Stephanie's Second First Halloween

Chapter 3: Sugar And Spice (Aren't Very Nice)

"I still don't get why that mean old lady was so mad." Stephanie huffed, crossing her arms with a pout.

"Well, Sweetie, I don't think she was used to being told off for the amount of sugar in her candy." Edward said soothingly. He looked to the others for help, but Jervis was still busy trying to wrap his head around the concept of a kid that didn't like sugar, while Jonathan and Corvin were locked in a heated debate about whether that woman was too old to expose to Fear Toxin.

(At least, Edward assumed that was what they were arguing about, from what he could overhear of Jonathan's harsh whispers.)

Looks like he was on his own. "I'm fairly certain a lot of the houses will be giving out sugary treats." Because that's sort of the point of the holiday, he didn't add.

"But then what will I eat?" Stephanie pouted. For a girl that had already suffered much worse in her life, this seemed to be a particularly devastating concept.

"Well, um." Edward fumbled for a second. He'd never actually babysat her around Halloween before, the sugar thing hadn't occurred to him. "What did you used to do? Before, well..." Yeah Eddie, bring up the kid's dead dad, great idea. Times like this almost made him question his own genius.

"...Daddy didn't usually–" She stopped, sniffling for a second. "He was always busy on Halloween."

"You've never celebrated Halloween?" Jervis exclaimed in horror, snapped out of his own head much easier than usual by the comment.

"I celebrated!" Stephanie defended, turning old sorrow into directed anger with much too much skill. "I made costumes, and decorated, and watched scary movies, and everything."

"By yourself?" Jonathan asked. He and Corvin had stopped arguing to stare at her. Corvin squawked worriedly from his perch on Jonathan's shoulder.

"Daddy said Mommy used to do it with me, before I could remember." Stephanie shrugged. "And sometimes he got home in time to watch half of something. He always promised we'd do more next year, but work always got in the way."

Edward had faced bullies, his father, angry bosses, squads of policemen, and the Batman himself on a regular basis — yet the sight of this little girl barely holding back tears? That made him panic like nothing ever had in his life.

"You know, a lot of my friends aren't negatively affected by sugar." Was what came out of his mouth for some fucking reason. When Edward caught up with his own logic, he grinned. "We could go out tomorrow and give them whatever candy you have fun collecting tonight, and then buy you your own healthy treats."

"Like what?" Stephanie asked, allowing the topic change with gratitude.

"Whatever you want!" Edward promised. At a glare from Jonathan, he added, "Within our budget. Until I get those papers sorted out, I can't risk getting caught stealing anything." Falsifying an entirely new identity, plus adoption paperwork, was proving a tad difficult. Mostly due to his no-lying compulsion, but he'd figure it out. He always did.

Stephanie smiled hopefully. "Can we watch scary movies instead of getting treats?"

"We can do both." Edward assured her, a tiny piece of his heart breaking. "So long as Jon isn't the one that picks the movies."

"I do have some understanding of what's appropriate for kids." Jonathan muttered mutinously, but they all knew that he tended to forget himself when it came to horror.

Stephanie grinned brightly, already running off to the next house to get another bucketful of candy. This trick-or-treating thing was actually kind of fun, now that she didn't have to care about the sugar.

"I want to knock on every door in Gotham!" Stephanie announced, pulling Edward into an apartment building. It was going to be a long night...