This is his fault.
She's so weak, so helpless, and it's all his fault.
"Please...you have to get better, for us, for me–"
Her wide blue eyes fill with hostility, and she snarls something from behind her oxygen mask. He sees her struggle against the black straps holding her arms to the table, and does absolutely nothing. He can't, and won't. For her.
"Richard, you know what the doctors said."
He hasn't been called Richard since before she became like...this.
"I don't care what diagnosis the doctors made, she has to remember me–"
"She does, I assure you of that. It's just that her memories of you perceive you now as a threat."
Dick shakes his head, getting to his feet. She trails his every movement as he leans over to fill a cup of water. "And why is that?"
"Mr. Wayne, you know the answer to that, the mental strain, she, she..." He stops, defeated. "I don't know what you want me to say."
"God–" Dick slams a hand on the table. "I just want you to help her!"
-
"She's been helped as much as she can."
She doesn't look helped to him. But he smiles anyways, for her.
"I'm sorry." The voice is small, uncertian.
His breath catches in his chest. "This wasn't your fault, darling," Dick takes the handles of her wheelchair, beginning to push her foward. They're going slow, so slow, but he doesn't dare move faster. She's too thin. He'll wait until she's gained weight. "you know that."
"That's what they've been telling me–" He almost breaks when he hears a small sniff. "–but it was still me that tried to kill you."
Dick can only smile wider and continue walking, murmuring the first thing that comes to mind. "You're not the first to try."
-
She looks afraid when the door opens.
"You left everything like it was." She doesn't know what she expected.
"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?" He shouldn't of said that.
"I was gone for so long..." She isn't talking about just the apartment anymore. "Did Bruce notice?"
What is he supposed to say to that? "He was the first to find out you were gone." He is tempted to hug her, kiss her, anything. Anything, he'll do anything. And he has to do everything to stop himself.
-
Dick has to carry her to bed.
Her legs work just fine, but she is too tired to use them. The doctor told him it would be this way. It still doesn't help though, to feel her wasting away in his arms.
It helps much less when she closes her eyes and holds him tighter.
They lay down together, and he is the one to pull her closer. He must keep her warm.
"Please, don't go away," He's not going away. "you were gone for so long."
Dick smiles, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "I know, darling," This is all his fault. Anything, everything, all of it. "I know. And I'm never leaving you again."
