I'm not entirely sure if there is anything I can say to justify my long absence. Jesusrocks, you must be about ready to slaughter me. I was checking all my stories and it came to my attention that I never finished this one, so I'll be trying to get the next 5 chapters up in a little more of a reasonable, timely fashion. Hope you enjoy!

It was Halloween night. A three-quarters moon sat in its celestial backdrop, looking lonely and lost, like a dime in a vast, dark pocket. Kalabar walked down the street, smiling cheerily at everyone he happened past and trying very hard to keep his emotions- fear, nerves, anticipation, excitement, a touch of anger, sorrow- in check. Some parents or children, out by themselves, smiled back, but most took a tighter grip on their childrens' hands and bustled away. He had forgotten. This was a different world, one where he was not the kind-hearted boy who would be running for mayor in three day's time, he was a flamboyantly dressed young man, roaming the streets by himself on Halloween night.

The houses got progressively smaller as he went. This was where Gwen was living? It was a big step down from Cromwell Manor. Kalabar went up the front steps of 56 Rowan Street, but there was a feeling, prickling from his scalp to his spine. He knew this feeling- his magical second sense was telling him that if he went to the front door, he would not be well received. And he had learned, over the years, that this second sense of his rarely was wrong.

So he went around to the back of the house, squeezing between the wall and the trashcans, vaulting over the rattly chain-link fence without a sound. He walked over to the back door, but there it was, the prickling feeling again. Was he not supposed to go in at all? All he wanted was to see his bright and beautiful Gwen- it had been almost precisely two years since he had seen her sweet face, almost precisely two years since Aggie Cromwell, clothes in a state of disarray, hair straggling off her head as she pulled at it, had come to him, screaming incoherently about how Gwen had gone missing. One minute before the portal closed, a fire-message had come through, that Gwen was in the mortal world, and not to follow her. Kalabar had pounded on the bricks of the portal, shouting her name and trying not to lose it in public. He had pulled a softly sobbing Aggie into a hug and vowed that, come Halloween the next year, when the portal opened again, he'd go through and bring her back. He had searched for her, but she had been nowhere to be found, and he had returned, unendurably, empty-handed. Over the course of the intervening year, Aggie had scryed her so often that she eventually found her, and now Kalabar was here, to take her home, where she belonged. So he walked over to the window of the tiny house and looked inside.

Gwen was there, just as lovely and perfect as he always remembered her, hovering over a steaming pot on the stove. She turned to a cutting board and picked up a knife. Wielding it deftly like she was used to doing this. She began cubing potatoes and dumping them into the pot. Why was she cutting potatoes with a knife? She could use her magic and do it in a second. She must really want potatoes- she was cutting up so many. And then, through the door, walked the reason Aggie had been reticent to tell him where Gwen was, the reason she had left, the reason she hadn't come back.

A man walked through the swinging door into the kitchen, and it was hard to miss the way Gwen stood taller when he came in, the light that shone in her eyes when she looked at him. Kalabar watched with his mouth open as the man swooped her into a kiss, presenting her with a bouquet of orange marigolds when they broke apart. Kalabar could see their mouths moving, but couldn't hear what words were exchanged. They both jumped at a sound, and looked over at a corner of the kitchen, laughing. The man walked over and scooped something out of a bassinette- no, please let it be anything other than what he thought it was. It was an infant, wearing pink footy pajamas, who burbled happily when the man lifted her into the air and blew raspberries on her round stomach. The man put his arm around Gwen's shoulders and she wrapped her arms around him, faces so full of love and happiness as they looked at each other and their child.

Kalabar backed away ungracefully, a hand pressed over his mouth to keep himself from screaming out her name, not wanting to witness the scene for another moment. She had permitted a mortal to marry her, and now was raising his child, diluting her Cromwell bloodlines with his mortal taint. He wanted to collapse on the weedy ground, but instead he blundered over the fence and staggered past the trashcans, beyond caring who saw or heard him. He made it back to the portal sight, and sent himself across, reeling from shock and horror. Aggie was waiting for him on the other side, the hope on her face so strong as to be sickening. As soon as she saw that he was by himself, her face fell, tears welling in her eyes. "She's married- there's a child," he managed to choke out, and now Aggie covered her mouth with her hand, astonished. They both knew that leaving her child was something she wouldn't do.

Kalabar pushed past her and stumbled blindly through the streets, back to his college dorm, where he collapsed on his bed. When his sorrow was spent, he fell into a deep sleep. He would think about everything the next day, when he could handle it. And he'd find a way to make good on his promise to Aggie the next day- he'd find a way to reunite them.

I'm not sure why I did two Kalabar shots right in a row- I think it's because I've basically ignored him thus far in this fic. But oh well. This is the moment I was referencing when I said, "He saw for himself, in later years, that she and her husband had children," (in Reasons, the one immediately before this) because I think there probably would have had to be some sort of catalyst to keep him from constantly pestering Gwen to come back. Disclaimer- I know Gwen seems really young to be a mother, but Judith Hoag (actress who played her) was 30 when Halloweentown 1 was made, making her technically 17 when Marnie was born, but I've changed that so that she had her when she was 20 (a little less scary that way,) so I'm good. Also, a fire-message is like mail, but is delivered by magic and takes less time than traditional postage, and can only go between world when the portal is open, on Halloween night. Hope you liked it!