Collecting the Pieces of a Broken Mirror
' Thought '
"Speech"
Chapter 5: What happened next and the Days After
She was going to tell him something important but had no energy to do so. He was holding her hand while she was squeezing his, struggling to stay alive. Suddenly, her grip loosened and she stopped her speech. It took him a few moments to realize what had happened. The machine monitoring her status started the alarm. It wasn't a good sign.
"Raven...," he whispered, trying to wake her up as he had done minutes before. Nothing.
"Raven... Raven...," he continued, and tears found their way out of his soul.
"Raven! No, Raven, no..."
His vision was blurred from the tears and his voice was cut by soft sobs.
"R-rae... wake up! You j-just have to w-wake up, please! Raven... R-RAVEN!"
In this moment, three doctors rushed inside the room. An old nurse came and escorted Beast Boy out of the room. He had no choice but to go, he knew his presence would make the doctor's work harder and not in the least he would want to prejudice his dear Raven.
"C'mon, laddie. I will take you to the waiting room."
And she did. Beast Boy feet followed, but his mind was far away from that hospital. It was travelling in the past, collecting all the pieces of broken memories in which he and Raven were together. Not really together but at least side by side. She always was so distant and at the same time so close.
He blinked and found himself sitting on a chair. The room now had a lot of anxious people. He didn't know how many of them were hurt or had lost a truly beloved someone that day, and he didn't care. All he cared about was Raven. Was she still alive? Did the doctors bring her back again? Was she ready to tell him whatever she was going to?
Where were the other Titans? Raven was DYING, this if she wasn't already dead, and where were them?
He sat in that chair, motionless, for hours. The stupid sun was going down again and the white room was looking quite magic when he heard a voice behind him.
"Humm... Garfield Logan? Boy, is that your name?"
Beast Boy turned slowly.
"Yeah, that is me. Is there any problem?", he asked in a low voice. The doctors looked down.
"What is it? What happened?".
"Where are the other... Titans?"
"They're out, but will come back soon. What is it?"
"Humm... perhaps it is better to tell when you are all together..."
"I can tell them when they come back. Now, what is it, please!". Beast Boy almost yelled in the man's face. He was tense, and knew something had happened to Raven. 'Is that so bad he doesn't want to tell me? ... Is she...'
"Raven Roth, isn't that her name?"
"Yes. What happened to her?"
"She's...," the doctor said slowly "... in a very deep coma."
Did that doctor just say she was in coma? His friend, Raven, was in coma? Beast Boy looked around. Alright... where were the cameras? That was a joke, right? An extremely unfunny joke for a sickly sadist TV program. It had to be.
"Her body and her brain, as you know, is immensely injured. The coma is a biological solution for that. This way, all of the internal injuries she sustained will be able to heal easier."
"So she's gonna wake up anytime, right?", Beast Boy asked. He already knew the answer.
"We cannot tell. She may wake up tomorrow, or next week, or next year... or never wake up again."
Beast Boy sat again. He felt dizzy and terribly sick.
"I'm sorry.", the doctor said. "Now the nurse is cleaning her, but after she is finished you and your friends, as superheroes, may visit her anytime you wish."
The doctor turned his back and walked away. He knew how hard it was for the family and friends of a person in such condition to take the news. His mission was to save lives, and he had done his best to save her even though it had not been enough. The doctor sighed. One more day in his life... victories and losses were very common. Victories made him keep on. Losses made he ask himself the purpose of his life. Just another common day.
oOo
The three Titans had won! That Spacey Acey was not much of a threat, but he was very fast and hard to catch. After he was handed over to the police, there was another lunatic attacking the city. This game lasted for hours. Tired, Robin offered a little rest on a pizza place. They would take some to Beast Boy, too. Cyborg accepted, since Robin said they would only buy the pizza and eat it while heading for the hospital. Starfire struggled against it a bit, but then her stomach demanded food louder than she demanded to be with Raven.
When they arrived at the hospital, Beast Boy was sitting on the sidewalk, his eyes a bit puffy and reddish, staring at nothing.
"Beast Boy, friend, what has happened?"
"Star?", his eyes sparkled, tearfully.
"BB, what's it?"
"It's Raven..."
They all looked at each other. Raven? What's with Raven? Robin took a step forward, an alarmed look in his face.
"What has happened to her, Beast Boy?"
Beast Boy looked away, trying to hide his tears. The sun went down, leaving the city in a grayish tone. Raven used to meditate until around this time, then she would go down, take a bath and read until dinner time or until she was too annoyed by the boys' arguing.. Was... Used to... A wave of sadness washed Beast Boy's mind and tried to escape through his eyes.
As the sky turned a dark, bluish purple sprinkled with stars, he told his friends all the doctor had said.
A happy little girl ran with her dog on the other side of the street. Her laughter filled the air and they noticed happiness was a faraway unfamiliar feeling.
oOo
For almost two weeks, Starfire and Beast Boy made Raven's infirmary room their home. Starfire gave up first, weak and exhausted, the fatigue driving her crazy. Beast Boy was forced to go home and spent the next two days sleeping, always haunted by nightmares. Cyborg spent more time taking care of his car, and Robin could be found in his room when not fighting stupid villains.
Daily, the Titans would go to the hospital to visit their friend. The visit would last at least two hours, and then they would go back to their now small lives.
After three months, Raven hadn't show the least sign of consciousness, and the Titans were restoring their normal routine. This because Starfire had once vocalized what their conscious was telling them since the day Raven went to the hospital.
"I think," she said one night, when they were all watching a stupid TV show "that perhaps we should try to make our daily life go back to normal."
Beast Boy looked at her incredulously "Normal? Without Raven? What a friend you are!"
"Beast Boy, don't yell at her!"
"Robin, stop it! We cannot go on pretending everything is fine!"
"She's right, BB..."
"RIGHT? THIS ISN'T RIGHT! RAVEN'S IN THAT STINKY PLACE, WITH HER MIND WE DON'T KNOW WHERE WHILE WE ARE HERE, TRYING TO RELAX AND PRETEND EVERYTHING IS RIGHT!"
"That doesn't give you the right of yelling at us. We all know how much you love Raven, BB, but stop it!"
Beast Boy opened his mouth, ready to reply, when Starfire interrupted.
"This is what I meant! I am certain Raven would never want to see us in this shape we are in, fighting this way! She would want us to be happy, and I think we should do it. If we keep mourning forever for someone that is not dead yet, what good is that going to bring?"
They were all quiet after this.
"Then shall we try? May I cook a pudding of restore while you decide what movie we shall watch?", she said, trying to smile as happily as she could.
Cyborg got the idea.
"Course not, Star! We'll go out in my baby and I'll show you guys a place on the seashore."
And they went. A little time later, the Titans lifted their glasses together. "To Raven!"
oOo
Their visits to Raven were far more light-hearted now. All of them loved their friend, and decided to bring happiness with them each time they went on a visit and hoping that would do good.
Time went by.
After a year or so, their visitations were quite scattered, and they now had a fifth member. They never forgot about Raven, of course, but now the Titans had more things to worry about: strangely their worst enemy, Slade, seemed to know their every move.