The Elevator

"My heart and the elevator, a plummet inside a plummet."-Jonathan Lethem  

Manual exercise was the worst. Especially after a strenuous week chasing criminals and beating some scumbags into the pavement. At this point, Raven's muscles were utter jelly, and she felt great satisfaction in imagining beating Robin like she'd beat those criminals...

She limped to the elevator, sweat dripping down her back and sticking to her forehead. If Robin ever did this again, she certainly would kill him.

No questions asked.

Raven despised working out. Despite the fact that it was good for her, she really didn't like being all sweaty in a room full of other sweaty people. The tense emotions and sore muscles really wore on her stamina.

All she wanted now was a hot shower and a good book. Nothing was more relaxing than curling up with a good book, and if anything was, Raven had yet to try it.

Okay, so perhaps meditation was up there. But reading won just by a nudge.

She punched the elevator button, leaning against the wall. It felt cool against her hot skin, and she sighed in happy relief while she waited. Seconds ticked by, and the elevator dinged, its doors sliding open.

Raven limped inside and pushed button the ops room floor, leaning against the rail. Ugh. She hated it when her legs hurt like this. It made walking unnecessarily difficult, and standing even worse. She thought about sitting, but the thought of moving more than she had to held even less appeal. So Raven remained put against the wall.

Right as the doors began to slide closed, she heard a yelp out in the hallway.

"Wait!"

She rolled her eyes and smashed the appropriate button, shooting Beast Boy an irritated glance as he hobbled in beside her.

"Thanks," he huffed, clearly as wiped as she was. Which was probably a good thing, seeing as he was less likely to make irritating conversation. Then again, when she was this tired, almost anything was irritating.

Raven nodded curtly, her gaze locked firmly on the floor meter. The elevator sputtered to life, swiftly flying upward. She relaxed as she watched the numbers tick by, her mind wandering to which book she should read tonight. Perhaps the theological one. Or maybe her poem collection, she hadn't read that in awhile... Oh! The fantasy. Raven loved fantasy novels. She'd never dare say so aloud; she had a reputation to uphold after all.

But fantasy was her favorite.

It was then that the elevator shuttered to a halt, its lights shutting off and the alarm bell immediately shrieking in Raven's ears. Her hands flew up to block the horrid sound from her ears, and she turned to Beast Boy. "What the hell just happened?"

Beast Boy shrugged, his expression miserable. "I dunno! Just make it stop!" he shouted. He looked almost ridiculous as he shoved his fingers into his ears, but from the biting pain coming off of him, the sound was probably hurting him more than it was hurting her.

"I don't know how!" Raven snapped desperately. She lurched forward, banging on the various buttons in hopes that the damn alarm would stop. By some utter miracle, it did, and there was sweet relief as quiet blanketed the elevator. Of course, that was before the horrible realization dawned upon Raven; the elevator wasn't working.

The doors hadn't slid open, meaning they weren't on the floor of choice, and the floor meter had unceremoniously stopped. Raven blinked up at it, hoping that she was just seeing things and that the stupid thing would start moving again.