Awareness spread over Robin slowly. He couldn't move and he wasn't sure were he was. He lay quiet and listened to the soft noises around him. It was with great relief that he found that he recognized the soft hum of the Titan's Tower infirmary. He tried to mentally scan through his body and take stock of his injuries, but it was overwhelming and he soon gave up. Everything hurt and he felt so tired. He opened his eyes and found himself staring straight into Beast Boy's green ones.

"You're awake!" gasped Beast Boy excitedly. He jumped from where he had been siting next to Robin's bed and ran to door of the room. "Hey everybody! He's awake!" Beast Boy ran back and started to bounce around the bed. "Are you okay? How do you feel? Can I get you anything?"

Robin winced as Beast Boy jostled the bed. "I could go for some pizza."

Beast Boy face broke out into big grin. He bounded back to the door and called into the hall, "And he wants pizza! Bring some pizza!"

In reality, pizza was probably the last thing Robin wanted right now. He felt overwhelmingly nauseated. "How long was I out?"

Beast Boy's grin fell. "Almost a full day," he answered..

Robin's head was pounding and he was having trouble focusing. He was trying to take an IV out of his arm when the rest of the Titans burst into the room. Raven came up beside him and knocked his hand away from the IV and begin probing his body with her fingers.

The room was filled with noise and hubbub from the excited Titans, but Robin couldn't follow any of it. He heard his name a few times, but ignored it as he looked over his body. His shoes and gloves had been removed along with his red body armour vest. He was still wearing his green t-shirt and tights. His middle and ring finger on his right hand were taped together. His left knee was wrapped in a tensor bandage. Putting a hand on his side he could feel that his torso was bandaged from below the bottom of his rib cage up to his arm pits. He tried to touch the lump on back of his head, but Raven knocked his hand away from that too.

"Robin? Robin, are you okay?" Starfire was leaning in close as she spoke to him. Robin tried to focus on her voice. The anxiousness showing in her face made him want to hug her close. Instead he just smiled at her faintly.

"I feel fine, Starfire," That was probably the biggest lie he had ever told her.

"No, you don't," Raven stated flatly, speaking for the first time since she came into the room. "You have a concussion, three broken ribs, a badly sprained knee, and a broken finger. Your right shoulder was dislocated and you had countless cuts and bruises. I've healed all the contusions, but you're going to need to watch that you don't pop your shoulder out again." Raven finished checking him over and stepped back from the bed. "What do you remember about the fight?"

Robin closed eyes has he tried to think back. "I remember getting there. I remember the thing catching my cape. I remember, I don't know, a shadow, or something." Robin sighed and opened his eyes. "I remember being too slow."

"Dude, why didn't you tell us you were hurt before?" Beast Boy asked as he hopped up on the end of the bed to sit cross legged at Robin's feet. "We totally would've helped you out, you know?"

"Yeah," agreed Cyborg, "We would've understood if you needed to sit out of the fight. You don't need to push yourself so hard. After all, you're only human."

Robin felt like he'd been slapped. He couldn't help but clench his uninjured hand into a fist. "Only human? You think that because I don't have super powers that I'm some how weaker than the rest of you? Is that what you think?" Robin was trying to keep his words calm and measured, but the more he talked the louder and sharper they got. "How many humans do you know that do what I can do? That train as hard as I do? That study as much as I do? I can go head to head with any villain out there, and I didn't need to be turned into half a robot to do it!" By the end Robin was nearly shouting. The room was suddenly very quiet.

Robin's mind was filled with irritation. His head hurt. His body hurt. His friends thought he was weak. The room was too crowed. Too loud. The lights were too bright. He felt like be was being suffocated. He wanted leave. He needed air. He swung his legs off the bed and tried to pull out the IV again. Raven moved to stop him but this time he slapped her hand away.

"Hey, Robin, buddy, I'm sorry. That's not what I meant at all." Cyborg took a small step towards him. "What are you doing?"

Robin ignored him as he tried to stand. His knee wouldn't take his weight and he would have fallen if Cyborg hadn't caught him. "Don't!" he snapped has he tried to push Cyborg away. "Stop!"

"Stop what?" asked Cyborg as Robin re-balanced on his good leg against the infirmary bed. "What's wrong? Tell us what you need and we'll help you."

Robin stood looking at the floor. "I don't know," he said quietly. He was so confused. He felt sick and he just wanted everything to stop so he could focus. He closed his eyes and pressed his hand into his forehead. He was sure he was going to be sick.

"It's the concussion," said Raven. "You guys need to leave so he can rest. You can come back later when he's feeling better."

The other three Titans shot Robin worried looks as they filed out of the room. Raven gently pushed him back up onto the bed. With a hand on his chest she pressed him down on to the pillow. He was too tired to bother resisting.

Raven sat down in the chair next to the bed and paused a moment before she spoke. "No one thinks you are weak. I don't know what injures you were hiding before, but your ribs were already broken before that last fight for sure. You should have said something."

Robin turned his head toward her. "I wasn't hiding anything. There was just no point in telling you. There was nothing you could have done about them."

"That maybe true, but we should have known you were fighting hurt. You took a big risk"

"I've fought through injuries before. It was my risk to take."

Raven looked him straight in the eye. "That isn't true. We're a team. We think as one, feel as one, and act as one. But, when one of the team is wounded, we cease to be that. The good of the united becomes the good of the individual and that puts us all at risk. I want you to think about that."

Raven remained sitting as Robin turned his head away. He closed his eyes feeling, if possible, even worse then he did before.

When Robin woke again the infirmary room was awash in a warm orange glow filtering in through the windows from the setting sun outside. Cyborg was sitting next to his bed absorbed in reading a technical magazine. He hadn't noticed that Robin was awake. For the best. He didn't feel like talking anyways. Instead, Robin watched the steady rhythm of the droplets in his saline IV drip. The clear liquid seemed to glow in the orange light and Robin found the constant tempo of the falling golden beads somehow comforting. He found his thoughts straying back to the fight. His memories of it were vague and disjointed, but something was nagging at him. A vague shadow. Trying to focus on it made his head ache. He pushed away the thoughts.

He honestly couldn't remember the last time felt this sick and tired. Sure, he had been beat up before, and this wasn't his first concussion. He was no stranger to emotional turmoil either, but to have to endure it all at once, the broken body, the pained and confused mind, the shame and anguish that Raven had lain on him; it was almost unbearable. But Raven was right to say what she did. He had been selfish, and his selfishness had put his team at risk. That's not what good leaders do, and more than anything else he wanted to be a good leader.

The door to the infirmary opened and in walked Starfire holding a large steaming mug. Cyborg looked up from his magazine. "He's not awake yet, Starfire."

Robin shifted on the bed. "Actually, I am."

Cyborg looked startled. "How long have you just been lying there?"

"I don't know. A little while, I guess." Robin tried to sit up, but gasped and clutched at his side. A hiss of pain escaped through his lips. Cyborg moved to help. Robin nodded at him gratefully has he leaned back into the upended pillows.

"I brought you this." Starfire held out the steaming mug towards him as she sat down on the edge of the bed by his legs. "Raven says that it is customary on Earth to drink hot beverages when one is ill."

Robin took a cautious sip of the hot liquid in case it turned out to be some sort of strange Tameranian drink. It was Earl Grey tea. Not his favourite, but it reminded him strongly of another friend, much older, who would also bring him tea after particularly hard nights of patrolling Gotham. He felt a tiny pang of home sickness.

"Are you feeling any better?" Starfire's large green eyes were full of concern and she very gently rested her hand on his uninjured knee. For a moment Robin indulged in thinking about what he would do if Cyborg wasn't there. Then he pushed those thoughts from his mind. They were not appropriate.

Robin nodded his head as he sipped his tea. "I think so," he answered. It was true, he was feeling a little less dazed and the nausea wasn't nearly so bad. But he knew from experience that concussions took a long time to get over totally. Four to six weeks usually. He didn't want to think about it. "Did you find out anything about where those monsters might have come from?" Work was always the best distraction.

"Man, we haven't been able to find nothin'." Cyborg snorted in disgust. "We don't know where they came from, who set them loose, or even what they actually were. I mean, obviously they were some kind of mutants, but beyond that..." Cyborg sighed. "Honestly, we could really use to have our resident detective back."

Cyborg's words made a lump rise in Robin's throat. Getting himself beaten up meant that now he wasn't able to help his team when they needed him. Yet another way he was letting his friends down. No, that was the concussion talking. It was all just a series of unfortunate events. Even if he had disclosed his injuries right off, the outcome would likely have been much the same. Or would it? Robin could feel his thoughts becoming muddled again. Damn this concussion. If he could just think clearly for a minute.

The sound of the crime alert siren shattered his fragile thoughts. Raven appeared in the doorway. "We've got another monster. This time it's tearing up the warehouses on the docks." Robin made to scramble off the bed. Raven pointed at him sternly, "Not you. You're staying right where you are." She disappeared back out the door with Cyborg right behind her.

Starfire paused a moment as she stood next to the bed. "It will be alright. We will take care of this for you. You need not worry."

Robin's stomach twisted into a painful knot as he looked into Starfire's smiling face. "Be careful," was all managed to choke out. She lightly touched his arm then turned and followed after the others.