Guess who got a new laptop battery? Yup, I'm back. Please enjoy!
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One of Terry's first lessons as Batman was to learn to observe.
It was something he had struggled with at first. He had been diagnosed with minor ADHD when he was nine, so sitting still and waiting didn't come easy to him. He had been more partial to the fighting; he had been a fighter for his entire life. That came naturally. Watching and idling wasn't particularly his strong point.
Unfortunately, observing was the only thing he could do at the moment.
Terry scowled under his cowl, silently cursing whoever built that damn time machine. The last thing he needed was to be stuck almost fifty freaking years in the past. The teen had a history test coming up, Dana was going to think he bailed on her, and Gotham was virtually unprotected. Max was keeping an eye on things, but there wasn't much she could do on her own.
Terry shook his head, looking on as the League of the past went on about their day. It was almost like watching ghosts drift along absentmindedly. These guys were legendary in his time, the original expansion of the Justice League. Now was around the time when the government would begin to see the League as a dangerous threat.
The fact was that he was in unfamiliar territory. It wasn't his time, his League, or his Watchtower. He had to be careful.
"You're brooding," came a familiar voice from his left.
Terry glanced over to see Barry standing near him. "Shit," he hissed. Since becoming Batman, his instincts had gotten sharper, but speedsters were decidedly off his radar. "Don't do that."
Barry clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "Don't let Lily hear you swear," he scolded teasingly.
The Batman of the Future glared at him. "We should put a bell on you," he decided. It would make things easier, that was for sure.
Barry was grinning, but there was something off about it. "Has Lily been acting... weird to you?" he questioned. His dark eyes shaded with something akin to concern.
Terry stared at him. "She's Lily," he reminded the other man. Lily had been weird since the day he met her. As her best friend, Barry had to be aware of this.
The redhead grimaced. "Yeah, but more than usual," he stressed.
Terry shrugged. He hadn't seen much of Lily this entire mission or any of his team for that matter. The only one who knew how he was feeling was Kai-Ro, and Kai-Ro could be a little shit of a twip when he wanted to be. "It's a weird situation," Terry pointed out. "She'll be fine; she's Lily." Nothing could keep that woman down. One time, she had been beaten into the ground by Mad Stan and had been fine the next morning.
"No, she won't be," chimed Henry, walking over to them. What he had seen of Henry was him thoroughly avoiding his old man. It almost made him angry; he would give anything to talk to his dad again. But Lily had always said Kent lacked emotional maturity. "She's going to lose it."
A guarded, worried shadow passed Barry's freckled face. "What do you know, Henry?" he questioned.
Henry shrugged. "It's not my secret to tell," he replied. "Where is she, anyway?"
Terry made a face, though the other two couldn't see it. "On the surface," he answered. "With her mom and Rex and his mom." He was too aware of whatever was going with those two. Of all people, why did it have to be Rex? Couldn't she have picked someone like Barry? Or the overabundance of men vying for her attention in Gotham?
Luckily, she was adamant about not having a real relationship. Admittedly, that wasn't much better- he wanted her to be happy- but as long as she didn't end up with Stewart he was alright.
Barry seemed to have the opposite reaction as he grinned. "Interesting."
Terry fixed him with a look. "What do you know, Bartholemew?" he countered.
Barry pouted childishly. "I'll never forgive Lily for telling you my full name. And just for that, I'm not telling you."
Terry was about to retort when M'gann flew up to them, her green face pale. "Lily's hurt," she uttered lowly. And by her expression, it wasn't Lily's usual hurt.
Terry's stomach dropped.
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Barry was the first one to reach the room, Terry arriving seconds later. Wonder Woman was sitting in one of the waiting chairs, close to tears. Rex was sitting a few chairs away with a tight jaw. Terry's eyes narrowed behind the white lenses of his cowl. "What happened?" he demanded, his gaze locked on Rex.
Rex met him with steely green eyes. "Someone attacked us," he said curtly. "I don't know who, but they stabbed Lily in the leg. Manhunter's with her." He looked down at his hands.
It was then that Terry noticed that they were stained with blood. He felt sick, Lily's blood? Terry felt sick to his stomach; the young man had hated the sight of blood since the tender age of eight. "Stabbed?" he repeated. "She let someone stab her? And why hasn't she healed yet?" Stab wounds were usually nothing to her; she could recover in hours.
"Why the hell do you think I would know?" snapped Rex. For as long as Terry had known him, he had always been impatient and irritable. Though, he had always suspected that it was to mask the fear, anxiety, and maybe even sorrow that raged inside of him.
Unfortunately, being stuck in the past had left Terry a little more than impatient and irritable himself. "You're the supposed pro," he spat, disdain welling inside him. Since they had met, Rex had always treated him like a kid, like he didn't know what he was doing. And Terry had taken it in stride, brushing it off and hardly ever retaliating. It was what he usually did with Nelson and Blade and other people he'd rather not deal with, after all.
But this was different; this was Lily. If Rex was so much more experienced and skilled than him, how had Lily gotten hurt?
Rex seemed put off for a moment before his jaw clenched and he stood up. "Shut it, McGinnis," he bit out in a way that sent most newbies running. Terry wasn't most newbies, though, and he stood his ground.
Before the situation could escalate further, however, Barry shoved them apart. "Are you two dregs done?" he demanded, his dark eyes uncharacteristically cold. Shit, he was definitely pissed off. Sometimes, Barry could be the scariest of them all and every time it surprised him. The speedster then turned to the first Wonder Woman with softer eyes. "Au- Miss Diana, can you tell us what happened?" Rex's fingers curled into a fist at not being asked, but Barry pointedly ignored him (much to Terry's satisfaction).
The Amazon Princess- a woman who would become a legend in his time- straightened, visibly attempting to reign in her emotions. "We were attacked in Gateway City," she revealed. "Two masked individuals; a man and a woman. They shot into the cafe, presumably to draw us out. When I got outside-"
"She came out of nowhere," Rex cut in. His temper seemed to have cooled, his eyes dull and Terry felt bad. Even without the tension between them, everyone knew that Lily was special to Rex. "I didn't see her until it was too late."
Wonder Woman shuddered. "Lily was bleeding out and Rex was trying to stop the blood," she added. "Lantern and I engaged with the man while Batman and Hawkgirl took on the woman."
Terry racked his brain, but a masked man and woman could be any number of their enemies. He would have to investigate, which potentially meant working with the original Batman. He usually would have been more excited at the prospect, but knew that his predecessor preferred to work alone. But they were going to have to work together, especially considering that it was obvious this was an attack from their time.
"Was there anything that stuck out about them?" he asked.
Diana was quiet for a moment. "The man seemed deranged," she told them. "And it seemed like he had it out for us. The woman was silent from what I could gather. You'll have to ask Hawkgirl or Batman."
Terry nodded, filing this information away. There was a tense silence among them and he hated it. The quiet had never sat well with him. He took comfort in the bustling streets of Gotham. Or the boisterous teenagers in his high school. Lily used to snap at him because he could never keep his mouth shut when he first started out. He just couldn't help it.
Yet, he couldn't bring himself to utter a single word at the moment.
Finally- finally- M'gann came out. "She's stable," the redhead announced morbidly. "However, her healing factor isn't kicking in and she's lost a lot of blood. She's going to need a blood transfusion."
Terry felt sick and Rex visibly tensed. But Terry didn't miss the way Barry's eyes flashed knowingly. Before he could voice whatever he was thinking, however, Diana jumped to her feet. "Will I be able to help?" she asked frantically.
M'gann shook her head. "From her DNA, we've gathered that her blood type is AB," she informed them. "Neither you nor Batman will be a match, as you're A and B respectively."
A string of Themysciran curses that Terry recognized well flew from Diana's lips.
Barry's gaze flew to him. "M, test Terry," he ordered. There was something odd about his tone and Terry knew Rex and M'gann caught it too.
Terry blinked, not understanding what he was getting at. "Me?" he questioned. "Why me?" He had never taken the time to figure out his own blood type and he doubted Lily would file it somewhere that just anyone could access it. He also doubted that they had the same blood type. Wasn't that supposed to be really rare?
The strawberry blond man grimaced slightly. "Just trust me, okay?" he implored. There was something akin to guilt flecked in his dark eyes.
There was something about the certain way Barry said it that made Terry believe him wholeheartedly. "Okay," he agreed finally. He had to focus on Lily right now, after all. And he would do anything he could to help her.
But he decided to store that away for later too.
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Diana finally remembered how to breathe as she entered the room to find her daughter sitting up and regaining color. "Hello, darling," she greeted, trying to keep her tears of relief at bay. Luckily, the new Batman- Terry, she recalled- was a blood match for Lily and the blood transfusion had transpired successfully. She would have been suspicious if it wasn't for the young man's insistence that he wasn't her son.
Lily was blankly looking ahead. "Hi," she replied quietly, not looking at her.
Instantly, Diana knew something was wrong. "How are you feeling?" she asked. She pleaded with whichever of her Gods was listening that nothing else was wrong. She didn't think she would be able to take it.
Lily gave her a listless shrug. "Fine," she answered curtly.
The Amazon sat back and studied her, examining every inch of her daughter. Lily's eyes were dull and her fingers were gripping the white sheets. Diana leaned forward, gently laying a hand on her shoulder. "My little sun and stars," she pleaded, her heart throbbing. If Lily couldn't confide in her, then who? "Talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."
Lily was quiet for a long time. She could hear nothing other than the soft beeping the medical wing always emitted. This had always been Diana's least favorite room on the Watchtower. This was always where she got bad news: someone was going to be hurt irreparably, someone would be out of commission for weeks, someone wasn't coming back. On Themyscira, she had never had such fears. Her sisters were immortal.
But her allies, comrades, and friends were not.
Eventually, Lily turned to look at her, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm pregnant."
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So this was most Terry centric as I realized I have been neglecting him and he is an integral part of this story. Also, someone requested him last chapter and I figured I really wanted him in this chapter in some way. Anyway, I hope you liked it and please review!
UPDATE: To those of you just getting this chapter, I apologize. I know some of you got it and some of you didn't, but that was a system error I believe. Sorry for the delay!