Chapter Text
Much later…
Bruce’s confusion tripled after browsing through the files that he had on his laptop. The slight headache he got after his talk with Lucius hadn’t even subsided when he reopened the laptop. He doesn’t know how or what kind of hacking Lucius did on his laptop because when he booted it, it was nothing like the system that he saw earlier.
Briefly, he wondered if he should’ve taken on his son, Tim’s, offer of teaching him about computers (before). Maybe that’ll improve his computer literacy enough to even understand what Lucius was coming off about earlier.
But honestly, even if he did take up on that offer, Lucius is still miles ahead from him. Bruce is just an ordinary guy born into wealth, with only basic business skills under his belt. Yeah, he can manage a fortune 500 company but in no way would he be able to…do whatever it was that Lucius did. And the reason why he was looking at the Blackgate CCTV is still a mystery to Bruce.
A question that he’s unsure if he even wants to get an answer from.
Anyway, he had started digging through his files after Lucius left. There was an air of familiarity about the way that his organization of the files work—but there’s also a lot of questions on what was on it.
Since when did he terminate Wayne Enterprise’s partnership with Lex Corporation? As far as Bruce remembered, the company never had issued with the LexCorp. And Bruce was still on speaking terms with Mr. Luthor. Yeah, the man was a bit weird and he did once imply—or maybe it was really just a joke—that Bruce must’ve been running some underground child trafficking program because of the amount of child he was helping and adopting.
Bruce had taken offense on that ‘joke’ but he was still polite to the man, and Mr. Luthor simply laughed the statement off and patted him in the back. As far as Bruce had remembered, their business partnership never ended after that, and he was still in contact with the sly businessman.
So why was it terminated? And it seems like it was done recently. Bruce may be getting older, but he wasn’t suffering from amnesia. Surely, he’ll remember a monumental business move like this?
Were there truly many changes after his kidnapping and disappearance? Perhaps he really should start an audit on what happened and not rely everything to his lawyers.
What’s other astonishing thing was that—Tim had apparently been preparing some of the company reports. His secretary wasn’t kidding. Tim had been active with the company for some time now. He was attending board meetings and creating business partnerships and even co-signing some annual reports. In all but name, he was running as President of the company.
But how could this happen? How could Bruce allow his third son to bypass his older brothers from ascending the company? Yes, he hadn’t had a major talk with Dick and Jason about this, and the other two had never expressed a desire to head the company, but they never denied it either. So, Bruce was really confused—and maybe a bit hurt—that Tim, still a minor, would be forced to carry on such responsibility. He should be focusing on his senior years and college! Not be chained with the responsibility of managing a conglomerate!
This was unacceptable. He doesn’t know what the board was thinking allowing his third son to carry on like this. He doesn’t care what every is saying, Tim will enjoy his younger years free of responsibility. Although he had to talk with his younger son before. He had to explain to Tim that he doesn’t have to carry this responsibility.
He filed that for ‘later’ in his head and continued reading through the other reports that he missed during his disappearance. He knew that he should really have sorted these out after his kidnapping, but he had been too busy with his family that the company became a background noise.
How could he not? His family had grieved for him. Alfred was devastated when he came back. The poor man thought that he had outlived the Wayne family. And his poor sons were torn apart by his disappearance. He could barely imagine what they had felt like, unable to do anything for their father as Bruce was dragged into some old—
Dungeon? Castle? He doesn’t remember much where he had been held captive but there had been…He was…he had been…
His mind flared with another burst of pain. His eyes squinted shut as the pain seemingly overtaken his whole frontal lobe. He had to lean a bit and rest his head on his arms over the table because the world felt like it’s tilting on a different angle.
After a few deep breaths, the headache subsided. His vision getting clearer as the his head heals from the pain.
He turned back towards the laptop and began reading again—the memory of snow forgotten with the pain.
After a few more hours, Bruce had enough. He really doesn’t recognize some of the reports on his laptop. It felt like he had woken up to a different but still similar world! There were reports that he had signed yet he had never written! There were transcripts of meetings he had apparently attended that he never remembered joining!
It was all kind of weird that he couldn’t focus on right now.
He turned towards the window and saw that the sky is much clearer now and the sun is making its way to the other side of the world. It’ll be late in the afternoon soon. Maybe it’s best to head back to the Manor. Hopefully, this will all makes sense when he comes back tomorrow.
With that positivity on his mind, Bruce walked out of the office. The secretary greeted him on his way out and Bruce gave a polite smile back.
He still doesn’t recognize her.
As he was driving home, Bruce chose the longer route back. He wanted to drive around first and re-familiarize himself with the city that seemed like it changed overnight. It’s nothing drastic; Bruce could still recognize the blocks and turns but there seems to be…something different, like he was driving back to his childhood home and on his way, he saw how much the streets had changed ever since he walked away from it. As if the city grew without Bruce witnessing it.
He was delighted to see a familiar face walking at the sidewalk. Bruce slowed down his car and made a soft turn on the side.
Just as the city, the woman looked a little different. She was wearing a mid-length light brown trench coat and a white shirt and a skirt that goes only above her knees. She was wearing a pair of black ankle boots with a four inches heels that almost looked like they’ve been worn through a hike in the mountains. What’s more peculiar, is the white paint over her face. Her hair in a high ponytail, with the tips of one side colored with light pink and the other with light blue. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses despite it being the afternoon already.
As the woman was about to pass his car, Bruce lowered his mirror and called over, “Dr. Quinzel!”
The woman didn’t hear him though. So, Bruce quickly stepped out of his car and caught up to her, gently tapping her in the shoulder.
She flinched before turning to him. Her mouth opening in shock. “Wh—what?”
With a big grin on his face, Bruce decided to tease his psychiatrist, “Is it Halloween already, Doctor?”