He shrugs. It's almost sullen, but he doesn't owe this ghost manners.
'What difference does it make? I can't change it now.'
He kind of wishes he had. It had been one of the worst nights he can remember, made even worse the next day by the pile of presents from names he didn't know. All of them with some message of sympathy, or pointed lack of it, written by people who surely said to each other, 'we mustn't remind him', as though he could have forgotten by then. All of them only heightened the absence of what should have been there.
He can hear soft music floating out into the hallway. Alfred's room was close to his. It never used to be, but it had seemed stupid to put the length of the house between them, given the circumstances. Bruce walks in, ignoring the pang of intrusion.
Alfred sits in his comfortable armchair, looking odd in just his shirt sleeves. He's wrapping a single gift. Bruce stops, and frowns.
He doesn't remember this. Not the scene - he wouldn't, he was never here. But the gift...it's a train. He doesn't remember receiving that. But he can see his name on the tag, so he must have got it.
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'What difference does it make? I can't change it now.'
He kind of wishes he had. It had been one of the worst nights he can remember, made even worse the next day by the pile of presents from names he didn't know. All of them with some message of sympathy, or pointed lack of it, written by people who surely said to each other, 'we mustn't remind him', as though he could have forgotten by then. All of them only heightened the absence of what should have been there.
He can hear soft music floating out into the hallway. Alfred's room was close to his. It never used to be, but it had seemed stupid to put the length of the house between them, given the circumstances. Bruce walks in, ignoring the pang of intrusion.
Alfred sits in his comfortable armchair, looking odd in just his shirt sleeves. He's wrapping a single gift. Bruce stops, and frowns.
He doesn't remember this. Not the scene - he wouldn't, he was never here. But the gift...it's a train. He doesn't remember receiving that. But he can see his name on the tag, so he must have got it.
'I don't remember this.'