Unknown To You: Balance Of Life

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans

Silent gasps were heard from the group of friends as Kori burst into tears, sobbing in Richard's arms. Although his eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, the others could tell that he was crying as well. Tears dropped from Rachel's eyes as Karen began crying softly. Vic and Gar had solemn expressions on their faces, not wanting to maintain eye contact with anyone in case they started crying as well.

"So when can you come home?" said Karen, sniffling slightly. Kori and Richard looked up at their friend. As much as they wanted to avoid going home, they knew that they would have to face it.

"The doctor's say I can go home today if I want, but I still have to come back for check-ups," mumbled Kori, looking directly at her hands.

"You don't have to come home yet if you don't want to," said Rachel, holding Kori's hands in hers. Kori smiled; Rachel was just like the big sister she should have had.

"I want to go home today, I think"

By 2pm, Kori had been examined and dubbed healthy enough to go home. She knew that it would be hard moving on so quickly, but she had her friends around. In fact, they were more like family. Yeah, my family, she thought to herself as she got ready to go home. She thanked her doctor for everything and followed her friends to Vic's car. The drive wasn't long, but Kori had found herself sleeping anyway. When they had reached home, Kori was sound asleep.

"She didn't get much sleep last night," explained Richard. Vic just nodded and carried her in his arms, just like he had done the first time she'd gone for a scan. It pained him to think about that memory that had happened not too long ago. He followed Richard up the stairs and entered the couple's bedroom. He gently lay Kori onto the bed and Richard and Vic left her to sleep in peace.

She could feel the pain from the stomach cramps again. She winced in agony. These couldn't be the same stomach cramps; these were far worse. She closed her eyes as the pain overtook her body. She opened her eyes again, after letting the pain subsude a bit. A confused look was on her face. Where was she? She looked around before finally realising where she was; a graveyard. But this wasn't any normal graveyard; this one was for young children that never had the chance to live. She looked in front of her and there was a miniature gravehead. She bent down to read the inscription; Aged 3 months, Biological Father: Unknown, Paternal Father: Richard Grayson, Mother: Kori Anders, Cause Of Death: Because my mother ignored me when I asked for help...

"NO!" she screamed. She awoke, sweat running down her face. She breathed heavily and her throat hurt. She touched her face and felt tears running down her cheeks. It had all been just a dream...She looked at her bedside clock. It was 8:35pm. She'd been asleep for so long. However, that wasn't what was bothering her. The object beside her clock was. There was a picture of her baby at her first ultrasound. Underneath it was written "8 weeks old". She had planned on showing it to her child when it was older. Of course, there was no use for it now. More tears flowed from her eyes and she couldn't stop them. She began to sob into her pillow, clinging onto the picture with her dear life. She had failed her child; it had told her there was something wrong, but she'd ignored it. It was all her fault.

"Kori!" exclaimed a soft voice. She looked up to see Richard standing in the doorway. He looked at her red puffy eyes, her messy hair and her wet face. I never should have left her, he scolded himself, making his way towards Kori. As soon as he sat on the bed, she jumped into his arms and sobbed her heart out, huge amounts of sadness present in every tear she cried. Richard sat there with his fiancee in tears, little droplets of water escaping from his eyes as well. The young couple sat there, joined by a pain that no-one else in the household could ever dream to know of. Kori had stopped crying, but didn't want to let go off Richard. He looked down at her and noticed something in her hand.

"What's this?" he asked, taking it in his hands. Reluctantly, she let go of the picture. His face was now etched with even more pain than before and Kori couldn't help feeling guilty. Not only had this destroyed her and the baby, it had destroyed Richard's as well. He had been so excited about the fact that he could have been a daddy. She had been so excited about being a mummy. She thought some more. Vic and Gar had so wanted to be the baby's uncle's and Rachel and Karen had always wanted to be auntie's. She suddenly let out a cry of sadness. She hadn't just destroyed her fiancee; she'd destroyed her whole family. She started crying again, Richard was doing the same. He couldn't hide it anymore. He loved her; he hated to see her in this much pain and he'd been so excited about having a baby.

"I had a nightmare," said Kori. Richard looked down and for the first time, had realised that she'd stopped crying. He didn't know what she was going on about, but he listened intently.

"I dreamed that I was having my stomach cramps again, but they were worse. Then I was in a graveyard..." Her voice was quivering with tears and Richard held her closer to him.

"And in front of me was a gravestone for our little baby" She was sobbing by now as was Richard.

"The inscription included it's age of 3 months, it's biological father who is unknown, it's paternal father..." She looked up at him through tear welled eyes and continued.

"It's paternal father was you, it's mother was me and the cause of death was...me!" She screamed the last word and continued to sob. New emotion was filling her; there was now anger as well as sadness, rage as well as unhappiness.

"No, Kori, no," said Richard, more and more tears falling from his eyes. He took off his sunglasses and lifted Kori's face up to his.

"Kori, look at me. Look at me," he ordered her. She opened her eyes unwillingly and stared into his ocean blue eyes.

"This wasn't your fault. You know it wasn't your fault. The doctor said there was nothing that we could have done. We're just pawns in this unfair game of life," he ended.

"But why? Why is it so unfair?" asked Kori, snuggling her head into his chest.

"Because that's the balance of life"