You must have fallen asleep. When you wake up the sun is shining outside and an old woman with gray hair sits next to you. She smiles and nods toward your bag.

"You should take care, someone might steal something."

You look at your bag and back at the woman. Then you nod and smile at her, even though you feel like crap. "Yes, I know. I was just so tired."

"No problem, I watched out for thieves. My granddaughter does this too, not watching her things. I'm used to it." She flashes you another smile and stands up. "Anyway, I have to go. Have a good day, young lady."

"Uhm, yes, you too." She walks toward a family with a little girl and two even younger boys who just arrived with a train. You stare at them for a moment and then up at a display showing the next fifteen train connections. You aren't sure anymore if you should leave. You really wanted to go away last night, but now you feel like betraying Bruce by just disappearing. On the other hand, he was the one betraying you in the first place by keeping this secret from you. You gulp and let your gaze wander between the display and the door. Then you stand up and walk outside to hail the next taxi. You tell him your address and lean back. Before you reach the last crossroad you tap his shoulder and tell him to drop you off. You give him his money and walk the rest of the way.

Your house still looks like hell. You gulp and stand still in front of it. Then without another moment of hesitance you step inside.

You leave your bag at the edge of the stairs and walk into the kitchen, the place of crime. It looks even more awful in broad daylight. You would have cried if you had any tears left. So you just close your eyes to take a deep breath. In this moment you hear something behind you. You shrug and spin around. And there he stands. The man you trusted, the man love... loved? You don't know anymore. You don't know what you feel and you don't know what you think.

Bruce stands there between the ruins of your hall. He wears an unknown t-shirt and trousers that are too big and also not his. His hair is a mess and he looks exhausted. His dark eyes scan the floor while your watch him. You stand there without saying a word for a while. Your heart pounds, you aren't sure if it's because of the way he looks or because you are still afraid and angry.

"I'm sorry", he whispers without taking his eyes off the floor. You want to walk toward him, hug him and tell him everything will be fine, but you keep your distance. You don't know what will happen if you come too close to him. Maybe you will start to cry again or you will slap him. Maybe both. The only thing you know is that you are afraid, afraid of your own boyfriend. You never thought that would ever happen.

You gulp and whisper "Was that you? That.. thing?"

You see him twitch at the word "thing" but what else should you call it? Monster? Beast? Thing is probably the nicest word you can come up with right now.

"Yes, that was me. (Y/N), I swear to you, I never wanted to hurt you-"

"It did."

At that he finally looks up and the look in his eyes shatters your heart. So many emotions and everything under one big emotion: self-hate. You see guilt, pity, hurt, worry, anger and fear, but the worst of all is the self-hate you see. He really hates himself for what he did. You look away. You just can't stand seeing this look in his beautiful brown eyes.

"No. No it, the Other Guy, didn't wanted to hurt you."

"The... Other Guy? That's what you call him?"

Bruce nods and watches your reaction. You don't do anything, just stare at the wall next to the hole and think about that. Now that this thing has a name it's easier to think about it – him. You reconsider what you saw last night. Did he wanted to kill you? Or was that what you thought because you were scared. You aren't sure anymore. You recall it's – his face. Actually he didn't look angry or aggressive. Your eyes flicker back to your boyfriend who still stood there. Slowly you make your way toward him, carefully not to step on anything. When you stand directly before him, you reach out and take his hand. Yours still shivers a bit, but you chose to ignore it. You thumb draws little circles at the back of his hand. Bruce's eyes lock on your entwined hands.

A part of you still wants to tell him to go, to leave this place and never come back, to forget what you had. But the thing you had stops you fro saying that. He's right, maybe the... Other Guy didn't wanted to hurt you. And you definitely know that Bruce didn't wanted to. He would never do this. So you stay silent and look at your hands, too.

After a few minutes, you whisper "Bruce?".

He looks back at your face. The hate and guilt is still there. You wish you could smile and kiss it away, but you can't do that. Not now.

"I won't leave you, but... I need time. That's a lot to think about." You take a shaky breath and keep speaking, "so how about this: I stay at a friend's house while this mess is cleaned up and I think about all of that. And after that I tell you what I want. Because I really don't know it right now. I don't want to lose you, but I can't act like nothing happened. You lied to me, and that's a hug secret you have there."

You look him in the eyes the whole time and you can see that at least the fear lessens, even if just a bit. You squeeze his hand a last time before letting it go.
Bruce nods. "Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm sorry, (Y/N), I really am. I just hope – I hope you don't think too bad of me now. Because you are the most important part of my life and I don't want to lose you either. Not because of Him."

You gulp and manage a small smile. "We will do this. We will try to fix this."