Disclaimer: Teen Titans is the Property of DC Comics

Chapter 25

The next day Beast Boy was walking around the tower like the cock of the walk. He had a subtle, proud grin on his face and would give Raven a slight wink, causing her to blush and turn away with a shy smile. This did not go unnoticed by the other occupants of the tower. Finally, Cyborg and Nightwing decided to find out what was going on. They really were nosier than old women.

"Alright, what's up with you?" asked Cyborg.

"What do you mean?" asked Beast Boy, an odd still grin on his face.

"You know exactly what we mean," said Nightwing. "You've got a certain glow about you today that we haven't seen in a while."

"Yeah, did something happen between you and Raven?" asked Cyborg.

"Maybe," he said in a teasing manner.

The two men grabbed the grown changeling and dragged him to the evidence room to talk in private. Needless to say, Beast Boy tried to put up a fight at first, but knew he wasn't going to win. Once they were in the room the door was shut, locked, and the questioning continued.

"What happened?" said Nightwing.

"Dude, calm down," said Beast Boy.

"It's not that we don't trust you, B," said Cyborg. "We just want to know everything that goes on between you and Raven."

"Hey, what we do is our own private business," said Beast Boy. "She's gonna be my wife, after all."

"Just tell us," said Nightwing, getting tired of this. "Did something happen and, if so, what?"

"Okay, relax," said Beast Boy. "I told Raven I was in love with her and she said she's in love with me. See? That's all."

"She's in love with you?" said Cyborg, shocked. "When did that happen?"

"I don't know, but she said she was," said Beast Boy with a shrug and a smile. "So we're gonna have a real marriage now, not just one to make her dream come true."

"There's something else," said Nightwing. "You don't look all happy like that just because you admit to being in love. What else happened?"

"Alright, you got me," said Beast Boy. "We also had our first kiss."

"You kissed?!" said both Cyborg and Nightwing.

"Yes, we did," said Beast Boy, smugly. "And it was so good."

"Alright too much info," said Cyborg, shuddering. "So, you two are in love and you've kissed. Is that all that happened?"

"Yes, that's all that happened," said Beast Boy. "And anything else we do is none of your business."

"Are you saying you're planning on going… further?" asked Nightwing.

"Eventually, yes," said Beast Boy. "And, again, it's none of your business."

"Beast Boy, Raven's health is our business," said Cyborg. "And something like that probably isn't going to be good for her health."

"Actually, you wanna hear something weird?" said Beast Boy. "Sometimes when she's alone with me she feels perfectly fine. And last night she was gonna go to bed cuz she was feeling all achy, then we kissed, and she said she felt fine afterwards. What do you think that means?"

Cyborg and Nightwing looked at each other, each a bit confused after hearing this. They were sure it was only children that helped Raven feel better. Why would Beast Boy's presence suddenly be helping her as well? And it wasn't consistent either; which meant there must have been some other component in all of this that they were missing.

"That's interesting," said Nightwing, going into thought mode.

"Maybe we should talk to Raven about this," said Cyborg.

"No!" said Beast Boy. "If you tell her that I told you about our kissing she'll never forgive me! She's very weird about this type of stuff."

"We won't tell her about the details, we'll just say that you expressed some concerns about her condition," said Nightwing. "She'll understand that."

"Or we can just have our wives do the dirty work," said Cyborg with a smile.

Raven sat on the couch reading, feeling quite content. She couldn't believe how giddy she felt, but knew she shouldn't show it or questions would be asked. The twins were sitting in their roll around chairs watching a colorful movie for toddlers while the rest of the children were in the play room. Suddenly she felt someone take a seat on either side of her. She looked up and saw Starfire and Bumblebee smiling at her.

"Hey Raven," said Bumblebee.

"Uh… hey?" she said, unsurely.

"How are you feeling?" asked Starfire.

"Fine," she said.

"Fine? Is that all?" asked Bumblebee.

"Yes," said Raven. "Why?"

"Well… you look like you had a good time last night, that's all," smirked Bumblebee.

"Please, did you have an enjoyable time?" asked Starfire.

"Yes, it was alright," said Raven.

"Details, details!" said Bumblebee. "Did anything happen?"

"What do you mean?" asked Raven.

"Between you and Beast Boy," said Starfire. "It was your first date, correct?"

"Yes and we had a good time," said Raven, who realized what they were getting at. "And that's all I'm going to say."

"So something happened between you two?!" said Bumblebee, excited.

"I'm not saying anything," said Raven. "But that doesn't mean you should make assumptions."

"We only wish to know if you have strengthened your relationship," said Starfire. God bless the alien, she had such a way with words.

"Even if we did, it's none of your business," said Raven, growing defensive.

"Oh, like that ain't an answer," said Bumblebee, smugly. "Come on, how far did you get?"

"We didn't get anywhere!" said Raven, closing her book. She then stood up and proceeded to leave.

"Come on, don't get upset," said Bumblebee as she and Starfire followed after her.

"Please, Raven, we are only curious," said Starfire. "Do not be upset."

"Curiosity killed the cat, Starfire," said Raven who had no intention of stopping. "If I wanted you two to know what happened between Beast Boy and myself I would've told you."

"So you're saying something happened?" said Bumblebee.

"No!" she shouted at them.

"Then nothing happened?" asked Starfire, who knew better. Their husbands had filled them in on what was going on and now it was their job to get Ravens view on what had happened and how her body reacted. But she wasn't making it easy, that was for sure.

"Whether something happened or not that's my personal business, not yours!" said Raven.

Bumblebee and Starfire looked at each other, each not knowing where to go from here. They just sighed and continued following after her. She was walking fast and any heart condition she had certainly wasn't affecting her right now.

"Raven, come on, we're your friends," said Bumblebee. "Would you at least stop running?"

"I'm not running," said Raven.

"You are walking very very fast," said Starfire.

"Because I feel very very annoyed by you," said Raven. "Not everything that happens in the tower has to be known about, you know."

"Wow, I'd like to hear you tell that to NW," said Bumblebee.

Raven finally reached her room and proceeded to go in, but the two women jumped in front of her and stopped her. Raven tried to push through, but then stopped and huffed in aggravation.

"What?" she snapped at them. "What do you want from me?"

"Alright, we'll come clean with you," Bumblebee sighed. "Our husbands informed us that Beast Boy went to them because he was concerned with your health."

"Big surprise there," said Raven, rolling her eyes.

"He said that when you are with him your condition sometimes gets better," said Starfire. "And we are here to get more of the details since it is your body."

"So… did he say anything about what we did?" asked Raven, nervously.

"Honestly, we don't know," said Bumblebee. "NW and Sparky didn't go into detail. So whether he told them is a mystery to us."

"Please, will you tell us now?" pleaded Starfire. "We only wish to know about the moments when you feel healthy when you are alone with Beast Boy."

Raven sighed and said, "Fine. Whenever I'm in really close contact with Beast Boy, like intimately close, I feel perfectly fine."

"How close are we talking?" asked Bumblebee.

"Sometimes when he holds me close, like when we're sleeping, and when he… kisses me," said Raven, blushing.

"Ah, so you did kiss," said Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, do not make Raven feel embarrassed," scolded Starfire. "It is apparent she does not wish to talk about something so personal."

"Thank you, Starfire," said Raven, who was very grateful.

"Alright, I'm sorry," said Bumblebee. "So, is that all?"

"Yes, that's all," said Raven.

"Okay, let's go let the guys know," said Bumblebee and with that she and Starfire went off to find their husbands. Once they met up with them they quickly gave them their information and then went about their business. Now Cyborg and Nightwing were left with the task of piecing it all together.

"Alright, let's figure this out," said Nightwing, pacing about. "We've solved cold cases quicker than this."

"Well I'm guessing Raven's case is the first case of its kind… ever," said Cyborg. "It's no wonder it's taking us a while to figure it out."

They had an entire wall devoted to Raven. Upon it were hundreds of notes and theories about her condition. There was also different colored string connecting each symptom and each theory. It looked like a mess, but to the two men it was very easy to read.

"Okay, let's break it down," said Nightwing. "Her body is slowly dying because it served its purpose during the whole Trigon disaster. Yet something is keeping her from actually dying. Every once in a while something tells her body that she needs to stay alive. This only happens when she's around children and, now, when she's being intimate with Beast Boy. Why would that be?"

"Well we know she's not absorbing the life force of the kids," said Cyborg. "And Beast Boy seems pretty energetic."

"What else could it be then?" said Nightwing pacing around, holding his chin in thought.

Suddenly Cyborg's eyes went wide as an epiphany struck his brain. "Maybe we should think about the purpose of life," he said.

"Ravens case is hard enough, I don't think we could solve something as complex as that," said Nightwing, rubbing his eyes.

"No, man, I mean the real basic purposes of life," said Cyborg, getting excited. "Forget God and all that. Think of primal instincts and animals and stuff. What is an animal's main purpose?"

"I'm guessing to eat and mate," said Nightwing.

"Exactly!" said Cyborg. "To mate! To make little animals!"

"Cyborg, where are you going with this?" asked Nightwing.

"Think about it, NW," he said. "Ravens body is constantly dying, but when she's around children it immediately halts and starts getting better. And when she and B are kissing the same thing happens. Don't you see what's going on?!"

"I'd rather hear you say what you think is going on," said Nightwing, still a bit in the dark.

"Raven said that her body had no reason to live, right?" he said. "But when she's around children her body's instincts kick on and she gets better because it knows it has to take care of them and protect them. And when she's close and intimate with Beast Boy the same thing happens because her body wants her to mate so she can keep living. That's what's keeping her alive! I bet if she had a child then her body would know it can't die and she'd probably recover and be fine for another, like, eighteen years!"

Nightwing stared at Cyborg for a moment in shock. He thought it all over and realized that he was right. Everything made sense now. The puzzle was finally solved.

"We need to talk to Beast Boy."