Chapter Four: Terrance McGinnis-I Miss My Friend



The funeral was arranged to be the finest affair in Gotham. Not that such a sentiment matters to me. Barbara, Mr. Drake, and Mr. Grayson handled all the arrangements; I haven't had to do a thing when it comes to this.

It's only been three weeks. Three weeks that seems like three thousand years.

I close my eyes to the coffin that lies in front of me. The priest's words aren't helping, so I tune him out.

I can still feel you gripping my hand tightly, can still hear you struggle for breath as you called out the names of those you loved most. Your parents, Alfred, Selina, Dick. You called for Drake and Barbara as well. What surprised me was that you called out to me as well.

And you withered all the more when only Barbara, Drake, and I answered.

I feel so angry with Grayson. The fact that the others couldn't answer you was no fault of theirs. Be he's an entirely different story. I overheard Barbara when she called him. Grayson just blew her off, saying that you'd be fine within a few days.

Two days later, Bruce, the end came.

Drake and Barbara were barely holding back their tears. I had no such restraints and I cried for the first time since my father's death.

I could barely be civil to Grayson when he finally showed up at Wayne Manor. I fought the urge to just punch him right when he walked in the door. I think that urge was obvious because Barbara and Drake each had a restraining hand on my shoulder.

Surprisingly, I don't think Grayson noticed the fact that I was ready to take a few swings at him. His eyes were bleak as can be, unnoticing of anything around him. The guilt was apparent in his eyes as well.

I guess that was what got me to lie off. His guilt was damaging enough, far worse than anything I could have done to him.

I miss you, Bruce. I miss how you always seemed to be out there with me, watching my back. I miss how you'd demand to know if I'd been injured, making it sound like contempt. But after a while, I learned to see past the tone and hear the true concern behind the gruffness.

Most of all... I miss my friend. You were, in some ways, my best friend. Don't get me wrong, Max is one of my best friends as well and I love her to death, but you... Bruce... you understood me in a way that no one else could. You understood what it was like to lose a parent, to be reborn into someone else.

You understood me and I miss that understanding now. I miss it terribly. But most of all, I miss my friend...