AUTHOR'S NOTE: And here is the next chapter.

BATMAN BEYOND:
The Second Rebirth
Chapter 3

Melanie woke with a start the following morning, and experienced a moment of confusion as she looked around and did not immediately recognize where she was. She looked around and realized that she was in Terry's bedroom at Mrs. McGinnis's apartment.

She checked the alarm clock on the nightstand and saw that it was almost ten o'clock.
'Well, that's all right,' she thought, stretching languidly as she stepped out of bed. 'It's Sunday - I don't have any classes, and I don't have to work today.'

Still, she was troubled. Today, she was not supposed to have awoken alone. Terry should have been there. She felt dread like a weight in the pit of her stomach as the previous day's events came back to her. The accident. The hospital.

'Terry...' she thought, remembering her last sight of him.
He was at the hospital, unconscious, with his right arm and left leg broken, plus other injuries. The Doctor had said he would make it, but Melanie was still worried, and probably would continue to worry until Terry was back on his feet and out of the hospital for good.

She shivered, though the temperature was mild.
"Get ahold of yourself, Melanie." She told herself, as she climbed out of the bed.
The first thing she had to do was to call the Kitchen, which she did immediately. She spoke with Cal, who was relieved that she was okay, and explained the situation.
That accomplished, she set about getting herself ready.

It now occurred to her that she had nothing to wear except her uniform, but when she stepped outside she found a rather nice green blouse and navy-blue pencil skirt on a clothes hanger on the doorknob.

'What?...' she wondered.

"If you want to wash those clothes you were wearing yesterday, I'm going to be doing the laundry this afternoon." she heard Mary McGinnis say from the kitchen. "Since I doubt you have anything else to wear, I can lend you some of mine for the day. It might not quite fit, but..."

She looked up, and saw Mrs. McGinnis was in the kitchen. Melanie noticed that her eyes were red and swollen, and she looked like she hadn't slept well.
'Well,' she thought, 'neither did I.'

- "Thank you," she said gratefully, touched by the kindness of the gesture.
Carefully picking up the hanger, she slipped into the bathroom and took a shower. Then she showered, got dressed, and stepped out into the living room.

As she did so, the phone rang.

McGinnis residence." Mary said flatly as soon as she picked up the phone.

- "Good morning, Ms. McGinnis." a deep, male voice said. She recognized the voice fairly quickly, and wondered why she had not expected the call. More to the point, she wondered why Wayne hadn't called the previous day. "Is Terry there?"

- "Good morning, Mr. Wayne." Mary said, and she was surprised to see a momentary frown on Melanie's face when she heard the name. A second later, it was gone.
The next few minutes, however, were a more pressing concern, and she hesitated a second, unsure of how to say it. She finally decided to just say it plainly. "Terry…was in a rather bad motorcycle accident yesterday. He's in the hospital."

There was silence on the line for several moments, as Bruce Wayne processed what he had just heard and its implications.
- "I am…very sorry to hear that." He said slowly, making an effort to keep his voice calm. "How is he?" He asked, and Mary McGinnis heard a note of genuine concern in the old man's voice.

- "When we left the hospital last night, he was stable, but had not regained consciousness." She answered. "However, the doctor was confident that he should be okay."

- "I see." Wayne said. "I'm sorry - I'm sure this must be difficult for you. But if it's not too much trouble, could you let me know if you hear anything?"

- "Of course." She said. "Good day, Mr. Wayne."
The old man thanked her, and it struck her as strange that - for an employer - Mr. Wayne seemed unduly concerned about Terry. But then again, she thought, Terry was no ordinary employee, was he?

Bruce Wayne slowly lowered the phone and set it down in its cradle, then leaned back in his deep, high-backed armchair.
He was worried.

"Damn it." He swore under his breath. Terry in the hospital, unconscious, after a motorcycle accident. That meant that Batman was out of commission.

Although medecine had come a long way in the past few decades, depending on the severity of his injuries Terry could be out of commission for weeks, if not a month or more. And that was an unacceptable situation - Batman could NOT be out of action that long, not in this city.

Bruce knew his time as Batman had long passed - his heart could no longer support such exertion. Terry was Batman now.
Unfortunately, Terry was out, and there was nobody else whom Bruce Wayne trusted to undertake this mission. Certainly not that friend of Terry's, Max - who while she knew and understood the importance of what they did, in Bruce's view lacked the discipline to be reliably counted on to assume the role.

For a moment, he considered asking his old friend Clark Kent to lend a hand, but dismissed the thought almost immediately. Clark knew and liked Terry - which was fine, but Clark liked most everyone he met in their business. More importantly, Clark trusted Terry, and he owed them for the entire Starro affair a few years earlier.

He could have called in that favor. Besides, Clark was one of very, very few people still living whom Bruce trusted completely, though they didn't always get along. But upon reflexion, he decided not to.

He would have to think very, very carefully about what he would do...

Melanie spent the rest of the day with Mary McGinnis as well as Matt, whom they picked up from the Bertinellis', where he'd spent the night. Despite their worry about Terry, it was a pleasant experience, and that evening when Mrs. McGinnis dropped her off on campus, she felt a little better.

When she arrived at the dorm that evening, her eyes fell on the worn dark brown backpack that lay in a corner of the bedroom, which she knew belonged to Terry. And she knew what it contained.

She had long since come to terms with the fact that Terry was Batman; he had trusted her with that information, and she repaid his trust by maintaining absolute silence, and by supporting him however she could.
She had lost count of the number of times he had come home in the small hours of the morning, tired and carrying new bruises or other injuries, and helped to treat them as best she could.

She also knew that as Batman, he reported to that mean-tempered old bastard Wayne.

She had neither met nor spoken with the old man a single time since that encounter in Vreeland Park the previous year, but knew from conversations with Terry that he continued to remain skeptical of her intentions.

That was fine - like she'd told him, she didn't give a damn what he thought. Terry knew better, and that was all that mattered to her. And in return, she did what she could. But sometimes, she wished that she could do more for him. She wondered what it was like out there.

It was a tempting thought...if Terry couldn't, then maybe...
Shaking her head, she dismissed those thoughts and slipped into bed. And soon, she was asleep, thinking of Terry and hoping for his recovery.

She caught up with Chelsea and Max at lunch the following day.

"Hey, Melanie!" she heard Chelsea hail as she was looking for a seat, and walked over to sit next to her.
Max was sitting across from them, and greeted Melanie with a smile.

"Hey, guys." Melanie said.

- "We were just talking about you - hadn't seen you yet today, wondering how you guys were doing." Chelsea said.

- "You okay, girl?" Max asked, sounding concerned. Melanie's eyes were red, and to Max's eye her smile seemed slightly forced, as if she was trying to look happier than she felt.

Then there was the fact that Terry was nowhere to be seen, and the two were usually inseparable.
She had heard something over the week-end and thought she might know what have happened, but she wasn't sure.

- "I'm fine." Melanie answered. "I'm just...a little worried about Terry, that's all."

- "Why," Chelsea asked, "what happened? D'you guys have a fight or something?"

- "No, nothing like that." Melanie said. "It's just...there was an accident. Over the week-end. When he was on his way to pick me up at work Saturday night, a car hit his bike."

- "Daaaaamn." Max muttered. Chelsea just looked horrified. "Is Terry...?"

- "He's in the hospital." Melanie answered the unfinished question. "He was hurt pretty badly."

- "Oh, man. Melanie, I'm sorry." she said contritely, "I didn't realize...Do you know if he'll be okay?"

- "I don't know." Melanie said, and her voice shook slightly. "The doctors think he'll be all right, but..."
Whatever the doctor had said Saturday night, she was still worried that Terry might not make it, and she didn't know what she would do if she lost him.

Max, for once, was silent. She had heard a news story over the week-end about an accident, and had called Terry's number - with no response.
That confirmed what she thought, and she was very worried about Terry, who was one of the best friends she had. For a couple of reasons.

She knew that Melanie knew the truth about what Terry did - the two of them had spoken about it - and Max had warned him, way back when he first introduced her to Melanie, that he should tell her.
Two months later, when he had, he had told Max that he'd done so, and about the old man's reaction.
Max, of course, had known for years, ever since figuring it out when they were in High School.

She also suspected that Melanie was aware that Max knew as well.
- "I guess that means he's not going to be able to work for a while." Max commented, looking at Melanie. "Wonder who's going to tell his boss."

Melanie nodded.

- "He already knows. He found out yesterday." she said without elaborating. "As to what he'll do with Terry in the hospital, I have no idea."

Okay...fair enough." Max commented. "You don't like him much, looks like."

"No, I really don't." She said flatly.
Max didn't say anything further on the subject.

That was fine with Melanie, who wasn't all that comfortable discussing Terry's "job" - if you could call being a vigilante who spent most nights pummeling criminals with his bare hands a job.
So she changed the subject. "Terry's going to be out for a while, though. Going to need to do something about his classes."

"I've got a lot of classes with him - I'll help out." Max said.

"Thanks." Melanie said.
They kept talking for a while, but before long, the three friends had to go their separate ways as they went to their next classes. Melanie had one more class that day, and then she returned home to change, before catching the L train to downtown.

When she arrived at the Kitchen, she got straight to work. She tried not to dwell on Terry's condition, but it was hard not to think about.
And it was even harder not to think about the backpack that, even now, sat in their locked apartment...

Melanie was closing that night at the Kitchen, so it was close to midnight by the time she got back to their apartment. During her break, she had called Mrs. McGinnis at home, and found out that there had been no word as yet from the hospital.

'At least it means there's no bad news.' she thought.

She dropped her purse on the floor next to the bed, along with her book bag. She had assignments for a couple of her classes, but decided to put them off until the following day.
She usually worked only a half-shift on Tuesdays, so she would be able to do them before going in to work, after class.

She was getting ready for bed, and she thought about Terry, in the hospital.
She missed him, missed the way he made her feel like everything would be all right, no matter how difficult things got. Then as her mind wandered, and she found herself thinking once again of Terry's job - or rather, his double life as Batman.

She understood double lives better than most - she had lived one herself. And as she lay there thinking, an idea occurred to her again.

Previously, she had dismissed it out of hand, but this time she did not.
With Terry wounded, who would do what he did, and could not?

She quietly stole away from their bed until she stood in the corner where his backpack still lay, apparently forgotten.
She got down on her knees, opened the bag, and withdrew its contents.

It was a one-piece bodysuit, with a full-face mask attached at the back of the neck - at first glance not unlike the similar garment she had worn as Ten, which she had burned the previous year.
Except that it was thicker, the fabric felt heavier, and very slightly stiffer. A belt with a large, round buckle went around the waist. The belt was built into the waist of the suit, and ringed with slender metal containers.
The entire thing was black in color, except for the large insignia, bright red, on the upper torso.

She guessed that this apparently innocuous suit was probably far more than it seemed at first glance.

"I wonder what that mean-tempered old bastard would say, if he knew what I was thinking." She muttered, and smiled thinly.
That was another part of the reason she had refused to entertain this idea; she didn't want to have to deal with him.
But then again...what better way to prove the old bastard wrong once and for all?

No sooner had she slipped it on that she knew she had been right: This thing was far, far more than it first seemed.
To her surprise, it fit her perfectly, despite the fact that Terry was a couple of inches taller and a good deal broader than she was. But the suit conformed to her smaller, slighter build like it had been tailored for her.

She spent a few minutes getting used to the fit and how the suit affected her movements.
Wide awake now, she carefully opened a window, and slipped outside, sliding the window shut before disappearing into the night.