The last of the three magically-animated training dummies dropped to the floor, felled by an injecting dart in the crook of its elbow.

Beth, her blowgun in hand, dart quiver slung across her torso, waved at Mac, Bozer and Riley, who'd all been watching, from her perch eight feet up a tree by the training field, which the dummies had been trying to climb.

'Good morning!'

She put her blowgun back into the quiver, and carefully climbed down the tree.

'You're really good at that.'

Mac kicked himself internally (why did he have to say something weird?), but Beth just smiled up at him, looking flattered, cheeks a little pink.

'Thank you!'

Unfortunately, Mac, still a little off-balance, just vocalized the first of the many thoughts flying around his brain that he could grab in response.

'Why did you hit Jack in the backside? I suppose it'd have been great for teaching him a lesson, but you can clearly hit a much smaller target…'

Mac kicked himself internally again and made himself stop talking, as Beth groaned, blushing and rubbing her forehead.

(Behind their backs, Bozer smirked knowingly and made a little aww sound that only Riley heard, muttering very quietly under his breath about how his bro had come so far since Darlene Martin.)

(Riley shuddered to think how hopeless Mac must have been if Bozer thought this was substantial progress.)

'He told you that story?' Mac, Bozer and Riley just nodded in confirmation when she turned a little so as to look at all three of them, and Beth sighed, looking sheepish. 'It was 198 years ago, and I was far less accurate then; I really wasn't aiming for his backside…'

All the water in the pitchers, pots, cups and goblets set out around Riley in a rough circle shot upwards in streams, twisting into a ball, which spun around for a while, before, with an increase in concentration by the teenager and a change in hand motions, solidifying into a sphere of ice, with an impossibly-smooth surface.

Then, Riley's eyes widened as the sphere of ice began to shave itself into snowflakes, which fell to the ground.

She was not doing that.

She whirled around, and had the privilege of seeing Cage look almost-surprised, just for the smallest of instants.

(Jill wasn't there; she was doing some chores, but Riley was pretty sure then that if the lady's maid was there, she'd have reacted far, far more, possibly with jumping and maybe even swearing.)

The Queen was standing behind her, a small, cool smile on her face that nonetheless reached her eyes.

'Good afternoon, Riley.' The snowflakes gathered themselves up into a sphere, the ball of ice re-forming. She gestured to Riley, then the ball of ice. 'Focus on the ball, not the snowflakes. See it in your mind's eye, gather your magic, and then…' The Queen made another gesture, and the snowflakes began to peel off the sphere again. When the sphere had halved in size, she turned back to the teenager. 'Your turn.'

Riley took control of the ice sphere from the Queen, looking rather surprised that she was giving her magic lessons, and Cage just smiled in a way that was almost a smirk, crossing her arms, something teasing in her eyes.

'Who do you think taught me?'

'…Oh, hi, Beth.'

Mac walked into the kitchen in search of a snack (he was a still-growing boy; he'd been here two and a half months, and the bottom hem of his trousers had already had to be let out), and found the young healer there.

A surprise, definitely…but not an unwelcome one.

Not at all.

Beth's good company.

She looked up from the stove, where she was stirring something that smelled almost like his mother's apple pie, smiling. There were two pie crusts on the bench next to the stove.

'Oh, hello, Mac.' Her smile widened. 'I'm making my second-favourite food.'

He chuckled, grabbing a pear from the fruit bowl (she'd used all the apples).

'What's your favourite?'

'Pumpkin pie.' She narrowed her eyes at him, a mostly teasing expression. 'Pumpkin pie is delicious, and thus should be a socially-acceptable foodstuff all year round, not just during the fall!'

He held his hands up, smiling.

'No judgement here, Beth. Apple's my favourite kind of pie, but I do appreciate a good pumpkin pie.' He grabbed a stool and sat down next to the pie crusts, taking a bite of his pear and chewing and swallowing before continuing, gesturing at the stewing apples. 'Actually…my mom used to make the best apple pie; she had a secret recipe, and when I was four, she promised that when I was old enough, she'd teach me.' He swallowed, looking down at his partly-eaten pear. 'But she passed away before I got old enough, so…' He looked back up at her. There was a soft, warm, sad-tinged, sympathetic look in her eyes, and a little hesitantly, she reached out and patted his forearm comfortingly. He gave a little, thankful smile in response. '…I've been trying to re-create her recipe for years.' He gestured at the apples again. 'Could I steal some of that to do some more experimenting?'

She smiled, and handed him the wooden spoon she was using to stir the apples, reaching up and going up onto her toes to grab a stack of small bowls from one of the cupboards.

'I think we can do better than that, Mac.' She handed him the small bowls, and then crouched down to grab several spice jars. 'I love experiments.' Her smile grew more wry and a tiny bit sheepish as she looked up at him, arms full of jars of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger. 'Especially ones involving pie.'

Mac grinned.

Yeah, she's really good company.

He started spooning small amounts of the apple mixture into each of the bowls.

Riley slashed at the dummy in front of her with twin knives, then kicked the faceless 'man' away; however, the second dummy she was fighting had gotten too close while she'd been focused on its companion, and tried to grab her (they were unarmed; this was her first time sparring against two opponents, Jack knew it'd be really unwise to challenge her too much). She blasted the dummy away with her magic, and Jack realized that she was panicking somewhat; she'd blasted the dummy away far harder than he'd have expected her to.

It hit the stone wall of the armoury very, very hard, almost too fast for him to follow, and crumpled to the ground, falling into a very broken, lifeless position. Jack spoke the code phrase to turn the dummies back into lifeless dolls, just as the dummy burst into flames.

'No, no, no! I didn't want…I didn't mean…no!'

Riley frantically moved her hands, and water streamed up from the well and doused the fire on the badly burned dummy.

'No…I…Ellwood!'

To Riley, the armoury wall was the far wall of her and her mother's house. She was thirteen years old again, and the dummy, lying badly burned and broken against the wall, was her father.

(She'd never meant to kill him, hadn't wanted to, as bad as her father had been – a gambler and a thief who begged and borrowed money from his own wife and daughter, enlisted her, a mere child, to help him in his scams, and got very, very drunk and started spewing threats, and, that fateful night, had tried to really, really hurt them – he was still her father, and she didn't want him dead, she'd only wanted him to get away from her mom, to stop hurting her mom, she hadn't meant it that way…)

Her eyes were distant, lost in her mind, not seeing what was in front of her, and Jack recognized that look.

He'd seen it a time or two before, in Knights and guards and soldiers and spies who'd seen traumatic events.

Sometimes, they lost themselves in their memories, and it was like they were back there in whatever situation had caused that trauma again.

Without even thinking about it, Jack unbuckled his weapons belt, and discarded it, then stepped closer to Riley, keeping his hands up, speaking in the most gentle, soothing voice he could.

'Riley? Riles? Ri, hey, it's okay, it's okay, you're safe…you're in that big magical cursed castle, here in the training yard with Jack and Ol' Faithful, ain't nobody's gonna hurt you, Riles…'

When he was just a few feet away from her, she snapped out of it, with a sudden, shuddering breath, eyes widening a little as she took in the destroyed dummy, and Jack approaching her as if she was a skittish horse.

Suddenly, all Riley wanted was a hug. A hug just like her mom had given her that day, when she had held her tight, rubbed her back, warm and reassuring, and told her everything was going to be okay.

Nobody had hugged Riley since that day (she hadn't had family again until she'd shown up in Mac's prison cell, and she didn't exactly give off touchy-feely vibes, after all).

So, entirely on impulse (because he was big and solid and looked like he gave great hugs, and most importantly, Jack made her feel safe because she knew he cared, truly, really cared…and maybe he reminded Riley of the man she'd wished and dreamed could have been her father instead, when she was a little girl, which she would never, ever admit to anyone – it was never that her mom hadn't been enough, never, Riley had simply wanted maximum security and safety and happiness for her mom, had wished that her mom wouldn't need to work herself to the bone to provide or that she wouldn't, sometimes, look sad and lonely or have to angrily throw Ellwood out), Riley reached out and threw her arms around him, burying her face and teary eyes into his chest.

Jack started, surprised for a moment, before he raised his arms and hugged her back, holding her tight, rubbing her back, warm and reassuring.

'You're okay, Riles, you're okay…'

'…And if that asshole weren't already dead, Patty, I swear, I'd find a way to rough him up real good myself, curse or no curse.' Jack, after listening to Riley's story, comforting her as best as he could, and then spending the rest of the afternoon and evening cheering her up (as subtly and nonchalantly as he could; he knew Riley wouldn't appreciate anything obvious), bringing Mac, Bozer, Beth and even Cage into it, plus starting a silly little argument with Matty, just to try and amuse her, was now letting his temper run wild, pacing around the Queen's study and ranting. 'Get Mac and Bozer in on it, send them out to kidnap the SOB, bring him back here, scare the shit out of him…'

The Queen listened, simply waited for the fire to burn itself out somewhat, then raised her hand, and a carafe of wine flew into it, which she put down on her desk. Two goblets appeared on the desk beside it.

She poured Jack a generous measure of wine, pressing the goblet into his hand, then poured one for herself. He took a sip, then a healthy draught, then raised the goblet to her with a nod, a gesture of thanks.

She simply inclined her head in return, and sipped her own wine in silence, standing beside him, staring out the window at the night sky, for a long moment. Then, she broke that silence.

'She reminds you of the widow's daughter.'

It was clearly a statement, not a question.

Jack swallowed his mouthful of wine, looking back into the past, instead of at the stars.

Only a few years before the curse, there'd been a woman. A widow, with a daughter who'd been twelve when he'd met her mother.

He'd fallen in love with the widow, did his best to be a father to her daughter, taken the two of them as his family…until he'd messed it up.

(He'd never thought he was a good enough man for the two of them.)

He always messed it up. Had never managed to maintain a relationship with a woman for longer than a handful of years.

Through the crystal ball, he'd gotten to see the girl grow up. Seen her fall in love, seen her get married, seen her have a few kids and a passel of grandchildren, seen her grow old, and seen her die.

(Her village had always been on the crystal ball, projected above the sphere, when he'd shown up in Patty's study, something that he knew now was no coincidence, not in the slightest.)

'A little bit.' A smile appeared on his face, softer and fonder than he probably realized. 'Riley's every inch her own person, Patty, can't possibly suggest otherwise.'

A glance over at the woman showed that she definitely wasn't.

(And showed that there was something soft, fond in her eyes.)

'Come on, Riley! It's delicious, I swear!'

Riley looked sceptically at the somewhat-rectangular, purple-topped, purple-cream-filled pastry that Bozer was offering her.

'What is it?'

Bozer gestured grandly.

'This, my heart, is an éclair.' He grabbed a slightly-floury piece of paper from the kitchen counter and held it up. 'It's a fancy French dessert.'

She nodded slowly.

'Why is it purple?'

'It's a violet and blueberry éclair.' Riley made a face, and Bozer pointed at her. 'Hey, don't knock it 'till you try it, and the recipe promised it would be amazing, at least, whatever French is for amazing, and seriously, it delivered!'

Riley, who'd a little hesitantly picked up an éclair from the plate on the counter as Bozer raved (he never had let her down when it came to food, after all…), furrowed her brow.

'How'd you bake these, if the recipe was in French?'

Bozer shrugged and took a large bite of the éclair he was holding, trying to encourage her to do the same.

'Jack translated it.'

Riley almost spat out her mouthful of éclair (not because it was disgusting, because it was absolutely delicious, but out of shock).

'Jack knows French?'

Bozer shrugged again, looking a little bit like she felt.

(Jack, they knew, wasn't stupid, but he also wasn't Mac, who'd somehow learned Italian in a week out of some books two weeks ago to win a bet with Jack.)

'He's had like 240 years to learn?'

'…Come on, guys! Don't you wanna know what they get up to?'

Bozer, during a break from weapons training, flung his hands out as he tried to persuade Mac and Jack to help him crash girls' day.

(The night before, Cage had told Riley to meet her at the West Tower at 10:30 am, and not to be late. When Riley had asked why, Cage had smiled in a way that was almost a smirk and replied, 'girls' day.')

(Apparently, Cage, Jill and Beth – the young women of the castle - tried to have a girls' day every couple of months or so. This was their first one since Riley, Bozer and Mac's arrival, and they were thus, of course, insisting that she joined them.)

(They had also been very tight-lipped about exactly what they did on girls' day, answering all of Bozer's questions with little smiles of varying degrees of mysteriousness, knowing-ness and teasing-ness.)

(He knew the last two weren't words, but bards made up words all the time. That travelling bard that Mac's grandfather had known had apparently made up over 400.)

Mac shook his head, picking up his quarterstaff again.

'It's a violation of their privacy, Boze.'

Look, of course I'm curious as to what the girls do on girls' day.

But it is a violation of their privacy to try and spy on them.

And I really, really do not want to piss them off.

I really don't want to be glued to the ceiling or be followed by snowballs that constantly bombard me or find myself with a blowdart in my backside.

And I did say I'd try and stay on Beth's good side, remember?

Jack shook his head and waved his hands in a very firm no gesture.

'Oh, hell no, Boze. Hell, no.' He actually shuddered. 'I tried, years ago, and trust me, Bozer, you don't want to know what they did to me…'

'…We only left him on the ceiling for a couple of hours, but his hair stayed orange for a week.'

Cage smirked as she finished speaking and popped a miniature fruit tart into her mouth, as Jill nodded, a little bit sheepishly but very mischievously, taking a finger sandwich from the plate that Beth offered her.

Riley shook her head and laughed, sipping at the cordial that Beth had specially prepared for the occasion as the healer passed her the finger sandwiches.

'I wish I could have seen that…'

Jill swallowed her mouthful of finger sandwich and grinned.

'If Bozer manages to wrangle him into trying to crash again, you will!'

Cage shook her head, leaning back against the wall.

'Bozer might try, but neither Jack nor Mac will; the former has learned his lesson, the latter has an array of reasons…'

Jill's grin grew mischievous and teasing again.

'The main one being wanting to stay on the good side of a certain healer?'

Beth's cheeks pinked and she ducked her head and busied herself making up some more cordial. Jill's grin widened, and Cage and Riley exchanged a knowing look, the blonde woman speaking.

'That's definitely up there…' Her voice grew quieter, quiet enough Riley doubted that Jill and Beth could hear, as if she was essentially talking to herself. '…even if he won't quite admit it to himself.'

'…Actually, that reminds me of my fifteenth attempt to build a self-pulling plough.'

Beth paused just before taking a bite of her sandwich and lowered it instead, staring at him incredulously.

'You made at least fifteen attempts at building a self-pulling plough?'

The at least made Mac give a little chuckle, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his free, non-sandwich-holding hand, a somewhat wry, somewhat sheepish, somewhat smug smile on his face.

'Yeah. There were a total of twenty-two attempts.' His smile grew more sheepish. 'None of them succeeded.' His smile twisted into a bit more of a smirk. 'But the fifteenth attempt was by far the most interesting…'

On the other side of the healer's garden, also eating lunch, Caitlyn and Michael exchanged a soft, fond, knowing smile, as their daughter burst into hysterical laughter, Mac starting to laugh a moment later in response to her reaction. Michael reached out to put a hand over his wife's, and she turned her hand over to weave her fingers into his.

'The story of the Mechanical Scarecrow Incident.'

Mac groaned and shook his head, leaning back in his seat, as his best friend pointed at him.

'No, Boze.'

'You mean, yes, Boze.'

Mac shook his head again.

'No, no I don't.'

Bozer decided to try a new tactic, and turned to Beth and Riley, who were also sitting at the library's main table, watching the byplay between Mac and Bozer with fond amusement. He smirked.

'Ladies, do you want to hear the story of the Mechanical Scarecrow Incident?' He leaned over and stage-whispered. 'It's one of the best stories Mac's got.'

Riley crossed her arms and leaned back in her own chair, smirking at Mac.

'Well, then I'm with you, Bozer, we've got to hear it.'

Bozer preened at that, which Riley ignored.

Beth glanced over at Mac (who mouthed please at her, even though he was quite sure it was futile – there was a very curious, eager look in her eyes, had been ever since Bozer mentioned the words 'Mechanical Scarecrow Incident'), smiled a sheepish, slightly-apologetic little smile at him, then turned to Bozer and nodded.

'I've got to hear it, then.'

Bozer smirked wider and turned to his best friend, spreading his arms wide like a circus ringmaster.

'The ladies have spoken.' Mac huffed out a long-suffering sigh, and Bozer pointed at him. 'Seriously, bro, tell the ladies all about the Mechanical Scarecrow Incident, or I'll do it.'

Mac groaned (if Bozer told it, it'd wind up ludicrously embellished – he was trapped, and the other boy knew it), then shook his head with a fond, exasperated little smile, before finally acquiescing.

'Fine, Boze, you got me.' He rested his elbows on the table. 'When I was fourteen, I decided to build a mechanical scarecrow, because I thought it would be far more efficient at scaring away birds than a standard scarecrow…'

'…When it was done, I tested it, of course. In the field.' Mac's smile grew very wry. 'Literally.' His expression grew more sheepish. 'It did work, for about four minutes, before there was a malfunction.' He looked even more sheepish. 'An explosive, heat-releasing malfunction.' Mac shook his head. 'Long story short, I turned about a fifth of Farmer Wilson's cornfield into popcorn.'

Bozer chortled, slapping his hand on his thigh, as Beth and Riley both blinked, stunned, for a moment.

'It gets better every time you tell it, bro, and I was there!' He addressed the girls. 'He was really popular with all the kids in town for a while, but Farmer Wilson's kind of had it in for him ever since…'

Riley snorted.

'Yeah, I can't imagine why, Bozer.'

Meanwhile, Beth burst into giggles, and reached over to poke at the air in front of Mac's chest.

'You, Angus MacGyver, are ridiculous.'

Standing in the doorway of the library (he'd come to get the teens for dinner), Jack watched, a soft, fond and knowing smile on his face.

AN: Awkward!teenage!Mac, Jack and Riley bonding, Mac's science mischief/science gone wrong…I'm happy with that!