Hey peeps. Sorry for the delay but the weekend was a hectic mess and there just wasn't time to upload more chapters so here it is. Don't worry, I WILL NEVER ABANDON A STORY THAT I HAVE STARTED NO MATTER HOW FEW REVIEWS I RECEIVE. Now that that is cleared up, here is the chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR

Getting out of the Batmobile, which she never in her life thought she would ever be able to drive while Mr. Wayne was still alive, Max's heart skipped a beat at seeing the commissioner/batgirl hoping that she knew where Terry was. She hoped beyond hope that her boyfriend was all right.

Boyfriend. It still sounded weird to her. True, they had been going out for a couple of months, but it still, she wasn't used to it. It, also didn't sound right to define their relationship. They were so much closer to one another than just boyfriend or girlfriend.

When Mr. Wayne had called her to the mansion and finally let her into the cave she was ecstatic and thought that Terry had finally persuaded the old man to give her a chance. But when she had arrived she had learned the more urgent reason for her introduction to the Batcave.

She was a petrified statue for the first minute of Bruce telling her about what he wanted her to do. So now to see former Batgirl in the cave after her flight her hopes were soaring, until. Until. Things never turn out the way you hope.

"Did you find Terry?" as soon as she heard the question her hopes came crashing down and she almost broke into tears but that wasn't her style. So she composed herself and said she didn't and asked Bruce but she already knew the answer because he would have told her over the communicator.

"No" was her answer. That one syllable frustrated her to no end because it meant that Terry must be in tremendous trouble and there wasn't a blessed thing she could do about it until they found him. She turned around and headed back for the 'car' intent on continuing the search. She was stopped by Bruce.

"Where are you going?" She turned to the man sitting at the computer console. He hadn't even looked at her to know she had moved.

"I thought that it would be obvious," the sentence came out more vehemently than she would have liked but it was how she felt. "I'm going back out to look for Terry."

"No, you need to get home and sleep," said Bruce it a tone that left no room for argument but Max made one anyway.

"Do you really think that I would be able to sleep knowing that he's out there some where, probably in big trouble?" she asked it as a rhetorical question and Bruce knew it but answered anyway.

"No, but you need to try to get some sleep or you wont be able to function tomorrow and that wont help anyone including Terry," to Max's surprise he had almost yelled this at her.

She also realized that he had called Terry by his name and realized that he was just as worried about him as she was, so she only made one last argument. "Fine, but I don't want to go home. I want to stay here so if you find anything or he manages to get back I'm here to know about it," she had said this in a monotone voice that almost match Bruce's own.

Bruce just looked at her, his features betraying no emotion but his eyes showed a hint of sympathy. "Alright," he said with no amount of displeasure in his voice which furthered her belief that he understood.

Eight Hours Later on the other Side of the City:

In an alley covered in trashcans Batman was unwillingly coming back to consciousness. "Unnhhh." He moaned as he tried to sit up. "Where the hell am I?" He asked to himself and then the events of hours ago came flooding into his mind. He tried to put his hand to his communicator but white-hot agony stopped him from moving his arm.

He looked down at his suit, which was in tatters and figured that because he hadn't woken up in the cave that the tracking device in the suit must be out. He knew one thing above all others at that moment. He had to get to Wayne and get word to Max that he was okay. 'Well maybe not 'okay' but at least alive' so she wouldn't go ballistic trying to find him. He tried to pull himself up but had to go heavily on one leg and he only had one good arm, both on the right side. As he pulled himself out of the trash he stayed hunched over to ease the pain from his possibly broken ribs.

As he limped forward he saw a sheet that had been thrown out so he took it and tore a piece off using his teeth and his one good arm and made a sling for his injured arm. It was light out so he tried to see if his cloak still worked and wonder of wonders it did. It was practically the only system on the suit that still did. He still stayed in the back alleys just in case it decided to stop working and he, as silently as possible, made his way in the direction of the manor.

His progression was glacially slow. He was constantly stumbling and falling over things in the alleys. As he was coming around a corner he lost his balance and fell when he stepped on a broken jar.

The fall took him out into the next alley where he heard the taunting voices of a gang of jokers. He looked up and saw that there were four of them harassing an ageing man who was carrying groceries. Batman cringed at the thought of having to face a bunch of jokers and was almost willing to walk away when one of them pulled out a spiked rubber chicken, two pulled out chains and the last one picked up a pipe.

"Alright old man give us all your creds and your groceries," said the joker with the rubber chicken. The man tried to comply but he couldn't get his wallet out of his pocket. "Not fast enough, now you're going to have to pay extra." The jokerz then started to advance on the man and the one with the chicken began to swing it at the man.

Batman turned off his cloak and fired a batarang at the joker's hand and he hit dead on. The Jokerz stopped going after the defenseless man and turned to see the gnarled figure of the Batman.

"Get out of here," he said to the man before addressing the jokerz. "Now, are you guys going to play nice or do we have to do this the hard way?" Batman hoped to God that it wouldn't be the hard way.

The jokerz actually seemed to consider the easy way until one spoke up, " Shit guys, he's just playin' us. Look at 'im he won't be able to beat us in the shape he's in." Then to Terry's chagrin they begin to advance on him. He does his best to take up an intimidating fighting stance that was second nature to him but with his injuries it was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do.

Trying to ignore the pain in his chest he blocked the first swing and countered with a right hook, which, despite his best efforts forced him to the ground in agony holding his ribs. The joker that Batman hit got up, "hey guys, he's hittin' like a girl today and he can't even stand up. Lets nail him."

They started to run towards Batman. Batman managed to shoot batarangs at the jokerz to disarm them but that was all he had the chance to do before they were on him and pounding him from all sides.

He was on the ground on his side in minutes and the jokerz were kicking him hard in the back and chest and abdomen. One of the Jokerz managed to find one of thier pipes and began to hit Batman's right arm.

As a last ditch effort he turned on his boot thrusters and popped out his wings and flew off into the sky to come down only three blocks away because the fuel in the boots had been used up. He fell to his hands and knees once more and began to throw up.

For a full ten minutes he threw up but for the last five he was throwing up blood. When he finally stopped he stood up turned on the cloak once more and began to walk in a zombie like state towards his destination. He hoped beyond hope that he would make it. "I'm coming Max."

Wayne Manor

Max had actually gotten an hour or two's worth of sleep before she was allowed out of her room. Bruce had actually locked her in her room in the mansion. After she left her room she ran to the cave and jumped into the cockpit of the Batmobile before the old man could object and jetted out of the cave.

She searched for two hours and found nothing when Bruce called her to ask for an update. She told him her findings or lack there of and he sent her to some of Batman's snitches.

When she arrived at the first location she was just about to jump out of the 'car' and track the punk down but was stopped by Bruce. "Hold on," he told her.

"What, did I go to the wrong place?" she wondered irritatedly then she noticed that she was only in her own clothes and couldn't go out of the car.

But Bruce answered her unspoken question, "Open the compartment under the back of the chair. She did as he said and pulled out a Batgirl costume that looked almost exactly like Terry's but it had a double bat symbol on the chest instead of one. She looked at the monitor, showing the old man's face, with a stunned look on her face.

"This is only a one time use." She understood, but filed a future argument into her mind, and put on the suit after turning off the visual link. She then proceeded to press any and all snitches for information on Batman.

She searched fervently for the rest of the day but found nothing and went back to the manor empty handed and heartbroken at the lack or success.

In The Bat cave that night:

"Ace, what am I going to do?" Bruce asked his faithful dog. Bruce was in the cave by himself with his faithful companion because Maxine had already gone up to her room. He was starting to become fond of her and felt glad that Terry had found someone who cared for him even with his secret.

The answer to his question was a small whine and a whimper. Ace then went off and came back with a small signal watch in his teeth.

"What have you got boy?" Bruce asked as the dog came closer and dropped the device in Bruce's lap. Bruce looked at the watch and his eyes went wide by what Ace had given him.

"Do you really think that we need his help that badly?" Bruce asked the dog at his side. A furtive bark was his answer.

"Alright then." He patted Ace as he hit the button on the side of the watch and waited.

Somewhere in the back streets of Gotham Batman was stumbling along past an abandon homeless persons shelter and sat and tried to rest his pain-wracked body. As he sat he felt the cold of the night begin to affect him and wished that Max were there to help keep him warm.

He began to shiver uncontrollably as he saw snowflakes start to fall from the sky. He began to move on when a faint tingle in his leg caused him to stop. The tingling stopped for a second and then returned and it repeated the action. Terry realized it was the device in his leg that was causing it. As the device vibrated for the tenth time the vibration worked up into a full body shock as electricity once again flooded his system.

After the surge of agony passed he realized that it was exactly 24 hours since it was first activated. He cursed it under his breath. Feeling the weakest and loneliest that he had ever felt he moved over to a hidden spot behind one of the many dumpsters in the alley and took one of the blankets that was in the alley and wrapped himself in it even though it was paper thin and full of holes.

There he curled up and shivered trying not to fall asleep for fear he would never wake up. Eventually, though, his body submitted to the darkness of slumber. Even in sleep his body shook violently from the cold and his sleep was restless.

A/N: I hope that I was able to satisfy some of your curiosities with this chapter. See ya soon with the next chapter.