"Do you think he'll call us weird if we're still watching him sleep when he's older?" Adriana asked Bruce in a whisper as Arsenio slept in his crib.
"How much older?" Bruce asked.
"Hm...forever...so I guess until he's 90 if we're even still around," Adriana asked and they laughed softly before leaving his room.
Once they were in their bedroom Bruce released a loud yawn. Adriana did the same, catching the urge to get a deep breath of air.
Adriana said and wrapped her arms around Bruce's shoulders. He placed his hands on her waist.
"The painting has been returned," Adriana said to Bruce who hadn't mentioned it all all since he came home from work.
"Mmm.." Bruce hummed tiredly. "And I'm sure Lucius scanned it for tracking devices."
"Sure did," Adriana laughed. "And it was clean."
"Mhm," Bruce said.
"You look so tired," she said. She knew he had a long day at work. He had flown out to Montreal early that morning before flying back to Gotham for a full day of work.
"I am," he said.
"Oh," she said.
She felt rested. The previous night was the first night in a long time that she hadn't had a nightmare about her abduction. She slept well. Bruce having the painting returned to it's rightful owner had made this the best day that she had in a long time.
"Do you want me to make you a drink?" she asked. "Or...anything?"
"Hmm, no," he said and blinked slowly, looking half asleep. She could tell he wasn't getting the signals she was sending. He wasn't expecting them. "I think I'll just turn in."
"Okay," Adriana said and kissed him.
They got into bed and she watched him close his eyes. She kept thinking about the painting. His gesture. She still wondered what it meant and couldn't stop thinking about it.
"Are you asleep yet?" Adriana asked Bruce.
It took him a few seconds to answer and she felt bad for waking him.
"Hmm..." he said and then opened his eyes. "No..not yet."
"The painting," Adriana said, unable to stop thinking about it. "Why did you give it back?"
Bruce looked at her, and he could see it meant a lot to her.
"Because it wasn't mine," he said. "In hindsight...perhaps I should have had a replica made."
"And that's it?" Adriana asked. "Just returning property?"
"No..." Bruce said. "Dr. Foster said I should...make some kind of gesture. It was either that or write a letter. The last thing I wanted to do was give him that painting. However..."
Adriana saw Bruce thinking about why he had done what he did. She knew he was completely unwilling to write a letter to the Joker, even if it would never be sent. So he had decided on a wordless but thoughtful gesture.
"I trust you," Bruce said. "You brought Arsenio around him because you knew it was safe. I hated to admit it...but part of the reason why I became so angry when I saw that painting was because...it showed me a different side of him. If I am honest...it scared me. To see that he... is human. I saw it in the art...that he loved Arsenio. Now he's...locked up somewhere likely eating all his food through a straw because he's toothless. It was the least I could do. To give him some comfort after what I did to him. He'll have his painting."
