Garfield woke up groggily and had to set an alarm for an ungodly hour, 4 am. He took a quick shower and combed his hair before shaking it dry to give him its usual unruly look. He wore his signature doom patrol uniform because he knew he would be shifting to various animals to entertain the kids, which may prove to be not ideal if he were to go in his civvies.
I should probably eat something before. It's going to be a long day.
When he started to walk towards the kitchen, he realized he was the only person awake. Normally by the time he was up Cyborg was just about done turning his stomach into an animal cemetery, Star would have finished feeding Silkie and Robin and Raven would have been up for a few hours already.
Wow now that's a trip, the last time that ever happened was for the release of Super Monkey VIII.
He picked a banana and one of Robin's vanilla protein shakes. While he opened the drawer to get one of the protein shakes, he noticed Raven's teas on one of the lower shelves.
Hmmm it's not even 4:30 am yet, they told me to get there by 5 am, if I use a peregrine falcon I can probably get there like in 15 minutes.
He stood there a moment to gather his thoughts clearly because he did not want to mess this up.
What am I kidding, I can't afford to mess this up. Should I pre-make the tea? What if it gets too cold? She should wake up soon though, so I will just start it for her.
Beast Boy filled the kettle with water and as soon as he was turning the stove on he thought
I will turn it off before I leave though, Cyborg would never let me hear the end of it if I somehow burned water.
He began to rummage through the cupboards to look for a potential mug.
Let's see, I know Raven uses this cup all the time, it matches her cloak.
He chose a black tea, a mix of Lavender and Earl Grey. He might not have known the names of the teas, let alone what the differences where between all of them, but with the many years living with Raven, he was able to smell the subtle differences between them. He just happened to notice that she would often use this tea more in the day.
Floral yet somewhat spicy in the morning, while floral and sometimes fruity and night.
He carefully picked up the now dry mug from the drying rack.
I know she has that thing somewhere around here.
Raven had a lot of methods to make her teas, but she would rarely ever use tea bags, she once mentioned that it was just not the same. He was looking around the nearby shelves and found one of her "complicated" silver tea filters where you place the loose tea inside and it would steep directly to the mug. Once done you would discard the tea and rinse off the filters. He thought this was the reasonable one to use because Raven had a more sophisticated French press style tea maker that he was sure he would somehow break, and he did not want to use one of her premade tea bags because he might come across as lazy.
I know she already thinks of me as that, but things are going to change around here. Now, how much tea does she use?
He started scrambling around looking at the drawer and found the silver filter.
Where is that literal teaspoon she uses? It has to be somewhere…ah there it is!
He noticed it far in the drawer and took it out and carefully measured the tea. He had the tea filter with the measured tea inside the mug.
Okay, got the tea in the filter and in her mug. Just got to wash the spoon before I leave. I will leave her a note just to let her know it was me. I guess I might as well remind her that she can't avoid me forever, even if that was her birthday wish last year.
He quickly rinsed the spoon and turned off the stove once he saw the kettle started squealing while hastily writing her a small note. He left it underneath her mug so she could see it once she picks the mug up.
Okay, it is 4:42 am, I really should get going.
Sure enough, he heard someone' door open down the hall. It could only be Raven or Robin.
Shit okay, I got to get out of here. He was able to sneak out before anyone saw him.
I really hope I did not screw up as something as simple as making tea. I just so happened tried to make tea for the Gordan Ramsay of tea drinkers.
Once he got outside, he morphed into a peregrine falcon. It took him 12 minutes to get there and when he stepped inside, he looked up the clock and saw he had 3 minutes to spare.
"Whew, glad I at least got here on time".
He looked around and observed the lobby. The team did not really go to hospitals unless it was sending or dropping someone off at the ER. They did not need to ever personally have to go since Cyborg oversaw most of their health and medical needs. Besides, there really was so much that human doctors could treat meta-humans.
This was a children's hospital after all, so the abundance of kids should not have been a shock, however actually seeing it before your eyes was a whole other story. The hospital treated all kids, whether it was a non-life-threatening condition, to kids not being able to physically live at home. There were kids with shaven heads who he can only suspect where do to chemotherapy, kids who were using sign language with one another, another kid in a wheel chair with an amputated leg, another with half his face covered with bandages likely hiding an injury or sorts. Garfield stood still for a while taking it all in.
While he was noticing everyone there, the kids quickly noticed the green superhero walk in. The child with the bandages pointed and excitedly shouted, "Oh my God, its Beast Boy! THE Beast Boy from the Teen Titans!". A crowd began forming and before Garfield could even mutter a response, a nurse approached him and said, "Right on time, thank you once again for showing up! My apologies, I should have told you to meet up at one of our more private entrances – "
but Garfield interjected while raising his glove covered hands "No worries! I am here for the kids, aren't I? I never mind being the center of attention", which he finished with a wink to the nurse.
The nurse gave him a light chuckle and said in a sarcastic tone, "Yeah I am sure that is the one thing you don't get much, attention". Garfield smiled and flashed his signature fang grin.
The orderly was pretty and young, she had wavy blonde hair with hazel eyes and had a slender figure. Pretty much Garfield's type.
He noticed all this but really was concentrated at the task at hand, plus he had more pressing matters back at the tower. He didn't even bother to glance back once he thanked her and bid her goodbye when she handed him to the Doctor that Garfield reached out to for volunteering. She was a woman in her mid-fifties with short greying hair but she had such a warm vibe to her, that he could not feel any more welcome.
"Hello Garfield, we met last time but again my name is Dr. Ojeda, what you are doing is just so great. The reason why I asked you to come so early was because all, and I mean all the children are just so excited to meet you. We wanted to make sure that they all had a chance to meet you".
She extended her hand to shake his hand and he graciously shook it.
"No! Thank you for the opportunity, really. I wish I could have known I could have done this sooner."
Dr Ojeda returned him a motherly smile and touched his shoulder, "You and any of your teammates are welcome here at any time. You all have saved so many of my patients, I even had a niece that was in a hostage situation where you guys led her out safely. The city greatly appreciates you, and this hospital will forever be thankful for all the lives you have all saved".
Garfield rubbed his neck, due to not being used to being praised by others, "Heh, don't think twice about it. Comes with the job y'know?"
Dr. Ojeda once again warmly told him, "Don't cut yourself so short. You guys literally put your lives on the line for people you have no responsibility for. That speaks volumes in itself. Now here you are, with what limited free time you have, spending it with kids that think the world of you".
Garfield then returned her a small smile that quickly became a huge grin where he then said, "Cool, so who do I get to meet first!?".
The doctor chuckled, "Well, when word got out that a Titan, nonetheless, THE Beast Boy, was coming, well let's just say there was a reason I told you to come at such an ungodly hour".
Garfield couldn't help but let out a small laugh at her last remark.
"What? Just because I had to spend a whole lot of time in school, residency and working at a hospital, you think I like to be awake at this hour?".
She then directed Garfield to what appeared to be an auditorium where there were at least 100 children waiting to see their hero.
These kids were all so lucky to meet one of their favorite heroes, while Garfield couldn't help but feel that he was the lucky one.
"Boyfriend Robin, do you not think we should perhaps contact Beast Boy? We have not heard from him all day and it is the most late" said a worried Star. None of them were really worried, but Star saw Beast Boy as a little brother and felt protective about him in times like these. Could they really blame her? One of the last times they did not hear from Beast Boy he was literally on a ship about to go to another planet.
"Don't worry, Star", Robin said assumingly. "I checked his location an hour ago, he is at the hospital, I'm sure the reason why he is taking so long is probably because all the kids are excited to meet him. I remember I did a similar event years ago and the only reason I had to leave early was because of a distress call. Other than that, we might have had to stay overnight to meet everyone".
This seemed to have calmed Starfire a bit. He must have been talking about his time with his former mentor, Batman. He rarely ever brought him up, and even rarer brought him up by name. But as time went by, he started telling some stories here and there about his time with the legendary hero.
"Yeah Star, the green toothpick can handle himself. I'm going to be up till late anyways making some adjustments to my systems. If the security systems tell me that he isn't home by then, then we get to worry. Sounds fair?", replied Cyborg to whom Starfire returned a gracious nod.
Raven was in her room. She was there with everyone a few hours earlier because she knew Beast Boy was going to be there for most of the day, but she did think he would be home by now. When she did not feel his presence, many thoughts went through the empath's head.
It is pretty late, what if something happened to him?
He is not a child anymore, despite how his jokes and demeanor sometimes implied otherwise.
What if this was all a trap, what if he was kidnapped?
Robin has the coordinates to all of our communicators, also the hidden ones in our uniforms in case of emergency. He is more paranoid than I am at times, I sure he has checked his location by now.
What if he hasn't? What if it is too late?
Raven did not notice herself pace up and down her dimly candle lit room. She stopped in place and shook her head and quietly told herself,
"Snap out of it. He is fine. Besides you have been avoiding him, this is a dream come true".
The last statement sounded more like a question when she said it out loud, but she disregarded that and picked up one of her books and began fervently reading as if her life depended on it. She often kept finding herself rereading the same passage more than once, but she kept on reading. It was not until she found herself not able to concentrate anymore and decided it was time to go to bed.