Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Teen Titans
Chapter 5: Surprise!
Jhun, Nebula, Rin and Jason were sitting in the living room of Nebula's Eagle Nebulae home playing Rummy with Jhun's new deck of playing cards. Nebula was in the lead as always grinning cockily at her husband.
"You're going to lose," she sang to him.
"Hardly, Dear," Jhun returned sternly.
They all stopped playing when they heard the front door open.
"I'm home," They heard Raven announce dully.
Nebula, wanting to know how Raven's chat went with Nightwing went, temporarily stopped the game and went to greet Raven at the door. "I'll be back," she told her husband and the twins.
She saw Raven slowly making her way toward the living room. She looked very tired and her fairly grayed skin looked very pale.
"Girl, you look burnt," Nebula commented bluntly.
"Thanks," Raven returned sarcastically.
"How'd it go?"
"We felt that it wasn't a good idea to be around each other for a while and that I will send Rin and Jason down to him on weekends," Raven explained. "So you don't have to worry about whoever is on your back." Raven sighed heavily. "I didn't tell you that I accidentally hurt him, did I?"
"What did you do?" Nebula asked worriedly.
"I lost control of my powers and threw him back into a wall."
Nebula's eyes narrowed. "No, you definitely forgot to mention that little detail. Is he okay?"
"I bruised his side." Raven leaned onto the wall. It was very obvious that she was tired. She wiped her brow.
"Are you okay?" Nebula asked now concerned.
Raven gave her a small smile. "Just tired."
"Maybe you should go to sleep so you don't look like you're going to faint on me," Nebula suggested guiding her to the stairs. "I don't need to make any visits to the hospital. You know how much I hate 'em."
Raven stopped. "I know…but…Rin and Jason…"
"Are under our supervision," Nebula finished.
"I need to tell them what's going on between me and their father."
"It's only the afternoon; what do you need to tell them now for? Tell them later."
"I can't let you do all of this, Nebula," she argued.
"You're back living under my roof again. I'd say it's a little too late for that." Nebula pushed Raven up the stairs. "Rest. I'm their godmother, remember? It's not like I'm new at this."
Raven smiled at her and climbed the stairs to her room.
Later that afternoon, Raven broke the news to her twin children that she and her father were getting separated and the arrangements that they had made for them to stay at the tower on weekends. Raven was still pretty exhausted as she spoke to her twins who were not too thrilled with the news.
Nebula and Jhun were sitting in the other room reading a book with each other, but could hear the whole conversation.
"Mommy," Rin began, "you're staying with us when we stay with Dad, right?"
Raven shook her head. "No, Rin, we agreed not to be around each other for a while to think."
"I'm not going!" Jason told his mother. "I'm staying right here!"
"Jason," started Raven.
"It's his fault that we're back here anyway!" Jason continued. He was the more stubborn of the two. He always got like this when it came to his father. When Nightwing wanted to be in his life finally after seven years, he freaked out.
"Jason, that was my choice," Raven explained. "Please don't make this any harder on me. I'm really not in the mood for it right now." She rose to her feet and walked towards the window.
"Mommy, I don't want to leave you," Rin said hoping that Raven would not make her go.
Raven turned to her and smiled. "That's very sweet, Rin, but you have to consider your dad too. He…" She suddenly collapsed, falling to the floor.
"Mom!" Jason shouted.
"Nebula, Mommy needs help!" Rin yelled to her godmother. Nebula and Jhun ran in quickly dropping to Raven's side. She was breathing very heavily.
"Hospital," Nebula told her husband quickly.
Jhun scooped Raven into his arms and disappeared in a tornado of leaves. Nebula took the twins' hands and teleported in a panic to Spirit City Hospital.
The doctors took her in immediately telling Nebula and Jhun to wait outside. Rin was in tears as she painfully waited for someone to tell her that her mother was okay. Jhun placed his arm around her trying to calm her down. Jason tried to keep a straight face, but gradually felt himself losing his grip feeling his sister's pain in their shared telepathic bond.
About an hour later, a female doctor came out asking to speak with Nebula. Nebula nodded as she followed the doctor to Raven's room. Nebula looked in the window at her empathic, telekinetic, friend. Her breathing appeared to be normal, but her exhaustion was as clear as day.
"Tell me all the news you're about to give me is all good," Nebula pleaded.
"It all depends on how you look at it," the doctor replied. She twiddled with her black hair that was pulled back into a bun. "Well, first off, I'm Natalie Johnson. I'll be monitoring Mrs. Roth-Greyson. I must ask you to call her husband because we do not have an accurate form of his records."
"Fine, whatever," Nebula agreed quickly. "My primary concern is Rae right now."
"Well… your friend is exhausted, pregnant and threatening a miscarriage," the doctor concluded.
"I told that girl to rest…" Nebula stopped suddenly. "She's what?"
"Pregnant and threatening a miscarriage, ma'am," Dr. Nathan replied. "She's two months along."
"Raven's pregnant?" Nebula asked still trying to grasp onto the concept.
The doctor nodded slowly.
"Of all the times…" Nebula muttered.
"Has she been experiencing large amounts of stress? She needs to relax or she'll lose the baby."
"Rae's gonna have a cow after this…" Nebula muttered. "Does she know?"
"No, we wanted her to be as comfortable as possible." The doctor started to walk off. "I'll leave the reigns to you." She disappeared down the hall.
Nebula walked into Raven's room when Raven eyes cracked open.
"Hey," Raven croaked softly.
"Hey, Rae," Nebula returned nervously. "Didn't I tell you to rest? Now look what happened!"
"Sorry," Raven returned softly.
"You're stressed and you're pregnant, babe," Nebula blurted out quickly.
Raven's eyes shot up. "What?"
"You're stressed." Nebula knew what part Raven wanted to hear, but was too scared to repeat it.
"No, you said 'pregnant', too."
Nebula sighed hopelessly. "Yeah, I know," she said dejectedly. "You're two months along and an inch from a miscarriage."
"Great," Raven said sarcastically. "As if I don't have enough on my plate." Raven shifted in her bed. "How are the twins? I know I scared them."
"Ya think? How could you not know that you were pregnant? Did you even bother to keep track of your friend?" Nebula laughed.
"With everything that's happened, I never took the time to notice."
"Girl, that's a woman's first priority. '...Never took the time to notice...'" She scoffed. "Rae, please."She then turned serious. "What are you going to do about Nightwing 'cause I will tell you right now, this will not be like the first time you got pregnant. Things are different now."
"I know," Raven said nonchalantly. "I can't do that to you again."
Nebula furrowed her eyebrows. "Let's not worry about skin-tight clothed man right now. Doctor say rest and that's what you're going to do. Rest. Just don't ask me for any money and we'll be cool."
"Okay." Raven let out a small smile.
Nebula chuckled as she walked towards the door. "Let me go get your babies before they have a heart attack at the age of ten."She left the room for a minute and came back with her husband, Rin and Jason.
The twins climbed onto the opposite sides Raven's hospital bed to lie next to her.
"Mommy, are you okay?" Rin asked worriedly.
"I just had a fainting spell. I'm really, really tired," Raven replied.
"Can you come back home to Nebula's?" Jason asked.
"She can, but she needs to rest," Nebula explained. "Really rest."
"As long as you don't faint again, okay," Rin agreed using her conjuring powers to conjure a lilac lily in her hand for her mother.
Raven weakly took it from her. "Thank you, Rin," she whispered.
Suddenly, the Titans of Jump City entered the room. Nightwing stared at Raven worried and concerned.
"Friend Raven!" Starfire said worriedly. "You are okay?"
"Fine," Raven replied. "Just suffering from exhaustion."
"How did you know that she was here?" Nebula asked because she knew that she did not call them.
"Jhun called us," The bionic marvel answered simply.
Nebula hit her husband on the back of his head.
"What!" Jhun asked.
His wife glared at him.
"It was gut instinct! They have a right to know!" He tried to explain.
"Humph!" Nebula returned.
"Rin, Jason," Nightwing called to his children, "Why don't you go outside and let Mom get some rest?"
The twins kissed their mother's cheeks and did as their father asked.
Nightwing then turned to his friends. "Could you guys excuse us?"
Cyborg, Garfield, Starfire and Jhun left. Once Jhun realized that his wife was not with him, he came back in and grabbed her by the arm gently.
"That meant us?" Nebula asked.
"Yes, Dear," Jhun replied.
"All of us?"
Nightwing glared at her. Nebula looked at Raven who only nodded and smiled.
Nebula let out an exasperated sigh. "All right. I'll be right out here. Yell if you need me." Before she left the room she gave Nightwing a petrifying glare daring him to start something.
Nightwing turned back to Raven who now could not even look him in the eye.
"So…are you okay?" he asked worriedly. "When Jhun called, we all rushed right over."
"I'm pregnant," Raven said bluntly after a moment's silence.
Nightwing froze. "What?"
"I'm two months pregnant and I'm on the verge of having a miscarriage if I'm not careful."
"Wow…that's…new…" Nightwing said not knowing the right words to address the situation.
Raven sneered. "Is that all you can say?"
"What do you want me to say?" Nightwing asked now becoming defensive. "That's great? Congratulations? I'm going to be a father of three? What?"
"Don't mock me!"
"I wasn't trying to!" Nightwing inhaled and exhaled deeply. "Raven, you know this makes things between us more complicated."
"Do you think I'm stupid!" Raven yelled. "I know this isn't the best time for this to happen! I know we've been having problems!" Tears streamed down her face. "I can't help that this happened! It takes two!"
Nightwing sighed. "I know you need your rest, so I'll take the kids."
"No," Raven cried.
"Raven…"
"I said no!" She yelled. "They're fine with me. I told you that you can take them on weekends."
"You're running to Nebula just like always instead of facing me!"
That set Raven off. "Shut up and get out!" Raven yelled. "Just get out!"
"Raven…" Nightwing started.
"Nebula!" Raven yelled.
"Don't make me go ghetto Nebula on somebody! Don't be no fool, baby!" Nebula yelled as she stormed into the room. She looked between Raven, whose face was swollen and red from crying, and Nightwing, who was just plain angry. "All right, I heard my name called. What's up?"
"Nightwing was just leaving," Raven replied tearfully.
Nightwing sighed and left the room. He did not even bother speaking to his friends.
Cyborg, Starfire, Garfield, and Jhun exchanged worried glances. Rin and Jason looked sadly at each other as if their worlds were falling apart before their eyes.
