October

Jeff was lounging on the couch while Tyler sat on the floor, using the coffee table as a desk. He was coloring while they spent their afternoon watching SpongeBob reruns together. Well, Tyler was watching SpongeBob. Jeff was on his phone. When it cut to commercial Tyler turned to Jeff and held up his picture for approval. It was of a house and three people standing outside of it.

"Very nice." Jeff complimented, looking up from his phone.

"It's for Grandma. See? It's her house. And there's us." He pointed to the three figures.

"She'll love it."

Tyler put the drawing down and asked, "When are we going to see her next?"

"I don't know," Jeff answered, turning his attention back to his phone.

"You don't see her a lot, do you?"

Jeff was staring at his phone but not touching it. He just didn't want to be looking at Tyler. "Not really, no."

"Why?"

Geez, this kid asked hard questions. Why couldn't he get the easy ones like 'Where do babies come from?' And 'why is the sky blue?' "I, uh… I just don't. I have trouble talking to her, I guess."

"I think you should go see her more," Tyler said, turning away and getting out another sheet of paper to continue drawing.

"Why's that?" Jeff said with a smile, expecting an answer about Grandma having fun toys or something.

"Because I can't go see my mom."

Jeff's heart lurched. He slowly lowered his phone, staring at the back of Tyler's head. He was still bent over the table, coloring. It was a long moment before Jeff could find his voice. "I guess you miss her a lot, huh?" Tyler's head bobbed, but he didn't look up. Jeff leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs, "I'm sorry. About your mom. Sometimes I forget, and I shouldn't."

Tyler shrugged. "It's okay."

Jeff continued to stare at the back of Tyler's head. He didn't know what to say. He should say something. But what do you say to an orphaned kid who just told a grown man to appreciate his mom because she wouldn't always be around?

"Family is important," Tyler said after a bit, turning around to look Jeff in the eye.

"When did you get so wise?"

Tyler's face split into a smile, "Annie says I'm an old soul."

Jeff leaned back in his seat again, eyes still on Tyler. "You know, I think Annie might be right."

"Annie says she usually is."

Jeff rolled his eyes so hard he was surprised they remained in his skull. "She would. You have my permission to call her a smart ass next time she says something like that."


Jeff was sitting on the couch watching TV when Tyler burst out of his room with his hand held over his head, pinching something small between his fingers. "Look!" He ran up to Jeff and held out the little white object, grinning wide to reveal a gap in his top row of teeth.

"Look at that!" Jeff said, returning the boy's grin. "No more tooth."

Tyler nodded proudly then turned to head back to his room.

"Hey, snaggle-tooth!" Jeff called. "Get back over here. Let me take a picture for Grandma." Jeff pulled out his phone and held it up. Tyler held up his tooth and showed off his gap-toothed smile. Jeff took the picture, then patted his lap, "Come here."

Tyler bounced over and sat in Jeff's lap. Jeff flipped the camera around so the screen showed both their faces side by side. They both smiled hard, cheesing for the camera.

"Alright, give me your tooth so it doesn't get lost," Jeff said after he'd snapped the photo. "We'll put it under your pillow tonight."

Tyler handed over his tooth with a smile and disappeared back into his room.

Jeff put the tooth into a Ziploc bag and stuffed it in his pocket for safekeeping. He returned to the couch and emailed the pictures to Doreen. Without even thinking about it, he found himself posting them to Facebook as well. He pulled up the picture of his and Tyler's smiling faces. His thumb hovered over the screen for a long moment before he tapped 'Make Profile Picture'.


The door swung open revealing the three occupants gathered around the door, already in pajamas. "Hi!" Troy, Abed, and Annie greeted enthusiastically.

Jeff and Tyler stepped into the apartment and shut the door behind them. As soon as they'd crossed the threshold, Abed and Troy were babbling about their plans and Tyler was nearly vibrating with excitement.

"Come see the fort we built!" Troy insisted, taking off towards the monstrous blanket tent that now enclosed the back half of the room.

Tyler started to follow but Jeff grabbed his arm, stopping him mid-step. "Remember what we talked about," Jeff warned, bending so that he was eye level with him. "Behave. Annie is in charge, so mind her."

"Jeeeff," Tyler groaned.

"Call me if you need me, okay?"

"Jeff, please?"

"Alright, go on." Jeff said, releasing his arm and straightening up. "See you in the morning!" He called after him as the boy rushed off to join Troy and Abed in their fort.

Annie grinned knowingly at him. "No need to look so worried. You're not sending him to war."

"I'm not worried. Why would I be worried?" Jeff retorted. He slipped Tyler's backpack off his shoulder and handed it to Annie. "Here. All his stuff is in there, including his nightlight."

"Got it." Annie said, taking the bag from him and swinging it over her shoulder.

"I'm counting on you to be the adult here," Jeff said, seriously.

"We're all adults here," Annie countered.

Behind her Abed shouted, "We're under attack!" The three fort-dwellers rushed through the tent flap with paper towel roll swords in hand and scurried for high ground on the nearby couch.

Annie flinched at the sound and said, "Okay, I see your point."

"Mmhm." Jeff shot her stern look, "In bed by nine, no scary movies, no caffeine."

"We've got this. Really. Don't be such a helicopter parent and go," She said, shoving against his arm, pushing him in the direction of the door.

Behind them Tyler could be heard shouting: "ThunderCats, ho!" At the top of his lungs as he stood on the arm of the couch with his cardboard sword held high overhead.

"I taught him that," Jeff said with a proud smirk. "Have fun!" He gave her a teasing wave before ducking out into the hallway.


Jeff walked into the study room with Tyler at his heels. They were both dressed in their Halloween costumes. Jeff was a boxer and Tyler was a referee. He had originally intended to leave Tyler with Shirley's kids and have their babysitter watch him, but the idea of leaving him with a babysitter on their first Halloween together hadn't sat right with him. But he'd also put a lot of effort into planning a group costume, so he might as well make a quick appearance at Vicki's party before he took the kid out trick-or-treating.

"Happy Halloween parties!" He called to the half-assembled group. "You all look great." Shirley was dressed as Leia from Star Wars, Troy and Abed were Calvin and Hobbes, and Britta was… "Ham," Jeff noted with just a hint of condescension in his voice.

"Pig," Britta retorted, looking him over. "Let me guess. You're a flimsy excuse to be shirtless wearing silk underwear."

"And you're as wrong as you are welcome," Jeff sneered at her. "No, this year I planned a group costume with Annie and Tyler." He gestured to the boy standing at his side. Tyler was wearing black slacks and a black and white striped shirt. "He's the ref. Annie's my ring girl."

Just then, Troy and Shirley shouted in surprise causing them all to turn and see Annie crawling across the threshold of the study room, her movements quick and jerky just like in a horror movie. She stopped crawling and popped up with a smile, revealing her long black wig and dirty white dress. "Pretty freaky-deaky, huh?"

"Annie, no," Jeff sighed. "I meant the boxing match ring girl! They're the sexy ones that hold up the numbers."

"Yeah, see? This is why we can't just text about it, Jeff. I don't watch sports!" Annie shot back.

"There's no boxer in The Ring," Abed threw in.

"I don't watch scary movies!"

Tyler was in a fit of giggles over the argument. He found all of Jeff's friends to be insanely entertaining. "I think she looks cool," He offered through his quiet laughter.

"You would," Jeff muttered to him.

"'And that's why you leave the couples' costumes to the couples' she said wisely," Britta joked, obviously trying to get under Jeff's skin. He only scoffed.

"Maybe you should warn your boyfriend's boyfriend," He replied, referring to Troy and Abed's matching costumes.

"Just because we're dating doesn't mean we have to do everything together," Britta argued back. But she wasn't going to win this.

"Well, you need to do some things together."

"We do some things!" Troy cut in defensively. At a look from Britta he continued, "We do a lot of things." After a gasp from Shirley he exclaimed, "Not all the things!" He held out his arms to his sides, "Things," He finished.

"Okay!" Jeff said, changing the subject as Troy stepped off to answer his ringing phone. "We're all here, minus Pierce, who wasn't invited to Vicki's party for reasons beyond our control and concern."

"No mystery there," Annie commented, she looked over at Tyler and explained. "She put a pencil through his face."

Britta, Abed, and Shirley all laughed at the memory but Jeff shook his head, "Don't tell the kid that!" Tyler didn't look upset by this information, though. In fact, he was laughing along with everyone else. But the story just didn't seem appropriate to Jeff. Weird, because that didn't used to be something he would have cared about.

"Does Vicki have a TV?" Abed interrupted.

Jeff sighed, "It's a party. You're not watching TV."

"No, I'll be watching Annie." Abed pointed at his roommate, "She started watching Cougar Town reruns which makes Annie my third favorite show. And tonight is the Hallo-Wine Special."

"Oh, that's right!" Annie said happily. "Better not miss the merlot!" She and Abed both mimed raising wine glasses, "Clink!"

Jeff watched the display and shot Annie an exasperated look.

"What? You fall into in," Annie said bashfully, twirling the hair of her wig around her fingers as she spoke. Jeff couldn't help it. He smiled at her. As frustrating as she was, there was a reason he included her in his group costume. Honestly, he'd kind of hoped that their matching costumes would convince her to ditch the party and come trick-or-treating with him and Tyler. Maybe she still would.

"That was Pierce," Troy said as he rejoined the group with his phone in his hand. "He accidentally locked himself in his panic room and he needs our help."

"Oh!" Everyone groaned.

"No, 'oh!'" Jeff said, shaking his head and looking around at his friends. "'Oh' means we're going against our will and we are not going. I only have a couple hours to be at this party and I am not wasting my time on him. He's lying."

"He seemed pretty upset," Troy responded. "He's been all alone up in that mansion ever since I moved out and his dad, you know," He dropped his voice to whisper, "Got killed by Jeff."

Jeff widened his eyes at Troy and quickly glanced down at Tyler who still stood patiently by his side and who was, unfortunately, paying rapt attention to the conversation his adult friends were holding. He looked up at Jeff with curious eyes and Jeff in turn shot Troy a scathing look. Great. Troy shrugged apologetically.

Britta either missed their exchange or didn't care. "Calling for help. A classic call for help." Britta mimed answering a phone, "Hello, Dr. Perry's office. Damaged psyche? Yes, I'll accept the charges."

Jeff rolled his eyes, "Heads, lock up your brains. Britta's on the prowl for fresh therapy meat."

"Maybe we should just stop by on our way to the party," Annie petitioned.

"I assure you, the only thing Pierce is trapped in is adolescence," Jeff said to the group, slipping into his convincing speech voice. "He's a geriatric toddler throwing the most elaborate tantrum money can buy. And I for one am not going to stand by and allow some lonely, ridiculous person to derail our group's plans."

As if summoned, Dean Pelton burst into the room wearing a curly blond wig and way too much make-up. But that was nothing compared to the sight of his clothes. Or lack thereof. He was dressed in a sparkly pink crop top and tiny blue shorts that showed off far too much thigh. "Dean, dean, dean!" He called, prancing around with a giant Round 1 sign held above his head. "To your corners, fighters! Someone save me a towel!"

Jeff balked and then quickly reached down to cover Tyler's eyes. He didn't need to see this. All he'd wanted to do was spend Halloween with the kid and this whole evening was turning into something the boy would be recounting in therapy for the rest of his life.

The Dean sauntered up to Jeff and popped his hip, smiling, "You guys going to Vicki's party?"

Jeff grimaced. "We just gotta do this thing first." He grabbed Tyler by the arm and led the group quickly out of the study room and toward the parking lot.

"The Dean was wearing a wig," Tyler commented as he struggled to keep up with Jeff's long-legged gait.

"Yes, he was."

"Does he do that a lot?"

"Yes, he does."

The sound of snickering behind them made him groan. He was definitely going to have to pay for this kid's therapy.

Hawthorne Manor was giant and foreboding and so, so tacky. It was nightmare fuel on its own. It didn't need the guise of Halloween to be creepy. Once inside, the ever-curious Tyler immediately began to wander off, wanting to explore, but Jeff quickly put a stop to that. As soon as Tyler had taken three steps in the direction of the nearest dark, cobweb laden hallway, Jeff reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Nope. Stay with me. And don't touch anything."

"Why?" Tyler questioned, a hint of a whine sneaking into his voice.

"Because it's not… Sanitary. And you'll get lost."

Tyler sighed. "Fine."

They made their way through the house with Tyler obediently trotting along next to them. They were guided by Troy who led them straight to the panic room, launching into a spiel about when it was built and blah blah blah. Something he'd been forced to memorize when he'd lived here.

Troy went to turn on the telecom screen. "Wait!" Jeff said, reaching toward Troy. "It might be a trap. Or it might let him out. Either way, we -"

"Oh, put a sock in it, shorts," Annie interrupted.

Troy turned on the telecom, revealing a live video stream of Pierce sitting alone at a desk in a tiny, well-stocked room, an empty wine glass between his fingers.

"Oh, hey guys." Pierce's voice came through the speakers on the TV screen, sounding tinny and far away.

"Pierce, are you okay?" Shirley asked, slipping into her Miss Piggy voice.

Pierce launched into a story about bumping a switch while dusting and not remembering the code. He'd supposedly written the code down in a red notebook that was either in his bedroom or his study.

"We'll find it," Annie promised. "It'll take two secs."

"Or," Jeff said, halting them as they turned to go on a wild goose chase, "We take one sec and skip to the catch. This place hasn't been dusted in months, and he starts with the panic room? No sale. He's not a sad old man. He's a sad old liar."

"Jeffery!" Shirley chided, but Pierce cut in, coming to Jeff's defense.

"No, no, he's right," He said, standing and moving toward the camera so that his image was larger on the telecom screen. "I've been lying to you. The truth is, last night I got up for a glass of red wi- water," He quickly hid the wine glass he'd been holding, "And on my way back from the cellar I saw something that scared me so badly that I locked myself in here on purpose. The part about me not remembering the code is true." He gestured toward the camera with the wine glass, "I'm very thirsty."

"Why didn't you call me sooner?" Troy asked.

"I had to come up with that awesome dusting story because if you knew what really spooked me you'd probably call me crazy and old."

"No one's gonna call you, Pierce," Jeff said with a self-satisfied smile.

Annie smacked him on the chest then looked back at the screen. "You can tell us. We're here to help you."

Pierce sighed, "I thought I saw my dad. It looked like his face was coming right through the wall. But that's impossible, because my dad is dead."

"Aha!" Jeff stepped forward towards the screen, then took a mental step back, "Not 'Aha! Your dad is dead', but 'Aha! I knew it!' Ghost dad, exploring your haunted mansion for secret codes? Nice try, Pierce." Jeff turned to get an agreement from his friends, only to find them spreading out and grouping off. "You gotta be kidding me! What in the Scooby-Doo is happening to you people?"

"Go to the party," Annie said dismissively. "We'll meet you there. We're gonna stay and help Pierce."

"Can we stay, too?" Tyler begged, grabbing Jeff's hand and tugging him in the direction that everyone was headed. "Please? I wanna see the house!"

Jeff sighed and followed behind the group as they moved deeper into the house. Tyler stayed close to Jeff until the group started to split up. Tyler dashed away and grabbed onto Abed's arm, "Can I go with Abed and Annie?"

Jeff glanced over at Annie who grinned down at the kid, "That's fine with me." They both looked up at Jeff with wide puppy dog eyes.

He had to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes, but if that made the kid happy then who was he to say no. "Alright, you can go with them. But don't wander off."

Tyler's face split into one of his room brightening grins and skipped off, happily sandwiched between Abed and Annie, clearly delighted with their company.

Troy and Shirley went down the next hall together, leaving Britta and Jeff alone together. The silence between them lasted all of two milliseconds before Britta was off on a whirlwind rant. Before long they were arguing but that ended when Jeff said something a little ruder than was called for and had to apologize. "This house is getting to me," He admitted.

"I know. Kinda weird that a dead person lived here," Britta agreed, but that wasn't quite what Jeff meant.

He moved over to a small table and spotted a dusty framed photo of Cornelius and young Pierce. He picked it up to get a closer look. "What's weird is that a living person lived here with his parents well into his 60s, then they died and he's still here like a paralyzed Peter Pan."

"Not for long. I'm gonna set my shrink ray to 'daddy issues' and blast that sucker full of closure."

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt," He said, setting down the photograph and moving on.

"Exactly," Britta agreed. "Because in one way or another, therapy is always helpful."

"No, because there's no possible way you could mess him up worse. It's like practicing on a cadaver. Knock yourself out."

"This has gotta be it!" Britta called out, pointing at a set of dusty curtains hanging in a rounded doorway. It definitely looked like the place.

Jeff groaned, "Ugh, I wish I didn't have so much exposed skin." He tucked his hands into the sleeves of his robe and pushed his way through the curtain, careful to avoid direct contact with the fabric. He made another noise of disgust and then came into the room. When he flipped the light switch he almost immediately wished he hadn't. The room had curved, dark blue walls and a round, unmade water bed. The fireplace had neon flames instead of real ones and a giant portrait of a young Pierce Hawthorne hung above the bed. When the light switch had been flipped some weird, retro style music had begun to play through speakers embedded in the ceiling.

"Tubular," Britta commented.

"I too lack the adjectives," Jeff responded before reaching over and flipping the switch that controlled the music. "Now, how does one search for a red notebook that doesn't exist without looking, touching, or creating future nightmares?"

"I'll check the nightstand," Britta offered, waddling off in the direction of the bed.

"I'll check my messages," Jeff muttered, moving off to the side next to bookshelf and pulling his cellphone from the waistband of his shorts. He was distracted for only a moment before Britta's voice brought him back to the reality of standing in Pierce's bedroom. Yuck.

"Oh, my God. Pierce keeps his dad's bow tie by his bed," Britta called, pointing to a moth-eaten yellow bowtie that lay next to the lamp on the bedside table. "Yeesh." She spun around and mimed talking into a telephone, "Table for Siggy Freud, party of -"

"Britta, stop answering phones!" Jeff snapped. She mimed hanging up the phone, looking crestfallen. Jeff turned to the bookshelf and grabbed another framed photo of Cornelius. "How about we ask Rip van Racism where the codes are?"

"Don't. That's not nice," Britta warned.

Jeff scoffed, "What? He was a tightfisted, philandering bigot who got to outlive most bridges. We don't owe him reverence." Jeff looked down at the photo in his hands, "So, how about it, you old bag of dust? You got our numbers?"

Britta looked panicked. "I'm serious. Stop it!"

Jeff glanced back up at her, still holding the picture, "Come on, you don't really believe in ghosts?"

"I'm just not so quick to rule it out!" Britta said defensively, still a little freaked out. "I believe that people can be haunted by unresolved issues in their past."

"Yeah, but issues don't turn into ghosts."

"Maybe for Pierce, they have. Maybe Pierce and his dad have seriously unfinished business."

"No, the dead can't have business. They can't want or think or do. It's what makes them dead. It's the living who choose to be haunted." Jeff held up the photo frame, picture facing out, "Cornelius was barely a dad. Now he's nothing. Pierce can keep staring into that void or he can turn around, face his future like I did, and say: 'Who gives a crap who my dad was? I'm my own man now. I -'" Jeff stopped talking and dropped his arms, smiling at Britta's triumphant expression. "Wow, pretty slick, Britta. Using ghosts to trick me into opening up. Too bad it didn't work." He twisted and set the photo back down on the shelf. When he turned back around to face the room he was assaulted by Britta's pure joy.

Her smile had spread across her face and she happily danced in place, impeded as she was by her ridiculous costume. "Oh, man, so this is what the zone feels like. Analyze this!"

"Okay, that's enough of that," Jeff said, waving her off and moving towards the doorway. "Clearly the notebook isn't here so let's move on. We've already been here way too long."

But once Britta was like this, it was almost impossible to bring her back down to earth.

"What's up, Winger?" She teased. "Why change the subject? You don't like being outsmarted? Or you don't like me getting to the root of your daddy issues?"

"What daddy issues?"

Britta sighed in exasperation, but the grin never left her face. "Oh, please."

Jeff moved towards Britta, the bed now separating them, "Give me one example. Just one."

"Tyler," Britta said pointing at him.

"Um, what?" Jeff held his arms out to his sides, indicating that that example was nonsensical.

Britta shook her finger at him, "You adopted a little boy who was abandoned by his father. You could relate to that. You saw yourself in him or something, so you adopted him as a coping mechanism!"

"I adopted a kid that didn't have a family. He was in a group home, Britta! I adopted him because it was the right thing to do. Don't cheapen an act of kindness by treating it like a symptom."

"There are thousands of kids in the foster care system that have no families," Britta argued back. "But you went after the kid that liked Spider-Man and had no dad. Don't act like that wasn't exactly what happened! It was your way of dealing with your problems. You're preventing him from experiencing the same abandonment issues you do!"

"You could not be further off base. And leave Tyler out of it. He has nothing to do with anything!" Jeff turned away again, but not before he saw Britta smile.

"Whatever you say. But deep down you know I'm right."

Jeff whirled on her, "I do not have daddy issues!" He shouted across the bed.

"Denial is the first step to acceptance," Britta explained, rather too smugly for Jeff's liking.

He couldn't let her get him worked up. He put on air of nonchalance. "That can't be right," He shot back with his own smug smile.

"Say's the deny-ist."

"Not a word."

"You wanna keep digging this hole?" Britta asked, taking on a more serious tone. "Confronting your daddy issues now could prevent you from ending up haunted like Pierce."

"I'll never end up like Pierce."

"Won't you?" That cocky smile was back. Jeff was growing to hate it.

"No, I'm nothing like him," He argued back. He was not about to let her think she won. It was against his nature to let Britta win anything.

"Aren't you?"

She was so frustrating! "Are you gonna keep doing that?"

"Am I?"

"The worst therapist? No, because you're not a therapist." He really needed to take her down a peg. "Since you're misdiagnosing by a mile, let me point out some differences. Pierce was raised by his dad. Mine took off when I was eight. Pierce spent his whole pathetic life begging for scraps of his father's approval. I moved on. Maybe Pierce needs a dad, I don't."

She kept on smiling. "Don't you?"

"Stop that!" Maybe she needed to be taken down several pegs. "Okay, if I need a dad so bad, how come I've had his phone number for three weeks without the slightest urge to call him?" Jeff reached into the waistband of his shorts and produced the yellow slip of paper that had his father's phone number neatly printed across it. He realized as he watched Britta's face morph into something akin to hopeful wonderment that maybe in his haste to win he had revealed just a little too much information.

"You found your father?" Britta practically gasped, her eyes wide.

Jeff glanced at the piece of paper. He couldn't help it. He had to get one more jibe in. "Did I?"

At that Britta launched herself at Jeff, reaching for the phone number, "Give it here!" But she was too slow in her giant ham costume and Jeff stepped back, easily evading her. As Britta crashed onto the bed and struggled to get up, Jeff stepped back again and then took off running, ducking through curtains and heading down the hall. As soon as Britta was on her feet she was chasing after him, screaming to see the number.

Jeff ducked into the nearest open door and locked it behind himself while Britta banged on the door. He turned around expecting more of the same horrendous art deco and found the first room in the whole house that hadn't made him want to throw up. "So, this is where Pierce has been hiding the taste." He glanced around and spied a decanter of scotch. He was halfway to pouring himself a glass when he remembered that he was supposed to be taking Tyler trick-or-treating. He wouldn't have had that much, but maybe it still wasn't a great idea. He pushed away from the cart with a sigh. Responsibility was a real downer.

He looked around again and spotted a little red notebook lying on a desk nearby. He walked over and opened it to the marked page. And there was the code. 1-9-8-9. "Of course," He muttered to himself. "Because otherwise it wouldn't be pointless."

He wasn't quite ready to deal with Britta yet, so he wandered as far away from the decanter as the room would allow and sat down, fishing out his phone. Moments later, Britta was knocking on the door again. Rather incessantly. "Britta, while I applaud your gentle approach to psychoanalysis," He called in the direction of the door, "I'm not gonna talk about it!"

The knocking continued. Then turned into heavy pounding. "Hey! Cut it out!" He shouted, getting to his feet. He strode angrily over to the door and wrenched it open "You're gonna break the… door…" There was no one there. The hallway was completely deserted. Jeff had barely processed that when the knocking continued, only this time it was coming from behind him. From within the room. The whole room began to rattle. The glass bottles on the drink cart were clinking together loudly and the paintings on the wall shook. A vase worked its way off a table and went crashing to the floor. Jeff cast around, confused, looking for the source of the commotion, when suddenly the painting of Cornelius that hung above the mantle began to swell and expand like a balloon was inflating behind it. The man's eyes started to glow and Jeff didn't stick around to see what happened after that.

He rushed from the room, power walking away from what he had just witnessed. He was trying to rationalize that it couldn't be a ghost but the adrenaline pumping through his veins had him thinking less than rationally.

He passed Britta on his way down the hall. She leaned calmly against a wall and sneered at him as he went by, "Well, look who came crawling back."

Jeff didn't slow down. He didn't even give her a cursory glance. "Not crawling, walking. Quite briskly. Follow."

He heard her jump up and gallop after him. It took her a few seconds to catch up. She was almost jogging to keep pace with him. "What's going on?"

"I don't believe in ghosts," Jeff said.

"Okay, but what -"

"I tell you this so that you understand what I mean when I say, this place is horrifying and some very messed up, haunted-type crap is happening. Either Pierce or Cornelius is trying to scare us to death."

"What?" Her voice dripped with skepticism. She reached out and grabbed Jeff's arm, slowing him down. "Jeff, you said you don't believe in ghosts."

Behind Britta, the wall started stretching, a shape protruding out of it. "Explain that, then," He said wide-eyed, pointing behind her. She spun around and gasped. They were both staring at the wall in aberrant curiosity when suddenly the shape morphed into a face, pushing its way toward them. They both screamed and took off running full tilt. Within moments they'd run headfirst into their also screaming friends. One quick wordless conversation later and they were all barreling towards the foyer where the panic room was.

"Alright, Pierce, turn off your haunted house!" Jeff shouted at the door while Troy booted up the Telecom. When the screen loaded, there was Pierce, lying flat on the floor of the panic room, dead. The sight of Pierce lying there made Jeff instinctively look around for Tyler. Another thing the kid didn't need to see. He glanced down at his side where Tyler usually stood, but he wasn't there. He looked around at the group gathered at the telecom, but Tyler was nowhere to be seen. "Tyler?" He called.

He spun in a circle scanning the room, his heart suddenly pounding so much harder than it had been when he thought he was being chased by a ghost. He reached out and grabbed Annie by the shoulders, "Where's Tyler?"

Annie's eyes were wide, "I don't know. I was looking for the notebook and when I turned around he and Abed were gone! We've been looking but we can't find them."

Jeff was frozen like that, holding onto Annie for half a second before he was spinning around again and shouting, "Tyler!" If he weren't so panicked, the strength of his reaction would have taken him off guard.

"Jeff!" Shirley called to him. "Calm down. I'm sure he's with Abed! He's fine."

"He's missing and you're telling me to be calm?" Jeff snapped back angrily. He started to move away from the group, intending to turn this whole house upside down until he'd found the kid, but his forward progress was stopped by Pierce who suddenly popped up from around the corner.

"Gotcha!" Pierce yelled, causing everyone but Jeff to scream. "I totally had you guys convinced I was dead!"

"Shut up!" Jeff shouted, practically shoving the older man out of the way. "Tyler!"

He'd taken three more steps when Abed came jogging around the corner holding a VHS tape in one hand and towing Tyler along with the other.

Jeff's heart dropped into his stomach and he rushed forward scooping Tyler up into his arms, holding him tight to his chest. Tyler was absolutely fine, but Jeff was certain he had just suffered a mild heart attack.

He heard the others conversing behind him, something about Pierce faking the haunted house, but it was like his mind was no longer picking up their frequency. They sounded like static, like background noise. His mind was reeling. The night had taken such a strange turn for him. As he stood there with Tyler in his arms, he was beginning to realize with unexpected clarity that he hadn't actually thought of himself as a parent until just this moment. Legally, of course, that's what he was, but he'd only been thinking of himself as someone that was responsible for keeping Tyler alive. A kind of caretaker or an older brother, maybe. Not his parent, not his father. But in this moment, he suddenly understood why his mother had gotten so hysterical when he used to hide from her in the clothing racks at the store, why she panicked so badly when he had only been missing for a minute or two, because he had just experienced it himself.

"Jeff," Tyler groaned as he squirmed against Jeff's hold, wanting to be let down. But Jeff kept him in his arms. He didn't want to put him down just yet.

"I didn't know where you were," Jeff muttered, staring at the wall with wide eyes, totally overwhelmed by what was happening to him right now. He was minutely aware that they had an audience, but he didn't much care.

"I was with Abed. I didn't wander off or anything."

"I know," Jeff said. "You didn't do anything wrong. But I got scared anyway."

Tyler finally managed to push himself away from Jeff enough that they could look each other in the eye. Tyler studied him for a moment before asking, "Why?"

"I didn't know where you were," Jeff said again, his heartbeat finally slowing to a more reasonable rate. "I was afraid you were lost or that something had happened to you."

"But I was with Abed," Tyler repeated and Jeff smiled.

"I know. I got all worried for nothing. I just like knowing where you are, is all. I care about you."

They stood there, silently regarding each other for a long moment as the truth of that statement sunk in for them both.

Behind him somebody cleared their throat and the moment was gone. He finally let Tyler down, but kept a tight hold on his hand. He wasn't too keen on having Tyler out of his sight anytime soon. He turned to see Shirley standing there smiling at him. "I'm glad Tyler's okay."

"Yeah, me, too," Jeff breathed. "Sorry I snapped at you. I don't know what happened. I just kind of…" He trailed off.

Shirley smiled understandingly at him and nodded. "I've got kids. I know how it is." Shirley reached out and patted him gently on the shoulder as she moved past him, joining the group as they made their way to the exit.

Annie came up to him next, her smile guilty. "Sorry I ruined your night," She apologized.

"Actually, Pierce ruined my night," Jeff replied with a smile, "But you were right to let him."

"You still wanna go to the party?" She asked hopefully. "I heard Vicki bought dry ice and gave Leonard the wrong address."

"Uh, I'll take a pass," Jeff said and he didn't miss her disappointed look. "I have some unfinished business at home."

Annie smiled and nodded, but with a hint of curiosity in her blue eyes. They turned and walked out of the mansion together, Jeff still holding on to Tyler's hand.

On their way back to the apartment, Jeff had just enough time to take Tyler out for the quickest treat-or-treat run known to man. They hit a couple neighborhoods near the apartment complex, sprinting and driving from house to house. While not the most conventional way to trick-or-treat, they had a blast and Tyler scored a pretty decent amount of candy.

At home, they sat on the floor in front of the TV and watched Halloweentown on Disney Channel while going through Tyler's modest haul.

"What's your favorite candy?" Tyler asked as he picked out all the Tootsie Rolls from his pile and set them to the side.

Jeff thought about it for a moment. "I like Dots," He said, pointing to the small yellow box in the middle of the pile. "What's yours?"

Tyler smiled and grabbed the box, tossing it to Jeff, "I like Tootsie Rolls. That's why I'm picking them out. I want to save them for last."

Jeff caught the box and immediately opened it up, popping a green gumdrop into his mouth, "I never was a fan of those," He said. "I always expected them to taste more like chocolate. They just kinda tasted like sugar. Weird sugar."

"You mean they just kinda taste awesome!" Tyler replied, sticking out his tongue playfully.

Jeff grinned and leaned forward, "Can you even eat those Tootsie Rolls with your tooth missing like that?" He teased. "Maybe I should just take these off your hands." Jeff reached out to grab a handful of the brown wrappered candies but Tyler squealed and flung his body on top of the pile, preventing Jeff from getting to it.

"I can eat just fine!" Tyler laughed.

"If you say so," Jeff said, sitting up straight. "Let me know if it gets too difficult for you. I can help you eat all this if you need me to."

"Not a chance," Tyler said, sticking his tongue out again, only this time he poked it through the gap of his missing front tooth. The sight was so funny and took Jeff so off guard that he fell over laughing.

Tyler stayed up as late as he could manage, but before the Piper siblings had even gotten all the ingredients to power the talisman and save Halloweentown, Tyler was out cold. Jeff scooped the boy up and carried him off to bed, tucking him into his Spider-Man sheets. He clicked on his nightlight and shut the door behind him.

Jeff watched to the end of the movie and then busied himself cleaning up the mess of candy wrappers strewn on the floor. He stored Tyler's candy in the kitchen, making sure to keep his beloved Tootsie Rolls separate. After that had all been squared away, Jeff sighed. He couldn't put it off any longer. He made his way into his bedroom and shut the door with a quiet click. He sat down heavily on the edge of his bed and pulled out that yellow scrap of paper and his phone. Jeff took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then dialed William Winger's phone number.