Note: I do not own any of the characters included.

To be honest, I'm not too familiar with this "Accidental Baby Acquisition" trope, but from what I've heard, there's a large range of what it can be. I hope just a little bit of accidental babysitting counts.

Day 5: Accidental Baby Acquisition

I squinted my eyes, staring into a window. My ear pressed against the wall for a moment. Every sound was coming from the victim himself… or at least it seemed to be. I silently cut open the window, knowing exactly what I was supposed to do. Kill him and get away from the crime scene as soon as possible. We were the league of shadows, not the league of daylight, so I wasn't supposed to be seen by one single person if they weren't going to die. Everything was supposed to be done without the authorities having a clue. Preferably only allies and members should know of the league's existence.

Still staying absolutely silent, I creeped into the room. The victim looked up from his computer for a moment, but not before I pushed a knife into his back. Without even a scream managing to come out, he slouched over to the ground. I was just about to hurry out when a sound came into my ear.

It was humming. A cheerful humming, perfectly contrasting the bloody corpse in front of me. The humming was followed by footsteps, gentle ones, but definitely footsteps. It quickly came to my attention that I definitely wasn't the only one here.

"Daddy!" I heard a sweet little girl's voice call. I dropped my knife in surprise. A load of guilt panged my chest. I hadn't known the victim had such a young daughter. "Daddy! Where are you?" I heard her continue to call.

It was late, much too late for someone of the age that her voice sounded to be awake. I looked back at the window, knowing the two choices I was supposed to be doing in this situation. I was supposed to just leave instantly, which is what I knew I should have been doing, but I kind of didn't want to leave the little girl all alone. The other one was to kill her, which there was absolutely no chance I was going to do.

Despite knowing it wasn't the smartest thing to do, I began to carefully go out into the hallway. I heard the girl start to come up the stairs, and although I knew I should hide, I walked over to her. Fortunately, she seemed to have not been taught "stranger danger". Not even when that stranger was armed.

"Hello! Who are you?" The little girl asked cheerfully. She had a little pony tail that bounced as she talked. Her clothes were bright aqua, matching her adorable little blue eyes. I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"My name is Talia." I stated, "What's your name?"

"I'm Julia!" She exclaimed happily, "Nice to meet you, Talia! Do you know where Daddy is?" She asked, suddenly seeming a little bothered by the fact that her father wouldn't answer her. She looked around curiously, searching to see where her dad could be.

"He…." I stuttered, attempting to come up with a plausible lie that would keep her from continuing to search. She waited a couple seconds for me to answer, but quickly got too impatient. She pouted, understandably upset at how much I was stuttering.

"What? Do you think he's in there?" Julia pointed towards the room I had come from, and where his dead body was. I quickly shook my head, running in front of her to stop her from going inside.

"No, he…. He had to go run an errand. He told me to watch you while he's gone." I lied, gently nudging her around to look the other way. I took her hand leading her over to a couch back on the first floor, where we both sat down. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" I asked her.

"No!" Julia pouted, crossing her arms stubbornly. I held back a laugh at her attitude towards me. "I can't sleep… Can we go to the park?" She asked, her face suddenly lighting up with happiness at the idea. She got up from her seat, pulling me up with her. Before I could protest, she tugged me towards the door.

"Isn't the park closed at this hour?" I reminded her, making her go right back to pouting. "Come on, you have to at least try to sleep." I began to gently pull her back towards the bedrooms, but she continued to tug towards the doors. Before I knew it, she was smiling again. I could tell she had thought of another idea.

"We'll break in!" She exclaimed, bouncing up and down with excitement. Her tugging became even more strong as she kept trying to get me out the door with her. Julia was just about making me topple over as she tried to get us both to the park. "Come on! It's gonna be so much fun!"

I shook my head, "We're not committing any crimes. You don't want to end up in prison, do you?" I had already committed enough crimes for the day, and there was no I was going to pull such an innocent little girl into one of them. "Come on, this is not the time to be playing." I reminded her again.

"Well don't you want to be a cool babysitter?" She argued, going right back to pulling me, "Please can we break into the park? You're even already dressed for it! Look, you're a ninja! When ninjas break crimes it's cool, not bad." She pointed towards my dark clothes. I looked down at the assassin suit, too, now realizing how she had definitely already realized I might be a little bit of a criminal. But I guess she thought I was a cool one.

"I'm not a ninja. Calm down, Julia." I picked her up, setting her back down at the couch that we were sitting at before. She pouted, just as I expected at this point. I simply smiled, trying to get her to cheer up. "Is there a bedtime story you want me to read you? Where are your books?" Julia, still kind of upset that I wouldn't let her break in anywhere, pointed towards a small bookshelf that happened to be in the same room as us.

Her frown faded a little, "Can you read me the one about Batman? It's on the lowest shelf." She toddled over to the bookshelf along with me, pointing to a small, blue, book with the words "Batman and the Jaring Joke" written on the side of it. I knew I had heard of Batman some time before, but I hadn't actually met him yet. Picking up the book, Julia and I made our way back to the couch. She laid next to me, waiting for me to begin with the story.

"It was a dark and stormy night, and the dark knight had just finished stopping two robbers from robbing a bank." I began, noticing that Julia was already getting a little sleepy, "In the distance, though, Joker was already starting his next plot…" Before I knew it, Julia had already gotten to sleep.

I stopped reading, turning over to her. The adorable little girl was leaning on me as she slept. I smiled, beginning to pick her up and carry her over to wherever her room was. I walked up the stairs, going down the hallway. The door to one of the bedrooms was open, revealing piles of stuffies and toys covering the floors. A small toddler bed was placed at the corner. I took Julia in, carefully placing her into the bed that I assumed was hers.

"Good night, Julia." I whispered. My heart broke thinking that at some point she'd have to go through losing her father, all because I had decided he was bad enough to kill. Of course, he had definitely done lots of terrible things, and most likely hadn't been the best father to her, but this poor child was still going to be traumatized for things she wasn't responsible for.

I knew that I couldn't keep the truth from her forever, though. Despite knowing that her eyes were closed, I waved, disappearing off into the night.

I know, I know... Really weird that this kid is reading books about Batman when he's actually alive, right? Well, since this is before Bruce and Talia met, I guess Batman wasn't confirmed to be real yet, and was more like a legend. So do you see why someone might write a book about this superhero vigilante that is kind of like a legend?

Please read and review!