Customary Disclaimer The author in no way shape or form owns the places or characters used in the following written work, and is in no way profiting off of their use in any way except when concerning his own ego. This story, and the situations depicted in it, is entirely for entertainment purposes for those that may stumble upon it.


Chapter 2 Out of Reach

Raven hated many things in the world; though she was loathe to admit it to anyone. She preferred to stick with her passive expression and mysterious persona when she could help it, but she could easily remember numerous occasions that she could not remain quiet when a certain teammate of hers added something else to the list of things she hated. Raven hated ill thought-out attempts at humor. She hated video games. She hated the texture of tofu, but the taste was not too terrible though she would never admit it out loud.

She hated the city itself, which most other heroes would think odd. The city was too big for her taste, and the air was far too polluted. No one knew it but Raven was a bit of an environmentalist. She had never reached "Tree-hugging" level, nor did she feel the need to hug anything that was not sentient, but she still cared. She hated the fact that most criminals always seemed to pick the biggest, smoggiest, most industrialized parts of the city to build their evil lairs in. She hated that she still coughed herself to sleep because of it sometimes.

Yes, there were many things Raven Roth hated in the world, but there was one thing that she hated the most. It was something dark, something unnatural, something evil. It was unfortunate for her that this very something now gripped her tightly in its clutches. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. It would find her. It had already claimed the entirety of the tower, and now it had come to claim her.

"You having a good time?" Garth, or Aqualad as he went by in the field, asked Raven politely as he swayed to the loud music in the background.

Raven hated parties, especially those of this magnitude. Individually, they were fine, but now… there were just far too many people around for her comfort.

Aqualad was met with only a disinterested stare from Raven. "Right…" He quickly scanned the room for a way out. "I'm going to go," his voice trailed off as he failed to find a suitable distraction. Instead, he left it at that and did his best to dance back into the center of the room with the other guests without looking like a complete idiot. Raven was not one to engage in small talk with just anyone, no matter how ridiculously attractive the guy was.

The half demon sighed as she slowly looked around the room in boredom. Today was Kori and Richard's surprise engagement party (Victor's doing), and everyone was here. The tower was filled to the brim with friends and relatives (mostly Starfire's) of the lucky couple, and Raven could not help but feel uncomfortable. it was not that she was not happy for her friends, she was. It was just that the had been so obvious for the longest time and that everyone knew the engagement was coming long before the couple even did. It was like it was old news to Raven, and a party did not seem relatively necessary to her.

She supposed that, on some level, the party was Victor's last laugh at Richard for waiting so long in both getting together and popping the question. When the newly engaged couple arrived back at the tower, Nightwing and Starfire were instantly greeted by a horde of people, above which hung a banner that read: They're finally engaged! raven could clearly hear Nightwing swear under his breath and grumble something along the lines of never confiding in Cyborg again, though Starfire was too caught up in the bliss of the party to notice.

Of course, Raven attempted escape back into her room shortly after, but something always held her back. Usually, it was a random charge and hug from Kori, which greatly contributed to her day getting worse and worse. Other times, she was lucky enough that someone felt the need to run up and talk to her just as she was about to walkout the door. It was odd, and she expected foul play. She would not put it past Cyborg to do something drastic like bribe the honoraries into keeping her tethered to the party. Something like that was usually Garfield's territory, but he would have taken it upon himself rather than hire others to do his dirty work.

"Hey Rae," an all too friendly voice spoke as the owner leaned against the wall beside her. Speak of the devil.

Raven sighed as she gave Changeling a bored look. She had finally convinced Garfield to change his code name to something less ridiculous. Now, if only she could get him to stop telling jokes, but raven reveled in whatever small victories she could achieve.

"You're not having fun are you?" Changeling asked with his ever present smile on his face. No, she took that back. That smile was only there whenever he was talking to her. His other smiles were different. She wondered why that was, and why she had even bothered to notice.

"I don't do-"

"Yeah, yeah," Gar waved his hand dismissively. "You don't do fun." Raven glared, but he continued. "I've heard that one before, and we both know that's not true. I'm willing to bet you somehow consider reading quietly fun. You're not into this loud, party type fun, but you do fun on some level."

If she was not mad at him for sounding so pompous, she would have been impressed. As it stood, however, she only intensified her glare. Garfield glared back, but playfully. Thus, another impromptu glaring contest began.

Somewhere along the line, Changeling had decided to return Raven's glares with a glare of his own, just to see if he could throw her off. The result was Gar not being able to keep a straight face and doubling over laughing. Unfortunately, from then on he thought that if he could ever outlast Raven, she would have a similar reaction. The score so far?

Garfield broke eye contact and cracked up laughing.

Raven remained undefeated.

"But seriously," Changeling continued the conversation after his laughter died down, "I have a point. You do consider reading fun. I bet you even enjoy meditating when it doesn't feel like a burden. No, you're definitely into more calm, down-to-earth types of fun. Am I right?"

Raven's glare lessened. He was catching on. It was funny how the person who could push her buttons the most was now showing that he had the beginnings of some insight into her life. She did not know whether she should be grateful or terrified of the fact.

"I'm right," Gar smirked in satisfaction, causing Raven's glare to return full force. She should have never have been as obvious as to lighten it in the first place.

"Overconfidence will be your downfall, Garfield," Raven grumbled, folding her arms over her chest. "Be glad it's Kori's day, otherwise you'd have been out a window at 'Rae.'"

"Maybe," Changeling chuckled to himself. "But then again, when was the last time you tossed me out a window, or even hung me from the ceiling or a wall for a while with your powers. Come to think of it," he rubbed the non existent facial hair on his chin in mock deliberation, "we don't argue much anymore either. Why is that?"

"You're imagining things. We argue plenty," Raven countered.

"No we don't," Gar denied, unknowingly walking into his teammate's trap.

"We're arguing now," the pale girl smirked in triumph upon seeing Gar falter, but hr victory was short lived.

Changeling pointed an accusing finger at Raven with laughter in his eyes. "You did that on purpose. That so doesn't count."

"Whatever," she waved her hand dismissively. "Just keep telling yourself that."

"I will!" He said oddly serious. "I'll say it so much that there won't be any doubt that we're becoming better friends, because we are." The laughter in his eyes vanished as he stared Raven down. She could not look away. "We're best friends, Rae."

Raven was taken aback. "Isn't that a bit extreme? I mean sure, we're friends, but everyone knows that you and Cyborg are best friends."

"Yea, but," he frowned, "I don't know. It's hard to explain. Cyborg's my best friend, but you… you're…"

"Creepy," Raven smirked at how the green Titan's eyes bulged.

"No!" He waved his hands defiantly. "I mean, yea. I mean, kind of... Sometimes. Gah!" He gave up with a smile. "Why do you have to be so good at that? You must love messing with me sometimes."

"You're absolutely right." Raven sighed in mock defeat. "How in the world does someone like you know me so well?"

"Trial and error," Changeling stated jokingly, earning a shove from the half demon.

~-~-~

AS much as Garfield was comforted by the fact that being able to hear what was going on around him still meant that he was not dead, he wished he was able to ignore it. It was an odd sensation, hearing complete strangers digging around in your own chest. The sounds would have given Beast boy nightmares if he was not currently living one. He was just thankful that he could not feel anything his body was being put though right now. That would have been just far too much to bear.

Thus, Gar was left with nothing else to do but listen intently to the doctors around him, searching for signs that the procedure was going well. Apart from a nurse quite verbally expressed her concern, or what is described in medical terms as 'freaked out,' about some of his inner organs having a slight shade of green to them as his skin did, the changeling thought that the procedure was going well for the most part. It was not long until the bullet was removed, his wound was removed, and his chest was stapled back together (Beast Boy thoroughly enjoyed the images his comatose mind came up for that one).

And then they were done, gone without a word. No "You're going to be okay, kid," or "Next time, try falling forward and not off a roof." Nothing. Beast Boy was left alone in silence. It was understandable, after all. No person would ever talk to an unconscious person in their right mind, let alone a doctor. It was silly to even think it, yet… some part of the changeling had hoped… had wished for some form of acknowledgement. There was none. Beast Boy, with only the soft beeps of the machines around him breaching the silence of the room to keep him company, fully grasped the situation for the first time. He was then left with a feeling he had tried his best to avoid ever since he had to watch his own parents die. Garfield felt completely and utterly alone, and it terrified him.

---

Morning could not come fast enough for the temporary denizens of Jump County hospital, most of whom had not slept at all. That fact held true for all of the Titans, save for Starfire who managed to cry herself to sleep. Nightwing comforted her as best he could as he always did. It was entirely normal for Kori to break down and weep whenever one of her friends. As part of race who embraced their emotions and displayed them proudly, it was hard for her not to. She loved her friends, every one of them, and hated whenever harm came their way. Yet, the day after her routine emotional outbursts, she always woke up refreshed and willing to do anything in her power to make her injured friend feel better.

Unfortunately, the remaining three Titans did not have that same luxury. Nightwing had observed how the others reacted, mostly because there was not much else to do in the dead of night sitting in the insanely uncomfortable hospital chairs.

Cyborg, by far seemed to be faring the worst. The concern for his best friend was painfully evident on the human side of his face. His brow was furrowed and a frown had not left his features ever since that nurse… scientist… whatever that woman was practically dragged the half metal man to the waiting rooms and forced them all to wait. Nightwing noted that his human eye was red. He had not been crying like Starfire. He just never blinked. Sometime in the night, he had stopped blinking and never started again. It did not take being brought up by the world's greatest detective to know why. Cyborg was so tired, he no longer trusted himself to have the willpower to open his eyes after blinking. He had to be awake whenever news of Beast Boy reached them. He had to.

As hard as he tried, Nightwing could not sympathize with his mechanical teammate. Richard had spent countless days without sleep before. He was used to it, but Cyborg certainly was not. Not with the end of his routine every day being a system-wide shutdown for at least six hours to recharge his main power source. He took that time to rest him human side as well, but right now, both sides were tired.

Raven was, as Nightwing expected, apparently doing well, though he never could quite tell with her. She was a mystery to him, one of the few he preferred to leave unsolved. He knew from watching her early quarrels with Beast Boy that she did not like it too much when people put the wrong puzzle piece in place. Nightwing was smart. He was not about to bite off more than he could chew. That was Garfield's job, and he seemed to enjoy it immensely. At one point in the night, Raven had felt his eyes on her and had turned to glare. Nightwing was oblivious to the things right in front of him at times, but even he could tell that her glare was hollow and put on for show. She was just as concerned as the rest of them, that much was certain.

As for Nightwing… he was not sure how he felt, or maybe he just did not want to dwell on it for too long. He was never one for deep introspection. It was always about the facts to him, never about how he felt about it. Sure, he was known to act on his emotions from time to time, but that was it. After things were said and done, he never bothered to think why he acted that way. Thus, he passed the time by going over the facts, never realizing that he was frantically searching his min for someone to blame.

When morning finally came, Sara found the Titans right where she had left them, causing a smile to form on across her face. It was obvious that the Titans cared for not only the city they were charged with protecting, but one another as well. It was one of the reasons why she volunteered to watch over them secretly. They were better than all the others, in her opinion. So many other groups of vigilantes came together merely because the added power helped them do their jobs more efficiently. Not the Titans. They were all the closest of friends. It was their greatest weakness, but also their greatest strength.

"Good morning, sunshines," Sara said teasingly as she walked over to the drowsy group of teens, idly flipping through pages on her clipboard. "I see the night has been good to at least one of you, at least. You three should learn from Starfire, there. At least she got some sleep."

"For your information," Raven deadpanned, though the two other conscious Titans recognized the deadly undertone in her voice, "Starfire cried herself to sleep in her grief last night. Her fragile emotional state could have been easily avoided if you or a member of your staff had bothered to give us regular updates on Beast By's condition. No such updates were offered." Raven's gaze was icy as she stared down the undercover S.T.A.R. labs employee. She had not been around for her official introduction of the Titans, but the impression she was giving now was not one that the empath appreciated. "I think what we can learn here is that you are highly inconsiderate of others' feelings, and that you owe m friend an apology when she wakes up."

Sara shot a sideways glance to Cyborg only to find that he was avoiding her gaze. They all felt that way, she realized furrowing her brow. "I told you yesterday that we have been prepared for something like this ever since we all took this position. We're not some group of random civilians. We're professionals. And even if we were regular doctors and nurses, you should respect our opinions and believe us when we tell you that everything is going to be okay."

"None of us doubt that you've been trained for this," Nightwing interjected, voice deep and groggy with sleep. "You're an employee of S.T.A.R. That alone commands a bit of respect. However, you may have the skills to work here, but you obviously haven't picked up the experience from doing the job. You would have known that that line never works, otherwise, especially when dealing with someone's family."

And there it was again. Even when they made her angry, Sara could not help but admire them. Maybe they did have a point. They were the closest thing each of them had to real family on Earth, anyway. She knew that… but she was undercover. Hospital policy dictated her action when dealing with civilians. Yet they were far from civilians. They were Titans, certainly the exception to the rule in most cases. Perhaps this was just another one of them. There were not many other patients that had to stay the night, anyway. No one would complain.

Sarah sighed. "Beast Boy was moved to a private room on the second floor an hour ago. Visiting hours don't start or another three hours," she relented suddenly finding an old coffee stain on the tile floor to be quite interesting, "but I suppose I could take you to see your friend now as long as you keep quiet." She still was not entirely convinced that she had been at fault at all in this situation, but the need to patch things over outweighed her own pride. This was the best she could offer.

"Fine," was all Nightwing said as he stood to his feet. The sounds of countless bones cracking echoed around the room, serving as proof that Nightwing had indeed not moved an inch throughout the night. Raven followed their leader's lead wordlessly, not even bothering to look at Sarah as she walked past, leaving Sarah alone with the unconscious princess and the half robot. They were still mad at her, though she could hardly blame them. In two mere confrontations, she had probably ruined their opinion of her. It was not until she felt an oddly comforting, cold hand on her shoulder that hope filler her again.

"It's not much," Cyborg said, giving the undercover scientist a small smile, "but it's a step in the right direction, Sarah. I'm proud of you." She looked at him quizzically. "I know how thick headed you can be at times, and it means a lo-"

Sarah quickly cut Victor off with a swift whack to the side of the face with her previously forgotten clipboard. "Thick headed, huh?" She glared. "You're lucky I don't shove this so far up you-"

"Yeah yea," Victor waved her off. "Shove it so far up my butt that it becomes my new power source." He rolled his eyes. "You've used that one before. I think last time, it was with a screwdriver." Cyborg laughed at the fake nurse's glare and walked past her. "I'm going to go find Rich and Rae before they get impatient and try to find Gar without you."

Sarah glared at Cyborg's back, suddenly wishing that she now had heat vision. That would show him. But then it dawned on her. "Wait! What about Starfire?" She was relieved to see Victor turn to face her again. "You aren't going to wake her up and take her with us?"

"Well, you see…. about that," the half machine rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I kinda agree with Rae on this. You do owe her an apology. And since you have business with her, I figure you can take care of waking her up too. So…. good luck with that."

"Good luck?" Sarah asked in confusion.

"Yea…" Cyborg slowly backed away towards the exit. "Star can be sort of 'clingy' when she first wakes up. We always force Nightwing to do the honors whenever she falls asleep on the couch, and it's…" He smirked and bolted from the room calling back, "You'll see for yourself."

Sarah frowned. "Odd," she said to no one in particular. It just sounded like the girl liked to be hugged in the mornings. Now, Sarah was not really the hugging type, but she felt she owed the poor alien girl. I could not be that bad, after all.

One spine breaking hug, an apology, and another hug later, Sarah found herself on the second floor, limping towards the changeling's room with Titans in tow. She cursed Cyborg for dumping such discomfort off on her. If she did not know better, she would have thought the whole reason the Titans left in search of Beast Boy's room so quickly was to avoid the responsibility of waking their very strong teammate up. But that just could not be the case. They were all merely too worried for Gar to remember, at least that is what Sarah told herself to calm down as they neared Beast Boy's room.

Upon reaching the door to Beast Boy's room, Sarah sighed and turned to face the Titans. "Now, I'm breaking more than a few rules by letter you guys in here this early," she explained. "You have to promise me to keep it down. I know he's your friend," she added hurriedly, feeling their eyes on her, "but you also have to respect our other patients, even if there aren't a lot of them." Sarah took their silence for cooperation. sighing once again, she turned and led them through the doorway into Beast Boy's presence.

The room itself was fairly small, barely being able to accommodate them all. It was a private room saved for people who may have wished to save their hospital stay from being broadcast publicly. It had no windows, and the only means of connection to the outside world was a small television mounted on the wall opposing the hospital bed. The walls, as one would expect, were painted a horrible shade of light brown that would make any conscious patient want to make a full recovery as quickly as possible so that they could get out of there. Unfortunately, the room's current resident did not have the luxury of being motivated by it.

'Finally,' the unconscious Titan mentally sighed in relief. 'Maybe whoever these guys are will be better conversationalists than the last guys. What's a devilishly handsome changeling got to do to get some company around here?' Throughout all that had happened, Garfield had not lost his sense of humor, even if he was the only one who was able to enjoy it.

The Titans gasped at the sight of Beast Boy before them. Both of his legs and his right are were bound in tight casts, and the loosely fitting hospital gown did little to hide the thick bandages wrapped around his chest. Nightwing frowned, noticing how pale he was. It definitely did not look like the same person who had been laughing at breakfast the previous day. The worst part, however, was Garfield's face. It had not taken any damage from the fall, but the expression on it was unsettling. The Titans were too used to being able to read Beast Boy with just one look at his face. Starfire was the only Titan more expressive than he was when it came to emotions, but the way he was now just was not Beast Boy. His face held no emotions at all. Not happy, not sad. Merely nothingness.

"What's wrong with him?" Nightwing asked, feeling very stupid for doing so. He had been there and had seen it first hand, yet the question had to be asked by someone. He was just the one to do it.

'Richard?' Gar was more than relieved to hear his friend's voice again. 'Dude, awesome. They're here.'

Sarah ignored the redundant question and answered truthfully. "He came in with several cuts and bruises along his lower extremities. Those will take a few weeks to heal. While we were patching things up, we discovered that he broke both of his femurs, and his right arm is, to be perfectly honest, shattered. His les will have to stay in casts for at least a month, though his arm will take longer to heal conventionally."

'Um… ouch. I'm suddenly glad I'm not awake for this. Though, I don't suppose I'm asleep either. I wonder what I am…' As gar's mind tended to do, it jumped to the worst possible scenario. 'Oh dear God, I'm dead!'

"His condition is stable, and he's altogether progressing well. He should make full physical recovery in two months, three at the most if you want a more conservative guess."

'Oh thank God.'

Cyborg frowned. Something was not quite right with Sarah's tone of voice. It was almost as if she were presenting the good news first in preparation for the bad, but that did not seem likely. All this already seemed pretty bad. How could it possibly get worse? Then, it hit him. "Sara," stared the woman down with an all too serious expression on his face, "when is Beast Boy going to wake up. He's just on meds now, right? He'll wake up soon?"

The undercover woman's gaze shift to the floor guiltily. Cyborg's tone told her that he already had the answers. Still, now that the question ha been voiced, she could not avoid answering it. There was no use keeping it from them any loner. "We don't know."

"What do you mean you don't kno-"

"I mean what I said!" Sarah exclaimed, cutting off whoever it was that spoke. She wasn't sure. "We don't know when he'll wake up or even if he'll wake up. Comatose patients are like that. You're friend is in a coma, and whether he recovers from that or not is out of our hands. All we can do with something like this is make sure his physical injuries heal normally. The rest is up to him."

'I'm in a coma?'

"I am confused," Starfire spoke innocently. "I have seem many programs of the afternoon make mention of a person of high social stats being rendered in the state of comatose. Usually, he is awakened by a secret admirer proclaiming their undying love. Then they would kiss, and get married, and live happily from that moment onward. Should our current course of action then be to locate the girl tha-"

"Afternoon soap operas are hardly an adequate portrayal of reality, Star," Raven cut in quickly, pulling her hood up to hide her face. "By the very definition of a coma, Beast Boy is trapped in a state of unconsciousness that no outside stimulus can bring him out of. So, even if we scour the city to find the one girl insane enough to be attracted to him, no amount of supposed love proclaimed would wake him up."

'Dude, you didn't have to throw out Star's plan so soon. I'm all for it! All we need is someone to be in love with me. Too bad none of you guys are…unless you want to confess something to me.. Cyborg?' Gar laughed mentally, but quickly sighed. Teasingly questioning his friend's sexuality just was not fun when he could not hear him to get mad at him.

"Raven…" Someone said in an admonishing tone.

"Sorry," the empath let out an exasperated sigh. "It's a force of habit when concerning Beast Boy. I apologize, Star, but a real coma isn't like those that you read in books or see on television. Real ones are very serious, and we should be happy that Beast Boy seems stable. People are said to go into and come out of comas every day. There's no reason for any of us to get worked up about it. He got injured, but he's going to recover. Conscious or not, Beast Boy isn't one to just give up. Trust me. I can attest to that."

"That's right," Sarah chimed in, trying to steer the conversation in a ore positive direction. "Beast Boy is going to be fine physically, and his brain activity is normal for those documented to be in a temporary comatose state. He'll be up and annoying poor Raven here in no time."

'You know it, babe!'

"Great," Raven said sarcastically. "Aren't I just the poster girl for luckiness."

"It could be worse, Raven," Cyborg chuckled. "You could be in his shoes and have to deal with the very real threat of the possibility of getting thrown out a window. You used to do that all the time."

Gar waited for Raven's response, but it never came. She remained oddly quiet after that.

"So, Beast Boy is injured relatively badly," Nightwing spoke in a questioning tone as he eyed the S.T.A.R. labs employee, "but he's recovering normally. He is currently in a coma, and no one can say for certain when he will wake up. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Sarah nodded.

"There is no reason to believe that his condition will turn fatal?"

'Fatal?'

"Comas are unpredictable, but my money is on fate being in favor of the green guy on this one."

Nightwing crossed his arms across his chest and took a deep breath. "When can we transport him back to the tower?"

"No!" Sarah almost yelled. "You aren't taking him anywhere. He needs medical care. You can't provide that at the tower. He stays here where we can keep an eye on him."

"You may be able to keep an eye on him here," Nightwing argued, "but you're certainly not prepared for a possible attack. Beast Boy s out of commission, and word of that will spread throughout the underground in this city. To be quite honest with you, from where I am standing, the next few months are going to be hell. Plain and simple. Every villain and their dog is going to try to take advantage of this, whether it be theft or vandalism in the city or an attempt on Beast Boy's very life. You can guarantee his physical well-being to a point, but when push comes to shove, we need to be there."

'You know, I'd feel loved right now if half of what you said didn't make me sound like a liability to you guys. It's the thought that counts, I guess. I'll just toss this under the "Rich has no social skills" department.'

Sarah faltered, but only for a moment. "You… you don't have the proper medical equipment at the tower."

"S.T.A.R. would donate it if we asked."

It was true. "You don't have the personnel."

"Cyborg is more than qualified."

So was that. "What if he takes a turn for the worse? What are you going to do over there alone? Victor can learn to operate the machinery in his sleep, but that won't save your friend."

"If that happens," Nightwing cast a sideways glance at Raven, "we'll get you to the tower."

Sarah clutched her brow with one hand and sighed. The Dark Knight's little trainee wasn't little anymore, and he had certainly learned a thing or two in terms of logistics and reasoning. An argument with him was pointless. "A week," she relented. "Give us a week with him here to observe him and make sure he stays stable. With any luck, he'll have woken up before then, and this whole argument will be pointless. If he's not awake in a week, then I'll make preparations for him to be transferred to your tower. Okay? Is that acceptable?"

'Not really. I kind of want to be back at the tower now. There's something about this place I just don't like.'

"Fine," Nightwing nodded before turning to his mechanical companion. "Cyborg, I want one Titan in the room at all times. One on guard outside it. One person on the roof, and I'll-"

"You are not moving into this hospital!" Sarah yelled, forgetting the fact that she had asked them to keep it down. "I don't care if you want to argue, and I don't care if you disagree. You guys are not moving in here. You have a home already, and not only that but you have a city to protect. You said it yourself that people are probably going to take advantage of the situation, and you need to cover it. I'm not about to turn this hospital into your base of operations. At most, I will allow one of you to be in here at any one time, but the rest of you are going back to your home and getting some proper sleep. I know most of you need it."

Nightwing glared, but the fake nurse glared back unrelenting.

"You should listen to her, Wing," Cyborg broke the tension of the standoff. "Trust me, it's a miracle you even got her to think about allowing us to bring Gar back to the tower. When she's like this, though, I doubt there much you can say to change her mind. And right now, her mind is set on us at home, getting a nice recharge. I know I could use one personally."

"Fine," Nightwing said through gritted teeth. "I'm staying, thou-"

"I believe I will be the one that stays, Nightwing," Raven interrupted as she stepped out of a dark portal behind her. They had not even noticed her leave. "While you were arguing trivialities, I was getting my things." She held up a single leather bound book she had brought back with her to emphasize her point. "Besides, if Beast Boy's safety is what you are truly worried about, then I am the obvious choice to be left with guard duty. I am the only one who can avoid a fight effectively with him in tow."

'Raven, I'm touched. I knew you couldn't stand being away from me. Don't deny it. You know you think I'm irresistible.'

"That's true," Richard sighed. "I just.." His voice trailed off and was replaced with a loud yawn, causing a slight blush of embarrassment to spread across his cheeks. "I suppose I could use some actual sleep too. It's been a long night. Are you sure you don't want Star to take first watch. She was the only one of us to actually sleep."

"I'm fine," she waved his concern off. "I don't require much sleep anyone. I won't miss going without it for a day. It's no trouble. Now, go."

"But-" Raven did not allow them to contest her decision as she quickly opened a portal beneath them and forcibly sent the three of them back to the tower. They would find themselves in the common room couch slightly confused, but that was none of her concern. With a bit more effort, she managed to move the T-car from the parking lot safely into the tower garage. Cyborg certainly was already running down to the bottom level of the tower to go after his "baby," and having it there waiting would solve the problem before it manifested.

"Wow," Sarah smirked. "I wish I could do that during a bad date. It'd save me a lot of grief to be able to get rid of annoyance before he asks if we could go back to my place." She frowned when she noticed Raven was not even paying attention. Sarah had not even heard her move, but she was now seated quite comfortably in a bedside chair, idly reading the book she had brought. Raven was an odd one, that was certain, and she thought it best to leave the girl alone. She obviously wanted privacy.

And like that, the two opposite Titans were alone in a small, dimly lit room. It would have been romantic if it was not for the fact that one of them was comatose and the other was reading seemingly uncaringly. Garfield had been disappointed that Raven had ushered the others out so quickly, wanting nothing more than to at least listen to more of their conversation. There was not much else he could do, after all. However, the changeling soon found solace in the quiet sounds of Raven turning a page in her book from time to time. It was oddly soothing.

'Just you and me now, Rae. And that book of course…'

He was jealous and angry, though, as silly as it sounded. Here he was, injured and in pain. Well, he was sure he would have been if he were awake, but it was the principle of the thing. He deserved a little of her attention. It was a shame that he was unaware that Raven found her gaze constantly drifting towards Beast Boy, no matter how hard she attempted to concentrate on her book.

A shame, indeed.


Commentary for the latest chapter can be found on my profile page.