Disclaimer TEEN TITANS and all other related characters and material are the property of DC comics and Cartoon Network, I claim no ownership.

Chapter 26: Stay with Me

By: Ansa

The group fell deathly silent, blank stares all around the table as the clinking of wine glasses and silverware from the other tables kept the mind company so the silence would not eat away at it. Even Raven's tight grip to hold back her surprise was slipping, Cyborg and Jynx still having to sit down with them. It was awkward, even beyond it, everything he was afraid of was before him right now. His two worlds had collided, and the aftermath was yet to be seen. Jynx squeezed his hand slightly, her own feeling of nervousness starting to resurface as she pulled herself closer to his side, almost hiding behind his shoulder.

"J-Jynx…is your…your…" Beast Boy couldn't even seem to finish his thought, all the color from his face starting to slowly melt away to that of a pale hue. To see his best friend, soon to be best man, standing hand and hand with someone who used to try her best to knock him and the others around was too much for him to handle. He waited for someone to finish his thought, but noone did, not even Cyborg. He himself was at a loss for words as well, his mind scrambling and begging for a more comfortable moment to be in. In the end, only Raven would summon enough willpower to make any kind of follow-up comment.

"Uh…ok, well…is she still…you know…evil?"

The following comment from Cyborg was blurted out, rather than thought over. In the uneasy state in which his mind was in, Raven offered a way out, an opening that could fix everything, even if it meant lying. Despite his dislike to do so, he didn't have time to even notice he was doing as such it went by so fast. Only when he felt Jynx's grip on him tighten did he realize what he had done.

"What? HAHAHAHA of course not, she gave that up years ago. Right now she's an honorary Titan." It was then he realized what he had said, signaled by Jynx's tightened grip he turned, she quite obviously wanting a few words with him.

"Excuse me! You did not just say that."

"I'm sorry, it slipped…just please, go with it?"

"You are ashamed of me aren't you?" Peering over his shoulder she noticed all three at the table were staring at them. The look of shock well passed, and replaced with that of confusion and curiosity. Putting on her best smile, she excused them and pulled him around the corner to continue.

"No, no, of course I'm not."

"Then why didn't you tell them the truth about me?"

"What did you want me to say? 'Oh yeah, she still steals pretty much every jewel in sight. In fact, I just broke her out of jail to get her here'?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted you to say smart ass. I'm not saying you had to tell them everything, you could've just said that I wasn't hanging out with Brother Blood and the gang anymore. You could've said that I'm on my own now and that I'm the least of your worries and leave it at that."

"Ok, I messed up, but what are we going to do about it now?"

"Go back there and tell them the truth."

"I can't do that…" Cyborg turned away, peeking around the corner, watching as they conversed with each other, occasionally checking in his direction. This could be taken in two different ways, the first, and most obvious being that they were talking about him and checking to make sure he wasn't listening. The other possibility, that they were simply waiting for him and Jynx to return, was probably the most logical of the two, but his paranoid mind didn't see it that way.

"Why not?"

"I just can't ok…can't you just run with me on this?"

Jynx folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips in a scowl. The blissful state of mind she was once in slowly being taken over by the simple sorrow and shame of being the person that she was. Despite this, she had rather hoped he would stick up for her. A foolish thought brought on from the intoxicating feeling after making love.

"I can't believe you…"

"Please…"

"…sigh Fine, whatever."

"Thank you," Cyborg let out a large breath of relief, falling forward slightly, his muscles feeling much less tense then they had been, his mind less jumbled. "I'll make it up to you I promise."

"You bet you will…I want a freebie."

"A what?"

"A freebie, when we get back home, I get to hit anywhere I want and you can't come after me."

"What! I can't do that, you know that!"

"Of course you can, you're the one that built the damn computer system. It'd be easy for you to just…turn it off for a few hours."

"I know I could, that's not the point." Cyborg lowered his voice, leaning in, noticing their conversation drawing a couple of glances from the waiters and other customers.

"What is the point then?"

"You know what it is…I can't be a part of your criminal life you know that."

"If I recall, it was you who busted me out of prison."

Cyborg was getting frustrated, half out of the audacity she had to ask him such a thing, the other half coming from the fact that on the last part she was absolutely right. As much as he hated to admit it, he was just as much of a criminal as she was at times. He paused for a moment, desperately trying to find a way to argue with her, but truth was, he couldn't.

"Ugh…fine…ok? Just, please, pretend that you're a good guy?"

Jynx glared at him for a moment, here arms still crossed. The freebie she asked for was not for her own satisfaction, but instead as a punishment of sorts for him. She was hurt, more than she thought she could be, but then again, his little lie came at the worst time. Before he opened his mouth, she was so happy, knowing now exactly what she felt for him, and the possibilities they had in this relationship. Now, all she could see what his disapproval of her, how ashamed of her he really was. He may not say he was, but she knew the truth.

"You know, if you really l-…" She stopped herself from saying something she might regret. She knew how she felt about him, but she had yet to know exactly what he felt, and these were not the circumstance in which she wanted to find out.

"What?"

"Nothing…let's just go okay?"

"Well, that certainly was interesting…" Raven stood in front of the mirror, making sure her hair wasn't growing out too much, it had been a while since her last hair cut and it had to be the perfect length to look right. Behind her, Beast Boy fell back against the bed letting out a loud sigh, staring straight up at the ceiling, his head still trying to come to grips with who Cyborg's girlfriend turned out to be. He had tried to keep himself in check, after all, he was his best friend and the last thing he wanted to do was make things harder for him.

"Interesting…isn't quite the word for it."

"How about…just plain weird, does that work better?" It felt strange, using the word that was once used to describe herself. She hated saying it, under any kind of circumstances, even if it was the only word that could possibly describe what was going on.

"Yeah, actually it does." Beast Boy lifted his head up from the mattress to look at her, still checking her hair in the mirror while she started dressing down for bed. "I know this is a stupid question…"

"Hasn't stopped you before."

"Haha."

Raven turned around and flashed him a satisfied smile, shimmying out of her jeans before sitting down at the end of the bed to pull on one of his dress shirts.

"What is it?"

"Do you…you know, trust her?"

"You're right, that is a stupid question." The tone of her voice changed drastically, and her smile faded to a rather serious straight-lipped expression, turning her head forward while she buttoned up the last of her shirt.

"Yeah, I'm finding a hard time to myself."

"Don't feel bad, she hasn't exactly done anything to earn our trust anyways." Raven pulled her legs up onto the bed and scotched back, nudging Beast Boy slightly to move over so she could get under the covers, he still having to take off his clothes from dinner.

"Yeah, but we haven't really seen her in a long time either. Who knows, she could have changed."

"She could have, but not likely."

"Yeah…I guess I still don't know what to think." Beast Boy finally sat up on the bed and turned to face her, sitting with his legs crossed, arms hanging over his knees. "I mean, I want to trust her, for Cyborg's sake, but…I dunno, it's hard. It's kind of like…" He stopped for a moment, not daring to continue, unsure how the subject would affect her. The whole fiasco still fresh in his mind, and he wasn't sure whether or not it was still fresh in hers.

"Like, Terra, you mean?"

"Y-yeah…"

"I know, I was thinking the same thing. Only with Jynx, she was never our friend to begin with, so it's harder." Raven looked straight ahead, her mind trying to figure things out for itself. Why Jynx, and if this was just a ploy, what could she be up to? But, what if she is just his girlfriend and nothing more, what if she really just wanted to be with him? No matter how open minded she tried to be on the subject, she just couldn't get a grip on that possibility. In a way she never really expected herself too, she always had a problem trusting people, even herself, so why should it be so easy for someone who used to be an enemy.

"Yeah…I guess you're right."

Beast Boy sat there for a moment, trying to finish his thoughts on the subject before pulling off his shirt, finally getting ready for bed. As much as he wanted to try and figure things out, if he didn't stop now he wouldn't be able to get any sleep tonight, his mind keeping him up. When he finally crawled under the covers and kissed Raven goodnight there came a cold silence amongst them. Not the normal silence of waiting for sleep to consume, but something else, something different and awkward.

"Hun…Raven? You ok?"

"Hmmm…yeah, I'm fine." Her voice was pale and emotionless, she not even bothering to look over at him, her mind obviously consumed with something else. Exactly what that was she wasn't even sure, something that had to do with last night, a ponderment of sorts.

"You sure?"

"…Yeah, goodnight." Immediately turning away, Raven pulled the covers tight over her shoulders, quite obviously trying to get away from the subject even if she didn't wholly expect it to work.

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe you now. Come on, what's up?"

"Nothing…now can I get some sleep please?"

"Not until we get to the bottom of this, now what's going on?"

Raven cursed slightly, still not budging from her tight cocoon of covers and bed sheets. She hesitated to answer, mostly because she herself had only a vague idea of what was occupying her mind, but also partly because if it was about what she thought it was about, she didn't want him to worry. How exactly she jumped from the old topic to this was unsure, perhaps it had something to do with the same feeling of uncertainty that seemed to link the two together. Her own worries and feelings of uncertainty were not in question, that issue had rather been resolved. Instead, it was her fiancés. Was he so sure about this? Was he having doubts as she once had?

"Alright fine, as long as you let me get some sleep sometime tonight."

"Deal…"

Raven clutched the sheets around her tight, trying to gain the courage to speak. This subject of conversation could have either good or bad consequences, the latter being what she feared the most. Even a good consequence made her uneasy, for either way, he would know that she had, at one point, doubts.

"Do you…I mean, are you…having any doubts at all? About what we're doing, I mean."

"Doubts? Like, about getting married?"

Raven didn't respond, only clenching the sheets tighter around her, refusing to turn and look at him. She felt so ashamed to even have brought the subject up, not to mention having any doubts what-so-ever on the subject. She felt weakened by it, like she no longer had any kind of control over what she felt anymore.

Beast Boy was quiet for a moment, thinking of the right words to express his thoughts. He wasn't the most eloquent one in the group, never was, and probably never will be. His only goal when speaking was not to say something stupid, or anything that would make anyone angry or sad. He was treading thin ice here, and he knew it. He also knew that he in fact had had doubts, many of them mostly upon the same lines, money. Money, attaining it, and attaining enough to sustain themselves was always a concern with him. They were getting married before either of them finished college, and it wasn't going to be easy at all. Even if they didn't have children to worry about, there were other things, the expense of the wedding alone even with help from their friends was putting strain on their accounts. However, despite all these thoughts, despite the circumstances, he loved her, and there was nothing more he wanted to do than spend the rest of his life with her. He knew that's all he had to tell her, but expressing it well, that was the challenge.

"Yes…I did," Beast Boy let out a quiet sigh, not entirely sure if what he was about to say would be helpful or not, "but it's supposed to be normal to have cold feet I hear."

"What…what kind of doubts?"

"Money mostly…but I guess that stuff doesn't really matter that much as long as we're together." He cringed slightly, quite aware at how corny he sounded at that moment. Stumbling, he tried to catch himself. "I mean, I don't really care about money…I care about you." Not much better than the last, probably less cliché, but still a bit corny. Again, he tried to better his words, searching for a way to sound sincere, yet not like something out of a TV sitcom or cheap romance novel. "I…ugh…you know what I'm trying to say right? Money…money is like, everyday stuff, but what we have is special." Beast Boy hung his head in defeat, his mind having failed to produce a single cohesive sentence that wasn't clichéd in some fashion.

"So…they weren't doubts about, me, about us?"

"No, of course not, why would I have doubts?"

Raven fell silent, trying to remember the words of her mother from the first night. Not feeling any better with the knowledge that she was the only one doubting herself. But also, in a way, she felt a distant feeling of comfort. Even if she had doubts, at least he would carry enough hope for the both of them. Those words she had heard before, what seemed so long ago from her former leader. She now found herself with a man beside her with everything it seemed. Not only did he have everything she had fallen in love with, his kindness and tenderness, even if they came bundled with that sense of humor of his. But he also held the hope and determination of her father figure, the person to whom she owed her very life and sanity to. She smiled, it seemed even without having a real father, she found a man sharing the qualities of a surrogate one.

Raven turned, finally letting go of the sheets, wrapping her arms tightly around the thin torso of her fiancé, her head burying itself into his chest. She placed her ear as so to hear his heartbeat, it soothed her so, and on many nights was the only thing that would calm her restless mind enough to lull her to sleep. Taking in a deep breath, absorbing the fresh smell of his skin, she let out two final words before drifting off to sleep.

"Thank you."

Damn, it's getting harder to keep up with work and all that good stuff. Bad news I'm afraid, the next few chapters may take a little longer due to a major paper I have to do work for. The first draft being due at the beginning of November and the only times I can read and work in peace is the time I usually take to write these chapters. But fear not, the semester is winding down and that means not only Thanksgiving, but the end of semester WOOT! Well, don't forget to check out my webcomic NEWPORTGRL55. Later Days!

ANSA