They-Call-Me-Orange- You're one of my favorite fans. I love reading your reviews (any review, if I must be honest, unless it's a flame), and I'm a sucker for cookies. munches on chocolate-chip cookie Thank you, thank you- tries to bow while eating cookie and falls over, but jumps up quickly No one saw that!
D- You should feel special. I've been meaning to memorize that poem, or at least the first stanza, for a long time, but other things get in the way. People seem to be happy with me writing, though, so I'll keep with this for a while. Rae will emerge in her full Raven-ness soon enough.
Fernnu- Thanks. I tried to keep him in character as possible, but let him grow up. Getting a joker to age properly is difficult, but he seems to be turning out fine.
BeastWithin- Two reviews! I feel loved. The lighter is right- it shall always have to be, no matter how extenuating the circumstances. Rae will be back very soon, don't worry. After all, there can't be BB-Rae without Rae.
darkdemon3592- Yes ma'am. Or sir. It's really hard to tell with most pen names. Either way, I'm writing, so no need to worry about that.
XPhoenixX- Thanks for the critical aspects. I will go back and fix the dialogue/small errors when I'm either finished or at a stand-still. Her motives come out soon enough. The real motive is a bit more complex than originally guessed- Raven's not shallow enough to still be mad. Keep reading.
I love the massive amounts of reviews I get for this story. You all put me in a good mood. When I'm in a good mood, I write better. I always try to update this fast, until I get stuck. With this story, I'm not running out of ideas. Reviews are magical, remember that. Believe in fairies, reviews, and the tooth fairy, and you'll go far in life. Really.
The reunion Rachel helped plan was to be a simple matter. The Titans would meet in the Tower (by now, she had heard stories about four of the Titans, and limited details about the fifth) and have food ordered in, for the first night, at least. The Titans would sleep in their old rooms, maybe beat up a few bad guys for old times' sake, talk, and bring in some alcohol to loosen the atmosphere, a recommendation supported by all. No one was driving, and everyone was old enough to be legal.
Then, Vic called. One phone call complicated the entire matter. He was bringing Bumblebee to see them all again, and to get their opinion about her- it would matter to him. He might not listen to any objections, but they were still the group of friends closest to him. He was considering popping the question- he could more than certainly afford a ring.
Dick and Kori were a couple. Vic would have Bumblebee. Gar would be the only Titan without a date. He thought of the most obvious solution, but was hesitant about using it. He had known her for a little over a month. She was a friend, and they had gone out to a restaurant to celebrate the ground-breaking ceremony at the zoo being over, obviously as just-friends. He wasn't about to go any farther, and she didn't expect to. Sheseemed happy with what they had. But- did she want more? He wanted a date, not someone to marry.
By the time he decided to ask her, it was the day of the reunion. It was just before their lunch break. Rachel had declared she was buying Chinese food for lunch, even thought it was his day. She was in the right mood for it. When a woman said she wanted Chinese, she wanted Chinese. He knew just enough about the other gender to accept this, and the premise of free food. Gar was many things, but idiot wasn't one of them, especially when it involved food.
Rachel shut her drawers, finally having her papers sorted so that there would be room for both of them to eat without making a mess. Buying a separate table seemed a waste of her small and narrow office, and Dick always walked through part of it, so space was limited. Gar was inexplicably nervous. For the first time since Terra, he would ask a girl out. Or had she asked him out? He couldn't remember anything, hardly even his own name, when confronted with this decision. All he hoped was that Raven wouldn't dismember him for bringing some older woman to their reunion.
"Rachel, what are you doing tonight?" His words rushed together, jumbling almost hopelessly. Smooth. You only sound like a teenager- we're all legal adults here, Gar, you can try to be charming.
"Washing my hair." The old put-down was from high school, but so was his question. At least she didn't make him repeat what he had said.
"Want to go to the reunion with me? As a date?"
"I thought you liked some other girl. You've only said six things about her to me, but you're always furious when Dick tries to set you up."
"I do like her, but I wanted to have someone there," he explained hurriedly.
He had said the wrong thing, and knew it the instant the words had left his mouth. She stood, and was in his face so fast he could barely recognize that he had made a classic error. She was taller than him in her high heels, but could have looked down on him from an inch above his shoe. Rachel looked almost homicidal, and he was sure the only thing stopping her was that her office was finally organized, and murder tended to mess with neat stacks of paper.
"So, that's what I am? A back-up date? You can't have who you want, so you'll settle for me? You don't want a friend. You want a cheap secretary to shuffle papers, without the inconvenience of interviews. You weren't nice because you're some noble person. You were seeing what was in it for you all along. I thought you were a good person, but you accept everything and everyone at face value."
"No, I didn't mean-"
"Save it, Garfield. Tell Mr. Grayson I quit, will you? I thought you were a professor of animals." Her comment didn't make sense to him, but he was too busy recovering from his earlier mistake. She stormed out of the room, grabbing her purse and nameplate. She threw the brass construction at him from the doorway- it was real metal, and it hurt.
"The 'L' stands for Lenore." Her voice was a dreary monotone, one that he finally recognized without the many inflections. She walked away, leaving him to remember what significance that would have. He tried to catch her scent on the still office air, the aroma of old books and herbal tea and- calmness. He could only smell mildew.
She was gone, down an elevator before he could untangle himself from the inconvenient phone cord she always knew to step over, something he usually remembered. By the time he was dove to the ground floor, delayed by fumbling with the window catch, she was gone. He had flown from the penthouse of a high-rise building, but not fast enough to undo what he had messed up. She was gone. The doorman had called a cab for her. Gar trudged back to the room. After digging through papers he had tipped over during a hasty exit, he found the nameplate. Then, every last detail came together quickly and fully enough to form the Big Picture, enough to disorient him.
He had never told Rachel his full name was Garfield. Even his college transcripts, diploma, and all fan sites said Gar. Only his Social Security card and birth certificate disagreed. She could have found it. Her last name was Corvid, very similar to Corvidae, the family of birds that included crows and ravens. Lenore was the missed woman in Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Her voice had been the same, for just that sentence.
Dick returned from a board meeting at that moment to find Gar holding a nameplate and standing amidst a maelstrom of papers, with his secretary nowhere in sight. The expression on Gar's face was somewhere between self-loathing, shock, and revelation.
"Gar? Where's Ms. Corvid?"
"Raven."
"What?"
"Rachel Lenore Corvidae. Rae character from The Raven by Poe family of birds including ravens. Your secretary. I figured out who she was two minutes too late."
"Where?" Robin resurrected himself. Dick looked ready to put on a mask and a bright costume and yell Titans, GO!
"Gone- she took a taxi the doorman flagged for her. He couldn't have known- he thought she was getting lunch, I guess."
"She was twenty feet away for four years." Dick finally understood why his secretary had always seemed to know what was going on. "The gray was a trick. We all fell for it. Kori's always at her own office, but she's been through here. Vic has his own staff, but he stops by. I never pay attention to anyone here, and you figured it out."
"After she left," Gar corrected. "The way she put it, I couldn't have missed who she was."
"Why did she leave?"
Gar mumbled something incomprehensible. Even he couldn't make out it was. He cleared his throat, trying a second time. "I asked her to the reunion."
"So?"
"As a replacement date- she knew that I was looking for the easy way to avoid being a third wheel. That's when she got mad and left."
"Who got mad?" Vic had dropped by to pick up Dick. The cycle was at the Tower already, waiting for Vic to repair a glitch in the brakes. Bumblebee would join them later- she was visiting her sister.
"Raven."
"What?"
"Raven's been my secretary for the last four years. Gar asked Rachel to the reunion to make sure he would have a date. Raven's in control of her emotions, at least- the office is pretty much intact, Gar's still alive, and I haven't heard any explosions."
"You mean Gar finally asked her out, but she said no? She was saying something different in that first note she sent."
"No, I asked the wrong girl out. Raven's gone again, but this time I think I know why. She's trying to be who she would have been, if she hadn't had powers and been a Titan. She's trying to prove that none of us would have been her friends."
"Are you sure? That thinking is a little deeper than what we usually hear." Cyborg was skeptical.
"It's the truth."
"How do you know? You can't be sure," Dick reasoned.
"It's what I've been doing- going to college, barely ever changing, wearing the holograph ring. That ends today." Gar threw the ring on the ground, hard enough to make it shatter against even the carpet. "She told me I shouldn't hide who I am. I'm done being Gar Logan, all-American hot-shot doctor."
"Who will you be?" Starfire had just arrived, but still had asked the right question.
"Myself." He walked out of the room with a green head held high against the onslaught of stares as he passed the water cooler, leaving the other two to explain new developments to Kori. Gar had seven and a half hours to be back at Titan's Tower in time for the reunion. He wouldn't mind at all being late, as long as he had found Raven. It was about time that they both stopped being someone else, and Beast Boy was never on time for anything, if he could help it. He had worn his old uniform under his suit coat today. He felt like ripping away the jacket and throwing it aside to a fate similar to that of the ring. If Rae loved Beast Boy, he could be the person he had left behind to become Gar. For Raven, he would be green. If she would ever pause from dismembering him long enough to listen to him, that was.