A/N: I´m glad so many people have been reading this actually! The graphics are making me happy as I understand that people have many reasons to read anonymously. So as long as my job is being done, it´s all good. I have to apologize because this one will be drastically shorter and simpler than the others because the Xmas one will need a lot more of me, so I need to go slow this week (also I´m busy with holidays IRL too). Please be patient with me ha-ha.

Like always, thanks to my Commodore AB for helping out so much :)

PS: remember anons and members, anyone can send me prompts here

PS2: kudos to who got the reference in the title of the chapter and to who knows the song I used here! (if u don´t, i´ts from dire straits, Romeo and Juliet) :P

Also, I wanna to explain something about the universe of this fic versus the canon series: the whole Isa-clone subplot never happened, but the dinner for love confession did (and it succeeded, that´s why Ed and Ozzie are together and everyone knows and see it naturally), while some of the other plots happened or are still ongoing (you will know which ones when I need and use them in the chapters, like in this one).

R&R, Enjoy while we have the Gotham hiatus! And see ya next week with the Xmas special!

Chapter 4: Nightmare Night

Nighttime. The sky was pitch black, the moon and the stars were covered by dense clouds, all the clocks in the city marked past midnight and most of the houses had all the lights turned off and the people inside were sleeping. At least that was the case in the mayor´s mansion; the day had been long and tiring enough to Oswald Cobblepot and Edward Nygma between mayoral work and underworld operation and even more adding 'Iris-services' to this. The little one was lovely, but demanding in the parenting sector, but even so Ed and Oswald wouldn´t trade her for anything in the world; despite the fact that not only had their worries increased (the couple had been discovering the meaning of the expression 'having a kid is having another heart living outside your body' each day) but also their tasks. So they had all the reasons to be exhausted.

It was going to be a calm and ordinary night of sleep; satisfied with the results of the day, the Penguin couldn´t feel more at ease embraced by his chief of staff while everything outside was dark and silent, his eyes heavy and his conscience ready to leave him. For Ed it was too late, he had already gone to dreamland. That is until he heard footsteps on the corridor.

'Oh no.' Oswald thought. 'It can´t be her. It´s so late at night… She certainly has been sleeping for hours already!'

"Papa! Daddy!" Iris appeared in front of Cobblepot with watered eyes.

'Crap.' his mind completed. The little girl was everything to him, but not when he was trying to sleep so badly and when he was pretty sure that no one was in danger. "What now, my nestling?" he managed to say.

"I… I can´t sleep in my room." she determined.

"Why´s that, hummingbird?"

"Because I´m scared." Iris trembled.

"Don´t tell me that today you decided that your dolls give you the creeps. You loved them until this morning and they cost me a good fortune you know!" Oswald rebuked her.

"That´s not it!" she yelled back. "I just had a bad dream about that Mad-"

"Iris?" Ed woke up. "What are you doing here, honeybee?"

"Daddy!" she finally started crying. "I´m afraid of the guy that was on the news this morning!"

"Ed. What the hell is she talking about?" Oswald wasn´t even a tiny bit happy hearing that. It was a rule of theirs to make Iris stay away from anything related to Gotham´s crimes and violence. She simply didn´t need to know about the darkness of the city, at least not so young.

"Os, It wasn´t on purpose, I swear." Nygma started apologizing. "Some new information about Jervis Tetch just popped out and suddenly the newspapers and the TV news were all talking about the last attack with the Alice blood again! So she saw about the founders party and what almost happened to you! When I arrived she had already watched it and started asking questions about the Mad Hatter and about why her papa almost died!"

"What? Then that´s why? Is she having nightmares about it?!" suddenly the mayor looked more wrathful than tired.

"Of course it could happen, Oswald. She has already lost parents before!" Ed felt the same way as him but wanted to see it by the rational side. "Iris, my dear child, I can see that you are upset. Do you want a hug?" he would try to comfort her first thing. She just nodded in response and walked to their bed, taking his offer.

"Hummingbird, I´m sorry for not listening to you. Papa is just so tired that I wasn´t thinking straight. Of course your feelings are important and you can come here if you are scared." he joined them in the hug.

"I… I can´t have anything happening to papa or daddy because of bad guys! I can´t lose my only family!" she cried harder. This was definitely disturbing her. Still she couldn´t know how they dealt with these guys themselves.

"And it won´t, okay?" Ed was the first to declare. "Do you know why?"

"Because your daddy always protects me and I do the same for him, hummingbird. Bad guys do exist, but they are not invincible. We also have other people that take good care of us, many friends that are like family." Oswald explained without detailing what it meant.

"And we will always protect you too, Iris. All of us. Because we love you." Nygma reassured.

"Yes, hummingbird. You are our life. We would never be apart of you." he kissed her tiny hand. With this little exchange she stopped crying. "Good, you are calmer. What do we do now?"

"According to the books, we must send her to her room and encourage her to be brave and have positive thoughts." Nygma stated in a very professional tone.

"Well, Eddie, how about 'screw your books' and we simply let her sleep with us today?" Cobblepot objected.

"Oh, Ozzie… Here we go, you are spoiling her rotten again!"

"I´M NOT!"

"Is that so? I´m pretty sure that at breakfast she cried because Olga put normal milk on the table instead of the chocolate one! And what did you do? Created a scene about 'how the servants want to make your nestling suffer even more than she already did in her short life' according to your words! And also yesterday, you bathed her despite her being capable of doing it by herself and even repeated the whole bath process because she made puppy eyes asking to wash her hair again!"

"Oh please, Ed! At least I´m not the one passing for a drastic transformation!" he mocked.

"Excuse me, my dear?"

"Yeah. You can act all tough, cold and technical with your parenting books, but I know how soft you have been becoming since that afternoon!"

"Well, I never said it was a problem to express love for our child! The problem is you spoiling her!"

"Again, I´m not! Now shut up and let her lay down there in the middle." he insisted.

"Fine. Come here, honeybee." Ed gave up on the useless argument and moved away a few inches for her to lay down between him and Oswald.

"Okay. Thanks, papa and daddy." Iris took her place. Despite being a bit strange for being the first time she did it (the room still had the spare bed she used in her first days after all), it felt like the right thing. "But I don´t think I´m sleepy." she confessed. "The nightmares took my sleep away!"

"You know what? I´m going to spread anti-monster spray in your room and here too. Meanwhile, daddy can tell you a story." Oswald stood up and left. He was almost giving up on sleeping too.

"Then, my child… What should our story be today? The eagles? The frog princess? The bear in the forest hut?" he listed some polish tales.

"Actually, daddy, I´m not in the mood for a story today, sorry..." Iris looked down. It was obvious that she had stopped crying, but was still upset by the nightmares and horrendous thoughts of losing her new parents.

"It´s fine, hon." Ed took her hand. "Then how about I sing for you until you fall asleep?"

"Sing?" she repeated.

"Yes. I just remembered a song with one of your names in it." he smiled warmly.

"One of my names?"

"Yes. Your middle name is Juliet, after all. Now just close your eyes and let your concerns melt away, my dear. And if you ever feel afraid again, remember that there are still heroes in this world." Ed whispered to her before starting;

A love struck Romeo, sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low, with a love song that he made

Finds a street light, steps out of the shade

Says something like, "You and me babe, how about it?"

Juliet says: Hey it's Romeo, you nearly gimme a heart attack

He's underneath the window, she's singing, "Hey la, my boyfriend's back

You shouldn't come around here, singing up to people like that"

Anyway, what you gonna do about it?

Nygma continued singing in a low-toned voice the verses one by one while Iris´s breath was becoming more and more calm and regular.

When you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold

You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold

You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeah

Now you just say, "Oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him"

Juliet, when we made love you used to cry

You said: I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die

There's a place for us, you know the movie song

When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

I can't do the talks, like they talk on the TV

And I can't do a love song, like the way it's meant to me

I can't do everything, but I'll do anything for you

I can't do anything except be in love with you

It was working as well as the 'veggie dice'. She was smiling and her eyes remained closed. Iris didn´t open them not even when Oswald came back with the 'magic spray' and went back to his side of the bed. With his hand, Ed asked for him to stay quiet.

And a love struck Romeo, sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low, with a love song that he made

Finds a convenient street light, steps out of the shade

Says something like, "You and me babe, how about it?"

You and me babe, how about it?

He finished the song and his task. Iris could no longer be heard. She was in a peaceful sleeping mode. Then her parents covered her and could finally have some peace themselves.

"Dire straits? Not bad, Ed." Oswald chuckled.

"Even I am a fan of them, Os. And they have a song with her name in it, so..." he sighed.

"I know, I´m just surprised you solved this situation like this. Again thinking fast. You never ceases to amaze me with new parenting skills. You really are a genius." he confessed his thoughts.

"Well, you surprises me quite a lot too, Os. You know how much I believe in you." he gazed at his boyfriend. "I mean, just look what you did for this girl. You gave her a family, and you didn´t even like children!"

"I still can´t explain it myself. It just… Happened. I felt this bond with her when we first met. And after this time living as a family, it´s even stronger. It was one of the very few right decisions I made in my life, Ed." he was starting to feel emotional while having this little bed talk. "The other one was confessing to you."

"Ozzie… I can say the same thing. I have experienced all types of abuse one can imagine in this life, and it really changed me these past years after I met you. You know how I have transformed and what happened to some people because of it, of course. But… My wish to stay this happy with you and Iris forever is legitimate, Oswald. No amount of insanity can take this from me. I´m going to say again how much I love both of you, my two inevitable weaknesses." having the always perfect, neat and intellectual Edward Nygma opening up like that while in his 'bed state', in pj's, sleepy face and messy hair was too much for Oswald to take.

"That´s why I wonder if I deserve to feel this happy! Every time I do, something atrocious happens! Just like with mother and father! Now I love you and her, that brings me so much joy!" he snapped with a fearful tone.

"Well, I assure you that not this time, Os. I wasn´t there for you in those occasions, but I´m here now. And you do deserve happiness, you have worked for it. For Gotham. And for your family. You still do, Oswald. Also, remember that Iris chose you, chose us, actually, to be her parents. Not the other way. That´s why she was there for five years, it´s destiny." Ed caressed his cheek.

"You are right, Ed. If something shows up, both of us will take it down." he reassured himself.

"You bet, my little Penguin." Nygma nodded. "And let´s be fair, if you really want something to be worried about, just think that next year she will need to attend school and that she will meet other kids there. Boys included."

"What?!" he had not thought about such a subject until that moment so he was taken aback.

"Yes. Next year. Now good night, Ozzie." a teasing satisfied smile took over Ed´s mouth.

"Oh yeah? And guess what, chief of staff? Her birthday and the holidays are coming so it´s up to you to make all the preparations for the city Christmas party and for our first celebration as a family too! So, good luck and good night to you too, Eddie." he answered back in the same tone.

If only they knew how their words from before would stick with her for a long time, just like the song.