Mind Trap

Chapter 16

Raven woke to the sensation of fingers running through her hair. Her mind raced wildly, trying to discern the situation. She was seated in a chair, her arms were folded on something firm and warm, and her head was resting in her arms. The fingers ran through her short hair again, running around the edge of her ear.

Raven's head jerked up off her arms and saw Beastboy, a huge grin on his face, "You're awake," she deadpanned, "and you didn't try to leave."

"I didn't want to disturb you, and it looks like you were worried about me running off."

Raven looked down and jerked back, she had not realized that she had been sleeping on Beastboy's stomach. "Sorry." she said, almost embarrassed.

"It's okay. I don't mind." he seemed nervous, "Are you mad at me?"

Raven sighed, "That was a really stupid thing you did but, thank you."

"No prob, I'd do it again, if I had to."

"You won't." Raven turned to a panel on the wall, "I'd better call the others."

"Wait a minute."

"What?"

"You made me a promise."

"Did I?"

"Yeah, you said that if you could ever feel, you'd let me take you out."

"Yeah, I guess I did." She stood and leaned down, one hand in the middle of his chest to support herself, and kissed him softly, "We'll talk about it later. Okay?"

"Uh… yeah…" Raven smiled and leaned down again, but was interrupted by a beep from the communication panel near the bed.

"Raven, everything okay up there?"

Raven dropped back into the chair with a disgusted grunt, Everything's fine, why?"

"Beastboy's heart rate just spiked, so…"

"He's fine, and he's awake now."

"You should have called first thing when he woke up."

"I just woke up myself a minute ago, just get up here if you want to talk to him."

"Right, we'll be up."

Raven turned back to Beastboy, "They're a little paranoid about you right now."

"I can imagine. It's not every day I sneak into somebody's room with a knife."

The door of the infirmary opened, revealing the rest of the team. "That was fast."

Raven said with a half-smile, "He's fine."

Robin looked from Raven to Beastboy, "Beastboy?"

"I'm good man, I just want out of here."

"Care to explain your actions?"

"I can explain, Robin." Raven cut in. "It was a spell, after a fashion. I couldn't know about it so he didn't tell anyone, and it has freed me to feel emotion."

Robin gaped at this, but Starfire's eyes lit up, "Glorious!"

"Yeah, man, that's great." Cyborg had walked over to the console attached to Beastboy's bed. "You look good man, as long as Robin's satisfied then you can go."

"Yeah, go. I'm fine with it."

"Alright, man, just…" Before Cyborg could finish what he was saying, Beastboy was on his feet and going down hard. Immediately, two sets of hands had grabbed him, stopped him from falling. Cyborg had one hand clamped around Beastboy's upper arm and Raven had an arm around his waist. "If you would sit still and listen…"

"Sorry, dude."

"You will be. You can go, but I want you to get some food and take a nap, you are far from recovered."

"Yes sir." Beastboy said, throwing him a mock salute.

"Alright, if everything's taken care of here, Cyborg and Starfire, we need to get some training done. Raven, I want you to make sure Beastboy gets some sleep after he gets a meal, understood?"

Raven nodded, "I'll take care of it."

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Beastboy sprawled on the couch, the TV remote clutched loosely in one hand. Raven tried to insist that he go to his room to sleep after he had a late breakfast, but he had refused. They had compromised when she had allowed him to watch TV, but he was out like a light as soon as he hit the couch.

Raven dried the last of Beastboy's breakfast dishes and walked into the common area. She looked down at Beastboy's form covering the whole couch. She picked up a thick leather bound book from an end table and was about to start levitating, but stopped. She smiled as she carefully lifted Beastboy's legs and slipped underneath, settling them in her lap. Beastboy's only response was to mumble incoherently and let the remote drop from his hand.

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"So did you want to see the book store?"

Raven looked up from her book, then over at Beastboy, "You're awake."

"For the last few minutes. Just enjoying getting to sit with you."

Raven set her book on the coffee table. "Do you feel up to it?"

"Yeah. I feel great." He swung his legs around and sat up. "Good as new."

"We can get going then, and grab some dinner while we're out."

Beastboy looked at the window overlooking the city and saw a rapidly darkening sky, "How long have I been out?"

"All day."

"Then we've got no time to waste." He jumped to his feet and grabbed her hand, pulling her up after him.

"We don't have to hurry, you know."

"I've been asleep all day, I want to go out and do something."

"Alright, but let me get something from my room."

"Yup."

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"Are you sure this is the place?"

"Yes, I'm sure. It was right here."

Raven turned and looked pointedly at the empty alley. "It's not here now, and it couldn't have been taken out in three days." She stared thoughtfully at the alley, while Beastboy paced. "It was dark, maybe this is the wrong place."

Beastboy shifted into the form of a blood hound and sniffed around the entrance. After sniffing back and forth several times, he sat down and whined pitifully.

"Is this the place?"

Beastboy shifted back into his human form, "This is the place, I can smell it. I was here the other night, and I can smell old books."

"What about the shop owner? He had to go somewhere."

"It's been too long, I'll never be able to pick it out. How would somebody be able to do this?"

"I don't know. Maybe, and this is far fetched, a powerful enough spell, but I don't know of anyone who could do this. There's just too much power involved."

Beastboy walked to Raven and stood next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist, "This is just too weird."

A/N: This is the last chapter of Mind Trap. This is only because the story line is changing drastically at this point. The story will be continued in a sequel that will be posted soon.