A/N: I really did not expect this story to exceed ten chapters and here we are at fourteen. Cool. This chapter may be pretty short but don't read beyond this one unless you're prepared for some serious Richard and Bruce fluff: You Have Been Warned.

Oh, and I cannot bring myself to call him Dick, don't ask why, I would just laugh every time I typed it.

I own nothing. Well a few, but they're the evil people no one likes to talk about.

Chapter 14

He was floating. Just floating somewhere between conscious states. He could fall into either one, but he really wasn't sure about either of them.

The first seemed innocent enough. It felt like sleep, deep peaceful sleep. It would be easy to fall into that. He was so exhausted, he felt as though he could just sleep forever and ever, endlessly dreaming, just breathing.

But that was just it; that's what made him hesitate to dive into that pool. Forever. He was afraid he may not wake up. Surely a sleep that deep wasn't natural. He couldn't be sure of anything there.

The second pool was one he knew would hurt, and that he could be sure of. He could feel a distant pounding that kept pace with his heart. The pain wasn't very real to him yet but every nerve in his body told him if he took even one step in that direction, it would be. It wasn't really the physical pain that held him back though. It was once again the fear of uncertainty, not knowing who he would wake up to find standing over him. That single thought scared him to death.

It felt like an eternity as he lay there and fought with himself. The whole while he could hear people speaking . . .

How much longer . . .

I told you, it's up to them . . .

Do you think they'll be the same when they wake up . . .

We can't be sure . . .

We just have to wait . . .

Who were they waiting on? On him? Why? Why did he deserve someone, anyone, to wait for him? He felt very confused. Then he realized something. That's what the second pool offered---- understanding. He had a tie breaker. He could sleep all he wanted when he found some answers.

With an ecstatic leap he dove head first into the second pool. When he did it was like a flood gate opened, and thousands of sensations and images and . . . memories rushed towards him. Perfect. Unfortunately, in his excitement, he forgot about the physical aspect. The throbbing pain that had been holding back before hit him full force. He was suddenly aware of his throat as he let out a tiny groan and felt his whole body stiffen. Man that hurt. Well at least he knew for certain he was alive, and that he was lying on a soft bed. He figured they had changed his clothes to one of those scrubs they kept in the hospital wing.

His slight sound of distress must have alerted the others in the room. Someone touched his shoulder.

"Sean?" He knew that voice. Starfire. Thank goodness; he was among friends. She sounded so tiny. But she used the wrong name.

He smiled to himself, hoping it didn't show on his face. He would mess with them a little before he opened his eyes. He let himself relax again, becoming a rag doll.

They were quiet for a long time before another tried to rouse him, this time it was Cyborg, "C'mon Sean, wake up already." Not until one of you gets it right.

A more irritated voice spoke, well he supposed she was irritated, Raven spoke in a monotone, "Sean, you've been lying there for nearly three days. It's time to get up." Oh, come on, one of you has to get it.

They were quiet again until Beast Boy said timidly, "Sean?" he waited for any reply, but when he got none he said sadly, "Maybe we only imagined it." Don't give up that easy!

His head ache was slowly letting up, but not nearly as much as he wanted. On top of that he was frustrated. At least throw a guess. Anyone? The hand on his shoulder shifted a little. He couldn't see it because his eyes were still closed, but he was pretty sure he could sense someone lean over him and say in a very low, rumbling voice, "Richard? Are you messing with us? You know I hate that."

Richard couldn't help it; he cracked one eye open and smiled at Bruce, "Just keeping you on your toes, Bats." Richard laughed at the face Bruce made, but abruptly stopped, it hurt his head.

The Titans all smiled, even Raven let herself grin. Diana and Clark stood behind them, also happy to see him conscious. Before he could say anything more though, Richard found himself crushed into Starfire's signature hug, "Oh, Robin, we have missed you so much and we were so worried and we thought you wouldn't wake up and . . ." she went on and on. She finally slowed down enough to take a breath and Richard somehow got his arms out of the choke-hold and hugged her back, "I missed you too, Star," He sighed.

When she finally let go Cyborg asked, "How do you feel?"

Rich had to think about that for a second, "My head hurts . . . and I'm kinda hungry." Suddenly he looked around him, "Where's Terra?"

His question seemed to alarm the others. Beast Boy looked across the room at the adjacent bed, "She-- she was right there! What . . ." right then something small flew through the air and popped BB right in the head. It didn't look like it hurt him, but it shocked him none the less, "What the . . .?" He picked up a little pebble just as a giggle was heard from the doorway. Terra's head stuck through as another few pebbles flew towards Beast Boy and landed harmlessly in his hand.

Apparently while everyone was watching Richard, she'd planned more of an entrance, "Did ya' miss me too?" Suddenly Terra was in a literal bear hug, a green bear hug that is, "I'll take that as a yes." Starfire would not be out done though. As soon as BB let go Terra also found herself in Star's grip, even Raven lent her a tiny smile, her way of saying, well done. Terra looked very weak when she was finally allowed to stand on her own, despite her smile. Beast Boy helped her back towards the infirmary bed.

Now that Robin thought about it he felt unusually sore and weak too. Maybe it was all in his head.

"So both of you remember . . . everything?" Raven stepped forward, "Who you are, us, and everything?"

Terra and Richard nodded slowly. "I'm kind of in the mood for some anchovy pizza," Terra said looking at BB.

"Well, she's fine," Beast Boy rolled his eyes, looking even happier.

"So what happened?" Robin blurted out. He'd just registered Raven's words. He'd been out for three days. Heck he hadn't even seen what happened to the stone.

"Yeah," Terra said, "Don't leave us hangin' here." She purked up even more.

"Okay, um," Cyborg looked at Raven, "Where to start?"

"You definitely did the right thing stabbing the stone," Raven said, then crossed her arms, "Even if it was incredibly stupid. Do you have any idea what a stunt like that could've done to you?" She glared at both of them in turn.

"But they're fine," Superman said; always the one to give wide skirt to any unnecessary fighting, "and that's what matters," His eyes flicked over Robin again, "but you did give us quite a scare."

"Anyway," Beast Boy said excitedly, for he loved telling a good story, "The thing totally . . . blew up . . . or something, after you stabbed it. It was a pretty cool explosion."

"It wasn't an explosion, you idiot," Raven scathed. She glared at BB for a moment, then switched her gaze back to Robin and Terra, "As I have explained to our less-than-intelligent friend several times, you released a lot of energy and power when you broke the stone. All of that power just . . . gushed out, I guess, it was more a tidal wave than an explosion." This time she started to look a little uncertain, and Richard saw her eyes flicker to Diana for help.

The Amazonian nodded, "Yes, that's about as accurate as we can be about it really. We were more concerned about you two at the time."

At Richard and Terra's puzzled faces, Starfire cut in, "You both . . . um . . . passed away . . ."

"Passed out, Star," Beast Boy said helpfully, "Yeah, you both kinda went all rigid, and your eyes got really wide and creepy looking." He seemed to shiver a little at the memory, and glanced at Terra, "And even though the . . . tidal wave (he threw a glance at Raven) didn't really affect us, it kind of knocked you two down."

"And what about Carlisle Martin?" Richard asked. He didn't feel like discussing what had happened to him, it wasn't exactly pleasant to think about. Really he didn't know what to make of it.

Thankfully Raven seemed to understand, "Well, that's . . . a little bit harder to explain," she stared at the floor for a while, and then said slowly, "I thought—at first—that if the stone was broken, it would cause horrible damage—if not death—to anyone with any mental connection with it. But the power contained within it seemed to only want what was left of the ancient blood." She looked up at them finally and said gravely, "Carlisle Martin got what he wanted. Unfortunately, all the power contained in that stone was not taken from one person alone."

"What do you mean?" Terra asked.

"Well," Diana spoke this time, also choosing her words carefully, "According to the legends, when the stone was filled with all that energy, it was the power from thousands of minds. Martin is the only remaining blood-relative of his family. All that power is now contained in Carlisle Martin," She paused, and then said, "Really there is no other way to put it. It drove him completely out of his mind. He has all the power he set out to get, and he can't even use it; it's too much for him to handle."

"So, he' still alive?" Richard asked incredulously.

Raven nodded, "If you can call it that. He probably doesn't even know his own name. He could be sitting on the moon for all he knows. He's in a special facility, right now, till the courts decide what to do with him."

"Wow," Terra gave a low whistle, "What happened to the stone?" She asked curiously.

Starfire shrugged, "It is now simply two halves of a normal earth rock."

"We also think," Cyborg said, "that Amelia Johnson ended up helping Carlisle after all. She must have helped him transport you two down that tunnel safely, then came back up to cover his tracks. All his labs were stripped clean, his home too; she's probably the one who made sure of that. We can only speculate though, we still can't find her." He paused and sighed, "You gotta hand it to her; she's good at what she does."

Richard's head hurt even more than before. He leaned back into the pillows as Beast Boy suddenly turned to Terra. Looking very timid he asked, "Um, Terra, can I ask you a question?"

Terra smiled weakly at him again, "You just did. But I'll permit one more."

"Why couldn't we revive you?" Beast Boy didn't smile back. He watched Terra look down and take a deep breath.

"Because," she said quietly, barely above a whisper, "I didn't want you to, B."

"How . . ."Beast boy's voice trailed off, but Terra caught the meaning.

"I have powers over earth, B," she said matter-of-factly, "all I had to do was make sure the rock around me didn't vibrate with my heart beat. That's how I avoided Cyborg's detectors. Raven was a little trickier. I'm still not sure how I pulled that one off, but somehow the earth seemed to make me . . . dead to the rest of the world."She didn't look him in the eye as she said, "I didn't want to hurt you anymore. So when Dr. Martin came along . . . he said that I could start over . . . I'm sorry, Beast Boy." She said the last words in a whisper and looked up.

To her surprise Beast Boy was grinning at her, "And people call me air-headed."

Terra put on a face of mock offense, "Are you calling me stupid?"

"You are if you believed you weren't welcome back," Beast Boy jabbed. They continued with their little fight.

Cyborg shook his head, and then looked back at Richard, "I'll go get you guys something to eat . . . and some aspirin." He walked towards the door. Star flew after him, saying, "I must try again to make a cake . . ."

"Not without an extra pair of eyes on you, you're not," Raven said and hurried after the alien.

Beast Boy didn't dare leave Terra's side, but was mortified by the idea that Cyborg might be cooking meat. Terra of course noticed his dilemma, "Hey, B, you know I haven't seen a good herbivore verses carnivore battle in a while . . ." before Terra knew it she was being whisked out of the room on the back of a grinning tiger.

"This I must see," Diana said, "Coming Supes?" Clark nodded and with one last glance at Robin walked out to watch the show.

"I think," Richard looked up at Bruce, who hadn't said anything since Richard woke up, "maybe I should supervise that."

"You just don't want to stay in bed," Batman smirked in that all-knowing fashion that could drive Richard up the wall. Richard only grinned at him and attempted his famous puppy-eyes he perfected for just such times. Bruce shook his head and turned to get a wheel chair from the corner.

"What's that for?" Richard frowned at the chair.

"You don't even look like you should be conscious," Bruce said, wheeling the horrid contraption to the bedside, "C'mon, humor me." When Richard still glared stubbornly at the chair he changed tactic, "It's this or I carry you."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

With a little huff Richard carefully climbed into the chair and allowed Bruce to push him through the many hallways (not before annoyingly placing a blanket around him).

"Richard," Batman said after a few minutes of silence, "Might I ask why Carlisle Martin picked you as well?"

Richard tried not to show signs of agitation at the question. He didn't want to answer it, though. Bruce waited patiently.

Finally Robin just said, "Bruce, I was half drowned when Martin found me," he tried to make it sound like a steady answer, but it came out a little weak and trembly, "I don't know what happened anymore than you do."

That was probably the lamest lie he'd ever told. A three year old could see through that, no doubt Batman could. Richard just sat waiting for Bruce to tell him to get a grip. But he didn't. He just pushed the chair through the hall.

Right before they went into the kitchen to join the others, he finally said, "If you're sure, Robin."

This one's a shorty. I guess it was sort of the epilogue. But there's another chapter after this that's kind of the epilogue too. So, this is the pre-epilogue epilogue. Never-mind, hope you enjoyed chapter fourteen. And like I said, the next one is just sort of something I've been wanting to do for a while, so don't read it if you don't like those little family moments between Richard and Bruce (but it does go along with this story, and it's a work in progress).

Please R&R, thanks.

One more thing (I know, I'm freakin' annoying) if I still forgot to answer a question, let me know and I'll find a way to make it right.