"Hold still, kid!" Bruce ordered his young ward, trying to get the sewing needle at her wound. "I can't stitch up your arm if you're wiggling around so much."

Coba gritted her teeth in agony. "It hurts!" she cried, tears filling her eyes. "Didn't you put on the numbing stuff?"

"Yes, I put it all on there," Bruce said gravely. "There's none left."

"Then put some salt on it!" Coba yelled.

"Are you crazy? It'll hurt you even more!"

"It'll put me in enough pain to not pull away so much. Put on the salt, and then you can stitch it up. Do it now!"

Bruce knew better than to try to argue with Coba at this point. He grabbed the salt container from the table, put some in his large hand, and quickly placed it on Coba's wound. The girl let out a pained scream as the salt began to make her wound burn even more, but she held perfectly still. Wayne promptly stitched it shut, not waiting for Brooklyn to calm back down and start jerking away from him again. Coba settled down considerably the next moment. Bruce let out a sigh of relief, glad that Coba's plan had been a complete success.

"Told you so," Coba said with a grim smile.

"How did you know it would work?" Bruce asked.

"My mother did that when I accidentally cut my leg open at school one day seven years ago." Coba smiled even bigger at the memory. "The school let me go home early that day. Mom scolded me for for running on the sidewalk, but she bought me chocolate ice cream on a cone anyway after she stitched my leg. She'd always buy me one after situations like that, a double scoop if I was being 'extra brave,'" she finished with a small chuckle. Her happiness faded when her mind came back to her reality. "I miss her terribly," she said sadly, tears filling her eyes. "Not a day passes by without memories of her coming to my mind."

Wayne placed a large hand on her good shoulder. "I know, kid," he said solemnly. "Same goes for me about my parents. Why don't you try getting some sleep?"

Coba shrugged. "I don't know if I can," she confessed. "After what happened with Fixx tonight it may prove to be too difficult for me to sleep."

"Just give it a try."

"Um... alright," Coba said uncertainly.

Bruce noticed the girl's reluctance. "You'll be fine," he reassured her. "I'll be in the cave if you need me."

Brooklyn nodded, getting up to leave. "Okay." She stopped, looking at her guardian. "And, Wayne?"

"What's up?"

"Thank you, f-for everything."

The old man nodded in acknowledgment. "You're welcome, Coba. And you can call me Bruce."

~!~

"'In the case of my death or disappearance,'" Terry read on his laptop screen, bewildered. His eyes grew wide in surprise at what he read next. "Whoa!" he gasped.

Terry had found the disc Warren was looking at before he and Warren had their fight. The disc was hidden in a picture frame that contained a joyful photo of him, Warren and Coba. Before Terry knew it, he had stumbled upon the very same information that cost his father his life.

"What you got?"

Terry quickly shut the computer screen is surprise and glanced to see his little brother, Matthew, standing next to him, smiling innocently. "Something that Dad was looking at," the oldest boy said after a brief moment of silence, lifting the computer screen back up.

Matthew looked at the screen, then passively said, "Booorrriiing!" He suddenly remembered something. "Some guy named Bruce Wayne is on the phone for you," he reported. "He says it's important."

After removing the disc from the computer drive and placing it in his pocket, Terry walked into the hallway and picked up the phone. "Yeah, what's up Wayne?" he asked gruffly.

"Terrence, there's been some trouble," Bruce said on the other line. "It's about Coba."

McGinnis's eyes grew wide with concern. "What's wrong? Is she alright?"

"She was wounded, but she'll be fine in a while. I'll explain all of the events later. You have to come here right now."

"Alright. There's a disc I need to show you, anyway. It has to do with Wayne-Powers. I think my old man was killed for seeing what's on it."

Bruce was silent for a moment, considering everything that he was hearing carefully. "Bring it along," he said at long last. "For all I know, Coba would like to know exactly what's been going on."

"I agree with you on that. On my way." Terry hung up the phone and turned his attention to Matt briefly. "Tell Mom I had to go," he said hastily, heading for the door, "and that I could be late."

"Where are you going?" Matt asked curiously.

"Out." Terry did not want his little brother to know exactly what was going on, for he knew Matthew would tell their mother about him seeing Coba. Mom would kill me if she found out about this, he thought.