A/N: Hi! **waves sheepishly** I'm back...and no, I'm not dead! And to prove it, here's a quick one-shot I pulled together because the muse wants to write, it seems. I'm glad...I've been entirely too un-creative lately. (Real life has SUCKED all the creativity out of me like some creativity-sucking-vampire thing.) To be perfectly fair, this was an idea I'd had a long time ago. I'd written it down with a bare bones outline of the actual dialogue presented here, but I'd never put it all together until tonight. So, yey for getting back into the swing of writing!

You could call this a missing scene. It takes place a week after "The End." It occurred to me that the show never dealt Robin any consequences from anyone about the fact that he essentially helped Slade get back his life and then let him walk away.

Anyway, hope you likes!

Dedication: To EVERYONE who keeps reviewing my stuff, reading and faving my stuff and letting me know through it that they have not given up on me coming alive in the fandom some day.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Worthy
by Em

"Did you know I was lost until you found me?"
- A Stroke of Luck, Garbage

It took a week before Raven found out what he'd done, and frankly, he was surprised. He thought surely, someone would've told her way before then. Every day he'd wondered what she would say...what he'd say. He had never kid himself that this would be one of those things she would ignore and pretend hadn't happened. He thought perhaps, if he were lucky, she would make a snide comment, or a few serious words.

He did not, however, even imagine that her reaction would be anything more than that.

Certainly, he never thought he'd have a seethingly angry Raven standing on the other side of his door, a frown on her face and livid anger in her eyes.

She didn't even wait for him to invite her in, but pushed her way passed him into his room, the automatic door sliding closed with a quiet hiss behind her. He reached for the light switch as she stalked across the room, but she had turned before he reached it and the naked expression on her features, visible even despite the semi-darkness cast by the table lamp on his desk as the only illumination, halted him mid flick.

"SLADE, Robin!" she demanded once their eyes met.

Robin lowered his gaze, walked to the desk and sat down. He could feel her follow his movements. He didn't respond. He knew, of course, what she was talking about, and decided to just let her speak her peace.

"It was Slade that you let loose on the world again!" she exclaimed, as if he didn't know, her voice louder than he had ever heard it save in the midst of battle. "How could you even consider something like that?" she queried, taking a few steps close to him, raising her hands in helpless agitation. He didn't so much as raise his eyes from the fabric of his pants, even though he was reeling from the realization that she was blatantly showing this agitation, but she didn't notice. "How could you even fathom such a thing?" She shook her head and paced away from him, whirling on the balls of her feet to turn back towards him, the cape from her as yet undiscarded uniform whipping about her. "Have you forgotten?" she asked, glaring at him from across the room. "This is the man who turned Terra against us, who used you by nearly killing us, who nearly made you crazy!" he glanced at her when her voice cracked at the end, but she had turned away again to pace across the room once more. "How could you do something so stupid?" she asked the wall.

He heard her cape whip again as she turned back to face him, but it took a moment for him to realize she was waiting for him to answer the question, and even though he could feel the weight of her gaze on him, he didn't trust his ability to keep her from seeing too much on his face, so he didn't look up, and he didn't immediately reply.

Finally, he spoke, his voice open and simple and thankfully devoid of emotion. "It was the only chance of saving you."

"Me?" she asked, and the acute loathing in the word surprised him into looking up, meeting her eyes. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she said harshly. She took a few steps towards him, capturing his gaze and pointing at him for extra emphasis. "If it's between my life or setting Slade lose on the world again, I thought you, of all people, would have the least problems making that decision!" she said, her voice edged with frustration that she had to be explaining such things at all. She didn't seem to notice the increase widening of Robin's eyes, or any of the other signs of his obvious confusion. "You know what a monster he is!" she accused. "And don't tell me you needed me to defeat my father," she scoffed, turning away from him and pacing across the room again. "because you would have done that eventually," she nodded, almost to herself. "I know it," she turned back to him and he was still surprised enough that he was still staring right at her. "I gave you the strength you needed to protect you..." she reminded him. "You could've done it," she stated, matter-of-factly. "Risking your life and helping Slade to save me?" she shook her head and scoffed again. "I wasn't worth it, what were you thin-?"

The rest of her berating is lost in the clatter of the chair Robin had been sitting on crashing into the wall as he stood abruptly, sending the rolling chair flying behind him. Before she realized what was happening, Robin had stopped in front of her, mere inches from her and she stopped moving sudden enough to almost tip her off balance and into him regardless. His face is no longer impassive or neutral and as her eyes scan his features, the shock registers in hers at seeing the fire like blue flames in his eyes, the flare of his nostrils and the clenching of his jaw.

"I'll tell you what I was thinking," he says, his voice low and steady and fervent. Unconsciously, she took a step back, looking for a way to carve some space between them, but he followed her step by step, speaking as he did. "I was thinking that I didn't care about Slade being loosed on the world again if I could get you back," he assured her. "I thought that I didn't care whether you could help us defeat Trigon or not, only that you be there to try." He reached out and steadied her when her backward movement made her trip on the edge of the area rug in front of his bed. His hand where it gripped her wrist burned and she could feel the heat travel the length of her arm and spread into her chest. He searched her face for a moment before continuing. "I thought that I had nothing to fight for if you were gone." She swallowed visibly and blinked, clearly searching for a way to respond, or what she should say or what her next step should be. "I thought that I didn't give a damn about the world," he said into her silence, "if you weren't in it." She shook her head and tried to pull away from him, tugging at her arm and trying to step backwards again, but she had reached the end of the room and her back collided against the wall, stunning her momentarily. He pressed his advantage, closing the distance between them, holding tight to her wrist. "I was thinking that a world without you in it wasn't worth saving." She leaned back so that her head was resting against the cold metal door, her eyes wide and almost disbelieving, confused. He was so close now, he could feel her breath against his face and his next words were whispered. "I was thinking that I didn't care to live in the world at all if I couldn't live in it alongside you," he confessed.

"I-" she tried, but he stopped her with a finger on her lips. She inhaled sharply at the touch...or maybe at the undisguised emotion even she couldn't mistake on his face.

"That is what I was thinking, Raven.," he said, exhaling, still searching her face for something he wasn't even sure he'd recognize if he saw it. He didn't pull away, but he leaned back enough so that she could look him full in the face. "And now that you know, don't you ever say that you are not worth saving again," he squeezed her wrist again for emphasis. "Not in my hearing." She didn't move, didn't say a word, so he exhaled and blinked and gained some semblance of control of himself, and slowly, stepped back from her, letting her hand go and moving away.

He couldn't believe he had just done that. He couldn't believe he had destroyed, in a matter of minutes, what it had taken him years to build up - a friendship with Raven. But he hadn't been able to help it. 'If nothing else came out of this, at least maybe she'll know she's worth something to someone,' he thought. 'That she's precious to someone.'

He heard her shift and thought for sure she would be walking out of his room now, but he didn't hear her footsteps. Instead, she spoke.

"He could've hurt you," she said, her tone much closer to the one he was used to hearing from her, low and solemn.

He sighed. "But he didn't," he answered.

"But he could've," she insisted.

"He didn't," he answered again, turning to emphasize his point, looking at her once again.

And that's when he saw it. What he had thought to never see, but had been looking for throughout his entire monologue earlier.

"Why do you get to be the self-sacrificing one?" she asked.

The smile spread onto his lips unheeded at first. "It was my turn," he said.

She shook her head and looked away, but he could feel the lightening of the atmosphere around them, the unmistakable feeling of everything finally clicking into place between them.

"Besides," he added, coming closer to her again. "I'm a hero..." he waited until she looked at him with her signature raised eyebrow. "...it's kinda my thing."

"And what am I?" she asked, "chopped liver?"

The laughter bubbled out of him then, and without even intending to, he reached out for her. To his utter surprise and relief, she tentatively stepped into his arms. When he enfolded her against him, it was relief and joy and consolation and reassurance all at once. He felt it reverberate between them like electricity.

He felt her sigh and smiled against her hair.

"You do that again, Boy Blunder, and I'll kill you myself," she muffled against his chest.

"No promises," he said, grinning.

End A/N: So...whaddya think? I'm a little afraid that Raven's exclamations in the beginning are a little out of character, but I based it on the fact that she's still getting used to being able to be more expressive now that her father's gone and the suddenly realization of what Robin had done.

What do you guys think? Give it to me straight, now.