"I don't see how you're okay with this," Adriana said to Bruce as they ate dinner one evening. "That woman knows who was behind that drug and-"
"I am not okay with it, dear," Bruce said to Adriana slowly. "But it seems the Catwoman is all you've talked about for weeks. There haven't been any new cases of Burgeon users in almost a month."
"Bruce...it's just...I can't believe you're so apathetic about all of this..." Adriana said.
Bruce looked at Adriana from across the dinner table and said nothing.
"What is going on with you?" Adriana asked.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Bruce said. "This is not something we can do anything about at this point. The drug is extinct. Why worry ourselves sick?"
"Because-" Adriana said, and then lowered her voice, realizing she was beginning to shout.
Alfred came into the dining room and refilled Adriana's wine glass. She continued to speak as he poured. She could tell she was being a bother, and Bruce didn't want to talk about the drug or the Catwoman anymore, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. Bruce was typically even more obsessive than she was about deaths caused by drugs in particular, but now he didn't seem to care about it at all.
"Because we are vigilantes," Adriana said. "This...is our responsibility to make sure justice is served for the ones who died-"
Adriana stopped talking as Bruce stood up, without saying a word, and left the room.
It was very strange.
He didn't seem overly fed up or annoyed. He walked away as though he heard a phone ring or as though he heard someone calling him in another room. He didn't excuse himself or explain anything and did not leave in an angry or hostile way. It was so surprising that Adriana was too shocked to try to call him back to the table.
"What the..." Adriana said and looked over at Alfred who was still standing beside her, placing food onto her plate.
"Yes...that was rather...abrupt," Alfred said. "Would you like me to have a word with him?"
"No..it's..." Adriana sighed heavily and started on her second glass of wine. "It's fine."
After a few swallows she spoke again.
"Maybe I'm being a pest?" she asked Alfred. "I mean...it's eating me up. The way she, the Catwoman, looked at me and...I don't know I have a weird feeling about her."
"Is it a particularly bad feeling?" Alfred asked.
"Well...no...just weird," Adriana shrugged. "I mean...I don't even think she's...all bad. But she's caught up in something. Something I think that maybe she doesn't want to be a part of. When she was telling me about Burgeon basically going extinct...she sounded kind of relieved."
"Well, then that is a good thing, isn't it?" Alfred asked.
"Maybe, but...whoever they are...whoever she's mixed up with," Adriana said. "They have it in for the Batman. For Bruce. Burgeon...that drug... wasn't strong enough. They put that drug out on the streets to get to him. It's crazy that this is going on...who knows that they have planned next. And Bruce doesn't seem concerned at all."
"I have noticed his behavior has been a bit...unusual lately," Alfred confessed.
"You mean his..moody attitude and...careless apathetic demeanor?" Adriana asked. "It's like he doesn't care about anything but us. You and me and Arsenio...He's missed a few days of work this week. He doesn't care about his enemies. He used to be determined and now..."
