EDIT: (May 1, 2006) Just changed two lines total in the whole thing. One that had been bothering me and I made it flow a little better, I think and the other something that I didn't realize made no sense until I re-read it after it had been posted and then because I was lazy, I hoped no one would notice. Course, we wouldn't be fanfic fans if we weren't anal about our fandoms, and someone noticed. (Thanks, Simply Myself for pointing that out...) So that was fixed too. Enjoy. (And I hope this doesn't alert everyone or I'll be attacked with pitchforks and sticks for sure if everyone thinks it's a new chapter and it isn't...:frown: )

A/N: So, I didn't mean for this one to come out just yet. I had been trying to work on the next installment of It Only Takes A Moment, but I started reading a previous version I had for this chapter that I wrote a couple of weeks ago, and I realized it was all wrong, all the wrong pov anyway, so I sudden heard Robin's voice and ta-da! This was born. I'm still trying with the next moment and I can tell you, I've pretty much gone hard headed and decided it's going to be Cy's Say if it kills me. (Title, as always, subject to change.) So, look for that sometime...eh...soon?

Disclaimer: Blah, blah: Characters portrayed are not mine. Blahdibie-blah, no money made from the production or posting of this fic, blah-blah-blah...

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Instinct 2: Impulse
Chapter 3: Knowing

"I know you'll catch me..."
- Fall In The Light, Lori Carson

The two weeks after the full moon were hell.

From one moment to the next, they had been hit with wave after wave of crime of all sorts: the super villainous kind and the petty thievery kind intermingled to make for two weeks of consistent, near exhausting work.

And throughout it all, Robin and Raven were either too tired or too busy to speak, much less to do anything together more enterprising than look at each other.

He still wanted her. Hell, every moment that wasn't occupied with missions or villains was full of her. But considering those moments were confined to the few seconds before he gave in to an exhausted sleep, there was nothing he could do about it, except dream about her.

And he knew she wanted him too. It was there in the surprised looks when they chanced to touch, as if there were a live electrical wire running between them that shocked them both whenever her skin came across his.

For two weeks, he dreamt about her, knowing that there were many questions he needed to ask her, many things they promised to talk about, and that they would as soon as he had sated that damn need to feel her pressed against him.

For two weeks, he glanced at her and knew she was remembering the same night he was.

For those grueling two weeks, the one thing that kept his spirits up was knowing that when rest came, and it always did, he'd be able to take it locked in her embrace. Some part of him flinched at that thought. Because he knew that this thing between him and Raven was based on need and desire and partly on convenience. They were good together. But even while he told himself that night that it was just about the sex, he knew it wasn't. He knew it was about how she helped fill another need inside him altogether separate from the physical. He wouldn't crave her scent so damn badly if it were just about the sex, would he? And that was what scared the hell out of him. That was what made that small little part in his head flinch and want to stop and analyze and worry the thing to death until he knew each and every feeling associated with it as intimately as he had learned the planes of Raven's body.

But he didn't have the time to do that, did he?

He had villains to fight and people to assure and reports to file and Titans to train.

He didn't treat her any different than he normally did and he was minimally proud of that. Of course, the only reason he didn't treat her any different was because he had always been watchful and protective of her, hadn't he? In the many, many battles that came during those arduous two weeks, he was only as conscious of her as he had ever been and when he grappled his way across several buildings to catch her when she was flicked away from Plasmus as if she were no more than a pesky fly, no one thought anything about it because it was something he would always do. And no one saw the brief flicker of emotion in her eyes when she came to in his arms anyway.

No one saw her hand trail across his arm as she stood and no one heard the emotion in her brief, "Thanks" as she flew back into the fight. And no one could've interpreted the smile on his face even if they had seen it, which they didn't, of course.

At the beginning of the third week, however, everything changed.

For starters, they'd gotten to bed the night before at a relatively decent hour and their dreams hadn't been interrupted by the blaring of their alarm. They had woken up to a quiet Tower, too, and there were no urgent messages pressing for their attention, no calls for immediate response...the city was finally quiet and drowsy and giving them a reprieve.

Raven had walked in on Robin as he sat at the Titan Computer, checking for disturbances, with a coffee cup in one hand. She couldn't see his eyes, but she knew, instinctively, that like the rest of them, he had slept well for the first time since the crime spree had started.

"Looks like it's over..." Robin announced as she walked behind him into the kitchen.

"For now," she conceded, pouring hot water from the kettle into a mug for her tea.

Turning from the computer, Robin watched her approach and fought back the impulsive desire to reach out for her. It was very difficult, but if he touched her, he knew the last thing on his mind would be talking or questions he knew had to be answered. And thanks to his full night of sleep, he'd finally had more than a fleeting few seconds to consider what had happened between him and Raven. He hadn't figured it all out, but he had come up with some very serious questions he would like answered. Not that her answers would prevent him from wanting to continue their explorations of the limits and extents of her control, but he had the feeling there was something very important he was missing. So, he met her gaze and waited until she had taken her first sip of tea before he spoke,"We need to talk."

She nodded, slowly. There was something that flashed across her eyes, something that might've been fear or uncertainty and maybe even protectiveness, but it was gone too quickly for him to tell for sure. "Yes, I suppose we do," she conceded, and if Raven would've done emotions, he might be tempted to believe there was an edge of sadness there.

He frowned, "Do you regret..." he started, but she didn't let him finish.

"No," she said succinctly. She took a moment to think about it, and he waited, knowing instinctively something else was coming. He waited to hear the 'but', and was surprised when she didn't start that way at all. "No matter what happens, I won't ever regret it," she finished, sipping from her cup as if to keep herself from saying anything more. Above the rim of the mug, she watched him, waiting.

"I don't either," he agreed, offering her a slight smile. "The truth is, we've been so busy these passed weeks, I haven't barely had a time to think about it, but..." he glanced at her, "I have a lot of questions about..." he trailed off, unsure how to continue. She raised a brow, plainly surprised. "...the situation, I guess."

She looked almost relieved. She walked to the sofas and sat down. "So, ask," she said simply, curling her legs under her on the green cushions.

He didn't know exactly what his first question would be, it wasn't everyday that Raven was so open to answering his questions, but he opened his mouth anyway, knowing that one of the many he had pondered in the rare moments he'd had to think about something other than work would come to him.

Unfortunately, his intention was drowned out by the loud blare of their alarm and both of them were instantly on alert.

"Shit," he said with feeling, turning back to the computer.

"So much for rest," Raven intoned as she walked to stand at his elbow, watching the screen for information.

Within moments, they knew that Johnny Rancid had attacked the local Diamond Exchange and the common room was flooded by the presence of their fellow Titans. Less than ten minutes later, they were out of the Tower, and racing toward another battle.

Some part of Robin, however, was still focused on the conversation he and Raven almost had, and so it was understandable that when Rancid's pet robot dog caught Raven's cloak in his massive incisors and shook, something inside Robin snapped, and by the time the dog had tossed Raven hurtling toward the brick building behind her, everything had come crashing into perfect clarity around him. He knew that she was going too fast to stop herself from hitting the building, he knew none of them were close enough to help her and he knew she was too disoriented from the rough shaking the dog had given her to help herself. But most importantly, with the startling clarity of an epiphany, he didn't even need to see the fear in her eyes or the way she frantically curled herself into a fetal position in a desperate attempt to take the blunt of the hit to her body on her back to realize the what the something he had felt he was missing all these weeks might've been.

He reached her in time to stop her from hitting the ground, but by that time, he didn't need to see the look in her eyes for him to realize that despite her attempts to protect it, the force of that blow just might have killed the baby she might have been carrying.

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A/N: Dum-dum-duuuummmmmm! The plot thickens, eh, mes amies? (Why did I just sound like Pepe Le Pieu in my head:shrugs:) Remember to review! It's your reviews that has kept this story going so far.

Thanks: As always, up on the emsscraps journal. If you ask a question or something in your review, be sure to check out my responses cause I always answer any question I'm asked. (Unless I kinda get lost in my own tangents and I don't realize I've skipped over answering it, but if you remind me, I'll answer it, I promise!)