Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, and therefore I do not own Slade. I also do not own Batman, and therefore I do not own Bruce Wayne.
A/N: Sorry I haven't been able to update this any sooner. I've had a lot of school to have to work with. Now, though, I'm at a point where I could stop working on my experiments for college and studying and proofread this chapter before posting it. I did my best to make it a very good chapter, and hope that you all like it! I will try to get the next chapter out soon as well! So, without further ado, enjoy!
I want to give special thanks to TwilightCat4682, Transparent Existance, finalfan21, and "Guest" for your reviews and comments! I'm happy to know that not only do you like it, but that you are also thinking about the story and are reviewing about it! Nothing encourages me more as an author as much as reviews of people who like my work. So please, continue! It is greatly appreciated!
Chapter 14
Three hours later, Slade had decided that his kitchen table had never looked quite so cluttered, not even when he'd had to repair a Slade-Bot on it once when his warehouse had not yet been built. The two of them had started off looking at the first of nine of Slade's animal books on the couch in the living room. The nine books contained large full color photos of various animals and their skulls. The books also held a little bit of basic information about each animal. Because of such extremely simplistic design and information, they were the closest things to children's picture books that Slade owned. Many of the books primarily contained animals that would be hunted or encountered in the woods of the North American continent. However, in one or two of them, there were pictures of more exotic animals, like lions, elephants, and giraffes. Along with the "picture books", Slade also had dozens upon dozens of books that consisted mostly of just text and diagrams concerning various animals, containing a vast amount of information about many animals of different species, genera, families, orders, classes, and phyla. Those information rich books covered creatures that ranged from insects to prehistoric beasts. Needless to say, the man was quite proud of his collection of animal books. He was in fact almost as proud of it as he was of his collection of books concerning history. Running close seconds to his collection of animal books were his collections of books about weaponry, fighting techniques, chemistry, and child psychology.
Because of such pride in his animal book collection, when he'd gone to the tall cabinet set in the far left corner of his living room, had opened it, and had gotten out the nine picture books, he'd been sorely tempted to grab the other thicker, leather bound books of the animal book collection which also resided in the cabinet . . . or at least one or two. But then he'd decided that since Slashera was just now talking to him again, he wanted to keep things simple and perhaps a little more fun for the child. He figured that that meant that he might not need to go into great detail about an insect's structure or a tiger's digestive system. Yes, he definitely felt like simplicity was the way to go. However, after forty minutes of looking at the picture books, the idea of keeping things simple had been figuratively thrown out the window.
Slade and Slashera had lounged on the couch and read through the first book. Then in the second book, Slashera had noticed that some of the animals they'd already looked at in the first book were repeated, but with different pictures. So then she'd asked if there were different pictures of the same animals in the other books as well. He had said yes and so then they'd started to go through all of the animals in the first book again and as they did that they had set out to find them in the other books, spreading all of the books out on the kitchen table. They'd moved the books to the kitchen table so that they'd have plenty of room to look at all of the books without having to really stack the books on top of one another on top of the smaller coffee table in the living room area or having to risk the books falling off of the surface of the coffee table due to it being overladen with the books. Slashera had been excited to learn how to use the index of each book to find the animals she desired to see rather than just go through the entire book looking for an animal that might not even appear in it, and therefore had quickly learned how to match the names up between the page that showed the animal in one book and the names listed in the indexes of the other books based on what letters were in the names. About halfway through all of the animals, she'd turned to Slade and asked him about a characteristic he'd listed for each one of the animals: the things they ate. She'd asked him how anyone could ever remember which group each animal belonged to, as in whether they were herbivores or carnivores or omnivores.
Slade had frowned for a minute, standing on the opposite side of the table from her, and had rubbed his beard thoughtfully. Then had answered, "I guess they make a list for each one of the eating types and then read over the lists over and over again until they finally remember the animals in each list without having to look at the lists." Slashera had blinked then grinned, "Father Slade, can we make some lists for you to read to me over and over again until I can remember the animals and what they are?" Slade had smiled at her, "Sure." With that he'd gone back to the living room cabinet again. There, he'd pulled out a graphing paper pad he used to sketch new Slade-bot designs on and three pens that were of the colors red, green, and blue. After ripping off the pages with the Slade-bots from the pad and putting them back in the cabinet on a high shelf, he had returned to the table and started the lists, with green representing herbivores on the left side of the first sheet of graph paper, blue representing omnivores in the middle of the sheet, and red representing carnivores on the right side of the sheet.
Now Slashera leaned over the table, gazing at the pictures of their most recently viewed animal: wolves. Then turned to him, "Is that all of the animals, Father Slade? Have we really looked at all of the animals in these books?" she asked, blinking. Slade smiled, standing on the right side of the child who was kneeling in her chair with her elbows and arms resting on the pages of the open book closest to her. He nodded, "Yes, little one. That's all of them." It indeed was. For, while finishing up finding some of the animals, Slashera had decided to check some of the more exotic animal books which until then they hadn't really looked in to find any animals beforehand. Slade had purposefully ignored such books in their search up to that point, since he did know that no forest animals would be found in them, but had not stopped her from looking in the books when she had actively sought to do so. The girl had stared in awe at all of the various, brightly colored creatures in the exotic animal books, and soon the two had taken a detour into the pictures of what Slade nicknamed "the exotics". "Can I see the lists?" she asked, holding out a hand. He handed her the pad, "It takes up about three pages."
She gazed at the pages as she flipped through them, at the words she was unable to pronounce printed neatly in relatively good handwriting upon the horizontal lines of the graph paper. She slowly moved to sit on her butt in the chair with her legs draped over the front end of the piece of furniture, as Slade slowly began to close the books and stack them into a neat pile in the center of the table. He couldn't deny that he'd had fun finding all of the animals with her, and was indeed happy that he had such a good variety in all of his picture books that it had drawn out the time required for their searching. Slashera finally turned to him, flipping the sheets of the pad over again until the top sheet was facing her, "Father Slade, do you think we'll ever see these animals for real?" Slade blinked, turned to her as he held the stack of books in his two hands, and smiled, "We might not see all of them, little Slash, but we will see a good amount of them." Turning, he headed to the cabinet, his shoes making thumping noises on the wooden floor of the cabin. She jumped off of the chair and followed him, still gripping the pad tightly in her hands, "Really? Do you think we could take pictures of them, Father Slade? When we see them? And do you think that we could put them on some pages and make a book all by ourselves with their pictures in them? With their names? Do you think we can do that?" Slade turned to her, took the pad from her before putting it in the cabinet, and closed the cabinet, grinning at the girl's obvious excitement, "Sure." The expression Slashera gave him was priceless, and easily Slade's favorite to receive from the child. It was an expression of pure excitement and happiness soaked in childlike innocence. It was a precious look that Slade always cherished, since he'd gone so long without seeing it in his lifetime. He smiled, turned, and walked off to the kitchen, "But first we need to eat, little Slash." She frowned for a little bit, but then forced a small smile on her face and followed him, though clearly not as excited as before, "Alright, Father Slade." After all, she knew what would happen after they ate. Hunting . . . she wasn't entirely happy about doing that . . . but still, she knew that the more she hunted, the easier it would get. So she was willing to go ahead and do it.
An hour later, the two had eaten some roast beef sandwiches and drunk some water. Slade had quickly braided Slashera's hair down her back, the two had put on their shoes, and after Slade had grabbed their two bows and quivers of arrows from the lattice surrounded area underneath the porch while she was using the restroom, the two set off with a gallon jug of water in Slade's left hand, their bows in each of their right hands, and their quivers strapped to their backs. Slade frowned at the slight chill in the air, turning his head from side to side and gazing around at the woods. He was vaguely wondering why it was so chilly this time of year. Sure, it was getting later on in the year, but he hadn't expected for it to be so late that it would be like this . . . maybe winter was just coming early to his forest . . . the man sighed, shrugged, and continued to walk on.
Thirty minutes later, Slade learned the real reason why there was a chill in the air as a single rain drop hit the end of his nose. Tilting his head back, he frowned at the white clouds, as about six more drops fell. Slashera also lifted her head back, as the drops of water began to hit her, "Father Slade, what's going. . ." the last of her words were drowned out, as a large sheet of rain drops bombarded them, showering them in the cold water. She squealed, and was instantly at his side, clutching his hand tightly, staring up at the rain as it soaked her hair and face. Her hair around her face was flat against her cheeks, and she slowly turned to him, "Father Slade, it's raining." He frowned down at her, blinking, and nodded, "That's right." He turned and gazed up at the sky. It hadn't rained once since they had gone to the cabin. He had started to wonder if it ever would. . . She gripped his arm tightly, and buried her face into his side, "I don't like the rain. . ." she whimpered. He frowned and turned to her, "Why is that, Little Slash?" he whispered, the rain continuing to pour hard upon them. She turned to him, tears streaking down her cheeks along with the rain drops, "O-one time me and mommy, we-we were at a market and the rain started to pour. And then there was lightening and thunder, and . . . and we had to run and try to get a yellow car to get into, and it was so loud and scary, and . . ." she sobbed weakly, and tilting her head down to gaze with teary eyes at the mud beneath her feet, gripped his arm even tighter, "I don't like it. . ." "But there's no thunder or lightning here, little one, just water. . ." Slade whispered, and then a thought occurred to him. And he smiled. He had a way to convince Slashera that the rain wasn't so scary. . . "In fact, we can even play in it." She frowned and turned to him, "P-play in it?" she whispered. He smiled and nodded, "Come on." He turned, and began to walk onward, the rain letting up a little and not hitting them as hard or as constantly, leading her by pulling the child along by her hand.
Finally, they walked into a large clearing. Slashera immediately recognized the targets for their archery at the other end of the clearing. And turned to him, blinking, "Are we going to shoot at them today?" He chuckled and shook his head, smiling at her, "The rain would be like the wind. It'd throw our arrows off balance and we wouldn't be able to aim very well . . ." He knelt down before her, and held out his hand, "Hand me your bow and your quiver of arrows, little one." She handed them to him, and watched as the man turned and rushed over to the hay bales with the target tarps on top of them. Reaching the one closest to where he'd been standing with Slashera, the man gripped a long metal pin that he had used to hold the tarp down over the hay bale. The man had placed this particular pin in a location on top of the hay bale and now pulled it out. Sliding it into a back pocket of his jeans, the man then lifted the edge of the tarp that had been loosened by the removal of the pin and slid their quivers and bows underneath it before closing the tarp back down and pushing the pin back into place. He knew that the quivers and bows would still get wet, but at least by being covered under the tarp they wouldn't get as wet as they would have otherwise. Patting the top of the tarp with a smile, the man turned and smiled at Slashera. The girl frowned, watching him, waiting about ten feet away since she'd followed him over to the hay bale area. Walking over to the girl, he smiled at her, and held out his hand, "Ready to play?" She blinked and frowning, looked up at the rain pouring down from the clouds up above apprehensively for a moment. Then turned to him, "We're going to have fun, right?" He smiled and nodded. She smiled and put her hand into his, "Then let's play!" He grinned. Turning, he began to run in the rain, holding her hand firmly in his.
In no time, he was jogging through the wet grass, head thrown back, laughing. And beside him Slashera hurried to keep up, laughing as well, Slade's own enjoyment feeding her own. Letting go of her hand, Slade threw his arms out to his sides, letting them hang there palms open and to the sky, laughing and feeling the cool refreshing water hit his face. He built up his speed and quickly did a flip in the air, kicking hard off of the ground, his arms tucked in to his body. Landing firm on the balls of his feet and maintaining his balance, the man took off again, leaping high into the air every now and again, laughing and grinning up at the clouds that were emptying the rain down upon them. It had been so long since he'd played like this in the rain! He couldn't even remember the last time he'd done this . . . but it must have been in his childhood. And despite him knowing that Slashera's training was his upmost priority right now, he had to admit that it felt good just to play around again like this. Besides, what else could he do? Stay in the cabin some more and watch the rain fall? They'd been in the cabin all day already. He'd had enough of that place for the moment. Turning, he gazed at Slashera and smiled, seeing her running a little in her own direction. She was leaping and skipping and having fun in the rain, her mouth open and tilted up, her tongue sticking out as she twisted and turned and had fun. The man laughed and decided to throw his own head back, just for the heck of it, holding his mouth open as well. The child was letting the fresh water hit her tongue. Why couldn't he do the same?
Slashera smiled, feeling the water hit her face. She never would have thought of playing in the rain! But it was so much fun! It reminded her of kids she'd seen in other small yards behind the houses around the one she'd lived in with Mommy and Bruce, playing in their families' water hoses. The hoses had either been held by their parents or other kids and had just sprayed water on the kids as they'd run around, or had been hooked up to a sprinkler that would sit on the ground and shoot jets of water up into the sky for the kids to then run through. It had looked like they were having so much fun, and she had asked her Mommy if she could go and play. Eleanor had commented that she was too young to go play with those kids just yet. Slashera had pointed out that she did see a lot of younger kids playing around with the older ones. She'd gone on to point out that the younger kids were close to her age and so she didn't see why she couldn't play too, but Eleanor had just shaken her head and told her that those kids were in the same family as the older ones and that that was why they were able to play. She'd then said that since Slashera was not in their families, she couldn't play with them. But Slashera had pressed on, commenting that she'd seen some of the younger kids' mommies and daddies drop them off at the older kids' houses, and so they couldn't possibly be in the same family. After all, they didn't have the same mommy and daddy as the older ones. Then Eleanor had fallen silent. Slashera had pressed further, asking once more if she could go play with the other families and hoping her mommy would say yes, but then Eleanor had told her that she was being a bad girl, and that since Eleanor had already said "no", Slashera was being very bad because she was asking again if she could go. Slashera had mumbled a quick "I'm sorry" to her mother, and Eleanor had made her promise not to ask her again.
Since Slashera had been unable to go to the other kids' houses to play, she'd decided to try to get to do the next best thing, and had asked Bruce if she could do the same as the other kids were doing with their family's water hoses with her own family's water hose. The man had looked up from the newspaper he'd been reading and had scoffed and told her that that was stupid and wrong. He had said that it was a waste of water.
Now Slashera stopped and stood in the rain, her head tilted back, her mouth open, her eyes closed, pausing just to feel the water racing down her tongue and over her face and body. Well, now it wasn't a waste of water, was it? After all, it was going to come down anyway, wasn't it? That was what rain did. It didn't matter if you were outside in the rain or inside away from the rain. It was going to pour. She knew that because many days she'd sat inside her room, gazing out the window as the rain poured. Back then she'd wished that it would go away. Now she didn't want it to stop.
Slashera now wished that Bruce and her Mommy would have shown her how she could play in the rain. Like Father Slade was doing. She thought that maybe then she wouldn't have been so scared of it and would have been able to play in it back then too. But deep down, she had a feeling that Bruce would have said playing in the rain was stupid or wrong too. He seemed to think that most of the things Slashera wanted to do were stupid and wrong, whether he gave a reason for them being stupid or wrong or not. As the rain poured down upon her, Slashera let out a little sob of sadness, tears racing down her cheeks along with the rain water. Bruce had never seemed to like any ideas she had or anything she said she wanted to do. Whether it was going out to eat with him and Mommy like he and Mommy would do sometimes with their friends, or just going to the shopping mall nearby and looking around and shopping like she had heard of other women her mommy knew doing with their babies, he always seemed to only have one thing to say: No. It seemed Slashera could never do anything right when it came to Bruce. She'd wanted to make him happy, she really had! But anything she tried he just didn't like. Slashera frowned down at the mud for a moment, sighing. Yes, Bruce would have definitely said that this was stupid and wrong too, she decided, as the water ran off her face and dripped onto the ground. After all, it was something she was enjoying . . . and anything she enjoyed, Bruce always didn't like. It seemed he had never been happy with , she turned, and gazed at Father Slade running around in the rain, the child sniffing a little, some more tears still racing down her cheeks.
But Father Slade certainly didn't think of it as stupid or wrong, because he was doing it. She smiled. And if Father Slade didn't think it was stupid or wrong, it wasn't stupid or wrong! She knew that he loved her more than Bruce did, and knew that to him, she could do things right. And now she was with him. So it didn't matter what Bruce thought anymore! It didn't matter what he thought was stupid or wrong! Because she didn't care what he thought anymore! All she cared about was what Father Slade thought! And since he thought that this was fun . . . Grinning, she gave a high leap and began to run again, laughing, head thrown back, her hands held out at her sides. THEN IT WAS FUN!
It had been a few minutes of running into the rain when Slashera realized something. She hadn't seen or heard Father Slade for a while . . . she frowned and stopped, looking around for him. But she was unable to see him. Suddenly, she realized that she had gone far away from the hay bales now. . . Slade must still be nearer to them. So if she went over there, surely he'd be there! Turning around to face them, ready to run over to them to look for him, the girl grinned. There he was! Running right near the hay bales. She grinned and began to jog over to him, and opened her mouth to call out to him, happy to have found him . . . She screamed, sliding quickly to a stop, staring with wide eyes, her heart stopping in her chest as she saw his body slip, his feet shooting out from underneath him. She jolted a little as he slammed hard into the muddy earth on his back, making a loud thud. She saw the mud and water fly up around his body as he splashed into the soaked earth.
Her breath was coming in quick gasps, and her heart beat quickly in her ears as she stared in shock at the sight before her . . . she clenched her fists and brought them to her chest, her eyes wide, staring at the body as she shook. She mentally willed for him to get back up, to show that he was alright. But all he did was lay there, not saying anything, not moving . . . and he certainly wasn't getting up. . .
Worry and terror gripped her heart and Slashera rushed over, "FATHER SLADE! FATHER SLADE! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" she gasped, and finally stood at his side, the rain pouring down, gazing down at him with her onyx eyes filled with fear. She stared at his face, his eye and mouth closed, the rain water running down his face in rivers, some mud in his white hair. He still lay motionless on the ground . . . she bit her lip and slowly knelt down, her entire body shaking. Slowly, shakily, the girl reached out, pushing some of his hair off of his forehead, "F-father Slade?! Please be okay! You have to be okay! You have to. . ." Suddenly, his eye shot open, and he smiled at her.
She stared, eyes wide in surprise, then squealed as he shot up and turned her over quickly, kneeling over her, his knees straddling her young form, his hands tickling her sides. Slashera squealed, writhing on the ground, head thrown back, laughing hard as he tickled her. Slade grinned, smiling, and tickled her for a few seconds more before he stopped and stood up, gazing up at the sky above. For a moment Slashera just sat up, propped up on her elbows, her legs flat out and straight in front of her, blinking up at him, breathing hard a little. Then the man whipped his head down and grinned at her before he gripped her underneath her arm pits and swung her up, letting go and letting her fly freely up a little in the air in front of him for about half a second. The girl squealed and gripped his arms tightly, gazing into his face with excitement and surprise in her onyx depths, not wanting to let go of the man completely, before he caught her under her armpits again and then lowered her to the ground, smiling at her.
Suddenly, her whole demeanor changed and Slashera frowned at him, and put her hands on his hips, cocking one hip and her head to the side, "That wasn't very funny, Father Slade. I was really worried about you!" she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Slade smiled weakly at the child. He had to hold in his laughter at being scolded by such a young girl, "I'm sorry little one. I didn't mean to scare you. . . Let me make it up to you. . ." She frowned, "How?" she cocked her head to the other side. "Like this!" he said with a grin, and leaning down, he picked her up by her upper arms and began to twirl her around him as he held her firmly in his grasp, her legs flying out about her, flinging water and mud everywhere. Her hands held tight to his arms as she squealed, grinning up at him as he twisted and turned with her, and he chuckled. Gripping her arms even tighter, he flung his arms up, sending her flying up in the air, her feet flying out into the rain. Then swinging his arms down, he ducked her down, so that her legs went between his. Keeping a firm hold on her arms to keep her safe, he twirled her around once more in a circle about him, before settling her back down on her two feet, smiling calmly down at her.
She grinned at him, breathing hard, excitement in her eyes. He chuckled and leaning down, quickly scooped her up to hold her to him, her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs draped over his sides as he wrapped his arms firmly around her to hold her in place. She grinned at him as she gazed into his eye, still trembling in excitement as he held her there. Clearly, the worry she'd felt before was gone. He smiled, breathing hard just a little, "So, do you forgive me?" She grinned, "I forgive you." "Good," he said, nodding firmly. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, pressing a kiss to his wet skin, "I'm sorry for getting angry, Father Slade. I just. . . I didn't know you weren't really hurt. . ." "I know, little one, I know," he murmured, reaching up with one hand and rubbing the back of her head comfortingly, "And I forgive you for being angry. I'm actually quite happy you cared so much for me." she grinned.
Blinking, he moved his arms a little, giving her more room to lean away from him, "Slashera?" She leaned back, frowning curiously at him, as he continued, "Now we need to go back, okay? So that we don't get sick out here." She frowned, and looked back up at the sky, "We can get sick?" He frowned and nodded, "Yes. You see, a little bit of rain is alright, but too much can be bad. . ." "Then we need to go. . . I don't wanna get sick. . . don't wanna take any more shots. . ." she whispered, frowning at the rain as she tilted her head back even further to look at it all. He blinked, frowning. He really didn't think she'd need a shot if she got sick with a cold . . . but considering the last time she'd gotten sickly and had needed multiple shots, he could understand her worry. And quite frankly he couldn't blame her, because to him the only good shot was one that you didn't have to take.
"Right. So let's go back," he murmured. She nodded, and leaned in, pressing her face into his shoulder, her arms looped around his neck once more. Blinking, he walked over to the hay bale, and shifted her to just one arm as he pulled out the pin, stuck it in his pocket, and got their quivers and bows. Handing them to her to hold as she shifted and twisted around so that her right hand could accept the archery equipment, he turned around and put the pin back in place before placing the arm he'd used to move the stuff around back around her, shifting her so that she was once again held by both of his arms, "Just hold those until we get back, alright Little Slash?" She nodded, and held the objects behind his back as she looped her arms once again around his neck, careful not to hit him with the bows or arrows or quivers. She rested her head on his right shoulder and heaved a deep sigh, fluttering her eyes closed to wait for them to go back to the cabin. She felt him cradle her head a little with one hand as he turned and began to walk towards the woods again and out of the clearing. As his fingers softly rubbed her wet damp hair, she rolled her head over to the side, pressing her cheek against his wet shirt, and began to doze, the rhythm made by his steady walking causing her to drift off to sleep as the rainwater ran down her face.
That night, after the two of them had taken hot showers, gotten dressed in a white muscle shirt and blue jeans for him and a dark blue muscle shirt for her, put their wet clothes in the washing machine, and eaten some venison chili and fresh cornbread that he'd made, Slade tucked Slashera in and headed down the hall to his room. The man yawned as he entered his room, rubbing the back of his soft, now clean, snow white hair, trying to decide on what to do the next day. Should he continue on with their current cycle of activities and just hunt in three more days or should he just take her hunting since they didn't do that today? The slight change wouldn't hurt anything. . . They'd just restart the cycle again . . . as if this day didn't count. The man was pondering this as he brushed his teeth and slipped out of his pants, revealing the warm silver plaid boxers underneath. Groaning, he moved to the bed, rubbing his full stomach, ready for sleep, his eye half-lidded. He would definitely sleep well that night. . . After all, he hadn't slept at all the night before. He sighed and put a hand to the surface of the bed, and turning his head, gazed out at the rain still falling outside, pausing. He blinked and yawned again. Well, whatever he was going to do, he could decide in the morning. He definitely wasn't going to decide anything right now other than how fast his head would hit his pillow.
Just as he was pulling back his sheets to get into bed, his lamp being the only light on in the room, the door to his room creaked open. He frowned and turned to it, gazing tiredly at the figure standing there, gazing at him, and rubbed his eye, grunting slightly, "Little Slash? What are you doing? Why aren't you asleep?" She frowned, and her eyes darted down to the floor as she bit her lip, clearly nervous. He frowned and turning to her walked over, to stand right before her, gazing down at her, "What is it little one?" he whispered, blinking down at her. He was unable to figure out why she wasn't asleep. Surely she was as tired as he was! That light nap on the way back couldn't possibly have made much of a difference. . . She looked up at him, and he saw the fear and worry in her onyx eyes, "B-bad dream," she whispered. He frowned, "Already?" Damn, and here I thought people didn't dream so early after falling asleep . . . well, guess I better double check . . . he thought with another yawn.
She shook her head, gazing at him pleadingly with tears in her eyes, "N-no, not yet . . . but I'll have some . . . we didn't go hunt today . . . you said that the more that we hunt, the easier it will be for me to sleep . . . the less bad dreams I would have . . . but we didn't go today, so it'll be the same . . . the same as last time. . . I know it. . . F-Father Slade, could I sleep with you?" she had tears streaking down her face freely now, gazing up into his face, shaking all over, "You always make the bad dreams go away. . . I . . . I don't want to have bad dreams tonight. Please let me sleep with you Father Slade, please?" He frowned, blinking at the child, and began to rub the back of his head again as he thought it all over. "I . . . I know I'm just supposed to sleep by myself now that I'm older, but I'm so scared Father Slade. . . will you please sleep with me? Please?" she whimpered, her eyes pleading desperately with him. He blinked down at her, then smiled weakly and nodded, "Very well, little one. You can sleep with me for tonight. Just go get in my bed while I go and turn off your alarm clock. So that you won't have to get up to go across the hall to turn it off tomorrow."
The girl smiled in pure relief, then darted around him to clamor onto the bed. Slade walked across the hall slowly, blinking, and after entering her room, picked up the alarm clock and easily turned it off. Normally he wouldn't allow her to sleep with him, not with her at this age. But since they hadn't gone hunting today, he could understand her worry. So he would allow her to sleep with him tonight. Besides, the fact that she was scared because of not hunting also confirmed that he would for sure be taking her to hunt tomorrow . . . that made that decision all the easier. Turning, he closed her door as he headed back across the hall to his room, to find her already curled up beneath the sheets on the left side of the bed, her head resting on his left side's pillow. He smiled weakly and walked over to the lamp on the nightstand on the right side of his bed.
He had expected her to be fast asleep, but instead, she blinked at him as he picked up his own alarm clock, "Thank you, Father Slade." He smiled and nodded at her, "No problem, Little Slash. I get bad dreams too. I know how scary they can be . . ." he crawled into bed at that, and laid on his side, facing her, yawning, the lamp now off. Her eyes widened, staring at him, "You get bad dreams too, Father Slade?" He smiled sleepily at her, and bent an arm behind his head on the pillow, laying on it, his eye half lidded now, "Of course I do . . . everyone does." He paused to yawn, eye shut tight. Then fluttered it open, smiling weakly at her. She blinked, "Who do you sleep with to make them go away then?" "No one. You see, they do come, but they don't stay long. . . I scare them off, remember?" he winked at her at that. She grinned, "Right." He smiled and yawned again, and closed his eye, snuggling a bit against his arm, muttering sleepily, "Now don't forget to wake up when the alarm in here goes off tomorrow. . ." she nodded, blinking up at him, and snuggled closer, up against his chest, curling up against him under the covers. He gave a deep sigh, and wrapped his left arm over her protectively, holding her tightly against him. Soon, her breathing was indicating to him that she was asleep and the man sighed, letting himself fall into the dark abyss of his own dreamless sleep to the tip tap of the rain on his window.
A/N: So, what did you think? Was it worth the wait? I know that this along with the last chapter (for the most part) have not been so much on the serious side, but trust me. The next chapter will. And this chapter did have the serious moment of Slashera completely (once and for all, pretty much) switching her loyalties to Bruce to her loyalties to Slade. She's already done it a lot in the past leading up to this chapter, but this final moment is a major turning point. Even if Slade doesn't necessarily know it occurred. On another note, I really liked the way she "scolded" him. That to me was funny. And so childlike and innocent.