Chapter 3 of A Personal Charity Case!!

Yeah, I lied about having a lot of updates…turns out going to Canada can kinda ruin your writing plans :/. Ah well…I had to do research for this chapter because, well, I'm not a drug addict. I'm a nerd…but. Here it is! Enjoy!

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It had been a couple of hours since he had checked on Sigren, and Speedy was ready to see how she was doing. He strode up to the window in the infirmrary door and peered in. He frowned. She wasn't on her bed.

He opened the door and strode in, prepared for anything. He relaxed a bit when he heard a groan in the far corner.

Sigren was huddled in the corner, shaking as she stared at him. She looked worse than before, in his opinion. She was pale, sweaty and covered in goose bumps. Her penetrating eyes looked eerie with their pupils dilated, staring at him.

"How you doin'?" he asked nonchalantly, pretending that there was nothing different about this encounter.

"How does it look, dumbass?" she hissed, eyes narrowing. "I feel like shit. I look like shit." She wiped her nose on the back of her hand and looked at him again. "What do you want now? What can I do for the almighty Titans East?" She spat their name out like an insult, glaring at Speedy like her predicament was his fault.

He shook his head. "I don't want anything. We're a public service, remember? I'm here to help you." He kneeled down next to her. "Do you want anything? Water? Blankets?"

"Water would be nice," she muttered from underneath her hair.

Speedy stood up and got her water from the sink. When he returned, Sigren was still in a curled up position, but she was jiggling her foot and looking around nervously. "Thanks," she said flatly as he handed her the cup. She glanced at him as he slid down next to her. "Why are you still here?" she squinted at him. "Don't you have to go save some kids from a robot or something? Throw your Hawk-darts or whatever?"

He chuckled quietly. "Not really. I'm Speedy, remember?"

She frowned at him. "You're not really fast. Isn't that the lightning kid?" She rubbed her temples. "Ugh. Y'know what? I don't really care. Go away. Go ride your Speedymobile or whatever." When he hesitated, she turned to him, her face furious. "Go! NOW!"

"Fine, fine. Just give a yell if you need anything." He closed the door quietly behind him, watching her curl back into a fetal position, staring at a point on the wall.

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Aqualad strode purposely towards the infirmrary. He was not going to let Sigren intimidate him. He was a royal Atlantean! She should be the one afraid.

He reached the door. She was still in the corner where Speedy had left her-she was shivering and her eyes were half-open and unfocused in a daze.

Aqualad crept in, the blanket he had carefully chosen clutched to his chest. He slowly approached Sigren. She showed no sign of noticing his presence as he crouched down.

Carefully, he unfolded the large blanket, gently tucking it around her. Maybe she won't notice me! He hoped giddily. She's just sitting there-

As he started to rise, her hand shot out and grabbed his arm. "Khenti!" she gasped, looking at him with tears in her eyes. "You're here! You came back!" She searched his face desperately, tears running down her face. "We can start again with the others, we…" she trailed off as she noticed Aqualad's confused and panicked face. "Khenti…?" she wiped her face off, looking at his face with despair. "What's wrong?" She noticed his outfit and her surroundings. "Wha- Khenti? What's going on?"

"Erm, I think you're thinking of the wrong person- I'm Aqual-"

"No." She shook her head firmly, pushing him away. "Get away." He stumbled backwards and out of the infirmrary, leaving Sigren wrapped in the blanket, sobbing and shaking silently and again staring at that spot on the wall.

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Aqualad was just about to dive into his pool when Speedy strode in. "Hey," he nodded to his teammate. "Haven't seen you around."

Aqualad shrugged as nonchalantly as possible. "Well…I've been around. Y'know. Swimming. Reading. Stuff."

Speedy nodded. "Yeah. Books. Cool."

They stood awkwardly, Speedy fiddling with his comb and Aqualad biting his lip. "So…" Aqualad started. "How's our, um, charge?"

"She's okay." Speedy looked off into the distance. "She's going into withdrawal…shivering, delusions, kinda like the flu. Except more suckish." He looked back at his teammate. "Have you met her yet? Her name's Sigren."

Aqualad nodded, deciding to not mention his encounter. Speedy would notice anything truly odd about his meeting on the security tape. "She seems to not know much about us…I saw the tape with the-ahem-"he smirked "-hawk-darts."

Speedy rolled his eyes. "Har har, fishboy. I don't think the people in her circle really cared about us-we usually leave the drug rings and stuff to the cops."

"How come you…you know, know so much about…that kind of stuff?" Aqualad asked carefully.

Speedy looked at him. "Bee never told you?" Aqualad shook his head. "I have experience with what this girl is going through." When he saw Aqualad's confused face, he cautiously restated his sentence. "Personal experience."

"What?!" Aqualad stared at him goggle-eyed. "You mean, you did- you were-drugs?"

Speedy held his hands up. "Hey, chill. I'm clean now, if you're worried about that."

Aqualad was still staring at him in shock. Now it was coming together-why Bee had assigned Speedy to help, how he knew how to help her-he had done drugs! Despite his reassurance that he was clean, Aqualad ran through all of his memories of his teammate-Was he high that time at the amusement park? At that concert? Was that why he was always talking to girls? Did heroin do that to you?

Speedy waved his hand in front of Aqualad's face. "Fishboy? You okay?"

Still at a loss for words, Aqualad shook his head numbly and dived into the pool before it was too late.

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When the siren went off, Aqualad was the first one ready to go and ready for a fight.

Bee buzzed in, shouting orders. "We've got a superhuman runnin' wild in the middle of Steel-she's destroyed a few small places so far but she's headed towards Wayne Tower and we don't have much time. Mas! Menos!" She barked the twins' names just as they skidded in. "Get ready to corral this gal-I don't have a definite on her ability, so be ready for anything. Speedy! Do your best. Aqualad-same!" With a nod she shot off, the four boys close behind.

In the infirmirary, Sigren smiled faintly and put her hand to the room's window. "Finally…"

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Aaaaand there's chapter 3!

Next chapter Sigren will be ready to talk..sorry if the updates are slow in coming or kinda short-I'm in the middle of semester finals and this has been my procrastination time(It's either this or bio…bleahhh.)

If you like this, review. If you hated it and think I should just stick to eating candy canes, review. If you're human, review. Like I said, creative criticism is greatly appreciated!

Peace, love and fruit cups….S.S.