Troubled Mind
Al Prozalamb


"I have never seen anything like this before."  Sarah admitted and took off her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose.  "Rachel, you wouldn't happen to know a blonde, blue-eyed girl who used to be a Titan, would you?"

Rachel answered immediately.  "Oh."  She said flatly.  "You mean Terra?  The back-stabbing traitor?  That girl tried to kill us all!"

Sarah immediately looked to Dick and asked, "Would either you or Rachel happen to know a Tara Markov?"  She gulped before continuing.  "Please consider this thoroughly.  I think my sanity depends on it."

-

"What does Tara Markov have to do with our situation?"  Dick asked Sarah Quill in bewilderment and curiosity.    

Sarah took a deep breath before continuing.  Her eyes were serious and fixated on Dick.  "Please just answer the question."  She simply said, however, her voice was tense and was that a hint of fear?

"Yeah, I did."  Dick answered.  "If we're talking about the same girl; she was Gar's old girlfriend.  He dumped her about a year ago because she just wasn't the same person."  

"I was hoping that wasn't the case."  Sarah ran a hand through her hair and sighed with her eyes closed.  "Have you seen her since Gar broke up with her?"

"No, I haven't."  Dick answered immediately.  His mental cogs were at work, but he couldn't figure out the connection between Tara and Rachel.  He hadn't seen anything or heard from Tara since Gar dumped her.  It was like she ceased to exist.  How did she know Sarah? Why did she know Sarah?  It was puzzling because of the lack of information, but with Detective Grayson on the case, he would find the answers he was seeking!

"I don't doubt it."  Sarah said.  "She's been in a mental facility for nearly eleven months, now."  

"A mental facility?  Why?"  He asked her.  Things were getting serious.  What exactly had happened to her?  Did she go crazy because Gar dumped her or something?  What could have happened to her that she would have to be there for eleven months?

"So, basically, you're telling us she's like me?"  Rachel asked Sarah surprisingly calm.  Dick looked at his wife by his side before slowly turning his head back to Sarah.  No, it couldn't be. . .  Could it?

"Yes.  Exactly like you."  Sarah looked at Rachel for the second time in their discussion.  "Jump City, being with the Teen Titans, and going against them.  All of it's the same.  So if this is some insane joke; please stop it already!"  Sarah spoke very fast and became more angry by the end of her rant.

Dick looked offended.  "Sarah, do you really think I would do that to you?"  She exhaled and shook her head as a 'no'.  "I think we should talk with her.  Which mental facility can we find her in?"

"She's in Twin Oaks Hospital."  She told the couple.  "There's a psychiatric section in the west wing.  However, visiting her is by appointment only.  Most people can't get in; only family and doctors."  Sarah sighed before continuing.  "I'll see what I can do.  I check up on her every Monday."

"We're counting on you, Sarah."  Dick told her as he looked at Rachel.  "Maybe talking to Tara will give us a clue about what we need to do."  Rachel nodded.  She knew what he meant.  She had been nothing but trouble since she entered this strange world and came into Dick's life.  He wanted to get his wife back.  His real wife back.  And, although the others were nice and friendly, Rachel missed her old way of life.  She missed being a superhero and not just some college student who did nothing for the community around her.

"I'll contact you as soon as I can get the two of you in."  Sarah told them with firm determination.  "Getting the two of you together will hopefully solve this case.  I know Tara is sick of being there.  She hates it to be honest and has so much anger pent up inside.  I hope you never become like her, Rachel."  Sarah said and before they knew it their session with Doctor Sarah Quill was over.

-

"So, how did the doctor's visit turn out?"  Vic hesitantly asked Dick more than Rachel as the couple sat down on some stools in the kitchen.  Vic looked at Dick as he looked down and didn't answer.  Rachel, on the other hand, looked the most at peace he had seen her since. . . well, since she was the "new" Rachel.  She heard Dick sigh before she responded to Vic's question.  "Well, Dick learned I'm not insane."  She said nonchalantly, but the two boys in the kitchen knew she was ticked off at him.

"I never said that, Rachel."  He told her as calmly as he could.  He was frustrated.  He was hoping that Doctor Sarah Quill could help him get his wife back.  But, as he learned during their session, there wasn't a magical cure.  He would have to work and use all his detective abilities to solve this case and save her.

"Did you honestly think that she could give me some pills and poof! I'd be a different person?"  Rachel asked him as she crossed her arms and looked at him.  Dick, however, would not look her in the face.

"Well, yes.  That was the point of taking you to a psychiatrist."  Dick said as he gestured widely.  He was as agitated at her as she was at him.  "She deals with those who need-" He started but was cut off by Rachel.

"Dick.  This is me.  You may not believe this, but I am a real person."  She made eye contact with him as she continued.  "I'm just not the one you want me to be."  She told him with sad and hurt eyes before turning around and left the kitchen.

"Smooth, man."  Vic said sarcastically as he watched Rachel walk off tensely, but sighed when he saw the helpless look on his friend's face.  "Now, let's hear the details."  He finally told Dick.  He didn't want the two of them to break up over something like this.  They needed to get through it together.

"Okay."  Dick said before looking at him as Vic sat down next him.  "Most of this has to do with Tara Markov."  He told him as seriously as he could to show Vic he wasn't joking.

"Gar's old girlfirend?"  Questioned Vic.  "What could she have to do with Rachel's prob- um, I mean, predicament?"  He corrected himself.  It wasn't fair to Rachel to say she had a 'problem'.  She was just ill.  Right?

"I wondered the same thing when Doctor Sarah Quill brought it up."  Dick admitted.  "However, Tara is the one person Rachel remembers.  They both only have memories of that place Rachel told us about.  Jump City I think she said was the name."  

"No."  Vic's eyes grew large and he could barely believe his ears.  "How is that possible?  Do you think it actually exists?"  He asked Dick as he lowered his voice.  It was true he didn't believe what Rachel said was right, but should he change his mind?

"No.  That isn't physically possible.  She couldn't have been magically transferred from another dimension!  That goes beyond all logic and proportion.  It breaks all the laws of Physics."  Dick shot down any doubts in Vic's mind with firm reasoning.  

"Then what is going on?"  Vic asked in pure bewilderment.  Gar broke up with Tara because she started acting different.  Was she really the same as Rachel?  If so, how?  How could two people who never had much contact change their personalities and habits overnight at two different times?  This all was so crazy!  

"I don't know, Vic."  Dick rubbed his temples.  He was starting to develop a headache from all this thinking about what had happened over the course of half a week.  He felt like he would go crazy if this continued much longer.  "Doctor Sarah Quill said she would get us an appointment to see Tara Markov as soon as she could."

"What do you mean an appointment?"  Vic asked and didn't receive an answer.  "Where is she?  We haven't seen her in over a year."  This was getting serious and Vic was starting to get slightly scared from the possible answers he needed to know.

Dick sighed again before responding.  "She's in Twin Oaks Hospital's psychiatric section and has been for nearly the entire year we haven't seen her."  He said sullenly.  As much as he didn't want to spend the rest of his life with this new Rachel; he didn't want her to end up like Tara, either.

"Good Lord. . ."  Was all Vic could say.  He got up after a moment of silence and patted his best friend on the shoulder.  "I sincerely hope all goes well with you two."  He told Dick before walking to his room.  They both had a lot to think about.

-Fin-