Author : Chihuahua
Date : 20th October 2001
Disclaimer : I do not own any of the TRA: JQ characters, therefore I am not making any cash out of this fic. All unrelated characters belong to me. Kindly ask for my permission before using them.
Category : Humour, Family
Rating : PG recommended. Mild sexual innuendo, if it were to go to those extremes, just playing safe.
Archiver's Permission: Granted to those who want it, just let me know where it can be found.
PUMPKINS AND CANDY
"It was a dark night. Rain clouds hung about menacingly, lightning flashed fiercely, followed by the deep growl of thunder..." Jessie Bannon read aloud to the five year old boy, who was being forcefully restrained by a very pissed off Jonny Quest.
"Aaron, gimme a break, will ya? Come on, just sit down," Jonny pleaded, mentally kicking himself for having stooped so low. For crying out loud, the kid was nearly twelve years his junior.
"I want CANDY!" screamed the kid.
Jonny sighed, this was what happened, when parents who were desperate for a way out of babysitting a hyperactive kid on a night like Halloween decide to attend an adult's Halloween party. They rang up the only available babysitter for the occasion, and she in turn, yanked him along to even out the score. Dropping pumpkin paste on someone's head wasn't quite the equivalent of this unusual torment.
Jessie continued reading, a smirk creeping to the corners of her mouth. She knew that Jonny was probably paying ten fold for his little prank, but she couldn't have cared any less.
"Candy, candy, candy...!" Aaron continued to chant his mantra for the night.
"Not yet."
"Candy, candy, candy...!" The boy all decked out in some superhero costume began hopping from couch to couch, scattering the embroidered silk cushions.
"Jessie, will you give me a hand here?" Jonny asked, straightening his pale blue cashmere sweater, while trying to stop the bouncing boy before he crashed into the glass coffee table.
Jessie reached out for the pile of scattered Halloween props and tossed Jonny a bloody severed hand. It hit him on the side of his head.
"Haha! Very funny! Need I remind you that you're the one getting paid to baby-sit this brat from Hell?" Jonny retorted indignantly.
"Hey, I'm not the one who claimed he was an expert on lil' boys!" she shot back. But she put down the book and got up to help. "Aaron, stop now, and we will take you trick-or-treating in a while."
The racket stopped almost immediately.
Jessie smirked victoriously. "See, I don't have to own a penis to know how a boy's mind works," she said, barely holding in her laughter. "In more ways than one," she added, a sly look masking her features for a second.
"When can we go?" The cherubic redhead pestered, his red and gold cape swirling behind him.
"After dinner," was Jonny's short reply. "You be good, and we have a deal. Otherwise, it's off to bed."
Aaron shot Jonny a dirty look. "You don't have to send me to bed to cuddle with your girlfriend!"
Jonny took a deep breath. He ran a hand through his still damp waves. They had been here barely half an hour, and the house already looked like a rock star's hotel room. He began straightening up the place while Jessie began serving up their dinner. Macaroni and cheese. The perfect disaster meal. It was perfect for projectile attacks!
Jonny muttered a soft prayer. Thankfully, the meal went fine, and nothing more than the tablecloth was soiled in the arduous process of getting a brat to simply swallow his food.
Somewhere in the house, the clock chimed eight times.
This was it. The moment he had been dreading. Trick-or-treat time!
"Come on, let's get this over with. Aaron, do not stray from Jessie or me, okay?"
The boy nodded fervently. For the first time in the hour, he was well-behaved.
Jonny slipped on his leather jacket, and helped Jessie slip hers on. On their way out, he whispered, "Let's never have kids."
Jessie snickered. She pushed her hair out of the way before firmly holding Aaron's left hand. Jonny grabbed the right. Together, they marched him around the neighbourhood, only letting go of his hands to trick-or-treat.
The "begging fest" as Jonny so delicately put it went fairly smoothly, with only one encounter with a flying jack-o-lantern, a brief chase by a German Shepard and one more flaming jack-o-lantern. It all ended in a little more than an hour. Thankfully, the kid had filled his bag to the brim, and was contented to go home to "count the candy".
Back at the Miller's house, Jonny got the fire started and then sat next to Jessie. They played blackjack, and a little footsie while Aaron happily counted his candy, and announced that he had twenty-five percent more candy this year than last. It figured that both his parents were successful accountants.
It was finally ten, and they bundled the boy into bed, after removing candy from his pockets. Jonny had the chore of stripping the kid starkers to get the remaining chocolate bars from his briefs.
"You want them?" he asked Jessie, waving them at her.
Jessie reached for one. "It's not that I've never had one before," she said suggestively.
Jonny rolled his eyes and munched his own bar. "What time again did the Millers say they'll be home?"
"Nearly twelve at the latest."
The Millers finally arrived home at 11.59 PM. Mrs. Miller paid Jessie while Jonny waited outside. The sight of a plump gypsy digging in her petticoats for her purse wasn't at all appealing to him.
JQJQJQ
"Hey, Jonny. I've got a surprise for you," Jessie said, as they both stepped into the Quest Mansion through the kitchen side entrance.
"What?"
Jessie was busy digging in the fridge for something. Her muffled voice said, "Well, I was thinking about how tonight's ordeal started with pumpkin paste, and I thought it should end with pumpkin paste," as she dumped a handful on his recently washed hair.
THE END