A/N: This chapter contains some swearing.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

I Love You, Nevermore

—Red-Handed—

FOUR

Rachel turned towards the heat source to her left, snuggling closer to it. She had never before felt so secure, so safe. And as much as she didn't want to, something was pulling her away from blessed, blessed sleep and into the waking world. Rachel slowly lifted her eyelids, wanting to savor as much of this blissful feeling as she could. Two eyes of blue were staring back at her. The eyes lit up in a smile when they found her awake. "You could sleep through the end of the world, you know?" The owner of the eyes informed her.

"Probably." She shared his smile. "But we don't have to worry about that anytime soon." Rachel brought a hand up to tuck some of his ebony hair behind his ear. "That is, unless there is something you have yet to tell me."

Dick leaned in close to quickly taste her mouth from his elevated position. "Nothing besides I love you, and will never let you out of my sight, again." He brought his head down to rest on her shoulder and wrapped his left arm around her torso. "So, what are we gonna do today?"

"I don't know. I'm just so glad today is today. . . I get to sleep in and do whatever I want until I have to file paperwork after lunch." She smiled and closed her eyes.

"I thought you filed paperwork on Saturdays." Dick's hot breath on her neck sent shivers all over her body.

Rachel sent him a confused look. "Yeah, I do. And I positively love the freedom it gives me."

"Only one problem with that plan," Dick told her. Rachel's blood ran cold when he said, "Today's Friday."

"Shit!" She turned around to look at her clock to find the time a few minutes shy of seven AM. "Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness, no."

"What's the matter, Rachel?" Dick asked, uneasy at her panic.

"Not only do I have to go to work in twenty minutes, but my coworker I was telling you about yesterday is picking me up!" Rachel turned around and slid out of bed.

"So we have twenty minutes to get this place cleaned up and get you off to work. We can do this, no sweat." Dick tried to reason with her and calm her down.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. We leave in twenty minutes. She comes at seven sharp for breakfast."

"Oh, shit!" Dick cursed. The last thing he wanted was someone to walk in on them and to complicate their lives any further when they've just reunited. He didn't want to lose her again. Never again.

Rachel was still panicking and picking up their stray articles of clothing and shoes from last night and cleaning up her room. "Okay, you get dressed and I'll take a shower to buy us some time. . . She should be here any minute, oh crap."

Dick slipped a hand through his raven-colored hair. "Can't you cancel and say you're sick?" He asked optimistically.

Rachel finished grabbing all previously-worn articles of clothing and put them in a clothes hamper. "I could've if I had called over an hour ago. Now it is way too late to cancel."

"Then get in the shower." Dick urged her. "I'll stay in your room and won't make a noise."

"Okay." Rachel grabbed new clothes for the day and ran into her bathroom, shutting the door. As Dick pulled on his socks he heard the shower water running. I cannot believe this is happening. . . He thought as he shook his head.

Dick put on his shoes when he heard Rachel's front door open. "Oh, Rachel, I'm sorry I'm so late." A cheery voice that reminded him of Starfire's said. A pause. "Rachel?" He heard Sharon's footsteps come closer to the bedroom door as he tied his shoes. "Oh! You're in the shower. I guess you're running late, too." She raised her voice so Rachel could hear her in the shower. "I'm going to leave the things you left at my apartment on your bed, okay?" She opened the door as Dick pulled his shirt over his head.

Oh, damn.

"Oh. My. God!!" Sharon screamed as she saw Dick and dropped the bag of Rachel's things onto the floor. "Who the Hell are you?!" She panicked. Rachel wasn't interested in a boyfriend, she hadn't been looking for a relationship the entire time she had known her. Then why was this (rather buff) guy in her bedroom of all places?!

"Don't worry. Calm down." Dick held his hands in front of him to show he wasn't an axe murderer waiting to strike like in the amusing old horror films Rachel would watch when she was a Titan. "I'm just an old friend who's visiting Rachel."

"But. . . why are you in her bedroom if you're only a. . . friend?" Sharon wasn't a stupid person, she was quite intellectual. It was the situation that had her mind boggled. Rachel never had anyone from her past visit her. She never visited anyone. It was like she had run away from her past and wanted nothing to do with it. She had made new friends, if few, and no matter how many times she had tried to match Rachel up with some respectable bachelor, Rachel would always turn the opportunity looked at the tousled sheets on the bed that were always perfectly made. She saw his wrinkled clothes that he had obviously just thrown on. "You're not 'just an old friend', are you?"

"Rachel and I. . . went out for a while a long time ago. I just happened to find her again after she moved away and terminated all contact from both me and our friends." Dick admitted.

Sharon nodded her head and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You slept with her, didn't you." Sharon stated it as a fact rather than in the form of a question.

"Hold up. I didn't sleep wit—" Dick tried to say, but Sharon kept going.

"Tell me, how long has it been since you've last seen each other? I mean, she obviously was not any different yesterday when she left work than any other day. How long has it been that you could just see your ex-girlfriend again and jump her the first time you get a chance?!"

Dick put his hands on his hips as he closed his eyes and sighed. He could feel her eyes boring into him. The eyes only got more intense the longer he didn't answer. "Seven years." He told her as he opened his eyes to look at her. "Still, I'm telling you I didn—"

"Do you think I am stupid?" Sharon asked without a delay.

"No." Dick answered. "If you are Rachel's friend, then I am sure you are quite intelligent.

"Then why do you think I won't believe that you didn't sleep with my best friend when the bed is messy, as are your clothes, Rachel just happened to be in the shower when we have to leave very soon, and you just happened to be in her bedroom when she has a guest bedroom?

"No, you don't understand." Dick firmly stated. Does she honestly think I took advantage of her best friend?

"Did you use protection?" Dick felt like he had been taken hostage and was forced questions in an interrogation.

"I'll say it again: I didn't sleep with Rachel. We merely shared the same bed! Need I remind you this is Rachel we're talking about?" Dick said as regards Rachel. Always the sane one, always the safe one.

"Good point." Sharon said. "Was—"

"No more!" Dick said as she was about to spout a novel more of questions.

The two of them stood in silence until they heard the water turn off as Rachel obviously got out of the shower. Sharon looked at the watch on her wrist and shook her head. "We're gonna be late. . ." Followed by the longest minute of silence Dick had ever experienced.

"So, what kind of nursing do you practice?" Dick asked randomly for the sake of no more silence.

"She didn't tell you or wasn't there enough time last night?" Sharon criticized him.

"I didn't ask and I'm telling you I did not sleep with her." Dick sighed and shifted his weight to his other foot as the awkward silence became unbearable.

"Suuuuuure, you didn't." Sharon said sarcastically. Then the door to the bathroom opened where Rachel stood quizzically with one eyebrow raised in her trademark expression. I was gone for what? ten minutes and look; my best friend and boyfriend are already distrusting the other. Rachel didn't have to read their minds to know they were both thinking 'Rachel actually chose him/her to be her boyfriend/friend?' Followed by insults and disapprovals. Rachel sighed. "We might as well eat."

Both Sharon and Dick noticed the depressive note in her words and how she slumped as she walked. Both Sharon and Dick blamed the other for causing this instead of placing the blame on themselves. That was where the actual fault lied.

Rachel, on the other hand, was dreading the mistrust between the two. Don't make me choose again. . . She didn't want to play monkey in the middle, where she was caught in the middle of the war with no side to claim. I don't want to lose either one of you.

I can't afford to lose any one else close to me.

"So. . . what's your name, anyway? Or should I just call you 'that guy'?" Sharon asked once Rachel had forbid her to help her cook breakfast.

"Dick. Dick Grayson." He held out a hand.

Sharon didn't take it. "What is your real name? It's one thing to sleep with my best friend, but it's quite another to lie to me."

Dick sighed when Rachel wouldn't vouch for him or correct her. Obviously she wanted the two of them to gain some level of understanding, or at least respect that Rachel had chosen both of them. And that with one came the other. This Dick realized.

"I'm not lying." Dick reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Here's my driver's license." Sharon snatched it from his hand to examine it closely. "Richard Grayson." She read aloud. "Age: twenty-five. Hair: black. Eyes: blue. Height: six feet, two inches. Damn, this is real. You mean you are really, truthfully, and totally the billionaire Bruce Wayne's adopted son?"

"Yes! He was the closest thing to a father that I ever really had." Dick said more with his sincere, yet melancholy, blue eyes than with his voice.

And Sharon believed him. She felt like a fool acting this way in front of her best friend. Rachel had specifically chosen this man for a reason. In fact, she had possibly known this man longer than herself and Rachel had known each other. They had gone out before. . . But what made them split up and force Rachel to cut all contact? "But why did you break up?" Sharon asked them both. "If you had so much emotion towards each other that you could go back to where you were seven years ago in one day. . . Why?"

"We didn't exactly break up, Sharon." Raven came over with two plates of scrambled eggs with cheese and yellow onions for Dick and Sharon along with silverware. Sharon looked at Dick who was grossly enthralled in his food and waited for Rachel to explain. "You see, we started going out when I was seventeen and Dick was eighteen. We had exclaimed our love for each other and found the other felt the same way. We were so happy." Rachel let a small, sad smile grace her face, but her heavy eyes took away all the beauty from the smile.

What happened to you, Rachel? Why are you always so sad? Sharon wondered and waited for Rachel to resume.

"We told our three best friends the very next day because we thought they should know and that we shouldn't keep secrets from them. Unfortunately, it didn't go over very well." Sharon looked over to Dick briefly to see him picking at his food with his fork. "The first reaction was from our friend Kori. She had always let her feelings for Dick be known openly. She wasn't the kind of person to hold any secrets, but instead to wear her emotions on her sleeves. Even though she was the same age as me, she was naive and very confused. She thought that Dick felt the same way about her since her feelings were so sincere and intense. She was crushed to find out otherwise. And she started to cry. It broke my heart to find myself doing this to my best friend. And then there was our other friend Gar. He was about fifteen at the time and very immature. He ran out of the room mainly because of the same reason; he was so crushed that the person he was crushing on had chosen someone else. And that left Vic. He was always the big brother of the group, so when Kori and Gar had left, he went full force at it. He expressed how greatly he was disappointed in us and how we were the reason our friendship was becoming strained. And that is exactly what happened.

"For the next two months things had become so unbearable. The five of us were roommates, so avoiding the others was extremely hard to do. Dick and I had each other, but no one else to reassure our fears and to tell us we were doing the right thing by being in love with each other and waiting for the others to accept us as a couple. That never came. Instead, one night, I grew absolutely tired of the fights and awkward silences. So I ran away. I left notes that night apologizing to each of them and promised that I would never hurt them again in such a way. And then I was starting a new school here in Jump and we met, Sharon. That's the story." Rachel shrugged and cleaned the last pieces of egg off her plate.

"So that's why you would never go out with anyone or accept the dates I arranged for you. You were still in love with this guy." Sharon gestured over to Dick while looking at Rachel.

"I thought we agreed you weren't going to call me that." Dick said more amused than annoyed.

"We never agreed on anything. But Rae, we gotta go. Don't want Doctor Bryant on our tails again, now do we?"

Rachel sighed. "Certainly not." She grabbed her sneakers and began to lace them. "So, I'll see you at the hotel tonight, Dick?"

Dick grabbed her coat off the coat hanger to give to her. "Here, you better take this. It looks like rain. And yeah, I'll be at the hotel with the gang."

"Thanks. I'll see ya then." Dick nodded and leaned down to plant a kiss on her cherry lips. " 'Love you!"

"Bye, Rae." Dick told her, not wanting her to leave in fear she might not come back.

"Bye." Rachel replied, also not ready to leave the comfort of her boyfriend and to enter the cruel day set before her.

"Would you guys just get over it? Rae, we are later than normal. Bryant is gonna have our asses for this!" Rachel snapped out of her 'lover mode' into 'real life mode' in only .02 seconds.

Rachel gave Dick a set of keys. "Here, Dick. Lock up when you get a chance, and I'll meet you there after six, 'kay?"

Dick gave a salute. "Yes, ma'am!" And at that, Sharon dragged Rachel out of her apartment and then dragged her down all six flights of stairs. This is going to be an interesting day, that's for sure.

Dick placed his plate and fork in the sink and inhaled the scent of vanilla mixed with something else less pleasant. Where is that coming from? He walked around, following his sense of smell. It led, not to Rachel's room, but the guest bedroom. He opened the door fully and the smell smacked him in the face full blast. Looking around, the room looked almost exactly like Rachel's only blue. The closet was open and a large kitchen trash bag was full of different papers and folders. He walked closer to the closet and found a leather bound book on the floor next to the trash bag. It was like Rachel could not decide whether or not it was worth keeping. Dick picked up the book and kept looking for where the smell might be coming from.

And then he found it. A large vanilla candle with a picture to the side of it that had a hole burned in the middle of it. When he turned it over he saw something he had never wanted to see in his entire life. Why? Why would she do something like that? And then he opened the book to see what was inside.

—Fin—

A/N: I hope you guys don't mind all the swearing. I used it to show the emotional response they had to the situation. Well, you know what to do: REVIEW!!!

Signed,

Her Sappiness