TERRY MCGINNIS

OPEN STARTER

Terry paused a moment before saying anything. “Old man did talk about you before. he never told me you were a disappointment. when he talked about you he said he failed you, and one day the Joker made his triumphant return. i beat him sure but, after i did Bruce added your Red Hood suit to the display case. he loves you Jason i just hope you know that,” he said before pulling the chair from his desk up to the bed. “in my time we don’t know where you are. we don’t know if you’re dead or not but i know He looks.”

“saving the world,” Terry repeated back. “sounds like a hard job.” it was true and he knew all too well. “you were stuck with Tim?” he asked raising his brows. “oh yeah and if you're absolutely dying for alcohol I just got my fake I.D,” he said proudly before handing it to her. “it’s good right?” he asked before sipping his shake.

Terry smiles and shakes his head before speaking. he never regretted letting her go. if he had chosen to arrest her the first time they interacted they wouldn't have these run-ins. “Maybe i just like you more than other thieves. which was true, there was a reason he always let her go. he nodded as a gesture for her to leave. “let’s do this again sometime.”

“yeah it’s Terry,” he tells Jason as he gets up from his kneeled position. the whole meltdown created a lot of questions in Terry’s head. Why was he so fixated on Bruce? why the hatred? it seemed like a conversation for another day “you kind of look like shit. you want something to eat, drink? might make you feel better.”

Terry smirked to himself once the other arrived. he used her distraction to his advantage. he wiggled his ams down to his belt where he pulled out a small blade specific to this kind of situation. Bruce really did think of everything when he designed the suit. he cut the chain and unravelled himself from the chains before joining Stephanie in the fight. “thank for the assistance. you're a literal life saver,” he told her as he jumped in kicking a clown in the chest.

Terry smirked to himself. this is exactly how it always went with these two. he finds her, the banter, and then he’d always let her go. “trust me I can handle you with more force than I lead on.” if his Bruce was still able to see what terry was doing Terry was sure he’d disapprove of it. “let’s just skip the half hearted chase, and you get out of here before I change my mind.”

Terry smiled at her when he saw the happiness in her face. it always made him happy to know that she was happy. “what does Gwen have going on that’s more important than you?” he asked as the waiter dropped off their milkshakes. “oh yeah the storm. I uh, just evacuated,” he lied. he hated lying to her, but he couldn’t let her know that during the storm he was going in and out of the heart of it to rescue people as Batman. “what about you?”

Terry grabbed Jason’s arm to put it around his shoulder to help him walk. “You’re okay Jason. You’re okay,” he said as they walked back to terry’s apartment “what in the hell happened to you,” he said to himself quietly as he approached the apartment. Why was he calling him Bruce? Why wouldn’t Bruce tell Him about what happened with Jason? It was like when he wouldn’t talk about Tim Drake’s incident with the joker. Terry opened the door to his apartment and sat Jason on his bed. “Jason, can you hear me?”

“Yes ma’am,” Terry said with an apologetic smile. He sat in the booth across from the other before ordering a vanilla milkshake for himself and a chocolate milkshake for the other. “Sorry for the wait.” He was quite often late for his plans with MJ because of his commitment to being Batman, but he always did his best to make sure sh didn’t find out that the reason he was late was that he’s a super hero.

@jcwclthicf