Second Chances: Stargirl - Rough Draft

Chapter 2

Friendly warning, the first few chapters are going to take place in the past.

That night, Courtney was sleeping on the couch like she did every year on Christmas Eve, but this time, in addition to waiting out for Santa, she was also hoping she'd be able to see her daddy when he came home. However, it was so late that even she couldn't stay awake any longer and had nodded off a little while ago, much to Barb's relief since that meant that she could finally start putting the rest of the presents out for Courtney without blowing the secret of Santa for her quite yet. However, she was hoping that Sylvester would be home by now to help her move the presents from their hiding place to underneath the tree.

In fact, Barb had just finished and headed back upstairs to finally get some sleep to prepare herself for Courtney waking her up at 7am to open presents, regardless of whether her father was home or not, when she heard a noise coming from the chimney.

"Don't tell me he rented a Santa suit." Barbara said to herself, thinking this was Sylvester making a dramatic return home by somehow coming down the chimney and the only reason she even considered that possible is because she knew he'd done trickier things before.

However, the humor from the situation faded when she saw her husband's staff exit the fireplace and only the staff, its glow dim, but still there.

As much as she hated to admit it, Barb knew there was only one reason the staff would appear without her husband. And that was because he was dead.

"Why did it have to be Christmas of all days?" Barbara asked herself as she rushed downstairs to grab the staff before it woke Courtney up. She didn't want to ruin her daughter's favorite holiday, but she knew that she'd need to tell Courtney the truth. But not until morning. But anyways, the second Barbara touched the staff, it's glow died completely, reminding her yet again that unlike her husband, she was not worthy of wielding the cosmic staff and honestly, Barb didn't want to. Honestly, she hated the idea of this thing putting her family at risk, but she also knew that she couldn't stop Sylvester from being who is and she also knew that if the staff chose Courtney when she was old enough, since she'd made Sylvester promise to make the staff promise not to choose Courtney until she was at least the same age he'd been when he'd started out as the Star Spangled Kid. 15 years old. While she wasn't happy about her daughter putting herself at risk when she was still a teenager, she understood Sylvester's reasoning, since he didn't want Courtney to think he was being hypocritical. She just wished that he was here, not only to teach her how to use it, but just because she wanted Courtney to grow up with her father around. But at the same time, she knew that she and Courtney were the reason Sylvester had gone out to fight tonight. To make sure there was still a world for them to live in.

Anyways, she was now preparing herself to have to tell Courtney that her daddy wasn't coming home and that they were finally going to visit the JSA headquarters tomorrow, since honestly, it felt like the best way for Courtney to feel close to her dad on Christmas.

When Courtney woke up, she was of course overjoyed to see that Santa had come after she'd fallen asleep.

"Mommy, daddy, Santa came." Courtney shouted with glee as she ran up to her parents' bedroom only to deflate slightly when she only saw her mom lying in bed, but that didn't stop her from jumping on her.

"Merry Christmas Mommy!" Courtney shouted loud enough to wake Barb from her restless sleep.

"Merry Christmas baby." Barbara said with a smile as she opened her eyes and sat up and hugged her daughter.

"Do I have to wait for daddy to get home to open my presents?" Courtney asked and Barbara sighed.

"Courtney, there's something I need to tell you and it's not something you should have to hear on Christmas, but you need to know." Barbara said as she sat her daughter down on her lap.

"What?" Courtney asked, looking up at her mother with innocent eyes.

"Courtney, your daddy isn't coming home." Barbara said as gently as she could, but there was no real way to be kind about it.

"Why?" Courtney asked, her eyes tearing up at the thought of not being able to do all the Christmas things she loved to do with her father.

"Look, remember when he said he was going to fight bad guys last night?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, and he won, because daddy always wins." Courtney said and Barbara smiled at the four year old's determination at that.

"I wish that were true Courtney. But last night after you fell asleep, Daddy's staff came home without him and the only reason that would happen would be if he didn't win." Barbara said.

"Daddy's gone?" Courtney asked, her eyes tearing up.

"I'm so sorry sweetie." Barbara said as she held her now crying daughter in her arms, wishing that if this had to happen, it didn't happen on Christmas.

"Tell you what, why don't we go open presents and then I'll take you to a place where you can remember your dad." Barbara promised and Courtney nodded as she sniffed before going back downstairs and Barbara was relieved when she came down to see that Courtney's eagerness to open her presents had at least distracted her, for now.