In celebration of reaching week three (clawing and biting and screaming bloody murder at my characters) of NaNoWriMo. Anyone who doesn't know about NaNoWriMo... Look it up on google. I'm going to go write now.
Disclaimer: Yeah, like I really own the Titans. And I also own the CN tower, the River Nile in Egypt, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a whole other land marks. And the sun. Yes, I own the sun. Bow before me, muwahahahaha!
Chapter Two
Raven pulled out her communicator, and keyed it for Robin's. He was probably asleep. She would be floating here in the air, staring at a green man who had glass in his back and who couldn't go to a hospital because the city bureaucrats were idiots, for who knew how long while she waited for her fearless leader to wake up and figure out that the beeping meant someone wanted to talk to him.
She rubbed at her forehead with one hand. She was tired. She knew she was tired. Thinking dark thoughts about Robin wasn't going to wake her up.
You could always just leave the guy, Rude pointed out. Go back to your nice, warm, soft bed and sleep for a week.
That would be wrong, Raven answered. She touched down on the ground, and sighed.
"Can I get you anything, miss?" the blonde officer asked. He seemed to have been elected spokesperson for the quartet.
"No, thank you." Her communicator was still displaying the 'busy' signal. Come on, Robin, wake up. Now would be a good time.
She waited another five minutes before realizing Robin wasn't going to wake up and answer any time soon. She switched the communicator from Robin to Cyborg, and got a response in what she thought was five seconds. It could have been faster.
"Morning."
"Cyborg. I need you to come down here. There's an injured meta-human and the hospital has no more beds." Raven looked at the shattered window, and then down at the man. Cyborg would figure it out when he got there.
"Raven, we're not running a service for-"
"Do you want to deal with those idiots up at City Hall at two in the morning? Because I don't. And I'm sure normally the hospital staff would be happy to give this man a bed in, say, the maternity ward, but its budget month, Cyborg. They won't do anything to risk their money."
"Technically there is no 'budget month' but-"
"Cyborg!" Raven took a deep breath, and then released it slowly. "Just get down here. With the car. And a blanket."
"Robin won't like this," Cyborg said.
"Since I just spent the last half hour trying to wake him up to let him know what's going on, he can deal with it."
Sensibly, Cyborg was silent. Raven ended the call, and hooked the communicator back onto her belt. At that point, it was tempting to collapse in a heap, or at least sit down, but she remained standing.
The police officers were giving her a wide birth. There were more of them. One of them seemed to have noticed that the bleeding man on the sidewalk needed some basic first aid, and was going to work. Raven mentally blessed him for his thoughtfulness.
She was going to fall over, and fast.
She managed to remain upright by sheer force of will. She was not going to fall over in front of several officers of the law. She had her pride.
"Oy, you."
Raven looked over, and arched one eyebrow. Even floating a foot above the ground, she still had to look up at the tall, male cop with the white-blonde hair and very dark blue eyes. He was pleasant enough to look at, she decided, even if he did look like he had a religious objection to sunlight.
"Would you stop staring at Smith? He's not that interesting."
Raven arched one eyebrow and looked down. And here we find the yang to this man's yin, Wisdom murmured, blending with Happy in her amusement. Raven had to agree. Where the man was tall, the woman was short; where he was pale, she was dark, and where he looked like he could go on the cover of a fashion magazine, she looked like the only magazine she'd grace was for women's boxing.
The man, Smith, frowned down at the woman. "Detective," he murmured, "that's not very complimentary."
"Shut up." The woman raised her chin. "So. You want anything? I'm sending Smith off to get coffee."
Raven mentally floundered, and very nearly shook her head. She was very tired, obviously. "If you could get tea? Green tea if you can, Earl Gray if you can't?"
Smith nodded, and smiled. "Certainly. If you will excuse me?" He didn't wait for an answer, but strode off, heading for one of the police vehicles. Much to Raven's amusement, she realized it was the most dilapidated car she had ever seen.
"You should sit down," the woman said. "Before you fall, because you're gonna."
"Oh?" Raven said. "Just where would I sit?" There was glass everywhere, and blood, and she really didn't want to sit down on the curb.
The cop pointed at one of the black and white cop cars. "No one'll care if you perch on the roof or whatever," she said.
"… Thank you." There really was no reason not to. The cop was right- if she didn't sit down, she'd fall down.
Raven sat cross legged on one of the black and whites, and not too long after that Smith was back with a paper cup of Earl Gray.
"They were all out of Green," he said, when he handed it over. Raven just nodded and started taking sips. It was hot, but she had a higher tolerance for temperatures then normal people. She had tea, she wasn't standing- or floating- in the air- she zoned out. It might have been a minute, it might have been fifteen, but all of a sudden Cyborg was standing in front of her and she didn't know how he'd gotten there.
"You alright Raven?" he asked.
"I'm not the one you should be asking about." She finished her tea, and crumpled the cup. "Come on."
It took a brief moment of searching, but Raven brought Cyborg over to the injured meta-human. He had been wrapped in a blanket, and laid on his stomach in the back of one of the cop cars. Cyborg lifted him out with ease, and then looked down at Raven.
"It's your show," he said.
Raven rubbed at her forehead with one shaking hand. There were times, such as now, that she regretted taking that paramedic's course. Yes, it was useful, and yes, it had taught her the best way to use her healing powers, but sometimes it was a pain. Everyone looked at her, expecting her to have all the answers, and it was exhausting to have to tell everyone what to do.
She would never be a good leader, obviously.
"We need to get him to the Tower, first of all," she said. "We'll deal with everything else there."
Time skipped. It was a curious sensation- one moment she was standing by a cop car talking to Cyborg, the next she was slumped in the passenger seat of the T-car, watching as the Tower came closer and closer. Cyborg was driving fast, but not excessively so.
She closed her eyes in the car, and opened them in the Tower's Med Bay. She would have been worried, except she was exhibiting classic symptoms of too little sleep, after using too much energy. But what else could she have done?
Nothing, Intellect assured.
Cyborg had laid the green man down on the examining table, and was unwrapping the blanket. Raven roused herself just enough so that she was able to walk over, pick up a pair of forceps, and watch as the ruin of flesh and glass came into sight.
"Not very pretty," Cyborg murmured. "Here, let me guess. Get out the glass, wash off his back, spread an antibiotic cream on the wounds, then bandage him up and give him an IV for fluids, right?"
"Yes," Raven said, blinking.
"Okay. Give me those, then go to bed. I can handle everything down here. If something comes up, I'll give you a holler."
Relief weakened her joints. "Thank you. I'll just… go now."
The very next thing Raven knew, she was stepping into her bedroom. It seemed like so long ago that she was cleaning it out from the H.I.V.E's deprivations, instead of only yesterday morning.
Not that she cared now. All that mattered was getting to her bed, closing her eyes, and sleeping. So that was what she did.
0O0
That afternoon, Raven headed for the kitchen, attempting to hide her stumbling steps and failing spectacularly. She had slept like one drugged, or dead, and still felt like she could go right back to sleep. In fact, so long as no one needed her, her plan was to take care of her hunger and bladder and then return to bed.
"Raven!" Starfire leapt into the air when the common room door slid open. "You have awakened! I was most worried for you, but Cyborg said you would be well if given enough time to rest."
"He was right," Raven said, and then winced. She sounded like she'd swallowed gravel, hardly pleasant. "It was nothing to worry about, Starfire."
"Nice to see you're up, Raven."
Raven looked over, and sighed. She didn't need her empathic abilities- which were currently non-existent, due to the drain on her powers- to know Robin was angry with her. She had expected this sort of reaction, only she had hoped he would hold off until she wasn't feeling so exhausted.
"Robin," she said, and headed for the kitchen. Tea first, else she would fall asleep over her meal. "Is something the matter?"
From the corner of her eye, she saw Robin falter. Odd, he should have expected she would pick up on it. And as far as he knew, she always had her empathy, whether her powers were drained or not.
"Just who did you bring to the Tower?" he asked.
"I don't know. An injured meta-human, obviously." She chose Earl Gray for her tea; she needed the caffeine. She was forced to get and fill the kettle by hand, something that was unusual enough that it was a novelty. She filled the kettle with more water then a mug of tea needed. She felt like oatmeal for breakfast, with some raisins, perhaps, or slices of fruit.
"So we could have a criminal resting in our Med Bay," Robin said, bringing her back to the present.
"I don't know." She turned around, and folded her arms. "He was unconscious when I met him. As he had been thrown through a plate glass window, I decided he needed more medical care then I was able to give him. As the hospital has a limited number of beds for meta-humans- and they were all full- I decided the Tower was a better place for such care then the street." She turned back to the kettle, and got her tea ready. No cream, no sugar, just a touch of milk to ease the slightly bitter taste.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to do this?"
"I tried. For half an hour. Either you turned your communicator off, or you slept through the ringing. Which was it?"
Raven unplugged the kettle the moment it started to whistle. She had tea and oatmeal ready by that point, and Robin still hadn't answered her. He hadn't left the kitchen. Instead he was standing in the middle of the room like a great, useless lump. It was a pity her Emotions were silent. By the time she was able to converse with them again, this minor confrontation was going to be old news, and not worth going over. The comments would have been funny, she decided, though Rage might have gotten locked up again.
"Raven," Robin finally said, and then fell silent.
"Do you not have an answer?" she asked, and spooned up some oatmeal. "Because as you can see, I'm busy. Perhaps you should go to the Med Bay, see if Cyborg has anything to tell you about our guest."
Robin raked one hand through his hair, and sighed. "Right," he muttered. "I'll go do that."
Raven didn't answer, just flicked her fingers in his direction. She had just finished and was putting her dishes in the sink for someone else to wash for once, when the Tower intercom system crackled to life.
That is a stupid thing, she thought, not for the first time. They had their communicators, what did they need an intercom for?
"Raven, could you come down to the Med Bay please? Our new friend's waking up."
Raven sighed. Cyborg could have used worse phrasing, but he certainly hadn't used the best. All Starfire needed to hear was 'new friend' and she would be sure to go straight for the Med Bay herself.
"Alright," she muttered, and headed for the elevator. Somewhat to her surprise, Starfire was there as well, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
"Raven, please, can you tell me- will I be welcome?" Starfire asked.
Raven blinked. "I honestly don't know," she said. She hastened to add, when Starfire's face fell, "I don't know if our guest will wake up disoriented, whether he'll try to fight us or not- remember, he was injured in a fight, he might remember only that he was fighting, and now here he is surrounded by strangers. Of course, that might not be what happens."
"It is only just that I recall what it is like, to be among strangers and be welcomed. I wish to give the same experience to this person as well."
"You would," Raven muttered, and cleared her throat. "Well, stay near the back of the room, I think," she said. "That way, if there is a problem, you'll be out of the way. And if there isn't, you can come forward and say hello."
"Oh, wondrous!" Starfire floated up into the air, and smiled. "Thank you, I shall take your advice."
"Good." Raven stepped into the elevator, and tilted her head. "Aren't you coming with me?"
"Yes, yes."
The short elevator ride was blessedly silent. The absence of Raven's empathy and her magic was like a sore tooth, or a bad bruise. She could ignore it, but it would come to her attention at the worst possible times, and further more it made her cranky. She didn't like feeling helpless.
Cyborg was hovering over the still, green figure that had been moved to one of the hospital beds. The blood stained clothing had been stripped from him, and Cyborg had dressed him in a paper smock, as in a regular hospital. Raven checked the IV line and all the bits and pieces required to monitor heart and brain activity, and nodded to herself. Neatly done. Perhaps she could convince Cyborg that he should take a paramedic's course as well. It would certainly be useful to have another trained medic on hand.
"You said he was waking up?" she asked, moving forward. She was aware of Starfire moving to the back of the room, furthest from the medical supplies and hospital bed. Robin was standing next to Cyborg, so they both hovered over their injured guest. Raven withheld a sigh, and didn't comment.
"His brainwaves started spiking, his heart rate picked up, and his fingers started twitching. I'd say he's either waking up or having a nightmare."
"Either is possible." She hoped it was a nightmare. She wanted her powers back, or at least her empathy, before dealing with someone unknown.
Her hopes were dashed as his eyelids lifted for a brief second, before closing. It happened again, his eyes stayed open a breath longer, and then again, and again, until he was blinking rapidly and looking around him with an expression of horrified confusion.
"Where am I?" he stammered, voice hoarse. "And who're you?"
Raven stayed where she was, even as Cyborg and Robin moved closer. "You're safe," Cyborg said. "And we're the Titans. We helped you."
She couldn't name the expression that flickered over the green man's face at that, but it seemed composed of equal parts distrust, confusion, and satisfaction.
