Darkest Just Before the Dawn

Prologue

It was nearly midnight.

John had stayed up to finish some paperwork. Balancing "Batman" life and "Detective" life was hard. Some nights, like tonight, when the sky opened up and thunder cackled into the darkness, not even the most foolish of criminals would dare to leave their hiding places.

Josie was half asleep in his lap. The Cardigan Welsh Corgi daemon had spent the day chasing bad guys, and was exhausted.

"Daddy?"

John looked up. A five year-old girl stood half asleep in the doorway of his office. Her daemon shifted from small form to small form.

Josie leaped down from his lap and John stood up. He walked over to his little girl and knelt down.

"What are you doing up, little birdie? It's past your bedtime."

Raven looked at him with scared green eyes. "I'm scared." She said.

John smiled a bit, and scooped her up into his arms. "We'll soon fix that." He said. He walked down the hallway to her room. Lightning crashed and thunder growled outside her window. Raven hid her face into his shirt. John settled Raven down onto her bed and tucked her in. He then sat down next to her.

"You know Raven; I was scared of thunder when I was your age. But your grandma Sally told me once that you have to stand up to your fears, or else they'll never go away."

The little girl nodded slowly. She then asked "When's mommy gonna be home?"

John sighed and ruffled her black hair. Josie jumped up onto the bed and laid on his lap. "I don't know little birdie. Maybe she's chasing down bad guys."

Raven pouted a bit. He lifted her chin "Hey, maybe I can tell you a story before Mommy gets home."

Her eyes lit up. John smiled and started, "Now this is a story of adventure, excitement and a bit of romance. This is the story on how me and Mommy met."

Raven snuggled down deep into the sheets, making herself comfortable before he continued.

"It was a long time ago, when I was a young cop and she was new to the force…"