I

"Excuse me, I'm delivering these today, and someone in here got one…"

Terry rested his head on his desk as final period started. One more god damned hour, he thought, shutting his eyes. He smirked to himself. He knew he couldn't sleep for long, but maybe he could sneak a nap before he went to work…

"I have one for Jennifer Hale, Andy Winchester, Terry Mc… McGinnis?"

Maybe, he sighed at the thought, the old man would even let him sleep in a guest bedroom or something. Sleep right there, in that house! That… That mansion.

"Terry? Are you Terry?"

He's loaded, I bet the beds there are so comfortable. Hell, even Ace's bed looks like it's stuffed with goose down.

"Wake up, dumbass." The girl sitting next to Terry jabbed him in his side with her pencil, and he shot up suddenly, confused and disoriented as thirty other pairs of eyes watched him, some amused, but mostly bored. Terry turned to his assailant, who shrugged and pointed to the front of the classroom, where the instructor stood, glaring at him, next to a timid girl that Terry didn't recognize.

"T-Terry?" The girl said in a small voice. Terry stood up and watched her as she hurried to his desk, her eyes down. Hanging on her arm was a small basket full of cookies shaped like pumpkins and bats. Once the girl reached his desk, she shoved her hand into the basket and held up an orange cookie for Terry to take. Although she never looked up, he could tell she was blushing; her bright red ears poking through her blond hair was a dead giveaway. He couldn't see her face when she looked down, however. She was almost a foot shorter than him, and all he could see was the top of her head, where shiny blond hair hung lazily, some of it straight, some of it wavy. Man, she could really use a hair brush… Terry thought, trying to figure out if he knew her after all. Probably not, he concluded. She seemed like one of those people that often goes unnoticed, the kind that can just blend into the back ground and go unnoticed for years. The type that's too quiet, too small. She reminded him of a squirrel.

When he didn't take the cookie from her, the squirrel girl raised it higher and shoved it in his face. Terry took a step back. The type that's too rude, too, apparently, he scoffed. "What is it?" he asked, not even trying to mask the irritation in his tone.

The girl looked up and revealed a thin face that housed two dull blue eyes, a flat nose and thin, pink lips. Her dark eyebrows were drawn together as she tried to force the cookie onto Terry again. "It's a delivery," she said, obviously flustered. "Halloween cookies for the Academic Team fund raiser. Someone must have bought one for you, and now I'm delivering it." She raised the cookie again. "Please, just take it."

With a shrug, Terry accepted the sweet and the girl scampered away, relieved. Terry remembered seeing a table set up at the front of the school for the past week, and figured this must have been what it was for. Order a cookie for someone, and then they deliver it on the Friday before Halloween. Huh. Clever.

He checked the little slip of paper that came with the cookie. "To Terry, Happy Halloween! xoxo Dana." Terry smiled. She would buy him a Halloween cookie.

"It's quiet tonight, isn't it?" Terry spoke into his headpiece as he sat against a gargoyle at the top of Gotham City First Catholic Church.

"Yeah…" The old man's voice crackled from the other side of the transmission. "That's probably enough for tonight. You can come back now."

"'Bout time," Terry mumbled, hopping down from the steeple and starting the quick flight back to his Bat Mobile.

"What was that?" Bruce Wayne barked from Terry's earpiece, although the smile in his voice was evident by his tone. Terry shrugged it off and continued to his vehicle. It was almost like a spaceship, he liked to think, and sometimes on the rides back to the mansion he could pretend he was an alien invader, cruising the city. It was a childish thought but Terry liked to entertain it from time to time, regardless.

Although he did enjoy the slow nights when he could be left alone with his thoughts, Terry had to admit, he liked the action-packed ones even more. The fighting, defeating evil in the name of justice-side was just so appealing to him. Even the danger of it all. The fights, blood, the excitement of it was irresistible, and when he found himself thinking of these things the flight home never seemed to last that long.

Terry entered the bat cave and hopped out of the slick, black machine, his mask already in his hand. He yawned and Bruce spun around in his chair to face the young Batman. "You should rest up while you can," Bruce advised, turning back to his computers. "Go home, McGinnis." Terry grinned.

"No need to tell me twice," he said, taking his suit off and stuffing it in his bag by the back stairwell that led to the main part of the mansion. He took his cell phone out and pretended to be shocked at the time. "Almost four in the morning!" he cried. "Would it really be so bad if I stayed here tonight? I'll just sleep in one of the guest rooms and be gone after a quick nap or—"

"Absolutely not," Bruce growled without turning around. "Go home, McGinnis. Straight home."

"Jeez," Terry mumbled. "It was just an idea." He slinked up the stairs and made it halfway before he stopped. "Aren't you coming up?" he asked.

"In a while," Bruce answered, still busy at his computer, but he paused and turned to face Terry again, half-smiling. "But if I go up and find you sleeping in a guest room…"

"Right, right," Terry said, throwing his hands up in defeat, "go straight home, I heard ya." He continued up the stairs until he made it to the clock and quietly stepped into the house. He knew he was the only one in the mansion other than Ace, somewhere, but he still felt strange if he was too loud. He didn't know much about what the rest of Wayne Manor looked like and tonight he was almost too tired to see for himself. Almost.

He began to take his usual path toward the front door when he heard something clatter, and he froze. It's probably just Ace, he told himself, but he waited for another sound anyway. Another noise, something like a drawer opening, followed by the sound of silverware clacking together. Terry broke away from the path to the front door to follow the noise. Every now and then he would hear another noise echo through the empty hallways. A drawer closing, a cabinet opening, Ace whimpering a bit, and then an almost inaudible "Shhh…" that Terry could only assume was directed toward the dog. Finally, he came to a room at the end of a dark hallway where the sounds seemed to be coming from. He hid around the corner to listen for a minute while he decided what he was doing, and what he should do next.

Although he couldn't see her, he could hear a woman's voice as she spoke to the dog. "No, Ace," she laughed a bit, and her next words were spoken through a mouthful of some sort of food. "You can't have any, this is my midnight snack." Swallow. Sigh. "You want some of the peanut butter, though, don't you." Sigh again. "Don't tell Daddy." Drawer opening, clank of silverware, Ace's nails tapping against the tile in excitement. "This can be your spoon, and this will be mine." Licking noises from the dog, another sigh from the girl.

Terry wanted to see who it was. He was sure the old man lived alone, but Ace seemed comfortable enough with the stranger in what he assumed was a kitchen that Terry thought she must at least be a regular visitor. But the time seemed too late for it to be a normal houseguest. Bruce didn't seem like the type to have overnight guests, as far as Terry could tell anyway. He just wanted to get a good look at the stranger in the kitchen, just a peek, and then he'd be satisfied. At least, that's what he told himself. He slowly peered around the corner and watched silently as a young woman stood behind an island countertop, one of her arms extended down in front of her, and from the other side of the counter Terry could see Ace's tail wagging happily. In her other hand she held a half-eaten banana with peanut butter on the top of it, although she was too busy watching the dog to take another bite. Finally, Ace finished his spoonful of peanut butter and the girl laughed and turned around to place the spoon on the counter when her blue eyes met Terry's and they shared a moment of panicked confusion. When the girl was able to comprehend the there was a strange man in her hallway watching her feed her dog, she jumped back against the refrigerator behind her and held the banana in a defensive position, as if it were a knife she could point at the intruder to intimidate him.

Although her blond hair was less ratty now, and her plain school clothes had been exchanged for spotted pajama pants and a pink tank top, the fearful expression was similar to the one she had been wearing earlier that day. Terry turned around and ran as fast as he could to the front door and out of the house. The girl didn't chase him, and Ace stayed behind with her, too.

He didn't understand how or why, but he had at least figured out who.

For the second time that day, Terry had met with squirrel girl.