icebergloungers | Got A Clue

"You did. Cause you're my fairy God...dad." Or something like that. She wiped away her tears and tried to stop sniffling, smiling despite everything. "I didn't tell anyone, I promise. I kept everything a secret! I didn't even tell mom." She wanted Edward to be impressed by her amazing secret keeping abilities, then he would definitely keeping back. "Oh! Oh! I made you something!"

She ran off into the bedroom and ran back moments later, holding up her drawing of Edward. Lots of green and purple eyes. It was like a bush monster who had style. "I drew you!"

"Ohh, you are quite the accomplished artist, my sweet Stephanie." Edward took the drawing from her, then held it up and nodded his approval. "Bold use of colour. I like it!" He ran a hand through his hair, feeling a little... Nervous was the wrong word. Aware of the importance of this meeting, that was more like it. "Stephanie, I have to explain something very confusing and surprising to you. It might be a bit much, but I think you are old and smart enough. Do you want to listen?"

If she didn't, he was sure she would now. "You know... It is complicated and you'll understand it better one day, but do you remember how I told you that I know all I want to know? I now know something new. Something I didn't know before."

He caught her eyes. It was strange, now that he knew. Their eyes had a completely different colour, but their shape? Looking at her face felt familiar. "Stephanie. I am your father. Not that id-- Not him. The one you know. I am."

Stephanie didn't get it. It was kind of confusing because she had a dad and she'd always had that dad. She wasn't against changing her dad but it was an odd thought. Her dad would go away and she'd have a new dad, a magical dad. She bit her lower lip and considered what Edward had said before frowning at him. "Can you prove it?"

How did he learn that he was her dad? Was there a way to learn? She didn't get it - was she just left with the wrong mom and dad by mistake.

"How did you know? I was always theirs. If I'm yours then where were you?" It wasn't an accusation, she wasn't upset, just very curious.

"I can prove it, actually. You are really smart to ask." Finally, some scepticism. Edward was relieved more than anything. He reached into his pocket and produced a piece of paper, unfolding it for her to see. "See, this is a DNA test. When certain things match between two people, like you and me, you can tell that they have to be father and daughter. See?"

He pointed some of the matching things out to her, not expecting her to really get it. That wasn't the most important thing here anyway. "I didn't know until after I met you last time. I didn't know you existed." How far did he have to go in explaining this? "See, I knew your mother and... I made you with her. But I didn't know and I guess maybe she didn't either. So she thought your father was the dad. But now that I know you exist, I tested it. And I know you belong with me."

"I'm yours." She mumbled as she looked at the test and pointed at the same things Edward had pointed out, trying to act like she understood it when she didn't. "Does this mean that I get to come home with you instead? Cause he's not my dad, you are. So I should be with you." And not her mean dad, who only seemed to yell and hit lately. Especially since mom had disappeared a few days back. "I don't like it here."

She didn't like the yelling, the hitting, the lack of food and how hard it was to get anything from all those high up counters.

"Yes. Yes, of course, golden child, that means you get to go home with me." Edward laughed, not surprised that this was what she honed in on. Oh, he knew himself, at that age he'd have still asked a lot more questions than Stephanie was asking, but it wasn't as if he hadn't had the same dreams. Someone to take him away from all the bullshit? Yes, please.

Naturally, reasonably and legally he could not just take her. But he was a rogue, what did he care about reason and legality? "See, I brought a bag." He took it off his shoulder now and handed it to her. "You can pack everything you want to bring. Don't worry too much about clothes and toys and everything, I'll buy you new things. Just pack what you really want to have."

"Okay, I won't be long!" Maybe she shouldn't run off with him but she didn't know what else she wanted to do. She just knew she didn't want to be here. Here was bad so why not take a chance and find a good place? She packed a few items but mostly her drawings, the pad and the crayons she used. She finished packing and hauled the bag onto her shoulder, wanting to try and handle it herself. She also had her light pen, neatly tucked away in her jacket.

"Eddie, can we leave my mom a note? Just that I'm okay. She's not good but she's not bad, I don't like when she cries." She didn't know if her mom would notice or come back but she hated the idea of her being sad because of her.

"I'll ensure your mother will be notified, Stephanie, don't worry. It's sweet that you think of it." He petted her head and then, gently, took the bag from her to carry it himself. "I'm the dad, right? I should do the heavy lifting."

True to those words, he also lifted her up and out of the window, gently letting her down to the fire escape, immediately following behind her. He leaned down, one arm across her shoulder, pointing to his car that was parked downstairs. It was one of his subtler ones, black with dark green leather interior. "That's my car. I got a booster seat for you."

He was prepared! Very responsible, he felt.

"It looks so cool! Are you rich? Your car is so shiny!" She giggled excitedly as she hung on the railing of the fire escape, looking down at the car. She didn't see a lot of cars like that, she usually saw ones without wheels. She was never sure how those ones worked but they were all over the Narrows. "When I'm older, I want a car like... like... Batman."

She was trying to think of someone who had a cool car but cars were dumb and boring. Batman had cool cars though cause he fought people with them and they shot rockets.

Edward noticed some boys standing too close to their car as they started to climb down the fire escape and he pressed a button on the car key, causing some sparks to shoot out, enough to scare that kind of Narrows trash off. He'd been there, didn't mean he was about to let his car get damaged. "Batman does have a cool car."

Admittedly. "I'm comfortable." Wait, she probably wouldn't know that that meant. "I am rich, yes."

"That means you could buy a million cars if you wanted to." Stephanie informed him wisely as she held onto Edward's pant leg so she didn't lose him, walking towards the really shiny car. She looked around to make sure the boys were gone, not wanting to accidentally recognise one of them cause then she'd have to explain what she was doing and that was scary.

"How far away do you live?" She reached out and touched the shiny car, just curious to see if Edward was yell or slap her hand. If he did then she ... she wasn't sure what she'd do. She supposed she'd have to accept it. Dads did hit.

Edward handed her the car key, pointing at the right button. "Press this, all right? That unlocks it." With her helping with that important step, he opened the car door to the passenger side for her, taking her hand so she could climb inside. "I live a bit closer to the city centre. You'll see. I live in a very high building, maybe you'll get a little scared."

Time for her to learn what a penthouse was.

"Nuh-uh! I never get scared! I like when things are high." Stephanie insisted, not wanting to seem like a wuss or anything. She was a badass and she would not be scared of a silly high building. She opened the door and looked at the child's seat, not sure what it was. She'd never had one before, she usually just sat in the back of her dad's car without even using the seatbelt. "Is that a booster seat?"

As she climbed into it, she looked around and then down, noticing how clean the car was. Woah, it was so ... nice. And it smelled really good too. "It's really nice here. Do you live here?" It seemed too nice to just be a car.

"That's a booster seat, yes." Edward finished doing up her seat belt, then he closed the door, walked around and got into the driver's seat. He was putting on his own seat belt by the time she asked her rather unexpected question. Huh. "No. I don't live in a car. I live in an apartment. A penthouse. So at the very top of a high building. I guess now we will live there. You too."

He looked around. "It's a lot bigger than the car. There's beds and a kitchen, surprisingly."

A short laugh and then he used voice command to activate his navigational system, the screen flickering to life. "Back home, please."

"Of course, Mr Nygma. The shortest route?"

"Let's go for 'least traffic'." He glanced at the screen for a moment, then backed out of the parking spot. "Shouldn't take that long. Twenty minutes or so."

"Can you live in this car? It seems so nice. I feel like someone should." Like a gang of mice or some nice crows or something. She thought this would be such a fun place to stay all day, it was so clean and bright, so many fun gadgets! She happily daydreamed some chaos in Edward's poor, unfortunate car before she heard the navigational system talk to Edward.

It talked to him and talked back! It was a robot. No wonder the car was so nice, it was a robot.

"Hello, Mr Car!" Stephanie offered, waving at the front. "Thank you for the ride."

"You are welcome." The car really was polite.

"Her name is Stephanie." Might as well train the AI some, while he had the time. "Cross-reference that, please."

"As you wish, Mr Nygma. It is nice to meet you, Ms Stephanie."

Edward grinned, glancing at Stephanie from the side. Her enthusiasm was very appreciated. Quite a few of the people in his life just rolled their eyes at his gadget, few even acknowledged their ingenuity. "I built the AI. So, I programmed the voice to be smart and learn what I teach it."

"You made a robot? Woah. You're so cool, Eddie." She giggled excitedly and grinned up at Edward before leaning forward to pet the dash, wanting to assure the car that he was very happy with it. Good car. Nice car. "I'm a Ms. That's what they call adults." It was very novel and she liked it a lot. "Can you teach me to make robots and talking cars? I want to build friends!"

She could make them, sure, but how was that more fun than building them?

"Am I? Neat." All right, he assumed saying 'neat' deducted a lot of the cool points he was gathering, but here was hoping that Stephanie was too young to realise that. "I can teach you how to do a lot of stuff, but it will take some time before you can do it really well. Practise makes perfect." And he wasn't yet sure just how Stephanie's brain functioned, but he could definitely teach her something.

"I don't have a bed for you just yet, but we can work on your room together. Maybe tonight, you can sleep on the sofa?"

"Okay, I promise I won't be in the way or mess with anything or touch anything." She just wanted to hang out with Eddie and have a good time, she didn't want to upset him. Maybe he'd be her dad and things would get or maybe they'd just continue to be friends and build robots - either way, she wanted to stay in her life. She wanted him as her dad, even if she was very aware that it wasn't solid yet. It was just more fo a fluid idea.

"Do you have a wife?" She was wondering if Edward had a lady that he lived with, she wasn't sure how she felt about that but it was a scary idea. "Or just a girl you reaaaaaaaaally like?"

"No, I'm single. That means I don't have anyone." Wait, that made him sound sad. "I'm pretty happy just me. And you now." There, maybe that was better at making him come across as something other than a lonely loser. "I'm not very good at dating, to be honest with you. I do have a sister that will be very happy to find out that she's an aunt. And I have some friends who'll be thrilled too."

And a lot of people that would think he had finally gone completely insane, but he was focusing on the positive here.

"I always wanted a sister. It would be really fun." Stephanie wished she had some kind of sibling in general but she knew that it was probably for the best that she didn't. It'd just be nice to have someone to play with - someone who wasn't just her imaginary friends. "I think you could find a nice girl to marry you easily. You're really handsome and you're smart, you make robots! You're so cool, you could marry Elsa!"

That was how cool Edward was - he was Elsa ready.

"Really? That's quite the honour. I don't know if I'm her type, but if I ever run into her, I'll try my best." Honestly, not as if she'd be a bad match. He'd never hooked up with a queen before. Or with a cartoon character for that matter, but... Details. "I like boys and girls, you know? Some people do. My sister, she likes girls. She wants to marry a girl some day."

Seemed as if there were higher odds of that happening than him getting married to anyone of any gender.

"Cause girls are less smelly than boys? That's smart. Boys are dumb. Not you, you're not a dumb boy but, like, most boys are really dumb." She only knew the boys from the neighbourhood, she didn't go out much but even so, she knew they sucked. They sucked a lot. They called her names and they hurt each other for laughs. It was so stupid. "She seems smart, I get why she doesn't like boys... why do you like boys?"

That was the weirdest part to her. Who liked boys?

"Hm. I don't know, good question. Some boys, sometimes, they make me feel good inside. Some girls do too. I guess when it comes to who I want to be with, I just don't really care about boy or girl." There, that was quite the heavy discussion out of the way. Eh, whatever. Now she was all set for Pride. "Most of my friends are girls though. They will all love you."

He paused, wetting his lips before pressing them together. Then he just said it. "Stephanie, do you know that I'm the Riddler? You've heard of the Riddler?"

"The Riddler?" She frowned and turned to Edward, trying to see what he was saying to her but he wasn't at all like her dad had described to her. She knew the name and it did scare her, she felt her stomach will with butterflies, but Edward wasn't like that so he couldn't be him, could he? "But you're nice to me..."

So what was going on? "The Riddler is supposed to be mean and rude... he would kill me! My dad said so. He said the Riddler is real bad. You wouldn't kill me, would you?"

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