Yes I am still aware I must update 'Truths' and really, I am working on it...My muse has demanded that I write a few other things at the moment and this is the start of one of them. Speedy/Rae...just because I needed to do this :)

Edit: reposted to correct a few small errors :)

Disclaimer: I don't own them...but, hey Speedy or Nightwing if you are reading...I can offer you redemption wink wink :P

The silence of the range was shattered only by the whistle and pop of his arrows as they flew the distance to hit dead center of the target. His mind was as still as the range around him. He was here to shove off the last obstacle of his return to being the hero he used to be and his final step out of the drug induced hell he had placed himself into for too long.

He could still hit what he aimed at and after a week his hands and arms no longer trembled and ached under the strain of the bow. This was also one of the few places that his mind was able to remain clear of the desperate cravings that still flooded his body and interrupted his sleep.

He smelled her before he saw her, her scent wafting over his senses like a healing balm. Not that she had been trying to hide her presence as she approached.

"Coming to check up on the addict Raven?" His voice was harsh and he didn't look at her as he let another arrow fly to the target. Guilt swamped him for his fall into drugs and crime, he couldn't seem to stop taking it out on those closest to him, which was another reason he was alone on the archery range.

"I see no reason to check up on an addict." Raven's tone was the same melancholy monotone it had always been and for some reason the unchanged quality of it soothed his anger. "I came down to welcome back a Titan and make sure he received his communicator." She held out the small device to him.

"So Robin really is going to let me come back," Amazement colored his tone as he finally turned to look at her and he took the communicator from her, turning the item over in his hands, marveling at how much joy he could get from such a simple item.

Looking up at her his breath caught slightly, he hadn't been around her much since his return and the changes that time had wrought were evident in her figure and clothing. She wore a pair of dark jeans and leather boots that ended below her knee, clinging to her calves; a deep blue sweater set off the purple in her eyes and the paleness of her skin, rising and showing a span of pale skin whenever she motioned with her hands or shrugged her shoulders. Her hair glinted like a river of amethysts in the sun.

She was the vision of a modern goddess and when she had held out the communicator she seemed to be offering him redemption for his sins.

"Robin has made his own share of mistakes that have endangered the team and himself, why should you be any different? Why should you not be given the same chance to re-prove yourself?" Raven had always had the ability to speak the brutal truth in a way that stunned him, and today was no different. "I believe that we can make you again what you were meant to be, a hero and a Titan."

"Why are you really here Raven? You never seemed to care before." He narrowed his eyes behind his mask, suddenly curious of the dark witch of whom he knew very little beyond the basics.

"You are a friend and a teammate." Her reply was simple, but he could see there was something hidden behind her words. "I have always cared."

"I never noticed before."

"Perhaps that was your problem," She shrugged her shoulders and his eyes were drawn to the flesh that winked at him, before he forced his gaze back to her face. "You always thought you were alone because you never stopped to notice what was right in front of you." She turned to leave, but stopped when he reached out and touched her shoulder.

"How did you know I felt alone?" He shouldn't have been amazed at her perceptions, she was an empath after all, but he had never spent much time around her without the others to buffer their encounters.

"You shout," Raven looked at him over her shoulder, not moving out from under his hand and at his look of confusion she went further in her explanation. "You may think you have control of your emotions, but they are louder than anyone else I have ever met. Simply put you shout, even in a room full of people I can hear you over everyone else. It was quite painful at first." She drew her lips into a wry smile at the memory.

"Oh," He paused, trying to think of something else to say, not wanting to lose the contact he now had with her. "So you can feel everything I do?"

"Not so much anymore, I learned to shut off the conduit to your emotions so they wouldn't overwhelm me and you have somewhere along the way learned a certain amount of control."

"Sorry it was so bad in the beginning, you should have told me I might have been able to do something about it." He let go of her shoulder and ran a hand through his red hair, both were a little surprised at the regret that washed through them at the loss of touch.

"It wasn't so bad," She turned all the way back to face him and smiled a little, "It was no worse than the first few months of the bond I created with Robin, now that was difficult."

"A bond huh?" He wasn't sure why the idea of her having a bond with Robin bothered him now, he had known about it since he had joined the Titans all those years ago.

"We've learned to live with it," She smirked at him, "It isn't always pleasant when he decides to fall in love with someone, but I have learned to block out most of his emotion."

"You love him?" It wasn't what he had meant to say and he didn't really know why the world seemed to hinge on her answer.

"Robin," She laughed suddenly and the sound caused a heat to start in the pit of Speedy's stomach. "No, I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Why is it so important to you?" Her laughter had stopped and now she regarded him with eyebrows raised in question, her eyes full of a hidden knowledge that staggered him.

"I don't know," He said, glancing behind her in the direction of the tower.

"When you figure it out, come and find me." She replied and turned, heading back to the tower.

She ignored his stunned shout of her name, a secret smile playing across her lips.

"Now what the hell was that all about?" Speedy asked himself, turning back to the target and firing a few more arrows at it. He tried to clear his mind again, but all he could think about was the scent of Raven and that thin span of flesh that had winked at him through out their conversation.