Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Five years passed in a blur for Jack O’Malley.  He cherished every moment that passed, though.  He bought a house in the countryside about an hour away from M.O.R.A. headquarters with a substantial plot of land so his friends and colleagues could come by any time.  He made sure to get a house with tall ceilings for Krampus’s sake.  Dylan had graduated from high school and was about to go off to college to pursue a degree in music with a minor in information technology.  Jack couldn’t be prouder of his kid.  He never missed a recital, concert, or community performance Dylan participated in.  Jack’s house was close to a few towns with toy stores on the North Pole Transit System.  He alternated which ones he used to go visit Cal to reduce the likelihood of anyone noticing him going in and not coming back out. 

Jack always had the option to telework, but he preferred to work in the “office” with the trolls, Mikey and Philly.  He liked chatting with his colleagues over their lunch breaks and 15-minute breaks.  If he was working at headquarters, then he had opportunities to be invited out for dinner or to go bowling and stuff with his work friends.   He liked that.  If he had to work extra late at work for a case, he had a room in the barracks that he could sleep in.  Sometimes, he just slept there during the week anyway.  It was a solid hour’s commute to headquarters from his house and plenty of folks stayed at headquarters during the workweek.  There was a rec room and plenty to do after hours if desired.  He especially liked being able to go to the gym at any hour he wanted to get some cardio in.  He had some friends who lived at headquarters who liked to go for runs around the track in the gym every morning before work.  He was given an open invitation to join in any time. 

Jack used to be a lonely man.  He wasn’t a lonely man at all these days.  He intended to keep it that way.  So, he stayed busy and he stayed connected. 

It was early on a Monday morning and Jack was rolling out of Cal’s bed in the North Pole.  Callum was still asleep.  Jack gave him a little kiss on the forehead before he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and trim his beard just the way he liked it.  Cal liked it, too, which was a plus.  He washed his face and then went to get dressed.  He loved that he didn’t have to dress up fancy for this job.  He just put on some jeans, a t-shirt, and a coat because it was going to be cold outside on his way to the North Pole Transit System entrance.  It was July, so it was gonna be much warmer down there at work, but he could just stash his coat in his car and no one would be the wiser.  He picked up the thin silver chain that he kept his engagement ring on and put it on.  He tucked it under his shirt so it would be safe and closer to his heart.  He hated wearing anything on his fingers.  Callum had a matching chain and wore his ring the same way in solidarity- and because an engagement ring on his hands in his field of work could get snagged on something and rip his finger off if he wasn’t careful.  A chain under their shirts was the safer bet.  It wouldn’t dangle and get caught on anything that way. 

“You leaving already?”  Cal asked, groggily. 

“It’s already 6 am there.  I’ve got a 45-minute drive from where my car is parked to Headquarters.  Gotta be at work by 8 and I still gotta eat breakfast.” 

“I’ll complain at Zoe until she changes your hours.  Come back to bed.”  Callum tempted him. 

“Callum Drift, are you telling me to be naughty and be late for work just so we can cuddle a little more before I leave?” 

“It’s going to be three weeks before you come back,” Cal said. 

“Aww, my fiancé is jealous that I’m going to spend next weekend with Dylan and the next with Krampus and not him.  That’s so cute!”  Jack walked back over to the bed and gave Cal a hug.  “You can always come to my place, you know.  Or swing by Krampus’s place for some fun.” 

“Not this week or next.  We’re doing practice drills this week and next and making adjustments to the following week.  I gotta be here for all that.” 

“Well, we can always call after work.”  Jack kissed him on the cheek.  “You gonna come have breakfast with me or am I on my own?” 

“I’ll cook my special pancakes.”  Callum said.  “And I’ll brew you a peppermint mocha to keep you going.” 

“Mmm.  Christmasy.”  Jack giggled.  “You have yourself a deal.  But we gotta go up to the kitchen now or I won’t have time to eat.  I’ll scramble some eggs and fry some sausage for the protein.  Man cannot live on carbs alone, you know.” 

“Orange juice for the vitamin C so my fiancé doesn’t catch a cold from the weather changes he’s about to experience, too, then.”  Callum added. 

“A balanced breakfast!  All we need is something green and gross.” 

“I’ll blend some spinach and mix it in with the batter.” 

“Ewww, no.  First of all, that won’t be your special pancakes.  Second of all, who eats spinach pancakes?” 

“Nick eats spinach pancakes.”  Cal pointed out, eyes sparkling with mirth. 

“Does he?  Well, your dad has bad taste, then.” 

They walked out of the room together.  Callum put a robe on to go upstairs.  The kitchen wasn’t empty when they arrived, but Nick was reading the newspaper and drinking hot chocolate at the window.  He greeted them politely and went back to reading. 

Callum and Jack cooked together.  They even went so far as to make an extra plate so Nick could have some, too.  The three of them ate together, chatting amiably about their plans for the day.  Callum prepared the caffeinated beverage for Jack just like promised and poured it into a thermos for him.  He poured some for himself into a mug and sipped at it as Jack put his dirty dishes into the dishwasher. 

“So, when will be seeing you next, Jack?”  Nick asked. 

“As long as nothing weird happens with any of my cases requiring me to work overtime and over the weekend that weekend, I’ll be back on the 28th of July.” 

“Well, we’ll hope that nothing “weird” happens, then.”  Nick smiled at him.  “Don’t be late.” 

“I’m excited to go in, so you don’t have to worry about that.  It’s Zoe’s birthday today.  She never takes her birthday off, but I’ve got a surprise for her this time.  We all pitched in to throw her a party.  I gotta swing by the bakery for the cakes on my way to the office.” 

“She’ll really love that.”  Callum said, smiling softly at the thought of them surprising Director Harlow. 

It was going to be a big shindig.  She deserved it.  She worked so hard and did everything she could to create a warm and welcoming work environment while also protecting the interests of both humanity and Mythologicals.  Jack was happy to celebrate her 42nd birthday with her, although he would politely decline to share her actual age with anyone.  Jack would be turning 36 in a few months.  He was looking forward to the way his found family and Dylan, Liv, and Craig would pamper him for his birthday.  He always reciprocated in kind, of course.  He would have no fewer than four parties of varying sizes and shapes- one he throws for himself with some of his friends from M.O.R.A., Callum would throw him a little private one, just the two of them, and Olivia, Dylan, and Craig would throw him one.  Of course, the biggest and most rambunctious one was the one that Krampus threw him every year.  He even went so far as to call it “Jacknacht.”  Wasn’t that just the cutest?  Jack thoroughly enjoyed “Jacknacht,” even though he was now four years sober.  Krampus appreciated that and made sure to only serve nonalcoholic beverages on that night. 

Jack gave Nick his farewells and Callum walked with him to the transit system.  They lingered for a moment, holding hands as they braced themselves for their coming separation.  Jack leaned into Callum, who let go of his hand to wrap an arm across Jack’s shoulders and pull him in a little closer.  Jack rested his head on Callum’s shoulder and relished the feeling. 

“It’s just a few weeks, big guy.”  Jack said, more for himself than Callum. 

“We have cell phones.  We can video call after work.”  Callum soothed.  “I love you.” 

“Love you, Cal.  Stay out of trouble!”  He admonished Callum sternly. 

“Back at you.” 

Jack pulled away and smiled at Callum before pulling his keyring out and unlocking the door to the portal with his key.  He stepped through into the toy store and then walked right out confidently to avoid arousing suspicion. 

He walked around the block to the parking deck where he parked over the weekend, coat tossed over his arm casually.  It was much too hot to wear this thing down here.  He had one of those parking pass tags that allowed him to park there for days at a time when necessary.  Jack unlocked the car and climbed in.  He navigated the parking deck with practiced ease and was shortly out on the road, heading to the bakery. 

His phone rang and he pressed the button on the steering wheel to answer it.  “Hey, Gav, what’s up?” 

Gavin Grier was a M.O.R.A. field agent, one of many that Jack had befriended.  Gavin was helping with setting up the party, so he was expecting the phone call from him.  Not that he needed to be expecting a call from Gavin to accept one, of course.  They were friends.  They played cards together with a few other agents on a biweekly basis.  No gambling, of course, but they did play to win. 

“How was your weekend with your fiancé?” 

“Good.  Too short, to be honest.  But we had a good time.  How was yours?  Do anything fun?” 

“Started a new hobby.” 

“What, you’re just gonna leave it at that?”  Jack asked, amused. 

“It’s a surprise.”  Grier said.  “Nobody knows about it yet.  Gotta make sure I’m good at it before I show it off, you know?” 

“It’s a hobby; you don’t have to be good at a hobby.  You just have to have fun with it.”  Jack argued. 

“So the director’s party.”  Grier changed the subject.  “I ordered the pizzas for delivery.  They should be arriving at HQ at 12:15.  Make sure the director isn’t near the front entrance or on the path to the rec room for at least thirty minutes until we get the pizza, breadsticks, and sauces brought in to the rec room and set up.  That’s also when we’re gonna get the decorations put up.” 

“Got it.  I’ll conveniently have something to talk to her about at 12:10, scout’s honor.  Mikey and Philly can help me keep her occupied in the computer lab.” 

“Perfect.” 

“Need me to pick anything else up while I’m on my way?  I’m about to get to the bakery, but I have a little time to run to a store if I need to.” 

“No, I think we’ve got it divvied up amongst responsible enough staff to get everything here.  Text me when you’re in the parking deck.  I’ll make sure the director is busy somewhere else while you bring the cakes up.  See you soon.”    

“See you soon,” Jack smiled, ending the call. 

He parked the car and walked into the little bakery.  He gave the store clerk a polite smile and his name.  He also handed her the pre-order slip and the nice lady brought him the large sheet cakes.  He balanced them carefully and she opened the door for him.  She was even nice enough to walk with Jack to his car and opened the door for him so he could load the cakes inside more easily. 

When he arrived at work, he was relieved to see Agent LeGranges walking from her car toward the main building.  “Hey, Mace!”  He shouted and waved at her.  “Can you come here for a sec?”  Agent LeGranges obliged him.  “Can you help me carry these cakes inside?  All I really need is for someone to close my car door and lock it and then open the door to the building and the rec room when we get there.  Do you have time for that?” 

“Sure.”  She gave him a small smile. 

“Thanks, Mace.”  Jack texted Agent Grier that he was there and scooped the cakes out. 

LeGranges did as he asked and locked and closed the car before she fell into step with him.  “How’s Cal?”  She asked. 

“Steadfast.  Handsome.  Sweet.  Good in bed.”  Jack grinned as LeGranges snickered at him. 

“I asked how he was doing, not for you to give me a keywords search of his best features, dork.  I don’t need to find him in a database.  How was he when you left this morning?” 

“He’s good.  Doing great.”  Jack answered.  “It’s gonna be three weeks before I can get back up there, though, so he’s a little bummed about that.  Not gonna lie, I am, too, but it’s just kind of the nature of my situation, you know?  The Pole is on a different time zone than we are and the jet lag, if you will, combined with weird nights and having to adjust my watch to make sure I get here on time is just a lot to keep up with.  The weather is a huge contrast from there to here, too.  Gotta wear a coat up there and this sort of thing down here.  Gotta make sure I remember to pay for my parking passes near the Transit System so I can park my car for days at a time without getting a ticket or towed.” 

“Aren’t you gonna move in with him when you get married, though?” 

Jack missed a step at that question.  “Ah, well.  Maybe?”  He stammered. 

LeGranges stopped and gave him a look.  “Most of your family lives in the North Pole.  Krampus would be happy to be living closer to you and he won’t have to sneak around to see you if you lived up there, you know.” 

“I dunno, Mace.  It’s cold up there year-round.  And it’s dark like three months out of the year and the sun never sets for three other ones.  Can you imagine that cold with the blinding sunlight pouring in through your curtains while you try to sleep?” 

“Cal will keep you warm.” 

“He can’t keep me warm 24/7!  He has a job.  I have a job.” 

“You could telework and work out of the Pole, Jack.” 

“What and give this up?” 

Jack carefully gestured to M.O.R.A.’s busy, high-tech entryway.  Every entrance had a full body scanner and every full-body scanner had a badge scanner.  No one was allowed entry into the building without a full-body scan to make sure no one was a shapeshifter.  The badge scan served as a time clock.  People and Myths were walking around.  Some were moving with purpose towards a goal.  Others were chatting with friends and acquaintances. 

“You don’t wanna see my gorgeous face every day anymore, LeGranges?”  Jack fake pouted. 

“Of course, I want to see you, but I’m not marrying you.  Cal wants to see you every day and he’s going to be your husband.  Shouldn’t that, I dunno, overrule the rest of us?” 

“Does it have to?”  Jack asked, anxiously.  “Besides, it’s Christmas all the time up there.  I get a little bit sick of it, to be honest.  The sight of it all stopped making me starry-eyed a couple years ago.” 

“Are you getting cold feet?”  LeGranges accused, stopping in front of him and forcing him to also stop. 

“No?”  Jack knew he wasn’t being particularly convincing when she gave him a look.  “Okay, so. Maybe.  But.  Like.  It’s not Cal.  I love him so much, you know?  But it’s a big change.  A really big change.  Marriage is a really big commitment and it changes things.  Dynamics, expectations, names, and rules, and all that jazz.  And Nick will be my father-in-law.  Do you realize how much pressure that is?  My future husband’s dad is Santa Claus.” 

“Does Cal know you’re having second thoughts?” 

“God, no.  Love him too much to stress him out like that.”  Jack sidled past her and walked down the hallway toward the elevator.  “Look, I’m not saying I don’t wanna be with him or anything like that.  It’s just the commitment of marriage that’s spookin’ me a bit, okay?  Five years ago, I’d have told ya I’d never get married and tied down.  Even though it’s been five years since all that happened, I’m still kinda adjusting.” 

LeGranges gave him a look and he wondered if Zoe had been the one to give her pointers on how to cut through his bullshit posturing.  “You are adjusted, Jack.  That’s why you’re afraid.  You’ve settled in and now you’re comfortable.  More comfortable than you’ve ever been in your entire life and you don’t wanna change anything because, if you do, you might break something and it will all come tumbling down.  Five years of your life, down the drain.” 

“You been talkin’ to my therapist?  Stop that!”  Jack accused, boarding the elevator.  LeGranges followed him onto it. 

“Don’t need to talk to your therapist to know you like the back of my hand.”  LeGranges stuck her tongue out at him.  “Talk to your therapist about that, though.  Maybe she can talk some sense into you before you fuck something up trying not to fuck something up.”  The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. 

Jack started to argue, but he couldn’t think of a good counterpoint.  So, he just followed her out of the elevator to the rec room.  The decorations and snacks were being dropped off by other employees in a hurry to get to their posts without drawing attention.  A team of agents would properly set up the decorations a little later in the day.  Jack set the cakes down on a table that, thankfully, already had the tablecloth down.  LeGranges slipped off to go to her workstation. 

“Great, Jack!”  One of the agents enthused.  “That’s the director’s favorite bakery!” 

“It’s her favorite flavor, too.”  Jack boasted and the agent gave him a high five. 

Jack made small talk with a few other agents before, he, too, went to his workstation.  The trolls’ lab now had a few more humans in it, but none of them were as talented as Mikey, Philly, nor Jack.  Jack knew he should probably feel a little guilty or something over feeling so very proud of himself for holding his own amongst Mythologicals with their uncanny abilities to find people and things that most humans couldn’t, but he wasn’t remotely sorry.  He was good at what he did and he was proud of it. 

Now, it was time to find a certain werewolf that was causing a little bit of a havoc in the wilds of Norway.  Jack turned his monitors and computer on. 

Chapter Text

12 noon came around faster than Jack expected it to.  His alarm went off, jolting him out of the zone he was in.  He winced at the looks the trolls gave him, because the blaring thing also broke their concentration.  He apologized and made a mental note to change the settings on his alarms on his phone so he wouldn’t risk jarring himself and everyone else in the lab with that awful noise again in the future.  He rushed out of the lab, careful to adopt a casual, but swift pace to find Zoe. 

Director Harlow followed a strict schedule most days, unless there was an emergency.  Jack knew exactly where to find her.  Jack frowned at her closed office door when he got there.  She was always in her office at this time of day.  Where could she be?  He texted her and got no response.  He texted Agent Grier to warn him that he did not, in fact, have eyes on Director Harlow.  He asked around and eventually found out that Zoe was in one of the big conference rooms with a few agents, debriefing them about an incident. 

Jack went to the conference room and sat on the bench outside, texting Grier to let him know that he located the director and would keep her away from the entrance, the rec room, and the path to the rec room.  He couldn’t hear what they were talking about in there, but it must have been important for the director to leave her regimented daily schedule to hold the meeting.  He kept an eye on the time, relieved and worried at the same time that Director Harlow and the agents she was speaking with still hadn’t left the room by 12:35.  Grier texted him the all clear just as Harlow briskly walked out of the conference room. 

“Oh.  Jack.  Exactly who I was going to go see.”  The director said.  “Step inside, please.” 

The agents she was debriefing all left, politely greeting Jack as Zoe ushered him into the room.  Ugh, she picked that conference room.  Even though everything had been properly cleaned up and it had been five years since it happened, Jack still avoided this conference room like the plague.  It helped that he wasn’t generally required to attend the types of meetings that took place in this room, but still.  He sat on the corner of the desk instead of in one of the rolling chairs and pretended he was fine. 

“What’s up, Director?” 

“There has been a disappearance of Mythologicals living in Central Europe.  There’s no trace of them aside from their ancestral homes.”  Zoe said.  “And we are not talking about an individual disappearance, either.  An entire pack of twelve wolpertingers has vanished, supposedly without a trace.  I need you to run scans and track them down.  I just emailed you the information about the pack and the scene.” 

“I have literally never heard of that before in my life.  What is a wolpertinger?” 

“A Germanic cross bred magical creature that looks like someone cut off parts of several animals and glued it to the body of a rabbit.  You may have heard of a Jackalope instead.  It’s a variant of the same species, that lives in North America.” 

“Are they prey animals?  Maybe they got eaten?” 

“They’re predators, actually.  They usually do the eating.”  Zoe answered. 

“Bunnies are predators?” 

“Get out of here and get to work, Jack O’Malley.”  Zoe hissed, but in an amused way.  “You know there’s plenty of unexpected things out there now.  Yes, the bunny monsters are carnivorous.  Now, get going.”  She gave him a friendly shove.   

“Okay, okay!”  Jack laughed.  “Don’t worry; we’ll find the murder bunnies.”  Jack checked his phone.  Yes. There was the all clear.  “But before we start on the murder bunnies, there’s something I needed to talk to you about.  Walk with me?” 

Zoe frowned at him.  Uh-oh, were the wolpertingers somehow more important than Jack realized?  What about the party?  The pizza would get cold.  Well, if he needed to, he could go work on the case while everyone else did the party.  He would be sad, but it was Zoe’s party, not his. 

“Well, what is it?”  Zoe prompted. 

“Walk with me, okay?”  Jack suddenly didn’t have anything to talk about.  So, he talked about Cal.  Cal was always easy to talk about and Zoe was one of his best friends who was also pretty close to Cal, so maybe she could offer some advice about his recent trepidation about getting married. 

Zoe indulged him and by the time they got to the elevator, Zoe had some thoughts for him.  “You and Cal are unique, just like every couple out there.  No marriage or relationship will ever be exactly the same and your marriage almost certainly won’t look like Nick’s with his wife.  The two of you can write the rules of engagement, so to speak, for your marriage.  If you don’t want things to change, they don’t necessarily have to.  Just make sure you keep his wishes and needs in mind, too.  The best thing you can do is talk to him about it.  All of it.”  She paused as Jack pushed the button for the elevator.  “Where are we going?” 

“Rec room.  It seems like the best place to really talk about something like this, don’t you think?”  Jack asked. 

She looked like she suspected him of something.  That was alright.  She had to know something was up when he didn’t get right to work on that case, anyway.  Plus, she knew it was her birthday.  She nodded and got on the elevator with him. 

They arrived at the rec room.  He opened the door for her and gestured for her to enter the dark room.  She huffed affectionately and stepped into the room.  The lights turned on and there was a loud chorus of “Happy Birthday!” from dozens of agents.  There were some loud pops as some people on either side of the door popped open party crackers and glitter and confetti rained down on Zoe, who gasped, probably from the shock of the noise more than from the party itself. 

Zoe glanced at Jack, who gave her a warm smile and she smiled back.  “Thank you.”  She said to everyone and the room was filled with applause. 

“Now, let’s have pizza before it gets cold!”  Jack enthused, ushering her deeper into the room.  “Birthday girl gets the first slice of pizza and cake!” 

There was much merrymaking, but nothing overly rambunctious.  They were at work after all.  The team bought Zoe a gift and made her open it in front of them.  It included a few gift cards and all of her favorite shelf-stable treats. 

“Mission successful, huh, O’Malley?”  Agent Grier approached him towards the end of the party. 

“Yeah.  We did pretty good, huh?”  Jack asked.  “Thanks for helping coordinate it and keep it under wraps and such.” 

“She deserves it.”  Grier said and Jack wholeheartedly agreed. 

Jack went back to his workstation and got started looking into these wolpertingers.  Apparently, they were more or less feral, carnivorous creatures.  They were also classified as an endangered species under high priority M.O.R.A. protection.  Jack’s job was simpler than he initially thought.  Unfortunately, there were magic poachers who hunted these creatures for their furs, magic energy, and other parts.  Apparently, there were ways to use nearly every part of a wolpertinger in rituals, magic, apparel, costuming, and art.  There was even information about its pointy teeth being useful in medicines.  So, that’s why Zoe didn’t object to him procrastinating on finding these things.  The odds of them being found alive were close to zero.  His official mission objective was to trace the poachers, not the animals themselves and that kind of made Jack sad. 

First things first, Jack would check the black market online for listings about wolpertingers or their relative the jackalope.  He combed through hundreds of listings and compiled a list of the most likely to be authentic and another list of potential, but less likely listings.  He would focus on the most likely real listings first and trace each owner of the listings one by one.  It would take a while, but it wasn’t like when Santa was kidnapped.  No, he the time to hunt these people down and give their information to the field agents so they could be apprehended and prosecuted for their crimes against magical nature. 

When his shift ended, Jack didn’t want to stop searching, but Mikey and Philly talked him into leaving close to on time.  He wondered how many times the others had dealt with magical poaching cases like this.  He thought he would be too depressed about it if he asked, so he held back. 

He clocked out, trying to turn his brain off so he could get home and cook something healthy for supper.  He tucked his badge into his coat pocket and pulled his keys out in its place.  He’d make something simple.  Like a salad with some stove fried chicken.  Maybe he’d bake it to make it a little healthier. 

On his way home, he called Cal.  “Hey!”  He greeted Cal when he answered the phone. 

“Hey.  Glad to hear your voice.  How was your day?” 

“Miss me that much already, huh?”  Jack asked, feeling guilty for feeling good about him pining after him. 

“I always do.”  Callum answered.  “Your day?  How did the party go?” 

“It was a good day.  The party went well.  Everyone had a good time and Zoe appreciated it.  Mace says hi.”  He paused, listening to Cal’s hum of understanding.  “Say, Cal, what do you know about magical poachers?” 

“They tend not to survive very long.”  Callum answered.  “Humans are generally much weaker than most Mythologicals, so once they get greedy enough, they bite off more than they can chew and get killed.  M.O.R.A. has had to scrape a lot of the remains of dead poachers off the ground over the years.” 

“Oh.”  Jack considered that and then pictured someone trying to poach Garcia or Krampus and he completely understood how easy it would be to be turned into a paste on the ground after trying. 

“Why do you ask?” 

“Oh.  There was a disappearance of a pack of these things called wolpertingers.  You familiar with those?” 

“Yes, I know them.  They’re fairly dangerous.”  A pause.  “Did you say an entire pack of wolpertingers has disappeared?  How large of a pack are we talking?” 

“Twelve of them.”  Jack answered, furrowing his brow. 

Callum paused a long time.  “How did you find out about this?” 

“Zoe assigned it to me.”  Jack said.  “I don’t like the tone in your voice.” 

“A wolpertinger can kill a burly human male five times its size by itself with ease, but they are pack animals, so they attack together.  Imagine how large a group of poachers it would have to be to hunt and kill a dozen of them, with fur and fangs flying everywhere.  The good news is that you will probably be able to find some identifying paperwork or other information on the remains left at the poaching site.  No way the group escaped without losing at least one of their people.” 

“Actually, the file said there weren’t any remains.  There was no evidence of human interaction at all.  Either no one was there or they cleaned up all traces of themselves after hunting the animals.” 

“Maybe the pack wasn’t poached and they escaped from the region where they were being monitored, then.”  Callum said.  “It’s a more likely scenario than poachers killing them and leaving without a trace.” 

How odd.  Well, Jack was still investigating and just got the case today.  He was sure Zoe would send someone to hunt down these missing animals in person, too, just in case they weren’t poached.  Hopefully from a safe distance, of course.  No need to get any agents killed by literal murder bunnies.  Jack had been joking calling them murder bunnies earlier, but apparently they really were murder bunnies.  Scary. 

“By the way, Jack, If you ever run into a wolpertinger, run.  No matter how cute it looks, it will kill and eat you.” 

“No need to worry about that!  I like living.”  Jack had forever to drive to get home.  The North Pole Transit System was feeling more and more tempting, but no.  He needed to live in his house at least part of the time.  He paid taxes on it every year, after all.  “So, how was your day?” 

“Nothing particularly exciting happened today, so I’d say it was a good day.”  Callum answered.  “Garcia said to tell you hello.” 

“Aww, the murder bear misses me!”  Jack enthused. 

“Everyone misses you.  Believe it or not, you’re part of the community here now.”  Callum sounded like he wanted to talk about it.  The one topic Jack did not want to talk about.  Callum had mercy on him, though, because he didn’t ask the question Jack was dreading hearing. 

When will you move in to the North Pole permanently?  Cal didn’t ask it, but it was there, lingering just beneath the surface, taunting Jack with its cruel specter. 

Jack didn’t think he wanted to move into the North Pole, but how many marriages involved long distance relationships like this on a permanent basis?  He would ask Cal to move in with him instead, but Cal was, frankly, already married to his job protecting Santa Claus and the North Pole.  They loved each other, sure, but if push came to shove, Cal would always have to choose the North Pole and Nick over Jack.  He just had to.  That meant Jack couldn’t ask him to move out of the North Pole to meet his needs.  He couldn’t ask that of him.  And he wouldn’t ask Cal to leave his job, not when he loves it and the people he serves so much. 

So, where did that leave them?  Stuck in the way things were with frustration building between them, Jack imagined.  Maybe they were doomed after all. 

“I miss everyone, too.”  Jack said.  “But especially Garcia.  Be sure to tell my favorite murder bear I said hello and I’ll miss him while I’m gone, too.” 

Callum chuckled.  “Alright, Jack.  I’ll be sure to tell him.” 

They talked about more domestic things next.  Jack told him what he was planning to cook for supper and his plan to soak in a nice, hot bubble bath in the tub before curling up with a good book in bed.  Cal told Jack about how Krampus and the group at the second North Pole Complex volunteered to help with some maintenance and construction tasks around the original complex in the coming months. 

It had taken a couple of years for Krampus and Nick to work things out to the point where Krampus was gifted the second North Pole Complex, which was only an hour away by land, fifteen minutes by air, and a moment away via the North Pole Transit System.  To make it easier and less stressful for everyone at the North Pole, the transit portal in the second complex was allocated for emergency purposes only.  Basically, Krampus and Nick had to call first if they went to visit each other and it was better that way, protecting their privacy and personal space. 

Krampus didn’t completely abandon Krampuslant in Germany, though.  He vacationed there and maintained those dungeons religiously.  Gryla’s children were still trapped there, to Jack’s knowledge, in the lower levels.  They were treated with respect, but they weren’t the most comfortable.  They were still being punished for their hand in what Gryla did to Jack, Callum, and Nick.  Krampus wasn’t the most forgiving man and Jack was grateful for that.  The thought of Gryla’s children running amuck made him nervous, so he was glad they were never going to be free again. 

Jack told Callum he loved him and received Cal’s words of affection in return before he hung up the call.  He parked in the garage and went into his house to do exactly what he told Cal he would: cook a simple, healthy meal, take a bubble bath, and read a good book in bed before going to sleep.  He didn’t let himself research more on the wolpertingers or start working from home, determined to maintain a healthy balance between work and his home life. 

Chapter Text

By Wednesday, Jack and M.O.R.A. had exhausted the list of likely real wolptertinger part listings on the black market and were halfway through with the less likely list of suspects.  Jack started looking through other potential organizations and sites where the poached animal parts might be being sold, including nonmagical sites, but nothing was showing up.  If the animals were being poached and killed for parts, they weren’t being sold.  Which raised the question of why someone would take such a significant risk with no apparent pay off. 

The field agents that went back to the site where the animals had lived for almost a century reported that there was still no sign of them or the alleged poachers that may not exist.  They searched high and low all around in an eighty-mile radius from where these animals tended to gather most often and there was still no sign of them. 

Jack went home, irritated by the lack of developments in the case.  It really was as if the animals had simply vanished into nothing.  As he drove, he got a phone call from Agent Grier.  Jack answered the call on speaker in his car, as always. 

“Hey, Gav.  What’s up?” 

“Hey, Jack.”  Oh.  He sounded not good.  Had something happened? 

“You alright, man?” 

“No.  I got into an argument with my girl.  She broke up with me.” 

“Oh, man.  That’s awful.  I’m sorry to hear that’s happened.  You were together for, what, four years?  What on earth happened?”  Must have been some argument to ruin a relationship that stable.  Jack tried not to think about that too hard.  They must have had some sort of rocky relationship problems before this.  It was unlikely she dumped him over one argument.  Right? 

“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone.  I’ve been living with her for years, but she kicked me out tonight on top of everything else.  I’m hoping she cools off, but I need someplace to stay in the meantime.” 

“Wanna stay with me for tonight?  I’d offer longer, but Dylan is expecting me in New York tomorrow night through Monday morning.  At least you’ll have a friendly face and a place to stay tonight and you can think about what your next steps are tomorrow when you’ve rested.” 

Jack had never had Agent Grier over before, but it sounded like the guy was having a rough time and sometimes you just really needed a hand to help you crawl out of the hole you dug for yourself.  He hoped he wasn’t overstepping. 

“You really don’t mind?” 

“Wouldn’t offer if I did.”  Jack said, feeling like he sounded a little bit like good old Krampus in that moment. 

“I really appreciate it, man.  What’s your address?”  Jack gave it to him.  He repeated it back to make sure he got it.  “I owe you big time, Jack.  I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”    

Jack wouldn’t get home for another ten minutes.  Fortunately, he always kept the guest room in good shape and ready for guests.  If there was a guest room that was extra large and big enough for a Krampus sized bed, then it was no one’s business but Jack’s what he did with his house.  It wasn’t like he would be likely to see it anyway.  That was Krampus’s room and bed.  Special for him with custom furniture and décor just for him.  When Jack got in the house, he turned the porch light on and left the front door open for Agent Grier to let himself inside. 

Jack, having learned a few things about comforting people after receiving comfort in the past, put a kettle of water on the stove to boil some water for some tea.  He also dug around for some comfort food snacks and ordered a pizza with the toppings he knew Grier liked. 

Grier knocked on the door and Jack shouted that the door was open.  Grier let himself in carrying his duffel bag.  Jack gave him a welcoming smile. 

“I ordered us pizza and breadsticks.  We will have comfort food tonight.” 

“You didn’t have to go to all that effort, but I appreciate it.  Thanks, Jack.” 

“Any time.  Do you want to talk first or get settled in first?” 

“If you don’t mind, I’ll get settled and then I’ll tell you all about it.” 

Jack nodded his understanding.  “Well, let me show you the guest room and the bathroom upstairs.  Then, I’ll give you a tour of the house, if you like.” 

“I would like that.”  Grier said, noticing Jack unlocking his phone and texting someone.  “Thanks again for taking the time and letting me stay.  You’re a standup guy, Jack.” 

Jack smiled at him and showed him around.  Grier looked around curiously as they passed through the house to get to the stairs.  Grier noticed framed photos of Jack with various people, including some Mythologicals, like Krampus.  He was awfully confident no one would ever break in and see evidence of the mythological world.  How would he explain away the photos with a giant horned goat man? 

The guest room was comfortable.  Grier put his duffel bag down in the room and asked for the bathroom.  Jack showed him where it was, including towels and wash cloths for a shower or bath.  The doorbell rang and Jack ran downstairs to tip the delivery guy with the pizza while Grier got settled. 

When Grier got downstairs, he saw Jack getting some cups and mugs down from his cabinets.  Jack pulled out a couple boxes of tea and some options for sweeteners, too.   He gestured to the mugs when Grier approached. 

“Which mug would you like for your tea?” 

“Tea?”  Grier raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Yeah, tea.  You know, the leaves you stick in a bag in your cup and steep until it’s delicious.  There’s no caffeine, so it’ll help you relax and sleep better tonight.  Unless you don’t like tea?” 

“I’m not a big fan.  Since we’re having pizza, why don’t we have some soda?” 

“Well, we are having comfort food tonight.  And you’re the guest.”  Jack said, turning the kettle off and pulling a bottle of soda from the refrigerator.  Jack started pouring some soda into his cup.  Even after all this time, he still didn’t care much for overly cold drinks unless it was really hot outside. 

“Oh, can I have ice?”  Grier interrupted Jack before he could pour the cooled soda into Grier’s cup. 

“Yeah, gimme a sec.” 

Jack grabbed the cup and used the ice dispenser to catch some ice in the cup.  His back was turned to Grier, who complimented the kitchen and house.  Jack thanked him for the compliment and then poured the drink over the ice. 

“Let’s eat, then.”  Jack said.  “And you can tell me about this fight with your girlfriend.  Maybe I can help.”  He sat on one of the stools at the bar next to the box of pizza with his cup in his hand and patted the stool next to him.  “If nothing else, you’ve gotten it off your chest, ya know?” 

“Well.  It started because…”  Grier started to tell Jack all about it as they ate pizza and drank their sodas. 

A few hours later

In the North Pole, things were winding down for the day.  Callum was considering showering and changing into his pajamas.  They were a gift from Jack as an “I-love-you gift,” which was, essentially, a gift purchased or provided for no reason other than “I saw this and thought of you and I love you so I bought it.”  They had little candy canes printed all over them. 

Jack was a thoughtful gift giver when he wanted to be.  He was also a prankster who loved giving little gag gifts he thought were funny.  And they usually were pretty funny.  Once, he bought Garcia a single bottle of Coca Cola- a glass one- and a red t-shirt that read “Coca-Cola” in exactly Garcia’s size.  Garcia hated the joke so much Callum had to jump between them, but on his days off, Garcia still wore the “stupid shirt” he said he hated. 

Nick clambered off the sleigh after their test run and paused next to Callum.  “Something on your mind?” 

“Just Jack.”  Callum confessed.  “I dunno, Nick.  I think he’s gonna run from me.  He doesn’t want to live here and he knows I’m not going to give up my job just like he won’t give up his.  But this is a beautiful, wonderful place.  I don’t understand why Jack is so reluctant to stay long-term.” 

“Maybe you should have a little more faith in him and his feelings for you?”  Nick suggested. 

Nick started to say something else when Callum didn’t answer right away, but there was a loud crashing noise against the outside of the dome.  Everyone working on the sleigh dock froze, staring in the direction of the loud bang on the dome.  Callum spoke into his vambrace calmly. 

“Fortifications, what just happened?” 

“Something crashed into the dome!” 

“What crashed?”  Callum asked, glaring in the direction of the disturbance. 

“En route to investigate now!”  There was a long pause before Fred continued.  “There’s some sort of wreckage on fire in the snow at the base of the dome!” 

Callum heard the fire brigade acknowledge the fire and inform everyone listening that they were mobilizing to extinguish the flames and clean up whatever the wreckage was.  He motioned for some curious elves to give him some space as he approached the railing and peered into the distance to see if there was any obvious damage to the dome itself.  As far as he could tell, the dome had held.  Did someone launch some kind of missile at the dome or did some sort of aircraft crash?  It sounded like some kind of aircraft, but who would fly this far north? 

“Commander, it’s Krampus!  He’s crashed into the dome!  He’s in some kind of distress!” 

“Medical team to the dome at the crash site immediately!”  Callum ordered, looking up to a visibly shaken Nick.  “Get him to the infirmary.  Now!” 

“Already on it, Chief.” 

Callum and Nick rushed to the infirmary where Krampus was soon brought in.  He was covered with blood.  It looked terrifying, to be quite frank.  Callum spoke into his vambrace, demanding answers about what the cause of the crash might have been.  His team was investigating, but they had to put the fire out first.  Krampus appeared to be in a significant amount of pain when he was carried into the infirmary and was barely conscious, if he was truly conscious at all.  Callum and Nick stayed out of the way, watching the efforts of the doctors and nurses attending to Krampus from the farthest wall in the ICU room they were using.  It was incredibly rare to require the use of this particular facility in the North Pole complex.  Severe injuries and illnesses requiring the technology and magic used here almost never happened in the North Pole.  In fact, it had been almost twenty years since this room had last been used. 

The doctors and nurses cleaned Krampus up and that was when confusion set in.  He was clearly in medical distress, but he wasn’t physically harmed.  He had a few bumps and some growing bruises from where he crashed into the dome, but other than that, there was no harm done to him.  He didn’t even appear to have hit his head so very severely.  Still, he was only barely conscious and muttering something about…  A puppy? 

Callum’s heart sank.  Krampus still called Jack a pup sometimes.  No, Jack wasn’t in the wreckage.  Callum’s team would have found him if he was there.  So, maybe Krampus was just delirious from whatever was wrong with him? 

“Commander, Nick.”  Jimmy approached them, wearing a puzzled expression on his face.  “I can’t figure out what’s wrong with him.”  Nick’s sharp intake of breath interrupted Jimmy’s words and he cast Nick a worried, guilty expression.  “I’m sorry.  He might be alright.  We don’t really know what’s wrong with him.  But once we figure it out, I’m sure we can fix it-“

“Doctor!  There’s a metal thing around his forearm.  We’re picking up weird readings from it.”  A nurse shouted. 

Callum took a few steps closer to get a look at the object.  It was not the sort of thing Krampus would wear, that was for sure.  It was some sort of solid metal band wrapped completely around his forearm, just above the wrist.  There was some sort of symbol glowing in the middle of it.  For some reason, Callum felt the strongest urge to touch it.  He wasn’t the only one affected, it would seem.  Everyone within a certain distance of the band was staring at it. 

“What is it?”  Nick asked, snapping Callum out of the trance he had fallen into.  “Doc?” 

“There’s something weird about that thing.”  Callum said, taking a step back.  “Something’s wrong.”  One of the nurses reached for it.  “Wait, don’t!”  He shouted, but it was too late. 

She touched it.  The moment her fingers grazed the metal of the cuff, there was a spark of light that filled the room.  When the light faded, she dropped to the ground, deathly still.  Everyone stared in horror at the elf.  Was she… dead?  No one seemed to understand what exactly happened. 

“Nick!”  Callum shouted.  “Get out of here!”  He spun on his feet and ran to Nick’s side, grabbing him by the arm more roughly than he intended and dragged him out of the room.  “Nobody touch that thing!”  Callum ordered.  “Everyone out!  It’s got some sort of spell on it that makes you want to touch it if you get too close!  Only emergency personnel are to be allowed entry.  Lock down this entire wing!” 

“But he’s dying, Cal!”  Nick argued, pushing Callum off of him.  “Maybe I can break it-“

“No!  It’s too risky, Nick.  We don’t know what it is, what its purpose is, or how it got on him in the first place.  It’s obvious he got into some kind of fight with someone and they slapped him with that thing.  When he realized how much harm it was doing, he probably got on his sleigh to rush back home to get help to get it off.  He passed out driving and that’s how he flew into the dome.”

“He’s my brother!  I have to try!”  Nick argued. 

“I can’t let you do that, boss.”  Callum said, giving Nick a stern look.  “Billions of people around the world and everyone here at the North Pole are counting on you.  We can’t lose you, Nick.  We have allies.  Maybe M.O.R.A. knows something about this thing.  We need to ask for help.  Promise me you won’t go in there.  Please, Nick.” 

Nick pulled away from him, but he didn’t go to the door.  He stood at the window instead, watching the nurses pull the corpse away from the bed.  Callum started to ask him again, but Nick answered before he could speak again. 

“I promise.  I will not enter that room, Cal.  But you will find out what happened, how it happened, and get us the help we need to get that thing off of him before it kills him, too.  You promise me, Cal.” 

Nick was angry, but he was also afraid.  Nick was never afraid.  Well, at least Cal had good company. 

“I promise, Nick.  I’ll get to the bottom of it.   I’m getting Garcia to come up here and stay with you, okay?  Just in case anything else happens, so you’re protected.  And I’ll have Amaro stay with M.C. in the main residence.” 

“Just go, Cal.  I don’t need the details.” 

Callum had to make a choice.  Call Jack or Zoe first.  Jack would worry, but he would rush over for sure.  He wouldn’t care about the mysterious death band.  All he would care about is saving his father figure.  He was smart, but he still didn’t know as much as Director Harlow and the rest of M.O.R.A. knew about magical artifacts like this.  He could call Zoe first and get someone en route to support.  He knew the logical correct answer was to call Zoe first, but his heart wanted Jack. 

“Hey, you’ve reached the voicemail of Jack O’Malley.  Leave a message after the beep and I’ll get back to ya.” 

“Hey, Jack, it’s me.  Listen, I need you to call me back as soon as possible, okay?  It’s an emergency.  I’m calling Zoe next, so if you see her before you see me, she’ll bring you up to speed.  Just call me as soon as you get this, okay?  I love you.”  He hung up.  What time was it in Jack’s time zone anyway?  Was he at work?  No, it was late, wasn’t it?  He should be at home getting ready for bed soon, shouldn’t he? 

“Chief, the medical team has done an autopsy on the nurse who died.” 

Callum wanted to wring Finkle’s neck for not saying her name, but he also understood the importance of distancing themselves from the reality of the fact that she was actually dead and wouldn’t be able to tell them if she did mind Finkle referring to her by her title as “the nurse” instead of her name.  He waited for the report and then realized that Fink was waiting on his response.  He sipped at a cup of water to soothe his dry throat. 

“Well?”  He prompted, leaning on the counter. 

“Her cause of death is SMDD.” 

Sudden Magic Deficiency Disorder.  A fatal condition suffered by Mythologicals where they have expended all of their magic from their bodies.  It is instantly fatal, but also very difficult to cause.  Typically, it happened when a Mythological used to much of their power at one time in a battle.  But the nurse wasn’t in a battle and she wasn’t even trying to use any kind of magic.  She was just trying to remove…. The band on Krampus’s forearm.    

“So, the band is siphoning magic out of Krampus and anyone else that touches it.  And it is capable of siphoning out that much magic with just the slightest touch?  Enough to kill an elf instantly?” 

“Yes, Chief.  That’s what the doctor said.”  What a horrible nightmare of a scenario.  If they didn’t get the band off him, it might actually kill Krampus.  Callum hadn’t thought that was possible. 

“I’m calling Director Harlow.  If we’re lucky, the device will only do harm to Myths like us.  Director Harlow can send a group of agents to remove the band and deal with it.   What steps have the doctors taken for him?” 

“They’re monitoring his magic levels and are considering giving him a magic transfusion.  But… Chief, even if he recovers enough to communicate with us more easily with the use of a transfusion-“

“Where is the magic going?  Who or what are we fueling by giving Krampus transfusions of magic?”  Callum finished the question for him.  “Leave it up to Nick.  He’s in charge here.  Not me.  Has anyone been able to communicate with Krampus yet?” 

“He’s been muttering about Jack and some guy named Conrad.” 

No.  No, no, no.  He wasn’t.  Jack wasn’t with Krampus.  He was at home, where he was supposed to be, going through his nightly routine.  He was at home and went to bed early and forgot and left his phone on silent.  Conrad was a friend of Krampus’s, so maybe they were together when this happened?  But Jack?  No.  Nope. 

“Chief?” 

“I have phone calls to make, Finkle.  Alert me if Krampus becomes less delirious and if Nick decides to have the doctors give him transfusions.” 

Callum dialed Zoe’s number.  She didn’t answer for a while longer than Callum expected and he started preparing himself to leave a voicemail he hoped didn’t sound panicked when she answered.  She sounded groggy and tired, like she had been asleep. 

“Cal, what’s wrong?  Has something happened?”  Zoe, reliable Zoe, got straight to the point.  In fact, he could picture her from the sound of rustling on the other side of the line getting out of bed and going to get dressed. 

“Krampus has been attacked somehow and they’ve put some sort of magic siphoning band on his forearm.  No one here at the North Pole can remove it or even get close to it to use tools on it because it will attack and siphon all the magic out of anyone who touches it.” 

“Is that…  What was it…  MDD?” 

“Sudden Magic Deficiency Disorder, SMDD, yes.  Zoe, we need humans who don’t possess magic to come up here and remove this device before it kills Krampus.” 

“It’s killing Krampus?”  Zoe sounded incredulous.  “Is that even possible?” 

“We don’t want to find out, Director.  Send someone as soon as possible.  And-“ Callum swallowed nervously.  “Bring Jack with you, please.  He didn’t answer his phone when I called him.”  She didn’t answer him right away, probably texting someone on her phone.  “Zoe, please.  I need Jack here.  As soon as possible.  You can use the North Pole Transit System to bring him and yourself here as soon as possible.” 

“Alright.  Alright.  I’ll try calling him while I get a team put together to come deal with this artifact.  And I’ll bring him with me when I come.”  Zoe promised.  “See you soon, Cal.” 

Zoe ended the call before Callum could.  Callum tried Jack again, but Jack still didn’t answer the phone.  Callum felt like he was drowning.  His hand went up to his shirt and grabbed the chain with his engagement ring on it in his palm.  He squeezed it desperately.  He wanted nothing more than to run to Jack’s house immediately to make sure he was alright.  But he couldn’t leave.  Not with Nick in peril, because as long as that band was in the North Pole, it had a signature and it was sending that magic somewhere.  That meant there was a trail. 

Once the transfusions started- and they would start; Nick won’t let his brother suffer more than is absolutely necessary- whoever was receiving the magic from the siphon would know that Krampus was in a place where other Mythologicals were on hand to pump him with more magic.  That meant they had more potential victims for more of those bands.  And who was the most powerful source of magic in the North Pole- nay, the world? 

Nick. 

Callum bullied himself into a standing position and reminded himself that he had a job to do and it was more important than himself or Jack.  It always would be more important than him or Jack.  Because Nick was a singular force on the planet and no one could take his place.  Callum had to protect him at any and all costs.  He walked briskly, but calmly back into the infirmary to check on Nick. 

Chapter Text

It appeared that the band didn’t even require that you touch it to passively slurp away at the magic around its victim.  The entire team of nurses and doctors who were trying to assist Krampus soon fell ill, weakened by the device’s power.  It was a good thing that Cal didn’t leave to get Jack because he had to physically hold Nick back from going into the ICU as Krampus’s condition worsened and the medical staff caring for him grew weaker and weaker. 

A pair of agents arrived at the North Pole with Zoe, but Jack wasn’t with her.  Callum would have questioned her about it, but it was urgently important for her and her team to deal with the device before more medical staff members died from their growing magic deficiencies.  Even the building itself was growing weaker as the band created a sort of invisible black hole around Krampus.    

Zoe looked absolutely awful, tired, and worried.  But even Callum was starting to feel unwell as he watched her team scan and analyze the device wrapped around Krampus’s forearm, so he didn’t address it.  Nick refused to stay away, but he complied with Callum’s fervent plea that they stay outside the room and watch the process through the window. 

“Cal.”  Zoe started, chewing on her lip nervously. 

“What?”  He didn’t mean to sound sharp, but he felt unwell and he was angry with her for not bringing Jack or explaining herself as to why she failed to do so. 

“I went to Jack’s house.”  She started, sounding worried.  

“And you didn’t bring him here?”  Callum snapped. 

Zoe looked down at the bottom of the window. Her hair obscured her face.  She seemed very reluctant to say anything at all. 

“He wasn’t there, Cal.” 

Really, Callum wasn’t surprised.  He had called Jack no fewer than ten times in the past two hours and Jack still hadn’t answered the phone or even texted to explain why he wasn’t answering the phone.  But receiving confirmation that Jack wasn’t at home where he was supposed to be stabbed a spike of icy terror into his heart anyway. 

“And?”  There was more that Zoe was not saying. 

“His front door was ripped off its hinges when I got there.  My team has been there since I came here to investigate and they confirmed that there is evidence that it was probably Krampus who ripped the door off.  The trolls ran Jack’s call history.  He made a three-minute call to Krampus about three hours ago.   There were five dead men in the yard, all armed to the teeth, but it appears that Krampus made short work of them.  We assume he was looking for Jack while the device was sapping his magic away.  When he couldn’t find Jack and his condition continued to worsen, he had to flee for some kind of help.  At least, that’s our current working theory until Krampus is able to tell us otherwise.” 

Zoe continued.  “It’s been three hours since Jack last made contact with anyone.  No one has made any demands of us or you and now Krampus shows up here with a band designed to siphon magic off of Mythologicals and the environment they inhabit.  Additionally, another set of mythological creatures disappeared without a trace yesterday evening after Jack went home from work.  Add to that the missing pack of wolpertingers, whose parts are famously known for being used for various magical purposes and it sounds like someone very dangerous has been absorbing a winter demigod’s magic for at least two hours at this point.” 

“Not just a winter demigod’s magic.  Ours, too.  Everyone within a half a kilometer of this room has begun to be affected by that thing.”  Nick was the only one who didn’t appear to be significantly impacted by the power of that band, but Cal knew it was probably only a matter of time before Nick would also start to feel at least uncomfortable from the drain on his magic. 

Zoe still wasn’t telling him everything, but Callum found himself having a harder and harder time focusing on the conversation.  Nearby, Finkle collapsed, earning several cries of alarm from the medical staff, several of whom rushed to his side and carried him out of the room.  Callum would have gone to him, but he was feeling rather weak himself.  He lowered himself to the floor, no longer able to stand. 

“Nick.”  Callum panted.  “You really have to get out of here before it starts to affect you, too.”  Callum heard Zoe speak into her radio, telling the agents in the room to hurry it up in response. 

“No, Cal.  If I leave, this area loses power completely and the band will no longer have passive sources of magic to draw from.  You should go downstairs, Cal.” 

“Not without you.” 

“Don’t you trust me?” 

“With this?  No, Dad, I don’t.” 

Nick looked down at Callum and then knelt next to him, grabbing him by the hand.  Immediately, Callum felt a surge of magic enter his body from the physical contact alone.  Nick gave him a knowing look as Callum looked up at him. 

“I’m not going to leave, Cal.  Stay if you want, but hold my hand the whole time.”  Nick raised his voice so that everyone milling about could hear him.  “Every other member of the North Pole Staff needs to evacuate the entire building immediately.  Start evacuating the area around the hospital.”  The order was swiftly followed as Zoe began to pace anxiously, muttering to herself about the facts they had.   “Director, you should go and get some sleep.  It appears you have been burning the candle at both ends.  Get some rest and when you wake, you’ll have a fresh perspective on the whole situation.” 

“I don’t think I can do that, Red.”  Zoe said.  “Jack isn’t the only one of my agents that’s unaccounted for.  His call log also showed that he was talking to Agent Gavin Grier just about an hour before this all would have gone down.  I reached out to him, but he also didn’t pick up his cell phone.  The agent I sent to check on him reported back that his girlfriend was found murdered in their apartment.  Did I mention that his girlfriend was also one of my agents?” 

Whoever was behind this was a powerful group to be able to create something that would overpower Krampus and suck away at the magic in the environment around it like this, but they also likely managed to overpower a pack of wolpertingers, some other mythological creatures, and murdered and/or kidnapped multiple M.O.R.A. agents.  That was a big problem and judging from his conversation the other day with Jack, they had no idea who it might be behind it all.  There was a glimmer of hope, though.  These people only murdered one of the agents in question.  That meant they likely had some sort of need for Jack and this Agent Grier fellow.  That meant the E.L.F. and M.O.R.A. had time to work together to find these people, hopefully before any serious harm befell Jack or his colleague. 

Jack regained consciousness slowly.  It was like he was swimming in a bowl of molasses and, while he could breathe just fine, he couldn’t quite bring himself to the surface.  He heard someone, somewhere, speaking over him. 

“….st like Grier said…. …alley has absorbed…. No, it’s not substantial enough to bother with…”  

The first person sounded like an older man.  Was he talking about Jack?  What did Jack “absorb?”  That was weird.  Maybe Jack was dreaming a weird dream? 

“…think about studying him?… … never get another opportunity…” Another man said.  He sounded younger than the first guy.  “…about the possibilities!” 

“What do you think, Grier?”  The first guy asked. 

“I think he’s waking up.”  Agent Grier said and Jack suddenly felt like he was in some kind of danger. 

Didn’t make sense, though.  Grier was his friend, right?  If not friend, then friendly acquaintance, at least.  But there was something he couldn’t remember and part of him knew it was very bad.  Something plastic was pressed over his mouth and nose.  A strange smell filled his airways. He went under the thick molasses again, exhausted. 

When Jack awoke later, it was to a throbbing headache, chilled air, and a heaviness that made it hard to open his eyes.  He reached for his blanket, but he couldn’t move his hands from his sides.  He tried to lift them again and, now more awake, discovered his hands were pinned down by something thick and wide.  He forced his eyes open to see that his wrists were secured via thick leather cuffs and he couldn’t lift his hands more than a few inches from the table he was laying on.  His ankles were secured the same way.  He was wearing some sweat pants and a plain t-shirt.  He definitely wasn’t wearing this last night.  A shudder ran through his body as he realized someone had stripped him and changed his clothes.  There was a flash of memory in his mind’s eye of being touched and manhandled against his will-!    

Breathing heavily, Jack looked around the room in a panic.  What had happened?  Where was he?  Where was Grier?  He paused, wondering why he was so afraid for Krampus.  Krampus hadn’t been with him last night, had he?  No.  Jack was sure that Grier was going through a messy breakup and then… nothing?  He couldn’t remember.  He couldn’t remember and now he was trapped somewhere on a cold, metal table. 

“Jack!  You’re awake!”  Grier said as he entered the room. 

“Gavin, what’s going on?  Actually, no, first: get these things offa me and let’s get outta here!”  Jack said. 

“I mean, I could, but that would mean forfeiting a lot of money and a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I like you, buddy, but not that much.” 

Jack’s mind reeled at that response.  “Wh-what?  No.  No, no, this isn’t happening.  This is a joke, right?  It’s not funny.  I don’t like this; let me go!  Gav, please!” 

“Hey, you’re gonna be alright.  Just relax.  Some people just want to study you a little bit for a little while and then you’re free to go.” 

Study him?  What?  Jack didn’t like the sound of that at all.  He shifted on the table and pushed himself into a semi-upright position.  Sitting up, he had a better view of the room around him even though the cuffs on his wrists forced him to lean down to be able to sit up properly.  It was some kind of laboratory. 

“I don’t understand.”  Jack confessed.  “I’m just a human.  What is there to study?” 

Grier gave him a condescending look.  “You poor, naïve child.”  Jack immediately resented that, and by extension, him, intensely for that.  “You haven’t aged a day in five years, Jack.  Why do you think that is?” 

“Good genes?  Eating healthy and taking care of my body?  Good luck?” 

Grier shook his head.  “For a genius, you really are stupid.  You’ve absorbed magic from the Mythologicals you’ve spent so much of your time with in the past five years.  You didn’t stop for a minute to think that, maybe, there would be an impact on you from spending so much time surrounded by magic?  You caught the attention of a particularly shady organization, hence this place, and they saw an opportunity present itself in you.”  Jack stared at Grier in disbelief, but considering the circumstances, Jack wasn’t sure why Grier would lie about this in particular.  “That organization would like to understand the impact this magic has had on you, but that’s not the highest list on their priority list right now, so you’ll probably be here for a while.” 

“What is highest on their priority list, then?  You know, since you’re villain monologuing.” 

Grier laughed.  Jack wanted to throttle him, but he couldn’t get off this table.  He’d just have to bide his time.  Eventually, he’d have to let Jack up to go to the bathroom and eat and such.  Jack would get an opportunity to kill him and escape.  Jack knew it was an extreme solution, but he never did believe in leaving loose ends dangling in the wind.  If he could kill an ogress, he could kill a backstabbing traitor easily, given the right circumstances. 

“Siphoning magic from Mythologicals, of course.  There’s quite a market out there for magic materials, you know.  But just imagine how it would revolutionize war if humans could wield custom made magical weapons of destruction.” 

“If you let them do that, people will die.”  Jack said. 

Grier flicked his nose.  “That’s hardly my problem, now, is it?  Anyway, you can just lay back and take a nap for now.  I’m heading out.  See ya never, O’Malley.” 

“What?  Just like that?  You deliver me to be “studied” by some evil, shady, magic stealing organization and then you’re just gonna peace out?  Just like that?” 

“Yeah.  They just wired me my money.”  He waved a phone in the air; it wasn’t his old phone, the one he was using yesterday.  “That’s all this was, buddy.  Nothing personal.” 

“Let’s be really fucking real right now, Gavin: it sounds a hell of a lot like they’re gonna dissect me and I’m taking that really personally.” 

“Yeah.  They probably will dissect you just like they have all the other magical creatures and artifacts they’ve collected.”  Gavin considered Jack for a moment, who realized he was talking about those wolpertingers, and then shrugged.  “Still not my problem.  Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Cal is going to kill you for this.”  Jack growled.  “You think you can run and hide and no one is gonna be the wiser about you having a hand in this?  You called me before I got kidnapped, remember?  Your fingerprints are gonna be around my house.  Your DNA is gonna be on your glass in my house.  And when they find me, alive or dead, they’ll find evidence that you’ve been here, too.  And if Cal doesn’t find you first?  Krampus will tear your head off your shoulders.  Untie me, Grier, and help me get out of here.  I’ll make sure the director is the one to deal with you instead.” 

It felt a little embarrassing to go the “my boyfriend and father-figure will murder you for this” route, but it was the only card Jack had left to play if Grier was about to leave the facility entirely.  Grier’s expression twisted with anger and then carefully went blank for a moment.  Then, he walked over to Jack’s table and leaned down in Jack’s face with a growing grin. 

“Oh, Jack.  You don’t remember.  Krampus came to save you last night.”  Jack’s breath caught in his throat and he felt like he was going to suffocate.  “He’s an impressive beast, but he’s on his deathbed by now.  And they lost the signal on the weapon they attached to him somewhere in the Arctic, but the siphon they attached to him is still transferring his magic here.  It’s picking up Christmas magic, by the way.  Doesn’t your boyfriend live in the North Pole Complex, Jack?” 

“I’ll kill you.”  Jack snarled, jerking on the leather cuffs.  “Untie me and prove to me that you can take me in a fair fight!” 

“I know you well enough to know that you can follow through on that threat.  I won’t be taking you up on your offer, but thank you for playing.  Now, if you’ll excuse me.” 

Jack glared at the cuffs that were restraining him.  Hot tears of rage, grief, and guilt burned his eyes as he worked his dominant wrist in the cuff.  Leather stretched.  If he worked hard enough, maybe he could stretch the cuff enough to slip his hand out.  And if he could slip his hand out, then he could use his dominant hand to undo the buckles on the other cuffs.  Then, he could find a weapon and use it.  Yeah, that would be the plan for now.  It would work.  It had to work.  He had to stop these people and save his family! 

Chapter Text

Cutting through the band on Krampus’s forearm had been a tricky endeavor and they didn’t know enough about the object in question to know for sure if it would continue to function after being cut in half.  However, sealing the two halves of the artifact in the cryogenic storage containers was enough to at least render the object harmless to the North Pole and its citizens.  The moment the containers were sealed, it was as if an oppressive force was lifted away from the building.  Even so, it would take some time for the citizens of the North Pole to recover from this catastrophic event.  Krampus would live, but it would take more time for him to recover than most, unless they opted for additional magic transfusions.  There was a toll associated with using those, too, however.  The magic was Nick’s, so it had to be converted by Krampus’s body into his own type of magic for him to use it. 

Even so, Krampus had the answers they needed and Callum found himself sitting by Krampus’s bedside with a growing sense of impatience.  Nick was sitting on the opposite side, passively bolstering Krampus without an outright transfusion right now.  He was watching Callum with a patient understanding and a soft warning to let Krampus sleep until he awoke on his own.  Cal disagreed.  Choosing to wait endangered Jack’s life.  And the life of his colleague.  The longer they waited, the more risk there was that there would be some other kind of attack. 

The device was broken now and the enemy had to know at least that it was no longer siphoning magic and sending it back to them, whoever they were.  Their plan had been foiled and they had hostages.  They knew Jack was important to Krampus.  That meant they likely also knew how important Jack was to the North Pole in general.  And he and the other agent, Grier, were important to M.O.R.A.  They could make demands or threaten their lives in some way to get…  More access to magic, probably?  But what did a group of humans want with so much magic?  There were too many questions and Callum had a strong sense that there wasn’t enough time to find the answers to those questions. 

“Cal, you should go get some rest.  I’ll wake you when he wakes up.  I promise.”   

“No.”  Callum refused to even look up at him. 

Nick sounded a little startled by that answer.  “Cal.”  Callum had never directly disobeyed Nick after he reached adulthood, trusting him completely to have the answers. 

“Nick.”  Callum squeezed his knees to help himself stay in control over his tongue. 

“As interesting as it would be to hear what Callum would say in an argument with you, brother, I do not feel up to listening to your bickering.  And I have important information for you before I rest again.”  Krampus grumbled, eyes only half open. 

“Let me get Zoe with her digital recorder.  So you only have to say this once and all relevant parties are in the know about what you have to say.”  Callum said, speaking into his vambrace to request her. 

Krampus made an irritated expression, but nodded.  Nick got him a large mug of water and offered it to Krampus as they waited for Zoe to get upstairs.  She looked more put together when she arrived upstairs and her steely composure was back in place.  Krampus began to explain what happened. 

“Jack called me, clearly intoxicated, but he claimed he hadn’t consumed any alcohol.  Then, he mentioned a friend told him he “needed” to call me.  I asked to speak to his friend and Jack called him “Gav.””  Director Harlow was listening to him raptly.  “This Gav,” Krampus sneered the name with unconcealed hate.  “Threatened Jack’s life if I did not come promptly.”  Zoe flinched at that and clenched her fist as Krampus continued.  “I was quite angry, but there is not a mortal on this planet that can hold a candle to my power.  I went, but I did not go alone.  I brought Conrad with me and tasked him with getting my boy to safety while I cleaned up the fool or fools that dared to harm him.” 

Krampus wasn’t posturing, Callum reminded himself.  Krampus hit him so hard on Christmas Eve that it sent him flying across the room with barely any effort.  It was reasonable for him to believe that he could handle any human threat and, really, he could.  He killed five men and ripped the door off its hinges to get to Jack and that was with that awful device on his forearm sapping away his strength.  Callum wouldn’t have been able to do that by himself under those circumstances. 

“They launched that blasted thing at me and it latched onto my arm.  I have never felt such pain before in all my life.  Halfway through the first mortal, I staggered.  The next thing I knew, Conrad was by my side, grabbing that thing with both his hands.”  Krampus hesitated and swallowed past a lump of grief in his throat.  “He dropped to the ground, dead, immediately.  I dealt with the rest of the mortals in short order and rushed to the house to find Jack.  He was not there and I realized I had been played.  I was beginning to feel weak and uncoordinated.  I do not know what that thing did to me, but I knew I did not have much time or many choices.  If I lingered there for much longer, I would not be able to defend myself, so I fled to avoid becoming another of their victims.  Jack was not there to be rescued anyway.  I doubt he was there for long after that wretch hung up on me.” 

Krampus looked at the people around him and the room he was in.  Then, he frowned.  “How did I come to be here?” 

“You crashed into our dome.”  Callum answered. 

“How humiliating.”   Krampus grumbled. 

Krampus shook his head in shame and anger.  Zoe was staring at the hospital bed beneath Krampus’s feet as if the mattress itself had committed some grave offense against her.  Callum called her name and she looked up at him, fire in her eyes. 

“His girlfriend was an analyst working on the same case as Jack.  The disappearance of the wolpertingers, and a few other groups of mythological creatures.  Gavin was a field agent.  As a matter of fact, he was one of the agents I assigned to handle security in the region where the wolpertinger pack that disappeared lived.  If she discovered that he was helping poachers, she would investigate further.  If she found out that he was planning some sort crime that endangered another agent- Jack- then she would have confronted him about it.  She became a liability, a loose end he needed to cut, so he shot her and bumped up his timeline for this attack.  The poachers have Jack.  Now, we just have to find them.” 

Zoe paused, thinking more about the topic.  “But what is their plan for harvesting all this magic?  What will they do with it?  What kind of timeline are we looking at before they do whatever they’re going to do and what are their intentions for Jack?  They got what they wanted- Krampus coming to the rescue- so they could have just killed him and left his body there, but they didn’t.  They took Conrad’s body, too, because his body wasn’t at Jack’s place when I went there.”  Zoe stood up, saying she was going to start investigating and Callum stood up to follow her. 

“Cal.  You need to rest.  You’re suffering from Magic Deficiency.”  Nick objected. 

“I’ll rest when I’m dead.  You’re not in danger anymore, Nick.  Jack is.  He’s my fiancé.  Wouldn’t you do the same for M.C.?” 

“I would do anything for my wife, Cal.” 

“Then you have no right to try to stop me now.”  Nick flinched as Callum spoke.  “I’ve done my duty today, staying here with you when I wanted to be looking for the man I am going to marry.  If you can’t allow me to do this, consider this my resignation, boss.” 

Callum marched off with Zoe in tow. 

Jack watched the man in the lab coat writing on a clipboard for a long while.  He wanted to say something, anything to remind this man that he was a human and he had feelings, hopes, and dreams, probably just like him.  But there was something about this man that terrified him.  Somehow, he couldn’t place exactly what it was that scared him.  The guy was, honestly, pretty scrawny.  Jack could take him in a fight easily, if he wasn’t strapped to a table, you know?  He had little round glasses

Maybe it was a combination of things.  Like the bloodstains on his otherwise pristine lab coat.  The surgical mask definitely didn’t make him look less scary because Jack did not want to be operated on, thank-you-very-much.  Then there was that awful tool belt he was wearing with various horrible looking implements dangling from it.  Knives, scalpels, an honest-to-God saw, and several others.    

“Is there something on your mind, Mr. O’Malley?”  The man asked, not looking up from the clipboard. 

“What are you gonna do to me?” 

“Right now?  Not much of anything.  Check your vitals, take some readings on the magic inside you.  Are you hungry or thirsty?” 

Not much of anything right now, huh?  And he can have some food and drink?  Jack didn’t trust it, but if he was going to have a chance of escaping, then he had to get his basic needs met so he could function well enough to be successful in his escape attempt.  But the thought of eating anything right now made his stomach turn.  He needed to eat, though.  Get his strength up so he could take the first opportunity that arose for him to escape. 

“Both, sort of.”  Jack confessed.  “Haven’t had anything since Gav drugged me.” 

The man looked up at him from the clipboard and tutted.  “That won’t do.  Unfortunately, if you die, the magic in you dies with you.  I’ll have someone bring you something in a little bit.  I haven’t even decided what tests I’m going to do run on you yet.  Do you have any questions you want answered about the power in you?” 

“Uh?” 

“Is there anything you want to know or understand that we can learn about together?  You can think of this arrangement as a partnership as we embark on a journey of learning together.”  He sounded so earnest, so pleasant, so…

“Insane.  You’re insane.”  Jack blurted as he stared at the mousy man in horror.  “You’re talking about me like a science experiment!  I’m a human just like you!” 

“Just like me?”  The man in the lab coat huffed, amused, returning his gaze to the clipboard.  “Hardly.  You’re not human anymore.  You have human anatomy, sure, but you’re not what you used to be.” 

Did he look at Jack’s anatomy while he was unconscious?  What had they done to him while he was unconscious?  What were they going to do to him now?  Jack couldn’t breathe.  His heart was pounding so hard he feared he might be having a heart attack.

“Cal!”  Jack screamed through his tears.  “Help me!  Please!”  He thrashed on the table in a panic.  Lab coat guy dropped his clipboard on the table and rushed over to Jack’s side, reaching into his coat pocket for a vial.  “Get away from me!  Lemme go!  What is that?!” 

Lab coat guy used a syringe without the needle to push some kind of drug into Jack’s I.V.  Soon, the sharp edges of the emotions faded away and Jack sagged on the table, eyes half closed.  Lab coat guy checked his pulse and shone a light in his eyes one at a time and hummed thoughtfully. 

“There, there.  That’s better, isn’t it?” 

“No.”  Jack refused to give him the comfort of thinking he helped.  “You’re gonna do experiments on me.  Then, you’re gonna kill me, aren’t you?” 

“Well, you are a loose end, Mr. O’Malley.  We can’t keep you here forever, but I promise we won’t kill you until we understand you completely.” 

“Murderers.”  Jack said.  “You’re going to torture me and then murder me because you want to know how the world works?” 

“I want to know how the magical world works.  I already know all about the nonmagical world.  I’ve studied in the best universities around the globe.  I have three doctorates.  But I digress: you’re in such a unique position, being so close to not one, but two high level Mythologicals.  Santa and Krampus have affected your body with their magic.  Don’t you want to know the extent of that?” 

“Not like this.”  Jack said. 

“Understandable, but regrettable, to be sure.  Either way, I’ll be sure to share my findings with you while you’re still alive.  It never hurts to get to know oneself better, no matter how much time you have left in this world.” 

“Francesco!”  Someone shouted from the hallway, interrupting Jack and Lab Coat Guy’s conversation.  They burst in.  “The band has been deactivated.  It automatically shuts off when the primary target runs out of magic and dies, right?  Is he dead?  Do we have enough magic?”   

“Allow me to check.”  Lab Coat Guy Francesco answered, turning to a computer on the table. 

Jack’s chest constricted with grief and horror.  Krampus, dead?  No, that wasn’t possible.  He was a demi-god.  He couldn’t die.  He couldn’t be gone.  They’d never play cards again?  Never have another sleepover at one of their places?  Never share the ridiculously comforting hug that only Krampus could give him? 

“No.  We need a substantial amount more yet.  Tell Roger to work on getting more.” 

“What about the magic in him?”  Jack looked up at the newcomer, not wanting to know what it would mean if they took the magic out of him if taking the magic out of Krampus literally killed him. 

“It’s not enough.”  Francesco answered. 

“Can’t we take it anyway?” 

“No.  It’s not enough and I won’t risk killing this test subject for naught.  There’s too much to learn from him to simply murder him.  Tell Roger to figure something else out and that’s final.” 

Beaches were Jack’s favorite.  Callum knew Jack always loved the beach, but he hadn’t seemed to be terribly bothered by cold weather locations before Gryla took him.  Was that, perhaps, why he was so reluctant to live at the North Pole with Cal?  The cold reminded him of a time in his life he would rather just forget in its entirety? 

As he and Zoe walked across the beach, he found his mind wandering back to that beach in Aruba when they first met.  Jack had analyzed the people in their path with ease, sniffing out their worst traits without ever even speaking to them.  After fighting off the snowmen, Callum had barely saved him from being iced that day.  Soaking wet and staring up at Cal like he really was something impressive, Callum had felt the first twinge of attraction toward Jack.  He gave Jack a hard time that day because he was stressed and angry about the informant, but secretly, he had been impressed with Jack’s ability to hold his own against such a pair of formidable opponents when it had been all Callum could do to manage just one. 

“Cal.  Not helpful.”  Zoe had said. 

“Yeah, Cal.  Not helpful.”  Jack groused back, full of attitude, defiance, and indignation, as if Callum’s dismissal of his efforts to protect Ted genuinely offended him.  As if he had really been trying his hardest.  And he had been.  Callum just couldn’t see it at the time through the biased lens he viewed Jack through. 

“Cal, I see him.”  Zoe whispered, gesturing to a man packing up his things to leave the beach where he had apparently been sunning.  “Wait.  Let’s follow him to where he’s staying,” Zoe said when Callum started to approach him.  “There are too many witnesses here.  Stick with me.” 

Zoe was dressed in plain clothes.  She had her hair up and was wearing a straw hat to help hide her identity.  Callum huffed softly, but did as she instructed, following her as she cautiously followed Agent Grier back to his hotel room at a distance.  Zoe wanted to pick the lock or get a key from the front desk, but Callum was in a foul mood and his patience had dwindled down to nothing. 

Callum broke into the room and grabbed Grier by the shoulders, who was obviously not expecting this surprise attack because he barely put up a fight.  He slammed the agent into the wall and pinned him there.  Honestly, it was disappointing to see how weak this field agent really was.  Zoe should be ashamed. 

“Hello, “Gav.”  My name is Callum Drift.  Where’s my fiancé?”  He snarled. 

Chapter Text

Krampuslant was the best place to go for dirty work like this, Callum had to confess.  Nick would be disappointed in him for real for doing this to a mortal, but…  He betrayed Jack and put them all in serious danger.  When Grier refused to tell Callum and Zoe anything about his employers, they dragged him to Krampuslant.  Not Krampus’s part time home in the Arctic, but Krampuslant, complete with dungeons and torture chambers. 

Grier didn’t seem adequately frightened for where he was and Callum wished, for the first time in his long life, that he knew the art of torture personally.  Because Jack was suffering and frightened somewhere, being held hostage by poachers who were hellbent on stealing magic for nefarious purposes and this pathetic excuse for a man refused to help fix the damage he had done. 

Callum shoved Grier down onto a chair in the torture chamber Krampus had told them to take him to.  It was dark in there, save for a single torch on the wall near the center of the room.  Callum knew Krampus was hiding in the shadows out of sight, because he could sense the mal-intent. 

“This is your last chance, Gavin.”  Callum snarled, leaning on his shoulders threateningly. 

“Right, because the commander of the security forces of the North Pole is going to hurt a mortal.” 

“Oh, no.  I’m not going to hurt you, even though I really, really want to.  But he will.” 

“And who is “he?”” 

Grier scoffed at the threat until a palm as large as the side of Callum’s head took the place of Callum’s hand and rested on Grier’s shoulders.  The chains around Krampus’s wrist clinked.  Krampus leaned in from behind him and breathed into Grier’s ear. 

“My, oh my.  I did not think we would get to meet in this life after all, “Gav.”  But look at this wonderful opportunity we have before us!  You and I are going to become very well acquainted very shortly.  Callum and Director Harlow will be leaving now.  Say goodbye.” 

Callum saw the moment that Grier realized just how up the creek he was without a single paddle.  He took a sick pleasure from the reaction and shrugged at him helplessly when Grier gave him a panicked, “help me” kind of look.  Callum guided Zoe out of the room and shut the door.  Zoe seemed to be having second thoughts about it, so Callum quickened his pace so they could get out of the dungeon before Krampus got good and started putting that piece of trash into the trash can where he belonged. 

Krampus came upstairs a short while later.  He looked pleased with himself.  Zoe looked conflicted.  Callum wanted to know what he did to the traitor, but he didn’t want to upset Zoe any more than she already was. 

“Did he talk?”  Callum asked. 

“Of course he talked.  I broke all his fingers and his toes.”  Krampus boasted, but his pleasure was short lived as he considered what he learned.  “I have an address and a hand drawn map of the facility showing where we can find Jack.  It’s a little messy, but you can’t blame him, given the circumstances.  However, we must act quickly.  These mortals have discovered the magic that Jack has absorbed and wish to kill him to study the effects of magic on the human body.” 

Callum was not surprised about the fact that Jack was absorbing magic and changing over time due to being exposed to magic.  After all, Callum, too, was once human.  All the staff at the North Pole who looked human were once human.  Nick’s magic changed them all and extended their lifespans, making them nearly immortal.  Not everyone was able to use that magic in any meaningful way, but some of them developed powers.  Cal, for example, had been able to access Jack’s dreams via his magic when Gryla had placed a curse on Jack.  That ability was passive and required that they sleep in close proximity to each other and hadn’t made itself known since the curse had been broken.  The only other benefit, aside from longevity and the brief ability he held to dream walk (which he still didn’t fully understand), was increased strength, speed, stamina, and durability.  Whether or not Nick and Krampus’s magic would give Jack any sort of power he could actively use or if it would just extend his life, strengthen his body, and slow his aging remained to be seen. 

“Let’s go, then.” 

“Should the two of you be going at all?”  Zoe interjected.  “They have those magic siphoning bands, remember?  Callum, we don’t know if getting one of those slapped on you would kill you on contact or not.” 

“That’s why I will be going in front.”  Krampus answered before Callum could argue.  “I will not deny Callum if he wishes to come with us to rescue Jack, even though the risks are great.  He would resent us all for that.  We have only recently begun to reconnect, in short past five years after seven hundred years of separation.  I have no interest in alienating him again.” 

“But you’re both still recovering from magic deficiency- nearly fatal deficiencies, if I might add-“ 

“But nothing, Director.  Now, let’s get going.”  Callum said.  “Nick saw to that for the both of us.  We’re fine.” 

Krampus gave Callum look from the corner of his eye, but didn’t correct him.  Fine was relative and implied they were alright.  They had been given transfusions, but Zoe was right: they were still in recovery.  Was it wise that they were going?  No, not at all.  But Krampus was certain he wouldn’t die right away if he was struck with another of those awful devices. 

They released Jack to go to the bathroom and eat and drink.  He kept it cool, doing his business in the bathroom without a fuss.  They took him back to the lab with the table he was really starting to hate and gave him a bottle of water and a sandwich.  He sipped slowly from the bottle and looked at the sandwich with some suspicion.  He didn’t think they would go so far as to drug the food or water, because they could drug him through the I.V. line they were maintaining or through the anesthesia mask he was pretty sure they used on him when he first started to wake up in this awful place.  But he still didn’t eat the sandwich.  He was planning his escape and, if he had a full stomach or even just a small amount of undigested food, he’d probably puke it back up from the adrenaline rush he was about to experience. 

Francesco, the lab coat guy, was sitting nearby at the computer, typing away at something.  The only other person in the room was a single guard.  He could take them, if he was careful about it.  He didn’t have to kill them. He just had to incapacitate them long enough to get away. 

“Are you not going to eat that, Mr. O’Malley?”  Francesco asked, glancing over his shoulder. 

“Y-yeah.  Sorry.  I’m just.  Kinda nauseous.  Scared.  Makes it hard to eat, you know?” 

Francesco hummed thoughtfully.  “I could give you more of the sedatives- a smaller dose, to knock the edge off, if you like, so you can eat.” 

“Um.  No, but thank you.  I don’t think I-“  Jack didn’t like how scared he sounded as he answered, so he started over again, trying to sound more confident.  “I don’t think I would like that.  That stuff makes me kinda dizzy and that makes me more nauseous.” 

“Oh.  Why didn’t you say something about that before?  I have anti-nausea medication I can give you.” 

“W-wow.  For a guy planning to murder me for science, you’re being awfully conscientious about my comfort.”  Jack said.  “Am I supposed to say thank you for that?” 

“It would be nice.  I certainly don’t have to be so nice to something like you.” 

“Someone.”  Jack insisted, taking another sip from the water bottle without looking up at the mad scientist. 

“Well, it is difficult to adjust to your new reality, I’m sure.  Facts are facts, however.  You are no longer human.  No longer a “someone.”” 

Jack resented that idea.  Did this guy think the people living at the North Pole weren’t “someones?”  Did he think Santa and Krampus weren’t people just because they were magical?  They were people, even the animal-looking ones.  Like Garcia!  Jack knew getting angry and arguing with this guy wouldn’t help him in the long run and he was working towards surviving this entire ordeal.  To survive a hostage situation like this, you had to convince the bad guys to like you, you know?  He had one objective here and he didn’t have the luxury of being able to tack on some smaller objectives like reforming an apparent serial killer who supposedly murdered in the name of science. 

“Can I stretch my legs a little bit?  Please?”  Jack asked.  “I’ll stay away from the door.  You’ve got your scary guard over there anyway.” 

Francesco looked up at him again with a pitying sigh and nodded.  Jack stood up slowly to avoid spooking the guard and walked around the room for a few minutes, scanning for anything he could use as a weapon.  His gaze landed on a heavy metal looking thing.  He glanced at his captors, ripped the I.V. line out of his arm to allow himself to move freely, and grabbed the metal thing.  He slammed it into the doctor’s head and the guard jumped into action as Francesco slumped over, stunned or knocked out.  Jack didn’t take the time to figure out if the evil scientist was stunned or unconscious; it didn’t matter as long as he got out. 

The guard slammed an alarm button on the wall and Jack cursed as he chucked the object at the guard and ran for the door.  He dodged and weaved out of the reach of the guard’s grasping hands and bolted into the hallway.  He ran to the right and skidded around a corner.  He ran through the first unlocked door he found, hoping it would lead to an exit.  It decidedly did not lead to an exit and he cursed himself for not making a better guess at the exit route.  There were footsteps converging on his location already from both sides of the hall and he ran deeper into the room, slamming the door shut behind himself. 

A pair of animals snarled and hissed at him and Jack froze in front of two cage, each holding a single live wolpertinger.  They snapped and growled in his direction and he yelped softly in surprise.  Then, he realized what they were and glanced over his shoulder at the door. 

“H-hey there.”  Struck with hopefully temporary madness, Jack reached through the bars of the cage closest to him and fortunately for him, the creature didn’t rip his whole hand off his wrist.  “I’m just like you.  Just look human, you know?  Here, sniff me.  See?  We can be friends.  We can help each other, if you’re willing.  Please, don’t bite me.  Please.”  He begged the animal and, shockingly it licked his hand.  “I’m going to let both of you out.  Please.  Please don’t eat me.  Please.”  He begged them and they seemed to understand what he was saying, because they stopped snarling and simply watched him.  “Maybe we can escape.  Cal said you’re really strong.  You can kill them and save all three of us.  Please, don’t eat me.” 

The door burst open and Jack jumped nearly out of his skin.  He grabbed the door mechanisms on the cages and ripped them open.  The wolpertingers shot out of their cages with shrill screams of rage, hate, and hunger.  Their shrieks were quickly joined by the screams of the guards who were trying to recapture Jack.  The surviving members of his pursuers ran out of the room to get away from the animals.  The wolpertingers pursued them with a horrible screeching noise.  He ran out of the room and went in the opposite direction, looking for an exit desperately. 

He heard gunshots somewhere in the direction the wolpertingers chased the guards in and he hoped they didn’t die.  He ran harder in the other direction and, spur of the moment, turned right again up a long hallway that, for some reason looked promising.  Why, he didn’t know, but somehow, he just knew it was where he was supposed to.  He glanced up and saw the most glorious sight: a neon exit sign above the double doors.  Tears sprang to his eyes.  He was going to make it!  He was going to live!  He slammed into the door and pushed it open.  He took two running steps into the blinding light and froze when a shadow of a persons stepped between him and freedom as his eyes struggled to adjust to the light. 

A gunshot warned him, but it reminded him in a split second of how fickle of a mistress Fate was.  He felt something strike him in the torso, knocking him backward.  Then, the force that knocked him back ignited into a flame of agony, shooting out from the new hole what Jack assumed had to be a pretty big bullet made in his stomach. 

The man that had appeared to be in charge of security for this whole outfit- the one who had informed Francesco about Krampus dying- stood over him, putting the gun into its holster.  Jack tried to speak, to beg, to say something, but neither his brain nor his tongue was feeling like sharing the thoughts they were hiding from Jack himself.  The man bent over and grabbed Jack, pulling him to his feet.  He threw Jack’s arm over his shoulders and half-dragged, half forced Jack to walk back into the building. 

Every step hurt in ways that Jack couldn’t describe as he shakily drew in every breath.  He was sweating and breathing hard.  The man didn’t let up in their pace and, eventually, Jack couldn’t walk anymore and his legs gave out beneath him.  The man cursed and threw him over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry and ran back to the lab.  Jack saw the trail of blood he had left in their wake.  You know, his blood really should have asked permission before it peaced out like that.  It wasn’t fair that so much of his blood got to be free in the grass and the fresh air outside while Jack had to die inside this awful, greyscale box filled with nondescript block walls.  Jack yearned for the bright colors of Christmas in the North Pole Complex and the intense, dark colors of Krampuslant and the second complex, where Krampus sometimes lived.

“Francesco!”  The man shouted, kicking the slightly ajar lab door fully open, pulling Jack down off his shoulders and into his arms.  “Get one of the bands!  We’re going to lose this magic!” 

“What?  No!  No!  What have you done, Max?  Max, you idiot!  We need to stop the bleeding!”  Francesco went for a first aid kit on the wall instead of one of the silver bands on the table. 

“He’s dying!  There’s no time for that!” 

“Why did you shoot him?!” 

“He released the wolps.  They killed almost everyone else, the bastards.  And he was running out the exit doors on the north side.  He was about to escape entirely and then this loose end would have turned into the noose that ended us once he got to safety and called for some kind of help- M.O.R.A. or any other source!”  The man, apparently Max, snapped as he laid Jack on the table. 

Jack reached for his throat where his engagement ring- Oh.  It wasn’t there.  Jack felt a fresh wave of emotion wash over him.  Grief.  It was grief.  He was dying and he had been on the verge of ruining his entire life before this happened.  Callum Drift loved him unconditionally and had been more than patient as Jack flailed about to avoid staying at the Pole more than necessary.  He had tried to make some semblance of a “normal” human life and convinced himself that he belonged with humans, not with Myths.  Because he was a human, right?  He didn’t belong up there and there were too many changes that would happen in his life if he decided to live and work from the Pole.  He didn’t want to work at home.  He still wanted to work in the office, but he could live there.  He could live there with his husband because he loved Callum Drift more than life itself. 

But that was a moot point now.  He was dying.  He could feel the strength leaving him.  He was going to die on this cold, metal table in a windowless laboratory, probably to be dissected by a scientist who would be really disappointed to see that Jack hadn’t grown a second heart or a third lung.  He knew what Callum was, now.  Callum said he wasn’t human and he wasn’t wrong, but he had been, had to have been.  It all added up now in Jack’s mind’s eye.  They were the same, just a different shape and personality. 

Francesco came into view, pressing a towel into Jack’s torso, where the bullet hit between his stomach and chest.  Jack made eye contact with him and Francesco froze as the other man, scrambled to get something off the table. 

“H-hey, Franc.”  Jack smiled to ease the other man’s fear and to, hopefully, convince him to do what Jack wanted.  “I’m sc-scared.”  Every word was so hard. 

“It’s alright, O’Malley.  I can save you.  I’m going to- I haven’t studied you yet!  You can’t go!” 

“My….  My ring.  Where is it?”  Francesco recoiled as if Jack had punched him.  “May I…?  May I have it, p-please?  Won’t need it long, probably.” 

Francesco looked up at his compatriot, who had one of the bands in his hand and was approaching Jack with it.  Francesco knocked the thing out of his hand.  Max looked at him like he was stupid. 

“You’ll kill him with that!  The magic in him is all that’s keeping him alive now!”  Francesco snapped.  “Give me the ring, Max.” 

“What?  Look, brains, he’s a dead man already.  We are about to lose the last of the unclaimed magic readily available to us.  We need to take it before he dies and takes it with him!” 

“I said, give me the ring!”  Francesco shouted, shoving his hand into Max’s coat pocket and ripping the chain with ring out.  “Jack, here.  Let me put it back on you, right where it belongs.  See?” 

The evil scientist might not have been so very bad, Jack decided, as he used his bloody hand to grab the ring where it laid on his chest and looked at the tiny little stones wrapped around the entirety of the silver band.  It was a silver band for tinsel.  There was violet agate for protection from bad dreams, amazonite to dispel negative energy and depression, amethyst for clarity, apatite for unity between old and new, and bloodstone to promote patience.  There was also citrine for focus, a diamond to ward off poison, fluorite and emerald for balance, garnet for devotion, and lapis lazuli for harmony.  Finally, peridot for openness (sorry, little rock buddy, but I’m a tough egg to crack, he thought to himself.  Too much for a pretty little thing like you to save me from myself), rose quartz for “gentle love,” and a deep, red ruby for love and protection from misfortune. 

Just rocks, all of them, Jack sighed, hiccupping slightly through his tears.  They did nothing to save or protect him from backstabbers like Gavin nor from homicidal maniac poachers like these guys.  But they were promises Cal and Jack made to each other when they got engaged and had the rings custom made just for them. 

“Jack, I can save you.  Stay with me, okay?”  Francesco instructed. 

“I’ll try.”  Jack said, daring to grasp that last strand of hope that dangled in front of him like a thread blown in the wind.  He grasped it and somehow his trembling, frightened heart was seized with determination.  “Not like this.”  He said through grit teeth.  “Not like this!”  He hissed more insistently. 

“Franc, what are you doing?  That’s the magic we’ve collected for the weapons.  What are you doing?!  That’s billions of dollars right there.  People have died for that!  We bought Grier for a lot of money to be able to pull this off and get this magic.  FRANC!”  Max shouted at him. 

“I can’t use this magic to heal him, but I can pump some of it into his body and it will keep him alive long enough for an ambulance to get here, for sure.  We have his phone.  We can call M.O.R.A.!  They probably have a magic friendly hospital for their magical employees!” 

Max drew the gun on Francesco as Jack desperately clung to life on that table.  Well…  At least Jack got through to one of them.  Francesco wasn’t referring to him as an “it” anymore. 

“H-hey!”  Jack got their attention, sagging weakly against the metal beneath him.  “N-no need for th-that.  Don’t die for me, Franc.  It’s okay.  Really.  Th-thank you for trying.” 

Jack was exhausted by that series of short statements.  Francesco dropped the cannister and backed away from the table.  He covered his mouth with his hands and slid to the floor. 

“Oh my God, what have we done?” 

“Seriously, Franc?  You need permission from a freak to do the right thing here?  What’s wrong with you?  You know better than this!” 

“That’s not an animal or an artifact, Max.  That’s a human being with emotions, wants, and needs.  And we’ve tortured him and he’s gonna die there surrounded by men that treated him like an object to be studied.  He’s engaged to get married and he has a kid.  We still have time.  We can call an ambulance!” 

Max picked up the band and brought it to Jack’s arm.  Jack shuddered.  Max glared at him. 

“Will it hurt?”  Jack whispered.  “Will it be fast or slow?  Faster than this?”  He gestured to the gunshot wound in his torso. 

The lab doors were ripped off their hinges and Krampus roared the most terrifying sound Jack had ever heard the goat man make.  Max froze and dropped the band to the ground with a clatter as Krampus crossed the distance between them with great speed.  Panic made men stupid.  Jack should know.  It sure made him almost ruin everything.  Max grabbed for the gun he had placed on the table next to Jack, but Jack shifted his leg just enough to knock the stupid thing off the table.  Max made eye contact with Jack in horror and Jack smirked at him.  It was the last thing Max ever saw. 

“Jack!”  Krampus tossed the broken corpse that used to be Max to the side like a child would throw a ragdoll and pressed his massive hand against Jack’s cheek, looking so much more devastated by this moment he had confessed fearing several years ago than Jack ever imagined he would. 

“You’re alive.”  Even so, Jack grinned at Krampus, who was clearly not dead, and his eyes closed against his will. 

“No!  No!”  Krampus roared. 

Jack thought he heard Cal shouting his name, but he couldn’t open his eyes again.  Then, he felt Callum’s hands grip his and he really, really wanted to stay.  He really didn’t want to go. 

The North Pole ICU smelled like peppermint.  But did it smell like peppermint because it just naturally smelled of peppermint or was it because someone stored a lot of peppermint candies and candy canes in the closet?  Or maybe it was because everyone in the room was drinking peppermint mochas?  Peppermint tea, maybe?  Or, less fun, they used peppermint essential oils in oil warmers or diffusers- however people used essential oils.  They weren’t Jack’s thing, generally, so he didn’t know how they made the smell do the smell thing in their houses, which they, presumably did?  Or something?  They weren’t his thing, okay?! 

Jack had never been put into the ICU before, but he had gotten bored and just wandered around the complex quite a few times, especially when he felt like he needed to be alone.  The ICU was always empty.  No one at the Pole ever got hurt or was ill enough to use it, thank goodness.  The view of the rest of the complex from this level of the medical building, though, was nothing short of breathtaking.  Not quite as beautiful as it was from the main residence or the rooftop, but it had a novelty to it here in the ICU. 

Callum was asleep on a cot next to Jack’s hospital bed when Jack woke up.  Krampus was asleep in an armchair in the corner between the window and Jack’s bed on the same side.  Large feet padded over shockingly quietly to his other side and Jack looked up at Garcia. 

“O’Malley.  Glad to see you awake.”  Garcia whispered.  “I know you probably want to talk to them, but…  They just went to sleep about an hour ago.  They haven’t slept in days.  Show the boys a little mercy, why don’tcha?” 

“I thought I was dead.” 

“You weren’t alone in that misconception.”  Garcia gently bent over and gave Jack the softest, warmest hug he had ever experienced in spite of the vest and gear Garcia was wearing. 

“You on duty…?” 

Garcia gestured to the opposite side of the room and Jack was shocked to see Francesco, hands cuffed in front of him and with his head in his hands. 

“Not gonna lie; I’m surprised he’s alive.” 

Garcia snuffed in amusement.  “Again, not alone in that sentiment.  But he saved your life, the chief said.  Earned himself a stay of execution from the Dark Lord of Winter over there.  It’s gonna be a while before you’re back on your feet living your best life out there.  Doc said it’ll probably at least three to six months before we can send you back out into the wild.  The Commander might not ever let you out of his sight again.” 

Jack smiled, just a little.  “Yeah?  That’s not gonna work out.  Back to therapy for the both of us, I’d say.” 

“Take Krampus with you this time.  Nick almost had to kick him out of the complex because he trashed a room on the lower levels.  It wasn’t being used and it was old equipment, but still.  Not cool.” 

Jack’s smile turned wistful.  “I can relate to feeling the need to trash a room.  Just make him put it all back together again and maybe that’ll be enough to smooth things over between them.  Suggest it to them, why don’tcha, big guy?” 

Garcia huffed and glanced at the door.  “I should get a nurse.  Or better, the doctor.  You’ve been unconscious for four days.” 

“Damn, that’s a long nap.”  Jack didn’t let himself think about how dangerously close he came to never waking up again.  “Hey, can you get Franc for me?”

“Frank?”  Garcia tilted his head.  “I mean, sure, I guess, but wouldn’t you rather talk to Director Harlow or the doctor before him?  I never knew you were that close to him.  I mean, you’re friendly to most everybody, but-“

“No, not Frank.  Francesco.  That guy.  Guy that almost murdered me.” 

Garcia placed a paw over Jack’s mouth at that.  “Shh.  Don’t remind Krampus.  Even asleep, he might hear you and wake up to murder the guy.  Harlow said she wants him alive if we can keep him that way.”  He pulled his paw away.  “But yeah, I guess.  If you wanna talk to ‘im, who am I to refuse you?  But I don’t understand why.” 

Garcia didn’t linger to demand an explanation from Jack and he appreciated that.  Garcia just whirled on his feet and quietly stomped over to lab coat guy.  He wasn’t wearing his lab coat anymore, but Jack had taken to calling him that in his head during that whole ordeal. 

Garcia brought a chair over from the opposite side of the room and grabbed Francesco by the upper arm and pulled him over.  Francesco wisely didn’t make a peep during this process.  He was probably painfully aware of the presence of Jack’s protective fiancé and father just a few feet away.  Garcia shoved Francesco into the chair and stood over and behind him, arms folded menacingly.  He made sure to growl softly and Francesco shrank down instinctively to try to make himself smaller. 

“Garcia,” Jack admonished him softly.  “Take a walk, buddy.  Go get that doctor for me, huh?” 

“No can do.  Chief is off duty and he and Krampus are still suffering from the effects of magic deficiency.  I’m on duty.  ‘s my job to make sure you’re all safe from this filthy-“ 

“Krampus ripped doors off their hinges and murdered this guy’s accomplice in front of me.  I think he can take a mousy little scientist who’s clearly scared out of his head.  All I gotta do is whimper a little too loud and Francesco here turns into a corpse faster than you can say candy cane.” 

“Cal will fire me if I leave you alone with the man that almost murdered and dissected you.” 

“Ooh, you confessed that, Franc?”  Jack winced.  “I wouldn’t have gone that far without significant prompting, but you know, you get bonus points for being honest and repenting and all that jazz, probably.  I don’t make the rules or know how it works, really.  I just kinda flail around until somethin’ sticks.”  Jack said, waving his hands as he spoke out of comfortable habit. 

“I told them everything.”  Francesco said.  “I’m prepared for whatever punishment they decide to give me.  I let my ego and my thirst for knowledge blind me to the evil we were doing to get the results we wanted.  I’m sorry for what we did to you, Mr. O’Malley.” 

“Please, call me Jack.  We’ve bonded now.  Like friends, almost.”  Jack said and Garcia snarled at that.  “Okay, so maybe we can’t be friends, but we’ve bonded.  First name basis sounds legitimate, don’t you think?” 

“You’re a funny man, Jack O’Malley.”  Francesco said.  “I’m questioning your sanity right about now, but, uh.  A funny man, to be sure.”  He glanced at Garcia, who didn’t maul him for that statement, so he breathed a little easier. 

“Glad we finally got that figured out.  That I’m a man, not an object to be studied, I mean.  Which, I mean, we also established that I’m funny, too, so, uh.  Actually, never mind all that.  I wanted to thank you for standing up for me at the end there.  Your buddy was gonna straight up kill me and you tried to stop him, even though he had a gun.  Like, I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that.  My kid gets to keep his dad and I get to get married like originally planned.  And, you know, near death experiences make us stronger.  I realized some things when I thought I was dyin’ and, to be honest, I don’t think I woulda figured them out without you and your little friends putting me through all this.  So, thanks, I guess?” 

“You finished?”  Garcia interrupted before Francesco could answer. 

“I mean, I guess so.  You in a hurry?” 

“Yeah.  I’m worried about your head.  I want the doctor in here to lookatcha.  Chief’ll kill me if you die from some undiagnosed head trauma the doctors missed and I didn’t get the doctor for ya when you woke up.”  Garcia pointed to Francesco and then pointed to the far wall. “You.  Get back over there.  Not another peep outta you.  One wrong move and I’ll rip your throat out with my teeth.”  Jack protested the threat and Garcia placed a paw on his head shoulder to distract him from speaking.  “You let me handle that.  You’ve said your peace, Jack, now let us take care of and protect you.  You’re one of us, you know?” 

Jack looked at him in surprise at the last statement and then nodded.  “Yeah.  I am.  Can’t think of better company to keep.” 

Francesco walked over to where Garcia told him to sit and Garcia spoke into his vambrace to alert the medical staff that Jack was awake.  Jack glanced at Cal and Krampus, who were still out like lights.  He felt the first twinges of worry when he realized that, after all that, neither of them roused from their sleep. 

Doctor Jimmy walked briskly into the room with a couple of nurses following close behind him.  They immediately got to work checking Jack’s vitals and I.V. line.  Jimmy asked Jack a few questions and Jack answered them.  When Jimmy was satisfied, he made some notes in his tablet.  After all that and all that talking he did with Garcia and Jimmy, Jack was exhausted. 

“Hey, Jimmy?” 

“Yeah?”  Jimmy didn’t look up from his tablet. 

“Can you make Cal and Krampus go somewhere else to sleep?  They’re not gonna get the rest they need where they’re sleepin’ right now and I’m worried about them.” 

Jimmy stared at him, offended.  “What did I do to wrong you?”  Jimmy asked, annoyed.  “Tryin’ to get me killed, are ya?  I thought we were cool, O’Malley.” 

“Oh.  I didn’t mean anything like that.  That’s not what I said.  I don’t wanna get you killed.  What are you talkin’ about?” 

“Dark Lord Krampus will rip my head off my shoulders if I try to tell him to go to bed again.  Now, you get some sleep and if those dolts want to prolong their own suffering because they’re insufferable lovesick idiots, then that’s their business, not mine.” 

“Oh.  Damn, they’ve been being mean to ya, haven’t they?  I’m sorry.  I’ll talk to them when they wake up.  And when I wake back up.”  Jack yawned deeply.  “I think I need a nap.  Is that rude?  Am I being rude-“

“Go to sleep, Jack.”  Jimmy said, more gently.  “Get some more rest and let the magic, the medicine, and your body do their job to heal you up, okay?” 

“…Kay.” 

Jack started to close his eyes, but then he glanced at Callum’s hand wrapped tightly around the rail of Jack’s bed.  He shifted gingely close to that side of his bed, earning a soft protest from Garcia.  He ignored the polar bear and gently pulled Cal’s hand off the rail and slipped his hand into it instead and squeezed.  Then, he closed his eyes and allowed sleep to take him. 

Chapter Text

Jack was worried about Krampus and Callum.  Neither one appeared to have awoken while Jack was asleep, although, he didn’t really have a way of knowing if they did or not, since he was also asleep.  But Cal’s hand was still holding Jack’s when he woke up, so, he probably hadn’t woken up? 

“It’s good to see you awake, Jack.”  Nick whispered and Jack turned his head to look at him. 

“Hey, Nick.”  Jack smiled and Nick returned the smile, making Jack feel very, very loved all at once.  “Are they gonna be alright?  Have they been awake at all?” 

“They will be quite alright.  You needn’t worry about them.  But, just like them, you probably won’t listen to me, will you?”  Nick shook his head with a sigh.  “I have half a mind to wake them both up so they will see you’re recovering and perhaps they will get some sleep in an actual bed.” 

Jack glanced at the two of them and then swallowed nervously.  “Actually, um.  Can I wake them up?  And…  Can you leave?  Please?” 

Nick patted Jack on the shoulder gently and nodded.  “One of these days, you’ll stop being intimidated by me.  It may not be any time soon, but I’m sure we’ll work things out.  In the meantime, I’ll leave the three of you to it.” 

“Thanks.  Sorry.” 

Nick gave him the most tender look of understanding and empathy and Jack felt undone.  He nodded at Nick and looked away.  He turned his attention to Krampus and Cal.  How should he go about this?  Who should he wake up first?  Dad or future husband?  Either way, one of them would probably be hurt. 

“Hey.”  Jack went with a neutral approach.  Whichever one woke up first couldn’t claim to be the one asked for first this way.  “Hellooo?” 

Wow.  Maybe Garcia was right about not leaving Jack alone with Francesco before.  Cal and Krampus were out cold.  Should he let them sleep?  Jack squeezed Cal’s hand firmly and Cal’s fingers twitched around his hand. 

“Cal?”  Jack whispered, hoping Krampus wouldn’t wake up to Jack trying to wake Callum first.  “Baby, wake up.  I missed you.” 

“You wound me, pup.”  Krampus drawled from his armchair. 

“Sorry.”  Jack said.  “I couldn’t decide which one of you to wake up first and I remembered they almost killed you, so I thought you might need more rest than Cal.” 

“Hush now.  I was teasing you.”  Krampus stood up and stretched lazily.  His tail stretched up behind his head as he stretched his arms high.  “It is only fair to desire your beloved after such a terrible experience.  But, if you will allow me, I would speak with you before he wakes.” 

“Sure thing.”  Jack said, ignoring the pain that was starting to awaken in his abdomen.  “What’s on your mind?” 

Krampus walked around to the other side of Jack’s bed and knelt down next to him, clasping Jack’s hand in one of his.  He smoothed Jack’s hair back with his other hand.  Krampus looked devastated.  Jack frowned, worried.  Jack started to speak when Krampus didn’t start talking right away, but Krampus shushed him again, so very gently. 

“I have never known such fear, pup.  When I saw you on that table, dying…”  Krampus swallowed, eyes wet with unshed tears.  “I thought you were going to be lost to me forever.  Embrace the change, Jack.  And accept my apologies for not telling you that it would happen.  Live with one of us, not somewhere so very far away.  Let us protect you and hold you close to our hearts where you belong.  I cannot bear to lose you now.” 

Jack sniffled and released Cal’s hand to wipe at his face as tears slipped down his cheeks.  “Krampy, you’re making me cry.” 

“You started it.”  Krampus grumbled.  “Scaring me like that.” 

There was a little twinge of anger in his heart, though, that Krampus knew that his, Cal’s, and Nick’s presences and magic were literally transforming him into something he wasn’t.  Did Cal know about it?  But Krampus was in such a state and Jack was so grateful to see him alive and well and to see that he really was going to be alright after what happened to him that he was able to tamp down on the indignation and feeling of betrayal that swirled in his stomach over Krampus’s deception, whether it was intended as an outright deception or not. 

Callum made a noise in his sleep, catching Jack’s attention.  A moment later, Cal sat up in a panic.  He looked around desperately, and upon seeing Jack was where he left him, his shoulders sagged with relief. 

“Jack.  You’re awake.”  Callum tried to feign indifference, but the tears that slipped down his face betrayed how emotionally devastated Cal really was.  His efforts to feign indifference were promptly abandoned and Cal scrambled off the cot and grabbed Jack in a tight embrace.  “Don’t ever scare me like that ever again, Jack!” 

Krampus made an annoyed noise, but Callum ignored him.  The gunshot wound began to ache in earnest now, but Jack didn’t say anything.  He opted to cling to Cal desperately instead with his free arm.  Krampus wasn’t letting go of his other hand. 

“Hey, Cal, it’s alright.  You guys saved me.”  Jack soothed.  “You, too, Krampus.  Everything is okay now.” 

Losing patience and restraint and feeling a bit jealous, Krampus considered shoving Callum off his boy, but decided to wrap both men in his massive arms.  He was big enough to envelop both of them comfortably in his embrace.  Jack clung to them both with all his strength for a long time. 

Eventually, they separated and Jack confessed to being in a growing amount of pain.  They called for the nurse, who came to assist.  Unfortunately, the pain medication made Jack incredibly drowsy and he fell asleep again despite his efforts to stay awake. 

Later that day

Francesco was being held in a M.O.R.A. holding cell.  Callum watched him on the security cameras.  He was a scrawny little thing that he could break in half with just one hand if he wanted to.  And yet, this guy, admittedly with some help, almost took Jack from him forever.  Zoe was hovering nearby, but she didn’t say anything to interrupt Callum’s staring at the feed for a long while. 

“Penny for your thoughts, Cal.”  Zoe said after a while. 

“I want to kill him.  Grier, too.” 

“Jack said he didn’t want that to happen.  To either of them.  Grier won’t be leaving M.O.R.A. prison for what he’s done, but that guy saved Jack’s life in the end.  Jack specifically asked for him to be spared and potentially released after a little jail time.  You’ll be going against his wishes if I let you kill him.” 

“He was going to do experiments on and murder my fiancé in the name of “science.””  Callum argued.  “Why should he be allowed to live?  And why in the name of all that is good should he be released ever?” 

“Because Jack won’t forgive you if you kill him and he could contribute a lot to our cause. ” 

“You sure about that?”  Cal asked.  “Why wouldn’t he?  He’d understand that it’s because I love him and I can’t stand the thought of someone who hurt him getting off scot-free.  Besides, loose ends like him and Grier?  They tend to come back to bite us.  We left Gryla in your custody, Zoe, and she broke out and came after Jack and me.  Jack suffered the most out of the two of us.  I won’t risk that again.  Loose ends need to be cut.” 

“What would Nick say if he heard you say that?” 

“Don’t!”  Callum snapped at her. 

“Cal.”  Zoe sounded judgmental to Callum’s ears. 

“I said don’t.”  Callum repeated himself. 

“Don’t become someone you’re not just because you’re scared and angry.”  Zoe admonished. 

“This ordeal?  It was worse than the witch.  At least she intended to keep him alive and when she wasn’t hurting him, she kept him warm and well cared for.  These people dehumanized and tried to murder him.  So, you keep them in a prison cell for the rest of their lives and all they know is relative comfort and personal autonomy?  They strapped him down to a table, drugged him, and only let him up to move around once across a full day!  Jack had little to eat or drink the entire time.  They don’t deserve-“

“Cal, please.  This isn’t like you.  I know you’re upset and you have every right to be, but the scientist at least saved Jack’s life in the end.  That has to count for something.  Jack, albeit unwittingly, helped the witch kidnap Nick, remember?  And look at where he is now.”  Zoe sighed as Callum returned to fuming and glaring at the live footage of Francesco, who was reading a book and pissing Cal off even more.  He didn’t bother gracing her point with a response.  “Why aren’t you in the complex with Jack right now, anyway?” 

Callum muttered something in response, but Zoe didn’t catch it.  When she asked him to repeat himself, he obliged her, though reluctantly.  She smiled at him slightly, bemused. 

“It’s Krampus’s turn with Jack today.” 

Her bemusement turned into outright amusement and Callum scowled at her.  “I’m sorry; are you and Krampus having some kind of custody battle over Jack right now?” 

“You could say that, I guess.”  Callum huffed, folding his arms across his chest defensively. 

“Have you and Jack talked about what the future is going to look like for you guys?”  Zoe asked, sending that she might be able to distract him from his murderous intent toward the scientist. 

“He has to move in with me.”  Callum said and something about the tone in Cal’s voice raised alarm bells in her head. 

“I mean, it could be good for the both of you if he moved in with you, but he hasn’t indicated to me that he intends to change his home address in our files.  You can’t lock him up to protect him, Cal.  He’ll resent you for trying.  Jack wasn’t meant for a pretty cage.  He was meant to prowl the world at large.  You can’t resort to living in fear.” 

Zoe sighed when Cal didn’t answer her.  “Well, is Krampus faring any better than you about all this?”  Cal gave her a dark glare and suddenly stomped off.  Zoe slightly threw her hands into the air in frustration.  “Okay?  Bye, Cal!  See you later?” 

He didn’t say a word to her. 

A month later

Garcia’s shift was over.  Finkle was taking his annual vacation to the south pole where his family lived, so that meant shifts had to be, well, shifted a little bit.  Garcia was dog tired, which was silly because he was a bear, but there was nothing he could do about being as tired as all that, except for going home and getting some rest. 

He unlocked the door to his apartment and pulled his vest off at the door.  “Huh.  Coulda sworn I turned that light off this morning.”  He groused as he hung the vest on one of the hooks beside the door. 

He padded into his open concept kitchen-living room space, mind already on the tasty leftovers he was about to eat.  Fruit and Nut Salad with Honey Dressing- it was going to be positively divine.  He passed Jack, who was sitting on his couch reading a book. 

“Hey, Jack.” 

“Yo.” 

Garcia froze mid-step.  His expression soured and his ears twitched with annoyance.  Then, he took a deep breath and turned around to face the intruder in his home.  He folded his arms across his chest and bared his teeth, just a little bit.  He didn’t want to threaten or overly scare Jack, but he did want to make sure he understood that Garcia did not appreciate having an unwanted guest crashing on his couch during the day while he was out. 

“What are you doing in my house, NL-4?” 

“Oh.  Yeah, sorry about that.”  Jack looked up at him with eyes that plead for forgiveness. 

“Didn’t answer the question.  But first, how did you get in here?”  Garcia groused. 

“Oh, I picked the lock.”  Jack said, like it was obvious and why would Garcia even ask that silly question.  They both knew Jack didn’t have a key!  He paused, though, realizing he still had something to apologize for.  “Again, uh, sorry, buddy.” 

Garcia rubbed at his head wearily.  Callum had been on edge most of the afternoon and Jack didn’t have his phone on him.  He knew because Callum was upset that Jack had left it in their bedroom this morning before he got up for work. 

“Chief’s been looking for ya, you know.  I’ll give him a call to let him know where you are.” 

“No!  Wait!  Wait, wait, wait!  Don’t do that, please!”  Jack twisted around on the couch in a panic, wincing in pain in the process. 

“Hey, easy.”  Garcia lowered his vambrace and approached Jack cautiously.  “Don’t want you hurting yourself, Jack.  What’s going on?” 

“They’re suffocating me, Garcia.”  Jack said, looking pretty upset. 

“Who?”  Garcia prompted, already starting to connect the dots in his mind without the answer. 

“Krampus and Cal. They hover over me and wait on me hand and foot.” 

“Sounds cushy.  Who wouldn’t want to be pampered?”  Garcia snorted, interrupting Jack in the process. 

“No!  It’s awful!  They won’t let me outta their sight for more than like five minutes at a time.  I need a break, but then when I try to explain it, they get all weird and defensive.  Both of them, mind you.  And Cal wants me to move in permanently and I’m not ready for that.  I can’t just hide up here because some jerks decided they wanted to commit crimes and then later cause war crimes with magic weapons.  That’s not my fault and I’ve lived at that house for three years now.  Why should I move out right this moment over someone hurting me a month ago?  I refuse to live in fear like that!  I’m not giving up my life just because some jerk wanted to kill me!  I mean, this is home, but it’s not my only home, you know?” 

“Well, Jack, they’re traumatized, it sounds like.  Sounds like a therapy issue to me, to be honest.  Why don’t you just ask them to go with you to therapy?” 

“I tried that!  Krampus just outright refuses and gets mad.  And I can normally get that goat man to do anything I want, ya know, within reason.  I mean, we used to do fun stuff.  Board games, card games, dance parties with no booze- ya know, cause I’m sober these days- and stuff he wouldn’t normally do, like, like selfies and listening to podcasts and cuddles on the couch!” 

“I- I really don’t need to know what you do with the Dark Lord of Winter in your free time, Jack.” 

“No, just listen, Gairbear.” 

“Gairbear?”  Garcia growled, growing more annoyed. 

“Listen!  Cal is worse.  He’s clingy and coddles me and looks at me like if he takes his eyes off me, I’ll disappear.” 

“So your first plan with the knowledge that the Chief is having such a hard time dealing with your near-death experience is to disappear and hide from him the first chance you get?”  Garcia accused.  “Kind of a dick move, don’t you think, O’Malley?” 

Sure, the commander had been off lately, anxious, and bordering on irrational, but there had been a significant incident here at the Pole, too.  Jack wasn’t the only one who almost died.  Everyone in the medical building and near it was in serious danger that day.  Garcia couldn’t bring himself to side with Jack and his crappy run-away-from-my-problems logic with Garcia’s friend, Callum, suffering so much because of it. 

“Look, I know it’s not the best solution, but I can’t take it anymore, Garcia!  Krampus invited me to Krampuslant yesterday and I had to tell him no and he was so grumpy about it all day.  He’s still mad today!” 

“Maybe going to Krampuslant might be a good idea for all three of you.  Get some fresh air, see some new scenery-“

“Garcia.”  Jack said, deathly serious.  “Considering the mental state of my goat dad, if I go to Krampuslant, you’re never gonna see my face again.  He’s gonna toss me in the dungeon to keep me safe and he won’t let me go.  Ever.  You might think I’m kidding, but I’m not.  They’re both…  They’re both bordering on crazy and I don’t know how to fix it!  I just need some space.  Just a little.  A day or two, tops.  I don’t take up much space and I’ll be really quiet.  You won’t even notice me if you want me to just sit around and be quiet.  Please, Garcia.  Maybe some distance will help them get their heads back on straight.” 

Garcia stopped grousing for a moment and really looked at Jack for the first time since he arrived.  Jack looked frantic, which matched how he sounded, really.  But he had dark circles under his eyes and he seemed jittery and afraid.  His hands were squeezing the pillow on Garcia’s couch like a lifeline.  His entire body looked more tense than a coiled industrial spring.  And yet, in spite of all that, there was hope and pleading in his eyes that melted Garcia’s heart with compassion and love for his little human friend.  Garcia’s shoulders sagged with empathy and concern.  He padded around the sofa and sat down next to Jack, who was now watching him with unveiled anxiety and suspicion. 

“You can stay as long as you want, Jack.  But there is something you aren’t considering.”  He had Jack’s undivided attention.  “If they pressure Nick hard enough, he can use his power to find you here.” 

Jack looked small and wore a scandalized, preemptively betrayed expression on his face.  “Santa would never betray me like that.”  He meant it.  Garcia felt the strongest urge to ruffle Jack’s hair, tuck him into bed, and read him a bedtime story. 

“Santa’s brother is Krampus and his son is Callum Drift.  He’s gonna have to “betray” you to preserve his sanity and order here in the Pole.  If you don’t at least tell Callum where you are, he’s gonna have the E.L.F. turn this entire complex over on its head looking for you.  And I don’t wanna know what Krampus will try to do to me if he finds out I was “hiding you” from him.  I gotta tell them where you are before they really start to panic when they still can’t find you tonight.” 

“Garcia, I can’t live like this!”  Jack buried his face in his hands, not crying, but frustrated, overwhelmed, and scared. 

“You gotta talk to ‘em about it.  You’re right.  This can’t continue, but hiding from them here in my house without communicating that you’re alright to them isn’t gonna help make things better.  Now, may I call in and tell Drift where you are?” 

Speak of the devil, Cal’s voice filtered through the vambrace radio asking for eyes on Jack.  He sounded anxious, although the younger members of the team wouldn’t pick up on it.  Jack stared at the vambrace and then nodded to give Garcia permission to tell Cal where he was. 

“Chief, I’ve got eyes on O’Malley.  He’s fine.  Call my direct line, if you would, please.” 

Callum acknowledged his report and literally a moment later, Garcia’s phone began to ring.  Jack gave Garcia a pleading look as Garcia sighed.  Drift really was in a bad head space, wasn’t he?  Jack looked like he was on the verge of some kind of breakdown from the stress of comforting Krampus and Cal and that wasn’t fair.  The guy had his own trauma from the experience to work through.  He couldn’t dedicate all his energy to managing the emotions of his anxious family members.  He wouldn’t have enough energy to deal with the impacts his near-death experience had on his psyche if something didn’t change. 

“Garcia, where is he?  Is he really fine?  Let me talk to him-“ Drift rambled anxiously over the phone. 

“No, Boss.  You and Krampus need to chill out.  Jack needs some space to process some things and just breathe for a little while without you breathing down his neck the whole time.  You’re gonna make this whole thing worse and lose him for real, Chief, if you aren’t careful.  Jack is fine and he doesn’t feel like talkin’ right now.  Trust me to keep him safe and he’ll come back to the main residence and you in the morning after we have breakfast.” 

Jack was staring at him.  The gratitude was radiating off him in waves.  He pulled the pillow into his lap and squeezed it, wincing when the pressure became too much on his wound. 

“He…  Doesn’t want to see me?”  Garcia flinched at how small and hurt Callum sounded over the phone. 

“He needs some space, Chief.  It’s not as bad as it sounds.  But you need some space, too.  And to give Jack and the rest of us around the Pole some trust that he won’t do anything to put himself in danger and that none of us will let him put himself into or be put into danger here in the Complex.  Our security is the best in the world, second to none, after all.”  Garcia soothed. 

“I understand.”  Immediately, Garcia knew Callum Drift did not, in fact, understand, but before he could try to explain further, Drift hung up the call. 

He and Jack sat in silence a few moments before Jack broached the topic.  “That didn’t go well?” 

“I’d be happy to babysit you for the night, Jack, but I think we better get you back to the main residence.”  Garcia said as gently as he could manage. 

Jack’s expression flickered from hurt to frustrated to emotionally devastated across a couple of seconds.  Then, his expression hardened and Garcia knew he made a mistake.  But, the hardened expression almost immediately disappeared behind a façade of agreeableness.  He smiled at Garcia, but the smile didn’t extend to his eyes. 

“Okay.  Thanks for trying anyway.  Maybe we can talk Cal into agreeing to a sleepover another time.  You know, since I’m not an adult capable of making my own decisions.  And, you know, what is the point of consent, anyway?  Nah, I’m just an object for them to fight over, right?  Something, not someone like a pretty intelligent guy told me the other day.  He has three degrees, so he knows what he’s talking about, probably.”  Garcia started to speak, but Jack held a hand up, still using that awful tone of voice that sounded lighthearted but really wasn’t.  “No, don’t worry about it.  I’m fine.  Everything is fine.”  Jack stood up with a wince and grabbed the cane he used to help him walk with less pain. 

Jack O’Malley would not be in the North Pole by morning and, if there was anyone on the planet that could disappear and not be found, it was him.  It was painfully apparent that Jack was going to run and not look back.  In the moment, Garcia made a choice he prayed he wouldn’t come to regret.  He didn’t speak it, didn’t know if Jack knew he was onto him or not, but the decision didn’t need to be stated aloud.  He had messed things up enough with his big mouth already.  There was no need to make it worse. 

“Jack?”  Garcia said as they walked to the door.  “Keep my number, okay?  You can call me for anything, anytime.  I’ll come if you need me.” 

Jack gave him a wan smile.  “Sure.” 

He wouldn’t.  It was plain as day.  The angry and hurt Wolf growled and snapped at Garcia in his mind’s eye.  Garcia gave Jack a little space as they walked so that he was following Jack more than walking beside or in front of him.  He texted Cal to tell him they were on their way to the main residence now.  Jack hobbled along with his free hand in his pocket.  

Chapter Text

Nick enjoyed a brisk walk during the night now and again.  Cal usually preferred to come along or for Nick to tell someone about his nighttime escapes, but not tonight.  Tonight, he was waiting for someone he was pretty sure would be coming along sooner or later.  Nick sat on the bench next to the transit system entrance and waited. 

A few hours passed and Nick wondered if, maybe, Jack might stay.  If only they could be so fortunate.  Garcia had found Nick and asked to speak with him privately a few hours ago.  He had implored Nick to talk to Jack, but not to stop him from leaving, if that was what he wanted in the end.  Garcia seemed torn up about the situation and expressed that he felt like he had betrayed Jack’s confidence in an hour of need.  Nick had assured him that he would make sure that Jack felt heard and validated by the time they finished chatting. 

Nick had stopped to chat with Krampus first, though.  Maybe Jack slipped out while Nick was talking with Krampus?  No, that was around 8 pm.  Supper was around 6:30, but Jack was late to that.  Jack and Cal went upstairs together around 7:15.  Cal had been a bit clingy recently, and Nick had it on good authority (Jack himself, that is) that they tended to cuddle before going to sleep every night.  Which, they were a cuddly couple before this, but they weren’t together as much as they might have otherwise liked with their work situations.  So, Nick was pretty sure that Jack hadn’t had an opportunity to slip away, not with Cal awake.  Unless he somehow convinced Cal to let him leave, but that didn’t seem likely, not with how on edge Cal had been since this all happened. 

Nick had known that Jack was getting more and more frazzled by the constant attention that Krampus and Cal had started smothering him with, but with Christmas coming up so soon, Nick had failed to broach the topic with them.  Even he made mistakes.  He was no god, just a force with great power that dedicated himself to the well-being of everyone and tried to fill the world with cheer, even if only for a day. 

Nick looked up at the night sky visible through the roof of the dome.  The stars shone down on him, twinkling in the night as they burned so many lightyears away from this little planet that dared to teem with life.  In the end, they were all so very small.  Even an ogress like Gryla was impossibly small when compared to the immensity of the universe.  There was just too much to know and understand and not enough time to learn it all, even for someone like Nick.  And mistakes happen.  They happen all the time.  The question was not whether the burning bridge could be repaired.  It was simply a matter of when or if it would be repaired. 

Nick heard the crunching of snow beneath someone’s shoes in the distance.  It sounded like it was coming from the direction of the main residence.  Unfortunate.  Nick couldn’t control his brother or son.  All he could do was give them an opportunity to change, just like Jack. 

Every other step was heavier than the other, evidence that the person coming toward him was experiencing a limp when he walked.  Nick closed his eyes and sighed, not lowering his head.  The footsteps slowed as they drew closer.  Jack saw him on the bench by now, no doubt.  The footsteps stopped a few feet away.  Nick still didn’t look down or open his eyes.  Jack said nothing, but he did shift. Nick could tell by the sound of snow crunching beneath his shoe. 

“Will you return to M.O.R.A. Headquarters or go to your house?”  Nick asked.  When Jack didn’t answer, he sighed.  “Don’t just disappear, Jack.  There are too many people who love you for you to run away from all of them.  A son, friends, and colleagues.  Mikey and Philly have missed you while you’ve been gone, I heard.  Zoe, too, although she tries not to admit it.” 

Nick paused, waiting for Jack’s response.  He nearly turned to look at him, because it was taking a bit longer than he expected.  Just before he did so, Jack spoke, defensive and accusatory. 

“Why are you here?  It’s late.  You should be asleep, like everybody else!  You have work to do-important work, right?”  Jack sounded bitter and angry.  “You gonna tell me I can’t leave?  You know what?  Why don’t you guys just toss me in a cage while we’re at this?  I bet I’d make a great pet.  You know, maybe that’s all I’ve been from the beginning with this whole thing we’ve been doing!”  Jack threw his hands in the air, cane and all, in an “I-give-up” gesture.    

Nick lowered his head and opened his eyes to look at Jack carefully.  “Is that what scares you?  Being trapped, like an animal in a cage?  Being owned?” 

“Yes.”  Jack answered easily, lowering his arms to his sides and leaning on the cane sullenly. 

“Who here made you feel that way?” 

“You’re not my therapist.”  Jack snapped. 

“No.  But I can listen if you’re willing to let me in.  Talk to me, Jack, for once.  Sit.  I brought cookies and some warm milk.”  Nick held up the thermos and gestured to a couple of mugs and a brown paper bag, obviously filled with cookies, beside him. 

“Cookies and milk won’t change anything.” 

“I suppose not.  But they taste good.  Have a cookie and sit down with me before you leave.  Just give me… Ohhh.  Ten minutes?  Yes.  Ten minutes of your time.  Or you can just leave, if that’s what you really want.”  He pointed to Jack’s left hand, the one that was grasping the cane tightly.  “You’re wearing that engagement ring on your finger now.  That’s a change.  Come and sit.  Please?” 

Jack sighed and sat down next to Santa.  If anybody told seven-year-old Jack that he was gonna sit on a bench and eat cookies and drink warm milk with Santa Claus in the North Pole, he’d have told them they were outta their head.  And yet, here he was, sitting on a bench in the North Pole, eating cookies and drinking milk with Santa Claus.  He preferred to be called Nick by those closest to him, though, and he let Jack call him Nick. 

Jack ran his finger across the stones around the band, remembering what they meant.  “He promised me a lot of things.  Freedom wasn’t one of them.” 

“You’re scared and that’s okay.”  Nick started.  “I was scared, too.  We all were.  Krampus almost died, just like you.  We’ve never experienced anything like that before.  Cal almost watched his entire world die and there wasn’t a single solitary thing he could do to save any of us.  Not you.  Not Krampus.  Not me.  And because he wouldn’t leave me and I wouldn’t leave my brother, he couldn’t save himself, either.  See, Cal has spent a long time being a protector and now he’s been faced with a scenario he couldn’t protect any of us from.  That’s pretty scary, too.” 

Jack bit into the cookie thoughtfully and chewed it.  He didn’t look up at Nick as he pondered his words.  Nick gave him the space to process that information.  Jack fiddled with his engagement ring, but ultimately said nothing.  He looked small, depressed, and broken-spirited.  Nick felt for him.  He really did. 

“Cal needs to calm down, but he doesn’t know how to and things are only going to get more and more stressful around the Pole between now and Christmas.  He’s put dealing with his fear and anxiety on the back burner for now, for better or for worse.  I regret that I’ve allowed that.”  Nick continued. 

“He has to trust me.” 

“He does trust you.  He wouldn’t agree to marry you if he didn’t.”  Nick chuckled. 

“He trusts me, but he doesn’t trust me.”  Jack insisted.  “If he did, he wouldn’t act like I was going to disappear.” 

“And yet, here you are, sneaking off in the middle of the night.”  Nick leveled him with a stare.  “Unless you told him you were leaving and didn’t slip out of his arms and out of his room with your little backpack tonight.”  Oops, protective dad energy.  Nick hadn’t meant to accuse him, but the thought of Jack just sneaking off without even talking to Cal, which seemed like something he would absolutely do, infuriated him.  Cal deserved respect, too. 

Jack pursed his lips in irritation.  “I wouldn’t run away if he would just let me breathe.  It’s his fault.  Krampus, too.” 

“Really?  You’re afraid and it’s his fault?  He didn’t shoot you, Jack.  He’s just trying to comfort you and himself while still preparing for Christmas.”  Nick challenged.  “If it helps, though, Krampus went back to Krampuslant earlier tonight.” 

“He did?”  The poor thing was surprised and hurt; Krampus hadn’t stopped by to tell him goodbye.  Yeah, he was being a bit of a hypocrite, but Nick felt a wave of compassion for Jack wash over him in spite of it.  Krampus and Nick were each well over a thousand five hundred years old and Cal was well over five hundred.  Jack was only on the cusp of being 36 years old as he asked his next question.  “Why?” 

“I talked to him.  Told him he needed to get some fresh air and to stop smothering you before you hated his guts.  And a few other things.”  Nick soothed. 

“Why?”  Such a child, Nick thought as Jack repeated the question.  And yet somehow all grown up and still lost. 

“Because you’re about to run away, possibly forever.  Nobody wants that, Jack.” 

“How did you even know that?”  Jack demanded. 

“I’m Santa Claus, Jack.” 

“Bullshit, if you were really omniscient about everything going on around the world, Gryla wouldn’t have kidnapped you, wouldn’t have kidnapped me or Cal, wouldn’t have infiltrated M.O.R.A. Headquarters, and those men wouldn’t have kidnapped me or hurt Krampus or everyone here at the North Pole.  I wouldn’t have gotten shot.  Not to mention, Cal got lost as a little kid one time and you couldn’t find him.  Krampus did.  You don’t know all the things I do or don’t do.  Someone has to tell you.  So, Garcia must have smelled it on me or something and told you, the jerk!” 

Jack always was a skeptic.  Nick loved that about him.  For one thing, it made all the magic that really did exist in the world even more magical for him when he did experience it.  Nick loved the wonder that filled Jack’s eyes when faced with something magical that he hadn’t experienced before.  It allowed Jack to be the wide-eyed child he hadn’t had the freedom to be all those years ago and that brought Nick such joy.  For another, it made Jack very difficult to deceive.  He was clever and saw through deceptions like glass, most of the time.  Unfortunately, the person who was best at deceiving Jack O’Malley was Jack himself. 

“You have four minutes left.”  Jack groused and gestured to his watch when Nick gave him a slightly surprised look. 

“Huh.  Took me literally there, didn’t ya?” 

“I have places to be.”  Jack countered.  “Heard some people missed me.” 

At least he was listening.  Nick was starting to feel like he wasn’t going to be able to salvage this situation after all.  Jack was angry and hurt and Nick didn’t have the answer.  It was an uncomfortable feeling.  But this situation was unique, novel even.  It was so rare for the citizens of the North Pole to fraternize with humans that there hadn’t been a situation where a romantic relationship blossomed between them in almost a thousand years.  And the humans that entered into romantic relationships with the citizens of the North Pole hadn’t come with so much baggage, trauma, or fear.  They hadn’t wanted to live like Jack had, either.  They were happy living at the North Pole with their new family.  There was a reason there were human looking people at the North Pole, after all.  They entered into this new world without hesitation or fear and embraced the new culture and the magic and the immortality. 

Why couldn’t Jack just accept it all? 

It was a blessing and a lot of humans would kill for the opportunity to live forever.  There was the whole thing with the Spanish in the Americas about the purported Fountain of Youth.  It was actually a thing, but they were looking on the wrong continent.  It was unfortunate, but Nick was glad they never figured that one out.  He didn’t want to live on a planet where those men would have lived more or less forever. 

“You love Cal, don’t you?”  Nick tried. 

“Of course I do.”  Jack snapped. 

“Do you really want to leave?” 

“He has to trust me.  He won’t trust me until I prove to him that I can take care of myself.” 

“Are you going to take care of yourself?  Or will you go back to isolating, drinking, and gambling?” 

“That’s none of your business, I think.”  Jack answered and Nick understood that that meant the answer was no. 

“You deserve better than that.”  Nick sighed.  “But I won’t stop you.  You have to make decisions and changes for yourself.  Every moment is an opportunity to be-“

“Good.  I know.”  Jack answered.  “I’m not good, Nick.  I don’t think I ever have been.  You guys have to stop pretending I’m like you.  I’m not.  I’m just.  Not.” 

There it was- the grief and the shame.  Nick wanted to give him a hug, to tell him it was going to be okay, but he knew Jack wouldn’t appreciate it right now.  So, he held back. 

“No one is judging you, Jack.  We only want you to be safe and happy.”  Okay, so Nick might have been angry with Jack earlier, but he understood where Jack was coming from.  He needed space and to feel like he had some say in his life.  He clearly wasn’t getting that sense of security here and he needed some time to get his head back on straight before he tried things again. 

“I left Cal and Krampus a note.  I promise I’m not trying to hurt them.  I just can’t breathe like this, Nick.  I can’t deal with this!” 

“Take your time.  You always have a home here.  Come back when you’re ready.  I’ll handle Cal.” 

“Thank you, Nick.”  Jack started to stand up, but he suddenly leaned over and wrapped Nick in a tight hug. 

A few moments passed and then Jack pulled away, picking up his cane and backpack again.  He walked over to the transit system entrance and opened the portal with his key.  He didn’t look back at Nick before he stepped through it.  Nick noted with pleasure that Jack took the key with him.  He would be back, no doubt.  One day, maybe not soon, but one day for sure.  Nick packed up the mugs, leftover cookies, and thermos.  Then, he went back up to the main residence, bracing himself for the emotional fallout that Cal would be experiencing from this.  Hopefully Jack’s note would give him some semblance of comfort. 

Chapter Text

When Jack slipped out of the toy store, he had a decision to make.  Call an Uber to drive him home or call a friend.  Or walk the twenty miles or so from the toy store to his house in the countryside in the darkest of night.  Okay, maybe not that one. 

He stood on the sidewalk in the cool night air and pondered his choices.  See, if he called an Uber, the Uber driver wouldn’t want to talk about anything that might make Jack’s heart hurt even more.  An Uber would cost money, though, and, more importantly, Jack was a little paranoid about the fact that calling an Uber from this particular location could create a connection between himself and the Transit System.  Calling for an Uber would leave a trail someone could follow, and after those people had found him and taken him from his own home, albeit through someone Jack had trusted, he was paranoid.  Other people, other groups could find him, too, if they really wanted.  Jack didn’t even know anything about the group because Krampus and Cal were being such infuriating, overprotective idiots.  The lack of knowledge about this mysterious group that kidnapped and tried to experiment on him was grating on Jack’s nerves.  He’d have to do some investigating when he got back to headquarters. 

Unfortunately, Jack was having a hard time trusting anyone at all.  Who could he call for a ride?  LeGranges would be a safe bet, if she wasn’t married with kids who were probably, justifiably, sleeping.  Mikey and Philly were trolls, so it’s not like they could just hop in a car and go for a joyride, so that was a no go.  Jack ran through the list of his work friends and he conveniently found excuses reasons why he couldn’t call any of them.  Then, his mind wandered to Zoe Harlow. 

She was still his best friend and he had been intentionally avoiding her name on his mental list every time she cropped up.  So, why didn’t he want to call her?  She wouldn’t mind getting out of bed and picking him up if he just explained.  But he really didn’t want to explain.  He didn’t want to admit that he ran away from Cal because he got sick of being pampered and hovered over.  Although the constant checking in every hour on the hour was annoying.  Jack had been trying to be social and having Cal call him every single hour was cramping his style.  Cal was his fiancé, not his dad and Jack wasn’t five years old. 

And then Krampus.  The poor guy needed to take some parenting classes from Nick, who generally let Cal be.  How come everybody made such a big deal about Jack being kidnapped and hurt when Krampus and Cal and Nick and everybody else got hurt, too?  Nobody else got smothered with attention just because they also got hurt.  Nobody else got hovered over the way Krampus hovered over Jack, mean mugging all the folks at the North Pole Jack was trying to talk to.  And for that matter, nobody ever treated Cal the way they treated Jack after that whole fiasco with Gryla.  Jack wasn’t the only one who had been kidnapped that time and Cal just went back to his normal life!  How was that fair? 

At one point, Cal even started having members of the E.L.F. following Jack around.  They tried to be discreet about it, but Jack was observant.  Jack knew when he was being followed and he hated it.  The folks Cal assigned to him were nice people and Jack genuinely liked them.  Some of them were even his friends, but his already frazzled, stressed out brain was only getting crankier and crankier as time went on.  It got to the point where he escaped from them, taking advantage of busier locations and situations (some of which he manufactured himself, earning himself a stern talking to by Cal and Nick) in the Pole to lose himself in the crowd and duck down a side alley or into buildings and homes that he probably shouldn’t have trespassed in to escape from their watchful eyes.  The E.L.F. had centuries of experience here in this place, but they had never dealt with a Jack O’Malley in a bad mood before.  Jack was sure he knew large swaths of the complex just as well as its oldest tenants these days.  Someone always found him though, typically winded and sore from overdoing it with his injury, sitting on a bench or, more embarrassingly, sitting on the ground in an alley, unable to get himself back up through the pain.  The E.L.F. agents always gave him a wide berth when that happened and, of course, called Cal or Krampus to come deal with him.  It was humiliating being carried bridal style through the complex back to the main residence or the infirmary to be checked out and he knew he did that part to himself by pushing it.  After about a week of this, Jack had finally had enough and broke into Garcia’s apartment and that stupid bear wouldn’t even let him stay for a night or stand up to his boss to tell him he was being ridiculous!  Ultimately, no one in the Pole actually had Jack’s back.  It was Cal’s back they had and Jack thought he might hate them all for it. 

Jack wanted to scream and chuck everything, but he was too tired and achy to put himself in a position where he had to go and pick everything back up right now.  He just wanted to go back to bed and never get back up, because Cal betrayed him worse than Gavin did.  It was only recently that Jack realized that, of the many things the stones on their matching engagement rings symbolized, freedom was not one of them.  And Jack resented the idea of living in a cage regardless of how pretty or large it was.  A prison was still a prison, even if it was full of nice, warm hugs and loving gazes.    

Jack sighed heavily as the enormity of his departure weighed on him.  He was free now, but that also meant he was all alone and he had been all alone with Gavin the night Gavin drugged and kidnapped him.  He also had to decide where he was going to go.  Home to his house, which he hadn’t stepped foot in since he was taken from it?  Back to the barracks at M.O.R.A. HQ?  A hotel or motel on the side of the road?  Each had pros and cons, but…   

Truth be told, now that he had left the North Pole Complex, Jack was more afraid.  Because, if there was anyone left over from that group, if anyone survived or escaped getting arrested by M.O.R.A., they knew where he lived.  They knew where he would go.  And if he went back and they were watching his house, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to keep from having this experience repeat, especially not already hurt and recovering from a gunshot wound.  And if he went home and they were watching him, they would use him again to hurt the people he loved. 

Maybe the dungeons at Krampuslant wouldn’t be so bad, when you thought about it that way. 

Maybe Cal and Krampus were right.  He was a weak thing and a loose end.  A frayed loose end, but a loose end all the same.  The magic he never asked for, that he couldn’t even use for anything, would forever paint a target on his back.  He would forever be a loose end and, as long as he ran around with this magic signature radiating off of him, he might be trackable and, more concerning, usable.  Everyone should know by now how Jack felt about loose ends. 

Jack came to a decision.  He called Zoe, no longer nervous or embarrassed.  He was on a job now, for the North Pole and for M.O.R.A.  No time for embarrassment or shame or fear.  After all, he knew someone who was well versed in removing magic from magical people.  Surely Francesco could figure out a way to do it without hurting Jack.  Right? 

“Jack, is everything alright?  It’s 1 am.”  Zoe asked, sounding groggy. 

“Sorry, Zoe.  Things were getting kinda stuffy at the North Pole and I had to bail.  Cal would have tried to stop me, so I kinda had to sneak out.” 

“Oh, Jack.  I don’t think that’s the best-“

“I need a ride to work.  I want to stay at headquarters for a while, in the barracks.  I could call an Uber, but-“

“No, no need for that.  I’ll come get you.  Which transit station are you at right now?” 

Jack told her where he was and then added.  “I’m sorry I woke you up.” 

“I don’t mind.”  Zoe Harlow was, objectively, the best.  Jack would fight anyone who dared to tell him differently.  “I’m glad to hear from you.  However, you’re staying with me at my place tonight.  I’m not going to the office at 1 am.  I have a guest room.  Deal?” 

“Yeah.  Deal.”  Jack said with a small smile.  “Thanks for everything, Zoe.” 

“Well, don’t tell anyone, but you are my favorite.”  Zoe said and Jack could hear the smirk in her voice; it made him grin like an idiot, to be honest.  “See you soon.” 

Jack sat down on a bench near the store to wait after they ended their call.  It would be a while before Zoe got there, so he was now alone with his thoughts again.  It was kinda cool that he might live for a really long time, even if he wasn’t fully human anymore.  It would give him more time with Cal and the others.  He didn’t know what the other impacts of the magic he apparently absorbed would have on him, though.  Would he become some sort of mutant like the X-Men?  That… might be kinda cool?  Or maybe he would just be long-lived.  Who knew? 

Actually, Nick probably would know, right?  He should have asked, but he was so desperate to get out of the complex that he didn’t think to ask.  He sighed.  He’d have to call and ask some clarifying questions when he was less tired, less frazzled, and less panicky.  For now, he was going to enjoy the breathing room he was going to get.  And it didn’t matter, because he was going to get Francesco to remove the magic anyway, probably.  …. But wouldn’t he absorb more magic spending time with Cal, Krampus and company, and everyone at the North Pole?  Maybe getting Francesco to remove the magic wasn’t the solution.  He didn’t want to leave his family and this life behind.  He loved them and he loved his life.  He didn’t want to leave it behind.  So, what could he do?  How could he protect everyone from the threat that was Jack O’Malley? 

About twenty minutes later, Zoe pulled up in her car.  Jack grabbed his backpack and cane, then rushed to the car.  When he got in, Zoe leaned over and gave him a hug, which he readily returned. 

“Truth be told, I didn’t think you were ever going to come back.  I didn’t want to rush you, because a gunshot wound to the stomach is no joke, but I was worried you’d just stay at the Pole forever after this.”  Zoe commented wryly. 

“Why would I do that?”  Jack asked, looking at her with an expression of apprehension and an air of I’m-preparing-myself-to-be-hurt. 

“Oh.  Well.”  Zoe began awkwardly.  “I mean, this is technically the fourth time someone’s kidnapped you.” 

Jack frowned at her.  “Huh?” 

“I nabbed you from just outside your apartment, remember?”  Zoe asked. 

“Oh.  I didn’t really count that one.  That was more of an arrest, if you ask me.  I didn’t exactly make that easy on you guys, either, though, and I definitely deserved it.  Was a dick back then.”  Jack waved it off.  “And it was kinda the best thing that ever happened to me, you know?” 

“And then Gryla kidnapped you twice- once via Glaskafig and once-“  She paused, taking in his strained expression.  “Mm.  I’m not helping, am I?” 

“No, not really.”  Jack admitted. 

“Sorry.”  Zoe answered.  “Alright, let’s get us home and get some sleep, then.” 

She hadn’t bothered changing out of her pajamas, which was actually really cute.  They were a simple pair of black shorts and a pink tank top.  It looked pretty comfy, to be honest.  His pajamas were too warm for this weather, but he hadn’t trusted Cal to sleep through him changing clothes, so he had left as he was.  In retrospect, he probably could have stopped by a bathroom on the way downstairs, but it was cold outside in the Pole and he was desperate to leave before Cal woke up and went looking for him in a panic. 

Jack put his seatbelt on and then his phone began to ring in his pocket.  He groaned.  It was Cal’s ringtone.  His cheeks flushed as the lyrics to the country song “You Look Like You Love Me” filled Zoe’s car.  Zoe was trying not to laugh at him. 

“Shut up.”  He muttered. 

“Well, aren’t you going to answer it?”  Zoe chuckled. 

“I don’t want to.”  He whined.  “It’s Cal.” 

“Well, I should hope you’ve assigned that song to your fiancé, Jack.  Answer the phone or I will.”  She said, ending her statement with a stern tone. 

“Fine.”  Jack pulled the phone from his pocket and accepted the call.  “Hey, babe!”  He tried to sound chipper. 

“What are you doing and where are you?”  Cal demanded in his sternest Commander-of-the-E.L.F. voice. 

“Right now?  I’m sitting in Zoe’s car.  Don’t worry; I’m not going back to my house tonight.  Anyway, I’m fine and Zoe is with me.  It is late, though, so we’re going to her place to get some sleep and I’ll go back to work tomorrow.” 

Zoe glared at him.  “You didn’t say anything about going back to work.”   

“Can we talk about that later, please?”  Jack implored her and she sighed at him and nodded.  Jack returned his attention to Cal.  “Did you hear her?  No work yet.” 

“So, you’ll stay the night with Zoe tonight and then you go back to staying at your house all by yourself?”  Cal sounded unimpressed and angry. 

“Well, I don’t have a roommate, Cal, so yeah, I think that’s what I’m going to do.  If I don’t stay there, then I’ll sleep in the barracks.” 

“Absolutely not.”  Zoe interjected.  “You’ll sneak around and start working without my approval.  If you don’t want to stay at your house, you can stay at mine, but you aren’t staying at the barracks unsupervised.” 

“I don’t want him unsupervised at all!”  Cal loudly interjected, irritated. 

“I’m not a child, Cal!  I can take care of myself!”  Jack snapped. 

“Apparently not!”  Cal retorted as if he were talking to a naughty, bratty child. 

Jack’s expression darkened and his mouth twisted into a snarl.  “And what is that supposed to mean, oh mighty warrior of the North Pole?” 

“It means exactly what it sounds like.  Now, get back here so I can keep an eye on you.” 

“Like hell, Callum Drift!”  Jack snarled.  “I can take care of myself whether you believe it or not!  I survived thirty-one years before I met you and I could survive thirty more without you if I had to!” 

Zoe flinched at that and Jack regretted saying it the minute the words left his mouth.  Callum didn’t answer for what felt like a lifetime to Jack.  When he did speak, his tone was sharp, sharper than he had ever spoken to Jack before in the five years since they first met. 

“You have the self-preservation instincts of a tadpole.  You grabbed the glaskafig the witch sent you.  I told you to run from the witch and she kicked you across the runway.  A shapeshifter pretended to be your son and when you saw it was a sketchy place, you still went inside to get him and got yourself kidnapped.  You let Gryla find you and let her capture you again so you could get close enough to kill her by yourself.  And then you befriended the wrong human who sold you off to a group of people who wanted to dissect and study you.  Krampus almost died.  You almost died.  Jen the nurse did die.  If you lived here at the complex, that never would have happened.  The logical thing to do is live here so no one else gets hurt because of you!” 

Jack’s eyes welled with tears.   “That’s not fair, Cal.  You know that isn’t fair.” 

As Callum continued, it hurt so much the more because he spoke with deadly severity and calmness.  “It’s probably the fairest I’ve been with you all month.  You don’t think about the way your actions impact other people.  Did you think I wouldn’t notice you were gone?  Did you think I wouldn’t miss you or worry about you?  Have you not once considered that your knowledge of the Complex could endanger everyone here if the wrong people got their hands on you?  You’ve been used against us twice already.  Why couldn’t someone else do it a third time, with more devastating effects?” 

Right.  Of course.  It was about the Pole in the end.  Callum had to put that first.  That solidified it, then.  There was only one thing left to do.  Cut the loose end, permanently.  Tears slipped down his cheeks and Jack shifted so Zoe hopefully wouldn’t see the tears as they streamed down his face.  She reached over and squeezed his shoulder gently and he wished things could have turned out differently.  Jack’s heart broke with grief and shame, but he was determined not to let Cal hear that he was crying, so when he spoke, he kept his voice as calm and clear as he could manage.  Even with all that effort, the crack in his voice slipped out a few times in the process. 

“I deserve that, I guess.”  Jack said, feeling Zoe’s eyes on the back of his head.  “I love you so much, Cal.  Even though I’m an awful person, I still love you.  I never meant for any of this to happen.  I just wanted to live something close to a normal life.  I just wanted…”  He trailed off with a sniffle.  “Never mind.  I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you, Cal.  I’ll come back right now.” 

Before Cal could react, Jack ended the call.  He sniffled and wiped at his eyes.  Zoe was silent, probably worried because she was great like that.  Jack hated that he worried her, though.  She deserved better than to have someone like Jack to worry over.  He didn’t deserve her compassion.  Eventually, he’d get her hurt, too, if he didn’t go back. 

“You’re going back?”  Zoe asked.  “Right now?”  She was incredulous and Jack felt bad about making her drive all the way out to get him for nothing. 

“Yeah, I think that would probably be best.”  Jack answered.  “Sorry I made you drive all the way out here for nothing.” 

“I don’t mind, Jack, but are you sure you want to go back?”  Zoe asked.  “You left for a reason.  You love the people there, you love the place, and you love Cal.  Something had to have happened to make you want to leave in the first place.  Tell me what happened.”  She instructed. 

“I was being selfish by running away.  Immature, too.  You and Cal have a point, you know,” Zoe made a face at him that implied she wasn’t sure she wanted to be lumped in with Cal right now, but Jack continued anyway.  “This last crisis would never have happened if I stayed at the North Pole like Cal has been asking me to do for years now.  I should go back and stay out of trouble.  And I’ve been pretty unbearable lately.  Better go make it up to everyone, you know?” 

“Jack-“ Zoe started, but Jack cut her off. 

“You said you thought it was a bad idea for me to leave and you said you were surprised I decided to leave anyway.  I’m sorry I wasted your time.  Drive safe.”  Jack said, opening the car door and grabbing his things again. 

“I don’t think you should go back right now, Jack!”  Zoe said, turning her car off as Jack clambered out of the vehicle.  She unfastened her seatbelt and started to get out of the car after him. 

“Thanks anyway, Zoe.”  Jack said, hobbling over toward the toy store. 

“Jack, you’re not okay right now and being there hasn’t been helping.  You can take a break; you need to-“

“I’m a loose end, Zoe!”  Jack shouted, whirling on her.  “It’s either go back to the Pole or die!”  Zoe flinched and recoiled in horror at that, but Jack verbally bulldozed forward anyway.  “Cal is right.  It’s my fault people got hurt.  Running around out here has done nothing but put the people I love in danger and I can’t keep doing that.  Loose ends can be pulled and unravel the whole shirt.  I fucked up like I fuck up everything I’ve ever touched.  It’s time to stop.” 

Zoe watched in stunned silence as Jack hobbled over to the toy store.  She grabbed her extra coat from her car (she always kept one in her car just in case she needed to get to the Pole suddenly and needed something warm for the cold weather up there).  She trotted after Jack, who was not difficult to catch up to. 

“I don’t really have anything else to say, Zoe.”  Jack said as he paused in front of the closet portal to the North Pole. 

“You’re not the person I need to talk to.”  Zoe answered, a bit sharply, and Jack felt a sharp, deep pang of grief over that.  She was angry with him and who could blame her?  He did wake her up in the middle of the night and then change his mind about going to her house after she drove all the way over to pick him up.    

“Sorry.”  Jack muttered, stepping through the portal with Zoe on his heels. 

Callum was waiting by the portal wearing a conflicted expression.  Jack figured that made sense.  Jack had hurt him emotionally tonight and disappointed him in the same moment.  And now Cal probably hated him to a degree.  He probably had for a while now.  Cal was furious with him and he deserved it.  Jack would just stay out of the way the best he could. 

“Jack, I-“  Cal started, sounding suspiciously not angry, but that didn’t make sense to Jack’s grief-stricken, depressed, and hurt mind. 

“Callum Drift, what did you say to him?”  Zoe snapped as Jack walked away, feeling more guilty because apparently, they were about to get into a fight.  Jack just had to drag someone else into this mess.  He should have just…  What?  Who knows!  Something different, anything! 

“Zoe, wait- I need to-“ Cal started. 

And Zoe was ripping into him before Callum could get a full sentence out.  Jack picked up the pace as much as he could with the cane and tried not to overhear what she was saying.  He paused, though, when he heard the loud noise that was Zoe’s hand slapping Cal’s cheek with a loud crack.  In the silence that followed, Jack didn’t dare look back. 

Jack heard their running feet as they rushed after him and Callum ran around Jack and stopped in front of him, looking torn.  Jack stopped and avoided looking Cal in the eyes, unable to bear it. 

“Jack, are you alright?”  Cal asked, looking and sounding oddly worried, as if he had said or done something wrong. 

Fire ignited in Jack’s chest and he looked up at Callum furiously.  “Am I alright?  Me?  Alright?  No!  I'm not “alright,” Cal!  You got what you wanted: I’m staying.  I won’t leave again, ever.  I’ll be your pretty songbird in your cage until I die, if I die.  Look at my beautiful glass prison, Cal!”  Jack spun around, gesturing to the dome above their heads.  “Because I’m a liability now, right?  Poor, weak, human Jack can’t defend himself, has no self-preservation instincts, and puts everyone and everything he’s ever cared about in danger.  It’s my own fault this happened to me, to us, this whole time!  And for once in my life, I can’t come up with a counterargument.  You’re right and I’m wrong.  There!  I’ve admitted it.  You should be happy!  You get to protect everything and everyone and I’ll be here, tucked away where you can keep a watchful eye over me for the rest of our days.  Congratulations, Callum!  You win!  Great job, oh mighty warrior!  Now, get out of my way so I can get some sleep!”  Jack shouted and pushed past Callum, not bothering to try to avoid bumping into him roughly on his way by. 

“Jack, please,” Cal tried again and Jack flipped him off, hobbling toward the main residence. 

If Callum Drift wanted Jack to be “good,” and “stay out of trouble,” and “stop being a liability,” then Jack O’Malley would spitefully refuse to do anything at all. 

Chapter Text

Zoe was cussing him out.  Callum decided his brand new least favorite attribute about Zoe Harlow was the fact that she could fluently speak, and therefore curse in, six different languages.  Her native language was English and she came up with some shockingly poetic and well-deserved, creative combinations of curse words and insults that captured Callum’s current status of “asshole” and “Jack Enemy #1” perfectly.  She didn’t see fit to end her verbal barrage there, though.  While Cal knew he deserved it, he wished she would have waited to cuss him out until after he got Jack back into bed with some sort of apology.  As things were at the moment, Callum felt he had to give Zoe his full attention, since she was still speaking directly to him, but he kept glancing at Jack, whose expression was stony.  Each time he took his eyes off Zoe, she got louder and louder.  Cal knew he made a mistake, had spoken in anger and pain, and had hurt Jack in return.  And he did deserve this barrage of increasingly creative insults, but at this rate, they were going to wake up the entire main residence as they rode up on this elevator. 

When the elevator dinged and the doors opened to the floor their suite was on, Callum and Zoe followed Jack out of the elevator.  Well, what really happened was Jack left the elevator, Cal followed Jack and Zoe followed Callum, lighting into him again after taking a moment to catch her breath and gather her thoughts.  Jack slammed Cal’s own bedroom door shut in his face, so Cal’s hope to slip into the room and offer Jack an apology was dashed.  Now Cal was alone in the hallway with an increasingly irate Zoe Harlow.  Cal had rather hoped that getting it all out of her system would help calm her down, but she was only getting angrier. 

“Zoe, you’re being loud.  People sleep on this floor,” Cal started, not wanting to make this into a bigger scene and Zoe’s expression went dark with fury.  Ah, the wrong thing to say, again.  Cal was beginning to think he was a bad person. 

“Oh, people sleep here!  Right, because this is the main residence!”  Her tone was mocking and filled with disdain.  “We didn’t have to come here!  You know, by now, Jack and I could have been in bed at my house and come morning, we could have talked some things out and maybe he wouldn’t feel like his only options are to live here or die, you sanctimonious brute!”  Zoe shouted.  “What have you been doing to my friend up here to put him in this state?  Huh?  A phone call that took less than five minutes switched his entire demeanor from excitement to see me to utter despair.  You had him in tears and he tried to hide it from me.  Do you even realize how much power you have over him?  You heard him!  He thinks he’s a liability.  What have you said and done to make him feel that way?” 

Cal pressed his hand over his face and sighed.  “I was just trying to keep him safe, just like everybody else-“

“Bullshit!”  Zoe looked like she was about to punch him instead of slap him this time; she even clenched and unclenched her fists, either in anticipation or to release some of the tension building in her petite frame. 

“Okay, more security than most, but not that much more than Nick!”  Cal conceded. 

“You’ve been giving him more security than Nick?  Than Nick?  Good God, Cal, no wonder he felt like he needed to sneak out!  What, did you have people trailing him, call him constantly for check ins, give him no privacy at all?”  Cal winced.  “Does no one supervise you?”  Cal took a step back at that. 

“Nick-“

“Apparently he’s given you too much slack on your leash, Drift!”  Zoe pointed at the door.  “Think for a second about whatever you said to him and try to tell me he deserved it!  I’ll wait.” 

Cal didn’t respond to that barb about having too much slack on his leash right away.  He had to process that.  But she apparently didn’t realize that Cal already figured out that he royally messed up as he spoke to Jack earlier.  He had been angry and frightened and he just wanted his fiancé to be safe and to be close where he could protect him, because Cal couldn’t protect him out there in the big, wide world Jack just couldn’t let go of for some reason.  Jack couldn’t let go of the human world and Cal didn’t explicitly want him to leave it behind, but he wanted to be with Jack more, to spend more time together, to grow old together just like Nick and M.C.  He wanted to wake up together every day.  He wanted to live together.  The added issue of Jack being kidnapped by those magic stealing jerks had made all thoughts of separation between them utterly unbearable.  Jack could leave the Pole one day and never come back, not because he wanted to leave, but because someone took him.  Permanently.  In death. 

In the big scheme of things, wasn’t it better to be uncomfortable or annoyed than dead? 

“Chief, what’s going on?”  Frank asked as he walked up.  It made sense that he would come check it out; he was on duty for security in the residence tonight.  There might have even been noise complaints, too.  Reasonably so.  They were not being subtle or quiet at this, or any point, since Jack and Zoe arrived at the Pole. 

“Just-“ Cal started, but he didn’t know what to say.  How could he summarize this in a way that would get Frank to just leave so Cal could appease Zoe and get her to go to a different floor where they wouldn’t disturb everybody and maybe Jack could get some rest if they weren’t shouting outside the door?  (He had no idea that Jack was leaning on the other side of the door, listening intently to every single word, so full of grief and anger that his body was shaking with the force of the emotions raging inside him.) 

“Go on, Cal,” Zoe prompted.  “Tell him you’re, at best, a controlling, frightened imbecile, and at worst, an abusive fiancé whose engagement should be broken off!” 

“Zoe!”  Cal felt a spike of anger at that and it cut through the guilt and shame he was otherwise feeling like a knife. 

“I said what I said and I meant every single word of it, Callum Drift.  I don’t want to leave Jack here.  In fact, I refuse to leave this building or this complex until Jack leaves with me.  I’m about to become your biggest problem, Callum.  You think I can’t ruin your entire life?  Watch me.” 

“Should I get Nick?”  Frank asked, tense and nervous. 

Zoe said yes and Cal said no at the same time, with the same amount of force, authority, and emotion.  Frank put his hands up in a placating manner and took a step back.  When he spoke, he spoke as if he were talking to a pair of angry predators that were likely to attack him at the slightest provocation. 

“Okay.  I hear both of you.  I think I’ll go get Nick, because you guys are really mad and I think maybe he can help?  Yeah.  I’m gonna.  I’m gonna go.  But um.  Maybe we should relocate this discussion to the study or the kitchen or something?  Where there aren’t bedrooms and stuff?” 

“Excellent suggestion, Frank.  Thank you.”  Zoe chirped, giving Callum a dark glare with one hand on her hip.  “Where will we go to chat with Nick, Cal?”  She used a sickly-sweet tone with a deep undercurrent of I’ll-fuck-you-up-if-you-argue-with-me-about-this. 

“Kitchen.”  Cal answered. 

The kitchen was a safe place and Cal didn’t want to have this discussion in the study where Nick’s frame would be illuminated by the somehow more serious lighting.  Cal wasn’t often called to Nick’s study, but whenever he was, he knew he messed up or something important was happening.  He didn’t hate the study per se, but it was an uncomfortable place when he needed a stern talking to.  When they were just reading or using it for other purposes, Cal didn’t mind it.  In fact, it was a pleasant place to spend some quiet time, but when Nick was disappointed or angry with him, it was his least favorite place to be. 

“I’ll tell him,” Frank answered and bolted down the hall to the elevator. 

Poor guy didn’t want to be stuck in an elevator with or between Cal and Zoe right now and Cal couldn’t blame him.  He didn’t want to ride the elevator with Zoe again right now, either.  She was still positively fuming.  The anger radiated off of her in waves and Cal was just exhausted.  He wanted to just go to bed, but Jack was, presumably, in his bed.  Cal was pretty certain Jack wouldn’t want to share a bed with him tonight.  Truthfully, Cal wasn’t sure Jack would ever want to share a bed with him ever again.  Was keeping Jack safe here in the Pole by any means necessary worth the risk of potentially destroying their relationship altogether?  If it meant Jack would be safe and the Pole would be safe and Callum’s family and people would be safe…  Cal knew the answer, logically, should be yes, it would be worth it, because alive and angry was better than dead.  At the same time, however, he knew the correct answer emotionally and socially would be no, it wasn’t. 

Zoe and Cal waited impatiently for the elevator to come back and pick them up to take them to the kitchen.  She didn’t say another word to him as they waited and Cal was relieved by that.  He needed some time to think about what he was going to say to Jack in the morning.  How could he fix this? 

Cal hadn’t meant to push Jack into a corner; he had just been upset and worried and afraid.  He wanted Jack to be safe and for everyone involved to be safe!  Was that so very bad?  It would be so much easier if Jack would just stay at the Pole! 

Zoe was right.  Callum was not being a very good fiancé.  He couldn’t force Jack to stay at the Pole forever.  He couldn’t ask Jack to give up his life just because Cal wanted him to be close by or because Cal was afraid.  There were, supposedly, plenty of marriages in the human world where partners were separated by work, like military families, for example.  But Cal didn’t want that.  And no matter how much they wanted it to not be true, Jack was a liability.  If someone took him and figured out that Dylan was the key to get him to do anything and everything, the Pole would be compromised the minute they threatened Jack’s son.  At least Cal knew it wasn’t fair to ask Jack to not leave, but he had already asked and Jack had said yes.  Jack was angry and hurt, but he had said yes, because he loved the people of the Pole just as much as Cal did.  He loved Cal, even if it didn’t make sense anymore. 

The elevator came back for them, the reliable thing.  They boarded the elevator and stood on opposite sides of it.  Cal pushed the button for the floor the kitchen was on and the doors slid shut. A few agonizing moments later, the elevator doors opened and let them out.  They walked in tense silence.  When they got into the kitchen, Callum put the kettle on and pulled out some cocoa powder to make hot cocoa out of habit more than anything else.  Zoe paced back and forth impatiently.  Cal hoped she wasn’t too chilled from wearing so little during their short trek from the transit system to the main residence.  If she was uncomfortable, she didn’t complain about it, though.   

Several minutes later, Nick entered the kitchen.  He was wearing his favorite plaid pajamas and a night cap that matched them.  He was groggy, rubbing at his eyes, and yawning.  Frank was, unsurprisingly, absent.  Cal didn’t blame him.  Cal and Zoe had put him in a difficult position and Frank had disobeyed Cal in that hallway by going to get Nick.  That had taken a lot of courage and Cal wasn’t angry with him, but he could see Frank being worried about that and trying to make himself scarce. 

Nick sat at the island and rested his chin on his hand, leaning on the counter with a heavy sigh.  Callum poured the hot water into the mugs and handed one each to Nick and Zoe and kept one for himself.  He sat on the opposite side of the island from Nick and stared at the hot cocoa in his mug, feeling like a naughty child caught in the act. 

Zoe pulled a chair up and sat down on the shorter side of the island, positioning herself between Nick and Callum without being truly between them.  No one spoke for several long moments and Nick’s patience was beginning to wear thin, judging by the way his lips tightened into a thinner and thinner line. 

“Well, what’s this about?”  Nick prompted.  “All Frank said was that Director Harlow and Commander Drift were having some sort of altercation and needed my help to mediate.  It’s late.  Couldn’t whatever you’re bickering about wait until morning?” 

“No, sir, it absolutely could not.”  Zoe answered.  “Jack called me to pick him up from the transit station nearest to my house and when I got there, Cal called him and said something awful to him.  The next thing I knew, Jack was getting back out of my car and going back into the toy store and said he was coming back here.  Your son,” Zoe hissed.  “Has been harassing my friend.  I won’t stand for it.  I demand that you allow Jack to come with me to my house where he will actually be safe from Cal’s ridiculous, controlling behavior.” 

Nick’s eyes widened as Zoe explained the situation and he glanced at Cal, who looked guilty and ashamed of his actions.  Nick ran a hand across his face and sighed even more heavily.  He turned his attention back to Director Harlow. 

“Jack isn’t a prisoner here.  He can come and go as he pleases.  He is always welcome here, but he can leave any time he wants for as long as he wants.  No one here owns him and no one here wants to hurt him or hold him prisoner.”  Nick answered. 

“Tell that to Cal, then!”  Zoe snapped and Callum felt another spike of anger.  It was one thing for her to give him the third degree, which he deserved, but to talk to Nick like that and accuse Cal of trying to hold Jack prisoner?  That was unacceptable! 

“Cal, what happened?”  Nick asked, trying to be magnanimous and intervening before Cal could speak up for Nick’s honor. 

Cal sighed again, as he expected he would continue to do for the rest of the night at this rate.  “I woke up and Jack was gone.  I was angry and worried about him, so, I called and asked what he was doing and where he was.  He said he was with Zoe and he was going to stay with her for the night and then go back to his house alone.  After everything that’s happened, him going alone back to that house can’t possibly be a good idea!  His house could be being watched.  And what happens if any of those magic thieves got away or eluded capture and they want to finish the job?  They’ll take him again and they’ll use him against us, again.  I told him the safest place he could be is here and that he needed to come back so I could keep an eye on him.  We had an argument and things got heated and I… I said some things I shouldn’t have said.  Things I regret saying, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to him, to try to explain myself and apologize because Zoe has been on my case ever since they arrived.” 

“Cal.”  Nick also sighed.  “He has to be free to make his own choices or he’ll grow to resent you for trapping him here.  I was going to speak with you about it in the morning, but I see now I should have woken you up after he left.” 

Cal blinked at Nick and that anger spiked in his chest again.  This time, it didn’t abate.  “What do you mean?  You knew he snuck out and you didn’t tell me?” 

“Yeah, Cal.  I knew he snuck out.”  Nick didn’t hide the sharpness to his tone.  “We had a nice little chat.  I put a bit of effort into trying to help him recover from what happened instead of smothering him.”  Cal flinched as Nick spoke.  “You and my brother have made this situation unbearable for him.  He feels like you don’t trust him.  He finally opened up to me tonight and I promised him I would handle you.”  Nick huffed softly.  “It’s going to take him a long time to even consider trusting me again after this.” 

Zoe was glaring daggers at Cal, who was glaring at both of them now.  Nick was tired and it showed on his face.  It had been a long time since things had last been this complicated at the Pole. 

“Listen.  I know you’re upset.  This situation rattled you, Cal.  I know it did.  Your entire world was in danger and you don’t know how to cope with it now that it’s over.  But coercing Jack to stay just because you’re afraid isn’t the answer to your anxiety.  If you continue down this path, you’ll start making this a habit and it’s not healthy.  Where does it stop, Cal?  When do you start locking him in your room so you know he’s safe?”  Nick asked. 

Callum was horrified by the thought.  He would never do something like that to Jack, right?  No.  No way; he would never!  He just wanted Jack to be safe.  He wanted his family and his home to be safe.  He wanted the world to be safe.  After all, what would the world be like with no Christmas?  But he never intended to control Jack.  He just needed to know Jack was okay and maybe what he might be doing with himself.  Was he taking his antibiotics and his pain medicine regularly?  Was he eating alright?  Torso wounds in the area he was shot in was full of essential organs and Jack’s body needed those organs.  What if the doctors and nurses missed something and Jack was secretly dying?  Jack was fragile, even with the magic that had seeped into him.  Absorbing magic and becoming essentially immortal didn’t change the fact that Jack was, at his core, human and humans were, at their core, so easily broken and killed! 

“This isn’t a healthy way to think or feel about your future husband.  Something like this may happen again or it may not.  But we cannot control him, just as we cannot read the future to prevent tragedy.”  Nick was saying.  “Something has to give, Cal, and it cannot be Jack who gives in this time.” 

“I can’t lose him.”  Cal confessed. 

“You’re lucky he didn’t break off the engagement and decide to actually disappear after your argument.  He loves you so much that he came back even though you’ve wronged him.  I would not bank on that happening again.”  Nick warned.  “Of all the things in the world, the one thing he wants most is freedom.  He’s all too willing to give up safety for freedom if it means he can live on his own terms.  It’s part of who he is.” 

Cal sighed and pressed his face into his hands, ashamed of his actions.  “I told him it was his fault that all these bad things have happened to him and if he didn’t come back, something worse might happen, something that would endanger everyone here.  I shouldn’t have said that.  I was angry and I was afraid.  I just wanted him to be safe.  I can protect him!  We can protect him here!”  Cal insisted.  “If he leaves, I can’t keep him safe.  Humans are cruel, Nick!  They hurt him in the name of science and money!  It’s not like that here.  People don’t do things like that here!” 

The look in Nick’s eyes whispered disappointment and worry.  Zoe, however, was giving Callum a  murder glare, although there was also an undercurrent of pity in her gaze.  Cal didn’t know how he felt about that, but he didn’t address it.  All that mattered was keeping Jack safe and that meant convincing him to stay at the Pole where it was safe and controlled.  Where Cal could have agents following him around to make sure he had all his needs met. 

“He’s struggling, Cal, and you’re making it worse.  You have to let him live or he won’t live.  If something doesn’t change, he will not thrive here.  He’s hurt, angry, depressed, and afraid.  A wounded, cornered animal bites.  He will bite.  If not you or me or us as a whole, then himself.  He will take the control he needs however he has to do so.  He’s been acting out here, evading our security teams, creating chaos to slip away and breathe, even though doing so exacerbated his injury and led to more embarrassment for him.  It is not too far of a leap between doing himself harm by overexerting himself and intentional self-harm or worse.” 

Cal didn’t have a good argument against that.  Nick was right, but he didn’t know what to do to fix it.  An apology wouldn’t fix it by itself, obviously.  But Cal was still afraid to let Jack leave.  He didn’t want to do it.  It was safe here.  They could help him with his mental health, too.  If they couldn’t, then that therapist from M.O.R.A. could help him, at least.  A day trip to go to the doctor or a therapist was no big deal, right?  Jack could get his needs met here! 

Cal’s gaze slid to Zoe.  She was still giving him the murder glare.  She was a capable woman that Cal trusted.  Did he trust her enough, though, to entrust Jack’s protection to her?  At this rate, he was probably going to have to.  Cal wasn’t stupid; he knew how to read a room and this room was definitely united in a desire to keep Jack safe.  They just had different ideas about how to go about it and, painfully, it seemed they were divided over who the threat was. 

“Where is Jack now?”  Nick asked. 

“Bed, I think.  If not in bed, then in our bedroom, at least.  He said he wouldn’t try to leave again and I believe him.”  Cal answered, sure that Jack would be right where he left him at least until morning. 

“Probably asleep?”  Nick prompted. 

“I hope so.  He needs to be resting with that wound.”  Callum said. 

“He can rest at my house.”  Zoe interjected.  “I told Callum this and I’ll tell you, too, Nick: I am taking Jack home with me tonight.” 

Nick considered it for a moment.  Jack was still wounded.  He was also probably exhausted, both physically and emotionally, after such a long day.  Especially with the emotional turmoil Callum had tossed him headfirst into.  Add to that the temperature and elevation changes he put himself through by passing through the transit system while already in a weakened state physically and emotionally, and they had the recipe for him getting sick, possibly severely, if they continued exposing him to such drastic changes in rapid succession. 

“I think it’s best for him to let him rest and then he can leave when he wakes up in the morning.  He’s already been out and back again in one night and I doubt he actually got any sleep earlier, since he slipped out as soon as he thought Cal was asleep enough not to notice.”  Nick said as gently as he could manage.  “Why don’t you stay here tonight, as well?  When you and Jack wake up, we can meet against to discuss what happens next.  The most important thing here is for Jack to have a say and to have his say respected.  If he wants to leave, he will be allowed to leave, and if he wants to stay, he may stay as long as he wishes and leave when he wants to, for as long as he wants.  Taking the choice away from him at this point can only be detrimental to his well-being.” 

“Right, and you want me to let his abuser just go to bed and let him manipulate Jack into staying because he thinks Jack is a liability.”  Zoe snarled. 

Callum sputtered, offended and angry at the accusation.  Zoe, however, was not intimidated.   She turned to face him directly and lit into him again, tone harsh and unforgiving. 

“Your behavior has been, at best controlling, and at worst, abusive.  Jack didn’t tell me anything at first, other than how he needed a break.  But the way he reacted to your phone call?  That was unusual.  The way he crumpled and folded the minute you said whatever you said and complied with your wishes even though he didn’t want to?  That’s not normal for him.  Jack is opinionated and loud and takes up space whether people like it or not.  Tonight?  He shrank down like a frightened, embarrassed, broken child.  Whatever you’ve done to him in the past month and whatever you said tonight has deeply hurt him.  Even if you aren’t an outright abuser, you have at least done him wrong tonight and I don’t forgive you for it.  You’re a brute, Callum Drift.”   

“I stand by what I said, Director.  I don’t believe dragging him out of bed again is going to help.  Why don’t you stay here in one of the guest rooms and Cal sleeps in another, to assuage your concerns about Cal manipulating Jack during the night.”  Nick interjected with a compromise in hopes of finding a way to work things out, but the way Nick phrased it hurt Callum’s heart quite a bit. 

“Fine.”  Zoe answered, clearly not happy with these arrangements. 

Cal didn’t care for the arrangement, either, but he didn’t object.  Maybe between the four of them, they could salvage this situation.  Nick was very old and experienced and wise.  Zoe had Jack’s best interests at heart.  Cal trusted both of them, even if he was angry with Zoe.  At least he was also angry with himself. 

“It’s settled, then.  Zoe, do you need a warmer set of pajamas?  They’d be a bit short on you, but the missus has a few spare sets you can borrow from.”  Nick said amiably, sipping for the first time at the hot chocolate Callum had prepared for their discussion. 

“I might need to borrow some warmer clothes for the morning, but I’ll be alright tonight.  It’s plenty warm in here.  Thank you.”  Zoe answered.  “If you don’t mind, I’m going to get some sleep.  Where am I going?” 

“I’ll show you,” Cal offered, not wanting Nick to have to do so. 

Zoe gave him a glare that said she would rather sleep on the floor in the kitchen than walk to the guest rooms with him as her guide. 

“I’ll walk with both of you, then.”  Nick said, standing up with his mug in hand.  “Let’s not waste this cocoa, either.  Take yours with you downstairs.  We can wash them out in the morning.  You children need your sleep just as much as I do.”  Nick ushered them toward the door. 

Zoe chuckled despite herself at that.  Cal found himself smiling ever so slightly over Nick using the term children to refer to both him and Zoe.  It reminded him that he was still quite young compared to Nick.  Nick may not always have the answers, but he always would try to find them.  That was enough.  Cal clung to Nick’s wise words and hoped for the best.  Cal had to trust Jack and all their friends, in and out of the Pole, to work together to help each other.  He couldn’t let himself destroy what he and Jack had worked so hard to build together. 

Chapter Text

When Jack woke up, he had a few moments of peaceful bliss before the despair and anxiety crashed down over him like a waterfall pounds on the rocks beneath it.  He felt like he couldn’t breathe beneath it all.  He cursed and sat up, grabbing a pillow and squeezing it tightly against his chest.  Doing so hurt.  His body tensed more, clenching up to prepare to fight or flee, but there was nothing to fight.  There was nothing to run away from.  There was only the empty suite, the empty bed, the loneliness and grief, the physical pain, and Jack O’Malley.  He couldn’t think, except he could, but it was all the wrong thoughts.  Cal was angry with him and couldn’t even bear to sleep next to him after all this!  He was angry with Cal.  Zoe was inconvenienced.  He was a liability.  He brought all this on himself, except no!  No, he didn’t!  It wasn’t his fault!  Not all of it, anyway! 

Jack’s phone rang on the table.  It snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to look at it.  Oh.  His alarm.  The pain was because it was time for his pain meds.  That made sense.  Maybe there was logic in the room after all.  It was past breakfast time at the Pole, so maybe Cal just went to work already.  Maybe Cal didn’t hate Jack for being a liability and trying to leave after all.  Cal was the best thing after Dylan to ever happen to him and Jack didn’t want to lose him.  He didn’t want to lose this life he worked so very hard to build!  It was fine.  Everything was fine. 

Jack slid out of bed and tried to walk without the cane.  It hurt and he limped as his abdominal muscles protested, but he could do it.  He probably wouldn’t wander the Pole without the cane today, but he could manage walking to the bathroom to get some water and take his medicine without it.  A punishment, perhaps, for his crimes.  (It wasn’t his fault Cal was being ridiculous.  Jack didn’t ask anyone to kidnap him or try to murder him.  It wasn’t fair that Cal told him it was his fault.  Jack didn’t do anything wrong!  Except, maybe trying to sneak out without being noticed was wrong, but it just felt easier, okay?)

Once he got to the bathroom, he filled a glass with water from the sink and drank from it.  Then, he found the medicine bottle and fished one pill out, which he washed down his throat with more water.  He looked at himself in the mirror and frowned.  He looked exhausted and his face was drawn.  His eyes were puffy, too.  Ugh.  Jack washed his face, hoping that would help pep him up a little, but he still felt like he looked awful.  He huffed and hobbled out of the bathroom to lay back down. 

There was no point in staying up.  He didn’t feel like going out and he didn’t want to inconvenience his handler, whoever it was that was unlucky enough to get Jack babysitting duty today.  They could just stand outside the door and read a book or do something on their phone.  Jack wasn’t going to cause any trouble today.  Tomorrow, maybe.  It just depended on his mood.  But for now, he didn’t feel up to anything at all.  Jack pulled the blankets back up over his shoulders and closed his eyes again. 

The next time he woke up, it was to someone knocking politely on the door.  Cal wouldn’t knock; it was his bedroom.  Jack sighed, feeling dramatic about it all.  If they wanted him to be “good” and to “stay out of trouble” and to “stop being a liability,” they really should just let him sleep.  He couldn’t get into any mischief sleeping, after all.  He wanted to close his eyes again and ignore them, but the polite knock came again, a little louder this time.  He was being summoned, then.  Jack resented that.  He clambered out of bed, grabbing his cane in the process.

“I’m coming!”  He shouted, annoyed, and the knock did not return as whoever it was waited for him to open up. 

Jack opened the door, well aware of his unkempt hair, rumpled pajamas, and the scowl on his face.  Well, when he opened the door, he had a scowl on his face, but it didn’t last long.  M.C. was standing outside the door with a gentle expression on her face.  She was holding a tray with a glass of milk and a covered plate of food on it.  Jack felt his expression twist from a scowl into a surprised, embarrassed grimace. 

“Oh.  Good morning, M.C.” 

“I brought you some breakfast.  I noticed you were sleeping in and thought I’d bring you something nice.”  She held the tray in her hands up a little.  “May I come inside?” 

Jack felt tears well up in his eyes, unbidden, and illogical.  He swallowed over the lump that formed in his throat and nodded, not trusting himself to speak.  He stepped aside, holding the door open for her, and she entered with all the grace of a thousand-year-old mythological being.  She set the tray down on the small table in the corner of Cal’s little living room space in his suite. She removed the metal cloche that covered the food and the tantalizing scent of bacon, eggs, and toast filled the room. 

“I, um.  I appreciate this, M.C, but I’m not really hungry.”   

“You barely ate anything at supper last night and now you’re not going to eat breakfast?  Jack.”  She said his name so gently, so lovingly, and with such compassion that Jack’s emotions threatened to escape his body once again.  “I won’t force you to eat.  I would never do that to you, but I do hope you’ll at least try a few bites to see if you can keep anything down.  May I sit with you for a little while?” 

Jack reluctantly sat down in front of the tray of food and reached for the glass of milk to sip from it.  He nodded to give her permission to sit with him.  M.C. sat in the other chair across from him.  He glanced up at her face for a moment.  She looked like she felt guilty about something.  She also seemed mournful, but, more importantly, there was a deep, deep love in her eyes for him that made Jack’s wounded spirit weep with relief in his chest. 

Jack speared some eggs with the fork and popped them into his mouth.  He chewed and swallowed before repeating the process in silence.  He didn’t trust himself to speak yet, so he let the emotions wash through him and hoped they would run their course and let him talk without embarrassing himself. 

“Cal is sorry.  He’s not here because he’s trying to give you some space.  You needed, that, right?” 

M.C. was a bad liar.  Which, Jack didn’t think she was lying about Cal being sorry or about how he was giving Jack some space, exactly, but lying by omission was still lying.  She had definitely left out some sort of information about why Cal wasn’t there.  There was some sort of tension in her petite frame that told on her, but Jack had no idea what it was she was hiding.  Maybe M.C. and Santa were more human than Jack had given them credit for, after all.  Somehow, though, Jack wasn’t disappointed or angry about her omission.  There was something about how she held herself that made Jack feel like she was leaving it out for his or Cal’s sake and it didn’t feel malicious or manipulative at all. 

“I’m sorry, too.  I shouldn’t have snuck out last night.  He was right; I’m not always the best at self-preservation.  The funny thing is, though, before I met him, I didn’t have any trouble with that.  I’d do anything to cover my own ass and avoid unnecessary danger.  I was a bad person back then.  I thought I was getting better.  Thought I was on the right track, you know?” 

“Oh, Jack.”  M.C. said.  “You are getting better.  But this good person you are?  He was always inside you, just waiting for his turn.  Cal pushed you into a corner and you reacted the only way you thought would work out for the best.  No one can fairly blame you for that.” 

“I don’t-“

“You don’t have to believe it, but please know it’s the truth.  You have chosen to live not just for yourself, but for others.  Our lives are better because you are part of them.  Please never forget that, our sweet boy.” 

Jack felt his face grow hot with emotion and he put the fork down and covered his face with his hands as he tried to get these emotions back under control.  Slender arms wrapped around him and Jack could feel the love and compassion radiating off of the woman in waves as she embraced him.  She meant what she was saying, but it was still difficult to believe. 

“I don’t understand how you can say all that.  It’s my fault everyone was in danger.  Krampus was-“

M.C. squeezed him more tightly and cut him off.  “No.” 

“No?”  Jack squirmed and gently pushed her off of him, desperate to understand.  “What do you mean, no?  Cal-“

M.C.’s expression flashed with something akin to anger but it was only a flash of emotion.  A moment later, her expression was back to being solemn, gentle, and warm.  She knelt next to him and took his hand in hers.  “Cal never should have said that to you.  You didn’t make this happen.  You didn’t do anything wrong.  You tried to help someone and they took advantage of your goodness to hurt you and then hurt others.  Us.” 

“But I’m not-“

“But you are good, Jack.  Don’t ever listen to the voice inside your head that says you’re not good.  You are good.  Not perfect, but good.  You try, Jack.  That’s all anybody can reasonably ask for.  We aren’t perfect, either.” 

“But you-“

“Used to be human like you.” 

“Huh?”  Jack asked and flushed when she laughed at him.  It was a kind laugh not unlike the kind of indulgent chuckle you’d give a child that asked a silly question, but still laughter. 

“I was born a human, and now, I’m something else.  Just like you, I was changed by love and this power from a singular force in the universe.  I may not have ever done the things you used to do- for one thing, computers were a long time away from being invented when I was born- but I made mistakes, too.  Nick and I loved each other and his power changed me.  You aren’t the first human to ever be assimilated into the magical world, Jack.  Just because your situation is different doesn’t mean nothing like this has ever happened before.  I don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you that it’s worth it.  To me, this is all worth it.  Doing the work we do is worthwhile.  But you are your own person and you have to choose for yourself how you want to live your life.  We can’t force you into anything and we don’t want to.  No matter how Cal might stumble around the matter.  The most important thing is that you are at peace within yourself about yourself.” 

“What are we, then?  If not human and not myth, what are we?” 

M.C. shrugged.  “I don’t know.  It was never really something I dwelled on.  I didn’t feel any different.  I just didn’t age like I used to.  I didn’t feel the need to understand.  It just was and I was happy to spend forever with Nick, my husband, doing the work we both love.  But that doesn’t mean you’re wrong or bad for asking or wanting to know.  You could always ask Nick for more understanding, but there haven’t been enough occurrences of this,” she gestured to the two of them as she described it.  “To really give us a name.  If you need a word to refer to yourself aside from human, maybe we can chat with the other former humans who live here and puzzle out a name that describes us as a group.”  She paused.  “Maybe that should wait until after Christmas this year, though.  Things are going to ramp up soon and we’re going to be very busy until Boxing Day.” 

Jack nodded and she ruffled his hair, making him giggle like a little kid.  “Thanks, Mrs. C.” 

“Always.  You and I should spend more time together, you know.  And Nick is always happy to see you, too.  You don’t have to be afraid of us just because we’re Mr. and Mrs. Claus, Jack.  We don’t bite.  Come build a puzzle with me sometime, huh?” 

“Sure.”  Jack thought that sounded peaceful and he needed some peace right about now. 

A moment passed and Jack felt at peace.  Maybe it was some kind of magic power she possessed.  Or maybe she really was just that comforting.  Either way, he found himself genuinely smiling and asking himself why he had been subconsciously avoiding such a good and kind person all this time. 

“How are you feeling?”  M.C. asked 

“Uh.  Better.  I think.”  Jack replied, taking a bite out of his bacon.  “Thank you for this, too.” 

She smiled at him.  “Of course.  You take your time, okay?” 

Jack found himself smiling back at her.  It seemed there was something more on her mind, but he didn’t know how to ask it.  She sat with him in companionable silence until he ate all he wanted from the tray and finished his milk.  He really did feel a lot better. 

He tried to resist the urge he felt to question her comforting words.  How was she able to make him feel so much better so easily?  Was it some kind of magic?  Would the thoughts come back again once he was alone?  At least it was safe in the Pole.  He wouldn’t be a loose end for someone to tug at and hurt the people he cared about if he never left again.  That seemed terribly boring, but Cal was right: it wasn’t about Jack.  It couldn’t be about Jack.  At least he didn’t feel as awful about it all with M.C. there and with what she said to him.  At least he could recognize that it wasn’t his fault.  And he could recognize that he could prevent more tragedy if he just… stayed.  M.C. stayed and she was happy, after all. 

“Nick, Zoe, and Cal would like to speak with you,” M.C. broke through his thoughts. 

Well, this moment of relative peace couldn’t last forever.  “Oh.  Alright.  Like.  Now?” 

Jack was nervous.  It felt a lot like being called to the principal’s office, to be honest, with your parent and teacher.  At least Krampus wouldn’t be there to tell him how awful he was for trying to run away. 

“What’s wrong?”  M.C. asked, looking at him closely. 

“Oh. Um.  Nothing.  They’re waiting for me now, right?”  Jack asked. 

“Only if you’re ready.” 

“Best not to drag this out,” Jack said, standing up abruptly. 

“Wait.  What do you think they’re going to say to you?  M.C. asked and Jack froze. 

He thought about the scary thoughts that were running through his mind and the judgment and rejection he was expecting out of them.  When threatened with potentially being spoken aloud, the thoughts suddenly became much less scary and much sillier. 

“I imagine it would be something about staying here,” he said, neutrally. 

“I imagine it would be something about how Cal has been treating you and what you want to do next,” M.C. explained.  “You can also expect an apology.  From Nick and Cal, to make up for Nick not addressing your departure with Cal before he realized you were gone.  We hope you will forgive us for not taking the time to talk to you about what was going on and for not dealing with Cal’s anxiety or how he was treating you.  We failed you.  Are you sure you’re ready?” 

Jack’s mind was reeling from that revelation.  She thinks they failed him?  Was Nick really on the same page about that?  In retrospect, thinking back to what Nick said the night before, it sounded like she did know what she was talking about.  Cal was sorry for what he said?  Jack wasn’t sure, but he nodded at M.C. anyway and grabbed his cane to walk upstairs with her.  He didn’t bother changing out of his pajamas.  He wanted to hear what they had to say and get this over with before he died from anxiety. 

Nick, Zoe, and Cal were waiting for them in the study.  Jack wanted to run away, but he stood his ground and went into the room anyway.  Cal was sitting in an armchair while Nick was sitting behind his desk and Zoe sat across from him.  M.C. gently ushered Jack deeper into the room and Jack sat in the open seat next to Zoe. 

“Hi.”  Jack said, avoiding making eye contact with anyone. 

“Did you rest well?”  Zoe asked, still wearing her pajamas from last night, too. 

“Yeah.”  Jack answered.  “Sorry about all this.” 

Zoe’s expression darkened.  “Why are you sorry?” 

Jack didn’t want to start a fight right away, so he just shrugged and looked away.  “Never mind.  Sorry.” 

Zoe started to open her mouth to speak; Jack heard the way she sucked in breath to start speaking.  But Nick interjected before she could speak.  Jack wondered if she dared to give him that same dark glare, but he didn’t look up. 

“You have nothing to apologize for, Jack.”  Nick began.  “I would like to apologize to you instead.  If I had spoken with Cal right after you left, I imagine he wouldn’t have said what he said to you.  I accept responsibility for my inaction in this situation.” 

Cal cleared his throat and spoke next.  “And I, um.  I shouldn’t have said what I said.  It wasn’t your fault that bad things have happened to you.  And we owe you for the risks you took for us, too.  You aren’t a liability, Jack.  I’m sorry for making you feel that way.  I was wrong and you deserve better.” 

Jack just stared at both of them and then glanced at Zoe, who was giving both Nick and Cal a stern glare.  Jack frowned. 

“Zoe, you didn’t have to do this.  They’re busy enough without us making things harder for everyone around here.”  He sighed.  “And I am a loose end.  It’s only natural to not want me flapping around in the wind for some branch to snag and rip the North Pole’s favorite t-shirt.  I have more self-preservation instincts than Cal gives me credit for, but I’m pretty dangerous.  I know too much about the Pole, Nick, the E.L.F. and their procedures to be running around without some kind of protection detail.  Somebody died because of me.  Gotta take accountability for that.”  He shrugged.  “I’ve been tryin’ to be good.  To think about other people more than myself.  Stuff like that.  Listen, it’s not bad here.  Probably should just stay a while, if not forever.  I can work remotely.  I can skype with my friends and Dylan.  ‘M not really human anymore, either, so I don’t really belong out there anymore, anyway.”  Jack found himself slouching into the chair and avoiding making eye contact with anyone. 

Zoe made a dangerous, wordless sound just after Callum started to speak, but he didn’t stop.  Zoe was a dangerous enough woman that Jack was sure he would have stopped at the sound that came out of her mouth, but Cal was Extremely Large and Formidable, so maybe that had something to do with his lack of reluctance when faced with a murder woman’s rage. 

“Jack, I think I was being unreasonable.  And we didn’t really talk about what happened.  I was so busy with, well, a lot of things after what happened to us.  You gave a statement, but I didn’t ask how you felt.  You’re still human, Jack.  At your core.  You’ll just live longer.  You belong here, but you belong out there, too.  You have family, friends, and a life out there.  I can’t take that from you.  I’m sorry for trying.  I didn’t mean to make you feel even more othered than you were feeling before, but I did that and I’m sorry.  I was afraid of losing you, but you deserved better than a controlling fool trying to make you live in a bubble.  Last night, you wanted to leave.  You left.  It was the last fight you had left in you and I crushed it out of you last night.  Shame on me, not you.” 

Jack shifted uncomfortably at the words.  “It wasn’t my last fight.”  He muttered.  “I have more.  I just.  Just don’t feel like it right now, is all.  Can I go back to bed?” 

“At my house?”  Zoe prompted, sounding hopeful. 

“I dunno.  Here is fine.”  Jack answered. 

“Is here fine because of what Cal said last night or is it fine because you want to be here?”  Zoe demanded, although she did so gently. 

Jack noticed that Nick was staring at him.  Then, he realized that everyone was looking at him: Nick, M.C., Zoe, and Cal.  They were all waiting to hear his answer.  He felt like he was going to drown in all the attention.  All the eyes on him when all he wanted to do was fade away into the shadows.  In fact, it was all he ever truly wanted: to evade detection, to live his best life without anyone noticing him.  It was how he got through his childhood years- with the exception of his Uncle Rick’s house.  That man had always infuriated him because he never let Jack get away with anything.  Now, Jack understood he had tried to do right by him, but his little delinquent nephew was too angry, neglected, and frightened to receive any of that attention without suspicion or rebellion. 

It was the last fight you had left in you and I crushed it out of you last night. 

Was that the last fight Jack had left in him?  What even was the point of his existence anymore?  He had to decide and everyone was waiting for him to speak.  They were giving him a choice.  A real choice, because they loved him.  But, more than that, they were choosing to trust him.  Cal was choosing to trust him.  He didn’t want to smother Jack; he only wanted him safe.  Jack could choose to stay and hide and be miserable in his big, festive glaskafig, surrounded by Christmas cheer and feeling not a single bit of it.  He could be completely safe and yet, somehow, in more peril than he ever would be in the “real world” out there. 

Or. 

Or he could jump back out there.  He could show that he was capable of taking care of himself while still accepting help from the people who loved him.  He could save his relationship, his life, and his dreams, whatever they wound up being after this nightmare. 

It was the last fight you had left in you-

No. 

Jack sat up, bolstered by the fire Cal reignited in his spirit.  “I’m gonna live my life.  One day, I think I’ll be happy to move in here permanently, but right now, my kid is in the prime of his life and I want to be out there with him to see it.  I want to spend time with my human friends before they get old and die.  The Pole is nice, but it’s no beach, guys.  Spring and summer flowers don’t grow here.  You don’t have fall up here.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give it up, not completely.  The world is too gorgeous and full of life and experiences to live cooped up here all the time, not me.  If I don’t leave for a while now on the heels of this, we’ll never be comfortable with me leaving.  There’s some stupid idiom about jumping back on a horse after it throws you off, you know.”  Jack took a deep breath.  “I want to go with Zoe.” 

Jack looked over at Cal, who looked relieved, but worried.  In fact, he looked like he had a million different emotions coursing through his brain right now, but pride and love were absolutely there.  Cal nodded his assent, but didn’t say anything.  Jack wondered if he might cry if he spoke.  He hadn’t seen Cal cry very often, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he felt like it right about now.  Jack was doing something Cal felt was dangerous, but he was choosing to let him do it anyway because he loved him and trusted him.  And Jack loved this man more than life itself.  He resisted the urge to jump up and kiss the hell out of that man, primarily because his parents were right there and that would be weird.  But the urge was there. 

Zoe grabbed Jack in a surprise embrace from behind.  “I promise to keep him safe, Cal.  And he’ll keep himself safe, too.  Everything is going to be alright.  I’m sure of it!”  She enthused. 

Cal nodded silently and Jack felt another urge to rush to his side and offer him comfort.  Nick cleared his throat, everyone’s attention. 

“Well, it sounds like everything is being resolved peaceably.  The missus and I need to get back to work.  Cal, take the rest of the day for yourself.  Jack and Zoe, stay as long as you like and do let us know before you leave so we can come say goodbye for now.” 

“Take good care of yourself.”  M.C. gave Jack a kiss on the cheek before she walked away with Nick, hand in hand.  “And don’t forget what we talked about, alright?” 

“Will do, M.C.”  Jack promised.  “Thanks.” 

That left Zoe, Cal, and Jack alone in the study.  Jack glanced back at Zoe after a moment of thought.  She was waiting patiently for him to say or do something, apparently.  He gave her a smile and she returned it in kind. 

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to spend a few hours with Cal before we leave.  You can go on without me if you like-“

“No, I’ll wait.  It’s not often that I get access to the Pole.  Promise I’ll be good.”  She winked at him.  “I’ll go explore.  Text me when you’re ready to go.”  She instructed, slipping out of the room. 

Jack turned to face Cal and walked over to him, taking his hand.  “Let’s go back to your room for a little while, okay?  It’s less stuffy than here and I want to memorize every part of you before I go.  We need to talk, too, I think.”  Jack said and Cal nodded, standing up and wrapping him in a tight, comforting hug.  “I love you, big guy.” 

“I love you, Jack.  More than anything else in this world.”  Cal whispered into Jack’s ear, voice cracking just a little. 

“Your room, so we can have privacy.”  Jack instructed and they walked hand-in-hand to the elevator.  

Chapter Text

“I’m coming back.  I promise.”  Jack answered the unspoken question as they closed the door to Cal’s suite behind themselves. 

“What if something happens?”  Callum asked as Jack fluttered around behind him; he could feel the anxious energy radiating off of Jack’s frame in waves. 

“I’ll survive, somehow.  And if I can’t save myself, you’ll come for me again.  We survived this time; we’ll survive again, somehow.  There’s too much to experience to live in fear and hide away from the world.”  Jack said to reassure him, pushing Cal toward the bedroom. 

“You’re braver than me.  Stronger.”  Cal confessed, frowning as Jack continued to press his palm against Cal’s back to push him closer to the bedroom. 

“What?”  Jack laughed.  “What happened to you being “Extremely Large and Formidable” and me being “human and therefore weak?” 

A simpler time.  A time when they were new to each other and they had thrown up their defenses to protect themselves and others from getting hurt by their hurts, anxieties, and fears.  Then, they saw the depth of each other’s goodness and fell in love.  And somehow, they never dealt with the core issues: Jack wanted freedom more than anything else in the world as the anxiety that formed a noose around his throat every day held him prisoner.  That imaginary noose threatened to strangle the life out of him as he tried desperately to protect the people he loved from himself.  And Callum needed control as his own anxiety reminded him every day that he was responsible for protecting everyone in his life and, to a certain extent, the rest of the world.  They were drowning and they never even realized it until something happened and forced them to see it.  To face it.  And, somehow, they had missed the lesson the first time around. 

“I don’t want to let you leave.  I want to keep you here where it’s safe, but I love you too much to hurt you like that.  I have to let you go so you can be happy.  So you won’t hate me.  I can’t lose you, but I’m afraid, Jack.  I’ve never felt anything like this before.”  Callum said, halting in front of the door that led to the bedroom. 

That wasn’t entirely true, though.  He felt this feeling before, sure, but never to this extent.  He had felt something similar to this when Nick had first been kidnapped.  And he felt something similar when anyone at the Pole was endangered, but never to this extent.  Never.  When Jack was in danger and Callum had no idea where he was, nor who had taken him, Callum felt like his very soul had been ripped out of his body and stabbed.  It was different than when Gryla took him because he knew her methodology and he knew her.  This time, there had been no traps nor demands.  No direct line to the person who took him.  Callum had found himself at the mercy of a greedy human imbecile who sold Cal’s heart to the highest bidder. 

“You’ve dated plenty of people in the past, remember?”  Jack pointed out.  “You have to have felt something like this before.  You’ve lived a really long time.  Centuries!” 

“None of them like you.  None of them so fragile and stubborn.  So strong and yet so easily crushed underfoot.”  Callum stated, turning to face Jack directly with a frown on his face. 

“Rude?”  Jack groused, not certain how to take Callum’s words.  “Also, uh, this isn’t the bedroom.  I mean, we can do it in here, but-“ The anxious energy radiating off of Jack was increasing and the intensity of his emotions was evident on his face. 

This was not the time to drown their feelings in anything, but especially not sex.  Sex was intimate, beautiful, and an expression of their love for each other not just physically but spiritually.  When they had sex, they became one.  They could not defile that act of pure love with fear and anxiety nor their desperation to escape and control. 

“We’re not having sex right now, Jack.”  Callum said firmly. 

Jack froze, gaping.  A moment passed and then he shook his head and put a hand on his hip.  “Whaddya mean, “we’re not having sex right now, Jack?”  I like sex.  You like sex.  It’s something we both enjoy, so why aren’t we doing it?  I’m coming back, but I don’t know when.  This- I don’t know, Cal.  It might be months.  It might even be a year!  I dunno!  Let’s just have sex and be okay again, okay?” 

There it was.  Jack was so afraid and he was so hurt by this situation that he might not ever even come back.  If they had sex and went their separate ways for now, it might be okay.  But most likely, they’d lose each other forever.  Jack wasn’t trying to be manipulative, but that was how he protected himself.  It was automatic.  It was desperate.  It was human.  And humans possessed an indomitable spirit that desperately wanted to live at any cost.  Callum could not risk crushing that spirit in Jack.  He would not risk crushing that spirit in Jack.  But they had to talk this out.  They had to address this, together, privately, without Zoe, Nick, and M.C. judging them.  They did the right thing by forcing Cal to see what he had been doing, but now he had a responsibility to Jack to point out what he was doing right now.  Because they were all family and they had to help each other because they loved each other. 

“Jack.”  Callum started to reach for Jack, but stopped just short of grabbing him.  “You are more to me than sex and a “good time.”” 

“I know that!” Jack exclaimed, uncertain about what to do with his body in this moment. 

“Do you?”  Cal asked with a quiet, challenging tone that made Jack freeze and stare at him with wide eyes. 

Callum was doing his best to be calm, cool, and collected- the immovable rock that Jack needed him to be. But Jack had no idea that there were stress fractures forming in the solid granite that was Callum Drift.  Callum had to be honest with him and they had to stop pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t.  Their love had a firm foundation, but some of the upper levels of the structures of their love they had built on top of that solid rock were weak and flimsy.  They had to repair those fragile structures or else they’d fall apart completely. 

“Of course I know that!”  Jack protested, offended. 

“Stop, Jack.  Be honest with both of us.  Deep down, you don’t believe you’re more to me than sex and a good time.  You still think I think of you as a possession, as if I could own or control you.  As if I would ever want that.  I love you, Jack, and I know you love me back.” 

“Yeah, we love each other, so what’s the problem here?  Just.  Let’s just get in bed, Cal.”  Jack practically begged; eyes wet with emotion. 

“You’re running away from your feelings.  I doubt you actually want to have sex right now.  You’re afraid and frustrated.  And you think the best way to make this easier is to blind me with sex like some kind of parting gift to make this easier.  Then I’ll be alright with you leaving and when you’ve had some time to run away, hide, and deal with how you’re feeling, everything will be fine when you come back.  And we’ll never actually have to talk about what happened, how I treated you, why I treated you that way, or why you don’t trust me.  Just sweep it under the rug, right?  So, it’s easier for everyone?” 

Jack looked away, mouth twisted into a deep frown.  He didn’t say anything, so Cal kept going. 

“Pretending it’s fine won’t make it fine.  We can pretend, but it will only get worse.  We have to deal with this, head on, or this is the beginning of the end for us.”  Callum said, trying to make his tone gentler. 

Jack sniffed and continued looking away.  Then, he walked over to the couch with his cane and sat down.  Callum contemplated his next words and next steps for a moment before he also walked over to the couch.  He sat down next to Jack, but left a cushion between them to give him a little more space. 

“I have no doubt in my mind that you love me, Jack.  Why else would you have come back last night?  If you weren’t so deeply connected to me, you would have gone through with running away, ignored my phone call completely, or broke things off over the phone forever, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do any of that.  You were willing to submit yourself to what could have become a controlling, abusive relationship with me because you don’t think you deserve respect in the end.  You were going to let things continue instead of talking to me and even though you would have lived for centuries with me, you would have killed all the things that make you, you.”  Callum challenged. 

“No, Cal.”  Jack whispered.  “No, I can’t- Stop talking, okay?”  Jack begged, pressing a hand against his face to hide his emotions.  “Just have sex with me.  Pretend nothing happened for an hour or two.  And, if it helps, we can just keep pretending.  It helps.  It does, if we just-“

“Jack, you deserve so much better than the way I treated you.  I never meant to be controlling or abusive.  I don’t want that.  I’m so sorry that I treated you so poorly.  But please, Jack, don’t ever let me get away with doing that ever again.  Please.  I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t do anything like that again, but you have to hold me accountable for my actions.  I’ll listen to you and I’ll listen to our friends when they tell me I’m being overbearing, okay?  I won’t become a monster, Jack.  If it looks like I can’t control myself, I’ll walk away.  You deserve better.  More.  To be loved and respected.  You deserve to be free, Jack, but not by running away and isolating yourself from the people who love you.  You deserve to be able to walk with your head held high and to say what you need to say and do what you need to do for you.”  Callum enthused, reaching gingerly for Jack’s hand.

“I don’t.”  Jack whispered. 

“You don’t what?”  Callum asked, frowning. 

“I don’t deserve better.  I don’t- Everyone says I’m better, but I’m not better.  I mean, I don’t do the things I used to do, but I’m still Jack O’Malley.  Not good enough for his dad.  Not enough for his mom to pay attention.  A bad dad masquerading like a good one.  No.  A bad person masquerading as a good one.  There’s nothing good in me.  Every good thing about me comes from the fact that I’m surrounded by all of you guys who need me to be better.  That doesn’t make me a good person, Cal.  And a bad person doesn’t deserve better.” 

Cal felt the strongest urge to pull Jack into his arms, but he just settled for holding Jack’s hand tightly with both of his hands.  “Maybe the fact that you choose to be better makes you a good person, Jack.  Nobody forced you to do all the good things you’ve done over the years.  Nobody forced you to become a better person; you chose to become a better person because you love us.  Isn’t that enough?” 

“Is it, though?  Enough?”  Jack asked. 

“I think it is.”  Callum challenged.   “But, Jack.  I meant everything I’ve said this morning.  I love you; I don’t blame you for any of this.  It wasn’t your fault someone hurt you.  I’ll give you the space you need and I’ll hope you’ll come back, but if you don’t; it’s your choice.  It’s your life.” 

Jack was staring at him, wide-eyed, until the last part.  Then, he scoffed with a soft frown as he crossed his legs with a wince and folded his arms across his chest.  “Of course, I’m coming back, you big dummy.  I said I would.  I just don’t know when.  And we have a long time to figure things out.  I can’t change what’s happened to me.  I’m not fully human anymore.  So I don’t belong out there forever.  And people will start to notice that some dude they live up the road from hasn’t aged for the thirty or forty years their family has lived there.  Listen, endgame here is that I move here or to Krampuslant or to the other complex here at the North Pole.  Just, for now, I need to see what I can see of the world and enjoy my kid’s life and figure out how I feel about all of this.  And I gotta have some space to breathe, big guy.  Just for a little while." 

“I’ll be waiting.”  Cal promised. 

Jack scooted a little closer on the couch and rested his head on Callum’s shoulder.  He sighed, but made no other moves to act on their closeness.  Callum was glad; as much as he enjoyed sex with Jack, he didn’t think he could enjoy it right now, not under these circumstances.  And he was pretty sure Jack wouldn’t enjoy it right now, either.  So, they simply sat and leaned into each other for a while in companionable silence.  They broke it periodically to talk about whatever came to mind, but for the most part, they rested in the knowledge that they loved each other.  They would do what they would have to do to make this work out without hurting each other.  Hopefully.  It wouldn’t be easy, but it was worth it. 

Chapter Text

Jack and Zoe left a few days ago.  Cal wouldn’t lie to himself about it, though: he was a nervous wreck.  He was generally fine when he was busy, but in the quiet moments when he was alone or not busy, his anxiety increased.  However, he knew he couldn’t smother Jack or continue his anxious habit of calling him every hour for a check-in, though, so he coped with it the best he could.  He limited himself to one phone call a day and always texted first to make sure Jack was up for a conversation first.  It seemed to be working, but it felt insurmountable. 

Jack sounded like he was doing well, though, which was great.  He said all the right things to help alleviate Callum’s anxiety and indulged him in small talk about their days.  Jack missed Callum’s phone call last night, but called him a few hours later, explaining that he and Zoe had gone to see a movie.  Callum didn’t confess it, but the delay in hearing from Jack had made him feel physically sick.  It had taken all his self-control to not rush to the transit system and pound down Zoe’s door.  But he did manage it, which was progress in and of itself. 

In other news, the oddest, most annoyingly inconvenient things kept happening to or around Callum Drift over the past couple of days, and it was starting to become suspicious.  When he got his most recent load of laundry out of the dryer, for example, his black socks had come out grey.  Not just a little grey, but a light color of grey that clashed with everything he wanted to wear.  Every coffee shop in the Pole was out of his favorite sprinkles for his hot chocolate.  Someone bumped into him and spilled toy paint on his favorite vest, making him have to go home to change clothes.  His favorite pants shrunk in the wash.  The salt shaker’s lid was not screwed on properly in the kitchen and when Cal went to shake some salt on his food, the entire shaker full of salt spilled onto it.  All the mugs in the kitchen were rearranged and Cal had to search for his favorite mug.  Shared objects Cal regularly used in public spaces that were always in the same order or location were mysteriously missing, shifted just a few inches to one side or the other, or completely rearranged. 

“What.  Is going on?”  Cal snapped to Garcia after the thirteenth minor inconvenience Cal had experienced that day alone. 

Garcia shrugged.  “Beats me, Chief.  Looks like you’ve run into a string of bad luck.  That oil’s gonna leave a stain in your pants, though.  Hope they weren’t your favorite or nuthin’.” 

“What do you know?”  Callum growled at the bear. 

“Who?  Me?”  Garcia played innocent.  “I said, I dunno.  Might wanna think it through before you say something you regret, though, huh?” 

“What are you talking about?”  Callum groused, taking a cloth and wiping at the oil that had splashed on his thigh. 

“Oh.  It’s just that you have a bit of a temper, boss.  Maybe you should take a break before it gets outta hand.  I got things handled here.”  Garcia replied, a bit sharply. 

Callum narrowed his eyes at Garcia and then sighed.  He did have a temper and he was feeling it rising in his chest as they were speaking.  So, he nodded and excused himself to go back to his suite and change clothes.  Cal opened the door to his suite with a heavy sigh.  He froze when he saw someone large sitting on his couch.  Then, it clicked. 

“Krampus.”  Cal groaned as he closed the door behind himself. 

“You’ve been a bit of an ass, eh?”  Krampus said by way of greeting.  “It was shockingly easy to convince your own team to give you a bit of punishment by means of mostly harmless pranks.  Goes to show how much trouble you gave them over Jack recently.  How has it felt, hmm?  Repentant yet, or do you need something more punishing?” 

“I regretted it the minute I said it.  Besides, you were doing stuff, too.”  Cal retorted, annoyed.  “Thought Jack and I worked it out, though.  Jack told you?” 

“No.  Director Harlow, it seems, is still holding a grudge.  She did say you apologized, which was wise of you.  There’s a reason I haven’t yet pounded you into the ground.  If you had not apologized, why, I would have had to teach you a different lesson altogether.”  Krampus answered, eyes bright and voice innocent, but Callum heard the threat in his tone: treat Jack right or else.   

“I think I got the message.”  Callum said.  “Is all this going to continue or am I good?” 

“I don’t know yet.”  Krampus replied.  “My brother has spoken with me about you, as well.  Says you are struggling.  So, talk to me.  Apparently, I am a good listener.” 

Jack always did seem to think that Krampus was a good listener.  When he was a child, Callum had agreed, but the Fight had happened between Nick and Krampus and it shattered Callum’s trust in Krampus.  Even now, after their reconciliation and all that had happened between them, Cal still had a vague sense of distrust toward his uncle.  It was not unlike how Jack avoided talking to Nick, but apparently talking to Nick had been helpful the other day, so maybe Cal should consider talking to Krampus.  Like.  Actually talking through stuff and feelings and all that.  Not just talking, but talking.    

“I was afraid of losing him.  Still am.  I don’t know what to do with myself or how to stop my brain from expecting him to be swiped up and killed without me ever knowing it’s happened.” 

“He survived before he met us.  We saved him when he needed us to.  And we cannot control nor change another’s fate.  If he is meant to die and leave us, then there will be nothing we can do to prevent it.”  Krampus said, wisely but unhelpfully; Callum already knew that. 

“But-“

“But what?  You will put him in a box and keep him there forever, like a pet rock?” 

“Of course not.”  Callum said with a huff. 

“Then what?”  Krampus asked. 

“There has to be a way to keep him safe without smothering him and without forcing him to stay here against his wishes.”  Callum answered, annoyed with Krampus for not offering him any ideas. 

Krampus nodded.  “I imagine there must be.  But, perhaps, it is not for you to find, but Jack.  He is more than capable of protecting himself.  You mustn’t forget what he used to do nor what he has done.  He has blood on his hands and him turning over a new leaf doesn’t change that.  He has not forgotten what he has learned in his life.  He has simply added to and amended what knowledge he has acquired to fit into this new life he is living.”   

Cal frowned.  “How am I supposed to cope with the fact that my heart is out there surrounded by humans I can’t trust to not hurt him or each other and I can’t keep an eye on him out there?  I can’t just rush to his side to save him.  I have to find him first, then find a toy store on the network near where he is, get to where he is, and then I can help him.  But by the time I’d get there, whatever harm was intended for him would have been done already!  So how am I supposed to turn off my brain and stop myself from imagining the horrible things people could be doing to him right now?  What do I do to be okay with this separation?” 

“You were okay with it before he was abducted by the humans, right?” 

“Yes.”  Callum answered. 

“He has been in your life for five years now.  He hasn’t been in danger for most of those five years.  In fact, he had gone four years without incident, correct?  It is unfair to take two unrelated incidents that happened four years apart-“

“The incident with Gryla lasted for half a year-“

“Even so, over four years ago, he was no longer entangled in danger to himself and he continued to improve emotionally, mentally, and physically since then.  Humanity had done him little harm in the past five years and certainly none of it was significant enough to merit him never leaving the Pole again.” 

“Okay, then how are you coping with it, you hypocrite?  You were treating Jack just as poorly and with just as much anxiety as I was!” 

“Perhaps, but I never told him it was his fault this happened to him.”  Krampus’s tone turned sharp, offended that Callum dared to put their actions in the same box.  “I yearned to protect him, yes, but I never made him feel bad about himself for getting hurt.  I was overbearing, but I was not critical.  I backed off, as you have seen.” 

Callum didn’t want to hear more about how he was a bad fiancé nor about how he was being a bad person or example for other people after how he treated Jack in his moments of weakness and fear.  He already knew how awful he had been and he was trying to do better.  He had given Jack space and even made sure to address what he said and why it was unfair directly with Jack!  He made a mistake; was there no forgiveness to be had for that? 

“Maybe you should leave.”  Cal said. 

Krampus raised an eyebrow at him.  A tense moment passed between them and Krampus sighed before he stood up.  He approached Cal gingerly, looking uncertain and uncomfortable.  Good.  He deserved to feel a little uncomfortable when Cal had tried to go to him for help and he went with scolding Cal more instead of helping! 

“I cannot give you a magic pill to make this easier for you.  I am also worried about him, but I choose to trust him, Director Harlow, and their ability to keep him safe.  They deserve to be trusted and I choose to trust them, no matter how I feel about it.  Each day that passes and he is safe and sound, it is easier to trust him to take care of himself and the fear recedes, little by little.  Be gentle with yourself and your staff; we all survived a horrific ordeal and everyone needs compassion during this time.  Try not to be an ass; it isn’t who you are.” 

And with that, Krampus ambled out of Callum’s suite, closing the door behind himself in the process.  Callum felt he would come undone after the last things Krampus said.  Somehow, it helped to know that Krampus was also afraid right now.  It also helped to know that this discomfort would not last forever.  In time, it would fade and he wouldn’t feel so very frightened when he thought about Jack out there in the human world. 

Callum changed clothes and returned to his work.  He made a concerted effort to be less grumpy with everyone and he felt the vibe of those he worked directly with change for the better.  He hadn’t realized he had been taking it out on all of them.  He owed more than a few apologies at this point.  Hopefully they would accept them. 

The pranks stopped.  No more mostly harmless inconveniences to plague his every waking moment after his conversation with Krampus.  Similarly, Cal took Krampus’s words to heart and continued to choose to trust as many times as it took to do so.  Nick was helpful, too.  He recommended therapy again, which chafed Callum’s pride a bit, but he reached out to make an appointment and would start up next week.