He was sitting by the fire in the living room waiting for the three kids to come home. Now only the crackles from the fire broke the silence. The room, that less an hour ago had been full of kids, now lay down in silence.
They had all gone out.
Some were going around to the neighbours asking for small jobs. Others were helping Mrs. Williams in her shopping for her baking. Others were trying their own ideas about how to get the money.
Even the Teen Titans wanted to help them. He didn't know much about them other that they lived on a small island in the bay, but a helping hand was a helping hand.
The opening of the front door broke his line of thoughts. The three kids had come home. For a moment he just sat there and listened to them. Jake as always told a joke. Sam laughed and Elmer grunted at it.
Gary didn't want to spoil the moment, but he had to talk with them. They had to know. He coughed slightly and thereby got their attention. He told them about the letter. Elmer looked unaffected by it, but both Sam and Jake's eyes went dark. Sam began to give suggestions to what they could do, but Jake went completely silent.
Gary was laughing of one of Sam's suggestion, when they heard a car coming up the driveway. It had to be Mrs. Williams coming back from the stores. Elmer quickly ran out to her and the others followed him, but in the doorway Jake stopped Gary. The boy said something for they first time since the news.
"I have an idea."
Gary was stunned by the boy's seriousness, so it took a moment before he answered.
"Okay, what is it?"
---
They were sitting in the kitchen discussing Jake's idea. Mrs. Williams had made some tea, so they each had a mug in their hands. She and Gary sat, as they always did in the evening, by the table, but Jake was sitting in the window. Gary knew it normally would have made Mrs. Williams angry, but this time she turned a blind eye to it.
"It's a good idea, but do we have the time to but it into action?"
Jake looked out on the snow-covered garden as he answered.
"Yeah, if we chose an easy one. Besides the spectators would just think that the mistakes are cute, since it's kids who are the actors."
They had to agree with him.
Gary stood up and put his mug in the sink.
"Okay, then we are going to made a play which nobody have ever seen before, but I think we should go to bed now. It's already one o'clock."
They were all stunned by how late it was. The time had just flown away. Gary went up to bed, while Jake helped Mrs. Williams washing up the mugs.
"Thanks for the help, Jake, but I think I can handle it now."
The boy just nodded and didn't move. She could see there was something wrong. She dropped the washing-up brush and turned to the boy.
"Jake, was is wrong?"
First the boy began to turn away from her, but then he threw himself into her arms. He didn't cried even though it maybe would have been better.
They stood there for a long time until Jake pulled away from her. He turned around like nothing had happened and began to walk away.
"Jake, do you want to talk?"
The boy stopped and just stood there for a long time, then he nodded. Mrs. Williams made another pot of tea and they sat down.
---
It was Slade.
Teen Titans went into attack mode and went after him, but was stopped by a swarm of his robots. In the mean time Slade opened the container with the chip and took it. Then he focused his attention on the titans, who still was fighting his robots. One by one was the robots destroyed. There was still time for Slade to escape, but he just stood there. There was something wrong.
"Where is Robin?"
He duck down as a starbolt flew in his direction.
"As you don't know!"
Then it had to be true then.
"So he is really dead?"
Another starbolt flew after him. This one almost hit him. Slade saw it and knew it was time to go, but still something kept him there.
"Is he REALLY dead?"
He asked again.
A tear felt down of Starfire's cheek as she answered.
"yes"
Followed by a starbolt. The answer had stunned Slade, so it hit its target. Slade felt back due to the force of the starbolt, but quickly he jumped up again. If he didn't escaped now, then the titans would catch him, so he ran away. He had got all what he needed.
Back on the scene the titans destroyed the last of the robots and went after Slade, but the trail was cold.