[Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans... yet...]
CHAPTER ONE - TRYPANOPHOBIA
Robin sighed, running his hands through his wet hair as he searched another café in Jump City for his friend. It had been two hours now and there was no sign of Raven anywhere. Robin contacted the others only to discover that their searches had been just as unsuccessful as his. He was beginning to get annoyed, worried about the safety of the dark bird.
'Where the hell is she?' he thought, walking down the road ignoring the stares of the citizens of the city he protected, as he continued on his way. He thought back to earlier that morning, and the fear that overtook Raven's calm demeanour as he broke the news to his team.
On entering the common room area of Titans Tower, Robin was greeted with a regular sight. Starfire was sitting on the sofa, completely concentrated on a documentary about ducks, giggling whenever one quacked. Beast Boy and Cyborg were arguing in the kitchen (as usual) about meat and tofu. Raven was floating by the huge windows that boasted beautiful coastal views of the surrounding waters that guarded their home, a large leather book in her hands and her eyes concentrated on every word as Robin observed them scale down each line, her fingers delicately turning the page. He almost hated the ruin the scene before me, but he had an announcment to make.
"Everyone, please can you gather on the sofas. I have something I need to say."
Upon hearing Robin's imperative, Starfire turned off the documentary, Cyborg and Beast Boy ceased their argument and Raven closed her book. A moment later they were all on the sofas, eagerly waiting to hear what Robin had to tell them.
"Right then, I had a phone call from the doctors this morning saying we are all overdue for some vaccinations so I've booked us an appointment for two o'clock, so all have a good meal and be ready to leave at half one."
Starfire nodded, understanding that a vaccination wasn't dangerous and none of them were in danger. On hearing the word 'doctors' she had feared that one of them was nursing an ailment or injury. Luckily she had watched a television show about injections a few weeks prior. Cyborg did the same, casually leaning back into the comfort of the sofa as he nodded in reply. "Cool". Beast Boy however was a bit more anxious.
"Dude! What for? Are we under threat of a panda-demic flesh eating virus?!"
Robin and Cyborg went silent on hearing the question, and then they both burst out laughing. On seeing the seriousness of Beast Boy's face, as well as the slight confusion and annoyance at being laughed at, they slowly calmed down (and by slowly I mean really slowly). The boys finally gained their composure, but Cyborg had a tears of laughter in his eyes.
"I think you mean pandemic Grass Stain, and of course not. They're probably just routine shots, right Rob?"
"Right. Tetanus, Polio, stuff like that. Nothing big Beast Boy so don't worry." Robin replied, bouncing off Cyborg's answer. Beast Boy sighed in relief before reaching over and grabbing a Gamestation controller off the floor.
"Want a game Cy?" he asked his half-mechanical friend.
Cyborg however wasn't paying attention to his green friend. Next to him, Raven was sitting stiff as a board, breathing slightly faster than usual. His sensors also told him that her heart rate had increased by a few beats a minute.
"Rae? You okay?" he asked, nudging the empath.
Robin turned to look at Raven and didn't like what he saw. She was pale, even for her and had perspiration on her forehead even though it was a cool autumn morning. He moved closer to her and waved a hand in front of her face, to which she didn't respond. He knelt down on the floor in front of the sorceress and placed his hands on her shoulders, hoping to gain her attention.
"Raven, look at me." Robin said softly, shaking her shoulders.
Raven could hear a voice, but she couldn't tell who it belonged to as the sound of her breathing drowned it out. Her whole body felt heavy but her head felt light as a feather as she swayed in a sea of nausea and dizziness. She felt herself falling forward.
"Woah!" Cyborg and Robin exclaimed at the same time, catching Raven before she fell off the sofa. Cyborg pulled her against his cool chest, making sure she was okay. Beast Boy and Starfire watched on, worried.
Raven's eyes fluttered open slightly, and she moaned, gaining some consciousness after blacking out. Her vision was blurry but she was aware that Robin was near her from the patches of green, red and yellow in front of her.
"Raven, I want you to squeeze my hand if you can hear me, okay?" Robin instructed calmly, holding Raven's hand and waiting for a response. Instead, however, he watched as Raven was surrounded by black energy, and before he could blink she was gone.
That was at eleven this morning, and now it was one o'clock and she hadn't been seen since. After the initial shock of her disappearance, the Titans all evacuated the Tower and flew or drove off in different directions to find Raven. They needed to be at the doctor's soon and Robin didn't want to be late for their appointments. However his concern for his friend's well-being overshadowed this, after all it wasn't everyday that Raven blacked out.
Robin was pulled out of his thoughts by his communicator ringing. It was Cyborg and he had a smile on his face, which was a good sign in the leader's eyes.
"Robin here."
"Hey, I've locked onto Raven's genetic signature and she's about a mile east of your location."
"Great, I'll go check on her while you get BB and Star to the doctors. No sense in all of us being late."
"Will do. Bring our girl back safely." Cyborg smiled as he said the last part in a serious voice, disconnecting the call and starting to contact the others.
Elsewhere, Robin was running in the direction that Raven was. Just as Cyborg as said, after a mile he saw Raven, in an old abandoned park. She was sitting on a swing which was gently being pulled backwards and forwards by the autumn breeze. Robin could only see the back of her, but he could tell she was scared. She looked exactly the same way that she did when her fear was unleashed and the Tower was overrun by shadows last year; deflated, shaky, broken. He approached her trembling form and sat on the discarded swing next to her. He glanced at the girl's face where he saw tear streaked cherry coloured cheeks and puffy eyes. She looked awful, compared to her usual composed self.
"I have known you for four years now, and the only times I've ever seen you cry are when Malchior hurt you and Trigon destroyed the Earth and even then that was just one or two tears."
Raven wiped away the tears that were once again rolling down her face as she recalled the memories that Robin just described. Those were two of the worst times of her life, but to be perfectly honest she would rather relive those horrible experiences a hundred times over than prepare herself for what would be happening in the next few hours. She avoided Robin's gaze as he continued.
"And I also know that you like to keep things to your self, but when one of my best friends and team mates blacks out randomly I need to know what's wrong."
Great, now he was guilt-tripping her. Raven finally looked at him and she could feel and see the concern radiating off of him. He reached over and grasped her shoulder, giving it a quick squeeze.
"Is it something to do with your powers? Have you not been eating properly? Insomnia?" Robin urged, wanting to know the answer to the question.
"It's nothing like that Robin, it's not important." Raven said softly.
"You passed out! I consider that to be pretty important!"
"Robin, please."
"Look, we're going to the doctors anyway so I can ask him to give you a blood test or something to make sure you're… Raven!"
Raven was no longer sitting on the swing, but instead lying on the grass next to it. Robin leapt over to her and checked her pulse and saw that she was breathing lightly and slowly. He picked her up and carefully placed her in his lap, shaking her shoulder and saying her name. After two minutes Raven's eyes fluttered open and she groaned as a wave of nausea plagued her. She turned to her side and vomited on the grass, only vaguely aware that someone was holding her hair up and soothingly rubbing her back. After she had thrown up the contents of her stomach, Robin helped her sit up and supported her as she swayed.
"You okay?"
Raven merely nodded in reply, leaning back against Robin to gain some comfort. Her head was banging and her mouth tasted of vomit.
"You sure don't look okay Rae. I really think you should see the doctor after the vaccin-"
"Don't say that word!"
"What word?" Robin asked in confusion, surprised by desperation in Raven's usually stoic voice. "Vaccin-"
"Robin! Please just shut up!"
Finally, something clicked in Robin's head. 'Blood test', 'vaccinations', 'injections'. Trigger words. He recalled uncomfortable memories of when Starfire was in the medical wing with a dislocated shoulder and Cyborg administered some painkillers via syringe. Raven had turned away and eventually left the room when Starfire whined at the weird sensation of a needle breaking her skin. 'Shit.'
"You're scared of needles?"
Robin watched as Raven shivered against him, took a deep breath and then breathed it out. She nodded, confirming his suspicions.
"I can't even think about a needle otherwise I feel faint."
Robin reached round and gave her a hug, knowing that his best friend needed the comfort. Raven leaned into the embrace, which was broken when Robin's communicator rang. A message from Cyborg appeared on the screen asking where they were. It was quarter to two and the birds were expected at the surgery in fifteen minutes.
"Raven-"
"-I can't have the injections! I can't! I-" she said, repeating the negative statement like her own personal mantra. She was starting to wheeze slightly as the breaths she took didn't satisfy her body's panicking needs. Her throat felt tight as she began to hyperventilate.
Robin stopped hugging her, and sat in front of her staying as calm as he could.
"You need to calm down. Take deep breathes in and out, in and out" Robin instructed, breathing along with her, secretly relieved when her breathing became more regular.
"Ok then, I understand that you're afraid, but we'll all be here for you and it will all be over before you know it." He smiled.
"I can't Robin", she said stressing the word 'can't'. "Give me the injections when I'm asleep or whatever but I will make the doctors life a living hell if I enter the surgery! I can't think about them let alone see them and be around them! Please, as my friend, don't make me go!"
Robin was rather taken aback by the negative passion underlying in her voice. At the moment she reminded him of the young girl he saved when the world ended, and he had never hoped to see Raven like that again. He understood that she was scared but he knew he would never be able to empathise with the sorceress. Phobias were different for each person but what he did know was that Raven, being the stubborn girl that she was, would not enter the doctors surgery unless unconscious on a stretcher.
"You do realise that I would never force you to go anywhere, right? You're eighteen years old and capable of making your own mind up about things like this. So if you don't want the injections today then you don't have to get them today."
At his words Raven calmed down, happy that he understood how difficult the situation was for her. That is, until the next sentence left his mouth.
"But you will need them eventually, unless you'd rather die from tetanus."
Raven was actually considering that concept. Is death really so bad compared to a needle? She never realised that Robin was giving her a menacing glare. "Don't even joke with me Rae because I know that you're not that stupid, phobia or not."
"Fear makes you do funny things."
"Death is funny?" he asked rhetorically. "Maybe I do give you too much credit."
Raven lowered her eyes to the grass, which is suddenly found extremely interesting. Sighing, she decided to give in before her and Robin had a small fallout. "Okay", she sighed. "But I'd have to be asleep."
"I'll get Cyborg to do them one day this week, and I won't tell you the day so you don't have another panic attack. It'll be fine." He smiled, standing up and extending a hand to her, which she gratefully accepted. Standing, she wrapped her arms around her leader, embracing him in a loving hug. "Thank you." She said into his shoulder before letting him go.
"No problem", he said, looking down at his watch and seeing it was two minutes till his appointment. "Don't suppose you mind teleporting me to the surgery?"
"No problem", she smirked to which Robin smirked in return while allowing a small laugh to escape his lips. The birds were surrounded in black energy and a second later they landed right outside the surgery. Robin saw through the window into the waiting room and he could see the other Titans sitting there. He turned back to Raven.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked, not wanting to leave her to go home alone if she wasn't up to it. Raven nodded in reply. "Go on, you're gonna be late", she urged. Robin nodded, saying bye and walking into the surgery. Raven stayed outside for a minute, watching as Robin checked in with the receptionist before joining his teammates in the waiting room. He pulled Cyborg to one side, having a quiet word with him about Raven being trypanophobic. Her eyes locked with Cyborg's as he looked outside to see if she was ok, then the half human-half robot teenager turned back to his leader, nodding. A second later, a young nurse called the Titans through and Raven watched as her friends left the waiting room and followed the nurse to do the one thing she was too scared to even think about.
She shivered again, happy that she wasn't there. Raven wished that her phobia didn't rule her life, but psychologically she knew she would always be scared of needles. After all, everyone was scared of something. And with that thought in her head, she teleported herself back to the Tower, more specifically her room, and fell asleep in her bed where her dreams were needle free.
About an hour later, the others returned home all nursing numb arms. Starfire was covered in stickers while Beast Boy carried several lollypops, not caring that people may consider them too old to receive treats for 'being brave' from the doctor. While they enjoyed their treats, Cyborg and Robin walked to Raven's room. They knocked quietly just in case she was awake, but Robin had a feeling that she'd be asleep after the morning's strenuous events. No one answered, so Cyborg slowly opened the door and led the way into the darkness of Raven's sanctum.
She looked so peaceful and care-free as she slept and she was completely unaware that Cyborg had just given her four injections. The boys smiled at each other and left Raven to rest.
Raven awakened sometime in the late evening. She sat up and stretched, turning around to check the time on the clock on her bedside table. Next to the clock was a steaming hot mug of herbal tea and a note. She smiled as she read the words that one of her friends had written.
All done :) and now you have nothing to worry about… x
Well, there you have it! Chapter one is done and dusted. I was inspired to write this because I am trypanophobic and thought it would be a nice idea to make Raven one too. In the next chapter find out what Beast Boy fears the most. Thanks for reading =D