Cassandra Cain Head Cannons

Panic Attacks

Occasionally, all at once, all of Cass' repressed fears and feelings will come barreling out in such a way that it forces a panic attack. Sometimes it's triggered by some sensory detail that reminds her of her time as an assassin, and sometimes it isn't brought on by anything at all. It usually starts with an overwhelmed feeling, and then she feels tears pricking behind her eyes, and then she can't breathe and sometimes the whole room starts spinning until the ground is the only thing she can see. She's usually able to move herself in the first stages, so she doesn't fall until she's by herself, and that usually works. Except for that one time Jason finds her.

She hadn't fallen to the ground yet, but her breathing had already labored and she was pretty sure she was crying. It was hard to keep track of such things with the room spinning the way it was. Nobody else was home--or at least in the kitchen--so she didn't think to move herself. Jason walked in and immediately recognized what was going on, approaching her and talking her through it so as to keep it from getting worse.

Once she was calmed down, he took her back up to her bedroom and they spent the rest of the day watching Spider-Man cartoons while cuddled together under a blanket. When she asked him about it the next day, he told her that he got panic attacks sometimes too, ever since he woke up buried under six feet of dirt and had to claw his way up to the surface.

Nobody had noticed his symptoms, either.