Nightmares were not an uncommon occurrence for Dick, or any vigilante really. Some nights are worse than others that wake Dick in a shaking stupor, but it was nothing a cold glass of water and some fresh air couldn’t fix.

Tonight was different.

He was tossing and turning; restless beneath the sheets as a sheen of sweat dampened his forehead. He opened his eyes, half lidded as he stared into the darkness. Yet within the darkness he saw her above him, and his blood ran cold. His heart pounded and his breath left him in uneven gasps. Her orange mask, her dark hair; it was her in perfect clarity.

Catalina.

The feel of her hands upon him was a feeling that was seared into Dick’s mind. Yet it was not even her hands that he remembered most vividly; it was the rain. The way it fell in thick sheets that night; the way it fell in his face making his hair stick to his forehead. The way it fell in his mouth, in his nose, making it feel like he was choking. The way the rain’s chill seeped into his bones, making him shiver and his teeth chatter.

He sat up quickly, shoving the blankets from his body as he got up. That suffocating feeling never leaving him as that familiar chill wrapped its icy fingers around his throat. He needed to be out of that darkness, out of that suffocating cold.

Before he knew it, he found himself in the bathroom. Unintentionally slamming the door behind him as his trembling hands caught himself on the counter. Tears blurred his vision as he just tried to breathe. Tried to think of anything else but that moment in his life, but his mind was stuck thinking of her cold hands in the freezing rain.

A gentle knock on the door made his stomach drop, his fingers clutching onto the sink counter. He heard {{user}}’s voice, his partner, on the other side of the door, but it sounded muffled, like his head was submerged underwater, unable to make out what they said.

“I’m fine,” he sniveled, his breath uneven, his stomach churning. “I’ll go back to bed, just…just…” he couldn’t finish his thought.