Chapter 9: Quiet Delight

Every Tear from Every Eye
Becomes a Babe in Eternity.
This is caught by Females bright
And return'd to its own delight.

Weekend mornings in Titans Tower were generally quiet times, but this morning, Raven was already awake at 6:30 am. She was perusing the instructions for the sewing machine that had lain dormant in the storage room of the tower while she used her powers to manipulate the machine. After a few small mistakes and a little confusion, she was on her way. By the time she was finished, it was nearly eleven but her creation had turned out well. Raven went to wake her daughter, sure that she was still asleep, but when she opened the door, Olivia was sitting on the floor, mimicking her mother's meditation position. Suddenly filled with a mixture of pride and apprehension, Raven joined her little girl on the floor. Olivia looked up and smiled.

"See mommy? I'm just like you!" Olivia cried. Raven smiled. She was certain that Olivia's powers shouldn't be manifesting until much later, if she proved to have any at all.

"Well, you're not just like me yet," Raven said, holding up her project. "But we can fix that." Olivia stood up and squealed as she clapped her little hands. Raven had created a little costume exactly like her own, down to the very last detail.

"Now you can wear that cloak and really look like mommy," Raven said, watching as Olivia looked at herself in the mirror. The only true difference between the two was that Olivia's hair was longer. Raven swept her daughter up into her arms and said, "Should we play a trick on daddy and the rest of the team?" Olivia nodded eagerly. With this, Raven and Olivia went to the living area.

When Beast Boy awoke at about 11:15, he wasn't surprised that Raven wasn't there. She had a strict schedule of meditation and she couldn't afford to miss one. He got up, dressed, and shuffled up to the living area to find some breakfast. When he got there, the late morning sun was shining on two figures near the expansive windows. Beast Boy blinked and rubbed his eyes. Raven was floating about three feet off the ground in her customary lotus position, but that's not what surprised him. What surprised him was that their daughter was floating along side her. Both were repeating Raven's familiar mantra, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…" and Olivia was dressed in a costume identical to her mother's. He approached them and they stopped, floated to the ground and got up.

"Good morning, honey," Raven murmured, kissing Beast Boy's lips.

"Good morning, daddy," Olivia said, hugging Beast Boy's leg. The two then proceeded into the kitchen. Beast Boy followed his family into the kitchen.

"Mommy made me an outfit like hers!" Olivia squeaked.

"I see that," Beast Boy replied. "Honey? She was…" Raven laughed and explained that she had been holding Olivia up with her powers. Olivia giggled.

"Gotcha, daddy," she laughed. Beast Boy went to tickle his daughter when the alarm went off. Robin, Starfire, Torque, Terra and Cyborg came running into the room, with Jinx not far behind them. Terra took Jason from Starfire's arms and looked at Raven and Beast Boy.

"We've got trouble, Titans! Let's go!" Robin yelled.

"I've got the kids, guys," Terra cried. "Go!" Acting on instinct and adrenaline, Beast Boy did a somersault as he ran for the door, transforming into a cheetah when he hit the floor. Raven soared overhead, keeping up with the rest of the team. When she reached the door, both she and Starfire looked back.

"They'll be fine! Go!" Terra cried. With this, Raven and Starfire took off after the others. On the way downtown, Raven wondered how she and Beast Boy would perform today. They hadn't been out on a mission for a long time, and she didn't know about her husband, but Raven felt a little out of practice. As Dr. Light smashed his way out of a bank vault, Raven cried out her magic words, feeling her energy returning just as strong as it had always been.

"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos!" cried Olivia, running across the living area. Terra rolled her eyes and smiled as she watched from the kitchen. She was attempting to make lunch for the kids. Who knew there were actual instructions for Spaghetti-o's? She watched the kids play and grinned. Something inside her wished that she had children of her own. It had been difficult for her to try to contain some of her feelings after the night she had dreamed of Raven's attack. Having absorbed Raven's feelings as well as her memories of those events, she had had a hard time accepting the fact that she was not Beast Boy's wife instead of Raven. A tug on her shorts brought her back to reality.

"Auntie Terra?" Olivia asked. Terra quickly took the pasta off the stove and then looked over at Olivia.

"What is it, pumpkin?" Terra asked.

"You're crying," Olivia replied. Terra wiped away the tears, surprised to find them there.

"I'm fine, Olivia," Terra replied, dishing up the food for she and Jason and then joining them at the table. An hour later, when the team returned, they found Terra fast asleep on the couch. Jason had crawled up onto her chest and fallen asleep to the rhythm of Terra's heartbeat, and Olivia had curled up beside them, wrapped in her little cloak and with Terra's arm around her.

"Looks like the kids weren't the only ones who needed a nap," Beast Boy said softly. Starfire giggled. Cyborg grinned. Ultimately, the team decided to let them sleep. They knew how much spending time with the kids meant to Terra.

The other Titans quietly went about getting lunch for themselves, trying desperately not to wake Terra and the kids.

"You guys did really well today considering you haven't been out with the team in so long," Robin said. Beast Boy blushed a bit and Raven smiled.

"I was glad we had you there," Cyborg said. "When Dr. Light saw Raven, he freaked and gave up. The rest of us didn't have to do much!" The others laughed softly.

"I seem to have that effect on people, don't I?" Raven quipped.

"I don't think he was expecting to see us, was he?" Beast Boy said.

"No, he wasn't. But that's a good thing. The more we can take the bad guy by surprise, the better," Robin said, sipping a soda. A soft noise from the sofa made several of the Titans look in that direction. Olivia was awake. She was still facing away from them, and Beast Boy took advantage of the opportunity. He tuned his communicator to the frequency of Olivia's comm link and spoke.

"Olivia, daddy's home!" he said. Olivia jumped off the couch and whirled around. A smile lit her little face as she made a run for the kitchen.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy!" she cried, running full speed into Beast Boy's open arms. The other Titans laughed as Olivia wrapped her arms around Beast Boy's neck and squeezed as he picked her up and held her. Beast Boy kissed his daughter's temple and hugged her tight.

"Did you kick bad guy butt?" Olivia asked. Beast Boy and Raven looked at their daughter in surprise.

"Who taught you language like that?" Raven asked.

"Uncle Cyborg," Olivia replied. The Titans turned to glare at their mechanical teammate and found that he had already left the room, and so had Jinx. Torque rolled her eyes.

"Oh boy, there they go again," she muttered.

"I think there was more to it this time, Torque," Robin replied.

"What do you know that we don't?" asked Torque. Robin looked at Beast Boy and grinned.

"It's a guy thing," Robin replied.

"I'm glad I became a Titan, Cyborg," Jinx said, reclining near the edge of the pond in the garden. She dipped her delicate fingers into the water and played with the fish, making them scatter in fright. Cyborg sat down beside her and smiled. She was never so lovely as she was in the sunshine. He fidgeted a bit. There was something on his mind that he desperately wanted to know.

"Jinx, do you love me?" Cyborg asked. Jinx flashed him a radiant smile.

"Cyborg, we've been dating for five years! Of course I love you!" Jinx replied.

Cyborg pushed a button on his arm and a small compartment opened, revealing a little box. Cyborg took it and took a deep breath. He opened the box and posed one more question.

"Will you marry me?"

Jinx was stunned into silence. Tears pushed their way to her eyes. She lost her breath, but found enough to reply, "Yes! Yes! Oh, of course, I'll marry you!" as she threw herself into his arms and kissed him.

Dr. Ivanova and one of her colleagues, Dr. William Turner, came to Titans Tower every six months to administer physicals. Normally, a person would only need a check up once a year, but considering the physical and emotional strain that the young heroes were under on a daily basis, a bi-yearly physical didn't seem so out of line. Only Cyborg escaped most of the rigors of the doctor's visit. Anything wrong with him could be discovered through a diagnostic scan.

When the doctors left, after assessing the health of not just the Titans, but of their children too, Robin picked up the phone.

"This calls for pizza," he said.

"And lots of it!" Torque added, rubbing her arm before putting her black hooded sweatshirt back on. "Immunizations suck!"

Meanwhile, down the hall and around the corner, Raven was zipping her uniform and draping her cloak around her shoulders as Olivia lay on her parents' bed. She was still sniffling away tears from the shot she had received, but she was otherwise a very healthy little girl. When Beast Boy returned to the room, he picked Olivia up and gave her a big hug and a kiss, cuddling her and reminding her that she was brave. The little Titan simply nodded and decided to return to her room. Beast Boy looked over with concern as Raven sank to sit down on their bed, obviously something important on her mind. Beast Boy joined her there.

"Raven, is everything okay?" he asked, sliding an arm around her and smiling as she instinctively slumped over against his shoulder.

"Yes. Everything's fine. Olivia's healthy, I'm healthy. You?" Raven replied.

"Fit as a fiddle," Beast Boy replied. "But if everything's okay, what's on your mind, baby?" Raven's look of deep concern scared Beast Boy. He was used to her even-handed temperament, but there was obviously something amiss. Suddenly, her concern ebbed away and she smiled, making her dark blue eyes glitter. She lifted a graceful hand to cup Beast Boy's face and he nearly purred with joy. Raven leaned close to her husband's ear and whispered into it. The look on his face was worth every syllable.

"Are you sure?" Beast Boy stammered. Raven nodded.

"Dr. Ivanova was positive," Raven replied. Beast Boy swept his wife into his arms and hugged her.

"I can't believe it," Beast Boy murmured, sweeping Raven's hair out of her face. "We're having another baby!"