Chapter sixteen 'Sorry'

Gar could feel his pulse quicken as soon as he shut the door to Rachel's room. It was completely pitch black inside and he couldn't see a thing that wasn't closer than two feet from him. Though, really what's the worst that could happen? Nurse Bee had told him before that Rachel was weak and couldn't stand up on her own and therefore there was no way she could maim him in any way…right?

"Garfield…" her voice rung out from somewhere in the dark. Gar couldn't tell if she sounded happy that he was there or not. "Garfield," her voice snapped at him this time.

Gar could hear her a lot better the second time but he had no idea where she was. Thinking quickly he moved his hand to the wall to search for a light. "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry I was just looking for a…"

Before he could finish a brilliant white light snapped on surprising Gar to the most extreme level and caused him to jump backwards while letting out a huge, "EEEPPP!" He gazed up from his position on the floor to see Rachel sitting Indian style on her bed with her hand on the light switch directly next to her hospital bed.

"Are you alright?" She asked in a completely monotonous voice.

Gar chuckled nervously as he pushed himself up and off of the floor while dusting himself off. "Yea, I'm fine, nothing wrong here, nope!" Gar exclaimed putting a fake smile across his lips.

Rachel seemed to frown at the comment. "Alright cut the act Gar. You know that you want to yell at me or something so go ahead."

"Wha…?" Gar began his mouth hanging open. "I don't want to yell at you Rachel I just…wanted to make sure you're okay. I mean after this morning I didn't think you would want to see me but I'm really glad you did because I wanted to see you too. I have a lot to tell you about that stupid note. You see…Vic scanned it and it turns out it's…"

Rachel quickly held her hand up indicating for him to shut up. "I don't care about the note. You didn't write it and that's all that matters to me. Can we please not talk about it? I think I can figure it out myself."

"So, you know that Malchior was pretending to be me and I had no idea what you were talking about this morning until I found it?" Gar asked quickly which caused Rachel to scowl.

"No…but I could have guessed it was something like that," Rachel answered sighing.

"Oh…" Gar began inching closer towards her still slightly afraid she would reach out and smack him. "Rachel, I'm really, really, really sorry. I should have known he was following me home the other day. God, I'm so stupid why didn't I think of it before it got to this, I…"

"Gar," Rachel began reaching out and placing her hand on his forearm. Gar flinched a bit by her action, expecting the worse to come but when he looked her in the eyes he could only sense sadness. "It's not your fault," Rachel continued. "I should have known it wasn't you writing it in the first place. I guess I was just…"

"Scared?" Gar finished for her as he plopped down on the side of her hospital bed.

Rachel's eyes seemed to darken by this comment. "Yeah, but if you tell anyone that I was…"

"Scared," Gar finished again.

"Stop it," Rachel snapped quickly.

Gar rolled his eyes as he reached out and took hold of her hand and gazed up into her violet orbs. "There's nothing wrong with being scared Rachel. It makes us human."

"It also makes us weak and vulnerable," Rachel answered looking satisfied with her answer.

"So what?" Gar asked a little harsher than intended. "Is it that bad to depend on someone once and awhile?"

"I've never had to depend on someone before…" Rachel answered sighing. "All my life I've been taking care of myself, why should I start now?"

"Because!" Gar exclaimed beginning to get frustrated. "I'm trying to be here for you Rae! I actually want you to depend on me because I care about you and I don't ever want to see you hurt. Is it really that hard for you to get? I know you're smart so you're obviously trying to ignore the fact that I want to be here for you. But I'm telling you outright right now, I want to be here for you. I want you to come to me with all your problems, all your fears, all your…everything! So, please…can you stop trying to shut me out?"

Rachel's mouth fell open slightly and she let out a soft sigh as she reached out and took hold of Gar's hand. "No, I can't because this is who I am and I'm constantly pushing people away without trying to." She flinched a bit noticing Gar's sad expression. "But I'll try, I'll try not to shut you out Garfield because I don't want to, believe me I don't. It just kind of happens and I'm sorry."

Gar's ears perked up a bit and he quickly squeezed Rachel's hand back feeling himself beginning to smile. "Thanks Rae. Now I'm sure Vic, Dick and Kori are all thinking of ideas on what we can do to Malchior to get him back for this. If you want me to I can run back to them so I can tell you…or I could you know totally carry you out of here and down to Vic's room."

"Really Gar that's a nice offer and all but…"

"No really, I know I look weak and all Rachel, but I'm a beast. Just look as these muscles!" Gar boasted flexing his muscles that deflated instantly. "Eh heh well I guess it's a mind over matter thing but…"

"Garfield," Rachel cut in quickly. "I…don't want you to leave quite yet," she admitted.

"You don't?" Gar asked. "Okay, what else did you wanna tell me?"

Rachel sighed and looked down at her lap for a few long seconds before turning her violet orbs back up to meet Gar's emerald ones. "I just wanted to say thank you for, saving my life. I heard the nurses talking and I just…I didn't realize what could have happened. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here right now and I…just, thank you Gar."

Gar stared at her completely unmoving and unsure of what to do next. "You're welcome. It was nothing Rae I was just trying to think quickly…heh." He could feel the room's temperature growing and he didn't understand why he was always feeling so nervous around her all the time!

"Well it meant a lot to me," Rachel confessed. "Look I'm trying that thing where you want me to be more open with you and all but you're kind of freaking me out…are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, never been better I just…I think it's really warm in here or something," Gar answered chuckling and pulling at the collar of his shirt.

Rachel rolled her eyes gave him a shove. "Really? Do you try to turn everything into a joke?" She asked in a humorous tone of voice.

"No, I just…I wanted to ask you if I could kiss you right now?" Gar managed to squeak out.

Rachel's eyes widened a bit, obviously not expecting the question to come out of his mouth. "Well, I…I mean…you didn't ask last time did you?" She asked hoping he would get her subtle hint.

Luckily Gar wasn't as dumb as he always acted and without a second thought he quickly closed the gap between them, placing his lips on hers.

"I do not understand!" Kori wailed. "Please, friend Rachel is hurting herself on purpose? Does she not know what damage she can do to herself if keeps up this awful behavior?"

"I think that's the whole point of her being here Kori," Vic answered.

Dick shot him a look that clearly stated 'don't make her feel dumb' as he put his arm around the girl to comfort her. "It's okay Kori, you heard Nurse Bee, Gar saved her and she's going to be just fine!"

"But I do not understand why!" Kori yelled seeming rather frustrated. "Why has she done this to herself when she knows now that we care about her!"

"Kori, I don't think she was thinking about us when she did what she did," Vic answered carefully. "I mean we all have things we do when we're mad at someone right? Rachel has this, Dick has his excessive working out, and I've got…well, I'm just a mellow guy!" Vic joked.

Kori smiled a bit at her friend as a small tear trickled down her face. "But I just want friend Rachel to get better!"

Dick quickly wiped away the tears falling from Kori's eyes. "Kind of like how we want you to get better?"

She looked up quickly, unable to speak. Vic took that as a hint to cut in quickly, "What he meant to say was that we all want each other to get better. So we just need to be there for each other when these things happen!"

Kori looked between the two boys and quickly brushed at the rest of the tears that were falling freely from her face. "We are all very much screwed up are we not?" She asked allowing herself to smile a bit.

Vic let out a boisterous laugh and reached out to put his hand on the auburn haired girl's shoulder. "That we are Kori."

Dick smiled at his two friends. "Are you going to be okay Kor?" He asked reaching out to put his arm around her.

"I believe I will be fine, thank you friends," she replied glancing from Vic to Dick and giving them both huge smiles. "But it is not I you should be concerned about. We must help Rachel!"

"I say we start by taking that jerk Malchior down," Dick replied, slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand.

"Yeah, but maybe with a less violent approach," Vic said chuckling.

"Perhaps if we were to give him a taste of medicine?" Kori questioned her red rimmed puffy eyes gleaming as she spoke .

"You mean a taste of his own medicine Kori," Dick corrected gently. "But that's not a bad idea. Let's shake up his life a little like he's done to Rachel's for the last few years."

"But how?" Vic asked.

"I don't know exactly how right now, but I can tell you one thing," Dick began as his eyes flickered back and forth between his friends. "We aren't going to get anywhere being in here."

"But…we cannot leave,' Kori answered innocently.

"No, they won't let us leave for some time I'm sure," Dick said noticing the curious glances that Kori and Vic were giving him. "Which is why we're not going to wait for their permission."

"Yo, man are you saying what I think you're saying?" Vic asked.

Dick nodded in response. "If we're going to help Gar take Malchior down we have no choice but to break out of here."

Hello you beautiful reviewers! Feel free to yell at me for not updating because this story's been on hold longer then 'you were always on my mind' and I feel awful about that. But I'm back for the holidays so I'm going to cram in as many chapters as I can while I'm home for winter break!

On an even better note! Some of you may have heard about this petition going around to save teen titans and get a season six out of it? No? Maybe? Well let me inform you. It's happeninggg! And some of the lovely reviewers from my other story that is currently in progress asked me to give them a link. But sadly I won't be updating that story for probably another week. So here's to hoping that some of you are stalking me and reading all my stories. Haha.

Anyway! it won't allow me to post a link on here for you guys...i just tried five times. So here's what i'm going to ask you guys to do. Either log onto twitter if you have one and search for Greg Cipes. if you don't have one of those, you can also find the link on . if you go there search for titanbeast and look for their artwork, allll of the newest teen titans art advertizes for a season six, and all the links are found under it. Hope i helped!

Xoxo-Megz