-Chapter 7-

~Raven's POV~

When I woke up the very next morning, I found Beast Boy still sleeping. I got up and looked around. I had no idea where I was. Being part animal, Beast Boy may have some kind of instinct that could get us out of here, but I didn't want to wake him up just to ask him a trivial thing like that.

I stretched, yawned, and then remembered what happened last night. Beast Boy had asked me those painful questions. Honestly, I hadn't even asked myself those questions yet. More tears dripped from my face. Even while groggy, I still remembered very clearly what those questions were, and what had happened. A hand automatically reached up to cover my abdomen.

"Well," I whispered, "It looks like you're not gonna have a real father, after all. I'm sorry."

The baby kicked, almost as though in response.

"I'm sorry, baby... I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I wish I could undo it all... You know? Get my life back..." I sobbed. I knew I was having a conversation with an unborn baby I never wanted, but I had no one else to talk to at the moment.

Beast Boy groggily lifted his head. I was the first thing he saw. He didn't know what I was doing, so he kept quiet and listened to my strange conversation.

Blissfully unaware that Beast Boy had awoken, I continued my talking to the unborn child. "I... I don't know what to do anymore, baby. I don't know what I'm doing right now. Did I really do the right thing?" I asked to no one in particular, fully aware the baby couldn't answer. It seemed to kick less at the sound of my voice.

Beast Boy shifted from mammoth to human, and continued to be quiet, hoping to find out what I was talking about.

"You think there could've been an alternative way to solve this?" I cried, "Why couldn't this have turned out differently? What did I do to deserve this? I mean, it's not like I wanted to sleep with Slade! I hate him! I just want all this to go away!" I dropped to my knees, desperate for some answer, some sign that what I did was the best thing to do.

Beast Boy came over and startled me by putting a hand on my shoulder. A friendly gesture was just what I needed right now. "What did Slade do, Raven?" he asked quietly. That wasn't what I needed.

I turned around so I could lean into him, the pain overwhelming me. I then started shakily explaining what happened between me and Slade. As just stated, my voice was shaky and uncertain. After I was done crying and explaining everything to him, he understood exactly what happened and he, too, grew angry towards Slade. But, being careful not to upset me even more, he asked tenderly, "What does Slade want from you?"

I wiped away the stale tears and wet trails on my face. I could easily answer that. "It's not even me he wants. It's the baby. He got furious that Robin refused to be his apprentice, and eventually he got desperate. He captured me and told me it was a baby or you guys. Like I said, I chose the baby. He wants me to raise the baby until it can start training. Then he'll take it and I'll probably never see it again."

"So then...part of this was actually Robin's fault. And then he said all those things to you..." Beast Boy's eyebrows furrowed in anger.

"No, no. It's not his fault. In a way, he's right. I might have been able to find a different solution." I denied.

"You and I both know that's not true, Raven. When you're backed into a corner like that and only given two options on such short notice, you don't have any time to think about an alternative solution. You pick one of the two options and move on. That's how it always is." he said, a certain passion masking itself in fury.

"Beast Boy, exactly how much of my conversation did you hear?" I asked curiously.

"Enough to know you need a shoulder to lean on." he replied wisely.

I didn't know what else to do, so I nodded just once.

"And also enough to know you're worried about the baby growing up without a proper father." he added.

My head jerked up at this, hoping he wasn't going to ask what I thought he was going to ask.

He continued forward with his point, "Raven, if that's what you're worried about, I could-"

"No." I interrupted, "Beast Boy, you're a bubbly, cheerful, kind guy who lives an otherwise carefree life. I don't want you getting caught up in something you're only going to regret later on. This isn't what you really want and I don't want to make you feel like you have to do this for me."

"Raven," he said ever so seriously, "If I didn't want to do this, then believe me when I tell you I wouldn't have asked in the first place."

"And you're serious? You're wanting to commit to being a father of a baby that isn't even yours?" I asked, skeptical still.

"I'm as serious as serious can get." he said.

I looked deep into his eyes. His expression was unfazed, and his eyes were full of hopefulness. That was something I could hardly reject. "Alright." I complied, hoping I wasn't making a mistake.

Beast Boy pulled me into a tight hug, as though to thank me for letting him be part of my and the baby's life. That was when something inside me stirred, and it wasn't the baby. For the first time in my life, I felt a new kind of emotion. It was one that couldn't actually be described, but it was a good feeling. The kind you'd want to feel every day of your life. Any other time, I'd be irritated by being hugged, but for some unknown reason, I was allowing him to cling to me as long as he wanted. Perhaps it was because I owed him this favor for staying by my side through it all, this whole time. Perhaps it was the simple fact that I might be having a mood swing. Or perhaps it was something...more.

Beast Boy let go of me and apologized, knowing how much I hate to be hugged. "Sorry, I kinda just got caught in the moment, you know?"

"It's okay." I said, wishing he hadn't let go so soon. Sweet moment over, hello awkward silence.

We decided to walk to the nearest town we could find, in order to get real food and other necessities. I ended up falling asleep and Beast Boy had to carry me. Meanwhile, the baby kicked almost the whole time. Luckily, I was so tired it didn't wake me up.

And then, after two hours of searching, we found a town. God only knows what it was called, but hey, if it was civilization, I wasn't gonna be too picky.

Beast Boy whinnied, being a horse at the time, and tried to trot a little to get me to awaken. As to be expected, it didn't work. A tad on the frustrated side, he jumped about an inch in the air by using his powerful limb muscles like a spring. This seemed to bring me a little closer to full consciousness. Refusing to morph to human, afraid that I'd drop like a sack of potatoes if he did, he jumped a little higher, probably an inch and a half. I plopped down on his saddleless back and finally woke up. I lazily slid off the poor, probably tired green stallion and yawned.

Beast Boy, grateful to have the extra weight off of him, turned back into a human. He, too, stood up and yawned. Then his put his knuckles behind his back and pushed his back inwardly, making his spine produce disturbing popping sounds. Then he felt relaxed and stretched a little more.

Feeling nervous about a new environment, I quickly scanned the surroundings. The initial need to feel secure subsiding, I quit scanning and took the time to actually survey the town. It wasn't big, rather small actually, and had a few fast food restaurants within just a few steps of a bank. Everything was slightly old-themed, but nothing was like, old-westerly themed. Funny, because if that were the case, Beast Boy would fit right in as a nice mustang or bronco or something. That thought served to bring up another thought in my mind: we really had to get a saddle and some reins for Beast Boy. Okay, maybe not the reins, but a saddle was a must-have if he was gonna bounce around like he did. A stallion's back isn't exactly the softest place in the world to land. Those of you who've been bareback know.

Beast Boy lead me into the town, almost as though he knew the place. But what was weird was that so many people looked scared of me. Why? What had I done? Sure, the town looked vaguely familiar, but I had no idea why. It wasn't long before I was led to the salad bar in a nearby restaurant.

"Why a salad bar?" I asked Beast Boy.

"Because you need healthy foods for the baby." he answered.

Wow. He really was serious about this, wasn't he? Anyway, he was right. Now that I was carrying precious cargo, I needed to stop snacking on potato chips and start eating foods with lots of nutrients in them. But the bad part was: I hated salads. Instead, I would prefer herbal tea. Much better tasting, and great for meditation, too.

I went through the contents of the salad bar, cramming as much food onto my plate as possible. I admit I grew a little embarrassed when I received unwanted stares from people I've never met before, but it's not like we were going to start living in this town, anyway. We'd probably just rent a little motel room for a day, to catch up on some much-needed rest, and then move on tomorrow.

Beast Boy ate a salad, too. Though it was much smaller than mine. Compared to his, mine was like a mountain. His was just one of those bumps in the road. He, too, couldn't help but stare at my gargantuan helping of food.

Growing more embarrassed, I accidentally let a little bit of my powers loose. As soon as my blushing reached about half its maximum level, a chair's leg melted from overheated raw energy. Immediately I regained control of emotions by reminding myself that I have an excuse to eat more. I couldn't undo the chair's leg melting, but I could prevent anymore damages from happening.

After we'd eaten lunch and paid for the food, we searched the town for a motel. It was then that it hit me.

"Uh, Beast Boy, do we have enough money for a motel?" I asked the green prankster.

"Don't worry about that." he answered, "I brought more than enough money for six motel suites!"

I didn't even ask where he got the money. It would make me feel really guilty if he said he'd been saving it up or something like that. And emotion was one thing I couldn't afford, especially with no control over my powers.