So now this has become a two-shot. This shouldn't be too long, just a brief account of how Raven ended up in Bludhaven and why she knew the barista, etc. I also want to dedicate this to my good friend Cadie, who will be celebrating her nineteenth birthday today. Happy birthday, girl!

All of Our Cards part 2

The long and short of it was Raven really, really didn't want to go to Bludhaven. She knew exactly who was there and knew that he patrolled the streets at night.

It was Gar who had told her, on the phone in a late night conversation. He had called to check up on her and tell her about his most recent girlfriend, a pretty red head he had met in veterinary school. She had congratulated him, happy and laughing. When she had told him about going to Bludhaven, Gar had gotten quiet, and then told her about Nightwing.

She had tried to get out of the medical conference, but she needed it to complete her medical degree, and no matter how she begged and cajoled (something that was very uncharacteristic of her), she couldn't get out of it or find a conference in a different city. She was going to Bludhaven, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Raven wasn't exactly sure what she was so nervous about going to the little crime ridden town. The likelihood of meeting Richard Grayson on a three day trip wasn't very high, and nor was it likely that she would run into Nightwing unless she was stupid enough to go on patrol.

And Raven wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to go into Rick's territory and assert herself, especially when she wasn't going to stay. It would be like a slap to the face, implying that he wasn't competent enough to run his own city.

So she left her uniform behind, knowing discretion is the better part of valour, not wanting to tempt herself in to taking to the skies.

She arrived in Bludhaven late in the afternoon, tired and jetlagged and fell asleep on the bed, not ready to go down to the hotel lobby and the legions of doctors ready to try and teach her the ways of the doctoring world. Knowing she couldn't get away with not going, she took a quick shower and headed downstairs, hoping that Rick, a cop now, wouldn't be in charge of security or something that would bring him to the conference and thus close to her.

Again, she wondered why she was so shaky. The chances of seeing him were so low that it wasn't even worth worrying over. And even if there was a chance she would see him, what did it matter? He had been her best friend once, had he not?

Well, that was all well and good, but if she really had been all that close to him, she wouldn't have felt the need to leave, would she? She had cared about him, she couldn't deny that, and they had been close once, but…

She had left instead.

The Tower had simply become too much to handle. There were constantly Titans, or people allied with the Titans, or people who wanted to be Titans, wandering through the Tower, invading her space and her privacy. More than once she had come home to find that someone was waiting outside her door, or, worse yet, actually inside her room, trying to talk to her or get a glance of her. After she had gotten to the point where she had to spell her door so that she was the only one who could get in or near her room, she had given up. She needed her space, and she certainly wasn't getting it at the Tower.

Of course, when she had found out that Robin had recruited Donna Troy, she felt replaced, even if she understood the need for that fifth member to fill the hole she had left. Still, she felt like she had been a little betrayed, and she was secretly a little happy when she'd heard that the new member hadn't done any good in taking her place and the Titans disbanded. It was petty, but really, it was how she felt.

So perhaps it was the events of the past that made her wary of her time in Bludhaven. As illogical as it was, Raven was afraid of meeting Richard here and having to explain everything to him. That was a large part of the reason she had kept contact with the rest of the Titans and not with Rick. She even, on occasion, talked to Donna Troy, whom she had met once when going to visit Kori. But she simply couldn't bring herself to keep of the façade of a friendship with Rick, because she felt like she had betrayed him. Had she even left a note when she left? She couldn't even remember.

So, okay, if she was nervous about running into Rick, she had to admit, it wasn't exactly unreasonable. She didn't want to deal with the pointing of fingers and the accusations that she should be able to take in stride, but knew she wouldn't.

He had always been able to get some sort of rise out of her.

She was somewhat prepared, therefore, when she was taking a walk one night, against her better judgment, when she saw a dark figure stalking on the rooftops above. She knew exactly who it was and her heart skipped a beat and then pounded that much faster when it resumed its beatings. She backed up against the nearest wall, hoping against hope that he wouldn't see her and that she could go about her business and leave Bludhaven the next day and go back to Ventura, the virtually crime free town she lived in now.

She was lucky and he didn't see her, too caught up in something else, or maybe seeing her and thinking her a simple pedestrian foolishly out for a stroll in a town where robbers and rapists lurked around every corner. A helpless girl in an unfamiliar town.

She couldn't help but smile at thinking herself helpless. She led a quiet life in Ventura, true, but it wasn't like she didn't still practice with her powers every now and then.

It wasn't until the next night, a few hours before her flight back home, that she really, truly saw him, ran into him.

She had been at a local coffee shop, owned by a girl she had met in the earlier years of her college years, talking to her, when she heard the bell on the door clink. She stiffened a bit, feeling his unmistakable aura standing very near to her, projecting his bafflement at seeing her. He was putting two and two together, comparing his memories of a younger Raven with the woman in front of him, even without seeing her face.

She was bracing herself and was ready when he tapped her shoulder. She could feel the mask she'd put up, one of being annoyed at the interruption of a man who may as well have been a stranger.

"Raven," he said, completely confident that he had found her. She was as sure that he was right.

"My name's Rachael, not Raven." She told him, using the alias she had assumed. "You've got the wrong girl."

She turned back to the counter and resumed her conversation with Amelia, the barista, shrugging when she asked who the handsome dark haired man was. Of course, Raven did know who he was, but she didn't want her past coming back to haunt her.

"Raven," he said again, and she turned to face him, her eyes blazing with annoyance, but secretly stinging at the hurt of seeing him again.

"Look, mister," she chastised him. "I don't know who you think I am, but my name is not Raven, and I don't know who you are."

She made to turn back to Amelia, but Rick grabbed her arm and spun her back around to face him. "Raven," he said, using her name for the third time, always the charm. "It's me. It's… Richard."

She almost wanted to laugh out loud. She knew that he wouldn't say Robin. People could and probably would be able to connect Robin to Nightwing and Nightwing to Detective Richard Grayson, Bludhaven P.D.

He had told her everything one night after her father's death, and she, in turn, told him everything about her life. She remembered that night and treasured it, delighting in the memory of rain on her skin.

Unable to face him, she slammed a ten dollar bill on the bar and stormed out, not knowing what she was doing, knowing that he would follow her. She could feel him following her, and wasn't at all shocked when his hand wrapped around her bicep, whirling her around to face him.

"Why are you avoiding me, Rae?"

No reason to correct him now, she thought. After all, Rae was a common shortened form of Rachael.

"I wanted my space. I thought you would have understood that, Robin."

She used his old name, connecting this handsome young soldier for justice to the energetic teen she had known in her younger days. She could tell that he didn't understand what she was talking about, and he said so.

"I had to leave that Tower. I couldn't stand it anymore."

"What was wrong with the Tower? We all respected your space."

She tried to stop the hysterical laugh bubbling at her lips, but she couldn't manage. "Respected my space? HA! You respected it so much that you wanted nothing to do with me!"

She wasn't sure where that had come from; perhaps some old insecurities come back to play mind games? She couldn't tell.

"Nothing to do with you, Raven? Are you kidding me? You were my best friend!"

Her voice was cold, venomous, and she felt only a little bad for it. "Well you sure had a funny way of showing it."

He took her suddenly by the arms, looking deep into her eyes, as if he were searching for something he knew he would find. She hasped when he probed their bond, so long inactive. He understood now what she was feeling, and when he leaned in slowly to kiss her, he met no resistance.

He pulled away and Raven rolled her eyes but was smiling. "It's not too late, is it?" he asked, and she shook her head, black hair falling into her face.

"Not for you, no. But maybe for me?"

He laughed. "No, Rae, you're my best friend. I don't think it could ever be too late for you."

He hugged her, and she felt like her world, so unbalanced as of late, had finally shifted back into place.

She had never felt so good about her decision to travel to Bludhaven. In her opinion, it was the best damn decision she had ever made.

END (for real)

So yeah, that was just a companion chapter. A good portion of reviewers said that they would like to hear a little back story on why Raven was there, so this was born. Again, happy birthday to Cadie. Hope you have a good one!