TEEN TITANS: TROUBLE IN TOKYO PREMIERS SEPTEMBER 15 7:30 ON CARTOON NETWORK! (With an encore September 16)
Chapter 12: Lost Love?
Sitting Raven down on one of the chairs in the waiting room Garfield sat down next to her. "Raven, Raven, say something Raven, anything," pleading with her to speak he sigh. "It's going to be okay Raven, I promise."
"Your promises mean nothing." She replied unblinkingly, staring at the wall across from her. "I guess I deserved that." He said resting a hand on her shoulder. Shaking it off she stood up, "I'm going outside for a while." Raven grabbed her purse from the floor and walked out the large glass doors.
Garfield stood up to follow her but froze at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder. "Leave her alone for a while. She needs time." Turning he looked at who was speaking to him. "I can't just-" Garfield widened his eyes at the man before him. "R-Robin?" Looking down he held out a hand, "Richard Grayson," doing the same thing, Garfield reached for Richard's hand, "Garfield Logan."
"I have to go make sure she's okay," Garfield said looking up. "I don't think you're the one she needs right now, I think she just needs to be alone right now." Richard said calmly.
"I just want to make sure she's okay."
Pacing the front of the hospital Raven pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. Slipping it into her mouth she sighed. 'How could this happen, how?" Blowing out a puff of smoke slowly she closed her eyes and sat down on the bench. She ran her free hand over her eyes, exhausted.
"You really shouldn't smoke." Raven looked up, slipping the cigarette between her lips and blowing another puff of smoke, "nervous habit." "Mind if I take a seat?" "No, go ahead." She replied staring straight out into the sky.
"How did this happen?" "You know damn well how this happen." Sighing Garfield looked at the ground, "where is the guy?" "Richard told me the authorities came and arrested him. I just wish that it hadn't taken this long to find the bastard."
"Raven…" He trailed off; "yes?" she asked breathing out another puff of smoke. "I'm sorry, I don't know how this all happen between us. I'd do anything to take it back, to make things go back to the way they were."
Whipping her head around Raven jumped to her feet. "Yeah, well, that's never going to happen and you know it. It's been a long time, it's over okay?" Dropping her cigarette she stepped on it with her shoe and headed towards the hospital doors.
"Raven," freezing Raven turned around and removed his hand from her shoulder, "please," "What do you want me to say?" She screamed at him, refusing to let the tears fall. "I can't do this right now Garfield, in case you missed Dr. Morgan's speech I'll fill you in, Kori's in a coma Garfield, a coma. And, she might never wake up. She could die, and-and I-I'd," running her hands over her face she leaned against the glass doors. Calmly, turning her head to look through the glass into the hospital and she continued, "and I can't deal with this right now Garfield, I can't."
With that she pushed open the double doors and ran inside.
Richard paced up and down the hall of the hospital in front of the waiting room. "Man, will you stop, you're making me nervous." Victor commented, watching Richard from a waiting room chair. Richard stopped and turned to face him, sighing he ran a hand over his face, "Sorry," he replied taking a seat next to Karen. "It's okay," she said calmly, fiddling with her wedding ring.
Richard glanced down at it, "I know it's a little late but congratulations, when did you two get married?" "Two years ago," she answered looking up at him, "it was a beautiful ceremony, in June, Kori, she was my maid of honor." Karen wiped a few tears from her eyes.
"It's okay, Bee, she's gonna be fine." Victor tried to reassure her by putting his arm around her shoulders. Quickly she got up from her seat, without turning to look at either of them she walked to the doorway of the waiting room, sniffling she shook her head, "I'm going to get something to drink, would either of you like something?" Both men answered 'no' and she continued on her way down the hall towards the hospital café.
"She never likes people to see her cry." Victor clarified. "Maybe you should go after her?" Richard asked. "Nah, she just needs sometime to herself." 'Just like Raven,' Richard thought.
Hearing the door creak Raven lifted her head and dried her eyes on the sleeves of her black jacket. "Raven? Honey, are you okay?" Raven sighed, "Oh, Karen" she breathed, "it's you, yeah, yeah I'm fine." Karen held out her hand, pulling her up. Then pulling out a tissue from her purse, she wiped Raven's cheeks. "Why are you in the bathroom, hon.?" "Lack of any other place to go," Raven answered looking down at her hands.
"Well," Karen continued, "lucky for you, I spilled some of my coffee on my blouse. I wanted to put some water on it before the stain set." Finishing, she through the damp paper towel she had used on her shirt in the trash.
"C'mon hon. we should get back to the guys." Sniffling Raven sighed, "yeah, alright."
Richard looked at his watch, '7:42 in the morning' exhausted, he ran his hands up and down his face. Glancing around the room he sighed, Raven sat next to him a cup of coffee in between her hands. To his right Victor and Karen were asleep, Karen's thin waist wrapped in Victor's muscular arms, her head resting on his well built chest. 'Wait, where's Beast Boy, Garfield. That's gonna take some getting used to. But, where'd he go?'
Walking out of the waiting room he checked farther down the hallway and the café with no luck. Stepping into the crisp early morning air Richard breathed it in deeply, "hey Rob-Richard," turning he saw Garfield sitting on the bench next to the hospital entrance.
"Hey," he replied sitting down next to him, "you doing okay?" "Yeah, I guess." He said shrugging, a silence hung over them, both not wanting to mention what was running through their heads.
"I never meant to hurt her Richard, I didn't even know what I did until Vic told me. I would never want to hurt Raven." "I believe you; I know that Starfire would never put Raven in danger. If she really believed that you were going to harm Raven, she wouldn't have let you so close to her. I believe you, and Raven does too. She's just scared, she's spent years believing you were out to hurt her, and now to find out that's not true, she's not just going to all of a sudden be able to except that."
Garfield gave a small laugh, "what?" Richard asked raising an eyebrow at him, "It's just that, all these years apart and you're still the leader, and we're not even a team anymore."
"What do you mean?" "I mean it just feels that way, almost a decade and I feel like I can still talk to you. Ya know, like old times."
Standing up Garfield headed towards the door, "you coming?"
Dr. Morgan cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "Both Ms. Anders and Mr. Harper are stable. Fortunately, after running a few more tests on Mr. Harper, we were able to find out that he has no nerve damage. Meaning that a few days after he wakes up he can start physical therapy. I'd say after about a month of physical therapy he'll be walking fine again and he'll be able to do everything he could before. We're running more tests on Ms. Anders as we speak; there hasn't been much change in her condition. Though there is no change in her condition, she has not gotten worse, so that is excellent. Again as I said a few hours ago, we're keeping her under close observation."
"Can we see her?" Richard asked. "Yes, but I must warn you, we have a lot of machines monitoring her so be very careful not to disrupt them, keep a close eye out for the wires."
With that Dr. Morgan led them to the ICU.
Dr. Morgan leaned against the dark wooden door. "I'd prefer if only one or two of you went in at a time." Richard nodded, "sure." "Okay then, I have another patent to attend to so I'll check in with you all later." With that, Dr. Morgan headed down the long corridor.
"Raven, I think maybe you should go in first." Richard said as he turned around to face her. "Raven, are you okay?" He asked walking towards her.
"No, no I'm not." She said leaning against the wall. Wiping the tears away she looked up at Richard. "I don't want to see her that way; I don't want to see her attached to all those wires, within an inch of her life. I can't, I-I won't."
Richard held her in front of him by her shoulders, "Raven, she needs you there, with her. You have to be strong for her." Raven looked down at the linoleum floor. "I'm so scared." She cried wiping the tears with her hands. "What if she doesn't wake up?" "We can't think like that, Raven. She's gonna be okay, she will be."
Raven opened the heavy wooden door to the hospital room at stepped in. "Kori?" Walking over to the bed she sat down in the chair next to it. "Oh, Starfire," she breathed.
She looked at Kori's sleeping form and listened to the rhythmic sound of the machines. "Kori, please wake up, please." She closed her eyes to fight back the tears. "I'm sorry."
Raven closed the door behind her as she walked out of the room. "I'm going to go see how Roy is doing." Richard sighed, Raven was taking this hard, and as usual she won't admit she's hurting.
"Hey, why don't you go in and see her, Rich?" Victor asked him. "I don't think she'd want to see me, and frankly, I don't blame her."
Karen put a gentle hand on his shoulder, "she'd want to see you. She would, believe me." Richard smiled at her.
Pulling the chair up to the bed Richard sat down and sighed. Taking Kori's limp hand in his, he looked at her sleeping face. "You're so beautiful," he breathed running his other hand over the bandage wrapped around her head.
"I'm so sorry, Star, I'm sorry I broke my promise. I'm sorry this happen to you. I know you're angry with me, and I knew you would be. I just, I –I love you so much, so much. I don't know if that'll even make sense to you but, I'm sorry. I never stopped loving you Star, never." Resting Kori's limp hand back on the bed he caressed her cheek.
Richard glanced at the nightstand next to the bed. Reaching over he picked up the ring, sighing he looked at Kori, "Starfire, I don't know if you can hear me but, please, please don't marry him." Richard dropped his head, then his eyes widened and he looked up at Kori again. "Look at what I'm saying; I knew when I left, that I risked losing your love. I want you to be happy. If marrying him will make you happy, then, who am I to try and stop you?"
"Please, open your eyes, Starfire, please." Running his fingers through her hair he stood up, kissing the top of her head he whispered in her ear, "I love you, I love you so much."
"How you doin' man?" Victor asked after returning to the waiting room. "I don't know, Vic," Richard said rubbing his hands together. "How are you doing Karen?" He asked her, "Okay, Raven told me Roy's doing okay, he's asleep, but he's fine." Richard nodded. "Where is Raven?" "I'm not sure," Karen replied, "but Gar's with Kori."
"Raven, what's wrong?" Victor asked as Raven came in, breathing heavily. Covering her mouth with her hand as she coughed she shook her head, "I'm fine, I'm going to get some coffee, anyone want?"
After taking coffee orders Raven headed towards the café. Placing the cups under the machine she watched the coffee fill the cups. Raven rubbed her eyes and blinked, 'stay awake!' she thought to herself.
"What?" She jumped as she felt arms wrap around her waist. Before she knew what was happening, she was being spun around and pulled into a hard kiss.