Chapter 30 – Rain
August 17th 2011, 6:14 pm
Terra had never felt worse in her life. She was keeping a secret for a long time about something that seemed to get more and more serious as the days went by. She rarely left her bedroom and even more rarely spent time with the others.
They knew.
She knew they did. Starfire never showed up at her door again to invite her to go to the mall, nor Cyborg or Robin talked to her alone about trivial stuff. And sometimes, she entered a room and the three of them were very close to each other and stopped talking suddenly. They were talking about her, she was sure of it.
And every day she tried to make herself believe that Beast Boy was better, that he wasn't going crazy because of her.
She was going back from the bathroom to her bedroom when the changeling appeared, with a smile on his face. A flash of hope sparkled inside of her.
"Hey, Terra!" he called, waving and walking to her "Are you ready?"
"Ready?" she asked, confused "Ready for what?"
"Today's concert, come on!" he said impatiently. He had that weird glow in his eyes again. A yellowish, sick glow "U2, yeah!"
Terra felt she could cry.
"BB… We already went to this concert…" she explained slowly, watching the changeling's smile disappear "A couple of years ago…"
"Oh… Right" he mumbled, disappointed. The glow started to fade to be replaced by the gray, melancholic shadow he usually had in his eyes "Right. I don't want to see you, I remember now."
And he walked away, leaving Terra with an even heavier burden of guilt in her heart.
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October 9th 2011, 3:50 pm
The labor was getting close, and Raven was doing her best not to panic. She went to her monthly appointment to the gynecologist the day before and when she wrote that in her calendar, she realized there was only two months left to her due day. Then she looked around and realized she hadn't bought anything for the actual baby. She had a bunch of books about pregnancy, but she didn't have any diapers, toys or even the crib.
That's why she was spending today, her day off, that she usually spent meditating, reading and resting her always tired feet, at the mall, in a big store of baby things. She already ordered the crib in a furniture store and it would be delivered in her house within five days.
Now she was pushing a cart filled with diapers, moistened tissues, blankets, baby pillows and sheets, and she had just finished sorting little clothes that included blue, green and yellow baby overalls, tiny shirts and tiny pants. She felt a sting in her chest to think how much fun Starfire would have helping her with this. Satisfied with her work, she drove the cart to the cashier.
So she walked through a stuffed animals section. A green dog specially called her attention. He was completely green and had a stupid expression. She stared at him for a while, trying not to let any memory out.
She took a blue dinosaur, a brown bear with a red tie around its neck and a colorful centipede. She glanced to the green dog again and went her way.
So she felt the baby kick.
She stopped, putting her hand in the belly, frowning at it.
She came back and pick up the damn dog.
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November 29th 2011, 11:35 am
Cyborg was cooking pasta cheerfully. It was being hard for him to cook only for five people, not six, so he invited Sarah to join their lunch this Sunday.
He had just put the crude pasta on the boiling water when Beast Boy came in, looking agitated.
"Beast Boy?" he called carefully "Are you okay?"
"No… No…" he muttered, then turned like he just saw Cyborg "Cy, have you seen Emerald?"
"Hm… No" he answered after some seconds to understand the question "I haven't seen any emeralds…"
"No an emerald, the Emerald" he explained, annoyed "Stop kidding around, she was here like a second ago, holding my hand, and now she's gone, you have to help me find her!"
He started to look down and walk all around the place, searching in corners and under tables. Like he was looking for a dog or maybe… a child.
"It's okay, man" he tried to calm his friend, walking to where he was and putting the hand on his shoulder "It's gonna be okay"
"Yeah… I guess…" he agreed, that emptiness taking his eyes again, along with the yellowish glow. Cyborg was starting to hate yellow. "Raven's worried sick…"
Say his beloved's name seemed to bring him back to reality. The changeling shook his head and sat on a close chair. The glow was gone, but the emptiness remained.
"Who is Emerald, BB?" Cyborg didn't resist and ask, curious. His best friend blinked, the mouth half open.
"Someone I loved… In another life, I suppose"
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December 21st 2011, 12:45 am
Raven woke up in the middle of the night with a keen pain in her belly. She got up difficultly, panting, and ran to the bathroom. On the way, however, she felt a warm liquid running through her legs. Her water had broke.
She took a deep breath. She was prepared for this. She turn on the lights and walked straight to the center table where was the phone and, next to it, a card for an all night taxi. She called and asked one to come get her. About two months ago she came to the conclusion it wasn't safe to use her powers in such an advanced state of pregnancy. So she would do this the old fashion way.
The waiting was distressing. She changed her clothes slowly, putting on a blue dress with white flowers and a heavy black coat above it. She never liked dresses, but she found out they were the comfiest piece of clothing in the world when you have swollen belly and legs, aching feet and feeling hot even in the coldest environment. She put on a pair of lined boots, the comfiest she could find, and grabbed the bag she left prepared a week ago with clothes for her and the baby.
While the cab didn't arrive, she counted how many seconds the contractions lasted, leaned on the brand new crib, which she had placed in the middle of the living room, since her bedroom was too small. It was made of wood and it had beautiful grooves on the headboard. The mobile above it had various colorful birds with open wings, like they were flying.
Another painful contraction. Besides the pain, she was also trying really hard not to let any energy escape from her control. It would only put her and her baby in danger. Before she could stop herself, she ran to her bedroom and grabbed the green dog on her bed, hugging it tight.
Once again she wished Beast Boy was there.
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Precisely when a cab horned in front of Raven's house and she got out, knowing she wouldn't come back alone, a strange phenomenon took place in Nevermore.
Knowledge was entertained with a book when she heard. She lifted her look and walked to the window. A thick curtain of water was falling on the rocky surface outside. She smiled, opening the Baby Book on the desk right in front of the window and fixed her gaze outside on the little amount of earth where Affection had planted a seed.
Lazyness was taking a nap, lying between the golden grasses of her savanna when a flash flood of water woke her suddenly. She blinked, confused for a second, then her look turned to her right, where she remembered Affection had planted the seed. She laid next to it and waited.
Braveness was very anxious to express herself, it was so hard Raven need her, but not be able to use her powers. When she was almost deciding to go out anyway, a heavy rain started to fall and she got hypnotized by the beautiful image of her lake, always set like a mirror, splatter as the rain drops fell on it. She was already soaking wet when her gaze turned to a empty space on the edge of the lake, where a seed was waiting to sprout.
Wisdom was at her favorite clearing, legs crossed and floating in the air, meditating to provide stability now that Raven most needed. She felt a difference of pressure in the air and lifted her head in the exact moment the rain started. She smiled and lowered her hood, letting the water run on her face. This was strangely relaxing. When she lowered her gaze, it was to stare at the center of the clearing, where the earth was scrambled.
Timidity got scared with the thunder that echoed through her swamp all of the sudden. So she looked from behind a tree, realizing it was only a heavy rain. She was so surprise, she forgot to fear Raven wasn't able to give birth. She walked slowly to the driest place of her swamp, where Affection had put the pretty seed.
Happiness was making justice to her name. Her pink cloak was forgotten on the ground while its owner ran, receiving the rain with open arms and jumping in the water puddles like a little kid. When she stopped, she sat with her legs crossed on the light green grass, staring with a big smile to the piece of earth where the seed was.
Rage was standing, crossed arms, looking at her little world of destruction and chaos like there was no rain, her red cloak getting heavy of all the water it was absorbing. Suddenly she turned to a little square free of flames, where a circle of green grass surrounded an amount of earth.
Affection's garden looked even more alive with the rain washing the beautiful flowers, which got fresher and lusher every minute passed. In the garden's center, the emotion was kneeling, her cloak getting dirty because of the mud, but she didn't seem to mind that. She was concentrated on the exact point where she planted most of the seeds, the wet hair glued to her face, eyes sparkling, and a smile in the lips.
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December 21st 2011, 4:25 am
"You're ready, Rachel" informed the doctor, of whom she could only see the eyes, since he was wearing mask and cap "You can start to push"
'That's it' she thought, talking to her emotions 'Please, contain yourselves, at least until it's over. Hang in there.'
"It's okay, breathe" oriented the nurse next to her, kindly "You're going well. Now push again"
Raven had never experienced such pain and effort before. But she focused on the objective ahead of her.
"I can see the head, Rachel, keep pushing" ordered the doctor. When he made the sign for her to stop, she saw an expression of surprise on his look, and got worried. Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to feel anything. She leaned on the chair, panting, feeling sweat running through her face.
She couldn't do this. It was too much. Too much pain, too much effort.
'Come on, Raven' said a voice she recognized as Braveness 'You can do this, there's not much left!'
'Raven, you defeated Trigon, something no one was ever able to do!' now it was Wisdom's voice 'You certainly can do something thousands of women did before you!'
'Leave me alone…' she whispered. Then she heard something that would have made her jump in the chair, if her muscles weren't so tired.
Beast Boy's voice.
She looked around, looking for him, because she was sure she heard him right next to her. But there wasn't no one besides the doctor and the nurse.
'You can do this, Rae!' she heard again, his calming voice, like he was there, holding her hand 'Do you remember the ultrasound picture? Just a little more and we'll finally see him!'
Raven couldn't understand, but the fact was that the voice gave her the certain she could do this. It was almost like she had done it before. She clenched her teeth and pushed again when the doctor told her to. And, in what seemed to her like seconds, it was over.
Unlike what she thought, the heart beat over the ultrasound wasn't the most comforter sound in the world. It was the loud and sharp cry she was hearing right now. The doctor smiled and showed her a baby with greenish skin. She stared at that little being with awe, forgetting about her pain and fatigue until she leaned on the chair again. Her eyes didn't left the nurse that took him, until she brought him back, clean and with a blue blanket wrapped around his little body, giving him to her trembling arms.
Raven knew they were saying words to her, but she couldn't listen. She could only see the baby she was holding, swollen and crying, the eyes closed, the green skin. She felt confusion and fear emanating from him.
"Hi" she whispered, and the baby stopped his crying to only whine a little, comforted by his mother's voice "I waited for you…"
"Does he have a name yet?" asked the nurse with a smile. Raven raised her head.
"Yes" she said, once again in those nine months making a sudden decision, like she was only following the script of a story already written "His name is Caleb. Caleb Roth… Logan"
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Knowledge smiled when she saw through the window the little green leaf appear in the middle of the brown earth, among the few drops that still fell from the sky. So she wet the feather she was holding in an inkwell and leaned on the pages of the Baby Book.
12∕21∕2011, 4:35 am – Winter Solstice
You were born.
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December 21st 2011, 5:00 am
Robin entered the common room and had a surprise to see someone was already in there. And he got even more surprise when he saw that it was Beast Boy.
The boy wonder approached his friend, who was sitting on the couch, leaned. He had that weird yellowish glow in his eyes and his arms were stretched like he was holding something, but there was nothing in them.
"Beast Boy?" he called carefully "What are you doing?"
Beast Boy didn't turn. In another time, in another life, he was holding his son for the first time.
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