Chapter Text
Dick wakes to someone whimpering.
It’s not an uncommon occurrence, these days. Catherine and Jason are prone to nightmares, but Dick knows how to soothe them.
Blearily, he rises up onto his elbows, patting at the blankets. Jason’s bony shoulder meets his hand, and the pup shivers, making a low, mournful noise that tugs right at Dick’s heartstrings.
“Shh, puppy,” he hums, imitating the sing-song his mother used to use whenever Dick was sad. “everything’s okay.”
He rubs scent on the pup’s shoulder, pulling Jason close to his chest, and settles down, ready to go back to sleep.
Something smells wrong.
Dick’s eyes snap open.
The furs smell like heat. Not his own heat; that comes in winter, it must be—
There’s a hollow in the furs, one that smells of fresh bread and spring flowers.
Catherine is gone.
As close to Dick’s neck as he is, Jason scents the worry immediately, and he leaps up, tearing himself out of Dick’s arms, looking around wildly.
“Mama?”
“It’s okay,” Dick said, trying to project calming scent into the air, though the void in their nest is upsetting him, too. “She might have gone to get some water.”
She could have woken him up, could have asked. But she was still so scared all the time, still acted like she didn’t have a pack, even though they were right there.
Jason, though, had smelled the heat-scent by now, and he was scrambling out of the nest.
“MAMA!” the pup screamed, and bolted for the door. Dick scrambled after him, tripping over his feet as Jason burst out into the hall.
Dick expected Jason to run towards the kitchen. He was not expecting the pup to burst into Bruce’s room, across the hall, and launch himself onto the bed with an earsplitting scream.
“you said you wouldn’t hurt mama!” Jason is screaming, kneeling over Bruce’s face, tiny hands around his throat. Dick lunges forward—Jason is his little brother, his pack, but Bruce is his dad—and hails Jason off. The pup snarls, biting him, and Dick nearly drops him because what in the—
Oh.
Catherine’s here. Smelling of terror and heat. In Bruce’s bed.
Dick’s instincts are a confused, uncertain jumble of protect mama and trust alpha and Bruce wouldn’t.
Because he wouldn’t, would he? Sure, he’d claimed Catherine and Jason, fighting their alpha to protect Dick, but Catherine was still so scared, Bruce would smell that, he wouldn’t—
He tries to scent the air, subtly, but he can’t smell anything right now past Jason, who is reeking of terror and rage.
Bruce is standing, out of bed, holding his hands up towards Jason in a gesture of surrender.
“I didn’t hurt your mama,” he says. “I promise, Jay. I—”
“Liar!” Jason screams, a puppy scream that’s ugly and wet and utterly heartbreaking. “you’re a liar! You hurt her, I’m gonna kill you!”
He’s struggling in Dick’s arms, and there and bruises the shape of tiny fingers darkening on Bruce’s neck, and Dick doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know what to do.
“Jason, shh!”
Catherine is up, suddenly between Jason and Bruce. “Shh, sweetheart,” she says, brushing a hand over Jason’s face, “I’m fine. Honey, I’m fine.” She looks up at Dick, and her eyes are wide, scared.
“Go,” she hisses at him, insistent and maternal enough that Dick takes a step towards the door before he realizes what he’s doing, and stops.
Catherine is already turning back towards Bruce, baring her throat, almost crouching a little.
“Alpha, I’m sorry, he’s just scared,” she said. “he didn’t mean it. Please don’t kill him, please, he’s not a threat, he won’t do it again—”
“Kill him?” Dick interjects, voice cracking. “Bruce wouldn’t—”
She turns back to him, eyes wild. “Go!” she hisses, again.
“Catherine,” Bruce rumbles, a deep alpha tone that immediately settles Dick’s racing heart. Bruce is on his knees, easing himself closer to her, but folded in on himself, as unthreatening as he can be. His head is tilted back, baring his neck in a gesture of pack submission.
Dick’s only seen Bruce do this once before. With Dick, when he was young and newly presented and oh so scared of the giant alpha who’d taken him in.
Jason even stills his struggling, staring in disbelief.
See, Dick wants to shout. See, he’s good! I told you he’s good!
“I would never kill Jason. I will never hurt him, or you,” Bruce says, slow and calm and gentle. “You’re both my pack. Mine to protect, and mine to care for. Not mine to hurt. Never, ever mine to hurt.”
Catherine is standing over Bruce, and she’s still trembling, a little. Still clearly frightened, though also confused, now.
“but he—” she starts. Stops again.
“Jason was protecting you,” Bruce says. He looks at Jason, nodding to the boy. “It’s good to protect your pack,” he says. “I promised, Jay. I’ll never hurt you. Either of you.”
In Dick’s arms, Jay squirms to be let down, and Dick sets him on the floor. The pup runs to Catherine, clinging to her side.
“I’m sorry!” he says, tearful. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”
“shh, pup,” Bruce says, still kneeling awkwardly on the floor, and Dick has finally had enough. His pack, so careful around each other. He walks forward, wrapping an arm around Catherine and tugging Bruce forward, into the cuddle pile he’s been craving ever since their pack got bigger.
“Nest,” he insists. Over his head, he knows that Bruce is checking with Catherine, making sure she’s not still terrified, but soon enough, they’re all being picked up in Bruce’s arms, carried across the hall, where Catherine can spend her heat being pampered and cuddled and made safe. It’ll smell like contentment and love and family for days.
Dick can’t wait.