"Shhhh, don't cry mom." Her son wiped away her tears, but she couldn't stop sobbing.

A lamp was on. The T.V. was set to the news channel, yet it was on mute. A fallen album filled with pictures of a child now grown.

The night wasn't silent. Sirens blared, car horns honked, and construction wouldn't stop in the name of progression.

Leaning into each other, a mother held her child close. Her world was falling apart. He was the asteroid that caused the quakes, yet he was also the rock that kept her afloat in the flood.

"Why-why didn't you tell me?" Her voice croaked and cracked.

He had the nerve to huff a laugh at her. "I did. You and Matt didn't believe me."

Mary pulled away to lightly smack Terry in the chest. His black and red clad chest. Right smack dab in the middle of the bright red bat.

Her son was Batman and he never told her.

"You know what I mean." She tried to make her voice turn stern. She just sounded sorrowful. Torn. Horrified.

And he was all too calm. It shredded her heart up just to see him look so collected. As if he was expected this to happen.

But then Terry let his face softened as something akin to sadness entered his eyes. "I didn't want you to worry."

Worry? He didn't want her to worry? She almost began to laugh hysterically.

"Terrence McGinnis of course I'd worry!" She took a step away from her son. "You're off there fighting gangs, drug addicts, villains! But you should have told me!"

Waterfalls blurred her vision. Eyes stinging, she had to look away. Close her eyes. But the stinging got worse. As did the pain from the depths of her heart. "But I would be even more worried not knowing what you were really doing. I'd be afraid that… that you'd go back into being in a gang. That you'd died from addiction. Or something even worse."

Mary's throat hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her whole body ached.

The living room was silent. Matt was over at a sleepover. There wasn't anyone to interrupt their… conversation.

"Why?" She finally managed to look back to Terry. Her little boy who wasn't little anymore. He hadn't been for a long time.

Bitterness rose up as she saw him raise his guard. "Mom-"

"No. You better tell me why or- or!" She couldn't even come up with a threat.

He sighed and it reminded her so much of Warren. Even more tears welled up without her permission.

"Dad wasn't murdered by the Jokerz." He relented… sounding so empty.

And Mary… Mary felt a chill run down her spine.

"What." She swallowed down the lump in her throat. "What do you mean?"

Her son's beautiful blue eyes became harden steel. His jaw was clenched and his knuckles would probably turn white.

"Derek Powers killed him. Because he found out that Powers was making nerve gas to sell for war." His voice was like a razor whip, blooding her ears. There was so much rage and loathing within her son.

A glowing green skeleton laughing. Destroying a board room. News of an old nuclear submarine sinking.

Heavy lead sunk further down her stomach.

"Terry…" her voice wobbled. She… she needed to know. "Terry, did… you kill him?"

His face became completely closed off. Cold. And when he spoke she didn't hear her son. No. She only heard Batman.

"I am not the judge, jury, and executioner. But sometimes there is no way to save a person. Even if he did die, I wouldn't be surprised if he's still around here, somewhere. After all, the villains rarely stay dead, here in Gotham."

Terror wrapped its clammy, skeletal, claws around her. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't speak.

"I need to go. Gotham needs me."

And she couldn't even stop him as Batman was engulfed by the shadows of her home. Leaving a mother with the remains of a son long dead.

I just had this idea of "oh what if Terry's mom or girlfriend found out about Batman and end up asking him if he killed anyone?" And this was born. I hope you've enjoyed it!