“Speaking of your dad…”

Wendy probed wearily. Rolling her eyes, and restarting her count Steph huffed, bracing herself. This could go anywhere from here.

“Alright, here we go… What you got for me Wendy Harris.”

Pausing, as if reconsidering the question on the tip of her tongue, Wendy decided to proceed.

“Is there anything you don’t ever talk about?”

Frowning as she slowly started absently tapping the container, trying to find the words.

“I’m 99.9% certain Dad killed a man and framed it as an overdose to cover it up, because of me. For me? It’s…”

Trailing off with a heavy breath to try to work out where to start, Wendy shifted in her wheelchair, instinctively wanting to reach for Steph but not knowing how she would take it.
After a second, Steph shook her head, with a shrug.

“I mean, Dad killing people isn’t a new thing. I should probably start at the start, huh?”

Glancing at Wendy, who offered a small smile.

“Might be easier to keep track of at least, yeah…”

Nodding, Steph chewed at her lip for a moment, eyes fixed on where the wires had frayed. Scratching around for the safety goggles she passed them to Wendy before just shoving a pair of ‘borrowed’ sunglasses over her own eyes, and eying off lengths of soldering wire.

“So, for a while, when I was like, ten, eleven, Dad was doing well. He was working a real job. Not being a crook. And he had this friend who became my babysitter…”

Wendy already didn’t like where this was going, judging by how violent Steph got on some cases. Somehow she managed to bite back her ‘Oh no’.

“Mom however, was still… struggling. And Dad decided she needed to go away for rehab. I’m still not entirely sure he actually took her to rehab, honestly, but that’s neither here nor there. Dad decided that Murray would be looking after me for that time. He had always been a little weird, and I couldn’t place why but… as soon as he was alone with me…

Wendy knew where it was going. She felt sick to her stomach. Steph, however, soldered one of the wires quickly, her face fairly neutral, before continuing.

“I worked it out pretty quickly… When he wouldn’t let go… so I bit his stupid face, and ran away. I spent one night in my school, but then I heard male voices and it… spooked me… this whole thing gave me issues with men for a while. I don’t think I’m entirely over it, honestly. And I didn’t know what to do, so I went home. I expected Murray to be there, but he wasn’t. I spent the next few days hiding under my bed with a knife and a tripwire of chips set up to hear anyone coming, but… he never came back to the house. And when mom and dad came home, I told dad, and he told me that… ‘that was his best friend I was talking about’, and ‘these were adult matters that I don't understand’.”

Falling silent to repair more wiring, Steph then shrugged a shoulder slightly. Wendy waited a moment, then prompted her to continue.

“So how does that become him killing someone…”

Setting the sunglasses on top of her head, making an ‘oh yeah’ face, Steph let out the ghost of a laugh.

“Right, well. That was like, the second mission I gave myself as Spoiler after dad. Making sure Murray couldn’t hurt any more girls. But I found out he died exactly eight days after dad came home. And he had a spotless record to that point. He didn’t OD. He was killed.”

”Good.”

Shooting her a wry smile, Steph just shook her head.

“Don’t let B or Oracle hear you saying that. That’s rebel child talk.”