Dear Diary,

Y'know, I think for once I'm getting it. This whole thing where I've been tryna find Adrienne, tryna put my little Sidhe girl's family back together, not out of spite like I did with with the Lancasters or D and Diana, but... out of love. Not unlike building a new family with Saffron and Marie and Siobhan and our horde hoard. I've figured out the whole key to being able to keep myself focused on something long enough to make things happen. It's acceptance.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a easy thing. Shit, there's a reason it's seen as the last stage of grief. It's not always simple, even if it is. Because it's not a passive kind of acceptance, or an ignorant one. It's looking at whatever's coming at me, coming at us, coming at them, and seeing it for what it is. Not what I want it to be, or what I fear it might be, or even what it thinks it is, if it's a thing that thinks. But what it is. Then dealing with it as itself, fitting it into my world in a way that helps me and mine prosper. Or even just move a little closer to prosperity. Hopefully, and this is an important part, without hurting anybody else. But also without having any kind of stupid ideas that I'm not allowed to hurt anyone else to protect my family.

I guess there's some sense of balance in there as well, but mainly, it's about accepting what is, while also accepting that things don't have to be that way.

Weirdest thing, I had all these thoughts yesterday while going through the motions after a night Reveling, half of which was spent with my Mitten kitten Matryoshka dangling from my jaws. Okay, not exactly Matryoshka, since the other kittens are inside the big cat, not inside each other. Also, they're in my Murder Mittens, not my Kitten, and holy shit now I want to put one in her. Shit, maybe I could fuck with Time somehow so she can bake a baby in the week it takes her to review her Inspect before launch. Then again, it seems like Mittens is getting really close to ejecting her temporary residents. My jaw ached all yesterday from holding her up for half the night before.

When I stepped us home for dinner, I pulled her aside after dropping the panzerottis onto the serving table, leaving Devorah there with a long knife and instructions to slice them in half so folks could decide whether they liked the filling. Because someone named Tabitha had stupidly forgotten to mark them in any kind of way that survived both baking and deep frying.

"Hey Mittens?"

She just let me tug her back into her kitchen, raising one eyebrow in a wordless acknowledgement of my implied question.

Which I had to state. "How soon are they due?" I laid one hand on her belly and rubbed back and forth, feeling her purr, imagining I could feel the kittens purring too.

She just leaned over me, onto me, into me, and purred out, "No Idea."

"May I Assess you?" She nodded, and I extruded a glowing Mana wire in the right Shape to call Siobhan and Saffron's updated improved Global Assess Health.

Assessment For: Marie "Murder Mittens" Aetos-Diaz Target Type: Humanoid Biped / Felinoid Quadruped (Maenad) General Health: Healthy Conditions: Pregnant Recommended Treatment: Light Exertion, Increased Nutrition, Observation Granular Assessment Data: Activate: ( Y / N )

That all just kinda made sense, although I noticed right away that certain bits had altered fonts; I guessed that that indicated whether they could be expanded or not. I mentally focused on 'Assessment' and barked out a laugh.

Assessment: You Shaped Assess Health. This is the resulting Assessment.

The snark absolutely rolled off the little spell window. I blinked it closed, then focused on 'Pregnant'

Pregnant: The patient is with child, carrying offspring, building babies, contains in-progress young. Gestation is occurring in the patient's womb. Details: This pregnancy is progressing normally. The patient has entered the third trimester. Offspring are nominally viable, growing continually more so as gestation continues. Contractions may indicate the initiation of labor. Pressure or impact on the belly is strongly discommended.

"Holy shit," I breathed. "You're... you're not feeling any contractions or anything, are you?"

She snorted, smiled, shook her head. "Not Yet."

"Assess says you're in your third trimester though."

Her eyes got really wide at that, her smile stretching out to show all of her fangs. "So Soon!" Her hand eclipsed mine over her belly, moving it from bump to bump, from kitten to kitten.

After a litle bit, Saffron wandered in. "Is everything okay, ladies?"

"Third!" Excitement had me nearly as terse as Marie. "Kittens!" Saffron and Marie both chuckled at me, then my Kitten stepped over and put her arms around both of us. After a bit I remembered, sighed, and said, "dammit, I was supposed to go see Jack tonight."

"So Go." Marie's response came immediately.

"But what if you..."

Saffron squeezed us both gently. "We will be fine, love, even if your babies choose your absence to emerge. I'm the person in our family with the most experience giving birth. Not to mention we've a handful of High Priestesses of Dionysus, many of whom are mothers themselves."

"But... I wanna be here," I blurted out.

Marie snorted, choking down laughter, and Saffron shook her head, smiling fondly. "I highly doubt Marie will go from 'lacking any sign of labor' to 'giving birth' too quickly for you to respond, love. For all his fearsome, fickle, Fae reputation, Jack seems to be remarkably sane and reasonable as well, so since we will obviously contact you if Marie goes into labor, if you let him know you're needed for the birth of your children, I'm sure he'll be more than willing to allow you to return, or even Co-Locate so you can narrate the birth of Ria's siblings to her older sister."

That struck a chord deep inside me, one that made me chuckle just a bit. "Oh, shit. I guess just to keep things from getting too confusing we've got to pull Tallulah into our little whatever it is, which would make Adrienne our daughter too, and all the horde hoard and our kittens her sisters as well."

Saffron took my joke and, as I should have known, ran off cackling like a maniac gremlin. "Well then, I'll be sure to tell her she's your new Concubine when I speak with her next."

"Wait..."

"After all, I saw you two playing about with making yet another sibling last night."

"No, but..."

"There were no butts involved. Nor mouths. Oh, you flickered back and forth between man and woman while you filled her, and by her own admission she's not at the right point in her cycle to ensure such things," I stood there, each of her statements hitting me like a slap right to the naked crotch. Scary, painful, thrilling, exciting, all in equal measure. "Of course you didn't include any other Blessings or other magics to ensure pregnancy either. So as you whispered, we'll have to wait a bit and Assess her to see."

"You're fucking with me now."

She Grinned at me. "No, but the topic of discussion has me absolutely willing to do so if you like. Either way. Or both." She closed her eyes, like you do when you're savoring something that tastes so good you don't want sight or sound interfering. "So smooth, so tight. And you... filling her, warmth verging on heat washing through her again and again and again."

"You were watching."

"Oh, I had my eyes closed the entire time."

I snorted. "You know exactly what I mean."

She opened her eyes, her Grin melting into a smile. "I do. And I want you to know exactly what I mean, Wife. Are you listening?"

I swallowed, suddenly nervous. "Yeah?"

The Grin re-emerged, backed up by that serene, knowing smile. "Until the day comes when I am ready to bear your child, you are to play that game with Tallulah whenever she is willing, because I cannot wait to feel you fill me with your child, Taibhta Diaz."

I looked down at her, swallowed as Marie purred and pushed us closer together. "You sure you're not ready tonight? Like, uh, right now?"

A moment later the pulled me down onto the Bed, covering her. "I am sure. I am not. But I want to feel you inside me, feel your heat rush through me as you come for me. Like I felt you do to Tallulah. Like you did to Marie." I shifted to boy mode, pressed against her, hot and wet and ready. I felt inside as she took firm hold of my shapeshifting, then looked me right in the eye and growled out, "like I did to Siobhan."

I didn't think. My brain went blank, one of my breasts in her hand, the other nipple in her mouth, her teeth scraping across it as I erupted inside her. I slowed to a panting stop, collapsing atop her, trying to move and utterly unable to. "Sorry."

She chuckled into my ear. "Why?"

I realized right then that at some point she'd forced me back to girl plus, and I shuddered as she clutched at me when shapeshifting back to basic bitch girl mode slid me out of her far slower than it ought to have. "Couldn't... Didn't mean to..." I was panting too hard to finish a sentence. Weird, what with me being in stupidly good shape.

"You seemed a bit... overwhelmed. I'm a bit sore, frankly. You kept going long after you'd satisfied me. Then again, I've been waiting for that for... well... since Wotansday. Or since last night with Tallulah."

"Uh... how long?"

"You were overwhelmed. Don't worry, you've plenty of time to go down and speak with Jack. The girls are in the Bath now. If you'd like to clean up first?" I opened my mouth and my gremlin Kitten emerged once more. "I certainly need to; I don't need any more questions about 'spooge'."

Yeah, she was absolutely full of feisty, not to mention aforementioned fluids. Thankfully the girls had overindulged in panzerottis, and drifted in the bath in food comas while Saffron and I showered. We slipped into the Bath and I whispered, "sorry to leave you two alone for dinner."

"Why?" murmured Siobhan. "Honestly listening in is the closest I get to enjoying anything energetic lately." Marie made annoyed Marie noises, and Siobhan gently splashed water at her. "Oh, hush, you. I said 'energetic'. You have been adorably patient and gentle with me."

"Eventually."

Siobhan carefully rolled over to lay an arm across Marie's babies belly. "When that day comes, and I am recovered from labor? I fully expect the three of you to take me to the Bedroom and be so energetic that, as Tabitha implied, you must satiate yourselves on my disembodied Soul before Reviving me when you finish." As I spluttered, she turned to me with the first semi-pure smile I'd seen on her in a long time. Still tired, but smiling. "No... no 'boy mode'. I don't want to go through this again. But I still wish to Revel with my Goddess at her most uninhibited."

"Fucking hell, Siobhan. I do not want to eat you."

She giggled. "Yes, you do."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, fine. I do. But I want to spend eternity with you more."

"And so I shall lose some hair here, a toenail there, then a digit, then another, until you consume me one tiny piece at a time. Then do the same with my Soul. The tiniest bit at a time, until all that remains at the end of eternity are my smile and my love for you, Tabitha."

"How the fuck can you talk about that so calmly?"

She chuckled. "Calmly? Did you forget?" She pulled me over, whispered into my ear, "I'm counting on Marie to be very gentle with me tonight, my Goddess." Then she pulled away, towing Saffon and Marie close around her, resting on their strength. "Now go. Jack and Adrienne are waiting."

I stepped out of the Bath. "Wait." Saffron's single word froze me in place. A moment later I stood there in my uniform slacks, my white tee shirt feeling just the tiniest bit out of place under the blouse, covering the very conspicuous corsetry beneath both, just like the slacks covered my stockings and blacker than sin boots. "There. You represent all of us as well as yourself, love. Now go." Go, knowing both that we will call you should you be needed.

Or wanted, if Marie goes into labor?

Oh, no. My face fell, and the three of them laughed, but before I could even start to spiral, they all stared hungrily at me. No, love. You will be needed for that. As for our wants, we will console ourselves and each other while our most puissant Goddess deprives us of her company in order to right yet another cosmic wrong.

I'm gonna miss you guys.

You'll be gone for a night, Goof.

No, I meant I'm gonna miss you guys doing sexy times stuff.

The three of them glanced at each other, then back to me. "Oh, yes. Yes, you will, love," Saffron whispered. And I will relay each and every moment into your poor Goof brain all at once upon your triumphant return.

"Damn. I better return triumphant then, hadn't I?"

"And in good enough condition to appreciate our sacrifice."

I snorted. "No promises. Love you all. Jack, headed your way now." Then I stepped down to Jackville, to Johnny's place.

Where Jack and Adrienne very studiously refused to meet my gaze.

"Uh, what's up, guys?"

Jack found his voice first, self-effacting laughter burbling beneath his words. "We've... uh, been Scrying on you."

I surprised myself by feeling no shame or sense of violation; so much of what I'd done I did in front of an audience, and they'd told me they were gonna. Instead I just smirked. "So, you guys finally get up the gumption to play the home game?"

"I've told you. Want as I will, I cannot. She isn't my Jill. Won't..."

"Stop." He shut his mouth with a snap, as much from surprise at my commanding tone as anything. "Okay. Before you say something everyone will regret, Adrienne told me some stuff." He looked mulish, maybe a little upset, so I followed that up with, "she didn't want to. I pressured her after you ran off the other night. Because I'm tryna help you, both of you, but I can't help you unless I know what's going on." I paused, and some essential desire for honesty made me add, "okay, I could try, but the odds of me fucking it up go from 'probably' to 'damn near certain' if I do that."

Jack just raised an eyebrow. "So why are you helping again?"

"Doesn't look like anybody else is gonna." I paused. "And I can. So I should." I snickered a little as I remembered and recited the mantra. "With great power comes great responsibility."

"Not a common belief."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Yeah, lots of fuckfaces out there don't deserve the power they've been given. I've been working on correcting that." He bristled, but I smiled and said, "forcing consequences on people. Like killing Artemis. Or helping the Protector of Jackvillle sort his domestic shit out, because he deserves a happy home life."

He snorted at that. "Really? You seem to be a minority opinion."

"Nah. Pretty sure everybody who lives here feels that way."

"I meant among those of Divine standing."

I shrugged. "Fuck 'em. If it's a proper democracy, everybody's vote counts the same. If it's not, I'm the woman, and it's my fuckin' vote that counts." Before he could even bristle, I followed that with, "and I say Adrienne deserves to be happy." I leaned toward him. "And so do you."

He let out a long, slow sigh, deflating as he did, until old Johnny leaned against his gumbo pot. "I wish it was that easy. I surely do."

"So... what she told me. How about I tell you, and you correct anything that needs it. Or fill in any gaps." He nodded. "So you were married. You're a widower." He winced, but nodded. "Your wife got hit with the same 'no afterlife' whammy you did, but she's... not got your Divine thing going on?" Another pained nod. "So i guess she just hangs around as a naked Soul, just a self-sustaining wisp of Mana that, when she sees you getting close to somebody, latches on to them?"

"Sometimes... sometimes they remember things she knew."

I nodded. "Okay. So... not exactly possession. She just... all that's left of her, mostly, is her connection to you. She loved you?"

He grimaced. "Unwisely."

"Not what I asked."

"Yes. She loved me, and thus her fate is to forever bear my curse, without even the dubious recompense of my power."

I sighed. "Okay, so... if you get to close to Adrienne, she gets hit by that whammy?" He nodded. "Yet she's staying close to you despite you telling her all this?"

He nodded, then his brow furrowed. "Wait. I'm not sure I told her anywhere near the level of detail you've..." He trailed off, staring at Adrienne in horror.

For her part, she just smiled sadly. "Did you think not consumating our love would protect me?"

"But it has! For years now, it has!"

She just snorted. Shook her head. "Power makes people stupid."

I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Yeah. Yeah, it do. My wife's nickname for me is 'Goof', and holy fuck do I earn that shit on the regular. Now," I turned to Adrienne. "What's it like? Having another Soul in there with you?"

She stopped herself the first couple times she opened her mouth to speak, and when Jack went to interrupt I shushed him with a raised hand. Finally words leaked out of her. "I'm... I'm not sure there is." She looked up at Jack. "I'm not sure any of us have been not-Jill."

I shrugged. "Reincarnation is a thing. Usually you get some time off in the Afterlife first, but sounds like Jill gets the short end of that stick."

Adirenne nodded. "Perhaps. Or mayhap Jack has the right of it and she's just inveigled herself into me so deeply I cannot tell the difference."

I thought about that for a second, my hand still keeping Jack quiet. Finally I quietly asked, "do you care which?" She shook her head. "So whether you were born to be Jill or chose to be, you're good with it?" She nodded. "Tell him."

She stepped over, lifted Jack's unresisting hands. "By birth or by choice, I am your Jill, stubborn, stingy, silly Jack. I willingly accept all that comes with that."

"No," he whispered, wincing.

"Yes," she said, stepping closer. When she got closer to him than his pot of gumbo, his arms snapped around her, pulled her to him, burying his face in her belly. She wrapped her arms around his head and held him as he cried. He wept like that... for a long time. Time seemed to move oddly there in Johnny's place. He wept for a minute, for a moment, for hours.

Finally he pulled away, looking up at her. "I don't want to lose you."

I cleared my throat. "What I think you mean is that you don't want to wait for another Jill to be born and grow up and find you. Or for another woman to love you enough to take on that mantle. Whichever it is." He rolled his eyes, and I laughed at him gently. "This shit is tangled up as fuck, and as I proved with the whole Patronage thing, even you don't quite have the facts straight."

He sighed. "I... There is wisdom in your words." He turned to look up at Adrienne. "But you don't know what you're getting into."

I interrupted again. "Okay, two parts to that, and I think Adrienne deserves to decide which we deal with first." Jack nodded, and both of them focused on me. "First, how is 'being Jill' gonna impact her as a person? The memories, the... I dunno, essential Jill-ness of her, and how will that interact with Adrienne. Second, what does 'being Jill' entail, and..." I thought about it, holding up a hand, wordlessly asking for patience. "What you 'being Jack' means, and how that affects Jill."

He sat there, mouth open, but finally said, "as you will." He turned to Adrienne. "Which shall we address first?"

She slipped down into his lap. Between her being her mother's daugher, and easily my height even with my boots on, and him being compressed into his old Johnny persona, he still wasn't eye to eye with her. More like eye to tit. Fuck it, she's the one who sat down. She adjusted her seat, then said, "tell me about her."

"What about her?"

"Everything. From the first moment you saw her to the moment you lost her."

He sighed, took a deep breath, and started with, "I was already well into my prime when I first saw her. A young woman, full of life and an appetite for ever more of it. So beautiful..." He talked of their romance, of what I realized had been a young woman who'd chosen her man, but still wanted him to chase her. So chase her he did, until the two of them were wed, the young beautiful woman and the maybe a little bit older guy wealthy from looting a giant's castle and conning the Devil himself. Or some kind of Divine persona; he didn't really specify which one, since that happened before he met Jill.

He talked about their life together, Adrienne stopping him now and then to interrogate him on some half-remembered detail. They spoke for hours, for minutes, forever. Finally, with the sun more than halfway across the sky already, he looked at her and said, "then, one day, she awoke with gray in her hair and the first aches in her bones. We both knew she was growing old. So we decided on a quest."

"What quest?" asked Adrienne.

"You don't remember?"

She shook her head. "Much of what you've spoken of has... become clear. But everything past what you've spoken of is... particularly fuzzy. I remember pain. I remember seeking. I remember falling. Then nothing."

He sighed. "We sought the Fountain of Youth. We... I don't know if we found it or not."

"What? How the fuck can you not know?" They both looked at me. "Seriously, I guess if you're not old already, it might be tough, but if you're old, you take a drink, and if you're not old, you've found it."

He barked out a laugh. "You'd think. We thought we'd found it, a well atop a... pyramid of sorts. Deep in the jungles south of here."

"What happened then?" she whispered.

"Jill... fell. I slipped, and tumbled, and she reached for me, refused to let me fall on my own. Fell with me. By the time I... returned to myself, she was gone. Just a decaying corpse."

"Shit, man, how long were you out?"

He looked down. "I... There are things about myself I hide."

"You want I should guarantee privacy?"

He looked up at me. "Can you?" I wrapped my Blend around us, pushing power into it, surrounded Johnny's place with a thick wall of tentacles, laced them through it and pulled them back. "Well then. I guess you can."

"Just to be clear, anything you say goes no further than me and mine."

"Yours?"

I shrugged. "My High Priestesses are in my head. All the time. So what they know, I know. Although I think right now they're all busy fucking like bunnies."

Adrienne whispered, low key horrified, "isn't my mother one of your High Priestesses?"

I grinned at her. "Yeah, I think she prompted this whole round of... it's not fornication if everybody's married or otherwise official, right?"

Jack snorted. "I suppose not." Like he didn't realize what he was saying, he jokingly said to Adrienne, "so, do you intend to tempt me into fornication then?"

"It wouldn't have to be."

He froze, looked up at her. "You'd marry me?" She nodded. "Even knowing?" She rolled her eyes, nodded again. "I wish..."

She slammed her hands across his face. "Stop! Do not make a heartfelt wish in my presence, Jack."

I stopped. Snorted. Then realized. "Wait, you've still got your Blessing, right?" Jack looked confused, but Adrienne nodded. "Will it, like, go off all on it's own?" She shook her head, blushing. "Wait, then why... oh, fuck, you've already got that shizzit cocked, locked, and ready to rock, don't you?" Her mouth dropped open a little at my bullshit description, but she nodded. I thought about it for a second. A moment later I stood there in The Dress, because some occasions require just the tiniest bit more formality. "You wanna marry Jack?"

"More than anything."

I looked at Jack. "You wanna marry her?"

"But..."

"Just answer the fuckin' question, Jack. Do you want Adrienne to be your wife?"

He gulped. "Yes."

"Okay then. Do you take Adrienne as your wedded wife?"

"Yes?"

"Adrienne? Do you take Jack as your husband?"

"Yes!"

"Okay then. By power vested in me by Loki and the Alliance, you're married."

Jack sucked at his teeth. "You sure you've got jurisdiction here?"

I leaned forward, then deadpanned, "you can debate legality, or you can kiss your bride, dumbass."

He turned, looked at her, and whispered, "my Jill."

She looked down at him, shook her head. "your Adrienne, my Jack."

"But..."

The air in the shack luminesced as she drew herself upright, her voice echoing faintly. "Her Soul is within me. Within mine. She is a part of me. But I am Sidhe, of House Crow, of the line of The Morrigan herself. Divine blood runs in my veins. My title as your wife may be Jill, but my name, my love, my husband to be the moment our lips meet, is Adrienne. Say it now, or lose me forever, you Divine old Fool."

"Adrienne."

"Yes, Jack?"

"My," he growled, "Adrienne."

She smirked down at him. "Not quite ye..."

He pulled her down into a kiss. Pretty sure if she'd straddled him or she was Marie flexible that kiss would have evolved into something else entirely, but we still had shit to take care of, so I didn't get to return the favor of playing Peeping Tom on a married couple. Not like I minded. So I guess it was just Scrying Tom and Tommette when they did it or something. At any rate, I cleared my throat when their hands started to roam, and he jumped like he'd been scalded. She pulled away like the cat that had just stolen the entire dairy farm.

"Okay, you two. Now..."

Jack interrupted me, half sobbing. "But... when you perish..." She looked down at him, arching one eyebrow. "You, my Jill, my Adrienne, my Heart, will be gone forever."

I snapped my fingers, and when both of them looked at me, said, "so we'd best get your shit sorted out before then, hadn't we?"

"I don't know if we can."

I rolled my eyes. "Do you want to, or not?"

He looked stupidly, oddly sheepish, glancing up at Adrienne, then back to me. "Yes and no?"

One finger on the side of her husband's chin, she turned him to face her. "What, exactly, do you mean by that, Jack?"

He opened his mouth, by the look on his face about to spout something about privacy, so I rippled the inner tentacles of the sphere around us. He sighed and sagged. "I want to. I want to with all of the heart that is mine."

"That's... an awful specific wording," I said.

He nodded. "I, Jack the Man, Stingy Jack, would do anything to keep you safe, my wife." He went silent, staring at her.

"You say that like there are Jacks other than you out there."

He shook his head side to side, still staring at Adrienne. "I worry that she will not want me when she finds out."

She glared down at him. "I want every bit of you. I have claimed you as my spouse. I have been away from my mother's house for some time, but I suddenly find myself understanding their... more acquisitive nature, now that it stirs in my breast."

I snorted. "Yeah. 'Breast'."

She turned to me. "And lower, you incorrigible harlot."

"Hey, hey, hey, nobody pays for nothing. I'm a slut, thank you very much."

She smiled at me. "Oh, they pay in devotion, in service." Her smile took on a much kinder softness. "In love given and received. I apologize for any offense, Goddess." Her voice dropped to a whisper, "and yes, lower down as well, but I don't want to scare him off."

I snorted. "Yeah. Not likely."

"I'm right here."

We both turned to him. I didn't have to say anything, because Adrienne declared, "yes. You are. Now, explain what these other parts of you are, and why you think they might not be mine."

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and looked up at her. "Jack the Fae, Nimble Jack, might adore you, might worship you, or might rebel against you. I suspect the former, but cannot be certain." At the word 'rebel', Adrienne's face took on a predatory look to rival Marie or Saffron, and Jack gulped. "Jack the Dullahan, Jack O' the Lantern, cares not for love. He has all the weakness of the Undead, but none of their power."

"Miasma?" I asked.

He looked at me. "I know this sounds strange, but I do not know. All I know is that I... he... when I am that Jack, I am both alive and dead, and heads are mine to take. I've... killed many local Spirits like that. Not to mention the vast bulk of the Swamp Dragons born every year."

"Hoo. Okay then. Jack O' the Lantern is kinda badass, and might require something other than traditional wooing. Right. Got it. Any more Jacks hiding in there?"

He got a grumpy look. "You ought take this more seriously."

"Oh, I am. Don't worry, I am. God of Ecstasy and Bloodlust, I joke when shit gets serious. Now, any more Jacks in there?"

He sighed. "One more. One per season. Stingy Jack in the Spring. Nimble Jack in the Summer. Jack O' the Lantern in the Autumn. Then the strongest of all of me, the most heartless, the one closest to Divine, were he not deader than Jack O' the Lantern. In the winter, I am Jack Frost."

"Divine but Dead? Like, Undead Dead, or, um... shit, so many Deities who cycle through Death. Wait, are you a Psychopomp?"

He shrugged. "I... I don't know?"

"How can you not know?"

He looked around, furtive, and I slipped tentacles through the room. surrrounded us. Got some serious side eye when I pulled us all close enough to feel the heat of one another's bodies. "Look, Jack. Ain't nobody in here but the three of us. You, who already knows whatever you're hiding, Adrienne, who as your lawfully wedded wife really ought to know, and me. For what it's worth, I'm surprisingly into the idea of hearing Ria kill bats in a thousand mile radius with the epic squee she lets out when I introduce her to her brother-in-law Jack. So I think you can trust me with whatever secret this is. Son-in-law."

He choked at that as I just grinned at him. Adrienne shot me a look, then a grin crept across her face and she turned back to look at him. "Yes, Husband. What is this secret?"

He took a deep breath, then whispered, "apologies, Wife." In the close quarters, I felt her shudder as that word washed across her. "I have told no one of this. Not even my other Jills."

"Not the first one?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I didn't realize myself then." He took another deep breath, squared his shoulders, and said, "I am a man."

We both stared at him a bit, until I couldn't help myself. "Okay, yeah, you've got a twig and berries. Which I'm sure Adrienne here is just aching for you to put to good use, but you seem to think that'll make her head pop off and powder her, so we've got to sort that shit out before you can be all manly and rock her world." Both of them just stared at me, kinda horrified. "Look, are you two sure you're mature enough to be married? Neither of you are Ace, and sex is usually a pretty important part of wedded bliss for non-Ace folks."

Adrienne recovered first, pulling the side of Jack's head into her cleavage and hissing out, "mine!"

I snickered, "yeah, okay, I get it, you're mono as fuck. Also, what with you being maybe my daughter-by-proxy or some shit, that would be way too close to incest for me. So thanks for the utter lack of an offer, but no. Yours, and I'll help smack down any skank who tries to interfere. Now," I turned to Jack, who definitely had additional recovery problems due to Adrienne's left tit covering half his face. Okay, less than that, the Crow women weren't exactly massively endowed, but even a modest B cup will cover a bit of ground when a face is mooshed into it. "Well? What's the big deal? Did you think she was maybe Sapphic or some shit like that?"

My humor broke him free of the spell of my bullshit and Adrienne's B cup, and he snorted. "No. No, I hadn't even considered that, although..."

"Yeah, you can feel that she's not poking into the side of your head, we get it."

"Not what I was going to say, but... No, best not to get distracted. I am a man. Only a man. Nothing more."

I thought about it for a second, came to a conclusion, discarded it, thought about it a bit more, wound up with the same conclusion, then stared at him in horror. "You don't have any kind of Divine woo at the moment."

"I'm not sure what 'woo' is, but no, my only power is that of a Human. A quick witted human, but only that."

"Not even Shaping?"

He shrugged. "I wasn't that talented. Still not. I know many Shapes. As Nimble Jack, they come easily, and powerfully. In either of my other forms, I am... either Divine or something so much like it that I can contest with the Divine and win. So in the winter I can meet them power for power, and only one like Domnu might stand against me, if she cared to. In the autumn... killing is easy. Like breathing. In the summer I have all the powers of a Fae Trickster at my command. But... in the spring? I have my wits."

"What happens if you die now?"

He shrugged. "I still cannot properly die. I can be injured. Even, perhaps, destroyed, although that has never happened. But even those times when someone buried me, I awoke on the Summer Solstice. The same is true the few times when someone thought they bested Nimble Jack."

"There are no stories of either happening, not that I know of, Husband."

He turned to her. "None of them have lived through the following autumn."

"Oh."

I pulled back, giving the newlyweds a bit of space, if not any more privacy than the three of us shared. "Okay, gimme a minute."

I stopped, thought about it. Looked out at the shadows where the sun drifted ever closer to the horizon. I really wanted to get home to my family, to my ladies, but some part of me really wanted to 'come home victorious', if only to give my Kitten an excuse to do horrifyingly intense sexual things to my brain hole. I thought about the situation, about Jack's weird cyclic life, about what they both so clearly wanted. I thought about stepping outside of Time to give myself more time to think, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with Mom's bullshit at the moment.

After a bit I turned back to them. "Okay. Jack, you want to be with Adrienne. All the time, year round, for now and forever. Right?"

"With all of my heart that is mine to give."

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Adrienne, you want Jack. All of him, based on what he's described?"

"I do, but want isn't even relevant at this point. He is mine. All of him. I will tolerate no less."

"Hoo. Possesive much?" She just nodded, reminding me so much of her mother at that moment. "Jack, you okay with that?"

"I would say 'take me, dearest, I am yours', but it might be misunderstood."

"So you're good with her being all possessive and claiming every bit of you." He nodded. "And you want to do that. To claim all of him." She nodded. "Okay, the trouble is that, unless I miss my guess, you die at the end of Autumn, right?"

"Every year."

I blew out a lungful of air at that. "You have my sympathy. Don't think I've Actually Died, but it's been close enough I have to say I don't think it's happened. That shit sucks. You'd be a lot less depressed if you knew she was waiting to go riding with you after, wouldn't you?" He nodded, opening his mouth to speak, but I held up a hand. "Okay, so one way or another, we need to figure out a way to get buy in from Nimble Jack, Jack O' the Lantern, and Jack Frost before... the Autumn Equinox? Or Adrienne's Jill curse kicks in, she winds up headless, and shortly thereafter winds up as dust in the wind?"

He shuddered. "Do you have to say it so... cavalierly?"

"Just laying it out there. Can't kick the doors open unless you know where they are."

He looked at me, and the tiniest bit of terrifying Hope flared in his eyes. "Kick... Them open?"

"Oh, fuck to the yes. I intend to use her Blessing to help make this shit happen, even."

Her eyes lit up, but before she could speak, he said, "I'm not certain your Fae Blessing, even a Sidhe Blessing, can overwhelm Jack O' the Lantern, let alone Jack Frost."

"My Blessing is of the House of Crow."

"Still..."

I slid one arm thick tentacle up her back like a thin backrest. As she shot me side eye, I drove over Jack, saying, "and I am absolutely going to boost the living shit out of her Divine House Crow Blessing." When Jack opened his stubborn mouth, I asked, "Jack Frost can't beat Domnu, can he?"

"Doubtful."

"Yeah. I'd call her here, but she's a pain in the ass. Also, she's my birth mother. Also, I beat her once, and can do it again if I have to." I turned to Adrienne. "Ready?"

"Will this hurt?"

I shrugged. "Might leave you feeling some kinda way, but as far as I know if I'm careful, it doesn't hurt." She nodded, and I let the Mana flow. pouring it into her until her eyes glowed bright enough to light the little shack up like high noon, and kept the connection open, ready to further empower her if she needed it. "Ready?"

"I am, Goddess." I sensed she wanted to say something else, so I nudged her just a little. "Your Power is... a bit overwhelming. I regret not straddling this man whose lap I occupy."

I grinned at them both. "Yeah, this works you'll have all the fuckin' time in the world to work that out. And not a fuckin' reason in the world not to." She nodded, obviously not trusting her voice, and I turned to Jack. "Okay, Jack the Man. Stingy Jack, who outwitted the Gods themselves. Your wording matters. Remember that. She doesn't even really have much control over her Blessing, from what I can tell. You make a wish, her Blessing grants it, but... Look, I wished to see someone who isn't around any more, and forget about what I was doing, and wound up hallucinating with amnesia for a season. You get me, Witty Jack?"

He smiled up at me. "Witty Jack. That's a moniker I could enjoy much better than Stingy Jack."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure. You ready to make that wish?"

"Must I hurry?"

I shrugged. "I mean, take your time, but I don't think you can get super legalistic about it." I looked at Adrienne, who shook her head but remained silent. "So, y'know, take your time, use your brain, but I kinda want to get home to my ladies and have my Wife fill my brain hole with head pron, so don't take all week, please."

He sighed, chuckled, nodded, then looked up in to Adrienne's eyes. He stared at her, absolutely adoring every sparkling, glowing inch of her, his thoughts clearly racing a mile a minute while his heart stood still, adoring his Wife. After a minute, a moment, a measured breath, he spoke. "I wish for you and I to be bound together, in life and in death, all of you and all of me, for now into eternity, sooner than possible, lest curse and misfortune steal us away from one another."

Power flowed. Spiked. Surrounded us, then blasted outward, faster and harder than any Global Spell I'd ever empowered.

Time. Fractured. Sideways.

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