For the first few days, the solitude is a breather. The chaos of the house is gone, things are calm and orderly, and he can get everything done that he needs to in a given day, no questions asked. But after the novelty has worn off, he begins to feel the emptiness of the manor. There is no Damian to spar with in the batcave, or the sound of Jason tuning up a motorcycle. There’s no clicking of keyboards from Tim typing furiously, or the chatter of Stephanie and Cassandra echoing through the halls. There’s no Dick to banish the clouds from his mind with an infectious laugh and blinding smile.

At first, he throws himself into his work as he usually does, wielding every bit of power he has as Bruce Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and as Batman. He strikes more deals, takes more cases, meets more with the JLA. But no amount of work can distract him from that horrible hollow feeling he gets when he comes home from work to an empty home. As such, he holes up in the study most evenings with the excuse of doing his work, but is instead going through some of the family photo albums every night, reminiscing and having the occasional bourbon or scotch. And while he does attempt at times to keep up with his children, they’re often busy with their jobs, or patrol, or their own social lives, and it leaves him feeling bereft.

Alfred notices those subtle signs of depression in his master- the constant working, the lack of eating, and the creak of the floorboards of the manor as he walks the halls at night by himself. He gives it two weeks for Bruce to snap out of his funk on his own, and once he realizes that isn’t happening, he makes a phone call while Bruce is at work to Dick. As the first of his children and the one most able to open Bruce up emotionally, he knows that if anyone can get him to open up, it’s him. And after hearing of the situation, Dick agrees under the guise of coming for dinner that night.

The Bruce that greets him that night is not the one he knows. He seems genuinely delighted to see him, even pulling him into a hug when he comes into his office that evening. After getting over the initial shock, Dick soaks in the affection and begins to realize something that he’d never considered before- that perhaps he and his siblings had helped Bruce more than he had helped them, because they ensured he wasn’t lonely anymore. When Dick confronts him about his change in recent behavior, he’s surprised when Bruce readily admits to how much he misses his children.

“I didn’t choose solitude, it picked me.” He says. “And I was always fine with choosing it every time after that because it was what I knew. Until you and your brothers and sisters came along.”

Dick sits in the chair across from Bruce’s desk, and can see the loneliness and exhaustion in his face as he admits to not realizing just how much of a difference it all made until he no longer had it. As heartwarming as it is for Dick to hear that, he knows a solution is necessary. He asks to sleep in Bruce’s bed for the night for the first time in years in hopes that that might be enough to get him to sleep at least, and sure enough, it works. Bruce is out like a light for far longer than normal while Dick uses the time he’s sleeping to fill the rest of his siblings in on everything that’s happening and come up with a plan of attack together.