Sort of short chapter today, but I'm excited for the next chapter and this one was kind of just exposition and anyway it doesn't matter I hope you guys like it! (That was a run on sentence of the worst kind, I've had a lot of caffeine.) Reviews!

Mr. Ursine - I'm so sorry! I don't even know that I was going for a cliff hanger, sorry to do it to you. Biyanabee - I'm team Garfield too even though it may not seem like it yet! Spoiler alert? It's in the tags so I guess not. Moneneki - I'm surprised the Beast made it this long without saying something.

"I gave you my trust my heart
and everything inside of me
Tell me how'd you pay me back?
You made a fool out of me"

- "Lie to Me", Tate McRae and Ali Gatie

Raven came to slowly, the darkness of her healing cocoon receding as the fog in her mind faded at the same time and the same rate. There was no moment of disorientation, no confusion at her surroundings. She knew she had made it safely to the Tower infirmary, knew the steady beeping of monitors and the white ceiling above her. She was suspended above the medical bed, having floated up into the air as her powers wrapped her in their healing blanket.

The only anomaly was the figure in a chair beside her bed.

Garfield was slumped halfway onto the mattress, his arms forming a pillow for his head. His appearance sent a rush of affection through her. Had all of her teammates taken shifts beside her? This wasn't the first injury on the team by far, but they were such a close knit group that each one was hard on every single one of the members.

"Garfield?" She whispered his name — she was reluctant to wake him up, but she needed answers and he was the closest being. She wasn't sure if the others were even in the Tower right now and while she felt mostly healed, her body was still aching and she was definitely moving slowly.

She floated back down the the mattress, taking care to avoid where he was settled. She watched the tip of one pointed ear twitch, but he gave no other reaction to the sound of his name or the movement of the bed.

"Gar?" She tried again, this time leaning in closer to him.

He sat up quickly, so quickly that she didn't have time to move, and his head caught hers as her jerked into an upright position.

"Rae! Who wakes a superhero up by shouting?" Garfield rubbed his forehead, glaring at her in pain.

"I whispered!" She responded, already irritated with her teammate. Was it just a second ago she had been admiring how peaceful he looked while sleeping? She blamed the lapse in sanity on all the energy her body had expended while healing her ribs — there just hadn't been enough energy for her brain to remember that this man was chaos at all times. "Stop whining. You're fine. How long have I been out?"

"Four days." His expression brightened. "Hey! You're awake!"

"We've established that." Raven's tone was dry, but his expression didn't falter at it. "Did I miss anything?"

Like maybe why you're here?

"Nothing important, just some minor crimes." He shrugged, leaning back in the metal chair that had served as his bed. "The others went out to grab some lunch. Do you want them to grab you something?"

Her stomach gave a lurch at the thought of eating. Her body was definitely not ready for solid food yet. In another hour or so however, she'd be starving, ready to eat everything in site as her body caught up with how much it had burned through resources while healing so rapidly.

"I guess that I should text them, yes. Where is my communicator?"

The shifter hesitated, a weird look on his face. Finally, after the pause, he reached into a drawer in the table beside the bed and pulled out her communicator. The device functioned as a cellphone as well, eliminating the need for the Titan's to carry around multiple devices. His tone was sheepish as he informed her, "It's been going off."

Raven took the device from him and saw that she had multiple texts and missed calls from Gavin. Not so many that it was creepy, just a normal amount from a caring boyfriend.

"Why didn't anyone answer it?" She asked as she pressed the redial button. Garfield just shrugged in response. She dismissed it, as Gavin had already answered the call.

"Rae?" His voice was tinny on the other side, but she could tell through the distance that he was worried.

"Hey. I'm okay." She assured him immediately, before he could get any other statement out.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god. I've been so worried."

"No one gave you any updates?"

"No. I had to leave to go open the shop two days ago, and I haven't been able to get in contact with anyone to get back in since."

She shot a nasty glare at Garfield, who at least had the courtesy to droop his ears in shame. "I'm sorry. They should have known to contact you. I'll talk to them."

"No, I'm not worried about that. I'm just happy to hear you're okay. When can I see you?"

The two discussed a meeting time. Though he didn't protest meeting at the tower — Raven didn't feel up to traveling quite yet — he seemed reluctant to come to her location. Raven was a little suspicious — he'd gotten along with the Titans the few times that they'd interacted, and she didn't know why he'd be reluctant to be around them now. Unless he felt unwelcome now, after no one had bothered to reach out to him after he left. Even though he told her not to, she was going to talk to her teammates about why no one had updated him. He was a part of her life now, and leaving him out of the loop on her condition was an unkindness that left her disappointed in her crew.

"I have to take a shower, but we will be discussing why Gavin wasn't contacted after." She told Garfield, who at least had the courtesy to still look guilty. He opened his mouth but she cut him off. "It's not a negotiation, Garfield."

She moved to get up and then scowled, cheeks flushed a bright red.

"Will you help me get to the shower?"

He wisely made no comment as he moved to assist her.

Gavin pulled her into a tight hug the moment that he stepped through the tower's doors. She ushered him through to her room. He followed along, maybe a little hesitant. In his defense, the last time that he'd been here he had been nearly attacked. But still, he'd closed up the vinyl shop the minute she'd called, eager to see her in spite of his cold welcome — or complete lack of a welcome at all — from her teammates the last few days. He'd tried to call a handful of times, thinking that someone would answer her communicator with an update, but all calls had gone without a response.

Given what he had learned from Changeling, the lack of a response hadn't really surprised him. Mostly, he'd just been frustrated that access to his own girlfriend was being blocked by a man who admitted to having feelings for her. Gavin wasn't normally a jealous guy, but in this situation he'd frequently found himself stressing — surely her teammates knew about the shifter's feelings, because he wasn't the only one with access to her communicator. No one had felt fit to call him back, and that led him to believe that they were rooting for the two teammates to end up together.

And Gavin was in the way.

"We need to talk." He said to her.

She looked up from her bowl of vegetable soup. He'd brought them both dinner, and they were holed up in her bedroom, eating the food while sitting on her bed. She had immediately snatched the food from his hands while making happy sounds — he assumed that she was starving after her long "nap", based on her reaction at realizing that he'd brought food.

"What's up?" She asked, cautiously.

"It's about what happened when we got back from that fight. When you were injured. That thing that Changeling became—" Gavin shuddered, unable to finish his sentence while the memory of the sheer size of it was haunting him. The menace that had radiated from the shaggy green frame had been overwhelming. The creature had been some horrific hybrid of ape and bear and wolf and it had a handful of other predator's features as well. It was like no animal that Gavin had ever seen, and he still had no idea how he'd faced its wrath without shitting his pants, frankly.

Gavin watched as Raven grew pale. Well, paler than she normally was.

"You saw it? Did he hurt you?" Her words stumbled over each other, frantic as she reached towards him to check for any injury.

"Hurt me? No! I mean he threatened to beat my ass, but you quieted him down. You don't remember?" Gavin stared at her in confusion. He knew that she'd been injured, but she'd been cognizant at least, able to recognize the situation that they had arrived to the tower in.

"No, I don't remember anything about it."

Gavin narrowed his eyes, focusing on the empath's face, examining it closely for signs of any falsehoods. He didn't know why he suspected that she was lying — nothing in her expression revealed that she was keeping any secrets. Why didn't he trust her over this though? This wasn't like him. It had more to do with what that monster had said to him than Raven herself. She'd never indicated that she had any feelings for the shifter, usually carrying a tone of exasperated affection when telling any stories about the man. Gavin had been sure that she viewed him as an annoying little brother.

But if he had feelings for her, that was a situation that needed to be addressed.

"He has feelings for you. He called you his mate."

Raven snorted in response, her expression not changing from the innocent one that she'd worn a moment ago when he'd examined her. "Mate? Are we cavemen? Should I be worried about him hitting me over the head with a club, then?"

"If he's in the shape of that- that- that thing! Then yeah, maybe you should worry about it." Gavin snapped at her. She narrowed her own eyes at him in response to his tone, but he ignored it.

"The terminology is beside the point, Raven. He's in love with you, and you two live and work together—" He swallowed, voice suddenly tight in his throat. He'd realized the root of his upset over the problem — he had enjoyed their time together, but if there was a chance that she had any feelings for Changeling, then they need to be through. "How can I compete with that?"

Raven stared at Gavin for a long moment, unable to respond. Garfield had feelings for her? Garfield? Sure, he was always hovering nearby, and he'd been a little insane lately but…

A little insane ever since you started dating, you mean. Logic point out, her tone awfully snotty for someone who had no solutions to the problem that had just dawned on Raven.

That's why the Beast is acting this way. He'd somehow decided that Raven belonged to him, of all the outdated and absurd ideas. That's what was triggering his outbursts: why he'd made his first appearance the night of her first date with Gavin, why he'd nearly attacked Richard that day during training, why he'd come out at the sight of her injured and in Gavin's arms. It's why he was lashing out with such animalistic behaviors. His jealous was triggering this primal bullshit.

Not that she need to let Gavin know any of that, or that she even could if she wanted to. First, it wasn't her secret to share any information about. And second, it's not like she reciprocated Garfield or the Beast's feelings. She was in a committed relationship, and she didn't have any time for whatever this temper tantrum was.

"Gavin, he's just my teammate. I'm sure that he was just worried about me, and it didn't help that I was injured as badly as I was." Raven shrugged, keeping her expression neutral. "I think you're misinterpreting things."

"Misinterpreting-?" Gavin's voice was nearly shrill in its disbelief. Raven tried not to flinch — he had every right to his anger. She'd just essentially tried to gaslight the man over an experience that was no doubt terrifying for him. She was scum. But that didn't change the fact that this wasn't a subject they could discuss. "I'm not misinterpreting him saying that he had feelings for you, Raven."

"It doesn't matter what he said, anyway." She responded, primly. "He's my friend, and that's it."

"Yeah, your friend that you live with and see every day!" Gavin's voice continued to rise, and his cheeks were flushing with his frustration. Raven had never seen the easy-going man this upset about anything.

"I think you should leave." She said, after a tense moment.

He scowled and stood abruptly. The quick movement caused the soup in her lap to slosh dangerously close to the edge. He didn't acknowledge it, too focused on grabbing his jacket and keys.

"I'm out of here. Let me know when you want to have a reasonable discussion about this."

Chapter Titles Playlist

1. Feel it Still - Portugal the Man
2. Oh, to Be an Animal - Murder by Death
3. Kill Everybody - Skrillex
4. If You Want Love - NF
5. Red River - SALEM
6. Side Effects - Carlie Hanson
7. When I Get Home You're So Dead - Mayday Parade
8. Lie to Me - Tate McRae and Ali Gatie

That's it so far! More to come as the story progresses!