Sell you a Bridge chapter 34

The Clock Tower July 9th 2010 11:30 PM EDT

Getting  in touch with the others to arrange a meeting wasn't too tough. Artemis  was right next door and Reggie had finished his date with Bette at  around ten. Jim meanwhile pretty much lived at The Clock Tower so all of  them getting there by eleven thirty wasn't too big of a problem. The  meeting itself was much less simple of an affair. The air around the  table in the main room behind the towers face was quiet and awkward.  Artemis looked at me with pity "Jesus, Morgan, are you ok? That's...I  don't even know what that is. That's so much to go through."

I  smiled fondly at her "I tell you we're at war with the secret society  that rules the whole city and you're worried about me. I'll be fine. I'm  not fine now, but I'll get there. This was definitely a lot but we have  bigger fish to fry sadly." I reached into my pocket to take out three  tickets. I left moms at home with a note, but passed Artemis and Reggie  the others. One for Arty and two for Callie and Claire. "These are  tickets on a one month cruise. It's a very low key event so even the  Court won't be able to track our families down, and we can handle these  lunatics before they get back so they'll be safe."

Artemis  gave me a questioning look and I nodded slightly, letting her know  these were products of my powers. Next I turned to Jim. "That said, I  could use some advice here boss man. We went through a ton of trouble to  keep this place secret, is it safe from the Court? And what the hell  should we do? Because somehow I feel like wholesale killing off all the  richest people in the city wouldn't go over well and I have zero ideas  about how to solve this." Honestly I was kind of freaking out about it. I  didn't see a way out of this that didn't end in me dead or on the run  for mass murder.

Jim  made a contemplative sound "Don't worry about the tower. I've been here  casting obfuscation spells since we got it set up. It's all but  impossible to find if you don't already know where it is. Hiding things  is one of my specialties. Your families should be safe for now, at least  for the night until the servants come back. I'd say make sure they're  out of the city by noon. As for what to do...that is a conundrum." He  sounded pensive, as if he was just feeling things out before deciding on  an answer, but I didn't rush him.

Finally  he seemed to make up his mind on which way to go "My suggestion would  be to meet with your father at your earliest convenience, he may have an  idea of how to proceed, and if not your family would be able to wage  war on the Court with fewer repercussions, given their already  questionable legal status." That was a great idea actually. If a bunch  of mobsters declare war on the Court its substantially less of an issue.  The question was how to stop it from escalating to a full on gang war  and attracting other elements to the city. Hopefully dad had some ideas.

He  paused for a minute, seeming lost in thought "Come to think of it there  are a few other forces that could potentially intercede. As my  apprentices you are nominally magic users, the Court avoids magical  matters in Gotham. I can't scare them off myself, but there is somewhere  I can take you to get in touch with a few people who might. Contact  your father and set up a meeting for tomorrow afternoon if possible.  We'll take a little trip tomorrow night. If we're heading to where I  have in mind however I have some preparations to make." He stood to  leave but stopped, clearly hesitating. "I am sorry about Annabel. I know  you cared for her, and losing a love is nothing a boy your age should  have to endure."

He  seemed to be debating saying more, but in the end just tipped his hat  in a nod and walked out to go prepare for...whatever he was preparing  for. As he walked out I slumped back in my chair. We had a plan now,  which was great, but I was honestly kind of wishing we hadn't come up  with one. The longer it took to solve our problems the more I could  avoid thinking about that smile on Annabel's face as she died. I shook  my head violently to dislodge that thought and scrambled for anything  else to think of "Reggie, is Bette going to be ok? I didn't get a ticket  for her, will the Court come after her?"

Reggie  could obviously tell I wanted to distract myself so he shook his head "  The Kane's are Gotham royalty and Bette's uncle is a general in the  military. The Court can't set a precedent of being willing to kill off  the daughters of wealthy families like that, it would put their own  families at risk. Bette will be fine. I'm more worried about you man,  you're hanging on by a thread here, it's not hard to tell. You have to  talk about this. When my dad died I tried pushing it down and even if it  feels like it's working you're going to break down at some point."

I  couldn't help but grit my teeth, even though I knew anger wasn't the  right reaction here my immediate response was to lash out. I didn't want  to talk, or think, or feel. I wanted to lose myself in danger or  exhaustion or anything but thinking about the look of shock in Annabel's  eyes when my Uncle drove his sword through her chest. "Talk about what?  How unfair it is? How much it hurts? It is and it does, that's obvious.  But will talking help with that? Will talking bring her back? Hell, do I  even want it to?" My voice was angry but my eyes were starting to  water.

I  tried as hard as I could to hold back tears "I'm so angry right now! Not  just at her but at me. She betrayed me, she was going to brainwash me  and turn me into a puppet, but every time I think about the fact that  she's gone it feels like someone ripped my heart out of my chest. I  think I was in love with her. Still am in love with her. The time I had  with her was the best month of my life and it wasn't enough and I can't  even grieve her properly because she was a monster!" I was on my feet  and screaming now and tears were clouding my vision.

I  put my hands on the table and leaned forward trying to regain my  composure as I spoke to Reggie "And you man, she was the one who dragged  you into this whole Court mess and it was because of me. How can you  even care that she's gone after that? How can I blame you for being  angry or hating her? This entire situation is so fucked! Yesterday I was  a professional thief with a beautiful girlfriend and a bright future,  and today I'm a potential fugitive from a secret society who lost his  first love at eighteen. I don't even know how to process any of this  shit."

Reggie  came over to put a hand on my shoulder "Hey, I don't blame you for the  Court's bullshit. Sure it was scary, but you helped get me out of it and  nothing bad actually happened. I got to learn from Jim and become  friends with you guys. I can't hate her for that, even if the reasons  for it sucked. Besides, I don't need to remember her fondly to remember  what she meant to you. You're my friend and losing anyone you love is a  fucking nightmare. I know that better than anyone. You don't need to be  thinking about how we felt about her, all that matters is how you felt."

Artemis  put her hand on my other shoulder "And I know more than anyone what  it's like to love someone even when they do bad things. You know what my  family situation is like. Remembering the girl you cared about instead  of the things she did at the end doesn't make you stupid or weak, it  just makes you human. People are complicated and we can love parts of  them and hate other parts, it doesn't mean they mean any less to us.  Grieve your girlfriend put aside any of that bullshit about what she  did. She made you happy for the time you were together, she deserves to  be remembered for that."

The  tears picked up and I cried even harder, sobs wracking my body as I  remembered her smile, her kiss, the way she felt against me. I knew it  was stupid, that we had only been together a month, but I'd never had a  girlfriend, never even kissed a girl, and being with her had just been  so overwhelming and made me so damn happy. After feeling alone for so  long having someone in your life that you know is always happy to see  you can be a heady thing. She'd been mine and I'd been hers and that was  gone now, and I couldn't get the image of that bloody smile out of my  fucking head.

Reggie  and Artemis didn't make a sound, just stood there with me with their  hands on my shoulder as I cried, just being there for me. I knew why Jim  had left in such a hurry now. He'd known this was coming. There had  been a sort of knowing sadness in his voice when he said I didn't  deserve this loss that told me he had been where I was. He was giving me  time with Artemis and Reggie to just let it out and I was more grateful  than I could say for that. He was a hell of a mentor.

After  about twenty minutes the tears stopped. I wasn't done hurting but I was  cried out, I sat in the chair with my head back staring at the ceiling.  I didn't know it was possible to feel empty and full of pain at the  same time. This kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen to eighteen year  olds. Not even in Gotham. But that was stupid. People my age died in  Gotham every day. What really hurt was that it wasn't supposed to happen  to ME. I was the hero, I had superpowers. I was supposed to be special.

That's  when I realized I had been naive. I spent so long hating my life  because i was a nobody. Getting powers didn't make me above the pain,  didn't make my life perfect. From the second I got my abilities I had  been treating this like a game. I'd been sprinting from one challenge to  the next with a shit eating grin on my face with no thought to the  consequences of my actions or suspicion of any of the people around me  and this was what had come of it. This was the result of my own  stupidity and arrogance.

I  closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I wasn't wrong. I'd been stupid  so far, but I also shouldn't overcorrect. I hadn't lost everything. I  still had my Mom, and my friends, and Jim. I wasn't alone. I wasn't the  same person I had been before I got my powers, even if I also wasn't the  invincible paragon of awesome I had assumed I would be. I was still me  but I was more than I had been. That was enough for now, enough to go  out and work on what was going on, enough to find a way to stop the  Court from killing off everything I still had left. It was time to go to  work.