Hi guys! Sorry for taking so long to update, I've been walking dogs, doing varsity volleyball, and getting ready for school to start this Friday. Stupid, right? Because of Labor day, we'll have the first day of school, and then a three day weekend. Sure, cool, not an immediate submersion into my senior year. BUT, I still think it's a little stupid. Anyway, back to the update!

-thegirlwhoisstillwaiting

Sylvia Wayne "Wildcat"

Gotham

October 31, 2011

I had a long day at school, three sets of tests and one set of presentations. I had to grade tests for three different classes, as well as judge and grade in-class presentations because the teacher was out sick, requiring a substitute to simply watch over the class and ensure behavior. But as the usual secondary to the teacher and my hereditary glare from my father, I had more control over the class than the sub did, so she just painted her nails and surfed the internet. There were Birthday Wishes, and the girl and I had celebrated my halloween birthday early the saturday before. As far as monday birthdays go, this one was stressful, so as soon as school ended, I trudged to my car and plopped down into the driver's seat. I waited for Dick to come out so I can take us home, but I suddenly received a text saying he didn't need a ride home. So, I just peeled out of my parking spot and drove home by myself.

When I got home, I slowly made my way to my room, absolutely tired. I had to finish grading the tests, so instead of taking a nap before the Team's halloween festivities, I sat down at my desk and pulled out the tests with the corresponding answer keys. Then, I pulled out the two stacks of tests I hadn't finished grading during the class period. I picked where I left off on in my three tests at a time strategy. It was almost all multiple choice, so I just had the answer key next to the three tests, grading three tests at the same time was the most efficient for me. After almost two hours, I finished all of the tests and started to pull out my costume for the dance we were all invited to by M'gann. The Happy Harbor High School dance they had every Halloween. Last year, I didn't get to go because I was on patrol, but my father decided that after the year I had, I could have my birthday off. Even Dick was allowed to go. Our father simply had to call in a Justice Leaguer or two to help instead of us. I assumed it was Flash, Black Canary, Green Arrow, or Superman, as they were usually who he called in when he wanted help in Gotham. Black Canary and Green Arrow understood the needs of discretion already, but Superman and Flash were also good detectives, and were helpful in conjecture and extremely adept at apprehending the bad guys when my father made the call. He used to ask Wonder Woman, but she started getting busier with Themiscyra, political meetings with the U.N. and the U.S. government, and threats in D.C. that require her attention.

I walked to my closet and grabbed my halloween costume to put on, removing my school uniform. I pulled on the skin tight, shiny red body suit, bending the tail attached to the rear to curve to the side so people could see the pointed red devil's tail from the front, coming out past my right leg. I stepped into the red high heels and went to the bathroom, putting on black, smokey eyes and red lipstick. When I was finished, I ran the straightener over my raven black hair before putting on the red headband with devil horns. I felt so happy, back to my original weight before I was even kidnapped by Savage. I double checked my blood red nail polish to make sure it wasn't chipped before I grabbed my holo bracelet and pushed it on my wrist so I wouldn't have to bring my cell phone. When I was sure I didn't need to do anything else, I grabbed my red pitchfork and went down stairs and made my way down to the study, approaching the grandfather clock on the far wall. I changed the time on the clockface to 10:47, causing the bookcase to swing open and let me into the express elevator to take me down to the Bat cave.

I was quite, going to the computer and setting the destination for the main Zeta Tubes in Mount Justice. With a yawn, I activated the Zeta tube, holding still enough for it to scan my biometrics so I could teleport. I was not in the mood for this dance, but with a yawn, I walked through the tube anyway, bathing in the golden light, and walking out the other side into the Cave's mission room. But, I didn't see anyone. As I walked toward the kitchen, I listened carefully, only hearing someone shush someone else. I could hear multiple heart beats, all of them in the kitchen.

"Thgil eht seldnac!" I heard a hushed spell. They were probably all getting ready or trying to scare someone if they were being quiet. I know Wally likes to scare people, especially on Halloween. I just wanted to get this dance over with. Before I made it to the kitchen, I remembered to shift, my incisors extending to sharp fangs on the top and bottom of my mouth. I wanted to at least look more devilish that the usual female costume allows for. I yawned as I approached the kitchen, expecting Zatanna to be using magic or M'gann to be feeding others cookies while people put the finished touches on their costumes.

"Surprise!" I heard people yell. My eyes went wide as stumbled. Around the room were Superboy, M'gann, Robin, Wally, Tori, Rocket, Zatanna, Kaldur, Artemis, Troia, Tula, Garth, Mary, Freddie and Billy. The lights were dimmed and they were all standing around a cake iced to look like a carved pumpkin with seventeen lit candles around the cake.

"Aw, you guys didn't have to." I couldn't help but smile as they began to sing Happy Birthday. I walked forward slowly, noticing that Wally was using the camera I bought for him nearly a year ago for his own birthday.

"Make a wish!" M'gann told me excitedly as she held the cake closer to me.

I wish I could forget all the horrible things. I thought to myself before taking a deep breath and blowing out the candles. I somehow managed not to miss a single one.

"So, what'd you wish for?" Billy asked, smiling largely in his firefighter costume. I returned the expression.

"To dig into this cake." I lied, pulling out a candle and licking the icing off the bottom. Everyone laughed and M'gann set the cake down on the table. I helped take the rest of the candles out of the cake as the martian grabbed a knife to cut the cake. I felt arms wrap around me as I looked over my shoulder to see Wally. He was in a white button down and white jeans with a halo sitting in his fiery red hair. I gave him a big kiss before M'gann handed me a paper plate with a slice of cake on it. I found it was my favorite flavor of cake. Yellow and Chocolate cake marbled together.

"Happy Birthday, Princess." He whispered in my ear as he took a bite of his three slices that M'gann gave him.

"Thanks, Babe." I gave him another kiss before inhaling the delicious cake. "M'gann, did you make this?" I asked the green girl, who oddly enough, was dressed as an alien with face silver antennae with little silver balls on the end. She left her skin green, but her lips were bright blue and her eyeshadow was a vibrant purple. In the place of blush was silver makeup, contouring her cheekbones. She wore a silver dress with silver knee high boots. It almost made me jealous that she could just morph into whatever she wanted, she always looked awesome.

"Yeah! It took a few tries to get the marbling right." She explained, Superboy beginning to laugh.

"Yeah, I ate the deliciously amazing failings." He was laughing at M'gann. I knew full well that she never failed when making food, well, except when she burns things. But that usually doesn't happen anymore. Superboy was dressed in a surprisingly well fitted astronaut suit. I saw her give him a little kiss as felt someone hug me from behind.

"Happy Birthday, Girl!" I recognized the voice of Rocket. I turned to see her and Artemis, Rocket dressed like a cat. Her costume was much like mine, but black, the tail wasn't pointed, and in the place of horns, she wore black cat ears. Her face was even painted to have the nose, upper lip, and whiskers of a cat. Artemis was dressed as a witch with a hat and black dress that was shredded at her mid thigh.

"Thank you!" I told them happily as I saw Aqualad approach, dressed as a pirate. My thinking was that he wore it cause the shirt collar would cover his gills. He gave me a quick smile before whispering something in Artemis's ear, causing her to giggle and walk away with him. I looked right at Rocket. "When did that happen?" I asked her quietly, and Rocket just laughed.

"They went on a date a few days ago and judging from that, it went well." Rocket laughed, speaking in a low tone so as not to alert anyone. I just grinned and nodded in understanding. After giving Artemis a discreet thumbs up of approval, I went to find Tori. Her hair was a pastel purple today, going well with her skeleton costume and face paint.

"Happy Birthday, Sylvia." She spoke quietly so no one would hear her using my secret I.D. She's been training lately with Black Canary, so on top of the weight loss, she was gaining some back in some very toned muscles.

"Thanks, I'm digging the hair." I told her, reaching out and touching a piece. Her lavender curls were like silk in my fingertips. "How do you get it to stay so soft?" I asked and she just smiled.

"Well, since I don't have to bleach it, it stays pretty healthy. Plus, once a week I soak it in avocado oil mixed with coconut oil." She explained, touching her own hair. Her curls were wild and voluminous, even more so now that she had the proper means to take care of it and she didn't have to straighten it when Savage preferred. I only saw it straight a few times in captivity, but she told me Savage had her straighten it every day until I arrived. She even admitted once that he made her dye her hair black. When I told Canary about that detail, she told me that Savage had a fixation with me that he tried to satisfy with Victoria until he could obtain me for himself.

"Alright, well it's time for us to go trick or treating if you guys want to head out to your dance." Billy told us, the eleven year olds dressed as various superheroes on the League. He was dressed as Superman while Freddie was dressed as a Green Lantern and Mary dressed as Wonder Woman, but with a skirt instead of briefs. When they Zeta-ed away, we all left the Cave and walked together to the School.

An Hour Later

Wally and I were dancing together, just as we did a lot now. Usually, we would be at one of each other's houses, cooking to music when we would break out dancing. Or, dancing was the intention and all the furniture in his living room would be pushed back against the wall or we would be all over the ball room in the East Wing of the Manor. The two of us were just cutting loose, as we loved to do. We danced the night away, even getting Troia to dance instead of being the stone statue of poise and power that she normally was. Kaldur did his best to get Garth and Tula dancing before going to Artemis. The two of them were really hitting off, and I had been waiting for the two of them to get together since before Wally and I got together.

The happiness soon ended when I got a message from my father. Dick and I were needed back at the Manor. So I gave Wally one last kiss before heading over to grab Dick, who was dressed as a magician. Probably to humor Zatanna. The two of us left and went back to the cave to Zeta home to the Batcave. When we arrived, we took the express elevator up to get from the Batcave to the Study. I could hear movement in the kitchen, so I led Dick to our father and Alfred. But when we entered the kitchen, there was a third person. A small boy about the size Dick was last year, but my brother had grown to be taller than Wally this year by an inch or two, so he was sizably larger than this boy. This boy shared raven black hair with us, slightly longer than Dick's. This boy even had blue eyes, like Dick, and sharp cheekbones like my father and I. This kid, he seemed like a cross between my brother and I, but he didn't have the muscle definition, the cold, calculating look that we have perfected over the years, nor the confusion that my brother and I shared as we looked at this guest in our home.

"Sylvia, Dick," my father stepped up behind the boy, putting his hand on his shoulder, "this is Jason Todd, my new ward and the newest addition to our Family."

A/N: Hey guys! Just a reminder to please review .