Chapter Four
Raven sighed and collapsed against the wall in the hallway. She could not stand to go any further or think anymore. The child was wearing thin on her nerves, and she wanted to avoid the bathroom as much as possible. She knew children stirred emotions in their caregivers; she just had not expected hers to be emotions of such intense hatred and anger.
She supposed if she was to be fair she didn't hate the child. Rather she hated the situation. Anger at Robin flared up in her again, and in her mind she swore to punch him so hard in the face that he would bleed.
She supposed that wasn't fair either, but it was easier than being mad at the little boy who had spent so much of his time at her legs.
"…No!" She heard Starfire cry. "Friend Raven, please come here right now!"
Raven felt her chest clamp in a tight, uncomfortable way, knowing instantly that yet another thing had gone wrong. She looked across the water-logged bathroom to see a little boy holding up her cell phone, the toilet open.
She had been stupid enough to leave it on the counter in plain reach. "Don't do it!" she yelled at the child.
"No!" He giggled as he dropped it into the toilet. "Boat go bye…"
Raven grabbed him around the waist with one hand and reached for her phone with the other. Thankfully, the phone had only sustained damage to the screen, and so she put it on the counter, finding that she was once again holding the child at arm's length from her.
"You can't do things like that, Tyler!"
"Sorry," he said again with the shy-boy smile that had almost melted her heart the first time. She noticed that he still had ketchup in his hair and that Starfire looked miserable, still messy.
"He does not sit still very well," she told Raven.
Raven felt guilty again for being angry at the other girl. "I'm going to finish cleaning him up. Go use the guy's shower," Raven said, handing Starfire her bottle of conditioner.
"You are most kind, friend Raven, but you do not have to watch the child if you do not like him."
Raven was caught rather off-guard by the remark. She thought she'd been doing well at hiding her dislike for Tyler. "I'll be fine," she said, struggling for a smile.
It was at that moment that her ruined cell phone sparked once, vibrated, and died on the counter.
"I shall bring my phone back with me," Starfire said softly, picking up the water-logged electronic and taking it with her.
Tyler watched them both wide-eyed for a moment. "Clean up?" He asked Raven, smiling from beside her leg.
Raven picked the toddler up and placed him into the bathtub, which had emptied largely onto the tile floor of the room. She could tell the majority of it had soaked in, and the entire bathroom would need redone. She felt a strange satisfaction that Robin would have to deal with all of the bills and explaining the physical damage to the city.
Tyler behaved surprisingly well for Raven. He sat calmly in the tub, splashing softly but not enough to hurt her. For once Raven felt surprisingly at ease with the child.
She gave herself a mental smack. That's like feeling at ease with a tiger that wants to eat you, she reminded herself.
She looked at him in satisfaction. "All clean," she told him with a somewhat gentle smile.
"All clean!" He declared, and threw himself forward in his now slightly-gray bathwater, causing a splash that caught Raven directly in the face and left her sputtering.
She cursed her own calmness.
At that moment Starfire, looking clean and fresh in a new outfit, walked in. She smiled gratefully at Raven. "Thank you so much for allowing me to clean up," she said. "Is Tyler also bathed?"
"All clean!" The baby announced happily, and held out his arms to be picked up. Starfire pulled one of the few non-damp towels in the bathroom from the linen closet- Raven happened to note that, of course, the towel they were using was hers- and lifted Tyler into her arms.
He went surprisingly easily while Raven was still sputtering bathwater out of her face. Sighing, she reached forward and drained the tub.
"We have a problem," said Starfire behind her, and Raven bit back the urge to remind her that the child was their entire problem.
"What?" Raven asked.
"The clothes of the baby were soaked in the water of the bath, and his mother did not send him with another set!" Starfire pointed to Tyler's little jumper.
"Well then," Raven said with a heavy sigh, "We're going to have to go get him new clothes…"
"You have agreed we will still go to the mall of shopping!" Starfire said. "I am so happy! I shall go get my jacket of rain!"
Raven looked down at the naked baby. "Do you exist just to torment me?" She asked him, scooping him up over her shoulder.
"Funny!" He said, pulling a face.
She took him into Robin's room and fumbled through his drawer until she found an oversized nightshirt, which she slipped over Tyler. The baby took two steps, tripped, and started laughing.
"Dressy!" He said, pulling himself up. Raven watched, with some satisfaction and some horror, as he pulled the drawer out. It missed him, hitting the floor, and it overturned.
Suddenly Raven got the urge to walk out of the room and allow Robin to understand what she'd been doing all day. Grinning evilly to herself, she let Tyler, still staggering in his oversized nightshirt, in Robin's room while she went to change.
By the time she came back, Robin's room looked almost as bad as the bathroom. His desk, which had been organized, looked as though a paper snowstorm had rocked it, and his bed was a mess. On the floor lay most of his clothes, and one of his favorite ink pens had exploded all over the carpet.
"Come here baby," Raven said sweetly to Tyler. "You're a good baby, aren't you?" She picked him up and rolled his sleeves, dressed in new clean, dry clothing and once again in her heavy traveling overcoat.
"Yay!" He said, and buried his head in the thick wool of her cloak. In an unusual display of affection, she wrapped the cloak around his little body so that his face poked out just under her chin.
"It is so nice to see you taking to our baby!" Starfire said happily. "Shall we journey to the mall of shopping?"
"Go!" Tyler cried happily, and the friends set out into the rain. Raven tensed; she almost expected to hear the sound of crying again.
Instead, she only heard the rain. "Wet!" Tyler cried happily.
Raven sighed. She'd almost kill for a normal shopping trip with her friend.
Almost.
(A/n: I hope you all are enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it. :) Thank you for all the reviews and the favorites. I'm about to get crazy busy, but I'll do what I can before my finals start. 3 Keep the love coming- TGR)
