"Think I'll get more than an hour's worth of sleep tonight?" Wayne grunts.
"Go home, McGinnis. There's nothing out there tonight." Did I hear him correctly? I can go home? Early!?
"Are you feeling all right?" I ask him. I can almost see the smirk on his face.
"Don't get used to it. Be ready for a long night tomorrow." I should have known there was a catch somewhere. I begin to steer back towards Wayne Manor. There's no more problems Batman has to deal with. There's plenty of them for Terry McGinnis, however.
Number one: What the hell to tell Dana.
Number two: Save myself from flunking out of high school.
Number three: Figure out how to do both number two and three without driving myself insane, dying of exhaustion, or slacking off as Batman.
Batman, Terry, Batman, Terry- I wouldn't be surprised if I was diagnosed with split-personality disorder by the time I'm 20.
I find myself passing by Meraviglia's building.
To my complete surprise, I find myself stopping at it and leaping out. As usual she's on the roof, completely oblivious to the freezing temperatures of February and uncaring about everything around her.
I don't know what I expect to find here. Most likely she'll ask me why the hell I'm here, I'll have no answer, and I'll be driven back home by her biting remarks.
"Are you up here every night?"
"We both probably spend most of our evenings on rooftops." She answers, this time turning around to at least acknowledge my presence.
"Did you beat the bad guy, save the day, and get the girl?" She's mocking me.
"I know I'll never have to save you. Make fun of me if you want, but there's plenty of other people who need it." Lydia doesn't give me the lecture on how weak people that need saving are that I was expecting.
"It's almost noble. In an antiquated kind of way." Well. That's a new one.
"That's a better opinion than most. Everyone else thinks I'm the schway-est thing on the planet, or trying to have fun, or trying to avenge my father, or that I'm putting myself in danger and working all the time."
"What does your mom think?" This girl's direct.
"That I work too much. But she's got enough to worry about without worrying about me. I'm trying. I'm trying the best I can to help her. I guess there's still some lingering guilt from the days when I was a bad kid." She doesn't reassure me that I'm doing well at that. Instead she waits for the rest of it, the part of it I never tell anyone. I don't know how she someone knows that there's more.
I don't know why I'm about to tell her.
"I think.I think Mom's still a little afraid of me. Not just afraid that I'm going to run off and join a gang again, but I think she's a little afraid of me. I don't ever want my family to be afraid of me. I don't ever want to do anything to hurt them ever again. "
"And that's why you're out here."
"One of the reasons." To atone for sins I did a long time ago, yeah. To avenge my father, yeah. To prove to myself that I'll never let myself sink as low as I did, yeah. But also to show the people I love that that kid wasn't me. That this responsible, hard-working guy IS me.
Wayne doesn't know that. He thinks I'm here for the adventure, for the thrill of being a superhero.
"Has your dad gotten any better?" She laughs.
"My dad's never going to change. Nothing will bring him back to the way he used to be."
"Before your mom died?" She stares off into the distance and nods.
"We used to be a family. Then he just decided that we were going to leave our family and come to America, where we know no one and have no one and he doesn't seem to grasp that he's abandoned the only thing he had worth living for."
"The only thing I had worth living for." She adds, still staring away.
If you had something worth living for, worth dying for, why the hell would you leave it?
"Why don't you go back? You don't seem like the kind of person who would blindly follow her father around."
"Contrary to popular belief, I do have some semblance of a heart in me." She replies, glancing at me.
"I can't leave him alone. He'll destroy himself." She could probably do it for him. I can't believe that anyone who fathered Lydia Meraviglia would have a problem standing up to life.
"I doubt that." Lydia shakes her head and smiles sadly at me, almost telling me immediately that I don't understand.
"I come from a long line of strong people. If I have such a hard time keeping it together, what makes you think my father is doing any better?" Fathers are supposed to be strong. Mine was. Wayne is.
"It'll get better."
"It won't get better. But I will." She replies, almost holding her head up with pride as she says it.
"Now is there a particular reason you've stopped by, or were you just in the neighborhood?" Uh.
But while I'm busy trying to formulate some kind of answer, Lydia's already beat me to it.
"Never mind. There aren't answers for everything."
"Go home, McGinnis. There's nothing out there tonight." Did I hear him correctly? I can go home? Early!?
"Are you feeling all right?" I ask him. I can almost see the smirk on his face.
"Don't get used to it. Be ready for a long night tomorrow." I should have known there was a catch somewhere. I begin to steer back towards Wayne Manor. There's no more problems Batman has to deal with. There's plenty of them for Terry McGinnis, however.
Number one: What the hell to tell Dana.
Number two: Save myself from flunking out of high school.
Number three: Figure out how to do both number two and three without driving myself insane, dying of exhaustion, or slacking off as Batman.
Batman, Terry, Batman, Terry- I wouldn't be surprised if I was diagnosed with split-personality disorder by the time I'm 20.
I find myself passing by Meraviglia's building.
To my complete surprise, I find myself stopping at it and leaping out. As usual she's on the roof, completely oblivious to the freezing temperatures of February and uncaring about everything around her.
I don't know what I expect to find here. Most likely she'll ask me why the hell I'm here, I'll have no answer, and I'll be driven back home by her biting remarks.
"Are you up here every night?"
"We both probably spend most of our evenings on rooftops." She answers, this time turning around to at least acknowledge my presence.
"Did you beat the bad guy, save the day, and get the girl?" She's mocking me.
"I know I'll never have to save you. Make fun of me if you want, but there's plenty of other people who need it." Lydia doesn't give me the lecture on how weak people that need saving are that I was expecting.
"It's almost noble. In an antiquated kind of way." Well. That's a new one.
"That's a better opinion than most. Everyone else thinks I'm the schway-est thing on the planet, or trying to have fun, or trying to avenge my father, or that I'm putting myself in danger and working all the time."
"What does your mom think?" This girl's direct.
"That I work too much. But she's got enough to worry about without worrying about me. I'm trying. I'm trying the best I can to help her. I guess there's still some lingering guilt from the days when I was a bad kid." She doesn't reassure me that I'm doing well at that. Instead she waits for the rest of it, the part of it I never tell anyone. I don't know how she someone knows that there's more.
I don't know why I'm about to tell her.
"I think.I think Mom's still a little afraid of me. Not just afraid that I'm going to run off and join a gang again, but I think she's a little afraid of me. I don't ever want my family to be afraid of me. I don't ever want to do anything to hurt them ever again. "
"And that's why you're out here."
"One of the reasons." To atone for sins I did a long time ago, yeah. To avenge my father, yeah. To prove to myself that I'll never let myself sink as low as I did, yeah. But also to show the people I love that that kid wasn't me. That this responsible, hard-working guy IS me.
Wayne doesn't know that. He thinks I'm here for the adventure, for the thrill of being a superhero.
"Has your dad gotten any better?" She laughs.
"My dad's never going to change. Nothing will bring him back to the way he used to be."
"Before your mom died?" She stares off into the distance and nods.
"We used to be a family. Then he just decided that we were going to leave our family and come to America, where we know no one and have no one and he doesn't seem to grasp that he's abandoned the only thing he had worth living for."
"The only thing I had worth living for." She adds, still staring away.
If you had something worth living for, worth dying for, why the hell would you leave it?
"Why don't you go back? You don't seem like the kind of person who would blindly follow her father around."
"Contrary to popular belief, I do have some semblance of a heart in me." She replies, glancing at me.
"I can't leave him alone. He'll destroy himself." She could probably do it for him. I can't believe that anyone who fathered Lydia Meraviglia would have a problem standing up to life.
"I doubt that." Lydia shakes her head and smiles sadly at me, almost telling me immediately that I don't understand.
"I come from a long line of strong people. If I have such a hard time keeping it together, what makes you think my father is doing any better?" Fathers are supposed to be strong. Mine was. Wayne is.
"It'll get better."
"It won't get better. But I will." She replies, almost holding her head up with pride as she says it.
"Now is there a particular reason you've stopped by, or were you just in the neighborhood?" Uh.
But while I'm busy trying to formulate some kind of answer, Lydia's already beat me to it.
"Never mind. There aren't answers for everything."