I'm back! My desktop went down and I had to wait to get the money to be able to buy a laptop. Please enjoy!

Jamie laughed as he waved from the doorway of the house, watching as all his friends made their way to their own homes for evening. The sun had long since set and it was full night in Pennsylvania. After the group had gotten over the initial shock of Emma's linage and subsequent powers, they had spent the evening hanging out together; they had continued to laugh and joke as they had in the coffee shop, while also peppering Emma with numerous questions about life in Arendelle, about Jack and Elsa, and eager child-like requests to see her use her powers again.

Julia and Sophie had returned home just before dinner time, the younger girl gleefully carrying in a stack of pizza boxes to the group; Jamie had sent a message to his mom that they still hanging out together.

Sophie had retreated up to her room first, escaping the world of grown ups for her own sanctuary of computer and chatting with friends. Julia had joined her shortly after, claiming the excuse of weariness and the call of a good book as she had climbed the steps after their pizza feast.

Sven's imposing but vigilant figure had sat in the rear of the room, quietly working on a tablet as he kept watch on everything. He too had retreated after Emma's teasing that she would be just fine in the downstairs of the home; she had promised that she could handle herself if any couch pillow fights were to arise. He had bowed to her, Jamie swore he was sporting the hint of a smirk, and gone upstairs to leave the rambunctious group to themselves.

Jamie closed the front door, letting out an exhaled breath.

"Well," he said, clapping his hands together and walking back into the living room. "That was fun."

Emma chuckled, picking up her can of soda and drinking from it.

"They were nice," she told him. "I can see why you all got along as well as you did."

She leaned back on the couch she was sitting on, curling her feet up under her and leaning her head back against the back of the cushioned fabric. She held up her can again.

"Though, I kind of wish this was a good glass of wine. The palace has an excellent selection."

He grinned. "Sorry that a mere peasant like me can't provide well enough for Your Highness. I am afraid I can only offer our finest root beer."

She laughed.

"Oh god, don't make me sound like my mother, please. That's my worst nightmare."

He smiled, coming to sit down next to her.

"Nora, right?" he asked her curiously.

"That would be her," she said, turning her head to look at him. "Princess Nora of Arendelle. Though, TECHNICALLY, not a princess. Don't tell her that though. Princess by marriage, not that she cares."

She snorted.

He smiled at her. "So what was that call all about then? Got you pretty riled up."

She leaned back forward, looking down at her hands and was silent for a long moment.

"I mentioned something about the Jewel Ball right? The one that was started for Henrik's birthday?"

Jamie nodded.

"It's next month," she continued. "And I made arrangements with Grandfather, with Anton, that I would miss this year. Royals miss all the time, it's a grand event and all but things happen."

"Nora got word that I was going to miss this year, and got all upset that I wasn't going to be there for her to show off to the dozens of people she likes to invite. "My daughter is the Crown Princess." and all. Also, knowing Nora, she's got more men lined up for me to look at."

"What?"

Emma smirked, looking over at him.

"Oh yes," Emma told him. "Matchmaker Nora, finding only the finest of blue blooded nobles as marriage prospects for me. And their family trees look more like wreaths."

Jamie barked out a laugh at this. "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh at that."

"I do," she told him.

"Anyways," she continued. "Nora. My mother, likes to show me off whenever she can. Future Queen of Arendelle, why not?"

"I thought that you said Caroline raised you, your grandmother?"

"I lived with my parents until I was thirteen," she told him. "Then I begged her and grandfather to let me stay."

"Why?" he asked, confusion and curiosity in his voice as he watched her.

She was silent for a long moment. "I said it was a long story," she told him, finishing off her soda. "But I can tell you that my parents are very selfish people, and they liked to move a lot. And, I just got tired of it. So, I made the choice to leave them and stay in Arendelle."

She smiled up at him. "I have to say, I'm a little jealous of all of this," she said, gesturing to the house around her.

"Of this?" he asked her incredulously. "YOU, are jealous of this?"

She nodded.

"You've got an awesome mom," she continued. "Nice friends, and a loving home? Yeah, gotta admit the green eyed monster is coming out."

"Well it wasn't all sunshine, I can promise you that," he muttered. "Mom had to work hard to get this all for us. And we made a lot of things work while I was growing up. Lots of imagination and trips to the library."

"But she did it because she wanted to give you the best she could," Emma told him. "Nora does everything because it's best for Nora, nor has she ever done a days work in her life."

"So yeah," she continued, nudging his shoulder with her own. "You lucky goose."

He frowned. "What?"

"Isn't that the phrase?"

"Duck. It's lucky duck."

"Oh," she said, grinned. "Whatever bird you are, you were lucky."

He grinned at her, wrapping an arm around her and hugging her.

"So, why don't you go back for the ball? That would get your mom off your back, right?"

She shook her head. "I'm not going to give into her demands, let her parade me around the ball like some prize to be won. Besides, I came here to see you. I don't want to leave early for something I do every year."

"But you are kind of important for it, right?"

"Well, I am heir apparent," she admitted. "So, yes."

"So you should be there," he told her.

She shot him a glare.

"I could go with you," he said, smiling at her. "Scare off all those blue-blooded lords."

She thought for a moment, a slow smile crossing over her face as everything processed in her head.

"That," she said slowly. "That might just work."

He smiled at her. "That's what this, this relationship thing is about right? Helping each other and caring for each other?"

She laughed. "What girly magazine did you get that line out of?"

"Hey, I'm TRYING to be romantic here," he said, leaning back.

"Oh, VERY romantic dear," she said, holding up her fists. "You shall defend my honor?"

He shoved at her shoulder as she cackled with laughter, a wide smile on his face as he watched her.

"Well?" he asked. "May I go to the ball with you, your highness?"

He bowed slightly, still seated next to her.

She continued to laugh. "This is like, a reverse ball invitation," she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

She nodded. "You may," she said. "Thank you."

He wrapped her back up in a hug, leaning back against the cushions with her.

"So, care to tell me more about this den of vipers I seem to have invited myself into?"

She snorted. "Just one, and she's, she's something else. Everyone else will love you."

"You sure about that?" he asked.

"Yeah," she assured him. "My father, Emil, largely ignores everything. And the rest of the family will like you if I am happy."

He gave a nervous chuckle.

"So," Emma said. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," he said, squeezing her shoulders, and pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "Now is as good of time as any."

Emma smiled up at him before she sighed. "Sure there isn't any wine?"

He laughed. "Oh come on, she can't be THAT bad."

"You'll see," Emma said, a sing-song note in her voice and began to tell Jamie about her childhood.

They both slept in late the next day, having stayed up late talking about a variety of things before retiring to their respective rooms; the birds had begun their early morning songs when they had mounted the stairs to the bedrooms. He had walked her the few steps from the top of the stairs to the door of the guest bedroom she was staying in, smiling as he leaned close to her.

"Good night Emma," he'd told her, giving her a soft kiss.

He'd stepped back a moment later, turning and walking down the hall to his own room and leaving her to her thoughts and a smile.

She'd spoken of her parents in a very distant manner, like they were just two other entities that existed within the royal family rather than two people that had tried to raise her. Jamie had conceded very quickly that they had both failed in that particular quest though, silently amazed that she was as humble and giving as she was after discovering more about her parentage.

She also told him happily about her cousins, her many, many cousins. She went on about life in the palace and some of the things she was expected to do and responsible for. In turn, he told her more about what it was like growing up in the small town of Burgess with Jack and with his friends.

Neither of them talked any more about the Jewel Ball, the strange proposal and Emma's change of plans to her trip going unspoken for the rest of the evening as they spoke of so many other things.

The next day dawned overcast and rainy, causing everyone to stay inside and avoid the foul weather. Jamie and Emma were huddled close together over a checkers board, Emma laughing as she moved one of her round pieces several times over three of Jamie's black ones.

"King me!" she declared, reaching the other end of the board and picking up Jamie's tokens that she had just skipped over.

"You're too good at this," Jamie muttered sullenly, adding a second red playing piece to the indicated plastic token.

Julia chuckled from her place on the couch, the book she had been reading from the night before propped open on her lap as she worked a crochet hook slowly through a length of yarn. She had a pair of gemmed reading glasses perched on her nose. The television was playing a movie in the background that no one seemed to be paying attention to. Sophie had been watching the movie that was playing, but was now in the kitchen making herself something to eat.

Sven sat in an armchair, working silently on a tablet again as he kept vigil over his charge. At the top of every hour, he got up and went out the front door to check the premises before coming back inside and rechecking that all of the doors were locked; the rest of the inhabitants had long since gotten used to this routine that he had adopted, despite their assurances that it wasn't needed, and allowed him to his devices.

Overall the day was shaping up to be laid back and lazy.

Emma captured another one of Jamie's checker pieces, causing him to groan.

They both looked up and over at the kitchen area at Sophie's startled exclamation and curse. Julia set her hands down in her lap and looked up as well.

"Soph?" she said, a worried note in her voice. "Everything okay?"

"No!" came the worried reply. "No! Mom!"

All four adults in the living room stood quickly, and rushed into the kitchen area, all of them gasping in unison as they saw the fire. A roll of paper towels had fallen over too close to the stove that Sophie was cooking on and caught fire, which had then caught the laminate countertop on fire and was starting to creep up to the cabinets.

Sophie looked over at them in a panic, tears in her eyes and jumped as the pan she had been using to try to make french fries in popped loudly. Julia moved to take a step forward when Emma threw up her hands ahead of her and ice shot out to coat heavily over the stove, counter and cabinets.

No one moved for a long moment as they stared at the kitchen.

Jamie was the first to make a move, taking several long strides forward to Sophie and looking her over.

"You okay? Did you get burned?"

Sophie shook her head, pulling her arms in close around her and looking up at him with a nervous look.

"No," she said. "No, I'm fine."

She looked behind him to stare at Emma. Julia was stunned as well, staring at the frozen kitchen before moving forward to wrap her daughter up in a hug.

Emma turned to Sven. "Call someone that we can trust to come in here and clean this up, fix everything and do whatever that needs to be done," she told him. "Get them here as soon as possible."

Sven bowed, backing out of the room as he pulled a mobile phone from his jacket pocket and began to dial numbers.

Emma sighed, waving another hand to clear all of the ice that she had cast.

"Sorry," she murmured.

"No," Jamie said, moving back to stand by her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You stopped it after all, it could have been much worse."

She nodded, giving him a smile.

"Did-did you know she could do that?" Sophie asked him.

Jamie turned and nodded at Sophie.

"Yeah," he told her. "Yeah, I did. She's, she's related to Jack."

He gave them both a nervous smile.

They stared back at him.

"Jack Frost," Emma clarified softly. "And also the former queen of Arendelle that inspired The Snow Queen fairytale. They were married actually."

Julia's mouth fell open.

"No way," Sophie breathed.

'"You mean," Julia started, holding up a hand. "You mean, all those stories that you told when you were a kid, all those times you were talking to nothing out your window, you were actually talking to Jack?"

Jamie nodded.

"So Jack, Jack FROST, is," Julia paused. "Is REAL?"

They both nodded.

"So that means," Sophie continued. "That means those dreams I had when I had when I was a kid, the ones about going to see the Easter Bunny and riding on all of the eggs? That is real too?"

Jamie frowned. "I'm not sure about the riding on the eggs but yes, he's real too. Big, tall, Australian."

Sophie gasped. "I knew it," she said softly. "And the Tooth Fairy too, right?"

"Yes!" Jamie said excitedly. "And the Sandman and Santa Claus!"

Julia took several steps back, her hand reaching back for the counter with her eyes wide as she shook her head.

"But, how?" she asked, a mixture of awe, confusion and shock in her voice.

Jamie and Emma looked at each other.

"Well," Jamie started. "It began with the Man in the Moon."

I hope everyone enjoyed! So sorry that it took me so long to get this one posted, losing my harddrive in my desktop took it's toll! I will do my best to get the next update out as soon as possible.

Please let me know what you thought! Love, Aria