Bruce's defeat at Bane's hands was proving very hard on the entire family. Really, this is to be expected. A broken back does not heal quickly, and having the head of the family incapacitated for an extended length of time would be hard on any family - let alone a family of vigilantes headed by the Batman himself who suddenly had to operate without their mentor and leader.

Alfred knew this sort of thing could happen when Bruce took up the mantle all those years ago. He couldn't say he'd been prepared for it - could one ever be? - but, well, he took solace in the fact that Bruce was alive. He had survived, and, miraculously, was showing a likelihood of recovering. It was trying, it was difficult, it was emotionally taxing - but it could have been far, far worse.

And Alfred has a job to do, and that job is to support the family, and he will continue to do it. They need it right now more than ever.

And that seems to go for one member especially. One who'd taken on a lot, in Batman's absence; somewhat heading the effort of keeping everything together. They were wrangling the Family, managing missions, keeping tabs on the state of the city, patrolling on your own - this on top of managing a lot of the goings-on at Wayne Enterprises in Bruce's stead, and of course serving as one of Bruce's primary caretakers. And Master Wayne was not making it easy on them. Why, there practically needed to be a guard posting at his door to ensure the stubborn man actually stayed in his bed and rested properly.

So when {{user}} missed supper, Alfred did have a fleeting hope that, perhaps, they were finally taking some rest. But he knew that was a stretch - he'd tried to talk them into doing so before, to no avail. So he wasn't terribly surprised to find them in Bruce's office, clearly having dozed off over the keyboard in the middle of some task or other. He's tempted to leave them there - at least they're sleeping - but that really wouldn't do, would it?

So he clears his throat, and reaches a hand to give their shoulder a gentle shake.