Hi again.

5 times Robin helped a teammate with nightmares and the one time they helped him.

Also fun fact - I'm an archer myself (so I do know what I am taking about with archery).

WARNING: Nightmares, also implied/referenced child abuse, also mentioned suicide (last two are both brief).

I own nothing.

Hope you enjoy, thanks for reading.

Robyn. 

1 - M'gann

It was the mental scream that woke Robin up. He quickly slipped out of bed, grabbing a pair of his black sunglasses (the ones that he kept next to his bed whenever he slept over at the Mountain) and rushed out of his bedroom door.. It was one of the rare occasions where he had been staying over at the cave as Batman was off world and Alfred was away visiting a friend, plus it gave him a great excuse to spend more time with his friends.

He wasn't the only one that had been woken up by the screaming, Artemis and Kaldur looked out of their rooms in concern as he dashed down the hall. He was the most awake it seemed as Artemis' eyes were barely open and Kaldur was yawning continuously. He waved as he moved towards their doors, still creeping along the corridor towards the source of the mental scream.

"What's wrong?" Artemis asked worried, hand moving towards her mouth as she stifled a yawn.

"It's okay. Go back to sleep both of you. I'll see what's wrong with M'gann." Robin smiled hoping to comfort his friends.

"Are you sure my friend?" Kaldur questioned, eyes blinking repeatedly.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Get some sleep." The Boy Wonder smiled and moved past them down the corridor to M'gann's room.

He quietly opened the door, peering into the room. "M'gann?" Robin whispered as he tip toed over and sat down on the corner of M'gann's bed.

"Robin?" She asked quietly, sitting up. "What are you doing here?"

He narrowed his eyes as they adjusted to the dark room, inspecting her face carefully, trying to see if there were any signs of her previous distress. "I came to see if you were okay? You called out in your mind to everyone." Robin whispered gently.

"I did? I'm so sorry for waking you up!" She asked hurriedly, eyes wide open in concern.

"Nah, it's fine. You okay?" The bird shrugged (honestly, he was used to long nights and little sleep).

"I'm fine Robin, it was just a nightmare." She put on a half smile that did nothing to convince Robin of her actual state.

"It sounded bad. I'm here to listen if you want to talk. It's nothing to be ashamed about, everyone gets nightmares. Even Batman!" Robin smirked at the end of his little speech.

"I . . . I don't think I can talk about it." M'gann had tears silently streaming down her face.

"It's okay, you don't have to." He pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back to calm her down as her crying got worse. He whispered calming words to his surrogate sister. And with that the dam broke.

"N...no I want to. I've watched enough programs to have heard that talking about it helps." M'gann hiccupped as she pulled away from the hug. Robin smiled encouraging and comforting her.

"In my dream I had never left mars and everyone was still bullying me, because I was a white Martian. It doesn't sound like much but..." M'gann looked down at the end, ashamed of getting so worked up over nothing.

"It's not nothing, discrimination and bullying aren't nice. I know what both are like, I face them everyday in school. You don't have to be ashamed." He smiled softly at her, glancing at the clock to reveal they still had a few hours till sunrise. "Come on, I don't think either of us are going to get to sleep for a while. How about I tell you about the mischief Wally, Red Arrow and I got into when we were younger?" Robin asked with a grin.

She wiped her away the tears and smiled.

2 - Artemis

The second time Robin was woken up in the middle of the night at the Mountain it to the repetitive thud of arrows being angrily shot at a target in the early hours of morning. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table, groaning at how early it was but still moving to grab his sunglasses and roll out of bed.

He crept down the corridor quietly, trying to avoid waking the others. He headed towards the training room hoping to discover the reason for the team's archer to be awake this early. He found her exactly where he thought she would be, glaring at the targets in a training room. Shooting arrows into the gold of the target, with enough force to send the arrows half into the boss. He moved towards her, being careful to stay out of the arrow range. Even in her rage and tired state, Artemis' arrows flew true.

"You know people are trying to sleep." Artemis jumped at Robin's voice, whirling around with her bow at full draw. He raised his hands quickly in the universal 'I surrender' position hoping she was awake enough to think before shooting. On seeing his sheepish look (he should have known better than to startle her when she was armed) she took the bow down from full draw, aiming it back down the target range and removing the threat of being shot.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep." She raised the bow again, holding for a several seconds before releasing the arrow at the target. "Would you stop with the ninja thing! Or next time I will shoot you!" The last bit came out angrier than normal, causing Robin to raise his eyebrow - yeah, something was definitely wrong here.

"It's fine. I'm pretty sure I'm the only other one up." He watched her release several more arrows before continuing. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" She said as she continued shooting, being deliberately obtuse. Robin was fine with that, she would have to face him soon - she was about to run out of arrows.

"Your nightmare."

"How did you know I had a nightmare?"

"Why else would you be up late shooting poor targets? Besides you just admitted to it."

"Why you -!"

"What? Amazing and insanely clever ninja?"

Artemis sighed, she lowered her bow, putting it onto the waiting stand. She glanced at the rest of the room (checking the range was no longer live out of habit - despite being the only one actually shooting) before moving towards the target to collect her arrows. Robin followed. "It was about my dad okay! He had ordered me to kill the team and I did. I can't help but see your bloody broken bodies every time I close my eyes." She growled out after a couple of minutes of silence, bar the sound of their footsteps. She started pulling the arrows out of the target with force, but still checking Robin's position before she started (range safety really had been drilled into her at least).

"You don't have to worry you know. We're not going to let your dad hurt us or you. Besides neither you nor Sportsmaster would be able to defeat the entire League on your own. And trust me they would come after you if you killed us. Man you have never seen a truly scary Batman until you've see him when he's being overprotective." Robin grinned and did his signature cackle.

Artemis laughed a little, the unorthodox method of comfort and distraction was helping a little. They walked back down the range but Artemis hesitated before picking up her bow again and Robin seized his opportunity.

"C'mon I'll tell you about all the times Wally failed, get comfy as I have a lot of stories." Robin winked as she gave a full happy laugh.

3 - Connor

The third time he got woken up in the middle of the night it was by a large crash coming from the direction of kitchen/lounge. Robin sighed was it really too much to ask for just one peaceful night? I mean this was like the past three nights he had slept over at the Mountain. Despite that, he still got out of bed and picked up his sunglasses on his way out the door.

He jogged down the corridor towards the lounge and kitchen, hoping they weren't being attacked in the middle of the night (because it would be a pain to walk Kid Flash up, plus you know the whole supposed secret headquarters thing).

Blinking several times to try and keep his eyes open, he took in the scene of devastation in the kitchen. In the centre stood Connor. The crash that had woken him up was a mug shattering on the floor, the shards decorating the ground as Conner glared down at them like they were the source of his pain.

"Hey Con, what's wrong?" Robin asked the stoic clone, moving towards him knowing he had already been spotted.

"It's too quiet." He replied turning to face The Boy Wonder.

"Sooooo, you decided to kill a cup? I don't think the cup would have agreed with your choices. Poor cup."

"No, I was trying to make something that M'gann told me about. I reached for a mug and missed, it shattered on the floor and I don't even think I can remember how to make M'gann's thing." Connor growled annoyed with his lack of control.

"It's all good, here let's clean up this mess. Than I'll teach you to make hot chocolate - I'm guessing that's what Miss M told you about. Right?" Connor grunted a confirmation, grabbing the brush to pass to Robin. Once the poor mug was cleaned up, Robin talked Conner through making hot chocolate allowing the other boy a chance to calm down.

They settled at the breakfast bar, sipping the freshly made hot chocolate in silence for several minutes.

"Hey Con. Do you mind if I ask what you meant by 'it's too quiet'?" Robin asked the question that had been bugging him since his friend had first said it.

"When I was at Cadmus, it was never silent in my pod at night as the G-gnomes would download information into my brain at that time. It's just too quiet and unsettling sometimes at night." Connor answered looking down into his half empty mug of hot chocolate as if it held all of life's answers.

"You'll get used to it eventually. And if you don't you can always put some music or something on quietly in the background to help you sleep." Robin suggested, but giggled as Connor looked up.

Connor had a chocolate moustache.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

4 - Kaldur

The fourth time it happened, it was an actual scream that woke him up. Honestly this was getting slightly ridiculous (maybe Canary was right about them needing therapy?). Robin dragged himself out of bed before grabbing his sunglasses and leaving his room. No one else was out. How they managed to sleep through that, Robin would never know.

Shaking his head he moved silently down the corridor to the scene of the crime. He paused a second outside of the door in question, it was Kaldur's room, and the older boy was usually so mature and collected, plus he kept mostly to himself.

He knocked quietly (still careful not to wake any one else) but when he received no answer he took a deep breath and pushed it open just enough for him to slip in, closing it again quietly behind him. He found their team leader sweating and turning over in his bed, the covers twisted around him.

Robin ran to the bed and leaned over next to the other hero, gently but firmly shaking his friend in hopes of waking him. "Kaldur, Kaldur, Kal, come on, wake up!"

Kaldur suddenly shot up with a loud gasp. He looked around startled but relaxed visibly at the sight of Robin.

"Why are you here my friend?" Kaldur asked confused.

"You screamed, I came to see if you were okay."

"I am sorry to have awoken you."

"It's fine Kal, but you're not." He sat on the edge of the bed next to his friend as Kaldur settled back against the wall, sitting up with the covers up to his chest. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked gently.

Kaldur shook his head slightly at his youngest teammate's ability to read him. "I dreamt of problems in Atlantis and rushing to help only in time to see it fall, when I returned here I found all of you dead." He refused to look at Robin, it was always hard to admit your fears.

"Well, I know a way to cheer you up. Come on." He grabbed Kaldur's wrist and half-dragged half-led the Atlantian through he cave, then outside onto the beach and towards the gently lapping waves, it was a beautiful night.

"Let's swim for a little, it will make you feel better I promise." Robin smiled as he stopped just in front of the water, taking in the sight of the full moon casting beams of light onto the water.

"It is too late. Besides you do not have the right clothes on." Kaldur argued but he watched the water with visible longing. He was right, Robin was still in his pyjamas, they were slightly too big and made him look even younger than he actually was.

"Midnight swims are fun. Besides I'll be fine, it's not the first time I've swam in my pyjamas." Robin grinned before dragging Kaldur into the cool salty water, disregarding his friend's continued feeble arguments. The arguments l=only lasted until the pair were chest deep in the (very cold) water.

Three hours later of splashing around and Kaldur had cheered up, as predicted by the aptly named Boy Wonder.

And who cares if they got into a little bit of trouble for disappearing and going outside in the middle of the night without telling anyone?

5 - Wally

The fifth time he was awoken in the middle of the night at the Mountain, it was to another scream. Only this time he knew instantly who had screamed and why.

Robin immediately rushed out of bed, disregarding his sunglasses and sprinted down the corridor, not even hesitating at his friend/brother's door, just darting in and towards the bed (still being careful to clos the door behind him, he knew Wally would want the privacy).

The sight that greeted him was similar to how he had found Kaldur the other night. The normally cheerful Speedster was sweating and tossing and turning in bed, deep in the throes of a nightmare.

"Wally, Wally, Wally! Wake up! It's me, it's Robin. Your dad is not going to hurt you anymore. You're safe, I promise." Wally woke up with tears dripping down his face and upon seeing Robin immediately pulled his best friend into a hug in hopes of comforting himself.

"It's okay Wally, you're safe. I'm here." Robin continued to whisper comforting words to his friend.

Wally pulled away a while later his tears still obvious by the red marks they had left across his face.

"Wow, I don't think I've felt that bad since Roy started his driving test and dragged us into helping him. Man I don't know how many times we crashed, remember the time we fell off the bridge?" Wally said trying to distract himself more than Robin (it wouldn't work on Robin - he knew that from experience).

"We fell off a bridge?" Robin asked, knowing this was Wally's way of coping.

"Oh, that's right, you got a concussion and can't remember it."

"Really? Huh. Hey remember that time that we died the Batsuit pink...?"

"I thought he was going to kill me! Or the time that we spread the rumour Flash and Batman were dating"

"That was both fun and painfully for us when they caught us!"

"What about when..."

The two boys laughed and recalled old memories for the rest of the night, all nightmares forgotten.

+1 - Robin

The sixth, and last time, Robin was awoken in the middle of a night at the Mountain was not because of a teammate, well technically it was.

This time he was the unfortunate one having the nightmare and he was only woken up from it by the whole team. They had heard his screams and muttering and came rushing to help their youngest member.

What had he been dreaming about? Falling, it was always falling. The only difference to his typical nightmare was the people that had been falling. In the place of his parents, uncle, aunt and cousin, which were the normal subjects of these nightmares, was the team, Batman, Alfred and Barbara. His new family.

They had each lined up in the old circus tent, on the platform for the trapeze, taken a deep bow and leapt off towards the increasingly far away ground. Before and as they fell they told him how worthless and stupid he was. They told him that he was bringing the team down, how terrible a hero and person he was. How he should just join his family and fall to his death, that way no would have to deal with him.

Yeah, not a very nice dream. Which probably explains why upon finally being woken up by the team (they had been trying for several minutes to no success), he leapt into the closest person's arms, which just so happened to be Wally's. He squeezed his eyes shut until colours swirled in his vision, trying to get rid of the images of his team falling.

"Hey Rob, are you okay?" Wally asked holding onto his brother tightly in a comforting hug. Robin was too busy focusing on controlling is breathing and tears to be able to answer.

"I think it's pretty obvious he's not okay!" Artemis snapped, worried for her surrogate little brother.

"My friends, this is not a time to fight." Kaldur glared at Artemis and Wally with a well practised disappointed look.

"It's okay Robin. We're here for you. Do you want to talk about it?" M'gann asked kindly, moving to sit on the bed next to Wally as she put a comforting hand on Robin's back.

"You...you all fell...so did Batman and Agent A and Batgirl...and the voice were so mean...I don't bring the team down do I?" The little bird sobbed into Wally embrace (giving up his control on his tears). No one questioned who Agent A and Batgirl were, deciding it was a question for another time.

Surprisingly it was Connor who answered first. "Of course you're not, you help lift the team up and help each and all of us."

Everyone quickly voiced their agreement.

Wally passed Robin his sunglasses as he sat up wiping away the tears.

"I'm sorry I woke you up. I didn't meant to bother you by being so childish." Robin croaked in his tired voice.

"We do not mind, you are not bothering us. Besides you have been the one helping us with our own fears and nightmares. You are not acting childish, if anything you should act more like a child when you have a chance, as you still are technically a child." Kaldur replied in an honest and matter of fact way. It was shard to argue with Kaldur when he got like this.

Robin managed half a smile and said. "Hey old man. Remember I'm still your senior when it comes to being a hero."

And with that the tension was dissolved and everyone gave a little laugh.

No one mentioned it the next morning when they awoke to find that they had all fallen asleep in a massive cuddle pile, taking comfort in their new found family.

And for once no one had a nightmare.