AN: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own Teen Titans, and neither do you!
Chapter 2
Tick… tick… tick… Beast Boy watched as the clock ticked by. He had watched the second hand make a full trip around the clock what seemed like a million times. He sat on the edge of the waiting room couch anxiously. His left leg was shaking nonstop nervously. He kept rubbing and wringing his hands, not even realizing he was doing it. It had been five hours. Five hours since it had happened. Tick… tick… tick…
As soon as Raven had been shot he had ran as fast as he could to her, before Johnny could hit her again. Rancid immediately tried to shoot him, but Robin had quickly attacked him. The gun had been fired in random directions, luckily not hitting anyone, and he was finally restrained.
Beast Boy quickly surveyed her and saw where she'd been hit, and it was dangerously close to her heart. He tore her leotard down the middle so he could see where the bullet had entered. He saw a hole the size of a penny right over where her heart was. Blood was pouring from it and he quickly ripped her cloak, bunched it up, and placed it over the wound. He held it on as tightly as he could and screamed for help. And then he watched as Ravens eyes slowly rolled up and she slipped into unconsciousness.
Starfire was the one who brought Raven in, since she could make the trip to the hospital the fastest. She was taken directly into the operating room so that they could try and save her. She had lost a lot of blood, which was evident since both Starfire and Beast Boy had her blood on their hands and uniforms.
Tick… tick… tick… Robin paced back and forth with his arms around his back, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Starfire had spent three hours weeping and was now passed out on the other end of the couch Beast Boy was sitting on. Cyborg was leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed in front of him, a look of nothing but concern upon his face. Five hours. Tick… tick… tick…
The door to the waiting room slowly opened and a doctor stepped on through. He slowly took his face mask off and let it hang around his neck. He was an older man, an experienced doctor. It was evident that he had seen many patients from the depth and wisdom his sky blue eyes held. He had a salt and pepper mustache and he seemed to have no hair on his head, but it was hard to tell since he was still wearing a head covering.
As he walked on through all the Titans seemed quite alerted and the air turned from nervous to anxious with a hint of hope and a feeling of dread. He gave them a kind smile and walked over to all five.
"The Titans, I assume," said the doctor kindly. "I'm Dr. Daniels."
Starfire sat up and held her hands with anticipation and worry. "Please, how is Raven?" she pleaded.
"She's stable, but in critical condition," said Dr. Daniels.
"So, she's alive?" said Beast Boy.
"For now, yes," said Dr. Daniels. "The bullet entered her heart and lodged into the back of her ribcage. If it had passed straight through she most likely wouldn't have made it to the hospital. But, we've removed it and done our best to repair her heart, but she lost a lot of blood."
"Can we see her?" asked Robin.
"She's just coming out of surgery, but I'll take you to her room and you can wait for her there," said Dr. Daniels.
He took them to the room she was to be placed in and left them. She would have her own room, as was requested by the Titans, and they would have unlimited visiting hours. Robin had made all of the arrangements as soon as they had arrived, even though none of them knew if she was going to survive.
Slowly her bed was wheeled into the room and the four Titans watched silently. She was hooked up to what seemed like hundreds of different wires and tubes and sensors. She couldn't even breathe on her own and the large tube sticking out of her mouth was quite disturbing to them. This did not look like their Raven.
Cyborg programmed his arm to keep track of her vitals as well, so he would know what was going on. At the moment, her breathing was normal and her brain activity looked good, but her heartbeat was weak.
"Why is she not healing herself?" asked Starfire, her eyes streaming with tears.
"I don't know, Star," said Robin, putting his arm around her comfortingly.
"Maybe her healing abilities can only go so far," suggested Cyborg. "Or she may be too weak to even heal herself at all. We'll just have to wait and see."
"And hope," added Beast Boy. He got closer to her and gently moved her violet locks from her face. He tucked them behind her ears and felt how cool her skin seemed to feel. He could feel his throat ripping and tears invading his eyes. "Excuse me," he said in a crying voice and quickly made his way out of the room.
Once he made it to the hallway the tears poured from his eyes. He didn't know what to do. He paced back and forth aimlessly and finally leaned into a wall, crying and pounding upon it out of pure frustration and distress. This was supposed to be the day. This was going to be the day he told her everything he had been keeping safe and hidden within his heart. He was going to tell her that he was in love with her. He didn't even care if she felt likewise or not, he just wanted her to know.
He slowly crumpled to the floor and sat with his with his knees up and his head down, covered by his hands. She probably wouldn't even survive the night. How could she? She had been shot in the heart! He had just stood there and allowed Johnny Rancid to shoot her. Why couldn't he have reacted quicker? Why couldn't he have held onto him tighter when they were in the air? Why was she the one who had to have been hit? Why couldn't it have been him?
The door to Ravens room opened and Cyborg walked out. He saw the poor guy huddled within himself, sitting on the cold tiles floor of the hospital. Beast Boy knew he was there, but he couldn't look up to see him. Nothing that could be said could make him feel better.
"Hey man," said Cyborg softly. "How're ya holdin up?"
"How does it look like I'm holding up?" he asked back, angrily.
"She's still alive, B," said Cyborg. "That, alone, is a miracle."
"But for how long?" asked Beast Boy, finally looking up with his tearful eyes. "She may crash at any moment."
"I'm not gonna say that she's outa the woods," said Cyborg. "But she's not as bad as she could be. Even though her heart's weak, everything else is doing fine. I've done my own analysis and she has a good chance of surviving."
"Yeah, but she has an equally good chance of dying in the next fifteen minutes," said Beast Boy bitterly and he buried his face back into his arms.
Cyborg took a seat next to his best friend and sighed. "Why are you thinking of only the negative?" he asked. "You're always so optimistic, no matter what. Now your friend and teammate is close to death and you're not being supportive at all."
Beast Boy wiped his eyes and tried to take in a few deep breaths. It was hard for him to stop sobbing, but he was trying his best. "It's not that I'm not being supportive," he said. "I just… I can't believe this happened. Why did he have to shoot her? Why her? Why couldn't he have shot me?"
"Now, don't ya go blamin yourself," warned Cyborg. "This was Rancid's fault, no one else's."
Beast Boy just shook his head and buried it into his palms. "Why? Why couldn't I have told her sooner?" he asked himself. "Why did I have to wait until today? Why couldn't I have told her yesterday? Why did I have to stall for so long?"
"What're ya talkin about?" asked Cyborg. "What do ya have to tell her?"
"That I'm in love with her," said Beast Boy, breaking down again.
Cyborg had had some suspicion that Beast Boy had liked Raven, so had Robin and Starfire. But none of them knew that he was in love with her. That made this whole situation completely different. Now he knew why he was so upset.
"Awe, man, don't worry," said Cyborg, wrapping his arm around his little buddy, who wasn't exactly little but he was still small next to the robotic man. "She's gonna make it."
Beast Boy continued to cry and Cyborg tried to console him. It didn't matter what Cyborg said, nothing was sure. Beast Boy didn't want to lose her; he was so sick of losing the most important people in his life. He just couldn't lose her. Not yet. Not before he could tell her.
Night had fallen and all four were exhausted. They knew that there was nothing they could do to help her, just wait, so they decided to leave. All but Beast Boy who said that there was no way he would be leaving her. He wanted to be with her, just incase she didn't make it through the night. That way, he could at least now he was with her until the end and she didn't die all alone.
One of the nurses brought him a nice chair from the doctors' lounge so he could be comfortable. He sat right next to her bed and held her hand. His eyes would go from her pale, sleeping face to the monitors then back to her face. If anything changed in the slightest way he was ready to run to get some help.
And there he stayed day after day after day. And day after day after day Ravens heart continued to beat and she continued to live. The others came by frequently to check up on both Raven and Beast Boy, but they still had to keep the city safe. Cyborg talked to Robin and after he had heard about Beast Boy's situation, he put him off duty, so he wouldn't have to leave Raven.
Finally, on the fifth day her eyes began to flutter and open. She stared up at the ceiling, a plain white tiled ceiling. Confusion overtook her as wakefulness consumed her. She became aware of the large tube down her throat and noticed how it basically breathed for her. She didn't like it there and felt like she could breathe on her own.
Slowly she turned her eyes and saw a menagerie of machines, each making a noise and each portraying a different reading. She also became aware of the various IVs and sensors stuck in and on her. She felt a horrible pain in her chest region and wondered why that would be.
She moved her eyes once more to the other side of her and saw something very odd. Beast Boy was sitting in a chair next to her, but his upper body was lying on her bed, partially on her, and he was holding her hand.
'What is he doing?' she asked herself. 'And why am I in a hospital? This doesn't look like the tower's med bay. I want this thing out of my throat so I can breathe. I want this pain in my chest to go away. I need to move, I need to let them know I'm here.'
She tried to move her arm, but she found that it felt very heavy and she very weak. She tried a couple times, but realized that it was a futile attempt. She tried to make a noise, but her throat was blocked and no sound could come. She was really getting frustrated now. Then she remembered that Beast Boy was holding her hand. She summoned up all of her strength and squeezed it over and over.
Beast Boy had been plagued by bad dreams every night, or rather every time he managed to sleep. He would dream that Raven would crash and the doctor's would be unable to revive her. He would dream the scene with Johnny Rancid all over again and watch as Raven was shot. He would dream that she would awake, but she wouldn't be herself. She would be brain dead and unresponsive to him.
Slowly wakefulness came to him and he opened his eyes. He was still slumped over Raven and his back now ached because of it. He slowly sat up and stretched, which meant he took his hand away from her. She carefully watched him and hoped that he would look at her, so that they could make eye contact.
As he woke himself up she got a good look at him. He had circles under his eyes and he looked like he needed to shave. His hair was askew and he looked quite disheveled. Now she was quite confused as to how long she had been in the hospital and what had caused her to end up there in the first place.
Beast Boy sighed and sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. Oh lord, how he was tired. He longed for a decent meal, a decent night's sleep, and a decent shower. But, he would sacrifice all of those luxuries to stay by her side, no matter how long. He placed his hands down on his lap, after rubbing all of the sleep out of him, and looked over to raven.
It's funny how what one sees can sometimes take minutes to register. How something that's importance is beyond anything else in the world can go past you undetected. Beast Boy looked to Raven and his eyes passed right over hers. He then went to take her hand again, but he froze where he was. She watched as his breathing increased and he was even shaking a little. Slowly he raised his eyes to her again, and he saw her.
"Raven?" he whispered, shocked.
She raised her eyebrows as if to say, "Yes?"
"Oh my God, you're awake!" he said, not knowing what to do. He quickly wrapped his arms around her body and hugged her the best that he could. He felt tears pour from his eyes, and for the first time in five days they were not out of despair. "I was so scared, I thought you were gonna die."
Raven felt very awkward with Beast Boy giving her a hug as she lay there in bed. She could hear the tears in his voice and this made her feel even more… odd. He was crying? She must have been close to death. She slowly lifted her weak hand and placed it on his head, not knowing what else to do.
He quickly looked up and smiled at her. Never had he felt such relief and happiness. Her eyes were open and she was awake and aware of what was going around her. She wasn't dead, she was very much alive! And that was all the opening he needed.
He let go of the hold he had on her and moved so he was closer to her head. "I'm so glad you're alive," he said, the remnants of his tears still shining on his green cheeks. "We never got to finish our conversation that day."
'That day?' thought Raven. "What day is this?"
"Before we got called out, we were talking in the hall, remember?" he asked.
Raven weakly nodded. 'I think I do,' she thought.
"Well, there was something I was gonna tell you," he said, softly taking her cheek. He was, in no way, nervous about what he was about to reveal to her. "You see, I…"
"RAVEN!" a high pitched shriek tore through the air.
Beast Boy's eyes nearly bugged out of his head and the hairs on his neck stood on end from this sudden shriek. Raven gave a similar reaction. He quickly turned and saw his three remaining friends burst into the room. He sure hoped that Starfire had made that screech and not Robin or Cyborg, although that would've been funny.