Disclaimer: NO!

Hope ya like this new chapter. This one is for James. (:

Just a brief note: I may be a little late posting next week's chapter. I'm working on a lot right now: A BBxT picture for Angie, art trades with Sparky (her DA name is SuzuSuzuka) and DarkRaven44 on DA, and I started writing a sci-fi novel, and so this is going to be a crazy week.

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Back at the Tower, we carried Garfield into the Med. Bay, even though all signs of his physical injuries were gone. He was still unconscious, and so there was still an excuse for me to worry about him, though he appeared perfectly fine.

We got him onto the Med. Bay's cot and stepped back.

"What are we going to do about this?" I asked. "What if he's going to die?" I didn't mean to say it, but in a flurry of my internal paranoia it came flying out of my mouth without any chance of stopping it.

Robin shook his head at me, his expression a mixture between subtle amusement and a kind of attempt to comfort me. "He's going to be fine, Rae. You're just worried about him, that's all. I seriously doubt there's any harm done to him besides a bump on the head," he reassured me. I nodded, feeling extremely stupid for my little moment of insanity. I hoped the others weren't going to comment on it, and was relieved when they all let the subject drop.

"Man, who was that girl?" Cyborg asked, running several fingers over the large melted patch in the metal of his chest. "Yeesh. Whoever she is, she sure packs a wallop. You have no idea what a pain in the ass it's going to be to fix this."

"If you ask me, she seems a little off her rocker," came Kid Flash's voice from behind us, revealing that he had randomly followed us back to the Tower. He had no trouble feeling at home here, since he, Jinx and several of the other honorary Titans had lived with us for a while a few days after we had returned from fighting the Brotherhood. They had all showed up out of nowhere shortly after the repairs to the city had been finished and since they were Titans after all, we had no choice but to let them stay. It had been extremely cramped, that much was for sure. I had never really gotten accustomed to having so many people in the Tower.

"I agree," Starfire said with a nod. "She is…crazy?"

Robin reacted silently by shaking his head before speaking his mind. "I don't think she's insane," he reasoned. "I think she's just…you know, got your typical villain mindset." he crossed his arms, a habit of his whenever he stood still for more than thirty seconds. "She knows what she's doing, I'll give her that."

"Look, I don't know what her mental state is. I can't say I care. But whatever is wrong with her, it's not going to excuse her actions." I swore violently under my breath, surprising even myself. "That bitch," I muttered aloud. I couldn't remember myself ever getting bent out of shape so badly over one of my teammates getting a minor injury before. It almost scared me that I reacted so strongly over Garfield's unconsciousness. The whole ordeal had not been bad at all by crime-fighting standards, and yet it made me want to rip every one of Jet's limbs from her body.

"Are you okay?" Cyborg asked me, placing a mechanical hand on my shoulder. I nodded, patting his arm unconsciously, one of those little sister actions I always seem to do. I am, by non-literal standards, his little sister, whether I like it or not.

"I'm fine, Cyborg. I just…" I allowed myself to trail off, knowing that Cyborg, unlike Robin, would accept the fact that I really didn't want to talk about it.

I suppose I should take a moment to explain the family-like dynamic of the Titans. We've lived together for a long time, and we're the closest thing to family to each other that any of us has. The other Titans have sort of taken on roles for me. Robin is the fatherly type when it comes to me, trying to get everything out of me and wanting to know about my problems. He does respect my privacy and personal space to some degree, but when he really needs to know something that's going on, he tends to get carried away. Cyborg is more like an older sibling, never forcing me to talk about anything, usually there to listen and usually doesn't blow things out of proportion without giving me a chance to explain. Starfire is somewhat like a sister to me, the sort of person you can tell things without getting embarrassed, very easy to talk to, and always very willing to help with my problems. And Garfield…well, let's just say for the first few years he was mostly like the little brother I never wanted.

I suppose in any situation a team becomes like a family. For Robin, Bruce became like a father, for Garfield, it was the Doom Patrol that made up a family… family doesn't mean you have to have any blood relation to the people. It means you have to have a connection of the heart. DNA similarities don't really matter. I'd never really experienced any type of family life before I met the Titans. Being trained by Azar in Azrarath, never really being around my mother, Arella, until a few weeks before I left for Earth, this whole thing had been relatively new and strange to me for the first couple of years. But now, with these people standing around me, I felt at home quite certainly and it really did help me calm down considerably. I took several deep breaths and returned to my normal state of calm.

"Maybe we should give BB some time alone to rest," Cyborg suggested delicately, casting a subtle glance in my direction to assure himself I was indeed stable. When he was sure I was, he did not retract his suggestion.

"Are you sure it is wise to leave him? What if he is in the need of something?" Starfire asked, throwing a concerned glace toward the peaceful green teenager on the cot several feet from us.

"He'll be alright," Robin assured her gently with that soft smile he reserved solely for the Tamaranian. "Cyborg's right, he could probably use some quiet time alone to rest when he wakes up." Starfire nodded her agreement on the subject, and then, as one, we filed from the room, a strange little group. The walk down the hallway was a quiet one, Robin and Cyborg making some small talk about the GameStation 6 that was coming out next month, the rest of us listening intently and trying hard not to appear awkward. Ninety-nine percent of human lives are spent pretending not to be awkward when we don't really fit into our own skin.

When we got to that huge, familiar living room, it was somehow blissful to flop down on that sofa as we had so many times before. It was one thing that never changed, the way we always came home after something challenging had happened or something awful…or anything. The day we had discovered Robin was Slade's apprentice, the day I told them about the Prophecy, when we had returned from fighting the Brotherhood, when we had just finished preventing the end of the world, a million other things. We always came home and sat down on that sofa. Together.

We were in our usual order, me on one end, Robin next, then Star, then Cy, and Garfield was usually on whichever end he felt like on a particular day. Wally sat on my other side, and Jinx sat beside him, smoothing wrinkles that didn't exist out of the skirt of her dress. She stayed as close to him as she could without being obvious, as though he were her one source of sanity and familiarity at the moment. She was obviously uncomfortable and awkward just being here, after all the skirmishes she'd had with us in the past, all the times her team had tried to bring us down. And now she was on our side, and she recognized how sensitive of a situation this was.

I felt almost sorry for her, remembering how I'd felt the first time I was with the people who would eventually become the Titans. I had felt so inferior compared to these people, these strangers. I had been so indefinite in my role in the world…I was caught somewhere in the middle, never really showing what I really was. And then I met these people. They were so obviously heroes. They were sure and upfront about it. I wasn't really sure if I was destined for good or for evil, or just to shrivel up somewhere and cease to exist. They had made me feel, without realizing it or meaning to, even more pressure to figure out exactly where I stood. I think that's probably why I joined the team essentially. To find my place.

And so I understood. I knew how she must have been feeling. I saw the light rose-colored hair, the grayish skin, the pale pink, cat-pupiled eyes. And yet I saw myself there anyway. This wasn't some stranger I was looking at, some ex-foe that I should be reluctant to trust. This was me. She was what I had once been. She had Wally's help getting back on her feet and becoming something more and better than what she had been before. But she was still unsure of who she was…this situation had made her doubt who and what she was. Wally could manage most of it, but she was going to need our help, too. She was going to need our acceptance. If she didn't get it, she would never really be exactly comfortable being an honorary Titan, and she would continue to doubt what it was she was doing being on our side.

I shot her a sympathetic glance, catching her eye. I thought she smiled, but I couldn't be sure.

Robin and Wally were having some sort of conversation about the band, I only managed to catch a few seconds of it.

"You guys are finally going to meet the band," Wally was saying, and I saw that he was indicating the rest of us.

"What?" I asked, immediately feeling like an idiot after I asked for some reason.

"We're doing a practice here tomorrow," Robin explained to me patiently, not bringing up the fact that I should have probably heard the first time it was said.

"Oh," I said stupidly.

There was a feeling that was strange about the thought of having this new….band here. Here in our Tower. This was our place, our castle. The place where the Teen Titans were the only ones that reigned, where we went through our own personal struggles, where we made discoveries, where we got to know each other, where we bonded and went from just a team to real friends. Everything had happened here, it seemed. It was where our legacy began, and it was where we had been…at home…for years. It seemed just wrong for someone else to invade it. Having Wally and Jinx here was different…they had been a part of our lives for a while, so they weren't intruders. We were on the same level as far as life went. I didn't like this strange, foreign idea of having someone else here. I wasn't sure if I was being reasonable or finicky.

So instead of thinking about it anymore I excused myself and decided to pay Garfield a visit, just to check up on him. I wasn't really worried about him… I just felt I would feel more secure if I confirmed his completely safe condition. When one of my friends is missing or wounded, I get a strange, desperate, hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach that just refuses to dissipate. And for some reason, though I knew Garfield was fine, I was getting that feeling now.

As soon as I was about halfway down the hall leading away from the living room, I decided to break into a jog, and reached the Med. Bay in relatively good time. I found myself fairly flying through the door of the room, standing there with my cloak settling around me and then setting it into fierce motion all over again as I swept over to the cot.

Garfield was indeed safe and sound. I took his pulse just to be sure, and it was normal. I wasn't sure why I was getting so worked up over his being wounded. But I didn't feel like leaving him. I took a seat beside the cot and rested my elbow on the edge, watching his unconscious form.

He looked so innocent lying there. His face was peaceful, expressionless, like the fact of a sleeping child. His emerald hair was intensified in its normal messy state, stray clumps feathering across his forehead. I leaved forward, moving the hair from his face. Leaned like this, I had a rather good view of his exposed chest through the large hold burned in his uniform. Smooth, soft-looking emerald skin. I could feel a longing to touch him…to hold him and God knows what else…run through my mind.

'Azarath, Metrion Zinthos."

I cleared my head but still I couldn't bring myself to stop staring at him. He was so irresistible to the eyes, and I couldn't help following the subtle, graceful curve of his jaw, the sloping curves of his face, the outlines of his body hidden within the spandex uniform.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing, leaving forward more, placing one hand on his shoulder. It was warm. The warmth was intoxicating.

I leaned down, staring closely at the soft green skin of his face, the faint, delicate map of veins on his eyelids. I leaned closer, my nose brushing his cheek, bumping against his, his eyelashes brushing against mine…and then the sudden, almost unexpected meeting of our lips, just as I remembered it, warm, smooth, enthralling…

His lips moved against mine, jerked against mine. His body shot upright, our foreheads bumping hard, forcing me backward. And then that voice. His voice. That voice that told me I had officially fucked up.

"Raven, what the hell are you doing!"

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XD Uh-oh, you really messed up, Raven. More soon.