Stephanie's Second First Halloween

Chapter 6: It's Just Who He Is

J hadn't really known what he was expecting, but it certainly hadn't been a young girl in Scarecrow's mask staring down the (very panicked) real Spooky while Eddie and the Hatter cuddled. He almost thought he was getting a bit too into his imagination, but he hadn't missed his meds in ages.

"Hey, Spooky! Wassup?" J grinned wider, delightfully confused when Jonathan seemed to melt with relief at their arrival.

"Oh, thank Fear!" Jonathan looked quickly between them, his friends, and the child. "I can't– are you an utter buffoon?!" He suddenly shouted, his eyes locked on something right behind J.

Curious, J turned around to see. Oh, ol' Twoface was screaming and holding his head. Right, he wasn't immune to all the Toxin stuff, was he? Poor Harv... Oh well, he'd get over it soon enough, no real harm–

Twoface screamed, swinging a hand at Ivy with a roar that really didn't sound human. A guy that big had no business reacting this violently to a little fear! Seriously, wha–

Harley squeaked as she was backhanded away, landing hard enough to leave bruises, but lightly enough that she probably didn't break anything. Dammit, J really wished that hadn't happened — he couldn't just let that slide, now could he?

One cut from his poison-tipped cards would have the brute out like a light for at least a day, but where was the fun in that? J cackled like the madman he was, jumping at Twoface with slightly less than his full force (this was a friend, after all. And, more importantly, wasn't Batman).

J hated to attack the guy, it wasn't really Twoface's fault he was lashing out like this, he probably thought they were all monsters or something. But he'd hurt Harley, and therefore had to pay. It was just the way things worked, it wasn't like J could change it!

// A few hours later... (You know you said/thought it in that weird meme voice. Don't lie. 😜)

Remind me to hurt that demonic buffoon. Was Harv's first thought when consciousness came crawling back.

We did this on purpose, remember? Ugh, Harvey always forgot how badly they reacted to this stuff. Though, it didn't usually hurt quite this much...

What's your point? Harv responded petulantly. He was definitely going to hurt Jonathan later, and only the Coin could possibly stop him.

...Were we in a fight? Harvey rolled their shoulder, wincing at a certain soreness he knew all too well from their rough life. He hadn't opened their eyes yet, but something in the air was familiar. Where are we?

Open our eyes and find out. Harv mentally shrugged, trying to act like he didn't care.

What if we're still under the Toxin? Harvey asked hesitantly.

Yeah, what if we are? Harv challenged.

Harv... He'd never been good at dealing with stress, he didn't want to face any monstrous hallucinations again.

Harv opened their eyes with a groan. He dealt with the bullshit that Harvey couldn't, he always had, always would. It was just who he was.

"What the fuck?" Harv groaned, sitting up on the couch in their fucking house. He stared at the other couch (the one he liked better, fuck you very much), where the other participants in this night of Hell were seated.

"Language, Twozy!" Perky McClown demanded, her face stern. "Dere's a child present."

There was, indeed, a child present. A young girl who was playing with a lamp in the corner, apparently trying to figure why it looked so strange and twisty (the answer being that it pissed Harvey off, so Harv liked it). Fuckity-fuck fuck fuck. He hated watching his language.

"Duck you." Was the only compromise he was willing to make. "What the duck are you doing in our house?"

"It seemed the safest place to bring you, after Joker knocked you out." Spooks explained reasonably, as if he wasn't the reason for all of this. "We didn't want to get sent to Arkham while we waited for you, Edward, and Ha- Jervis to recover."

"What a great way to spend Stephanie's second first Halloween." Green Bean muttered. 

"Who's what?" Harv grumbled, his attention grabbed by the mention of second anything.

"Stephanie." The little girl raised her hand, a little hesitant but shockingly unbothered by the big yelly man with a fucking half-mutated face. "It's my first Halloween since I got adopted, and my first time really trick-or-treating."

"Adopted?" Oh, this was bad. He glared at the assembled Rogues. "One of you fu- ducking adopted a kid?!"

"Technically I haven't finished forging the papers yet." Green Bean answered, as if that was at all an okay thing to say.

"You kidnapped a kid?!" And got her exposed to Fear Toxin, the fucking idiotic twit...

"N–" He did some weird choking thing, grimaced, then said, "Well, yes, I suppose I technically did. But I kidnapped her from foster care, and I've been babysitting her for years!"

"Why would that make it okay?!" Harv yelled, standing, relishing in the other man's flinch. Maybe he really was pissed about the kidnapping thing, maybe he just wanted this night to be over, maybe it was a little of both — he really didn't care, he needed to get his anger out somehow.

"I couldn't just let her rot with some simple-minded family that would beat the intelligence out of her!" To Harv's surprise, the other man jumped up and stared him down, despite their laughable size difference. "If you'd seen the family they were planning to put her with... I don't even want to imagine how bad her depression would've gotten. She's been through so much, and she's so young, and I just want to help her, but now our first holiday has been a disaster, and I should've known I couldn't raise a child!"

Edward's voice got higher pitched as he talked. And he kept talking, flooding the room with his vocal panic and everything that had happened and...

Harv? Harvey whispered. Maybe I should–

Please. Harv had never been good at emotions, comforting others, being nice. He couldn't handle this stuff.

"Edward, calm down, it's okay." Harvey dealt with the soft shit Harv couldn't, he always had, he always would. It was just who he was.