To Have and to Hold

Chapter 23

Katherine waited until Jack had left, needing to go take care of his wintery duties, such as they were. She was a little shaky yet on just what Jack's job was, since communication had been sparse and details few, and she hadn't gotten to speak to him yet.

"So..." she said as the conversation paused, "who wants to tell me why Jack nearly jumped out of his skin when I took his hand and you were all so insistent we didn't mention the marriage to him the one time you got a clear message to us?"

Nightlight's glow flickered with interest as the other four Guardians looked anywhere but directly at Katherine, each looking distinctly uncomfortable.

She paused, then covered her face with one hand, leaning on the arm of her chair, certain she already knew the answer to her question but needing to ask anyone, in the vain hope that she was wrong. "Please, please tell me he knows about the marriage."

"Well, ya see..." Bunny said, flailing a little as he searched for words.

"Everyone knew about the marriage for so long, we forgot that we hadn't been acting married for a long time," Tooth said. "So we thought Jack knew. But then...after the dust had settled...he had no clue we where married...and he was so happy to have friends..."

"And very unused to anyone seeing him," North added. "Or liking him."

"So you just...didn't tell him that taking the oath was like getting married?" Katherine said, in a tone somewhere between disbelief and resignation. "Did you leave that part out when he took it?"

"We had a lot of work to do on th' marriage ourselves," Bunny said, defensively. "Jus' hadn't realized 'till th' Snowflake pretty much pointed it out wi' out realizin' he was. We could hardly tell him when he was still shaky an' we weren't solid. We jus' assumed he knew what bein' a Guardian meant, never really asked 'im proper 'til it was all over. So...kind of?"

"He didn't even realize about how we protect the children," Tooth said sadly. "But we'd just been doing it from afar, so..."

"Was my idea," North said proudly. "We woo Jack! Give him time to become friends, then court him and ask proper after telling him all."

Katherine paused, looking over at Nightlight with a meaningful gaze. Nightlight shrugged slowly, spreading out his hands, and Katherine sighed.

"I love all of you very, very much," she said. "So I want you to hear this with love and fondness. But dammit. Dammit, everyone. He needed to know. He deserves to know."

"He's barely gotten comfortable around us as it is," Tooth argued. "He'd feel so much more awkward if he'd known."

"But how much more awkward is he going to feel when he finds out?" Katherine countered. "Or if he finds out from someone else?"

The other four exchanged looks that said clearer than words that they had worried about it, but hadn't wanted to face it.

Katherine sighed again, smoothing down her hair with both hands and taking a deep breath with her head tilted back, hands on her shoulders. "We leave for a few hundred years and it all goes sour," she said to the ceiling. "I can't leave any of you alone for five minutes, let alone a few hundred years, can I."

The words were scolding but the tone was fond, so while the older Guardians shuffled in place they smiled as well.

"I want to hear more of what happened while we were gone," she said, reaching for Nightlight's hand. "But I'd rather wait until Jack is back to talk about what we did. There really wasn't that much, considering how much time we needed just for healing." She paused as everyone got settled again in their chairs, taking a drink of her cocoa. "But we need to tell Jack what he's gotten himself into. And if you haven't told him by this time next year, then I will."