"Sometimes, remembering hurts too much."
~Jess Rothenberg

–•–•–•–

Raven didn't get it. She knew nothing of these people, yet they call her "friend". She knew nothing of these people, yet she felt the most comfortable when she was around them. Especially Garfield. She felt something. Something about him that he hasn't told a soul. She wanted to find out. There was something. She just had to get it out of him.

Nobody planned to get up early that morning. Especially since it was Sunday, but because of Raven's dreams, they were woken up.

Gar had made a plan and told them all while Raven was freshening up.

"So let me get this straight: you want to take her outside, just the two of you, by yourselves, with the thugs still roaming around, so you can try and help her remember us?" Gar nods.

"Don't make it sound worse than it is Vic."

"No, he's right. That's stupid. We don't know if she still remembers her street smarts. And you sure as hell can't protect her." Dick sides with Vic.

"Hey! I can protect her if I need to!"

"Whatever G. The point is your idea is dangerous for you and for Raven." Dick says. He crossed his arms.

Raven comes out of the bathroom in her old outfit again. The indigo hoodie, the jeans, and the boots.

"Good Morning Friend!" Kori cheered.

"Mhm. Hi." She said quietly. You can tell she was anxious just by her demeanor. She seemed to be clasping the zipper of her sweatshirt for her life. Gar was surprised she hasn't pulled it down.

"You still hungry?" She shook her head. "Then what do you want?" Dick asks.

She simply looks longingly out the window. Dick knew what she meant by that and groaned. Was Gar's plan actually feasible? Impossible. Right?

"We'll go outside later ok? Right now it's early. Let's just say inside." He feels like he's talking to a small child or stray puppy that somehow found it's way into the appartment.

She is a lot shyer than he remembers. Before she'd just answer straight out, "I want to go out with blah-dee blah-dee blah." But her shyness is almost obviously a result of her growing anxiety and uncertainty about the place she's in. Dick isn't a completely perfect judge of character like Raven is, but he can do it rather well. At least to keep up with her.

As for her take on this, she is starting to not like him. Dick keeps treating her as if she's 9. She hates that.

"So Raven, do you remember anything about us?" Gar asks hopefully.

"I remember your names for some reason, but..." She shuts her eyes, then opens them again softly. "No, sorry. That's it." Then she looks back out the window.

"Its alright. Maybe we need to show her some things to jog her memory." Gar says.

"With what? We don't have anything." Vic states.

"Yeah we do." He goes to his room, grabs the washed penny and gem and brings them back in. "I picked these up off the beach and washed the stuff off of them. Now they're harmless."

"What are those?" Raven comes over before anyone can react. As soon as she sees them she gets a striking headache that hits like a rock. "Agh!!" She starts to back away and trips on a wire. Luckily she lands right in a chair.

"Raven!" She suddenly gets a rush of memories in little clips and snippets.

"Your eyes are cool. Hope you don't mind me asking, but are they like colored contacts or something?" She shakes her head.

"Raven. My name is Raven." She has perfect audiblity this time.

"Raven? Thats a really cool name." She blushes again. Then, as if he asks for it, a large gust of crisp autumn wind starts blowing violentley, knocking Raven's hood off, and her hair falls just below her ears as if the only thing keeping it up was the hood. "Oh jeez. The wind is really..." he was looking the other direction when this happened, but as soon as he turned around he was spellbound. "Woah..."

"Look I'll explain when we get home. Are you ok?" Raven shakes her head.

"Raven you can take off your hood now." Garfield says. She blushes under the hood and clutches the hood. Her eyes close making it look like she has none.

Raven openes her eyes in shock and confusion.

"Woah..." her headache quickly dissipated.

"You ok?" Vic asked.

"I...saw...somthing..." she says.

"You did?" Kori asks.

"See I told you these would work." Gar says.

"What did you see?" Dick asks.

"Garfield and I were...at the park...he was talking about my eyes... Then were were on the docks...and I...told him my name...then my hood blew off... Then I was in pain and he asked me if I was ok...you all were there too. Then he said I could take my hood off...I was...on the couch then."

"Woah that really did work." Vic says suprised.

"That's how we do it! We have to show her things to make her remember! See guys! I'm not stupid!" Gar said happily.

"You definitely are not friend." Kori states as the rest are slightly suprised.

"Were those memories?" Raven asks as Gar gets up to get her a drink.

"Yeah they were. Seems like you're remembering when you first met us." Dick states. Gar comes back and gives her a cup of water.

"I'm going to go get my gear on guys. The team wants me to be there early."

"What do you play?" Raven asked.

"Football. You've been to like three games." He replies.

"Have I?" She says that too quiet to be heard. "I have..." Gar puts a hand on her back.

"You don't have to come today. You either Gar. Stay with Raven ok?" Dick orders. Gar nods. The others get ready and within a half hour they leave Gar and Raven to themselves.

Dick doesn't exactly like Gar staying with Raven, but he knows that he's the only one she actually trusts right now. He knows it's important for her that she feels safe and comfortable, especially since she doesn't remember anything. He wants her to feel safe. He wants to make up for his mistakes, even though she doesn't remember them.

Raven tries to get up from the chair, wobbles a bit, and then regains her balance.

"Ugh. Gar?"

"Yeah?"

"The memories I just got...I felt something...weird."

"You, did?"

"I don't exactly know. It was about you. I'm just so confused. None of this makes sense. It's all out of place."

"It's alright Rave."

"Is it?" She goes to look out the window.

"You really want to go outside huh?"

"I just don't like being in one place for too long." Gar chuckles at her comment.

Well, Dick isn't here anymore...

"I'll take you out if you want. Maybe we can find some things to help you remember."

"I guess."

"You want to go now?"

"Sure." She still doesn't take off her hood.

They leave the house and Raven gets a tad anxious. She rubs her arm, finally letting go of the zipper.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. I'm good." Something doesn't feel right.

He leads her to the park. She gets another memory but it's very small.

Raven closes her eyes and opens them. They're glowing a brilliant white. She makes two jackets for them and they wrap around the shivering teens' shoulders.

"Jackets." She whispers.

He tries to catch a bird in a tree. She watched him bumble around like a fool trying to catch a little blue jay.

"What are you doing Gar?" She laughs.

"You don't remember the bird? C'mon, that's how we first met!"

"It is?"

"Not getting anything? Not about a blue jay? About a few jackets? You and Kori?" He asks. "Well we're making progress." He says. Gar is starting to get frustrated. He wants her to remember so badly.

"Gar, I know that you want me to remember, but do you think I wanted to remember?"

"Huh?"

"I'm just wondering, how did I forget everything?"

"You made yourself forget." He replied without turning to her, still trying to get the bird.

"So how do you know I wanted to remember?"

"Well..."

"Well?"

"I don't know." He stops trying to get the bird.

"Then why are you trying so hard to get me to?"

"I have a feeling."

"I have lots of feelings Gar. I just can't act upon every one I have." She says.

"You have so far." He mumbles.

"Excuse me?"

"You don't remember, but you kissed me last night. You said you did it because you wanted to."

"I did?"

"And when you felt like a burden, you made yourself forget. Every sense, intuition, and feeling you've had, you've done something about it." Gar says firmly.

"Have I now? Then I'm irrational."

"You are?"

"If you've known me for as long as you say, then you know how well I can read people. I'm going to be honest with you: you and I are very alike. We're both irrational, clever, and have a temper. We both also have a past nobody should know about. I know you're hiding something from me, Garfield. You're hiding something from everyone."

"How do you know for sure?"

"Because I can sense it." She grins a rather sinister grin, knowing that she is now in power. Garfield grows uneasy as the wind picks up.

A loud noise rings out from an alley.

"What the–?" Raven turns to the noise in an instant.

"Where is the girl?" Gar's heart pumps vigorously.

"Raven, let's go." He pulls on her arm.

"What?"

"Let's go!" They start running before the men see them.

"Who are they?!" Raven asks.

"The people you've been running from for the past two years."

She gets another memory.

She went brain dead as she dropped on the floor like a rag doll. And for some reason, I was feeling extra sadistic that day.

I...don't want to go into details. I'm just going to say that there was a lot of blood.

She gasps loudly as she remembers what got her into this mess: Murdering her mother.

"What...did I do?" Tears stream down her face. She doesn't even realize where Gar is taking her.

"There they are chief! She's with the blonde boy!" They hear the booming voice come form behind them.

"Get them!" Raven's feet start to drag and she trips over them once or twice, slowing them down.

"C'mon Raven!" She keeps going. Then somehow they catch up to them and rip Raven from his hand.

"Hey! Let her go!!"

"She's caused enough trouble for us! She needs to pay for her mistakes."

"So it's not about the money anymore?"

"Of course not. No amount of money is worth this amount of stress. Were just going to do what we always do to our problems. Make them go away." They throw Raven into the water. That's when Gar spots her tears.

"Raven! Bastards!" He yells at them as they smugly look at him. He runs down to the rocky shore as they stride away, happy that their problems are gone.

He looks frantically, trying to spot the girl in the indigo hoodie under the water.

He has no choice. He has to dive in.

He takes a large breath and jumps in.

Raven can't move. She just sinks like a rock. She's shocked from all the things that just happened. She didn't even realize they were close to the docks. But they were, and she was thrown in, in an attempt to be killed.

After what she remembered, she deserved it. She felt like she deserved this.

She closed her eyes as the lack of oxygen made her vision darken.

When all of the reserved air was gone, she opened her mouth, a few bubbles came out, and she breathed in a lot of water.

Just before she blacked out she felt two hands grab her and pull her upwards.

She knew exactly who it was.

She knew that he wouldn't let her die.

She knew what his feelings to her were.