherine, and The Williams''. They were ready to go.

"Should we wait for Jane?" Jack asked.

Amelia shook her head. "We could." She said. "But from the looks of things, she's going to be taking her time."

The second she said that however, Jane broke away from the William family, two boys who looked to be the same age as Jane being dragged away from the couple. Unfortunately William senior followed after Jane.

Amelia stared at the two, William arguing with Jane before Jane finally snapped and turned around. Amelia couldn't tell what was being said but whatever it was had William backing down.

Then Jane calmed, and said something else, curious Amelia turned to Jack. "I'm going to see what is taking Jane."

Amelia turned away from Jack and hurried to Jane. As she got closer, she could hear Jane speaking.

"Your son, will not be trapped with Krampus forever," Jane said. "That I can promise you."

Amelia winced.

"How?" William asked, "Giving away-"

"No," Jane said, softly. "No, sacrificing one life for another is not how I do this. We will find a way to save both."

Selene focused on Jane, "It's an admirable goal." Selene whispered. "I hope you find the alternative."

Amelia tensed while looking at Jane, it wasn't hard to imagine what Selene was thinking, she half expected Jane to lose her temper again but she managed to keep her cool. Even if Dylan and Travis were looking uncomfortable as she tightened her grip on their arms.

"We will," Jane said before turning away. "And I am sorry, for these two. They're not supposed to be here." She nudged her two charges forward.

"Sorry, Mr. & Mrs. Williams," The two said in the sing-song way kids do when they don't actually want to say what they've been told to say.

"Now, we have to go," Jane said, before turning around and giving Amelia a view of her calm demeanour before she dropped it completely to yell at her boys.

Jane was practically seething "I would make sure your reapings for the next month are hospital reapings if I didn't believe from the bottom of my soul, that your punishment should only inconvenience you and not the poor souls who have to put up with you." She said to the two boys.

"Yeah, yeah." I boy with sandy hair said with a mischievous grin. "So, what's it gonna be? Extra training?"

"Oh, Sarah patrol?" A boy with short black spikey hair said.

"You two know Sarah?" Jack asked having followed Amelia. If he'd been a bunny Amelia just knew his ears would have twitched at the sound of Sarah's name.

The two male reapers rolled their eyes. "Yeah?" The blonde said in a tone that suggested Jack was being obtuse "She's Jane's favourite."

"She's not," Jane argued heatedly.

"And the extra training won't come from Jane." Amelia cut in with a dark smirk.

Immediately the two boys straightened their backs. "Yes, miss Amelia." The blonde said.

"Sorry miss Amelia." The dark-haired one said.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Why do you two never do as I say, but Amelia just glares at you and-"

"Amelia's older than you." The sandy-haired boy said.

"I'm over 300 years old!"

"No, he means physically." The black-haired boy said

Jane looked as though she was ready to have a conniption. "You…!" She took a deep breath and pointed. "Get. Home. Now." She growled.

That the boys listened too, and they pulled out their scythe and, to Jack's surprise, they opened a rift in space, showing a beautiful golden gate, that was resting on a cloud.

"I take it you can see it?" Amelia said with a smile.

It wasn't just that he saw it, a part of him felt pulled through the gate. "It's home." He said with surprise. Cause that's what it felt like. It felt like he was coming home. That his human self, that the part of him that had died when he fell in that pond was suddenly awakening again.

Jane and Amelia looked at each other. "You won't be going through the gate," Amelia said.

"Sarah is near it though." She said, and then Dylan, Travis, Jane, and Amelia jumped through the rift together

A/N Hope you enjoyed that. Jack is now about to see the Grim house for the first time. And William Senior and Selene are understandably tense.

Please leave a review if you can.