Jack was flying over Long Island Sound, the glassy water making a mirror for him to gaze into and a sheet of cool air to ride as he traveled in the cool hours of the night to avoid the heat of New York summers.

He'd claimed his son.

He couldn't imagine what his son—Percy— must be going through. Would Percy remember him? He'd only fully shown himself at that one time, when his boy had been a baby.

But before that, when he met the amazing Sally Jackson...

It was just like the story books, how his first went. One look, and he knew. Not necessarily that he loved her; she was three! But he just knew he had to protect her. It was actually very close to this place, on Montauk Beach where he first saw her. She was just a child, and he was still not yet believed in. So it was a surprise as he watched her toddle at a surprising speed ahead of her parents, her sea colored eyes glowing with a child's mirth. "Sally!" Her laughing parents called after her, laughing. "Sally, wait!" But such a joyful child had no time to wait. She ran ahead, further still, sprinting into the ocean wind, closing her eyes with joy–

She ran right into him.

She was a short little girl: her head bounced into his knee and she fell backwards, but Jack reached out faster that he thought possible and grabbed her in his arms before she hit the ground. Their eyes met– the sea on the sky– and she smiled at him cheerfully. "Sorry!" She giggled, before pulling free of his grasp and charging into the frothy waves.

He was so shocked he couldn't move. He stood there, frozen like an ice statue, his mind churning wildly. Could that have actually happened? Could she really have not gone through him?

He turned to the little girl, opening his mouth and intending to ask her— when the words died in his throat when he saw her, and understood.

She couldn't be human. Not completely, at least.

Even though it was summer, the waves could be freezing. They were freezing today, and were choppy and rough. But with Sally, the waves seemed to come alive, swelling around her and making her do nothing but float gently. He didn't know how she could yet know how to swim, yet the water seemed to hold her head above the water. It made a few things clear. But most importantly, it confirmed that the grinning, blonde, hazel eyed man who stood with Sally's mother on the beach and bore no resemblance to his daughter could not be her true father.

He had met a daughter of the sea god, and he had to protect her.

—•—•—•—•—

So he did, watching over her for whenever he could. He told her who he was, a spirit, a god of winter, but didn't tell her who she was. If she knew, more monsters would come. When she was four, her mother and step-father were killed in a plane crash. The mortals couldn't explain it, and Sally was left an orphan. Jack was furious; He knew Zeus was behind it. But even then he stayed with her, making sure she had fun even when she went and lived with an uncle that cared nothing for her. By the time she was twelve, she was the brightest student and sweetest girl in her class and many wanted her to join the swim team, but her uncle didn't have the money. The monsters were coming more and more, and Jack stayed with her almost all the time to get rid of he monsters before they got close. He didn't think she knew. When she was fourteen, she got her first job. Jack hated seeing her like that, working as a garbage girl at the local restaurant. She deserved better, and it frustrated Jack to no end that he couldn't help her. He could only listen to her talk, laugh with her, and be there for her.

Jack knew he was in love with her when she turned eighteen.

Jack had control over his age; when she had turned older than sixteen, he had made himself age with her. And he was there for her eighteenth birthday, just the two of them, as her ailing uncle rested and between work and school she didn't have time to make many friends. He watched as she blew out the candles on the cake she bought herself with her own pocket money, her eyes shining like sunlight on the ocean.

"What do you wish for?" He asked. She looked at him carefully, as if deciding what to say. Her long, wavy brown hung to her elbows now, and her face was beautiful and mature.

"A lot of things." She said slowly, as if thinking about what those things might be.

"You want me to get more candles?" Teased Jack. "Because I believe the rule is one wish per candle." She looked at him thoughtfully.

"Or I could just choose one." She mused. "Save you the trouble."

"I'd do it." He shrugged. "You can make a list!"

Sally smiled, but her beautiful eyes were distant.

"So..." Jack prompted. "What's on the list?"

She looked at him, and she looked nervous.

"I–wish I could be smart enough to get into a decent collage." She sighed.

"That?" Asked Jack, baffled. "That's no problem! You'll get into that writing school, I'm sure of it."

Sally didn't look convinced, but continued.

"I wish I could write a best seller."

"It'll happen whether you use your birthday wish or not." Said Jack firmly.

"I wish... I wish I had my parents back."

Silence rang, and Sally looked away, forcing a smile. "Sorry." She seemed to be fighting a sudden tightness in her throat. "That was– uncalled for."

Jack didn't say anything, just took her hand. He gave a squeeze.

"You know what I wish for more than anything, though?" She said suddenly, looking up at him. Jack blinked, startled. What could she want more than her parents? He wondered.

"What?" He asked.

She paused. "For me to have the courage do this, and that it doesn't backfire."

Jack frowned. The thought of confusion had barely formed in his mind when—

She kissed him. On the lips.

Suddenly, much too soon, she pulled away and detangled her hand from his, stepping back and staring intently at her sneakers.

Jack stared at her.

"I— sorry." She stammered. "I just–"

She was cut off when Jack kissed her back.

He pulled away, grinning. "I didn't know that your wish was the same as mine."

For the next five years they were together as more than friends. He stayed with her as she went to her collage, not far from her home, and took writing classes. He was disappointed for her when her Uncle called her back to his home, away from their flat, when he became too sick to care for himself, and apparently home nurses were too expensive for the old man. Even though Sally dropped out of her beloved classes to care for him, he died a year later. Sally and Jack were the only two at his funeral.

Later, they talked about getting married. They laughed over the ways they could get a preacher to see Jack, talked seriously about ways of doing a ceremony. It would never be anything big; neither had family to invite.

In the end, they decided that marriage was just a piece of paper.

A month after that, Sally discovered she was pregnant.

She, twenty three, was ecstatic. Jack was too, overcome with the wonders of becoming a father.

So wrapped was he in his bliss that he forgot the rule.

He was on his way to six-months along Sally, fresh from Canada where he had been spreading winter, when it hit him like an axe and he almost dropped out of the sky.

Gods were free to have relationships with mortals. But if a child came from that, they were automatically required to, as Zeus put it, 'withdraw from the situation.'

With Jack, there was no way in HELL he'd do it.

Some part of him reasoned that Zeus could give him a break. He wasn't like the other Gods, taking advantage of the fact that they could be in multiple places at once and producing offspring all over the place.

So Jack continued as normal, caring for Sally until she was seven, then eight months along. They bought clothes, prepared a nursery, discussed names like any other mortal couple. For a girl, it would be Alayna Grace. A boy would be Perseus Campbell.

Sally was nine months along, any where near her time, when Zeus called. Jack was certain of who it was. When else did the Northern Lights appear in the New York sky? As Jack slipped the window of Sally's flat open, he tried to ignore the dread that fell like a dead weight in his stomach. It was just a warning, probably. He'd be back in time to add the finishing touches of paint to the nursery. He was about to leap off the sill when a soft voice called from behind him.

"Jack?"

Jack turned to see Sally standing in the hallway, in a night gown, her hair messy as if she'd just woken up. She looked exhausted as well. "Where're you going?" She murmured sleepily.

He couldn't tell her. He couldn't let her get worried over nothing. Stress wasn't good for babies. Or their mother.

"I'm just going to head out for a fly." He smiled reassuringly, feeling a pang if guilt for lying. "You go to sleep, sweetheart. I'll be back soon."

She rubbed her eyes drowsily. "M'kay." She muttered. She ambled back down the hall, disappearing from his sight. He was about to take off when he heard her call softly down the hallway, "Love you."

"Love you, too." He called back, but he didn't know if she heard him.

With that, he took off into the sky. It was fall in New York; just cool enough for him. It was cloudy and gray, creating horrible foreboding in his chest.

He landed on the top of the Empire State Building and went in through the side door. He hoped Zeus didn't take it the wrong way; he just wanted to avoid the front door. He pondered his place in the god's social and political hierarchy. Socially, he was no one. He never really socialized with any of the gods, he was something of a loner. He was full aware those on Olympus could see him, but he wasn't very keen on getting to know them. They were so...barbaric. Having kids left right and center just sort of...bothered him. As for political, he had nothing there, either. He was technically a Norse god in a freelance form, and as he was American, this was his head quarters. Sometimes he'd visit with Thoth in Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt. He'd never had the heart to let the guy know he wasn't in his homeland), but other than that, he was alone.

He slipped past the doors and stepped into the Olympian Garden. It was beautiful here; eternal springtime. He would have preferred snow, but after what happened last time he did that...well...

Shaking off the traumatic memories, Jack approached the throne room. He admitted it to himself; he was nervous. What if he was wrong? What if Zeus forbid him from seeing Sally? Well, it's not like he actually would– no matter what, Jack would never leave Sally and the Baby.

He stepped into the throne room, bowing respectfully in front of Zeus. He didn't like that about Olympus, either, but yet again, you wanted to be in the good graces of the guy who could determine the future of your family. "Jack Frost." Acknowledged Zeus while Jack's head was still down. His tone was impassive– bored, almost, and hope rose in Jack's chest as he stood. A warning, that was all. Just a warning—no more kids for you, Jack— and he could go back to them.

Zeus was flipping through some Olympian tabloid— The God's Guide to a Successful Rule of Eternity, or something—barely sparing Jack a glance. It was just the two of them in the room: all the other Gods were out doing they're own thing.

"I see you found a mortal," said Zeus absentmindedly.

Jack bit back a retort. The guy made it sound as if he could just as easily find another one. He didn't get it— Jack loved Sally. "Yes, sir." Was all he said.

"And she's with child."

'A wonderful, beautiful, special, amazing child that we'll love with all our hearts.'

"Yes, sir." Jack waited with bated breath, and for several increasingly annoying moments Zeus was silent as he flipped a page in his magazine.

"You can't see her any more."

Jack's world crashed around him. He couldn't breathe. He just thought- Sally Sally Sally...

"No, sir." Jack said numbly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What?" For the first time, Zeus looked at Jack, confused.

"I can't stop seeing her, sir." He said, his voice stronger. He met Zeus's steely grey gaze unflinchingly.

"And why is that?" Asked Zeus, not bothering to hide the scorn in his voice. Hot anger washed over Jack's cheeks; Zeus was treating him like a CHILD!

"Because I love her." Jack spat, all respect gone. "She loves me. I'm not going to STOP SEEING HER, Zeus, because she's everything to me. I'm not like the rest of you– prancing around the world in all your GLORY– how glorious is it, really, having kids that will always face pain and worry as to why their mother or father won't be with them? Is it GLORIOUS being able to move on with mortals like you would replace an old car? All I have is Sally Jackson and my baby. And I'm going to go back to them. I'm going to go back to them and I'm going to raise my kid like any normal dad."

The final word spilled from his treacherous mouth and he was left feeling oddly deflated.

Zeus had the audacity to look affronted.

"Nothing I say will change your mind?" He asked smoothly, and Jack, bewildered at the calm, shook his head.

"Very well. Acheron?"

Before Jack could even wonder, his blood turned to boiling wax. Agony spiked his body like needles and he crumpled to the ground, right at Zeus's feet. Unable to find it in himself to scream, Jack could only sit there and burn, in fiery hell, pain pain pain—!

Suddenly, the pain vanished and the breath rushed from Jack's lungs with relief. Trying to blink away the daze in his eyes, he caught the hasty retreat of a shadowy figure in the corner of his eye, but knew better than to look. He didn't want to know what spirit Zeus had employed to do his dirty work. Gasping and shuddering from the raw feeling that his bones splintered under the heat, Jack groaned and drew himself to his hands and knees, clutching his staff, meeting Zeus's smug, triumphant gaze.

A gaze that turned to shock when Jack began laughing. It was a weak, raspy sound from pain that would make anyone cringe, but Jack bore it proudly. "Do you honestly THINK—" He chuckled creakily with an effort that shot pain up his aching ribcage, "that a little twinge would keep me away from my family?"

Zeus's stormy eyes narrowed.

"Perhaps not." He said slowly.

Something in it made Jack wary.

"Perhaps Acheron's assistance was not necessary. There are others methods, of course."

Jack drew himself slowly to his feet, narrowing his eyes suspiciously as he leaned on his staff.

"It would be quite unfortunate if lightning were to strike on your home, hm?"

Jack felt as though Hade's fingers were wrapping around his throat. "No." He choked. "Leave- leave them out of this." If Zeus went all Thor on the building, Sally and the baby would be killed. Jack would never get there in time. The very thought made him want to be sick.

Zeus's gaze became hard, like a block of graying cement.

"Then swear on the River Styx that you will never get involved the Jackson family, ever again."

Jack stared back at Zeus.

Zeus's lightening bolt appeared in its owner's hand, crackling with energy. One twitch of a finger, one flick of a wrist, and it could destroy Jack's reason to live. So he had a choice.

"I swear."

Thunder rumbled across the sky.

A/N: How bad do you hate me?

My friend read it and said she didn't like the idea. What do you think? Seem plausible? Review!