Chapter 8

Robin paced the comm room in the tower trying, unsuccessfully, to track Raven's communicator for what must have been the fiftieth time since she went missing. He couldn't help feel that Red X was involving her in something dangerous and he didn't like being left in the dark. Something strange was going on between her and Red X and he wouldn't be satisfied until he found her and she was able to give him some answers. She had lied to him about Red X being there in her hospital room and though it was possible she had done so under duress she had given no indications that she had done so against her will. He had to know the truth either way and he had to know why either way.

The police scanner finally put out something of interest and Robin leaned over it, listening to the call coming in and checking the police database that he had hacked into for more detailed info. Gunshots reported and suspected members of a notorious crime syndicate scouring the streets looking for what appeared to be a large group of people. Mention of a man in a skull mask that had been apprehended by the syndicate and then rescued. Possible meta human activity.

Bingo.

He called his contact at the station and was told all that he already knew. His contact was actually about to call Robin himself since there were conflicting reports that called into question possible Titan involvement. After assuring him that there was no official Titan involvement, his contact told him that there was no other information yet, but a former hitman associate of the officer had called to tell him something interesting. The syndicate had put a hit out on a member of the Teen Titans: A hit on Raven.

Robin slammed his phone down in rage, slamming his fist on the table as well and swore. What had Raven gotten herself into? And all for the sake of – or under the compulsion of – Red X.

Robin stalked out of the comm room and tore out of the tower on his motorcycle. He scoured the streets looking for answers. It was only hours until sunrise by the time Robin found a member of the syndicate and waited for an opportunity to take him out when he was alone.

Within moments he was holding the man to the alley wall by the throat and he nearly strangled him before he was willing to talk.

"I don't know much," he choked out, coughing as he tried to regain his breath with Robin's hand still at his throat. "We was only on babysitting duty tonight."

"Babysitting who?" Robin growled.

"The syndicate's been keeping collateral of families what owed them. They been keeping the kids. We was guarding them tonight and they all been jail broken by no other than your scary witch bitch, Raven, while some punk in a skull mask with a red x on it run the distraction. I heard the Titan got shot, though, when she went back to rescue the thief. I don't know nothing else. All I know is that they both got away and now we's all out here looking for them and those fucking kids."

Robin's fist held back nothing as he landed a blow to the man's head before delivering him to the station in a heap. He told his contact that the man may have information that might be useful to their investigation on the syndicate. He asked him to do what could be done about canceling the hit on Raven and his friend said he'd do his best.

Robin checked the hospitals and found no gunshot patients that matched Raven's description. He wasn't sure if he was relieved that it hadn't been that bad and she had healed or if it made him more fearful for her. Fearful that she was out there somewhere really hurt and he couldn't help her. Robin returned back to the tower just before dawn and tried tracking Raven, again, to no avail.

He sat in the chair and held his head in his hands resting his elbows on his knees. If possible he was more frustrated now than he was when the evening started. He had to find her. Whatever it took.

O • O • O • O

Jason drifted out of sleep and gently back into consciousness. He wasn't used to that. He had grown accustomed to fitful sleep even if he didn't suffer from debilitating nightmares, though he suffered them more nights than not. He usually woke up by jolting awake in a cold sweat, some intangible dread hanging over him regardless of whether or not he had been plagued by nightmares that night. But last night he had had no nightmares and couldn't remember the last time a sleep had been so unaffected by tension and terror.

He took in a deep breath and two things hit him at the same time. First, there was the unmistakable scent of earl grey tea and lavender permeating the air and second, there was a comfortable but unfamiliar weight on his chest.

He opened his eyes, blinking several times to pull the world into focus. He looked down to see his arms still around Raven, her head and hand resting on his bare chest as she slept. He remembered the events of the previous night and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. He ran his fingers down the pale, smooth skin of her arm and back up again, just marveling over the events of the last few days.

He had gone from practically having withdrawals from her two week absence to rekindling what they had, to saving her life, to her helping him save those kids, to her saving him, to the single greatest night with a woman that he could remember. All the times they had taken pleasure in each other last night were blurring together into a single act of passion and release and he leaned his head back into his pillow sighing as he relived it all in his mind. In vivid detail.

"You seem remarkably contented," Raven murmured against his chest. "You're practically purring."

He lifted his head to look at her and she looked up at him, not moving to untangle herself from his body.

"Anyone would be if they were in my situation, Little Bird."

Raven blushed, her skin turning a lovely shade of dusty rose and he pulled her up to give her a long, languid kiss. His touch was no less electrifying than the night before and she could feel desire pool up in her once more. She could feel the evidence of his need against her thigh and it only excited her more.

Their bodies soon joined again, the sex agonizingly slow and languorous. They spent ages tracing over each others' skin, remapping bodies they had memorized in the night and still finding amazement and newness in the now familiar territory.

The tension built in their bodies, a slow burn this time instead of a raging fire, but no less intense and endangering of consuming them both. They both tested the limits of their control – control they were incapable of the previous night – and it was exquisite torture. They lay together in a tangled heap afterward, basking in the afterglow, Raven lazily twisting a lock of her hair around her finger. Jason stared at the ceiling, reeling from the intensity of how they felt together.

"Would it ruin the moment if I said I was hungry?" Raven asked after a time, still staring at the ceiling.

Jason laughed and pulled her closer. "I was just thinking the same thing."

She pulled herself up to a sitting position, the sheet draped around her in a quite fetching way, her hair spilling over her shoulders in messy waves, the ends trailing on her collarbone. The whole effect and the radiant glow of her pale skin making her look like some kind of Greek painting of a maiden. His very own work of art.

"So what's the plan now?" she asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Back to reality?"

His hand slid to the back of her neck and pulled her down for another kiss. "Do we have to?" he asked as they parted. "Can't we just order take out and never leave this bed?"

"Hmm," she mused. "First, I don't think that anyone will deliver directly to your bed. And second, as tempting as that sounds the Titans will eventually find us and likely kill us both by that point."

She kissed him again and sat back up, rolling her shoulder to work out the stiffness from muscles still newly knitted together.

He reached up and held her shoulder, rubbing a thumb over where her gunshot wound had been where there was now only smooth, pale flesh.

"I still can't believe that fucking happened," he whispered. "A few inches down and . . ."

"Hey," she said, cupping his face with her hands and forcing him to look at her. "I'm fine. I've suffered worse, remember? It's a hazard of the job."

"You only got this because you came after me. If I hadn't gotten fucking caught you never would have gotten hurt."

She stroked his cheek with the thumb of one hand. "What happened, Jason? What went wrong last night that got you caught? I figured catching Red X – the former Robin and Red Hood – was no easy feat."

He placed his hands over hers and pulled them from his face, sliding them down and holding them on his chest.

"I was clear," he started, "but I went back into the office to get proof. I had to get something concrete that didn't require any of those kids or their families to testify. I found ledgers, documents, flash drives, proof that they were going to sell those kids and to whom. I smuggled the documents out with someone I trusted who had infiltrated the syndicate. He took off with the papers and drives but I had to hold off some people to give him a clear out without being identified.

"That was when I was taken. And that was when you came back for me. That was when you super stealth-leveled your way through the building and somehow bad-assed your way into the syndicate back room and that is when you got fucking stabbed and shot in the same goddamn minute." His voice got darker and at the last bit and he looked at her now with an admonishing stare.

"To be fair," she said, pulling a hand out from his and holding it up to stop him from continuing, "I would hardly call that a stab, the knife barely grazed me. And the shot was healed within minutes."

"It was longer than minutes, Raven." His voice had taken on a hard edge now.

"The point is that I'm fine." She ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm fine because of you. I'm fine because you got me out of there. I'm fine because your presence heals my exhaustion. I'm fine because things don't explode when I'm with you. I'm fine because you came out of nowhere and plucked me from from a fall of several stories. I'm fine because you risked exposing yourself to Robin to come back for me and bring me to the hospital. I'm fine because of you, Jason Todd."

He sat up as well and held her face in his hands. He looked like he was wondering whether to ask his next question, but he blazed ahead eventually. "What do you think of me now that you know who I am? Now that you know what's attached to the seemingly carefree nature of Red X? Now that you've had time to consider it."

"I still don't care about who you were in the past, Jason. It only completes the package of who you are now, dark past and all. And let me reiterate – since you appear to be incredibly dense about some things – last night you were nothing short of a hero. I mean," she smiled a playful smile at him, "over the past few days you've also proven yourself a stalker too, but at least a heroic one."

He smirked at her, his wonder at her acceptance of him only continuing to grow.

"Who would have ever though that stalking someone on her rooftop, following her on a mission, and kidnapping her from the hospital would turn out to be the best decision I ever made?" he asked lazily, falling back into the pillows. "That it would end up in something as perfect as last night." He pulled her back down beside him and kissed her forehead. "And this morning." He kissed her cheeks. "And right now."

"That being said, last night and this morning were certainly not a singular occurrence, Jason. I don't know about you, but I fully plan on another repeat performance. And soon."

"Liiiiiike, after lunch soon?" he proposed, raising his brow at her, grateful for the lightening of the conversation. "We've . . . slept through breakfast."

"I suppose we can see where the day takes us," she smirked. He smiled a genuine, full smile at her which she returned.

"Lunch, then. And the rest is in the air."

Raven rose from the bed. "But first, a shower."

She had been in the steaming water for less than a minute before the door to his large shower was opened and Jason stepped in with her. Their plans to continue their tryst after lunch flew out of their heads as she pushed his back against the shower tiles and trailed kisses from his chest to his neck and up to his ear.

They took their pleasure in each other this time with urgency and need, as if to counter the slow and gentle morning in bed. His suckling kisses and bites left more marks on her neck, leaving physical evidence of his need for her and a primitive part of her couldn't help how much it turned her on. They finally felt the relief of release and got to actually washing just before the water began to grow cold.

Raven stepped out of the steamy bathroom and went to grab her clothes to begin dressing.

"I have to call the Titans, Jason. I have to let them know that everything is okay. I can call the tower's private number."

Jason rolled his eyes to the ceiling and nodded. "You mean you have to let the mother hen know so he doesn't have a conniption?"

Raven scoffed, but remained serious. "There's that too. And it's still your fault, may I remind you. You're the one who kidnapped me instead of asking for my help like a normal person."

He stepped up behind her and zipped up her top for her before wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning his chin over her shoulder.

"Yeah, but since when has subtlety ever been my strong suit, Little Bird? I have a flair for the dramatic, darlin. Can't help it."

She laughed a little and leaned her head against his. She still couldn't understand what it was about his presence that allowed her emotions to calm themselves this way, even allowing her little things like genuine laughter. She was still in disbelief that last night had happened without incident. It was the most intensely that she had ever felt and she had been allowed to feel it.

He kissed her neck before stepping back to put on a shirt. Raven sighed as she fingered the hole in the shoulder of her leotard that the bullet had left last night. No helping that now.

She held out her hand for his cell phone as Jason pulled it out to check his messages. He pointed at the plain phone on the dresser, obviously a burner phone and she rolled her eyes, grabbing the phone and dialing the number. Jason was leaning against the dresser with his dark shirt unbuttoned as he listened to his messages. He winked at her as her eyes roamed his exposed torso. He mouthed the words "after lunch" before smirking at her. She shook her head, blushing again, as her call connected.

The automated system asked for a voice conformation and Raven gave her code to get patched through to the comm room.

"Raven?!" she heard a panicked voice ask when the call connected. The automation would have let him know that it was her code that was used.

"Yeah, it's me, Robin," she started, suddenly unsure of what it was that she was going to say even though she had spent all morning thinking about it. Well, most of the morning. Okay, some of the morning. She felt a niggling of guilt at letting herself get so distracted from calling him earlier.

"Raven!" Robin's voice was a mix of irritation and relief. "Thank God. I heard you were shot, Raven! What the hell did Red X get you into?! Do you have any idea how worried I was for you?! Where's you comm? What the hell happened last night?! God, are you okay?"

Before she could even respond to his barrage of questions Jason grabbed her arm, his face full of concern as he listened to a message.

"My contact with the proof from last night is in trouble," he whispered. "We have to help him. He has all the original documents to pin on the syndicate. We can't let them get away with it. We need that evidence."

Raven nodded, suddenly somber and she opened her mouth to speak to Robin.

He tightened his grip on her arm. "He doesn't have a clean record, Little Bird. We can't involve the Titans."

She nodded again and spoke into the phone. "Robin, everything is fine. The gunshot was a through and through, I healed in less than half an hour. I'm fine and I know it's hard to believe but trust me when I say that I'm safe. I'm sorry, I know I owe you all kinds of explanations and I promise you you'll get them, but I have to go. I'll fill you in on everything as soon as I can, Robin, but there's good to be done here and I have to see it through. I'll call again."

"Raven! Don't -" but she had already hung up and turned the phone off.

"Where are we going?" Raven asked.

Jason stared at her, part of his heart singing that he had her attention while she had given Robin the brush off, whatever the reason. He moved back to the bed and grabbed the Red X suit he had laid there after retrieving the pieces off the floor before their shower.

"Downtown," he said as he began to change. "We have to hurry."

O • O • O • O

They found his contact, Cole, leaning back on a sofa in a dingy, run down apartment that Jason said was used as an inconspicuous safehouse. Cole had fled into the building after a run in with members of the syndicate that recognized him. He said he could hear the syndicate enforcers looking for him floor by floor. They had seen him enter the building but luckily they didn't seem to know where he was in it.

He told them that he would have tried to use the fire escape to flee to the roof, but then he removed the jacket resting over his midsection to reveal the gunshot wounds in his stomach. He said he'd hidden the documents to keep them safe and that he could tell them where to find them, but his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he passed out before he was able to tell them any more.

Raven rushed to his side and laid hands on him, closing her eyes in an attempt to heal the wounds as best she could in the time they had. They had to know where those documents were but they'd get nothing out of Cole if he died from his injuries and they couldn't teleport with him if he was hurt this badly. They'd do more harm than good.

She told Red X to find someplace close that they could transport to where the syndicate members wouldn't be able to see them from any of the windows of the building. He nodded before teleporting out of the room.

Her expression grew pained as she grimaced, her hands glowing over Cole's stomach as he regained consciousness. The bleeding had lessened but he didn't look good. He was shaking and looked like he was going to pass out again.

Red X reappeared in the room to tell her that there was an empty loft in the building across the street that had plenty of room for a three person jump. He heard metallic tinking sounds and looked over to see the bloody bullets fall to the floor as Raven expelled them from the Cole's body. He could see the steady drip from the blood running off of the couch, but already Cole's color looked better and his eyes were fully open and no longer dazed.

Raven's head jerked up at the same time as Red X's did as they heard the footfalls of the enforcers in the hall.

"Time's up," Raven whispered. "We'll have to take him as is. X, can you help him to his feet?"

Red X lifted Cole from the couch and put his arm over his shoulders as he supported his weight. He pointed out the window of the loft to Raven so she would know where she was blind jumping to, his belt didn't have enough power to jump all three of them the number of times they'd eventually need to get to a safehouse so she'd have to use her own powers to get to where they were going. She nodded and they transported at the same time.

As soon as they reappeared in the loft they bolted for a portion of the room away from the windows that faced the building they had just fled. Raven laid her hands on Cole again, trying to get him stable before they had to jump again. Jason peeked out from their spot to see if he could spot any movement int the building across the street, but he couldn't make anything out.

It took several more minutes for Raven to declare him safe enough to move to a more secure location further from the syndicate enforcers. Jason gave Raven directions for another safe house that would be their final destination, and Raven was surprised that she knew it. One of Robin's contacts had hidden out there before. Given their shared past it came as less of a surprise that Jason and Robin shared some of the same information.

Jason slid his shoulder under Cole's arm and stood, bearing his weight as Cole groaned.

Raven stood, but doubled over and her breath grew a bit ragged. She told Jason that she could get there in one jump with her powers and meet them there.

"Hey, are you okay?" Red X asked, his voice worried noticing her unsteady bearing. He shifted Cole's weight against him, wishing he could reach for Raven in his concern.

She nodded and stood again, putting on her most stoic expression.

"I'm fine. Healing him that fast just took a lot out of me. I'll be fine."

Red X reached for his belt but stopped before he pressed the button, looking at Raven, still concerned about the way she was holding herself.

"You sure you're okay, Little Bird? Why don't you jump with us? I don't like the idea of us splitting up if you're not feeling great."

"I don't have a ton of energy left, X. I know the safehouse, I'll be able to get there in one go. You should save the power of the belt in case we need it. I'll meet you there, don't worry."

He nodded. "Be safe, Little Bird. Please."

He pressed the button and disappeared and Raven wrapped herself in her soul self again and went straight to the safehouse. She found it thankfully empty and she collapsed on the floor of the living room, leaning up against the side of the couch. She touched her stomach and could already feel the blood soaking through her clothes. She swore. She had rushed the healing too much.. She couldn't work as slowly as she would have liked on his healing, using more of the finesse of her magic and taking less of his wounds on herself, but they hadn't had the luxury.

She wanted to close her eyes and start healing herself, but so much of her power had gone to healing Cole and in transporting herself that she didn't have enough left. She pressed her cloak against the bleeding wound. She just had to get the bleeding to stop and she'd be fine until she could heal. She slumped to the floor, laying on her side, not having the strength to stay upright any longer.

It took more time than she liked, worrying her for a moment, but she finally got the blood flow to stop and could feel herself regaining her strength. It wasn't long after that when she saw two sets of boots appear in the room right before her.

"Raven?!" Red X shouted as he appeared in the room and saw her laying in front of the couch, her bloody cloak laying in front of her midsection. "Seriously?!"

"It's fine, Ja – X. It's fine. The bleeding has stopped."

He made sure Cole was settled in an overstuffed armchair before falling to his knees before Raven. She tried to brush his hands away from her but he grabbed her shoulders to keep her laying down on the floor. He took an X blade and sliced at her top, pulling the fabric away from the now healing wounds and she protested to the further ruining of her clothes. The wounds had stopped bleeding, but were still fresh and painful looking.

Before he could say anything, Tyler, who had taken the children and their families from them the night before, arrived. Red X gave Raven a stern look before he rose and spoke with Tyler for time before helping Cole to his feet and helping Tyler to bear his weight. Raven could hear them agree to get the evidence for Red X, to make back up copies and meet him to deliver it later in the day.

Tyler looked Raven's way and paused, noticing the blood drenched cloak and how she held her stomach.

"Is she okay?"

"I'm fine," she called out in an irritated sing-song voice before Red X could say anything.

Tyler chuckled and cocked an eyebrow at the thief. "I told you she was a strong one, body and spirit. Maybe too strong for you." He laughed again and helped Cole out through the door.

Red X heaved a heavy sigh and lowered his head once they left. He locked the door, removed his mask and turned back to her, walking over and checking her wounds again. They were in fact healing, albeit slowly.

"The fuck, Raven?" He looked into her eyes and felt the cold hand of fear release his heart as he realized that she was going to be alright. She was already healing. But this was the second time that something he dragged her into had gotten her hurt and he was not okay with it.

"I take on a bit of the injuries that I heal," she explained. "It's only a portion but the faster I heal someone and the less finesse I use the more of the injury I have to take onto myself to heal them. We had to work fast with Cole and I had to take on too much. This is not the first time I've had to heal a wound that bad that fast. I knew what I was getting into, Jason. I knew what I was doing."

"Still," he muttered, shaking his head. "I can't keep doing this to you. You've been wounded and/or dying three times in the past four days. Cole says there's a fucking hit out on you. Most of all that is because of me, Raven."

She thumped her head back down on the floor with a thud.

"You're using my real name," she said dejectedly. "That can't be a good sign."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Nothing," she dismissed. "Listen, X," using his name like a weapon, "don't go thinking that anything that happened in the last four days is anything more than things that have happened to me as a Titan before I ever knew you. This shit happens. None of this is your fault."

"Bullshit! All of it is, Raven! You wouldn't have any dealings with the syndicate right now if it wasn't for me!"

"The Slade thing was not your fault," she retorted. "Quite the opposite, as I've already pointed out. You saved me from that and that was a Titan battle. Nothing to do with you. And that injury was far worse than anything I've endured for your sake."

"But I was with you beforehand. I prevented you from meditating when you were exhausted. Things might have been different if I hadn't shown up on your rooftop."

"Your presence, for some reason, did more for me than that meditation ever could. You have to stop blaming yourself for every thing that happens to me."

"Raven -" he started, his voice hard and unyielding.

She sat up and grabbed his face in her hands, her eyes starting to show signs of panic.

"Jason, can we just go back to your place? We're on a bit of an emotional high right now. Our adrenaline is wreaking havoc on us, especially on my emotions, and we need to calm down before we start placing blame. Will you do that for me? Please?"

He saw the panic in her eyes and his own softened, hating to see her that way. He laced his fingers in her hair and pulled her in for a kiss. He sighed as he kissed her, still not convinced that he wasn't the worst thing in the world for her, but he couldn't deny how right they felt together.

He pulled away and rested his forehead on hers.

"Let's go, Little Bird."

She sighed in relief at his return to her nickname, hoping his freak out was over, and let him help her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her waist and jumped them back to his condo.