Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. All the rights go to DC Comics, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network. And if I do use any songs in this piece of fiction, all the credit belongs to the persons I credit.

Author's Note: Sorry about the prolonged wait for the chapter. I didn't mean to take as long as I did. But work has been loaded onto my back, but with Christmas over I'll be able to write more. Happy New Year! Thanks again for reading!!

Dilemmas

Chapter 4

- Unwanted Trips -

"So much for a group dinner," Richard muttered as he looked over to Bruce's empty seat. Though it rarely even happened when the both of them could eat together, Dick always wished they could. Turning his head slightly, he glanced over to their butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred was always there for him. With Richard's knowledge Alfred Pennyworth had been with the Wayne family for forever. Dick's mind went back to when he was younger and Alfred had helped him with a school assignment. As his mind flash-backed, the fork in his hand idly circled on the plate, the food in front of him untouched.

"Master Richard…" Alfred started eyeing the teenager. "Your food is getting cold." Richard still did not respond. And so, the butler walked out of the room, leaving Dick to his thoughts.

Hearing footsteps withdraw from the room, Richard blinked his cobalt eyes once and focused them back onto the food on the plate. Sliding the cooked lamb to the side of the plate, he let out a disgruntled sigh and stabbed the meat and forked it into his mouth. He didn't mind the lamb; it was actually quite tasty if you just thought it was steak and bacon together. Taking the fork and scooping some of the mashed potatoes onto it, he shoveled it into his mouth. He avoided directing the fork toward the cauliflower. That was one vegetable that he didn't like, instead he took another bite of lamb and finished his meal in silence.

After gaining consciousness, Garfield blinked his eyes before squinting them from the light directly above him. His hand instinctively came up to his head to cover his eyes. His voice came out course and a little rough. "Turn the lights off, please."

"You're awake." Garfield could discern that the voice he heard was male. With some effort he turned his head slowly but stopped in mid-action for it hurt too badly to turn it completely.

"Who… Who are you? What… What are you doing in my house?" Gar had to stop not once but twice to finish his sentence, whatever that man had done to his neck, must have crushed his larynx. It was hard to catch a breath… heck, it was even hard for him to finish a sentence.

"We heard you scream when we were walking by. It was just natural to come in to see what had happened. Sorry about your door." The tall man informed the younger child.

"You… You saved me?" Garfield squeaked out.

"Yes I did son. But you really need to rest those vocal chords." The man placed an hand on Gar's shoulder. Garfield's eyes widened slightly, a little unsure; he didn't know this man.

"It'll be alright son. The police have already come once while you were passed out; they took that man who had you in a choke-hold. They just left and an ambulance should be here any moment to take you to a hospital." The man stated easily to the child, as if he had dealt with robbers and thieves on a regular basis.

"Are." Gar swallowed back some saliva to try and moisten his dry throat. "Are you a cop?"

This made the man chuckle. "No I'm not son, only a concerned citizen." He gave Garfield a kind and gentle smile to prove even further to the kid that he would bring any harm, because just previously he had practically saved the little one's life.

"Oh." Gar spoke softly to try and not make his throat hurt even worse. It still hurt, no matter if he decided to whisper or even breath. Everything was hard now. Garfield kept thinking he should have brought Bette to the house with him, but then went against that thought... He didn't want Bette to hurt as much as he hurt right now. Taking another swallow, he took his first look at his rescuer. He first noticed his hair; it was almost like the color of burnt copper. At the roots of the hair it looked like it was starting to gray. His automatic response was, "You're old."

And once again Gar's humor earned another little chuckle from the man. "I'm not that old," was the man's response.

The second thing that Garfield noticed was the man's eyes. They were the color of fog, a light gray around the dark black of the pupil. His voice came out strained this time from time of not using his voice. "Thank you." Outside the both of them could hear the wailing of the ambulance sirens come down the street.

The man softly smiled down to Garfield. "Looks like they're here for you finally," lifting the boy in his arms, the man carried the teenager outside and helped the medics situate the kid on the gurney.

Lying down on the plastic paper on top of the cloth of the narrow bed, Garfield lifted his head slightly to look at the man with copper hair; a pained looked over his face. Before the ambulance doors closed, Garfield saw a hand stop the right side of the door to close and the man climbed up the metal step and sat down next to the boy. "Don't worry son. You can rest." The last thing Garfield saw was the warm smile of the man before sleep overcame him.

"You don't understand Kori. We can't take her to the hospital, my…. My father wouldn't like it if we did that either. The best thing is to help her up and take her to their bedroom." Rachel looked to Kori imploringly. She did not need her father to be even more upset to come home to an empty house to find that Rachel had first asked a friend over without permission and second to have taken her mother to the hospital. Too much would be revealed if she took her mother away.

"But Rachel…" Kori started, but then both of their gazes locked together and her mouth instantly stopped and slowly nodded her head and complied with helping Rachel up to her feet. And slowly the two of them had managed to maneuver Mrs. Roth into the master bedroom. "What do we do now?" Kori whispered to her dark-haired friend.

"We watch over her…. Well, I watch over her. Kori you should probably go home. My father will most likely be home any moment." Nervous of her father coming home, Rachel tucked back a strand of her indigo hair behind her ear. Her violet eyes once again locked with Kori's emerald ones. "Please. Just go." Rachel walked with Kori to the front door and gave a hug to her close friend. With the door closed, Rachel felt the disconnection with the outside world abruptly. Closing her eyes, she let out a long breath and centered herself. She had to be sure that she didn't egg her father on to hurt her, just as he had hurt her mother. Looking in on her mother, Rachel pressed her lips together and wished to any god out there to help her and her mother out of this situation with her father.

Making her way into her dark room, she looked to the purple digits that told her

the time was late in the evening, drawing close to midnight. Yes, her father would soon be back. The local bars closed earlier during the week. Propping her legs underneath of her, she naturally slipped into the lotus position. Carefully her fingers pulled out a deep garnet out of her pocket and tightened her hold around the stone. "Oh, please… anyone out there, please…"

Victor Stone looked around at the nearby surroundings. The tall buildings were long behind him. Finally done with putting up with Ron's attitude and always including him in on the schemes for some rally against anyone who Ron didn't like and Victor knew that that list was very, very long. Vic couldn't take it anymore, but it wasn't that Victor didn't want to leave earlier that year, but unfortunately had to build a car out of the rubble that the junkyard had given to him for free. It took a lot of labor but Victor finally pulled it all together and once he added to make sure that the carburetor didn't damage the engine by getting too much air to mix with the fuel. It wasn't a pretty sight that was for sure. And with all the time that Vic had put into building his 'baby' he didn't want anything to damage it.

"Alright, Sweetness let's get out of this terrible town." He had said to the car practically purring to it. Running his long fingers along the thin blue decaled strip, Victor grinned to himself when the engine ran smoothly. "Nice." He commented to the air. Getting out of downtown New York City was probably the best idea that he had. He had already gone through the Bronx and Rockland, and soon he hoped he would be far enough away from Ron. Seeing a town called Jump City, Victor pulled into the town and decided then and there that he wanted to stay.

"Looks like we're going to stay here, I don't think it'll be that bad here." Victor spoke to the car in a soft voice.