Words meant only so much. Bruce listened to what Zoe was saying, not only with her words. He heard those things that came out in the way she tugged the fridge open, the way she clenched her teeth, the way she turned toward him. The way she fell away from what she was about to speak.
And he nodded.
He could manage another city without knowing it. If he could not protect Gotham, he would do what he could in its absence. He hadn't known Gotham, either, on his return there -- just as he didn't know the lay of the land here in this City. But although he preferred working alone, preferred to keep the responsibility to himself, and himself alone, he didn't deny that she was already bearing his burden. She was already involved. And he respected the clear fact that she found detestable the idea of leaving that responsibility to someone else -- even himself.
"We must be partners, then," he said, laying out terms he could accept. "Not separate but a whole. I'll admit that I'm... I'm not typically amenable to working in a team. I've valued the freedom of knowing that my choices affect me and me alone. But there are strengths to working with another, as well. Will you join with me?"