OK you guys I know I don't have the best grammar of fan fiction, but I really must defend my spelling. I always a spell check. Anyways I got a beta reader and she gave me very helpful advice and I will try to harder on the spelling and grammar.

Disclaimer: I do not own the teen titans

-"Life sucks, and then you die." Breaking Dawn, 2008-

Kory needed a handful of sleeping pills to get to sleep that night. The thought of having to having to face Raven, after their confrontation that night, sent marathons of shivers down her spine. It wasn't facing Raven she was afraid of, it thought of Dick breaking up with her, finding out the truth. And from Raven no less! Why would he want her? It wasn't like she lied about what she got him for his birthday.

She was married! Is married.

Married, wasn't even the entire lie, it was a mere cherry in her pie of untruths. She dragged herself out of bed that morning at the obnoxious alarm clock. It was weird her hands were shaking so violently she could barely hold her cup of coffee. Nerves probably. She didn't want her first day as partner to be ruined by fear. She should be happy, she was partner after all.

After their impromptu rendezvous last night the last words Raven had spoken to her haunted her through the night and the ride to work. "Kory Anders you are a liar, and you knew this couldn't stay hidden forever." Truly chilling.

In all fairness part of Kory, knew Raven deserved to wreck revenge. She had worked for that job for three years, just to have it stolen by her boss's girlfriend. The other part told Kory that these things happened all the time and Raven needed to suck it up. Sympathy, anger, and fear battled Kory's mind as the elevator stopped on her floor.

Dick was waiting for her all smiles. I guess that meant Raven didn't tell him. Kory gave a small sigh of relief. "Welcome to the thirtieth floor partner." he said giving her a light and friendly punch on the arm.

Kory smiled. "Thanks partner." she said returning the punch. Dick winced. He turned around so that Kory couldn't see him message the part of his arm that she had punched. The girl had an arm. While Dick gave Kory a tour of the thirtieth floor, where all the important CEO's and presidents had there office. Kory only half listened, she was too busy waiting for Raven to pop out from behind a corner and throw her marriage certificate at Dick.

"- and if you noticed is shaped like Abraham Lincoln." Dick said laughing.

"What?" Kory said putting her attention back to Dick. He frowned and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Are you OK? you seem distracted?" Kory shook her head, and Dick brought her down the hallway. She really just wanted to see her office, it would the first office she had that was not infested with termites. Maybe her paranoia was setting in. She was so completely convinced that something horribly wrong was going to happen. When everything so far was going relatively well.

Finally Dick brought her to her office, which brightened her day immediately. It was spacious though empty, and had a perfect view of the city. Kory was a little dismayed that her office was outside of Raven's office, but Raven wasn't there yet. That gave her relief for the moment. Every time she thought of Raven her stomach lurched. But none the less, this was her day and she deserved to enjoy it.

And Damn it she was going to enjoy it.

Kory spent the duration of her morning rearranging her pencil dish, and listening to the sound of her laptop. In all honesty she didn't know what she was suppose to be doing. She didn't get any calls or messages, she just sat there. Kory thought she'd wait until Dick came with business for her.

"Well, this sucks." Kory said to herself. Kory sat to herself bored to tears, for nearly three hours. Just when Kory thought her day was going to although boring, normal to an unexpected extent, there came a knock at the door. Kory sat up in her chair. Damn it, it was Raven. Involuntarily her heart beat sped up.

Raven didn't look happy, but then again when did she ever? Kory cleared her throat and tried to wipe the look of intimidation off of her face. Which was hard to do when the person who hated you, had the keys to destroying her life. Kory remembered telling Dick that business was a dirty, sexy game that involved seduction, manipulation, and back stabbing. Now she was surprised by the truth of her own words. She had always gotten along so well with Raven, and now they were like mortal enemies.

Was she the truth? Did she seduce her way into this office? It certainly seemed that way to Raven. It almost seemed that way to her too. "Yes?" Kory said trying to make herself look busy.

Raven half glared at her. She dropped a heavy load of files on her desk. "You have to go over these background checks for the unpaid interns, you have a rehearsal meeting at two, and you have to find sponsors for the Edenville project, Ms. Anders." she said.

Since when did Raven call her Ms. Anders? Kory waited. "And? Is that all?" Raven nodded irritable. Kory was surprised, she half expected threats, and cattiness. Raven rolled her eyes openly. She should have known better, Raven operated better than that, or at least more manically. It was in her blood after all. Underhandedness, psychological warfare even.

"That's all. Do you need anything else?" she asked no hearted.

Kory smiled, maybe she didn't hate her. So she was referring to her Ms. Anders, but it was a start. "Actually I could use-" Before Kory could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by the sound of loud beeping.

Raven glanced at her watch and pressed the side buttons. "Well, I'm on break. If you need me I'll be writing horrible things about you and Mr. Grayson in the employee lounge." Chivalry my ass. Raven turned to leave at the same moment Dick reentered. It was weird how that was always happening.

"Good afternoon, Raven." he said pleasantly. Raven look was like a cross between 'bite me' and 'you son of a bitch'.

"Mr. Grayson." she replied bitterly.

Kory did truly feel bad for Raven, but her sympathy and disdain for the girl were battling each other out. While Kory knew her hatred for her was completely justified, at one point they were kind of friends. She couldn't help but back memories to that night at the Ball when Raven helped her out. Those days were so distant now. So gone in an instant.

She sighed and fell back into her chair. "She hates me." she told Dick hopelessly.

"She doesn't hate you, she's just in a different state right now." he told her. Yeah right, like he was going to tell Kory the truth.

"Yeah, state of mind." Kory sighed and allowed Dick to take half of her workload. The remained in silence while deciding which intern to "let go". Kory hated dealing with interns so did everybody else. They were in college and still very juvenile. That was to put it mildly they were a major pain in the ass. "Fuck damn it, where are we suppose to find a resident to handle these interns." Dick said tossing another file into the reject pile.

Kory was only half listening again, go over intern approval bored her almost as much as just sitting there. But Dick was right, they did need a mentor. Dealing with the interns was a good job to have at Wayne Enterprises, but none wanted to do it. Residency training was notorious for being "cursed", no one lasted more than a few months.

"I wonder where Raven is. I need coffee." Kory muttered to herself, under her breath. Dick's scoffed at something he read in envelope before tearing into four pieces and throwing it in the trash.

He leaned back and groaned loudly. "What we need-" he said running his fingers through his hair. Kory wondered how he did that all the time without getting his fingers all greasy, with hair gel. She left it up the mysterious ways of Dick Grayson. "What we need-" he continued "Is a no nonsense, no bullshit power house, who has serious control issues."

Kory pushed a tipping tower of files into the barrel. Raven pushed through the doors, wordlessly scooping up the rejected files and taking them to resources down the hall. She was back in minute laying two sandwiches on the desk, like she always did. "Thank you, Raven." Kory said Mm turkey."Uh, before you leave could you call Mr. Swanson and Ms. Philips, and confirm their interest in the Edenville project."

"Already taken care of." she said pulling on her peasant blouse. "And I've called the rest of the sponsors. Expect their credentials later tonight."

"Really?" Dick and Kory said together. Raven nodded before leaving again. She was terribly modest when it came to work. She was just so good at it, nothing seemed irregularly impressive. It was just work.

Kory picked up half of her delicious looking turkey and bacon deli sandwich. Dick grabbed her wrist before she could take a bite. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." he said. Good point. Raven might have done something to it. As paranoid as it seems, that might be something that she would do. She did have a lot of time on her hands...now.

Kory gasped. "I have a brilliant idea..."

"Where are you taking me?" Raven asked for the like billionth time. She didn't like surprises, never did, never will. Dick was at first skeptical at Kory's idea, but he was counting on Raven keeping an open mind about it. Raven was not that open minded.

Dick was very careful about not dripping hints. It was better if she at least get into the room, before having a fit. Dick slowly opened the door, his unsureness growing as he did. The interns were like kindergarten children: wild and untamed. Half of them stood in the battle of the sexes arguing over something about pizza or Chinese food. Being the resident to the interns was considered a jinxed job. Whoever took it received sympathetic looks from all the co-workers.

"Oh. My. God," was all Raven could say. She, for the first time in years, was speechless. Dick waited for her to recover from the shock.

He shuffled his foot and cleared his throat awkwardly watching a paper airplane fly overhead. "I was thinking since you're the...most strong headed person at Wayne Enterprises that perhaps you could deal with the interns during your free time. Since you know... you have all this time now." Raven turned to him.

The fight between the interns was turning physical. Dick knew that one thing Raven couldn't stand for the life of her of immature people. So Kory had this idea that since Raven didn't put up with shit, she could train the interns. Everyone else was too soft for the job. They treated the intern like fifth graders, Kory thought Raven would treat them like she were a drill Sargent. "I don't want to babysit those damn interns." she growled.

Dick turned on his charm, unfortunately for him Raven was immune to it. "Please Raven, just give it a chance. For me? Just for a few weeks, until we can find someone permanent." Before Raven could object he interjected. "Thanks I appreciate it so much." he said turning to leave. "Hey everyone this is Raven, she's your new resident." his words went unheard over the roars of the interns.

Raven groaned. "Excuse me." she said all knowing that they were not listening to her. "Excuse me. Hey!" she screamed over them, silencing the crowd like plague. She sighed, boy she was going to hate this. "What the hell is wrong with you people? This is an internship at Wayne Enterprises. This isn't animal house."

One brave boy dared to retort. "Uh, who are you?"

Raven raised her eyebrow at him. "What's your name?"

"Colin."

"Colin." she said slowly as if pondering the best ways to destroy him. "Colin, shut up. Party is over. This is a prestigious internship. Number two in the entire country. You being here is a privilege not a right, and if you don't think I won't hesitate to fire you, you have serious judgment issues. Now my name is Raven, and I'm you're worst nightmare. So Colin another outburst like that and I will defenestrate you."

Colin raised his hand very slowly. "What does-"

"Defenestrate comes from the Latin root word de meaning out of and fenstra meaning window or opening, meaning throw Colin's ass out that window." she directed herself at everyone. "So if I were you I'd get your ass down to that filing room within the next twelve seconds, and start praying to whatever god you believe in."

The interns looked around at each in a surreal way. "Is she for real? One of them whispered.

"That means now damn it!" Raven yelled. The interns grabbed their files and practically shoved each other through the door trying to run to the filing room. Raven smirked at herself with sadistic satisfaction. Dick was right, maybe this would be fun.

Dick was particularly happy with the way things were turning out this morning, Kory was currently buried to her elbows in books down at resources, researching their possible investors, and when he'd gone down to the intern room they were working quickly and quietly. Work was great, love was great, and he was working his way back into Raven's good graces. Who ever said you couldn't have your cake and eat it too?

Dick practically skipped while whistling on his way back to his office. He finally understood why those seven dwarfs were always singing about work. He unlocked the mahogany doors but was surprised to see a little boy sitting in his chair. His messy blond hair dipped into his green eyes.

"Um, hi." Dick said. He was wondering what was going on. The boy jumped from the seat upon hearing his coice. He charged to Dick and began speaking rapidly. " Sont vous Richard Grayson ?"

Richard was taken aback by his quick French. "Sorry kid, I kind of flunked out of french."

"Sont vous Richard Grayson ?" he repeated impatiently. Dick didn't understand a word this kid was saying but, he heard his name being mentioned. If this was someones idea of a practical joke he didn't find it very funny.

Dick groaned and glanced at his watch. "Can you wait, une minute?" he said to the confused looking kid. He hated the fact that he had to ask Raven for another favor, as if training the interns wasn't big enough, but she was the only person he knew who spoke French.

Trotting down the corridor, he hoped this would only take a minute. Quickly ignoring the greetings of co workers."Hey," Kory stopped him in the midst of his tyraid. He instantly forgot why he had been in a hurry. "I was wondering since it's been so long since we've had a real date if we could have dinner later tonight."

A smirk broke across Dick's face. He leaned in closer and whispered. "If by dinner you mean dinner and a 'movie', I'm all for it."

"If by 'movie' you mean something that's not actually a movie, tell me now so that I know exactly what you're talking about."

Dick smiled. "I would but that would be considered sexual harassment." Had there not been several witnesses to their exchange, Dick would have thrown her over his shoulder, find the closet copier room, and do her right there on the fax machine. Work got in the way of his love fest too much.

As Kory slowly walked away, he made it a point to stare at her butt as she did so. Dick then struggled to get his mind back on track. Right now he had to focus on the issue at hand: little foreign boy, who speaks no English, is trying to contact him. He took his time getting to the interns workshop. He cautiously opened the door.

He was pleasently surprised to find all the interns completely silebnt, and busy typing away at their key boards. They never did any work. Kory was a genius: Raen had served as resident to the interns for all of three hours and she already scared them straight. "Um, could someone tell me where-"

"Sh!" everyone hissed at him loudly. That was a bit unusual. He slowly stalked around the room, trying to find someone to answer his question.

"Does anyone-"

"Sh!" they barked louder.

"If we make any noise it will hear us." one girl whispered to him. He noticed she was wearing a name tag that read: Hello, I'm a nosy busy body.

"Quiet Dana, you'll get us all in trouble." Hello, I'm a sneaky brown noser whispered yelled at her. Dick was confused. Suddenly the door burst open causing all the interns to jump.

Raven glared at them. "Do I hear voices in here? Oh, hi Dick."

"Rae, what's-"

She smirked at him. "You wanted someone to handle the interns, so I'm handling the group of over emotional cry babies. And we having a lot of fun, aren't we." she said to the interns sarcastically. No one said anything. "Aren't we?"

The room erupted into chatters of compliments and praises as ill intentioned as they were. Raven didn't look satisfied. She mastered the art of humiliating others, and they just weren't humiliated enough. "Well, if you guys aren't happy by all means tell Dick here what's wrong." The interns looked around at each other wondering if we a trick. "I'm serious. Tell Dick what's wrong and he'll decide whether or not I'm being too hard on you."

The the room broke into horror stories and complaining. They were talking so much all at once it was kind of giving Dick a head ache. "Well," Dick started carefully "Your method are a bit har-" Raven shot him a glare so terrifying it made Dick along with all the interns jump. "I mean their great!" he said enthusiastically.

The interns groaned nut, fearing that Raven would glare in thier direction they busied themselves in the eighty pages of overdue paper work per person. As radical as her methods were they was no denying they were effective. "Raven, can I talk to you outside."

Raven sighed. "If I hear so much as a cough you will all by unstapling messages from the community bulletin board with your teeth." she said before shutting the door. "What do you need?"

"There's this boy in my office and he only speaks French. You are the only person I know who speaks French fluently, so I was hoping you could translate for me." Raven groaned openly and loudly. "I know, I know but he seems really upset so..." his voice trailed off. Raven rolled her eyes.

"Fine." she said heading back to Dick's office. The boy seemed even more impatient than he had before Dick left. "bonjour je m'appelle le Raven, c'est mon ami Dick Grayson. Ce qui est votre nom?"

"Paolo Saint Calireè."

"He says his name is Paolo Saint Calireè." She told Dick. Saint Calireè sounded vaguely familiar to Dick, but he could quiet place it. Quel âge ont vous?"

Dick listened to Raven and Paolo exchange words, it was all jibberish to him. The conversation went on for a good ten minutes, and so far all he knew was the kid's name was Paolo. Raven stood up and spoke to Dick in good old fashioned English. "He is eight years old, and he lives in Cote d'Azur, and his mother just died. He traveled here on a school trip and snuck away to see you."

This was interesting. Why would some kid from France travel thousands of miles to see him, a stranger. "But why?Why are you here?"

"Mais pourquoi sont vous ici ?" Raven said. He replied something inaudible to Dick. "He says he knew he needed to see after his mother died in November. Because...because..." the boy didn't finish.

"Parce que je savais qu'il devait trouver mon père." he blurted out. Raven gasped loudly, and her jaw dropped. Dick was getting more and more excited.

"What! What! What!" he said. He was going to have a heart attack if he had to wait any longer. He had known Raven basically since they were in the womb, and she was very rarely ever surprised. She was so stunned she was could not speak, she didn't know what to say.

She slowly sank into the closet chair, he face completely drained of color. She opened her mouth to say something several times but nothing ever came out. After three unbearable moments she spoke. "He says he came here to find his father."

Was that it? "Ok, where is he? We can get him here." Raven scoffed.

"Dick, you idiot. He didn't come here looking for you to help him find his father. You are his father." she said in one breath.

Dick suddenly felt like he was going to pass out. The room was spinning, in a swirl a oceanic colors sending him on a psychedelic trip. He suddenly felt nauseated. It was all coming back to him. When he was sixteen, he ran away and spent winter break he went all over the world. Madeline Saint Calireè was a French artist they met at a bistro, and... well they had a one night stand. He never thought twice about that girl.

Raven seemed to recover from her shock long enough, to help Dick with his. She lightly slapped him on the face. He knew that face: it was lecture time. "Dick, you little Casanova. Does gnorrea mean anything to you? Herpes? What's wrong with using a condom? Does it make you uncomfortable, because the burning sensation when you pee won't be much-"

"Rae." he stopped her warily. "Help me." He needed serious bailing out. She took a deep breath. She put her hand on her temple and began circling the room. She wasn't just nervous about this because she was his manager but also because she was his friend.

Dick sat still staring blankly into space, totally spaced. Raven thought he was going into shock. She kneeled in front of him and spoke very quietly. "I'm going to be honest with you: this does not look good. But the kid might not even be yours. You will take a paternity test, and hopefully but the past behind you. It will be discrete, no one has to know, not even Kory."

Damn, he hadn't taken Kory as a factor into consideration. He wasn't sure but, he didn't think too many girlfriends liked hearing that their boyfriends had illegitimate children. Then again it wasn't like Kory didn't have secrets from the past as well. Too bad Dick didn't know that...it might have eased some of his guilt.

Kory was six feet down the rabbit hole, he she had zero plans to come out. Wonderland was way better than the real world, and as long as she was on her boyfriend's best friend's death list, she preferred to stay in wonderland. She sighed to herself heavenly, and thought that if their were anything better than having a caring, hot boyfriend which she worked with God kept it to himself.

She was currently on her way to dinner with Richard and then to a movie in which they planned to leave in the middle of to go to a better "movie". Let's just say this was and adult film. She made it through her first day as partner with minimum interaction with Raven. But a wise person once said, when something seems to good to be true it usually is. Kory being the ever so optimist that she was chose to believe this was one of those rare occasions when it wasn't.

She hummed merrily to herself, and the elevator stopped in front of her. her stomach lurched when she saw Raven already there. Luckily for her she was busy on her cell phone, and Kory was beginning to feel less and less intimidated by her. Maybe was as tough as she originally let on. Kory stepped on awkwardly while Raven blatantly ignored her. It was going to be a ling twenty-eight floors down. "-I understand that but, like I said this is very important and it is imperative that you get it back as soon as possible. Of course money is no object. And I hope you respect that this is an extremely private situation. Thank you so much. Ciao."

Kory dreaded the second Raven got off her cell phone. It was worse than imaginable, worse than her taking a butcher knife out of her bag and stabbing her to death in a truly Hannibal Lector fashion. She didn't say anything, she didn't even glance in her direction. Kory cleared her throat as the tension became more awkward, if possible. Only twenty-four more floors to go.

Finally she opened her mouth. She'd just rip the band aid off, painless. "So...how 'bout those Yankees?" she chickened out at the last moment.

"I hate baseball." Raven said simply.

"Of course." Kory muttered under her breath so quietly it was as if she were talking to herself. She sighed. "OK, Raven I know you are probably angry with me for stealing your job, and dislike me at the moment-"

"Dislike would be putting it very mildly." the coldest of her very hurt.

This was ridiculous she was making a good effort to be civil. The least Raven could do return the favor. No, Kory was not going to loose her temper like last time, she was going to remain as cool and collected as she always was. "I just need to explain everything to you-"

"To be painfully honest," Kory was really getting tired of her interrupting." I don't really give a damn. I am surprised that you have known me for almost a year, and you still do not realize that I am completely immune to guilt, and impervious to sympathy. As Dick's friend I should tell him, I'd rather him be angry with you than with me. The only reason I don't is because it suits me. Revenge is a bitch, now so am I." The rest of the ride down consisted of much silence.

No one spoke until they were three floors from the ground level. "Dick wanted me to tell you, that he won't be making it to dinner tonight." Raven said completely empty of any emotion.

Kory was surprised by three things: one Dick was cancelling on her personally. Two he was cancelling out on her, and three how completely shut off Raven was.

Ding. The elevator doors slid open to reveal the busy reception area. Kory watched Raven walk toward the front door, and out into the rainy March sky. Kory was too emotional to even move. She stared at the spot where Raven had left, and finally the doors slid shut.

Kory paid her cab driver extra money just to drive around time square. She sighed at the advertisement for the Madonna tour, in replace of the Justin Timberlake one, that one magical night she shared with Dick. She knew things between them would be different, but she had hoped that by working with him she could avoid the inevitable. Yet Dick was still cancelling out on her.

After two wasted hours, Kory returned to her lonely apartment. She was beginning to miss living with Garfield, when she came home he would always be there. Her eyes stung with the threat of tears, but she manged to suck it up. If she had a melt down on the elevator neighbors would talk.

When she arrived she was surprised to find her door unlocked. I must have forgotten to lock it. She explained to herself, she gently pushed the door open, dumping her umbrella in the umbrella stand by the door. She was lightly thankful that some crazy didn't take advantage of her door, and make off with all her stuff.

She noted the light on in the living room. She had no explanation for that. She was a strong believer in saving the planet and conserving energy. There was no way she could have left the house this morning knowing she there was a light on. A moment of panic set in. What if it was that black mailer? And whoever was in her house heard he come in.

Kory let her female intuition take over, as she slowly and quietly weaved into the kitchen. She grabbed a carver's knife out of the knife black, and began to make her way into the living room. She saw an apparently male figure sitting on the couch with his back turned towards her.

Her heart sped up in her chest. "Hello? Who are you?" she said stepping onto her carpeted living room, her muddy boots were going to stain. As soon as she saw his face she gasped and her knife dropped to the floor.

He smiled at her. "Kory darling it's been seven years." She glared hatefully at him.

"What are you doing here Xavier?" she growled her fear replaced by uncontrollable anger. he shook his mane of brown hair, and his matching eyes sparkled.

He stood up, his height rivaling hers. "Now, is that any way to talk to your husband?"

Sorry I took so long, I don't particularly like this chapter, and it really didn't further the story. But I promise next chapter will be a lot sooner and trust me there will be drama...serious drama.

I didn't really plan to include Xavier until recently. For some reason he's very popular with the reviewers (shrugs).