AN: There might have been an issue with the upload/display of the last chapter on Fanfiction, so maybe double-check that you've read the last chapter before you read this one…

'Come on, son…' Jack sat down on one of the low stone walls that encircled the training ground, and patted the bit of wall next to him. 'Let's take a break, talk man-to-man.' Mac, not really sure where this was going, retracted his quarterstaff and sat down. Jack examined him for a moment, then continued talking. 'You, brother, are growing into a man. Now, 'cause of that, you've probably realized that sometimes, when you meet an attractive woman, that gives you certain feelings-'

Mac, ears very red, shook his head rather frantically.

'Jack, you don't need to have this talk with me, my grandfather already did, and trust me, he was pretty thorough…'

Jack's eyes widened too, quite comically.

'Oh, no, brother, I'm not trying to have The Talk with you…' Jack shuddered. 'Just…no.' He shuddered again. 'Let's just pretend that this whole thing didn't happen, and start again, agreed?'

Mac nodded.

'Agreed.'

Jack was silent for a moment before speaking, as if wondering how best to start this conversation. He seemed to decide on a very direct approach.

'You ever been in love, son?'

It was Mac's turn to be silent for a beat, as he stared at one of the training dummies, not really seeing it, looking into his memories instead. Then, he spoke, voice quiet, tinged with sadness and regret.

'When my grandfather passed away…he left me everything he had, which was…quite a bit.' Mac swallowed, still staring into the distance, then glanced at Jack. 'There…there was a girl. A little over a year ago.' He swallowed and turned away again. 'Her name was Nikki.' Mac sighed. 'She…she seduced me to try and steal my inheritance.' Jack, despite the fact that he'd known where this was going as soon as Mac had mentioned his grandfather leaving him everything, winced and reached out to pat Mac's shoulder in sympathy. The blonde gave a little smile in thanks, which disappeared again as he continued. 'And…and I had no idea. Boze worked it out, had to tell me, which…' Mac sighed. 'When…when I asked, if it was all a lie…she said she really did love me, but…' He shrugged helplessly. '…She lied to me about so much, I…I didn't think I should trust her, even if…' He swallowed, looking down at the ground. '…even if I really wanted to.'

I know I'm young. I was even younger then.

But I did love her.

Even after learning about all her lies, her intentions…I think I still did, for a while.

But, in the end, I couldn't. I just couldn't anymore, not after what she'd done.

Wordlessly, Jack slipped an arm around his shoulders comfortingly, silent for a moment before speaking.

'Love can hurt, son. Love can hurt.' Jack sighed, staring into his own past. 'When I was just a few years older than you, I was in love with one of Matty's spies.' Jack smiled, soft and fond and slow and sad. 'Sarah could kick my ass and look damn great doing it.' He sighed again. 'But I wound up not telling her how I felt, 'cause I thought she'd always be there, and I missed my chance. She married some other guy.' It was Mac's turn to reach up and pat Jack's shoulder in sympathy. 'And a few years before the hullabaloo with the evil wizard, there was a widow who had a daughter.' That soft, fond, slow, sad smile reappeared. 'We were kinda a little family for a handful of years, but I messed that up too.' Jack gave a bitter snort of laughter. 'There's been a few other women over the years.' He turned to Mac again, his expression serious. 'But Mac, son, even if it can hurt…it's worth it. Don't let a past bad experience ruin a future one that could be really, really good, alright? The girl who wanted you for your inheritance? She's the exception, Mac, not the rule.' Jack smirked teasingly, his expression pointed in a way that made Mac's ears redden. 'Pretty sure this girl wants you for your brain.'

Mac's ears reddened further.

I'm not sure I believe Jack regarding the whole 'exception, not the rule' bit.

I don't have very many charms to recommend me to a girl, after all.

But…hopefully, it doesn't matter.

I think…I think Beth might, somehow, like me the way I like her.

Yes, I've finally admitted it to myself.

And…and if she really does, if those smiles and conversations and what I think might be shy glances and moments sort-of like those in romance novels mean what I think, what I hope, they mean…I know for sure that it's not because of my inheritance – which I don't really have any more – but for me.

Not-so-skinny-anymore, thanks to Jack, crazy, dorky, gets-excited-by-weird things – which she gets excited by too – me.

Now, I reckon that makes her pretty exceptional.

But my grandfather always said that it was all about finding the right one for you, which I suppose by definition, means that your right one will always seem exceptional, to you.

Cage looked up from the thick leather-bound tome she was reading as Matty, who was reading a similar tome while muttering under her breath, spoke.

'I dreamed last night.' That in itself sounded innocuous, mundane, if not a little odd, but Cage knew exactly what the Spymaster meant. Matty occasionally had dreams that were more like visions, hints of the future. 'Mac, Bozer, Riley, they're the key.'

'Do you know why? How?'

Matty shook her head, but spoke anyway.

'Riley's magic is very powerful. She might be stronger than the Queen…'

'Perhaps.'

Cage didn't sound very convinced. They'd spent 200 years attempting to break the curse by force of magic. Lack of magical power or skill didn't seem to be a problem.

She closed her book with a snap as something hit her.

Maybe this was a people problem, not a magical problem.

The presence of the three teenagers had altered the dynamic in the castle between almost all of its inhabitants, even if it was just infinitesimally in several cases.

They were the key, just not in the way that Matty was thinking.

'I have an idea.'

Matty stared at her for a moment, then leaned closer, a little smile on her face.

'Start talking. I'm listening.'

'Boze…are you sure that's a good idea?' Mac looked up from his book and over at his best friend, who was working very hard on a love sonnet for Riley. 'I mean, your flirting doesn't seem to be well-received, I think you might be making her uncomfortable, actually…'

Bozer made a face, as if he thought Mac was insane, but something uncertain flickered through his eyes for a moment too.

'Bro, of course it's a good idea!' He pointed at the blonde. 'Girls love love poems!' Mac still looked very sceptical, and Bozer huffed out a breath and jabbed his finger at his best friend. 'You should write one for Beth!'

Mac spluttered, ears reddening, and tried to look confused.

'What? It's not like that…' Bozer looked very, very sceptical, as Mac trailed off. Bozer was his best friend. He'd admitted it to himself. He'd sort-of admitted it to Jack. 'She's brilliant. She's beautiful. She appreciates engineering and loves experiments and she's kind and sweet and fierce, all at once…'

Bozer would describe his best friend's expression at that moment as a little goofy and besotted. He considered Mac's words for a moment, then handed him a blank piece of paper.

'Not bad, bro. That's a good start, you just need to make it rhyme now…'

Mac just put the piece of paper back in Bozer's stack.

'Uh, thanks, Boze…but I think I'll leave the poetry to you.'

There will be no sonnets. Absolutely none.

I am a terrible poet.

'Jack…can I get some advice?' Bozer, standing with Jack under the shade of a tree, sipping water (Riley and Mac had left weapons training an hour previous, for the central courtyard and Michael's workshop respectively), turned to the older man. Mac's words from the day before had been niggling at him ever since, and Mac had admitted that Jack had offered him a little romantic advice, so… 'About Riley?'

Jack sighed and put down his mug of water.

He'd meant to have this conversation with Bozer sometime soon anyway.

'Bozer, you have got to stop hitting on her constantly and start taking no for an answer.'

The teen looked completely and utterly bemused, shocked, confused and Jack sighed internally.

Clearly, both Mac and Bozer were utterly hopeless with women.

Mac, Jack was sure, would probably spend at least a year too shy and hesitant to make a move, not willing to, in his mind, risk a friendship that he valued greatly. That meant months and months of bizarre conversations that Jack couldn't really follow, weird experiments, and soft, besotted smiles and glances and standing right on that edge between friends and lovers.

And Bozer, clearly, didn't really know much better than to constantly flirt with the object of his affections, ignore all of her signals that she did not like that, and put his hopes about what he wanted them to be ahead of what they were.

Maybe it was the being orphans bit.

Maybe it was the being social outcasts bit.

Maybe it was lack of experience.

Maybe it was the being teenagers bit.

(It was probably all of the above.)

'Jack, I-'

He held up a hand.

'Let me finish, Bozer. You and Riley are friends. If that's all you ever are, be happy with that! Anyone who can call Riley Davis a close personal friend is lucky. She's a good person, man.' Bozer nodded in complete agreement. 'You can't force her or convince her to feel the same way about you.' The teen looked shame-faced as he seemed to realize that was exactly what he'd been doing. 'So if you don't start taking no for an answer, I'm gonna have to go all bear on you and rip your arms off.' Bozer swallowed and nodded, looking down, deflated, which was really something, considering how energetic he was. Jack's expression softened a little, remembering what it was like to be a teenager, how difficult the world of love and courting had felt at that age (and, honestly, sometimes still did). 'You really like her, don't you?'

Bozer looked up and nodded sadly.

'Yeah, I really do. I mean, I know it sounds bad, given what we've just talked about…but I really do, Jack. And it's not just because she's really beautiful…' He looked ashamed again, looking down. '…it kinda was, at first.' He looked up again, looking very earnest and genuine. 'But she's brilliant and she taught herself magic and she spent years saving people's lives, including Mac's, and she's experienced terrible things that would give me nightmares for months and come out even stronger for it, and she appreciates fashion and style, which, seriously, like no-one else here does…and she's badass in pretty much every way…'

Jack sighed.

Being a surrogate father was hard. Really hard.

He didn't quite know how Riley felt about Bozer.

He knew that she did like him as a friend, and might even like the real Bozer (the one who always had a joke at the ready, who cooked great food, who was a bit weird and occasionally inappropriate but had his heart in the right place and was endlessly loyal and supportive and brave and funny – or, at least, he tried to be funny - and who was a great friend) the way that Bozer liked her.

But Jack also knew that Riley definitely didn't like the Bozer who hit on her constantly and would not take no for an answer. Who was trying to 'win' her.

Love wasn't a game. Wasn't about winning. Women weren't prizes.

Jack knew he'd acted like he held that attitude when he was younger. He knew that, sometimes, he might've toed the line when he'd gotten older, too.

But he knew that love wasn't a game and women weren't prizes, and did his best to abide by those little axioms.

'Look, Boze, I'm glad you have real feelings for her. That makes me feel better about all this.' He fixed Bozer with a very serious look. 'But that doesn't mean you're allowed to keep driving her crazy and trying to get her to feel the same, okay?' Bozer nodded seriously, holding eye contact with him, and Jack continued. 'Go apologize to her. Be her friend. Just her friend, Bozer. No agenda, no stepping stone to something else, okay? Keep your more-than-friendly feelings to yourself. If something happens, great. If it doesn't, also great, 'cause she's your friend. Clear?'

Bozer nodded seriously again.

'As crystal, Jack.' He paused. 'Thanks.'

His voice was completely sincere, and Jack smiled and clapped him the shoulder.

'Always glad to share the wisdom, brother.'

'Riley?'

Bozer slipped into the library, which was thankfully empty, aside from the teenage girl. He'd run into Cage on his way back to the castle after his chat with Jack, who'd simply told him to go to the library before he could actually say anything.

She looked up at him, and Bozer spoke before she could speak.

'I'm sorry.' She looked a little confused for a moment, as he continued. 'For not taking any of the one billion hints you've been dropping and making things weird between us.' He swallowed and looked very rueful. 'I let my hopes about what we could be blind me to what we are. And what we are is pretty great.'

She regarded him for a moment, looking into his eyes.

He was completely, utterly sincere.

She'd always known that Bozer was a really good person. Genuinely so.

(Look, she'd met him when he was about to go into a life of exile, a life on the run, with his best friend, leaving behind his life just so Mac wouldn't be alone.)

And he was genuinely caring and loyal and quite funny. He might not be as clever or talented or badass as other people, but he did everything he could to protect and care for his loved ones.

She was happy and thankful to call him her friend.

And he was kind of cute.

'Are you saying you're finally ready to be my friend?' Bozer nodded, and Riley grinned and closed her book. 'Then let's go grab a snack and plot to give Mac and Jack wardrobe makeovers.'

Bozer grinned right back at her.

'Here you go, brother.'

Jack, head, torso and upper arms sopping wet, handed Mac the bucket of cold water he'd just drawn up from the well.

It had been a boiling hot day, unseasonably so for the start of fall, and it was still hot despite the fact that it was almost dinner-time, and he and Mac had just spent hours training and sparring.

Mac took the bucket with a nod of thanks, and tipped it over his head. As he was just lowering the bucket, wiping his eyes and combing his hair off his face, Beth walked into the training yard.

The teenage girl stopped in her tracks and stared for a moment, her eyes widening and cheeks pinking. Mac, shirt plastered to his body and hair still dripping, and still holding the bucket, stared back, his ears burning.

Jack snickered to himself and smirked.

(He was totally taking credit for this.)

After a moment of staring, Beth regained her composure (she was a healer, after all) and spoke.

'Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes; you two should wash up and…um…put on some dry clothes.' She paused. 'See you at dinner!'

With that, she turned and left, and Jack smirked wider and socked Mac relatively lightly in the arm, teasingly.

'She couldn't keep her eyes off you! You can thank me for that assist, and the whole not-being-a-toothpick-anymore bit, brother. Anytime. I'm waiting.'

Mac's ears burned redder, he made a spluttering noise, and he busied himself re-attaching the bucket to the well's rope.

Jack's smirk just widened further.

From the window in her study, Patricia watched, eyes a maelstrom of emotions.

Something softer, fonder. Maybe even amused.

But, above all, something profoundly sad. Profoundly guilty.

She turned away from the window.

Jack let out a satisfied, relaxed breath, leaning back in his favourite armchair and putting his feet up on his favourite footstool.

Sitting in the armchair opposite him, Patricia simply lifted a finger, and a tankard of beer appeared and floated into his hand, which made Jack grin at her.

He lifted the tankard in a toast of sorts.

'Thanks, Patty.'

That got him a little smile that reached her eyes and a graceful nod of her head.

He didn't know when, exactly, that he'd started having a relatively-regular, near-nightly nightcap in her study, but Jack wasn't complaining.

Patty was actually good company, even if you wouldn't think it.

Besides, she could instantly transport beer from the kegs downstairs into his hands.

The carafe of wine on one of the shelves poured a measure of itself into a goblet, which then zoomed into her hands, and she took a sip.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while longer, each sipping their own drinks, before Patricia glanced over at Jack and spoke.

'You shouldn't encourage them, Jack.'

He sighed, knowing exactly what she was referring to.

He'd seen her fix him with a look when he and Mac had come to dinner a few hours' previous.

'And why not, Patty?' He gestured to the air in general with his tankard. 'They clearly like each other, and it ain't 'cause it's convenient or there's no-one else either. Neither of them are making each other uncomfortable or pushing too hard; in fact, without some nudging, they're not gonna get anywhere.' He pointed at her with his tankard. 'You know that, Patty!'

She put down her goblet, seemingly having lost all desire to drink its contents.

'And you are avoiding the real problem, Jack.' There was something deeply, profoundly sad and sorry in her dark eyes. 'One day, Mac is going to leave. It'll end in pain, for both of them.'

Jack looked stubbornly back at her.

'He might not, Patty.'

She sighed.

'Then he'll age and die. It'll end the same way, Jack.'

His expression remained stubbornly resolute, yet, somehow, warm and caring and a little sad.

'Still worth it, Patty.' He seemed to be looking right through her. 'Love is worth it. It's worth the pain it might bring, and we should all take what happiness we can get.'

She stared at him for a long moment, then picked up her goblet and sipped at her wine again, and they fell back into that comfortable silence, both lost in their thoughts, Jack occasionally shooting her concerned glances, which she noticed, but didn't do anything about.

She felt just that little bit warmer inside, and she knew it wasn't the wine.

When she'd finished her wine, Patricia stood to retire for the night.

'Good night, Jack.'

He smiled and raised the empty tankard at her again.

'Night, Patty.'

With a little smile, she swept out of the room.

'…Sorry I'm late, Jack was feeling particularly talkative today; he spent about fifteen minutes telling us about how he was Phoenix Whip-Cracking Champion when he was young…' Riley rolled her eyes fondly as she took off her knife belt. 'He's ridiculous, but…'

Patricia (after several sessions of magical tutoring, she'd told Riley to call her that, as her rank was irrelevant when they were practicing magic, and she wasn't Queen of much, anyway) gave a very small, fond smile and nodded.

'Jack Dalton has a way of getting under your skin.'

Something in the way she said that made the cogs in Riley's head turn.

'Hey, Michael, can you pass the…' The pepper shaker that had been sitting next to the Engineer (who was telling Mac all about the time he'd met some Engineer called Edison who was apparently a bit of an ass) floated up and into Jack's hands. He grinned at the Queen, who was sitting at the head of the table, raising the pepper shaker. 'Thanks, Patty.'

She smiled back at him, a quiet, little smile that Riley was pretty sure only she, Jack, Cage and Matty noticed.

(Beth and her mom were chatting, while Bozer was animatedly telling Jill a story about a mishap he'd had while he'd been a tailor's apprentice.)

Riley blinked.

How had she not noticed this before? In hindsight, it was so obvious…

She smiled knowingly, sharing that expression with the Spymaster and her apprentice.

'You know, when the scorned suitor set the curse, he gave us one way to break it.'

Cage strode into the library, and Mac and Beth looked over from where they were scribbling with chalk on a large slate mounted in a frame with wheels, Bozer looked up from where he was reading a romance-action-adventure novel, and Jill and Riley stopped making random objects fly around the library.

Beth and Jill looked rather confused (Cage did everything for a reason, they just didn't always know why…), while Mac, Bozer and Riley looked questioning and hopeful at the same time.

Cage simply continued.

'The Queen has to fall in love. True love.'

Bozer's brow furrowed.

'How does that help? What're we gonna do? Kidnap random guys and bring them here and hold them prisoner until she falls for one of them?' He paused. 'Huh. Maybe that'd be a good novel…'

'I don't think kidnapping people is a good idea, Boze, but…' Mac shrugged. 'Maybe we could convince people to come for visits?'

He sounded rather sceptical, unsurprisingly.

Riley huffed out a sigh, and punched Bozer in the arm (she couldn't reach Mac).

'Boys.' She threw up her hands. 'It's obvious! We just need to get Jack and the Queen to realize that they're in love with each other!'

Mac and Bozer both looked as if she'd just told them that the entire castle was actually made of cheese. Beth had tilted her head to the left, considering, but didn't look convinced. Jill seemed a little more open to the possibility, while Cage was smiling knowingly in agreement with Riley.

She'd always, personally, thought that it was quite possible that Jack and Patricia would grow to love each other, but only if something occurred to cause a little change, a slight alteration, in their dynamic.

Mac, Bozer and Riley's arrival and presence had brought that.

Riley got up, and marched over to the 'blackboard'. Beth handed her the piece of chalk she'd been holding, seeming to recognize that I-have-an-idea look on Riley's face.

The girl waved her hand and the equations that Mac and Beth had been writing on the board vanished (Mac made a little noise of protest, but didn't say anything as Beth said quietly to him that they could always reconstruct their math later), and she started writing on the board, then turned to the rest of the castle's youth.

'Clearly, they're never going to realize that they're in love on their own.' It'd been 200 years, after all. 'So we are going to have to help them.' She gestured to the chalk scribbles. 'And this is how we're gonna do it.'

AN: Poor Jack…you never asked to be the father-figure to three teenagers. You also clearly never asked to have to deal with their romantic hopelessness…but hey, I reckon you're doing a pretty good job! And yup, the plot is picking up! Look out, Jack and Patricia, 'cause the castle youth is up to mischief!

And yes – Bozer is referencing Beauty and the Beast in that last scene!

And I've just found out that 2.16, Hammock + Balcony, doesn't air until March 2nd! That'll be after I start my Honours (our equivalent of the first two years of a PhD in the US, I think), too, so less time for writing etc. Still, I think we'll get some of the fallout of Bozer and Leanna's relationship being revealed (probably with Mac being a little oblivious in some way at some point, like not realizing when it's really, really obvious that Bozer and Leanna are actually together and not just 'oh, my, we just happened to re-encounter each other again!'), and I think depending on whether they stay together by episode's end, we'll (or at least I'll – I think it's been clear for some people for a while, but I'm not so good at this stuff) have a more concrete answer as to whether they're doing Bozer/Riley endgame or Bozer-and-Riley-are-just-really-good-friends-forever.