Divination (Joker x Batman x OC)

Chapter 176

"You're home," Adriana said when she returned to the penthouse. Bruce was home from work.

"Yes, I decided to take a very early lunch break," he told her.

Bruce looked at Adriana, coming back from her first therapy session. He could see that her eyes and nose were red, she had been crying.

"How did everything go?" he asked gently and walked over to her, placing his palms lightly on her arms.

"It was.." Adriana started to talk and thought of how she really felt.

She told Dr. Kapoor more than she ever anticipated to. The words that came out of her mouth during her first session included things that she didn't even know that she was feeling. It felt like she unloaded all she had to give. 

"It was a lot," she told Bruce. "I told Dr. Kapoor everything."

Bruce exhaled. "I'm glad you felt comfortable," Bruce said.

Adriana wasn't sure why, but she felt worse. She actually felt slightly depressed. Everything that she said, she was beginning to feel that it would have been better left unsaid and unrealized. Now it was all out in the open, even just with the doctor. She felt weak. She was a vigilante, a hero. But now she felt just like everyone else.

"Yeah," Adriana nodded. 

"Do you think it's helping?" Bruce asked.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I feel like I went in there with everything neatly packed away...and now I feel like everything's been rearranged. Turned over."

"That's normal," Bruce assured her. "You're talking about a horrendous trauma for the first time. I can't imagine how that feels."

Adriana looked down.

"We don't have to talk about it yet if you're not ready," Bruce said.

"I'm not," she said.

"That's alright," Bruce said. "I was going to go to Lapallo for lunch...if you're up for it, we could go together. Evelyn has Arsenio."

"Would it be alright if we stayed in for lunch?" Adriana asked. She didn't think she was ready to face the world yet.

"Of course," Bruce said. "I'll call the restaurant and they can deliver."

"They deliver?" Adriana asked about the fancy restaurant he had suggested.

"For us, of course," Bruce smiled.

.

.

.

"You look happy," Madame Twyla said to Bruce as she opened the large brown envelope she had been handed. This one was full of bills, pure cash. "How much is this?"

"It's just $120,000," Bruce said and Twyla sighed. "I'm on my way to meet with a buyer for a jewelry shop franchise I am selling. Should be able to wire you more this evening."

"Mhm," Twyla said to him. "So why are you so happy today?"

"Because life is good," Bruce said. "My wife is doing well, my son is doing well."

"And you?" she asked.

"Oh, I am great," Bruce said. "Any day now...something wonderful will be happening and I will be even better."

"And what is that? You'll bring me the rest of my fee?" she asked.

"Hopefully, but no," Bruce said unable to stop himself. "I was told that a harrowing, dreadful individual will be dying any day now. And I am..overjoyed."