Bruce tried to keep his face calm as he met her eyes. “What?”
“It means I will make sure you never want to run afoul of the law again.” Draccon took a delicate sip of her tea.
“And where are you assigning me?” he asked.
She put her cup down on its saucer. “Arkham Asylum,” shereplied.
“Arkham Asylum,” Harvey mused as he and Dianne lounged around Bruce’s kitchen island that evening. “Doesn’t that prison house the criminally insane? I didn’t know a place like that could even be a community service option.”
Bruce picked at his food. He had ordered burgers and milk shakes for them so that they wouldn’t have to go to the diner, but none of them seemed able to work up much of an appetite.
“I heard the inside of Arkham is a nightmare,” Dianne added with a frown. “Does Draccon really think it’s okay to send you there? How are you going to concentrate on studying for finals?”
“You’re studying for finals?” Bruce gave her a wry grin. “Most dedicated senior I know.”
“I’m serious, Bruce! Arkham isdangerous.Isn’t it? My mom said those prisoners are guilty of some of the most horrific crimes in Gotham City’s history. And there are always jailbreaks and fights….”
Harvey grunted as he glided a quarter back and forth along his knuckles, his movements slick as water. He flicked his wrist once, sending the quarter into a perfect spin on the island counter. “No different from the world outside,” he muttered, slapping the coin down on the surface when it refused to topple over fast enough. It came up heads.
Bruce tried not to cast a sympathetic look at Harvey. His friend was here for moral support, of course, but Harvey was also holing up at Bruce’s mansion because he was avoiding his father, who had stumbled home again tonight as a drunken mess. When Harvey had tried to hang up his father’s coat, which he’d tossed onto the floor, the man had turned on him, yelling something about how his son didn’t think his father could take care of himself. There was always some tiny thing that set him off. The bruise on Harvey’s jaw had already turned purple.
“You’re staying the night, right?” Bruce asked as Harvey started flipping his coin along his knuckles again.
Harvey messed nervously with his blond hair, his eyes downcast. “If Alfred doesn’t mind,” he said. “Sorry I keep—”
“You don’t need to apologize. Stay as long as you want.” Bruce jutted his chin in the direction of the living room’s staircase. “Guest room in the east wing’s all ready for you. Just watch the shaky banisters on the stair railings. There’s a closetful of clothes for you here, all ready to go.”
“I can afford my own clothes,” Harvey replied sharply as he pushed up the sleeves of his worn hoodie.
Bruce cleared his throat. “What Imeantwas, you don’t have to grab anything from home. It’s all here. If you need anything else, just ask Alfred.”
“Thanks. I’ll only stay the night. Dad’ll expect me back tomorrow. He’ll be sober by then.”
Dianne exchanged a glance with Bruce, then reached out to touch Harvey’s arm. “There’s no rule saying you have to be there in the morning,” she said gently.
“He’s my dad. Besides, if I’m not there, I’ll just make it worse for myself.”
Bruce tightened a fist against the table. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d reported Harvey’s father to the police, but every single time social services went to visit their home, the elder Dent seemed put together and calm. “Harvey,” Bruce tried again, “if you report him, you won’t have to go back home. You can just—”
“I’m not turning on him, Bruce,” Harvey interrupted, spinning his coin hard enough to send it skipping off the counter. It clinked on the floor tiles.
Bruce sighed inwardly. “Well…you can stay longer, okay? If you want.”
“I’ll think about it.” But Harvey was already shrinking away from the questions, and Bruce knew that lingering any longer on the topic would be going too far. On his other side, Dianne was giving him a pointed look.Leave him be,she was trying to say. Suddenly, the punishment of doing community service inside Arkham seemed light, even trivial, compared with what Harvey had to face every time he went home.
Harvey bent to retrieve his coin and started spinning it again. “So,” he muttered, changing the subject, “did the detective say why she was sending you there?”
“She didn’t need to say anything,” Bruce replied. “I think she picked a place where I’d be most likely to learn my lesson.”
“What’s your lesson?”
“To not help the police?” he guessed.
Harvey sighed. “To notinterferewith the police. It’s not up to you to save the world, Bruce.”
“I know, I know.” Bruce grimaced, picked up Harvey’s coin, and inspected it. “I’m just being difficult about it. I was really looking forward to spending most of our last summer together.”
Dianne nudged Bruce once with her elbow. “Well, you were going to work on security projects with Lucius at WayneTech this summer, weren’t you? Maybe seeing the inside of Arkham will give you some ideas.”
