The laughter from cheerful kids streamed out at him as he opened the door. He cast a quick glance at the others at the arcade just to make sure that there was nobody he knew, when a little boy caught his attention. The boy stood in the other end of the room together with some older ones, who all were occupied with a game. He reminded Terry of the old days with the gang. He had been like this kid at first. He had been so young and naive. He would have believed the older boys, if they had told him, that they had stolen the sun.
One of the older boys emptied his fiz and was about to go over after a new one, when he saw the little boy. The older boy got his mates attention.
"Guys, see what I had found under a rock."
That sentence putted Terry hours back in time. Black! Who is he? And who is Master? And what wanted they him for? He had to figure it out before their next encounter. Should he tell Bruce about it? No, it was better to hold him out of it, besides he didn't know what it all was about. It could just be something harmless…
A hand on his shoulder broke the line of thoughts.
"Hi, are you okay?"
First then he saw Dawn, who was stood in front of him.
"Yeah!"
They went over to a free table. Dawn sat down opposite to him.
"Thanks for coming"
She looked down on her hands.
"How is your boss?"
She began to play nervousness with her ring.
"He is okay. He came back home today… oh, Dawn, is you aright?"
She didn't answer, but tears began to run down her cheeks. He gave her a napkin.
"What has happened?"
She sniffled and wiped the tears away with the napkin only to make room for more.
"It's okay, you can tell me it."
She wiped the tears away again,
"Oh Terry, I'm not normally like this. It's just that I'm…"
Her words went over to tears.
"It's okay!"
He gave her another napkin.
"It's my mom. She has come back home."
"Well, that's good. It's it?"
She sniffled again.
"No, I really was hoping, that she was going to get some help this time. But now it's one a matter of time before she is going to try again."
"They wouldn't have let her go home, if she wasn't okay."
"It has all happened before - not just one time, but many times. I can't believe it anymore, that's my problem."
Then it hit Terry. The problem wasn't that her mother was going to try again. No, it was, that Dawn was living in eternal fear of it happened again. There was nothing that he could say, that would make it go away. He could only take her thoughts away from that for a while.
"Dawn, I don't know, if it's going to happened again, but this is something you should talk with you mom about. She has to know how much it is hurting you."
She said something, but he couldn't understand her.
"Come, let us play something. Maybe it can take you thoughts away from the problems for a while."
He stood up and took her by the hand.
"Hem, what should we try?"
He looked around and saw a free machine.
"What about this one?"
Before Dawn had a chance for think had he pulled her over to the machine and connected her. She went into the world of virtue reality.
They played together in around an hour. She had after the first 10 minutes stopped crying. She had 20 minutes later begun to smile. She had 15 minutes later been delighted, and 20 minutes later had she kick Terry's ass several times.
The game ended and they took their helmets off.
"Phew! I surrende!"
They both began to laugh.
"Okay, it's accepted, but then let me buy you a fiz."
She went off, before he could say anything, so he sat down by a table and shortly after came Dawn back with two fiz's.
"Terry, I don't know how to thank you."
"This fiz is a start."
"I mean it. There is some kin of strange connection between us. I'm usually not so open around other people, but you just make me feel safe."
"I have it in the same way, maybe it's because of the circumstance we meet in. We both needed somebody at that time."
"Maybe?"
Terry's phone rang. He took it.
"McGinnis, it's time. I have sent your car after you."
"Okay."
He rang off.
"Sorry Dawn, but I have to go. My boss needs me to do something."
She looked at her wristwatch and got surprised.
"It's okay. I'm okay now, besides I also need to do something."
They said goodbye and walked outside to their vehicles. Terry stood waiting by his cycle until he couldn't see Dawn's car anymore, then he press his hand down on the cycle's hand scanner. The scanner slides away and revealed a small compartment underneath. There the mask was staring out at him. Terry took the suit and walked out in the dark, who hided him like an old friend.
