A/N: Hey you guys! Thanks for all your wonderful reviews!
To all my reviewers- YOU ROCK!
Cheers,
Franshes
Wally, Speranza, and Lise got to the outside of the tower before collapsing, breathless and panting. Speranza actually passed out from exhaustion.
Quietly and gently, Raven used her powers to teleport Speranza into one of the Tower's many empty rooms.
Meanwhile, Lise and Kid Flash were trying to catch a breath in order to talk.
Kid Flash tried to speak but began coughing instead.
"Hush," Raven told him gently, and taking hold of his arm "Don't speak yet- rest."
Kid Flash cried out in pain and that's when Raven realized his arm was broken. She mended it quickly.
"Thanks," Kid Flash whispered to her.
"No problem, Kid Flash." she said.
"Jinx-the kids-" Wally said "I-have-get them-"
"No." Raven said firmly "I'll go get them, you stay right here and rest. Changeling?"
"Yes?" he answered.
"Look after them for a minute, will you?" Raven said.
"Of course, Rae." Changeling told his wife.
Without further ado, Raven teleported herself to the other side- where Jinx and the rest of her kids were waiting.
"Jinx!" Raven exclaimed upon seeing her friend again.
"Raven! Oh, thank God you're all safe!" Jinx said and the two women embraced.
"Are any of you guys hurt?" Raven asked.
The Wests all looked troubled.
"Daniel is," Ben said sadly.
That's when Raven took a glance at the two month old baby.
She had to suppress a groan.
Daniel was unconscious and looked severely beaten and starved- that could NOT be healthy for him.
Usinng her powers, Raven teleported the Wests to the T tower.
Kid Flash and Lise were resting already in the titans med-bay.
"Wally!" Jinx exclaimed upon seeing her husband who laid on the bed, she ran up to him, embraced him and kissed him hard "We did it, Kid Flash, we escaped!"
"'Course we did, love." Kid Flash said, smiling weakly "Told ya I'd get us all out of there...and if you're wondering where Speranza is, she's sleeping upstairs in a spare room, poor little thing was exhausted..."
"Yeah well, we all are." Jinx said.
"Mom," Lise said in a weak, broken voice "Mom, where's Daniel? Where's Ben?"
"I'm right here." Ben told Lise, smiling and kissing her lips lightly.
"Where's Daniel, Ben? Where's my son?"
Jinx sighed before holding up the infant baby.
"Here honey," she said.
Lise took her son from her mother's arms carefully and tenderly. The sight of her son, unconscious and broken, pale and sickly-looking overwhelmed her and she began to cry.
"Hush, hush, he's going to be alright, you'll see..." Ben tried to comfort Lise.
"You don't know that! Nobody knows that! My son could be d-dead!" Lise screamed.
"He needs a hospital- that's for sure." Raven said, putting a hand in Lise's shoulder to calm down the distressed teenager.
"I'll go with him." she said. She attempted to sit up but both her mother and Raven pushed her back down on her bed.
"No...you need your rest," Raven said "It's enough already with him being sick, we don't need you to get sick as well..."
"Raven's right, honey." Jinx said soothingly "You'll help Daniel more by first recovering yourself and-"
"Absolutely not!" Lise declared "Okay...I get it, you both want to keep me safe but this isn't about me, mom! And I'd understand if it were Kyle or Speranza or Valerie or even Ben but- this is Daniel we're talking about, mom okay? He's not my sibling or a parent or a boyfriend- he's my son! I have a right to decide what's good for him! I NEED to be by his side! If it were any of us in his state mom, what would YOU do?"
Jinx sighed, dejectedly.
"I'd probably do every bit as you're doing now, honey." she said "Forgive me, I keep thinking, or wishing really, that it wasn't this way. That it wasn't you in this problem. I keep wanting to treat you as my little girl and trying to take responsability off your shoulders as I've done in the past- I keep forgetting that now, I can't do that anymore."
"In short," Lise said, offering her mother a weak smile "You keep wanting to pretend that Daniel is YOUR child- and that I'm the little girl you and dad wanted me to be. But I screwed up, mom. And I accept that, and I'm proud of it-sure, I made a mistake with Bryce, but that mistake gave me a beautiful son mom, and I love him so much, I wouldn't trade him for anything. Because he IS my son, mom. I AM his mother. Sure, I'm still your little girl- but right now, my son needs his mother more than you need your daughter- I must go, Aunt Raven, I must go."
Jinx nodded to Raven, tears in her eyes.
"Take her with you, Raven." she said "She's right. She MUST go, but I'm going with you..."
"No mom," Lise said gently "I understand you're worried about Daniel- and I understand you want to be there for me and for your grandson but- you know- you're a mother too. And right now, Valerie, Kyle and Speranza need you."
"But you're forgetting that I'M their father too..." Kid Flash said quietly. He had remained quiet throughout the whole conversation up 'till now, but in his eyes a new light shone as he looked at Lise, a light that had not been there for a long time now-pride.
"I'm their father- I'll take care of them, you know I'll be able too, and right now, you need your mother as well- you might not know just yet how much." he finished.
Lise nodded and hugged her dad and then hugged her mother.
"Let's go then." she said, and carefully craddling Daniel, Raven, Lise, and Jinx teleported to Jump City Hospital...
At the Hospital...
Daniel was quickly taken to the NICU.
Lise waited anxiously along with Raven and Jinx to hear news from him.
They waited for hours and nothing new.
Finally, at around 11:30 p.m Kid Flash joined them.
"Da!" Lise said "I thought you were supposed to stay behind and take care of my siblings!"
"All of them are asleep right now honey," Kid Flash said gently "And you should sleep too, it won't kill you to get 10 min. of sleep you know?"
Lise nodded and cuddled up in her father's arms- here she felt safe- just like when she'd been little. Needless to say, she fell asleep quite quickly in her father's arms.
"She's quite heavy!" Kid Flash said in a whisper to Jinx and Raven wh laughed quietly.
"Of course," said Jinx giggling "Did youthink she'd still have the same weight she had when she was six?"
"Well..." Kid Flash said "At least I can still manage her."
"Why shouldn't you be able to?" Raven asked "You're not THAT old- thirty three years old."
"Of course I'm not old!" he said, his gaze softened as he looked at his daughter "Poor girl, she's barely 17 and look at everything she's going through!"
"If Daniel dies..." Jinx whispered "I can't even begin to imagine what her pain might be..."
"Let's hope she doesn't have to go through it, then." Raven said, quietly then she added "Listen, I know now's not the best time for anything but- I-I need to know."
"What?" Jinx and Kid Flash asked at the same time.
"I need to know what you guys know about my son Jake." Raven said.
Jinx and Kid Flash shared a troubled look and then Jinx said, as gently as she could
"Rae-I-I don't know how to say this to you but, listen, J-Jake- Jake's dead okay?"
"What?" Raven cried in a pained whisper "No! It can't be! No! How do you know?"
"We saw him," Kid Flash said in a pained voice "We saw him being murdered by Creak."
"Are you sure?" Raven whispered "Positively sure?"
"Yes," Jinx said "I'm sorry Raven, I wish I could give you any other answer but- but Creak tortured him pretty bad- there was no way anyone could have survived that."
Tears were now flowing freely down Raven's cheeks and she felt her heart shattering again into a million pieces.
"Did he suffer?" she asked in a barely audible whisper.
Again, Jinx and Kid Flash shared a look but decided it was best to tell her the whole truth- to honnor his memory.
"Yes," They both said and then they re-counted the horrific details regarding Jake's death to his mother. (A/N: For more info. go back to "Cross My Heart and Hope You Die"'s 50th chapter "A Tragic End")
Raven felt terrible, not only was her son dead as well as her youngest daughter but they'd both had horrible deaths.
"He...gave himself up?" she asked, disbelievingly.
"He thought that would keep us and the rest of you safe..."Kid Flash said with a heavy sigh "Especially Ravenie- he made Creak promise him he wouldn't hurt her anymore..."
Raven closed her eyes.
"Of course," she said "Of course he'd sacrifice himself for her- especially now that- oh God- how could I NOT see that coming?"
"Why?" Jinx asked curiously.
"Ravenie's pregnant- two months along- with Jake's baby..." Raven said.
Both Jinx and Kid Flash groaned at this.
"I'm so sorry for her, and you Raven." Jinx said, catching her friend's hand.
"Where's his body?" Raven whispered, unable to stop crying even though it seemed to her that she'd been crying all day "What did he do with it?"
"We're not sure." Kid Flash said uncertainly "Creak just took him away with his powers- teleported him elsewhere- we don't know exactly where."
"Dikos said something about dumping him in the ocean..." Jinx said quietly "Or else a dessert or an abandoned cave- somewhere where no one would find him. He told me this while he r-raped me." Jinx added in answer to Kid Flash's questioning look. Kid Flash clenched his hands tightly in fists.
"My poor boy!" Raven cried "He couldn't even get a decent funeral!" then she looked at Jinx strangely and asked her "He raped you? Dikos raped you?"
"Yes..." Jinx said "Never mind that- I'm fine- we need to concentrate on Lise and Daniel and give them all the support we can- and you and Changeling need to heal too- this tragedy is going to be hard for all of us to overcome..."
"Poor Ravenie..." Kid Flash commented "No one's told her yet the news about Jake, and she's pregnant- she's fragile and delicate right now and she's stressed out- that can't be good for her."
"The shock she's about to receive is even worse for her condition." Raven said "It might cause a miscarriage- we'll have to tell her as gentle as we can and help her through all of this."
Jinx looked at Raven strangely.
"How can you be thinking of helping others at this time? How can you be taking all this so calmly?" she asked "Asides from crying silently...you haven't been much affected by Jake's death...are you okay?"
"I'm not," Raven said 2But I realize now that there's nothing I can do except grieve silently and take care of Ravenie, who is, after all, carrying my grandchild- my son's baby. Jake died to keep her and the baby safe from what you guys have told me- I will not have his sacrifice be in vain- besides, that baby is the last thing I-I'll ever have from my son-" here she broke down cring again.
Her crying awoke Lise who stirred sleepily in her father's arms before she noticed her Aunt Raven, crouched on the floor, crying.
"What's wrong Aunt Raven?" she asked, scared "Is Daniel okay?"
"We-still don't know honey." Jinx said as Kid Flash put his daughter down "Your Aunt Raven's crying because she's just found out about- you know- Jake..."
Lise understood. She put a hand on Raven's shoulder and said
"I know you must be in terrible pain Aunt Raven- but you must think- Jake died a hero- he died to protect us all- you should be proud of him as well as sad."
"Oh, I am." Raven said in between sobs "Trust me Lise, I have never been prouder of either Jake or Starlight in my whole life- I'm just going to miss them so much!"
Kid Flash put a hand in Lise's shoulder and then told his daughter
"You must help Ravenie through all of this my girl- we'll help Raven but you've got to help your friend." and then he told her all about Ravenie being pregnant and all.
Lise felt terribly sorry for her friend and the situation she was in but she didn't have much time to feel pity for her because at that moment, the doctor came out of the NICU, looking grave.
All of them stood up at the same time, a tight knot forming in Lise's stomach.
"I'm afraid I have bad news..." the doctor said.
Lise's breath caught in her throat and she braced herself for the worst...
A/N: Done. Hope you liked the chapter- it was very emotional. Next chapter you'll find out HOW the Wests escaped I expect.
Review!
Cheers,
Franshes