The second short oneshot i came up with for the night. I was supposed to upload it for Valentine's Day but life happened. Thanks for all the well wishes for the surgery - unfortunately they cancelled once i got to the hospital so i am currently waiting for a new date. Anyways, the other story that's up is called "Almost Is Never Enough" so feel free to give it a read; i'll try to work next on "The Tutor" and "The Hunted Sequel" next. I did four uploads a few weeks ago (2 one shots, 1 new story, and an update for the Max vampire story "The Bite: Afterlife" so please give those a read if you havent already). Also, i'm working on an Alien vs Predator Lex/Scar romance fic so keep your eyes open for that. Thanks again!

Can't Lose You

All he could think about was how – frightened he was when her scream rang through the com-link into the neo-Batman's ear. He didn't know just how much of a contortion his expression underwent – acknowledging the hero's terror – but McGinnis knew it was there, and knew that it was to her aid he needed to go. A cry of her name that went unanswered was all it took: he left, swiftly, adrenaline fueling every action and thought to the point the panicked teen could taste it.

"I'm sorry," Max apologized quietly alongside him in the stuffy cockpit of the Bat-Car. They had stopped Curare through an initiation of magnificent team work that made Terry question his original thoughts on how much of an asset his ridiculously brilliant and street smart best friend Max Gibson was or could be to the… "business".

He only growled as response and pushed the throttle harder in an irritated manner that threw the girl back with a surprised whimper. Yeah Max may have been stupid intelligent with technology, and sure she could hustle the streets and dig up and discover any information she so desired or needed with admirable resilience; hell, the girl had even gotten good in learning how to physically defend herself that made Terry want to take her in and help her cultivate her strength even greater. But it was because of her recklessness that McGinnis/Batman steadily refuted the idea of her joining him on the streets to fight crime. McGinnis wore a protective suit – Max didn't. And as Curare proved tonight: tenacity meant nothing against the blade of a sword or bullet of a gun when you didn't have the proper tools to defend yourself.

"Ter-," she began, hesitating at his secondary growl. "Batman," Max corrected herself with a hand on his shoulder, "I mean it. Really. I'm sorr-."

"I'm not talking to you," the vigilante's alter tone cuts her off with a furrowed gaze. His words were hard and sharp, letting the teen female know just how pissed off he was and not in the mood to hear her excuses. Max grew quiet for a moment and leaned away with her head down; Batman's shoulders sagged briefly. Great, now he hurt her feelings. But why couldn't Gibson grasp how her actions and the results of them made her best friend feel? Surely that was the fairest perspective to look at: surely it was understandable! But that wasn't all that had McGinnis on edge.

It was the…feelings. It was one thing to be concerned, worried even. But that particular rush of defensiveness and protectiveness the young man had been consumed in was at a deeper level than he'd ever felt for anyone thrust into a life or death situation. Even more so than whenever his on again off again girlfriend had been concerned. That bothered the Batman protégé…and it relieved him as well – which made him nervous. Just when did he gain feelings for Maxine Gibson? And when had those feelings overshadowed everything else in his life? Why hadn't he felt them creep up on him before? The man under the cowl didn't know if he was more angry that Max had purposefully put herself in danger by disobeying him, or that in a swift moment the young woman he had come to care so deeply for could have been easily stripped from his existence and he could not be there to stop it. Max had been lucky – though she wasn't the target, Curare spared her…the assassin could have just killed Gibson anyway to keep the ebony teen from talking and preventing the execution of her main objective. Pure luck saved Max from the blade of death. And Terry loathed the uncertainty that fate toyed with over his head. Who's to say that they will be that lucky next time? Batman's fingers clenched to the handle to the point that they stung. Simple. There wouldn't be a next time. "You're not going to do that again," he commanded.

"I thought you weren't talking to me?" Max taunted in a weak attempt to lighten the mood.

But Batman was not one to be distracted right now. "I'm not playing with you, Max."

"Terry be reasonable!"

"REASONABLE?!" he hollered incredulously, slamming on the brakes causing Gibson to flip over the seat and land heavily upon his lap with a grunt. He stares down at her, preparing to chew into his best friend in ferociousness but caught the female wincing in preparation of the scolding to come…and he thought she looked so innocent and beautiful and afraid as the sensation of her soft and warm flesh made him flare in red beneath the cowl. He hated causing her pain and discomfort, this woman whose mere touch made the Batman melt in conviction and adoration. Max's touch took him to a world that no other ever had, every single time. It was like warmth and electricity surging through him – and that pleasurable sensation he was addicted to: that relaxation and comfort. He cherished when they touched: she would always smile so carelessly, and Terry McGinnis realized just how much he wanted to continue to see that smile, see her happy, for the rest of his life.

Damnit. Batman looks off to the side flustered and popped the top, ignoring Max's surprise and getting out and down with what appeared to be the remnant of his frustration. However, Batman turns and extends his hand to help her down; a scowl still burning on his face though. As much as the vigilante hated being upset and snappy with her, he was. He couldn't forgive Max for this one.

"Damnit Terry, will you say something?" Max demanded as the nervous guilt she'd felt just moments ago had burned out to irritation.

Oh, so she thought she had the right to get an attitude? He'd show her an attitude! McGinnis had been in mid-change with the suit hanging halfway off exposing his true identity and bare and toned upper torso that was carved and far more defined and sculpted due to the teen's extracurricular activities when Max's words reached his ears and he came bounding around the corner with immediate fury. "You want me to say something?!" Terry growled, standing in front of her with a callous expression. "Fine. You're an idiot!"

Max flinched. "Excuse you? I was only trying to HELP!"

"Then do us both a favor next time, and DON'T!" McGinnis retorted. "I don't need your help."

"Oh! OHHHH!" Max exclaims with a classic neck swerve and hand on the hip and tone laced with sass as she jabbed a finger into his chest and gave her best friend the girl's signature pissed off smile. "You don't need my help? YOU don't need MY help! Well excuse me Terry, I must have misinterpreted that notion with HOW MUCH YOU COME CRAWLING TO ME FOR HELP!" She watches Terry stiffen. "Yeah, it's kind of difficult to get what you want from me when you're constantly PMS'ing while asking me to research suspects, patch you up whenever you're beat shitless, HACK SECURE GOVERNMENT DATA BASES—do you not know I could go to federal for that?! I'm putting my life on the line for you daily!"

"Which is why you're going to stop!" McGinnis states matter-of-factly through clenched jaws. "Helping from the sidelines is different from being out there," he points out the window, "in the streets – in the middle of hell."

Max raises the corner of her mouth in pissed off disgust. Now he was just spewing bull. What made him think that Terrence McGinnis could justify what he did out there on the streets? The boy acted like her boss when he obviously forgot it was MAX who embarked on this road on her own: and he just happened to tag along. Everything she did for him or the old man she did of her free will. Batman (and especially Terry) had no claim on that! "How? How is it so different?"

"Because while you're in here safe," the teen answers icily, "I'm out there risking my life."

Max rolls her eyes in exasperation, pacing the floor and giving him a glare as she fusses aloud and throws her arms about to express being fed up with his excuses. "And that's fair? You get to go out and throw your life away for a spoiled and corrupt city that's fickle with praise and cares more about credits than innocent lives, but I just sit at a computer. You call that equivalent exchange? You chose this life on your own. Why don't I get that leisure?"

"Because you're important to me and I can't lose you!" Terry yells, grabbing her arm and slamming her rough into the couch. Okay, so maybe he had a domineering complex or something – but he was trying to show her that he was the boss here – that his word was law she needed to obey regarding this situation. Max was so ridiculously stubborn she didn't grasp things unless you forced them down her throat and made things uncomfortable. Somewhere the girl had become content in working alongside him and convinced herself that she had the right to be out there fighting alongside Batman. Surely she was delusional! Surely the neo-Batman had told his oracle that this lifestyle was not a game.

Max falls down onto the couch but she was not some frail little weak thing who would succumb beneath someone else's tantrum. If Max had the guts to fight a controlling, obsessively psychotic robot girlfriend, she could take on Batman in the game of wills any damn day. "Since when is that a valid excuse McGinnis, huh? You think that's fair reasoning but it's not!"

"Max-."

"No!" she argued, rising back to her feet as her eyes glistened with an emotion that McGinnis thought he recognized but perhaps was far too scared to allow his brain to acknowledge; an emotion he'd been feeling for a while now; a feeling that drove his desperation to stop her from embarking in this dark life to the hilt. "You get to go out and get hurt just because? Without any back up? Are you an idiot?! You think I want to be out there helping just to make myself feel good but that's not the reason at all! You ever think I want to help so I can do all I can to keep you safe? My best friend. The person I care so much for…" Her fingers reach out and touch the flesh of his bare chest as the girl buries her burning eyes into him as her arms reach about the male's waist and molds against Terry in an embrace. Fighting with him wasn't what she wanted right now. Right now the young woman desired more than anything to make him understand just how much McGinnis meant to her…in so many ways. "Why do I have to lose you?" Max's muffled voice whispers in exhaustion. It was draining, this back and forth – and Gibson was so tired of it. It would make so much more sense to give up and simply adhere to his wishes but that wasn't the kind of girl she was.

What she yearned for the most wasn't power or glory – her stubbornness about becoming a partner in vigilantism was only because Max cared about him and didn't want to face the moment when something bad and unfixable and destructive happened to him…something he may never recover from. Terry's expression softened as his hands raised to wrap about her as well. The exact same thing that frightened him tonight when she was attacked by Curare was the very thing that Max feared for every night McGinnis was out donning the cowl in the name of Justice and facing unspeakable villainy of any level. He realized that now. "Max?" the boy begins softly, "I'm trying to protect you. Just be satisfied with that." He practically groaned out weakly. He was approaching his wit's end about this. He was getting so close to just doing something stupid that he gripped at her waist and did all he could to fight that primal urge.

But Max squeezes him closer with a sniff, her fingers etching against his flesh as she refused to unhand him. "I can't…I love you too much to."

Shit. Terry grabbed her chin and forced Max's face upward, growling low, "You stubborn idiot, you just can't let me protect you…" And in that instant his lips smash against hers. Every single bout of resistance had been silenced and destroyed. How could he fight this, fight her, any longer? The close proximity of their bodies, the emotions running high, the words she uttered about loving him and not wanting to let him go mingled with the realization of what Maxine was fighting internally on his behalf just made all his inhibitions look stupid.

Max freezes in sheer disbelief at what he was doing right now – and in shame that she, in spite of being caught off guard, could feel her heart flutter in excitement…in satisfaction. Once McGinnis pulls away she just gawks at him, slowly turning red. "Ter? You. Me…Dana…I can't do this to Dana."

Now it was his turn to look guilty. His expression was pained. Why did she have to suddenly bring up Dana? An attempt to discourage the boy with guilt from pursuing his best friend? It hurt and ticked him off that he could throw himself out there on a limb like this and she could be so stupefied with thoughts of Dana. The vigilante knew just how much he cared for Max – he couldn't vocalize it but he could show her; and he had: going against his brain for the umpteenth time. Could she see it? How great his struggle was with this? "Why do you have to argue with me on everything? I just kissed you, Max. You're going to tell me I'm the only way feeling this way? Who's been feeling this way for a while now? Because if I was, you wouldn't be so worried about me."

Max is still caught in shock, making an attempt to push out of his grip to no avail. "Terry, Dana is my friend…" No he wasn't alone in those captivating emotions that surged through him. She was no stranger to the attachment and bond between them that grew with each passing day. She had spent many a night thinking about him, worrying about him, waiting eagerly for him to come to her late for medical attention – or to spend the night in bed alongside the girl. Terry wasn't alone. And that was what she was afraid of…Because of THIS very moment, Max had kept her feelings bottled up. But now the lid was coming off and she didn't know what the hell to do about it…or if she wanted to stop it.

Terry sighs. "I care about her, but I can't do it anymore. I can't keep straining and pulling and wearing thin our relationship. Dana and I've been growing apart for a while now. I'm listening to my heart, I'm moving on." He pulls her deeper and leans forward nervously with more determination. "This is what I want. And why I'm so adamant about keeping you safe."

"Terry-." But there was no argument that even the school genius could conjure up to stop him. The more she talked, then the greater the possibly of Gibson talking McGinnis out of this – so she needed to shut up. He kisses her again, smoother, and full of an affection that turned the young woman into butter in the Dark Knight's arms. This was what she wanted too – what she'd been so desperately craving and why she so desperately wanted to be alongside him out there on the streets…and Max couldn't stop her fingers from reaching up, stroking his cheek lightly as their lips methodically conveyed suppressed emotions. His hand rubbed the small of her back, and she gasped softly.

"Please Max," he stated with a groan, "let this be enough, okay? Don't fight me on this. Let this be enough because…I can't lose you." And Terry kissed her once more with far more passion and gentle intensity that fed the young woman's desires, hopes, and dreams in one brief moment. It smolders and sears as the Batman gripped her waist and lifted his best friend up, placing her rump on the kitchen counter as her legs instinctively wrap about his waist. Their breaths catch and the teens pant heavily. "Max," he murmurs. Her fingers entangle in Terry's hair as she grew more desperate for the kiss to perhaps blossom into more. McGinnis's lips lower and suckle on the flesh of Gibson's collarbone, causing the genius to moan outright and arch beneath him. Oh shit. He pulls away, blushing and eyes burning as Gibson coughs in her hand and he averts his gaze with a nervous grin. Just like that the argument had ended and something new started. "Guess this means what I say goes."

She lightly punches his arm with one fist and covers her mouth with another to block his sight of the crimson threatening to overshadow her entire face. "S-Shut up…How do you stand being the hero and no one knowing? I can't stand the power trip it gives you." But McGinnis laughs breathily, knowing good and well what she really meant: that she couldn't lose him either – because she loved him – and no matter what, now she was willing to be open as to why…

"I'm not all alone, you know? Not anymore. I have you." And the way he looked into her eyes and kissed Max softly on the forehead let the girl know: he would let her be as open as she wanted.

THE END