"Daddy, look."

Niles followed his son's gaze, as well as his pointing finger, to a sign attached to a telephone pole. It advertised a haunted house, to be held the day before Halloween. It was a charity event, being run by volunteers from local police and fire departments. According to the flyer, there would be free candy for children. "You want to go?" Niles asked his son, surprised.

David nodded. He looked at his father with his familiar, pleading expression. It was an art David had mastered, and it rarely failed.

"Well, my love, what do you think?" Niles left the question up to his wife. The last thing he wanted to do was take his son on an outing which was sure to result in nightmares, but he didn't want to be the one to say no, either.

"Why not?" Daphne asked, smiling. David cheered immediately. "It sounds like fun."

"Don't you think it might be a bit scary?" Niles asked hesitantly.

"Of course, darling. That's the fun of it. We'll all go together. You'll love it."

Niles sighed, knowing he'd lost. "I don't know. Aren't you going to be scared?" Niles tried to sound as if he were joking, but he was far more concerned about his own aversion to blood. He wasn't sure if he could handle even fake blood.

Daphne laughed. "Darling, I've grown up with eight brothers. I don't scare easily."

The subject was now closed. Niles knew he couldn't get out of it, not without breaking his son's heart. Over the next several days, David chattered excitedly about the haunted house. When he mentioned the subject in front of Martin, former detective Crane readily agreed to join the family, since he knew several of the police officers who would be running it.

Much to Niles' dismay, the days leading up to the event passed quickly. He told himself over and over that he was making too much of this. There couldn't possibly be anything in the haunted house that would actually hurt him. But he knew enough about horror movies to know that this could potentially be very frightening.

Soon Niles and Daphne stood on line waiting to enter the haunted house, with Martin and David right behind them. "Is this like the stuff you saw when you were a cop?" David asked.

Martin smiled down at his beloved grandson. "Well, I've seen a few dead bodies in my time, but no actual monsters. This is much scarier." David's enthusiasm was contagious.

Meanwhile, Niles glanced uncertainly at his wife. "Are you sure you won't be scared?"

"I told you, Niles. Me brothers used to make a game of trying to scare me. When I stopped getting scared, they gave up. Don't worry about me." She gave his hand a squeeze, making Niles wonder if she knew what was really on his mind.

Soon the doors opened, and they were allowed into the building. Smoke machines made it nearly impossible to see. People moved single-file, very slowly, through a path illuminated by dim lights. At first, Niles thought this might not be so bad. But, just a few feet in, he found himself face to face, quite literally, with a vampire. "Ah!"

Daphne turned to her husband and saw the shocked expression he wore. "Oh, darling, I don't think he wants our blood!" She smiled at him.

"Of course not," Niles replied, nervously. He was grateful for the way she kept hold of his hand as they walked on.

Just when Niles had recovered from the shock, he was soon startled by a man wearing a gruesome mask. He appeared to be missing an eyeball, as it hung down in front of him by a single, bloody vein. But the most frightening part of the costume was the chainsaw in his hands, which he took care to rev, just inches from where Niles stood.

"Me husband's very delicate. Please don't cut him up," Daphne said to the maniac, without even a hint of fear.

They continued on in this manner, with Daphne responding to every potentially scary person with some comment. Gradually, Niles began to relax. He even started to laugh at some of her jokes. But then came the most fearsome part of the entire experience, at least as far as Niles was concerned: a spider web, complete with a spider. Niles was not entirely convinced it was fake; he expected it to crawl toward him at any second.

"It's just a harmless insect," Daphne whispered, as she led him on.

Much to Niles' surprise, he saw an EXIT sign just up ahead. He tentatively pushed the door open, and found himself in a parking lot, apparently having passed all of the dangers. "We made it," he said, unable to hide his relief.

"It appears we did," Daphne replied, grinning at him. She kissed him.

"Wow, that was so cool!" David's voice interrupted the kiss.

"Did you and Grandpa have fun?" Daphne asked her son.

David nodded enthusiastically. "Did you see that guy's eyeball?!"

"The maniac with the chainsaw is a buddy of mine from my days on the force," Martin announced.

"Is this your grandson?" A man walked up near Martin, greeting him with an affectionate shoulder punch.

David nodded proudly at the man. "I'm David."

"Well, I guess that means you can have extra candy!" The police officer put two handfuls into David's plastic pumpkin.

"Thank you!" Already the excitement in David's eyes was obvious. Even before trick-or-treating, he'd already gotten a generous amount of candy.

But Niles wasn't thinking about David, or the sugar high that would likely prevent him from going to bed tonight. He looked Daphne in the eye. "Thank you."

Grinning, Daphne leaned forward to kiss him. "I've known you long enough to know when you're trying to be brave. I know something like this isn't easy for you, but luckily, I'm brave enough for both of us."

That led to several more kisses. They were no longer aware of David or Martin's stares. For so many years, Niles had loved Daphne, even when it went against all logic. There were so many things about her that he admired, her humor, her kindness, the way her smile never failed to lift his spirits. But even now, he found that there were things he'd never noticed before, or had forgotten about. At moments like these, Niles fell in love with her all over again. It was a feeling he sincerely hoped would never end.

The End