No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem

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Part Seven: Raven

[Author's Notes: If you haven't guessed so far, I'm placing these little vignettes after "Things Change". Also, some of the participants, as you have seen, can act fairly OOC. Today won't be any different.

Standard Disclaimer: With the exception of Madge and Benny, all the characters who stick their noses into this story belong to the DC Comics Holy Conglomerate Empire. I don't make a cent off any of it (which is just too bad, considering that I have a wife and two kids in college right now). This is done for my satisfaction and the readers' pleasure, such as it is, and nothing more. Kindly don't read anything else into it.]

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{Sunday, 7:20am}

The parking lot in front of Benny's Breakfast House is marked out to hold twenty-eight cars and one bus. The space for the bus, at the far side of the lot, is usually empty, since there are no routes that go directly past the diner, but a select few professional drivers know about it, and if any of them happen to be in the area and can squeeze in a visit, they will. Just past the bus space is the dumpster Benny rents from the City. On the other side of the dumpster is an open,sandy space about four meters square where a small cinderblock building once sat a long time ago. Nothing will grow there now. It's hidden from both the street and the diner, and a dense strip of unkempt bushes wraps its far side. Raven had discovered this little place that she came to refer to as her "hidden entrance" on her second visit to Benny's. She used it if she came here alone (which was most of the time).

An irregular patch of darkness appeared in the center of the sandy area, and the half-demon rose up from it, stepping out from behind the dumpster and making her way over to her new favorite café. As she considered herself "off-duty", she had foregone her cape and leotard in preference to a lavender-with-black-stripes sweat suit; her hair was tucked up under a white toque. She noted with a slight twinge of pleasure that there was only a single car parked out front.

Madge greeted her as she opened the door. At this time of the day, on this day of the week, there was hardly any traffic. Perched on a stool at the bar, an over-the-road trucker was gorging his way through a large waffle, a three-egg omelet, a small pile of sausage, and a pitcher of orange juice. (On Sunday, thanks to an old "blue law", Benny couldn't serve anything stiffer than ginger ale.) There was also a short, mousey woman in her middle years sitting in the back corner, nursing a cup of coffee. And that was it. Raven favored Madge with a tiny, brief smile and said, "I'll just take my usual table if that's okay."

"Sure thing, hon. You want that tea again?"

"Please." She nibbled her lower lip for a second. "I don't suppose Benny was willing to let me …"

"Nope. He said it wouldn't do ya any good t' know the name anyhow. There's only one source and he contracted for the whole crop."

"… Can he do that?"

The waitress shrugged. "Guess so. I'll go get ya a cup."

"… Thanks." And she wandered over to her table.

During the time it took her to drink two slow and soothing cups of truly excellent herbal tea, the trucker stomped his big boots out the door, and the mousey lady had been replaced by an elderly couple in semi-formal wear, out for an early breakfast before heading to their worship service. Madge eased over to Raven's table. "Care for anythin' to eat?"

"I believe I'd like one of those multigrain waffles, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Never any trouble, hon. What kinda fruit you want with that?"

Hopefully, she asked, "Do you have any of that hot blueberry compote?"

"Comin' right up."

As the waitress pushed on back into the kitchen area, a smaller girl passed her. She was carrying a mop and moved over in front of the bar. Something about her made the back of Raven's head itch; the empath sat up and allowed her gaze to fix on the girl.

If she'd been forced to guess, Raven would have said the girl was Latina. Thin and deeply tanned, her hair was dark brown, straight, and fell to the middle of her back. The one slight glimpse she got of the girl's eyes proved them to be dark, but whether black or just deep brown, Raven couldn't tell. As she proceeded to clean up around where the trucker had eaten, she cast a couple of furtive glances Raven's way. By the time Madge came back out with the Titan's order, the area around where the trucker had sat – and indeed, the entire bar – was gleaming clean.

After setting the waffle and the small serving bowl of gently-steaming spiced blueberries in front of the disguised Titan, Madge strode over to the thin girl. "Did ya dust-mop yet?"

"No, ma'am. I was just gonna do it."

Raven's ears perked; there was something … familiar about that voice. Newscaster English with a slight mid-western flatness. Not Latina, then; or at least not born in a different country. But not from around here. Something about the girl was pulling at the empath's memory. But with a quick nod to Madge, the scullery picked up her bucket and scurried back into the kitchen area. The waitress surveyed the café, then took a seat on a barstool and pulled a paperback romance out of her apron. Raven had to repress a grin at that, but she just gave herself a shrug, cut off a chunk of the waffle, dipped it deeply into the blueberries, and popped it into her mouth, chewing contentedly.

One of the reasons she chose this particular table was that it gave her an excellent view of the parking lot. She despised surprises (unless they were really good ones, and even then it was iffy) and having someone sneak up on her was among the worst. So she was the first to notice when a sleek, late model Corvette with a metallic green-and-black custom paint job came wheeling in and zipped up to a spot right by the door. Eyes narrowing at the emotions billowing from the hot ride, she watched with a complete lack of shock as Cheshire got out of the car and strode into the café as if she owned it.

The some-time assassin walked up to the bar just as Madge was finding her feet. The waitress greeted her with a wide smile. "Hey, Miss Jade. What can I get ya?"

"Whiskey, neat. I don't care what brand."

"Ooo, sorry, no can do. It's Sunday, ya know. I'll be happy ta get ya anything that don't have alcohol in it, but …"

"Oh, come on! Have a heart! You don't know what I've been through! Nobody has to know!"

She cocked her head to the side. "I'd know."

"But …"

Madge held up a hand. "Sorry, hon, but them's the rules. We don't break the law here, and we don't help anybody else break it either."

Crossing her arms and tapping a foot, Cheshire regarded the older woman narrowly for several seconds. Then she sighed and said, "Coffee, then. Black."

"You got it." And Madge hurried off. She called over her shoulder, "You gonna sit at the bar?"

"… Eh. No, I think I'll take a booth if it's …" She hadn't really looked around the café before that. Now, scanning the place, her eyes fell on Raven. Mouth snapping shut, she slowly turned to face the Titan. Madge noticed the interplay, frowned, and went on into the kitchen.

Raven was leaning back into the corner of her bench, one leg comfortably underneath her, holding her cup of tea. When their eyes met she took a slow sip.

Cheshire advanced a few steps, reducing the space between them to about five meters. "You!" she spat. "Of course. It had to be you. A perfect capper to the Night from Hell."

"And a pleasant morning to you, too," Raven deadpanned.

"Don't hand me that shit! What did you do to her?"

"I am quite sure that I have no idea what you are talking about." Her expression and tone stayed as flat and cool as a granite tombstone.

"Like hell you don't! Why's she acting like that?"

"Who?"

"Don't play stupid! You know who! Jinx!"

The tiniest possible smirk appeared for a second at one corner of her mouth. "Oh, Jinx? Really? I hadn't heard she was missing."

The grinding of Cheshire's teeth would have been audible in the parking lot. "I know where she is. But she won't answer her door. She won't even talk to me. And I know you had something to do with it. So … what – did – you – do – to – her?"

The smirk came back and brought a few friends. "I don't know that I would characterize it so much as what I did to her, as much as what we did to us." She swirled her tea around a few times and took another quiet sip. "It was … enlightening. To say the least."

"You bitch!"

"No, technically I'm a demi-demon. As far as I am aware, I have no canine forebears."

Cheshire screamed then, and in one fluid motion pulled a slim throwing knife from somewhere and flung it at the empath. But the knife encountered a patch of inky mist and simply vanished, the mist instantly dissipating. Raven, who had never so much as blinked, took another sip of her tea.

A gruff voice said, "That'll be enough o' that!"

Benny had come up behind the assassin without either of the girls noticing him; he gripped her by the upper arms and lifted her some ten centimeters off the floor. Marching to the door, he said, "Ya get one warning. This is it. Try anything like that again, and you won't ever be welcome here. Now, scram. Yer on a week's probation." He set her down next to her car, turned on his heel, and walked back inside without another glance her way. Coming over to Raven, he asked, "You okay?"

"Mm-hm. No worries."

"Need anything?" Surveying her plate, he noted that about half of the waffle was gone. "More tea?"

"That would be lovely, thanks."

He just nodded in answer and headed back to the kitchen, cocking an eye at the Corvette as it peeled rubber out of his parking lot.

Raven noticed then that the probably-not-Latina girl had returned. She had a wide dust mop with her and proceeded to scoot it along the floor. Her eyes stayed on the mop, head down, shoulders hunched together slightly.

The elderly couple got up then and slowly walked over to Raven. The wife said, "Are you unhurt, young lady?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm fine."

The husband said, "I thought I saw that unpleasant young woman throw something at you."

"She missed. Don't worry, though, Benny took care of it."

"That's good to know." The wife patted Raven's shoulder. "You have a blessed day, dear."

"Thank you. You, too."

They smiled at her and left. Raven went back to surreptitiously studying the thin girl. There was just something about her that nagged at her empathic senses. But since she couldn't put her finger on it she determined to ignore it, and turned her attention back to her meal. Benny had pre-heated the serving bowl for the berries, so they were still nicely hot, a delightful counterpoint to the now-cool waffle.

Madge brought her another cup of tea, which complemented the food well. Raven finished her repast about the same time that the girl finished sweeping, and watched as the dust mop was taken outside and shaken furiously for a minute. Fortunately there was a light breeze, so the dense cloud of dust trailed across the parking lot and vanished in the distance. It was while watching the girl inspect the mop – frowning in concentration and allowing the tip of her tongue to slip out one corner of her mouth – when the pieces clicked into place for the Titan. She nearly dropped her teacup.

Numbly she watched as the girl came back inside and headed into the kitchen. Ramping up her empathic field to a high gain, she studied the ebb and flow of the younger teen's emotional state …

[[ relief … self-doubt … satisfaction … self-doubt … fear … gratitude … self-doubt … ]]

Raven nodded. Yes, always with the esteem issues. How did I not see that immediately? Her tea forgotten, she got up and floated over to the kitchen door, gaining enough altitude to peer through the small, round glass.

Benny was staring back at her. He pushed the door open, and she zipped back out of the way. "Somethin' I can help ya with?"

Raven dropped to the floor, but caught herself with a measure of grace. "Ah … well, um … yes, you see … can I … may I talk to, uh, your, um …"

"Leah?"

"… Beg pardon?"

"That's her name: Leah. The hired help?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the girl, who was not immediately visible. "You wanna talk to 'er?"

"Um … yes. Yes, I do. Very much."

"Uh-huh. Well, she's off at nine."

She blinked at him a few times, consulted her watch, and said, "I'll wait."

"Suit yerself." He returned to the kitchen.

And wait she did, going through a few more cups of tea as an hour crawled by. The 'hired help' did not make another appearance. As nine o'clock drew near, Raven began to fidget. People had been filtering in with increasing regularity and the café was about a third full. She wanted to keep track of where this 'Leah' was, but with so many minds between her and the girl, she had to rein in her empathic field or risk being overwhelmed. Still, she thought that she could feel her, just a little, moving around in the back.

So when that tiny, faint spark suddenly seemed to be coming from the parking lot, Raven's head jerked around. She jumped up and all but flew out the front door.

The brown head bobbed above a puffy quilted jacket of beige-and-forest-green rip-stop nylon, just the sort of thing one might wear on a weekend camping trip to the mountains. She trudged along, nearly to the edge of the lot when Raven caught up with her.

"Terra?"

The girl startled badly, almost tripping herself in her haste to spin around, and gave a sharp gasp. "What … what'd you call me?"

Raven offered her a tiny smile. "It's okay. I just … wanted to talk."

The brown eyes began to shine with tears, the lip to quiver.

"Oh! Terra, I'm sorry. I'm not … please don't worry. I won't tell anyone if you … you know, if you would rather I didn't. I just wanted to … talk with you."

The younger girl drew the back of her hand across her eyes and sniffled, staring at Raven. Finally she asked, "About what?"

"About you. And whether there is anything I can do to help you."

She really did break down at that point, the deep sobs coming quickly. Hesitantly, Raven closed the distance between them and took her in a light embrace. In return, Terra nearly crushed the breath out of the Titan's lungs with her fierce hug.

"Uff! Uh … Terra … want t'go … back inside? You hungry?"

Her brown eyes now rimmed in red, Terra leaned back so she could look Raven in the face. Maybe she was searching for some kind of deceit, or maybe she was just unsure of her own answer, but after long moments of study she gave her head a tiny nod. "Talk. Yeah, we … we can talk. Not hungry, though. Benny … he, uh, makes sure …"

"I understand." She put her arm around the other girl's shoulder and they walked slowly back to the café.

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(to be continued …)