Thanks to Mems for beta-reading this. She knows infinitely more about babies than I do.

Also thanks to Keefer, Sexy. Lil. Emo, tmmdeathwishraven, Kathrin J Pearl, KitCat1995, BookwormI, madclifton, and Mems for your reviews to the last chapter!

That first Halloween found Taz doing something he hadn't done since opening the bar ten years before: taking Halloween off. Today, he was at Wal-Mart, stocking up on whatever candy was left. He and Luce had been so busy lately, neither of them had gone shopping for longer than fifteen minutes, so Halloween had rather snuck up on them this year. Besides, with June getting bigger and starting to roll around, they had their hands full.

Taz tossed a few bags of mixed candies into his shopping cart and, on a whim, went to the costume section. As expected, there wasn't much of a selection left, but there were a few small accessories left. That suited him just fine—he hadn't fully dressed up for Halloween in years. But this would be June's first Halloween, and that warranted something special. He snorted with laughter at one of the remaining accessories: a small headband with tiny antennae on it, presumably part of a baby's insect costume. Well, that would work. He dropped it into the basket and went to check out.

When Taz returned home, it was to a very strange sight. Luce had spread out June's fuzzy green blanket on the floor and set June on her stomach. Then he'd stretched out on the floor on his stomach directly across from her. The two of them were now engaged in an intense staring contest.

Actually, Luce was the one doing the staring. June, not understanding the concept of a staring contest, blinked slowly but freely, but she wasn't looking away. For some reason or another, she gazed intently at her dad's face as though it were the only interesting thing in the room. To her, that was probably the case, anyway. Babies were by far more interested in looking at people than toys.

As Taz walked in, June abruptly rolled onto her back. A smile twitched across her face as Luce rolled into his back, mimicking her. "Time to look at the ceiling now?" Luce asked her, tipping his head back to continue looking at her. "It's quite the fascinating ceiling."

"I leave you alone for twenty minutes and I return to chaos. Also, I don't think she cares about the ceiling," Taz joked, locking the door behind him.

"Oh, shush." Luce flipped back over and reached out to tickle June's stomach, but she grabbed his index finger and refused to let go. "Oh, shit." He grinned. "Someone's catching on."

"She is a clever little baby." Taz set the two bags he'd acquired at the store down on the sofa and rummaged through them until he found the headband. Luce looked up at him in interest as Taz unwrapped the headband, slunk over to where June was laying, and rolled her onto her stomach. With a surprised look, she let go of Luce's finger. "And voila!" Taz said, carefully placing the headband on June's head.

Luce started laughing as he pulled himself into a sitting position. "So, what, she's an insect for her first Halloween?"

"A June bug."

Still grinning, he rolled his eyes. "Very clever. That isn't gonna get old anytime soon." He reached out and tweaked one of the antennae. "Is that gonna be safe for her?"

"It's part of a baby's costume, so I'm fairly certain it's intended to be worn by a baby."

Luce rolled his eyes. "The damn thing isn't gonna fall off and choke her, is it?"

Taz chuckled and sat down next to Luce. "I highly doubt it. But I recommend watching her to be sure."

June was oblivious to her parents talking. She rolled onto her back and started reaching up to tug on the headband, but her arms were just a little too short to get a good grip. That didn't stop her from trying, though. She just went right on trying to reach.

Luce noticed and had to fight back a manly giggle. "Where's your phone? You have to take a picture of that."

"Hang on," Taz said, grinning. He shifted to dig his phone out of his back pocket and took a quick picture. June gave her papa a curious look for a moment before turning her attention back to the fuzzy headband. "Are we still doing that Halloween party thing with Gabe and the rest of them?"

"Yeah, of course. The other kids are gonna be excited to see June."

Taz's grin widened and he placed a quick kiss on Luce's cheek. "I knew you'd be a good father but I didn't expect you to completely lose your marbles when she was born."

"I haven't 'lost my marbles,'" Luce said, making a face. "She's just adorable, that's all." Even as he said it, though, he got the sense that maybe Taz was right. He really had changed in the last few months. He'd never really considered himself a "baby" person, but ever since June arrived, he'd flipped out. The dozen or so baby pictures he kept in his wallet testified to that. It wasn't even a fraction of the photos he had, either. Every morning, he would take a picture of her. He had this vague idea where, one day, after he had ten or fifteen or twenty years' worth of pictures, he'd put all the photos together and watch her change day-to-day.

"If you insist," Taz joked with a small smile. He wrapped his arm loosely around Luce's waist and added, "What time did you want to take off?"

"In an hour or so. She's probably gonna get hungry again before we leave."

Taz nodded. "That would make sense." He extended his other arm and reached out to tickle his daughter. She ignored him completely until he actually touched her—then she gurgled happily and flailed her legs. "What?" he asked Luce, who was giving him an amused smirk.

"Lost my marbles, huh? Look who's calling the kettle black."

"Shut up."

An hour and a half later saw them pulling up in front of Gabe and Sam's house with June mercifully passed out in her car seat. Taz managed to get her out of the backseat without jostling her too much and Luce grabbed the bags of candy that his husband had bought earlier. The idea for this venture had been Gabe's, of course. Three years ago, back when Anna and Raphael had deemed Layla old enough to go trick-or-treating, Gabe had mentioned it and it ended up being a group thing—their social circle would gather at his and Sam's house and use it as a base camp, so to speak, for the festivities. This was mostly because the neighborhood he and Sam had moved into had a lot of children and the best candy (which was something Gabe knew immediately). Inias had been about a year and a half old at the time, so Michael and Rachel saw nothing against joining in, and Luce and Taz as well as Dean and Castiel had tagged along for the Hell of it, although Dean and Castiel ended up just staying at the house to pass out candy. The next year, they had Andy to keep them preoccupied, leaving Gabe with the candy detail. Luce knew for a fact that almost half of the candy ended up in Gabriel's stomach.

But now he and Taz had June and, even though she wouldn't actually be eating any candy, they were still going to tag along with the Burbanks, Wessons, and Novaks.

Layla came bounding out of the house in her full duck costume, complete with a beak. "Uncle Taz! Uncle Lu!" she called excitedly. Inias wasn't too far behind her, wearing an alien costume and waving his arms. Luce managed to shift his grip on the bags of candy to grab both kids and carry them to the door under his arms.

"Hey, kids. You ready to get some candy?"

"Yeah! Uncle Gabe said we were just waiting for you slowpokes," Inias said, giggling.

"Slowpokes, huh?" Luce grinned and set down the kids on the porch to open the door. "Looks like I'm gonna have to have a talk with Uncle Gabe, then. He needs to learn to respect his elders."

"Elders, huh?" Gabe asked sarcastically. He appeared in the foyer and give Luce a hug. "Everyone knows beauty is more important than age."

"Then I still have you beat." Luce held open the front door to allow Taz to maneuver his way into the house with June in her carrier. "Anyway, I want to see how fast you get ready with a four-month-old."

Gabe snorted. "Don't let Sam hear you say that. He's starting to get into the whole baby thing now, too."

"And that's not your thing?"

Gabe shrugged. "It is, but I'm not ready for a kid yet. Maybe after I pick up a desk job or something. I don't want to be on the streets and end up… You know, if shit goes south somehow, I don't want to leave Sam by himself with a kid."

"That makes a fair bit of sense."

"But that's a depressing train of thought," Gabriel said suddenly, his face brightening. "Did you bring the candy?"

"Of course I did." Luce tossed the bags of candy at Gabe, whose grin widened as he tore them open and dumped the candies into a huge bowl.

"Awesome. Sam, Mikey, and Cas are finishing up dinner in the kitchen and everyone else is just kind of waiting. You guys are the last to get here, so once we eat, I guess you're all just gonna go trick-or-treating. Same basic deal as last year." He bent down just in time to scoop up a wriggling and giggling Samandriel, who was dressed as a lion. "The little ones can barely sit still, they're so excited."

Luce grinned. "Yeah, June probably isn't going to be much fun this year, but next year will be better for her, I think."

"She have a costume?" Gabe set down Andy, who went tearing into the kitchen.

"Sort of. Taz bought her a little headband with antennae on it. He says she's a June bug." As if on cue, they heard June start crying from the living room. The wailing quieted a few moments later as Taz presumably picked her up. "Well, she's awake, at least. Looks like she's gonna be up for the walk after all."

After they finished off the homemade pizza as quickly as they could—Layla finished long before anyone else and started rushing around the living room until Anna caught her and sat her back down—the small mob of adults and children got ready to go. Dean scrambled to find the last plastic pumpkin bucket for Andy as Rachel zipped Inias into a light windbreaker. The evening air was a little cool, but Luce thought the jacket was a bit unwarranted. That didn't stop him for pulling a little beanie over June's head, though. He had an excuse, though—babies got cold more easily.

Once June had eaten, she was quiet and perfectly content to lay against her daddy's shoulder and suck her thumb while the other three children charged up various walkways to the houses in the neighborhood, shepherded by Mikey and Castiel. "TRICK OR TREAT!" they chorused, and Luce gave June a gentle shake.

"That's gonna be you next year, isn't it? Up there, freezing your butt off in some costume you'll only be able to wear once, getting all hopped up on sugar, and driving me and Papa crazy, huh?"

She seemed to shake her head, but she just peered over Luce's shoulder and pulled her thumb out of her mouth to flash a big, toothless grin at Taz. When she saw her papa's smile, she let out a happy gurgle. He ran a hand over her tiny yellow beanie affectionately and kissed the top of her head. "I don't know about you, love, but I'm looking forward to seeing that."

Luce went to tickle June, but she caught his finger and refused to let go. "Yeah. I think I am, too."

I can't wait for June to get a little older...she's gonna be so badass.