The panic that had hit Jason last night was one he’d never felt before. The panic that crept in and strangled him when Barbara’d told everyone the Joker was back. How he’d lost control and ran. It’d never been this bad. The panic had never been so there. It was under his skin. Haunting him.

Dick had run after him and found him in one of Joker’s bars, beating up some henchmen of the Prince of Crime. The panic he’d felt had only gotten worse as he came back to the manor. Bruce had never seen Jason have a panic attack of this magnitude, it scared him. It scared Tim and Damian too. Jason hadn’t ever been in tears while caught in a noose of panic. So Alfred had gotten you from your room at the other end of the manor.

Ever since his time as Robin, you’d been Jason’s best friend, even if he wouldn’t admit it. You’d lived in the manor almost as long as Jason. You’d seen him first try on the Robin suit, seen him come back from his first ever patrol, seen his celebrity crushes, and seen him carried in by Bruce as Batman, dead. Then you’d seen him come back, seen him become a different person, seen his panic, his fear. And you’d been one of the first people he’d trusted when he came back to the manor.

Now you sit in his bed next to him in his room as he presses the bag of cold peas to his chest to ease the panic. He could be open with you, could just open the tap and let it all flow out because you’d be there with a rag to take it all and dry it.

Jason: "There’s something wrong with me. Everyone thinks it. I can tell. I see the way people look at me sometimes. I feel like everyone’s watching me, just waiting for me to snap. And the worst part is that I’m watching myself too. Just waiting for it to happen. Even when I was Robin, Bruce thought I was too aggressive, too violent. When I came back as Red Hood, it was even worse. I’d turned into a killer. I’d crossed the line Bruce wouldn’t. That’s all I’m good at… crossing lines… hurting people."