Terry's phone vibrating somewhere in his room woke him, and from the broken slat in the blinds covering his window he had just enough light to actually find it.

He snoozed the alarm and dropped his phone down, probably losing it in his sheets somewhere.

Last night was rough. And, honestly, he was still wrapping his head around it. The details weren't very clear to him as he hadn't been properly briefed by Bruce yet, but on this episode of Days of Our Lives: The Batman Edition, Bruce had a son. And that son was some crazy assassin. Except that he wasn't, and now the assassins were trying to murder him.

That was all the detail he really needed to work with right now.

Bruce still wanted him to work with Mar'i, which Terry wasn't exactly expecting. He must have thought it was safer for her to be with him than on her own and forbidden from using her powers again. Reasonable, he supposed.

The plan for tonight was going to be recon. Scope the area from last night, see if they could figure out what Damian was up to when the attack struck, try to find out if there were any more assassins coming after them, try to figure out how the Society might have been alerted to Damian's appearance in Gotham.

A lot of actual detective work, which Terry didn't actually like as much as the more action-oriented parts of the job, but you couldn't have one without the other, and even Bruce admitted that he picked up detective work pretty well, and was even good at now.

He'd actually wanted to go to school for forensic science or criminal justice, but it made more sense with his secret identity of Bruce's crummy assistant to go for business. Besides, he didn't have the time to do the labs for forensic science.

When his alarm went off again, he was a little more awake. He had a few texts from Dana, one complaining about the volume of her brother's TV, one telling him she missed him, one telling him about an email she'd gotten from a professor. He also had one from Mar'i asking about what time they would meet in the Batcave, one from Max that didn't have any text on the notifications bar and was probably a meme.

He needed to get some guy friends.

He pushed himself away from his mattress, regrettably, already dreaming about falling back into his bed in the morning.

His mother had put some lasagna she'd cooked earlier that week in the oven, and Matt was already eating a slice when Terry made it to the kitchen table.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," Matt said around a mouthful of red sauce.

"Did you go on that date yet?" Terry asked as he spooned lasagna onto a plate. There was no date, he just wanted to get his mom on Matt's case.

"Wha-"

"Date?" Mary asked, smiling. "Matty, you didn't tell me about a date!"

Matt glared at Terry. "There's no date, Mom."

"No, that girl from bio lab, you were telling me."

"What's her name?" Mary asked, clearly getting excited.

"There's no girl, Mom!"

That should keep Matt busy for at least the next two weeks.

"Thanks for dinner, Mom," Terry said as he stooped to kiss his mother's cheek.

"Going already?"

"Yeah, sorry. There was a big emergency with one of Mr. Wayne's new employees, so we were figuring that out. Still a lot to get done."

"Do you want to take some lasagna for him? It's reheated but it always tastes better the second day."

"Thanks, Mom, but Mr. Wayne can't eat sauce because of his acid reflux."

"Well, okay. Have a good night."

The Manor itself was empty, which was rare since Mar'i had moved in, but he found that it was because she was in the Batcave.

Bruce had her doing training drills, attacking a life-sized training dummy. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail and she was sweating.

"Yikes," Terry said as he approached them. Bruce was serious about this. Terry didn't blame him, but he felt kind of bad for Mar'i.

Mar'i stopped then and turned to face him, panting, and swept her bangs away from her face. She looked pleased to see him.

"We can stop now, right? You said when Terry gets here-"

"He got here early," Bruce said.

Terry raised his eyebrows.

"Fine," Bruce sighed. "Go change into your uniform."

She nodded and left them, heading to the locker room and the shower.

"You know, they say cramming isn't a good way to study," Terry remarked.

"It's not cramming. She has the skills and the training, she's just rusty. She needs a brush up."

"Whatever you say, boss," Terry said doubtfully.

"Besides. You saw her yesterday. She wasn't ready. What else can I do?"

"I did see her yesterday. I saw her not die."

"Barely," Bruce interrupted.

"Yeah, but barely is good enough. I barely passed high school, but I passed, and now I'm in a bachelor's program."

Bruce frowned at him and rolled his eyes. "That I paid to get you into."

Terry shrugged. "It worked out."

"You know how big this can get," Bruce said irritably.

"Yeah, I know. All I'm saying is that you can't shove a week's worth of training into one day. Has she slept?"

Bruce shrugged. "I didn't ask."

"If I didn't know better, I would think you were trying to get her to quit."

"Good thing you know better."

Terry held his gaze, Bruce's stern look not bothering him much.

It really wasn't Terry's direct business whether or not Mar'i joined their little team, but she was good people, and he didn't want Bruce making her feel bad. Besides, he'd be lying if the thought of having a partner wasn't appealing. Maybe he could take off on weekends or something.

"You know I can hear the two of you," Mar'i told them as she emerged in her Nightstar uniform, sliding her headband into her curls to rest at her hairline.

"Get changed, McGinnis," Bruce said gruffly.

Bruce was messed up from this, Terry could tell. The old man was hard to read, but Terry had gotten pretty good at it. He was anxious, trying to be careful when it came to Mar'i. And he probably should be. But that gave Terry the opportunity to play the good cop, which came way more naturally to him anyway.

He and Mar'i took off after Bruce ran everything by them-find out if there were more assassins coming or already in Gotham, recon the area from the previous day, see if they could get any information on Damian.

Bruce gave Mar'i a new earpiece, which she took without complaining this time.

They were off shortly after, and on the ride into the city, Terry thought he'd try more of his good-cop strategy on her. "Things are a little crazy right now. Not a good time to come in. But I think you're doing pretty well."

"Yeah? Thanks." Mar'i gave him a tight smile and continued to look out the passenger window.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine. I just, I don't know. This is a lot. And it's what I want, it's just. A lot. I'm good, I swear." She smiled at him again, and this time it looked more natural.

"I'm not the best with like… feelings and shit," Terry admitted, "but if you ever want to talk to me about stuff, I'm an okay listener, according to Dana."

Mar'i tilted her head at him. "Dana?"

"Yeah. My girlfriend."

Mar'i was about to say something but she was interrupted by Max's voice coming out of the speakers of the Batmobile. "Terry! Where the hell have you been?"

"What do you mean? Am I in trouble?"

"We've been calling your phone. You're in the Batmobile? You have to go over to Dana's. Now."

Immediately, Terry swung the Batmobile around and changed course.

"What happened?" he demanded. His voice dropped even though there was no one around to put on the Batman voice for. At this point, it was more a force of habit when things got serious.

"It's Doug. He was supposed to go to rehab on Monday, but he was trying to leave the house. Dana tried to stop him and he punched her."

"He what?!" Terry roared. He increased the speed in the Batmobile, a little recklessly but it was fine.

"She's been calling you. You suited up? I think you should go as yourself, McGinnis."

"Is she okay?" Terry asked, and he propelled the car forward. Bruce was usually in his ear by now, but he must have known better. "Did she call the cops?"

"She didn't call the cops. She called you."

He swore under his breath. "How long ago?"

"It's only been like, fifteen minutes."

They were down the street from her house when Terry parked the Batmobile, and Mar'i grabbed his arm before he could leap out.

"Put on some street clothes. I'll stay in uniform."

He yanked the cowl off his head. They were right. It wouldn't make sense for Batman to come barreling in when she hadn't even called the cops yet.

"You need to find Doug," Terry told her, and she nodded vigorously. "Asian, shaved head. I'm not even sure if he's a member of the Jokerz, but he wants to be."

Mar'i got out of the car while Terry changed quickly, and she picked him up to fly the short distance to Dana's house.

She dropped him in the front, then flew around the back to see if Doug was still there.

"Dana!" Terry shouted as he knocked on the front door. "Dane! It's me!"

Several locks clicked and the door swung open. Dana's left eye was swollen and red, and she pulled him into the house quickly.

She was crying.

"Doug just f-flipped out," she said, tears falling.

"Where's your dad?"

She started crying harder, and Terry's heart dropped.

"What happened, Dana?" He squeezed her shoulders to convey his urgency to her.

She pointed past them, into the living room, and Terry saw Mr. Tan lying in a heap on the ground. He ran over to him and, avoiding glass fragments from what used to be a vase Doug must have smashed over his head, and checked his pulse at the carotid artery. He had a pulse, which was good, but there was no telling what other damage had been done.

"You didn't call the cops? Or an ambulance?"

Dana looked at him with wide, glassy eyes. Tears were still falling down her cheeks. He took a breath and calmed himself down-she was looking to him for guidance and he tried his best to act like a warmer, fuzzier version of Bruce. Bruce was always good in a crisis.

"It's okay. He's alright for now, but when someone gets knocked out, you need to get them to an ER to check for a concussion. I'll call."

He picked up the landline and dialed 911. "Yeah, I'm at 1549 Riverside. My girlfriend's dad was knocked out by her brother. A vase. And she's been punched in the face. We'll be here. Thanks."

"Okay. They're sending an ambulance and some cops will probably show up, too. You should press charges, Dana."

Fresh tears spilled down her face. "He just needs rehab," she said, her voice shaking. "He was afraid to go, that's all."

Terry pulled off his jacket and put it around her shoulders, just because it always seemed to comfort her. "He's getting more violent," he told her softly. "He never hurt you before. And maybe it was a one-time thing, but Dane, look what he did to your dad. He needs more than rehab."

She nodded at him, still crying. "I don't want him to go to jail."

He absolutely could not relate to that, but he tried for her sake. "Maybe they'll get him some counseling, or something."

She pulled his jacket tighter around her body and nodded. "Okay. You'll stay with me, right?"

"Of course."

Terry was itching to find out if Mar'i had found Doug, and if not, he desperately wanted to suit up again and kick whoever's ass needed to be kicked until he found Doug.

He opened his phone and sent a quick text to Bruce explaining that he would need a few hours at least.

It wasn't a good time for him to need the night off, but Bruce could suck it for all Terry cared just then.

Besides, all they were doing was investigative work. Bruce should be able to coach Nightstar through at least that much.

Two cops showed up first. They took Dana into the kitchen, away from Terry, to ask her some questions.

An ambulance showed up, red and blue lights flashing through the curtains, and two EMTs came into the living room.

"Vital signs are stable," one of them told Terry. "He may have a concussion, though. We're going to take him to Mercy West to get an X Ray or CT."

Terry nodded. "We'll come over there when she's done," he said, gesturing toward the kitchen.

He busied himself by cleaning up the shattered vase, and when he finished that, he snuck into Doug's room.

The door was locked, but Terry picked it easily with a small kit he kept on hand.

His room was dark. The shade was pulled down and heavy curtains were hung over the windows and pulled shut. There wasn't anything personal that Terry could see. No pictures or posters or knick-knacks. Everything was neat, the bed was made, no dirty clothes around. A large desktop sat on a desk in front of the window, and Terry sat at it.

Max would probably be able to pull any info they needed off of this thing.

Terry sat at it, just to see, and he was surprised to find that there was no password required to log on. Nothing conspicuous on the home screen, just the generic background.

He opened up the Documents folder and that was when he was prompted to type a password in.

Terry strongly suspected he had joined the Jokerz, officially, at some point in the past month or so.

"Terry?" Dana called, and he logged out of the computer.

"I'm coming," he answered, and he closed Doug's door behind him.

He sent a quick text to Max asking her to come and rip the info from Doug's computer so they could look at it at the Cave.

Dana looked concerned to find her father gone, but Terry led her to the door with a hand on her back, careful not to close it.

"They took your father to Mercy West," he told her, and with a last look inside the townhouse, he pulled to door shut.