4. Back in School

Small sunbeams, which came into his room from the open window, woke him up and within a second he was wide-awake. He looked at the alarm clock. There was still a long time until he should up, so he felt back and enjoyed the warm bed.

The last two weeks had passed by so quickly, that the things almost had floated together. After the incident in the hospital had the doctor prescribed that he needed rest. It was stress, had the doctor said, so if he didn't began to take care of himself he could get a heart failure like Bruce. He already had a too high blood pressure, so the doctor gave him some medicine to lower it.

His mother had been so concerned about it, that se had kept him home from school in the last two weeks. He hadn't complained about it, because he was not looking forward to see Dana again. What should he said to her? Beside his mother had used almost all her spare time to give him lessons in his school subjects. She was good, and it was nice to do something together with her again. He couldn't remember the last time they had done something alone together. It must have been before his parents had separated.

He had only been out on patrol a couple a times, because his mother had begun to check up on him in the night, so he couldn't get away. He knew that she just was concerned about him and beside Batman wasn't needed, so he had just let the time go. From Barbara he had heard that "Midnight" had assumed Batman's role and now was hunting criminals down. Still had no one had seen "Midnight", so the police had no leads to who he or she was. On the other hand they were also kin of happy, because "Midnight" was helping them by taking criminals down. Some of the criminals had told the police that "Midnight" had robbed them, but none of them had wanted to report it, so it had just been forgotten.

Many times in the past two weeks had Terry tried to call Max, but each time she had been to busy to talk. He really needed to talk to her, but at the same time he didn't want to press his worries on to her. She sounded so happy on the phone and who was he to kill that. She had been so happy, when her dad had asked her, if she wanted to live with him in Hong Kong for a half year. He had suddenly remember, that he had a child in Gotham and wanted to make it up to her. It had all happened before, but Terry didn't wanted to spoil it for Max. Max had always missed her father so much.

The door opened and he could hear small footsteps coming close to him.

"Terry!"

He opened his eyes and looked at Matt, who was standing next to his bed.

"Yeah!"

"I had a bad dream… You were Batman and the painted man killed you. He…"

The tears came up in Matt's eyes. Terry took him in his arms and laid him close to himself.

"It's okay. It was just a dream."

Just a dream! Terry couldn't forget how close it was to the truth. First had Matt fought his kidnapping by The Stalker was so schway, but after some time had he begun to get nightmares about it. In the last two weeks had Terry replaced the Batman-figure in the dreams and they had got a new ending.

Terry looked at the little boy beside him, who had fallen asleep. Would he ever know that his older bother was Batman – his hero? In the last two weeks they had become so close, that Terry almost was afraid that Matt could see in his eyes that he was Batman.

o-

The bell rang just as Terry was walking into the school. He had timed it perfect. He didn't want to talk to anybody, because he knew, that they all knew about his and Dana breakup. Some would be happy about it, because they didn't think he was the right for Dana, and some would try to comfort him, but he just wanted to get on with his life. They would also think, that he hadn't been to school because of that. Bruce had asked him to hold his heart failure secret, because Bruce didn't want to look weak. He had just before the heart failure begun to getting some control of his corporation again, and he didn't want to lose that.

Terry walked into the classroom with his head down. He didn't want to catch anyone eyes. What were they thinking? He sat down in the far end of the room as the teacher, Mrs. O'Brien, came in.

"Okay, just continue working on your project and remember, that your are going to present it next Monday!"

Her eyes wandered out on the class of students, who was sitting in front of her. Then she saw him.

"Oh, Mr. McGinnis, I can see you are back now. Mr. Jacobs would like to talk to you. He has been waiting a long time for you. I think he has time for you now, so you can go over to him now."

He felt the whole class staring at his back, as he walked over to the door. He could hear Nelson whisper in the back to his friends and their hysteric laughing afterwards.

He walked over to Mr. Jacobs's office, which were next to Ira Billings old one. It sent shivers down Terry's back as he remembered his fight with Spellbinder. It had been close.

He knocked on the door, and shortly after Mr. Jacobs called him in. In the middle of the room there was a big desk, which was full with all from papers to skulls, since Mr. Jacobs was also a biological teacher. Mr. Jacobs was sitting behind the desk. He showed Terry a chair in front of it, which Terry sat down on.

"McGinnis, I have wanted to talk to you for a long time now, but somehow you have been able to slip out of it until now."

He flicked through the papers on the desk and quickly he found the paper that he was looking for.

"Your absence is almost 50 and you have only hand in four assignments out of twenty-one. I sorry McGinnis, but I have to let the office know. It's only because had your have been so hard to get hold on that it hadn't happened before."

He put the paper down and looked Terry straight into his eyes.

"I know your have had a hard time lately, but as the things are now there's no way that you can pass the exam. The rules say that I must to talk to you before I let it go further, so now I have done that."

He stood up and walked over to Terry and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Terry, what's the problem with you? It's not because you are unintelligent. You just don't seem to care about it."

He looked at him like he expected him to confess to him.

"Well, I don't know…there have been so much since…"

His voice broke off. He would have said since the dead of his father, but that was not the truth. He would never came over it, but he had begun to live with it. Since he had become Batman he had seen so much sorrow and desertion, that it almost had torn him apart. He remembered the time before Batman where he just had closed his eyes for it as all other citizen of Gotham. He had excuse himself with that it was not his job, but now it was. The school just didn't seem so important anymore. There was more need for Batman that there was for Terence McGinnis.

Mr. Jacobs broke his line of thoughts.

"Terry, are you …" He tried to find the words: "…are you back in a gang?"

So that was what he was thinking. Terry would have laughed, if it weren't because he was so mad. He had only stepped beside the law one time, but he knew that he would have hear for it the rest of his life. It was just too much. Terry shook Mr. Jacobs hand of his shoulder and stood up. He looked him straight into his eyes and used the cold voice that he otherwise only used as Batman.

"Get of my back."

Afterwards he turned around and run out of the office. Out in the corridor it was like his legs could not hold him up anymore. He staggered into bathroom at the end of the corridor and washed his face with the cold water. He couldn't believe, what just have happened. Mr. Jacobs would probably now think that he was in a gang and make him to one of his projects. Mr. Jacobs was always so keen in to being a savior, but Terry didn't need to be saved. In best fall he would had to go the year over.