A/N: I do not own the Teen Titans. Trust me, you'd know if I did.
Chapter 2: Reality Slap
A rhythmic beeping pulsed through Beast Boy's ears. Then he heard familiar voices talking quietly around him. His eye lids felt so heavy, and they hurt. But he had to see where he was. He struggled and slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't see anything, just fuzzy objects.
"Friends, I believe he is waking up," said a familiar Tameranean voice. Beast Boy could see an orange blur come closer to him. And then another, darker, blur came forward. Then another blur in a colorful suit. "Beast Boy, can you hear me?"
Beast Boy blinked a couple times and waited for his eyes to focus. "Where am I?"
"You are in the hospital," said Starfire.
"I am?" he asked. He couldn't really remember what had happened. Everything was all meshed together in a big puddle of confused memories.
"You were in a bad car accident three days ago," said Robin. "You and Raven."
Three days ago? He had been out for three days? But then another question pushed those two right out of the way. "Raven?" He could barely remember who that was. That's when everything became a little clearer. He remembered getting in the car and driving with Raven next to him. And then… something happened. "How is she?"
The three looked at each other uneasily. Beast Boy suddenly felt a horrible pain in his chest. His heart jumped into his throat and he felt as if he was going to be sick.
"She's… not that good, man," said Cyborg at last.
"Is she going to be okay?" asked Beast Boy nervously.
"We… we don't know," said Robin. They moved away from the front of his bed and he looked at the person lying across from him. It was Raven, but he could barely recognize her.
"Oh my God," he said to himself.
"She has not yet started to heal herself," said Starfire shakily. "We fear she will not wake up." Her voice slightly cracked as she said this and Robin quickly put his arm around her.
"What have I done?" Beast Boy asked himself feeling an overwhelming amount of guilt for the current situation.
"It wasn't your fault," said Robin quickly. "A tractor trailer ran a red light and hit your car just before stopping. If he hadn't stopped when he did neither of you would be here."
"How hurt am I?" he asked trying to look at himself.
"You're pretty banged up," said Cyborg, taking his chart and looking over it. "You've broken your left leg in three places, your right ankle has been shattered, three bruised ribs, your left arm is broken in two places, you have a sprained neck, broken nose, a collapsed lung at one point, and a bad concussion. Not to mention all of the stitches in various places."
"No wonder I feel so shitty," said Beast Boy with a fake chuckle.
"Do you want some more medication?" asked Robin. "I can go get the nurse."
"I would like that," said Beast Boy. Robin nodded and headed out of the room, with Starfire at his side. She had been on the edge of crying the whole time and needed to get out of there.
"How… how bad is she?" asked Beast Boy looking at Raven.
"I don't think ya need to know that right now," said Cyborg in a low voice.
"Please tell me something," said Beast Boy desperately.
"She's still alive," said Cyborg putting his chart back. "Now you should try to get some sleep. The nurse will be here any second to help you with the pain." He said this in a little more of a comforting tone.
That didn't help him in any way. His eyes had finally focused a little better and he looked around. He saw all of the monitors around him, beeping with little lights flying around the dark screens. He finally shut his eyes to rest. He began to listen to his own breathing and that scared him. His lungs were making a raspy sound and trembled as he breathed.
He hadn't even realized that he had fallen asleep until he woke up. A nurse was just finishing up checking on him and gave him a smile as she left. He looked around and saw that the whole room was full of flowers and balloons and various gifts. But his eyes went right past those things and went to Raven.
She lay quite still in the bed. Tubes of all sorts were sticking out of her and were attached to different devices. He watched as her monitors became in sync with his own. He really would never have recognized her if it wasn't for her pale skin and violet hair. Her neck was in a brace, just as his was, and held her head high. Her eyes were black and her head was wrapped up in bandages. Her left arm was sticking straight and had an IV sticking out of it. There was a board attached to her arm to keep it straight. He focused in on her other arm and saw various bandages covering stitches, and her wrist was in a cast. But that was all he could see, the rest of her body was covered up by the blanket.
'Why?' he asked himself. 'Why did I make her come for a ride with me? I should have left her alone just like she asked. She always knows what's best and I never listen. Why couldn't I have listened? Just this once. God I've been such an asshole lately. I deserve this, but not her. Not her! Please wake up Raven.'
"Please," he said allowed and felt his chest tighten. He felt as if he was going to cry. He felt so guilty. This was all his fault. That tractor trailer may have hit them, but he should've been paying attention. He might have seen it in time to swerve out of the way. He could have done something.
A few hours later his friends returned to check on him and Raven. They had come in with hope that she might have woken up, but weren't all that surprised to see her still unchanged. They were happy that Beast Boy was still awake and doing well.
"Friend Beast Boy, I have brought you a balloon to make you feel well," said Starfire, adding to the collection that were around the room. It read, "It's a Boy!"
"Gee, thanks Star," said Beast Boy, not knowing what else to say. "Hey, I never got to ask, how's my car."
"Totaled," said Robin. "They had to use the jaws of life to pull you out."
"Well this day keeps getting better and better," he groaned. "But I guess it's for the best. I'm sorry I've been such a jerk lately."
"Jerk is putting it mildly," said Cyborg. "You went beyond jerk about two days after you got the car."
"I know, and I'm sorry," said Beast Boy. "I guess I was just liking the fact that I had such a cool car. It made me feel, I don't know, special."
"You have always been special, Beast Boy," said Starfire. "You did not need the car to make you feel that way."
"I know," sighed Beast Boy. "Do you guys forgive me?"
"Like we're going to say no to a guy in a hospital bed," said Cyborg with a smile. Beast Boy smiled back and felt a little better. Now all he had to do was say all of this to Raven and he would feel completely better.
It was late at night three days later when he was woken from his medicated slumber. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around the dark room. He could see the lights of the monitors and hear them as well. But he could hear another noise. A moaning and fidgeting. He adjusted his sensitive eyes and looked across to Raven. She was moving and she sounded as if she was choking. Beast Boy immediately pushed the call button on his bed.
As soon as the nurse came in Beast Boy nearly screamed, "Something's wrong with Raven!" The nurse went over to Raven quickly and noticed the problem. Raven had woken up and was very confused. She had been choking on her endotracheal tube and the nurse quickly calmed her down with some medicine that she shot right into her IV. Soon Raven stopped choking and laid there in a daze.
"Is she okay?" asked Beast Boy. "What happened?"
"She's fine now," said the nurse, but basically ignored him. She wrote a few things on Ravens chart and then rushed out to get nurses and a doctor. Soon Ravens bed was surrounded by many medical persons talking and writing and poking and prodding Raven.
Beast Boy tried see around them, but didn't have much success. He kept asking questions but they wouldn't answer him. It took an hour for them to finish and leave her alone. By that time she was asleep again and Beast Boy cursed those stupid doctors. He wanted to talk to her, to know that she was okay. But he would have to wait a little longer. It took him a while before he was able to fall back asleep.
The next morning he woke up to a nurse filling his with various liquids and then leaving. This was how he had woken up like this for a few days now. Once his mind had cleared he remembered about the events during the night and he looked to Raven. She was still asleep. He knew the other Titans would be there soon.
Sure enough, within the hour, the other three Titans arrived and sat at Ravens bedside. What Beast Boy would have given to sit with them. He wanted to be closer to her so he could see how she was doing.
"Raven, can you her me?" asked Starfire taking her hand. "It is I, Starfire." They waited and slowly she began to stir. This made the others twitch with excitement.
"I think she's waking up," said Robin. "Raven, can you open your eyes?"
Raven moaned a little and slowly her eyes opened. She looked around and tried to move her head, but it was restrained from the brace around her neck. The others smiled, very relieved that she had finally woken up.
"Hey, welcome back, girl," said Cyborg.
Ravens eyes were still out of focus, but she could recognize their voices. Her throat hurt terribly and the rest of her body ached. She wasn't sure where she was or how she got there. She only knew that her friends were near her.
"What…" she started, but she winced with the pain from her throat.
"Hush, you should not speak," said Starfire patting her hand. "You are very injured."
"You've been in a coma for almost a week," said Robin.
"Why?" she was able to peep.
"You were in a car accident with Beast Boy," said Cyborg. It was at this moment that they remembered that Beast Boy was in the room too and they turned to him. He was relieved to finally be able to see Raven, and her eyes were open.
"Hi Raven," he said hesitantly.
"He was very much damaged as well," said Starfire.
Raven looked at him, but was still confused about what was going on. At that moment she wasn't sure exactly who Beast Boy was or why he would be damaged. She really hadn't been able to listen to what her friends were telling her, her head was in such a spin. It took her a while to put two and two together; that they had been in a car accident.