"How is she?" Bruce said to Jack.
It was a few hours after the meeting with Sidi. The one that had changed their lives forever. It was almost one in the morning. Bruce had sent Jack a text asking him to meet. They were at the empty Gotham boardwalk. Bruce was gazing out over the water when Jack finally found him.
"She is asleep," Jack answered Bruce. Adriana had cried herself into exhaustion and Jack was sure she didn't even hear him leave. "After a great deal of crying."
Bruce looked over the water, not looking at Jack at all.
"We were friends," Bruce said. "At one point. You and I."
Jack felt the wind blowing strands of hair over his forehead.
"Yes," Jack replied.
Jack watched Bruce straighten his neck as he looked away.
"I have always hated you," Bruce said in a confessionary tone. "Always."
Bruce waited for Jack so say something. After a few seconds Bruce turned away from the water to look at Jack. He looked at Jack's expression, trying to examine Jack's response to what he had just said.
"And you," Bruce said after looking at Jack. "Feel absolutely nothing hearing me say that."
"Should I?" Jack asked.
"I suppose not," Bruce said to him.
Jack was quiet.
"You...feel nothing," Bruce said. "You are emotionless. Unfeeling."
Jack said nothing. They both knew that wasn't the case, but it seemed like Bruce was trying to say something that would be hurtful to Jack. Jack let it go. He knew Bruce was grieving. He was losing his children. They wouldn't be a part of his life for a long time. Bruce turned back to water.
"You are not concerned about us possibly being seen together here?" Jack asked, changing the subject.
"The one who spies on me," Bruce said. "The Catwoman. Everything she has done so far tells me she is planning her own escape. She wants no part of what she is doing. After she...wiped that footage of Adriana stopping those two muggers...she's been silent. Perhaps she is gone. Lucky her."
"And you are not worried she will eventually betray you? And Adriana?" Jack asked.
"Me?" Bruce asked. "Yes. Yes...if it comes down to it, the Catwoman will betray me. Adriana, no. She has no reason to. Me though...it is me they want. Me and...any loved ones I may have. They don't see Adriana as a loved one of mine anymore."
"I do not want you to lose them," Jack said, his voice low. "Your kids."
Bruce looked straight at Jack.
"Well, that is out of my control, now isn't it?" Bruce asked, his anger apparent.
They were quiet as the wind blew against them both.
"Why did you ask me to come here?" Jack asked finally.
He found it hard to believe Bruce called him out to use him as an emotional punching bag to let out his frustrations on. But anything was possible.
Bruce looked at Jack intently.
"I have three weeks," Bruce said. "Before...my son has to leave me."
Jack could see that the words Bruce was saying were killing him.
"Sidi mentioned that you could still see him," Jack said.
"Once a month. Discreetly," Bruce said. "Away from home. Away from anything that identifies me. No other contact with him or Adriana at all outside of that. No contact with you. Which means no one is supposed to see it happening. How the hell am I supposed to make that happen?"
