It's All Relative

Chapter 6: Skeletons in the McGuiness Closet

By Teala373

Tim Drake drummed his fingers impatiently on his knees as he traveled. He felt badly that he had let so much time go by. He had never been good with time, but now he must start before more slipped away from him. He needed to confront his ghosts with Bruce and Dick, own up to the terrible mistake he had made, before he could hope to forge a relationship with his son.

His journey back to Gotham would take him two days. He would use the time to think about what he would say when he entered the manor again.

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Mary sat stiffly in her chair and tried to take deep breaths as she listened to Wonder Woman's tale, but her mind kept wandering. She went over the facts in her head. Her name was Barbara Gordon. She was Batgirl and Oracle. Batman and his partners were too intense and had been trapping her in a life she didn't want to lead anymore. She had come to Wonder Woman for help. Wonder Woman had a partner named Ted Kord. Ted is how she met Warren – Warren worked for Ted's company, Kord, Inc. She wanted to leave the horrible life Batman had enslaved her in and live with Warren, but she was in a car accident. To protect her from Batman, Warren had her name changed to Mary. They moved and raised Terry away from Batman's reach.

"He would have corrupted your son, Terry. Him and the other one."

Mary tiled her head slightly to one side in confusion. "What other one?"

Wonder Woman grimaced. "Nightwing. He's just as bad as the bat… he was never a match for you. You deserved a better life. Warren worked hard to provide that for you."

Mary remained silent.

"Now that he is no longer here to protect you and your sons, I must take his stead," though the Amazon tried to be sympathetic towards the fragile woman before her, she was firm. She had to be. "I have a way to help you regain your memories. With your skills as both Batgirl and Oracle reinstated, you will be able to protect yourself and your sons. Though I would love for you to stay here with me, I insist that you leave Gotham. There is a new Batman, no doubt being puppeted by the old. He is still recruiting... still destroying lives."

Swallowing hard, Mary listened as Wonder Woman prepared her for the effects of the machine. She nodded an affirmation when asked if she was ready and she shook her head when asked if she had any questions. She couldn't speak. She only looked up into Wonder Woman's eyes as she lay down on the table connected to the machine.

Wonder Woman's eyes softened as gave a small smile. "It will be alright, my dear Oracle. I will not let him hurt you again."

The table slid into a tube shaped chamber. Lights began to turn on inside the chamber and a steady pulse began to beat, rippling through Mary's head. As her eyelids began to fall, she caught site of a tiny logo near one of the lights. Beneath it was printed 'Kord, Inc.'

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Terry closed the final panel on the bat suit. "There. This baby is ready for action again!" His bright smile slowly faded into a sad one as he began taking the suit off the work station and putting it away.

Bruce noted this and stood up from his chair. "Is everything alright, Terry?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. It's just," he sighed as his head dropped, "I was thinking that my dad would've been proud of me if he saw me working with those computer chips. That started me thinking about him…"

Closing his eyes, Bruce nodded his head. "I know Terry, I know.

"No.. no it's not his death… it's other things."

Bruce opened his eyes. Terry's head was still down. "What other things?"

"I loved my father. I did. And he was very, very wonderful to me." Terry's voice was becoming thick with emotion. "But… he was a man with many secrets. Now that he's gone… I'll never know…"

"Do you mean the project he was last working on?"

"No… no… I mean his relationship with my mother."

Deep lines appeared on Bruce's brow as he tried to understand what Terry was talking about. "I don't understand."

Terry sighed again. "I don't either. My family had always been a little different, but I didn't realize how different until… it was right before my father died. I never had a chance to ask him about it."

"Terry? Do you want to talk about it?"

Taking a seat, Terry cleared his throat. He had never made mention of any of this to anyone - not Dana, not Max, not Matt and especially not his mother. "My mom was in a bad car accident when she was pregnant with me. When she woke up in the hospital, she couldn't remember anything. My dad and the doctors had to tell her everything: what her name was, that she was married and even that she was pregnant. My mom used to think that was funny when she would tell me the story. She said it was scary at first, but she got used to it and my dad had been so wonderful in helping her. Her and my dad agreed to not concentrate on the past, only the present and he future. They never talked about the past."

Bruce frowned. Something about this was odd. "So are you concerned that you and your mother will know nothing of her past now that your father is gone?"

"In a way," Terry's head dropped again. "I – I overheard a phone conversation of my father's the day before he died. He was in his office… I was trying to sneak in because I was past curfew." Heavy emotion weighed on Terry's voice as he continued. "I don't know who he was talking to… but they were talking about how I wasn't his biological son."

That surprised Bruce. He had done a preliminary background check on Terry and remembered Warren being listed as the father on his birth records. Terry wasn't a liar and he was quick to separate fact from inference.

"The weirdest part is," Terry continued, "that my mom told me when she woke up after the accident she was pregnant with me and already married to my dad. So, if he's not my biological father, she cheated on him. That doesn't seem like her at all, but she may have been a different person before the accident. I don't know… but, I do know that the whole thing made me think back." He gave a wry laugh then. "They say hind sight is 20/20 and it's true. I look back and I see how my parents acted towards each other. At the time, it seemed like everything was fine, but now I see where there were problems…"

"What do you mean? Bruce probed gently.

Though Terry raised his head to look at Bruce, his eyes were very far away. "My dad was… very much in love with my mom, but also kind of possessive of her. My mom didn't seem to be as into him as he was into her. She seemed to love him because that's what she was told when she woke up from the accident… and then there's… that guy…"

"Terry?" Bruce had never seen Terry like this. He had obviously been suppressing these feelings and was having a hard time dealing with them. "Terry? What guy?"

Terry's eyes barely came back into focus as he continued. "There was some guy. I barely remember him. He was a friend of my mom's. They got close fast. My dad wasn't keen on him, I remember. Anyway, his wife died and he couldn't take care of Matt. That's how we came to adopt him. I think my mom keeps in touch with him, but I never saw him again. My mom was so quick to trust him. Maybe he knew her from before and wasn't telling her. Maybe he knows who my real dad is. Maybe he is my dad."

Bruce had known that Matt was adopted, but he was unaware who his biological parents are. "Terry, why don't you take the rest of the night off. It won't do you any good to do another patrol. Go rest. We can talk about it more another time."

Terry's head jerked slightly as his thoughts left him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's alright," Bruce held up a hand to reassure him, "it's been a long night of reflecting. Go rest and we'll talk again."

"Thanks," Terry smiled sheepishly, "I feel a little better getting some of that out… and having a conversation with you where I'm not getting yelled at."

"It's not yelling. It's a stern tone."

Snorting, Terry packed up his bag and headed for the stairs. "Ask Dick that when he gets here and see what he says."