1 Ronan

September, present day…

"I now call this meeting of the Halloween Block Party Planning Committee to order,"

Ronan said, slapping his hand on the kitchen table. Everly and Aurora kept laughing over something Wolf had said. Cope and Ten never bothered to look up from their conversation. Ditto for Greeley and Fitzgibbon, who'd been whispering together for nearly ten minutes.

Upset that no one was listening to him, Ronan went to the pantry, grabbed his airhorn and walked back to the table with it. The noisemaker had been a gift, of sorts, from Jude, who'd fastened the horn to his desk chair so that when Ronan sat down, it would set the device off. He'd nearly had a heart attack. If he were a cat, he would have lost at three of his nine lives that day.

Pressing the button, Ronan set off the airhorn. The loud wail scared the hell out of everyone at the table. Lizbet started to cry from the living room, while Aurora slapped her hands over her ears and ran to Greeley, who wrapped his little sister in his arms and held on tight. If looks could kill, Ronan would be a goner.

"What the fuck, asshole?"

Jude said. He got out of his seat and walked into the living room to grab the baby. He came back a few seconds later with Lizbet, who's hair stuck up around her head, while tears ran down her cheeks.

"We've got to start the meeting. The food's gonna be here soon,"

Ronan said, noticing how rattled his husband and daughter looked. "Jude, I'm sorry I woke your baby. I'm also sorry I scared Aurora and everyone else."

Ronan felt like the asshole Jude called him.

"It's the same thing every year, Ronan,"

Ten said, looking up to the ceiling as if he were hoping for some sort of divine intervention.

"Someone will make caramel apples. The kids will only eat the candy and leave the apples discarded in the street. You'll bitch and moan about how kids have no manners nowadays and you'll retell the story, for the billionth time, of the time when an apple saved your life. Tru and Carson will break out their popcorn machine and make kettle corn, bags of which we'll keep hanging around in the pantry until it fossilizes. You and Jude will bring the grills out to the street and you'll cook more burgers, dogs, and street corn than the entire city of Salem could eat in a month. The leftovers of which will also turn to stone in our fridge. We'll do Trunk or Treat and the kids will do zoomies around the house later that night thanks to all the sugar they consumed."

Ten looked around the table. "Did I leave anything out?"

"You're a monster."

Ronan set his hand solemnly over his heart. "How have we remained happily married for nearly seven years when all you do is crush my dreams?"

"You mean the dream to have two kids?"

Ten asked, one eyebrow raised. "Or you founding your own detective agency? Or you going back to work for the BPD's Cold Case Unit for one last case, or when you unretired and joined the Salem Police Department? What about the time I bought you the five pound peanut butter cup, which I cautioned you not to eat all at once, and when you ate every last bite one snowy afternoon, was kind enough to offer to drive you to the ER when you started hearing colors and thought you your heart was going to explode from sugar shock?"

Ten looked around the table, his eyes coming to rest on Ronan. "Have I left anything out?"

Ronan sank into his seat with a sour look on his face. "I guess not."

He had to admit he had a really great life, thanks to Ten, his kids, and their friends. There was definitely a better way to bring the meeting to order than with the airhorn and complaints.

"What's our Trunk or Treat theme going to be this year?"

Jude asked, obviously trying to get Ronan out of the hot seat.

"What about movie monsters?"

Cope suggested.

"Oh, I love Franken-blind!"

Everly gushed. "Dad could dress up like him with a green face and nuts in his neck!"

Jude snorted. "Nuts in his neck?"

Everly nodded. You gotta watch the movie, Uncle Jude. It's in black and white and is almost as old as you are, which is pretty old! Daddy, you could be the Bride of Franken-blind! She screams loud, just like you do!"

"How do you know about the Bride of Frankenstein?"

Ten asked, sounding as if he already knew the answer.

"Dad showed me videos on YouTube, but I wasn't scared."

Everly offered Ronan an adoring look. "Woofie could be a werewolf, Aurora could be the Creature from the Black Saloon and I could be Captain Jack Sparrow!"

"We're going to need to have a discussion later about the videos you and our daughter watch."

Ten shook his head in obvious dismay.

Ronan sank lower in his seat. He hadn't shown Everly anything that would give her nightmares, well, mostly not. She had been pretty scared by the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but when he explained it was just a guy in a costume, not a real monster, Everly hadn't looked like she was going to scream in terror.

"Everly makes a good point,"

Fitz began, settling a calmer Aurora on his lap. "What if this year's theme was pirates? We could all wear striped shirts and bandanas on our heads and eyeliner and eye patches."

"Oh, just like One-Eyed Willie!"

Everly gushed.

"Who's One-Eyed Willie?"

Wolf asked, sounding curious.

Jude opened his mouth, looking as if he had a snarky answer.

"Zip it!"

Cope poked his husband's side, before turning to his son. "He was a pirate character in a movie you're probably not old enough to watch."

"Grownups have all the fun,"

Wolf sulked. "You don't have bedtimes, you watch cool movies, and can eat ice cream for breakfast."

"How about if we let you have ice cream for breakfast on your birthday?"

Jude asked.

Wolf's dark eyes lit up. "Deal!"

He shook his father's hand. "No take backsies!"

Jude chuckled at his son's antics. "Are we all agreed on a pirate theme for this year?"

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement, with the exception of Ronan. "I was looking forward to being Frankenstein with a green face."

"You can be a zombie pirate like the ones in the movie,"

Everly added helpfully.

"Zombie pirates?"

Ten asked, sounding exhausted.

As much as Ronan loved Everly's enthusiasm for the movie clips they watched together when Ten was giving Ezra his bath, he had a feeling that he was going to be sleeping in the Mustang for the next week or two. "They're more skeleton pirates than actual zombies."

"Not helping!"

Jude barked a laugh.

"You know what, Daddy?"

Everly asked, setting her hand on Ten's arm. "I like learning about fake scary things with Dad. I've seen a lot of really scary things in my life and zombie pirates are pretty funny in comparison to some of the ghosts I talk to."

Ronan had to admit his daughter made a good point, but he wasn't stupid enough to say those words out loud. There might be a way to weasel his way out of trouble yet again thanks to Everly.

Ten nodded his head. "I just want to protect you."

"I know you do and you do a really good job, but I need to experience healthy fear,"

Everly said, sounding much older than her six years.

"Healthy fear?"

Ten asked, wearing a bemused look. "Where did you hear that?"

"From Whoopsie Goldberg on The View . Nana Kaye loves those sassy ladies, especially when they argue with each other."

"We seemed to have gone from the grotesque to the bizarre."

Ten pressed a kiss to Everly's head. "We'll talk more about healthy fear and your television watching habits later."

Ten grabbed a notepad and a pen. "I love Halloween as much as the rest of you,"

Ten began, "but what we really need to focus on is next week's elementary school fundraiser.

Ronan and Jude groaned in tandem. "I'm still having nightmares from last year's kindergarten fundraiser."

Ronan vividly remembered trying to talk class parents and other members of the community into buying Ten's ooey-gooey brownies. He hadn't had any luck moving the merchandise, but when Everly gave it a go, the sweet treats were sold out in no time. "Please tell me it's not another bake sale."

"Nope! You're off the hook, Betty Crocker,"

Jude chuckled. "This year the school is doing a carnival."

"A carnival!"

Everly and Aurora screamed.

"That sounds like a lot of work."

Not that Ronan was opposed to rolling up his sleeves, but a carnival seemed like an awfully big production for a single weekend.

"Local food truck will have food for sale. We've got farmer's market stalls with fresh apples, honey and baked goods, with proceeds going to the first grade,"

Ten began. "An artist is donating their time to do face painting. Last but not least, is the dunk tank."

Ronan laughed. "What idiot have you wrangled into getting dunked all day?"

Ten's lips quirked into a brief smile. "Someone you know pretty well."

Jude snorted and tried unsuccessfully to cover it with a cough. Everly giggled and slapped her hands over her mouth. "Do you want to tell him, honey, or should I?"

Everly was laughing too hard to answer. Jude joined her. Together, they sounded like braying donkeys.

"Well, there's good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"

Ten asked.

"Oh, no."

Ronan shook his head. He knew what was coming. His darling husband had volunteered him to the be the idiot.

"The good news is that we got you a cool bathing suit. The bad news is temperatures are only forecast to be in the mid-sixties."

Ten grimaced. "But with your sexy figure you're sure to have a huge line wanting to dunk your dumb ass. Repeatedly ."

"Take my money, please!"

Fitzgibbon said with a smirk.

"Just think of it, Ronan, with all the money you'll raise we'll be able to send the kids on one of those rockets into space!"

Ten bit back a laugh when Ronan turned a withering look in his direction.

"Who's going to take care of my dumb ass when I catch pneumonia after all the dunkings?"

Ronan asked with a sneer.

"We'll pack you up and send you over to stay with Nana Kaye. You loved her chicken and stars soup the last time you were sick, remember?"

Ronan remembered the way his loving family had exiled him to Kaye's house like a leper. Although, he did have to admit she'd waited on him hand and foot. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

The money raised would be for an end of the year class trip that all the kids would enjoy. "Fine. I'll do it, but I want to be fully compensated."

He waggled his eyebrows at Ten, knowing his husband would catch his drift.

"Deal!"

Ten said far too easily.

The ringing doorbell interrupted Ronan's saucy comeback, come being the operative word.

As he reached for his wallet, he couldn't help but think how excited Everly would be that her father was going to be the star attraction of the elementary school fundraiser. At least until the hypothermia killed him.