Hurray for reviews!

Hotshot – Thank you.

Estell – I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've always considered Terra to be a bit of a tragic heroine because of her insecurity. She has peace of mind coming to her, I feel.

Inuandrave – I didn't mean for it to be dramatic, but like I said above, I think Terra is a tragic heroine. Since I brought her back, I just think she has happiness due.

Pyro – Thank you for being so complimentary. I readily admit this isn't my best work which is why I've put it off. I hope to finish this up soon, wash my hands of it, and start on a new book that will have a lot more action.

To everyone, I feel I must continue apologizing for this. I know this isn't my best work and I hope you'll all forgive me. Once I get an idea in my mind, I have to see it through, so I hope you'll forgive me while I finish this story. I've only got a few more chapters to go, then it'll be on to something much more exciting, I swear. As you all know, I don't own the titans.

Chapter Five – Day Three Hundred Two

The cross country drive was actually very relaxing for Cyborg. It was time alone with his baby, time to really test her and see what she was capable of. It helped that being a well known superhero pretty much meant that he could open the T-car up to top speed wherever he could and not have to worry about speeding tickets. Presently, he was pulling almost one hundred seventy in a seventy five zone in the midwest. Cyborg had a date to keep and was racing against the clock.

He checked one of the display screens on the dashboard. It displayed a view of the North American continent and most of Central America. A small blue dot was in the warm waters just south of the Yucatan Peninsula. Cyborg pushed his baby just a little harder. If he was to win, he had to be at least two hundred miles from Metropolis before Aqualad reached the Panama Canal.

It had become a bit of an unofficial race for them. They both left their respective towers at the same time. Cyborg would head east overland in his car and Aqualad would head west by sea. Depending on traffic around major metropolitan centers and the canal locks, the two were pretty much evenly matched.

The process had been affectionately nicknamed prisoner exchange. Every weekend either Cyborg and Aqualad or Bumblebee and Raven would switch towers so the couples could be together and still keep the number of titans in each of the two towers equal. As a result, there was a recharging platform for Cyborg in the east tower and the west tower had started using something other than chlorine in their hot tub for Aqualad.

Cyborg tapped a few controls on the dashboard and the display screen was replaced with a view of the east tower living room. In the center of the screen was a dark haired girl clad in purple sitting between Mas y Menos. All held GameStation controllers. Cyborg could only laugh at this scene. "Blazing B! I didn't know you were coming around this weekend."

The dark princess of Tamaran laughed. "Cyborg! What's up? I had some free time so I decided to fly myself over here. And I was out of soda."

Mas y Menos perked up and looked at her. Their English had been constantly improving since they started spending more time with Blackfire. Still, they held a heavy accent as they spoke in concert. "Soda? Is that all?"

Blackfire laughed, a glint in her eyes as she paused their game. "Certainly not." She redirected her attention to the titan on the road. "Hold on, I'll get Bee for you."

There was a momentary pause as the screen flickered and the connection was transferred into Bumblebee's room. If her hair being down wasn't enough of a clue to tell that she had just gotten out of the shower, the towel gave it away. Yet still, there she was. "Hey Sparky, where are you?"

Cyborg settled back, since he was directly connected to the car sensor systems, he would know well in advance of anything happening around or ahead of him. "Oklahoma, where the wind comes whistling down the plains."

The girl looked at him drolly and flicked her wings. "No show tunes."

The hours passed and the cities and states flew by for the titan in the car. Metropolis was the key. Traffic around the city was a snarling mess on a Friday, and the rules of the game stated that the only time that Cyborg could switch the T-car to hover mode was on the final approach to the east tower.

He was at least thankful that he didn't have to put up with Gotham City traffic. He had been there a few times, mostly as trips to visit Batman. If he had had hair, he would have long since pulled it out if he had had to put up with that traffic every other weekend. However, the benefits of that specific trip were tangible and immediate. No one mentioned it, and Robin certainly least of all, but the dark knight seemed to have taken a sort of affinity to the friends of his old sidekick. And certainly Bruce Wayne and Alfred thought that the teenaged entourage brought a certain life to the old mansion.

But, by Metropolis, neither Cyborg nor Aqualad had a definitive lead over the other. However, as the blue dot cleared the land and moved out into the ocean, a call came through to the T-car. Cyborg answered the line. "You got Cyborg."

The unmistakable sound of fast rushing water and heavier than normal breathing came over the line. The voice was garbled, like listening to the radio underwater "Remind me again why we just don't take the jets?"

The driving titan laughed at the swimming titan. "Because if we have the jets and something happens while we're in transit, they can't get anywhere. Besides, the exercise will do you good."

Aqualad huffed, the sound not lost in the water. "Do me good? I'm not the one who eats a pound of bacon in a sitting. You're lucky you need all that grease for your joints, tin man. How is traffic?"

Cyborg grimaced. "I've seen worse. How was the canal?"

"I've seen better. At least I can walk across the locks and they don't charge me." A low rumbling sound came across the connection followed by an Atlantian curse. "Stupid ring of fire, stupid undersea volcanoes. You don't know how lucky you have it. I'll talk to you later when I get to the tower."

The line closed. Cyborg looked up and started slowing down, ahead of him was a line of brake lights as far as he could see. He gritted his teeth. "I'll take volcanoes, I think."

The drive continued into the late afternoon. The sun was low in the horizon when Cyborg finally saw the line of factories that was the Steel City industrial district. He was driving at a normal speed, finally. Metropolis traffic had been horrendous and he had been forced to stop along the way and clear up a major pile up and help extricate survivors. That delay had been enough for Aqualad to take a sizeable lead. He had just called in to say he was at the tower. He looked so smug sitting there with Raven in his lap.

Cyborg sighed and activated the hover jets, crossing the water to the island tower. As he flew over the dark water, he concentrated entirely on the approaching tower to the point that only a tapping on the window startled him. He looked over and saw a familiar yellow and black form flitting alongside the car. At that moment the stress of racing Aqualad, the wreck on the highway, and the cross country drive all melted. He landed the car and pulled it into the garage, hardly stepping from the door before Bumblebee had jumped into his arms. "Rough drive?"

Cyborg kicked the door closed, all thoughts of his prized car set aside for the girl in his arms. He gave her a quick squeeze and a long kiss. "You know, I don't remember. My mind was wandering off somewhere."

Bumblebee flitted her wings playfully as he set her down. "I wonder where. Come on, everyone is up on the roof. Speedy is barbequing ribs."

The tall titan clapped his hands together, ignoring the metallic clang and smiled broadly. "Ribs! However did you guess?"

He followed the winged girl into the elevator and they rode up to the residential level. Using the communicator in his arm, he called over to his home tower and left a message to say that he had arrived safely. This last duty performed, Cyborg became an east titan for the weekend. Stepping out into the living room, Cyborg looked around and noticed Jinx in the kitchen wearing an apron. She was surrounded by bowls. "Jinx, I didn't know you could cook."

The pink witch turned around and smiled. "Glad you finally made it, Cyborg!" She regarded the bounty around her and shrugged. "Mother told me that I should always be able to take care of myself so she made sure I knew how to cook pretty early on." She pulled something out of the oven, something that looked suspiciously like brownies. "Could you take the cole slaw and the beans up?"

He looked around at the dishes and tears of happiness filled his eyes. "Ribs, cole slaw, beans. I'm in heaven!" He picked up one dish and handed the other to Bumblebee. "Come along, angel."

It was a short hike through the halls of the tower and then up the stairs to the roof. Mas, Menos, and Blackfire were lingering around the grill where Speedy, in apron and chef's hat was slathering barbeque sauce on some very large racks of ribs. The masked griller looked up and raised his tongs. "Cyborg!"

Cyborg returned the greeting and dropped the cole slaw on the table set up on the roof that held the food. He grabbed two root beers from the cooler beside the table and handed one to Bumblebee while walking over to the assembled crowd. "How long until they're done?"

Speedy checked his watch. "Not long. Maybe another five or ten minutes."

They were soon joined by Jinx, still in her apron, who slid up beside Speedy and wrapped her arms around him. This caused no small amount of snickering from the other titans. She looked from one to another and finally confronted them. "Okay, what's so funny?"

Cyborg turned to regard them both and could barely keep from laughing. "It's nothing, really, it's nothing. You two just look so cute in your matching aprons and everything."

Jinx and Speedy both regarded each other, then the other titans. The witch's voice was soft and cool. "Speedy, darling, do make sure to give Cyborg the small rack, won't you?"

The archer nodded. "Already planning on it, dear."

The red cybernetic eye of metallic titan grew wide. "Hey, come on guys, we were just messing with you. I wasn't serious. Come on."

Now it was Jinx and Speedy's turn to laugh. The archer put an arm around Jinx and lifted the lid off the grill to baste the ribs.

Cyborg sighed and shook his head. "That's just not right."

The sun had gone down and the moon had come up, and long ago everyone had gone downstairs to watch movies, but Cyborg stayed up on the roof. Bumblebee stood overtop of him, giving him a massage. His eyes were closed and he had a serene look on his face. "A little lower."

Bee raised her hammer and swung it down against his back, a little lower than the last swing. It met his body armor with a resounding clang. Below her, she heard a satisfied sigh and she smiled. "Better?"

"Yeah, just like that." And so, the sound of hammer falls continued uninterrupted for a while in the warm night air.

After a while, Bee paused and looked out over the ocean. "This is nice." She brought the hammer up and swung down on a previously unworked section of Cyborg's back.

The metallic titan grunted and opened his eyes, a soft red glow from his cybernetic eye lighting the area of ground where he lay. "What? Being able to hit me with a ten pound sledgehammer and not worry about assault charges?"

The winged girl laughed softly and sat down on his back before he could turn himself over. "That, among other things."

Resigned to the fact that he was stuck on his stomach on the ground, Cyborg stretched, the occasional groan of metal on metal breaking the silence. "What other things?"

"Not fighting all the time. Not yelling or screaming." She leaned in. "Getting close and figuring out what makes you tick."

At this, Cyborg delicately rolled over underneath her. She now rested on his waist. He took a split second to register what his cybernetic components were registering, her weight, her position, and the pressure of her body registering on the armor plates of his abdomen. Then he pushed all that aside and listened to his humanity. This was what he wanted to hear. He reached up and pulled her down to kiss her. "If you had paid any attention, you would have known all along."

She tapped his head, and then she tapped his chest. "Head and heart."

He nodded. "Boo-ya."

The creak of the access door opening interrupted their peace. A masked head emerged from the doorway and looked around for them, his eyes widening when he saw what position they were in. "Woah, sorry guys." When he realized they were just talking Speedy relaxed. "Hey, come on. Blackfire has never seen Wicked Scary or any of the sequels so we're going to have a movie marathon."

Cyborg was up in an instant, effortlessly lifting Bumblebee up and into his arms. He cradled her carefully, making sure to avoid any damage to her wings. The look on his face meant trouble. "Oh man, this is going to be awesome!"

Bumblebee sighed a little and laughed, resting her head against his chest as he carried her into the tower. Head and heart, some things would never change.