Re: Wayne Manor: destiny/steph.
[The huff he hears, and he can extrapolate multiple items from it, from her insistence that she gets it when she sidesteps around the point entirely and he says, blandly:] We can. [He had his own opinions on that too, and clearly she did as well, despite her insistence that she was a terrible feminist. And truly, if Bruce had been anything less, he would have folded under the weight of everyone's combined expectations.
He doesn't say that, not when her arms move - whisper of cloth and skin - and those words drop from her lips. Accusation. She wasn't going to listen if he didn't change this.] It wasn't an accusation, Stephanie. You internalize everything and it leaves you with blind spots. [He probably could have been nicer there. Damnit. He sits up straight and tries again:] Once we talked about - how tired you felt. Weak. And you didn't know how much more you could take. And I told you that there was another that knew how that felt - what it felt like to be depressed and suicidal.
[Maybe, with everything that's going on now, she might finally catch that.] A support system, yes, but that can't be forced. [Not by her, or by Bruce.] Wanting is different from deciding. Separation isn't the end to family.