Author's Note: Happy 2006 folks! New year, new twist on this tired old story, maybe a few more before I put 'er to bed. Picks up immediately after the last chapter then jumps about3 weeks. It's April now, so relatively warmer and the exhibit opens, if you remember, in early May. The Raven scene is about a week and a half before the shipment comes in.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, The National Examiner, The ROM or Sprite.

Chapter 20 - This Just In...

Victor walked into his office to find Gar asleep on his couch, one arm slung over his eyes the other protectively around his bullet wound. Victor chuckled as he sat down on his armchair and watched the sleeping thief. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he got an idea. Opening his drawer he took out a white eraser and started to chip away nubs and pieces from it. One by one he pelted the eraser pieces at Gar's sleeping form and snickered as he watched him roll over and fidget in his sleep.

"The fuck?" Gar lifted himself on his elbows and squinted at Victor, who was by now laughing his head off, "Real mature tin man."

"Hey, you came to my office unarmed, you have to face the consequences," He chucked the rest of the eraser bits at him, "The hell are you doing here anyway? YOU should be resting, cuz, y'know, you got shot last night."

Gar sighed and sat up straight, brushing bits of eraser from his hair, "She hates me Cy."

"Well, what'd you expect? Her to wrap her arms around you and tell you that she was glad you're an international thief who broke into her pride and joy then held her hostage. Not to mention the stalking."

"Hey, I was not stalking."

"Yeah, it was just constant surveillance by a complete stranger and criminal," he smiled at Gar's angry face and chuckled, "Come on."

"She hates me, I can't stand it. I had to leave, I swear she won't even look at me straight. I can't be in the same building with her let alone the same house. I had to leave."

"So what now?"

"I'm headed to Chicago and I'm gunna wait on that call from the Brits." Victor snapped his fingers and started to rummage through his desk drawer.

"I meant to tell you, we got the OK from the munchkin. He's on his way back to the mother land now," Victor found what he was looking for in the desk and plopped the folder on his desk, "the 2nd half should be here in two to three weeks. Here are the new schematics of the system, in case you wanna test it out yourself."

Gar waved his hand impassively, "Nah, I think I'll be taking time off for a while." His stare blank and far off, he watched outside the window as birds flew around and rested on telephone wires.

Victor leaned his elbows on the table, "taking time off? Since when do you take time off," Gar continued to look out the window, Victor sighed understandingly, "Listen man, I know she was special. And quite frankly, I don't know what to tell you. I'm not sayin' she'll see the error of her ways and come crawling back to you, I'm not sayin' she won't. What I am sayin' is you can't let this get in the way. Not of the assignment, not of your life." Victor saw that he wasn't wining, "You ever heard the expression, 'If you truly love something, set it free. If it comes back to you then it's yours'?"

Gar raised an eyebrow at him, "I think you got that wrong."

"That's not the point." Victor threw his hands up in defeat and leaned back on his chair, propping his legs up on the table.

"Yeah, yeah I know. I just… I just need to get out of here."

"Well, do whatever you want, so long as you do what you need to do."

Gar sighed and looked back out the window, "Yeah, I know."

Click, click. The sharp, hurried sound of Raven's footsteps echoed through the hall. She walked, back straight, chin parallel to the ground, through the future resting place of the exhibit. She walked with conviction, as if she had somewhere to go, but she didn't. It was almost midnight and here she was again walking though the exhibit, peering in occasionally at empty cases. You'd think by now she'd have learned her lesson.

Click, click. That and the slow hum of the air conditioning was all that could be heard. It was the beginning of April now; the heat was starting to kick up. She stopped in front of a display case. Not empty.

Lapis Lazuli Menat

Found along the eastern bank of the Nile, 23 km North of Cairo.

Her eyes scanned the card over and over again, reading and re-reading the raised black words before reluctantly skimming over the menat itself. It was the same one, the same one that was stolen and the same one that was returned. Slender, ivory white fingers, nicely groomed, rested atop the glass. Lightly her fingers grazed the glass and she let out a soft sigh. Why?

She stood there staring not at the menat but, somehow, beyond it; her breathing meshing with the low, drone of the structure at night, the pulse of the city outside its aluminium walls. Small flashes of yellow light shone in through the glass slits in the walls. Subconsciously, her hand reached up and rested around her collar, her nails gently scratching the base of her neck. Couldn't there have been some other way? Couldn't it have been someone else?

Her mind unwillingly wandered back to Gar. Shoulda known better. Who am I that some once could actually fall in love with? Who am I to fall in love?

This wasn't the first time her thoughts strayed and got away from reason. After the incident in her apartment, Gar left quickly and flew out the same day. It's been weeks now and she heard not a word from him. Everything left her confused. She tried to distract herself with work, so she piled it on. Unnecessary, mindless work, executed with perfection. She sat in her office mulling over small details, some of which wasn't even her own. She planned for the opening, for the public gala, for the press conferences, for the sponsors' ball, for the ads that would run the papers, for the posters that would be put up along highways, on subway walls, bus stops and streetcar interiors. And now with all that done, she had nothing but her and her thoughts.

Once in a while, while signing forms and looking over designs, she would think about him. A brief convulsion of the mind then back to work. She didn't like bringing it up and everyone around her knew not to. At night she would have her cup of tea and unknowingly cry herself to sleep. Why the hell was she acting like this? I barely knew him. And he lied to me. He used me. She wanted to forget, but somewhere in the dark recesses of her mind, she didn't. She wanted to forgive him, she wanted him to return and hold her and give her the love she never felt.

But she couldn't bring herself to do so. To pick up the phone and call him, write him, email him, fax him or even speak about him. She didn't understand. Understand why she couldn't just…

Raven hadn't thought about love for along time. It was always an infatuation. Just gas, passing. Never anything serious. But now, it felt like breaking up with her high school sweetheart. Her mind mused on the facts. She replayed the events repeatedly in her mind, wearing them out like old boots. The line that defined right and wrong was blurring. She couldn't decide if she was right, or if he was right with what he did.

So she stuck with anger. Anger was always the easiest to express. It wasn't really an emotion, just a resultant of a brash decision, a reaction to something that didn't go your way, a consequence of shock. Staying angry was simple; feed the fire with small things, bits of kindling memories. The way he laughed, his stupid crooked smile, his annoying jokes. His kleptomania, his twisted sense of reality, his dumb belief in god, in magic, in love. In her head, adoration turned to annoyance, annoyance turned to hate. In her heart, he stayed the same.

And now here she was, staring blankly at a piece of the past. A speck of paper she could have thrown in the fire. But seeing the menat again, everything flooded back. Cold tears streamed down her eyes as flashes of yellow light played against her face. What happened here? Confusion enveloped her as feelings for him and her anger battled it out in her head. An ageless war of passion versus reason. Peering down the clear glass, she looked past the lapis lazuli beads of the menat and saw her eyes reflecting against it. Red around the edges and laden with tears. In them she found only sorrow, passion had won.

She continued to cry, away from the critical eyes of others, away from the 'moral' rationalization of her anger. Though now they were different, no longer cold tears of hatred but hot tears of regret.

Gar stood outside, bobbing on his toes, wildly swinging his arms back and forth, shaking his head from side to side. He was getting ready; he continued his little ritual like a track runner would do before a race or an actor before a show. He was shit-scared. He stopped and pulled lightly as his hair, checking himself through the dark tint of the glass doors. He wore a black ling-sleeved shirt with darker black Chinese characters dripping from the shoulders and collar, Matrix-style. His fitted, stone-washed jeans and black ankle-high Lugs topped it all off.

Gar massaged his forehead, getting an inviting head jerk from Victor who was grinning like an idiot inside. He gave a 'just-a-minute' gesture and shook himself again. Okay, just play it cool. Just, act like you're totally over it. Even if your not! Like you weren't thinking about her at all over the past three weeks, instead of the truth, which is every waking moment. Okay she's probably completely over you, so don't look too crushed.

He was a nervous wreck, three weeks. Three goddamn weeks he hasn't seen her for. It was like slow burning torture. He lived like a paranoid insomniac; he couldn't get her out of his thoughts. No matter how hard he tried, and boy did he try. He went to clubs, read books, watched movies and even went out on two dates. Nothing. She haunted his consciousness and his dreams, the elusive goddess, Raven. And now she was inside, probably entirely together, waiting for him.

He faced the street and ruffled his hair, Okay, get in there. He grabbed both his cheeks with his hands and started vocally talking to himself.

"Yeah, it'll be fine. I'm probably over reacting. If I'm lucky, she might not even be there," he nervously squished his cheeks together, pouting his lips and altering his voice, "Better get in there-"

"You're right, you better," the voice startled him and he quickly turned around, cheeks still squished. In front of him stood Raven, wearing her usual grey business attire arms crossed in front of her. She was startled with seeing him again and gave an unexpected subtle jolt. Realising how close they were after he turned around, she took a step back and almost gave in to the tugging at her lips that came as a result of seeing his face.

He on the other hand stood there, like an idiot, in complete shock, forgetting somehow of the awkward pose she found him in. His heart just fluttered at the sight of her, her hair up in a bun and the clean, pressed suit, fitted nicely to her body, and gave her an embarrassed smile.

Raven suppressed a smile and cleared her throat, "That's very… cute, Mr. Logan, but we really are expecting you inside." He quickly lowered his hands and cleared his throat, dumbly nodding like a moron.

"Yes, I supposed we should be going on inside, on account of them not being able to start with neither of us, let alone with both of us gone," he rambled on senselessly and scratched the back of his head in a way that Raven thought was endearing. He then gave her his boyish smile and led her inside to the circus that was the media.

"Ha, now wasn't that funny, eh bud," Victor gave Gar a friendly slap on the back, which was unexpectedly painful, and laughed nervously. Gar gave him a small smile and rubbed his sore shoulder.

The conference was, in a word, awkward. Despite his nature, Dick had been unusually quiet and most of the talking had been left to Raven, at whom Gar found himself staring at most of the time. Dick came in looking his usual business self and cracked the show open with one of his patented ice breakers, after that he slunk into obscurity, only returning every so often to answer questions on budget.

Raven was spectacular. With the obvious absence of Dick's usual charisma she stepped up and took the reigns. She answered all the questions concisely and with professional accuracy. She didn't bother going off on tangents like Dick usually did and never stuttered as Gar would have. Even when asked about the safety of the exhibit in the wake of the break in last month and her personal response regarding the thieves, she kept her cool.

Although one question did throw her off. It was the last question of the day and she chose a peculiarly quiet little man in the corner. He hadn't asked any questions previously so when his little hand shot up she happily obliged, not knowing the flood of embarrassment that would follow.

"Now sorry ladies and gentlemen, but that's all the time we have for questions today, so this'll be the last one," she gave the crowd a small smile and pointed to the small man, "Yes?"

He got a wicked smile on his face and stepped up, raising his voice, "Yes, Miss Roth, what of the alleged affair you're having with one of your cosponsors, Garfield Logan. Is there any truth to those rumours? Are those wedding bells we hear fast approaching?" Raven was struck speechless, she stood at the podium eyes gaping, mouth opening and closing like a fish. The volume of the crowd rose as photographers frantically took pictures of Gar and Raven's shocked faces. The civilian pack began to hoot and holler, some women even called out obscenities like "You lucky bitch", "I hear she's pregnant" and "He's so HOT!"

Needless to say that both parties were thoroughly embarrassed and were blushing furiously. Dick noticed the panic and decided to step in there and break up the commotion. He managed to get the mass to calm down and emphasised the inappropriateness of the question. Dick and Victor expertly wrangled the media away while Jinx herded a very stricken Gar and Raven away from the cameras.

Now Vic and Jinx both brought Gar and Raven into Raven's office in attempt to blow the situation over. Raven made her way around her desk and sat down, eyes still bulging.

Gar stood at the window and stared outside before, "How the hell did they even find out?" Jinx and Victor looked at each other, giving each other nods and nudges, "Spill Cy."

Victor threw his hands up in his defence and took out a paper from his back pocket and unfolded it on the desk. Raven stood over it while Gar walked over. Spread over two pages of the National Examiner were blurry, enlarged pictures of them skating, having dinner, walking down the sidewalk laughing, having coffee and even several snaps ofthe intimate moment that happened in Raven's lobby.

"That came out yesterday, when you flew in. The page before is talking about the exhibit, but someone managed to spot you guys together and took pictures," Jinx reluctantly explained.

Raven shook her head, "It doesn't make any sense. If they had these pictures for a while why didn't they print them sooner?"

Victor shrugged, "Well, with Gar's return and the rapidly approaching opening of the exhibit, it was just the right time." Everyone was quiet for a moment until Gar stormed out looking very angry. He murmured a quick, "I'll be back," and then left leaving a very confused Victor and Jinx with a seething Raven.

"You did it didn't you, you fucking bastard?" Gar whispered to Dick. Dick stared at Gar through his glasses and put a hand to cover his phone.

"Gimme a minute Gar, I'll talk to you later," he was about to turn back to the phone when Gar grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.

"No, you'll talk to me now." Gar kept his voice lowered and calm due to the fact that there were still reporters scattered around the lobby, many with ears locked and pencils poised. Dick mumbled something into his phone before putting it away and fully turning to Gar.

"What the hell are you talking about," Dick pulled him into an empty hallway.

"Oh right, we wouldn't want the tabloids thinking there's disagreements between us, but it's perfectly fine for you to sell out my private life not to mention Raven's." Gar was having trouble controlling his temper and his voice rose ever so slightly.

Dick nodded, smiling at his own genius, "Okay okay, hurray for you, you figured it out. I sold out your dates with Raven. But come on, could you blame me? It's free publicity, now people who never gave a shit about some exhibit have their ears perked and are looking out to catch a glimpse of the new happy couple. Face it Gar, any name romantically attached to yours is a goldmine."

Gar shook his head and dragged his hand down his face, frustrated, "Dick, you sold me out. We're not even together anymore! And how in the fuck did you even get those pictures? Do you have people following me?" Gar was shouting in his face now, "And what about Raven? Do you have people fucking following her too?" There was worry on his face, why hadn't he noticed that he was being tailed, he should have sensed it. He was so caught up being in the presence of Raven that everything else was turned off. What if they caught me fulfilling my 'night duties'? Dick just waved him off.

"No, don't be stupid, Gar. Remember when you two first met? That lunch by Sara's, yeah. Before that Raven rejected me and I saw her talking to you so I figured why not? Might be interesting," he chuckled, "And boy was it. Ain't she hot, huh? Too moody for my taste though. But let me tell you, got a fine pair a legs on her. Almost regret losing her, at least I got to bang her one more time." Gar's jaw clenched and he closed the gap between the two men.

"You're a fucking liar, Grayson. You're a fucking delusional liar," he spat in his face, hoping that Dick was bluffing. Dick simply smirked at him and took of his glasses, revealing his steel blue eyes. Cold and emotionless, they were silvery blue, almost white. They bore in to Gar's jade orbs and glistened with arrogance, daring Gar to do something.

"Yeah, I fucked her, long and dirty. Y'know, when you were gone in England for two weeks? Right after those two bastards broke into the museum. She came to me for a little… comfort." Right then something snapped, Gar grabbed Dick shoulders and slammed him against the wall.

"You're a fucking disrespectful son of a bitch, Grayson. Don't ever talk about her like that again, you hear me you bastard?" Dick just smirked at his brushed him off, easily removing Gar's grip from his shoulders.

"Relax, Garfield, she's old news now, a second hand bitch. But you better watch that temper and don't ever talk to me like that again, got it," still smirking, he straightened out his suit and walked down the hall, shouting behind his back, "Besides, I thought you two were 'over'?"

Gar stood there, breathing heavily and leering at the back of a laughing Dick's head.

Gar stormed back to Ravens office, swinging the door so hard it almost came off its hinges. Shocked, Jinx turned to Victor who quickly dragged him from the room.

"Yo, what's up, man?" Victor held Gar by the shoulders at arm's length. He just looked at the floor and avoided Vic's worried gaze, "Come on man, look at me. What's your deal?"

"Nothing." Gar bit back defensively, he shifted from foot to foot angrily.

"Nothing my ass."

"It's nothing; I just need to talk to Raven."

"What about?" He finally stopped moving and shoved his hands into his pockets, still avoiding Vic's looks.

He sighed and gave in, "I found out that Dick sold out our pictures to that tabloid, goddamn publicity whore."

"Okay, see, that's good. Getting the anger out slowly, methodically. No need to go barging into Raven's office and distressing her even more. You know that the Gala is this weekend?"

"Course I know. Who's she going with, Dick?" Gar spat his name venomously gaining looks from Victor, "She fucking slept with him, Cy."

Gar made his way down the hall to the lobby and Victor chased after him, "Who? She slept with Dick? Raven slept with Dick?"

Gar stopped for a moment to glare at him, "Yeah, right after the robbery."

Victor nodded, "So this is what it's really about. And I suppose you're upset?"

"Upset? Upset, I'm livid! How could she do that to me? I didn't do anything to her-"

"Y'know, other than deceive her and rob her that same night."

"Shut up, Cy."

"I'm just sayin' you should just make up and call it even, you'd have to be blind or retarded to see that you two are miserable apart. But on a lighter note, kinda, Bee and Roy wanna see you."

"What for?"

"They wanna talk about what happened, you know 'cuz after you got shot, you kinda bolted. They couldn't reach you, or leave Toronto to go look for you, nor could they trust someone else with the intimate details of this case so they just had to wait for you to come back."

Gar sighed, not having any other choice, "Fine, where are they?"

Victor stopped and whispered into Gar's ear, "Meet them at the white van outside the Museum exit." Victor was talking about the subway station Museum which was just outside the East entrance of the old structure. Gar nodded, making his way out of the building.

Jinx sat across the desk from Raven they both looked at each other in silence. Gar had just burst in and was forced out by Vic; the two women were left behind to contemplate what just happened. Raven's head was still propped up on her hands and the paper lay open between them.

"What the hell was that," Raven broke the silence, and they both laughed.

Jinx shook her head, "I have no idea. But seriously, how'd you take that question back there?" Raven shrugged, rose and walked over to the mini fridge behind her desk, pulling out a can of Diet Sprite. She stood there half sitting, half leaning on the mini fridge.

"It was extremely unexpected, but I guess that was stupid of me. I mean you don't date a famous millionaire who's one of the world's most eligible bachelors without having a few paparazzi following you around."

"But, it's not over. Is it? I mean, you guys were pretty hot," Raven gave her a glare that could freeze hell over, "Oh come on, you guys were all over each other. Don't even look at me like that 'cuz you were practically glowing after that first lunch."

Raven looked down at her Sprite can and played with the tab, blushing, "Yeah, but… things happened."

"What could possibly be so bad that you can't forgive the poor guy? Come on Rae, you saw him prepping himself to just face you today. Then you had to be mean and go out there and tease him."

Raven rolled her eyes, "I wasn't teasing, we needed him to come inside."

"Whatever. Alls I'm sayin' is you ain't perfect either, babe. So what ever he did, so long as it isn't a mortal sin, like murder, it's forgivable. You could just hold this over his head for the rest of your lives so when you fuck up you can call it even."

Raven took a long sip of her drink and thought Jinx's words over. It was as if she knew the situation exactly. What Gar did wasn't exactly unforgivable; it was all in the good name of the law after all. He was on side of the good guys; he wasn't technically a criminal in the true sense of the word. Not to mention what she did, she went behind his back and slept with Dick that time. If Gar found out about that, then all hell would break loose.

Her lips formed a smile against the rim of the can, "You're right."

Jinx pretended not to hear, savouring the moment, "Excuse me? Sorry I didn't hear you."

"You. Are. Right. Okay? You're right."

Jinx grinned like a Cheshire cat, "See babe, that's what I like to hear. Now," She leaned in still grinning from ear to ear, "Let's talk about the Gala."

Gar crawled into the small space on the back of Roy and Karen's white van. The smell of cheap Chinese food and coffee lingered in the hot air. A small, handheld fan was propped up was circulating the dank air, the small coffee table was covered in papers that they quickly shoved away as Gar came in. The generic eye, bee and 'M' were floating around the screen of Karen's laptop. Gar took a seat beside Roy, while Karen leaned in chewing gum and popping it while staring Gar down.

"Well then, Mr. Logan, Garfield, 'Gar', Kinyago. Would you like to explain that little hissy fit you threw?"

"It wasn't a hissy fit, I needed a break," Gar didn't feel like friendly chit chat. He was pissed of as it was and he didn't need some over glorified cop breathing down his back, nor did he have the patience for it.

"In case you didn't know, Gar, you are aiding INTERPOL in an investigation. And if you forgot, this was your deal breaker. You help us put Red X away and you're free to go, you're cleared of all charges and you could start your new, clean life over. So, as of right now, no impromptu vacations, 'kay rich boy?" Gar gave her an angry glare and reluctantly nodded.

"Good, now what the fuck happened that night?"

"I got shot."

"Great, thanks, I didn't know that. Now just talk."

"Fine," he took a long sigh and recalled the night he met with death and was bitch-slapped back to life, "He called to meet at the roof of the old Redpath Sugar Refinery round eleven. Then the bastard shot me."

"What," it was the first time Roy had talked, "He just pulled out a gun and shot you?"

"No, he brought out a big guy, then said something along the lines of, 'We're finished, I don't need you anymore' blah blah blah. BLAM! Shot me. By the way, what'd you get from the bullet?"

Roy pulled out a small Ziploc bag with a small squished piece of metal in it and threw it on the table. Gar picked it up and looked at it.

".44 magnum revolver. Pretty generic, every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to 'protect his family' has one those in his house. Virtually untraceable."

"Was it close range?" asked Karen.

"No, he was a good 5 meters away."

"That explains why you're still alive. But why the hell would he just completely fuck you over like that?" Karen rested her chin on her fist, it didn't make any sense.

"Guess he didn't need me anymore."

Roy cut in, "But why? Who did he get? Mammoth? The fuck is that shit-for-brains gunna do? Try force entry?"

Karen shook her head, "No, not his style. I mean he's no you Kinyago, he can't pinpoint the weaknesses of a security system like you can. But he's no mafia muscle, he's not gunna go barging in there like the fucking cavalry."

"Yeah, that's why he needed me, he had no in."

"He found someone else," Gar and Karen looked at Roy, "He's found another source of information. He got someone who isn't a threat like another thief."

Karen's eyes widened with realisation, "He's got a bystander."

A/N: Hehe, there was a lot of swearing in this chapter, don't really know why. I didn't like it much either, the only part I liked was Raven's little soliloquy, everything else felt rushed. Probably 'cuz I'm really excited about the Sponsor's Gala. And I'm not making this up, museum openings do have this, it isn't just some excuse to put them in a ball-type setting.

Dick's a real ass in this chapter and I hope you got the whole "looking ath the back of Dick's head" bit... Yes it was immature to bring that up but I had to.

Also they finally acknowlegde that they're really after Red X and he's not exactly the friendly neighbourhood thief that's in the show, he's more of a maniacal bastard.