Title: Gangnam Style

Date: October 31, 2019

Location: Mayport, Florida

Set in the Once in Forever Universe (yes, I will be updating that soon, hopefully this week!). Basically, all you need to know is that Danny and Kara have adopted two daughters who are three and eight. Andrea and Tex have a one-year-old named Liam.

x

Sidestepping a group of zombie cheerleaders, Danny Green scanned the parking lot. The plan was for Kara to pick up the girls and bring them to the base trunk or treat when it first opened, during the hour reserved for children under ten. However, Kara was on the hook to run the cake walk starting at eighteen hundred, requiring Danny to take over. Unfortunately, he hadn't anticipated such a crowd — or thought about the need to park off-base and walk here, given that the parking lot was full of trick or treaters.

As he searched for some sign of Kara, Danny took in the extravaganza around him. In addition to the cars filling the parking lot, the event had spilled on the helipad and the lawn in front of the hospital, with a number of booths selling pizza, tacos, flavored popcorn, and assorted sweets. Next to those were what looked to be the games area, and Danny turned in that direction, hoping that's where Kara would be. He had just skirted around an inflatable dinosaur and a blessing of unicorns — a term that he would never have known prior to having an eight-year-old daughter — when Tex appeared, carrying a pint-sized cowboy and trailed by a florescent pink deep-sea dragonfish and a ghost wearing a shocking amount of tulle under her white sheet.

The dragonfish saw him first. "Hi Daddy! Everyone loves my costume! Nobody can believe that Gigi made it!"

Truthfully, Danny hadn't been thrilled when Debbie showed up with the costume, which included scales, a tail, and small balls dangling in front of her face, but Stella was ecstatic. Plus, Stella definitely stood out from the crowd, a fact that Danny was currently appreciating given how many Harry Potters had passed by since he arrived. Moving forward, Danny picked up Delilah, smiling down at Stella.

"Of course they love your costume, sweetheart. You look just like a dragonfish." He transferred his attention to Delilah. "And you are a super-scary ghost."

"I a friendly ghost, Daddy," Delilah said with a giggle. "See my candy?"

Danny peeked into the plastic pumpkin to see that it was already half full, containing mostly lollipops, chocolate kisses, and popcorn balls. As with everything else, the virus had done a job on the candy industry and the vast majority of the treats that Danny recalled from his own childhood - skittles and smarties and milk duds - no longer existed. Pushing the depressing thought away, Danny tweaked Delilah's nose. "Are you going to share any of that with me?"

"You can have one piece," Delilah replied in a tone that was so obviously Kara that Danny could only laugh. He turned to Tex. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. Does Liam even know what Halloween is?"

"Never too young to get started," Tex replied, as Liam gummed his hand. "Besides, Red had to work late so I figured that I would come check this thing out. When Kat was a little girl, we used to turn the garage into a haunted house. Tonight's all about getting inspiration for next year."

Shaking his head at Tex, Danny turned to Stella. "Did you go to all of the cars with Mommy?"

"Only like three," Stella claimed.

Ignoring the obvious lie, Danny gestured. "Then lead on."

"Let's go to Mario!" Stella squealed, dashing forward.

Danny followed at a more sedate pace, figuring that a Mario car couldn't be that hard to find until he realized that there wasn't one, but three cars, decorated in various Mario themes. One was Mario, one was Mario and Luigi, and one was Mario in a haunted house. Turning to Tex, he began. "Um, do you see..."

"Daddy!" Stella shouted, jumping up and down at the Mario and Luigi car. "Look, it's Among Us!"

"Among Us?" Tex queried.

"A video game set in space where imposters try to kill crewmates without getting caught," Danny replied absently, deliberately closing the distance between him and Stella.

"You let your daughter play that?" Tex asked, clearly surprised. "I always figured that Foster was a hard-ass."

"Hell no," Danny snorted. "Kara is firmly in the video games are terrible and rot your mind camp. But the kids talk about it all the time. Everything is suss."

"What?"

Danny was too busy trailing his clearly sugared-up eight-year-old to explain. "Never mind, head towards Ghost Spider."

"Who? Oh, spiderman."

"Not spiderman!" Delilah interjected. "Ghost spider is girl. Spiderman is boy."

Tex took the set down in stride. "Good to know, Miss D. I bet Liam here will love that Ghost Spiderwoman in a few years."

They almost caught Stella at the next car, which was a traditional Day of the Dead display and Danny thought he heard Tex mumbling thank you under his breath. Unfortunately, Danny didn't see the next car in time to stop Stella, who was staring at the red light, green light game. She turned to Danny. "Can we play?"

"Not right now, honey," Danny said, quickly steering her away before she asked what Squid Games was and if they could watch it.

Tex leaned over. "Even I know better than to use Squid Games as a theme for a kids' event. Oh, and here comes Jeter now. Someone must have complained."

"Commander. Mr. Nolan." Russ Jeter said respectfully as he passed them.

But before Danny could do more than nod in return, Stella squealed. "OMG! Daddy it's Seventeen."

Danny's head wiped around, catching sight of a small platform in the corner and the band that was setting up. "Oh dear lord in heaven, we're done for now."

Tex turned to see what they were looking at, before shrugging his shoulders. "What could possibly be worse than Squid Games?"

Danny shook his head at the naivety. "Seventeen is a kpop band. We're about to spend the next two hours listening to seventeen teenage boys wearing thick eyeliner emote."

Tex stopped dead, before clasping Danny on the shoulder. "Sorry, Connecticut, but I just remembered that I have to go wash my hair."