A mistake.

Not his first one, of course. There had been many other mistakes and there would be more but why did it have to be Terry's mistake and not his?

Bruce was down in the bat cave listening to the news and occasionally checking up on different security cameras throughout the city, just keeping tabs on things while Batman was away.

Not like Terry couldn't go out there.

He could.

But he hadn't even questioned being shut up alone with him in the dead space Bruce called home. He trusted that this was the right thing for them both to do.

Wait out the snow, Bruce?

Sure.

It was one of the worst ideas in the history of ideas, but what else was he supposed to do? Let him out in that? For what reason?

There was no one out there.

So, of course he should stay here.

It was safe here, which was all there was to it.

"Keep telling yourself that old man."

He covered his face with his hands, sighing.

"You make a habit of talking to yourself or did I just witness the first time?"

"No, I do it often."

Terry sat leaned over the back of his chair, staring at the screen. "Good to know. So…what are we seein' here? Anything?"

Bruce coughed, trying not to comment on their proximity and knowing if he did there would be a discussion of what had happened to them earlier. "They're just weather reports. Seems like Gotham isn't the only city to be hit by the strange weather wave."

"Which means, it might actually be a natural occurrence this time and not some psycho with a mutant weather making machine?"

Bruce smiled in spite of himself. "It would seem so."

Terry took his hand away and leaned against the board, staring at Bruce expectantly. "So…what now? Am I supposed to go out and look around or something? Or just…what?"

"You're free to take more time off, actually. You can use the car for the night and come back in the morning to…"

"No way, I'm not leaving you here alone."

Bruce sighed. "Terry."

"You're all by yourself here. You'd be all cooped up with…what if there was a cave in?"

Bruce actually laughed, which startled Terry just a little but he ended up smiling anyway.

"I highly doubt there would be a cave in."

Terry smiled, turning his head sideways so they were close enough to feel each other's breath. "But there could be."

"McGinnis, go home."

"No."

Bruce sighed. "You're digging your own grave here."

"So?"

They stared each other down with Terry still smiling brightly with those clear blue eyes.

He was still a boy.

"Go away, Terry. Leave me to enjoy a natural disaster all by myself. I want to."

"I'm not gonna leave you here all alone. You're not as young as you used to be. Something could happen. There…there could be an accident. Or maybe someone I went after once would try and get in and kidnap you and…"

"I can take care of myself, remember?"

Terry licked his lips. "I remember. But I'm staying. No one needs me right now but you."

Bruce stood up, pushing away the hand offered in front of him and taking his cane instead. He went to the stairs and stared up at the door. "Fine. Do whatever you want to do, McGinnis. I'm too tired to argue."

Terry came to his side suddenly, reaching out to grab his arm. "Are you okay? Do you…"

Their eyes met again. "I'm fine. I just don't want to hear about this when you're thirty."

Terry smiled. "You think you'll be around when I'm thirty?"

"We'll see. Just…help me upstairs."

"I thought you didn't need my help. You can do just fine on your own, right?"

Bruce sighed, his eyes a little tired and he stared at Terry without any anger or humor at all.

"I've been on my own a long time, McGinnis. Sometimes it feels like I've been here all my life. I'm gonna die like this and there isn't a thing you can do to stop me."

Terry frowned, squeezing on Bruce's arm tighter and making him stand still. "It's my own choice, ok? Everything I've ever done that involves you was my own choice. Is still."

"Can we not talk about this?"

"No, we're going to."

Bruce shoved his arm away and started up the stairs, nearly taking two at a time. Terry just watched him with an open mouth.

He'd pretended to end an argument.

And now created a whole new one.

"Wayne, this isn't over."

Bruce didn't answer him and he smiled at the retreating back.

There was something going on here and he wanted to know what it was.

Bruce felt something. He'd kept a shirt Terry had left here months ago without telling him. He had to feel something.

He just had to.

No one had ever responded to his kiss that way before, with such...desperation.

Terry frowned, suddenly looking up at Bruce again and knowing full well that he was already out of view.

"I want this."

He did.

And Bruce did.

If the desperation in the way he'd held on for that short time was enough to go on, Bruce wanted this a lot more than he did.

He smiled suddenly, and pulled at the once damp shirt that fell against his skin.

Well, there was something else he hadn't tried.

If Mother Nature was on his side, and he was sure she wasn't, he could just wait for the water to come to him. Or…

God he was starting to think like a drunken sorority girl.

He sighed.

There had to be something else to do to make Bruce see that it was all right to try. Just to try a little.

He walked across the cave to the suits, stopping at Bruce's and staring at it good and hard. There was still enough of Batman left in the man who left the suit behind. There always would be. Bruce had lost everyone else around him because he just had to be Batman. No one could stop him from this…his life.

They shared that life.

Terry trusted him with his life.

Now all he had to do was show Bruce just how much more that entailed than both of them had originally thought.