Chapter 2 - Coming Home

"Lets get some more medical units in here! Move it people!! Everyone move back NOW!!" Robin surveyed the destruction around him and a part of his heart that was still innocent withered. All around were scattered bits of debris and smoldering rubble. Injured bystanders hustled and shoved their way past the stoic hero as they made their way to safety. On the far side of the demolished buildings the Titans with the dirtiest job were carrying away the dead bodies. Robin trusted the Teen Titans on "grave" duty to carefully see over the remains of the dead and to help their loved ones identify whatever was left after the tragedy."Grave" duty was a horrendous job and no one volunteered for it. Even Jinx for all her talk about being a true villain shuddered at the thought of being assigned to that shift. You could always tell when a Titan's work cycle was coming around to "grave" duty. They became morbid, morose, sad, and enraged. Still, someone had to do it and it was better for a super hero to gently dig up the bodies then a messy crushing machine. Right now, Raven was conducting the "grave" shift and digging up anyone who looked like they might survive. With her were Jericho, BumbleBee, and Kid Flash all working together at the grim task. Robin kept in constant communication with his graveyard team and whenever one of them just couldn't take it anymore he'd send in a relief and send the effected Titan back to the tower. So far only Kid Flash had asked to be excused. He'd left the field of battle at a normal pace too overcome to speed off into the distance. Jinx had watched her partner leave and had come up to Robin to request that she take her friend's spot. Robin had just sent her away to the back of the buildings when he felt a gentle tug on his cape. A little girl stood beside him trembling and battered but still looking brave in her pink pj's. Robin knelt beside her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You should go find your parents little girl. Go over to that ambulance and ask the big metal guy for some help okay." The small child looked over her shoulder in the direction Robin was pointing but shook her head. "No, I know where my mommy and daddy are...I wanted to thank the green man."Robin paused to think of everyone he knew that was wearing green that day. "Do you mean the girl with glowing green eyes...or the boy dressed as a solider?" The little girl tugged on his cape harder and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. "No no no! The green man! He saved me and my little sister! First he was a birdy and then he turned into a man and saved us!" The girl stressed and battered so Robin could sympathize with her frustration. Still, it was hard for him to believe the description he'd just received. He thought over the possibilities for a moment then tried to get more information from the girl. After discussing it with her for several more minutes he took the little girl by the hand, reassured her that he'd thank her hero, and escorted her to Cyborg. "Send out a wide band distress call to every Titan and the Justice League...Tell them to keep their eyes open for anything green." Robin murmured the order to Cyborg as they watched the little girl being lead away to safety by her parents. "Anything to worry about?" Cy muttered back as he translated the message into code and set it over the radio signal. Robin looked off into the distance and narrowed his eyes at the smoldering building. "I'm not sure yet...might be something...might be the girl thought she saw RedStar or maybe Green Lantern was passing by and decided to help.... Too many possibilities to be positive right now." Robin raised an eyebrow to his friend. "Has Gar talked to you lately?" Cyborg motioned for a group of refugees to go to the ambulances to the left of the road. "Come to think of it I haven't heard from Logan in bout a month...He can'tve lost my number...he had my left leg on speed dial."Cyborg frowned when Robin didn't laugh at his joke. That meant the situation was far worse then he could imagine. It wasn't that the child had seen BB...it was that she'd seen him without a cure. Green meant that something awful had happened to their friend. It meant that once again he'd gained the ultimate powers...and suffered the ultimate lost. Once in a lifetime is bad enough.Twice...twice could drive a person over the edge. Just as Robin was about to call out to the graveyard shift to keep their eyes open his com-link beeped."ROBIN!" Raven's unusually emotional shriek over the radio made it clear she was calling with bad news. Cyborg and Robin started running in her direction before she even started talking. "Raven! What is it? Is there a problem?"There was a moment of static followed with the sound of something large being heaved out of the way. As Robin looked up from his communicator he saw several large boulders tossed up into the air with the effortless strength of Raven's magic. He quickened his pace and made it to the site where all the titans on the grave shift had congregated. They were all starring down at a limp body lying on the hard rocky ground. They were just about to lift up the still form when Robin shoved Jericho and BumbleBee aside and fell to the ground beside the body of his fallen comrade. Robin tried to steady his panicking heart and pressed his ear close to the bare green chest of his friend to listen for a heart beat. At first nothing came. Not a tremor of life seemed left within the flesh and bones of the titan. And then...faint.... Slowly...almost not even there; the most beautiful sound in the world.Beast Boy had a pulse. "He's alive!" Robin shouted. Cyborg and BumbleBee both let out a yell of victory and Jericho and Jinx smiled from ear to ear. Raven's grin seemed ready to split her face as she erected a black disk beneath the three of them and flow them off to the nearest hospital. Robin cradled Beast Boy in his arms as Raven guided her flying disk smoothly through the sky. As Robin gazed down at his fallen friend his smile of relief and happiness faded. Everything was just as the little girl had said. Green. All green. And pointy ears too. Beast Boy...Gar, whenever he woke up would not be happy. Robin gently clutched his friend tighter and made a silent promise.No matter what happens Gar...I'll be there for you. We all will!0ooOoo0Raven kept her eyes locked on the pages of the ancient scroll she was reading. She had to keep them on the crumbling tomb in order to keep her sanity. The EKG machine in the Titan's Tower infurmary beeped steadily in the background of the darkened room and Raven was almost ready to blast it into the next dimension. The noise was driving her crazy and focusing on her spells seemed the only way for her to remain calm. Only she wasn't calm. She wasn't even close to it. Instead of focusing on her spells she had spent the last two hours of her shift re-reading the same paragraph over and over. With a final sigh of frustration she rolled up the scripts and walked over to the prone body attached to the beeping machine. He was sweating so Raven took a damp cloth from the nearby sink and gently began to wipe his forehead. His brow creased and he squeezed his eyes tight before blinking rapidly. He looked up at the ceiling for a long time through slitted eyes before he turned his groggy gaze to Raven. "Uh...uuhn....ra...Raven?" Raven dropped the cloth in surprise then bent down to look closely at his face. "Gar? Beast Boy? How do you feel? Are you alright? How many fingers do you see? Who is the president? Can you feel anything below your-""Whoa, whoa, whoa...damn girl have you switched bodies with Starfire again? Stop with all the damn questions." Beast Boy muttered as he tried to push himself into a sitting posistion. A sharp blast of pain ran up and down his spine and spread throughout his legs and arms. His head started to spin and he fell back onto his pillow with a thud. "Oooh....oh gawd...kill me."Raven, still a little miffed about that Starfire switch comment, laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and tenderly pushed him back against his bed. "Rest now. You've still got a long way to go before you're all better."Gar looked down the length of his body. He was in a pair of his own pajamas and wrapped in several warm blankets. All round the medical bed he was laying on were gifts, balloons, and flowers of all kinds. Most of them read "get well soon" and "hang in there champ". One even had a pun that read "hang in there Chimp". That one must be from Cyborg. Beast Boy thought with a grimace.Beast Boy knew the joke was harmless still, he didn't know if he were ready yet to talk about the failure of his cure and his sudden appearance at the Titan's mission. Everything was still so confusing for him and last night felt like a blur.Last night... "How long have I been out?" He looked up at the IV tube running from his hand and thought that the bag looked a little low. Raven's eyes followed his and she gave him a small smile. "Its due for changing out soon. And to answer your first question you've been in a coma for a week." Raven patted him on the shoulder and walked to the edge of the room. She turned on the lights and made a quick scan of the computers gathering all the information she would need to make her report. As she pulled out her communicator and began pressing buttons and calling out the good news of his recovery Beast Boy rested his head back and starred at the ceiling in thought.Holy Christ....a week. I can't believe it. Wasn't even out that long when I got sick...I wonder who found me...I was sure I was gonna die under that building...man....oh holy shoot!!! With a sudden burst of energy Beast Boy sat up and turned to leave his bed. "Oh cripes!! I gotta feed my cats! And my dogs! And my birds!! And my--"A gaint dark hand outlined with white power beams shot out from Raven and shoved Beast Boy unceremoniously onto his bed. "Stay down." She commanded calmly. She kept a mild pressure on him knowing he would be too weak to push it away and finished making her calls about him. After she was done she walked back to his bedside and dissapated the magic hand. Raven took a few seconds to readjust his rumpled blankets before speaking. "We know. They're all taken care of. In fact your 'pets' have become more of everybody's pets." Beast Boy settled back into bed and cocked an eyebrow at her. "Soooooo....this means you've been to my apartment?" For a brief moment he could've sworn Raven snickered. When she looked back up from fixing his sheets he was positive she was trying to hide a grin. "Yes, we had to go get your things....Interesting decor by the way....did you paint those pink elephants yourself?" With a dramatic sigh Beast Boy huffed his old argument. "For the last time they were there when I bought the place!!!!" This time there was no hiding Raven's amusement and she picked up the chart at the end of the bed and looked toward the door. "I've gotta go and check some of these readings for accuracy on the main system in the mean time you should prepare yourself." Beast Boy blinked and watched her go. "Uh...Wait! Prepare myself for what?" He grabbed the edge of the bed and leaned in the direction she was leaving in. He didn't want her to go. She was his friend and it had been so long since he'd talked to any of the Titans. Plus the medical area always made him feel uneasy. It made him nervous to be left alone in it. Raven smiled at him from the door. "Don't worry BB...when I said 'prepare yourself' I meant that you should get ready...for this!" Raven opened the door wide and a flood of Titans and super-heros swarmed into the room all cheering, yelling, bareing gifts, and chatting at once. They made their way in a steady flow into the room for several minutes. Once the last of the large group had crammed into the room Raven quietly walked out. Outside the door standing off in the shadows of the hall Robin waited silently. Raven came right up to him and handed him Beast Boy's chart. "You should go in there too." she murmured softly. Robin took the clipboard and turned to leave without a word. In medical room a party was breaking out with Beast Boy in the center. But Robin wasn't ready to see BB yet. He had to look over the charts first. Read all the information he could. Robin couldn't face Garfield Logan unitl he knew exactly why he was once again green.*******************Serty: Kinda short this time but not bad. Comments keep em coming folks!! Don't be shy to flame, blame or praise the work! Also, beware, I don't have a spell check!

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