A/N: I AM SO SORRY! I know I haven't updated in a while but I've been busy with school and had absolutely no time during the break so SORRY! Okie dokie, that's all. Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans; I never will. End of story.

Chapter 3

A Little Holiday Shopping Never Hurt...Much

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost."

"When will we get there?"

"Soon."

"But my feet hurt. And I'm tired and hungry."

Thorn frowned at her father. "Stop being such a baby, Dad. Try to be more like Pippa." She indicated the little girl, who was flipping through the book that Thorn had given her. At the sound of her name, Pippa looked up briefly, but went back to her paperback book when neither family member said anything to her.

Beast boy sighed and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Whose idea was it to come to the mall two weeks before Christmas?"

"You are the one who chose today, Dad," Thorn reminded him. "Try to show a little more Christmas spirit."

Immediately after she said that, Thorn felt a stab of hypocrisy. The line moved forward about half a foot, before coming to a stop again. Thorn absentmindedly leaned against the pole marking the line area.

"Isn't Santa Clause married?" Beast boy asked abruptly. Thorn looked over at her father.

"What?" What kind of question was that? Maybe the endless hours of waiting in the line had snapped his feeble brain.

"Never mind. Forget it," he replied and scanned the line of parents and children that snaked halfway across the lower level of the mall. "You know, I bet old Santa sees more action in one night than most people do in a year."

Thorn almost choked. "Where did you get a ridiculous idea like that?"

"Like in that song 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause'."

"Dad, it's a song."

"But he is married…I wonder if Mrs. Clause minds…"

Several parents gave Beast boy odd looks. Thorn could feel her face heating up. She tried to think of something to say to distract her father from his current train of thought.

"Does she even know? If I were kissing every woman on my list, I wouldn't tell your mother. Wouldn't that mean he's cheating on her?" Thorn opened her mouth but he wasn't even listening to her anymore.

Parents began to draw their kids away, leaving a clear space around Beast boy. Thorn pretended not to know him; Pippa abandoned her toy to stare at her daddy.

"And this guy is supposed to be a role model for children to be good all year long, right? He cheats on his wife and eats nothing but milk and cookies! The slob's a walking heart attack! Hell, I'm a better role model. Plus…" Beast boy looked around and grinned. Most people were hanging on his every word, although they pretended otherwise. He lowered his voice. People shifted closer to hear. "Santa Clause is a smoker." Beast boy nodded. Thorn shut her hands over Pippa's ears. "That's right. He smokes a pipe in that book 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.' His lungs are probably black and he smells like--."

"Having fun?" a monotonous voice asked from behind the trio. Thorn sighed in relief. Raven slipped into the line.

"Come to ruin it?" Beast boy asked quietly. Pippa giggled quietly.

"That's generally what I do. I can't leave you alone for one second, can I?"

"Yes, you can!"

"Not. Especially not with so many children around," Thorn insisted, giving her father a scornful look. Beast boy stared at his shoes. Thorn looked around quickly and turned to her mother, "Hey, where's Damon?"

"Shopping," Raven replied. The line moved another half a foot. They were still towards the end, but much closer than before, thanks to someone. Beast boy leaned over the rope and looked down the line.

"I think I see Santa. Or maybe that's an elf."

The three sighed impatiently and leaned against the posts.

"Okay, we have purchased gifts for Matt, Chris, Zoë, Dustin, Aaralyn, Katie, And—"

Robin cut her off. "Kori, who do we have to buy gifts for?"

Star smiled, "Our friends."

"No, we can't buy gifts for them."

"Why not?"

"Then they'll be mad because they'll think we expect something back."

"But we do not expe—"

"I know that, you know that, and they should know that, but we don't want to take any chances. It could offend someone."

"Richard, you do not think that our friends would—"

"Kori, we don't know how much they've changed over the years."

"They could not have changed very much. They are still our old friends."

"I just don't think we should take the chance, all right?"

"Very well."

"Good, now let's go get the kids and bring them to see Santa."

"Rae, I'm bored and...and...and I'mtired and I'm hungry. Can't we go home and see Santa later? We've been here 2 hours!" Beast boy whined. Raven sighed impatiently.

"Fine. We'll go walk around a while. Thorn, can you wait with Pippa so she can talk to Santa?" Thorn nodded. The two slipped out of the line and headed down the crowded walkway and disappeared.

"I'm about to go home. If we're still in line when they come back, they can take you to see Santa. He's always scared me anyway."

Pippa laughed. "You're afraid of Santa, Thorn?"

"Not afraid. I just get a little anxious around him. Kinda like you and clowns, only less." However, it wasn't Santa she was worried about. It was the fact that she hated the holidays more than she hated schooland the fact that she was not very well tempered today and the fact that the next person who irritated her was going to be in a lot of pain. That worried her.

"You should be afraid of Santa," a voice whispered in Pippa's ear. Pippa spun around. A teenager with mousy messy brown hair stared down at her, then busted out laughing.

"Damon! That's not funny!" Pippa cried, retreating behind Thorn.

"Damon, leave her alone," Thorn said angrily. Damon laughed again.

"What ya gonna do if I don't, Thorn? Huh?"

"You wait. Just wait."

"Talk is cheap," he replied softly; he made his way over to Pippa. She stared at him in a semi-state of fear. "You know why you should be scared, Pippa?" She shook her head faintly. "I'm telling you why. Santa Clause is coming to town."

"Damon, back off," Thorn warned. If she was overprotective about one thing, it was Pippa. Damon ignored her.

"He sees you when you're sleeping—"

"Damon!"

"—He knows when you're awake—"

"Damon, stop!"

"—He'll come and get you if you're bad, so you better be good!"

"Last chance, shut up, you little insect!"

"He'll come through the chimney and—"

They never found out what Santa would do after he came down the chimney, because at that very moment Damon went flying to rattle off the wall and fall into a heap.

People stopped moving, stopped talking, alarms stopped going off in the stores, every noise, everything, just stopped. For a moment, they gawked at Damon's unconscious body. Thorn grabbed Pippa's hand and pulled through the crowd until they were in front. Pippa glanced up at her sister tearfully, not knowing what to say. Thorn just stood there, staring blankly at her brother.

"What's going on here?" a commanding voice asked. Thorn and Pippa, along with everyone else in the area looked over to where the voice came from. There stood a thirty-something year old man with messy jet black hair and blue eyes. He approached Damon cautiously, and then crouched down to look at him. "Does anyone here know how this happened?" he called out to the crowd. Shoppers began to whisper and murmur to the people beside them. "Anyone?"

"What happened?" Beast boy asked, looking around at the shoppers for some hint or clue.

A fellow who had been doing his shopping turned to Beast boy, "Word's abuzzin' dat they dun had a young feller who dun flewed into the wall down over there. They dunno how he dun did dat but he did it."

Beast boy and Raven exchanged worried glances; BB pulled Raven up on a small plateau that contained the coffee shoppe and scanned the area. Around where they had last left Thorn and Pippa to see Santa, there was a large group of people huddled around the wall of a shop.

"Rae, you don't think she would—?" Beast boy looked at her anxiously, praying she would deny what he thought. She just turned back to the crowd.

"I…I don't know, Gar…I really don't…I wish I could say I know she wouldn't, but I just…don't know."

"What about those little necklace things we bought them? Aren't they supposed to block it?" Beast boy implored almost pleadingly, searching for any way it could have been someone else.

"It can only block mild emotions, like aggravation, disgust, things like that. It can't stop the power if the emotions are extreme."

"So what you're saying is somebody made her really happy…"

"Or really pissed her off."

"So no one saw what happened?" the man asked again. Thorn stared at him vacantly.

The man got caught in her eyes; they were violet, boldly violet, and they shone in the lights. They were hypnotic. Her hair, it simply lacked color. Black and dead, falling down over her shoulders anddown her back. The boy, his brown hair was wild and streaked with blonde, andhe hadshocking green eyes and bizarrely pointed ears. They kind of looked like elf ears. And the little girl, black hair with a tint to it, strange tint, almost lilac colored, but the same emerald green eyes and pointed ears. Wearing nothing but an oversized navy blue sweatshirt that fit her like a dress except where the sleeves hung over her hands, white stockings, and black Mary Jane shoes. He snapped back to his train of thought and his eyes returned to Thorn.

"Thorn!" a familiar voice called through the crowd. Thorn looked back, almost relieved. Her father had pushed his way through the crowd. He hugged her tightly and then grabbed her shoulders. "You okay?"

She nodded grimly and looked back at her brother. "Damon isn't though."

Beast boy stared at her in horror and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Thorn, what did you do?"

"I…I…I didn't mean…he was…I was…" she stammered, then she sighed and pushed through the crowd, leaving Pippa and Beast boy staring at Damon. Damon, at that very moment, began to stir. He opened his eyes and sat up; immediately, he brought his hand to his head.

"OWWWWWWWW SHIT!" he hollered. Beast boy ran over to his son.

"You okay, D?"

"NO!" Damon yelled. "I just got thrown into a wall. How would you feel?"

The man with the black hair held out a hand to help them up, first Beast boy, then Damon. Damon dusted himself off and began murmuring indistinct curses about his sister. The shoppers began to return to their shopping and bustling around.

"Thanks for taking care of my son. Garfield Logan." Beast boy held out his hand. The man shook it.

"Richard Grayson. I didn't really do anything. He was barely out for two minutes. Is he all right?"

"He will be." Beast boy looked down at his youngest daughter, who was now staring at Robin. Beast boy poked her in the shoulder. "Pippa don't stare." But Pippa didn't stop. Instead, she cocked her head in a strange sort of listening position for a few seconds. Then, she looked back up at Robin.

"You sound like the man that called our house last night."

"PIPPA!" Beast boy exclaimed, his face heating up. "I'm sorry, she's sick, she doesn't know what she's—"

"BB? That…you?"

"No you must have me confused with someone else."

"B, it's me, Robin."

"Robin?" Beast boy asked uncertainly. Robin nodded. "DUDE! I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE YOU AGAIN!"

"Beast boy, be quiet! Nobody can know who we are, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…oops…"

"I'm glad to see you too. Now listen, I'm having a kind of reunion for the Titans at my house next Saturday. I really hoped you'd come. You know, it'd give us a chance to catch up, meet each other's families, stuff like that. Nothing big, but if you haven't got anything to do the 24-26 give me a call and let me know, okay?"

"Great! I'll ask Rae!"

"Raven?"

"Yeah. And even if she doesn't come, I'll be there. If shelets me go, anyway."

"Great. It starts at 7 so try not to be late and call me for directions."

"Definitely. Look, I have to go help untangle a family crisis...so…uh…I'll call you. Or you call me…whatever works. See ya Robin."

"Bye, BB." Robin smiled. It felt really good to be using his old name again.

A/N: This chapter is really long as an apology for taking so long to update. Thank you sooo much to my reviewers. I can't name you all but you know who you are and I really appreciate all the helpful hints some of you have given me. Thanks again guys! But as for this chapter, tell me how you liked it. PLZ REVIEW! K, guys, bye!