Maternal Instincts
Chapter one
It wasn't the kind of work anyone would guess that Raven would do, especially willingly, but there she was.
See after the years passed and the Titans got older, new teens came along and were ready to take on the dangers in San Francisco. This presented the previous Titans with a unique opportunity to consider whether or not they still wanted the responsibility of saving lives. Vic decided to hang back to train the new kids, Kori and Dick got married and made their way to Bludhaven to be a duo team but Raven and Gar…
Well Garfield finally decided to pursue a career in television as a supporting character on the show Space Trek and Raven decided to go back to school to pursue a degree in Psychology.
The problem with her plan was that with her no longer being a Titan meant no more financial support from the city. Soon she began working as a barista for minimum wage which she could hardly even begin to pay her bills with. As fate would have it, she had to observe some children and take notes for her developmental psychology class, and from there she was in the hands of fate.
Four months earlier…
It was May and Raven was sitting at a bench on the edge of the playground taking notes. Raven had cut her hair into a Pixie cut years ago but now had let the bangs grow out a little more as to cover her third eye chakra so it would help her be recognized in public less.
Her eyes were focused on the notebook in front of her when she heard screaming on the other side of the playground.
Fight or Flight kicked in and Raven found herself running towards the sound. There in the sandbox were two three year old boys, one white pale skin, light blue eyes and white blonde hair and the other his total opposite, dark hair and eyes with tanned skin. The screaming was coming from a little girl with curly brown locs who was getting sand kicked in her face by the two boys.
Raven quickly scanned the playground for one of the teachers to help. One was meeting parents at the gate for morning drop off, so not her. Raven scanned again, the other teacher was on the bike path cleaning a scrape on a child's knee from where they had fallen off their bike.
'Great, I guess it's up to me.' she thought, running to the scene.
Without thinking, she ran right up to the boys and her words cut through the air like a knife, "Cut that out, right now!"
The boys stopped laughing and turned to the strange woman that had approached them. The dark haired boy immediately tensed up knowing a consequence would be coming but the blonde boy sneered at her and stood his ground.
"I don't have to listen to you. You're not my teacher!"
Man this kid had some gall, Raven stared him in the eyes and glared back at him.
"I'm not but she is," she said pointing to the woman at the bike path, "and I don't think she'd be too happy with you two picking on a little girl."
The dark haired boy hung his head in shame and looked truly remorseful. It was like he had only just realized that he had hurt the little girl. Raven sighed and continued, "why were you even kicking sand at her in the first place?"
The blonde boy was quick to respond, "Chloe took all the trucks and didn't give any to us and Ms. Serenity says we have to share!"
"So you decided the best course of action was to start kicking sand at her?"
Just then Chloe had thrown herself crying onto Raven seeking the comfort of an adult figure. The empath stood shell shocked for a moment as she was the last thing from cuddly but quickly turned her attention to gingerly dusting the sand off of the girls face and curly hair while still scolding the other children.
"Did either of you ask her for a truck?"
The darker hair boy finally spoke up, "Well she just took them!"
"And did you ask her for them before you started kicking sand in her face?"
Chloe lifted her head from Raven's now wet shoulder and looked up into her eyes, "They didn't!" she sobbed.
Raven facepalmed and took a pointed breath before continuing. "So here's what we're going to do, there's three trucks here and three of you. Chloe is going to pick which truck she wants first because she was there first then you two can pick which ones you want and you can all play together in the sandbox, can everyone agree to that?"
The children looked at each other and nodded their heads in unison.
"Great, you guys have fun. I'm going back to my notes."
Raven had turned to head back to her bench when the window across the sandbox had creakily slid open and a woman with sandy blonde hair stuck her head out. She was petite with rectangular framed glasses and a sharp downward pointed nose.
"Nice work over there!" She complimented Raven.
Raven recognized her voice from over the phone, this was the center's owner Kelly, she was the one Raven contacted about observing the kids for her class. Raven rubbed her arm sheepishly "Uh- thanks. I'm sorry everyone else was busy and-"
"No, no I appreciate it, trust me!" Kelly interrupted, "So why aren't you working for me yet?"
Raven was floored and began trying to construct the nicest way of saying Hell No in the head.
"Oh I'm sorry, I have a job and I'm in school…"
"Summer's about to start and we work around peoples schedules in the fall."
Raven's eyes began to dart, this lady was not taking no for an answer. Before Raven could construct another excuse, Kelly interrupted her again.
"We start at 20 an hour, and we have health insurance." the woman deadpanned.
Raven's racing mind paused. She thought about the middle aged women who screamed at her because they had ordered their coffee incorrectly, she thought about her rat infested studio apartment in the dangerous part of town, she thought about the countless nights she had sleep for dinner because she ran out of groceries and couldn't afford anymore.
Raven shot her head up to face the owner, "When can I come in for an interview?"
The first few weeks of the job were mostly training based and book work so it would at least kind of appear like she knew what she was doing. She was a float teacher, which essentially meant that she would fill in for wherever she was needed. Her hours was perfect for her school schedule once fall hit plus she had weekends off which was a luxury she greatly appreciated.
The extra income helped her afford to move into a nicer apartment on a better side of town and she had just enough to pay all her bills on time.
She actually had begun to enjoy the work. There was something special about almost every room that made each day working there not mind numbing, but one of the best parts about working at the daycare was that Raven had found a kindred spirit in a coworker.
"Hey Millie," Raven said upon entering the infant room, "Kelly told me to give you prep time today."
The second teacher in the room pumped her fist in the air, "Fuck yeah" she half whispered.
"Becca!" Millie and Raven both scolded the teacher who was giving a baby a bottle.
"What?! It's fine, they can't repeat what I'm saying back to their parents yet."
Millie rolled her eyes. "Raven, please keep her on track."
"You know I will" she assured the woman.
"Please remember that you're on the clock, Becca." the lead teacher reminded the girl.
"Aye-Aye, Cap." Becca replied, rolling her eyes.
Millie left and Raven was left with eight babies and what was probably her best friend since leaving the Titans.
Becca stood at a whooping 6'5" with a light brown mullet and tinted john lennon style glasses for her color blindness. She was thin and willowy sporting her Dad's army jacket, ripped black jeans and combat boots. Safe to say, not exactly the person you'd expect to see as an infant teacher but regardless, she was great at her job, the babies really liked her and she was able to keep track of what every baby needed exactly when they needed it. Which was a blessing in an infant room with eight babies.
Most importantly to Raven though was that they had hit it off immediately from the time they had first met.
The conversations started from something as shallow as common music tastes to eventually growing into much deeper and more in depth conversations about life and purpose and what they wanted from their lives.
Becca would talk about living with her Dad who was an old army veteran and how she took care of him. Raven eventually admitted about her past as a Titan and how she just wanted to do something that wasn't about destiny or saving the world for once.
After enough talking both girls realized that they coincidentally lived down the hall from each other and eventually found each other in the other's home nearly everyday. Of course except on those times Raven needed her privacy which Becca totally respected.
"Hello Queen." Becca hummed as Raven went to check out the babies daily reports on the ipad.
Raven rolled her eyes at her friend, "Stop it...we have a new baby?" she said looking at the new face on the ipad.
"Yeah nice of them to let us know, huh? Becca grumbled sarcastically "Mom was a real peach too, held her kid out away from her body like she was diseased or something. Said something about her dress being a louis vuitton and she didn't want her to ruin it."
"Nice" Raven deadpanned scanning the room for the baby.
"Boppy Pillow, soft toys areas" Becca said reading her mind.
Raven shuffled over to the cozy area in the room with soft baby books and stuffed animals. The little girl in question was beautiful. Short tufts of black hair that covered the top of her head, followed by giant light blue eyes with some of the longest eyelashes she had ever seen on a baby. She was teeny tiny for her four months of age and she smiled a toothless grin at the empath.
Raven couldn't help but catch the infectious smile as the tiny hand grasped her index finger.
"Hey kid. Raven." she introduced herself.
Becca started rambling "She's got a three year old sister named Nora and Oh guess what her schedule is?"
Raven recognized the tone in her voice, she was baiting her. Raven closed her eyes awaiting the worst, "Don't say it"
"Open to close" Becca announced ceremoniously, "AND her parents aren't even picking her up!"
"Whose picking her up then?"
"Some actor on her Dad's show I guess?"
"God you have to be fucking with me."
"Wish I was"
Raven turned to the baby and sighed, "What's her name again?"
"Natalie."
"I'm so sorry Natalie, we'll do our best for you, Ok?"
The baby smiled her toothless smile at the empath and cooed.