18. Back in Town
He quickly walked pasted the front desk and over to the hallway, where Bruce had told him his mother room was, but then he stopped. In the middle of the hallway stood a little boy, who was looking at a closed door. If he hadn't knew better, then he would never had guessed that this little boy was his brother. The eyes were red from crying and his hair was a mess. The clothes bore traces of having been slept in more that once and the look on his face was hopelessness.
"Matt?"
He turned around and Terry saw the changed in the boy as he recognized him. Immediately Matt ran over to him and jumped into his arms, where he started crying. Terry, who was surprised that the younger boy still had tears left, tried to comfort him, but soon he also felt something wet running down his own cheeks. They stood like that for a long time, but then there was longer and longer time between Matt's snuffles. After a while Matt wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked up at Terry.
"Is mom going to die?"
Terry was just about to tell him a little white lie, but then he saw the look in his younger brother's eyes. Suddenly he felt like he hadn't just been away for a couple of month, but that years had past since the last time he had looked into those eyes. Matt wasn't the young innocent boy that he had left anymore. Maybe he never had been innocent.
Terry kneeled down and looked him straight into the eyes.
"I don't know, Matt. That's why we need to be strong for her now as she was strong for us, when we needed her."
Matt nodded and gave Terry a hug.
"I'm so glad you are home now, Terry. I have missed you."
"I have also missed you."
They heard someone coming into the hallway and ended the hug. Terry looked up and saw a middle-aged woman, who walked over to them.
"Hello, you must be Terry, Matt's older brother…"
Terry nodded.
"… My name is Mrs. Torres. I'm Dylan's mother, but enough about that. Your mother heard you speaking and wants to see you."
Terry didn't say anything, but looked down at Matt. Mrs. Torres smiled comforting.
"I can look after Matt in the meantime, if you want that."
Terry nodded and walked over to the open door, which Mrs. Torres just had came out of. He was just about to walk through it, when he hesitated as he remembered the last time he had been in the hospital. Months had past since then, but the memories were still fresh in his mind.
"Terry?"
Her voice, which was so weak, broke his line of thoughts and he walked over to her bed, where he took her hand. She had lost a lot of weight, since he last had seen her, and she barely was able to sit up in the bed, but her face lighted up as she saw him.
"Yes, it's me, mom."
She touched his face with her free hand.
"My boy, you have grown so much that I almost couldn't recognize you."
He sat down on the bed next to her.
"Why didn't you tell me that you had cancer? I could have stayed home and…"
She put a finger over his mouth to silence him.
"You couldn't have done anything, besides you needed to get away. Look at you. You have become a handsome young man."
He was just about to say something, when Matt and Mrs. Torres came into the room. Mrs. Torres looked over at them with an apologetic look in her eyes.
"Sorry, but they have some sort of emergency at work, so I have to go now."
Mary smiled understanding.
"That's alright, but thank you so much for taking care of Matt the past days."
They said goodbye to Mrs. Torres, who left the room just in the same moment as Bruce and the doctor came. The doctor immediately walked over a checked the machines, which showed Mary's condition, and then he looked over at her and smiled.
"It looks like you should have your son coming home from boarding school more often."
They all laughed, but stilled the laugher was depressed by the situation. The doctor walked over to the door, but stopped in the doorway and turned around.
"I'm sorry, but it's way over visiting hours. You can have five minutes more, but then you all have to go."
They all nodded and the doctor left the room.
Bruce was just about to walk out of the room, when Mary called him back.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Wayne, that you are willing to take care of my two boys while I'm here at the hospital."
Bruce looked over at her.
"That's no problem, Mrs. McGinnis. I tend to feel a little alone in that big mansion sometime, so it's going to be interested to get some company."
No one saw Terry shaking his head lightly as Bruce left the room. He knew Bruce better. It had taken him a lot to offer this to them.
o-
He walked down the stairs to the batcave. It all looked liked it used to, but still it felt different in his eyes. It was first now he realized how much he really had missed being Batman, so he walked over to the showcases, which held the suits, and opened the one with his in it. There laid a fine layer of dust on the suit, which he hadn't seen on it since he first had taken the suit from Bruce. He then got the feeling that someone was standing behind him.
"How long are you going to stand there, before you were going to say something?"
He turned around and looked the astonished Bruce directly into the eyes.
"You knew that I was standing here?"
Terry nodded as he closed the showcase after he had taken the suit out of it.
"Yeah, you walk around like a elephant."
Bruce raised his eyebrows.
"Then you actually learnt something over there."
Terry smiled and walked over to the dressing room.
"Maybe or maybe you are just getting old."
Bruce began to laugh, but stopped as he realized what Terry was doing.
"You can't go out on patrol. Not tonight. You have just come back from Japan."
Terry, who now had changed, walked over to the Batmobil. He cast a last glance back at Bruce before jumping into the car.
"I need to get out there again."
He jumped into the car, which he then started and flew away. Back in the cave stood Bruce and looked as the car flew out of his sight, then he smiled and walked up the stairs to the mansion.
