"What do you think?"
"He looks more like Batman than Batman himself."
"Oh God, don't joke around!" Tim slapped Dick on the back and said, "Batman is right here."
"It must have been some imposter who injured him!" Dick's tone suddenly flared with a bit of anger, his unstable mental state making him seem somewhat jittery. Tim hurried to calm him down again.
Jason's face also darkened with wrath. In fact, among the three of them, he had the worst temper. In Gotham, every child who had mixed in the streets had a hot temper. Jason immediately turned to Tim and said, "Aren't you good at cracking codes? Go to the warehouse, open the gun cabinet!"
"No, don't, come back..." Bruce mumbled in his daze, "Do me a favor, help me... Dick... Dick!"
Hearing Bruce call his name, Dick instinctively walked over. Bruce seemed on the brink of unconsciousness, and was calling out instinctively: "Dick, help me press that button on the third row... the blueprint, the blueprint is in the drawer."
Dick turned around and opened the drawer, flipped through the blueprints inside and said, "There's no new blueprint here, aren't these all standard Bat Equipment?"
Jason and Tim also came over. As Bruce stayed silent, they discussed for a while, and at last it was Jason who said, "He probably needs new Bat Equipment, but all those gadgets are in the cave right now, so he wants to make a new set."
"Then why doesn't he go get it?... Oh, he can't drive now." Dick suddenly realized.
"Dick, you stay here and take care of Bruce. Tim and I will go get the equipment by car. Remember, don't let him take any more drugs. Drug addiction is no good." Jason stated assertively, hustling Tim away.
Dick sat by Bruce's side, once again shedding tears. He didn't know if Bruce could hear him but he still murmured, "I'm really sorry, I didn't know that freak wanted to harm you."
"Actually I should have noticed it. He wanted to use me, I should have known he was up to no good, but I was just too angry at the time. I felt you were intentionally blaming me."
"Dick... Dick..." Bruce, lost in his nebulous consciousness, called out Dick's name, his voice barely more than a mosquito hum. Dick couldn't make out what he was saying and lent closer.
Bruce, in his current state, was not in a rational state of mind. The onslaught brought on by heavy doses of painkillers left him functioning merely on instinct. Thus, he stretched out his arm and pulled Dick into an embrace.
Dick's eyes widened in shock. He felt Bruce's hug tighten, the strong bicep squeezing his chest.
His heart, like a sponge under pressure, oozed love and tears, pouring out like a waterfall.
Dick burst into sobs, crying like a newborn baby. He didn't know if his own eyes mirrored the tears in Bruce's, only that his sadness, resentment and so many other emotions he couldn't name could only be vented through his sobs.
It wasn't until Dick began to cry in Bruce's embrace, their shared moments replaying in his fragmented consciousness, that Bruce realized, behind the succession of fatherhood, two identical father and son were looking in the mirror.
Bruce found himself thinking, Thomas must have been so stubborn, autocratic, old-fashioned, and ability to not be swayed, like a log that can't be reasoned with. Yet, there might have been times when Dick saw him in the same light.
Thomas made rash judgments based on little understanding, and through violent means forced Bruce to accept his beliefs. Bruce treated Dick in much the same way.
It seemed as though he tried to communicate patiently, but in reality he didn't understand Dick at all. Not knowing why he was acting the way he was or what he wanted, he interpreted all that as simply making a scene.
Many people, when they were children, found their parents to be stubborn, inflexible, and utterly unreasonable. They vowed to themselves that when they became parents, they would never be like that.
But if they could truly accomplish this, many of the world's odd and painful family relations would not exist.
When people are in a position of inferiority, they tend to idealize themselves, believing that their willpower will keep them pure even in a position of superiority.
But once they really find themselves in a position of power, they think that human nature can't withstand the test, that they are just looking out for themselves, and what's wrong with that?
The father-son relationship is no different.
As a son, you would want a reasonable and understanding father who knows how to communicate.
As a father, you would start thinking; I've given him so much, work is so busy, the pressure is so significant, can't my son understand me?
Human nature is essentially incapable of mutual understanding, and never learns any lessons from history. This is epitomized in the exercise of paternal authority.
The painful process of transferring paternal authority has happened thousands upon thousands of times, yet when it falls upon each individual, it is unspeakably painful, and no one is spared.
This pain, it didn't grant Bruce any growth, it only let him realize, he was not immune from the weaknesses of human nature, but what relieved him, was that no one else was either.
And then, it made him realize, that the solution to various conflicts in the succession of paternal authority is not to let go of others, but to let go of yourself.
As long as you don't idealize yourself as absolutely right, as having a strong will and self-control, then you won't feel that you can do better than anyone else. This would resolve the difficulties rooted in the oppression of being a father, and the rebellion of being a son.
As a father, the path I point out is not perfect, so you can just decide for yourself whether to follow it. As a son, my plan for life is not perfect either, so I still need the opinions of others.
Only by giving up the unreasonable arrogance and self-beautification stemming from human's inherent weaknesses, can we make room for a mutual step back, and this space left out is what can accommodate love and understanding.
Of course, there's another possibility, Bruce thought while sitting on the ground: if he steps back, and the other person becomes increasingly demanding, what should he do then?
At this moment, Bruce was thinking where lies the difference between paternal authority and power?
The connection between father and son lies in achieving both physical blood ties and more significantly, emotional ties. The difference between paternal authority and power lies in love.
And the essence of love is not in making a person advance aggressively, but in making a person to consider retreating.
Once love is absent, the relationship then becomes pure exploitation and domination.
As for how to deal with this, Bruce knew, he had already learned the lesson long ago.