"Raven -"

"No."

"Raven -"

"No!"

"Raven -"

"NO!"

Alarmed at how loud Raven's voice was, Robin looked across the ward to where Beast Boy lay still and small upon a hospital gurney. Beast Boy didn't stir. And though Raven knew that she was the one who had put her teammate into his deep unconsciousness and very little would wake him before she brought him back, she still made an effort to lower her voice and stay calm. The tension pulled her throat tight as she half-whispered, "Beast Boy has the attention span of a fruit fly. Even when he knew how necessary it is for me to meditate, he never took it seriously. How do you think I'm going to teach him anything if he acts like that?"

Robin glanced over at Beast Boy again, then turned toward the door. "Let's go out in the hallway."

The hallway was better. Raven could pace and didn't have to endure Starfire's anxious stare or Cyborg's considering gaze. Robin grabbed a chair, tilted it against the wall, and made himself comfortable. "Okay, start over."

"I can't teach him," Raven said through clenched teeth.

"You taught Starfire," Robin said mildly.

"True," Raven retorted. "But she wanted to be taught. And her warrior training makes it possible for her to focus when she needs to, despite the way she acts sometimes. And she just wanted to learn to meditate! She wasn't trying to learn how to ignore a thousand screaming voices in her head!"

"Don't you think Beast Boy might have a little incentive to learn, now? Don't you think he might be able to take you seriously considering what's happening to him?"

"Maybe - maybe - would it be enough?" Raven ran her hands through her short hair and resisted the urge to pull up her hood, wrap her cloak around herself, and vanish. "Robin, you don't know what you're asking. You're asking me to work with Beast Boy, in his mind! - You're asking me to -"

There was a long silence, broken only by Raven's footsteps and the rustle of her cloak as she stalked back and forth. Finally Robin sighed.

"Raven, of all the tough conversations I've had with you - I don't even know how to say this. So I'll just say it. Is this something you can't do because of the way you and Beast Boy feel about each other?"

Raven stopped dead, her back to Robin, and he saw her fists clench. Then she turned so suddenly that Robin jumped and his chair fell over, sending him sprawling to the floor. Raven's cloak seemed to billow out, blocking the overhead lights in the hallway, and her eyes flickered red as she towered over him, hands still balled into fists, and shouted, "I do not feel any way about him I do not I do NOT I DO NOT - "

Robin rolled to the side and got to his feet in one movement, hands held out placatingly. "Raven! Raven! All right. All right. You don't. Okay." Raven stood staring at him, breathing hard, trembling all over. Robin waited to see if she would calm down, but even when she didn't, he felt compelled to continue, "Let me ask it a different way. Is it because of the way he feels about you?"

She said nothing. Raven might have been a statue, no longer shaking, not moving at all, just staring at him. Eventually she started to speak but was quelled by the white stare of Robin's mask as he said softly, "We don't have time to argue about how you feel. And I'm not the right one to talk with you about it anyway. But – please – don't try to lie for Beast Boy."

Raven bit her lip and turned away from him, seeming to shrink. She raised her hood and pulled her cloak tightly around herself, covering her face.

Robin stayed where he was, not wanting to crowd her. "Raven, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to upset you. I'm trying to help. Something's really wrong with Beast Boy and I thought – we thought – you could do something. But if it's not possible -"

Suddenly restless, he started following Raven's track up and down the hallway. "I can't even begin to understand how your powers work, or what you have to do to control them, So if you can't do this, you can't. We'll get Zatanna or the Martian Manhunter or somebody. You don't have to."

"Just -" Raven's voice was so low and hoarse Robin had to strain to hear it. "Just give me a minute."

"Okay," Robin said, "Okay. All the time you need." He thought about patting her shoulder, decided it would be a terrible idea, and went to recover his chair and sit back down.

Raven, hiding in her cloak, shuddered and closed her eyes. I can't do this, she thought, I can't, I need help –

She felt a familiar swirl of energy and a shift in her awareness, and wasn't surprised when she opened her eyes to see herself surrounded by several cloaked figures. The closest, wearing yellow, stepped up to Raven and pulled her hood down.

"We'll all decide," said Wisdom.