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Cradle Of Love	By : Amarin Category: DC Verse Comics > Teen Titans Views: 2376 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
From Friendship To Flirting

“I got the job!” Kon announced as he rushed in the door barely an hour after his interview.
Bart turned from his place at the stove, stirring a pot of spaghetti. His eyes lit up as he took in the news. “Great!” he replied, accepting his friend’s hearty back-slap with a smile. As Kon headed towards the bathroom to wash up for dinner, he added, “When are you moving out?”
Kon was so surprised by that question that he tripped on the rug and faceplanted in the floor. “When I get out of the hospital,” he mumbled into the carpeting, reaching out with his arms to push himself up.
Bart snickered, offering a hand to help his friend heave himself off the floor. “Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but.
“Sure you are,” Kon grumbled, but accepted the hand up.
“So what’s this guy Drake like as a boss?” Bart asked as he headed back to continue making dinner.
Kon rubbed a frown off his forehead. “I’m not working for a guy,” he answered absently. “Tim Drake is a woman.”
Bart blinked, pausing with his hand halfway toward the sauce ladle. “Wha-aat?”
***
“So, have you finally decided on someone?” Darla asked, perching on the edge of Tim’s desk.
Tim nodded vaguely, mumbling figures underneath her breath as she totaled that month’s accounts.
“So, when do I get to meet her?”
“It’s a he,” Tim replied absently.
Darla blinked. Over the last week, she’d interviewed seventeen women for the job, and only three men; only five people total had gotten to meet Robin, and four of them were female. “A…guy?”
***
Kon nodded. “Yeah.”
“But I thought his name was Tim!” Bart burst out, brow furrowed in deep lines.
“Her name is Tim, short for Timothea,” Kon replied with a smirk at his friend’s gobsmacked look. Never mind that he’d been just as discombobulated by the revelation.
Bart recovered quickly, however. “Is she pretty?” he asked, fussing over the now-boiling noodles and bubbling sauce.
Kon sputtered, thinking of how Timothea Drake was more than just pretty; she was elegant, refined, sophisticated…and seemed to embody the cliché of ‘The Ice Queen.’ And Kon L. Kent, while considering himself a ladies’ man, did not consider himself enough of a Casanova to melt her frosty exterior.
Which was a pity, because she seemed like a woman he’d like to get to know – in a more than professional, or platonic, manner. “Um…yeah.” And before Bart could ask anything else, Kon skedaddled to the bathroom.
***
Tim nodded, and at Darla’s heavy put-upon sigh, turned away from her calculations to continue the conversation face to face. “Yes,” she replied.
Darla’s lips twisted in something like the offspring of a smirk and a leer. “Is he the cute one that looks like a young, dark-haired Tony Danza?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes in a faux swoon. If she hadn’t known Timmie better, she could have sworn she’d chosen her new assistant based on his looks.
Rolling her eyes, Tim groaned. “Quit trying to play matchmaker, Darla.”
“I will when I finally get you set up with someone.” Despite her flippant tone, Darla was being completely serious.
Shaking her head, Tim told her friend, “Just because it’s the plot of all those old TV shows that the nanny ends up with the mother or father, doesn’t mean anything in real life. You watch too much Nick At Nite, D.”
“You need to watch more, T,” Darla shot back, unrepentant. “Happily ever afters aren’t just for fairy tales.”
“Maybe I’ll have time now that I have an assistant,” Tim told her, and buried herself in her work once more.
Sighing as she realized that her friend was lost to the world – at least until lunchtime, when she’d go down to first floor daycare and pick up Robin – Darla scooted out of the office.
***
True to his word, when Kon Kent came to work the next Monday, he was purely professional in his duties.
Well…not purely. His default mode with female workers seemed to be set on ‘Mild Flirtation’ and it couldn’t be turned off for any length of time. Thankfully, the same did not apply to executives. Kon was purely professional with them, if rather more charming than most of her former secretaries.
His flirt mode also did not seem to apply to men, which Tim found herself thinking was unfortunate, since perhaps if he flirted with the drummer in the band Great Frog, Roy Harper would quit making eyes at her.
Tim swore that if Roy pulled out another one of his cheesy pick-up lines like, ‘Are you carrying a mirror in your pocket? ‘Cause I sure can see myself in your pants…’ she was going to scream.
No, that would be unprofessional. She’d deck him, and then squeeze his nuts so hard they’d pop, but stop just in time and tell him to quit eyeing her up or next time she wouldn’t be so nice.
It was a lovely fantasy, but she’d never do it. No reason why she couldn’t assault him verbally, however. Just because they were both single parents with young daughters, Roy seemed to think they should date. Robin and Lian did get along pretty well whenever Lian ended up in the downstairs daycare, but they had very little else in common aside from their working relationship – and Tim wanted it to remain that way.
As with everyone else under her employ. She wouldn’t allow herself to be more than friends with anyone she worked with, if that.
***
Kon, however, felt much differently on the matter. While professionalism was something he cultivated, he saw nothing wrong with mixing business and pleasure; as long as one remained aware of social proprieties. He also had no problem with workplace romance, though he had always approached dating his superiors, or anyone under his employ, with caution. Sexual harassment laws being what they were, he didn’t want to lose his job – or get promoted – on the basis of his ‘eye candy’ factor alone.
Considering that Drake Records was on the Fortune 500 of big music companies, and tons of different up and coming, and tried and true, artists walked in and out of Tim’s office daily, Kon found himself enjoying quite a bit of said ocular confectionary, even if he was unable to provide much in the way of a return. Some of the people in the music business had very…unique…looks, but others were more on the tame side, and they were all interesting in their own ways.
The one he saw the most of was his pre-interviewer, Darla Aquila, the ‘Darling Diva’ as she’d been coined by the media. When Kon asked, she revealed that the reason for her near-constant presence was that she was taking a few months off before her next big tour.
“I’m branching out from the music business,” she told him, lounging casually back in one of the almost sinfully comfortable waiting room chairs outside Miss Drake’s office.
Reclining back in own buttery-soft leather chair Kon asked, “You want to be in the movies?” Lots of pop stars seemed to try their hand at acting at one point or another.
Darla shrugged and waggled one hand back and forth in the air. “Maybe. I want to try and break into acting at some point, but right now, I’m trying to get my foundation up and running.”
Interest piqued, Kon asked, “Foundation?”
“Yes, a charitable foundation. I call it The Safe House.” Darla huffed a laugh. “When I was growing up, my father was…not on the right side of the law.” Her lips pursed thoughtfully. “I knew that he loved me, but he was…he was an enforcer for the mob. Which one, I don’t know. And he was in too deep, or too involved, and was unable to go straight in order to keep his family safe. I…” She looked away. “I almost died once, because of his connections.”
Kon blinked. That was…entirely unexpected. Celebrities typically had ‘colorful’ pasts, but the story she was spinning was right out of a movie of the week. “Wow,” was all he could say. He leaned forward in a ‘tell me more’ pose.
Darla obliged. “Yeah, I know,” she said with a wry twist to her lips. “These mob guys started a riot in my high school…just to get to me. Why, I’ve never been really sure, but… Tim was actually the one who saved my life. She pushed me down right when this guy’s gun went off, and we hid in some unused lockers until the police showed up. I found out later that my dad had pissed off someone high up in his ‘organization’ and someone had decided to take me out to get back at him. But when my dad found out about it, he went after them, and…” She sighed, eyes down, hands folded in her lap. “He ended up dying, instead. I always knew that he loved me, and I think, maybe…he would have rather it turned out the way it did.”
“Miss Drake really saved your life?” Kon asked curiously, choosing to gloss over the more intimate details. Talking about death was never easy, that he knew well. And the pained look on her face…
Darla nodded, a half-smile on her face as she reminisced. “That’s how we met. She tracked me down the next week to ask me how I was, and I invited her to watch my solo for the school recital that Spring. Timmie tells me that that’s when she first knew I could make it big. Meanwhile, I’m thinking and worrying about how Mom and I are going to take care of ourselves now that dad’s gone, little knowing that by the time I graduate, thanks to Tim, I’ll have a recording contract and a hit single.”
Amazing. When Kon was in high school, his part time job had been as a gopher for his mother, or, that one summer, for his father. He hadn’t obtained that much ambition until he’d been out of college for a year. “So…this foundation?” he prompted.
“Is going to be focused on community revitalization,” Darla revealed. “I figure that if there’s no place for organized crime to work, and plenty of legal jobs for the people who used to commit crimes, maybe other kids won’t have to go through what I did.” She shrugged self-deprecatingly. “I probably won’t make much of a dent, but every little bit helps.”
“That’s true,” Kon said. He grinned. “You be sure and let me know where I can send donations.” He was sure that he could spare a few dollars every so often.
“Will do, K.” Eyes flicking to the clock and back to him, she said, “I’d better jet; I’m supposed to meet a friend for lunch. Talk to you later!” And with a wave, she was gone.
Kon waved back. “Later.” Then the phone rang, and he sighed, getting back to work. The secretarial part of his job seemed full-time, and he wondered how he’d ever managed to fit in his as yet not started childcare duties.
It looked like it would be interesting working for Tim ‘Timmie’ Drake, if only by the company he’d keep.

***
Later that evening, Tim Drake arrived at her modest suburban home with a bundle of sleeping girl held carefully in her arms. She’d had to work late, and Robin had missed her afternoon nap, so even though it was barely seven, she was conked out. Unlocking and opening the door one-handed was not as much of a trial as it used to be; she’d had plenty of experience doing everything for Robin herself.
A little voice niggled at the back of her mind, remonstrating, But didn’t you hire Kent so you wouldn’t have to do everything yourself?
That was true, as far as it went, but she’d hired Kon so she could spend more time with Robin. That hadn’t happened yet, but she was still working through the backlog of paperwork and other such things that her father had left her with, and once that was over…
Once that was over, she’d have to start assigning Kon time with Robin. Otherwise, there would have been no point in hiring a personal assistant as opposed to a new secretary.
Robin squirmed slightly in her sleep, making waking-up-now noises, and Tim’s arms were getting tired, so she quickly headed for Robin’s bedroom and placed Robin on the twin-sized daybed with its abundance of pillows and stuffed animals. She’d never wanted for anything as a child, except time with her parents, and she had made sure that Robin had no such deficits. New toys, dolls and games, were offset with the time she and Robin spent together playing with them, or reading storybooks. Robin was only three and a half, but she could already read most of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by herself, and was making great progress with The Cat in the Hat and The Lorax.
Tonight, however, there was no need for a bedtime story; Robin was already asleep. And if Timmie missed their nightly ritual, she told herself that it wouldn’t be much longer before things were back on track. Kon would handle most of the mundane duties and paperwork associated with her job, freeing her up to spend her spare time with Robin once more, and things would go back to mostly normal.
Timmie Drake clutched her daughter to her, savoring the bliss of being loved and needed by this special child. No matter how hectic her life got, she never forgot that all her life’s dreams and ambitions were eclipsed by the wonders of Robin Bernadette Drake.
And the more hectic her life got, the more she wanted to just throw everything away, her job and all its responsibilities, to spend her time with Robin while she was still young enough to want her around, as well as need her. But that was not to be; she couldn’t very well leech off her parents’ goodwill, and anyway, she’d go crazy with nothing to do all day once Robin started school. She wasn’t made to be a stay-at-home mom.
Sighing, Tim kissed Robin on her forehead, tugged her shoes and socks off, and tucked her half-asleep child underneath the covers, before heading for her own cold, lonely bed.

***
Two Months Later
***
The last true day of summer was unseasonably mild, feeling more like early April than late September. After almost three months of sweltering heat, the cool air was greatly appreciated.
In Gotham’s Robinson Park, birds sang in the trees and the pigeons were everywhere, begging for crumbs from lunching office workers. Crocuses, daffodils and tulips had come and gone; now rose bushes were blooming in the gardens and along the fences, their heady sweet scent permeating the air and mixing with the smells of good food and the sounds of happy people.
It was the annual Drake Records family picnic and barbeque. Everyone from the lowliest mail room clerk and janitor on up to the CEO herself, was attending.
And Kon was right in the thick of things, trying to keep track of his rambunctious charge. Robin was finally old enough to really partake in the events at the picnic, and was running him ragged trying out everything from the three legged race (in which she teamed up with a friend of hers, Cerdian, son of one of the junior vice presidents), to the sack race (which she won, if only by virtue of being the only one not still digesting lunch and thus able to give it all her incredible energy) and multiple go-rounds on the park’s antique carousel, where Kon could finally take a rest break, if only for a few minutes.
Sometimes he wondered if he shouldn’t have quit when his trial period was over. Then Robin, or, more rarely, Tim, would smile at him, and Kon knew that he’d never been happier. Even if it had taken three weeks to get completely moved into his new apartment because the two Drake females were running him ragged at work.
“C’mon, Kon, swing with me!” Robin demanded, running towards the playground as fast as her young, yet energetic legs would take her.
Which was much faster than her worn-out nanny could manage on legs that still felt like rubber after a rousing game of tag with Robin and a few of the other kids.
“Okay,” Kon said on a sigh, hoisting himself off the ground. “I’m coming, pumpkin,” he added, using his favored nickname for her; after her right front tooth had fallen out during the third week of his ‘trial period’ she’d look nothing so much like a proverbial jack-o-lantern when she grinned. He tiredly trundled after his charge, thankful that at least he didn’t have to deal with tons of other kids. There were only a handful that had come with their parents to the picnic, and said parental units had thankfully not fobbed their kids off on him while they went elsewhere. Nanny he might have been, but that didn’t make him the de facto babysitter for the entire company.
And thanks to Tim, the amount of people that could just walk into the park that day had also been curbed. Tim had requisitioned the entirety of Robinson Park for the day. Any and all of Drake Records’ recording artists were invited to attend the festivities. Most usually didn’t show, having other engagements, but occasionally some did drop by. After an incident the previous year with paparazzi hounding pop star Whitney Spires and her then-boyfriend teen idol boy band singer Dustin Toblerone, Tim didn’t want any more repeats of that near-disaster.
The casualties may have only been a few broken ice sculptures and some wasted food, but it had been a near-thing with the punch and the stereo speakers. No one was getting electrocuted on her watch, if she had anything to say about it.
Though when the sprinklers went off at two in the afternoon, accidentally catching her in their midst, and her clothes got soaked through… Well, the revelation that she wasn’t wearing a bra certainly ‘sparked’ some interest in Kon.
And in the other men at the picnic, but Kon was the only one whose looks made Tim blush.

***
A week later, Robin was bouncing excitedly up and down in front of Kon’s desk. “Izzit time yet?” she asked. They were all three taking the afternoon off to spend with Robin – well, mostly; Tim had a conference call at 3:00, which was why Kon was going along with them, so she could head back to the office and Robin could still have her outing – and she was impatient to get started.
“Almost, pumpkin,” Kon replied absently as he pushed open the door to Tim’s office. “You ready, boss?” he called
“Yup.” Tim shut off her computer, grabbed her purse, and quickly locked up her office before following Kon out to the hallway.
“Is it time yet?” Robin asked again, tugging on her mother’s hand for attention.
Tim laughed. “Yes, Robin, it’s time.”
“Yay!” Robin cheered, thundering down the hall toward the elevator. One train ride to nearby Metropolis, two purchased tickets (children under five got in free) and fifteen minutes to apply sunscreen later, they started their tour of the Metropolis Zoo.
“C’n we watch ‘em feed tha bats?” Robin asked, tugging on her mother’s hand.
Tim winced; the vampire bats got fed blood. Real blood. Robin loved watching the bats ‘eat’; she, on the other hand, was nauseated by it. “They already fed them this morning, sweetpea,” Tim told her. The bats got fed at nine in the morning; the very reason Tim hadn’t let them leave the office until ten.
Robin pouted. “Aww, nuts.”
Kon quickly looked through the brochure he was reading. The Metropolis Zoo wasn’t just a zoo; it was also next door to the Metropolis Aquarium, with a small park and food court in between the two complexes. A person could spend all day there and not see everything. “They’re going to feed the otters at two,” he read off the brochure. “And they have the penguin show at three. Plus, if I remember right, there’s an exhibit where you can pet a nurse shark.” Pet, stroke with two fingers…same thing. Kon also thought he remembered a similar display with sea anemones and starfish from that one trip his sophomore year in high school.
Robin’s eyes went wide as saucers. “Really?” she asked, voice almost breathless with awe.
Kon grinned down at her. “Really.”
“Cool,” Robin said. Then, spying a sign pointing toward the giraffes, she took off, braids bouncing behind her.
Robin was dressed simply for their outing, wearing purple corduroy overalls over a white blouse. Her hair was tied up in pigtails with rainbow ribbons that matched the bows in her white tennis shoes.
In fact… Kon looked closer at his bounding charge – Robin had found that the giraffes were hiding, and, miffed, led them towards the big cat section – noticing that the ribbons matched Robin’s shoelaces exactly. “I didn’t know you could use ribbons as shoelaces,” he mentioned to Timmie as they walked briskly behind Robin’s bounding form as she scampered excitedly around the different exhibits, oohing and aaahing at the lions and the tigers, and jaguars (or were they panthers?).
“You can’t, really,” Tim replied, keeping a close eye on Robin as she pressed her face against the Plexiglas between her and the prowling lynx. “There’s this one shop that sells these shoelaces, basically ribbons with aglets on the end. I just buy two pairs of everything I get, and that way I always have matching bows for her hair.”
“Smart thinking,” Kon complimented.
“It’s nothing,” Tim said, shrugging it off. And by itself, it wasn’t much, but Timmie did lots of little things like that, things that spoke of how thoughtful she was.
And not just where it concerned her daughter, Kon noted an hour later as he saw Timmie offer to take an elderly couples’ photo in the front of the Galapagos turtle exhibit.
“They’re almost as old as we are!” the woman, Molly Scott, laughed as she wrapped an arm around her husband Alan and smiled for the camera.
“Say cheese!” Robin prompted from her perch on the giant turtle statue, and Tim took their picture to a chorus of, “Mozzarella!”
The mention of food had made Kon hungry, and, noting that it was almost noon, Tim decided it was time for lunch. She let Robin pick where they would eat, which was how they wound up eating at The Pizzazoic Era, a dinosaur-themed pizzeria.
“Everything within a five-mile radius of the Zoo has an animal theme, doesn’t it?” Kon whispered in an aside to Tim as they waited to be seated in one of the jungle-printed booths.
Tim cracked a smile. “Apparently.”

“After we eat, c’n we go see tha pandas?” Robin asked, climbing up into the booth. “An’ then we c’n go to the aquamarina and see tha otters and tha penguins and pet tha sharks!” she enthused.
Snorting at Robin’s mangling of the word ‘aquarium,’ Kon exchanged a look with Tim as they both took their seats. She nodded, and said aloud, “We can see the pandas, and then head over to the aquarium to see the otters. I’m going to have to leave for my meeting before the penguin show, though.”
Robin’s formerly smiling lips turned down into a pouting frown. “I don’t want you to go,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her mother stubbornly.
This was where Kon’s real work started; diffusing the ticking tantrum time-bomb that Robin could be when she missed her mother. “She doesn’t want to go, either, but she has to work,” Kon told Robin. “And you’re going to have to remember everything about the penguins and petting the sharks so you can tell her all about it later, okay?”
Robin’s mulish expression continued for a few more moments before she sighed and nodded. “O-kay.” She stared at the table for a moment, before turning a bright smile on her mother. “C’n we get tha Carniv’rus Rex with extra cheese?”
Tim shook her head with a chuckle, before nodding. “Sure, sweetpea.”
Kon didn’t even bother to hide his snort of laughter this time. By the time she was old enough to drive, Robin would have the world wrapped around her little finger, he was sure.

***
By October, Tim had finally started letting Kon take on more of her responsibilities regarding Robin. Still, it was a bit of a surprise to have him come by and ask if there was any work she needed him to do before the next Tuesday.
Tim blinked wearily up at Kon, trying to ignore the ache in her shoulders as she hunched over her computer. “Tuesday?”
Kon nodded. “Yeah, you know, Halloween?” At her uncomprehending look, he continued, “I mean, I’m not sure if you think Robin’s old enough to go trick-or-treating, or if there’s even any place to do that around here, but…”
Groaning, Tim shoved away from her desk and dropped her head into her hands. “I can’t believe that I forgot about Halloween,” she said, voice muffled by her fingers. “The Neighborhood Watch has had it planned out for months, and Robin’s talked about nothing else since they first started selling the decorations in July.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it,” Kon said, coming over to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been running yourself ragged over the Enselmo contract. It’s, um, understandable that you might have gotten…mixed up on the date.”
Tim just whimpered, though the tension in her muscles relaxed slightly underneath Kon’s hand.
Kon could guess what she was really upset about. “You know, it doesn’t make you a bad mother just because you’re busy.”
Her head snapped up so fast Kon was sure she’d had gotten whiplash. “What?” she asked in a low, dangerous voice, more than hinting that he’d cut straight to the heart of the matter. The tension had ratcheted back up to its previous heights, and then beyond.
“My mother was a busy a lot of the time, too, but I still knew she loved me,” Kon went on, blithely ignoring her tone. “Just like Robin knows you love her,” he added with a pointed look.
Slumping down in her seat, Tim sighed. “Thanks,” she said, almost inaudibly. “And…I’ll send you a few things to look over before Tuesday.” She chewed momentarily on her lower lip, and then said apologetically, “But what I really need you to do is take Robin shopping for her costume this afternoon.”
Kon blinked. “Sure, no problem.”

***
It wasn’t much of a problem, even though Robin couldn’t decide what she wanted to dress up as. Kon remembered buying the plastic smock-and-mask combos at Wal-Mart when he’d been her age – he hadn’t really cared about how he looked, but then, he was a boy, and girls and boys were different – but Tim had told him to take Robin to a costume shop in the mall. More expensive, but better looking costumes.
And it had the bonus of not having tons of people doing last minute shopping at 2:00 in the afternoon on a Thursday.
Robin was all over the place, gasping and squealing over the different costumes. She looked at everything from comic book characters to animal costumes, and tried on a butterfly costume, two princess outfits, a giant orange pumpkin that was mostly to make Kon laugh over the nickname he’d gifted her with, and three different Barbie costumes: Malibu, Ballet, and Mermaid.
She finally settled on a fairy princess outfit, pink and purple and poofy, with sparkles and lots of ruffles. Then there was the half-hour hunt for the ‘perfectest’ magic wand and a tiara to go with the dress, though thankfully hard-soled stretchy slippers were included.
Robin’s costume totaled over almost forty dollars. Kon didn’t recall ever spending more than twenty bucks on a Halloween costume, not until he’d been in high school, but then, his father had always preached thrift, and that had been one of the few life lessons he’d willingly learned from Clark.
Robin loved her costume, and all the way from the mall back to Drake Records, she kept babbling about how she couldn’t wait for Halloween. Once they reached her mother’s office, she ran inside to show it to her mother, and then turned to Kon. “You’re gonna come tricking and treating, too, right?” she asked.
Sending Timmie a helpless look, Kon said, “Uh…sure, pumpkin.”
Tim sighed, but didn’t appear displeased.
Robin beamed.

***
Tuesday dawned gray and dreary, but the rain that threatened never appeared, and by afternoon, the weather was crisp and cool. Kon arrived early at Tim’s house, but at barely past five o’clock, Robin was already in her costume.
Halloween night was filled with the magic that only a young girl out for her first round of trick-or-treating could experience. Seeing the evening through Robin’s eyes, even Tim’s slightly jaded heart softened.
Kon had a blast. He dressed up as a pirate and went, “Arggh!” tickling Robin under her chin with the feather on his hat to make her giggle.
Tim had also worn a costume: a straw-colored peasant blouse and flowing green skirt, with a dark purple scarf wrapped around her hair and big golden hoops in her ears make her a picture-perfect caricature of a Gypsy. It was more that she’d been cajoled into wearing one by Robin, than actually choosing to dress up, but then who could resist that face, that pout, those pleading, watery eyes? Not her mother, that was for sure.
Kon very wisely did not say anything about Timmie eating all the almond roca candy that ended up in Robin’s bright purple pumpkin bucket from that one block on Greenbriar Lane.
Robin’s feet started dragging when twilight encroached, and Kon and Tim decided by silent accord that the next street would be the last one before they’d head back to her house.
Walking on their way to the final house, a soft chirping noise came from Tim’s waist, and she grimaced. “My cell phone,” she explained even as she fumbled the device from her pocket. “You two go on ahead and I’ll meet you once I’m finished, okay?”
The mailbox said ‘The Fite Family’ and the entire house was decked out for the holiday with a foam graveyard out front, filmy white ghosts hanging from the leaf-barren trees. A single light was on the front window, cotton spiderwebs stretched across the other darkened panes. A rotund black cat was snoozing on the porch, and as they approached the front door, Kon saw that it had white paint on it in straggly lines, probably supposed to be a skeleton. Most of the line appeared to have been rubbed off; either by the cat’s tongue, or the rain earlier in the day. And since the cat wasn’t moving around, the fright factor was very low. No walking bag of bones there; that fat feline was more like a giant fur pillow.
“Wow…” Robin breathed, eyes agog as she took in the sight of the decked out domicile. “A real haunted house!” She turned to her mother and beamed her gap-toothed grin. “Think dere’s a witch inside?” she asked excitedly.
Tim appeared to be at a loss. “Umm…”
“Probably,” Kon opined. He crouched down next to Robin and held a finger to his lips. “But she might be…in disguise, you know? Witches are very private about their business. So if she doesn’t look like a witch, you shouldn’t say anything, okay?” He set his mouth in a serious line and hoped she’d swallow the line of bull he was feeding her.
Kon’s hopes were not in vain. Nodding so frantically that it almost seemed like her head would bob off, Robin said, “Okay, Kon!” Then she ran down the front walk towards the supposed witch, and whatever candy she’d cooked up in her cauldron.
“You’re good with her,” Tim said quietly, the words almost seemed to have been dragged from her.
“She’s a good kid,” Kon replied, because he really didn’t know what else to say.
Tim gave that little half-smile of hers that she only wore when she was truly happy. “That she is.”
By the time the two of them got to the door, Robin was bouncing up and down on her toes with impatience. She’d taken her mother’s warning earlier in the evening about staying away from strangers to heart. “C’n I ring tha bell now?” she entreated.
“Yes,” Kon and Tim chorused. They exchanged looks at their unexpected synchronicity and both grinned sheepishly.
Robin just shook her head at the silly grown ups and pressed the doorbell, a muffled dinging noise reaching their ears through the door. After a few tense moments, the door literally creaked open, and Kon felt himself shiver as he remember way too many cheesy horror movies watched while he consumed way too much popcorn with his friend Bart.
It didn’t help that when someone finally appeared in the darkened doorway, it was a woman with long, stringy black hair, wearing what looked like an outfit copied directly off of the voodoo priestess of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. Black and ragged, with lots of chains and charms and talismans; she even had what looked like chicken feet dangling from her neck, and a string of bones around her waist.
The woman, Mrs. Fite, even looked to be of Jamaican origin, albeit younger than her movie counterpart. Also, all her teeth appeared to be the originals. And her smile was sweet, and not half-demented.
Robin just gaped at the lady for long moments, before finally closing her mouth with an audible click. She swallowed hard and then the arm holding her nearly full candy bucket shot out tremulously. “Um…trick or treat?” she squeaked, visibly set back by coming face to face with – to her mind – a real witch.
The witch smiled. “And what trick will you give me for your treat?” the woman teased.
Robin stilled, obviously not expecting that. No one else had required her to ‘sing for her supper’ as it were. “Um…” She looked down at her shoes, and worried her lower lip between her teeth, then turned her gaze back up to the witch. “I c’n do a handstand, but not in this skirt.” She thought for another moment and then turned to Kon with a bright smile. “You c’n do somethin’, right, Daddy?”
So surprised by hearing Robin call him ‘Daddy’ that he didn’t think to protest, Kon cast about for anything he could do that would qualify as a trick, and finally came up with something that might work. Taking his plastic sword and eyepatch, and Robin’s tiara and sparkly wand, he began to juggle them. Haphazardly at best, but at least none of them fell on the ground.
For the first few minutes.
Mrs. Fite laughed as Kon struggled to make sure he caught each of his juggled objects, the man making a better impression of a clown than a juggler. Once Kon had wobbled to a stop and got the four items returned to their appropriate places, she pulled out a platter of plastic-wrapped popcorn balls. “My own special recipe,” she said. “Caramel and chocolate glazed.”
Robin’s eyes lit up. “Oooh…”
Clearing her throat, Mrs. Fite said, “However, since he’s the one that did the trick, he’s the one that gets the treat.”
Robin pouted until he gave her the popcorn ball.
When Tim caught sight of the sugary, sticky homemade treat, she just said, “It’s a good thing we got toothbrushes at that dentist’s house.”

***
By November, Tim had grown more accustomed to Kon’s almost constant presence. It wasn’t unusual for either of them to spend time together outside of work. Timmie didn’t like driving, at all – she preferred to take the train to work, even if it took longer – so it became the norm for Kon to pick both her and Robin up for work; the three of them together meant they qualified for the carpool lane, and could get to work faster. More than once she and Kon worked through lunch together so that they could leave on time, and when they didn’t get to leave on time, Kon, with pleading from Robin, and not much protest from Tim, would join them both for dinner.
It took Timmie awhile to realize that, for all intents and purposes, she was dating her secretary/nanny. Just…without the romance.
And if a part of her felt cheated by that, Tim sternly told herself that she didn’t have time for romance. She had a full-time job, and was raising a daughter, and there was not much room for anyone else in her life besides a few close friends. Kon was just another friend.
She always had been good at self-delusion.
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Cradle Of Love