When You're Given a Little Robin

Chapter 5: Nightmares

It was a cold stormy night in January, a mix of a blizzard and thunderstorm had hit Gotham City so not a soul dared to be outside. So all were asleep at Wayne Manor, Bruce canceling patrol on account of the major storm, but not all was entirely peaceful. In the quiet bedroom of Dick Grayson-Wayne, the little protégé tossed and turned in his bed. Then in a cold sweat he woke up, panting and breathing heavily, from a terrible nightmare.

This was nothing new for the little boy, having experienced these nightmares since his parents death. Despite his cheerful personality and overall happy attitude, Dick still suffered deep seeded trauma from his parents murder. This caused him to have nightmares of his parents falling to their death and their murderer Tony Zucco cutting the cords to their trapeze.

Luckily since Bruce started taking Dick to a wonderful child psychologist the nightmares became far less frequent. But unfortunately when they did happen they had become more graphic and violent. Dick would see images and scenes far beyond that of how his parents' deaths, he would see his loved ones lacerated and cut up before his eyes or see Zucco coming at him with the intent of killing him.

It was too much for such a young little boy and normally he would call for Bruce, but tonight he decided against it. His father had had a very busy week and crime rates were up after the holidays so patrol hours were longer for the dynamic duo. Dick knew his father needed sleep, so he decided to be a brave big boy and just cuddled his daddy scented blanket to calm himself down. It wasn't the same and didn't help half as much, but Dick refused to be a ninny and disturb his father's sleep.

Luckily within fifteen minutes Dick managed to fall asleep again, but almost immediately the nightmares began once more. This time after the extremely graphic vision of his parents death, Zucco looked sadistically at Dick. He then acted as if he was coming for Dick only to turn around and stab his deadly sharp knife into Bruce, who had suddenly shown up. Dick screamed bloody murder as he watched his precious father being stabbed and mutalated before his very eyes. The nightmare was so bad that Dick woke up once more and screamed the same blood curdling throughout the house.

Meanwhile, Bruce was fast asleep in his large bed, feeling very content, when suddenly a great terrified scream filled his room. With a great start Bruce shot up in his head, slightly disoriented from the sheer volume of the scream. However he quickly realized what the scream was, jumped out of bed, and sprinted to Dick's room. Within seconds Bruce was in his little one's doorway and saw Dick thrashing about as he screamed like a banshee. Bruce immediately ran to Dick's bed and did his best to wake the poor little boy up.

"Dick wake up! It's alright, I'm right here! Wake up baby, wake up!" Bruce yelled as he desperately tried to wake his son up.

After about thirty seconds Dick let out one more eardrum bursting scream and woke up. For a moment Bruce just let the boy breath as he was borderline hyperventilating. But then Dick looked at him, tears spilling from his eyes, and reached his arms up. Without any hesitation Bruce gathered the terrified little bird into his arms and let him sob in his shoulder. For a while Bruce cooed and rocked his baby boy, who was shaking like a leaf. Eventually, after sensing his son had sufficiently calmed down, he went on to ask Dick about the nightmare, this being an exercise given to him by Dick's psychologist to help his son work through the drama.

"Can you tell daddy about your nightmare baby?" Bruce asked boldly but very gently.

Dick nodded his little head and at last opened his eyes again only to reveal his pain and fear through his baby blues.

"I..I... saw mama an tati.... faw an den....mr. Zucco sawted ta come ta mes. An..an...den...he wen an....stabbed you daddy. I washed as...he...he...kiwed you...an..an...so much blood!" Dick managed to sob out before burying his little head into his father's chest once more.

Bruce once again cooed and soothed his little son, this time rubbing little circles around his back.

"Shhh shhhh....it's ok, it's ok daddy's right here baby, daddy's right here and I'm not going anywhere. Daddy's very proud of you for being such a brave big boy and telling me about your nightmare. Now go back to sleep, you need your rest little bird."

"No daddy! I'm na a bwave big boy! I was so scawed and I coudn stop mr. Zucco from killin yous! I's to scawed ta seep again, I don wanna anoder nightmare!" Dick said ashamed of his fear.

Bruce's heart broke as he heard such self deprecating works from his son's mouth, but he would not have it.

"No, you are the bravest boy I know baby! You are brave enough to even talk about something so traumatic and scary that happened to you. You are brave enough to face terrible and evil people alongside daddy almost every night without fail or speck of cowardice. So don't you dare say such awful things about yourself, I will not stand for it. I love you too much to let them even leave your mouth." Bruce said tenderly as he held his precious little bird tightly.

Dick smiled slightly as he snuggled his daddy, the one and only person who could truly comfort him and knew what he was going through. Dick knew Bruce had experienced something similar when he was little, so he decided to ask him about it.

"Daddy? Did yous hab nightmares when grandma an grandpa died?"

Bruce was silent for a moment not expecting his son to ask such a question, but nonetheless was ready to answer it.

"I did and I still do sometimes." Bruce answered with a sense of melancholy as he rocked his son.

"You does, so dey never goes away?" Dick asked, frozen with terror of the prospect of the nightmares never ending.

Bruce immediately felt guilty, not meaning to scare his baby boy with such a reality. But he had to tell the truth as well as comfort his precious one.

"Unfortunately they never really go away, but they get better and not as scary anymore. I know it's really hard sometimes, but always remember, no matter how scary they are daddy is right here. I will always be here for you no matter what, we'll go through our pain together." Bruce said as he snuggled Dick and lovingly stroked his soft black hair.

Dick snuggled back at last smiling as Bruce also dried his tears, but he needed one more thing to finally go to sleep.

"Daddy can yous sing fow me?" Dick requested.

"Of course, do you want your usual lullaby?" Bruce asked as continued to rock his son.

Dick nodded slightly as he then cuddled tightly to his daddy's chest and closed his eyes.

"Vo pole bereza stoyala, Vo pole kudryavaya stoyala, Lyuli, lyuli, stoyala. Lyuli, lyuli, stoyala..." Bruce sang softly, knowing the Romani lullaby was a sure fire way to make his sweet little bird fall asleep even after a nightmare.

Within minutes Dick was fast asleep in Bruce's arms, a peaceful and happy smile on his little face. Bruce sighed with relief and attempted to put Dick back in his bed, but the little boy wouldn't have it. Almost immediately as Bruce started to set him down, Dick squirmed and started to freak out again. His mental state was still too unstable for him to be left alone so Bruce knew he had to do something he didn't do too often, let Dick sleep with him.

So gingerly he lifted Dick from his little bed, cradled him closely, and walked off to his own room. Once in the master bedroom Bruce, as silently as possible, laid his son on his very large bed and carefully got in with him. He then threw the covers over them and drew his baby close to his chest. Almost immediately Dick snuggled up to him and gripped his shirt tightly. Bruce smiled at this and kissed Dick's little head with tender and loving care.

He knew Alfred would be mad at him, being very adamant that Dick needed to sleep in his own bed and not rely on him to soothe himself. But this time he'd let it slide, after all Bruce did have a doctor's order to sooth his child after an episode so what could he do? For that night he cuddled his son like a protective bear, there to defend his cub from all danger both physical and mental.