A/N: This takes place after the scene in the crossover The Once and Future Thing Part 2, where Terry is supposedly killed by the DeeDees' electrical shock whips. What if Chronos wasn't stopped? Old Bruce's POV

AHHHHHH!

One last scream, and the link was broken.

Bruce never thought that it would be this way. He had anticipated it, of course. Planned for it. He knew that at any moment, any protégé of his could be taken away. He didn't want it to be this way.

The link was silent. The vidlink blank. No voice came through, just the sounds of the battle raging around…Terry. Or more accurately, Terry's body.

Later…

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house
That don't bother me

Alone again, Bruce thought. He had always been alone. He had pushed away everyone who cared for him.

I can take a few tears now and then and just let them out
I'm not afraid to cry every once in a while

Only this time, Bruce found himself in the opposite position of pushing away. He had wanted to hold on to Terry…at least, to keep him alive to have the happy life that Bruce never had. Married, maybe? What degree could he have achieved? He wanted to be there at his graduation, something he had never been able to do with Dick. At least, Bruce thought bitterly, Dick was still alive.

Even though going on with you gone still upsets me
There are days every now and again I pretend I'm ok
But that's not what gets me

What hurts the most
Was being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away

Every night when Terry would go on patrol, every fiber in Bruce's body told him to say something. At the very least, a Be careful would have sufficed.

And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was tryin' to do

Trying to be a father…he had failed.

It's hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go
But I'm doin' It
It's hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I'm alone

Bruce glanced around the office at Wayne-Powers. Usually, Terry had always accompanied him on his business meetings. Heck, he had even bought the boy his first suit. He was grooming him to be the next CEO of Wayne-Powers. He never liked Powers anyway.
Still Harder

On times when he couldn't bear it anymore, Bruce would walk down to the basement. The only thing that greeted him was the screech of the bats. The news was broadcasting news of trouble everywhere. Sadly, Batman wasn't there to meet it anymore.

Getting up, getting dressed, livin' with this regret
But I know if I could do it over
I would trade give away all the words that I saved in my heart
That I left unspoken

Getting up early in the morning, Bruce looked over his mantelpiece. Photographs of decades ago, layers of dust piled on top. Bruce gently wiped away the dust, as if wiping away the cloud of painful memories. Dick. Jason. Tim. Barbara. The most recent, taken on the company pictorials. Bruce had insisted on Terry being included in the picture with him, despite the boy's protests.

What hurts the most
Is being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was trying to do

He loved Terry like a son. Thanks to a certain Amanda Waller, he WAS his son. There were so many times that Bruce could have said that he cared.

He didn't…