Hi!

This is my first Teen Titans Fic!

Hope you all like it!

A Rain-Soaked Entrance

"Where are they?"

The simple, yet loaded question gave a glimpse of the pent-up emotions its questioner felt; Emotions which normally weren't such a struggle to keep under control. Frustration, anger, helplessness, and fear all fought to escape from beneath her usually calm demeanor. Only sheer will held them at bay, but for how much longer, she couldn't guess.

"They'll be here soon, Raven. All we can do now is wait."

Her friend's reassuring words did little to give her comfort.

"How soon is 'soon' Robin, a few minutes, a few hours? We were supposed to hear from them two hours ago, and that was before it started pouring rain outside!"

"They'll be here." He told her firmly. "But if they don't show up soon, we'll start looking for them, alright?"

Raven turned on him, her voice full of fury.

"We should be looking now, not later when it might be too late! We-"

From somewhere behind her, large metal hands gently grabbed her shoulders.

"Rae, we don't even know where to start looking, or how they'd planned on getting here. For all we know, they haven't even made it into the city yet. All we can do now is wait for them to send a message, or show up here."

Raven pulled away, silent and furious as she resumed her place in front of the large windows that overlooked the bay and Jump City. The rain seemed to come down harder now, in great heavy sheets that pounded against the massive panes of glass.

As Robin looked on, his own emotions a mirror to Raven's, he thought back to the beginning, as he always did in these situations, on what he should have done differently that might have made a difference

It had been four days ago that they'd received the message from Colorado that someone had attacked the Monastery looking for Melvin, Timmy, and Teether and they needed to get them out immediately. Repeated calls to their friend, The Herald, had gone unanswered. No one had heard from him for at least a week. Fearing another organized strike against young heroes, Robin had put everyone on alert.

In the mean time, the kids were being brought to Jump city by other, slower means. The Monks had an organized network that would bring children in dangerous situations into their care while they awaited a more permanent placement. Now that same network was helping them get the kids to Titans Tower.

They'd received calls that lasted only ten seconds at twelve hour intervals, just long enough to tell them of their status. The last had been at six A.M. that morning saying they would walk through the door exactly twelve hours from now.

They were now over two hours late, and they still had no new info on The Herald's whereabouts.

A soft gasp from Raven sharply drew the Boy Wonders attention back to the present. She was watching something, a small light, bobbing in the waves near the Tower. As it got closer, the flood lights revealed three small forms dwarfed by a much larger one, approaching on what looked to be the back of a giant sea turtle.

"They're here!" Raven had just about flown to the elevator that would bring her down to the main lobby. She didn't even bother to wait for her friends. Nothing was keeping her away from her kids now that they were here.

Downstairs she was greeted by Starfire, who'd had the forethought to bring warm, dry towels with her.

"Oh, Raven! They have arrived at last! Is that not wonderful? We shall have a celebration to welcome them as soon as they are-"She was cut off by the sound of the enormous front doors sliding open.

In trudged three rain soaked, road weary Titans (the tallest of the three carrying Teether) and one giant Teddy Bear. All were cold, tired and wearing bright yellow rain slickers.

"Timmy! Melvin!" Raven didn't even wait for them to take off their coats. She grabbed the two older children up in an almost bone-crushing hug worthy of Starfire.

Melvin gave Raven her most earnest look of reassurance. "We're okay Raven. We didn't see the bad guy again."

"How come you guys are so late, and why didn't we hear from you?" She was helping them take off their coats, but peal off would be a more accurate description. Starfire meanwhile had taken Teether from their silent protector.

"The bus we were supposed to take this morning had a break- down, so we couldn't use it, but a really nice man who goes to the church we stayed at last night gave us a ride in his truck!"

"Uh-huh, and how did you know he was such a nice man when you met him?" She gave a pointed glare to both Bobby and their mute guardian.

The pig-tailed blonde gave her a bright smile. "His wife was the one who met us at the church last night, so we knew he had to be okay, 'cause she was really nice, and gave us hot cocoa!"

"I see."

"-and he let me and Timmy take turns pulling on the really loud horn in his truck, and he didn't mind Bobby, and-"

"Are they the one's who gave you guys the rain coats?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! They heard it was supposed to rain, so they gave us these."

"What about Bobby? How'd they find one big enough for him?" Melvin's almost hysterical giggle's told her everything. Of course she should have guessed that Melvin could just imagine up whatever her giant friend would need.

Speaking of which.

"Did I see you guys come across on a giant sea turtle?"

"Oh, you mean Toby? Yeah, isn't he cool! I imagined him up just a little while ago!"

"Okay, but where is he now?"

"In the toy chest."

"Excuse me?" Did she just hear her correctly?

"That's what the monk's call it when I send someone back after I'm done playing with them, or I don't need them right now. They go back in the toy chest."

Raven had a strange look on her face.

"Raven what's wrong?"

"Nothing Mel. How long have you been able to do that? Send your imagined friends 'into the toy chest', I mean?" She was having memory flashes from when she'd first met them, and every time she'd had to do something to accommodate the enormous, invisible Bobby.

"I dunno, I guess I always could. I just didn't know how to do it so I could get them back later. Why?"

"Uh, never mind."

Robin had just arrived with Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"Hi Robin!"

"Hey Melvin, it's good to see you guy's."

"You too! Hey, guess what? We got to ride in a big semi truck to get here, and it was really neat, and we got to see all these different cars and we played the license plate game!"

"I'm glad you guy's had fun." He then turned to the last member of their group, who was finally pulling off his own rain gear. The blonde boy looked up from removing his water-logged boots, and gave a somewhat embarrassed half smile before standing more upright. The silent boy called Jericho gave him a look of apology as he set down his sopping wet things.

"What happened? Why are you guys so late? Why didn't you use the communicators?"

Jericho looked as though he were about to answer, but was cut off by a sudden bout of sneezing. His own actually. The Titans looked on, startled.

"Oh no, friend Jericho, you are ill!" Starfire quickly wrapped him in one of the large, fluffy towels and began to dry his head and back vigorously. Perhaps a bit too vigorously, judging from the look on Jericho's face. Melvin reached into the large shoulder bag he'd been carrying and pulled out some tissues, which he gratefully took.

"He's had a cold since this morning, but it wasn't this bad then." She looked on with deepening concern as her friend's sneezing resumed with gusto.

"Alright then, I'll talk to him later. Why don't we all head upstairs and get something to eat, and you guy's can tell us what you've been doing for the last few days." This was greeted with renewed enthusiasm as they headed for the elevator, Melvin and Timmy racing each other.

On the way up Robin couldn't help but notice Jericho's slightly glazed expression. True, his sneezing had momentarily subsided, but now he had chills. Not wanting to draw too much attention to what was happening, he quietly tapped Cyborg on the back, and gave a nod in their ailing friend's direction.

"Hey man, how ya doin'?" Cyborg spoke softly as he flipped on a sensor in his arm, and gently placed one hand on Jericho's neck and face. Feeling a bit awkward, he got Cyborg's attention long enough to make eye contact.

Cyborg let out a short laugh.

"Yeah, I know what you mean!" Still smiling, he reached over Beast Boy's head and pushed the button for the infirmary level. As he did, he discreetly showed Robin his sensor's results.

One-hundred and three degree's.

The doors opened at the next level.

"Alright, this is where we get off man."

"Where're you going?" Timmy had finally spoken up.

"Oh, nowhere special. I just wanna make sure he's not too sick." Cyborg hoped he sounded convincing.

"Raven, why don't you go with them? We can take care of the kids while you're gone."

"Alright Robin, if you're sure you won't regret it." As she got off, she gave the kids a stern look.

"Don't give them a hard time."

"Raven, we're just gonna be upstairs. It'll be fine!"

She gave Beast Boy a small, knowing smirk.

"I'll make you eat those words."

"Fine by me! I'm starved!"

As the doors closed, she turned to help Jericho down the hall to the infirmary.

"By the way, what was so funny before?"

Cyborg let out a small chuckle.

"He told me my impersonation of his mother was uncanny."

It was Raven's turn to laugh now.

"At least you're funnier than Beast Boy."

Jericho only smiled at her, but his eyes had never once left her face.

"What? What are you looking at?"

Still smiling, he shook his head as if to say 'nothing'.

They had soon reached the infirmary, and after Raven had helped him change into some dry clothes, Cyborg did some blood work and got an I.V. ready for him. He could barely manage to climb onto the gurney without their help. Gently tapping Raven on the arm, he began signing a question to her. It only took Raven a moment to understand.

"Have we ….found Herald?"

He nodded in reply.

"I'm sorry, we haven't yet."

Herald was still missing. This was bad.

"Bumble Bee's team is still searching for him. So don't worry, we haven't given up just yet."

Jericho gave no hint that he'd heard her. He could only stare at his toes right now.

"Why don't you get some sleep? I know from experience how much those three can take out of you, and at least you knew Bobby was real."

He allowed a small, silent laugh to slip out. Jericho had heard all about how Raven hadn't known Bobby was real, until almost the very last minute.

He didn't fully realize how sick he must be until he finally got to lie down. It felt as if his body had turned to led. Something must have shown on his face as Cyborg carefully inserted the I.V. needle.

"Welcome to the Teen Titan's Jericho. Don't worry, we got you're back."

Breathing a small sigh of relief, Jericho returned his friends smile as he finally drifted off to sleep.

Next chapter, Jericho dreams of a more peaceful chapter in his life; Meanwhile, Starfire and Beast Boy have to give the kids a bath!

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