"It wasn't your fault," Bruce was standing next to the plane as Terry arrived home. "I saw the whole thing, and Barbara saw it on the camera's as well."

"Right," Terry pulled off his mask, and slowly climbed out of the plane. Barely able to support his own weight. He sank down on the side of the plane, Ace hurried over to him, licking his face, whining when he tasted blood. Terry had a cut near his forehead, but to Bruce's eye, that was the least of his injuries, but at least the injuries he could take care of, he could do nothing to erase what Terry had just witnessed.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Terry got to his feet, and hobbled to the gurney, "Can you get this piece of metal out of my shoulder please?" He lay down and Bruce went to work.

"Is the kid alright?" Barbara appeared in the cave, as Bruce was trying to repair the badly damaged suit.

"He'll live,"

"We've all seen it… seen someone die… its not easy, but it happens… in this line of work. It wasn't the kids fault."

"I know, but what he saw…"

"Yeah… but his injuries? Is he really okay?"
"He'll be feeling it for a few days, that arm's going to be sore for awhile."

Terry came down into the cave, wearing a sling, and limping. He wasn't wearing a shirt and Barbara could see the bandages on his ribs, and he had plaster a bandage on his forehead.

"Kind of late for a social call, isn't it?" He growled. Bruce looked up at Terry in surprise, but Barbara ignored his rudeness.

"How are you feeling kid?"

"Never better," he sat down at the computer, and began typing with his good hand. "That guy, he knew at exactly what speed I should have hit his partner, that's why he missed. These guys… they're after me. Why? Do we have any leads on them?"

"Shouldn't you be getting some rest?" Bruce asked him, as gently as he was able.

"Every time they've been waiting for me, the break-ins are just a lure," he was pressing more buttons, ignoring Bruce. "They wear those uniforms, but without any mark on them, right Commissioner?"

"The uniforms are like that of the Apache Gunmen, but that gang hasn't been active in years." Barbara told him, "They're leader was killed about fifteen years ago, rumor has it in-fighting has kept them off the streets." Bruce glared at Barbara for encouraging Terry.

"Well, looks like they've reorganized, and they have some serious cash flow. Do you think someone's using them as hired guns?"

"It's possible," Bruce said mildly.

"So I just have to figure out who…" Terry leaned back in his chair.

XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX

"Well, I hope it was worth it, now one of my men is dead, I thought you said this plan was fool-proof!"

"Well, apparently you're men are bigger fools than I thought! Our bigger concern now is that Batman is not a moron, he's going to catch on sooner or later."

"It can be tomorrow for all I care, because my men and I, we're out."

XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX

"Terry!" Dana squealed when she saw him. He had given her a warning, Some Jokerz had jumped him and Wayne, and he had fought them off, but one of them had dislocated his shoulder during the fighting. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah Dane, I'm fine, I promise." He gave her a kiss on the forehead, and put his good arm around her, trying not to wince as she hugged his very tender ribs.

"Hey Terry," Max was much more composed about seeing Terry rather banged up, but then she had seen him over the weekend, when he could barely move. "You're looking b-" She had been about to say better, because she had seen him over the weekend, but Terry shot her a look. "Bad," she finished lamely. Bruce had called Max to come and take care of Terry over the weekend- he couldn't cook and Terry could barely move, so Max had been called in- to pick up a pizza. But she had seen Terry right after the fight and he had looked much worse. Terry had refused to contact Dana, he didn't want her to see him looking terrible, this was bad enough. He told her had to go to a thing- out-of-state with Bruce.

"Max, you're not supposed to say that!" Dana exclaimed, Terry gave Max a look of gratitude over Dana's head, and Max winked when Dana looked away.

"Did the hero bite off more than he could chew?" A voice made Terry spin.

"Claire, hey, what are you doing here?" Terry tried to regain his composure.

"Claire?" Dana stared at the girl who had snuck up on them as she helped Terry get his books from his locker

"Dana, Max, this is Claire, she just moved here, she lives in my building, and is apparently going to school here now?" Terry looked at Claire curiously.

She nodded, "first day."

"Welcome to Hill High," Dana said, offering her hand to shake. Once she had gotten over her shock that this girl she had never seen before knew who Terry was, and there was a good explanation, Dana felt no further grudge against the girl. After the other girl had walked away Dana turned to him, "Hero?"

"She's obsessed with the idea that all the guys in the city have a thing about hero-complexes, cause of Batman."

"Oh, no, I think it's just you."

"How's that?"

"Please, Nelson Nash? He wet his pants that time he got attacked by that crazed-jungle guy."

"I'm no hero," Terry's eyes darkened.

"Mr. Wayne didn't get hurt right, you must have done something right." She was referring to the Jokerz attack she thought had taken place. If only she knew what Terry had really done. He kissed and hugged her.

"Thanks, for believing in me." She let Terry hold her, he seemed so vulnerable, more so than other times he'd been hurt or sick. More vulnerable than that time he'd gotten pneumonia(A/N: Virus) earlier that school year and he'd hardly seemed to notice the broken leg he'd gotten only a few months ago. She wondered if this had to do with Batman. She'd seen the report, the news camera had shown a body bag being taken away from the scene of the crime, even though the robo-reporter had said there were no citizen casualties. She'd never shaken that dream of him appearing as Batman. (A/N: Virus) Hero…? Claire's word came back to her. Did Claire know? No, that was impossible. He might not even be Batman. He probably wasn't Batman. More than probably, very likely wasn't. She told herself to stop being silly. For one thing, his mother would never allow it. Besides, when would he have the time to be Batman?

XxX XxX XxX XxX

"Is that why you're not coming home?" Matt asked, pointing to the sling, as he climbed into the car. Terry told his mom that Bruce wasn't feeling well that week and he was staying at the manor so he could be on call 24/7, his mother didn't like it, she hated feeling like the old man was trying to steal her son, but if he needed Terry's help... And Terry had agreed to still drive Matt to soccer practice. He had to take Bruce's car, he couldn't ride his bike. And he didn't want his mom to see him injured- she didn't want to hear about him fighting anyone, even Jokerz.

"Do you know what this is?"

"DOOM DESTRUCTOR THREE!" Matt squeeled in delight as Terry held up a brand-new video game, that hadn't even hit the stores yet.

"Yeah, and it's yours, as long as you don't tell Mom,"

"Aww, alright." Matt agreed, he was used to keeping his brother's secrets. He wasn't sure why, he just felt that his secrets were important. "So what really happened?"

"I got jumped by a couple of Jokerz."

"And you got your ass kicked…" Matt looked disappointed.

"It was twenty against one, and don't worry, some of them looked a lot worse off than me." Matt looked like he didn't believe him, "and don't use language like that." He added, trying to sound authoritative.

"Bye Ter…" Matt said, climbing out of the car at soccer practice, but he remembered the video game. Terry sighed, he hated loosing face like that in front of his little brother.

To all you Dana-haters:

Dana is not a bad girlfriend, she just doesn't like that she never gets to see Terry, but she's actually really nice, even though her friends are kind of obnoxious (the first episode featuring Willy Watt?) And c'mon you'd be pretty annoyed if you never got to see your boyfriend and he constantly stood you up and once you got abducted by a RatBoy(who she tried to be nice to) because he didn't show, it would get to you. That being said, I'm not saying they're going to say together through this entire fic- hint! hint! But I just wanted to write a note since I know there are a lot of Dana-haters out there.