Bo

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Teen Titans, but I wish I did b/c then it wouldn't be cancelled and all of our unanswered questions would be answered.

The alarm sounded all over the tower. It was four a.m. Not a good time for an emergency. Super hero or not, the early hours of the morning being interrupted was every sleeper's worst nightmare. One by one, except for Beastboy who slept through everything, the Titans groggily got out of bed and stripped out of their pjs and into their clothes. They made their way to the living room where the large screen projected an image of Slade. Robin growled, Raven blinked sleepily, Starfire yawned, and Cyborg collapsed onto the sofa, groaning. Beastboy was still sound asleep in his bed, his room alarm still going off.

"Good morning, Titans, " Slade said. " And a very good morning to you, Robin."

Robin snarled at that particular comment and Starfire placed a hand on his shoulder to keep his feet on the ground. She yawned as she did so, still not fully awake. Slade made his usual comments about how he had placed this bomb under this bridge and this bank had been robbed…this was nothing new, and usually, it wasn't even true. The Titans had finally caught on to wait for his real plan to go into action. After he finished telling them he would give them a certain amount of time to stop the bomb, and not one of the Titans budged, Slade chuckled.

"I guess that trick's getting a little old, isn't it?" He oozed. "Well, maybe I should try something a little different." He disappeared off of the screen for a moment, but they could still here his voice. "And when I say 'little' I mean little."

His masked face returned and the Titans suddenly woke up. In his arms was a small child, a baby maybe? A toddler? The little boy did not look like he was in danger, and solemnly sucked his thumb, watching the screen.

"Where did you get him?!" Robin demanded. "What are you planning to do to him?!"

"Now, now, Robin," Slade cooed, gently taking the baby's thumb out of his mouth. "There's no need to be jealous. After all, he's not even two." He stared back at the screen. "I'm sure you're all itching to know who he is, aren't you? This is my new apprentice."

"A baby?" Raven cocked an eyebrow. "You can't really expect us to believe that."

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not," Slade replied. "This child will be isolated from the world, trained like soldier. By the time he's ten, he'll be fit to take my place." His one exposed eye moved towards Robin. "Now that's something to spark jealousy."

"You will do no such thing!" Starfire growled, her eyes glowing green.

Slade set the child down on the floor, off screen, and wailing could be heard. The Titans flinched angrily and worriedly. As the baby cried, Slade's eyes glittered with triumph. He examined his fingers as he said, "I'll be seeing you, Titans. As will my new apprentice." With that, he turned his back on them and the screen went black.

Robin raced towards the blank screen and kicked it as hard as he could, causing it to crack slightly. Starfire clasped her hands together and said, "We must find the baby! He is in very much danger!"

"Maybe this is just another one of Slade's tricks," Cyborg suggested. "I mean, like Rae said, who gets a baby as an apprentice?"

"That's not his plan," Robin said through gritted teeth. "Slade's expecting something from us, and he's using the kid as a target." He massaged his forehead for a moment with his fingertips and finally ordered, "Titans, go!"

--

Beastboy awoke to a strange noise. Of course, the alarm was still going off in his bedroom, but that was nothing new. He stumbled out of bed, digging around in his boxer shorts and went over to the wall to turn it off. However, the strange noise was still there. It was…no…no, he was imagining things, wasn't he? In his T-shirt and boxers he traveled to the living room and his eyes widened to see Raven sitting cross-legged on the floor, with a baby in her lap?! The baby was skinny with lanky legs with sandy blonde hair wearing a little black one-piece suit that showed his bare legs. It was making an array of babbling sounds, smiling and touching Raven's feet and hands. Beastboy hung back quietly, wondering if he was still asleep and perhaps dreaming. He watched skeptically as Raven smiled down at the baby, and then cocked her head slightly close to the baby's face. She then attacked him in a fit of kisses and the baby erupted into laughter. Beastboy shook his head slightly, deciding he had to be dreaming. However, it wasn't a bad dream. After all, Raven smiling and acting affectionate towards somebody? That was priceless in itself.

He silently made his way to the back of the couch and leaned over it so far that his feet were no longer touching the floor. The baby looked up at Raven and said, "Bah?"

Raven looked at him like she understood what he said and began tickling him, making the baby crack up all over again. She then stood up, the child in her arms, and kissed his head. "You are the best," she said quietly, chuckling slightly.

"Dah doh oh!" The baby spotted Beastboy and cast a finger at him, grinning. He had a few teeth, but they were so scattered around his mouth it looked like they were falling out rather than coming in.

Raven turned around and embarrassment immediately rose to her face. She cleared her throat and her face, giving a stony expression. "How long have you been awake?" She asked, which was basically code for, 'how long have you been standing there spying on me'.

"I heard a noise and came to investigate," the green boy replied, shrugging. "Um, whose kid is that?"

"I forgot you weren't awake when we went on our little rescue mission this morning," Raven said dryly, setting the baby down who had begun to squirm. "Slade gave us a little present."

Beastboy looked around. "Where's everyone else?"

"Still fighting him," Raven answered. "I opted to take him back to the tower." She watched as the baby began to run around in circles making loud, incoherent babble. "We don't know where he got him from."

"He's cute," Beastboy commented with a chuckle. "What's his name?"

"We don't know," Raven leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "We don't anything about him."

"Well we can't just keep him here and not call him anything," Beastboy squinched up his nose. He then laughed as the toddler began to stomp his feet and wave his arms, smiling broadly as he held the Titans' attention. He fell down on his bottom and laughed again.

"Dude," Beastboy said, ignoring the fact that Raven did not like to be called 'Dude'. "He reminds me of that old actor from that movie we watched last night.

"You mean Bill Robinson the dancer?" Raven stared at the baby skeptically, mentally agreeing.

"What was that they called him?" Beastboy thought a moment. "Bippity? Booboo?"

"Bojangles," Raven corrected him.

"That's it!" Beastboy picked up the baby who immediately pulled one of his pointy ears. "We'll name him Bojangles!" He bounced the toddler slightly. "What do you think, Dude? Like it?"

"Bo?" The baby grinned and made a loud noise.

As Beastboy played with the baby, Raven watching the pair from the sofa, the rest of the Titans entered the tower. Starfire smiled and hovered over to the pair fawning over the new visitor. Raven walked over to Robin and Cyborg, giving them a questioning stare. "Well, how'd it go?" She asked. "What happened?"

"We have no info on the kid," Cyborg shrugged. "We don't know how Slade got him, why he had him, what he was planning to do with him." He sighed. "I guess the best thing is to take him to the police station."

"Because somebody might be missing him, right?" Beastboy asked, lying on his back with the baby on his stomach.

"Wrong," Robin replied. "We checked all of the missing persons files within the last three months. Nobody in the tri-city area is missing a baby, and even around the country, no missing child has his description."

"So why must we take him to the law office?" Starfire inquired, taking the baby from Beastboy and tickling his nose.

"We can't keep a baby here, "Robin scoffed, as if the very idea were a joke. "We're way too busy, and we don't know how to raise a kid." He glanced at Raven. "Cyborg and I will stay here and monitor the radars for Slade. Why don't you and Starfire take the baby downtown?"

Raven hesitated briefly. "But…well, what if Slade goes looking for him?" She glanced at the child who was fingering Starfire's long hair. "I mean, we don't Slade's objective."

Beastboy saw the desperation in Raven's face and he suddenly remembered what her face had looked like earlier when she and Bojangles were alone. He remembered how warm the smile on her face had been. Maybe the baby is just what Raven needed. Maybe she had been waiting for this all her life. Maybe they'd all been waiting for this. He stood beside her and said, "I'm with Raven. I mean, who knows? Maybe Slade is really out to hurt Bo."

" 'Bo'?" Cyborg repeated, cocking an eyebrow. "I think someone's gotten attached to the little toothless wonder." He grinned at Beastboy.

"Ugh!" Robin groaned, walking over to Starfire and taking Bo from her arms. "I'll take him myself. We don't have time for this, you guys."

Bo started to whimper and then cry, loudly. He reached for Raven, his little face red and wet with tears. Beastboy never expected her to actually take the baby from Robin. He'd always thought her pride, her token coolness was too much for her. However, that's exactly what she did. She ripped him right out of Robin's arms and a plate on the table exploded, signaling she had lost some control of her emotions. Bo sniffled a bit, but immediately forget about his despair and began playing with the pendant on Raven's cape. Robin gave the girl a funny look.

"I can't take that risk, Robin," she said. "I'm sorry. Bo stays."

The other Titans looked shocked, but Beastboy was smiling. Robin was too preoccupied with Slade to argue, so he left the tower in a huff. Cyborg left to monitor just as he and Robin had planned to do, and Starfire zoomed out of the tower, hoping to catch up with Robin and break him out of his 'tiz' as the other Titans secretly called them. Raven looked at Beastboy, her eyes avoiding his. She coughed awkwardly and said, "Um, Beastboy…about what you did earlier…um….".

"You're welcome," Beastboy grinned. He shrugged and said, "I kinda like the idea of us having a kid."

"You mean the five of us having a kid," Raven frowned.

"That's what I said," Beastboy replied absent-mindedly. He began to make faces at little Bo who laughed and waved his arms.

--

The rest of the day was exhausting. Starfire and Beastboy had raced back and forth to the grocery store to buy diapers, powder, wipes, and other baby items. Little Bo demanded to be entertained constantly, and every time there was an emergency, somebody had to stay behind and look after him. It was usually Raven, but Starfire and Beastboy had filled in a couple of times. Bath time was certainly fun. Not one of the titans had ever bathed a baby before, and it turned out to be a lot more difficult than it appeared. Bo kept sucking water out of the wash cloth, shampoo got in his eyes twice, he splashed water all over the floor (Cyborg slipped three times), and by the time he was out and in a towel, Raven and Beastboy looked like they had just gotten out of the bath themselves. Bo ended up sleeping in Raven's bed with her, and he slept on his stomach with his butt in the air, in a slanted line. As Raven watched him sleep, she smiled and stroked the baby's cheek.

"You know," she whispered to the sleeping toddler. "I actually thank Slade for once."

To Be Continued…