Gar tried to slide out of bed when Raven was still asleep, but that proved difficult when sharing a twin-sized bed. They had never actually made it back to her room yesterday, choosing instead to stay right where they were to catch up on the lovemaking they had missed the past month.
As Gar tried to maneuver his way over Raven, she moved her head sleepily back and forth, muttering his name. He kissed her once, twice, and then she became unresponsive again, descending back into slumber.
Deciding that remaining in his human form was too risky; Gar shifted into a mouse and scurried out of his room instead. Once he was a safe distance away, he returned to his normal shape, jogging into ops and checking to see if Melvin had sent him a response.
Thankfully Azar-or whoever the Hell was out there-was looking out for him. Melvin not only had responded, but she had told him they were upstate on a special mission and that she, Timmy and Teether would love to visit the Tower. They just needed someone to pick them up.
He could do that. He could totally do that. Checking their location, however, Gar realized it would be about a two-hour flight in his falcon form, and once he got there he would have no way of bringing the kids back with him. Sighing, he realized he would have to take his T-Ship pod to northern California if he wanted to get back before Raven woke up. Looks like he was in for a crowded ride on the return trip.
Discovering this meant he had a time limit, Gar sprinted to the Tower's garage and began firing up his pod. He hated flying the thing alone. It was downright stressful. At least when they were going to Tamaran he had Raven along with him to double check all the techno babble stuff. As he pressed a few buttons, the pod roared to life, and then Gar was off. He let out a relieved puff of breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. He could handle this. It was just upstate after all.
Besides, he would travel to the ends of the galaxy if it meant making Raven feel better.
The scenery around him passed by in a blur, so he couldn't even really enjoy the journey that much. He supposed it was the price he had to pay for speed.
He landed in a forest clearing about a half an hour later. It would have been only a few minutes if he had shifted the pod into space mode, but he had done that once before a couple years ago and it didn't work out so well for him. Cyborg had ranted and lectured about 'delicate machinery' and a bunch of other terms Gar didn't understand. Even if the cybernetic hero wasn't there to reprimand him, it still felt wrong to go against his friend's wishes.
Gar frowned, glancing around the clearing. This was the location Melvin had given him, yet there was no one around. That was, until a giant metal robot came smashing into the clearing. Gar screamed in alarm, diving out of the way before the thing could smash him. He almost had a heart attack when one of its giant feet nearly crushed the T-Ship pod. If he wanted to get back with the kids, he would have to take this machine out and fast.
Turning into a brontosaurus, Gar turned his body around and whacked the massive contraption with his tail. The robot went flying backwards into a large tree, but rose seconds later without a scratch. Gar shifted into a T-Rex preparing to charge again, when a powerful sonic blast sounded, knocking the robot to the side of the clearing and into the dirt.
Gar returned to his human form, watching in wonder as Melvin and her team charged. The kids were a couple years older from when he had last seen them, but they were still much younger than Gar had been when he had first joined the Titans. He had to admit though, for little kids they sure had a system going.
As Timmy Tantrum knocked the robot off its feet again with another scream, Melvin ordered Bobby to charge with Teether in his arms. The massive bear ran straight for the robot, hurling the six year old at the machine's head. Gar watched in bewilderment as Teether latched onto the robot and bit down on the side of its head, tearing the metal that held it together in two. Once the metal siding had toppled to the ground, Bobby boosted Melvin up onto the shoulders of the robot. The blonde girl reached her hand inside, fishing for a key piece. When she located it, her eyes lit up in excitement. She pulled with all her might and the robot's control chip sprung free.
The android gave one final jerk to the side before it lost power completely. The force of its final movement was enough to knock both Melvin and Teether off its shoulders, but Gar was there to bring the kids safely to the ground in his pterodactyl form. As Timmy and Bobby approached, Melvin and Teether looked up at Gar in wonder.
"Beast Boy!" Melvin cried, giving him a big hug. "You found us!" Teether also merged into the hug and soon Timmy and even Bobby joined in on the action.
Gar laughed as the giant bear released him along with the children. He glanced down at Melvin, for once finding he didn't feel the need to inform someone of his new alias. "It's good to see you guys again. You've gotten so big!"
"I went through the biggest growth spurt ever!" Teether yelled, standing on his tiptoes.
"Nuh-uh, I did!" Timmy insisted, jumping up and down. Bobby seemed to enjoy the motion of Timmy's jumping, for he too bounced with the young boy, causing the ground to shake in the process.
"You both grew so much!" Gar said, surveying the boys with his hands on his hips. "Bet you're gonna be taller than me soon!"
"Where's Raven?" Melvin asked, looking around for the empath.
Gar leaned down so he was eyelevel with the kids. "Here's the thing. Raven's back at the Tower, but she doesn't know I went to get you guys. You gotta be real good, so we can surprise her."
"Surprise! Surprise! I love surprises!" Teether announced.
"I like them more!" Timmy argued.
"How's Bobby gonna get to the Tower?" Melvin asked, and Gar blanched.
Huh. He had never actually thought about that. Well this sure was going to be interesting.
~0~0~0~
The three kids ended up riding inside the pod with Gar while Bobby hung from the outside in his invisible state. To anyone else watching the scene, they would have assumed the pod was in desperate need of repair, for it dipped dramatically at one end and travelled about as slow as an old beat up station wagon. Gar tried to steer with the utmost care, although that proved to be challenging with three bouncing children squeezed in next to him.
We are gonna be so late. Raven's gonna kill me, he thought, trying not to break out in a sweat. He had taken his old communicator with him just in case, and it had rung about six times within the last hour.
Finally, after what seemed like eons, the pod made a clumsy landing into the Tower's garage, and its occupants exited immediately. Bobby became visible again and went to stand by Melvin, taking his keeper's hand.
"Alright," Gar said in a hushed voice as he led the trio of children and Bobby into the hallway, "we gotta be really quiet so Raven doesn't know that-"
Raven phased into the hallway half a second later, and Gar concluded she must have heard the garage door close. He let out of shriek of terror, and hid behind Melvin. Anything Raven would have said was lost as she looked from kid to kid in disbelief. Her mouth quirked up into one of her rare, big smiles, and she knelt down to give her kids a hug. They ran into her arms immediately, simultaneously shouting, "Raven!"
Once the hug was finished, Bobby stomped forwards and wrapped Raven up in his own bear hug-pun intended-until the empath had to tap out to breathe.
"I missed you kids," she admitted, surveying them all. She shot a small smile at Gar who had stood off to the side so as not to interrupt their reunion.
"We missed you too, Raven!" Melvin told her. "We made sure to tell Teether stories about you so he remembered you."
"And how you saved us from the monkey man!" Timmy added.
"Monkey man, monkey man!" Teether cried, bouncing up and down.
"Why don't we all go to ops so we can get some lunch," Gar suggested. "I'm starving!" Bobby nodded in agreement.
The two younger boys started chanting 'lunch,' as they followed Raven and Melvin down the hallway. When the children and Bobby entered ops, Gar made to enter as well, but Raven held him back.
"I know why you're doing this," she stated.
Gar looked at her innocently. "Um, because I'm super nice?"
"You're trying to cheer me up," she told him, and he relaxed. So she didn't suspect anything more.
"Is it working?" he inquired, giving her a hopeful glance.
Raven's lips twitched, but she concealed it well. "We'll see," she answered, before entering ops. Gar followed her inside, a smug expression on his face.
Walking over to the ops monitor, Gar noticed he and Raven had received a couple missed video chat calls. He must have accidently set the messaging system to 'do not disturb' when he was responding to Melvin earlier that morning. He decided he would check and see who the calls were from later. Today was about Raven and the kids.
After lunch the five of them journeyed to the Jump City boardwalk where the young heroes-plus Gar-could play various games. Melvin walked with her hand out, seemingly holding thin air, but Gar and Raven knew this was the only way for Bobby to join them without startling civilians.
Gar played a few boardwalk games with the kids, while Raven and Bobby watched from the background. During a ring toss game, Teether came over to Raven and tugged on her cloak, handing her a small ring. She looked at the object skeptically, but after an encouraging glance from Gar, she tossed it towards the target, seeming a little pleased with herself when it landed on the cone.
Afterwards they bought the children ice creams, and Gar watched with amusement as Raven carried over a tower of napkins. "Are we really gonna need that much?" he asked her doubtfully, but she just responded with a look that said, "Trust me."
Gar decided Raven was on to something, for ten minutes later she had gone through all of them. Most of napkins had been used to wash the chocolate dessert from Timmy's face. The boy was certainly old enough to wipe his own face, but Gar had to admit it was kind of endearing watching Raven fret over him.
The only bit of trouble they ran into was when Timmy and Teether raced each other along the boardwalk. Timmy had the significant advantage, being three years older than Teether, so he naturally won every time. Teether returned to Raven and Gar with tears in his eyes. Gar, figuring Raven wouldn't want to deal with the crying youngster, began to bend down beside the boy, but Raven was quicker.
"T-Timmy b-b-beat m-me," Teether stammered, tears leaking down his face.
"I know," Raven told him, "but you shouldn't be too upset about it. Timmy probably could have beaten me too, but I'm good at other things. Just like you are." She paused. "Who else can chew through a cable line?" she asked him.
Teether perked up a bit, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "No one but me," he responded.
Raven nodded. "Right."
As Teether ran ahead to join Melvin and Timmy, Gar stared at his girlfriend in wonder. This was a side of Raven he had rarely seen, and he wished he had had more of an opportunity to notice it when the Titans were together.
"What?" she asked him, sensing his eyes were on her.
He just shook his head. "Nothing. You're just so amazing." He felt a twinge of satisfaction when he noticed her cheeks turning red.
The kids ended up leading the former Titans to the beach where they began skipping stones, or in Timmy and Teether's cases, seeing who could toss the biggest rock into the bay.
"Bobby's really good at skipping rocks," Melvin told Gar matter of factly.
"Better than me? I'm the champ," Gar informed her, picking up a rock and skipping it across the ocean water a total of four times. He beamed at her. "Let's see if he can beat that."
A large flat stone rose into the air and surged forwards, gliding over the water. When it made contact it bounced, once, twice, seven times. Gar's mouth dropped as Melvin looked up at the older, green hero innocently.
"Touché Bobby," Gar muttered. He glanced over at Raven who was watching them all from a boulder. He saw her cover her mouth with her hand as she concealed a chuckle.
Eventually the three children, who absolutely insisted she join them in the game of throwing rocks, disrupted her peaceful observations. She relented-Gar found she could rarely say no to them-and picked up a rock she found lying in the sand. Using her powers she skipped the rock eight times along the surface of the water.
"Hey, that's cheating!" Timmy yelled, but his eyes shown with laughter.
"Cheating, cheating!" Teether repeated, bouncing along the sand.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Raven said, but she gave Melvin a wink.
"I saw that!"
"Saw that! Saw that!"
Gar laughed so hard he had to grip his sides.
When the sun began to set, Gar realized it was probably time to take the kids and Bobby home. Melvin informed them that they were to be returned upstate, since they still had 'some business' to attend to there. Gar had offered to fly them home via T-Ship pod, but Raven decided it was more practical to just teleport them back.
"I can just rest afterwards. It's not as though we'll be doing anything I'll need energy for," she reminded him.
"I don't know about that," he murmured in her ear, and she whacked him.
After Gar had given the kids, and Bobby, a big hug, Raven teleported them upstate. When she returned, Gar could tell she was weary from using her powers, so he helped her to the sofa, laying her head on his shoulder.
"Thank you for bringing them," she murmured.
"You're welcome," he responded softly, running his hand down her side. He hesitated, before his palm drifted over her stomach, still flat.
"I still think it's different with them," she said softly.
His fingers ghosted over her belly. "Maybe, but it could be different with your own too."
"Do you really think we can do this?" she inquired, squeezing his hand tightly.
"I have no freaking idea," he answered honestly, "but we've done the impossible before."
"Now you're starting to sound like Dick," she teased.
Gar shuddered. "Great."
As they lapsed into silence, Gar couldn't help but think if he should propose or not. He wanted it to be special, but he wasn't sure how genuine it would seem to her so soon after her pregnancy reveal. He wanted her to know he was committed, but if he wanted it to be special for her, it appeared as though he would have to wait a little longer.
"The night's still young ya know," he said, getting up. "Maybe I can make us dinner? Got any weird cravings?"
"Not really."
"Hey," Gar said, lighting up, "maybe soon you'll be begging for tofu."
Raven shifted her body so she sat upright. "I think that's highly unlikely."
"You never know," Gar sang, making his way over to the kitchen. He caught her rolling her eyes. Halfway through his dinner preparation he saw her get up, complaining about sticky hands from the children's ice creams, and moved into the hallway. Gar assumed she would be taking her second shower of the day. He didn't blame her; his uniform was pretty grubby as well. He would have to take a shower soon too.
He moved their dinner off the burner as an evil smile took over his face. Morphing into a sparrow, he zipped down the hallways until he was outside the girls' bathroom. Sure enough the shower was running. Gar changed into a beetle this time, crawling under the bathroom door. Once inside he glanced up, realizing the bathroom was flooded with steam. Raven's back was to him, and she was washing her face and chest.
"I know you're there," she said blandly, and he nearly had a heart attack.
"You're no fun," he grumbled, once he had returned to his human state.
She glanced over her shoulder, giving him an unamused look. "Is dinner ready?"
"I put it on hold just for you," he responded, waggling his eyebrows.
"Lucky me," she deadpanned. She returned to her washing, seemingly content with ignoring him. After a bit she turned her head to gaze at him over her shoulder. "Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to join me?"
"Oh! Right." Gar undressed himself in three seconds flat before climbing into the shower with her. She stepped aside to let him use the water while she took a seat on the small rest on the shower wall. He noticed her staring at him as he wet his hair, so he made a show of flexing his muscles. She shook her head at his antics, the movement causing hundreds of tiny water droplets to run down her shoulders.
"Would you like to tell the others?" she asked suddenly.
Gar blinked. "About the baby?"
"Obviously."
Gar sat down in the shower, the water pounding against his back. He took her hand. "I'll do whatever you wanna do, Rae-Rae."
"Why?" her voice came out choked. "Why do you always try so hard to please me?"
"Because you're the best thing that's ever happened to me," he said, shrugging. "Obviously."
Raven stood up quickly, tugging him up with her powers. He let out a yelp of surprise, but then her mouth quickly covered his. He kissed her back, fiercely. He put everything he had into that kiss.
"What is we hurt the baby?" he panted as she levitated over him.
"That's not how it works, Gar," she said between kisses. She pulled back. "Honestly, we need to sign you up for some biology classes."
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, latching his mouth onto hers again.
~0~0~0~
After they had redressed, Gar finished making dinner and the two sat across from each other at the kitchen table. They talked about mundane things, but Gar didn't mind. He loved watching her. He marveled at how delicate yet strong she was. He admired how her hand subconsciously traced over her stomach, as if she were checking on the baby.
When they had finished dinner, Gar got up to collect their plates. He began washing them in the kitchen sink as Raven sat on the sofa. It was quiet except for the sounds of the gentle water swishing around on the dirty plates.
"Garfield," Raven said, getting up from the couch and walking over to the ops monitor. "What are all these messages?"
"Oh," Gar responded absently. "I saw those earlier. I was gonna check on them but I figured they could wait." He laughed. "It's funny, I guess I must be really bad at picking up calls today. First with you, and now with whoever else was calling."
"Me? What are you talking about?" she inquired.
"You called me like ten times this morning when I was picking up the kids," he reminded her. "I didn't answer 'cuz I wanted it to be a surprise and all."
Raven furrowed her eyebrows. "I didn't call you this morning. My communicator is in the back drawer of my bureau, and I spent the night in your room."
Gar froze, uneasiness suddenly spreading over him. He left the dishes by the sink and joined Raven in front of the ops monitor. Together they opened the missed video chat files and saw that there were now nine missed calls from Starfire. Gar and Raven exchanged an anxious glance before hitting the 'call back' button.
Starfire answered on the first ring. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were red from crying. As soon as she realized who had called she let out a sob.
"Starfire, what's wrong?" Raven questioned, her voice tense.
"Oh Friends, I have been trying to call you. I t-thought p-perhaps they had gotten to y-you as well! It d-does not make sense for this to be so, but I was feeling the horrible f-feelings for your safety!" Fresh batches of tears streamed down her face.
Gar's heart caught in his throat. "What are you talking about Star?"
"Babs has been shot," she sobbed. "And Tim is missing."
~0~0~0~
Author's Note: That's right. I'm going there. For those of you who are familiar with "The Killing Joke" or "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" you may know what's going to happen next. With my own twist of course.