Ch.38: Nightmares
One thing that was common in every member of the Bat-Family was nightmares. Sure, they weren't pleasant but they came with the job and sometimes it wasn't even the job that scared them. It was their traumatic pasts. Either way, they really couldn't do anything about it. But the way they dealt with it was very similar.
They crawled in bed with Bruce.
As soon as the door to his bedroom was open or there was a small but unnatural tug at the sheets, the Dark Knight was up with readied words to console the child or teen (yes, even as teens they went to his room in the middle of the night) that had crawled into his bed. The same man that made criminals cower at his very name was good at soothing his kids to sleep. It was one of his favorite parts about being a father.
Danny was no different from the other Bat-Kids when it came to nightmares. He liked to crawl in bed with his adopted father, have the older man's fingers run through his hair, all the while whispering comforting words.
But he was different in the prospect that sometimes he forgot.
Sometimes, after a particularly bad and/or long nightmare, Danny would be startled awake, gasping for breath. And he would forget he was nine-years-old now and that he had a big family and his father was down the hall, ready to lull him to sleep. He forgot he had a doggy name Ace and that he had four brothers and two sisters and a grandfather. He forgot he was safe.
And when he forgot, he grabbed Batsy, a blanket, and a pillow and threw them on the ground. He would crawl out of his bed and hide under the bed, curled up defensively in his blanket, head on the pillow, and Batsy in his arms. He'd shake and shiver, whimpering and crying as his jumbled thoughts and scattered memories screamed at him to pay each one attention.
If he hadn't screamed when he woke up, no one found him till morning, still curled up defensively under the bed instead of in it.
The reason he forgot sometimes was because his nightmares were memories. Yes, the others had memory-nightmares too but, in some way, they were always morphed and twisted until they weren't memories anymore. Danny's mind just relayed the horrible snippets of his life with every detail exact, even down to the color of his father's/the pedophile's shirt color. And when Danny woke up, he thought his dream had just happened and he hid under his bed like he did the past four years when he was too scared to sleep in his ratty, old bed. In the mornings, he'd be exhausted and, one time, Bruce and Alfred actually kept him from going to school.
When Danny did scream when he woke up, Bruce was awake immediately, paternal instincts kicking in. He'd get up, rush to his son's room, and look for him in his empty bed. When Danny wasn't there, the older man would look under the bed and find the child curled up, crying quietly to himself with Batsy's stubby arms trying to wrap themselves around the nine-year-old in the same way Danny was hugging him.
Bruce would call the child's name and he'd receive a look of pure, unadulterated fear that always stabbed at the older male's heart. But the look would quickly melt away and the older raven-haired male would pull the small child out from under the bed, wrap him in the blanket, and carry him back to his room.
When no one found him, though, Danny would sink so far into his mind his body would sometimes jerk or convulse to bring him back up to the surface of the deep sea his mind was dragging him into, drowning him in the awfulness of life.
There was one time, though, that Danny didn't convulse or jerk as he was drowned by his thoughts. He just kept sinking and sinking and the world around him was becoming black with flashes of red and the child didn't know how to escape and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing would come out.
And then his open eyes saw his father. Bruce was holding him, wiping the tears from his face. The child had been so startled he had jumped. His tiny hands wrapped themselves in the cloth of the cotton shirt the older male was wearing. He had buried his head in the crook of his neck and cried, shaking.
The older male had woken up while his son was drowning with a feeling in his stomach that something was wrong. He had gotten out of bed, walked to Danny's room, and found he wasn't in his bed. Looking under the bed, Danny was lying with his eyes wide and fearful but they weren't there. They were lost.
That night, the Dark Knight had whispered in his baby's ear "I won't let you drown."
Kadzait: Tainter of childhoods...
That's a new one. Anyways, on a lighter note, there's a family of raccoons in our attic-
Kadzait: How is that a lighter note?
I'm getting to that Nancy. As I was saying, family of raccoons. We caught two of the babies yesterday in our little trap thing. The reasonable part of my mind says they're vicious, even if they're babies. The unreasonable part is saying "THEY'RE SO FLUFFY! I WANNA TOUCH EM AND HUG EM AND HOLD EM!"
Kadzait: I wish you would touch them
-.-
Welcome to the family TheAriaRiver and heofBOOYAH! Thanks for the favorite and/or follow!
Reviews:
Crimson Leo: Glad you enjoyed. XD
Sina Xiel: Yeah, you just screwed us both. LET'S RUN! *begins running*
Allietheepic7: *evil smile* I actually already had an idea for that but thank you for enforcing it. XD
Supaherolena02: I know! Batman? Surprised? Unheard of. XD And he SHOULDN'T. But he DOES. XD
Grava: Wolves are my favorite animals too! XD I have that same dream, dude, the same dream of venturing into the wolf pen. XD
IWasNeverReal: Only Danny would go into the wolf pen, right? XD
Mulllkkkkkk: Hahaha! He really should have! XD
BringbackDannyPhantom: Exactly! That's exactly the reason animals like him! That... And come on, who doesn't like Danny? He's DANNY for crying out loud! XD
Skymuse: Oh, I wasn't at all! Don't worry! I didn't take any offense to your YJ comment! XD And who DOESN'T want to meet the big, fluffy doggies! :D
Guest(1): *joins you in petting big, fluffy puppies*
TomgirlBre: Oooohhhh, that's what you meant by "something"... Robin is my second cartoon crush, now that you mention it. XD