Disclaimer: Teen Titans is the Property of DC Comics
Chapter 38
After two weeks in the hospital for observation, the Logan triplets were given the okay to go home. By then the whole team was ready to bring them home. Raven had gone home two days after they'd been born, but spent her entire day in the hospital with her babies. She watched them grow day by day and by the time they were brought home they'd gone from rather ugly little newborns, as many are the first few days after they're born, to very cute infants. And, just as Beast Boy had said, all three had turned green a little over twenty-four hours after they'd been born.
The three little newborns now sat in the common room in their baby seats, fast asleep. The children couldn't get enough of them and had circled around them. Raven was fully healed and quite happy to have her children home at last.
"Okay, how cute are they?" said Cyborg.
"I've already used up two rolls of film," said Bumblebee, winding her camera once more.
"I can not believe how much Liam looks like you, Beast Boy," said Starfire.
"I know!" he laughed. "I think if I were born green I'd look like that."
"Well, one thing's for sure," said Nightwing. "Those green genes of yours sure are dominant."
"We don't know that just yet," said Raven, who was sitting with the children and babies. "I think the girls are going to have hair like me. And we still don't know what color their eyes are going to be." Just then Lily began to fuss and Raven was quick to pick her up.
"Can I hold one of them?" asked Crystal.
"Yeah, me too?" asked Nicole.
"Okay, go wash your hands," said Raven.
"We just did!" said Crystal.
"Well do it again," said Raven. "I saw you sneeze and Nicole coughed a moment ago."
The two girls groaned and ran off to wash their hands. Once they came back she gave Crystal Larkin and Nicole got to hold Liam. Lily continued to fuss, so Raven figured it was time to start another round of feeding. She got comfortable, covered the little girl and most of her side with a blanket, and got to feeding. She knew breastfeeding would be very tiring, especially with triplets, but she wanted the entire mother experience. Of course, she pumped her milk as well so the others could help with the night feedings.
"Mommy, can I read them a story when they go to bed tonight?" asked Crystal.
"We'll see," said Raven. "How about you read them a story before you go to bed?"
"Why? Are they going to bed after me?" asked Crystal.
"Well, they're going to be up every three hours to eat," said Raven. "So they have many bedtimes and wakeup times."
"Wow, so you can't sleep for more than three hours?" asked Crystal.
"Luckily I have all the other adults to help me, so I should be able to sleep for a little more than three hours," said Raven.
"I'll feed them when I wake up in the morning," said Crystal.
"Me too!' said Nicole.
"Well, we need all the help we can get," said Raven.
Once Raven fed all three babies she, along with Beast Boy, brought them to the nursery to be put down for a nap until they had to feed again or be changed. Luckily all three went down without a fuss and the two quickly exited before they could wake up.
"Happy to have them home?" asked Beast Boy.
"Very happy," said Raven. "I hated having to leave them every night. Now they're here, where they should be."
"Just like you," said Beast Boy, taking her hand.
"You're never going to forgive me for leaving, are you?" asked Raven.
"I don't know if 'never' is the right word," said Beast Boy. "But I want to hear you say that it was a mistake."
"Beast Boy, if I had never left we wouldn't be where we are today," said Raven. "And, in the end, everything worked out for the best. I'm sorry you're still upset that I left, but I still think it was the right choice on my part."
Beast Boy sighed and said, "I'm just scared that if something happens you'll run away again. Just, promise me that no matter what you'll stay."
Raven let go of his hand and then wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly. "I promise, I'm never going to runaway again. No matter what."
Beast Boy wrapped his arms around her as well and said, "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."
"I'll never leave you, Garfield Logan," said Raven. "You saved my life."
"Well, it wasn't just me," said Beast Boy. "I mean, NW and Cy did most of the work and-" He was cut off when Raven pressed her lips to his, kissing him strongly.
"No," she said. "You saved me. You found me at the library, you brought me back to the tower, you let me be in Crystal's life, you fulfilled my biggest dreams. You saved my life, Beast Boy. You've placed me in a debt I don't think I can ever repay."
He hugged her tightly once again and said, "There is no debt, Rae. I was making up for not treating you right when we were younger. I was making up for… Terra. In my book, we're even."
Raven couldn't help smiling a little. "I love you," she said.
"I love you, too," he said, kissing her.
"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I think I'm going to go meditate for a little while," she said, feeling a sense of relief from both she and her husband.
"Good idea," he agreed. "I'll keep an ear out for the babies, so don't worry about them."
"Actually, I'm going to meditate in the nursery," said Raven.
"Uh, obsessive, much?" he laughed.
"I'm not obsessive," she said. "I'm going to get to know my children on a spiritual level. Our minds can come together and we can create an even stronger bond together. Not to mention I'll know what they want when they wake up."
"Dude, that's so not fair!" said Beast Boy. "They're gonna love you more because you've got a bond!"
"Well, then you're just going to have to learn to be your immature, fun self again so they like you too," Raven smirked.
"Hey!" he objected. "I'll have you know I've been getting less and less mature ever since you came back. I'm not nearly as overprotective with Crystal as I have been."
She only smiled and went back into the nursery, closing the door in his face. He opened his mouth to yell something, but then realized he was right outside of the nursery and would surely wake his children up. So he grumbled in defeat and headed back to the common room.
Raven softly walked to each of the bassinets that held one of her babies. She looked in on each one of them and saw that they were deep asleep. The curtain of the large window was closed and the room was dark and quiet. She thought it was quite funny that she'd been searching her whole life for the perfect place to meditate, and here it was.
She levitated into the air and took a seat in her usual lotus position. She cleared her mind, found her center and began. She let her mind reach out and connect with her children. Their little minds were very simple and she found it a relief to the more complex minds of adults. She made sure to give them subtle, unique messages that would let them know this was their mother. She knew that by doing this she had an easy way to calm them when they fussed.
She spent nearly two hours meditating and connecting with the babies. Beast Boy occasionally listened in on the baby monitors, but concluded Raven had everything under control. He thought that having triplets would have him, and everyone else, running ragged, but so far he was kind of bored.
Of course, as soon as Ravens meditation ended the chaos began. All three had to be changed, fed again, and burped, then Liam began to fuss, Crystal wanted to help, Nicole began to cry when Larkin began to cry in her arms, Taye was hungry and bored, and Jack and Eric needed to be changed as well and began to cry when they saw they weren't getting as much attention as usual. The adults began to run around and attend to the need of each child. Thank God they'd made up various strategic plans for such a situation. For this one they used plan Blue-6-3-8. And when the alarm sounded they had to switch to plan Blue-0-6-7-Red.
"Okay, I know I'm probably going to say this a lot, but we got too many kids!" said Bumblebee as she made lunch for all the kids and had Eric on her hip.
"Don't worry, we can always consider boarding school," said Raven as she fed Liam.
"What?!" said Beast Boy. "We're not sending any of my kids to boarding school. Though I wouldn't be against maybe sending Taye away."
"Okay, first of all, you'd have to be an idiot not to know Raven was joking," said Bumblebee. "And second, like hell my boy is going away."
"And I was joking about that," said Beast Boy with a smile.
"I hope Nightwing, Starfire, and Cyborg will be able to handle Plasmus without us," said Raven, placing Liam on her shoulder to burp him.
"They'll be fine," said Bumblebee. "And if they need help I can always fly over and show them how it's done."
"I can't wait until I can get back into the game," said Raven. "I haven't been out on a mission in so long."
"Trust me, it's just as scary and not fun as ever," said Beast Boy.
"Then how come whenever I see you guys on TV you're always cheering and smiling?" asked Crystal.
"That's after the fight when we're glad to still be alive," said Bumblebee.
"It's not really that dangerous," said Taye. "When I'm leader of the Titans there'll never be any bad guys again."
"Oh?" said Bumblebee. "And just who said you could be a Titan?"
"Dad," said Taye. "He said that I'm not only gonna be a Titan, he said I'm gonna be leader."
"No, you're not!" said Crystal. "I'm gonna be leader. Boy leaders are too mean!"
"No, girls are just too wimpy!" said Taye.
"I'm not wimpy!" Nicole chimed in. "And Crystal's gonna be leader cuz she's the bravest!"
"No she's not!" said Taye. "She's not even gonna be a Titan cuz she doesn't have powers!"
"Neither do you!" said Crystal.
"Yes, I do!" said Taye.
"Then show us!" said Crystal and Nicole.
"Hey!" Raven raised her voice, silencing all three. "None of you are going to live until your next birthday if you don't lower your voices around the babies. Understand?" All three nodded and decided to take their argument to the playroom.
"Does Taye really have powers?" asked Beast Boy, curiously, after they'd left.
"Yeah, but I've told him not to use them without me around," Bumblebee sighed. "He figured it all out about five months ago. He ran into my room screaming, 'Mom, watch this!' and the next thing I know he's the size of a dragonfly and is flying around with wings he can make grow out of his back!"
"Whoa," said Raven.
"Then he proceeded to zap me with his stinging fingers," said Bumblebee. "Thank God I can sting, too, or I'd have been in a lot of pain."
"Well, I guess this means Crystal's gonna start asking about what powers she's got," said Beast Boy. "Once Taye shows everyone what he can do she's gonna want to show him up."
"I can't believe the rivalry to be the best passed from you and Cyborg to your children," said Raven, shaking her head.
"And I can't believe NW's daughter would rather be a follower than a leader," laughed Bumblebee.
"She obviously takes after her mother when it comes to trusting others," said Raven. "But, going back to Crystal, I think you should have a talk with her, Beast Boy. If she does have your powers, Terra's powers, or both, she needs to know how to control them now. You know that was one of Terra's problem areas."
"Yeah, you're right," said Beast Boy. "God, I've been dreading this talk more than the other big talk."
"Well, don't worry about that," said Raven. "I'll be the one giving her that talk."
"Oh, thank God!" Beast Boy exclaimed with relief.