Sorry about the delay- I went to a con two weeks back, came back hideously ill, and was pretty much useless the rest of last week. The lingering after-effects have made me disinclined to do anything that resembles work. However, I do have both this and the next chapter waiting to be posted, so I should probably get off my ass and do it.
LeaMarie- She's the Commssioner. It's her job to yell. It's also her hobby, I think. G
Masked Thespian- I do actually have stories in the works where Terry's family isn't an issue. However, these are the two I've got ready to post. And in case you're wondering, I get along fine with my family. Ignore the big smoking hole over where my sister was standing; nothing to see, move it along... (Now she really will kill me if she's reading this)
girl-gambit- Has Bruce ever been wrong?
GroveSideMonster- These are the thoughts that kept me out of the good schools.
As usual- *-* denotes thoughts.
Now on with the show....
*************************************************
Tim recognized the look on Bruce's face, even if he hadn't seen it for nearly forty years. It wasn't a Bruce-glare, it was a full-fledged Defcon-2 Bat-glare. There was only one sane reaction to seeing that look, but he followed Bruce anyway. He did, however, take a few seconds to grab an officer and tell her to get the Commissioner NOW. The officer looked over at the rapidly clearing area around Brenda McGinnis and made a sound of disgust.
"Her again. Figures. That woman is proof that Mad Cow Disease hasn't really been eliminated."
"I wish I had time to ask about that, but I have to go prevent a homicide."
"Don't rush."
Despite her comments, as Tim headed after Bruce he could hear her on the phone asking to speak to the Commissioner. He hoped Barbara would get there soon; he also hoped she wouldn't blame him. He hadn't been joking about slipping out the back door. If Bruce let himself get too worked up...
"Just don't do anything you could get arrested for," he growled at Bruce when he caught up to the old man. Bruce ignored him. "Bruce, calm down. I mean it. Come on, you've run into her type before and you know what they're like. Remember Angela Braithwaite?"
"I remember. I also remember that she didn't throw her little tantrum when you were trapped in a hospital bed with no memory of anything and no way of knowing whether or not she was lying."
That was true. She had accused him of stealing her diamond bracelet right in the middle of the dance floor at a Wayne Foundation party. The fact that he hadn't been anywhere near her all evening was irrelevant to her; as far as she was concerned he was street trash and that was enough to convict him. When Veronica Vreeland had handed over the bracelet and told her that she'd dropped it in theladies' room there had been no apology, only the comment that he'd been luckythis time. After that incident Mrs. Braithwaite had no longer been invited to any Wayne Foundation or Vreeland gatherings and had soon dropped off the social radar. He'd regretted that a little; he'd had a wonderful bit of payback in mind. Which was possibly Bruce's point- he'd known he hadn't been anywhere near her and couldn't possibly have stolen the bracelet. He could have and had defended himself.
*Getting slow, Drake. Right now you could tell McGinnis he'd been one of Santa's elves and he wouldn't be able to argue. No wonder he was so freaked. Great. And unless Bruce knows what really happened and hasn't told me, there isn't anyone who can tell the kid for sure that he isn't a murderer.
Ah, screw it.*
"Hey, Old Man? Kick her ass."
**************************************************
Bruce nodded as Tim suddenly gave his blessing to what he'd been going to do anyway. Then they were face to face with Brenda McGinnis and all distractions were summarily dismissed. The woman also looked ready to fight.
*Good.*
The man Tim had described as a "pointy-haired boss" stood next to her. Technically, the description didn't fit, Bruce thought. After all, to be a pointy-haired boss one needed to have hair. But he did give every indication of being the type of smiling idiot that the term described, so Bruce let it pass.
"Bought your way out already?" the older woman sniped.
"Now, Brenda, don't exaggerate," her companion said, then smiled smugly at Bruce. "Feisty little lady, but she does overdo it sometimes. Now, Mr. Wayne, we're both men of the world; I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding."
"What you can understand is that if That Woman ever comes near Terry McGinnis again I'll have her arrested. No matter what her opinion of her grandson is, there is no excuse for what she did today and-"
"Grandson? That dreg is no grandson of mine! I-"
"Brenda, let me handle this. Mr. Wayne, you seem to have made a mistake. Like my wife said, Terry Donovan isn't our grandson. In fact, he has no legal right to the name McGinnis, but we've let him keep using it because really, what his mother did isn't his fault. We just don't use it ourselves. But that's not why we're here, is it?"
Mr. McGinnis continued to yammer about nothing much for a few minutes, allowing Bruce to bring his shock under control. The playing field had very suddenly been altered and he had to adjust. If these two believed what they were saying- worse, if even part of it were true- it would change a great many things. He'd have to handle this differently.
*Damn it, I can't act until I know more.*
"All right, that's enough," he growled, causing Mr. McGinnis to gape at him. "Regardless of whether you are related to my assistant or not, the fact remains that this woman came into his room and acted completely unhinged. Her actions may well have delayed his recovery. That is unacceptable. And I meant what I said- if she comes near him again I will have her arrested. Do I make myself clear?"
"You have no right-"
"Do I make myself clear?"
There were few people who could withstand that particular tone; the elder McGinnises weren't any of them. Mr. McGinnis looked terrified and Brenda turned a very unflattering greenish-white. Even Tim took a few steps back. Bruce didn't realise that, old or not, at the moment he looked more dangerous than he had in years. He gotten a reputation for being bad-tempered, but nobody had expected the cold, deadly rage that was being directed at the couple in front of him. A few of the officers discreetly keeping an eye on the situation reminded themselves that they were armed and prayed they wouldn't need to remind him.
"Well?"
"Y-yes, sir," Mr. McGinnis squeaked. That seemed to snap Brenda out of her daze.
"What? You wimp! Well, I'm not going to be pushed around by some stinking pedo-"
Mr. McGinnis proved he wasn't a complete idiot by clapping his hand over his wife's mouth and physically dragging her away. Bruce glared after them, but let them go. He'd deal with them later. Beside him he heard Tim start breathing again.
"Geez, Old Man, for a minute there I thought you were going to completely annhilate them."
"What makes you think I won't?"
"Just keep it legal," Barbara said from behind them, causing Tim to jump and yelp. That broke the tension enough that the spectators started to drift away, but Barbara didn't move. Neither did Bruce.
"There's something going on here that I don't know about, Barbara."
"Well, I'm sure you aren't waiting for my approval to go find what it is."
"How much did you hear?" They spoke in low voices now, trying for some privacy.
"Just in time to hear her say Terry wasn't her grandson. Which might be true, or it might not be, but she believes it."
"Yes."
"Yeah, but she's nuts," Tim said. "I mean, come on! Wouldn't Terry have told you about something like that? For that matter, didn't you check him out pretty thoroughly before you hired him?"
"I knew there were some family tensions, but I didn't get exact details. It's not the sort of thing that outsiders can find out easily. And Terry didn't talk about it, although he did say once that his father didn't speak to his grandparents often. I'm begining to understand why."
"Yeah, but you'd think he might have mentioned not actually being related to his father. That's a pretty big omission, and I just don't buy Terry hiding that."
"He wouldn't- if he knew."
Tim shut up. Barbara winced. This was already ugly, but now it promised to get positively hellish.
***********************************************
He walked up to the door, his arms full of brightly-wrapped packages. He wasn't going to enjoy this, he knew. He'd never gotten along with his grandparents, and this year was going to be even worse: it was the first Christmas since... he shied away from the thought. Things were going to be bad enough without him making it worse for himself.
"And I'm carrying all the packages... why, again?"
"'Cause I'm the brains and you're the muscle," Matt sniped from the porch. Their mother just laughed and rang the doorbell. Terry couldn't see who opened the door but he did hear his mother and little brother head in, still giggling. He was so going to get Matt. His mother had an excuse- she'd sprained her wrist a few days ago and couldn't be expected to carry anything much. Matt, on the other hand, was doomed.
"And just what do you think you're doing here?"
Terry bit back a curse; apparently She wanted to start the festivities early.
"Gee, I don't know, Grandma- maybe spending Christmas with my family?"
"Then you'd better go find one, hadn't you? You don't have one here, that's for sure."
"Here we go again," Terry muttered. "Look, can we do this inside? This stuff's getting heavy."
"What makes you think you're coming in? Maybe that Southie trash you're used to lets you run around tame when you're up there, but we have standards around here. And at any rate, I am not letting my son's murderer step foot in my house."
The packages fell from his arms as the door shut firmly in his face. He was dimly aware of hearing the lock engage. For a few minutes he just stood there, numb with shock. Finally, he raised a fist to knock on the door, but then he lowered it and slowly walked away.
He walked for a long time, trying to ignore the pain. He'd always known she hated him, even if he didn't know why, but this was even worse than the last time he'd seen her. And he knew better than to expect any help from his grandfather- all he could expect from that corner was a less vicious but still snarky comment about bad blood. They'd made it clear long ago that as far as they were concerned, the world would be a much better place if he'd never been born. At times like this, he almost agreed with them.
He got dinner at a deli at which he'd once stopped a robbery. It almost cheered him up hearing them talk about it as if it had happened just last week instead of back in September. At the time, the owner had insisted on giving him a small tub of soup as a reward. ("Superheroes gotta eat, just like us mundanes," she'd quipped) He'd tried to argue with her but had lost badly, much to Bruce's thinly-veiled amusement. It had been good soup, too. Since then, he'd been back a few times. It was nice and quiet and just the place to go when he didn't want to deal with the crowds at the usual teen hangouts. Today, however, he went because it was nice and quiet and he wasn't likely to run into anyone he knew other than the regulars there who wouldn't say anything. The Someday Deli was just that type of place.
He managed to beat his mother and brother home by a good twenty minutes. he knew there would be some difficult questions, but he wasn't prepared for his mother's opening remark.
"Terrence Edward McGinnis, I am ashamed of you!"
"What?" he responded intelligently.
"I know Brenda McGinnis can be a pain, and she shouldn't have ordered you to behave like a civilized human being, but that is no excuse for your having a temper tantrum, throwing the presents on the ground, and storming off! That lovely crystal sculpture I found for your aunt Trista was completely destroyed, not to mention-"
"Wait a minute- I didn't-"
"I don't want to hear it! Brenda told me what happened, and I am very disappointed in you. I'd hoped you'd learned to control that temper of yours, but-"
"But that's not what happened!"
"She wouldn't lie about it!"
"And I would?"
"It wouldn't be the first time!"
Terry froze; he could feel the color drain from his face. His mother gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth.
"Terry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
He turned and walked into his room, closing and locking the door just as his grandmother had done. Collapsing on the bed, he once again wished he could have just done the world a favor and never been born.
Terry opened his eyes and found himself in a very different room. It took him a few seconds to realise where he was; when he did, the events of that day came crashing back.
*I did it. I killed him. He took me in and treated me like I really was his son, and I killed him. Oh, God....*
He closed his eyes again, withdrawing into comforting oblivion.
*************************************************
LeaMarie- She's the Commssioner. It's her job to yell. It's also her hobby, I think. G
Masked Thespian- I do actually have stories in the works where Terry's family isn't an issue. However, these are the two I've got ready to post. And in case you're wondering, I get along fine with my family. Ignore the big smoking hole over where my sister was standing; nothing to see, move it along... (Now she really will kill me if she's reading this)
girl-gambit- Has Bruce ever been wrong?
GroveSideMonster- These are the thoughts that kept me out of the good schools.
As usual- *-* denotes thoughts.
Now on with the show....
*************************************************
Tim recognized the look on Bruce's face, even if he hadn't seen it for nearly forty years. It wasn't a Bruce-glare, it was a full-fledged Defcon-2 Bat-glare. There was only one sane reaction to seeing that look, but he followed Bruce anyway. He did, however, take a few seconds to grab an officer and tell her to get the Commissioner NOW. The officer looked over at the rapidly clearing area around Brenda McGinnis and made a sound of disgust.
"Her again. Figures. That woman is proof that Mad Cow Disease hasn't really been eliminated."
"I wish I had time to ask about that, but I have to go prevent a homicide."
"Don't rush."
Despite her comments, as Tim headed after Bruce he could hear her on the phone asking to speak to the Commissioner. He hoped Barbara would get there soon; he also hoped she wouldn't blame him. He hadn't been joking about slipping out the back door. If Bruce let himself get too worked up...
"Just don't do anything you could get arrested for," he growled at Bruce when he caught up to the old man. Bruce ignored him. "Bruce, calm down. I mean it. Come on, you've run into her type before and you know what they're like. Remember Angela Braithwaite?"
"I remember. I also remember that she didn't throw her little tantrum when you were trapped in a hospital bed with no memory of anything and no way of knowing whether or not she was lying."
That was true. She had accused him of stealing her diamond bracelet right in the middle of the dance floor at a Wayne Foundation party. The fact that he hadn't been anywhere near her all evening was irrelevant to her; as far as she was concerned he was street trash and that was enough to convict him. When Veronica Vreeland had handed over the bracelet and told her that she'd dropped it in theladies' room there had been no apology, only the comment that he'd been luckythis time. After that incident Mrs. Braithwaite had no longer been invited to any Wayne Foundation or Vreeland gatherings and had soon dropped off the social radar. He'd regretted that a little; he'd had a wonderful bit of payback in mind. Which was possibly Bruce's point- he'd known he hadn't been anywhere near her and couldn't possibly have stolen the bracelet. He could have and had defended himself.
*Getting slow, Drake. Right now you could tell McGinnis he'd been one of Santa's elves and he wouldn't be able to argue. No wonder he was so freaked. Great. And unless Bruce knows what really happened and hasn't told me, there isn't anyone who can tell the kid for sure that he isn't a murderer.
Ah, screw it.*
"Hey, Old Man? Kick her ass."
**************************************************
Bruce nodded as Tim suddenly gave his blessing to what he'd been going to do anyway. Then they were face to face with Brenda McGinnis and all distractions were summarily dismissed. The woman also looked ready to fight.
*Good.*
The man Tim had described as a "pointy-haired boss" stood next to her. Technically, the description didn't fit, Bruce thought. After all, to be a pointy-haired boss one needed to have hair. But he did give every indication of being the type of smiling idiot that the term described, so Bruce let it pass.
"Bought your way out already?" the older woman sniped.
"Now, Brenda, don't exaggerate," her companion said, then smiled smugly at Bruce. "Feisty little lady, but she does overdo it sometimes. Now, Mr. Wayne, we're both men of the world; I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding."
"What you can understand is that if That Woman ever comes near Terry McGinnis again I'll have her arrested. No matter what her opinion of her grandson is, there is no excuse for what she did today and-"
"Grandson? That dreg is no grandson of mine! I-"
"Brenda, let me handle this. Mr. Wayne, you seem to have made a mistake. Like my wife said, Terry Donovan isn't our grandson. In fact, he has no legal right to the name McGinnis, but we've let him keep using it because really, what his mother did isn't his fault. We just don't use it ourselves. But that's not why we're here, is it?"
Mr. McGinnis continued to yammer about nothing much for a few minutes, allowing Bruce to bring his shock under control. The playing field had very suddenly been altered and he had to adjust. If these two believed what they were saying- worse, if even part of it were true- it would change a great many things. He'd have to handle this differently.
*Damn it, I can't act until I know more.*
"All right, that's enough," he growled, causing Mr. McGinnis to gape at him. "Regardless of whether you are related to my assistant or not, the fact remains that this woman came into his room and acted completely unhinged. Her actions may well have delayed his recovery. That is unacceptable. And I meant what I said- if she comes near him again I will have her arrested. Do I make myself clear?"
"You have no right-"
"Do I make myself clear?"
There were few people who could withstand that particular tone; the elder McGinnises weren't any of them. Mr. McGinnis looked terrified and Brenda turned a very unflattering greenish-white. Even Tim took a few steps back. Bruce didn't realise that, old or not, at the moment he looked more dangerous than he had in years. He gotten a reputation for being bad-tempered, but nobody had expected the cold, deadly rage that was being directed at the couple in front of him. A few of the officers discreetly keeping an eye on the situation reminded themselves that they were armed and prayed they wouldn't need to remind him.
"Well?"
"Y-yes, sir," Mr. McGinnis squeaked. That seemed to snap Brenda out of her daze.
"What? You wimp! Well, I'm not going to be pushed around by some stinking pedo-"
Mr. McGinnis proved he wasn't a complete idiot by clapping his hand over his wife's mouth and physically dragging her away. Bruce glared after them, but let them go. He'd deal with them later. Beside him he heard Tim start breathing again.
"Geez, Old Man, for a minute there I thought you were going to completely annhilate them."
"What makes you think I won't?"
"Just keep it legal," Barbara said from behind them, causing Tim to jump and yelp. That broke the tension enough that the spectators started to drift away, but Barbara didn't move. Neither did Bruce.
"There's something going on here that I don't know about, Barbara."
"Well, I'm sure you aren't waiting for my approval to go find what it is."
"How much did you hear?" They spoke in low voices now, trying for some privacy.
"Just in time to hear her say Terry wasn't her grandson. Which might be true, or it might not be, but she believes it."
"Yes."
"Yeah, but she's nuts," Tim said. "I mean, come on! Wouldn't Terry have told you about something like that? For that matter, didn't you check him out pretty thoroughly before you hired him?"
"I knew there were some family tensions, but I didn't get exact details. It's not the sort of thing that outsiders can find out easily. And Terry didn't talk about it, although he did say once that his father didn't speak to his grandparents often. I'm begining to understand why."
"Yeah, but you'd think he might have mentioned not actually being related to his father. That's a pretty big omission, and I just don't buy Terry hiding that."
"He wouldn't- if he knew."
Tim shut up. Barbara winced. This was already ugly, but now it promised to get positively hellish.
***********************************************
He walked up to the door, his arms full of brightly-wrapped packages. He wasn't going to enjoy this, he knew. He'd never gotten along with his grandparents, and this year was going to be even worse: it was the first Christmas since... he shied away from the thought. Things were going to be bad enough without him making it worse for himself.
"And I'm carrying all the packages... why, again?"
"'Cause I'm the brains and you're the muscle," Matt sniped from the porch. Their mother just laughed and rang the doorbell. Terry couldn't see who opened the door but he did hear his mother and little brother head in, still giggling. He was so going to get Matt. His mother had an excuse- she'd sprained her wrist a few days ago and couldn't be expected to carry anything much. Matt, on the other hand, was doomed.
"And just what do you think you're doing here?"
Terry bit back a curse; apparently She wanted to start the festivities early.
"Gee, I don't know, Grandma- maybe spending Christmas with my family?"
"Then you'd better go find one, hadn't you? You don't have one here, that's for sure."
"Here we go again," Terry muttered. "Look, can we do this inside? This stuff's getting heavy."
"What makes you think you're coming in? Maybe that Southie trash you're used to lets you run around tame when you're up there, but we have standards around here. And at any rate, I am not letting my son's murderer step foot in my house."
The packages fell from his arms as the door shut firmly in his face. He was dimly aware of hearing the lock engage. For a few minutes he just stood there, numb with shock. Finally, he raised a fist to knock on the door, but then he lowered it and slowly walked away.
He walked for a long time, trying to ignore the pain. He'd always known she hated him, even if he didn't know why, but this was even worse than the last time he'd seen her. And he knew better than to expect any help from his grandfather- all he could expect from that corner was a less vicious but still snarky comment about bad blood. They'd made it clear long ago that as far as they were concerned, the world would be a much better place if he'd never been born. At times like this, he almost agreed with them.
He got dinner at a deli at which he'd once stopped a robbery. It almost cheered him up hearing them talk about it as if it had happened just last week instead of back in September. At the time, the owner had insisted on giving him a small tub of soup as a reward. ("Superheroes gotta eat, just like us mundanes," she'd quipped) He'd tried to argue with her but had lost badly, much to Bruce's thinly-veiled amusement. It had been good soup, too. Since then, he'd been back a few times. It was nice and quiet and just the place to go when he didn't want to deal with the crowds at the usual teen hangouts. Today, however, he went because it was nice and quiet and he wasn't likely to run into anyone he knew other than the regulars there who wouldn't say anything. The Someday Deli was just that type of place.
He managed to beat his mother and brother home by a good twenty minutes. he knew there would be some difficult questions, but he wasn't prepared for his mother's opening remark.
"Terrence Edward McGinnis, I am ashamed of you!"
"What?" he responded intelligently.
"I know Brenda McGinnis can be a pain, and she shouldn't have ordered you to behave like a civilized human being, but that is no excuse for your having a temper tantrum, throwing the presents on the ground, and storming off! That lovely crystal sculpture I found for your aunt Trista was completely destroyed, not to mention-"
"Wait a minute- I didn't-"
"I don't want to hear it! Brenda told me what happened, and I am very disappointed in you. I'd hoped you'd learned to control that temper of yours, but-"
"But that's not what happened!"
"She wouldn't lie about it!"
"And I would?"
"It wouldn't be the first time!"
Terry froze; he could feel the color drain from his face. His mother gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth.
"Terry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
He turned and walked into his room, closing and locking the door just as his grandmother had done. Collapsing on the bed, he once again wished he could have just done the world a favor and never been born.
Terry opened his eyes and found himself in a very different room. It took him a few seconds to realise where he was; when he did, the events of that day came crashing back.
*I did it. I killed him. He took me in and treated me like I really was his son, and I killed him. Oh, God....*
He closed his eyes again, withdrawing into comforting oblivion.
*************************************************