;afternoon everyone! here's chapter 29! I figured we needed a chapter where maeve goes back to the real world and get back in touch with friends and family a bit. I own nothing but the plot and OC's;

The last thing Maeve remembered was curling up against Jack's chest listening to him read the story of the Lepercon to the baby guardians.

She rolled over onto her back when she felt someone shaking her shoulder and repeating her name over and over again. "Maeve!" Someone screamed jumping onto her stomach. Daughter Nature hollowed in pain just as all the air got knocked out of her.

She coughed and gasped while her "attacker" giggled. "Yay your awake!" Amelia cheered sitting on her bed. Maeve gagged a little. "Dear -cough- god -cough- Amelia!" She gasped sitting up.

"Santa came! Santa came! And Aunt Sophie came yesterday! Come on! Come on! Come on!" She squealed taking Maeve's hand and dragging her down stairs to the living room.

Lewis was sitting on the floor, still half asleep and rubbing his stomach. Obviously Amelia had woken him up too. Jamie was sitting with Victoria who was sitting next to woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, and a splash of freckles going across her nose. Her light green eyes lightened up when she saw Maeve.

"There's my other niece!" Sophie said standing up and hugging Maeve. "Hi, aunt Sophie." She greeted. "Where's Mr. Rada?" "He's spending Christmas with his parents." She replied sitting back down. "He invited me to go with, but I wanted to see you guys instead."

Sophie studied Maeve curiously. "So where've you been kido?" She asked crossing one leg over the other. "I've only seen you once since I've gotten here." "I've -uh- i've been busy." Maeve said sitting next to Amelia. "With?" Jamie jumped in just as equally interested.

Amelia moaned from her spot next to her large pile of presents. Everyone looked at her while she picked up one of her gifts. "Can we open presents now?" She asked.

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After a long few hours of present opening the Bennett's finally made their way into the kitchen for Christmas breakfast. Maeve stayed behind and organized her stack of presents, wanting a break from the others. Guess she still felt a little odd staying around here.

"Hey Maeve, while your in there, could you look for my phone?" Lewis's voice called from the kitchen. "Sure." She called back before looking under the couch then the tree.

Maeve moved some pieces of rapping paper. Why did Lewis always loose his cell phone? She moved a piece of red wrapping paper and found a small blue box hidden underneath.

Daughter nature pulled it out from under the tree and turned it over in her hands. The tag had her name scribbled on it. She gently removed the silver ribbon tied around it and opened the box. On top was a little card that read:

Merry Christmas, Snowflake. Love, Jack

Her cheeks flushed a little while she pulled out a light blue necklace with a snowflake small enough to fit in the palm of her hand dangling in the center. Around the chain smaller butterflies where attached.

Maeve took in every detail of the necklace while sitting back on her heels. It was so beautiful. "How much time did Jack spend on this?" She thought. Couldn't have been very long. They only kissed not even a few days ago. That made her wonder...

"Hey, sweet heart." Jamie came walking into the living room a plateful of bacon in his hands. Daughter nature shoved her necklace back into the box and turned to face him. "Everyone's in the kitchen, you coming?"

She nodded and set the box down on her pile and joined the rest of the family.

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"Where have you been?!" Emily's voice tore through Maeve's cell phone. "If I didn't know any better I'd thought you had died and came back to life! Do you know how much Matt, Georgia and Andre have been bugging me about this?!"

"I told you I've been really busy." Maeve replied increasing the distance between the mobile device and her now-ringing ear. "With?" The cheerleader push on. "Stuff." She replied.

Emily sat in silence before remarking: "this is for the party isn't it?"

"What?" Maeve asked confused. Then she remembered Brianna's Winter party a few weeks ago. How did she even remember that? "Em, I thought we forgot about the party incident. Look I gotta go. I'll call you later."

Emily rolled her dark blue eyes. Like that was going to happen. "Alright Then I'll talk to you later." "Bye." Maeve said before quickly hanging up.

She sided and leaned her back against the bathroom wall as she tossed her phone onto the toilet seat. Wanting to separate from the Bennett's for a while, Maeve had made the excuse that she wanted to take a bath. Of course Maeve didn't need nor want a bath, so she just filled the tub half-way with water and sat on the floor in her bathrobe.

"God... I'll be lucky if even Georgia still talks to me after this..." Maeve thought running her hand through the bath water. She crossed her free arm over her other and rested her cheek on her elbow.

"This whole "Nature spirit" thing is harder than I thought." She thought again. "I don't understand how the Guardians do it. Then again... That's all that they are; Guardians. They don't have to worry about dealing with friends or family members."

Maeve started to spin her pointer finger in the water causing it to swirl with it. She glanced at her cell phone out of the corner of her eye.

"Maybe I should tell them about Jack and the others..." She thought, but immediately dismissed the idea. "Then again, they'd think I'm crazy."

Daughter Nature twirled her finger up out of the bath water and the water started to slowly evaporte and followed, floating up in the same swirling motion her finger was doing.

"And again, I don't mind keeping Jack to myself." She thought grinning while more water floated out of the tub and around the bathroom. "He just so handsome and sweet and fun and just makes life so..." She paused and looked around the water figures floating around her bathroom. "... Magical."

"Maeve!" Jamie's voice suddenly yelled, closely followed by knocking on the door.

Maeve flinched as her thoughts broke and water splashed all over her and the bathroom.

Outside in the hallway, Jamie knocked on the door again. "Maeve, honey, are you alright? You've been in there for over a hour."

Maeve scurried from the floor and rapped her now soaking wet hair up in a towel. "Yeah I'm fine! J-Just a second!" She yelled back looking at the water everywhere. "Come on! Come on! Go away! Evaporate! Do something!" She thought waving her free hand over the water. She couldn't let him see this!

Much to her luck, all the water evaporated into air making the room turmy a little foggy. Maeve sighed happily. Maybe she was finally controlling these powers. She was just about to open the door when the 'fog' turned into mini thunder clouds right above her head and started pouring down rain. "Seriously?!" Maeve snapped under her breath. they even had tiny lightning bolts and thunder for gods sake!

"Maeve?!" Jamie's voice called again. He sounded extremely confused.

"J-just a second!" She called ripping her towel off her head and waved it along with her free hand to disburse the clouds. She quickly re-rapped her towel on her head causing her hair to get tangled in a knot and swung the door open.

"Yes?" She asked forcing a smile. Jamie looked soaking wet Maeve up and down. He couldn't help but notice how thin and pale she looked. And the soaking wet clothes didn't help. "Are you alright? You've been camping up here for a long while." He finally asked.

Maeve smiled a little at the floor and walked out of the bathroom and headed to her room. "Last time I checked it wasn't illegal to have a 2 to 3 hour bath." She said reaching the door. Jamie smirked. "Yeah, I know that smart- Maeve there's an ocean in here!" He suddenly yelled while looking into the bathroom.

"Crap." She thought while wincing. "Oh -uh- really? I'll -uh- clean it up when I -uh- get some clothes on." Maeve ran into her room and slammed the door shut behind her.

Daughter Nature leaned her back against her bedroom door and sighed. "I really need to work on this "Daughter Nature" thing..." She muttered.

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Jamie rubbed his eyes with his hand and sighed. Sophie walked upstairs wanting to see what all the noise was about and raised an eyebrow at her brother. "What's wrong, big bro?" She asked.

Jamie leaned against the wall and hid his eyes in his hand. "I'm worried about Maeve. I feel like she's trying to cut herself off from all of us. She doesn't sleep or eat as much anymore and leaves the house everyday and if she is here, she camps in her up room. Now she won't even look me in the eye." He said sadly. "She's never been this distant from me before."

Sophie tapped her finger on her chin. Not eating or sleeping... Avoiding eye contact with dad... Endless hours away or locked up stairs... That could only mean one thing.

Sophie smiled. "Let me talk to her, big bro." She said patting Jamie on the shoulder. "I think I know what's up."

Sophie knocked on the door and heard Maeve angrily reply: "come in." She walked inside to see her niece had changed into a black shirt and blue pajama pants and was cursing over her tangled wet hair with a hair brush.

She smirked while sitting on Maeve's bed and ushered her to sit in front of her. Daughter Nature sighed with annoyance and sat down as she handed Sophie the hair brush.

"So..." Sophie started while effortlessly disentangling Maeve's hair. "Who is he?"

Maeve's cheeks burned bright pink. "H-he? Who said there was a he?" She stuttered out. "Other than your reaction?" Sophie asked still brushing Maeve's hair. "I know the signs that a boys entered your life. I'm not clueless like your dad you know."

Maeve fiddled her new necklace with her fingers and bit the inside of her lip nervously. How exactly do you tell someone your dating Jack Frost?

"So what's his name?" Sophie asked. Maeve remained silent and stared at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world. The 44 year old smiled a little. Guess the little sprout still isn't ready to spill everything about him just yet.

"Alright..." She said calmly thinking of something else to ask. "How old is he?" "340 years old." Maeve thought. "17." She answered quietly. Sophie nodded in interest "Is he handsome?" "Extremely." Maeve answered without thinking. Her face turned redder.

Sophie nodded as she split Maeve's hair into two sections and started to braid one side. "How'd you meet him?" She continued cooly. "he saved me from drowning in a frozen lake twice then took me to see Santa's workshop." She thought. "I met him in the woods when I went looking for Amelia's bear." Maeve answered. Sophie nodded while securing her braid with a rubber band then starting on the next.

"Is he a cool guy?" Maeve looked at her wall out of the corner of her eye. She could still see the frost Jack had created yesterday while they where kissing.

"Yeah. Really cool." Maeve replied. "Pun intended." She added in her head.

Sophie finished braiding her hair and smiled. "See now that wasn't that hard, was it?" She said. Maeve nodded and looked at the ground.

"I think your dad wants to talk to you too. Can he?" Sophie asked. Daughter Nature stared at the ground and nodded. "Yeah... He can." She replied. She heard Sophie stand up and leave the room. A few minutes later Jamie came in and closed the door.

He didn't say anything at first. He just walked over to her bed and sat next to Daughter Nature. He took a deep breath.

"Maeve... I don't know or truely understand whats going on inside your head or even your life right now." He started slowly choosing his words carefully. "But I do understand its taking a lot out of you and you don't want to talk about it. But just know, what ever happens I'll always be right behind you no matter what choices you make or what problems come your way."

Maeve looked from the floor to Jamie. It was the first time they made eye contact in days.

Jamie rapped his arm around Maeve shoulders and pulled her into a one-armed hug. "And no matter what changes, you'll always be my little girl." He finished kissing her forehead. Maeve smiled a little. "Thanks...dad." She said quietly while hugging him back. Jamie smiled. That was the first time she called him "dad" for days.

"So..." He asked in a lighter tone. "...Who's this boy your aunt Sophie told me about?"

;thanks for reading and please leave a review!;