Black Canary walked down the hall of the Watchtower with the young boy in her arms. She stopped in front of the gym to find Green Arrow practicing.
"Oliver, we're going to have to cancel our date tonight." GA turned around, and was surprised to see her holding Dick.
"I see why." Green Arrow mused as he wiped the sweat off his face.
"Why are we in charge of watching Dick? I thought the team was having fun with him."
"From what I've heard, both the team and Batman are on separate missions to find parts of the antidote for him." Black Canary shifted Dick into her other arm.
"I talked to him a little while ago, and he said it might take almost two weeks to come back."
Green Arrow gawked for a second. "So we are in charge of Dick for two weeks?"
Black Canary shook her head. "No, I talked to some others who say they'll take care of him too. But we have him for the day, so what do you think we should do?"
"Well, they just finished a children's museum in Star City. Why don't we take him there?" Green Arrow bent down to Dick's level. "How does that sound?"
Dick smiled widely. "Les go!"
Canary smiled before waving Green Arrow off towards the showers. If they were going to get through all the exhibits, they would need to get there soon.
…
Now showered and in their civvies, the small family headed to the children's museum. Inside, the front desk was to the side of the hallway, and children were running and laughing all around. The young lady at the desk gave a warm smile to Oliver and Dinah.
"Hi! Welcome to the Star City Children's Museum. How may I help you toady?" She greeted warmly.
"Three tickets please." Dinah replied. The woman typed out the simple information and calculated the total.
"Are you interested in participating in the detective adventure today?"
Dinah and Ollie just looked in confusion, prompting the woman to explain further.
"At about 5:30, the crew puts together a crime scenario, and the kids get to go to different stations and see who they think commited the crime. There are a few different skill levels for each station so it can be a little easier for toddlers." She gave a small nod towards Dick.
The couple smiled in the slight irony of Dick participating in a detective adventure.
"Sounds good. Sign us up." The woman nodded and quickly added the information to their tickets. She handed three wristbands before wishing them a great day. Ollie slipped the wristband onto Dick's small wrist before setting him down.
The toddler looked around in excitement at the different sounds, colors, and attractions. Dick ran towards the cooperation Station exhibit, watching as the colorful pillars went up and down. Dick pushed the lever on one side down, causing the purple pillar to fill with air and rise. Dinah pushed the button on the adjacent side, filling the orange pillar, while Ollie moved the pedals to make the green pillar rise. Dick clapped as al three pillars rose and fell together.
Dick moved on from the Cooperation exhibit and entered the Hands On House. The toddler grabbed the brown sandbags and followed the other children who were putting them on a conveyor belt moving upwards. Inside the house, Dick picked up a paint brush and pretended to paint the wall. Dinah crawled through the small door and knelt down next to Dick as he continued to 'paint' the wall. Dinah pretended to pour more red paint into the basin before grabbing a paint roller and helping Dick finish the wall. Back outside the house, Dick ran over to Oliver and the crane he was standing next to. Ollie lifted Dick onto the platform. He pushed the first lever down, lowering the crane. Dick closed the digger around some 'rocks' before pushing the lever back up. When the crane was back up, he opened the digger, giggling as the rocks fell back down.
The makeshift family walked into the next exhibit, the Water Works station. Dick pressed a button, causing the pipe in front of him to fill with water before dropping a floating ball through another set of swirling tubes before returning to the pipe. The young boy moved on to the next station that had water guns. Dinah picked Dick up to help him reach the gun. They aimed and shot a stream of water to hit different instruments, creating a multitude of sounds and melodies. Dinah put Dick back down and watched as he ran to a crank the other kids had been playing with. Dick began to crank the lever as a conveyor belt with little buckets began dumping water into a tank. Once the tank filled up, it tipped, sending the water down a slide and back into the original tank. Dick gleamed as he watched the water from different stations created unique reactions.
"Having fun?" Ollie asked, getting an eager nod from the toddler. Oliver scooped Dick up before they headed off to the next exhibit.
…
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, the time is now 5:25, so families that are participating in the Detective Adventure should head to the traveling exhibit gallery, located next to the entrance."
The intercom crackled off, and Dinah watched as Dick put the stuffed puppy from the vet station back on the grooming table. Ollie helped Dick get his lab coat off before they headed towards the Detective Adventure.
Dinah and Oliver entered the exhibit room, pleasantly surprised at how much it looked like a crime scene. A stand was marked off with yellow caution tape. There was a powder sprinkled around the stand, with obviously planted feet and hand prints, and a void from what Dinah would have guessed was a little telescope. They took seats in the second row of folding chairs right before the museum workers made their way to the front of the room.
"Hello everyone, I'm Angie and this is my friend George here. How are our little detectives doing today?" The preppy worker smiled at the crowd as the kids all hollered.
"Good to hear! I'm glad you guys are here, because we have a super big mystery for you guys to solve! Last night, someone stole the telescope from our science exhibit, and we need your help to find out who did it. Do you think you can help?"
With a unanimous yes from everyone, Angie let everyone go into their "Detective teams", all spit by the different age groups. Oliver and Dinah followed the toddler group with the rest of the parents to the first station. A table was set up with a colorful set of pages in front of every seat. The kids took their seats around a smiling museum worker.
"Hey there detectives, I'm Sammie, and I'm here to help you solve this crime. These papers in front of you are going to help you learn about everyone that was working last night." She picked up her sheet and began reading for the toddlers.
"The first worker last night was Gil T Man. Gil has two kids, he has the biggest hands out of everyone, and he has small feet. He said that he went outside to get some fresh air during the crime. When he came back inside, the telescope was gone!
" Next, we have Allie Sto Lit. Allie is married, just had a baby, and she has the smallest hands and the biggest feet. Allie says that she was drinking a soda with two workers, and she was the first to notice the telescope was missing.
"The third employee was Ina Sent. Ina is married, doesn't have kids, and Ina has small hands and feet. Ina said that Allie gave her a soda, and she was asleep during the crime.
"Lastly we have Rob Er. Rob is married and has big hands and feet. Rob was drinking a soda with Ina and he fell asleep too."
Sammie held up a small chart, including the names of the workers, with two checkboxes next to their names.
"Once we go through a station, and you think one of the workers couldn't have stole it, put an X in the first box, but if you think they did it, put a check in the second box. Parents, I ask that you help your kids throughout this process, thank you! Are you guys ready to find out who did it?"
The kids eagerly responded before heading to the first station. The group of kids moved to the next table. In the center of the table sat a couple of ice trays and cans of soda.
"Okay guys, some of the workers were drinking sodas last night, and we found these ice trays next to the sodas." Sammie handed a slip of Ph paper to each of the kids.
"These strips are special potion finding sheets. They change color to show if there is a potion in anything. We put one in the ice tray, and it turned yellow. That means that there was a sleeping potion in the ice. Now, I'm going to pass around the sodas, and you will dip your potion strips in the soda and then see what color it turns."
Dick dipped his sheet in the can, and saw it turn the same yellow as the one from the ice tray.
"Okay everyone, what color are your sheets?" Sammie received an anonymous 'yellow' from the kids.
"So what does that mean?" Most of the kids raised their hands. She pointed towards Dick to say his hypothesis.
"Somebody put da potion ice in da drinks." Dick stated matter of factly.
"Good job! Let's head to the next station." All the toddlers hopped from their seats and followed to the next station. Like the first station, the center of the table held the entire station. A few clear cups had different powders sitting at the bottom of them.
"At the scene of the crime, there was powder on the floor. We took some of the powder, and we have a few types of powder to compare it to. Can anyone tell me which powder looks like the crime scene powder?"
Dick raised his hand again.
"It loos like da baby powder." Dick pointed to the sample of baby powder in front of him.
"Good job Dick! Do any of the workers have kids?" Dick nodded before mentioning Allie and Gil.
Sammie led the kids to the last station for the toddlers. Unlike the first two, the last station was at the crime scene. The kids examined the voids left by the telescope, a foot, and a hand.
"We had all the workers show their hand and feet sizes in the pictures next to the crime scene. Compare the sizes of everyone's hand and feet to the marks in the powder.
All the children examined the pictures or the hand and feet sizes and then the voids. Three ids, including Dick, raised their hands to answer. Sammie pointed to the little girl to answer.
"The soes look like Allie's." She mentioned.
"Good job Amanda." Sammie let the boys go next.
The other boy said that the feet were Allie's size, and Dick pointed out the hand size also matching Allie's.
"Great detective skills everybody! You all did a super job! Does everyone have an idea of who stole the telescope? Put your sheets in my hands and we will see who the robber was."
The kids handed her their graphs and she quickly looked them over.
"I think you guys are right! Do you think Allie did it?" Most of the group responded yes.
"Well then we are going to catch her! Thank you guys so much for your help! I think you all deserve your very own detective badges." The kids looked in awe as she began passing out the plastic detective badges.
"And we have one award for the number One detective. This goes to the detective that solved the most our mysteries. Who thinks Dick deserves it?" The kids agreed with Sammie and Dick blushed lightly at the attention. She pinned the ribbon on Dick's jacket.
"Congratulations Dick! Great job detectives! I hope you come back soon!" Sammie waved goodbye as the kids began to leave with their parents. Dick ran to Dinah and Oliver, showing off his badge and ribbon.
"Good job sweetie! You did great!" Dinah praised the toddler as Ollie picked him up.
"Tank you!" Dick wrinkled his nose for a second before sneezing into his elbow.
"You okay sweetie?" Dinah questioned Dick. He simply nodded and leaned his head against Oliver's chest.
"Ready to go home?" Ollie asked the child, already knowing the answer. The family headed towards the car with Star City's 'Number One Detective'.
…
I can't believe summer is halfway over! And I haven't uploaded like anything! I'm sorry this took sooo long, and if the beginning of the detective part doesn't match the ending, i wrote the parts on two different computers.
i got to do a detective night at a children's museum for girl scouts when i was about 8, and i figured it would be something that even Toddler!Dick would excel at. I also haven't been to a children's museum in ages, so i just went off things from a website.
Thank you all for being so patient! The next few chapters should take less time than this one did!