As Bruce burst through the rotating doors of the movie theatre and run to the plaza, he couldn't contain the excitement in his voice as he spun back and see his parents trailed behind him. Their faces were as happy as his, as he finally saw the new James Bond movie he kept bothering them about but he likes to think they enjoy the movie too.
"Did you see that?" Bruce asked with what could only be described as glee, "That was the coolest movie ever!" He has never been this excited over a movie before. Bruce was awed and filled with wonder throughout the whole film.
"Okay, okay. Settle down, Bruce." Thomas laughed with a giant smile.
"Settle down? Nah-huh Dad. Did you see that final battle between the bad guy and him? So awesome! Or when he jumped on a moving boat while chasing that dude? James Bond is so cool. When I grow up, I'm going to be the next James Bond. Quick Mom, ask me what my name is." Bruce paused from his quick-fire questioning to straighten his posture and mimic a stoic like demeanor as he pop the collar of his suit, a suit that is identical to what James Bond was wearing in the movie.
"Who are you?" Martha asked with mirth.
"Wayne. Bruce Wayne." He replied with a trademark smirk he developed.
"You will be the coolest secret agent ever, Son." Thomas laughed at Bruce's unending energy and enthusiasm.
"But no killing. Even if you are a secret agent." Martha added sternly as she pointed at Bruce.
"Why? If they're the bad guys, shouldn't that mean its okay to kill them." Bruce asked with confusion etched on his face.
"No, Bruce. Killing is bad. You're taking away a life, which would makes you no better than them. Everybody has some good in them. It just takes one person to believe in them for the possibility of the 'bad guys' to change." She replied back.
"What about when they're hurting and killing people?" he asked as he contemplates what his mother has just said.
"That's when the coolest secret agent comes in and stop them before they do. Protect the innocent and kick the bad guy's butt." She said with a much lighter tone to get her son's spirit excited again. Which isn't that hard considering Bruce's short attention span due to his age.
"Yeah! All I need to do now is to become a secret agent and I'll be the best James Bond ever. Zana already said I'm the coolest guy ever so I got the 'cool' part down already." Bruce exclaimed. Martha pulled Bruce towards her by his shoulder as she looks down at him with a raised eyebrow and an amused face.
"Zatanna thinks you're cool, huh. Do you have a crush on her, Bruce?" Martha curiously asked.
"What?!... No… She's my best friend... That… That would totally be weird." Bruce stuttered. He can feel his cheeks burning up at the thought of anything romantic between Zatanna and him.
"Your mother is just teasing you, Bruce," Thomas laughed as he ruffled his hair, "Plus, who knows? Maybe years from now, you might think differently."
"I doubt that." Bruce replied. Thomas and Martha both give each other knowing looks and as Bruce sees this, try to deny whatever they are thinking. "Zana still has cooties."
"Is that why I keep seeing you two hug each other? Like, a lot." Martha asked with a laugh.
"We're best friends! Best friends hug each other a lot."
"Do you hug Tommy that much?"
"Well… no. But…" Bruce scowls, not knowing how to respond and seeing his parents teasing faces, only had one way of getting out of this interrogating like conversation, "Whatever!"
His parents laughed at his answer while Martha pulled him closer to her and kissed the top of his head. Bruce's scowl turn into a smile at his mother's affectionate gesture.
"Well, today has been fun, hasn't it Bruce?" Martha asked.
"Fun? This is the best day of my life!" Bruce answered back with a smile as he looks between his mother and father. "You guys are the best parents ever!"
Martha can only smile at her son, as she is reminded of how amazing her child really is, as she signaled to Thomas to call for a cab while they still wait in the plaza. All she can see is all the cabs being occupied as a lot of people are coming out of the movie theater and Thomas, being the gentleman that he is, keeps letting people get ahead of him to take a cab. Thomas keeps searching for an empty cab until he saw one park across an alleyway from where they were standing. He put his arm across Martha shoulder, effectively putting Bruce in between them as he led them towards the alley that is illuminated by a lamppost. He sees what looks to be a homeless man, with an almost pale complexion and a face that looks like he hasn't eaten a good meal in a while and dressed in tattered plaid red shirt, torn jeans, and a coffee colored newsboy hat. He was sitting down in front of the alleyway as people passed by as he shakes a cup, asking for donations. Thomas pulls out his wallet from his pocket and pulled out fifty-dollar bills as they approach the alleyway and the homeless guy that is in front of it. Putting the money in the homeless man's cup and putting his wallet back into his pocket, the Wayne family smiled at the homeless man as he looks at his cup in shock from the amount of money that he just received.
"Thank you, sir. Thank you for your generosity." The homeless man exclaimed as he keeps looking at his cup.
"No problem." Thomas replied with a friendly smile. He pulls out his business card from the inside pocket of his suit and presented the card to the homeless man, which the man took and inspected. "If you ever need a job, call that number."
The homeless man can only look in amazement as he pulls Thomas hand with both of his as he excessively show his gratitude for the opportunity he presented him with. The Wayne family walked away from the homeless man, as he keeps inspecting the business card in his hand, as they walked through the alleyway.
"That was pretty nice of you, Dad." Bruce said as he looks up at his father.
"This city has given us so much, Bruce. The least we can do is give back and try to change the lives of millions of people. Even if it is only one person at a time." Thomas stated as he smiled at his son. Even though Bruce is very young, he isn't too young to know that his father is a hero. To Bruce, he hopes that he grows up to be just like him, and maybe one day, marry someone like his mother. Find his very own Martha Wayne. Looking back, it was hilarious to him how he didn't even know his own mother's name. He thought her name was actually Mom. He also didn't know you can't marry your own mother. But to be fair, he was only three years old when he declared to his mother that he is going to marry her, which led to her explaining to him that sons don't marry their mother, but marry a girl that is going to make him happy and give him butterflies in his stomach. All that did was confuse Bruce but he accepted what his mother said to him, including literally having butterflies in his stomach when he marries the girl that will make him happy. He didn't know how that will happen considering he doesn't want to eat butterflies, but he just accepted his mother's wisdom. It wasn't until years later that he search online that his mother didn't literally mean having butterflies in his stomach, but just an expression.
"So, what are we going to do when we get home? Are we going to watch March Madness, Dad? I remember Duke is playing tonight." Bruce asked, hoping to stay up a little longer than his bedtime.
"No. No way. You two are not going to stay up tonight to watch college basketball. We're going to church tomorrow." Martha sternly said.
"But Martha, if Duke wins, they go to the Final Four. Plus it's our alma mater. Please? I promise I'll send Bruce to bed after the half." It astounds Martha how her husband can turn back from a very mature, responsible man to the young immature guy she met in college that wouldn't stop asking her out on a date until she caved in and gave him a chance. At least this immature side of her husband only happens when Duke's basketball team is playing. As she looks at her husband and son giving her puppy dog eyes, she sighs as she gives in.
"Fine. We will watch the game tonight when we get home." Thomas hugs her and gives her a wet peck on the cheek as Bruce laughs and Martha rolls her eyes at her husband antics.
"Hey! Mr. Wayne!" A familiar voice behind them called out as the Wayne family stopped their walking as they stand underneath the lamppost that illuminates the alleyway.
"Yes?" Thomas replied as he turns around to the homeless guy that they met moments ago. But what he saw completely shocked him as he sees the homeless guy pointing a revolver at his son. As he saw the homeless guy already pulling on the trigger, he dash in front of his family as he heard the gun shot go off, with two other consecutive shots followed. He looks down at his suit as he saw three bullet wounds in his chest. One of them certainly found his heart and the other two probably hit his lungs. As his life is draining from him, he looked at the face of the homeless guy, hoping he might find guilt for what he has done, only to find a sinister grin. That was the moment, as time slows down and his life flash before his eyes, that he knew what was happening. The one regret that he will have from beyond is not being able to protect his son from the hardship that will come after this. The last thing he heard, was his wife screaming his name and he knew before he drop to the floor dead, that she will join him as well soon. There's one shot left on the revolver and just as his luck indicated, he heard the last gunshot and the eternal pause of his wife's scream. Darkness envelops his vision as the unmeasurable pain from the gunshots receded and lightness took over. He finally knew, what it fills like to die: his last experience in this Earth.
Bruce can only look down, as his father lay dead in front of him and his mother, dying, in a fetal position right next to him. He can feel his body trembling and hot tears running down his cheeks. He looks up from their bodies and came face to face with the barrel of the revolver, the gun that murdered his family, only inches from his face. He heard a click from the revolver and he instinctively flinch and closed his eyes as he thought another gunshot will be heard that will let him join his parents to whatever afterlife they go to. There was no gunshot however, but he keeps his eyes closed as he feel his body trembling with fear.
"This is your lucky day, kid. I ran out of bullets." The homeless man said as he goes around Bruce and ran towards the cab that the Wayne family was going towards to. Bruce, with his eyes still closed, heard a car door opening, which follows with an argument Bruce can hear from where he is standing between the homeless man and the cab driver. He then heard the cab driver being stopped during mid-sentence from his arguing with following grunts and then the sickening sound of a bone breaking and the thud of a body dropping on the ground like his parents, which follows the swerve of the vehicle speeding away from the scene.
Bruce was grinding his teeth and clenching his jaws as he dropped to his knees between his parents as his tears flow through and his sobs quickly came after. He can feel the unending grief and sadness enveloping him. He can feel the hot tears run down his cheeks until he felt a thumb swipe half of it away. He opened his eyes in shock as he sees his mother leaning towards him with her outstretched arm. He crawls towards her as he holds her hand on his cheek.
"Bruce…" She whispered. He knows this is going to be her last words. He's clutching her hand as if by some force, it will keep her alive with him.
"Mom?" Bruce cried out as more tears come out. Martha swiped her son's cheek one last time with her thumb as she feels a sudden lightness taking over her pain stricken body. She wants to have one last word with her son before she leaves. She tries to smile at him as she feels a teardrop ran down her cheek.
"We will always love you… Remember us, how we were. Not… what happened to us."
"I promise, Mom. Just… just don't leave. I… I can save you. I just have to go call the police and they'll bring you to the hospital." Bruce knows he's grasping at straws. He can feel her hand weakening, as her life is slowly being drain from her. Martha pulled her hand out of Bruce's grasp as she reached down deep within herself, for all the willpower she has left, to remain alive long enough to give her son a last message from her. She reaches behind her neck and unlock the clasp of the pearl necklace. As she stretch her hand to give the pearl necklace to her son, she gives him her last words as he grasp her hand that contains the necklace.
"I'm so sorry, Bruce. I'm going to miss my own son's wedding… Please, give the necklace to the girl that is going to make you happy." Martha smiled. "I want you to be happy, Bruce. Promise me you will someday."
"I promise… I promise, Mom! Including the butterflies." Bruce cried out as he holds his mother's hand and saw his mother slowly closed her eyes. Her hand went limp, but he still holds her hand with the necklace as he drop his head to his chest. He can hear the words he said to his mother earlier echoing in his head.
This is the best day of my life!
Zatanna quickly open the car door as her father parked on the roundabout. She saw police cars with blinking red and blue lights and she quickly saw in front of the large double front door of the Wayne Mansion: Alfred, with what can only be described as an expression that is mix with shock and sadness, a police officer with a thick mustache and a burly man in a trench coat talking to him, and standing right next to Alfred with his head looking down, was Bruce with a scowl and his hands fisted with one of them holding what appears to be a pearl necklace. She quickly ran up the stairs towards Bruce with her father following closely behind. As she got near Bruce, she leapt towards him and envelops him in her arms.
As Zatanna is hugging Bruce with all her might, he felt his emotional wall falling down. He couldn't contain himself as he started crying again, as his tears that he thought were dry out, comes back anew. Zatanna can feel her own tears joining his, as she feels the turmoil that is going through her best friend's heart right now. It feels like they are sharing this pain, but Zatanna knows that what Bruce is feeling is way worse.
"Let it all out. Let all of it go, Bruce." Zatanna softly whispered as her cheek was touching his black hair.
"I can't."
"Yes you can, Bruce. Let it all out. It's okay to cry." She can feel his response as he cries louder and hold her tighter. As she feel his tears soaking the shoulder of her nightshirt. She decided to make him a promise that she knew she would keep for the rest of her life. "I promise you, Bruce. I will always and forever, be by your side."
They hold each other as they both cry, while the adults give them their space for them to vent their sadness. Zatanna can feel the note she wanted to give Bruce that day, poking at her hip in her pocket. She knew this wasn't the right time. She knew that one day, somewhere in the future, she knew that the note will eventually be given to him.
What Zatanna doesn't know though, that years from now, that Bruce were telling her the truth. It wasn't his emotions that he was holding back. It was the promise he made to himself that night that he wouldn't let go. That he can't let go. The promise, that made all the emotions that were freely flowing through him in that moment, to manifest into anger. And with that anger, came a purpose. Bruce already knew what he wanted to do in his life. But he will also keep his promise that he made with his parents.
And he knew, that he was going to be a man that keeps his promises.