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Max worked quickly and quietly on Terry’s wound, telling herself this was all extra credit. Stitching superheroes up, wrapping them in gauze, that was just pregaming for medical school. She’d walk in there knowing how to tie a suture like nobody’s business. In fact, she’d quit considering being a lawyer, since that would be a waste of all the experience she’d gotten playing nurse.

So to speak.

She accidentally jabbed Terry with her needle. He winced, but said nothing, staring off into space as if he were still wearing his mask. She looked up at him. “What, nothing about ‘who let that honeybee in here’?”

“Bees are extinct,” Terry said.

“That’s what got you so upset?” She wiped up some blood with a wet pad before continuing with the stitches. “I’m supposed to be what upsets you, remember?”

“It’s Shriek. Hate that guy. Kicked my ass.” Terry got terse when he was really mad. “I didn’t even do anything. Didn’t stop him, didn’t save anyone. No one died, but I didn’t save anyone. I tried to stop him and I couldn’t. He walked right through me.”

“It happens,” Max reasoned. 

“Not to Bruce, it didn’t.”

“Well, a whole lotta things didn’t happen to Bruce. The human emotional spectrum, for one.”

“I’m serious, Max. I’m not good enough. And if it’s not Shriek, it’s gonna be some loser just like him. He’ll hurt people and I won’t be able to do a thing to stop him, so what’s the point?”

Max tightened a stitch, snipped it off with one fingernail, and tied it into a knot. “Point is you tried.”

“So, what, I get an A for effort?”

“On this shit? Yeah. With or without superpowers, who else is gonna run into a burning building and try to pull someone out? That’s all you. So there are days you can’t pull someone out. That doesn’t get rid of all the times you did.”

“Sure feels like it does.”

Max wiped off her hand just so she could caress his face. “That’s just because you’re comparing yourself to Batman. You’re not. You’re you. And your dad would be proud of you.”

“I couldn’t save him either.”

“That wouldn’t change how he feels. And before you ask, I know because I’m proud of you, I don’t care how much money Shriek got away with.” She batted her long-lashed eyes at him with a coy smile. 

Terry looked away haplessly. “This is a lovely room,” he said gently.

Max shrugged her shoulders, projecting an innocent charm, a sudden shy and quivering uncertainty that made Terry ache for her. She was nervous all of a sudden. It was making Terry nervous.