**Author's Note: First off, thank you all for the reviews and support. I am pleased that so many are enjoying the story so far. If you have any questions please let me know. And here's a question for you all to ponder: where is Chakkrator? What is Robin going to do next? I'd be curious to know your thoughts.

Please keep the reviews coming and feel free to ask questions anytime.

End Note.**

Chapter Nine

"I said I hate Terra."

The words spoken earlier to Robin, just before he and the others had left the hospital, reverberated in Raven's memory as she sat to the left of Beast Boy. Those were the words that had taken the argument over the picture frame in his room go from a normal run of the mill spat to an all-out war. As far as either had been concerned, their friendship was over.

And that's what had brought them here. She pondered this as the doctor steadily watched Beast Boy's vitals and made notes on his holographic chart, which is hovering over Beast Boy's bed.

The operation had been a success. The Tamaranian doctors had been able to steady his condition. His body was still banged up and several bones had been crushed. Had this been on Earth, Beast Boy would have had a much closer shave. Thankfully, medical science on Starfire's world was advanced enough to pull him back much quicker.

The doctor finished marking the holographic chart and flipped it off.

"Doctor?" Raven asked.

"He's still unconscious. Tough little guy, but he'll need some time." he replied.

Not that long once my powers finish regenerating, Raven thought as she glanced at her hands.

"Meanwhile, just talk to him." The doctor said as he exited the room.

"Talk?" Raven asked, to apparently no one as the doctor had already left the room. "Great. Just what am I supposed to talk about?"

You know very well what.

She looked Beast Boy over. His unconscious form breathed as scanners monitored his condition and a variety of devices attached to his body continued their healing processes.

Raven sighed. Well, might as well practice and get this right before he wakes up.

She stiffens up and breathes in, preparing for her attempt at a speech.

"Ah, um, Beast Boy…" she quivers. "I know that…"

Not like this. Open up and be honest.

She looks at Beast Boy again, the memories of their fights flooding her mind. From the very beginning when they met, every rude remark, every annoyance, every outburst, hit and slap. All the way up to THE fight. The one by the door to his room. When she saw him cleaning that picture frame. That frame, with that particular picture within it. It was true she hadn't seen who was in the photo at first, but once she did it only awakened certain feelings within her. Deep feelings. And then when he fought back, defending himself and attacking Raven, she responded with more snide remarks. Then it built and built until both of their tempers flared and Raven let loose the words that she had sealed deep within her heart, words she knew would hurt those around her but because of this fight, and especially with WHOM she was fighting, the doors of her heart flung open and the hold on her heart and mouth collapsed as did her control of her own powers as the words left her lips and her powers shattered the picture frame in Beast Boy's hands:

"I hate Terra!"

ZICCHHH!

One of the lights in the hospital room shattered, bringing Raven back from the past into the here and now. She turned back to Beast Boy. Her teammate. Her friend.

She breathed in deeply and opened her heart up again, only this time not to release something destructive that she had buried, but something just as personal.

"Beast Boy, I'm sorry. I hurt you. I know how you miss Terra, how much you care about her. How much everyone else cares about her."

She leaned back in her chair, her eyes lifting to the ceiling as her heart further divulged what had been hidden within its depths.

"I don't handle betrayal well. It brings back too many memories, too many…scars." She rubs part of her arm where the symbols from when the prophecy was being fulfilled had once appeared. "When she betrayed us, I was enraged. Enraged that she had turned on us, broken your heart and that I never saw it coming. I swore then that I'd never forgive her." Her eyebrows furrowed as she recalled the final confrontation they all had with her underground, with Beast Boy's life in the balance. It was one of the few times in Raven's life that she could recall becoming very close to unleashing the full extent of her powers by choice.

"When I said we'd find a way to bring her back from stone, I was being nice for your sake. If it had been my choice, I'd have left her as stone for good."

Raven thought she heard something come from Beast Boy, but upon turning she found him to still be unconscious. Her heart took over and continued its confession. With the floodgates now open, Raven was finding an eerie sense of relief from allowing her honest feelings breathe out of her, no longer choking her insides.

"When you said you had seen her, I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to. I went to the cave to see for myself. I couldn't tell how or by what power, but she wasn't stone anymore. And seeing your eyes light up about her being alive again…"

You can't stop now.

"When Terra came into our lives, you stopped annoying me and focused on her. I was relieved, at first…"

"But after a while, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I found myself…missing you. Then when she came back the first time, I was upset because I knew that'd mean you'd focus on her and not…me. And now that she's back again…"

Raven thought she heard another sound, but still Beast Boy appeared unconscious with not one change in any of the read outs on the monitors. Not that she'd understand what they're saying anyway. Neither her natural sciences nor her Tamaranean were that good.

Certain he was still unconscious, she pressed on. "She means the world to you. I know that, and I know it hurts that's she's not with you now. It'd be one thing if she were still stone, but she's not. She's alive, she's just chosen not to be in your life."

Keep going.

"…and, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I've hurt you. That's the one thing I never wanted to do after she broke your heart, but it's the one thing I've kept doing since we became a team. I'm sorry for that, for not being more careful with your feelings, for not being there for you and pushing you away. That doesn't make me much of a teammate, or a very good friend."

You're almost there…let it out.

She leaned forward, placing her hand on his as her heart began emptying the last dregs bottled within. "I know you think I hate you. You do get on my nerves with how immature you can be. But, the truth is that I've never had a friend like you before. You've always tried to make my day better. Whenever I'm down, you try to pick me up. No matter how much I used to push everyone away, you'd be the one person who kept coming back. Always trying to make me…happy." She squeezed his hand. "I don't hate you. I guess the only reason I get so…annoyed with you is because I've seen the strength that's in you, I've seen what you can be. But you seem so determined to stay an immature little kid and…"

Pull back. This is an apology, not a reprimand.

Raven steadied herself, focused and looked straight at her friend's closed eyes letting loose the words she had been too embarrassed to ever let him or anyone else hear.

"Others just see you as the boy you are, but I see you as the man you can be."

Raven sat back in her chair, a deep exhale matching the great relief she felt emptying everything that had been buried in her heart.

"Great. Now all I have to do is tell him all of that when he's awake." She turned her head to the side, looking away from the person she'd have to retell all of this to later. "There's no way I'm ever admitting that I've thought that some of his jokes were funny."

A small chuckle came from Beast Boy's direction.

No. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

A look of deep focus appeared on her face, and, with raised eyebrow, Raven decided to test the possibility she feared to be true. "Or tell him that I was the one who threw away all of his veggie burgers."

Beast Boy's eyes shot open, an accusatory finger aimed right at Raven's face. "That was you?!" he asked. "Dude, how could you…"

He grew very quiet as Raven's face was now suddenly within four inches of his own. She had a look that he was all too familiar with: rage.

"How much did you hear?" she rasped.

Beast Boy panicked, completely aware that in his condition he had no way to avoid her sending him six feet under. "Uh, well, only the parts about being sorry for fighting with me, hating Terra, not hating me, being sorry, seeing me as a man, and laughing at my jokes?" He gave the biggest grin he could, in hopes that the sheer force of its brightness would calm Raven down.

"Beast Boy…" Raven snarled.

"Um….yeah….?" he asked, grin still plastered on his face.

"THAT WAS EVERYTHING!" she roared, eyes redder than lava.

Raven sat back down, rubbing her temples as she calmed herself.

At least it's over with. I don't have to go through it all again.

Silence filled the room for what seemed like an eternity, until finally one of them broke it.

"Raven," Beast Boy meekly spoke. She looked up to see him much more reserved, with almost the same expression she had while bearing her own feelings. "I'm sorry too."

She sighed. "It's okay. At least now you know."

"No, I mean, I'm sorry for annoying you and not listening when you tell me to stop bugging you and stuff. And, well, for everything the past few months too. I've not been a very good teammate or friend either," he confessed.

The two friends made eye contact, both now completely aware of where the other stood, and how much hurt they'd inflicted on each other and had been carrying.

Raven was the one to break this silence first.

"I guess the best thing for us to do is to forgive each other." She closed her eyes, then reopened them as well as her heart for one final moment of vulnerability. "Will you forgive me," she asked.

Beast Boy smiled. "If you'll forgive me."

She took her hand in his, a smile formed on her face as she gave a small nod before sinking back into her chair.

Both, having restored their friendship, now relaxed. Their feud over, both sensed a restoration and healing in the air between them. For the first time, things felt like they were returning to normal.

"So," Beast Boy asked, wiggling his eyebrows, "you see me as a man, huh?"

Raven groaned.