Just want to point a few things out... Jack is now 26 years old, that would make Bruce Wayne 20. Bruce is just about now getting beat up by Maroni's guys and he's packing up and leaving town on that ship to Bhutan (I know it's Bhutan, and not China. Thanks J-Horror Girl!) where he is caught and sent to some obscure prison.

Chapter 54 - Payback's A Bitch

One week later

For a while now, Jack wasn't thinking about impending doom. But he was wishing Teresa was awake. He had to leave the mansion. He had to tell her goodbye. He didn't want to leave a note. It seemed so impersonal. After all the time he had had to tell her the truth, he couldn't just leave a note. The testing on the knife's blood samples was still not done. But Jack felt his time growing short. Soon they would come after him with a warrant.

Teresa had lost some weight in the past week. She was being tubefed some kind of nutrition. Her hair was clean, but unkempt, and although gaunt, her cheeks were rosy with blood. Maybe this room was a little too hot. Jack felt it too, and he had to take his jacket off to keep from sweating. When he took a closer look at her face, he noticed that her forehead was dotted with perspiration. Jack left the ICU room momentarily and walked up to the nurses' station. While he waited to be attended to, he saw Emily walk through the doors of ICU and wash her hands. Visitors had to wash their hands before going into the patient's room. She smiled at him as she scrubbed soap into her skin. "How have you been? Are you healing up okay?"

"Fine," he replied. "I was just going to tell them it's too hot in there."

She turned off the tap and wiped her hands on papertowels. "Okay. Do they know when she's going to be awake?"

"Probably within the next couple of days." Jack paused. "But I have to leave. I can't be here when she wakes up."

Emily looked confused. "Why on earth not?"

"I have some problems. Can I have your number so I can call you to check on her?"

Emily looked a little worried, but she said, "Sure. Let me just put my purse down."

They walked back into Teresa's room. "Oh it is hot in here. The poor girl is sweating." Emily pulled out a business card and scribbled out a personal number on the back. What is this problem that you have?"

"I'll tell you later. But I think I have to tell Teresa first."

"Are you sure you have to leave before she's awake?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

"She's going to want to see you."

"I know." Jack glanced at Teresa, who was sleeping peacefully, the respirator breathing steadily for her.

"Are you going out of town?"

Jack considered. He did have to go out of town. Erin had already moved out. And he hadn't been back or even talked to her since their last meeting at the Gotham City PD. "Yeah."

"All right. Let me go tell the nurse they're keeping it too hot in here. I'll be right back."

Jack stared at Teresa, expecting her to wake up at any moment. Even in her current state, lying in a hospital gown with her arm stuck up with IV needles and tubes in her mouth, she was still beautiful. He didn't understand it, but she was. Her eyelids fluttered every now and then, and her dark lashes flickered. Emily returned after a while, trailed after by a nurse who adjusted the thermostat. "Thank you," Emily said, as the nurse smiled and left.

Then she went to the window and beckoned Jack. "Are they giving you problems with this whole case?"

"Not yet."

"I don't think they should have arrested you after what happened. That was wrong."

They have their reasons, Jack thought to himself. But he just shrugged. "It's okay. The bail was set really low. Within a day. Even the judge said the same thing. He said I was a hero."

"You certainly are."

"I'm no such thing. I should have gone in with her. She looked at me before walking inside. Then I got out and her cell phone rang. It was you."

Emily nodded and glanced at Teresa. She sighed, then said, "Well, we can't change anything now. So tell me, where are you going?"

"I have to go back to where I used to live. It's a tiny little mining town called Ashway. I have to clear out my old house."

"Oh I know that place. It's not too far from Bludhaven. I hear they don't even have a supermarket?"

Jack laughed unexpectedly at the small bit of humor. "Yeah, that's right. They don't have a movie theater, a hospital or even a courthouse. Everything needs to be done in Bludhaven. Sometimes it's not even listed on the map. Where I used to work, all their equipment had to be shipped to Bludhaven and then driven over in the company trucks."

"Sounds like a boring place."

"It is. But you get used to it. You get used to going to Bludhaven for everything."

"When is your case hearing set?"

"I don't even know that yet. I think they're putting it off until Teresa is awake and well enough to be there."

Emily looked at her again. "She doesn't even know Drew is dead."

Jack said nothing, but thought, Good riddance.

"I hope she doesn't take it too hard."

************************************

In the next hour, Jack had all this things packed into a medium sized duffel bag and a backpack, and the shotgun was settled snugly in the midst of his clothes. He had his other switchblade, not his favorite one, in his right pocket. This blade was also a folding blade, but the handle was too squared, unlike the other one, which was more rounded and contoured to fit in a man's hand. He caught the last bus to Ashway and reached there at about five.

He wasn't really sure what to expect when he got there. He imagined she had cleared out all her things and left the rest of the work to him. They had lived there for about four years, and so, they had accumulated a lot of crap over that time. Jack was sure it was going to take him a long time. So first he was going to assess what he needed to do, then go get supplies to clean up the place.

When Jack arrived there and unlocked the door, he was pleasantly surprised to find that all the furniture in the kitchen and living room was already gone. It was just less work for him. There was just a lot of garbage lying around, plastic cups and plates, pens, and mostly papers of all different shapes and sizes. Jack walked deeper inside and checked out the two bedrooms. He expected his shirts and books to still be inside the closet, even though the dresser was gone and so was the bed. Jack tried the lightswitch and rolled his eyes when he saw that the lightbulb was gone.

He didn't have a flashlight, so he made a note to himself to get that along with some garbage bags, a broom and some other cleaning supplies. He walked to the backdoor to check out the tiny veranda. That was where he kept his explosives. But when Jack opened it up, his eyes didn't go to the bottom left corner of the veranda, but the burnt out crater in which was a pile of completely burnt items. Jack's eyes widened in shock. He stopped and studied the damaged things, then walked closer. He noticed empty bottles of beer and and an empty pint of Seagram's gin, as well as a couple of cans of Red Bull. Somebody had gotten wasted, and Jack was pretty sure he knew who.

Most of the things on the surface was just ash, but as he pulled it away, making flecks of ash float around, he uncovered some clothing and some partially burnt books. Hastily pushing away more ash, Jack felt the realization hit him that this was all his stuff. All of it. All those books he had collected over the years on explosive-making and mining and chemistry, every bit of clothing he had left behind at the house. Jack spun around and went to the chest of explosives he kept. Throwing the lid back his jaw dropped when he saw that there was nothing left inside. Not a pinch of gunpowder, not one empty shellcasing.

He stood up and looked down at himself, seeing that he was covered with black ash. He started dusting himself off as he looked at the destroyed pile of his belongings in the backyard. "Erin, you fucking bitch."

Jack turned to go back inside and then noticed a note tacked to the outside of the backdoor. Jack tore it off and opened it up. It was in Erin's handwriting and signed with a lipstick kiss.

Now who's pathetic?