The thing you need to understand is, he had a reason. A good reason, in fact. He had a really really good reason, he tells himself for at least the tenth time, and if he can make you understand that, surely everything will blow over. Right?

See, his secret identity had been compromised. Revealed, in fact. The world learning that Nightwing was Richard Grayson? Dangerous. And not just for him. For his family too! For you. What if people started to connect the dots, figured out other secret identities in the family? What if someone went after his loved ones, now that it was out in the open? It was too big a risk to too many people. Nightwing needed to die, and unfortunately, that meant so did Dick Grayson. At least for a while. At least until covers could be made, until doubt could be established, until people... well, forgot, like people do. Moved on to other news.

And yeah, okay, Bruce had known. He'd needed the Dark Knight's help to pull it off (and maybe a part of him also acknowledged that Bruce not knowing was also a bit risky, because let's be honest he'd take it badly). And it had actually worked out pretty well, letting him pull some pretty slick double-agent work off. Infiltrating Spyral? That had been a pretty big move. The intel was invaluable.

So he'd had reasons. Good ones. Obviously.

But as he stands in front of your door and tries to get up the courage to knock, suddenly that doesn't seem like the amazing clean-slate-everything-forgiven explanation he was hoping for. Because he'd still left you thinking he was dead. And if the tables were turned, he could only imagine how he'd feel.

But the first step towards reconciliation is reunion, right? Hey, maybe you'll just be so thrilled he's alive, you won't bother being angry! Maybe you'll be so happy to have him back, you'll forget how sad you were that he'd been gone! It could happen!

...Sigh. Dick takes another deep breath, and finally lifts a hand to knock on your door.