Halloween special two days late let's gooooo.

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Wayne Manor: October 31, 2025

Lily's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at her ward. "T," she said imploringly. She had never been one for begging, especially not to an eight-year-old, but she was pretty damn close at the moment. "I will buy you any other costume. I will buy you every other costume. I will buy you an entire costume store. Just, please, for the love of God, don't wear-"

Terry shook his head. "I'm Superman," he said adamantly, peering up at her defiantly.

She stared at him, her face nothing short of disgusted. "Wouldn't you rather be Flash?" she offered. "Or Warhawk?" Hera, at this point she would even let him be Platic-Man. Anything but Kent.

"They don't have laser eyes," Terry pointed out. "Superman is the coolest."

Lily groaned. She couldn't quite argue with that. Not even she had laser eyes. "Fine," she agreed begrudgingly. It wasn't as though she had much of a choice, anyway. It was already five o'clock and while she was sure she could get him a last-minute costume if she really wanted to, he wanted to be Superman. And this night was for him to enjoy.

That didn't mean she had to like it.

"Dana and Chelsea should be here soon," she told them, attempting to change the subject. She had met Chelsea Cunningham approximately two weeks after first meeting Dana and had taken a liking to her when both Terry and Dana had introduced her as a new friend. According to Terry, she was always in trouble for talking during lessons, not doing her work, and pulling silly pranks on her teachers.

As Lily saw it, the poor girl was misunderstood and had communicated that much to Berry and Rex on the Watchtower. Rex had given her a dry look while Barry had doubled over with laughter.

Assholes.

The doorbell rang, alerting Lily to their guests. "That must be them," she said to Terry with a smile. "Are you ready to go trick-or-treating?"

Terry nodded, giving her a rare, genuine smile. "Uh-huh!" he exclaimed, hurrying toward the door. He practically threw it open, revealing his two friends. Chelsea was dressed as Supergirl- Kara Kent, though Lily had never met the woman- and Dana was dressed as her version of Wonder Woman.

(This caused Lily's heart to swell, though she would never admit it.)

Lily leaned against the doorframe with a grin. "I didn't know tonight's theme was superheroes," she commented, causing the girls to giggle.

Dana's mother rolled her eyes fondly. "Wonder Woman is all Dana talks about lately," she revealed. "Ever since she saved that preschool in Boston-"

"Mom!" whined Dana, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

But Lily beamed. "She is pretty cool, isn't she?" she said, winking. Dana grinned up at her. She looked down at Chelsea, who seemed particularly proud of her costume. "Supergirl, Chels? She wasn't around for very long."

"I know!" said Chelsea, excitedly. "But I saw some old videos last month and she was so cool!"

Lily laughed. "She was, wasn't she?" Although, Supergirl had been a taboo subject growing up, that never stopped Lily. She had hacked the Batcave and dug up some old footage when she was seven. Of course, she'd just had to show Barry, Henry, and Rex. Henry had been totally transfixed by the screen. That was one of the only times the two of them hadn't argued.

"And she was blond, like me!" added Chelsea.

"Lower your voice, Chelsea."

Lily barely kept herself from glaring at the man standing behind the young girl. Mr. Cunningham was a wealthy, no-nonsense art collector and single father. It was clear to see he had little patience for Chelsea's exuberant energy and need for fun. More often than not, he ended up dimming her bright light.

She would be lying if she said it didn't irritate her.

The little blond frowned and it was clear her mood had soured. Mrs. Tan gave him a sidelong glance that was none too friendly, but didn't say anything about it. "Well then, Lily, are you sure you'll be alright with the three of them. I don't mind going with you."

Lily waved off her concerns. "Of course not," she assured the older woman. She really liked Dana's mother; she reminded her of her own. "You and Mr. Tan have a nice time tonight. I'll have her home by 9:30."

"Lily," whined Terry.

"9:30, Terry."

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Upper East Side of Gotham: October 31, 2025

While Terry was annoyed that Lily wouldn't budge on curfew, he was excited nonetheless. Last year, he had been sick on Halloween and had to miss out on trick-or-treating. Instead, Mom and Dad had stayed in with him and let him watch scary movies. He'd had nightmares for a week after that, but it had been so worth it.

He was even more excited to have Dana and Chelsea with him. They had been planning their superhero theme for about a month now. Initially, Dana and Chelsea had fought over Wonder Woman- threatening to ruin their plans- but then Dana had discovered Supergirl and was sold. And now the two of them were matching, which he thought was pretty cool.

It was even cooler to know that Lily was taking them to the rich neighborhood. According to Chelsea, they gave the most candy and the biggest chocolate bars. They had already almost filled up their bags and it hadn't even been an hour yet!

Dana and Chelsea were chatting excitedly ahead of them and Terry tugged on Lily's sleeve. "Did you go trick-or-treating over here?" he asked.

Lily looked down at him smiling. "Sometimes," she answered fondly. "Sometimes, I was in Central City or Detroit or Metropolis. It depended on the year."

He blinked up at her. "Do they have better candy or something?" he asked stupidly.

She laughed. "No, silly," she told him, ruffling to his hair. He suspected she deliberately uncurled his cowlick. "I had friends there and we would take turns every year on which city we would go to."

But that didn't sound right. It wasn't like those cities were close; all three of them were in different states. How would she have even made friends so far and spread out? He didn't mention it, though; she was rich after all. Who knew how many friends she had not just across the country, but all over the world?

"Terry!" shouted Chelsea, tugging on his sleeve. "Look, look! Doesn't that place look haunted?"

Terry followed the direction of her finger. The house did look haunted. It was dark and rundown with dead grass and shattered windows. The wood looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

Dana shuffled up to his side. "Chels wants to go in," she said, though he could tell by her expression that she didn't exactly feel the same way. Dana always had been squeamish.

He looked up to his guardian for approval, but Lily was biting her lip. "I don't know, kiddo," she said uncertainly. "There's a story surrounding that house, not a pleasant one."

Terry gave her a dull look. "You're afraid of ghosts?"

"Well, no, but-" She sighed, massaging her temples. "Five minutes. You have five minutes to go look around, but stay near the front door and do not go into those rooms."

He grinned up at her; he knew psyching her out would work. "Come on!" he urged his friends and the three of them rushed into the house.

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Lily had a bad feeling about this.

Unfortunately, she wasn't very good at denying Terry anything yet. She wanted his life to be as carefree as possible, wanted him to have as much fun as he could. She wanted him to be a kid, despite the horror he had been exposed to at the tender age of eight.

Her phone chimed, alerting her to a text from Barry. 'So, Mom, how's the trick-or-treating going?'

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Terry decided to dress up as Superman,' she replied.

'Lol, and you let him?'

'Not like I had much of a choice.'

But she really should have listened to her intuition more. Because the next thing she knew, Chelsea was running towards her, a frightened look on her face. "Miss Lily, Miss Lily!" she shouted frantically.

"Chelsea?" she asked, her heart racing when she saw no sign of the other two children. "What's wrong, what happened?"

"It's Terry!" exclaimed Chelsea, pointing towards the house. Her blue eyes were filled with tears. "Some older boys jumped out and scared us, but Terry's on the floor and he's not moving!"

Lily felt her heart drop.

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'That movie was so cool!'

'Terry, honey, slow down!'

'Oh, Mary, let the boy have his-'

"T? Terry!"

Terry blinked hard, the world around him slowly bleeding back into focus. Lily was standing over him, her blue eyes wide and frantic with concern. "L... Lily?" He squirmed, realizing she was holding him close to her chest. "Where are-? What happened-"

"Oh, T," breathed Lily, clutching the back of his head, his face buried into the crook of her neck. "I'm so, so sorry. I shouldn't have left you alone."

His shirt was wet. Was she crying? His memory slowly came back to him. "Not... Not your fault," he managed weakly. "I wanted to go in."

Now he remembered. The three of them had gone into the house and two older boys had jumped out at them. Dana had shrieked and he had been sharply reminded of that night, when his mother had screamed as a bullet pierced through her skull.

Lily sighed. "You passed out," she told him, helping him to his feet. "I'm sorry, but I think we should call it a night." She dusted him off.

Terry couldn't exactly argue with her, though he was disappointed as he swayed a bit, still unsteady. He had been having a lot of fun with Dana and Chelsea. But Lily was right; he had ruined their Halloween enough.

"Miss Lily, can we stay the night?" asked Dana suddenly.

Oh, they were still here?

Lily bit her lip. "I don't think-"

"Please?" cut in Chelsea. "It's my fault this happened. I was the one who wanted to go in. I don't want Terry to be alone."

One thing Terry had learned about Chelsea was that she was good at getting people to do what she wanted. He could already see Lily's resolve weakening. "I... I suppose if your parents are alright with it," she relented. She then looked at him. "Do you want them to stay over?"

Terry took in Dana's scared eyes and Chelsea's guilty ones and shrugged. "If they want," he allowed tentatively. The girls smiled and hugged him and that made him feel a little better.

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Wayne Manor: October 31, 2025

The night ended with Lily driving them back to the manor after collecting Dana and Chelsea's overnight packs. She suggested that the three of them stay in the living room and they agreed; Terry pointed out that the living room TV was bigger than his anyway. They didn't watch scary movies but they did put on some cheesy Halloween movies.

Lily was glad; they didn't need any more scares tonight.

But the night must have taken a lot out of all three of them, because they fell asleep just before eleven. Lily smiled, snapping a quick picture.

But still, guilt weighed on her shoulders. How could she have been so stupid? She should have never let them go into that house alone. Terry went through that because of her careless decision.

She dragged herself down to the Cave, intent on surveying Gotham from a distance. She wasn't going to leave the three of them alone, but she did want to make sure things were orderly. Teenage pranks were the least of Gotham's worries on Halloween.

But to her surprise, Barry and Rex were there waiting for her.

Lily blinked. "How and why?"

Barry shrugged. "I had a feeling you didn't want to be alone tonight," he told her. "Besides, Halloween used to be our thing, right?"

"Well, yeah," she admitted, glancing at Rex. "But I'm sure Rex had better things to do-"

"Let's go," Rex interrupted, gently tugging her by her elbow back up the stairs. Barry followed them as he led her to the theater. She hadn't used this room in a while; it was the one room Terry avoided at all costs.

Barry held up a bag. "I brought snacks."

Lily stared at them both for a minute before she started to giggle madly. They both looked at her like she had lost her mind before she gathered them both into a hug. "Thanks, you guys," she said, stubbornly pushing away the tears that had begun to form. "It... It's been a rough night."

But watching thrillers with her two closest friends made it just a little better.

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Not me just realizing that all Terry's friends are girls. Also, Chelsea has my heart. Max is coming in soon, but my HC is that she didn't meet the gang until later. Anyway, I hope you liked it and please review! HAPPY (late) HALLOWEEN!