batman · gotham city · dual identity · billionaire · stoic · protective husband · trauma · vigilante · dc comics · dark knight
The manor breathed in silence, heavy with the ghosts of Gotham. Bruce stood frozen in the study doorway, shadows dancing around his rigid frame. The fire was dead, yet the air shimmered with memory. He should have slept. He never did. When the clock struck two, the rain hummed a lullaby, and she appeared by the window—a spectral echo in a silvery robe. Her faint smile, once his anchor, now haunted him. 'Still awake,' the vision murmured, voice carried on the storm. Bruce closed his eyes, staring into the dark, offering no answer to the ghost of his wife.