So this is going to be extremely experimental. I think I'm going to play with nonlinear storytelling and chronology here. Also with Karai and Leo. I guess I'll cut this out if I get a lot screams. Or maybe I'll just keep going anyway. hehe
The doctor didn't move as he spoke. "Do you remember your name?"
The patient searched along the floor slowly as if thought came to him painfully. "Leonardo."
Scribbling on a clipboard. Leonardo picked at the stuffed cat in his lap. Sitting very still and good. Karai wondered if he was this docile as a child.
"Do you remember why you are here?"
She took a step closer to the class that separated the room where Leonardo had slept for two days now. The trembling had quieted down slightly. But only slightly. The cat vibrated visibly and she knew instinctually that he was resisting an urge to hide. "Somebody hurt me." Looked at the floor quietly and his eyes gathered tears again.
"That's right," the doctor said. "Do you remember why?"
No response.
The doctor opened his mouth to speak and then Leonardo interrupted, as if speaking against his will. "They said I was dirty and I needed to be punished. Can we stop now? I'm tired. Where is Karai?" He glanced at the window. Of course he knew someone was on the other side of the glass. Even in his state.
"She isn't here." The doctor flipped a page on his legal pad and said, "Do you think they were right? What they said about you?"
Tears burst out of him, but they were weak and strained. "I'm sorry," he said as he wiped his eyes on his hand. "I try hard to be good. But I miss my father."
"That is understandable because you're weak," the doctor said.
She stiffened. Weak? What was he playing at?
More notes. "We have been in contact with your family and they've told us that they no longer want you because of what happened. Did anyone tell you that yet?"
Trembling breath as he drew his knees to his chest and shook his head. She gestured to Chaplin, who stood in the corner playing his stupid hand held video game. He instantly jumped to her side. "Arrange to have this doctor killed."
"Uh… But you already killed that other doctor that screwed him up. Won't Shredder notice if too many of us turn up dead? He might ask you what happened and you'd have to tell him about…"
Her glared could have sawed him in half. He recoiled and said, "What do you want me to do then? Fire him?"
"I told them to fix Leonardo! Not break him further!"
Chaplin took another step so that he might as well be standing in the hallway. "Okay, I don't get it. Don't kill me for saying it and don't get me wrong. You're the greatest woman I've ever known, but why are you trying to fix him? This is a great opportunity right?"
The doctor on the other side of the glass said, "You know that you deserved it."
A high pitched sob from Leonardo. It made her stomach hurt to hear him in such a vulnerable state. And it was her fault. She didn't press the button, but she may as well have. How could her men be so incompetent and so willingly cruel? She had been a party to many evil things in her life, but she was ashamed of them and looked down on anyone else who wasn't equally ashamed. It made up for the deed a little in retrospect. Helped her not to dwell so much.
But Chaplin, Stockman and the late Dr. Sanderson didn't care. They were amused. Especially Stockman, the bastard. He was nothing but a brain in a jar, but he could cause more torment and destruction than all the other science officers in the organization. At least Hun was out of town at the Balance Clinic having his inner ear problem fixed. She only needed that ape after Leonardo too.
He was like a small animal in a cage while predators snarled at him from the other side of the bars.
What had he seen and experienced? She checked the profile of this Valerie Clemmons. She was mercifully dead and the men involved in her assault were never found. The case file on the NYPD secret file system were disturbing. Karai hadn't slept form the nightmares and all she'd done was read the police file and see the pictures.
Leonardo now rocked back and forth, crying openly. The doctor said, "The men who did this to you will not be charged by the police."
And his body wracked involuntarily with panic at the words and he gagged out, "Sensei…"
That was enough. No more of this. She left the observation room and threw open the door to Leonardo's cell. He cried out like a sick animal and his body hit the floor. None of the ninja like grace. Just made himself small and turned his shell in her direction. Curled himself around the stuffed animal.
"You get out. I will have no more of this."
The doctor complacently gathered his notes together and left the room yawning. Just another day at Saki Tower.
Karai sat on the floor across from him as he rocked back and forth, forcing himself to breath. "That is a nice cat," she said. Her voice was flat. It was difficult to show her concern and she hoped he didn't think she didn't care. "What is its name?"
"It's… um… I didn't give it a name…" He choked down a few sobs and surveyed his pet for a few seconds. "Should I have?"
"If you like. Do you feel safe here?"
His eyes flashed towards the glass and then towards the door. "Strange people come in here and I don't like it. I try to hide, but there's nowhere to go. It's… too bright. I don't like these people. These poke me with needles and tell me my family hates me." His voice sped up and he cried, "Those men will find me here! That doctor said so! I need to leave! I need to hide from them! I didn't fight back!"
She wanted to calm him, but didn't know how. "They will not find you and will not hurt you anymore. I will see to it." She'd already killed Dr. Sanderson personally as soon as her error was made known. The very second.
How could a warrior like Leonardo of the Hamato clan be reduced to this? Even in his state of trauma, he should still retain something of his personality. His strength and honor and cunning. Was this part of him too? This frightened child, cowering in the dark? Maybe this was the strong reaction. Maybe any other person would drown in the weight of this fear. That must be it.
"May I take a shower?" he asked, holding the cat to his chest.
She looked at him sternly. "You have already showered three times today and that is quite enough."
He said nothing and petted the cat. "I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. It is I who is sorry. The fault is entirely mine. I do not wish this on my greatest enemy."
And then she said it without thinking.
"I will send you home to your family and they can take care of you."
His chest pounded wildly with his breathing and he panted, "No! No! They won't want me! I have to stay here! I'm scared but I don't want to go home! Just give me back my swords and I'll take my own life as I should!"
A small glimpse of Leonardo. The light of vengeance dimly burned in his eyes, but it was extinguished quickly and he looked away from her, his eyes running over again.
"I will not allow you to kill yourself," she said. "If anyone should take their life from dishonor, it is I." Maybe… "You can come with me. I will take care of you until this passes. I swear that I will find a way to make you better."
"Come live with you?" he asked meekly. A little bit of hope in his face for the first time since the incident. Then he shook his head vigorously.
Someone knocked loudly on the door and he was in her arms, shaking and sobbing before she could push him away. Her arms wouldn't reach out to comfort him. The intruder threw the door open without any regard for the delicate prisoner. Chaplin said, "Yeah, well. Your dad will notice if you have one of the turtles for a roommate right?"
"And what business is it of yours?" she snapped. Leonardo's grip on her tightened as her voice rose. Weakened mentally, but not physically and the power of his arms threatened to crack her ribs. "I have promised to make this right and I will! And you will not get in my way! I will kill you instantly if you tell anyone! Do you understand?"
"Yeah, okay." Chaplin pulled on the hem of his garish Grateful Dead t-shirt that always gave Karai a migraine. "He's not so scary close up."
"He could kill you with a flick of his wrist," she mumbled, looking down at the mighty ninja quaking in her arms.
It was like having a pet cat that only hid under the furniture out of sight. Leonardo did nothing but hide since the day he came home with her. She escorted him in secret to her apartment, mentally abusing herself at Chaplin's necessary involvement. She dressed him in oversized sweats found who-knows-where in the science department. The sleeves hung over his hands and held his arms around his chest, watching the ground as they cautiously walked him down the corridors to her car.
Chaplin disengaged all the security cameras for their trip and then merrily waved goodbye as she put on her seatbelt and adjusted the mirror to block out his disgraceful face.
He sat in the car with his legs drawn to his chest, watching the trees go past the tinted window. Even in the dark she knew his cheeks were wet with tears. And he didn't say a word.
Karai's apartment was nice. Her father wouldn't allow her to live in anything less than a penthouse, so she chose a nice place overlooking the river with many windows and natural sunlight. Neutral furniture and carpet. Tan walls with Japanese kanji in frames on the walls. It was a nice place. Too bad she was rarely home to enjoy it.
She opened the door and he flitted in the door with all the speed and grace expected of a world class ninja. But then his shoulders hunched as if he were standing out in the snow. "Your apartment is very nice." So quiet and docile. The same voice had frightened her with its power so many times before. Now all softness.
She made up her spare bedroom for him to sleep. She assumed he'd never slept in a bed so nice. With black and white sheets. They cost hundreds of dollars. A soft comforter. Many pillows. He could suffocate in the softness.
But he hovered in the doorway and shook his head in little bursts of movement. "No… that's alright. I don't want to be a bother. I'll… sleep on the couch."
"I would rather you sleep in a bed where I may change the sheets." She knew that bladder control was an issue now with him according to Chaplin's cherry reports. Her compassion was limited by her desire to keep her leather sofa clean.
"Alright." He took a few steps into the room and she watched him. He stripped off his shirt and she backed out of the door, shutting it. Why? He was always naked. Maybe the act of undressing made it seem more intimate.
And she typed in the security password and locked up the sensitive organization files in the safe kept next to her entertainment center and then flung herself into bed as soon as possible. Sixteen hour work days. Not worth it. Not worth it at all.
Attack. Under attack. Karai pulled her katana from the other side of the bed. No lover. Just a sword. Her bedroom was empty and safe.
Leonardo screamed in grating gasps on the other side of her wall. "SENSEI!"
She threw the door open, her katana instinctually in hand. Violence came first. The blankets were still turned up and the pillows in place. No one in the bed. The lights were off.
She opened the closet door and found Leonardo on his side, curled up and weeping. The stink of urine. And all over the carpet.
Leonardo Hamato had urinated on her carpet. Maybe this was a sick dream.
"Stop this crying," she said.
She was answered by more low pitched crying. His legs folded up. Made himself smaller.
Karai took a deep breath. She didn't comfort anyone, let alone her enemies. "You should bathe. A warm bath may help you feel better."
He shuddered so badly that she thought he was having a seizure.
"Do you want something to eat?"
His voice stumbled on a syllable. "I…a…a… I don't want to be alone."
What was she supposed to do about it?
Karai never spent the night with men in her bed. She didn't have the time, energy or inclination. She laid in bed on her side, propped up on her elbow, watching Leonardo's muscles fire as he dreamed. The first man in her bed since she owned the apartment and it was just a sixteen year old mutant with a blood feud against her father. Her father.
How would she keep Leonardo away from her father?