They Had Always Been Curious

Bo had now been with the Titans for a solid five months. He could now run and climb easily, his speech was developing more rapidly everyday, and he had a mouth full of teeth (which weren't always a good thing, as the bite marks on every Titan proved). The little toddler, who they guessed was about a year and eight months or so by his motor skills and physical characteristics, had officially claimed Raven as "Mommy" and Beastboy as "Daddy". Naturally, Raven and Beastboy corrected him, but only if the other Titans-or the other parent was around.

Robin had finally settled down and accepted Bo as a member of the household. He rarely mentioned anything about Slade, and had pleasantly found the child an easy excuse to be close to Starfire. Starfire, of course, was the Titan to spoil Bo. Rarely did she scold or punish him, and when he was scolded or punished, he would go straight to the alien for comfort or protection. Cyborg insisted Bo be raised to follow in his footsteps, and often tried to teach car mechanics to the toddler who would often stare blankly at whatever Cyborg was working on as he babbled on about things nobody but himself would understand.

"Bo, use your spoon," Robin groaned as the Titans ate dinner one night. "I know you can."

Bo, who was in the high-tech highchair Cyborg had built for him, only smiled and threw his spoon on the floor calling out, "Uh oh!".

"No," Raven used her powers to put the utensil back on his tray. "Not an 'uh-oh'." She got up out of her chair and walked over to the highchair. Taking Bo's hand in hers, she wrapped his fingers around the spoon and scooped up some cut-up spaghetti. "Here, eat."

Bo made a face and shook his head. Raven sighed and said, "But you like spaghetti." When Bo continued to make a face and soon started to pout, Beastboy walked over to Raven and ate the food off the spoon. "Mmm!" He licked his lips dramatically. "Delicious!"

Bo made a skeptical face, but then reached for the spoon eagerly babbling wildly. The others laughed. Raven stared at Beastboy and he grinned triumphantly and a little sheepishly.

--

Raven awoke to Bo's wailing. It was a little strange because the toddler rarely cried, and when he did, it was usually because he was being scolded or Raven wasn't in his sight. She groggily rolled over, pulling down her tank top which had ridden up to her ribcage and got out of bed. As her feet met the cold floor, she shivered slightly. She walked over to the child's crib, yawning. "What's wrong with you?" She croaked, raising the little gate and taking the child in her arms. She then quickly put him down, feeling something warm and wet. Her eyes widened and she was suddenly fully awake. The wetness was not on his bottom, but on his back. She ripped him out of the crib and set him on the floor, kneeling beside him. Working quickly, she tugged his night shirt over his head and peered over his shoulder.

"No," she whispered, her breath sticking in her throat. On the child's back, scratched in blood, was a very familiar 'S'. Bo continued to wail and Raven took him in her arms, squeezing him tightly. She wasn't even sure if her embrace was hurting him or not, but she was too afraid to even consider it.

"Is everything okay?" Robin's voice came to the door as he knocked. "Raven?"

Raven wiped her eyes and tried to gain some sort of composure as she shakily called back, "Yah, Bo just had a bad dream or something."

"Just checking," Robin replied. "G'night."

Raven kissed Bo and placed her fingertips to the abrasion on his back. Her powers healed the bleeding, but it was now an ugly scab. She kissed the baby again and whispered, "I won't let him hurt you. I promise."

The baby sniffled and sucked on his thumb, nuzzling his head into the girl's chest. "Mommy," he whimpered. Raven took him to bed with her, but she did not sleep. In fact, she often got up and paced around the room, checking the window, checking her door, checking the baby. She knew it was wrong to keep this from the others, but she also knew what Robin would say. She knew what he would do. He would want to send Bo away. He would rant about how he'd been right, and the others would agree with him.

--

"Why didn't you tell me?" Raven woke up in a sitting position on her bed, her head resting against the headboard. Beastboy was standing before her, holding Bo who was happily chewing on a rubber frosting spreader. Beastboy raised up the child's shirt and Raven winced when she saw the mark.

"Does Robin know?" She asked.

"What does it matter?" Beastboy sounded angry, which he rarely emoted. Annoyed and exasperated, but never truly angry. "Raven, he's in danger." He set the baby down and massaged his forehead. "We have to tell Robin."

"He'll send him away," Raven argued, reaching for Bo, but the baby climbed off the bed and started whacking his utensil on the floor. "Slade wasn't even in the tower. If he had been, I would have sensed it. That means he could hurt Bo anywhere."

Beastboy almost laughed, though nothing was particularly funny, and said, "Do you hear yourself? Raven, we have to tell Robin." He slapped his thigh, gesturing for the baby, "C'mon, Dude."

Bo looked up at Beastboy, grinning his semi-toothy grin, and held up his arms. He much preferred to be picked up and carried than to use his own feet. Despite her being tired and worried, Raven still found the courage to argue.

"Can we at least tell Cyborg and Starfire first?" She pleaded, trying to hide the desperation in her voice.

"I guess," Beastboy sighed. "But Raven, Robin has to know. He knows more about Slade than any of us."

--

"My poor bumgorf!" Starfire gasped as she observed the abrasion on Bo's back for the billionth time. "How could he have done this to you?"

Cyborg nodded. "That is pretty low. Even for Slade." He looked at Raven and Beastboy. "And you're sure Slade didn't get in the tower? This was obviously done physically." He picked up the toddler and tickled his belly.

"It happened right in my bedroom," Raven explained. "If Slade had been in my own room, I would have known about it. If anybody had been there." She sighed and ran a hand through her short, dark hair. "I actually kind of wish it had been like that. It scares me to know Slade can hurt him whenever and wherever he wants."

"Do zah zen bee!" Bo suddenly blurted.

"Man, I love his baby talk," Cyborg commented.

"That was tameranian," Starfire corrected him quietly. She leaned into Bo's face. "K'norf zeon zu ahk ne?"

Bo's bottom lip suddenly trembled and he began to suck on his thumb. Starfire looked worried and told the others, "Bo said there is a visitor, but when I asked him who it was, he did not respond." She stroked some of his sandy hair and prodded, "K'norf zu ahk, Bumgorf?"

"My bobo," Bo whimpered, gingerly touching the back of his shirt.

"Your 'bobo'?" Cyborg repeated, cocking an eyebrow. "Your bobo is the visitor?"

"No," Raven took him from Cyborg and held him close to her. "He means the one who gave him the bobo is here."

"Slade?" Beastboy growled and tensed, looking around.

They all gasped suddenly as Bo cried out, his shirt ripping in the front, and something glowing from underneath the tattered fabric. Raven lifted it gingerly to reveal another abrasion forming an 'S'. Bo wailed and clutched onto her shirt as it happened again, and again, and again. They were on his shoulders, his arms, his legs. Starfire's eyes glowed bright green and she flew up. Beastboy turned into a lion. Cyborg prepared his cannon. Raven simply squeezed Bo, closing her eyes tightly, hoping it would all be over soon.

"Stop it," she whispered, feeling emotions surging inside her. Emotions she knew were dangerous. "Just stop it."

"Why don't you come out and show yourself?!" Cyborg demanded. "You dirty bastard!"

"Mommy!" Bo sobbed, trembling now.

"stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!!" Raven lost control and almost every electronic in the house exploded simultaneously, as did several transformers outside. She now had four eyes like her father, and they were all glowing red. Surprisingly, this did not phase Bo a bit, and he still clung onto her just as tightly as ever.

"Raven, no!" Starfire flew over to the other girl, reaching for her arm, but Raven jerked away.

She sunk to her knees, trying to calm down, but she could feel her demon blood boiling, and her sudden urge to torture and kill strengthening. She only wanted to torture and kill one man, and she wasn't so sure she wouldn't succeed. Robin, luckily, entered the tower at that moment at top speed, and threw his latest gadget he had purchased on the floor. "What's wrong?" He demanded. "I saw the transformers go out!"

"Dob!" Bo looked up at him, his bloody markings revealing everything.

"That son of a bitch!" Robin punched the wall, cracking it slightly, and tugged at his hair. He then sighed heavily and took the baby from Raven, who was still on the floor breathing heavily, as if she were trying not to vomit.

"It's going to be okay, Bo," Robin kissed the baby, blood and all, and ordered for somebody to bring him the medical kit.

"What are we going to do?" Raven looked up at him, and she could no longer fight the tears. "Why is he doing this?"

"This is exactly what he wanted," Robin sighed as Starfire handed him a clean medical cloth. He began to gently dab at the baby's various injuries as he continued, "he knows we're helpless now. He wanted us to grow attached to him."

"So what can we do to protect him?" Starfire asked.

"Whatever we can," Robin shrugged. "We're going to have to find Slade." He handed the toddler over to Cyborg who could perform the rest of the medical tasks much faster and more professionally than the other Titans. He then knelt down beside Raven and patted her shoulder. "He's family now, Raven. We're going to give him the same protection we'd give each other."

--

Days went by and nothing happened to Bo. Of course, he'd gotten his usual bumps and scrapes, but nothing from Slade. The Titans now wanted Slade to surface more than anything. They constantly checked the monitors, the papers, the internet, for any sign of crime that might be his doing. They seldom slept now, and even when they did, they often checked on the baby. Slade had put them right where he wanted them. He'd given them something to care for, something to love, and he had the power to destroy it. They knew this now.

"Where he go?" Bo asked, casting his arms out in dramatic gesture.

He'd covered Cyborg, who had been on the floor playing gamestation, with a blanket. Of course, it hardly covered the Titan's massive figure, but they could all pretend. Starfire and Beastboy pretended to look around, as if they didn't know their friend was right in front of them, shrouded partially by a bright, blue blanket. Bo then, like a magician, ripped the blanket away and squealed, "Daire he is!"

Starfire and Beastboy slapped their foreheads and said, "Oh! There he is!"

"You sure you don't wanna play, Raven?" Beastboy asked the other Titan, who was sitting on the sofa with a book. Of course, she had been watching them more than she had scanned the pages of her mystery.

"Positive," Raven said dryly. "You guys go nuts."

"Book down, Mommy," Bo suddenly demanded, smacking the floor. "Down, Mommy."

Starfire giggled. "He wishes for you to sit down here with us."

Raven sighed, and slid off the couch, her bottom now touching the floor. "There."

"No," Bo shook his head and tugged on her book. "Down."

"Oh, he wants the book down," Beastboy laughed.

"I'm reading this," Raven tugged back.

"No!" Bo's little brows furrowed. "Book down!"

He pulled harder on the book, but Raven didn't let go. This made Bo furious (he did not like his demands to be unmet) and he began to scream and stomp his feet, still holding the book. When Raven did nothing, he turned to Beastboy and wailed, "Daddy!"

"C'mon, Rae," Beastboy rolled his eyes. "He's just as much your kid as he is mine."

Raven groaned and put the book on the couch. "Shut up." She then stared at Bo and said in a flat voice, "Okay, play."

Bo covered her with the blanket and turned to the three other Titans. "Where Mommy go?"

--

That night, as Bo slept, something stood in Raven's room, though their heavy boots were as quiet as feathers. They gracefully moved over to the crib, and gloved fingers stroked the skinny little arms, which now had faint scars.

"Quiet as a mouse, aren't we, my little apprentice?"

--

"Dude!" Beastboy fell back onto his bed laughing, soda nearly coming out of his nose. He and Raven sat on the top bunk of his bunk beds, just talking. It was hard to believe that they were so friendly towards each other now, and often sat around talking-just the two of them. "Are you serious? Dr. Light said that?"

"I'm not kidding," Raven tried to stifle her own laugh. "He really said that."

After a few minutes, Beastboy said, "You know, I think it's funny how we used to argue all the time and you would never come in my room."

"You weren't even allowed in mine, "Raven pointed out.

"Do you think it was Bo?" Beastboy barely realized he was inching closer to the girl. Boys, however, rarely acknowledged anything they did.

"Of course it was Bo," Raven rubbed her arm awkwardly. "I mean, it's just not Bo anymore but, well, you know…" she now felt how close Beastboy was to her, and she had no desire to pull away.

She bit her bottom lip and then moved her own face closer, her hand already graving over his. It had been there for a while, this curiosity between them. They just wanted to see what it would be like. They had always been curious, and now they were there. Just as their lips started to touch, barely making contact, the alarm in the tower sounded.

To Be Continued…