"I meant to say hi when I saw you at the ceremony, but you kinda took off in a hurry," he grinned.
"Oh my gosh! Look at you!" she exclaimed stepping aside to let him in.
The gangly awkward twelve year old kid she had last seen had matured into a handsome striking looking twenty two year old. He was tall and slender and his eyes were darker and his hair was a bit longer then Terry's but other then that he was a splitting image of his older brother. The last time she had saw him was a week before she had left when they had all went to the arcade to celebrate her birthday. They exchanged a fierce embrace. The sadness Max had been experiencing moments ago slightly faded. Seeing Matt bought back memories of the more carefree and happier times she had spent in Gotham. He had been like the younger brother she had never had and seeing him all grown up
"Look at me? Look at you. Wow, you are still pretty and you don't look a day older then the last time I saw you," he grinned looking at her from head to toe.
Max blushed.
"I see you inherited your mothers charm. How is she?" she asked warmly.
"She's been seeing this guy for the past three years that I think is a spineless jerk, but he makes her happy so I try to be supportive. How about you? How have you been? Looks like you been crying. Was it because of my brother because I will go kick his ass if you want," he offered causing her to smile and roll her eyes amused. She led him over to the bed where they sat together side by side.
"As you may have noticed, things between me and Terry aren't so great," she said softly before spilling the whole incident of what happen ten years ago. When she had finished, Matt was starring at her stunned.
"I was pretty young when you left, but I kinda over heard mom arguing with Terry about you and I figured you two must of had a falling out, but I never imagined it was that deep. If you ask me he is the idiot here," he said smiling subconsciously biting down softly on the corner of his lip.
Max stared at him closely before she gasped in disbelief.
"What?" Matt asked concerned.
"When you were younger you use to do that thing with your lip and say sweet things to me whenever you wanted something from me," she accused with a grin.
Matt was about to deny it when he realized he was still doing it and he blushed deeply.
"So what really brings you here?" she asked slyly.
Matt hesitated. He had come to her because he had missed her and wanted to see her but there was something else he needed to discuss with her. Something more serious.
"When Terry told me you were coming into town I kinda took that as a sign. Two months ago Terry when out of the country on a business trip with Melanie and he asked me to watch Wayne Manor while he was gone. One night I was poking around in the library and I accidently knocked some books off the shelf and this hidden passage opened up. I followed it down to an cave and I think you know what I found there " he said softly.
Max inhaled deeply.
"What makes you think that I would know what is down there?" she asked innocently.
He stared at her with a smirk.
"So are you telling me that you don't?" he asked holding her gaze.
She gulped.
His smirk faded into a self satisfied smile.
There was no point in lying anymore.
He said nothing and continue to stare at her unwaveringly. Max looked away and was slightly amused as she realized that Terry had grilled her countless time with that exact same stare and she cracked underneath it every time.
"You found the cave that belonged to batman," she said softly.
"Matt, don't be mad. I know Terry had his reasons for not telling you. When you were young he obviously couldn't risk putting you and your mother in danger," she tried.
He stood up off the bed seething.
"I understand that Max, but I'm older now and he has yet to tell me. It's fine if he dosen't want the responsibility of protecting Gotham, but he should have found someone to replace him. Do you know how much crime has risen since Batman's disappearance?" he protested.
"Terry has to live with the decision he's made," she said gently.
"Yes, he does, but how can I sit back and know that my brother abandoned this city? Am I suppose to just live with his decision as well? What if I don't want to just live with it? What if I want to rectify his actions? What if I picked up where he left off?" he asked with a determined glint in his dark eyes.
Max stared at him with a flabbergasted expression on her face.
"Matt, being Batman did things to Terry. Wearing the suit changes the person. I know that the lure of playing the dark knight is appealing to the adventurous side of you, but this isn't a game," she tried.
"Max, I am not a little boy anymore and Terry was younger then I am now when he wore the suit. I know this isn't a game. I didn't wake up one morning just wanting to be Batman. I want to make a difference in this city. I want people to know that there is someone out there watching over them," he said passionately.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked softly.
"I need your help getting to the bat cave," he said before explaining his plan. When he had finished Max was starring at him wide eyed with astonishment. Her expression was so comical that he couldn't fight back a grin.
"So what do you say? Are you in?"
Across Town...
Melanie walked barefooted down the dark empty halls of the Wayne Manor in her sheer black nightie searching for Terry, shivering slightly although she wasn't cold. The place freaked her out at night. Sometimes in the wee hours of the morning she would see large shadows mirroring against the bedroom windows and she would hear strange noises that would keep her awake for hours on ends. Terry would repeatedly tell her that the shadows were just bats in the night, but she remained doubtful. She knew she was just being paranoid, but she couldn't help but to feel that the mansion held some deep mysterious secret. Gotham was definitely the city where the super natural was the "norm" and she hated the fact that she might be occupying a haunted residence. For years she had begged Terry to move to a mansion in a more prominent social part of Gotham but he had stubbornly refused, saying that seclusion from the rest of society would better protect his image. Melanie knew that the real reason was that he was emotionally attached to the property like he had been attached to that damn dog Ace, before he died three years ago from old age. Her face darkened as a new thought came to her. Another thing her husband seemed to be attached to was a certain annoying pink haired girl from his past. She had been irked when Max had showed up earlier that night. She had seen the look in her husband's eyes when his former best friend walked into the room. He had been talking to one of the board members of his company when he had abruptly stopped speaking in mid conversation. His face had flushed crimson red and his beautiful blue eyes had been filled with apprehension. Melanie had tried to keep him from going to her but he had been determined. She had been miffed when he had sent her off to fetch him another drink while they went off alone. She had spent an half hour forcing a smile and mingling with people that she really didn't care for, a responsibility that came along with her having the title of wife to the most powerful man in Gotham. When he had returned she had been relieved to find that Max wasn't with him. However Terry's whole demeanor had changed. His face had been pinched tight with anger and something else...hurt, maybe? He had demanded that they leave immediately.
She wasn't a foolish woman. She knew Terry was in love with Max. He always had been. Truth was while she had lived with the fact that Terry didn't love her, she truly did love Terry. Which was why she was wandering all over the huge mansion looking for him. She stopped at the entrance of his study and poked her head in. He was sitting in front of the fireplace in his black recliner and a glass of liquor in his hand. Quietly she walked into the room and stood in front of him with a small smile as she folded her arms across her chest. He looked a mess. His expensive tuxedo jacket was in a wrinkled pile on the floor and the white shirt he was wearing was untucked and half unbuttoned revealing a flash of his smooth tan skin underneath.
"Darling are you coming to bed?" she asked her voice soft and sugary.
He barely looked at her as he poured himself another drink. Her smile disappeared. She could see in his eyes that he was deeply troubled and it pained her to know the reason for his morose mood was Max. Determined to get his mind off of the other woman she walked behind him and began to rub his surprised to find that he was stiff with tension. Slowly but surely as the minutes passed he began to relax.
"The ceremony was beautiful," she murmured trying to start a conversation.
He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.
"Yeah, it was great but now I'm going to have more responsibility and the members of the board are going to be watching me like a hawk. If I screw up once they are going to look for a reason to force me to step down," he sighed heavily.
She stopped rubbing his shoulders and seductively perched herself in his lap.
"You don't have to worry about that, because I have complete faith in you to take this company to its highest level," she murmured lovingly before kissing him tenderly.
"You are so tense, sweetheart. Let me relax you," she purred nibbling on his bottom earlobe, something that usually drove him crazy, but now was having zero effect on him.
Terry sighed heavily. Having sex with Melanie wasn't something he was in the mood for. Usually he had no problem being with her. She was beautiful, desirable, and unbelievably sexy. He had noticed several men eying her down earlier that night but he had been a little too preoccupied to care. If it would have been any other night he would have gladly fucked her brains out, but at that moment his thoughts were consumed with another woman. He felt guilty for lusting after another women when Melanie had been the perfect wife, but he couldn't help that his heart yearned for someone else.
"Honey," she started cautiously. Whenever she would bring up Max he would get defensive and angry and she didn't want to risk him pulling away from her but at the same time she was fed up with him being obsessed with a woman he could never have.
"Terry, I know Max was your best friend and you spent all these years agonizing over how awful it was losing her, but don't you think it's time to bury the past? It's been ten years," she said quietly.
Terry sighed as he poured himself another glass of Brandy and swallowed it all in one gulp wincing as the dark liquor burned a trail down his throat to his empty stomach. Starring at the bright orange flames dancing in the fireplace he frowned and gripped his glass a little tighter. He hated when Melanie bought up Max in their conversations.
It only lead to heated arguments and him sleeping alone in his bedroom while she cried herself to sleep in the guest bedroom down the hall. Tonight he wasn't in the mood to argue.
"Melanie, let's not do this tonight," he pleaded softly as he ran his fingers through his thick ruffled raven black hair frustrated .
She opened her mouth to protest but decided against it. She would let him brood and wait for his dark mood to pass before bringing it up again. Besides Max was probably thousands of miles away and the thought bought a satisfied smile to her lips. Out of sight, the other woman would eventually fade to the desolate corners of her husbands mind.
"Ok, goodnight," she whispered leaning down and placing a soft kiss on his lips.
He kissed her back out of habit before she disappeared from the office.
He sighed heavily as he walked over to his desk and pulled out a picture he had took of her on her birthday a week before she had left Gotham. She was standing in her trademark yellow shirt with her arms around Dana and Blake posing in front of a virtual reality game she had just broke a record on grinning. Her eyes shone with so much life and happiness. He smiled as he remembered earlier that day he had spent all the money he had earned that month and bought her a gold charm bracelet with several gems dangling from it. On the inside of it he had inscribed the words: Forever my friend, Forever my sidekick. She had been so full of happiness when he had given it to her. Reminiscing over the old times made him regret asking Max back to Gotham. When she had left him on the roof she had been in so much pain. He hated himself for doing that to her and he felt like a fool. After all these years, after everything they had been through he still hadn't been able to tell her how he felt...
Flashback
"Did you ever stop to think that there was a reason I kept letting you into my bed besides the great sex? Did you ever stop to think that I loved you?" she had cried brokenly.
Flashback Ends
Her words had haunted him ever since she had stormed out of the apartment and his life. Several times over the years he had almost went after her but forced himself not to.
Maybe it was too late. He was certain she already left Gotham and there wasn't anything he could say that he felt that would bring her back. He had lost her for good, and maybe was the best thing for the both of them.
"I should have told you, Max. I wish you would have known the truth," he said quietly to no one in particular.
Turning out the light in the study he slipped her picture back in his desk drawer before slowly heading up to his bedroom with a dull ache in his heart.
Max crouched behind the bushes outside of the huge Wayne estate shivering slightly. The place seemed even more desolate and creepier then when she last remembered. She couldn't believe she was actually going through with this but, as Matt so eloquently pointed out, what other choice did they have? He wouldn't have asked her to do this with him except he needed her help and was adamant when he claimed he couldn't do this without her, so here she was. She knew she was taking a big risk, but it was all for a good reason. She had to make things right again, if not for herself, and Terry, then for Gotham. Innocent lives were being lost and if Terry wasn't willing to do anything about it, then she would. Next to her Matt shifted slightly lowering a pair of black binoculars from his eyes.
"Good. His study light just went out which means he is heading off to bed. We will wait a few minutes and then go in. You remember the plan?" he asked gently.
She nodded. The plan was crazy and insane and to Max amusement she realized that they might actually have a chance to pull it off.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
She smiled at him wryly.
"I'm getting ready to break into the home of my ex best friend. I have never been better," she said sarcastically. Moments later Matt punched the access codes into the key pad on the gate and silently the crept up the driveway towards the entrance of the mansion.