Chapter 5

Terry had been in his old room sitting up on his bed as he watched Elizabeth sleeping beside him. He enjoyed watching her; he couldn't find one thing wrong with her. He was worried however, worried that like every past relationship he had ever had it would undoubtedly end. Terry could feel his throat contract and a headache come on as he thought about Melanie. They had understood each other so well, but it had to end before it could even begin. He felt slightly guilty that he could sit there gazing at a woman he would protect with all his might, when he would have said the same thing about Melanie-and failed. Melanie's departure had hurt him like he thought nothing ever could. He had felt pain at his father's death, but that was a different kind of pain, it couldn't even come close in comparison. Wasn't there something wrong with that?

Elizabeth stirred and started to whimper. Terry could see that she was obviously in distress. Instinctively he bent down and kissed her forehead in attempts to ease her pain. He coaxed her out of sleep and rocked her back and forth.

"What were you dreaming about? " Terry asked a few minutes later.

She shook her head fervently hoping that Terry would know to back off. Elizabeth didn't want for Terry to be ashamed of her, but she feared that if he knew that he would be.

Terry could tell that she wasn't going to say anything, but he wasn't about to let her carry the burden alone. He knew just how horrible that could feel. "C'mon," Terry said in a soothing voice, "you can tell me anything, it won't matter to me." He was relieved when he saw his last words bring a slight smile to her face.

It took a while of silence Elizabeth started to speak, "Daniel, you know Jeremy's little brother, well one night when we were going out he was drunk and he hit me, and I guess…well I haven't gotten over it yet." She had expected for Terry to leap in angrily vowing vengeance and was glad when all he did was envelope his hands in hers. "Terry, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," he spoke rather hesitantly wondering what she could possibly want to know, and if he would be able to answer.

"Why did you go?"

Terry's face set and ignoring her question he said, "Listen, Liz I have a long day tomorrow I should get my sleep. Maybe you should go. " He knew it was rude but he couldn't help it, he didn't feel up to rehashing his angst filled life story to her just her. He probably never would; he could never trust anyone enough for that.

"Fine, we got school tomorrow anyway." He could clearly hear the hurt in her words.

"Wait, Liz. Hold on."

"No!" she whispered in a tone that carried anger headed directly at him, "I tell you something about me, that hurts and what do you do, nothing. You. Fucking. Do Nothing."

"Wait." He stood up and met at the doorway and held her chin, "There are just some things you can't know. But don't you leave me too. You have to understand that you can't know everything, lets just enjoy this one day at a time."

"Fine. I'll see you tomorrow, but I don't know if I can promise to never leave a guy that won't confide in me."

Terry watched her leave. And knew at that very second that he had entered a dead-end relationship, but was too lonely to do anything about it.

He walked over to the wall and carefully picked up the pieces of glass that had shattered earlier. He finally picked up the frame with the picture still in it and stared at it for the longest time. As much as he wanted to feel love for the family he had lost all he could feel was misery and contempt. He put the picture away, thinking for a second that perhaps one day he would regret it if he threw it away.

He climbed back into bed, and found himself thinking deeply into the events that had brought him back to where it had all began.

He remembered how when he had been sent to juvie he had thought that all his friends would come see him; after all he was allowed visitors. After three weeks of loneliness however he had come to accept the fact that he was truly alone. Elizabeth hadn't even visited him. His parents came once or twice but that didn't really matter considering that he doubted they came out of true concern; they probably thought that since it was the right thing to do they might as well. They treated him differently after that and watched him more carefully after he was released. It wasn't as if three months of incarceration actually left him wanting to go back to the place where he had once been deemed "Cobra" At the time all he felt was bitterness at the knowledge that no one had stood by him, or welcomed him back home.

Soon afterwards he met up Dana and Max, everything seemed to be going as normal as things could go for Terry. But then as if in a wink of an eye he saw his world change. His father was no longer, not that he had ever been for Terry, and he donned a new persona. It was probably the biggest mistake of his life. His relationships suffered. As stupid as it may have seemed Terry felt jealous that his family loved Batman dearly for being the savior of Gotham and regarded Terry as an intrusion in their lives that was only a disturbance.

It wasn't as if working for Bruce Wayne was easy either, but at least there he had time for himself. But of course Bruce wouldn't even let him have that. Bruce Wayne had always enjoyed the thought of a sidekick maybe he even relished at the thought of being someone's mentor, but he absolutely despised the thought of anyone taking his place and Terry knew this. It wasn't easy for him to see the old man ignore him when he asked a question. He always admonished him when he made a simple mistake. It was as if, if Terry was going to take his place he better do it perfectly. However after a while even the simplest of human beings would learn to ignore insults and just go on with life, Terry wasn't an exception. The more Terry stayed quiet though, the louder Bruce got, until one-day silence overcame him. They stopped having idle conversations; soon all they spoke of was Batman and occasionally how he was doing a lousy job at being him.

At home things only got worse, his mother distrusted him, his brother was sick of him, and all Terry could do was think of was what a screw up he was. Then he met Melanie, and she made him feel wanted, even needed. Weeks later he left behind Dana who although made a fuss must have known it was a long time coming, and devoted all his free time to his new girlfriend. When he revealed that he was in fact Batman, she understood, rightly so considering she was Ten. They never talked about it though, they never wanted to ruin what could happen between them if they brought work into the picture; but it was always their sitting in the sidelines waiting to be put in the game. They were the best of friends but had to keep it hidden knowing that no one would approve. Terry knew that if Bruce ever got hold of the information he would use Terry to find information. Terry couldn't do that, not to someone who trusted him and whom he trusted like no one he had ever trusted before. And then she left, and he alone and useless.

But no one would ever know about Terry's life because he had stopped trusting people, not after the betrayal that he had seen time and time again.