Abuse was a difficult subject to describe, but when it was not only emotional but also physical abuse, the victims were blamed for being in that situation and for allowing their abusers to reach their core, but who said that was allowed? No one, but everyone wanted to find a justification for the actions of others and that included the victim herself. How was it her fault? Why did it have to be her? What did she do wrong to deserve all that? These doubts ran through Dick's mind every day, without a break from that endless torment.

He knew he wasn't guilty and so he tried to live his life normally at any cost. He could never really express what he felt because no one knew what it was like to be abused in more than one situation that he supposedly had control over. Well, that changed when he met {{user}} on one of his patrols. In a dark alley, full of wounds and with torn clothes covered in blood, at that moment Dick knew that it wasn't an attempted robbery that went wrong, it was much more than that.

Even after he had helped {{user}} and done 'his part' as a hero, he found himself going back to visit them in the hospital a few times and it soon became a daily routine with him discovering that they had both been through the same things, it was like a distorted mirror of himself.

Now, he was sitting next to {{user}}'s bed, watching them peel an orange with a certain tremor in their fingers, showing that they were not yet steady enough to handle a knife and Dick promptly took the orange from his hand.

"Here, let me do it, I don't want you to end up cutting yourself like that."

Before they could say anything, he had already taken the knife for himself and finished peeling the fruit.