Disclaimer – I own nothing but the plot. :)

My Steady Heartbeat

LoverGurrl411

/I can honestly say you've been on my mind since I woke up today.

These memories come back to life, and I don't mind/

-Goodbye by Miley Cyrus

Chapter 1 – I Can Honestly Say

It's raining slightly, and the wind is beating against Terry's body. He's on a roof. It's wet and appears like every other one when running or flying. The same roof he stands on every Friday night at 11pm.

It's when she steps out for her break. Her white gold hair shimmering in the darkness of the grimy alley, and her delicate features standing out like fine china…and he wished he could touch her. Terry wished with every drop of life in his body that he could just strip off his Batman suit, jump down, and embrace her. But he was dressed at Batman. And touching her, even once, would open an entire door that he wasn't sure he wanted open. He just knew he missed her.

"Are you on your way?" Bruce asked in Terry's ear, the sound bringing him out of reverence for her. Even thinking her name…it was just too much for him.

"Yea" he whispered. Bruce heard him and didn't respond.

She raises a cigarette to her lips. Capri 120 Regular, Terry knew. How? He doesn't even know, he just does. Just like he knows that her favorite color was black, and she loved sunrises but hated sunsets, and she loved to sit down and paint her nails all types of colors but couldn't stand to have someone else paint them…he remembered everything about her that she'd let him know, just like he remembered that she was Ten. She may not dress in the getup, or go gallivanting at all hours of the night, but she still was Ten, deep down, underneath her flawless skin and sparkly eyes.

Terry sighs.

Things used to be simpler. He used to be a rebel without a cause, and he was crazy head over heels in love with Dana, and his nights were plagued by pubescent indecent fantasies. Now he was no rebel, just one solitary man with a cause, and he still loved Dana but as slow as molasses drip he was starting to forget the simple things about her, and his nights were now filled with terror of the streets and at home filled with nightmares of a golden haired beauty with sad eyes giving him a letter that said he just wasn't enough.

He regrets never reading her letter. He regrets it and it haunts him, because no matter how much he tries to cover it up with layers and layers of thoughts of Dana, the truth of the matter is that the core of his beating heart was her. It sounds weird even to him, thinking about it, but truth rarely ever sounds normal.

He had loved Dana with a heart that had no substance, no ground to stand on. She became that floor to him when they met, because she was just like him. Even when he hadn't known of who she was in the dark, he knew how it felt to be needed so desperately that all he could do was hold her tighter, and kiss her harder. She showed him that, while Dana never had. Dana still doesn't.

Her face is tilted up towards the unforgiving sky that is pelting bigger teardrops down at them, but she doesn't waiver. Her light blue eyes shine with a sadness that Terry could only fathom in his nightmares and for a selfish moment he wishes that she's maybe sad about him. That maybe she's wanting him like he wants her.

She starts to hum lightly and her lips curve up slightly into a despondent smile, and Terry holds his hands to his stomach; the pain gathering there becoming uncomfortable, but he just couldn't look away. But then her despondency is morphed into…hope? Peace? And he's back to square one, remembering the first time they kissed, and the first time he wrapped his arms around her.

His frustration was stifling, yet he didn't do anything but watch. She only took a ten minute break at 11pm and he only visited once a week.

"I'm getting old here" Bruce's voice can be heard, irritated.

'You are old' Terry thought, but didn't speak. He didn't want to risk being heard. What would he say? That he missed her like crazy? That he couldn't survive without her? That their love was epic though short, and to please take him back? He couldn't. His pride wouldn't let him, and so all he could do as time raced against him was to imagine he had spoken out loud and broken the silence of the night.

In his mind she would turn and after recovering from her slight shock she would ask "what are you doing here, Terry". Her voice would elicit a slight tremble in his frame, and she would notice. In his mind, her eyes would cloud with shielded desire and without waiting for a response she would ask "What do you want?" and he would respond "You". In his mind this would be enough and she would light up the sky with a smile so sweet, so full of life, and so only happy that the rain would stop and the movement of the earth would shift.

Her humming stopped, and Terry had no choice but to step out of his castle in the sky, and come crashing down because she is moving away from the wall, unbending her leg, and walking to the door of the establishment. She glances quickly up one last time and scans the rooftops, a habit from when she was royalty, and sees Him.

Their eyes lock, and Terry could have sworn that the earth did tilt, and the air was rushed out of his lungs, and she had become suddenly and swiftly the core of the Earth and gravity, holding him down. He felt naked and unsure, until he realized that she didn't see Terry but Batman. She saw hooded face, hooded eyes, and she nodded her once, and stepped inside, leaving Terry out in the cold. Leaving Terry behind. But she didn't know. She was leaving Batman behind, because she was no longer Ten and didn't have a need for him.

And Terry for the first time in his life hated the suit that covered him. He hated Batman with a passion that burned through his veins, riding it like waves headed straight for the epicenter of his heart. To her. And he knew – just as sure he was that he lived and breathed and loved with conviction – that if she knew that it was Terry under that mask, she'd hate Batman too.

There was a solidarity to the thought that strengthened his backbone, and moved his legs to walk away from where he was standing on that rooftop, and gave him the might of heart to caress the wind with her name falling off his yearning lips…saying "Night Melanie".

-TBC-

AN- So, how was it? I hope all who read like it. I'm planning to spin this into a full fledged story, what does everyone think? Tell me if I should or if I should just leave it like this. I must give a thank you to VChen for inspiring this fanfic. I read hers (which you guys should all read if you get the chance) and then noticed how there really were so few FF's of Terry and Melanie and just couldn't resist the angst writing. :)

Sneak Peak of Chapter 2 –

"Don't you want me, Terry?" Dana asked, hurt shinning her eyes like firecrackers on Fourth of July.

"I do, I do. Of course I—" Terry said hastily, but there was a nagging in his head that told him he was lying. And then he saw Melanie standing behind Dana, effectively cutting him off, because he couldn't lie knowing Melanie could hear him.

Well, till next time (maybe) ;)