A/N: Even though it's an AU, I'm using the characters' Titan names (with some exceptions…) because I don't know the original names of the characters, having until…about five minutes ago not even being aware they had other names, and that there was a Teen Titans comic book.

A Garden of Roses

Chapter 2: The Meeting

Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

You don't know how you got here—you just want out

Believing in yourself
Almost as much as you doubt…

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me: U2

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Robin awoke promptly the next morning at 5:01 on the dot, without the help of an alarm clock. He made no fuss about getting up, simply opening his eyes and carefully untangling himself from his comforter. Changing from his comfy pyjamas into a sleeveless shirt and shorts, he made his way down to the garage he converted to a mini-gym, stopping only to brush his teeth.

It was a chilly morning, as well it should be in the middle of October. Robin shivered slightly, scantly dressed as he was, but he knew that his ensuing workout would be more than sufficient to raise his body temperature.

Robin was an excellent fighter. He had trained in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean martial arts, mastering Taekwon Do and achieving a fifth degree in Kung Fu. But he didn't fight, didn't work out, just because he had black belts. It was an intrinsic part of him now, the fighting, and he did it for himself. Plus, it was great stress relief (though he was not often stressed at five o' clock in the morning). This morning, the sky still dark and only the lonely chirping of a few straggling birds, Robin was still thinking about the mysterious girl.

But he shook his head, aiming a perfectly centred sidekick to a kicking bag. I can't be obsessing over every new case at St Agnes's, he admonished himself. She's probably just another one of those who are contemplating suicide. The generalisation was unfair, he knew: He shouldn't judge people on the way they dress. But this dismissal was at least enough for him to push the girl almost completely out of his mind, and instead concentrate on himself.

…

Although she didn't need to anymore, Raven sat perfectly still, meditating. She held on to the simple chant as she would a blanket, the three simple words Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos the last thread of her old life.

Raven sighed, coming back to the real world. It was still very early—the sky had just begun to be tinged with cotton-candy-pink, and the streetlamps shed their pale light onto the pavement, lighting the way for the few people who were up and about at this hour.

I am alone.

It was the one thought she had been trying to keep from her mind, but it was so persistent. She couldn't help but return to it, no matter how well she was in control of her emotions. To be thrust so suddenly from the world she knew to this totally alien one in which she knew no one and no one knew her…and devoid of the one person who made life almost worth living.

But no! Raven told herself severely. I will not think about him. I must think instead on how to get out of this place. But she couldn't see any way to do that. Her powers were completely gone, so she couldn't teleport. And St Agnes' was fitted out with a top-of-the-line security system, along with enough guards to fill up two prisons.

I'll never see him again.

Raven just barely kept herself from screaming out loud at her treacherous brain. For the third time since she had woken up alone, Raven felt a constricting pain in her throat and a sharp stinging behind her eyes. Blinking angrily, she banished the beginnings of tears. Not this early in the morning, she thought grimly.

She rested near the window, one slim hand resting lightly on the sill, staring out the window into the misty morning. The sun was rising now, rapidly, and the streetlamps clicked off simultaneously. Fashionable cars purred down the road and the hustle of pedestrians could already be heard. Raven listened with a hint of yearning, wanting nothing more than something so mundane as walking in the open air.

And then…then she heard a noise that was quite different from the smooth workings of cars or the voices of those who walk. It was one she had heard so many times before…and she wanted so badly for it to be true and yet Raven caught her breath, unable to believe that it would be true.

She heard what could only be, unmistakably, Robin's beloved motorbike.

…

The biotech marvel, Cyborg, sat yawning in a swivelly, comfortable-looking leather chair. Stretching, he brought his arms down to slowly type something out on the computer screen in front of him.

"Dammit, lost again," he cursed under his breath. A computer game featuring odd-looking creatures and a smirking faerie stared out at him. There's nothing to do this early, he decided, yawning again. Although most of the doctors of St Agnes came in at about 6:30, as did he, it was still far too early for his tastes.

"Tsk tsk, slacking off on the job, Cyborg?" came a mock- scolding voice from behind him. Cyborg swiveled in his chair and grinned at Robin.

"'Morning to you, too," Cyborg replied. Robin shrugged into his white lab coat, embroidered with his name and degree, and bent slightly to observe what his friend, in name the electrical engineer, but in practice the securities and electricity general, and the backup secretary, of St Agnes's, was playing.

"Neopets?" Robin burst out incredulously, laughing. "C'mon man, even you've gotta have something better to do."

"Our loonies aren't really that loony," Cyborg said mournfully. "None of them are trying to eat glue or kill each other."

"We'll put you in a room," Robin offered, "and I'm sure if they weren't crazy to begin with they will be in a short amount of time."

Cyborg had just opened his mouth to fling back a retort when a cool, almost inhuman voice cut him off.

"Good morning, Cyborg, Doctor," he said, inclining his head ever so slightly to the two of them. Robin stiffened and nodded back.

"Doctor Slade," Robin replied. Slade was the head of St Agnes's, a very bright doctor, but not well endowed in the people skills department. Of all the doctors and nurses at St Agnes, Robin had yet to meet one who actually liked him.

Slade gave him a thin smile. He reached into his bag and pulled out a sheaf of papers. "Here's the preliminary report on the new arrival," he said casually, handing the papers to Robin. "I trust you will take care of her?"

"Um, yeah," Robin said distractedly, his eyes skimming down the pages covered margin to margin with notes. Slade lingered a moment, his unfathomable eyes taking in with disfavour both the young doctor and his engineering friend, and then strode down the hall to the doctors' lounge.

"Yo man, you okay?" Cyborg asked, noticing how Robin's brows were knit tightly on his forehead, and how distracted he seemed to be.

Robin looked up at his friend's concerned inquiry, and grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay," he said. "Just another new case." Cyborg looked ready to press the matter, since Robin never noted with this much interest a new arrival, but Robin noticed it, and stopped him. "Who've I got on for today?"

Cyborg sighed, swiveled back around in his chair, and pulled up Robin's schedule on the computer. "You've got another session with Garfield Logan at 11:00," he reported. "And at 1: 30, you're set to see Aqua Lad. Besides that, you've just gotta go the rounds."

"Thanks," Robin said, leaving. His soft-soled shoes made no noise on the shiny floor; it was policy that all employees not wear noisy shoes, since they were apt to wake up the patients. In fact, it had become policy ever since a nurse, Star, came in wearing five-inch heels. The clicking of the shoes had woken a patient up, and he ran around screaming, brandishing a candlestick and declaring he was the Colonel Mortimer Mustard. This in turn had upset other patients, one of who had gone into an epileptic seizure and almost died.

In retrospect, it was almost funny.

Robin stopped in front of room 4A. St Agnes's did not formally call its inmates patients, instead referring to them as guests. Apparently, the founders of St Agnes's thought that 'patient' was too morbid and would discourage the "guests." The original builders of St Agnes's had also gone through pains to keep it from adopting the impersonal sterile feel of hospitals. There was no linoleum, but rather hardwood; the lights were soft, not harsh and white; each patient had an individual room, with a large bed in one corner away from the window, bolted down to the floor, and a high ceiling.

She's right behind this door, Robin thought to himself. He glanced down at his papers. Raven. That's her only name. He paused for a moment, his hand resting lightly on the cool metal doorknob, then resolved and suddenly pushed the door open.

She was sitting in the middle of the floor, legs crossed, eyes closed. She didn't look up when he entered, or when he clicked the door shut behind him. Her face was smooth and unwrinkled, although she seemed to be focusing with great concentration.

"Good morning," Robin said loudly, not content to put her off until later. He had a little more than three hours until his next patient anyway, and he wasn't going to just sit in his office and drive himself insane thinking about her.

The girl—Raven, Robin said to himself—cocked one eye open, then both widened slowly.

It's him…it's Robin…Raven thought disbelievingly. And he's left off his mask! A pair of deep brown eyes flecked with lighter gold scrutinised her from under dark brows, framed by lashes that would have looked feminine on anyone else... though on Robin, Raven noted, they only enhanced his natural good looks.

What's Robin doing here? Will he know what's going on? Is he an inmate too? Though her mind was working so quickly, Raven kept herself as composed as usual.

"It's morning," she stated, not looking at him. "Nothing good about it."

Robin, a bit taken aback by this rather rude greeting, flipped to a page in the stack of papers he was carrying. This girl looks like she's got it all, he said to himself. Obsessive-compulsive, multiple personalities, clinically depressed, hallucinative…He read the scribbled note. "Likely more to be discovered."

He shrugged. "Whatever," he said, seating himself in one of the chairs. "I'm your doctor—my name is—"

Raven answered for him. "Robin," she said shortly. "I know." Robin's going to be my doctor? God, he's just as crazy as I'm supposed to be.

"How could you?" Robin demanded, curious. "Have I met you before?"

"You might've," Raven answered carelessly. Her façade was taking huge amounts of energy to keep up. All she really felt like doing was throw herself in Robin's arms and sob the whole story out to him and have him take her in his warm embrace and kiss her hair and tell her it would be all right….On the other hand, she had an impulse to smack him, hard, for leaving her.

"Well…as you evidently know, I'm Dr Robin Greyson—but forget the formality, everybody here calls me by my given name," Robin pushed on, not content to let this strange girl get away from him.

"Fine, Robin," Raven said. "Save your speech about being welcome to St Agnes's, I've already got it."

"Raven, look at me," he commanded. "Stop being such a bitch, will you? I'm trying to help you, because you've obviously got something wrong with you and I want to fix it!"

The harsh language caught her attention and she turned a cold gaze on Robin. He was surprised at the animosity she was showing him. Her amethyst eyes were hard and unrelenting.

"Something wrong with me?" she repeated. "I woke up a few days ago to find my world turned upside down and nothing as I knew it. Something's wrong with the world."

Robin settled himself in a chair and looked with interest at her. "Go on," he said.

God, he hasn't changed, Raven said to himself. "You won't believe me."

Robin shrugged. "I'll listen."

"Right," Raven said emotionlessly. Silence reigned, and it was finally evident to Robin that Raven wasn't going to tell her story out right.

"When did this start?" he asked, poising his pen above the paper.

"When did what start?" Raven asked back.

"This. When did you become convinced that the world isn't right?"

"When I woke up a few days ago," Raven answered tersely. I can't tell him the truth. He'll be like the others and think I'm crazy. And…I couldn't stand it if even Robin loses all faith in me…. Raven shook her head, disgusted with how pathetic she was acting. Like a desperate schoolgirl with a huge crush, she thought derisively. Robin could be the only person who could help her and tell her what was going on and here she was, too caught up in her thoughts she couldn't even tell Robin the truth.

"What was life like before you woke up?" Robin pressed. I should've known she'd be so recalcitrant, Robin said to himself. Doesn't look as though I could ever get much out of her, she's so wooden and emotionless.

"And when did this become an interrogation?" Raven said, determined not to let him get anywhere. She was too worried that she'd spill the truth and Robin would be lost to her. Forever.

"Since you refuse to tell me yourself," Robin countered. "Look, this questioning technique is what I use on very small children. Unless you're a large, small child, then there's no need for me to do this." Raven looked ready to fling a sharp retort but Robin caught her wrist.

"Listen," he said, quieter. Raven couldn't take her eyes off him, more handsome than she remembered, with his pair of light gold eyes holding her gaze powerfully. "I want to know all about you, Raven. I want to hear your story. You…" Robin cut himself off, about to tell her that she had called to him, had reminded him forcefully of someone he didn't know. "You seem to have an interesting story to tell," Robin amended.

Raven looked into his eyes for a second more and then turned away, pulling her wrist expertly out of his strong grip. She sighed.

"Let me ask you this first," she told him. "You know a wonder of biotechnology called Cyborg, don't you? And an annoying goofball formerly named Garfield Logan, commonly called Gar, even more commonly called Beast Boy? And you're probably going out with a perpetually happy girl named Starfire?"

"Yeah….except I'm not going out with Star," Robin said quickly. He looked wonderingly at her. "How…do you know?"

"We all lived together," Raven said finally, resolved to telling the truth. Robin's curious mind had evidently crossed over into this new world also, and also his determination to get to the bottom of everything. Nothing would work except to give him what he wanted. "In a T-shaped tower on that island in the middle of the river. You were Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman's one-time sidekick. Star was an alien from Tama—"

Raven's words were cut off as somebody opened the door and stepped in, oblivious to the fact that she might be interrupting. "Medicine time!" Star trilled. She carried a tray with five little cups on it, each of which, Robin knew, held the exact dosage of the amount of medicine to be taken. Woah, that's a bit much, Robin said to himself. But then again…according to these papers, she's got a "bit much" wrong with her.

Raven took the medicine quietly, quickly, and Star bestowed upon her a smile like one would give to those in pre-school. "I shall return with more later," she promised, "and then you will feel allllll better." She grinned at Robin and winked; as she walked by him, she swung her hips, so he couldn't miss how short and tight her tiny white skirt was.

"That's Star," Raven said, in the silence after she had left.

"Um, yeah, it is," Robin said, looking at Raven with new interest in those gold-flecked eyes.

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IMPORTANT. Wowie…thanks for all your reviews! Keep them coming: they help make my day So what did you all think about this chapter? Before you go on about how Raven was acting too weak, let me justify myself: I like to think that Raven would have changed in the years she'd been living with the Titans, and even if she doesn't show it, she could be thinking all these things and no one would ever know. So I'm taking a bit of artistic license and letting you all know.

For all those who said this was "weird": Think of it like an AU where everyone but Raven was told. Does that clear things up a bit?

Review comments:

Absolutely pointless: Yes, Rae x Rob is the OTP

Clouded Dragon: Thanks for putting me on your favourites list and increasing my self esteem

Raven Fiery-Black: Thanks! I really try to keep my stories technically correct, 'cause it annoys the hell out of me when writers can't even spell the simplest words!

ThessalyD: Maybe because she's the most likely? I dunno, I just wanted a Rae x Rob pairing so putting Starfire in wouldn't work (although she is a nurse)

Akane Always: I'll make a promise to you—and to everyone else who commented on my schoolwork—I'll work at least 15 minutes a day on each new chapter, and at least an hour on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Okay?

Aislin of the Shadows: Exactly!!

Dark Weezing: I really love Frasier, too bad it ended ::cries:: Um, I've actually never seen the BB one…as far as I knew…this was the only one…guess not

A big hug, thanks, and cupcakes to all who reviewed! By the by…the song I used this time, and last time, are both from the Batman Forever soundtrack. Must watch that movie seeing as how much I love the soundtrack.